 
Hey ! What kinda piana is
this ? no apostrophes ?
The latest issue of the British Journal of Aesthetics is carrying
an intriguing article from the Department of Philosophy, at the University
of Leeds, UK, which
enquires into the very nature of music / performance / and Art itself.
Specifically claiming
‘ There are No Things That are Musical Works ‘
The paper argues the point that -
• Works of music do not appear to be concrete objects
• but they do appear to be created by composers
• and abstract objects do not seem to be the kind of things that can be created.
It goes without saying that the logical arguments required to prove that
There are No Things That are Musical Works are necessarily complex – and,
refreshingly, the author encourages simplification.
“ It would be nice to have an account that saved the common sense
intuitions without resorting to the outlandish ontologies of the perdurantist
or constitution theorist. “
Quite. And to help in this regard, he clarifies the ( sometimes unclear
) language of The Ontologists by highlighting what he calls Ontologese in bold type
:
e.g.
“ The truth of ‘there is an entity that is a musical work that
exists but which did not exist previously’ does not demand that there
is an entity that is a musical work that exists but which did not exist previously,
it demands only that there is an entity that is performing a musical
work role that it was not performing previously. “
Continue reading the full paper here :
؟ ؟ ؟ Also see ( contributions from the same author ) the Beatles Philosophy
pages.
• " There's nothing you can know that isn't known " (
John Lennon advocates metaphysical anti-realism and endorses the conclusion
of Fitch's
paradox. )
• " I believe in yesterday " ( Paul McCartney
' refutes ' presentism
)
• " If you walk around, I'll tax your feet ". (
Harrison advances neo-Lockean critique of the state: taxation as cannibalism.
)
؟ ؟ ؟
Intriguing as the new investigations are, Really
Magazine still remains more comfortable with
the previous work of Brent,
E. and Durante, J.F. (
1947 )
[ Do not miss this one, no really,
don't. Ed. ]
04 JUL 08 ( late edition )
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Believe it or don't
Last year, Mississippi State University published an unusual, and some would
say disturbing, report into Persistent Clusters of Mortality in the US.
Going back 35 years, the researchers logged mortality rates in each state,
to produce a comprehensive chart of ‘ hotspots ‘.
Residents of Nevada look away now - but those in Southern Minnesota might
be pleased to see the
map.
But the findings posed the obvious question ‘ So what’s going
on ? ‘
At the time, the researchers, could not fully pin down the reasons, urging
that “ These
findings underscore the importance of further investigation “
And just last month, one of the report’s authors, ( now at Lousiana
State University ) posited a possible mechanism in the journal Social Forces.
His idea is that ‘ Prevalence of Religious Congregations Affects
Mortality Rates ‘
The new study finding that “ people
live longer in areas with a large number of Catholic and Mainline Protestant
churches. “
And according to the author :
“ Policymakers and citizens, whether religious or not, should realize
that socially engaged faith communities can enhance the well-being of society,”
Is the implication then that Atheists and Agnostics don’t live as long
?
Read the university press-release here :
04 JUL 08
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Anydays
New research from the University of Sydney, Australia, has investigated
which days of the week people prefer.
Researchers asked 351 subjects ( students ? ) about their current
moods throughout the week, and surprisingly perhaps, Mondays were not the
worst, and Fridays were not the best.
In fact, no particular day-preference showed up significantly in the results.
“ . . . we remember (or expect) Mondays to be depressing and Fridays
to be uplifting not because they really are, but because society has led
us to believe that they are. “
Disappointingly, the university press
release doesn’t clarify why the research was carried out with
the help of Sydney-based marketing firm NTF ( who do research
for Coca
Cola Corporation, Kellogg's, Zurich Financial Services, etc etc )
The paper was published
in the penultimate edition of the Journal of Applied Social
Psychology
03 JUL 08
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Determining Determination
Don’t give up just yet. Whatever mental task you are tackling, there’s
a chance that you may be able to stick at it 50% longer with just a simple
trick.
 Research from the University of Rochester, published in the penultimate
issue of the European
Journal of Social Psychology, found that simply asking experimental
subjects to fold their arms caused ( or enabled ? ) them to persist at
anagram-solving tasks for nearly twice as
long.
But why ?
( readers' explanations welcome )
؟ ؟ ؟ Note :
Over the last 30 years or so, the University of Rochester has opened
up a new branch of psychology called Self
Determination Theory (SDT) “ SDT is based on an organismic-dialectical meta-theory, which begins
with the assumption that people are active organisms, with innate tendencies
toward psychological growth and development . . . “
As an example, see ' What makes for a good day ? ' from 1996
02 JUL 08
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The Photon Duvet ™
" Is a comforter that contains, in its composition,
Infra-red ray photon-electron emission fibres. "
Readers who haven't come across infra-red ray photon-electron emission
fibres before can
find an explanatory video
here.
01 JUL 08 ( late edition )
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Saving the planet ( with growth
enhancers )
Background :
• recombinant Bovine Somatotropin ( rbST ) • Also known as bovine
growth hormone, or BGH.
• Currently banned in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and all
EU countries.
• Widely used in the US.
• At present only has one manufacturer. Monsanto.
• The hormone, which is administered by injection, causes cows to produce
around 13% more milk.
• Thus, less cattle are needed to produce a given quantity of milk.
“ For every one million cows supplemented with rbST, the reduction
in the carbon footprint is equivalent to removing approximately 400,000 family
cars from the road or planting 300 million trees. “
That’s the conclusion of a
new research paper, published yesterday
by Cornell University
Note : Both of the paper's authors work for Monsanto. The funding for the research came directly from Cornell. But
who funds the funders ?
Here’s their website, see
if you can find out . . .
Please let Really Magazine know if you find a clearcut transparent
list of their corporate $ponsor$ - we couldn't
01 JUL 08 ( midday edition )
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Concepts of the month. To start July, three concepts which Really Magazine has so far
failed to examine – our apologies.
• Born Globals
• Sperm Ships
• Ebonics
01 JUL 08
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Lubricating the Hedonic Treadmill
[ Op Ed. ]
The July issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science will
carry an article on the recent history of happiness.
According to the World Values Survey based at the University
of Michigan Institute for Social Research, the averaged happiness of citizens across
the World has been steadily rising for the last 25 years.
Really ?
Even for the billions who are as yet not even connected
to a sewage system ? There’s no money to build the infrastructure,
but their ‘ leaders ‘ somehow manage to scrape together cash
for Western-built semi-obsolete weapons systems instead ?
Or for the billions who, on a daily basis don’t get enough to eat – knowing
that right now, basic food prices are being artificially manipulated upwards
by financial institutions and speculators ?
Or for the billions who know that their democratic right gives just them
the choice to vote for the ‘ least worst ‘ of a bunch of worthless
candidates ?
etc etc etc ad. nauseam. Ahead of publication, the World Values Survey has made available a
comprehensive set of graphs detailing the changes.
Which leave Really Magazine even more bewildered.
For they correlate trends such as ‘ Post Materialism ‘ (
Where in the world, exactly, has Post Materialism taken hold ? )
Others have missing idents : what is the meaning of a graph with items labeled ‘ Historically
Co ‘ ? or just ‘ Historically ‘ ?
Or a scatter chart with notions like ’ discuss politics ‘ , ‘ want
many children ‘ , ‘ good & evil are clear ‘ ?
Perhaps the article will clarify everything when it’s published.
Until then, Really Magazine hopes the University of Michigan is
right . . .
30 JUN 08
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How high and why
The Perceptual-Motor
Dynamics Lab of the Department of Psychology at the University
of Cincinnati has completed an intriguing study into the implications
of encumberment.
Half the experimental subjects were fitted with ankle-weights – which
encumbered them. They were then asked to estimate how high they could jump.
