Sunday 27 December 2015

OLOGY in its proper place ...

a little while ago I had these remarks in my inbox - and am looking forward to cleaning that out - instead moving some of the material I might like to look at again, here ....

I think it is worth while making a distinction between  "technology" and  "technomena" - I will explain - and put forward a new term I hope will seem to those who think about it, to be reasonable and useful.
TECHNOLOGY must surely be a phenomenon in parallel with those similarly named - psych, socio, anthrop ...ology in each case the ology meaning a KNOWLEDGE about the topic area mentioned (the mind, the society, MAN,....).  These terms are used metaphorically sometimes ("the psychology of a criminal is that..."), but such metaphorical uses are visible as such and do not detract from the main scene - that psychOLOGY is the science of and or knowledge of (how) the mind (works). 
Using this precedent, TECHNOLOGY must refer to the KNOWLEDGE and science concerning how 'technical things" (techne) function. The things themselves (in the case of the latest highways and byways of communication) include the many gadgets - smartphones, (presumably also other idiotphones by comparison) , other means of internet delivery and access, etc, and I suggest these THINGS best be called TECHNOMENA.  This fairly clearly combines the 'techne' part with the tail end of the word "phenomena" which focuses on things.
It will be useful to think of any given technomenon in regard of its place along a scale of value of the application of a technical development. Here, I do not find a suitable word in Greek for the good/useful and the bad/harmful ends of a continuum; but Hebrew, which lately has borrowed many words from Greek and elsewhere) has a continuum of QUALITY it calls Eichut; Tov is a word for Good in itself, so Eichut Tovah (Eichut is feminine) is the good end of the spectrum of technomena and at the other end is Eichut Ra ('bad in quality').  Such a quality spectrum could apply to various phenomena but in the world we are dealing with here, of the technomena of communication this gives us a possibility of referring to techneichut tova alongwards to techneichut ra.
Where, on this 'techneichut' scale do various gadgets find their place? There might be general agreement that smart phones are markedly towards the techneichut tova end of things; (I have not mentioned yet, that the smartphone is quite compelling (addictive?) for its owners and it may just be that with this addiction and the access it affords to various 'sites' lessens a need that such users might otherwise discharge by taking chemical drugs).


Wednesday 21 October 2015

Is EURO a Strong or a Weak name?

Is EURO a Strong or a Weak name?

A few years ago I had this notion that EURO is a word whose connotations in English would be likely to be weak.
What this entailed for what societies, publics and nations would want to do in or with the EURO, I don't know - it is something it would be good to explore.

From time to time the notion crops up and I look in my records and  find that I have been going on about this for over a dozen years now. The earliest I found this morning was am email to an academic in Exeter University - in 2002!
I am still waiting to hear from her.

Anyway - here is the suggestion:

The Influence Of A Name: The Euro Case               An Experiment            Proposed by:    J.M.Wober

Introduction  A substantial literature indicates that the name of a person or an object influences how it is thought about, and this in turn can influence behaviour concerning the person or object. The Euro is a new 'actor' in European society, and one may hope that it is regarded as being reliable and durable as well as friendly, attractive and with other positive attributes. One of the elements of the introduction of the currency is the evocation of connotations by its very name. In English, two very closely sounding words are eros and urine; it is at least possible that some evocation of the connotations of these words may spill over into that of the Euro. It should be acknowledged that little is known about such matters and it would be wise, therefore, for some study to be carried out of the overtones of meaning that will (and already do) surround or suffuse the term, in the UK.

Theory  One relevant observation may be that the names for many existing currencies contain hard consonants; in many cases these come close to the start and or end of the word and thus provide what sounds like firm enclosure for it. A contrast would be with words which lack a hard consonant or which may have one but not at either beginning or end; such words are 'open-ended' in sound. It may be far fetched, or not, but it may at least be worth investigation that a new currency's name might more readily evoke the desired attributes if it sounds, like the names for so many other currencies, as though it conveys 'hard-ended closure' (franc, mark, dollar, pound, escudo, peseta, rand, baht, dirham, shekel, even lirra).

Method  A set of new and meaningless names should be made up. Half of these would contain hard consonants and afford substantial acoustic 'closure'. Half would have softer consonants, not placed at either end of the word and would thus sound less 'closed'. A set of semantic differential scales would be established on which a sample of observers would be asked to place each term, on the basis of how it sounds to them, and of which descriptions if evokes. Each new 'word' would contain two syllables. The rating could be required without context; or a context could be supplied. The most explicit context would be to say that terms for a real new currency are being studied, and one wants to explore the ideas and feelings each term evokes. A less explicit context (which I favour) would be to propose that a scriptwriter was considering names for a fictional currency, for a new science fiction tv series. An indirect context would be to say the same, but for names for fictional characters. Finally, people could be asked to assess the terms without saying what they applied to. This procedure could then be repeated for the terms pound, and finally euro. Some personal details of respondents would be taken, to learn whether stereotyping may occur in some ways amongst certain parts of the population more than amongst others.

