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 ( 7613 )
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Depression and Creativity
I’m working on an article about depression and decided to ask about the connection between depression and creativity. Claude makes a few general remarks and ask... Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Large Language Models Surpass Human Experts in Predicting Neuroscience Results
Luo, X., Rechardt, A., Sun, G. et al. Large language models surpass human experts in predicting neuroscience results. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10. Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Looking out of the Window
Trina Schart Hyman (1939-2004 ) Children’s book Illustrator Lovely homely illustrations a pleasure to post. That’s a big dog guarding the door pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Take Five," Five Ways
From Wikipedia: "Take Five" is a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond. It was first recorded in 1959 and is the third track on Time Out by the Dave Brubeck... Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is It Over? States and State Systems After Globalism
Christopher Caldwell, This Maverick Thinker Is the Karl Marx of Our Time, NYTimes, Nov. 28, 2024: Who could have seen Donald Trump’s resounding victory coming? Read more
Posted on 28 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cat [Japanese]
視線#今日もネコ様の圧が強い #キジネコ様... Read more
Posted on 27 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude Parodies “Kubla Khan” Using Elon Musk, FDR, and Walt Disney
As you may know, there’s been a fair amount of interest in the ability of LLMs to create poetry. I’ve done a bit of that myself with ChatGPT. The results were... Read more
Posted on 27 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Who We Spend Time with Over the Course of Our Lives
https://t.co/tn796UuuKS— Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan) November 26, 2024H/t Tyler Cowen. Read more
Posted on 27 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Weight Loss, Bariatric Surgery, and the New Drugs
Time stamps: 00:00 Intro 01:06 Set Point Theory 11:24 Calories In / Calories Out 18:47 Biggest Hurdles To Weight Loss 23:05 What Is Bariatric Surgery? Read more
Posted on 26 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will Medicare Cover the New GLP-1 Weight-loss Drugs?
Margot Sanger-Katz, Obesity Drugs Would Be Covered by Medicare and Medicaid Under Biden Proposal, NYTimes, Nov. 26, 2024. The Biden administration, in one of it... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Freddie Hubbard, First Light
Perhaps more than any other, Freddie Hubbard set the style for mainstream 1960s-1970s jazz trumpet. Sure, there’s Miles Davis, but he’s his own universe and... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AI Granny Vs. the Phone Scammers
Ali Watkins, An A.I. Granny Is Phone Scammers’ Worst Nightmare, NYTimes, Nov. 25, 2024: Daisy Harris likes birds — there’s one outside her window. Her cat is... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Cost of Education in the Roman Empire
Cost of education in the Roman Empire, from Diocletian price edict.Based on the prices in the edict we can see that instruction in rhetoric and literature was... Read more
Posted on 26 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
My Streaming Diet [Media Notes 145]
I’ve written previously about my posting habits over the long-term, posting charts showing wide variation over time, with periods lasting two to four months... Read more
Posted on 25 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Last Universal Common Ancestor and Its Impact on the Early Earth System
Moody, E.R.R., Álvarez-Carretero, S., Mahendrarajah, T.A. et al. The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth... Read more
Posted on 25 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Depression is on the Rise
I’m preparing an article on depression and want to say a few words so I decided to ask Claude about it. Note its remarks about long-term historical trends,... Read more
Posted on 24 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Using a 300-ton Hydraulic Press to Crush a Block of 10,000 Lego Bricks
The really fun stuff starts at about 8 minutes in, but, really, if you're going to watch that, why not watch the whole thing? AND: What kind of person... Read more
Posted on 24 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trump 47 and the Battle for the Soul of America
I was happy when Biden dropped out of the race. But why’d it take him so long? And I was pleased to see Harris rake in all the $$$ and do well in the polls,... Read more
Posted on 24 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Governors Island as a World Resource Center
I spent a good deal of time early in the millennium working with Zeal Greenberg, of the World Development Endowment Foundation, on a plan to develop Governors... Read more
Posted on 23 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Gary Marcus Vindicated on the Limits of Scaling?
He seems to think so, and I agree. Though I also believe that LLMs probably have won a permanent place in the repertoire of techniques for AI devices. We just... Read more
Posted on 23 November 2024 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
