Time Travel

The population of a small island in the South Pacific Ocean have perfected time travel! The island of Samoa is planning a jump into the future by moving themselves west of the International Date Line. Perhaps the island's population have grown tired of being some of the last people on earth to celebrate the New Year? Jokes aside, the real reason relates to the economy. Currently Samoa loses two working days with it's biggest trading partners - New Zealand and Australia. Currently when it's Friday in New Zealand its Saturday in Samoa, and when it's Sunday in Samoa, it's Monday in New Zealand.

The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line that runs generally north-south through the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's function is to define the position on the Earth's surface where the date changes. Traveling east across the line means you repeat a day, while crossing it in a westerly direction means you jump forward a day!

The line follows the 180 degree meridian for the most part except where it goes around parts of continents or islands (no avoid a single nation have time zones in 2 different days). Samoa, lies just east of the line, and so the change in position will only lead to a small additional kink in the line on the new maps.

If you extend the IDL into the other hemisphere, the line is called the Prime Meridian or perhaps better known as the Greenwich meridian as it passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in southeast London. This arbitrary line was agreed to as the zero position of longitude at the International Meridian Conference held in 1884. The same conference defined the "Universal Day" as midnight-to-midnight Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but decided that countries could unilaterally decide how to measure time. It is for this reason that some countries like India choose to have 1 time zone that is 05h30 ahead of GMT!

What time is it?

This artificial line creates the Eastern and Western Hemispheres also creates some interesting time phenomena (although they are completely artificial constructs). For example, you can celebrate your birthday twice in one year by crossing the IDL in a easterly direction on your birthday. The clocks go back a day and you get to celebrate again!

Another strange phenomenon is that for 2 hours each day (between 10h00 and 11h59 GMT) three different days are observed in different places on the globe. At 10h30 in Greenwich it's Tuesday, while in Samoa it's 23h30 on Monday night, and across the IDL in Kiritimati or Christmas Island it's Friday morning 00h30!  

Samoa has a population of about 180,000. I suppose they will enjoy being one of the first nation's to experience the New Year at 00h01 on January 2012!

Why is there no petrol in Nairobi?

I experienced first hand the fuel shortage in Nairobi today. I was forced to work from home with an empty fuel tank. I heard via the grapevine that the Shell down the road had received fuel around lunch time and like many Nairobians joined the queues to get a full tank!

I queued for just under an hour for a full tank of fuel and a Jerry can - as a buffer for any further shortages.

So the BIG question is why is there a fuel shortage in Nairobi?

The government assures us that there is no shortage of petrol in Kenya, In fact according to Patrick Nyoike, Energy Permanent Secretary, there are approximately 17.3 million liters of fuel products at the Kenya Pipeline Company depots.

So the petrol is in the tanks, but not in the fuel stations. Finding an answer to this question is where the blame-storming begins. Here are some of the popular ideas/reasons/excuses:

There's no space to land it:
"the result of intense pricing battles over consignments that were to be shipped in mid March, but could not land at the port for lack of storage space"

It's corruption again: 
"dealers have refused to buy the petroleum because the importer, with the help of the Ministry of Energy officials, has pushed the prices up by up to $10 above the price quoted for the tender"

No money for guarantees:
"Some of these importers are very small and find it difficult to raise the guarantees"

They forgot to pay their accounts:
"the shortage is linked to delayed payments by the marketers"

Blame the logistics department:
"logistical delays resulting from the public holiday for the supply shortage"

It's KRA's fault*:
"the taxation and clearing paperwork required was not done on time"

It's KPLC's fault**:
 "A shutdown at the refinery caused by a power failure late last week has also been linked to the supply shortage"

It's the price's fault:
"the price regulation [is the cause] for the crisis"

It's on it's way, it's stuck on the high seas:
"attempts to ease the situation by getting approval from authorities for the discharge of a cargo ship in the high seas has not borne fruit"

It's the public's fault:
"said the situation was being made worse by panicking motorists who dash to the nearest stations where they see a re-filling truck"

Of possible excuses the only ones missing are: The dog ate it, and the aliens abducted it!

Let's hope that while the industry players are arguing and blame-shifting that someone is actually working to resolve the problem!

* KRA = Kenya Revenue Authority

** KPLC = Kenya Power and Lighting Corporation

Sources:

Capital FM

Business Daily

Made in England

Made in England, a photo by jdkvirus on Flickr.

This is a component on a railway wagon parked at the Nairobi Railway Museum. The museum houses rolling stock, locomotives and other memorabilia from the old East African Railways.

This railway line was referred to as the "lunatic line" by the British tabloids of the time when it was built between 1896 and 1901. At the time is cost 5 million pounds to complete, but it's cost in human life was enormous, with an average of 4 workers dying for every mile of track! The original line was built from the port of Mombasa on the Indian ocean coast of what is now Kenya to Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria. By 1931 the line had been extended to Kampala the capital of Uganda.

Two things attracted me to this rusting component on the railway wagon. Firstly, it is embossed with the words "Made in England", the second thing that caught my eye was the acronym E.A.R, implying that these components were manufactured especially for East African Railways.

We are all too familiar with the "Made in China" label. Take a look at your desk where your computer stands, or your kitchen. A fair chunk of what's before you was made in China.

In 2010, the US was the world's leading manufacturer contributing 19.9% of the world's manufactured goods. Its projected that the US will lose its long standing number 1 position to China in 2011. The US have held the top spot for 110 years, quite a record! Coincidentally, it was about the time that the lunatic line was commissioned that the US surpassed Britain as the leading global manufacturer.

At present England relies on manufacturing for 26% of it's GDP. This manufacturing is concentrated in aerospace, defense, pharmaceuticals and chemicals although the UK has 10 operational railway manufacturers.

Despite it's manufacture site listed as England, the pictured component was probably designed in the US. Timken is an American company founded in 1899 by Henry Timken and his sons. Henry Timken was a German born carriage builder who patented a tapered rolling bearing for freight wagons, which improved their handling during cornering. This patent was the start of then Timken business which still operate's today.The companies slogan "Wherever wheels and shafts turn", describes the widespread use for bearings. Timken bearings have been fitted to trains, aircraft engines and even the space shuttle's landing gear!

This component (probably a bearing of some sort) was manufactured under license in England following a licensing agreement in 1909 which gave the Timken company access to the global markets. I suppose in some respects this is similar to today's manufacturing being outsourced to China?

I have no way of knowing exactly how old this component is but I am sure it contributed to the economies of England and the US at it's manufacture. It contributed to the British East African economy in it's use, even now is contributing in a very small way to the Kenyan economy as part of the museum display!

Fork

Fork, a photo by jdkvirus on Flickr.

I captured the image above at the cutlery second-hand "store" down the road from our house in Karen, Nairobi. The store consists of several tables under a tree arrayed with cutlery, pots, pans and other assorted kitchen items.

This kind of shop finds it's roots in another Kenyan (perhaps East African) tradition called Mitumba. This is a Swahili term which literally means "bundles" and refers to bundles or bales of 2nd hand clothes donated in the west and then sold in bales to local merchants who then sell them on.

It's common place here in Kenya for people to go to the Mitumba for their clothes shopping. In Nairobi the largest and most famous Mitumba is Toi Market, located on the outskirts of Kibera slum. It is known as THE place to shop for cheap 2nd hand clothes. Almost all the big western brands are available here at very low prices (a fraction of the cost of the high street boutiques). The only real draw-back is that you won't necessarily find what you want in your size!

The knives and forks on sale down the road from our house have similar origins, the left overs from European and American tables. Finding matching sets is tricky, but if you're looking to outfit your kitchen cheaply, this is a good place to pick-up quality flatware.

Forks have been in use as eating utensils from the 2nd century AD, but only came into common use in Western Europe in the 10th century! I wonder what those early Westerners would have thought of these piles of 2nd hand forks? For an interesting history on forks be sure to read the Wikipedia entry.

The image above is one of the few black and white images I have produced amongst the tens of thousands of photos I have taken over the last 10 years that I have been taking my photography seriously. As an aside, I have always pondered the name "black & white" as its more like "shades of grey", but I suppose there is a sexiness to "black and white"!

One of reasons I take so few black and white images is that I am addicted to color! I usually find my inspiration in nature where color abounds, even at the most minute scale. The flower below is an example of the range of color in nature.

Natural architecture , a photo by jdkvirus on Flickr.

The first computer screens were true monochrome - white, green or amber on black. I remember my family's first PC was an XT with an amber screen. It was 1986 and I was one of the coolest kids on the block! Times have changed.

These early monochrome screens could display shades of grey, or degrees of brightness that emulated grey, but nowhere near as many tones required to display a meaningful black & white image. These days standard computer screens can display 16.7 million colors (or shades of them anyway). I wonder how they measure this? Perhaps a subject for a future blog? Even Apple's Ipad can display over 65,000 colors/shades!

So why so few black & white? Well perhaps it's in celebration of the ability of technology to reproduce the amazing spectrum of God's creation?! Nevertheless, enjoy the rarity of this black & white image - at least on this blog!

Ghost in the machine

Ghost in the machine, a photo by jdkvirus on Flickr.

Of late several of my Flickr photos have made it to Flickr's Explore Page. Flickr Explore is a measure of Interestingness - a word coined and copyrighted by Flickr. It's basically a measure of how interesting your photo is in comparison to all the other photos uploaded on Flickr. Each day Explore selects the top 500 interesting Flickr photos for Explore - creating the Top 500 photos for the day.

It's estimated that about 2 million photos are uploaded daily, so making the TOP 500 is quite an achievement. On the useless information front, Flickr currently has over 5.6 billion images in it's database!

To date 33 of my photos have made Explore, and one of the images has made it to the Flickr Explore Front Page. To determine  whether any of your Flickr photos have been in Explore, use the Scout tool at BigHugeLabs.com.

I have been looking critically at some of my photos that have made Explore in an attempt to inform future photographs. There are blogs out there that suggest ways to get your photos into Explore, although in reality you have to start with a good image.

The bulk of my Explore'd shots are macros and most include flowers.

Looking at the non-macro shots, like birds or insects, one of the common denominators seems to be an appealing background.

With this in mind I have specifically shot my latest photo (the one at the top of the page) with what I hope is a visually appealing background! Now the work begins of getting this image noticed with the hope and aim of it being selected for Explore!

Nakuru Photo Blog

I have visited Lake Nakuru National Park three times since we moved to Kenya in 2008. As a whole it is one of my least favorite parks, perhaps because it is so small. I much prefer the wide open spaces of the Masaai Mara or Tsavo, however for a day visit it allows one to see a large number of animals and birds. I visited the park again on Tuesday 19th April with my family.

The park's focus is Lake Nakuru, one of the Rift valley soda lakes. There are 2 great vantage points to see the lake - one is Baboon Cliff look-out which is to the north of the lake (from the main gate travel to the right). The more spectacular of the two is Lion Hill Lookout. This is a bit "off the beaten track" but well worth the drive. The access road is just before the Lanet gate.

Lake Nakuru National Park's claim to fame has always been the hundreds of thousands (even millions on some occasions) of Flamingos that feed on algae on the shores. Unfortunately this is no longer the case, with the bulk of the Flamingos having moved to Lake Bogoria and Lake Simbi Nyaima. We did see small groups of Lesser Flamingo and even fewer Greater Flamingo as well as large numbers of Pelicans. We saw about 25 species of bird in total as well as Lion, White Rhino, Buffalo and assorted antelope.

Hope you enjoy the photos below (you can click on them to see larger versions on flickr):

It's a lens, baby!

A couple of months ago I bought a new lens for my camera, its called a Lensbaby Composer. When I tell people about my purchase I usually get one of two responses; either "That's cool, is it as nifty as they claim!" or "What's a Lensbaby?" I hope to answer both questions in this blog post.

In most cameras (an exception would be a pinhole camera) a lens is used to focus the incoming light onto an image sensor - either the photographic film (light sensitive chemical emulsion) or CCD chip (digital photocell). Most lenses are rigidly coupled to the front of the camera in such a way that the focal plane is parallel to that of the image sensor.

This means that the "slice" of focus (whose depth/thickness is dependent on the aperture and lens) is parallel to the image sensor. This parallel slice of focus is for most cameras and their users simply the way it is, and is a very powerful creative tool on its own. For example, by using a large aperture (i.e. a low f-stop), a narrow focal slice is created meaning that the areas on either side of the slice are blurred. The image below demonstrates this perfectly.

 

In contrast, a narrow aperture (or high f-stop) produces a broad focal slice. This is useful for landscape photos where you'd like as much of the photo to be in focus as possible. The image below was shot at f/10.0 which produces quite a broad focal slice, but even narrower apertures like f/22.0 or f/32.0 will produce images where almost all the visible image is sharply focused. A pinhole camera (which doesn't have a lens, but just a pin-prick size hole for the light to enter) has a very narrow aperture (my pinhole camera has an f-stop of 177! and practically everything is in focus.

The Lensbaby Composer (as well as the Lensbaby Muse and Control Freak) is a creative lens system that creates a circular "sweet spot" of focus surrounded by a circular blurred zone. Furthermore, the lens can be tilted allowing the "sweet spot" (think of it as a circular focal spot) to be angled versus the image sensor.

In the Composer model, this is achieved using a ball and socket design. Aperture is controlled by using metallic discs with varying size holes in them which are placed over the lens optic. Like traditional lenses, the aperture also controls the depth of the focal spot. So a large aperture gives lots of blur, and a small aperture gives little blur. Before we look at some actual Lensbaby images (I think in this case the pictures will speak a 1000 words), I should also mention that Lanesbaby is a lens system, with interchangeable optics. This means that different lenses can be plugged into the lens body allowing for different visual effects. Below is an image of the Lensbaby Composer from the side showing the unit tilted, and also 4 of the optics I own (from left to right: Single Glass Optic, Plastic Optic, Pinhole/zone plate optic, Double Glass Optic). Other optics are also available. I will cover all the optics in more detail in a future post.

So, onto some sample images! The image of the tree below has the lens centered (no tilt), and uses a f2.8 aperture (maximum blur). As you can see the center of the image is focused, with a radial blur extending outwards - almost like a motion blur. You can see a bigger version of the image by clicking the link above.

In the daisy image below, the daisy in focus is off-center. This is achieved by tilting the lens so that the "sweet-spot" is centered on the daisy. As you can see the whole of the daisy is focused, and not just a slice of it! Had this photo been taken with a normal lens by changing the aperture, the whole of the daisy could have been in focus, but the focal slice would have crossed the entire image. Here we see the rest of the image is blurred.

