Recycle Your E-Waste @ Funan DigitaLife Mall

Great news about e-waste recycling from NEA:

“Funan DigitaLife Mall has just launched the Recycle Your E-Waste @ Funan DigitaLife Mall programme in partnership with NEA & Cimelia Resource Recovery. Members of the public can drop off waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) for recycling during the mall’s open hours at Funan’s Customer Service Counter on Level 1.

Funan’s recycling partner Cimelia will collect and transport the e-waste items to its facility in Tuas for recycling. All electrical and electronic items (i.e., “anything with an electrical cord”) are accepted, such as:

• Infocomm technology (ICT) equipment, such as desktop, laptop and tablet computers, mobile phones, computer and mobile phone batteries, peripherals and accessories such as keyboards, modems, monitors, computer mice, docking stations, hard disk drives, printed circuit boards, battery chargers, etc.
• Home appliances, such as TVs, rice cookers, microwave and toaster ovens, electric kettles, food processors and blenders, electric fans, DVD/VCR/CD/video/audio players, radios, hi-fis, small vacuum cleaners, etc.

Click for the pdf poster:

How you know the students are gone

When students are gone after exams, those of us left behind in campus get to enjoy the space in canteens at 12pm. And there are other signs that they are gone.

Aerobics at NUS Block S2 stairwell is in order for a month while the lift is fixed. This is a really good thing because this lift has had me call Campus Security at least four times this academic year.

Once I was stuck in the ground floor with no handphone signal and with no power in the lift. Eventually I prised open the lift doors when some people outside happened to do so as well I advised staff I knew on the 5th floor to walk down the stairs in the evenings instead. Yes, time to get this fixed!

Early morning espresso (note not expresso!) coffee at Spineelli’s is still available at the Science Canteen but not later in the afternoon, argh!

Recruiting good stuff for our second hand items stall at the Assisi Hospice Charity Fun Day, Sun 15 Jun 2014

This started out as Adrian Loo deciding to bake some cookies for his kids to sell at the fair in 2008. Our kakis immediately chipped in and are in our seventh year as Adrian Loo & Kakis, participating once again in the Assisi Hospice Charity Fun Day with our second hand stall.

We are recruiting items in good condition from anyone, having exhausted ourselves and our immediate circle, so we are appealing to a wider field this year. See our woefully small pile of items this year!

If you have items lying around the house in good condition which are not being used, its time to declutter!

Give us your items and breathe easy from the freedom of clutter, while we sell it off for a worthy charity.

Contact me at sivasothi@gmail.com to arrange to send us items from 5th – 14th June 2014.

And if you want to help us sell on the 15th June 2014, join us! Thanks!

Many friends have sent us attractive items to sell off at the charity fair after digging through their cupboards and also from asking other friends to do likewise. The items in good condition which we collect and sell every year include

• bags,
• clothes,
• books,
• toys,
• ornaments and trinkets,
• paintings
• carpets
• electronics (in working condition),
• dinner sets and cutlery,
• bicycles!

On the morning of the fair, we categorise and arrange items before the crowd comes by 10am and spend a day of sales at bargain prices. It is a fast and furious pace amidst a congenial pasar malam atmosphere surrounded by lovely people and delectable food! Last year some of our sales were extended through LINE!

We usually manage to raise between $1,500 – $2,000 for the hospice and during the process helps friends declutter, recycle items to grateful new buyers and enjoy some shopping and immerse in an enthusiastic and generous fellowship.

We are just one of many stalls and we will take breaks to explore – in previous fairs, this has included Harley Rides, Scooter Rides, Fruit stalls, Kebab, Prata, Vegetarian, Satay, Kopi, Henna, Vadai, Rojak, Yoghurt, Macaroni, Laksa, Bengawan Solo, Ben & Jerry, Pan Pacific & Park Royal Hotels, Chicken Rice, Kopi, Bak Chang , Thosai, Fish & Chips, Chicken Wings, Hotdogs, Mee Goreng, Mee Siam Tent, Trishaw Rides, Massage, Kiddie Craft, 2nd Hand items, Photography, Dunking Tent, Bossaball and Games.

“Assisi Hospice is an outreach service of Mount Alvernia Hospital, was established in 1969 by the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM) Catholic Sisters. We dedicate ourselves to the care of adults and children with life limiting illnesses. In an environment of compassionate and holistic care, we understand the challenges faced by our patients. We are here for all, regardless of financial status, age, race & religion, respecting their faith, culture & values.

The motivation for us to help the hospice is simple: “staff and volunteers of Assisi Hospice have been helping people in Singapore facing death to live life with dignity and to the fullest, for over 20 years” [link]. And the nuns tell all the volunteers at the end, “The success of this event is because of your warm presence, joy and great generosity and love for the needy and terminally ill patients in Assisi.”

Join us on Sunday 15 June 2014 to enjoy the lovely atmosphere, do some shopping and enjoy the festivities in a good cause!

Making sense of it all!
Categoring, arranging and setting up the stall in the morning

Hustle and bustle once the crowds come

An amazing diversity of trinkets find new owners, at the fair

Occupy Pavement – handbags and clothes stall need space!

With encouragement come purchases – but we help them avoid defects too!

Book sales promote interesting conversations

It’s a happy day filled with good-humoured people

Grade free semester in National University of Singapore in AY2014/5

See NUS News:

“NUS will be implementing a grade-free first semester for first-year undergraduates who are on the modular system, starting with the Academic Year (AY) 2014/2015 cohort. This new initiative, announced today, is one of several key changes being made to further enhance the quality of NUS’ education and better prepare its graduates for the evolving nature of work in the future.”

See also the Provost’s Blog.

“What Happens When Sharks Disappear?” – “FINconceivable,” a lovely animation by Lily Williams

“FINconceivable” is Lily Williams’ undergraduate senior thesis film at California College of the Arts based on her info graphics “What Happens When Sharks Disappear?”

FINconceivable from Lily Williams on Vimeo.

Eco tourism as an alternative economy to shark finning? See The Dorsal Effect for just that in Lombok, by Kathy Xu from Singapore.

See more at lilywilliamsart.com

Thanks to Shaleyla Kelez for sharing the link on Facebook.

Exit Interviews with honours students

After a transforming year, it was time for “Exit Interviews” with my AY2013/4 honours students Iris Ng (distribution and activity pattern of the slender squirrel Sundasciurus tenuis in Singapore forests) and Germaine Leng (diet of the mangrove horseshoe crab Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda in Mandai Kechil mangrove and mudflat.

I took a break from marking to oversee their data dump (easier these days with Dropbox and Copy.com) and to chat with them about the significant learning points they experienced during honours.

To firm it up, they’ll send me a note they’ll which will identify learning points so they will actively surmount weaknesses and enhance strengths. Of course I learnt from them too and have begun implementing some of the lessons! They have’ll have an unknown influence on their juniors, just like their seniors did before them.

Later on this year, they will communicate their science through presentations, blog post and articles in future and participate in some other conservation activity. For these field warriors, the Exit Interviewsinterview is not the end, just a significant moment for all of us.

I like how it happens over an NUS wooden table which has persisted for more than quarter a century, and in a corridor of block S2 where I too had an extraordinary and transforming time during my honours year.

Making text larger for easier reading – Safari’s Reader and Readability

Just do it!

That code Safari added is from Readability. Not much more to see, but you can read this.

Thinking about MW5202 in 2015!

Andreas and I ponder a new approach at the Active Learning Room in S16-03.