This is hard. It is really hard. It comes to attack me in my dreams.
I thought I was well prepared. But how could someone do this? Not just a bomb, but an hour-long systematic shooting of youth? I haunts me and gives me nightmares. It is worse than even the Nazi death camps.
Here are some pictures, telling more than many words. The first is of prime minister Jens Stoltenberg. present when a woman got a message of grief (copied from media reports July 24).
Tomorrow Norway stops
Norway stands still one minute, the headline says. It was to become more.
The next pictures are from the flower demonstration in Oslo, known as The Rose March, on July 25, where many people participated, perhaps a third of the nearer city centre population. In fact, the centre of Oslo was so full of people that no march type of demonstration could be arranged. Similar scenes had not been seen since the liberation of Norway from the Nazis in 1945.
All kinds of flowers were displayed.
As a participant, I felt that all the people were angry – and yet not about to show revenge!
On the next picture you can see how all kinds of people participated, and on the left, children at the shoulders of their parents. Is it symbolic that the sign in the middle asks for low speed.
Only a third or so of the marchers had the opportunity to actually hear the start speeches for the meeting. The rest walked towards the parliament and the main church of Oslo. I was among them.
This is how the “main strip of Oslo” between the parliament (Storting) and the King’s castle looked
The streets were full of people. We turned towards the main church of Oslo, to honour the dead.
Many had laid their flowers there already, it was hard to get approach, the square was packed with people.
For some months now, I have had stipend time, to write a book on gender equality theory. That is, not just gender equality in practice, but as a theory matter also. A matter to be researched, studied, identified – far better than today.
Why? I look at gender equality as a subject on its own, beyond gender. I look at the main traditions in research regarding gender inequality, compared to new material on increasing equality. What works, what not. Wheat and chaff.
I also discuss theory issues like, when is a gender power model appropriate, when not. Is gender equality something that happens after a lot of social development and democratization – or rather, a causal factor or predictor variable, acting on its own.
The book will hopefully be published first in Norwegian (2012 or 13) as Likestillingsteori, and then in a revised and translated version ca one year later, as Gender equality theory.
The Arab revolution 2011 is about democracy, dignity and development. This new voice of freedom is constantly silenced and twisted. One way to do it, is to bomb communication links.
The Cafe Argana in Marrakech is not a communication link by itself, but a symbol of communication. It was selected for symbolic terrorist attack Friday April 28. I was there ten days earlier, with my sons. I am very much aggrieved and saddened by this attack. My heart is with those who have lost their loved ones. I am just a Norwegian. I can’t say much for Moroccan culture. But I feel, this is an attack on everything that the new Morocco stands for.
When we were at Cafe Argana, my sons and I enjoyed the view of the great square and used the opportunity to discuss some larger matters, like, what could work, for Morocco, why does it have a fifty percent illiteracy rate, why not more prosperity, being so close to Europe. It could be said that we were at the Cafe with a bit of love for Morocco in our hearts, like many guests. In that view. the killers have killed a piece of Morocco, through us, the Argana clientele .
How dare these bomb-throwing cowards and fascists speak for the people of the Arab world? I am only a foreigner, but as a world citizen, I have to speak my mind. I think that the new fascists must be clearly named and opposed. If initiatives like “the new Morocco” keeps to a democratic agenda, there will be increased progress and increased freedom. The opportunities are there.
For some reason this song part often intrudes when I read recent news on the 2011 Arab revolution – and counter-revolution, e g in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. It is from the Doors’ first album (1967), the song The End. The snake is long, seven miles… he is old, his skin is cold, Jim Morrison sings, in one of the dream moments of this apocalyptic song. Perhaps it is no wonder that it creeps up on me, as I read about the counter-revolution, the way tyrants now move into fascist means of controlling their populations, firing with heavy armour, using the military, covert action, snipers and torture.
My heart is with the revolution, the proudness and courage displayed by the democracy protesters, who are forced to become militia, and take up weapons, and their families and friends. Whatever the tyrants do, the democracy activists will be remembered as martyrs for a more democratic, free, developing, prosperous, respectful and dignified Arab world.
Question: will a high quality 2 x 80 watt mono block tube amplifier, based on 211 tubes, perform better with big difficult speakers like Dynaudio Consequence (a 5-way system), than the Krell FPB600 transistor amp?
Short answer: no.
I tested, borrowing a friend’s tube mono blocks, each weighing 50 kg or so, due to big oversize transformers. These were hardcore 80 watts, the amps should be able to drive difficult loads, or be much like a higher number of official transistor watts, say 150 to 200.
I noticed some interesting things on the way.
First, the tube amps would not get a decent volume in my ca 45 m2 room until I put the preamp volume at four o’clock – with the Krell, it reaches this level already at one o’clock. I first thought, well, this goes to show how power-hungry the Consequences are, but I also tested with a small Royd Sorcerer speaker, and the story was much the same there (or, to three o’clock). The amps need a stronger than usual input signal, which by itself should not influence the sound quality much. Possibly, my IO preamp sounds best cranked up, as long as it goes beyond 11 or 12 (with the Krell), it sounds fine.
I measured the decibel level in the listening position, music came alive around 75-85 decibel, much the same as with the Krell, although this required a higher than usual preamp volume.
Second, the tube amps are the first I have tried that seriously makes an attempt to make the Consequence speakers work. My small Ming Da 38 watts stereo tube amp does not work very well, making the speakers sound strange and thin.
However, even if “the hand” (amp) was now large enough to try out the “glove” (speaker), it was not a very good fit. The 80 watt tube amps did not “hold” the speakers in the way achieved by the Krell, not surprising, since the latter has perhaps x 2 or 3 in objective power level (hard to say exactly, many variables involved).
This was most noticeable on dynamic large scale music, but also on attacks, transients etc. The speakers sounded somewhat hollow, and the music somewhat strained.
In fact, after some hours of testing, my wife sat down to listen, and after an hour, concluded, “no, this does not work out, the sound is bad”. She used words like “hard, straining”; I would also say, “flat”.
Third, the experiment cast the Krell in a good light. Ken Kessler, reviewing the FPB 600 amp in Stereophile in 1997, was right when he said that the Krell was almost indistinguishable from good tube equipment in some key areas. The 2 x 80 tube monoblocs sounded remarkably “Krell-like” in suprising ways, for me, – quite analytical, much more frequency-linear and less “tubey” than my small Ming Da tube amp (less of a bell curve). The were less sweet than the Krell!
I have read reviewers writing of the convergence of transistor and tube, but have not experienced it for myself. The tubes sounded a bit harder and more analytical than the Krell – but this may be due to the fact that they were not quite powerful enough to drive the speakers properly, and perhaps also that the 211 tubes were not optimal. A main symptom was the hard, strained sound at high music volumes, and another that voices were not pronounced by the tube amps, as they should have been, but were instead more hollow, as if lost in the mix. A likely cause is power limitation, too few watts to drive the speakers properly, fill the “glove”.
One of my conclusions is, that the next time I suspect the Krell amp for adding transistor-related types of pollution to the sound, I should pause, and look for other factors instead. The transistor hardness was not much notable in the test.
Why do I take the trouble of this kind of test? Heavy hifi is, well, heavy. Changing cables, carrying equipment, adjusting and listening takes time. This is by intention my hobby only. I have no work connection or commercial interests in the audio field.
One reason is that I often hear various kinds of noise and sound pollutions. I listen to music and play some, as a musician, and since my positioning in music is as participant, not just spectator, I can’t help looking for what to blame, or what could be set (more) right. This is “the audio bug”, but it has also helped me and my family to get much more out of music than we would otherwise have achieved.
If I suspect the Krell, should I be more careful, perhaps the source is somewhere else? A possible broader conclusion has to do with – in audiophile terms – component matching and system synergy. If you drive speakers right, they will sound less hard, more dimensional, improving the imaging, and so on, everything will fall into place. You should test a component in its optimal system setting.
The German record label Speaker’s Corner has remastered and rereleased Wizz Jones 1972 LP Right now.
Why is this a great event? One, because the LP is great. Two, because it sounds better than ever before.
The LP has been an almost unobtainable secret classic, but it is also quite variable. Listen to its best tracks, especially on side one, and ignore the fillers, especially on side two. The best tracks include “Which of them you love the best”, with outstanding ensemble playing, singing, and thoughtful lyrics from Alan Tunbridge; “One grain of sand”, a great song by Pete Seeger brought successfully into a humble, c0ntemplative form; and “City of the angels” (Tunbridge), with exceptionally excellent guitar work from John Renbourn and Wizz Jones, playing duo.
Overall, the guitar work on the album is outstanding, or at least very competent, on the throwaway filler tracks. And the mood on the best tracks is very worthwhile, even today – we are a bit after the “youth revolt”, the 1960s revolution, the music reflects on what happened, what could it be. It is tentative, limited, in the works – and sometimes works all the better because of it.
The album was mainly ignored when it was released in 1972. So much happened at the time, and not many people got to hear it. All the more honour to Speaker’s Corner, rereleasing it today.
I don’t know how they do it, but this label has served me very well. No sense of digitalis here. For example, their remaster of Santana’s Caravanserai sounds much better than the MoFi remasters of the two first Santana LPs, which appeared around the same time, a couple of years ago. The MoFis are harder and flatter, the SC softer, more dimensional, deeper. Some of my SC LPs (like Caravanserai, and another goodie, Supersession) are cut a bit below standard volume, but that is not the case with Right now. My friend Bjørn Moe has A-B tested the reissue and the original CBS LP, which he owns, and he confirms that the reissue in many ways sounds better. The sound is more “here”, it pops out, dynamics seems greater. This is the case also with Steely Dan: Cant buy a thrill, another excellent SC reissue.
Stereophile had a comment to this effect, some months ago. It means: a step up in resolution will be more important than most tweaks to your sound system. Here is a new experiment, using my Cowon D2 small mobile music player.
1 Listening to Tom Petty: Mojo on LP on my main system, sound is quite good, ensemble playing enjoyable.
2 Downloading the hi-res (Flac) digital version of the same LP – will not play on the Cowon D2.
3 Downloading the mp3 version. Plays OK, but the sound is hard and digital. Turn it off, please.
4 Recording from the LP through the Korg MR1 DSD recorder, then downsampling to the best (standard CD) resolution the Cowon player can handle (using Korg’s Audiogate), and downloading to the Cowon. Result: much better. A much more embodied, relaxed but also lively sound, more like true music. More, thanks.
Conclusion: Considering how much mechanics and potential error that alternative 4 goes through, using a technology from a century ago, the result is in a sense quite amazing. However the resolution of the LP is even higher than that of today’s “hires” digital recordings, so the improvement shines through. Even downsampled down the chain, a higher upchain resolution makes a major difference.
I am one of the contributors to the Women’s health days event in Oslo 1-2 April. See
http://www.forskningsradet.no/no/Arrangement/Kvinnehelsedagene_2011/1253964755410
My paper is titled Gender, violence and health – do we need a gender perspective in health and medicine? (in Norwegian, Kjønn, vold og helse – trenger vi et kjønnsperspektiv på helse og medisin?v/Øystein Gullvåg Holter, professor i maskulinitets- og likestillingsforskning, UiO)
The seminar starts Friday 1st of April at 9, Oslo kongressenter, Youngstorget
My introduction, ca 10, will be focused on one example of why a gender perspective is needed – violence against children. New results show that violence against children is mainly performed by the adult who dominates the decision-making in the home.