The orange daisy is another example of the creativity offered by the Lensbaby system.

The Lensbaby system also allows the addition of screw-on macro lenses, allowing for close-up shots. As a photomacrographer myself, this is a great option. I will share my experiences using these accessories in a future post.

Random Photography

Well, this blog was and perhaps is on the brink of obscurity! When I started it at the end of last year I had high hopes that I would be able to sustain regular postings and in so doing build a readership. I realize today as I write this that its been about 2 and half months since I've posted anything here!

I can cite many reasons for the lack of posts of late - my busy schedule, lack of interesting subjects, blogger's block, etc, however these are probably more likely excuses.

I guess what's more important right now, is whether this trend will continue. I hope not, but actions speak louder than words. For the next few posts I am going to go back to one of the original reasons I started this blog - to talk about photography.

This week I have been taking nature photos while at work! Under normal circumstances a statement like that shouldn't justify and exclamation mark. After all many people I know here in Kenya work in the outdoors and could quite easily take some snaps of their surroundings. I made use of punctuation as I was (for the most part) at my desk in mid-town Nairobi while these photos were being taken. I achieved this feat using trail camera.

Trail camera mounted in the tree above the bird feeder.

Trail cameras, also known as camera traps are digital cameras in weather proof cases that are triggered by motion or infrared signals. These cameras can be mounted in remote areas and are triggered by passing animals (or people). The model I have is able to shoot still photos (up to a 9-shot burst), and video in daylight and also at night using infrared lighting.

One of the more successful shots.

Like any new piece of kit, it requires some experimentation and practice to get the most out it. I have only had this unit for a few days (on loan from a friend), and so the results to date have been less than spectacular. One of the challenges is that the unit has no view finder requiring a literal "point and shoot" approach, made worse by only being able to see the results afterward when the results are downloaded. By example, yesterday due to an alignment that was probably 1 degree out I managed to shoot 830 photos of the lawn below the bird feeder! Another problem I'm experiencing is that very small animals don't seem to trigger the camera - quite a problem if the subjects are birds.

In the short term my remote photography will be limited to our garden and surrounds. I plan to mount the camera in one of the big trees near the house to try to catch the nocturnal Tree Hyrax population in action! In the longer term, I hope to use this the next time we are camping in the bush to see what nocturnal animals visit our camp at night. Watch this space and my Flickr stream for more results.

Coming and Going

It's been thirteen days since my last blog post! For those of you who have read my first post introducing this blog, you might have thought that it had faded to black like my previous diaries! The truth is that I have started work again, and no, researching interesting, but useless information is not my job!

For the greater part of the two weeks I have been absent, I was in South Africa. South Africa is my homeland, but not currently my home (I currently reside in Kenya). Within minutes of heading out onto South Africa's highway's I find myself marveling at the great road infrastructure that South Africa has. According to the CIA Factbook, about 73,500 km's of South Africa 362,000 km's of road are paved. In comparison Kenya only has just over 11,000 km's of paved road, and a total of 160,000km. Despite the difference Kenya is in the top 3 for roads in Africa (Nigeria holds 2nd place). The CIA Factbook doesn't have a measure for road quality, or the number of potholes, but I am sure if they did, Kenya would be vying for the top spot.

Although my blog is still in its infancy, one of my most popular posts is How to make a Pothole - a tongue-in-cheek look at state of pothole repair in my neighborhood.  To be fair, Kenya is investing to improve and upgrade the road infrastructure. According to a leaked US Embassy cable on Wikileaks - "China is heavily involved in various infrastructure projects across Kenya primarily with roads". One such project is the Ksh 27 Billion (US$330 Million) Thika Road upgrade. This is a 50km 8-lane super highway to join Nairobi to Thika town. This development, like most road infrastructure projects, is adding to the notorious Nairobi traffic, but it's hoped to increase access to and from Thika. This development is one of many that will occur over the next 20 years as part of Kenya's Vision 2030.

Another glaring contrast between South Africa and Kenya are the number of beggars on street corners. It seems to me that South Africa has many more beggars than Kenya! This may seem counter-intuitive, especially if you consider some statistics - while South Africa has a larger population than Kenya - 49 Million vs 40 Million, it has a much lower unemployment rate 23.3% vs 40%. In absolute terms this means that Kenya has about 5 Million more unemployed! The number of people living below the poverty line is equal - 50% for both nations.

Searching on Google for "why are there so few beggars in Kenya" gives about a quarter of a million hits - none of the top 10 hits (mostly blogs) answered my question. My observation is not based on any quantitative research, and may therefore be questioned, however I generally find Kenyan's to be more entrepreneurial than South Africans - perhaps this is a reason?

