Photos from this morning’s OCBC Cycle Singapore [flickr] Link to the Flickr album OCBC Cycle Singapore 2010 – critical notes from the Cycle Information Booklet Update: I found the Cycle Information Booklet via google’s cache and posted a copy here. I will be going for the OCBC Cycle Singapore 2010 40km Challenge tomorrow. After receiving many emails, suggestions to join their facebook group, buy merchandise, get prepared and go for clinics, I finally hunkered down to read the Event Day Info and the Cycle Information Booklet this morning. Since I knew my cycling kakis, Zendogs, who would be riding down with me were busy until this evening, I sent them emails about the critical things I thought were worth highlighting. You know, like how not to lose $150, how to get your timing clocked, how you need the event bib to start, how you won’t be allowed to start if you are late and diverted if you are too slow. Heh-heh! Luckily I did read the booklet earlier since OCBC Cycle Singapore 2010 webpage has apparently been timing out since this afternoon. That timing chip could cost you $150 and needs to be attached on the left fork. If you fail to return the timing chip after the race, Specturm will charge it to the credit card used to register that participant. Since many OCBC card holders must have paid for their friends’ registration to secure the discount, let’s hope their friends read this! I am sure event organisers will strip the chips off us immediately after the finish though [update - you'll exchange it for the finisher medal]. The important news is to attach the timing chip to the left fork of your bicycle (with the ID number on the outside) and at least 10cm away from any electronic device. Timing ChipAll participants in The Super Challenge – 50km and The Challenge – 40km, please read the instructions on securing your timing chip in Appendix 6.3. All timing chips must be returned after crossing the finish line. Therefore, ensure that you hand in your timing chip BEFORE leaving the finish area; if you lose your timing chip, we will have to charge you S$150. The amount will be deducted from the Credit Card that was used for the registration. Event Bib No to be worn on the lower back, right-hand sideI am not pinning this onto my cycling jersey (I like them to last) so I will wear my Camel Pack and attach it to that. Event Bib Number “Your event bib number will be included in the Cycle Pack. Event bib MUST be worn on the right hand, lower part of your back throughout the event. Anyone without an event bib will not be allowed in the start zone. (Please write your name and emergency contact person/telephone on the reverse of your bib).” The Event Time for the Challenge is 6.00am – latecomers will not ride! “Please note The Challenge – 40km now starts at 6am on Sunday, 7 March. Participants are advised to be at the F1 Pit Building 45 minutes before your event start time. Unfortunately, we will not accept latecomers to the starting line as start times will be strictly adhered to. We appreciate your understanding on the need to re- open public roads on time.” Flag off time – appears to be different from the event start time. Although my flag off timing appears is 6.30am; the event time is 6.00am, so my kakis and I plan to be there by 5.45am and will be leaving Holland Village at 5.15am ought to do it. It’s inevitable to have to hang out during events like this hence it’s best to go with friends. I’ll bring my camera to take in the sight of other cyclists. And water to drink since we will talk much. If you overestimated your abilities and fail to keep to the relevant timing of your wave, expect to be diverted during the ride! “The Challenge – 40km For the safety of participants, riders will be set off in waves (according to the anticipated finish times submitted upon registration) to ensure that riders of similar speed and ability are riding together. A penning system will be set up at the start, as per diagram in Appendix 6.4. The finish time categories and approximate flag off timings are as follows: Approx. flag off timing/Your estimated finish time 0600hrs – under 60mins 0615hrs – 60 to 90mins 0630hrs – 90 to 120mins 0645hrs – more than 120mins Riders will be set off in batches of a few hundred and their timing chip will record both their start and finish times. Slow riders who fail to meet projected timings will be diverted, re-routed to a shorter route, or stopped; this is for the safety of all riders and to meet stipulated timings to reopen public roads. The final decision will be made by the Event Organiser, Spectrum Worldwide.” Goodie bags distributed AFTER the ride This might be a problem for cyclists who rode down; if it’s sizeable, they may not be able to carry the stuff back. I’m not riding for “goodies” so this is not a tragedy. I usually offload the stuff to others anyway. And I do have a 1.4L camelpak. The tear-out tab, “Exchangeable for one Goodie Bag” is required for collection of your goodie bag, please do not lose it. Goodie bags will be distributed immediately after the finish line, so ensure that you have your tab with you when you cycle.” Bathing the cats This is never fun for either the Tiger, Mr Bats, Xylo or myself. And it's an insecticidal