Archivio mensile:Marzo 2010

Contro il suffragio universale

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Bossi impone il figlio in regione. Caligola era stato più discreto.
[spinoza.it]

Ebbene sì. Sono ormai contrario al suffragio universale, sia per l’elettorato attivo che per quello passivo. Come minimo per due ragioni:

  1. Elettorato passivo
    Ormai servono una laurea e la fedina penale pulita per fare quasi qualsiasi cosa. Non sto a fare esempi, ne trovate a montagne in internet. Non vedo proprio perché, invece, possano essere eletti cani e porci. Vero è che ormai una laurea non si nega a nessuno. Ragione di più per averla.
  2. Elettorato attivo
    Il suffragio universale è stato una bella idea, ma ormai il potere dei media è tale da mettere in dubbio l’idea di “libera espressione di volontà” da parte dell’elettore. Attualmente anche chi non capisce un cazzo di niente può esprimere la propria opinione su chi deve guidare lo stato. Se la stessa cosa si facesse per il CT della nazionale di calcio sarebbe uno scandalo.
    Propongo quindi un patentino per ottenere il diritto di voto mediante il quale si accerti che l’elettore abbia almeno una vaga idea di cosa sta facendo. Tale patentino si potrebbe conseguire mediante un banale test a crocette con domande basilari tipo:
    Chi fa le leggi?

    1. il Presidente della Repubblica
    2. il Parlamento
    3. Il Governo

    E non ditemi che è complicato. Basta delegare il tutto ad un software in un ufficio comunale.
    Se ognuno di noi, anche il più illetterato, dedica qualche ora della propria vita allo studio dei quiz per ottenere la patente di guida, non vedo perché non dovremmo dedicare lo stesso tempo allo studio di un libretto distribuito gratuitamente.

Electromagnetic sounds from planets

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Another fascinating recording of space sounds captured by a NASA spacecraft.

This time it’s Jupiter sounds (electromagnetic “voices”) recorded by the Voyager. The complex interactions of charged electromagnetic particles from the solar wind , planetary magnetosphere etc. create vibration “soundscapes”.

Jupiter is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. The entire planet is made of gas, with no solid surface under the atmosphere. The pressures and temperatures deep in Jupiter are so high that gases form a gradual transition into liquids which are gradually compressed into a metallic “plasma” in which the molecules have been stripped of their outer electrons. The winds of Jupiter are a thousand metres per second relative to the rotating interior. Jupiter’s magnetic field is four thousand times stronger than Earth’s, and is tipped by 11° degrees of axis spin. This causes the magnetic field to wobble, which has a profound effect on trapped electronically charged particles. This plasma of charged particles is accelerated beyond the magnetosphere of Jupiter to speeds of tens of thousands of kilometres per second. It is these magnetic particle vibrations which generate some of the sound you hear on this recording.

It’s interesting to compare this recording with some analog electronic music from the sixties (cfr. Screen (1968) by Jaap Vink) or some orchestral compositions by Gyorgy Ligeti (Lontano (1967) or Atmosphère).

In addition should be interesting to know if and how this recordings had been edited by the people of Brain/Mind Research that sell many NASA recordings.

Here are similar recordings from Uranus…

… and Neptune.

Looking down

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Have you ever looked down from the top of the Eiffel Tower? Not far away, as usual. Straight down, really.

Clikck the image to enlarge.

view_from_top_of_eiffel_tower

And from the Burj Dubai? (not from the top, I presume)

frm the Burj

Blumenstück

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G. F. Haas – Blumenstück (2000).
after texts from “Siebenkäs”

For choir (32 voices 8×4), bass tuba, and string quartet
Performed by Tom Walsh on tuba, the Quintett Rigas Kamermuziki, and the Latvian Radio Choir, Wolfgang Praxmarer conductor

Namárië

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Sir John Ronald Reuel Tolkien reads an elvish poetry from his work The Lord of the Rings.

The text is known as Namárië: Galadriel’s Lament In Lorien, also wrongly (?) called Song of the Elves beyond the Sea.

The elvish language is another fictional idiom, a common use in fantasy and SF literature (e.g.: klingon). Tolkien created more languages and dialects for elvish people. The first and more ancient is Quenya that evolved to the Quenya of high-elven and is one of the two most complete of Tolkien’s languages (the other being Sindarin, or Grey-elven). The phonology, vocabulary and grammar of Quenya and Sindarin are strongly influenced by Finnish and Welsh, respectively. In addition to these two, he also created several other (partially derived) languages.

You’ll find a great discussion about this text, with a word-by-word analysis, here.

Ai! laurie lantar lassi surinen,
yeni unotime ve ramar aldaron!
Yeni ve linte yuldar avanier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvoreva
Andune pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintillar i eleni
omaryo airetari-lirinen.Si man i yulma nin enquantuva?

