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 ( 7356 )
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Remnants
Posted on 09 July 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Aristocrats [Media Notes 138]
The Aristocrats is a 2005 documentary about a joke of the same name which Wikipedia characterizes as a taboo-defying, off-color joke that has been told by... Read more
Posted on 09 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
America's Sources of Energe of 1776 to 2020
Fascinating look at where America sourced energy since 1776:via @adam_tooze pic.twitter.com/i7hXpD87Cw— Bryan Alexander (@BryanAlexander) July 8, Read more
Posted on 08 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Cognitive Benefits of Music
Rafael Román-Caballero, Miguel A. Vadillo, Laurel J. Trainor, Juan Lupiáñez, Please don't stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and... Read more
Posted on 08 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
I Am: Celine Dion [Media Notes 137]
I’ve been aware of Celine Dion at least since she sang the theme song (“My Heart Will Go On”) for Titanic in 1997, but I’d probably heard something from her... Read more
Posted on 08 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Genes and Politics
A new study of the relationship between intelligence and politics just came out.The relationship everyone knows holds up: more intelligent people tended to... Read more
Posted on 07 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Blossoms and the 14th St. Viaduct
Posted on 06 July 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Your Grandma's Robot Companion
Erin Nolan, For Older People Who Are Lonely, Is the Solution a Robot Friend? NYTimes, July 6, 2024. ElliQ, a voice-activated robotic companion powered by... Read more
Posted on 06 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will AIs Be Able to Create New Knowledge?
This is a quick and dirty reflection on the question posed in the following tweet: This is always a question I have asked myself: Given the knowledge that... Read more
Posted on 06 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Life in the Billionaire Bunkers After the Apocalypse
Billionaires Are Prepping for Doomsday | Glenn Loury, Nikita Petrov Mark Sussman | The Glenn Show Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:28 Biden’s abysmal debate... Read more
Posted on 05 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Chinese Challenge to Amazon
Spencer Soper, Bloomberg Tech Daily Newsletter, July 5, 2024. Temu has taught Amazon.com Inc. an important lesson: US shoppers can be patient if it saves... Read more
Posted on 05 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Along the Hudson River
Posted on 05 July 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Bloom the Aesthete: Does Bloom Abandon the Humanistic Tradition in His Take on...
Dr. Scott Masson: Harold Bloom's strange defence of the Western Canon This lecture briefly discusses the idea of a literary canon, as opposed to the Biblical... Read more
Posted on 05 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Not Fireworks
Posted on 04 July 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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On the Significance of Human Language to the Problem of Intelligence (&...
Back in May I did a post entitled, How smart could an A.I. be? Intelligence in a network of human and machine agents. Toward the end I said this: The question o... Read more
Posted on 04 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F {schlock to Schlock} [Media Notes 136]
I loved the original Beverly Hills Cop and was OK with the two sequels, the third less than the second. So I had to watch Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Eh. But... Read more
Posted on 03 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Artificial Stars?
Posted on 02 July 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Community in House, M.D. [Media Notes 135 B]
When I wrote yesterday’s post about House, M.D. I figured I might have more to say about it, but I didn’t have any explicit plans to do so. When I woke up this... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Diagramming Sentences in the 19th Century
I loved diagramming sentences in grade school. I'm sure I did it in 6th grade, but possibly 5th grade as well. Over a Language Log Victor Mair has a post on... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Presidential Debate as Entertainment
I've been watching Zeth's videos for over a year, maybe even two. When I first started watching them it was just Zeth and his daughter, Saylor. Then his with an... Read more
Posted on 02 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