shampoo that we use in conjunction with Revolution. We managed to skip 2009 and have been eyeing them for smells and out of the norm scratching. A household dog obviously would not have lasted this long but cats groom carefully and deliberately – there is always a downside and that is the rather distressing process of coughing up a furball in order  to disgorge the burden of all that they've consumed in the name of hygiene. But still it means they can last a long, long while without a bath and have earned a reputation of hating water! Mr Bats is not a happy cat! Well it was about time once again and it's always better to prevent rather than to cure the ills of an insect infestation which they can pick up from us who venture out to the world. So once the sun seemed to be a sure thing and a free Saturday afternoon beckoned for once, it was time to take a deep breath and get to work. To get myself in the mood, I twittered my intentions to facebook and experienced souls checked in sympathetically within minutes, all much appreciated – "Get out the band aids!" (Dawn Kua); "You are a far braver soul than I. May the Force be With You." (Ria Tan) and a somewhat anticipatory Stan Ng with "Meeeeeeeoooooooowwwwww!" An hour passed as I waited for the sun to get nice and toasty so that the cats would later dry off quickly. Meanwhile I setup my conference chat and document sharing with my mangrove phenology students, The Borg, who were thrilled to hear that I was embarking on such an endeavour on the other side of the screen. I thought back to 2008 and remembered that all three would cats would climb up my head as I squat in the shower, to escape the attention of the warm water. The trick was to let their forepaws grip my shoulder and for me to hold them back with the fingers of one hand positioned over their shoulders.  Oh yes, I had to wear a thick t-shirt and be prepared for considerable yowling, especially from Tiger. Best of all, the insecticidal shampoo needs a 5 minute wait to take effect (we read the label very carefully). A wet, shampoo-covered cat is hardly a happy animal. “So what’s with all that meowing, dude?” Since Mr Bats is the strongest and has been known to hide once he hears the distressed voices of the others, we opted to snatch him from the kitchen table where he was looking hopeful about an additional meal. I learnt how strong he had become since the last bath as he broke through my my grasp and climbed over my head. Somehow, I brought him down to wash, lather and stay still for the five minutes before rinsing off. Getting to his belly meant disengaging his claws from my well abused t-shirt. Still I managed to avoid deep scratches except for some minor welts on the chest as he dug in for a better grip. Happily, his nails had last been cut a few days ago. Tiger eyeballs the route to freedom but doesn’t push very hard. The other two are not as big so are not nearly as difficult. As somewhat of a veteran, I am reasonably immune to their pitiful moaning. Tiger did not struggle as much and I wondered if he was showing his age, a sobering effect. On the other hand, I had noticed him limping recently and he has two small tufts of fur missing – all the side effect of midnight rough-housing with the other cats which keeps him in shape. So I put it down to resignation on his part and soon he too was being dried off. The seemingly compliant Xylo complains the least of the three boys but was the only one who nearly got away. In the process, I got some of the shampoo in my eye which turned a fiery red. He was a bit grumpy before we started and sulked a bit after it was all over but he's already talking to us again so it was not too bad.   Xylo nearly got away – he’s sneaky that way, smart boy. Another friend Lucy Davis said she would never dare do this with her boys, so I felt I needed to explain a little, in case people began to mistake any of this for bravery – I was a dog person at the time of the 2003 government-initiated response to SARS – the culling of stray cats. With so many cats being put to sleep, I had an overnight conversion. But I was fairly cautious about the sort of cat I brought home, so some choice was exercised there. Also all were raised while still kittens and sterilised soon after maturity and are gentle souls who would not hurt anyone under any circumstance. What Tiger, Mr Bats and Xylo lack in excitement of performance, other cats more than compensate for. I understand bathing the cat elsewhere can be quite traumatic (for the human) and has to be a well thought out exercise with decoys, thick towels, backup and the like.  The rub down – Mr Bats loves this so calms down considerably at this point. The best part of bathing the cats is the two-towel rub down. As someone who is susceptible to chesty colds, I can't be too careful about ensuring the boys are dry after their warm bath. Seeing them groom themselves in the sunlight after is an extremely satisfying ending.  