An si Tintalle Varda Oiolosseo
ve fanyar maryat Elentari ortane,
ar ilye tier undulave lumbule;
ar sindanoriello caita mornie
i falmalinnar imbe met ar hisie
untupa Calaciryo miri oiale.
Si vanwa na, Romello vanwa, Valimar!

Namarie! Nai hiruvalye Valimar.
Nai elye hiruva. Namarie!

 Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The long years have passed like swift draughts
of the sweet mead in lofty halls
beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda
wherein the stars tremble
in the voice of her song, holy and queenly.Who now shall refill the cup for me?

For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the stars,
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds
and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
and out of a grey country darkness lies
on the foaming waves between us,
and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
Now lost, lost to those of the East is Valimar!

Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar!
Maybe even thou shalt find it! Farewell!

But the list of the languages of Arda (the Middle-Earth) is complex and astonishing, showing how deep and real the Middle Earth was in Tolkien’s mind. Here is the complete list from wikipedia with links to single voices:

  1. Elvish languages:
  2. Mannish languages (all showed influence by Avarin tongues as well as Khuzdul):
  3. Languages of Dwarves:
  4. Languages of the Ents
  5. Languages of the Ainur (Valar and Maiar)
  6. Languages of the Orcs
  7. Various debased forms of the Black Speech and regional dialects influenced by Westron
  8. Primitive methods of communication
    • Language of the Trolls
    • Language of the Wargs

 

Before the universe was born

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Romanian-French composer Horaţiu Rădulescu (1942-2008) was a spectral music composer. But Radulescu’s music differs greatly from the french school (Grisey, Murail, Dufourt, Levinas). This latter uses the sound spectrum analysis to get informations by which to build a musical form.

Instead the work of Radulescu focuses on the exploration of what he considers to be the ultimate sonic archetype: the harmonic spectrum. His compositional aim, as outlined in his book Sound Plasma (1975) was to bypass the historical categories of monody, polyphony and heterophony and to create musical textures with all elements in a constant flux. Central to this was an exploration of the harmonic spectrum, and by the invention of new playing techniques to bring out, and sometimes to isolate, the upper partials of complex sounds, on which new spectra could be built.

Here we can listen to his fifth String quartet, subtitled Before the universe was born (1990/95)

Animals sound perception: elephants

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An interesting table showing the hearing ranges for some animals [from Animal Behavior Online]

domestic cats 100-32000 Hz
domestic dogs 40-46000 Hz
African elephants 16-12000 Hz
bats 1000-150000 Hz
rodents 70-150000 Hz

I am impressed by the incredible hearing range of the rodents.

The infrasonic communications of the elephants is well known. African elephants have a social structure best described as fluid; animals move freely over wide areas, sometimes affiliating with other animals. Female members of a family tend to stay together, and of course their juveniles travel with them. These female-centered groups may merge with other such groups periodically. Adult males are less likely to join groups.

Female African elephants use “contact calls” to communicate with other elephants in their bands (usually a family group). These infrasonic calls, with a frequency of about 21 Hz and a normal duration of 4-5 seconds, carry for long distances (several kilometers), and help elephants to determine the location of other individuals. Calls vary among individual elephants, so that others respond differently to familiar calls than to unfamiliar calls. Perhaps elephants can recognize the identity of the caller.

Perception of infrasounds, however, presents some specific problems. An object smaller than the distance between waves is a poor receiver for those waves. Thus infrasonic receivers need to be large. This is probably the reason that infrasonic communication is used by only a few animals, and the best understood infrasonic communication system is the African elephant’s.

The large pinnae (external portion of the ear; trad.: il padiglione auricolare) in the African elephant may play an important role in the elephant’s perception of low frequency sounds, which are significant in communication among elephants. Receiving structures whose size is matched to the wavelength of the sound perform better.

Save Our Sounds

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In a radio programme called Save Our Sounds, the BBC asked their listeners to upload sound recordings from where they live in order to create an audio map of the world.

Here is the call:

Help to create a snapshot of the world in sound!

We’re really excited about Save Our Sounds, but we need your help to create an audio map of the world. We’re especially keen to preserve endangered sounds for future generations.

You can get involved by sending us sounds from where you live, and then listen your way around the world with our interactive map.

Please upload your sounds onto our map.

Find out more about Save Our Sounds and follow our recording tips in order to collect the best quality sound.

So get recording and take us all on a journey through sound!

In this page you can listen to audio fragments from the whole world.

Music for cats

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the-cat-enjoy-the-ipodThis site claims to produce “authentic cat music based on feline communication and hearing.”

When I was a student, there was cats on my house. I remember that, when listening to music, sometimes I observed their behavior and try to imagine their perception of the sounds and the meaning of the music for them.

I also remember that sometimes they moved a paw in front of the speaker. Not on the speaker, but in front of it, about half meter distant (speakers was on the floor), like trying to touch something.

Now I have no cats, so I can’t test it. But if someone could try and refer, it should be interesting. The songs are written in three different styles – each song style is designed to convey and evoke a particular mood.

Listen to samples from the main page.