The ‘Great Tit’, My Devil Neighbors, and Story Behind Cheerful Songs (Comic)

'Blackbird on a Branch'-Stensparken-Oslo, May 2017. 200mm, ISO 320, 1/160, f3.5 (1.5x cropped from the original photo). 

The rudest creatures on the planet live in Norway; The birds! ... Half way through the winter, they start chirping, calling, and singing loud... I don't even imagine how glad a creature should be to sit on a snow-capped tree and gladly sing, while the thermometer is inching ten degrees below the freezing point in February... Down the branch,  human are in quest of warmth even before replying to any type of casual greeting...

I listened carefully, no matter what time of the year, the song is happy, cheerful, and lively...In spring they are the loudest...no! I correct: In spring and bed time, they are the loudest... Some are only a ring-finger size from bill to tail [Greenish Warbler], but they show the biggest middle finger to whom seeks peace and quiet...

One species is called the 'Great Tit'!! That explains well why it's so noisy... still could be worse...imagine if its name was 'Great Butt' (or other types of 'great things') we would have to evacuate our living places in urban areas...

I believe one of the particularly noisiest one has nested in my next door's backyard... seven days a week, day and night, it's singing; non-stop... The sound stands out from dog barking, tiger crouching, traffic noise, and even ambulance sirens. The song is the same, I strongly believe so are the lyrics...no change...most probable a love song... During the day it's mumbling in low pitches...I guess it's complaining about the stiff cedes and 'nesthold' expenditures...something like this: ... wh-at... the... he-ck...!!...ten... krones... for ju-st... a fea-st... of... ceeeeeeedes?!!

They stop singing in late summer... not because they die, migrate, or get tired... they simply come to the conclusion that no one is interested to listen... but until next year, they forget and the same story happens again...

Smartphone applications have been developed for identifying the birds by song ... I identified my little devil neighbor, it's a black black ‘Blackbird’....

P.S I: Olivier Messian [French composer, 1908-1992], has composed a flute sonata called 'The Blackbird' [Le Merle Noir]... I used to practice it a long time ago... It was very difficult, but I truly believe after listening so many times to my devil neighbor, it should be easy now...

P.S II: Birds in urban area sing in higher pitch and frequency compared to the ones in countryside to stand out from the noise [https://videnskab.dk/miljo-naturvidenskab/arkitektur-og-trafikstoj-giver-skinger-fuglekvidder].

Chance, Randomness, Butterfly Effect, and Decision Making [Argumentative]

'Flipp'-50mm, f5.6, ISO 100, 1/200s. A Norwegian 20 kron coin. 

Infinite number of coin tossing gives us a fair chance of head or tail catch, i.e. 50/50 chance. This is no-brainer; or is it? To your surprise, chance plays no role in coin tossing. What if you precisely identify and control all the physical factors affecting the launch, movement, and landing of the coin, to alter the probability of the results for your favor? Apparently, various robots have been developed for coin flipping with the accuracy close to 100%. We call it chance or randomness, because of our ignorance or lack of knowledge & control over the initial conditions. In coin tossing example, we don’t have that luxury to control the initial condition, therefore our results depend on the mercy of the luck.

We have landed a man on the moon; we have accurately predicted the eclipses for hundreds of years to come, but still we are unable to predict the direction of the wind, hours before blowing, if not minutes. Can a flap of a butterfly in Brazil cause a thunderstorm in Texas? The answer is yes. In a chaotic system, a tiny change in the initial condition may cause a dramatic difference in the end results. In weather forecast, this tiny change can be as small as a flap of a butterfly. The phenomenon which is called ‘Butterfly Effect’. What is grossly neglected is that a flap of butterfly in Brazil can prevent a thunderstorm in Texas too. A precise information about the existing condition, may enable us to predict the future precisely (or approximately). However, an approximate knowledge of the existing condition doesn’t enable us to predict the future approximately. Literally, it leaves us with an absolute randomness.

Human society seems to be a somewhat ordered system by information, regulations, rational bounding, and wisdom of crowd. But it is somewhat chaotic too as not only our decisions and actions are continually changing our paths of living, but also behavior of others impacts our lives. Where there is one job, and thousand applicants, if you get the job means the rest don’t get any. You start your day ten minutes later than you used to in the past ten years; most probable nothing unusual happens. What if you involve in a car accident? We are very much used to blame these tiny or major decisions in our lives to be responsible for unpleasant events. But in fact, you could also skip a car accident by starting your day slightly later than usual. No one knows how many times you skipped unpleasant situations by making odd, unusual, and usual decisions so far.

When it comes to the life, regression is a meaningless feeling. The life is a movie you can watch it only once. At the end of this movie, you may identify the spots that decisions and actions could be better or worse. In the middle of the movie, no one can foresee what future is going to bring for the artist. After so many years of studying and working as an accountant, you have lost your interest, and eventually, you are run-of-the-mill. Then you start speculation; you could go for your second interest after high school, pedagogy. Then you imagine the rest of your life path, as a successful person who is notable, satisfied, rich, and so forth. This is where I call it cheating. The reason I am calling it cheating is that you compare some parts of your rugged life which are seen with details, and features, with the parts you have not seen yet, and you predict, in that way, it could have been more promising. There is no guarantee that it could be better.

If regression is not the way of increasing our sense of responsibility towards the steps we take in our lives, what does it? The answer is being mindfulness. We ought to take the best decision in accordance to the best available existing data. In other words, we tend to make a robust information of initial condition. Then we yield to perform a decision-making process in accordance to the initial condition. If the outcome is in our favor, it is the result, otherwise, it’s a fresh data for the next analysis.

P.S. 23 photos have been shot from the flying coin to choose one satisfactory out of many. 

Christmas Lighting in Oslo-December 2017

To to best of my observation, this year is different from the recent years when it comes to the weather. November was the brightest, and December was the coldest compared to several years back. But Christmas spirit usually is the same; Very active and lively. I had a chance to get my gears out and capture some of the it.