After putting the boys through a relatively traumatic event (for a household cat), you would imagine some sort of resentment should follow. But Mr Bats has parked his butt against my arm as I type, Xylo came over to rub my legs when I was back from visiting and Tiger rolled over to get his tummy rubbed. All's at peace once again. Auto-connect to Wireless@SGx: installation package and manual setup IDA recently announced a new Wireless@SG automatic log-in feature. Seamless and Secure Access securely and automatically connects to Wireless@SG once within range of a hotspot. There are steps you need to take to set this up though. An installation package helps set you up for Wireless@SGxGo to this IDA site to download the installation package for these OS' – iPhone, Windows Mobile 6.1 (and above), Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS 10.5 (and above). The existing 1-Click WSG widget on my iPod Touch appears to do the same thing but it is not a secure network, so go get this installer package from iTunes. Note that the installation package you download simply helps you set up your secure, automatic connection. So it is for one-time use only. After use, you will see a new setting in your system preferences, e.g. the image below indicates the new settings on my Mac. The package will also add an application called Wireless Connect, but this is not required for connection and you can dump that if you do not find it useful. Earlier, Hua Qin twittered that now we know what Wireless@SGx is all about! Yeah, at the last couple of me@n mac meetups at HV Starbucks, we did wonder indeed. Finally, the mystery is solved. Problems? Check your settings If you have problems connecting after running the package, check your settings manually – I had problems with the Singtel OSX package and was unable to login. Suspecting the installation package made a mistake, I looked at System Preferences > Network > Advanced > 802.1x and found incorrect settings. So I fixed the “User Name” and “Password” there. Xylo the Cat must have tried to set up Wireless@SGx for himself Manual Configuration – know how its doneThe IDA site also provides SSA Manual Configuration Guides for a wider array of OS’. While the links for M1 and iCell direct you to clearly illustrated pdfs which you can adapt for the relevant provider, the Singtel link requires a login. They mean to provide a manual customised with your userid. However in my case, their OS X manual had gibberish inserted between my userid and domain in the manual. I wonder if this is related to why the installation package messed things up as well. I’ll let them know. Bliss until 2013In case you’re wondering, “Wireless@SG is powered by the network of three wireless operators: iCELL, M1 and SingTel. It will be provided free till 31 March 2013.” – IDA FAQ Remember to make daily back-ups! (Advise to research students) Hi Ecolab honours students, It is time to revisit this bit of advise from your start of project briefing - back up your thesis files on a daily basis! Trouble will usually strike in the weeks to come, as your computer use becomes even more intense. Any computer, regardless of make and age, can be vulnerable, so a daily backup routine is critical. The mindset to adopt is to expect your computer to breakdown, for the hardisk to fail and the most tragic, for yourself to write over your own files! So start saving in at least two of the following ways: Email yourself a copy of the file when you're done, in gmail.  Thumbdrive - save a copy to a dedicated thumbdrive. Dropbox – the files in your dropbox folder (which you all opened at the start of the academic year) are backed up to your dropbox server space.  GDocs - this is new – GDocs now allows you to upload files without conversion, i.e. to store files.  Note: if you have raw data stored solely on gdocs, remember to download and set aside a copy.   Finally a couple of file management suggestions. Particularly helpful during that overnight grind to complete a draft: If you have too many files that it slows down access, keep files in folder-chapters.  Reduce clutter in your primary working folder – set aside raw data you no longer access and early document versions into a separate, clearly labelled archive folder.  There are many tragic stories from various years. These are exciting to hear about but dreadful to live through. So backup and have a Happy New Year! Cheerio! Otterman Malay Regiment Front, 12th – 15th February, 1945 Source: Dol, Ramli, 1965. The Malay Regiment, 1933-1942. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 38(1): 199 – 243. “We’ll Meet Again” Tropical Conservation Biology class discusses the Chek Jawa Case Study Several years ago, I realised many of our students in NUS had, at best, only a vague impression about what happened at Chek Jawa in 2001 and 2002 – even those who were around when it was happening. After it was all over, more talks have probably been given by government officers than myself to NUS students. It is worth telling as it presents an interesting local story with many angles, one of which tells of an effort and approach of citizenry in engaging the public and the government. A few years ago, sensing a receptive mood by the first year’s in the lecture theatre (some 200 students), I threw out the prepared lecture on tropical conservation and used an old presentation to tell them about Chek Jawa. The mood was electric and since then, Ng Ngan Kee who lectures in Semester 2 and myself in Semester 