Terms and Scales  Terms might include: delim, kinot, suled, bagup, galed. jubol, kedit (etc); aryo, uwiah, ehyor, oirue, ilwo,  (etc). Scales might include: worth 10p...£10; respectable/dis-; fast/slow; changeable/steadfast; reliable/un-; friendly/hostile; indestructible/in-; desirable/un-; etc


Hypotheses The null hypothesis would be that the terms are all meaningless (ie, words not in the dictionary, nor are the major syllables such words), and that a number not significantly different from 100% would choose the centre point on each scale. A variant of this hypothesis is that replies would be normally distributed around the centre, with a small distribution. The hypothesis of the introduction, above, is that some terms would tend to score high or low on various scales, in ways that imply imputation of character. In particular, terms with much closure would seem firmer, more reliable, more friendly and attractive.



Monday 28 September 2015

Dodgy Digits - of wobbly numbers as props to "policy"

A DRUGS PRICE ‘SCANDAL’
A ‘scientific’ study – backed by commercial interests - suggested that a drug would be helpful and was administered on a wide scale. The initial indicators were then challenged and the US FDA said not to use it  - but an article says it was still being sold in millions. It says that consumption of the drug led to teenage depression and suicides.  The article does not say or show how this latter link was established. Here is the link to the scenario:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/antidepressant-was-given-to-millions-of-young-people-after-trials-showed-it-was-dangerous-10504555.html

DEATHS FROM AIR POLLUTION
The Independent newspaper reported a couple of days ago a study from which  a projection was made that a precise number of deaths arises from (a form of) air pollution.  How this precise projection was reached was not explained (with the difficulties of partialling out all manner of other associated influences on health).


A long story in a Scottish newspaper combines exact estimates of deaths due to X, with more cautious phrasing in places, and deep in the article even includes a proviso:
David Newbie, professor of cardiology at Edinburgh University, pointed out that the combustion of vehicle fuel produced both NO2 and particulate pollution so it was difficult to separate out their health effects. NO2 could suffer from “guilt by association”, he argued.
The overall gist of the article is to side with shock-horror rather than with a realistic (?) degree of caution over the available data and their interpretation:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/13772083.Air_pollution_is_killing_3500_Scots_every_year/

GLOBAL WARMING AND RISE OF SEAS
The Independent papers reported in late summer of 2015 that :

research predicts the world has entered what could be one of the strongest El NiƱo events in the past century .

the full link to this ‘story’ is here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/2015-will-be-the-hottest-year-on-record--but-experts-predict-2016-will-be-even-warmer-10499220.html

THE SPURIOUS PRESENT
There seems to be a slight oddity in the use of verb tenses in constructing a report – “predicts” seems to my eye to talk about the future while “has entered”  speaks of the present. I am reminded of the situation in very many television documentaries (sadly, many on the BBC) in which “presenters” (how may the meaning from this word have seeped into affecting behaviour?) speak of the past as though it remains part of an ongoing present:
“Julius Caesar then decides to cross the Channel …” 
Such verbal tricks may be worth ignoring as mere elements of style designed to help viewers understand things better (by inviting them to be involved in the same time frame?) – but perhaps the reporting of past and present and future should remain sharply distinct.

CROWD NUMBERS
In February 2003 protests took place in many countries against the possibility of a western alliance invading Iraq.  According to Wikipedia estimates of numbers varied:
The Wiki review says that the crowd in Rome constituted a world record – recognized by the Guinness Book of Records. 30 trains  brought people in (estimate? 30 x 1500 = 45,000?) and 3000 buses (estimate? 50 x 3000 – 150,000) thus the “brought in” numbers may have reached 200,000 people. These could add to the total population of Rome which wiki gives as 2.9 million, to fulfil the claim at the head of the article that “the protest in Rome involved around three million people”.  The article later says that police estimates were that 650,000 “took place in a rally”. It is perhaps not clear from these different approaches in the Wiki review “exactly” how many expressed their feelings in the city, and/or took part in the rally. There is a tendency for organizers of rallies to report that more people came, than is stgated by police estimates: for example in the same Wiki article it is said : “Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people[32] and the BBC estimated that around a million attended.[33] At the finish rally in Hyde Park, the organisers announced 3 million attended” …..