Not surprisingly
( perhaps ) the experimentees felt that they were less able to jump when
fitted with the weights.
That stage of the experiment was not, however, the subtle part.
For the subjects were also asked to estimate how high an associate – who
was not wearing any ankle weights - could jump ( this person was, in reality,
an actor ).
The subjects who were wearing the weights consistently underestimated the
jumping height that the actor could attain . . .
The research :
‘ Carrying the height of the
world on your ankles: Encumbering observers reduces estimates of how
high an actor can jump ‘
will be published in a future edition of The Quarterly Journal of Experimental
Psychology.
27 JUN 08
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Petard
hoisting – an
auto-discussion
A recently resurfaced ‘ confidential ‘ e-mail , which formed
part of the evidence in a 2004 US court case, reveals inside info on a Microsoft ‘ customer
experience episode ‘ - a Windows XP user trying to install Moviemaker via
their website.
Things do not start well . . .
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up
the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
He bravely persists though . . .
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs
place to make sure it is there.
It’s not there
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive
test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate
testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test
package3.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like
Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why
are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things
like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
But, in the end, he gives up
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage
and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't
run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows
my mind.
Quite.
The user ? A Mr. Bill Gates.
Full e-mail here, hosted,
in the public interest, courtesy of The Seattle Times Company (
scroll to page 3 )
26 JUN 08 ( late edition )
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Kojak on Pompey
If you’re going to be in or around Portsmouth (UK) at the beginning
of next month, and you’re interested in 70’s culture, why not
drop in at the University of Portsmouth for their three day conference ‘ British
culture and society in the 1970s ‘ ?
The conference, which is open to all ( ticket buyers ) will feature discussion
sessions on :
• Roger Moore: a New Bond for a New Decade
“ what does Moore’s Bond tell us about the changed context of
the new decade ? “
• Underground, overground.: Remembering the Wombles
“ the Womble effect encapsulated many of the cultural artefacts of
the decade.
“
Especially of interest is a full screening of the hard-to-find Quota
Quickie short film
• Telly Savalas Looks at Portsmouth
Really Magazine hasn’t been able to track down an online version -
the nearest we got was Telly
Savalas Looks at Birmimingham . . .
“ I admired the trees and shrubs in the spacious traffic-free pedestrian
precincts “
“
You feel as if you’ve been . . . projected into the 21st century “
“ Yes, it’s my kinda town “
[ Caution : Overwhelmingly ‘ artistic ‘ download ( see yesterday’s
entry ) , but well worth the v e r y l o n g wait ]
The conference runs 1 - 3 July 2008. Details here
[ Editor’s note : Though he repeatedly emphasises
that he was there, it’s
not clear that Telly actually ‘ looked
at ‘ either Birmingham or Portsmouth - but he certainly did the voice-over
]
26 JUN 08
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Link of the day
here (
don't hold your breath )
N0rm4l serv1ce w1ll be resum3d 4s s00n as p0ss1ble
The Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss, ( CRUMB )
at the University of Sunderland , UK. has just published a paper drawing
attention to the fact that when electronic data streams breakdown “ they
make apparent our desire of wanting to keep continuity, to experience things
uninterruptedly . “
It’s unlikely that many users of the www would disagree with that.
Perhaps more debatable though is the claim that “ Electronic
streams appear to be most illuminating when they fail or break down “ .
. .
Although the article is really an analysis of the potential of ‘ interruptions ‘ or ‘ flickery-ness ‘ to
induce feelings of ‘ art-i-ness ‘ in animated graphical works,
Really Magazine would like to draw attention to possible wider aspects.
Data stream breakdowns are now so commonplace that they have become an expected
part of the New Millenium Data Exchange Experience - but perhaps that’s
not entirely negative ?
We coin the term ‘ data
interrupta ‘ – events
which instead of conjuring up feelings of frustration - or even rage – might
be viewed more rationally, positively and calmly as Random Seeds
of Art.
