Notes on the Origin of Music
The study of the origins and purpose of music has been an active pursuit of musicologists and biologists for well over a century. Musicology, the loosely applied and broadly used term for the scholarly study of music, has evolved over the last 70 years to produce several new subfields of study.
In 1991, a Swedish biologist named Nils L. Wallin, coined the term Biomusicology, and the school of science that deals with the study of music from a biological point of view was born. The three main branches of Biomusicology are evolutionary musicology, neuromusicology, and comparative musicology. The subfield of Evolutionary Musicology contains the study of musical origins, and significant strides have been made in recent decades under this new field of study.
Darwin’s theories of musical origin rested in his observations of the gibbon-apes use of musical cadence as a part of the mating ritual to attract the opposite sex. Darwin concluded that early man, therefore, must have first used music for the same purpose.
Edward MacDowell, internationally-trained composer, author, and the Chair of Music at Columbia University, considered Darwin’s theory as “inadequate and untenable”. In a speech given at Columbia, later published in 1912, MacDowell found more plausibility in the theory of Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle, in which the origin of music is attributed to the whole range of human emotion.
In 1948, the German musicologist, Curt Sachs, declared that all mythological, scientific, and historical attempts to discover the origins of music are all wrong! He blasted the many theories then presented on a more or less scientific basis, which Sachs referred to as “speculative hypothesis” – the theories that “man has imitated the warbling of birds, the he wanted to please the opposite sex, that his singing derived from drawn-out signaling shouts, [and] that he arrived at music via some coordinated, rhythmical teamwork”. If these theories were true, he asserts, “some of the most primitive survivors of early mankind would have preserved a warbling style of song, or love songs, or signal-like melodies”. Science, Sachs admits, would prefer “the more substantial, indeed irrefutable proofs of prehistorians, who excavate the tombs and dwelling places of races bygone. But not even the earliest civilizations that have left their traces in the depths of the earth are old enough to betray the secret of the origins of music.” While the archeological views of Sachs may ultimately prove true, the quest to unearth the origins of music continues.
In 1995, Ivan Turk, a researcher at the Divje Babe archeological site in Slovenia, uncovered a flute, pierced by spaced holes, made from the femur bone of a young cave bear. Similar prehistoric bone flutes have been found at various sites around the world, but the Divje Babe bone flute, or Neanderthal Flute, as called by Turk, is approximately 43,100 years old, and is claimed to be the world’s oldest musical instrument.
-Travis Hiland
Petition Project: 31,000 Scientists Sign-on to Debunk Global Warming Myth
The “Petition Project” was initiated by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM).
The OISM has been debunking Global Warming since 1998.
Although it seems it will always be easier for herds of humans to believe a glorified fabrication over a boring truth, it still gives me hope that there are tens of thousands of “credentialed thinkers” who are courageous enough to work outside the “most up-to-date scientific models” and the movements of the masses.
Other thoughts posted in the blog: Global Warming a Myth?
WND also recently published a very good article/interview with Art Robinson, founder of OISM, entitled: “Scientist:’Global Warming” scheme to push global tax — Blames U.N. for using scare reports,’mob rule’, to bully through agenda”
Robinson’s concern over the political manipulation of science led him to launch the now 10 year old Petition Project, a compilation of more than 31,000 scientists, including more than 9,000 Ph.D’s – with more names arriving daily – who have voluntarily signed their names to the following statement:
“There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”
Recommended Article: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67509&travis_hiland
-Travis Hiland
CO2 Actually Beneficial?
There is some very interesting and radical evidence presented by Doctors Art and Noah Robinson, of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM), which shows that increases in atmospheric CO2 gasses, especially the use of hydrocarbon energy, or carbon dioxide released by energy production is actually beneficial to the environment and accelerates the growth of forests and plant life.
You can view a summary of their scientific paper here, as Dr. Noah Robinson presents the “Global Warming Myth” at the Telecosm 2007.
