Bbenzon
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 ( 6481 )
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Feminist Scholarship at the Leading Edge of Digital Tech
Signs@40: Feminist Scholarship through Four Decades: Forty years of Signs via topic modeling, editorial curation, and commentaries To celebrate it's 40th... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On Not Dancing
There's this interesting and curious article over at Medium, Please respect my decision not to dance, by Henry Reich, though I don't think he's right in... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
FR8s: Tankers with Ethanol and Graffiti
Posted on 28 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
When Art Meets Science
Arthur I. Miller. Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science Is Redefining Contemporary Art. Norton: 2014. 352 pages. $29.95. From the review in the NYTimes: Dr. Read more
Posted on 28 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Autopilot and an Old Dutch Song
I’m playing trumpet in an ad hoc trio that’s supporting a local production, A Legend of Communipaw. We supply a variety of simple tunes and sound effects here... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why Jard Diamond Doesn't Interest Me
I read Guns, Germs, and Steel some years ago, but don't remember much from it. I thought is was interesting and entertaining, but Diamond didn't have anything... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Vygotsky Tutorial (for Connected Courses)
Howard Rheingold recently mentioned Vygotsky in a Connected Courses discussion: And student-centric pedagogy in which learners attempt to make meaning of texts... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Collective Creativity Vs. the Lone Genius in the Discovery of the Higgs
The discovery of the Higgs boson was a major scientific achievement, writes Neal Hartman in Nautilus. But who did it? An obvious candidate is Peter Higgs, who... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Teaching and Learning: the Internet as Community Technology
As I’ve indicated in two previous posts, Authority, Trust, and Responsibility in Online Education and Learning/Teaching Styles: Connected Courses Exemplars, I’v... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
John Lawler on the Current State of Generative Grammar
From a Facebook conversation with Dan Everett (about slide rules, aka slipsticks, no less) and others: The constant revision and consequent redefining and... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Our Changing Mores: Sex on the Mind and on Campus
Emily Bazelon, Hooking Up at an Affirmative-Consent Campus? It’s Complicated, NYTimes: “It would be much more gratifying, and in both parties’ best interest, fo... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The Hallucinated City
Posted on 24 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Geriatric Genius, Or: Age Before Beauty
Some years ago the late Kenneth Boulding had created an organization had created an organization for retired academics who were still lively of mind. Read more
Posted on 24 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Emergence in Gray Scale Outdoors
Posted on 23 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Whoops! There Goes the Driverless Car
Lee Gomes in Slate: A good technology demonstration so wows you with what the product can do that you might forget to ask about what it can't. Case in point:... Read more
Posted on 23 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
We Are Neanderthals, Just a Tad
Greg Mayer over at Why Evolution is True about a recent paper in Nature: And, finally, there’s what we learn about the interbreeding between anatomically... Read more
Posted on 23 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Learning/Teaching Styles: Connected Courses Exemplars
When I signed up with the course I did so without much investigation or thought. To be sure, I’ve been online and active for two decades and know the web... Read more
Posted on 22 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why I’d Abandoned Chomskian Linguistics Before I Got to Graduate School and Wher...
It wasn’t a matter of deep and well-thought princple. It was simpler than that. Chomsky's approach to linguistics didn’t have the tools I was looking for. Let m... Read more
Posted on 22 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sad Music, Why We Listen to It
Liila Taruffi, Stefan Koelsch. The Paradox of Music-Evoked Sadness: An Online Survey. PLOS One. Published: October 20, 2014 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone. Read more
Posted on 21 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sex, Talk, and the Future
Sex has bedeviled humankind ever since there WAS humankind, and perhaps a bit before. Who knows? California has just passed a new law governing sexual conduct... Read more
Posted on 21 October 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY