Need Help With Species Identification

Calling out to Any backyard Naturalist that happen to pass by:
Need your help with putting a name to the subjects of my photographs!

Location: FRIM Outpost in Teluk Intan/ Bidor and Teluk Intan itself

More photos of this series can be seen HERE

The Sentimental Luddite

Is sentimentality over-rated?

If you've chanced by the article about a tomboyish girl and her 11 year old pink scissors given by her mum (which she hated) and now cherish in memory [in Starmag today, 3rd of October, TheStar.] it might trigger your thoughts a little.

My dad had a watch, given by his dad, which he used for more than 45 years. He couldn't part with it even when it breathed its last (despite innumerable fixes and CPRs). And I believe he's still keeping it somewhere safe, laying in the midst of his black hole of a Cabinet

Then there's this guy in ?japan ?UK who has been using the same Gillete Razor for 75 years.

I bet if you're Gillette, he'd be The MOST LOYAL customer ever, that you wouldn't want, LOL. Coz his first purchase, is his last purchase..

Do you have something in your keeping that you know will practically be useless, even as a decorative piece? I know I have plenty....

Nowadays, there's a Gadget-Grabbing Techno Rage that surrounds us, Iphone 4 being the recent case in point.




With radio deejays, blog posts humming the Apple's Tune, there's really been a craze over it...

but, as I've said in my facebook wall-post,

Going out for dinner that day, we saw how many parents gave their childrens gadgets; initially it could have started with a mobile phone java game- parents passing the phone to child who claims they are bored in order to shut them up so that parents can do their shopping in peace.

Now we have dad, mom, and child playing with gadgets during dinner, with grandma looking forlorn at the food because no one is talking at a meal.

I believe children who you shut up with gadgets, will really no longer talk to you when they are adolescents, being absorbed by the fancy tech, and the relationship will just turn worse into adulthood.

So I'm a luddite; until we can really plan, and educate them about using it responsibily. I've seen People who get caught up with gadgets, often turning into otakus, becoming less adventurous, reliant on their GPS, lose their natural instincts for adventure... bla bla bla..

Coz I really pity the grandma... and discussion with my colleagues on it. 3 out of 4 of them recommend that they should buy grandma a gadget.

It's really Sweat inducing, their mentality...

Technology should improve communication, not stifle it. Especially within families.

---

That said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, as they are entitled to the autonomy over their own cash. But maybe you'd like to hear me out...?

Although often situations make me hail 3 times to the person who espoused

"Nature is awesome, adventure is wholesome, Human Beings, plain troublesome"

I'm actually sentimental with human relationships as well. And striking up conversation with strangers on my trips and forging unique relationships has always been a part of me, and has always enlivened my adventures everywhere. 或许我贵人运不错？

My latest trip to Brunei alone has two such people touch my lives. One who is a resort manager,


(the guy in blue, that's my saviour!)

who went out of his way to help secure a stay for me at a rival lodge because I'm a student who couldn't afford his accommodation. This swell guy actually called two other tour operators and even concocted the story of me being an exchange student to help me secure a stay in Ulu Temburong, without which these pictures would never have been taken.

Another is a poor little ol lady who has no friends, cheated by her husband in relationship, and of money by the hubby's little vixen, and ostracized by her own family because of her subsequent depression- who was my tour guide, personal transporter and story-teller in and out of Bander Seri Bagawan.

Sabah- where the resort operator for Halleluyah hill resort gave us a whole apartment to ourselves when we paid the amount for a room, invited ruhui for hot showers in their own home, and dished out finger licking meals fro a paltry RM5, just a stone's throw away from Mount Kinabalu. Their numerous pets entertained us, as much as their owners did!

Over in Terengganu,

there's this extremely tasty yummy juice drink that's almost 100% real, thick, fruit puree sold in a little shop for RM3.00, and I would return to the stall like a homing pigeon everyday after cycling through KT.





I chatted with the lady during my 1st visit, on my second visit, she offered us free keropok lekor,


and on my 3rd visit, we enjoyed a coconut mango, straight from her garden!... It's a stall I vow to return to if and when I go there..

then there's also this gentleman who runs a bubble milk tea stall opposite Ping Anchorage, where I was staying...

had a short chat with him... then on my second visit, he invited me to play badminton with his pals, and even prepared badminton shoes in addition to the racquets for me because he knew I wouldn't be well prepared.




