Cold, dark, warm, light

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Kennemer Dunes, today. Finishing after dark [ motivation ]

"[Except for elementary reflexes], people are not equipped with inborn repertoires of behaviour. They must learn them. New response patterns can be acquired either by direct experience or by observation. Biological factors, of course, play a role in the acquisition process. Genetics and hormones affect physical development which in turn can influence behavioural potentialities. Many so-called instinctual behaviours [though], even in lower species, contain a large learning component. […] When people deal with everyday events, some of their responses prove successful, while others have no effect or result in punishing outcomes. Trough this process of different reinforcement, successful forms of behaviour are eventually selected and ineffectual ones are discarded [...] Self-reinforcement refers to a process in which individuals enhance and maintain their own behaviour by rewarding themselves with rewards that they control when ever they attain self prescribed standards. […] According to social learning theory […] self-regulated reinforcements increase performance mainly trough its motivational function. By making self-reward conditional upon attaining a certain level of performance, individuals create self-inducements to persist in their efforts until their performances match self-prescribed standards. […] Track performances, for example, are gauged in terms of speeds. Achievement-oriented activities are evaluated on the basis of quality, quantity, or originality. Social conduct is judged along such dimensions as authenticity, concequentialness and deviancy […] Whether a given performance will be regarded as rewardable or punishable depends upon the personal standards against which it is evaluated. Actions that measure up to internal standards give rise to positive appraisals, while those that fall short are judged negatively. For most activities there are no absolute measures of adequacy. The time in which a mile is run, the scores obtained on tasks, or the size of charitable contributions, do not convey in themselves sufficient information for self-appraisal. […]  In performances gauged by social criteria, self appraisals require relational comparisons of at least three sources of information to judge a given performance: absolute performance level, one's own personal standards, and a social referent."

Albert Bandura in 'Social Learning Theory', page 16, 17, 130 131. First published in 1977 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., USA 

Flying low

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Kennemer Dunes Parallel Universe in 360°, today. Compassion [ detachment ]

Above: Photosynthesis and respiration during trail training. Training fueled by breathing air, drinking enriched H₂0 with Mg and C₂₃H₃₁NO₆ and rest in darkness and silence.

Min/max temperature: 10°C/18°C; humidity: 32%; precipitation: 2 mm; sea level pressure: 1005 hPa; wind: ESE 33.8 km/h; visibility: 10.0 kilometres; Clouds: Few 6400 m., Mostly Cloudy 8229 m.; Moon: Waxing Crescent, 23% illuminated.

"In nature, free oxygen is produced by the light-driven splitting of water during oxygenic photosynthesis. According to some estimates, green algae and cyanobacteria in marine environments provide about 70% of the free oxygen produced on Earth, and the rest is produced by terrestrial plants. Other estimates of the oceanic contribution to atmospheric oxygen are higher, while some estimates are lower, suggesting oceans produce ~45% of Earth's atmospheric oxygen each year. A simplified overall formula for photosynthesis is: [...]

carbon dioxide + water + sunlight → glucose + dioxygen [...] 

Dioxygen is used in cellular respiration and many major classes of organic molecules in living organisms contain oxygen, such as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and fats, as do the major constituent inorganic compounds of animal shells, teeth, and bone. Most of the mass of living organisms is oxygen as a component of water, the major constituent of lifeforms. Conversely, oxygen is continuously replenished by photosynthesis, which uses the energy of sunlight to produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is too chemically reactive to remain a free element in air without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms. Another form (allotrope) of oxygen, ozone (O₃), strongly absorbs ultraviolet UVB radiation and the high-altitude ozone layer helps protect the biosphere from ultraviolet radiation."

