Bbenzon
Description
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. Intellectually, I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
MY BLOGS
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New Savanna
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 7356 )
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Rich Statistical Parsing and Literary Language, PhD Thesis by A.W. Van...
Great PhD thesis by Andreas van Cranenburgh, nearly solves the Riddle of Literary Quality: https://t.co/ihT0UqKfux @Ted_Underwood @alanyliu — rens bod (@rensbod... Read more
Posted on 18 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Larry Summers Worries About Trump's Bigotry
Larry Summers in The Washington Post: Black students, gay students, Hispanic students, Muslim students, disabled students, female students – all of them now fea... Read more
Posted on 17 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will Trump Transform the Nature of Corruption in America and Amplify Its...
Dem leaders are thinking of Trump's lack of principles as an opportunity but it's a threat https://t.co/bgm3XmZr9F pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 17 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jonathan Haidt on the Trials of Multiculturalism in Contemporary America
Sean Illing interviews Haidt in Vox: Sean Illing What you’re describing sounds like an expansion of the culture war. Is it your view that culture wars have... Read more
Posted on 17 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
It's the Economy Stupid
From Jed Kolko, FiveThirtyEight: Donald Trump performed best on Tuesday in places where the economy is in worse shape, and especially in places where jobs are... Read more
Posted on 16 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Flash of Light
What you see is a bunch of fuzzy light. Does it matter that this is a photograph? If I didn't tell you that, would you know, would you care? And, since it is a... Read more
Posted on 15 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Crown and the Presidency, 2016
I’ve been watching The Crown on Netflix. It’s about the accession of Elizabeth II to the British crown. It started streaming quite recently, perhaps no earlier... Read more
Posted on 15 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Prospect Theory, on Why Take a Risk on Trump Instead of Going for Sure-thing...
Christopher Heintz has a post at Cognition Culture that speaks to this: Does Prospect Theory explain Trump and Brexit votes? So: Prospect Theory is a major... Read more
Posted on 15 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Vengeance is Mine, Sayeth The Donald
You may remember Omarosa as a serial contestant in Trump’s Apprentice franchise. More recently she was in charge of African-American outreach for his... Read more
Posted on 14 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dan Everett’s Dark Matter @ 3QD
Consider these three words: gavagai, gabagaí, gabagool. If you’ve been binge watching episodes in the Star Trek franchise you might suspect them to be the... Read more
Posted on 14 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Being White in America Has Changed and Trump Has Changed It
Nell Irvin Painter in the NYTimes, "What Whiteness Means in the Trump Era". Whiteness is now (just) another racial category rather than being the default. Read more
Posted on 13 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Handing out Blame for the 2016 Presidential Election
Alex Pareene is ranting. Here's a couple paragraphs: Blame nearly every single person with any power in the Democratic Party, who were gifted a large and growin... Read more
Posted on 12 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The President-Elect: Homebody in Chief
I want to be alone. The NYTimes: Mr. Trump, who was shocked when he won the election, might spend most of the week in Washington, much like members of... Read more
Posted on 12 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Was the Election Decided by Noise?
The day before the election Scott Alexander made a post suggesting that the election may well be (may well have been, in retrospect) won by noise. Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Bit of Ontology
Posted on 11 November 2016
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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We Think with Gestures and Things
In Dark Matter of the Mind Dan Everett devotes a chapter to gesture and its relation to speech. Writing in The Conversation, Gaëlle Vallée-Tourangeau and... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Arnold Kling on Trump
I also think that those progressives who are predicting that the election will have dire consequences for women, gays, and people of color are making a... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trump's Dilemma
Over on Facebook my old buddy from The Valve, Adam Roberts, has been reflecting on Trump's victory. Note that Adam is British, so his observations come from... Read more
Posted on 11 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The NOTHING Photograph
It’s not an aesthetic judgment. I like these ‘nothing’ photographs. It’s a [somewhat tongue-in-cheek] term of art, nothing. Here’s and example: What’s the... Read more
Posted on 10 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Muslims for Trump – And Then There's Bernie, w/ a Note from Nate Silver [flip th...
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution, I noticed something funny over red lentils: Earlier this week I was sitting in one of my favorite local Bangladeshi... Read more
Posted on 10 November 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
