Monkey business

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Twittering science meetings – nature podcast

Nature Podcast this weeks features science journalism – cheerleaders or watchdogs for science? How technology (twitter mainly) is changing conference reporting (they hazard more competition than anything) and how front page news is generated from science news. Link

Meanwhile, you can follow Ed Yong on twitter who is attending the 6th World Conference of Science Journalists.

For all participant tweets, see #wcsj.

Using the Prolink WN2100 USB wireless adaptor

I have had to get an external wireless adaptor for my 3-year old MacBook Pro (long story) and grabbed a S$69 Prolink WN2100 from the IT Co-op at YIH at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Mac OS X support is indicated on the box but no more mention is made of it thereafter, either there or on the Prolink support pages. That’s not unusual but after I plugged in the USB device into my MacBook Pro, nothing happened which WAS unusual. So I figured a driver that post-dated my OS was required and eventually sorted it out.

During that process, I found no other user experience online so I’m posting this for the next macaddict hunting the net in a similar situation in future. I sent the Prolink support staff these instructions by email when I realised they were unfamiliar with macs. Hopefully this will be added to their FAQ pages.

I am still on OS X 10.5.6 and am not sure if this would be needed in 10.5.7. But suffice to say, if you stick a Prolink WN2100 into your mac’s USB port and nothing happens, try this:

1. Download the OS X drivers (10.3 – 10.5) from the relevant Prolink downloads page.
2. Unzip, run the relevant installer and restart your mac as prompted.
3. AFTER the restart, plug the WN2100 in to your USB port — the “USB Wireless Utility” window will appear (note: if the WN2100 unit is already plugged in, the utility window will not appear, leaving you as stumped as I was, briefly.
4. In the “Site Survey” tab, locate your network, select it and click “Connect” at the bottom of the window.
5. You will be prompted to open the System Preferences> Network window, where you will see a “USB Ethernet (en3)” service now listed (you can rename this).
6. The network configuration should have been automatically inserted, so just click “Apply” at the bottom right and close the window.

Ben stabbed by a mangrove whipray

Ben Godsall, visiting PhD student to my lab (Systematics & Ecology Lab, NUS) gets stabbed by a mangrove whipray while helping to catch tree-climbing crabs in the Sungei Buloh mangrove. With Paul, we three were accompanying Joanne (the crab team) on her hunt to catch just a couple of adult female Episesarma versicolor crabs for the larval project.

Since there were enough of them mucking about in the water, I took photos from the boardwalk. At this point, I was training the camera on Ben from the boardwalk for what film folk call the “hero shot”, so that he could use it to good measure back home.

So it was opportune that at that point, he got stabbed – oh well, you know what I mean! His reaction was so similar to mine from way back in 2005/6 that I realised it had to be the same culprit. His observations confirmed it and the video is priceless. He should be okay but there will be quit a bit of a pain that will linger. At least he knows what it is.

Besides Ben’s reasonably dignified response, watch the video closely and you’ll see the ray flapping about!

This is the culprit species, the Mangrove whipray (Himantura walga). This photo below was taken at Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve in January. For a good look at the animal and its spines, you should look at some of the lovely photos on Ria’s WildSingapore.

Ben’s injury – plenty of hurt for such a small spot!
I wonder if he will discover it is a double puncture later, like I did.

Ben was injured in the same part of his foot as I was in 2006 (or 2005) – on the inside, forward of the ankle. It turns out that Luan Keng escaped a similar fate last month (see Kok Sheng’s blog post). The spine was embeded close to where Ben and I received our injuries, giving you an idea of the typical scenario when a roving foot encounters a whipray which backs into it. You can imagine some unfortunate predator getting the worst of this business end!

So Alvin proposed zoology purple hearts be awarded to Ben, Chay Hoon, Ria and myself. But I think Luan Keng will be the happiest!

Crab team on a high tide trip

Joanne is one of our honours students studying the larvae of tree-climbing crabs in Singapore mangroves. Today we went out to catch a couple of Episesarma versicolor crabs at Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve. The moon was full recently, so some of the females would still be gravid and she can study the larvae in the lab as they hatch out. 

It was nice seeing Joanne, Paul (who did a Perisesarma sp. study last year) and Ben (who is doing a Selatium brocki study now) get a feel of Episesarma after clocking some night work with Selatium brocki. Episesarma is a different kettle of fish altogether it was interesting for them to figure the species behaviour out and respond to it.

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Lesser Coucal on the railing, drying its wings

We were on our way out of Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve when we saw a lesser coucal (Centropus begalensis) drying its wings after a rain. It had emerged from the grasslands in the adjacent property to the railings after the afternoon showers, as it is wont to do. We watched from the car as it shook itself dry and stretched and preened its wings.

I have loved watching coucals since I first spotted them in the department's garden two decades ago, when they used to emerge in the evening to hunt the changeable lizard where Block S1A now stands. 

This was about the first shot I grabbed through the car window. For some reason, there was a hazy sheen that stretched across the Straits of Johor at 2pm. So the early afternoon had instead an early morning ambience. This sure was a lovely reward for the morning's SPROUTS workshop @ Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve.

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Changi Tree sculptures at zoo entrance

Was by the zoo and spotted a couple of Changi Tree (Hopea sangal) sculptures. They have relocated at least two pieces to the entrance. I will inspect them and the other pieces the next time I am there which appears to be more often these days. 

These sculptures are from sections of the tree that was felled on 20th November 2002. The series of events led to its discovery prior to that, the fruiting, tragic felling, court case, sculpture symposium, adoption by the zoo, commemoration in sculpture and preservation of slices for two museums, and the replanting of its saplings is listed on the Changi Heritage webpage.

I was then part of an energetic and dedicated working group that saw to the public interest of the felled tree. It was quite a priviledge.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Scrawling on a glass-topped table II

Last week I started taking meetings at the Raffles Museum while some students rummaged catalogued by library and discovered my stash of botany books.

This scrawl below is from another meeting, with the prospective new Raffles Museum Toddycats manpower officer. The diagram explained how things were supposed to work. She’ll soon realise I’m the weak link since I shudder at thought of running training workshops once again for all the programmes, like I used to do years ago.

Meanwhile, I will spend the bulk of Tuesday in that room, doing more scrawling with multiple meetings including a follow up on this one.

Nora the cat, piano player

Nora is a four-year old cat who began playing at age one and now strikes the piano several times a day. She now has merchandise and a book as well. Find out more at burnellyow's YouTube page

See her famous video (13.6 million views now) below and its "better" sequel. I like how the sequel begins with her purring!

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