Background: Shortly after Al Gore’s symbolic signing of the Kyoto Treaty in 1997, the OISM collected the volunteered signatures of over 17,000 scientists who claimed there is no evidence for global warming, but in fact there is evidence that the global warming agenda itself is the cause for alarm. Again in 2007, a new surge of signatures (more than 14,000) came rushing in to oppose everything Mr. Gore represents, after Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and his fear-mongoring rhetoric started to gain blind popularity.
Note: In terms of Ph.D. scientists alone, the Petition Project already has 15 times more scientists than are seriously involved in the U.N.’s campaign to “vilify hydrocarbons”.
-Travis Hiland
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is Not Pollution
There is some very interesting and radical evidence presented by Doctors Art and Noah Robinson, of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM), which shows that increases in atmospheric CO2 gasses, especially the use of hydrocarbon energy, or carbon dioxide released by energy production is actually beneficial to the environment and accelerates the growth of forests and plant life.
You can view a summary of their scientific paper here, as Dr. Noah Robinson presents the “Global Warming Myth” at the Telecosm 2007.
Background: Shortly after Al Gore’s symbolic signing of the Kyoto Treaty in 1997, the OISM collected the volunteered signatures of over 17,000 scientists who claimed there is no evidence for global warming, but in fact there is evidence that the global warming agenda itself is the cause for alarm. Again in 2007, a new surge of signatures (more than 14,000) came rushing in to oppose everything Mr. Gore represents, after Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and his fear-mongoring rhetoric started to gain blind popularity.
Note: In terms of Ph.D. scientists alone, the Petition Project already has 15 times more scientists than are seriously involved in the U.N.’s campaign to “vilify hydrocarbons”.
-Travis Hiland
Global Warming a Myth?
Spin doctors and Publicists at the United Nations, Mr. Al Gore, and their supporters frequently claim that only a “few skeptics” remain who are are still unconvinced about the existence of a catastrophic human-caused global warming emergency.
In fact, the claim of “settled science” and an overwhelming “consensus” in favor of the hypothesis of human-caused global warming and consequent climatological damage is just plain wrong. No such consensus or settled science exists.
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM) sponsored a petition in 1998 stating that “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the forseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.” This petition was signed by 17,000 scientists. To date, more than 31,000 degreed scientists have signed this petition (not a “few”). Moreover, from the clear and strong petition statement that they have signed, it is evident that these 31,072 American scientists are not “skeptics.”
The Meteorologisches Institut der Universitat Hamburg surveyed 400 international environmental scientists and found 67 percent did not subscribe to global warming theory.
More than 19,000 scientists signed the ‘Leipzig declaration’ proclaiming “the scientific basis of the 1992 Global Climate Treaty to be flawed.”
These scientists are instead convinced that the human-caused global warming hypothesis is without scientific validity and that government action on the basis of this hypothesis would unnecessarily and counterproductively damage both human prosperity and the natural environment of the Earth.
Professor Frederick Seitz, a prominent American physicist was a vigorous supporter of the OISM petition since its inception in 1998. Prof. Seitz was President of the US National Academy of Sciences and of Rockefeller University. He received the National Medal of Science, the Compton Award, the Franklin Medal, and numerous other awards, including honorary doctorates from 32 Universities around the world. Prof. Seitz enthusiastically gave the following endorsement to the OISM petition project:
“The United States is very close to adopting an international agreement that would ration the use of energy and of technologies that depend upon coal, oil, and natural gas and some other organic compounds.
This treaty is, in our opinion, based upon flawed ideas. Research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful. To the contrary, there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful.
It is especially important for America to hear from its citizens who have the training necessary to evaluate the relevant data and offer sound advice.”
-Travis Hiland
Al Gore Sued by Weather Channel Founder for Fraud
John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel, and backed by more than 30,000 scientists from the Petition Project, is suing Al Gore for fraud in his global-warming movie.
View Story here.
http://www.truveo.com/Al-Gore-sued-f or-fraud/id/2179127285?travis_hiland
Petition Project: www.petitionproject.org
-Travis Hiland
The ice in Greenland is growing deeper as the planet continues to cool
Latest Shocking AGW News!