So on the last day before I left terengganu, I had a great game with uncles and aunties in terengganu, haha...

That,

Friend, and friends of said friend while in UK, Cheery lil lady Yumi while in Hong Kong, ... another lady who gave me a discount because I didn't have enough cash with me, no questions asked while in terengganu; marvelous people who I would not have met or talked to were I having me head down looking at a GPS instead of asking for directions, or playing a Java Game instead of striking up a conversation with a fellow bus passenger. Therefore, I'm a placard carrying dude who lifts the sign: a handphone, should be a handphone, and nothing more.

Speaking about losing our natural instincts, strip the handphone of a teen anywhere- and he'd rather part with his wallet no matter the amount or cost- and you'd find him dumbfounded,disorientated and lost in the city. this is not conjecture. This came from an Interview I made with one. And Experienced with many, my relatives included.

why are we revolving our lives around gadgets and tools when they should be just an aid, a hammer we occasionally use, a lightbulb we change now and then.

By the way, how many 21st Gen Y adults do you need to change a lightbulb? 5;

one to call up a electrical engineer friend to complain,

one to tweet :"OMG! D wurld 's ending, 'm blind, 'm freakin scared X("

one to blog about his blackout experience in an overdramatic fashion,

one to surf wikipedia to find out,

and one to turn to DIY-for-dummies to learn how to unfold a collapsible ladder)

Har har..says you. now, which 3 parts should you suspect is bust when the flourescent light blows out?

Gee... My post looks pretty protracted by now... but, this is a topic that I will certainly return to, no doubt about it...

I'd end the post with this video on sustainable consumerism, enjoy :-) It starts slow, but it will certainly not ring hollow.

The price of consumerism- on the planet, on other people, on ourselves,

Notice what are:

Externalizing costs

Planned and perceived obsolescence
The purpose of an ad, is to make you unhappy with what you have.

By buying the newest gadget that money can buy, are you falling into the trap?

ps.- the answer, the flourescent tubing, the starter, and the choke.

Into the Twilight- Tiger Blogfest

Written in conjuction with the
Tiger blogfest, this poem sheds some light into the plight of our magnificent Panthera tigris,

May we stop and think, ere we send them to the brink

_______________________________________

Red dust, stung my eyes
I can do nothing, but stifle my cries

Swept up, as they cleared d trail
exactly where I had my first quail

My home, This was; yesterday
In fear, I live, day after day

Chainsaw, axes and machetes
with which our future are torn to bits

camouflage, I no longer can
My stripes stand out at every bend

the foliage was all lush and green
In the distant past, when I reigned King

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A scant thin familiar scent
Ignore it,I know I can't

It's the hut, It's the hut!
Should I, push my luck?

Creeping past the window
came a pang of sorrow

I can only shrug
as I saw the rug

Because of our skin

I lost my kin

spared not, are our Homes

sadly, Nor our bones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My tail hangs low
walking towards the afterglow

the crow flies, one more time
Its thoughts, its cries; echo mine

We share a shadow
We share a sorrow

For the question, it begs:
"Is this my last sunset?"

James Cameron's Avatar Review

It’s been a long night… but a very happy night!

First off, I’m feeling in the mood to blog again.

Second off, Avatar Rocks.

(THANK you thambi, and your generous friend!)

Third Off, I met Danny, A Jovial Taxi Driver who makes me realize a lot of things.


Uh… Now I’m reading the above lines… and the “….off” do sound weird, LOL!

I’ve been away from blogging for quite some time.
Paeds was hectic, and I didn’t quite put much effort into writing.
Ortho was less so, but I was caught up with the Environmental Carnival.. and since my Blog is about pushing for change, about opening eyes and minds, and I’m doing that much better by etching the Carnival out than writing here… I let resonating-ripple rest a bit :p

What made me blog? Avatar Did!

