otterman's posterous - "Anyone who can email can now blog"

April 3, 2009

GDocs/GCal at core of geting organised

I was discussing with Satveer, the student leader from NUS PEACE! (People Ending Animal Cruelty & Exploitation) the tools for effective communication. Unsurprisingly, at the core of the suggestions, besides the usual need for a blog/webpage, was GCal and GDocs.

They are already using GDocs for their minutes so adapting to the spreadheets and forms as well as the calendar shoud be relatively simple after a tutorial.

Besides their bread and butter outreach activities are two major initiatives - the Singapore Animal Welfare Symposium which ACRES helps them organise - it saw some 300 people come together last year and engage in effective dialogue. I thought it was extremely helpful in raising greater understanding about the mature stategies NGOs adopt in dealing with animal welfare issues. The second is a weekly shelter-cleaning activity for MettaCats. Consistent work, apparently, which was impressive to hear about. There is more but I'll let their blog redesign do the rest..

The group, which functions within NUS, just changed its name from NUS Animal Welfare to NUS PEACE! so they need to rename their blog and email. The former means a shift which acroamatic can help them with. It'll be nice to start with the slate clean for them - right now, if you search "NUS PEACE" in Google, it reveals my recent twitter entry, which at least links to their facebook page.

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April 2, 2009

Film Friday: Screening of EARTHLINGS & Film Discussion

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April 1, 2009

NUS' University Health Centre shifts across the road

Much better now if you tear your knee cartilage - no more need to climb a long flight of stairs to get a referral to a specialist
!

http://www.nus.edu.sg/uhc/notice.html

http://www.nus.edu.sg/uhc/

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March 27, 2009

Why I can't use my wireless keyboard

... on a Saturday afternoon. Mr Bats simply gets in the way.

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March 24, 2009

Last Saturday's rainbow

After a thunderous storm which floored some branches off yellow flame trees along Holland Road, in the crystal clear air, the rainbow appeared. We saw it out of a window in a friend's new home in Bishan. Twittered it and learnt it (or one like it) was visible from East Coast too.

Click here to download:

Last_Saturdays_rainbow.zip (381 KB)

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March 13, 2009

What I'd really like to do during my field trips!

More at joeydevilla.com

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March 8, 2009

Mean looking storm approaches, field trip suspended

A mean-looking storm is approaching from the south-west. Enough for TSLT, the senior muddy student to tentatively call off our field trip. We meant to take canopy readings and light conditions so it would have ben pointless in an overcast sky. In an intense thunderstorm, its pretty hard to take readings anyway, even if we both don't wear glasses.

We refereed to the NEA webpages which are great for field workers and anyone who needs to be outdoors,. There are a few to look at:

Now cast and forecast in three-hourly blocks - link
Rain areas animation of the past four hours to figure out what's likely to happen - link
Rain locations in Singapore - radar observations within the last 15 minutes, which I use often when students or volunteers are out in the field without me - link

Using these, I once SMS-ed a student to warn about getting out of a field site due to approaching heavy rain and lightning (during intense work, sometimes people forget to look up). Even as they went for cover, the student SMS-ed back to say they felt the first drops reach them.

Well for now, I'll catch up with admin and hope there are strong winds to blow the rain away.

Click here to download:

Mean_looking_storm_approaches_.zip (249 KB)

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March 3, 2009

Staying out deep water - the Giant Mudskipper

I'd finished a meeting at Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve last Saturday (28 Feb 2009) and both my muddy students were there as well to conduct mudskipper observations. TSLT came by and feasted on the excellent mee siam provided for the meeting and after that we checked in on the other student at the Visitor Centre boardwalk, who was conducting high tide observations. This is one of the mudskippers we were watching and they always bring a grin to our faces, even after a decade of noticing them. We're finally taking a closer look these days.

Feel free to use the image as desktop wallpaper (follow the link to the larger file) and see if your colleagues are familiar with this animal - mudskippers are reasonably well known, judging from audience response at talks. Some might still need convincing that they are fish.

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February 27, 2009

Tiger peers intently

He was allowed moments out of the carrier when returning from the vet to peer at pedestrians, in particular. He took great interest in the surroundings this time. He had lost 0.5kg in this bout of pancreatitis but he is back to normal now, it seems. What a relief!

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February 27, 2009

What is that green spot?

What is that green patch we saw from the Singapore Flyer on a department staff outing? The Singapore Flyer is located at the southern end of Singapore and many of the biodiversity folk were using the opportunity to peer like the usually do from airplanes, into the surrounding for green patches—it was actually depressing with so much construction going on. But then we spied a green patch in the distance which had some of us arguing, really in disbelief (this photo is clearer than the view we had) but in the end there was no doubt about what it was.

Besides being testament to how flat Singapore is, the scene certainly highlights how precious it is. How I wish we could say our green spaces were secure for the long-term. This morning, Koh Wen Hui Melissa Lois argued for many of us when she wrote in Today Online, "Leave my green spot alone."

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