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 ( 7626 )
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Polythetic Entitation & Cultural Couplers
Timothy Taylor has an interesting entry in this year’s “Edqe Question” idea-fest. It has the ungainly title, Polythetic Entitation. Read more
Posted on 01 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Mind Over the Long Haul: My Posting Patterns
In October of 2015 I had a post at 3 Quarks Daily entitled, Have the Internets Rotted My Brain and Wrecked My Mind? I included the following figure: Each... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Fake Academy: Scholarly Open Access
Like many scholars I get a fair number of solicitations from dodgy-sounding journals and conferences. The New York Times has an article about the phenomenon, A... Read more
Posted on 31 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The White, Longwood Gardens, December 25, 2016
Posted on 30 December 2016
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Transcendental Critique? The Peculiar Case of UNIX and Race in America in the...
Back at the beginning of the summer when the LARB hatchet job on digital humanities was rippling through the internets I came across Tara McPherson’s 2012... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Freud on Dreams, Perhaps He Was Right
In my undergraduate days in the 1960s Freudian thought was still more or less acceptable, if not necessarily in academic psychology departments. Read more
Posted on 30 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Terry Teachout Appreciates Harry James
The Harry James Orchestra with Frank Sinatra, July 8, 1939. Sintra opens, but James closes with a solid Armstrong-influenced solo starting at 2:44. Listen to hi... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Faith of Graffiti, Redux
I originally posted this review in 2010. But the book is an important one, so I'm bumping the review to the top of the queue. * * * * * Norman Mailer and Jon... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Can Reviewer Anonymity Weaken the Value of a Reviewer’s Comments?
Some more crude thoughts in the course of mulling over my rejection at NLH. A week ago I’d posted, On Discussion and Debate in the Blogosphere, in which I... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tales of the Web: On Not Being Able to Log-on to a Familiar Site, Or, Greased...
The web cracks me up. It’s so strange. For several years now I’ve been a regular contributor to Replicated Typo, a group blog devoted to linguistic and... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Time is Tricky: Looking Back at Looking Forward in Literary Criticism
Some crude thoughts in the course of mulling over my rejection at NLH. I’ve said most of this before, though not quite in this form. Time is tricky. Read more
Posted on 26 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Trump Runs His Business
Megan Twohey, Russ Buetter and Steve Eder in the NYTimes: When Tiah Joo Kim arrived at the Manhattan headquarters of the Trump Organization to pitch a hotel... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, It May Be Your Last...
Though it's Christmas Day – and I'm visiting in my sister in Philadelphia, as I've been doing for the last umpteen years – as the title suggests, this post is... Read more
Posted on 25 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Rambling (on a Saturday Morning)
I normally take a shower every other morning. I lead a sedentary life and really, there’s no need to shower every day. But I made an exception this morning... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
My Posts at 3 Quarks Daily
Listed in order started from the most recent. Exposed! Daniel Everett Shines a Light on the Mind’s Dark Matter We’re All in This Together: Life as Jamie Knows I... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: the Old Neighborhood (Lafayette, Jersey City)
Posted on 23 December 2016
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Mutable Stability in the Transmission of Medieval Texts
I've just checked in at Academica.edu and was alerted to this article: Stephen G. Nichols, Mutable Stability, a Medieval Paradox: The Case of Le Roman de la... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bridgewater: The AI-dominated Firm of the Future?
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about Bridgewater Associates LP, the world's largest hedge fund. By Rob Copeland and Bradley Hope, it is... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On Discussion and Debate in the Blogosphere: Some Reflections on a Recent Example
Not so long ago I got caught up in a long and somewhat contentious discussion at Crooked Timber. It’s one of my regular sites; I’ve been following it for years. Read more
Posted on 22 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A New (digital Humanities) Tool: TimeLineCurator [#DH]
Johanna Fulda, Matthew Brehmer, and Tamara Munzner of the UBC InfoVis Group. From the online documentation: About Want to make a visual timeline, but don't... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
