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 ( 6827 )
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It's a Juggler's World, the Arts of Performing
From a long-form profile on Anthony Gatto, a master juggler, perhaps TEH master juggler:The fact that juggling audiences can’t tell the difference between hard... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cleaning Coal: An Informal Study of Ecological Design
Slightly revised from My Father Cleaned Coal for a Living, originally published for the Truth and Traditions Party.My father was trained as a chemical engineer. Read more
Posted on 02 April 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
One Artist's Public Art Project in Sweden
My friend Charles Cameron sent me a link to this page by a Swedish artists, Peter John Tucker. He describes his campaign to beautify ugly signal boxes:I... Read more
Posted on 01 April 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Crowdsourcing to Machine Learning: And Then There Were None (human Workers)
From the New York Times:But even more troubling is the fact that crowdsourcing platforms are hurrying along the automation of more and more of these tasks. Read more
Posted on 01 April 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Perils of Big Data
The Financial Times has an interesting article on Big Data. Yes, it's all over the place, and, yes, it allows us to do things we couldn't before. Read more
Posted on 31 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
MOOCs and Liberal Education: for the Autodidact in All of Us
John Holbo is discussing MOOCs at Crooked Timber. Part 1, Reason and Persuasion On Coursera – or – Look, Ma, I’m a MOOC; part 2, The Game of Wrong, and Moral... Read more
Posted on 31 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ring Composition in Alan Liu’s Essay, “The Meaning of the Digital Humanities”
I would like to conclude Alan Liu week at New Savanna by returning to the point where I began, his essay, “The Meaning of the Digital Humanities” (PMLA 128,... Read more
Posted on 29 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Humans in the Americas for 22K Years Rather Than Only 13K
Whoops! The past has done it again: tossed up a fact that upended decades of conventional wisdom. NYTimes reports:Researchers here say they have unearthed... Read more
Posted on 29 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Interesting Interview with John Searle
In my part of the intellectual woods he's perhaps best known for his Chinese room thought experiment, which has always struck me as being beside the point. Read more
Posted on 28 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Alan Liu: Reengaging the Humanities
Alan Liu week continues at New Savanna. Now I want to look at an interview he gave to Scott Pound at Amodern: Reengaging the Humanities. Read more
Posted on 27 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Thinkable and the Interesting: Katherine Hayles Interviews Alan Liu
Back in October of 2008 Katherine Hayles interviewed Alan Liu about the use of digital technology in the humanities. That interview is one of 20 you can access... Read more
Posted on 26 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Video of Parachute Jump from NYC Freedom Tower
Jump happened at at 3 a.m. on September 30, 2013. Four men were involved; three jumped (Mr. Rossig, James Brady, Marco Markovich) and one remained on the... Read more
Posted on 25 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Godzilla, Doctor Who, and Star Trek: the Big Three?
This post is very tentative. I’m thinking out-loud, playing around. As the title suggests, I’m wondering if these three franchises, Godzilla, Doctor Who, and... Read more
Posted on 24 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Weaving Fiction on the Web
Serializing fiction online brings readers in touch with writers (like the old days of oral story telling?). NYTimes tells all:Wattpad is a leader in this new... Read more
Posted on 24 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Salvation Mountain, Photographed by Eric Muzzlehatch
Posted on 23 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bookclubs R Us
James Atlas on book clubs, which claim some five million Americans:But the most prevalent way of conducting a book club is still in someone’s living room. Read more
Posted on 22 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Computer as Symbol and Model: On Reading Alan Liu
I’ve now had a chance to read Ala Liu’s essay, “The Meaning of the Digital Humanities” (PMLA 128, 2013, 409-423) and have some thoughts about the way he stages... Read more
Posted on 21 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sean O'Sullivan: Carma and Ridesharing
Some years ago, in the previous century, I worked for Sean O'Sullivan when he was president of MapInfo. He's since gone on to do this and that. Read more
Posted on 21 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Meaning of the Digital Humanities - Alan Liu
Delivered May 1, 2013 at NYU. Starting around 50 minutes in, Liu has some interesting observations on the appearance of abstract and concrete terms. Read more
Posted on 18 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Miles Davis at Harvard: “the Shit Sounded Good as a Mother-fucker”
Miles Davis didn’t speak those words at Harvard. To my knowledge, he never set foot on the Harvard campus, though it is of course possible that he did so on som... Read more
Posted on 15 March 2014 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY