Just had to mention one funny occurence before I take my leave; this happened weeks ago, and I can’t believe I forgot to mention it to you all.

I’m waiting in a dense crowd of about 50, and the crowd is placidly waiting before the bus comes.

A rumbling THUMPTHUMPTHUMP reaches the mass from the distant rows of Guam South P.  The commuters are confused–This isn’t the regular signal that turns them from zombies to ruthless. 

“…What?”

“Do you hear that?”

Everyone can.  Some are looking around for the source of the wierd THUMPTHUMPTHUMP, but I’ve already spotted the culprit:

Some guy trolling for a spot is meandering ever-so-slowly through the rows, the THUMPTHUMPTHUMP of his bass reverberating off the Subarus and Hundais.

Finally, he drives past the crowd and bad 80’s hip-hop filters out the darkened windows.  But not even the most illegal tint could have obscured his smug grin and sunglasses. 

THUMP.
THUMP.                                                                                                                       THUMP.

From the sound quality, I’d said it was either a botched job from a home stereo kit or from Circuit City.

A girl in front of me turns up the volume on her iPod and mutters,

“What an idiot.”

am zis, mi-am promis solemn chiar, sa nu mai intru in polemici politice. sa zambesc absent si ingaduitor si sa ma gandesc la altceva. dar acu’ gata. nu ma mai rabda inima. pai bine mai fratilor, nu am nicio pretentie de la cetatenii+50 de ani care reactioneaza pavlovian la auzul unor termeni precum moguli sau comunism dar voi, mandru tineret al tarii, dati asa cu dreptu’n stangu’ fara sa discerneti cateva secunde intentiile din spatele discursului? dati dracu’ orice filtru analitic pentru a rezona cu niste elucubratiuni patetice fara esenta…

daca tot sunteti impotriva discursului de stanga, a simbolurilor comuniste, a formatiunilor dictatoriale sau totalitare, atunci ar trebui sa fiti pro discursliber,  economie de piata,  diversitate, individualitate, initiativa. si ar trebui sa va mai cunoasteti istoria.

si acum ma voi opri si voi zambi iar absent si ingaduitor.

Pavlov, Freud And Community Organizing

by

R.E. Prindle

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/24/racial-terror-in-denver-that-wont-make-national-news/

     I’m sure everyone will have heard of Pavlov and his famous dogs.  Pavlov introduced the concept of Conditioning to the psychological lexicon.  The concept sort of flies under the radar in Freud’s version of psychoanalysis but the Old Master Fudger was quite taken by it.

     The question for Freud was how do you condition a whole people to respond to stimuli as you want them to do using a less noticeable  method than a dinner bell.

     Let’s look at the this recent Denver Danger with fresh eyes.  What sort of conditioning of  White people is going on here and for what result?

     It is clear the Jews and Africans intend the destruction of the White species.  If you haven’t looked into Noel Ignatiev or Kamau Kambon as yet may I suggest you do so and take what they’re saying seriously.   They are not standup comics.

     The problem is how do you get the majority White population to allow a much smaller Negro and Jewish minority to march them into extermination camps without resistance?  Well, you condition them to not respond to provocation but to placidly accept it until they are conditioned to taking it.

     In Denver, for instance, and this is going on all over the country, a group of paramilitary Africans systematically crippled numerous White people on the streets of Denver.   Now, these were not spontaneous attacks.  The FBI was called in which means that ‘community organizers’ and agitators crossed state lines for violent purposes.  I smell Chicago here and Chicago leads to the Great Black Hope in Washington DC.  The techniques used were those of professional sluggers resulting in broken jaws and fractured eye sockets.  Takes a little skill to do that.  These were not casual assaults they were organized.  Perhaps people were being trained to  organize other ‘communities’ in other cities.

     The Denver Police Chief thought it best, or said it was to prevent White vigilante patrols or defensive action, to keep the White public uninformed of this paramilitary activity.

     Now, we are told that thirty some members of this ‘gang’ or organized community were rounded up in a sweep.  That must mean that the members of this organization have been known for some time.  We are led to believe that these organizers will be put on prison relief for twenty years.  Will they?  What will happen when the furor, as small as it is, dies down?

     Thus the White public is conditioned to accept this terrorization passively without resistance or retaliation.  More incidents will be occurring  with greater frequency.  In each instance Whites will be prevented from responding in kind to this race war.   In other words they are being conditioned to non-resistance.  Now, people will say that Jews are White so how can they be referred to as not White.  Let me refer you  to a notorious figure known as A.J. Weberman.  In his online biography he proudly proclaims that he is not White, he is a Jew.  There’s your rationale.

     Soon neighborhoods will be invaded while Whites stand passively by as homes are looted and they and their neighbors beaten.   Then when White ‘troublemakers’ who write critical blogs are rounded up and sent to extermination camps for their own holocaust, Whites will have been conditioned to accept this crime without demur.

      Now, anyone who believes Africans don’t harbor a desire for revenge for slavery; or don’t think Jews feel shame for their passive acceptance of extermination had better reexamine their beliefs.

     The future is plain before you.  Will you accept your Pavlovian and Freudian conditioning and acquiesce in your own destruction?  I fear it.

My lil’ list of stuff that I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving.

• Those pink donut boxes.  Every time I see one, I salivate like a Pavlov hound.
• San Francisco streetcars, they’re…that…adorable.
• Garlic, it really has many uses, don’t you think?
• Condoleeza Rice, no wait — Hilary Clinton.
• Vaginal metaphors.  Everywhere you wanna be.
• BART.  Why so expensive dude?
• Shoes, clothes, accessories:  mainline please.
• Never thought I’d say it:  Berkeley Bowl.
• Concept 2 rowing machine:  waaay better’n sex.
• Cultural appropriation:  Exhibit A good, cheap Asian food.
• Trains in the night, nails in the bedroom.
• Pandora:  the pre-ad version
• Breastfeeding.  Thanks for the formula.  Thanks for gypping me out of a key experience. I’ll have a glass of milk now.
• Blogging:  the most fun you can have legally.

The Content herein is Copyright to the Author, All Rights Reserved.

            Burrhus Frederic Skinner propôs o Behaviorismo- filosofia que fundamenta a análise comportamental. Os seus textos tiveram grande repercussão na América e foi uma das áreas da psicologia que mais se desenvolveu. Embora motivo para muitas críticas, tem ampla aplicação na compreensão do autismo (é considerado pelo meio acadêmico o melhor método para o tratamento do autismo), em animais, para a produção de games, entre outras.

            Skinner teve como influência vários intelectuais como Darwin, Watson e Pavlov. Com o primeiro, Skinner compreendeu que com estudos de comportamentos animais e pelo entendimento da evolução das espécies podemos compreender o comportamento humano. Watson foi o precursor da analise comportamental humana em comparação análoga com animais. Para ele não havia distinção entre os dois, tanto nos homens quanto nos animais toda aprendizagem dependia do meio externo; não existia consciência, logo toda atividade humana é puramente condicionada, dependente do ambiente e não levava em consideração as características genéticas. Todavia os experimentos com animais em laboratório foram dirigidos pelos trabalhos desenvolvidos por Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov realizou um trabalho sobre condicionamento condicionado. Sua pesquisa mostrou que funções reflexas como a salivação frente a alimentos poderiam ser condicionadas de forma que a salivação pudesse ser eliciada por outro estimulo diferente do alimento, tal como sinal luminosos ou um som; muitas vezes o animal em análise eliciava pelo barulho dos portes de alimento.

            As críticas a psicologia comportamental se sustentam no fato de experiências com animais fetos em laboratório serem generalizadas para os comportamentos humanos mais complexos. Outro ponto é que as variáveis que o comportamento humano ocorre não são tão precisa com as experiências feitas em laboratório.

            Watson embora fora uma base para a formulação do behaviorismo foi muito criticado. Skinner critica-o pela sua tendência a generalizar com base em dados gerais. Também os pensamentos de Watson surgiram prematuramente, não havia registros científicos que fundamentava suas idéias naquela época.

            Os principais conceitos que Skinner trás é distintamente daqueles apresentados por outras teorias. Os conceitos observados pelos não behavioristas são denominados ficções explanatórias. Skinner descreve-os como conceitos usados pelas pessoas quando não conhece o comportamento envolvido ou desconhecem os reforços que precedem ou sucedem determinado comportamento (FADIMAM e FRAGER, 2002). Alguns exemplos de ficções explanatórias são liberdade, dignidade, criatividade e homem autônomo.

            O comportamento é entendido como comportamento respondente e operante. O comportamento respondente ou reflexo é aquele que o organismo responde automaticamente a um estimulo – controlado pelo antecedente. O comportamento operante é fortalecido ou enfraquecido pelos eventos que seguem a resposta, é um processo de manter pelas conseqüências um determinado comportamento particular.  O reforçamento é qualquer estimulo que aumente a probabilidade de uma resposta. O reforço pode ser positivo ou negativo. O primeiro incentiva a ocorrência de determinado comportamento, o negativo, de forma contrária, reduz ou elimina uma resposta. Um comportamento se diz condicionado quando se conhece as relações entre os reforços positivos ou negativos.

             A recompensa é a melhor forma de controlar um comportamento e de aprendizagem. A punição, embora muito utilizada pela sociedade como forma de coerção de crianças e criminosos, não é a mais eficaz. O controle aversivo —punição- não desaparece com os comportamentos indesejados, pelo contrário, voltam ligados a novos comportamentos como modos de evitar novas punições. A punição também reforça exclusivamente a pessoas que está  punindo.  O pai reclama do filho até que cumpra uma tarefa; ao cumpri-la, o filho escapa às reclamações (reforçando o comportamento do pai). Skinner conclui que a punição não satisfaz aas exigências de longo alcance da pessoa que está punindo, nem beneficia a pessoa que recebe punição (FADIMAM e FRAGER, 2002).

Referências:

Princípios básicos da análise do comportamento – Moreira.

Teoria da personalidade – Fadimam e Frager.

Enté, Felipe Mendes. =)

I’ve been working on a post for a week in between being down and out with a horrible chest cold/migraine combination. I found myself in bed between 5pm and 6pm every night last week and I am still working through a lingering cough that hurts my chest each time I feel that tickle in the back of my throat. Like Pavlov’s response, my chest muscle spasms at the mere thought of needing to cough. It hasn’t been too pleasant and I am trying to suppress those darn coughs, but to no avail. It has worn me out and since I am not finished with that post, I thought I’d at least pop in for a quickie update.

As I worked on last week’s post–well, more like a rant–and worked through my illness which came on suddenly during our trip out west to visit out daughter–I was able to manage in two doctor visits as well. The first was with my plastic surgeon for my 4th fill and that was on Tuesday. I am about halfway through the fill process and last week marked 400cc so far. This experience is very bizarre and I am just slightly larger ( I think) than my real Bo, now. I see him each week and actually, today will be my 5th fill visit and bringing the total to 450cc. I can’t wait to start posting those pictures, you all will be truly amazed at how far my body has chosen to cooperate!

On Wednesday, I had a folow-up with my general surgeon–the one who cut my boob off. I see him every 3 months and he was really impressed with how things are going and that I had chosen to go through with the additional surgeries. He said he has been following my reports from my onco-man and my plastic surgeon and everything is looking good. No news was really given about that mass found in my left ovary and I figure, if it was something to be worried about, someone would have called me by now. He taught me what to look for and feel for now that I will have an implant soon and for the first time since I’ve been going to him, he was pretty gentle in his groping. He usually digs in so deep that I am bruised for a week after, but I begged the nurse to talk to him before he came in and tell him I had just had surgery 5 weeks prior. I was really surprised he was accommodating to that request. He also ended our visit by telling me I would only need one more groping with him in 3 more months which will bring the date just past the one year anniversary mark since we met for the first time. When I think that he got further with me (second base) on our first date then my husband ever did, it makes me sad. The men that have felt me up this year–both experienced and unexperienced–has really frustrated me and at times pissed me off. The hardest thing was having to watch my hubby watch these strange men feel me up. We all knew it was in the name of medicine of course, but I really don’t blame Jeff for no longer coming along to the visits. It’s just got to be uncomfortable and weird.

When we were up to see our daughter, we were given news during our family session that she is doing really well. We worked on a home living contract for when she is released and we learned that she has earned a pass home for the holidays! We are thrilled and busy getting the house ready and plans to do some fun things. It means a shortened work week for me as I will need to take Wednesday off and drive myself up to get her and bring her home. She’ll be here for four days and then I will return on Sunday and take her back. If all goes well while she’s here and if she maintains her levels when she gets back, she could be released by Christmas. That would be fantastic! The keys to everything, her success, her future, everything are in her hands. I pray she is strong enough to start taking back the reigns to her life. I pray.

Jeff & Justin have been putting up the Christmas lights, and doing a lot of yard work. I have been working slowly through my cold and this weekend I trained to present a class at the Arsenal this weekend. I will take the class over and begin presenting on occasion. I love that! I am also working on 2008 taxes and starting in on 2009’s. I hate that! Jordan babysat this weekend and worked on homework and confirmation studies. We all are gearing up for a big Thanksgiving with Jeff’s family like we do every year. Saturday night we were given tickets to see the Holiday Pops concert given by our local symphony and it included a Cirque de Soleil type of experience. The performers were called Cirque de la Symphonie (hit the play button when you get to the preview video) and it really was an enjoyable and free family experience! On the way home from the show, I developed cramps in my abdomen. They were reminiscent of menstrual cramps, but that couldn’t be–could it? I haven’t had one since January 2009 and my onco-man has given me two hormone tests to see where I stood with regard to menopause.

The first time the test came back, I was borderline menopausal and he chalked it up to that. The last time I saw him, we took another blood sample and that eventually came back saying I was pre-menopausal–not borderline. What changed? Now the cramps on Saturday night? I wondered if it could be something else, but Sunday morning came and Aunt Flo came back just in time for the holidays. I wish I could say I was happy about that. Quite frankly, I don’t know what to think. Honestly, I’m worried all over. I was just beginning to let my guard down. Maybe that’s why its here again. I have always felt that ever since that initial diagnosis, the extreme freakout I have been living in as a result of that diagnosis ever since, my daughter’s health and well-being, my husband’s job situation, our mounting financial obligations to a myriad of medical facilities, the monumental stress had instantaneously shut down that monthly cycle.

It is true that extreme stress, certain health conditions, and certain medicines can stop Aunt Flo from showing up, but now–after 9 months of not having one–she’s back. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Does it mean that it has just taken me 9 months to finally calm down–really? I don’t have the stress load from school, my mastectomy is behind me, the chemotherapy has been called off, my tests are beginning to look ok, my daughter is somewhere I can locate her and she is doing well. My head is getting back in the game of life and looking forward to new beginnings with next year, my outward self-image is looking up, and my accreditation is behind me along with several other re-certification processes. Could my body just be signaling me that I have successfully chilled out enough to resume its normal functioning?

But…what if…this is a sign that something isn’t right? The Tamoxifen is supposed to shut down production of my estrogen which was feeding my cancer. Could it be that the meds aren’t working? Am I still producing estrogen in spite of the meds? If I’m still producing estrogen, then I’m still ovulating, then I’m still having periods. What does that mean in terms of my prognosis? Should I get my period back? Should the meds prevent that from happening? I am confused and worried. I have two calls in to my onco-man. I’m waiting for someone to call me back. Has this happened to anyone out there? Can anyone tell me what’s going on? Is this normal? Should I be concerned? Maybe my body has finally expelled the last of the chemo drugs. I don’t know. I wish the phone would ring…

Het rondje van Pavlov is de virtuele werkplek van een vijftal Leidse studenten Journalistiek en Nieuwe Media. Een creatieve speeltuin als het ware, waar we ongeconditioneerd commentaar leveren op actuele berichtgeving, kleine verwonderingen of des te grotere irritaties.

Ever notice how commuters waiting at the stop react when they hear the bus rumbling in the distance?

Ever notice how when the bus finally turns the corner, their state shifts from docile and zombie-like to fully alert and just a bit pushy?

Like Pavlov’s dog, as soon as commuters hear that bio diesel engine purr, they enter the “fight” state–You think that glazed-over look is just a hangover?  That those earbuds jammed right against their ossicles are just a hindrance to their hearing?

Think again–Commuters with bus on the brain are salivating for grab bars (covered in H1N1, no doubt) and WBLI played just a bit too loudly.  And they’d throw you under the bus to get a seat.

Does waiting for the bus bring out your inner canine?  You can’t compete with Mishka here–probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

When I hear the sound of the gavel, I salivate like a Pavlovian dog. For even if justice isn’t served, the truth will be revealed. The onion will peel. There are layers. We are passengers on a rising aircraft, and the landscape will slowly come into focus until we can view all the puzzle’s pieces at once, fitting together to form a picture we did not, at a lower altitude, have the perspective to see.

On Law & Order, the cops and lawyers are beautiful. Since I am on their side, I, too, become beautiful while I’m watching. The pedophiles drive white vans and lure children with balloons and the promise of a party, they abduct and even kill the children, but not every one: there is always at least one we are able to save. The pedophile is never beautiful, his teeth are bad. His abdomen is a testament to shoddy discipline and a sweet tooth.

But sometimes the bad guys aren’t pure evil, and the good guys aren’t pure good. When this happens, the officers begin to contemplate. Life and meaning are called into question. Between commercial breaks, we get some sense of how fast the world is spinning, of the chaos inherent in a dead innocent, in the senselessly abrupt ends lives can find. We see the triumphs of justice but also its limits. The struggles that can never be prevented or stopped. It is so sad to strive, knowing the odds. But what is the alternative? A loss of hope, a slide into a darker lack of feeling, an apathy that could distance us from the things worth the fight. My own mortality is too painful to dwell on. But I can watch these deaths and agree, nothing more could’ve been done.

-Alissa Nutting

Dustin Curtis é um daqueles caras que eu me arrependo por ter conhecido tão tarde. Quer dizer, não conheço o cara, quem dera, sei apenas que ele é um “user interfaces and experiences“, tem um site sensacional – com uma interface foda, é claro – e textos deliciosos. Como esse aqui, sobre comportamento:

I have always been fascinated by pavlovian conditioning because it shows how little control animals really have over their own behavior. The most famous example of this is the experiment Ivan Pavlov performed on his dogs in the 1890’s. Dogs normally salivate at the smell and sight of meat, but Pavlov noticed his dogs began to salivate when they noticed the lab technician who fed them would enter the room. These “psychic salivations” didn’t make sense to him.

Eventually, he performed a beautifully simple experiment to describe the behavior. He started to ring a bell every time his dogs were fed. After a few days, the dogs began salivating at the sound of his bell alone. He showed that a physical connection can be created between a stimulus (the bell sound) and the following behavior (the dog’s salivation) with no cognitive interaction.

Almost a hundred years later, the neurologist V.S. Ramachandran performed an experiment on mice that took Pavlov’s research further. He took a mouse and placed two shapes in front of it: a perfect square and a rectangle. The mouse would randomly choose one of the shapes to move toward. When it moved toward the rectangle, it was rewarded. After a while, obviously, the mouse began to prefer the rectangle. It associated the positive reward with the rectangle and then began to prefer it over the square. These results are all very simple.

But when the mouse was presented with a third option, a more elongated and more rectangular rectangle, it preferred this shape over the normal rectangle. At first this behavior might seem illogical. Why would the mouse prefer another shape when it knows there will be a reward if it goes toward the normal rectangle? The answer is that the mouse did not associate that particular rectangle with the reward. It associated the “rectangularity” with the reward. When the mouse was presented with an exaggerated, more rectangular rectangle, its reaction was likewise exaggerated.

This behavior is called peak shift, and it has vast implications for the understanding of how the human brain works.

Foda, né?

Tem outro texto que merecia um post separado, mas a preguiça me impede. Chama-se How Mr.Q Manufactured Emotion, com uma história maravilhosa contada ao Dustin por um simpático engenheiro de som dos parques da Disney.

———

Holy Ghost! play electronic disco with warm fussy analogue synths. It’s in the vein of their label DFA, which hosts LCD Soundsystem and Hercules and Love Affair, so that could give you a clue.

I can listen to these two tracks in infinity. No matter how dull I feel before going out on the weekend, they will force me to smile and anticipate good times (and then good times will come – I love self fulfilling prophecies!). I guess it’s the Pavlovian reflex – dog learning – that works its magic again.

Holy Ghost! – Hold On

Holy Ghost! – I Will Come Back (Classixx Acapulco Nights Version)

Ever wondered how these things come about? VBS.tv. made an interesting video from the studio of Holy Ghost! Here you can see that their music is all channelled through analogue synths and gadgets, with wires and bleeping lights everywhere. Interesting thoughts on making music too.

Much of this post is aggregated from the writings of Melbourne based Waves at Night, that find amazing stuff in general, usually with disco influences. They have a comforting metabolism for a music blog, and write posts that compliment the sounds very well (ie. recommended blog!). They just ripped a new track of Holy Ghost! through the radio (no title, but you can guess from the hook maybe?). I’m not as fancy about this track as their other stuff, but this gave me an excuse to mention Waves at Night (again, go there!)

Holy Ghost! – Untitled (radio rip)

–––

Holy Ghost! @ myspace

Rumours say: they will release a new album next year

Hace algunos días envié un correo con el objetivo de conseguir una pareja para cruzar a Teo, el perro de mi amiga Jacqueline, como resultado de esa solicitud mi apreciadísimo amigo Diter me contestó esto que comparto con ustedes con su permiso:

 ”Llevo mucho tiempo sin responder correos mi Lourdes, pero este no puedo dejarlo pasar así nomás… conoces mi causa.

 Los animales no pueden planificar su familia, nos toca a los dueños hacerlo por ellos.

No tenemos ningún control sobre su descendencia, ni de la descendencia de la descendencia. Aparentemente cumplimos con encontrarles una casa, pero nunca sabemos a dónde van a parar.

Para la mayoría de la gente, los animales son bonitos mientras son cachorros, pero cuando crecen dejan de serlo. Sería bueno que se dieran una vuelta por las perreras un día de sacrificio para que se den una idea de la cantidad de animalillos y la manera en que los electrocutan por una irresponsabilidad o un descuido de los dueños. 

Por favor, ya no promuevan la sobrepoblación canina. Mejor opten por la esterilización, es más seguro y tiene muchos beneficios así para el animal como para el dueño.

 Te mando un abrazote y de verdad te agradecería mucho puedas hacer llegar este correo a los dueños de Teo.

 El Diter

 Mas info…

http://www.vidadeperros.com.mx/2008/11/18/esterilizacion-perros-machos/

http://www.tuperro.com.mx/01_06_03_repro_esterilizar.html

http://www.adoptaunamigo.org/esteriliza.html”

Promesas cumplidas

Prometí a Diter difundir su petición y lo hago, pero además quiero compartir con ustedes otra información que investigué, para los amantes de los perros es ilustrativa y espero que sea interesante.

Elecciones determinantes

No sé qué es más importante, elegir un buen perro, una pareja o un amigo, a veces los seres humanos nos decepcionamos tanto unos a otros que, tal vez, deberíamos analizar nuestras características antes de relacionarnos de cualquier manera (ya me imagino a los puristas haciéndome cara de fuchi con este comentario). Lo digo convencida porque hacemos con nuestras mascotas lo mismo que cuando buscamos hombres y/o mujeres, nos vamos por el físico, queremos perros bonitos, gatos bonitos, pájaros, tortugas, hamsters, todos bonitos, pero a los menos favorecidos, a los desprotegidos a los que necesitan que los quieran, a esos, que se los lleve… la perrera por feos. Ésa es la filosofía que rige nuestras elecciones, como si la belleza externa garantizara la fidelidad, el amor, la felicidad.

El apoyo teórico

Lo mismo sucede con los animales, en este caso me referiré a los perros, les pido que tengan en cuenta las siguientes consideraciones antes de comprar, adoptar, recibir uno:

Pavlov, haciendo uso del paradigma de los reflejos condicionados, fue uno de los primeros investigadores que estudió las diferencias individuales en los perros. A su vez, introdujo las mediciones objetivas y psicofisiológicas en los estudios experimentales del temperamento. Halló evidencias de diferencias individuales en la velocidad del condicionamiento, así como en la estabilidad de los reflejos condicionados y postuló que estas diferencias estaban directamente relacionadas con el temperamento. Describió diversas propiedades o rasgos del sistema nervioso central, como la fuerza de la excitación, la fuerza de la inhibición, el balance y la movilidad de los procesos nerviosos (Strelau, 1997). A partir de estas medidas, dividió a los perros en distintos grupos: dos extremos, uno excitado y otro inhibido y un grupo intermedio, que a su vez se dividía en un tipo tranquilo y otro vivaz, determinando así cuatro formas del temperamento (Pavlov, 1954). (Jakovcevic, 2009)

Más allá de una petición

El correo de Diter me hizo reflexionar sobre la responsabilidad que tenemos y la importancia de adquirir una mascota que estemos dispuestos a cuidar “hasta que la muerte nos separe” (idealmente la muerte de ellos, después de una feliz relación).

De acuerdo con Adriana Jakovcevic y Mariana Bentosela (2009), el uso más difundido de los perros en nuestra sociedad es el de mascotas o animales de compañía. En este sentido, existe abundante evidencia de que la interacción entre perros y humanos disminuye la ansiedad y la activación del sistema nervioso simpático y aumenta las sensaciones placenteras, producto del incremento de los niveles de beta endorfina, oxitocina, ácido fenilacético y dopamina (Odendaal, 2000; Wilson, 1991). La selección de los perros en función de su temperamento también puede predecir posibles problemas de conducta y fomentar una relación armoniosa entre dueños y mascotas. Es en función de estos objetivos que la evaluación de la sociabilidad, la disposición al entrenamiento y la agresión interespecífica revisten un valor fundamental.

¿De verdad conoces a los perros?

Estas mujeres son verdaderas especialistas en el comportamiento de los caninos, sin duda quien esté interesado puede leer más sobre su estudio.  Me parece que TODOS los que quieren, planean tener o tienen un perro deberían informarse a fondo sobre las implicaciones de una decisión como ésa.

Un perro, queridos lectores es vida. Hay quien cree que los animales no tienen derechos, pues peor para nosotros si ése es el caso, porque entonces nosotros tenemos más obligaciones.

Por favor papás, tíos, amigos, no regalen estos seres, si no hay compromiso para su cuidado, esos indefensos cachorritos están a nuestra merced, se han hecho a nosotros, no son juguetes.

Más datos duros

En otra investigación Mariana Bentosela y Alba E. Mustaca (2007) exponen que los perros domésticos han desarrollado habilidades cognitivas que les han dado la capacidad para responder a las señales de los humanos.

Estos trabajos son muy interesantes y aunque no tengamos mascotas nos ofrecen un panorama sobre el desarrollo de la comunicación entre hombres y animales. Seguramente habrá muchos detractores que aseguren que estas relaciones no son comunicación ni lenguaje, yo (como Bora) respeto, pero me apego a la investigación:

Los perros son altamente habilidosos para atender al humano, percibir las señales que este emite, utilizar esta información para resolver diferentes problemas y ajustar su comportamiento en función de los humanos. En síntesis, los perros domésticos poseen capacidades comunicativas interespecíficas mayores a las que presentan otras especies.

¿Compañía sustitutiva?

Para los perros la vida en grupos es equivalente a la vida en convivencia con los hombres y por lo tanto, la comunicación exitosa será aquella que permita la coordinación y la complementariedad de acciones entre ambas especies. Estas capacidades comunicacionales de los perros parecen haberse desarrollado durante el proceso de domesticación, en el cual fueron seleccionados, por un lado, por su capacidad de comprender las señales humanas y por el otro, por su amigabilidad y baja agresividad hacia los hombres.

 Queda así abierta la cuestión de cuales son las ventajas que los humanos obtienen en esta comunicación interespecífica. Desde épocas remotas los perros sirvieron a los humanos para diferentes tareas, colaborando en la caza de animales, el pastoreo, el rescate de objetos o personas, la protección y cuidado, y más recientemente, la ayuda a discapacitados así como a la asistencia a enfermos. Por ejemplo, la terapia asistida con animales consiste en una serie de encuentros en los cuales un animal visita gente para proveerlos de apoyo motivacional, educacional, recreativo o terapéutico, mejorando la calidad de vida de esas personas y mejorando el proceso de adaptación a la enfermedad y al tratamiento (Barak, Savorai, Mavashev & Beni, 2001; Richeson, 2003). En el mismo sentido, los perros de servicio que actúan como perros guía para ciegos y sordos contribuyendo al bienestar humano ya que incrementan la sensación de seguridad y autonomía de los dueños (Naderi, Miklósi & Csányi, 2001).

Te quiero porque te necesito

Por otro lado, en la actualidad, con el estilo de vida moderno, los perros cumplen la función de mascotas o animales de compañía. Parecería que la presencia del perro, el contacto físico con el mismo, los juegos y su obediencia, son reforzadores sumamente poderosos para las personas que desarrollan un gran conjunto de acciones de acercamiento y cuidado a sus mascotas.

Voy a hacer una acotación, aun cuando defiendo la vida y los derechos de los animales, estoy en contra de rebasar el límite, no debemos olvidar el lugar de una mascota, no podemos caer en el lado opuesto y maltratar a los humanos y adorar a los animales, equilibrio ante todo, MEJOR TRATEMOS BIEN A TODOS, empezando por nosotros.

Para Wilson (1991) las mascotas disminuyen la ansiedad y la activación del sistema nervioso simpático ya que producen una focalización de la atención hacia un estímulo externo placentero. El contacto con el animal disminuye las sensaciones de soledad y depresión al proveer compañía, produciendo un estilo de vida más variado y un incremento de las conductas de interés y cuidado hacia la mascota. Estudios neurofisiológicos dan apoyo empírico a esta idea mostrando que el contacto positivo entre el dueño y el perro tiene propiedades ansiolíticas para ambos. Por ejemplo, la presión sanguínea del perro y el dueño disminuye después de una interacción positiva y se ha observado en humanos una reducción significativa de los niveles de cortisol. Ambas medidas reflejarían una disminución de la ansiedad. Más aún, en los perros y en los humanos los niveles de b endorfina, oxitocina, ácido fenilacético y dopamina se incrementan asociados a las sensaciones placenteras y el apego producto del contacto (Odendaal, 2000). El efecto de los perros parece abarcar así diversos aspectos de la calidad de vida de las personas (Granados & Gutierrez, en preparación).

La comunicación interespecífica sería entonces “un negocio conveniente”: ambas partes. (Bentosela, 2007)

Moraleja: Si no eres responsable de ti, de quienes te rodean; si no puedes amar a los seres humanos, aprende y luego ten una mascota.

Recuerda: Nadie puede dar lo que no tiene ni pedir lo que no da.

Les incluyo unos poemas escritos para estas mascotas.

Un perro ha muerto

Pablo Neruda

Mi perro ha muerto.

Lo enterré en el jardín

junto a una vieja máquina oxidada.

Allí, no más abajo,

ni más arriba,

se juntará conmigo alguna vez.

Ahora él ya se fue con su pelaje,

su mala educación, su nariz fría.

Y yo, materialista que no cree

en el celeste cielo prometido

para ningún humano,

para este perro o para todo perro

creo en el cielo, sí, creo en un cielo

donde yo no entraré, pero él me espera

ondulando su cola de abanico

para que yo al llegar tenga amistades.

Ay no diré la tristeza en la tierra

de no tenerlo más por compañero

que para mí jamás fue un servidor.

Tuvo hacia mí la amistad de un erizo

que conservaba su soberanía,

la amistad de una estrella independiente

sin más intimidad que la precisa,

sin exageraciones:

no se trepaba sobre mi vestuario

llenándome de pelos o de sarna,

no se frotaba contra mi rodilla

como otros perros obsesos sexuales.

No, mi perro me miraba dándome la atención necesaria

la atención necesaria

para hacer comprender a un vanidoso

que siendo perro él,

con esos ojos, más puros que los míos,

perdía el tiempo, pero me miraba

con la mirada que me reservó

toda su dulce, su peluda vida,

su silenciosa vida,

cerca de mí, sin molestarme nunca,

y sin pedirme nada.

Ay cuántas veces quise tener cola

andando junto a él por las orillas del mar,

en el Invierno de Isla Negra,

en la gran soledad: arriba el aire

traspasando de pájaros glaciales

y mi perro brincando, hirsuto,

lleno de voltaje marino en movimiento:

mi perro vagabundo y olfatorio

enarbolando su cola dorada

frente a frente al Océano y su espuma.

alegre, alegre, alegre

como los perros saben ser felices,

sin nada más,

con el absolutismo de la naturaleza descarada.

No hay adiós a mi perro que se ha muerto.

Y no hay ni hubo mentira entre nosotros.

Ya se fue y lo enterré, y eso era todo.

Aging Amelia

Doris Abramson 

Old dog, she still can feel her way

to the water bowl, still can rumminantly

chew with just a few remaining teeth, two

or three. She wobbles sometimes and then

astonishes observers by skipping, by dancing,

keeping up with other dogs half her age. She¢s

a wonder, we say, and wonder what will lay her

low. I´ll vote for skipping, for dancing.

My Dog Teaches Me To Be Human

Leslie Heywood

You can tell what dogs know by the way their tails fall,

The way their ears clamp down smooth along their heads,

The way they almost seem to slip into themselves,

Retracting their fur, when the shouting or crying begins.

Everything about them is fallen:

Their shoulders, eyes darting to the side

Like fireflies that disappear July nights,

The bones of their hips, like a human’s

Tones could kill them, put them forever to sleep. 

I never noticed when Beckett slunk away

At my first angry note, the way he’d hide tight against the wall

In the back closet.  My rage was all there was

Like a discharged heart, a record stuck on feedback

That screamed and screamed again.  For years he’d disappear

For hours, minutes, even days, and when he died

I was in Lancaster, England, 3,500 miles away from him

Bent down in a cold, old flat, my head hunched in,

Slipping into myself as another’s rage unleashed on me,

A punishment for Beckett, maybe, the student’s voice

That I hired to watch him folded over the phone and clotted

With tears, telling me Beckett couldn’t stop crying,

15, lost hips, and too much pain

And I was not there to hold him

When the vet slid the needle in.

I ran out some long English road

To where a bridge and oak forest

Arched over a lake, and it was then

I prayed, not for his fine black fur,

The way age made him deaf, and blind,

And trap himself in corners, bumping

His nose on the wall and then standing

Until I’d come to lead him out, not for the years

He’d moved with me from Tucson to Laguna Beach

To Irvine, California and then New York State, not for

Every morning he’d run miles with me before sunrise,

Stopping to mark very flower, each tree, not for this.

I prayed for every syllable that made him cringe,

Each hour in closets, each minute he didn’t exist,

And when Isak, who followed him, would sit

By my thigh and cry and cry each time I raised my voice,

I stopped yelling.  I touched her fur;

I could see her, she knew everything,

I stopped.

Bibliografía

Abramson, D. (2003). AGING AMELIA (Poem). (p. 347). Massachusetts Review, Inc. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Bentosela, M., & Mustaca, A. (2007). COMUNICACIÓN ENTRE PERROS DOMÉSTICOS (CANISFAMIUARISi Y HOMBRES. (Spanish). Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 39(2), 375-387. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Heywood, L. (2004). MY DOG TEACHES ME TO BE HUMAN (Poem). (pp. 40-41). Passaic County Community College. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Jakovcevic, A., & Mariana, B. (2009). DIFERENCIAS INDIVIDUALES EN LOS PERROS DOMÉSTICOS (CANIS FAMILIARIS): REVISIÓN DE LAS EVALUACIONES CONDUCTUALES. (Spanish). Interdisciplinaria: Revista de Psicología y Ciencias Afines, 26(1), 49-76. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Despite what is taught in biology classes all over the world, human beings are not a highly evolved form of animal. The Bible clearly delineates the differences between people and animals. However, there are some behavioral similarities.

Animals can be trained by a process of lure and reward. A dog which does not want to enter the veterinarian’s office might be tempted into the examination room with a dangled morsel of meat. The painful vaccination which follows will no doubt be good for the dog, even if the dog does not particularly enjoy it.

When the dog is later benefitting from a healthy heartworm-free and rabies-free life, he will not necessarily associate the benefits with his trip to the vet. Therefore, he must be enticed anew each time.

The ordinary, every-day, average, garden-variety 21st Century American teen-aged child is much the same. You can win over his or her willingness to come to church with delicious treats. Food and fun, games and gimmicks, seem good to them, but they are not necessarily good for them. And, although they might be willing to sit through a Bible lesson in order to receive these treats, when the treats run out (usually around the time they turn into legal “adults”), it is unlikely they will continue to endure spiritual “treatment” without the fleshly “reward.” In other words, what you win them with, is what you win them to.

Thankfully, the Bible gives us a better way to win converts to the Lord, regardless of their age or personal preferences.

Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

I Corinthians 1:20-21

Believe it or not, it is the preaching of the Cross of Christ that wins converts to Christ, regardless of their age or interests. There is no Biblical authority for separating the means for getting young people to the Cross from the message of the Cross itself.

———

A swedish-assyrian family gave me a hitch from Stockholm to Jönköping this weekend, and we talked so much in the car that my cheeks were aching when I got out after the 300 km ride. Deniz on the front seat really liked funk. I admitted that I had listened intensely to cheesy funk jazz like Tower of Power through my teenage years, but have gotten very tired of polished funk jazz. He had a long lasting fanship of Red Hot Chili Peppers, so I told him about this rather unknown band Action Figure Party, where Flea from RHCP played bass in too, and which coincidently plays a funky variant of jazz fusion. Multi instrumentalist Greg Kurstin gathered the group, and they only released this one album, but it is a gem in it’s genre. A corrupted genre, since everything from television shows and second hand fashion stores have colonized jazz fusion to the point of annoyance (the same ol’ Pavlovian conditioning at work again), but this record resists colonization! Maybe that is actually the lakmus test of any piece of music, that nothing, no matter how horrible, will corrupt it by association?

There’s a japanese godzilla size turtle called Gamera, but I don’t know if they had that in mind when they made this track. Anyway, yummy:

Action Figure Party – Gamera

Besides the cheesy lyrics (for some reason, funk music always contain cheesy lyrics, and I’m not sure what this should tell us??), this is sooo mmmmmmmmm:

Action Figure Party – Clock Radio

I love the screaming guitar riff in this track

Action Figure Party – Pong Baby

Another stellar and more well known act in jazz fusion is virtuoso guitarist John Scofield. He sometimes gets labelled as acid jazz because the great amount of looping psychedelic sounds and strange guitar effects. His characteristic guitar sound is the chorus effect, that gives a dissonance by adding dissonant tones to every note, making Scofield sound like a drunk person. This track is from the eclectic record Überjam, which features a four-armed Sco in lotus position on the front cover.

John Scofield Band – Snap Crackle Pop

Via.

Cred că toată lumea a auzit la un moment dat vorbindu-se despre “manipularea prin reclame” . Unii cred că oamenii sînt nişte aparate care pot fi condiţionate să răspundă la nişte stimuli, ca cîinele lui Pavlov. Realitatea e că oamenii sînt nişte abisuri fără fund şi o reclamă care ar reuşi să manipuleze acest abis astfel încît să-i determine comportamentul de cumpărător, ar fi genială şi ar merita un premiu Nobel. Nu ea, producătorul ei.

Am văzut aseară un exemplu despre cum funcţionează reclamele. Eram la film şi înainte să înceapă filmul erau reclame. După cum ştiu cei care merg la cinema, de multă vreme avem reclame şi pe marele ecran. Eu am zis că o să încetez să merg la cinema în momentul or să fie reclame şi în timpul filmului. Sper să mă ţin de cuvînt. Pe lîngă reclamele propriu zise, mai sînt şi clipuri antidiscriminare sau împotriva violenţei etc, care vor să schimbe atitudini, deci, în esenţă, tot reclame. Aseară era un clip al cărui mesaj era “nu mă judeca fără să mă cunoşti”, cu referire la etnia romă. Tipul de lîngă mine, un grăsuţ pe la vreo 30 şi ceva de ani, mormăie suficient de tare ca să-l aud şi eu:  Tu mă furi 15 ani şi eu să nu te judec? Du-te-n măta! Am încheiat citatul. Pentru mine, ăsta a fost încă un argument că mintea omului e un complex atît de greu de influenţat, încît influenţa  reclamelor, dacă există, e extrem de limitată.

The Misconception: If you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you can do to escape it.

The Truth: If you feel like you aren’t in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept whatever situation you are in.

In 1965, a scientist named Martin Seligman started shocking dogs.

He was trying to expand on the research of Pavlov – the guy who could make dogs salivate when they heard a bell ring.

Seligman wanted to head in the other direction, and when he rang his bell instead of providing food he zapped them with electricity. To keep them still, he restrained them in a harness during the experiment.

After they were conditioned, he put these dogs in a big box with a little fence dividing it into two halves.

They figured if they rang the bell, the dog would hop over the fence to escape, but it didn’t. It just sat there and braced itself.

They decided to try shocking them after the bell. The dog still just sat there and took it.

When they put a dog in the box which had never been shocked before and tried to zap it – it jumped the fence.

You are just like these dogs.

If, over the course of your life, you have experienced crushing defeat or pummeling abuse or loss of control, you learn over time there is no escape, and if escape is offered, you will not act – you become a nihilist who trusts futility above optimism.

Studies of the clinically depressed show that when they fail they often just give in to defeat and stop trying.

The average person will look for external forces to blame when they fail the mid-term. They will say the professor is an asshole, or they didn’t get enough sleep.

Depressed people will blame themselves and assume they are stupid.

Do you vote?

If not, is it because you think it doesn’t matter because things never change, or politicians are evil on both sides, or one vote in several million doesn’t count?

Yeah, that’s learned helplessness.

When battered women, or hostages, or abused children, or long-time prisoners refuse to escape, they do so because they have accepted the futility of the attempt. What does it matter?

If those people do get out of their situation, they often have a hard time committing to anything which may lead to failure.

Any extended period of negative emotions can lead to you giving in to despair and accepting your fate. If you remain alone for a long time, you will decide loneliness is a fact of life and pass up opportunities to hang out with people.

The loss of control in any situation will lead to this state.

A study in 1976 by Langer and Rodin showed in nursing homes where conformity and passivity is encouraged and every whim is attended to, the health and wellbeing of the patients declines rapidly. If, instead, the people in these homes are given responsibilities and choices, they remain healthy and active.

This research was repeated in prisons. Sure enough, just letting prisoners move furniture and control the television kept them from developing health problems and staging revolts.

In homeless shelters where people can’t pick out their own beds or choose what to eat, the residents are less likely to try and get a job or find an apartment.

When you are able to succeed at easy tasks, hard tasks feel possible to accomplish. When you are unable to succeed at small tasks, everything seems harder.

Rats given the opportunity to escape electric shocks are twice half as likely to develop tumors than those who are forced to bear them. Rats already suffering from cancer will die faster if placed into the inescapable shock experiment.

Every day – your job, the government, your addiction, your depression, your money – you feel like you can’t control the forces affecting your fate. So, you stage microrevolts. You customize your ringtone, you paint your room, you collect stamps. You choose.

Choices, even small ones, can hold back the crushing weight of helplessness, but you can’t stop there. You must fight back your behavior and learn to fail with pride. Failing often is the only way to ever get the things you want out of life. Besides death, your destiny is not inescapable.

You are not so smart, but you are smarter than dogs and rats. Don’t give in yet.

Links:

A zillion scientific articles on the phenomenon

Video of a learned helplessness activity in a psychology class

Halloween has passed, which means I have to endure Christmas shopping commercials – you know, the ones that add incessant holiday theme music and sound effects. I like these commercials in the same way I like a pair of crow bars slammed against my ribs.

I cringe at hearing bells jingle on TV and radio during the fall months. Too much, too soon. They make me want to vomit in the same way I would vomit if I were dunked in a sewage treatment plant.

Except for one show (Top Gear on BBC America), I don’t watch TV on my own. Any TV I see is the result of someone else’s watching. If I sit down for 10 minutes to see what’s on the telly, I’m guaranteed to see a holiday shopping advert with bells jingling and Christmas carols playing. At this point my face fills with rage, becoming more sanguine than Santa’s jumpsuit as my teeth grind into a wintry powder. This is usually followed by that unshakable urge to vomit.

Don’t ad agencies know the consumer is tired of the same old shit every year? It boggles my mind. It makes me want to rebel.

“Come in for 25 percent savings now through November 16th.” Jingle jingle.

“Tis the season for savings.” Jingle jingle.

“It’s the perfect holiday gift …” Jingle jangle, and more jingle, with a children’s choir in the background.

Hey, cool it with the jingling. I have a calendar. I have two brain cells to rub together. I KNOW WHAT SEASON IT IS.

All these commercials reminding me I should be spending money on people to show them I love them? That really whores out the holiday spirit, doesn’t it?

This year, I’m boycotting the holiday rush. I’m hand-crafting my gifts.

What matters more than anything is the thought – it’s the thought that counts, and when you take the extra time to make something from scratch, it means all the more to your recipient.

Furthermore, folks who opt to make their Christmas gifts will be happy to make them for their friends/family. People who opt to shopping for their holiday gifts will more than likely be pissed off doing it.

For so long, it has always been the same thing each year: with the arrival of the holidays comes the arrival of jingling on the TV and the radio. By this point we’ve been conditioned to respond to these sounds in a Pavlovian way, and that response is usually, “Oh no! I have to go holiday shopping,” followed by the eyebrows becoming drawn together and downward, followed by profanity emanating from the mouth, followed by a nervous breakdown highlighted by a nude appearance at your neighbor’s doorstep, followed by a few months at the mental hospital.

This year I’m changing my Pavlovian response. The next time I hear a company using corny-ass jingling in their ads, I’m going to make a mental note to boycott that company.

It’s time the sound of jingling makes us happy for the beauty of the holiday season because I’m sick and tired of how the last three months of each year make me feel like a tortured mental patient with feces in the lungs.

I’ve known about the concept of a 60-second elevator pitch for quite some time. But that doesn’t mean that I perfected how to do one!  I can be quite talkative (I blame it on the super-storytellers on the Irish side of my family) so if you ask me a particularly interesting question, you may as well fix yourself a sandwich and find a comfortable chair to sit in…it could be a long listen. But realistically, who wants to bored or hypnotized in this information-overload, attention deficit, what’s-in-it-for-me  kind of world?

Nice ambiance...

So when I received an invitation to a “Speed Networking Cocktail & Developing Your 60 Second Elevator Pitch” soiree, I decided that the time had finally come for me to master this technique. The event was held at the American Chamber of Commerce’s fancy Hausmann style offices and organized by the European chapter of the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Cultural differences…and cucumbers

The evening began with people chatting in small groups and enjoying snacks. When we registered at the door, we were told that you could not say your occupation. This was more challenging for the Americans in the group of about 50 persons. For better or worse, we often start our conversations with “so what do you do?”  Unlike the French, who will talk about anything, from vegetables that they like or don’t like or the latest political scandals – every imaginable topic EXCEPT their job.  I’m not joking about the vegetables, I listened for 15 minutes about the pros and cons of cucumbers at the last French wedding I went to!  But it wasn’t any more boring than someone discoursing about cloud computing or Twitter…

After the snacks disappeared and everyone felt increasingly eager to learn something, Bernadette Martin of Visibility Branding led us through the methodology of pitches. Then it was time to start practicing.

Thirsty and mentally overly stimulated, but successful

We worked as partners to refine our 60-second pitch. Each partner took turns critiquing the clarity of the pitch, as well as the number of ‘ums’ that were said, overall enthusiasm and the call to action at the end.  After both persons exchanged their pitches we feverishly moved on to work with a new partner.  I exchanged pitches with a Polish film maker, a French media consultant, an American art historian, a British accountant, and an unemployed French programmer, to name a few.

By the end of the hour I was really thirsty and slightly delirious from talking so much (even I have my limits), but also quite confident in my 60-second pitching.

So what do you think?

“As a communications strategist, I enable companies to develop and achieve their communication objectives from concept development and writing to implementation (print, web, broadcast, social media). I develop and implement creative solutions that help global companies to communicate strategically and effectively about their products or services across borders.”

If I had a few extra seconds I threw in the names of some clients and then said “and I’m always looking for new clients!” The Polish film maker said I need to remember to breathe and made chest-opening gestures with his arms. Very good advice!

Small, tasty and addictive

Pavlov would have approved…macarons for all!

At the end of the evening we were rewarded for our efforts with a massive plate of macarons.  As I left the building, other people were still chatting and exchanging as they stood on the sidewalk.  Sometimes 60 seconds just isn’t enough!

More info about the 60-Second Pitch at Businessweek online magazine

“At a contest to teach budding entrepreneurs how to sell their business ideas in a minute, competitors learn the value of speed—and magic”

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2007/sb20070604_577187.htm

da www.focus.it

La voce risulta uno dei più potenti strumenti di comunicazione dell’essere umano, sia perché dà senso al contenuto espresso, sia perché definisce la personalità di ognuno.

Tono, volume e timbro costruiscono, quindi, il messaggio, dandogli quella sfumatura fondamentale senza la quale non si distinguerebbe uno scherzo da una minaccia.

Il potere della voce si può ritrovare anche nella cultura popolare: “avere la lingua biforcuta”, “fare la voce grossa” sono solo alcuni esempi che indicano quanta attenzione abbia avuto e continua ad avere la voce.

Lo stesso potere della voce è ormai da anni oggetto di studi e non a caso fioccano corsi che insegnano a gestirla in modo da raggiungere gli obiettivi che si vuole (in tal senso è interessante osservare ed ascoltare i faccia a faccia televisivi dei politici in periodo elettorale). Esemplare può dirsi la capacità di un leader potente come Barack Obama di utilizzare la propria voce.

Lo stesso Pavlov ha mostrato alcuni dei meccanismi che rendono la voce un’arma di condizionamento e non a caso F. de La Rochefoucauld affermava che “Gli uomoni sono simili ai conigli, li puoi acchiappare dalle orecchie”.

Ciò che è importante sottolineare è che si può imparare a gestire la propria voce in modo da sfruttare al massimo questo potente strumento di cui disponiamo, per ottenere una reazione positiva nel nostro interlocutore e renderlo disponibile all’ascolto; questo non può far altro che migliorare la nostra immagine, disponibilità degli altri nei nostri confronti ed aumentare la nostra soddisfazione ed autostima. Per maggiori informazioni contattaci.

———

This is the introductory part of a series of blog post on how to engage with and love music. Don’t think it is necessarily easy and intuitive. One can discuss how to use music. One can learn to engage with music in a better way. Engage, to make it matter. Since these posts will map out my own thoughts on engaging with music in a good way, you can think of their totality as a kind of on-going manifesto for this blog.

There’s a note to be made on the importance of all this, specifically what it means to matter. As an intro, I will ask and try to answer that question here. It will probably have the most technical language of the series. Don’t be afraid, just read things slowly.

So, what does it mean when “music matters”? Well, that it has value and means something for someone. Music can make incredible things and we can talk and discuss which things and why so. But music also “matters” in another sense: it materializes. Music can matter in a very concrete sense, by becoming a physical object. That’s how music becomes something else by mattering (in both senses of the word). This in turn sets into motion a whole causal chain of cultural-material practices and objects: e.g. dubstep becomes visualized in strobe-light which becomes embodied in an epileptic seizure on the dancefloor. Music do things to people, who do things to other people or things, and by that way make the effects of music come into being. This goes for conditions to matter as well. The iPod would not have existed (mattered) if nobody didn’t care about listening to music while on-the-go (if that didn’t matter). This is why matter is always two-fold: cultural-material. Music come to matter, by mattering, by materializing. All of these phrases basically mean the same, because meaning and materiality is always entangled (you got it!).

Let’s try to put this rather heavy stuff into examples (you can come up with any other categories of course)

Lack – Indie kids wear the Keffyieh but can’t spell PLO

This statement is so sad but true haha! Lack, sadly now dissolved, had an important part in the small but potent Copenhagen math rock/pop scene. Another similar although quite brutal title from this band include “Behead (them screamo-kids)”. Speaking of the Keffyieh, there’s a sense in which this aesthetic group-making aspect of music has turned counterculture into a superficial Rebel™, a kind of paradoxical monoculture obsessed with uniqueness and transgression (a.k.a. The Hipster).

Pat Metheny Group – As it is

Metheny is a genious on guitar, up there with acid-jazzer John Scofield. I have walked winter-frosted fields in my teens while listening to him. But this entire sound is basically destroyed by way of negative Pavlovian conditiong, so it’s extremely difficult to take it seriously unless you’re already dedicated, or just a guitar geek. Hearing Pat Metheny and other fusion jazzers over and over and over in annoying TV-shop breaks makes you associate that very sound to annoyance, like the dog that learns to salivate by Pavlov’s ringing of the food-associated-bell. What would happen if annoying commercials started playing Sigúr Rós? Oh wait, they already do!

Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit

It is difficult to measure the effect this song had on the civil rights movement and anti-racist politics (it came out in 1939). It is also completely impossible to distinguish the music from the history, when I feel the rush of goosebumps on my body. This video is the trailer from a documentary made to track the impact it has had. Interesting.

SebastiAn – Ross Ross Ross

The year 2007 was dominated by duo Justice, the figure heads of french electro label Ed Banger. You may remember the video for “D.A.N.C.E.”, which basically consists of a show case of t-shirts (which you could buy of course. By coincidence, the most recent comment on youtube said: “Great song, great video! I want a T-shirt like those ones!!! lol” –hahaha!). Wonder what that video mattered for the hipster fashion industry? I won’t speculate more. My own favourite name from that period, together with same-label Mr. Oizo, was SebastiAn, who had a slighty more crunchy, syncopated staccato sound.

Daniel Johnston – Premarital Sex

Well, I’m not going to go into the neurophysiology of my exposure to this track, so you can just imagine a bunch of slimey looking axons making exciting electrical impulses to new brain cells, almost sounding like that awesome pumping organ in the song.

That’s all for today folks. I hope you enjoyed this introductory part of the series. As you can see, music can matter in a variety of ways, although not necessarily good ways (e.g. I don’t particularly like the turning of Pat Metheny into muzak). Therefore, the next task will be to map ways of making music matter in a good way. We haven’t really dealt with how I personally want that to happen yet of course, since this was mostly a sorting out of the concept of “matter” itself, but you probably have some ideas at this point. The first substantive part will be titled Masochism, and it will scare the shit out of you I’m sure. Since these posts take some time to write (at least this one did), expect a lot of other cool stuff in between. See you soon!