I really have to say, It’s the prettiest movie I’ve ever seen.
Especially those biolumisnescent Jelly Fish- Dandelion chimeras… They are so… dazzlingly beautiful…
And despite their size and short on-screen time, I’m made to believe they’ve each got their own personality.

The 3D rendering of the world,
- the waterfall that dropped off into misty sprays
- the tubeworm like plants
- the “TOUCH-ME-PLEASE because I glow pretty” plants (touch me nots, you’re a shame!)

-the communion dance around the tree, pulsating waves of light and energy going to the heart of Eywa…..

Ever felt like going to a place you’ve seen in a movie?
This movie is so SAD because It’s a place you can’t go to! I so Wanna Go there!

James Cameron,


I give you credit for
-Out Lucas-ing George Lucas! You’ve achieved your dream.
And as Sam Worthington Said “ It feels like that’s real, and this world is a dream”
-Sending a message so subtle yet so clear
-Doing all That in Style.

15 years was worth the wait. Salute, Salute.


Why?
Jimmy had his own fantasy movie in his head since he was 17.
He grew up drawing fantasy characters in his notebook with his Maths textbook shield-up in front during lessons.
He pictured his planets, his characters, his heroes, their powers….

Then he saw Star Wars… he went home.. and punched the wall.

He felt that he should have been the one to make that movie. Lucas Stole his limelight!


Fast forward his teenage and young adult years…
Now He’s in the Director’s chair of Titanic..
Building half a cruise liner on solid land only to blast it away…

But the time, 1994 I believe, was a sad time for America…
the mood of country at that time was sombre .. for economic and other reasons..

His movie went over budget by twice the original amount

Titanic’s Screening date arrived and went and they needed more time for post-processing so they had to make the Cinemas worldwide wait and change their release dates

If that wasn’t bad enough, He made a movie that in which Everyone Died!

“OH GOD!” He said to himself… “WHAT WAS I THINKING!”
He was given the ultimatum by the powers that be to wrap it up …but he persisted and relinquished his pay as a statement, a guarantee that he would see it through…

And Titanic Rose above the waves of doubt and became the best selling movie of the decade.



His reputation intact… and confidence building… he set out to film his dream movie…
ONLY to discover that technology couldn’t catch up with his imagination.

He had to wait, and he had to push
-push SONY Japan to Come up with a camera the world had not seen
-push Silver Screen conglomerates to accept Modifications in their cinemas worldwide to be 3D ready..
-Push Directors, Companies, Disney to come up with movies that sell so that the Conglomerate bosses would see that People want 3D movies..
(and that’s why we have Spy Kids 3D, Bolt 3D, Journey to the centre of the eath 3D, and yes, a Christmas Carol 3D…but of course, these were just appetizers.. coz he was cooking up a hell of a main course )

Through many trials and tribulations…

working with Weta Digital NZ (the company that made LOTR’s spectacles possible)

with Oxford Linguists- he made them craft out an entirely new language..

with biologists and scientists- Who thought up Common names, Scientific Latin names as well as Navi’ Names for each and every plant, animal and rock you see on screen, and catalogued all of that into an encyclopedia many times larger than Star Wars’.

He came up with this! And what a ride that was!

Back to the movie, It’s… groundbreaking, it’s Awe-inspiring.. it’s……. drool-inducing LOL….. and heart-breaking

Love it.

I mean, to come up with a technologically advanced movie is no mean feat…
But to add on to that a meaningful story, romance, action, adventure, all in beautifully rendered 3D…counts for much.

It certainly will be the movie of this Decade.

there are many messages woven into the storyline,
but the one I elaborate here resonates with the conservationist in me.

Human greed knows no bounds.
what you see happening on screen, is but a miniscule part of what is happening on our world.

In Malaysia,
Palm Oil plantations, Timber Merchants, Government Officials with pockets waiting to be lined up with Bakun dam overspending are all rubbing their grubby hands in glee while Malaysian Forests disappear off the Google Earth map that you see, hundreds of acres each day.

The Natives , the real bumiputras.. as I have so often said before
are the ones who suffer. Their lands get bulldozed over, their food, their home, their livelihood destroyed, their ancestral graves desecrated, their young women raped…their culture lost…

Nothing is left when $$ is allowed to rule.