One final difference I will discuss was the state-of-the-art vending machines now available in South Africa. At OR Tambo International Airport I found a Pizza Vending Machine! It provides you with your favorite slice in under 3 minutes. What's more is that it doesn't just heat-up a pre-made pizza, it actually bakes it fresh from scratch! I didn't have a chance to try it (or even photograph it) as I was rushing for my flight, but an internet search has revealed that its been around (in Europe) since 2009.

While the technology is brilliant, perhaps South African Businesses should invest in more real life Pizzeria's to help reduce unemployment?

Old wine

Archeologists in Armenia have discovered the remains of the oldest known wine-making facility. The findings included a shallow basin believed to have been the wine-press which drained into a deep vat. They researchers also found grape seeds, remains of crushed grapes and some dried vines. Read the full story here.

In one of my earlier posts on Habit Forming, I commented on how the consumption of alcohol has long been intertwined with human -  this discovery suggests that wine has been influencing human endeavors for some time.

The oldest bottle of wine was discovered in Germany in 1867. This Roman glass amphora is believed to date to 325 AD. The bottle contains two liquids - the "wine" and a layer of what's believed to be olive oil - used instead of a cork to reduce oxidation and evaporation.

In episode 12 of the TV Series White Collar, the FBI and their ex-con forger investigate the sale of a bottle of wine believed to have been given to Benjamin Franklin by Marie Antoinette. While such a transaction may have occurred, the writers and producers on this episode probably drew inspiration from the sale of a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite believed to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson. This bottle was sold on auction in 1985 and fetched price of $160,000.

Last year Sotheby's sold three bottles of Châteaux Lafite-Rothschild 1869 on auction in Hong-Kong for the hammer price of $232,692 per bottle making this the most expensive (recorded) bottle of wine.

While I am an oenophile, its highly unlikely I will ever have the means to buy wine worth more than a couple of hundred South African Rand. The oldest wine I have ever opened and drunk - I separate the two as some old wines when opened are awful and cannot be drunk - was a bottle of Uiterwyk Cabernet Sauvignon from 1974 - my birth year. 

A wine as old as I am!

I was so impressed by the quality of the wine after so much time, I tracked down the producing wine estate in South Africa and contacted them:

"Uiterwyk Cabernet Sauvignon 1974

Dear Sirs,

I had the pleasure of opening (and drinking) a bottle of Uiterwyk Cabernet Sauvignon 1974 this evening. I live in Nairobi, Kenya. The bottle was given to me by a fellow South African who was heading back to SA and couldn't take any of his wine collection with him.

The cork was brittle, but I managed to get 90% out of of the bottle in one go - the remains were pushed into the bottle. We poured it straight into glasses through a fine sieve. The wine had a purple-red colour - unlike other old Cabernet Sauvignon's I have opened, which are usually brown!

As for the taste? It improved with some air, but was complex yet completely smooth. Very hard to describe actually - the smoothest (and oldest) Cabernet Sauvignon I have ever drunk, yet retaining complexity,

The wine bottle (i have photo's if you like copies) states that the wine maker was a D. De Waal. If he/she is still alive, I'd like to congratulate them on producing a fine wine! And a fine wine that was good after 36 years!

Keep well

JK"

Pieter de Waal, the current MD of the wine estate responded as follows:

"Thank you for taking the trouble to send us such a complimentary letter.

 

My father, Danie de Waal (Snr) is still alive and well at 90 years of age. I have printed your e-mail and will take it to him - he will be delighted, I'm sure.

 

Thanks again

 

Kind regards

 

Pieter de Waal" 

I guess my letter made D. De Waal (Snr)'s day, just as the fruit of his labors - some 36 years past had made our day!

What's the oldest bottle of wine you have ever drunk? What did it taste like?

How to make a pothole

Its not surprising that when I searched on Google for instructions on how to make a pothole that I didn't get many hits, and that the hits I did received focused more on the problem of potholes, or how to repair them, or even how to claim from your insurance for vehicle damage caused by potholes!

Since no one is describing how to do it, I thought I would share the Kenyan way:

1. Find a road in fair condition (i.e. it might have some cracks, but no actual potholes yet).
2. Mark the areas you'd like your potholes created using chalk. I call these the preferred pothole zones (PPZs).
3. Cut along the lines with power road cutter (its like a big angle grinder).
4. Divert traffic while your laborers use picks to loosen the tar sections inside your PPZs
5. Leave the remains of the tar in place.
6. Wait 3 to 5 days for your potholes to form.

As ridiculous as this sounds, this is the very thing that happened near our house today! I am sure that the intention was not to deliberately create potholes, but rather to remove the areas of cracked tar and immediately replace them with new sections, however its been my experience that the repair crew will not arrive on site for days, weeks or even months meaning that us road users must skirt numerous potholes, or better yet drive on the sidewalk for the time it takes for the road to be repaired, when there wasn't really much wrong with the road to start with!

I've heard the argument from several people here in Kenya that improving the road surfaces will lead to more road deaths because smoother roads allow faster travel. Perhaps the pothole creators are trying to reverse the traffic death toll by making roads rougher and speeds slower?

While smoother roads do allow faster travel, it doesn't compute that this is the sole cause of more road accidents. A blog entry on the Wall Street Journal site indicated that in India they have correlated an increase in road fatalities to investment in the road infrastructure, however when unpacked the increases are linked to more roads, wider roads, and the poor design of roads, e.g. the lack of pedestrian walkways.

In 1985, Rumar¹ published a study on the causes of traffic collisions using data from the US and the UK. He found that 57% of collisions were solely caused by driver factors. In contrast, only 3% of collisions were solely related to roadway factors. A further 27% combined roadway and driver factors. While we should be cautious to use developed world data in the developing context, I think this analysis debunks the myth that better road surfaces will lead to more accidents!

In November of 2009 the UN held a landmark conference of Road Safety. Road safety is moving from being tackled as a local or national problem to an International one, and rightly so - annually 1,300,000 people die in road accidents. A further 50 million are injured. This can cost a country between 1 and 3% of GDP. Later this year the UN will declare a Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) with the aim of halving the increase in global road deaths by 2020.

Here in Kenya, both the President - Mwai Kibaki and the Transport Minister - Amos Kimunya have recognized the need to reduce the carnage on Kenyan roads. At a Road Safety stakeholder meeting in October last year², the President has suggested stronger regulations and enforcement of traffic rules, while Minister Kimunya called for attitudinal change amongst road users and indicated that government would introduce strong legislation and better road designs.

As always (and especially where politicians are concerned), actions speak louder than words. The Kenyan government is introducing legislation that will eventually phase out the 14-seater minibus taxis (called Matatu's in Kenya). This is a good start as many of these vehicles have questionable road-worthy status, and are driven with little cognizance of the road rules. Let's hope that the promise of better road designs includes better repair mechanisms for potholes!

In the interim, I suppose we'll have to continue to shake our heads in disbelief at the approaches taken for road repair in and around Nairobi, enjoy the use of our off-road vehicles for on road use, and replace our worn shock absorbers regularly!

References:

1. Rumar, K. 1985. “The Role of Perceptual and Cognitive Filters in Observed Behaviour.” In Human Behaviour and Traffic Safety, L. Evans and R.C. Schwing, eds. New York: Plenum Press.

2. Stakeholders decry high carnage on Kenyan roads.  Article on www.allvoices.com.

Making the most of what you have.

We just returned from a 4 day safari in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya. Usually when we go on safari we choose the "self-drive" option. On this trip we decided to treat ourselves to a fly-in package - we flew from Wilson airport in Naiorbi to a small airstrip in Buffalo Springs National Reserve (adjacent to Samburu) and were collected by our lodge (Elephant Bedroom Camp). We were then treated to 2 game drives a day in an open sided (and open roofed) safari vehicle, and all meals (3 course lunch and 4 course dinner).

I will be writing a full "travel blog" about the safari itself over the next few days. For this posting I'd like to reflect on some curious behaviors and habits I observed amongst the wildlife over the last few days.

One of the biggest advantages of one of these "all-inclusive" safari packages is that you are provided with a vehicle AND a driver. In the self-drive version I am usually the driver which can really cramp my photography style, so having a large vehicle with open sides and top was a great aid to getting some good shots. In Samburu (as with most parks in Kenya) the proportion of people on "self-drive" safari's is very low, with most vehicles we encountered driven by professional safari guides. Many of these tourists were on photographic safari's - game viewing with the primary purpose of photographing the animals.

Elephant Bedroom Camp Landrover

On the morning of our third day we encountered a Southern Lesser Kudu doe with her calf. We also encountered 2 photo safari vehicles. The two safari vehicles each had 3 photographers, each person sporting a long lens of between 400 and 800mm of zoom. As we sat watching the buck (and as I tried to line up the best shot) amongst the sounds of nature I heard the click-click-click of shutters firing at 4 to 6 frames per second. I realized in that moment that we were Wildlife Paparazzi candidly capturing every movement the buck made.

Lens envy is defined (by me :-) as "a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's photographic lenses", and I for a few brief moments felt it! Many of the people were using the same lens that I have - Canon 100 - 400mm, but there were a few with even longer lenses - I saw 2 people with Canon 800mm lenses (they cost about USD 11,000). I could just imagine the images I could snap with a nice long lens like that in my camera bag (although a lens that long usually has its own bag :-)

Some of the lenses in question

Later in the day, when we encountered a small pride of lions and still later when I had a very close (photographic) encounter with a leopard I realized that the secret to good wildlife photography is not dreaming about the shots you could take with a better lens, but actually taking the best photo that you can when the opportunity presents itself. You might have the longest zoom and the best camera set-up, but you could be parked with a tree or bush in front of you!  