1 include some aspects of the story in the final lecture in the LSM1103 Biodiversity module, which we take turns to teach. All quite apt since the early part of the story discusses the biodiversity survey. Earlier, I went to the senior students in the smaller LSM4262 Tropical Conservation Biology course which Peter Ng used to coordinate (usually about 40+ students), and in recent years, Ngan Kee. This two-hour session is adequate as a quick fix for a group of students who have greater exposure to ecological issues and accumulated practical experience in the field. However, last year, I realised that some (not all) of the senior students had some difficulty in synthesising the information. Then other teaching demands flooded my mind and suddenly it was a year later, with most of the current batch of students in the throes of their honours year research projects! In order to avoid sudden and aditional demands on their time outside of the classroom, I opted to use two of the existing time slots for a lecture and a tutorial. Much of the mechanisms involved were anchored on but not directly about biology, so I entitled the lecture “Beyond Biology: A Case Study of Chek Jawa”. Our roles were spelt out – I was the story teller and kept analysis mild during the lecture last Tuesday, while the students analysed the account as they listened, to extract some sense of the underlying mechanisms. In the tutorial session this morning, the students were introduced to the session objectives and broken up into five groups of 5-6 students to discuss the tools, methods and strategies in specific areas in order to present highlights about the uniqueness/characteristics of the Chek Jawa case, communication, organisational methods, biodiversity survey and sampling methods and the public education programme. Photos by Ng Ngan Kee Their scenario imagined them advising a bunch of ‘A’-level students who had approached them about the conservation of a site of concern. They were to present an analysis of Chek Jawa with suggestions about applications to the area of current concern. This scenario was actually prompted by some 20 ‘A’-level Project Work groups who had consulted me about their theoretical projects last year. I decided to suggest Mandai mangroves and mudflats as the site in question as it is of real concern while a great contrast to Chek Jawa. Enough students too were familiar with Mandai from their research projects, so I had five of them form the groups, providing each group with a resource person. After an intense 30-minute discussion, the groups served up a representative (some provided two) to deliver a five minutes oral presentation followed by a two minute Q&A by their peers. Ngan Kee kept them strictly to the time so there was enough left of the two hour session for a partial debrief – I will send them the rest of the review. While this year’s exercise was simply a dry run for next year, it has already help stimulate some analysis and discussion while the presentations reveal comprehension and effectiveness of communication. I’ll improve the method for next year – this first run unleashed a flood of ideas – and integrate it into the module. To think that just 45mins before the session, I had no idea what we’d be doing today. Tropical conservation class analysing the Chek Jawa case study II   Tropical conservation class analysing the Chek Jawa case study   “Year of no concern for the tiger?” Letter From Today Online – Year of no concern for the tiger? Letter from Natalie Cook, Today Online, 05:55 AM Feb 12, 2010 I am disheartened at how Singapore is celebrating the Year of the Tiger. Instead of highlighting how threatened the tiger is as a species, there are actions and pictures showing a complete disregard for their well-being. The Singapore Zoo is showing its training methods by placing the tiger in a small cage so that people can walk past and take pictures of them. On the cover of a local magazine, a celebrity is draped in a tiger skin. Why can’t we celebrate this beautiful and threatened animal by ensuring that their welfare is our main concern? How many tigers, if any, will be left in the next Year of the Tiger if we keep on treating them the way we do now? Hons students eat my ecology exam paper for lunch Four honours students took the one-hour structured section of the ecology paper I set last semester for the new second year ecology module. The questions were not straightforward and the look on the second years faces when they left the exam had me wondering if I had over-reached. So I asked the honours students for help and they arranged the session today. At 12.45pm, they tore into the paper.  