Money is the root of all evil. Before you entertain the notion that I’m about to spew crap,
hear me out.

Humans started out like all other beings on earth, only taking what they need: food, and shelter.
Overtime, they traded through barter exchange what they didn’t produce…but because there is only so much leftover that you can swap…all is well.

After the invention of currency. EVERYTHING CHANGED.

With money you could buy a lot more that you need,
You end up with a lot of items non-essential for survival… take the mobile phone in your pocket, the Ipod your kid listens to while he ignores you, the multiple shoes your daughter keeps in her museum…

with the invention of money, people start to amass wealth, to indulge in frivolities,
and in the process, take away what once belonged to others.

Our tribesman drink from streams, from leaves
The healthy American drinks only bottled mineral water, but having dried up their own aquifers long ago, they are now globe trotting to Africa to pump away the land’s underground water supply, to be transported back home.

How much damage does that make, you ask? TOO MUCH.
The ground water having run dry, Africa’s Saharas threaten to evolve into more and more deserts and the land can no longer support vegetation. People have had to migrate from their homeland, and hman-animal conflicts become commonplace when food becomes scarce.

Is it fair? It is not. For someone to enjoy something on the expense of the suffering of another is unjust, and is not right.

For the rest of us using paper, timber, fuel, electricity,
remember that what you are enjoying isn’t guilt free.

I know these luxuries are now essentials and we really can’t live without them..
but the keyword here is moderation, and sustainability.

With each piece of paper that you use both sides, you are aiding the welfare of your countrymen by slowing down the destruction of their home.

With each kilometer travelled replaced by cycling or walking, you are reducing the need for petrol, the need for bio-fuel which comes from palm oil, the amount of green house gases and you exercise for your health at the same time.. Is that not a fair bargain?

With Each Kilowatt of energy saved by not putting the television on standby or leaving your computer on to download illegally, you are reducing the need for a new hydroelectric dam, or even worse, a coal plant to be built.

That is what you can do... for the sake of your people, for your children and grandchildren and it really is very easy to do.

I'll be writing on Mr Danny in the next post, considering it is 4am now.

If you've read this far, please do come to our See Green, See Life! carnival,
details at http://seegreenseelife.weebly.com

Let's lend a....errr.. flipper to our country's Chelonians!

We will be running a 24 hour turtle blogathon starting 25th October 2009 (9pm Malaysian time) to raise funds for the newly-established Turtle Conservation Centre based in Terengganu, Malaysia www.turtleconservationcentre.org

In the event, we will be writing and publishing a blog post every hour for 24-hours non-stop. The blog posts will be answers to questions on freshwater and marine turtles submitted to cp@turtleconservationcentre.org or this email. Everyone is invited to submit questions from now till 25th October 2009.. So if there are things that you'd like to know about marine and freshwater turtles but never knew who to ask, THIS is your chance :)

Please join us anytime from 9am, 25 October to 9 pm, 26 October 2009 and send us messages to egg us on, or to pledge a donation. No amount is too little or too much. The funds raised will be channeled to the turtle research and conservation projects that we carry out.

For more information about the Turtle Blogathon and how you can participate, please visit: Here

Thank you for your support and we really hope you will join us in our event.

Sincerely,

E.H. Chan
CEO
Turtle Conservation Centre
www.turtleconservationcentre.org

Tentative: Environmental Carnival

Please Have a read through and give me your comments!

Thank you, and forward the message to people who you think may be interested in implementing this!
A copy of this document is available in Word format, downloadable at
http://www.4shared.com/file/114393696/5e664d21/Proposal_Environmental_Carnival.html

Potential committee Candidates!