؟ ؟ ؟
CRUMB's paper is published in the latest issue of the journal Animation.
25 JUN 08
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Romanian red
Taking as inspiration the fact that during the 2004 Olympics more competitors
wearing red uniforms won than did those wearing blue, a team from the Carol
Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania decided
to investigate whether this red-win-bias might also apply to online games. They focussed their attention on Unreal Tournament 2004 ‘ Team
Deathmatch ‘ in
which the team which ‘ kills ‘ the most ‘ enemy ‘ players
is judged to be ' the winner '.
The ‘ virtual gladiators ‘ which wore red uniforms tended to
win more. To be specific, they won 54.9% of the time.
From this, the investigators conclude : “ It is likely that ‘ seeing red ‘ may trigger a powerful
psychological distractor signal in human aggressive competition that can
affect the outcome of sports and virtual contests alike “
The results are published in the latest
issue of the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see an earlier Really Magazine piece on how videogames can “ foster
greater empathy, tolerance and understanding for others “
24 JUN 08
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Quote of the day :
From Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
“ I think it would be a good idea ! “
( In reply to a reporter who asked " What do you think of Western
Civilization ? " )
More than half a century has gone by since then.
Plus ça
change
[ keywords : warmongering, ethicless, primitive,
myopic, halfwits ] 23 JUN 08 ( midday edition )
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Everything you know is wrong
( part 237 – rev. 23/2 )
The widely adopted ‘ Energy
Efficiency Labels ‘ can be misleading.
 But surely buying a white-goods item with an A rating must be better than
buying one with a G ?
That depends.
According to the UK’s Environmental Change Institute, the labeling
system overlooks a simple fact - it’s easier for manufacturers to get
an A rating for a big machine than a it is for a small one.
So, following the labels, customers can end up buying an A rated
machine which is bigger ( and uses more energy ) than they really need.
Oooops.
It’s rumored that various regulatory bodies are already engaged in
talks to overhaul the system.
23 JUN 08
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Ethics via Ludology ( boot up yer console )
Critical, ethical reasoning skills, are “ .
. . a core component in developing a citizenry capable of fully participating
in a cosmopolitan,
democratic society. “
In other words, if the average person isn’t capable of joined-up-thinking-and-feeling
regarding ethics, then society - that is to say The World - is screwed.
Luckily, according to a
new article just published in the journal Games and Culture ,
there may yet be hope. For citizens might be able to learn about ethical
commitments by playing
computer games - such as :
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
World of Warcraft
Final Fantasy
Jade Empires
Knights of the Old Republic
Neverwinter Nights or
Vampire: Bloodlines
Which, according to professor Undead Holy Priest from
the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, have
“ . . . the potential not only to foster greater empathy, tolerance
and understanding for others but to help us critically reflect on who we
want to be for others, and how we have both power and responsibility in all
of the roles we inhabit in our lives. “
Countering the view that role-paying videogames are just [deleted
] for [ deleted ] as some naysayers
have alleged.
Savour a draft of the full
article here.
20 JUN 08
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Publish and be rewarded
How does ‘ research productivity ‘ as measured by the number
of research papers published, affect marketing professors’ salaries
?
A new study – by three marketing professors from Rice University, the University
of Pittsburgh, and Towson University, investigated the salaries
of 298 marketing professors to determine how they might be affected by research
output.
The findings showed that marketing professors at the ‘ higher ranked ‘ research
universities ( and being a full marketing professor ) are each associated
with higher salary.
The salaries were also nudged appreciably upwards by publication in the
so-called ‘ Tier 1 ‘ quality journals.
The top journal for scoring pay rises was found to be ‘ Marketing
Science ‘
( the marketing professors’ research
paper is published in the latest edition
of the journal . . . Marketing Science )
Also see
Really Magazine’s interview re. the Tinkerbell Solution.
