Ontology of laughter: social-ethical aspects

Laughter is very important emotional manifestation for human being. The understanding of laughter’s nature and the determination of its main characters can’t be ignored because laughter is the ability that characterizes and determines the very human way of seeing and understanding the world and the person himself. As a result of the critical analysis, such laughter features as paradoxicality, distancing, openness, freedom, sociality, connection with the sphere of morality are noted and simultaneously indicate the internal unity of consciousness and laughter nature. Laughter built into the structure of human consciousness, and therefore it acquires an ontological character. The article focuses on the social nature of laughter and its educational function. Gradually and consistently, the chain of “consciousness-conscience-laughter-shame” was built during this research. As laughter sometimes can be put in pair with evil, very often the researchers consider it sinful. It was shown that the roots of evil lie not in laughter, but in the person who manipulates its inner abilities

Who laughs? A moment of laughter in Shortbus

In his essay On Laughter, first published in France in 1900, Henri Bergson suggested that “our laughter is always the laughter of the group” (2003:5). With this observation in mind, I have to ask: who laughs when we watch a movie? Who is it that we hear when laughter fills the theatre even if momentarily

On the acoustics of overlapping laughter in conversational speech

The social nature of laughter invites people to laugh together. This joint vocal action often results in overlapping laughter. In this paper, we show that the acoustics of overlapping laughs are different from non-overlapping laughs. We found that overlapping laughs are stronger prosodically marked than non-overlapping ones, in terms of higher values for duration, mean F0, mean and maximum intensity, and the amount of voicing. This effect is intensified by the number of people joining in the laughter event, which suggests that entrainment is at work. We also found that group size affects the number of overlapping laughs which illustrates the contagious nature of laughter. Finally, people appear to join laughter simultaneously at a delay of approximately 500 ms; a delay that must be considered when developing spoken dialogue systems that are able to respond to users’ laughs

Concord Topics - 1961, Vol. 2 No. 2

Newsletter of the Concord Baptist Church.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/fay-webb-gardner-concord-baptist-church/1000/thumbnail.jp

Existential laughter

Postprint deposited with the permission of the Philosophy Documentation Center.Each of the previous three articles in this series has examined one of the three main traditions of humour theory; those based around incongruity, superiority and the release of energy. We have seen that each of these theoretical traditions sheds some light upon humour and laughter, but also that all fail in their overly ambitious task of offering a fully comprehensive theory. This has not deterred some scholars from wanting to develop such a theory; perhaps by incorporating the best features of each of the main three theoretical traditions into one 'super-theory'. But while it is true that such a synthesis of theories might be superior, as a theory, to each by itself, such a technique would still not give us an adequate general theory. Why? Because we have seen that the inadequacies of the theoretical traditions are not merely those of omission; inadequacies which could be resolved by supplementing any given theory with insights from alternative perspectives. Rather, some of the most important problems are intrinsic to the theories themselves; most notably, the need to stretch terminology, to a sometimes ludicrous degree, which we observed in both the incongruity and superiority traditions. [opening paragraph]Peer reviewe

Concord Topics - 1962, Vol. 3 No. 1

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No pain, no gain - the provocation of laughter in slapstick comedy

This article explores the relationship between danger and laughter in the work of a number of what might be defined as slapstick or physical comedians. The notion of physical comedians risking life and limb in order to generate laughter from an admiring audience has a long history. The article establishes a model for analysing the provocation of laughter through which examples of slapstick comedy can be analysed. To what extent do we laugh because we understand that this is the response the performer desires? When we laugh at a comedian taking what we perceive to be physical risks, what are we laughing at? Is our laugh mingled with relief when the perceived threat is past? Are we responding with laughter as a pleased response to the performer’s skill? Louise Peacock is a lecturer in Drama and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Hull in England. In 2009 her monograph Serious Play – Modern Clown Performance was published by Intellect

A Descriptive Epidemiologic Study of Campylobacteriosis in East Tennessee

Campylobacteriosis is caused by the gram-negative bacteria Campylobacter and is a leading cause of gastrointestinal illness worldwide. In the United States an estimated 2.4 million cases occur annually with approximately $8.0 billion in associated costs. Due to the high cost of morbidity, understanding the epidemiology and risk factors of campylobacteriosis is important. It is unclear if the prevalence of campylobacteriosis is higher or lower in East Tennessee than other parts of the state or country or if the clinical characteristics of patients in the area are similar to the rest of the country. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to describe clinical and epidemiological characteristics of campylobacteriosis patients in East Tennessee to assist in health planning to control campylobacteriosis. Data from the Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network was analyzed for 2003-2006 in 16 counties in East Tennessee. The data was first assessed for its quality, then descriptive statistics were calculated and spatial and temporal patterns of reported cases and risk factors were assessed. The overall error rate in the data quality analysis was 6.5% although in the last year of the study it was only 2.6%. The mean annual prevalence of campylobacteriosis in East Tennessee was 10.4 cases per 100,000 population, which was 1.6 times higher than all of Tennessee (7.4 cases/100,000). Grainger and Jefferson Counties had higher age- and sex-adjusted prevalence estimates than the region and nation. It is yet unclear why this region has a higher prevalence of campylobacteriosis than the rest of the nation. The highest age-specific prevalence (41.6 cases/100,000) was observed in children under 5. Disease prevalence was consistently higher in the summer months compared to the other seasons. The median age of patients was lower in the most rural counties. More patients in East Tennessee were hospitalized than the rest of the nation. The most commonly reported risk factors were animal and raw meat exposure. Improvement in data collection and entry is necessary to improve the quality and application of this surveillance data. Educational efforts on proper hygiene following animal handling, and proper well protection and disinfection should be targeted at high risk groups

Concord Topics - 1962, Vol. 3 No. 4

Concord Baptist Church newsletter.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/fay-webb-gardner-concord-baptist-church/1003/thumbnail.jp