It was quite an impressive sight to behold – there was no hesitation. The four started scribbling away silently the moment the clock started. Well, all of them are field biologists now and help each other out during field trips, getting even more exposure. So it was no surprise they could handle a structured ecology paper without preparation. For some, the transformation has been particularly dramatic – from novice to seasoned field worker. The difference, in addition to the various 3rd and 4th year modules they have taken has been the experience and responsibility of their research projects. So it's heartening that some second years have linked up with these field biologists – this will nudge this transformation along earlier. “Google Docs Preview in Gmail” – monitoring registrations numbers within an email Google Labs is always worth popping into for a look see every now and then. This morning I found a lovely feature that enables a preview Google Doc links in your email – “Google Docs Preview in Gmail.” Having turned it on, I see the daily update of registrant numbers for the Battle of Pasir Panjang Commemorative Walk – without additional clicking. This is possible via a few more steps – I had activated the daily digest on the active form. This includes the URL of the registration spreadsheet which the preview function presents. In that spreadsheet, I had arranged a cell calculating the total number of registrants to appear in the right space. This feature will be extremely useful for multi-tasking individuals who are monitoring several forms or collaboration documents which might or not require a response. Especially when this is a small part of a wider range of daily activity! For instance, the preview of an event registration spreadsheet can be setup to provide the total number of registrants and the gender ratio registered for an event. Through the daily digest alert, the event coordinator would be able to adjust catering numbers and prevent food wastage – all without leaving the email window. Lovely! This morning, I also activated “default reply all”, “create doc from email conversation”, “send & archive button”, “unread from here” – for all this and more see DemoGeek’s “30 useful Gmail Labs features that enhance your Gmail experience”. Mr Bats, the Kangaroo Cat Retro Singapore Sports Council site finally abandoned for “icanbook.com.sg” The Singapore Sports Council has had a retro looking site for bookings that persisted until late last year. Benjamin Koe highlighted the page at http://www.ibook.ssc.gov.sg to a few of us last December noting the site’s footer says “Preferable Browsers are Netscape 4.0 and above or Internet Explorer 3.02 and above”. It was fun viewing the soon to be abandoned look that reminded me of some of my hoax webpages from the 90’s as well as my SETI@Home stats page that petered out in 2004 (no more idling computers by then). I remember stories Ladybug used to relate about booking badminton courts for her regular weekly game with friends. She’d choose courts around Clementi for the group, which were in high demand – she’d wait until midnight and click refresh repeatedly until the slots opened up for the week ahead in order to grab her desired slot. In five minutes the slots were completely gone! She seemed to enjoy the challenge and on some occasions, I’d hear her talking excitedly when she was beaten to a lot. Frenetic activity would follow to secure the next best venues within that 3-minute window. Singapore getting crowded is felt in so many ways. New portal for bookings SSC, along with a few others are now using a new portal, I Can Book: “ICanBook was launched on 4th January 2010 @ www.icanbook.com.sg. It is an online booking portal that allows the public to book facilities (both sports and non-sports), register for courses and to make payment for the transactions. The portal is managed by I-Magination Solution Pte Ltd. The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) is one of the first four government agencies that has subscribed to the portal. The other three government agencies are the People’s Association, National Parks Board and National Heritage Board.” So much work, so little time Mr Bats the cat keels over in front of my second monitor – and I wishing I could join him! Uh-oh, Haloscan’s dying – switching the Habitatnews comments engine On 21 Nov 2005, I finally tweaked some code enough to provide a Haloscan comment engine for the Samizdat blogging engine I was using. This brought comment capability to all three Samizdat blogs I was maintaining at the time – my old blog, Habitatnews and the old Raffles Museum News.  So it was kinda sad to get this notice today that Haloscan's folding. Four and a quarter years of great service. While there weren't many comments, the few that were posted were important and I was notified immediately. And, of course, it took great effort to insert the comments in the first place!  Two of my blogs have since migrated to WordPress. Habitatnews however, is still extant, so I've opted to migrate to the Echo comment engine. It'll cost US$12/year after a two month trial. Since comment traffic is very low, I'll explore the free options out there. Right now there is some python script but it addles my brain! I could, of course, simply redirect the comment link to a pop up box that will redirect comments to my email account.  