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 ( 7808 )
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Friday Fotos: What Bad Weather Can Be Like in Jersey City (Joaquin is Coming)
With hurricane Joaquin coming up the coast, we're in for some bad weather. Just how bad, we don't know. Maybe just a lot of wind and rain, but maybe some... Read more
Posted on 02 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Big Macs for 2016: Same Old Same Old
The mavens, pundits, and prognosticators at Big Mac Central have once again bestowed their special sauce on a cohort of worthy recipients. Read more
Posted on 01 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Rez: Grooves, Gambling, and Grass
There’s a very interesting story out of South Dakota. It seems that Federal law permitting marijuana in some states now permits it on Indian reservations, so:... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What's up with This Crazyass US Politics?
My friend (and former teacher) Art asked me what I thought about the current Presidential campaign in the US. Alas, I have no particular thoughts or wisdom. Read more
Posted on 29 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Doodle Your Way to Deeper Understanding
From the NYTimes: According to research, creating visual representations of concepts and ideas can improve comprehension by helping us break down, organize and... Read more
Posted on 28 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cornelia Bargmann is Co-chair of the Brain Initiative, Cr...
Cornelia Bargmann is co-chair of the Brain Initiative, created two years ago by the Obama administration to fund research into new tools for studying the... Read more
Posted on 26 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Goldstone and Underwood, #149: Foreign Language Education
Another post based on: Andrew Goldstone and Ted Underwood , “The Quiet Transformations of Literary Studies: What Thirteen Thousand Scholars Could Tell Us”, New... Read more
Posted on 25 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Buddhism in Europe in the 18th Century, Among Other Things
Alison Gopnik is an important and influential developmental psychologist. FWIW her brother writes for The New Yorker. She has a compelling autobiographical essa... Read more
Posted on 24 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Topic Analysis: Goldstone & Underwood and the "economy" of Word Distribution...
Andrew Goldstone and Ted Underwood , “The Quiet Transformations of Literary Studies: What Thirteen Thousand Scholars Could Tell Us”, New Literary History 45, no... Read more
Posted on 24 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ethical Criticism: Blakely Vermeule on Theory, Cornel West in the Academy, Now...
Several years ago the journal Style devoted a double issue to evolutionary criticism. It had a target article by Joseph Carroll, responses from 10 or 20 other... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Color in "Mad Max: Fury Road"
Kristin Thompson: One reason why Fury Road looks so good is results from Miller’s and and his cinematographer’s decision to avoid the look of most... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Peekaboo 2
Since Otto von Münchow liked yesterday's photo, I thought I'd post a companion. This is pretty much the same scene, but the focal plane is at the grass in the... Read more
Posted on 23 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Alignment in “The Road Not Taken”
One of the things that interests me about poetry is alignment, or, perhaps more accurately, (deliberate) misalignment. Thus, while Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”... Read more
Posted on 22 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ring-Composition @3QD: “The Road Not Taken”
It’s time for my once-every-four-weeks piece in 3 Quarks Daily. This time it’s a bit of descriptive poetics, about Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken. Read more
Posted on 21 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rita Felski Calls for Latourian Humanities
She points out (Doing the Humanities with Bruno Latour) that critique is over-rated: Helen Small writes: “the work of the humanities is frequently descriptive,... Read more
Posted on 21 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
RGB on a Facade in Hoboken, at Night
Which one did I really see and which ones were photoshopped into existence? You should be able to tell. There's a clue in the photos. Read more
Posted on 20 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Literary Form, the Mind, and Computation: A Brief Note (Boiling It Down)
They’re intimately related. To a first approximation, the form of a literary work reflects the full economy of mental faculties working together, cooperatively... Read more
Posted on 20 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Poverty of Literary Darwinism
Since I've just spent a fair amount of time criticising cognitive criticism, it seemed only fair that I turn my attention to literary Darwinism, or, as Brian... Read more
Posted on 18 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Interdisciplinary Research
Nature has a special set of articles devoted to interdisciplinarity (16 Septermber 2015). Ii've offer excerpts and comments on two of the articles. Read more
Posted on 18 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Revolution in the Auto Industry?
From the Frankfurt motor show (NYTimes): The main risk for carmakers is probably not so much that an Apple car would destroy Mercedes-Benz or BMW the way the... Read more
Posted on 18 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
