Mayaro Beach II

Mayaro Beach II

For unknown reasons I decided to call this photo Mayaro Beach II but the alternate name is Mayaro Beach 2011.

Colour Me Bloody Orange

The Government’s newly launched Colour Me Orange crime and poverty reduction project has a good chance of turning into something called Colour Me Bloody Orange crime escalation and poverty reduction by forced population elimination scheme as there is now every indication this has the makings of a war – first the big stones in the car park then the guns in the streets. What might appear to be a simple weeding job to the casual observer may end up being a weeding out exercise, with the principle being dead men don’t work, though some do get paid. It is true the PP Government is trying to reduce the amount of gold chain snatching and muggings taking place for the season of good will and joy but Colour Me Orange seems like throwing gasoline in the fire where crime is concerned.

The Opposition’s greatest fear is the Project will buy the Government support while that is the Government’s greatest wish. I suppose Government’s policy is to manage gangs rather than eliminate the need for them. Maybe Government has seen the benefits of being in a gang and want to become the leader of the Orange gang, the most feared and ruthless gang since the last Government gang. But every cloud has a silver lining so I decided, in the interest of my economy, to become a community leader and will be accepting members into my gang. All members must be willing to fear me while looking menacing to the general public. Once we, the aka_lol Gang, are deemed to be both a threat to national security and a lost cause we too will qualify for some Orange. it is either that or we continue to perish in traffic and continue our careers as lowly, unappreciated, completely-ignored -until-we-miss-a-tax-payment taxpayers.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man ~ Mark Twain

Bandits Shout Duck before Crying Foul

The Bandits Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BanATT) was catapulted into mourning and anger yesterday when they learnt the Police took down three of their members. One member of the association who was both not authorized to speak to the media and on the run from Police for some time, lamented how the Bandits were only trying to make the usual dishonest dollar. He said first it was the curfew, and now they have Police Officers that could shoot reasonably straight even in a crisis at 2:00 am. The unofficial spokesperson for BanATT said that the Police officers were equipped with bullet-proof vest, well maintained guns and a regular pay check while the bandits were simply armed with three or four guns, which could effectively kill a  few unarmed, law-abiding citizens during a daily robbery but the weapons seem of little use in shootouts with the Police. He lamented this disadvantage and hoped to invest some of the money he will soon get from his new government handout, disguised as a job, in better tools for bandits. The spokesperson said their Association may take the case to the Equal Opportunity Commission as Police seem to be preventing Bandits from carrying out their trade while allowing the law-abiding to make an honest dollar. He stressed the Association has nothing against people making an honest dollar since it was the honest dollar from the man in the street that  keeps their members happy and well fed. A similar sentiment was also expressed by CL Financial investors.

Rhine II – WTF!!

This 1999 photograph provided by Chrisitie's shows the Rhine river by German artist Andreas Gursky. Titled "Rhein II," the chromogenic color print face-mounted to acrylic glass was sold for $4.3 million Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, at Christie's in New York City, setting a record for any photograph sold at auction. (AP Photo/Christie's, Andreas Gursky)

WTF! exclaimed akalol. “$4.3 million US dollars for a photograph!”

I was not complain only surprised that someone paid so much money for a photograph in these uncertain economic times. I also wondered why this photo. Was it the camera – Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, or Sony that some like to pointlessly argue? Was it taken with film or digitally recorded on a super-fast Sansa SD card bought from Amazon? Was it a scene that can never be captured again? Did the Rhine evaporate since 1999? Was it the 81 x 140 inches size since size does matter despite claims by the unfortunate that it doesn’t? Would the answers to any of these questions affect the price? I doubt it. If the photo looked the same but was a picture of the Caroni River and not the Rhine would the photo even fetch a price? It might if the photographer was Andreas Grusky, photographer of Rhine II and who ” is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential photographers of his generation.” I never heard the name Grusky until this week but thanks to Google I found out he is quite famous despite never doing weddings.

All I can assume is that the photograph called Rhine II fetched that record price since it was considered “art” by those influential ones who know what art is, or at least pretend to know. Works of art are works of creativity and the photo above is creative to some and probably represents more than just bands of grass, road, grass, water, more grass and then dull sky. One can only assume this photo represents something very deep to the buyer and hopefully even the  photographer but to the average blogger, looking at this low quality small photo, it simply looks kind-ah-nice.

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Long before Anya Ayoung-Chee made Trinidad and Tobago proud for a third time, there was a Trinidad postage stamp from 1847 selling for around US$29,999.00. The stamp features the paddle steamer called the Lady McLeod which sailed between Port of Spain and San Fernando from 1845 to 1854. This rare stamp can be bought on eBay from a seller based in New York if you are interested in boosting your collection. Like all collectibles, its value is based on what collectors are willing to pay which is determined by how rare an item is and the condition of that item. The price of these collectibles are somewhat subjective but not as subjective as the price placed on works of art by those with money.

Related articles

• Andreas Gursky’s Rhine II photograph sells for $4.3m (guardian.co.uk)
• And Here’s the Most Expensive Photograph in the World (newsfeed.time.com)
• Photograph by Andreas Gursky breaks auction record (telegraph.co.uk)
• Last Night, This $4.3 Million Andreas Gursky Photograph Became the Most Expensive Ever Sold at Auction (towleroad.com)
• Most Expensive Photo in World (maboulette.wordpress.com)

10,000-Hour Experts

Expert Bikini Wearing

The 10,000 rule was suggested in the 90s by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson who is a Swedish psychologist and “is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading theoretical and experimental researchers on expertise.^”  The 10,000 hour rule says that it requires 10,000 hours of intentional practice to become an expert in something. That something can be anything like batting, bowling, bikini-wearing, chess, lawn tennis, ping-pong, classical guitar, belly dancing, watching porn, dentistry, kidney replacement, brain bypassing, writing, blogging, or stealing from the national coffers. Though the 10,000 hour theory was first suggested by Anders Ericsson, it was Malcolm Gladwell who popularized the theory in his bestseller, Outliers, and since then success and competence has never been the same.

Because calculators are so cheap, It is now widely known that 10,000 hours of practice means a person must diligently practice at their field for around 3 hours per day for 10 years, or 6 hours per day for 5 years, or 12 hours per day for 3 years, or 24 hours per day for 1.5 years. There seems to be much empirical evidence to suggest that experts are not born or simply created when appointed to the board of a state enterprise, or even when awarded a consultancy contract by a friend in Government but must practice diligently to become an expert. Naturally, this rule also applies to fools, liars and thieves who all suffer from insomnia and seem to practice their art every waking minute hence become expert fools, liars and thieves quicker than say a chess player can even approach  Grand Master level. This revelation might be shocking to many who call themselves experts after just a few years of some undergrad course and then a few months of post grad work, all from a shady university whose lecturers were trained via Google.

Though a person needs to clock those 10,000 quality hours to become an expert, one can still sound like an expert in less time due to the common effect called the one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind rule. This is what most wannabe experts depend on to boost their egos and incomes along with the wearing of  tight fitting clothes and the owning of a firm butt.

Related articles

• Talent vs. Practice: Training and the 10,000 Hour Rule (stack.com)
• Psychologists defend the importance of general abilities (eurekalert.org)
• The 10,000 Hour Rule (bellwort.wordpress.com)
• Does Practice Make Perfect with the 10000 Hour Rule in IOM? (neuromonitoring.wordpress.com)
• 10,000 hours to mastery (tobolds.blogspot.com)