For all of the big cats, we had the best photographic spots - no obscuring trees or bushes and with the cats either looking at us or facing us! We were in the right place at the right time - something that money can't buy you.  

Happy Lionesses

Cheetah cub

Lounging Leopard

Points for school fees

The largest supermarket chain in Kenya is a company called Nakumatt. They have styled themselves on the US's Wallmart supplying everything from fresh produce to DIY. They have numerous stores across Nairobi, and are opening additional stores all over Kenya, and have also recently expanded into Uganda and Rwanda.

While we often complain about their service (and by South African or US standards their service is shocking), they are one of the few supermarkets available to us here in Kenya, and so I suppose we bite the bullet and spend our money there.

Like many supermarkets, they have a loyalty program. Nakumatt gives us 1 point for every Ksh 100 spent in store. Ksh 100 is worth about USD 1.23 or ZAR 8.27. These points can be redeemed on further purchases in store at a rate of 1 point equals 1.2 Ksh. So in essence they are giving a 1.2% discount. On occasion Nakumatt runs special promotions to earn double points, or to increase the redemption value. I am not sure how this compares with other supermarket incentive schemes around the world, but 1.2% seems like a pitiful incentive to shop there. Perhaps its the fact that Nakumatt has a functional monopoly in Kenya that leads them to believe that their customers will be loyal with such a small incentive. I use the term functional as there are 2 other supermarket chains in Kenya - Uchumi and Tusky's, however neither of these are effective competition for Nakumatt. Until recently Uchumi was under receivership, while both Tusky's and Uchumi don't have the number of stores and reach that Nakumatt has.

Considering my generally negative feelings about the loyalty program I was pleasantly surprised this week when I spotted a poster at one of the Nakumatt branches that read "Redeem your points at 2 Ksh per point to pay your school fees, or buy school supplies." I had to know more - I asked a manager and he explained that I could fill in some forms and Nakumatt would convert my points into cash to pay my school fees!

I don't have any school fees to pay, however this is a really great idea. The conversion rate isn't much improved, but the mere fact that they will actually pay cash out (albeit a check issued to the school) in lieu of points is a brilliant idea and a great service to the community. Since we have been in Kenya we have been asked at least 5 times for loans to pay school fees. These fees are usually payable up front at the start of the term/year and can be a serious financial burden on many Kenyan's.

So, kudos to Nakumatt for this initiative. Perhaps Nakumatt could extend this offer to enable people to trade points for donations to registered charities?

And That's a Wrap!

I have always enjoyed knowing things, and as a result I have a head full of what's sometimes called "useless information". The internet is a great source of tit-bits and obscure references to add to this internal treasure trove. Today's blog post is actually about gifts, or more specifically the wrapping of gifts, although I'd like to start out by looking at the origins of the phrase "That's a Wrap". I am sure that the bulk of my readers will correctly associate this phrase with the film industry. The word Wrap in this context means to finishing filming a motion picture. So how did we get from "Wrap" to"That's a Wrap"? In answering this question, my research was greatly assisted by an article in The New York Times, written by William Safire in February of 2005.

It would seem that in the 40's and 50's that the phrase used to signify the end of shooting was "Wrap it up". I can imagine a junior film studio employee wrapping the film canisters in brown paper and tying them with string and rushing them to post-production. Somewhere along the way Wrap was transformed from a verb to a noun.

The first reference to "That's a Wrap" is found in Orson's Welles' biography published in 1998. He quotes Charlton Heston's journal from 1957: ''We rehearsed all day . . . the studio brass gathering in the shadows in anxious little knots. By the time we began filming at 5:45, I knew they'd written off the whole day. At 7:40, Orson said: 'O.K., print. That's a wrap on this set.' ''. This doesn't fundamentally answer the question of why, but it satisfies my curiosity, and as such is a classic example of much of what resides in my cranium. Its certainly interesting, and I am sure I will sometime find an opportunity to use this tit-bit in dinner conversation, but its also useless!

I can recommend the source article for this "useless information" tit-bit: William Safire's "It's a Wrap".

So onto wrapping gifts. We just had Christmas and it's now 2011, so there are a string of friends birthday's and other gift giving opportunities on the horizon. With that in mind, I have decided to share with you the best kept wrapping secret, something that changed the way I wrap, and can revolutionize the way YOU wrap.

I read an interesting blog on the Nature.com website on the Psychology Behind Wrapping Paper. which has prompted me to share my secret with the broader internet population. In 1992 Dr Daniel Howard conducted research on the effect of wrapping on the gift recipient. I won't go into the details, but he showed that wrapped gifts are preferred over the non-wrapped variety.

I think that I buy pretty cool gifts for people, but since I tend to be quite disorganized, I used to be left without something to wrap it in. In an emergency there was always newspaper or a page or two from a glossy magazine as a substitute, but then there was the problem of adhesion?!