Sinchee
Wen Ying
Chai peng
Huan Yan (Ming wei)
Rachel
Hui Fang
Jane
Bin hoo
Wu hui
Jia Ying
Hui Fang
Yan Chin
Ru hui
Zhi yi
Ying Quan
Siew Khing
Su yan
Soon Hooi
Thomson

please suggest additional candidates, especially our Malay and Indian friends who you think maybe interested! Also any 3rd Year or 5th Year Students that are active in Tzuchi Association
Repost this note if you can. :-)

Details of the programme

Proposal Of Environmental Carnival

1) Environmental Movie Screening
Entrance ticket = recycle items e/g 2kg of newspapers etc
(Get tickets and a badge in exchange)

Choice of movies
An inconvenient truth by Al gore
11th Hour by Leonardo Dicaprio
“Home” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

- A research on the respective movies should be made with a summary
- it should be included with a Q&A session

(consider including Subtitles in Malay and Chinese )

2) What each of us can do (a multimedia presentation after the movie)

Title: A drop in the Ocean?
- hand outs will be given during the presentation
- detailing small lifestyle changes that students can make living in the hostels.


3) 2nd Multimedia presentation
- Recorded Video- “When I was small”
- detailing what has changed from the 1980’s till now in terms of the weather, the
environment and human relations etc
eg- when I was small our childhood was filled with kite-flying, hide and seek, now everyone has their hearing plugged up with earphones

When I was small we had tadpoles and guppies in drains and rain puddles… now we only have mud and sludge

We will collect video/ Audio/ Blog recordings of these memories
This effort is a joint effort between UM, USM and UKMMC (organized by E=MC2)
If it is successful, we have journalists in our ranks that can help publish our effort to the Mainstream Media
if that doesn't work out, we will always have YOUTUBE :-)

4)Exhibition of Environmental Products
- What are the products that are relevant to us students or doctors
- What can attract the companies/ societies to come
- Research on the exhibition during the Eco Film Festival organized by the Eco Knights
http://www.ecoknights.com/content/blogcategory/29/66/
- Bazaar? What should be sold?

Exhibition of Environmental NGOs and groups

5)Contests? Research on the feasibility of a contest.
- any interest?
- theme
- Sponsorship of prizes?



6) Changes in KTDI (cooperate with JAKSA Ktdi)
- polystyrene and plastic bad use
: Information : The danger of Polystyrene.. contact with heat become styrene, a
Carcinogen
: Encourage students to bring their own Tupperware to buy food from café’s or dine in
to enjoy discounts
: If opt for polystyrene must pay 20 cents extra (implemented in USM)
: Consider alternatives to Polystyrene ( a biodegradable type made from Palm oil waste)
- Introduction of Vegetarian food to other Ethics
(You are What you Eat)
Incorporate Ethnic Relations, as in a Forum ala Interfaith Forum held in Dk1 KCKL
when we were in 2st Year :
Title : What is Halal food, what is Vegetarian food?

Successful implementation in Wahid, move on to Kazema and Besta


Installing a recycling centre in KTDI itself, (area behind Kafe/ Underneath Surau)
- Funds
- Sponsorship
- Collection servuces
- Cooperate with Rhea Corp

7) Additional programmes (recommendation from Prof Harlina)
A visit to Radicare Waste disposal facility for Medical Students
include visits to other centres/ places on the one day trip


Selection of the Date of the event
- Away from Exams and holidays,
- Ensure no clash with other programmes.
-maybe as a complementary programme in a mega programme such as Warisan Mesra?

Publisiti- PERSIAP (facebook and blog)
- KTDI (JAKSA)

Can incorporate Merit in this programme?
I will try to discuss with Fadhli

(Incorporate this the Racial Harmony theme ?)


Download the word file to Email to your friends at
http://www.4shared.com/file/114393696/5e664d21/Proposal_Environmental_Carnival.html

Thank you very much,

sincerely Kuan Yew

A meeting of young environmentalists! :-)

Dear all,

One of the climate cool member from Japan is going to come to Malaysia. Her name is Yasuyo. She wishes to meet with youths/students/environmentalist from Malaysia to discuss some environmental issues.

But, no worries, this is not a "serious" meeting but rather is a platform for networking kinda meeting/gathering. It is good if some of you may join us.