WAR CASUALTIES
The strongly anti war newspaper the Guardian provides what seems a conservative or low estimate of the numbers of military and civilian deaths attributable to the 2003 invasion.
The BBC reported that the Lancet (medical journal) calculated that well over 600,000 deaths were attributable to the war.      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11107739

Overall, it seems that in the chaos of war – or even the disruptions of civil protests – it has been difficult to fulfil a notion that “the number” of people involved, or casualties, can be accurately numbered.

DEATHS FROM HIV/AIDS
From time to time journalists in the press or charities decide to offer a number indicating the suffering from AIDS – especially in Africa. A website from the World Health Organisation is notable for the statement of numbers from countries mired in conflict and where  even in peaceful times access to the hinterland and exact diagnosis would be problematic – thus figures are provided from the Central African Republic, Malawi, Rwanda and other countries where it may be difficult to accurately pinpoint such things while in the same table well-ordered countries like Singapore, and the USA have entered ‘no data’.
A trusted friend informed me:
When we did the natural remedy tests in Zambia in the 1980s we had to involve the President’s Office to select some ten people for treatment.  It was our tests which established whether or not they had HIV/AIDS, that information was not already listed within the system, and it was a huge palaver to get the selected people weighed and checked each week.  In the end I wasn’t at all sure they had put on weight because the herbal treatment had cured them or simply because, for the duration of the test, they were being fed and watered on a regular daily basis….  Zambia did make an effort with its HIV/AIDS treatments and monitoring because Kaunda’s son died of the disease and I think other members of the family also died; not that it made an exemplar for other African countries because the work it did was too spasmodic and inconsistent.
Then:


A DEMENTED POPULATION?
The Independent big and little newspaper decided to headline an accelerating proportion of the population who/which would be demented.  The “story” included the detail:
The latest findings – which uses mathematical formulae to combine life expectancy estimates with projections for the frequency of dementia at different ages – underscore the scale of the potential future crisis caused by an aging population.
I didn’t really understand how the arithmetic had led to the conclusion dramatized in the headline story which can be reached at:
     http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/alzheimers-a-third-of-britons-born-in-2015-will-develop-dementia-report-says-10510236.html

Nevertheless, back to the reporting of science – there are other scenarios in which firm figures are offered as describing results of some process or behaviour, thus:

     Reducing speed limits in itself will reduce (or has reduced) accident numbers;
     Application of laboratory-achieved genetically modified products will cause
          such and such a number of consumer casualties;
     Polar bears (on whom an accurate census has apparently been conducted) will die
           out in some large numbers someone has calculated (how?) ….
     A given number of tigers in the huge nation of India will be reduced to another
           said number, unless particular measures advocated by campaigners, are put in place;


…. This is a beginning to what would likely be a log list of examples where “the figures” may or may not substantiate some (political) case being made. Since skill with figures is not all that widespread, much nonsense develops in “the public discourse”.

Corruption of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race

Corruption of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race

On Saturday 11 April 2015 the Bate Races was (sorry were) rowed in London
and most people will have noticed that the rowers were covered in glory (well, in t shirts blazoned
with the motif of   BNY Mellon - even the boat(s) were titled BNY Mellon)


Inline image 1


our heroic sponsors are based for the most part in New York but the London Branch was right then in the process of being taken to the cleaners (well, a fleck of dust flicked off their lapels) by a Financial Conduct Authority ...

the FCA website (no date offered on the web page  than a nostalgic "yesterday") gives most of the details you might like to know, about this episode, ...


I didn't notice what it may have told us about where all this DOSH actually GOES.
Does the money go to the Treasury?
Or to the vigilant mandarins at the FCA itself?
Might some of the money go to BNYM's sponsees - such as the ever needy CUBC (as indicated in this paragraph from a website of an outfit called Rowing?
Does the public or the press and/or broadcasters (happens to be the BBC, with their reputation to preserve) know or care about the sponsorship and the sponsors - who, one supposes, are hoping to improve their public "image"?
It has to be said that the BBC were perhaps first in reporting the fine - although tucked away in their business  section of their News website ..


but most of the other entries in the google page listing reports of the fine, were in other specialist press outlets and or in the guardian or independent - though the telegraph also, though not the tabloids or Mail or Express...)

What do rowers and their organisations  think or propose to do about these shenanigans?