From: 'Oxigen, Wkipedia'

"How does life start? It originates because lightning trough the air strikes water, [ and ] trough several reactions make connections: amino acids, resulting in DNA. That is the genesis of life."

prof.dr.ir. G.M.W. Kroesen, plasma physicist TU/Eindhoven, personal communication during filmed interview, 11 November 2016

Perspective

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Kennemer dunes 360° today. Fun [ run ]

Min/max temperature: 7°C/11°C; humidity: 69%; precipitation: 0 mm; sea level pressure: 1029 hPa; wind: WNW 17.7 km/h; visibility: 10.0 kilometres; Clouds: Few 914 m., Mostly Cloudy 1005 m.; Moon: Waxing Gibbous 79% visible

"When we see things from another person's perspective, we can usually understand better why people behave as they do. [ We ] gain more knowledge about complicated issues, clearing the way to take the next step. [...] We become more confident and resilient when facing challenging situations. It is trough courageous conversations that a team can adress the undiscuseables that have to be verbalized."

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries in The Hedgehog Effect', page 199. First published in 2011 by John Wiley and Sons, USA

Periodization and 'the law of diminishing returns'

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Haarlem. Today, I met with Ruud Wielart, after having been able to observe him for some time while being at the Haarlem 'Pim Mulier' athletics track. 'Weather or no weather', he always is present -- with his characteristic, deep, friendly and no-nonsense respect gaining voice, with an occasional touch of shyness --  as the sun can pierce trough leaves, deep in a forest. Commanding the training, of -- among other people -- his son Jurgen. Ruud Wielart is a former high-jumping-athelete, champion and record-holder. And has managed to transform his personal experiences into a training career. The topic of our conversation: how to make your personal experiences available trough training to others? We talked about his sports-career and how sport can be part of education. About training and dealing with injuries. His experiences in observing people, especially children. It will need some more time to work it out before publication, a crucial, labour-intensive process that just can't be left to somebody doing a transcript, no matter how well intended. Or, in the words of Army Air and Signal Corps combat photographer Arnold E. Samuelson, quoting Ernest Hemingway (on page eleven in 'A Year in Key West and Cuba'): "Don't get discouraged because there is a lot of mechanical work to writing. There is, and you can't get out of it. I rewrote the first part of A Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. You've got to work it over. The first draft of anything is shit. When you first start to write you get all the kick and the reader gets none, but after you learn to work it’s your object to convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it not as a story he had read but something that happened to himself." 

Presented here are a brief, short quote, though, and a photo from the meeting. It seems interviews at least lead to an opportunity to get close to people and make a good portrait. This is a recurring experience. The interview leads to an 'up-and-close' photo moment. The interview combusts artificial distance and clears the space between camera and subject, revealing true nature. At least, that is my humble experience. As Michael Rabiger points out in his book 'Directing the Documentary': "The strength of a documentary lies in the relationship between subject and filmmaker." In that sense the interview testifies of that experience: the decomposition of distance. Very similar to what we know about the proces of breathing in oxygen, breathing out carbon dioxide. 

Min/max temperature: 13°C/18°C; humidity: 81%; precipitation: 0.3 mm; sea level pressure: 1010.57 hPa; wind: SE 13 km/h; visibility: 11.0 kilometres; Clouds: Mostly Cloudy 914 m .; Moon: Waning Gibbous, 56% visible

"Sport has developed from peaceful circumstances. The first athletes, well, call them athletes, the people who were involved in sports, were people who trained under conditions similar to soldiers in the army -- though more comfortable. They trained in camps, with everything included, according to core principles and methods coming from preceeding times, coming from the army. As we athletes do, the army also periodizes. It comes from the Greeks, the ancient Greeks; they trained according to periodization principles: building up gradually, according to the 'law of diminishing returns'. 'Building up, building up, building up' and doing more and more and then bringing it down quietly and gradually. Building up intensity but reducing the overall work-load. And then they had the games. That is how sport originated. In every country that enjoys peace, there is sport. Football coach Rinus Michels talked about 'Football is war', it sounds a bit awkward, we can see that in the behaviour of some of the extremities of football, hooligans, the extreme fanatics, and [ football ] calls upon that more readily. Teams represent -- and this I always found a disadvantage of team-sports -- its call upon 'we against those over there'."

Ruud Wielart, personal communication during interview, Haarlem, May 17 2017