Kayaking Trip from Pasir Ris to Punggol - A Disappointment

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disappointed with the kayaking trip per se. The route is nice and the company is fabulous. What I am disappointed with is the state of the water in Singapore - in particular, at Pasir Ris and Punggol.

On the way there. This is Punggol Jetty. I haven't been there for sometime. And there are some friendly people trying to fish. However, I don't think they should eat the fishes they caught, unless they don't mind having diarrhoea for the next thousand year and puking their intestine out.

This is Punggol Marina, or at least, that is what it was used to be called. The station is I think some LRT station.

The DAMn!

We were trying to cross the dam beside the marina. The stench here makes any sewage plant smells like a perfume shop. Goodness, it is the foulest smelling place I've ever kayaked to. I was glad I didn't have my lunch before coming here.

You don't need geomancy to know this place is not doing well. It has bad fengshui. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes, stinks the place up ...

There is actually a bigger and more beautiful dam later on that leads to cleaner waters.

Before I come here, I imagined residences at Punggol waterfront would be sitting by the sea, having alfresco dining, or some beer, chilled out by the river ... Well sometimes, reality doesn't sucks, it stinks! The people here have my deepest condolences. They have to 'wait long long' for the place to developed.

I have a feeling crabs don't have sense of smell. They seems oblivious to the 'sewage water'.

Some artistic photo I was trying to take. Not very successful. But what the hack...

Back at Pasir Ris. A dead fish. Probaby killed by the pollutants, or maybe it decided to commit suicide after looking at the pathetic state of the sea water and the irresponsibly huge amount of litter.

(Warning: Do not click to enlarge if you just had your meal)

Let's be responsible and do our part. The moral of the story is clear: Clear up your rubbish!

I would like to end this entry with a quote:

"Leave the world a little better than when you found it."

Lord Baden Powell

Founder of the Scouting Movement

This quote has a deeper meaning than clearing up your own rubbish, but we can start with something simple and always be mindful about it. Clear up the rubbish, yours and others. 'Leave the world a little better than when you found it' I cannot have put it better than him.

A diving trip at Sabah

Semporna Town

After flying AirAsia from Singapore to Tawau, we had an airport transfer to Semporna town where the jetty is.

Our dive operator, Scuba Junkie. Stayed at the Scuba Junkie Backpackers.

Tea: Egg tosai with teh halia.

Semporna jetty in the evening.

Mabul Cafe (actually at Semporna) A place to chill out at night.

Mabul Island

Stayed 3 nights here at Mabul Resort for our dives. Pretty neat place.

A picture of the resort taken from the bar at the second storey. And this cocktail called Caribbean Screw. It is actually Malibu mixex with orange juice, befitting for a sunny day at the resort!

The jetty. That's also the place where we get our dive equipment. This jetty is belongs to a slightly more posh place called Water Village Mabul Resort, which is built on stilts.

More pictures of Water Village Resort.

Evening shots

Evening is the perfect time to rest and relax after a day of diving. ( and fill in the dive log, recollecting the wonders we have seen for the day)

This shot is taken on the boat ride back to Semporna.

Mabul Village

Need to rest for a day before flying. Took a walk around Mabul village. It is a bit rundown compare to the resort. The islanders lead a simple life.

They make the boats themselves!

Just and Unjust

A funny poem to share. A rather thought-provoking one I should say:

The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just's umbrella.

Charles, Baron Bowen (1835-94)

Fossil

Attended the 3-day International Science Education Conference (ISEC) in NIE.

Refreshing! Superbly wonderful. Learnt a lot from just 3 days. Particularly impressed with educators from other countries. They have done so much for their students. Was humbled. An eye-opener.

Attended a workshop on teaching Science Inquiry using fossil. The lecturer brought some fossil for hands-on session.

Getting our hands dirty. Literally. But the point about learning science is letting students (in fact anyone, including adults) to explore, conduct experiments, analyse results, evaluate , and then communicate and discuss the findings ... That's the way to learn science, to make the subject interesting. It is a sad fact that students who take physics as a subject is decreasing.

It is not just about learning from textbook, isn't it?

Then you may ask where does the role of textbook comes in?

Comparing

This is when we compare our findings with what other people have done. By comparing, I mean critically compare and evaluate.

Science Inquiry

Science Argument: The Toulmin Model

1. Claim: the position or claim being argued for; the conclusion of the argument.
2. Grounds: reasons or supporting evidence that bolster the claim.
3. Warrant: the principle, provision or chain of reasoning that connects the grounds/reason to the claim.
4. Backing: support, justification, reasons to back up the warrant.
5. Rebuttal/Reservation: exceptions to the claim; description and rebuttal of counter-examples and counter-arguments.
6. Qualification: specification of limits to claim, warrant and backing. The degree of conditionality asserted.

More videos on getting the hands dirty for science. Mythbusters in the Discovery Channel! Here is a link to one of the youtube channels:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mythbustersuncut

Isn't this science all about?

Lies on lipids?

I'm quite sure most of us would have heard about the benefits of omega-3s fats. How can we not? The advertising is so rampant; foods from soya milk to margarine boost themselves fortified with omega-3s fatty acids, claiming all sorts of health benefits.

What the advertisers don't want you to know is that there are actually 2 types of omega-3s:

• the long chain fatty acids, the goods ones, from fish (and of course more expensive), and
• the shorter chain counterparts, the less beneficial ones (and cheaper) from flax seeds and soya.