A rowing website includes the paragraph:

Experience
For programmes that start with a different set of athletes every September, the previous experience and physiology of their respective squads is undoubtedly one of the largest factors behind potential success come April. In this respect, there has been a clear preference for athletes with international pedigree to choose Dark over Light Blue. Delivering athletes of a more developed physiology who are better experienced in the highly competitive and pressurised environment of international competition will have a hugely positive affect on a squad throughout the entire year—not just race day—setting a high-standard for others to aspire to and becoming role models for what are commonly a younger group. It was no coincidence to see Oxford's two most decorated and physiologically gifted performers sitting in the respective stroke seats of their crews, as both Sean Bowden and Christine Wilson looked to benefit from both the experience and talents of Caryn Davies and Stan Louloudis. Improving recruitment is therefore the first place that Cambridge can look to make inroads; but as was seen in the controversial case of Thorsten Engelmann, this cannot be at the expense of the academic reputation of an institution such as Cambridge University.

________

so, if things carry on as now, there will be no competition in future - as battle hardened giants from the Charles River and who knows where else will gravitate to Oxford (and presumably ensure wins forever) leaving Cambridge to paddle around as best they can, in the fens

perhaps there is scope for a shallow water PUNT RACE

suggestions welcome for whom to nobble as a sponsor....

(mind you, the BBC ran a team sheet on Saturday which showed where the rowers had come from - and for the life of me I can not retrieve a website which repeats this information, but I am sure that Cambridge fielded (or watered?) 7/8 foreign rowers, mostly Americans while Oxford had 4/8 - I think - British ...) ...

so it may not always be true that packing the bate with Americans is all one has to do ...

Monday 31 August 2015

Psychology of Music

I have been putting forward the notion below, for probably well over a year. I have occasional replies from people who say there may be a good idea buried in here. I think that, if some neurological study starts to substantiate what I suggest, this would strengthen a perspective in the criticism of the "culture" of modern music.  Here goes:

      Psychology of Music
Social and Cognitive Functions of 3 and 4 time in Processing of Music

I am a retired psychologist - having been mostly a researcher –
      in Africa on "cross cultural" matters and then
      back in London, in a weird field called Broadcasting Audience Research.
I am interested, still, in many things including the Social Psychology of Music
Within this field a hypothesis has occurred to me, on which I have offered:

          reasons why it would be of interest and important, and
          ways in which the hypothesis could usefully be explored.

The hypothesis is rooted in the observations that: most music has a rhythm of either three time,   or 2 or 4 time.
2 and 4 time are essentially similar and even boil down in many presentations to "one in a bar" time.
The majority of the popular music of today is in 2 time. This has 'defeated' or at least virtually replaced the world of 3x.

Here then are the hypotheses; first the neurological part:

Music in 2 time is processed in the brain (experienced) in different parts and shall we say at a lower level than is music in 3 time - where also the lifelong internal rhythms of heartbeat and then walking and running are registered. This region of “perception” requires no “thought”. It is only if and when a heartbeat becomes distorted (or one has to try to learn to do a waltz) that thought has to break in to the otherwise thoughtless world of 2 time.

Music in 3 time finds no corresponding internal counterpart in day to day physiological processes. It is therefore experienced – and interpreted in a different part of the brain - where other realms of meaning are encountered. 3 time music is likely perceived in those realms of the brain where conscious thought occurs.

Now comes the social part ....

Music in 2 time is conceptually less challenging than 3 time (let alone complex times such as 3 + 2, whatever...).
Colloquially, it might be said these 2 and 4 time musics engage what a long ago sociolinguist called a restricted code
and what popular journalists might describe as 'dumbed down'. 
In the worst case marching music lends itself to evocations of a totalitarian spirit.
Of course of course the human spirit rises to its best in 4 time in cases where
exalted compositions have led us there - Beethoven's 9th choral theme for example.
BUT
the tramp of nuremberg rallying and such military displays more often banish the finer feelings, all in 2 time.

Music in 3 time offers a path to grace. Much of the richest Irish and Scottish "folkloric" music operates in 3 time.
Try the Eriskay Love Lilt ....this sensibility is virtually absent in today's POP music.

(   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BfpyPy2Cc8       3x  Paul Robeson
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=KhGsQk_3tZY              3x   Joan Baez

3 time operates in a world of curves. 2 time operates in a world of corners ;  

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQoy-W6i_F4       3x   Ray Bethell
but contrast:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIooCk59mKU     4x  Army March

I have collected evidence at a cultural level on these lines
but
though I have looked as far as I can in the web literature I can find no studies that MAY "anchor" the locus of the world of music in 2x, in parts of the brain which MAY be different from those which receive and elaborate music in 3x.