If I remember how. We'll see. Xylo and Tiger “holding hands” > In the midst of a Web.20 class I am with the MW5201 students and we are racing through Web2.0 tools in Lab 7. Mr Bats the cat snuggles up Tiger the ticked-tabby cat, snoozes on the sofa Xylo the cat watches a Katydid Yeah, he was fascinated; maintained his eye lock on the insect. See and download the full gallery on posterous Readability – making a webpage more readable Ivan Chew highlighted to me Readability, a great tool to make webpages easier to read, especially with extensive text. It strips away the trimmings to leave you with just the text, sized and styled to your taste and spread out over an ideal width, like so: Many news sites have a button to click to obtain the print-friendly version of an article – Readabilty makes this simpler. To enjoy this, you have to: Go to the arc90 webpage: lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability Select: Style (e.g in my case “newspaper), Size (I chose “Large”) and Margin (my choice was “Wide”). Drag the “READABILITY” bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar (just below the URL window). Next time you want to make it easier to read an article, just click the bookmarklet! You can insert multiple bookmarklets set to different parameters of style, size and width. Prior to Reability, I cut and past lengthy text into Tofu, a simple and lovely desktop tool for Mac OS X. Tofu arranges text into multiple columns and adjusts the style and background to your settings, as well as the width of columns. The size of text is also adjustable on the fly and it can present text full screen. WhIle Tofu is superior to Readability, the latter is merely a click (or keystroke) away within your browser window. Thus Readability is more convenient for the short to medium length articles that I might encounter on the next while I’ll continue using Tofu for longer articles. Lovely!. Rainin’ huh? You betcha! (NEA’s Doppler weather radar) See http://weather.nea.gov.sg – “The National Environment Agency provides weather forecasts and information on Weather@SG for the general public. These include the provision of a 3 hour nowcast and 12 hour forecast, a longer-term 3 day outlook, and issue of heavy rain warnings and other environmental alerts. Close monitoring of the weather development is made possible with a Doppler weather radar which provides near real-time observations of the location and intensity of rain areas over Singapore.” What it is like NOW: For the next THREE hours: For the next TWELVE hours: For the next THREE days: Onslaught of spam comments The Cycling in Singapore blog has been at the receiving end of an onslaught of spam; I wonder why. It appears to have reached a crescendo this month: Happily, I set the blog to comment moderation. MIldly irritating for users posting comments, but useful in my current situation. Thankfully with blogger, it’s two clicks for removal. Buona Vista to Bukit Batok: the Ulu Pandan Park Connector The completed Ulu Pandan Park Connector (see the NParks link with map) allows a Holland VIllage/Ghim Moh resident a traffic-free ride all the way to Choa Chu Kang (see “8 parks fully connected in western Singapore” – CNA). The number of crossings are few along the route to Bukit Batok and the scenery is lovely, as the connectors have been well planted with trees. It’s time for locals along the route to buy a bicycle – they can cycle for leisure safely once again, after more than a decade! Ride slowly and keep the route safe for pedestrians. Click for larger view Synchronised flowering of Pulai trees (Alstonia angustiloba) in January (Singapore) Have you seen Pulai tree (Alstonia angustiloba) flowering this January? They are planted profusely along the Western Park Connector in Singapore, so you’d be hard-pressed to miss them if you live in Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok, Jurong etc. Amy Choong first alerted me in early January via facebook about the synchronised flowering and strong, peppery smells, “All the Alstonia (pulai) trees are flowering, unusual as they hardly show synchronize flowering. The green, peppery smell with some sweet scent is it. Strong in the evening and night.” [04 Jan 2010] When I finally emerged after two weeks of confinement due to a bad flu, I saw that the ‘instant trees’ along South Buona Vista were indeed flowering. And when I went on a Zendog ride along the Western PCN last Sunday, the west was all ablaze with flowering trees. The paths below the trees were floor strewn with their petals and made for a lovely sight (sweepers might have a different perspective, though). Photos taken with my temperamental Nokia N78 during my ride along the western PCN- the western extension of the Ulu Pandan Park Connector past the PIE I am compiling photos and locations of flowering for Habitatnews (e.g. see the Syzygium grande (Sea apple) reports), so please send me your photos if you have ‘em, with location details and let me know if and when you smelt them as well! Do also let me know if you are NOT staying in the west and have Pulai near your estate (e.g. Alvin says Pulai are “now being planted all around Punggol.” Also let me know if the Pulai were not flowering in January at some places too. Well essentially, if you have Pulai trees near your house, tell me anything about them; I’m listening! Email: otterman@sivasothi.com When, will, we see the fruit? (Re)Painting the SingPost postboxes Artist Fran Yong from LaSalle College of the Arts was repainting the Holland Village postbox with his work entitled "The Run" yesterday. The Run celebrates the journey, not the destination, which is the motto of my cycling group, Zendogs! I am looking forward to enjoying the completed work which looks to be a colourful affair. Five other commissioned works are being painted up around the island by various artists. Six is the number of postboxes that were involved in a public relations fiasco in which SingPost had "Inkman" plaster graffiti "illegally" over six postboxes around the city over the New Year. Vandalism in Singapore? That must have triggered some bad memories! People complained about the incident, the police investigated and a crestfallen SingPost apologised for a the bad move as a Youth Olympic Games sponsor.  