THE IMAGINATIVE REHEARSAL MODEL – DEWEY, EMBODIED SIMULATION, AND THE NARRATIVE HYPOTHESIS

In this contribution I outline some ideas on what the pragmatist model of habit ontology could offer us as regards the appreciation of the constitutive role that imagery plays for social action and cognition. Accordingly, a Deweyan understanding of habit would allow for an understanding of imagery in terms of embodied cognition rather than in representational terms. I first underline the motor character of imagery, and the role its embodiment in habit plays for the anticipation of action. Secondly, I reconstruct Dewey's notion of imaginative rehearsal in light of contemporary, competing models of intersubjectivity such as embodied simulation theory and the narrative practice hypothesis, and argue that the Deweyan model offers us a more encompassing framework which can be useful for reconciling these approaches. In this text I am mainly concerned with sketching a broad picture of the lines along which such a project could be developed. For this reason not all questions are given equal attention, and I shall concentrate mainly on the basic ideas, without going directly into the details of many of them

Contested meanings: The Italian media and the UltraS

Despite their presence in Italian football stadiums, the UltraS have been the subject of limited empirical research. I use the capital S to identify neo-fascist oriented fans to distinguish them from the wider football supporters ultra’ (Testa and Armstrong 2008; Testa 2009; Testa and Armstrong 2010a). This study is part of a series of publications to fill in this lacuna; it is part of an ethnographic research project carried out from 2003 to 2009. The research aimed to analyze the UltraS social world using as a sample two hardcore subculture of fans at the two main Rome football clubs - AS Roma and SS Lazio. With neo-fascist sympathies, these groups -the Boys at Roma and the Irriducibili at Lazio- are political and well-organized (Testa and Armstrong, 2010a). The present paper focuses on the relationship between the UltraS and the Italian media; the media are often considered by the UltraS as enemies because believed to be biased against them. To complement the ethnographic data, three renowned Italian sports journalists were interviewed in 2008. One was Franco Arturi, deputy director of La Gazzetta dello Sport, which is the most established and popular of the Italian sport newspapers. Another was Giuseppe Tassi, a sport journalist and deputy director of Quotidiano.net (internet edition of the Resto del Carlino, La Nazione and Il Giorno editorial group). The third was Gabriele Marcotti, journalist for the British The Times and the popular Italian daily IL Corriere dello Sport. Analysis stresses the importance of media coverage in influencing the UltraS deviant dynamics and suggests, considering the experiences of other European countries, a reduction of media attention towards the UltraS as a strategy to contain this phenomenon

Heavy quark masses

In the large quark mass limit, an argument which identifies the mass of the heavy-light pseudoscalar or scalar bound state with the renormalized mass of the heavy quark is given. The following equation is discussed: m(sub Q) = m(sub B), where m(sub Q) and m(sub B) are respectively the mass of the heavy quark and the mass of the pseudoscalar bound state

Analytical template for gravitational-wave echoes: signal characterization and prospects of detection with current and future interferometers

Gravitational-wave echoes in the post-merger ringdown phase are under intense scrutiny as probes of near-horizon quantum structures and as signatures of exotic states of matter in ultracompact stars. We present an analytical template that describes the ringdown and the echo signal for nonspinning objects in terms of two physical parameters: the reflectivity and the redshift at the surface of the object. We characterize the properties of the template and adopt it in a preliminary parameter estimation with current (aLIGO) and future (Cosmic Explorer, Einstein Telescope, LISA) gravitational-wave detectors. For fixed signal-to-noise ratio in the post-merger phase, the constraints on the model parameters depend only mildly on the details of the detector sensitivity curve, but depend strongly on the reflectivity. Our analysis suggests that it might be possible to detect or rule out Planckian corrections at the horizon scale for perfectly-reflecting ultracompact objects at $5\sigma$ confidence level with Advanced LIGO/Virgo. On the other hand, signal-to-noise ratios in the ringdown phase equal to $\approx 100$ (as achievable with future interferometers) might allow us to probe near-horizon quantum structures with reflectivity $\gtrsim30\%$ ($\gtrsim85\%$) at $2\sigma$ ($3\sigma$) level.Comment: v3: 13+4 pages, 11 figures, 4 appendices; matches the PRD version with a new plot and extended results. v2 (submitted version): 12 pages + 4 appendices; 9 figures. Further discussion and new appendix with template for localized sources at generic position. Template and waveforms available at https://www.darkgra.org/gw-echo-catalogue.htm

Changing fiscal policy in the Seventh District

Federal Reserve District, 7th ; Middle West ; Economic development

“We are against Islam!”: The Lega Nord and the Islamic folk devil

© 2012 the Author(s). This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Without requesting permission from the Author or SAGE, you may further copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the article, with the condition that the Author and SAGE Open are in each case credited as the source of the article.Since 1995, the Italian Lega Nord (LN) political party has depicted itself as the defender of Padania, a territory that covers the mainly affluent regions of Northern Italy. Around this politico-spatial territory, the LN has shaped an identity based on the notion of Popolo Padano (the Padanian People). Since the new millennium, LN rhetoric has increasingly focused—stemming more from the demands of realpolitik than those of conviction—on opposing irregular immigration per se and, more specifically, Islam and Muslim immigration. In the eyes of the LN propagandists and their media, the theology of Islam and its practitioners represent a growing threat to the modern Italian and Padanian identity (and tradition). The LN has not been alone in using the media to oppose Islam; the Italian media has reinforced LN messages; Muslims are generally depicted as dangerous and compared with terrorists and their religion and culture are described as the opposite of Italian/West values. Something approximating to a “moral panic” around this issue has ensued. Integral to this are notions of morality combined with practices of moral entrepreneurship. What follows seeks to highlight the LN’s stereotypical depictions of Islam. This evaluation is important because the LN was a major player in former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government (2008-2011) and is still a significant party among the Italian political spectrum. Integral to what follows are the following questions: “Is contemporary Islamic immigration a threat to the Italian (and Padanian) way of life?” and “Are the perceived threats to be found in the periodic uncertainties that societies suffer or might we need to search for wider processes?