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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Flowers
Posted on 01 July 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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What’s up with House, M.D.? [Media Notes 135]
House, M.D. has been on my to-do list for a couple of years. As you may know, it’s a medical drama than ran on Fox for eight seasons between 2004 and 2012. I... Read more
Posted on 01 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bang That Drum! [What Fun]
Partial update (two entries, the last two) 12.11.23 Updated 6.21.21. Updated 12.9.19. Updated 6.23.17. In the course of thinking about... In the early 1970s I... Read more
Posted on 01 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Scalable LLMs Without Matrix Multiplication
Rui-Jie Zhu, Yu Zhang, Ethan Sifferman, et al., Scalable MatMul-free Language Modeling, arXiv:2406.02528v5 [cs.CL] Abstract: Matrix multiplication (MatMul)... Read more
Posted on 01 July 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Scott Aaronson Reports on Two Weeks Spent in Israel
“Never A Better Time to Visit”: Our Post-October-7 Trip to Israel, Shtetl-Optimized, June 27, 2024. Dana, the kids, and I got back to the US last week after a... Read more
Posted on 30 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
DamiLee on Neo-Tokyo [anime || Japan || Megacities]
From the YouTube page: In this video, we explore the origins of Akira's iconic Neo-Tokyo, delving into its roots in post-war Tokyo and the visionary ideas that... Read more
Posted on 29 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Eddie Murphy Interview: "The Comic Used to Be [...] the Opening Act, and I...
David Marchese interviews Eddie Murphy in The New York Times, June 29, 2024. From the end: I heard Kevin Hart tell a story on Howard Stern’s show. He talked... Read more
Posted on 29 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel [Media Notes 134]
Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel is a 2022 documentary about the life and accomplishments of the famed film composer, who’s known for his ability to combine... Read more
Posted on 29 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kurt Vonnegut on the Value of Making Your Own Art of Whatever Kind
I first saw this letter in a Facebook group, but it seems it's a well-known letter and is all over the internet. Click on the image to enlarge it. Read more
Posted on 28 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Still More Flowers
Posted on 28 June 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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R U Looking for a Primer on Fusion Power?
Brian Potter, Will We Ever Get Fusion Power? Construction Physics, June 26, 2024. This is a good one, though a bit long. Potter goes through the history and... Read more
Posted on 28 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The African Queen [Media Notes 133]
I don’t know what I think about this movie, The African Queen. It’s from 1951, stars Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, was directed by John Houston, and wa... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken Irises
Posted on 26 June 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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On the Success of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK
Luka Gebel, Chander Velu Antonio Vidal-Puig, The strategy behind one of the most successful labs in the world, Nature, Vol 630 | 27 June 2024,... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Harold Bloom Discusses Bud Powell and Influence in Jazz
The discussion of Bud Powell starts about 43:00. At 47:00 of so there's an explicit discussion of influence and competition. He's right, cutting contests are... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Adam Savage Swallows a Camera Robot
From the YouTube page: This may be the smallest remote controlled robot we've covered on Tested. Adam visits the workshop of Endiatx, the makers of the Pillbot... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What We Got Wrong About Depression and Its Treatment
Steven D. Hollon, What we got wrong about depression and its treatment, Behaviour Research and Therapy, Volume 180, 2024, 104599, ISSN 0005-7967,... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bloom on Shakespeare [persistence of Identity] {the Last Mile}
The key point (01:57) I think that Shakespeare had the first sense I know of what he actually called the self-same which is the persistence of identity through... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bacon! Bacon! My Kingdom for a Slab of Bacon! [counterpoint to AI Rant]
Posted on 25 June 2024
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Adobe Backlash [what Hath AI Wrought?]
It seems that Adobe has been receiving quite a bit of backlash against changes it’s made to its terms of service, changes having to do with Adobe using... Read more
Posted on 25 June 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