19 JUN 08
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Spot prices
The Agricultural Economics Research Institute ( LEI ) at Wageningen
University in the Netherlands, has recently published a research
document asking the disarmingly simple, yet crucially important question
:
“ Why are current
world food prices so high ? “
The answers are complex, but their 27 page report makes a brave attempt
to disentangle facts from fiction and PR hype.
The mainstream media spin has, in large part, focussed on the diversion
of food products to produce biofuels. Insane though that may be, the LEI
report points out that only about 5% of global food production is used to
produce biofuels - not enough to cause the current extra-high prices.
Perhaps decreased supply ?
Although wheat and barley crops were down in 2007, they were more than compensated
by a bumper maize crop. Thus the global cereals crop in 2007 was higher than
usual.
Maybe the demand has increased ?
The demand across Europe and America has remained constant. There was an
increase in demand in Asia – but not enough to cause the price spikes.
Supply / demand seems fairly stable(ish) - so there must be a less obvious
( or at least less-talked-about ) explanation for the increases – causing
a doubling of food prices in some regions – typically in areas where
the population can least afford it.
“ The crises on the financial markets are diverting
funds away from traditional financial institutions leading to a large pool
of funds available
for investments in other markets. “ Surely Really Magazine misunderstands it ? The financial industry
has had its fingers burnt by bad investments in the housing markets - so
they turn
instead to a more sure-fire way of squeezing dividend out of the world population – by
manipulating global food spot-prices upwards.
It can’t be that cruel-and-simple can it ?
Read the full report here
18 JUN 08
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One short of a baker’s
dozen
Subitizing - is the rapid and accurate enumeration
of small sets ( up to 3–4 items ).
Humans ( and some other animals ) are surprisingly good at it.
 But how’s it done ? Since it was first described, more than 100 years
ago, psychologists have been puzzling over a possible mental mechanism.
Is it that we have an inbuilt number-estimating capability which simply
works better for small numbers – or is there a special subitizing algorithm
?
New research, published in the June edition of ‘ Psychological
Science ‘ confirmed
that experimental subjects did indeed have more difficulty
in correctly estimating the numbers of objects in larger groups ( of 10 to
40 items ) than they did for small groups ( of 1 to 4 items ).
Sadly though, despite the international research team's best endeavors,
the study didn’t
manage to uncover how subitizing actually works.
“ One hundred years after the discovery of subitizing,
its mechanisms remain as mysterious as ever . . . “
Read the full paper
here
17 JUN 08
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Post organizational anti-spectacle
The ‘ Blur
Building ‘ is - or rather was - “ an
anti-spectacle “ designed by New York based architectural practice Diller
and Scofidio for the Expo 2002 at Lake Neuchatel in
Switzerland.
Here's how the architects described it : “ Contrary to immersive environments that strive for high-definition
visual fidelity with ever-greater technical virtuosity, Blur is decidedly
low-definition: there is nothing to see but our dependence on vision itself. “
There was ‘ nothing to see ‘ because the building was surrounded
inside and out by a semi-permanent fog of water droplets, pumped up from
the lake though thousands of high-pressure atomiser nozzles.
Now, the project has resurfaced – in an article from the latest
issue of the journal Organization. ( ‘ the space for neodisciplinary
work’ )
This new appraisal, from the Manchester Business School, looks
at the Blur
Building phenomenon from the perspective Organization Analysis.
“ In Blur the human body is displaced from its customary
mode of being-in-the-world and is given chance to discover ` media ' in organization
as transport and
possible metamorphosis in thinking and being organization “
Thus :
“ Blur invites a kind of de-subjectivization that intensifies sensation
and affect splitting the subject across different modalities of consciousness
and perception that provides essential experience for thinking organization
critically. “
Or, to clarify :
“ In the absence of this incorporeal `en-trance' the paper argues
we will remain victim of the tautologies and infinite regress that afflict
current thinking in aesthetics and organization and which restrict its practice
to an inherently conservative form of organization analysis. “
You can read the article here for US$15.00
12 JUN 08
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