The ice in Greenland is growing deeper as the planet continues to cool.
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Ice_Core_Sites_In_Greenland_Show_Snow_Levels_Rising.pdf
Sound the alarm! All Reverse! We’re entering the next ice age!
-Travis Hiland
Legal Challenges to Obama’s Eligibility Wage On
It seems most of the Eligibility cases have been thrown out, but some have survived. Berg, for example, has expanded his suit with a new challenge based on an Army officer’s request to know if he must obey orders from a Commander-in-Chief who holds office in violation of the Constitution.
This article contains more information and also lists the status update of several of the cases surrounding Obama’s eligibility to serve as president:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84971&travis_hiland
-Travis Hiland
Bank of England warns that credit will be even tighter in months ahead.
A recent bank credit conditions survey in the UK reveal the credit crunch is likely to intensify in the coming months, with banks planning to continue rationing the amount they lend out to customers.
UK government had previously bailed out three of the UK’s biggest lenders in October, insisting that they would raise mortgage availability back to 2007 levels. The problem is that this pattern of bailing out lenders and tightening credit creates a negative feedback loop and causes even more damage to the bank’s accounts and worsens the cycle.
Read full article here.
-Travis Hiland
Doctors and Celiac, How Little They Know
After responding to Linda’s post “The Doctor said Celiac is very rare” here:
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&webtag=ab-celiac&tid=24
about her frustration at how uninformed the medical community is to Celiac Disease, gluten-intolerance, and malabsorbtion issues, I thought I should post just one of my experiences with the issue.
Nine months ago, my wife was diagnosed with Celiac Sprue. Needless to say, this long overdue diagnosis (12yrs) finally provided the missing link to many chronic symptoms, including extremely severe iron-deficiency anemia, which countless inept physicians either failed to address or chose to ignore, commonly and obsurdly attributing her “severe” and chronic anemia to her normal menstrual cycles, usually with a single swift stroke of their magical diagnostic wands!
Sorry to digress…
Once her Celiac related malabsorbtion condition was diagnosed by our thoughtful and tenacious Nurse Practitioner, IV Iron Therapy was prescribed to help my wife on the road to recovery from years of iron-deficiency. However, due to critical mistakes made by the hospital pharmacy and the nurse on duty in the infusion lab, my wife nearly lost her life.
Iron with Dextran base was prescribed, which is the only iron-base formula that requires a test dose on 1st exposure due to the risk of anaphylactic shock and systemic failure.
The test dose was supposed to be 25mg DILUTED in 50-100 mL of NS and infused (DRIPPED) over 15-20 minutes. The test dose given my wife was NOT diluted and was injected directly into my wife’s IV site, and therefore directly into the bloodstream. In the meantime, the remaining full dose in raw, undiluted form was being drawn up for injection into IV site. All contrary to my understanding of the intended prescription!
I told the nurses to STOP, DO NOT administer anything else until I made confirmations, then I was immediately on the phone to doctor’s office.
Within seconds of receiving the test dose my wife began to experience an escalation of frightening symptoms: First, an immediate sharp pin-prick itching all over her body, then fierce abdominal cramps, followed by a severe tightening of her chest with respiratory distress, before she finally went unconscious. All this transpired within just a few minutes of injection, all without the recommended anaphylaxis management kit on hand in the infusion lab. My wife was rushed to the ER, where she thankfully regained consciousness and was further stabilized.
Two weeks later, we tried again, this time changing the iron formula to a “gluconate-base” (Brand name: Ferrlecit). This second dose was diluted and infused over 5 hours/day for 8 days WITHOUT incident.
PLEASE, remember that credentials are NOT licenses for omniscience. DO NOT take your doctor or hospital or pharmacy at face value. Please require them to check and double check the prescription and its administration. PLEASE DO NOT be intimidated by your doctors and nurses, ASK QUESTIONS until you are comfortable and satisfied with the answers and DO NOT allow your practitioner to EVER dismiss your concerns.
Travis Hiland - www.travishiland.com