I moaned and groaned (internally) about my freshwater crab talk for some reason, probably because my engine was running low after the activity of the past two weeks. By 10.30am (last Saturday morning) I finally dragged my self out of bed to get going and raced to create a Keynote out my outline.

I hammered out a text draft of the talk painfully amidst a blazing headache the previous day - that outline was enough for a two hour talk. So that Saturday morning I trimmed and revised some content, added images, section headings and transitions. I also did some reading up to confirm certain ideas.

My museum kakis Swee Hee and Heok Hui had dug out some fine looking images which clearly illustrated the six freshwater crab species from Singapore. A second batch from Choy Heng Wah was relayed by Swee Hee that same morning and I even printed out some photos. I was looking forward to sharing the gorgeous photos with an audience that had dragged themselves to the Botanic Gardens on a Saturday afternoon.

In the last 15 mins before I left, Keynote refused to accept the images! Huh? I decided to cut my losses and Graphic Converter’s slideshow. Then the video adaptor for the MacBook Pro went MIA [I later found it artfully hanging from my wall, right under my nose!] So I fired up my 14.1″ iBook - with its five hour battery, I used my 8GB Imation thumbdrive to transfer all the files from the MacBook Pro to the iBook in the taxi on the way to the venue. This even as coordinator Wei Ling calls to check if I am “on the way”.

In the theatrette, it took mere seconds to plug and play in the incomparable style of an iBook - and what you see is what you get, none of that mirroring nonsense! Some dramatic transitions were unable to render on an iBook, but otherwise things were okay - the Keyspan wireless was accepted without complaint and no power cables would get in the way either.

I struggled with the start of the talk but picked up after the early bird Urban Legend I offered them with. The few whom I later asked said it was okay and that’s usually means it was good enough. Dinesh then gave me a lift to Hup Leong to recover my bicycle and gave me a ride home. I was grateful for the lift and wondered aloud at my tiredness. An hour later in bed I realise I had caught the flu once again from that miserable student (ORY) of mine! Fever, body aches and raspy throat - how could I miss the symptoms?! No wonder I had been so reluctant to do the talk and was sleeping instead of working on the keynote on Saturday morning!

I pulled out of a 80km Sunday bike ride on Sunday and had to miss SAJC’s valiant efforts against a much better ACS (I) rugby team in the ‘A’ Division Police Cup finals at the Padang on Monday. I hate the flu!

After three additional hours of work the previous night and one the next morning, I presented a trimmed-down and more geographical version of the talk to the Freshwater Crab Symposium in NUS on Thursday morning. This time it was a much smoother talk and Keynote accepted all images once again - even threw in an an old map I had just photographed.

So why had Keynote been sulking?

Last week I blogged at Yesterday.sg about the National Archives exhibition, “From Emporium to Singapore City: Mapping the Journey.” By posting that notice, I had finally attended to Mok Ly Yng’s many updates. heeding the alert, I went down yesterday morning and spent a couple of hours at Jurong Regional Library examining the reproductions.

Having checked with Archives and securing special permission from the library, I spent my time mostly taking photos with Ruo Yu’s assistance. We found the stiff and very light tripod quite unsuitable for this work and the low light didn’t help. Still, adequate material was obtained for use in lectures and heritage blog posts in future.

Although I have not had time to post up the images, I will at least be putting the Congalton Thomson (1846) map to immediate use. I’m giving a seminar in the morning at a freshwater crab workshop, and a larger version of this map will be used to highlight a point about hills streams in Singapore.

See http://redsports.sg/2008/04/24/cycling/

Alvin must not have access to a computer, SMSed to ask for earthquake data. Said “Robina freak out.”

I checked and SMS-ed over confirmation - USGS reports 7.5 scale earthquake with an epicentre in Eastern Sichuan, China (31.084°N, 103.267°E) at 2.28pm local time (UTC 6.28pm). Reuters reports office buildings sway in Beijing and Shanghai. Also felt in Bangkok and Hanoi.

Updates

• 3.08pm: Robina felt giddy in their high-rise so Alvin’s brought them (and Sally the dog) over to the embassy which is a low rise building. People on the streets.
• Channel News Asia reports the story here.
• 3.12pm - Alvin posts.
• Thousands dead, counts will rise unfortunately - reports at CNN - BBC

Thanks to Chua Ai Lin for the forward from the Humanities and Social Sciences Net online.