A few years ago, I had a wrapping brainwave, a true Eureka moment. Why not use tin foil (for non South African's read Aluminium foil). Every kitchen has it and it can be torn from its roll (no need for scissors), and can be wrapped around any object - no adhesive tape required! What's more is that its shiny (Aluminium foil has a reflectivity of between 80 and 88%, depending whether you have the matte side or shiny side outside). Dr Howard's research also showed that the nicer the wrapping the more desirable the gift! Since my discovery I have never been left searching for a last minute means of wrapping a gift.

As I sign off, I thought to debunk a common misconception about the insulation property of Aluminium foil and its use in cooking. Has anyone ever said "put the shiny side inside to keep the heat in"? The truth is that difference between the ability of the matt and shiny sides of the foil to insulate is negligible, and can only be detected with sensitive instruments. It doesn't matter which side is inside!

Habit forming

Since I am now taking my blogging seriously, I have been looking into the subject of forming habits. I am not talking about substance abuse, although that is an interesting subject too - as an example a study published in 2007 in The Lancet journal showed that Alcohol is the 3rd most addictive drug (of the 10 studied). The two more addictive are Heroin and Cocaine. The least addictive drug (on their list) is MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) , more commonly known as Ecstasy as it can induce a feeling of euphoria and reduce anxiety and depression. The interesting thing for me from this study is that alcohol is almost twice as addictive as ecstasy yet alcohol is sold legally, while ecstasy is illegal! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a glass or two of fine wine, its just interesting how certain products are so intertwined into human history and behavior that they have escaped the control of governments and regulatory bodies. Nevertheless, I digress. Perhaps this will be a good subject for a future blog posting.

Back to my original topic on forming habits. Various web-sites offer various suggestions on what it takes to form a new (good) habit and how long it takes. There seems to be a consensus that practicing the action is important (go figure). Some sites stress the importance of measurement to assess whether progress is being made, while others suggest that there should be rewards to improve motivation.

How long does it take? In the 1960's, a plastic surgeon - Dr Maxwell Maltz, observed that it took 21 days for patients who had lost a limb to stop feeling phantom pains. He postulated that it took 21 days for the brain pathways to be rewired. Since some amputees continue to feel these pains life long, and since people with congenital limb loss also sometimes feel these sensations and pains, the science behind it is probably a lot more complicated, however the principle of forming new neural pathways is sound. Here's a link to more information on Dr Maltz's work.

A more contemporary study looking at the time taken to form new eating habits, published in 2010 in the European Journal of Social Psychology by Phillippa Lally et al showed an exponential curve shaped relationship between time and automaticity - the degree to which the test subjects did the action without thinking. This data suggests that performing the new habit in the first few days has a greater impact than performing it later on. The time to plateau (the time where little further gains were made) ranged from 18 days to 254 days indicating that the actual time to form a new habit was highly variable, and in some individuals can be a very lengthy process. The study also showed that missing a day had little effect on the overall outcomes.

So what's all this got to do with blogging?

I guess the bottom line is that if I want to succeed this time with this blog I need to practice it (preferably daily) until I can perform the action without thinking?! No that's not right, the very nature of the blog requires thought! Perhaps after all I need to view this blogging thing like a habit-forming drug, something that once your hooked you can't easily give-up?!

Perhaps some of you out there who are long term bloggers can give me some thoughts on ensuring longevity of a blog?

A new blog?

Hi All

Growing up I never managed to keep a diary. I tried once or twice, but it always failed. The failure wasn't a spectacular nor catastrophic one, the diary just kind of faded away. Perhaps self-discipline was a cause, but in all honesty I never really saw the value in writing to myself - isn't that a bit like talking to yourself after all?

Blogging I suppose shares some elements of diary writing (especially if like this new blog you have no followers ;-). My previous blogs have gone the same route of my diaries - faded to black somewhere in a desk drawer. If I couldn't sustain a diary, will I manage to sustain a blog? Time will tell no doubt, however I think I have the necessary elements to make it work:

1. Something to say (I'm older and wiser).
2. A love (perhaps just a like) of writing.
3. Access to blogging technology.

Hopefully over time I'll add Number 4 - An audience! (otherwise I will be talking to myself again).

The next question you're probably asking is, what is this Blog about?

As an avid photographer (to see my work go to my Flickr page), I love to change the way I look at my world by fiddling with the focus. As I have got older and matured as a person I have come to realize that my world view, my area of focus differs from everyone else around me. I'm not suggesting that my view is special or peculiar in any way, just that it's my unique view point.

The word Bit has many definitions. I mean "a small piece or quantity of anything". Another meaning of Bit which is also appropriate for this blog is a binary digit, the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications.

This blog - The Bit in Focus will be my narrative of my journey through this life. It will definitely contain examples of my photographs and the journeys I take to capture them (some physical, some metaphysical), there will be cooking (and eating). There will be fun and laughter, but also the occasional sad and somber moment. In short, I intend it to be a snap shot of my life, but since I am the photographer I get to choose what you see!

Join me on the journey?!