Date: 6th of June
Time: 1500-1800
Venue: Yet to announce and finalize


Tentative program
15:00-15:30 Introduction and ice-breaking
15:30-16:00 Yasuyo-san sharing about her Japan training of 2009
15 min break ( Yasuyo-san will bring some Japanese sweets)
16:15-16:45 Malaysian youth leaders' project (Share about project(s) involved or involving)
16:45-17;30 Discuss about the present condition of enviromental youth activities in Malaysia
17:30-18:00 Discuss about making Climate cool platform in Malaysia and how to join Climate Cool in 2010
18:00- dinner/fellowship

Hope you guys can join us in the meeting :) Please confirm your attendance as early as possible for further arrangement of the meeting.


Best regards,
yeong yze shiuan

p.s.- She's an Undergraduate from UM. If you're interested in the event... please RSVP thru me :-)

Invasion of the body Snatchers??!!

One of the most notorious invasive species known is the Cane toad in Australia,
If not mistaken cats on the Island of Tasmania

Cane toads were originally imported to Aus in the 1980s to control the cane beetles... which are decimating the budding sugarcane industry.

Much to their horror, the toads do not prey selectively upon the beetles, despite their name!




Due to their size, they consume pretty much anything and everything... especially the native Australian frogs which are outcompeted and displaced! The wreak havoc on the Australian Native system and cause a number of species of animals to be threatened.

If that isn't the end of their problem, the toads secrete a noxious substance that cover their bodies... killing anything that tries to eat them! This of course leads to a population explosion and pretty much all of Australia has been colonized...



--G'day Mate! They Call me Toadzilla--


This ecological disaster has not yet been adequately rectified... conservationists are resorting to the last strategy...fencing up un-invaded ponds to protect the native froggies... this time its the size that plays to the toads disadvantage.



and in Malaysia itself....
The red ear terrapins!

Those terrapins or sliders or tortoises.. whatever you call them.. can be found in almost all petshops in Malaysia.

Cute while they are tiny... many outgrow the space in the house and in the hearts of their owners and get abandoned Throughout Malaysia

All the Rivers, Streams, ponds, Lakes are infested with these alien species...
causing native species like the Malayan Box Turtle to be outcompeted and threatened.



PLease educate your friends, relatives and monyet-hood to not buy these little critters if they do not plan to keep them for life.

you are indirectly destroying Malaysian wildlife... Based on limited data.. we known our own turtle is threatened... but how much more impact is undetected?

Stop the invasion of Alien Species...

IN the same vein... Protest against Malaysian Government's repeated attempts to replant all the highways roadsides with ACACIA trees! (as if the Palm Oil plantations are not ENOugh!!

All that glitters is.....

From an interesting E-mail...






Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea, thousands of Golden Rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico . The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters.


Gliding silently beneath the waves, they turned vast areas of blue water to gold off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula . Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks.
She said: 'It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind.

'It's hard to say exactly how many there were, but in the range of a few thousand'






'We were surrounded by them without seeing the edge of the school and we could see many under the water surface too. I feel very fortunate I was there in the right place at the right time to experience nature at its best'
Measuring up to 7ft (2.1 meters) from wing-tip to wing-tip, Golden rays are also more prosaically known as cow nose rays.

They have long, pointed pectoral fins that separate into two lobes in front of their high-domed heads and give them a cow-like appearance. They are known to be shy and non-threatening when in large schools.

The population in the Gulf of Mexico migrates, in schools of as many as 10,000, clockwise from western Florida to the Yucatan .

Tanjong Karang- Lively Haven

Where buildings are low
The pace of life is slow
Can healthy children grow
Nature has much to show!

As the coconut trees sway
Birds are singing gay
Oh my kite's flying away
Perched, I am on the quay


That quite summarises the carefree life of Tanjong Karang, and here's additional photos from the 'insects on my hand' series!





Iridescent Grasshopper outside my house!



Green Living!



Black, is Quality. I'm referring to both, thank you :-P



"Oi! your hand slippery la..'told you not to shave your hand already, I can't even scuttle properly"
*Conversation if for wu liao purposes only and have no relation to real life events!!*



'now, that's more like it!'



'Come closer and let me have a good look at you!'




'Errr my shift for interacting with humans in up! But fear not cause here comes my cousin to entertain you, adios!'






Praying Mantis on the Prowl














LongHorn on a Stroll





Or two









Moth that's as big as a letter


Mole Cricket!