Of course they will not tell you which type of omega-3s is used to fortified their product. The claim that the food is fortified with omega-3s is of course not wrong, but this half-truth, this purposeful withholding of information is , in my opinion, morally worse. It is because it intentionally misleads people to buy their products. In order to increase their sales, they disregard the whole truth and compromise the health of the consumers.

To complicate things further, the benefits of omega-3s can be offset by the increase intake of omega-6s. If you were to remember, we consumers are also asked to replace the saturated fats, such as butter and lard, with the healthier omega-6s unsaturated fats from maize and sunflower oils. The story is not that simple. See details below. It is an abstract from the recent article from The Economist.

You can get the full article at:

http://www.economist.com/node/14743783

and

http://www.economist.com/node/14743757

Eating healthily is sometimes not that simple. But, that does not give the advertisers an excuse to 'simplify' the information given to consumers. We must demand more rigour in their testing and research, and more accurate reporting of information.

On a more general note, it is not uncommon to see people 'simplify' information when disseminating or communicating it to others. We have to ask ourselves are we truthful, sincere and accurate about the information communicated; or, do we have an intention to hide and mislead, packaged in innocent pretence?

Dilbert - The Knack

Some de-stressing (distressing) stuff I watch to ... well de-stress.



Well go ahead and laugh at all the physicists and engineerings ...

We are the one who make the very computer you are using now in the first place;

We are the one who build the building that shelters you now ( unless you are on wireless mobile watching this, nonetheless, we also do wireless connections ) ;

We are the one who sent space shuttle to moon ...


Physics ROCKS!




The video clip from the Japanese movie Suspect X. Geek saves the world!

坠跌的流星的美在它的非永恒

Feel a bit stressed up lately. Dug up some of my old songs in iTunes. Wow. Some nostalgic songs really blew me away. Found links to them in Youtube - some old Linkin Park songs that somehow strike a chord in me these few days ...

我不是你們想得如此完美
我承認有時也辦不清真偽
並非我不願意走出迷堆
只是這一次 這次是自己而不是誰
。。。讓我執迷不悔

Two Minds, One theory

Visited the Two Minds, One Theory exhibition in the Botanic Garden.
I know a little about the Theory of Evolution and have read some parts of On the Origin of Species, but to look at the exhibits is a different thing altogether. Admittedly, I'm rather disappointed by the number of exhibits - much too few. Nonetheless, there are a few take back.

A recent article in The Economist compares Darwin as important in scientific contribution as Kepler . Both scientists' theories revolutionize the way we view the world.This is the 6th edition of the Origin of Species, by means of Natural Selection. Wow!


I don't know Wallace ever come to Singapore, and that the Malay Archipelago is of so much interest to him. I also don't know the Orang Utan is of such importance to the theory. Honestly, I have never been really fascinated about Orang Utan.
When Queen Victoria saw an Orang Utan in London Zoo, she remarked that it was

"frightful, and painfully and disagreeably human."

But don't be mistaken, we are not really that similar. Actually, genetically, we are more related to chimpanzee as the 2 videos below shows:








A Tale on Tails
My first reaction when I see this chart is similar to the reaction of many Darwin's contemporaries when they know about the Origin of Species : this is so simple, why haven't I thought of it!

I have been to wet fish market, supermarket, aquarium, dive in some many places ... I have ate so many of them and yet ... it never come across to me that the tails of the fishes are evolved to adapt to their livelihood.

Tuna and swordfish have tails which propels very fast to enable them to over long distances, but are not able to perform quick manoeuvre ( because there is not much need to). On the other hand, slow swimmers like flounders have round fins that are flexible which help them to escape ...

More details in the picture!(click to enlarge)

I would sure look at a fish tail with a different light now.

And if you notice, the tails of mammals ( dolphins, whales ...) living in the sea are entirely different! Marine mammals generally flap up-and-down for propulsion, rather than left-and-right like in the fishes.

Garden of Evolution
Then I visited the Garden of Evolution. I have been there before a few years back, but after visiting the exhibitions of Wallace and Darwin, I can appreciate the seemingly empty stuff more, much much more.



Life began as a primordial soup?
I have always been interested in graphical representation and charting. What strikes me in this one chart that contains so much information - different types of green plants at different time periods, the temperature range and diversity . So DENSE in information, yet some simple to read. Elegant!


The evolution of life from primordial soup of chemicals seems unbelievable. A search in Youtube on the tree of life gives:


Honestly, after watching the video ... still unbelievable! Wow.

Okay , enough of chim chim stuff ... On another note ...
These brightly coloured insects is actually parasitic. Ouch!

Kayaking at Sungei Serangoon

Question: What is the biggest bird in Singapore?

Answer: Crane. ( See picture below)
Pardon my corny joke. I just passed by Coney Island. Haa haa. ( click pic to enlarge)


Anyway, I have heard a little hu-ha about pungol 21 and the waterfront city. Manage to find an opportunity to kayak there, before the construction starts.

The place still looks a little - undeveloped: HDB buildings at the background of some looong looong stretch of mangrove ( i think. i'm not really sure what kind of vegetation those are) . And so I dayong sampang along the river ...


A little sea sports in sight: people wakeboarding and jet skiing and stuff. That reminds me, I have not wakeboard for a some time.

Honestly, I don't think sungei serangoon can support a large number of wakeboards and jet skiis . It is not that wide. The waves of the boats will interfere with each other. Not much stuff you can do on rocky water condition.



Some quality, quiet time - families idly leisurely fishing.
Honestly I had absolutely no idea where I was going. I just followed a small expedition. I suppose it was somewhere near , eerrr ... upper serangoon.


A streak of hope for Pungol 21, which is still nowhere to be found.