H-ASIA
May 10, 2008
On donations in relief of the disaster in Burma/Myanmar
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From: Priti Ramamurthy

Mary Callahan, Assoc Prof, U Washington, is one of a handful of senior
political scientist experts on Burma. She has conducted field research there
for years; she authored the prize-winning book Making Enemies: War & state
building in Burma (Cornell University Press 2003) her advice on sending help
to the Burmese surviving the flood of the Irrawaddy Delta follows:

“A number of friends and colleagues have asked how to help the people of Burma in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The malevolence of the Burmese government toward their people is incomprehensible. The junta is making it very difficult for foreign relief agencies to get desperately need medical assistance and other supplies to the hundreds of thousands (more likely millions) of victims of the cyclone. International media report that foreign relief workers are not being granted visas. Even if aid personnel can get into the country, existing government regulations are likely to make it difficult for expatriate relief workers to travel very far outside Rangoon.

There are, however, dozens of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Burma that have worked there for years. There are also several hundred local NGOs, which include faith-based organizations (Christian churches and monasteries) and other social service organizations. And finally, UN agencies such as UNICEF and the UN Development Program have staff throughout the country. Most of these organizations have years of experience carrying out disaster relief during both the annual monsoon and fire seasons. Until yesterday, US economic sanctions against Burma made it quite difficult to donate money to non-governmental operations inside the country. As of last
night, the Treasury Department has loosened some of those restrictions at least in regard to international organizations.

The international and local NGOs and the UN agencies already on the ground employ thousands of Burmese professionals and support staff, who - unlike the foreign/expatriate staff - can travel to affected areas. Already, the NGO community has assembled assessment teams (including medical personnel) to go to the Irrawaddy Delta, where upwards of 20,000 are already confirmed dead.

Realistically, in the early stages of this relief operation, it will be the Burmese staff of INGOs, local NGOs and UN agencies who will carry the lion’s share of the burden. They have worked in this aid-hostile environment; have intimate knowledge of how to carry out aid without putting beneficiaries at risk; and are well-placed to identify community needs. When foreign relief operations do finally get access to Burma, it is of the utmost importance that they coordinate with and support these locally-based nongovernmental organizations and UN agencies that understand the complexity of working in Burma.

Both the Burmese government restrictions and US economic sanctions make it very difficult to give money to local NGOs directly, but it is possible to support their work by donating to the international groups that have longstanding partnerships with local NGOs and community-based organizations (including churches and monasteries). The following international organizations are already in the Delta and have launched fundraising campaigns to support broader efforts. All of them have proven track records in Burma, and especially in the Delta.”

******************************************************************

After frustrated twitterings over thundering clouds but no rain during the many scorching hot days, darks clouds form with greater credibility this morning. Lekowala, out on the shore with his students for the Biophilia programme, calls for a storm warning over Sentosa.

So I checked NEA’s webapge for him and this time it seems, it seems like its almost upon them.

Nowcast predicts rain all over Singapore in the next three hours. [Nowcast Weather for Singapore for the next 3 hours from 08:25 AM to 11:25 AM 10-05-2008:]

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar last Friday and the damage appears to be far in excess of the 2004 cyclone and may even exceed the impact on the country of the 2004 December Indian Ocean Tsunami. The numbers are up to 22,000 killed, 41,000 missing and up to 200,000 homeless. These are early figures. Sadly again the loss of mangrove forest as a buffer heightened the impact of the cyclone.

To donate towards relief, see: Mercy Relief [phone, bank transfer etc] and Singapore Red Cross [cheque, cash walk in donations].

News: Mercy Relief blog - BBC - CNA - singeo: Google Earth layer - Google News - Yahoo News.

The big red circles are flooded population centres with 100,000-200,000 people.
2005 population estimates in flooded areas = 1.73million - UNOSAT.
Click to download complete pdf.

TechZone: How to clean your keyboard. Essentially this means popping the keys for a thorough job.

I chanced upon this post by The Big Z in which he talks about riding with one of his kakis. The cycling tips he offered during their Eastern Coastal Park Connector Network tour has her enjoying the ride so much, she makes a purchase on the way back - a GT Outpost Disc 2008!

And they are now both heading for NTU Bike Rally 2008! They write well for an enjoyable read or maybe it was because it was cycling stories! Maybe TKX will be inspired to actually register for the event now!

Check out the Big Z’s other posts on offroad cycling. Some of them will make you go “ouch!” But listen to that joy of cycling in his words…almost makes me want to try the double black diamond at Ubin. Almost.