If a scanning study could be done to examine where the brains of listeners to 2 and to 3 time "light up"
and if it does indicate, as I hypothesise, different locations, this would offer at the very least food for thought about the functions of these two rhythms. 

As I said above, I am retired and never had nor will have facilities to look at this question.
If the cutting edge of modern neurocognitive science can spare a moment to look at the matter - it may well be quite rewarding.

PS  I have had versions of well known tunes prepared in 3 time AND in 4 time which offer a degree of "control” over the matter of whether it is the line of melody, or rhythm, that might make the differences I envisage. Frankly, “Happy Birthday" in 4 time is not all that different from HB in 3x (its real time). But I have other presentational samples
which sound more different.....

I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles is murdered here in 4 time
Doris Day manages IFBB much better in 3 time …
and the West Ham crowd do occasionally manage it (mostly) in 3 time – and I suggest it is quite exceptional to find a football ‘mascot’ tune anywhere else, in 3 ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRNzn1lBZt0

what would be gained if and when one discovers that 3 time is processed differently from 2 time?
I suggest we would be on our way towards an “effects” analysis of the bulk of “popular” music and what it may do to the sensibility of the population at large.
It would suggest that elements of music education involving attention to more diverse rhythmic structures might be a “civilizing” influence.
Do we want a civilizing influence? – that’s another matter…..

Psyc

Wednesday 12 August 2015

Limericks on Stephen Fry

When the abysmal phenomenon I call tatter came on the scene, I was told that one may enter observations each amounting to no more than 150 characters.
I thought this a fine enough challenge and it might stimulate the creation of lasting contributions (like haikus).
I set out to deliver something that might amuse (slightly) and would be a message of EXACTLY 150 characters. Each message (I did three) would be a limerick. This would include the line (and  between word) spaces as countable characters.
My limericks would be about Stephen Fry - then spoken of as one of the nation's most prolific tatterpeople, evidently writing something each or most days, and spurring a "following" of scores of thousands of people who would read his thoughts and respond.
The fact that he himself could NOT further respond to the contributions of each of thousands made it a bad scene in my eyes - one masquerading as "communication" but really being no such thing.

When I opened the entry I had contributed, I was aghast to see the lines of words I had sent in were rolled out as if they had no line spaces and were all in one line. This destroyed the form of the limerick; thus the system not only failed to give an opportunity to "communicate" (might Mr Fry even or ever see one of my limericks and, heavens above, even reply?) but it "trashed" the contribution one had offered.

Here now is the first limerick I offered -

(this is an experiment - will it appear in the message AS a limerick? - let's see....)

A tele celebrity Fry
Saw no reason that he shouldnt try
To fritter his wit
And then force it to fit

Into twitters that aesthetes decry

so then I made up another two ....

St Ephen in seven score places
Throws wit thrusting pith in our faces
His aphorisms fly
Leaving crispy and dry
Us twitterati stuck in our places


St Ephen would never proclaim
That democracy's now not the same
As we twitter each day
With but little to say
To politicos playing their game

Well - I am sure Mr Fry might be mildly amused and make up far better ones - he is a truly clever man and good luck to him; he has entertained me a good deal.

Wednesday 5 August 2015

After a gap of a few years I have been able to return to this activity and to write in my first "post" within the format that google kindly allows.
What had happened was that my old gmail address was "phished" and in unscrambling that fiasco I lost my old gmail address (curiously almost morphed into a bogus 'self'). The system refused to recognise me as me,  nor my new gmail address as emerging from the previous and continuing me, so I withdrew from the fray.
I now have the calm advice of my battle hardened son and have "recreated" the thing I refuse to call a blog as I explained in my first "post" for the old vehicle "dengls for fun" where I reported that a dengl is a piece of baDENGLish in the same degree of elegance exhibited by the drearily titled "blog" which is a weBLOG ...
I am not sure but I think that what I am being is termed "rebarbative". I will have to check with a friend. I think I have an abdominal ache which comes more readily to mind evoked by the term "rebarbative" which sounds either like a medicine or the condition which prompts its use.
Now, the great goog in the sky refused me licence to use the phrase I had used for a few score dengls a few years ago (some of which can even be summoned up by the genie in the brass jar by entering their titles in a weBSEARCH),
e.g.:
http://denglsforfun.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/dengl-46-woeisme-1-on-education.html
(it's still there)  
so I fall back on the similar term denglsagain.
After this initial piece of nonsense I hope to have something more substantive to say in due course.