Gender equal decision making among adults in families lowers the chance of violence against children perhaps as much as two thirds.
This is a major historical research result – in my view, and I will highlight it in my lecture.
The gender equality survey in Norway 2007 showed that children growing up in gender-equal homes, where the parents decided things equally, were less exposed to violence and physical punishment, compared to father- or mother-dominated homes.
This is a major new finding, and I regard it as one of the most important findings of my research, stretching over many years from 1980 to today.
The 2007 representative survey data maps adults retrospective experiences, growing up ca 1940-2000, and seems to be a clear and solid data source, for example, reported in a very similar way by men and women. Compared to violence in adult life relationships, also included in the survey, the data on childhood experiences seems more robust, less prone to “mission shift” or normative reinterpretation, although it is retrospective. If bad memory or rescripting due to age was substantial, we would expect disparate reports from different age groups, but instead, that data gives a coherent picture. The age groups tell of gradually reduced violence, like other sources, and also, they have much the same basis for regarding something as violence, as indicated by e g health correlations. For example, it is not the case, in terms of health outcomes, that violence in childhood reported by the young is any less serious than the violence reported by the old part of the sample. A variety of tests point in the same direction, the childhood gender equality and violence reporting is realistic.
Gender equality in the socialization agency, the family, or the parental group, in this study, reduces the chance of violence against children substantially, almost two thirds. In father-dominated homes, 27 percent experienced violence or punishment, in mother-dominated homes 17 percent, in gender-equal homes 10 percent. The main perpetrator, the violent or punishing person, also mapped in the survey, and in father-dominated homes was mainly the father, in mother-dominated homes mainly the mother, in equal homes more balanced but more often the father.
This main pattern was not much affected by gender, age, education, whether the parents were divorced, or mobbing in the socialization environment. Gender equality emerged as a strong independent factor, regarding violence against children, according to the survey results.
The main result was described in the report, see Holter etc: Gender equality and quality of life, p 239. but it took some time for the message to sink in, and this is a case that deserves better promotion. Further analyses of the survey results have confirmed the independent character of the gender equality decision-making variable. Its strong effect and similar patterning across other known variables, like social class related variables, family breakup, and social problems (mobbing in childhood environment) is remarkable.
These result are of historical importance. They should be better tested and established, can they be repeated in Norway, are they international, do they represent a wide trend? If they turn out to be right, through broader testing, they demand a rethinking, or even a paradigm change, in many disciplines.
In my March 15 blog post on the Japan catastrophe – earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fallout – I commented that the problems are also due to lacking gender equality. What does that mean?
We might start by considering plant eaters and meat eaters (Japanese terms), or soft and strong men (Norwegian terms), democracy and authoritarianism.
Historically, Japan managed to adapt successfully to Western imperialism only by regenerating authoritarian tendencies, leading to the axis power alliance and imperialism in World War II. Lack of attention to gender equality was part of the limited development of democracy in post-war Japan.
Women were not much present, it seems, in Japanese decisions leading to the lacking defence against the three main parts of the catastrophe (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear). The basic issue is not just gender balance, but gender interest balance. It is the reproductive sphere that is hurt, mainly, by the damages in today’s Japan, although production is diminished too. The main victim is civil society and human lives.
Perhaps Japan needs an ideas and behaviours revolution, learning from Egypt and Tunis, extending democracy peacefully? Japan needs to move beyond its authoritarian inheritance and conformism, leading e g to the ignorance of the warnings from outspoken researchers like the seismologist Ishibashi Katsuhiko.
In many countries of the world, new and old roles for men are in opposition, a change behind the scenes. In Japan, it has been called a struggle between “plant eaters” and “meat eaters”, in Norway, a struggle between “soft” and “hard” men. All over the world, there is a need for change, and also, for using tradition, for making use of the stability of culture, but no longer for authority, for democracy instead.