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 ( 7809 )
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Biological Evolution May Be More Rapid Than We'd Thought
From Phys.org: A new study of chickens overturns the popular assumption that evolution is only visible over long time scales. By studying individual chickens... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Authorial Intention in Literary Study, an Informal Note
Why have literary critics been so concerned about authorial intention? I say “have been” because these discussions were most vigorous back in the 1960s and... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Test Run with My New Toy
It’s a used Lumix DMC-ZS7. It’s a mid-range point-and-shoot digital camera. That’s its ghostly presence in the photo above. I got it because I wanted a camera... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Japanese Abacus & the "Extended" Mind
For the last year or so I've been watching a bunch of YouTube clips in a series called Begin Japanology, which is an NHK series about Japanese culture and... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Me, Joseph Carroll, and the Search for Precision in Literary Criticism
I’ve been thinking a lot about Joseph Carroll recently and have been drafting material for posts that I may or may not put online [1]. It’s hard, very hard. Read more
Posted on 28 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Skills and Division of Labor Among Hunter-Gatherers
Paul L. Hooper, Kathryn Demps, Michael Gurven, Drew Gerkey, Hillard S. Kaplan. Skills, division of labour and economies of scale among Amazonian hunters and... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Japanism"
Japanology Plus, Episode 20: Festivals. An expert on Japanese festivals, Tetsuya Yamamoto, says (c. 14:26): In Japan we say that there are eight million deities... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Finger Knowledge, A Note About Me and My Machines
A couple of months ago, before I got my new machine, two keys on my keyboard failed. First the left Shift key failed, and then the left Command key (on a... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Humanistic Thought as Prose-Centric Thought
Back on March 17, 2010 I made a short post to The Valve: “Style Matters”. I reposted it to New Savanna in June of 2012 and them bumped it to the top of the queu... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hear Come the Sun – On Photographing a Sunrise
There is this word, “photorealism”, which refers to the quality of an image that has been drawn or painted. Not only does such an image represent some object... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bruno Latour on Laudato Si! – " The Immense Cry Channelled by Pope Francis"
The first two paragraphs, as translated by Stephen Muecke: The audacity of the Laudato Si! encyclical is equalled only by the multiple efforts to deaden as... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Measurement: IQ and 5 Personality Factors
I've been reading around in Joseph Carroll recently, Graphing Jane Austen (2012) in particular, which he coauthored with John Johnson, Jonathan Gottschall, and... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Transition to Digital Cinema Has Cut Down on the Availability of Classics
Nicola Mazzanti at David Bordwell's blog: Granted, it is easier and cheaper to produce and manage a DCP [digital cinema package] than a 35mm print. Read more
Posted on 24 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
If It's Not Online and Free, Then It's Not Published
That's by Scott F. Johnson and it's on his Academia.edu site: The explosion of free PDFs of scholarship published before 1922 facilitatedby Google Books as... Read more
Posted on 24 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Publish Your Way out of Jail
The Economist reports that Romania has come up with an interesting variation on "publish or perish". THE makers of the Romanian edition of the board game... Read more
Posted on 24 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Some Modest Graffiti Under the Arches
This past week seems to have become expedition week in the photo section of New Savanna. So it's only fitting that I close out the week with some photos of... Read more
Posted on 23 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Emotion & Magic in Musical Performance - Quia Pacis Tempore Regnat Musica
A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be... Read more
Posted on 23 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Orson Welles: Beyond the Fat Man a Great Man?
It seems they're rethinking the career of Orson Welles. The War of the Worlds broadcast was one of the century's great stunts. Citizen Kane was brilliant but... Read more
Posted on 22 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Prospects: The Limits of Discursive Thinking and the Future of Literary Criticism
Another working paper. The usual deal, links, abstract, contents, and introduction. Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 22 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Roads Not Taken: A Study in Poetic Mechanism
Another working paper posted; links, abstract, and introduction as usual. Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 21 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