Angry letters to the press are still flogging that dead horse, calling the publicity stunt an absolute failure. In the process, a lot of attention has been drawn to painted postboxes (Stamp02), certainly much more than Stamp01 (2007). When the dust settles, that old adman war cry will prevail – (only) no press is bad press.  In celebration of the Youth Olympics to be held in Singapore this year, 40 post boxes will be painted and you can submit designs in a competition at http://www.stamp02.sg See and download the full gallery on posterous Update – the finished product: Update: MicaMonkey saw another postbox getting painted at Pasir Ris MRT: Invictus (2009) – early steps in uniting post-apartheid South Africa: the 3rd Rugby World Cup “Invictus” is a film based on John Carlin’s book, “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation.” Directed by Clint Eastwood (who is really churning them out these days) the film stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela (who else?) and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar. It describes how South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela threw his weight behind the 3rd Rugby World Cup in 1995 in an effort to help unite the country and reconcile white South Africans. The county had witnessed its debut democratic elections of 1994 which had ushered in a new era but also carried seething wounds of its apartheid past. While the film provides hints about the context, it may be a little understated to young viewers. I’d suggest picking up Richard Attenborough’s “Cry Freedom” (1978) to gain some appreciation for how different things were. Rugby, during apartheid South Africa was played mainly by white South Africans who treated it like a religion. However, the South African team had been isolated, having been banned from international competition as a result of the country’s apartheid regime – the Commonwealth of Nations Gleneagles Agreement in 1977 discouraged sporting contact and competition with South Africa. The restriction worked both ways and players from other countries were not allowed to play in South Africa. Singapore’s own 1978 Sportsman of the Year, Song Koon Poh, joined an international group, the Tokkie Dragons, to tour South Africa and was slapped with a life ban as a result. So the 3rd Rugby World Cup was the first time South African would be participating in an international competition. The team automatically qualified as hosts and no one really expected them to get far. However, they defied all expectations by beating a strong Australian side in the opening game and eventually worked their way to the finals at Ellis Park, Johannesburg on 24th of June, 1995. Facing them on the pitch with the opening Maori war chant, the Haka (accurately re-created in the film with the help of a Kiwi), were an All-Blacks team at the top of their game. This included the towering Jonah Lomu, introduced to the world like a thunderbolt bursting through the slightest gaps. During the semi-finals, Jonah Lomu had bowled over poor-tackling three-quarters mercilessly to shatter a shocked England. The New Zealanders were technically brilliant in their forward play as well and seemed unstoppable. The Lomu factor was alluded to in the film but it would have been better explained with the image of one of his blazing runs – for sure tapes of the NZ-England game were well studied by the South Africans. Mandela who was working hard to bring about reconciliation in the country, saw even more potential in the tournament. The sight of Mandela in a No. 6 green and gold Springboks jersey during the finals was shocking even to viewers around the world familiar with the country’s history and political developments. As the mainly white stadium chanted “Nelson! Nelson!”, you could appreciate Mandela’s wisdom in healing the soul of the country and the role he knew sports could play in uniting the nation. This was echoed in the post-match interview on the pitch with team captain Francois Pienaar. In an interview broadcast around the world, he was asked by SABC reporter David van der Sandt.: “Francois, we had 65,000 South Africans here today, tremendous support.” He replied, “David, we didn’t have 60,000 South Africans, we had 43 million South Africans.” Invictus opens in Singapore on 7th January 2010. Thanks for the video link, Alvin! No more wrestling matches with a two-point plug No more need to wrestle two point plugs into these 3-point adaptors – they just give way to your two-pin plugs, nice! What I’m really waiting for, is of course, MacBook Air-inspired Min-Kyu Choi’s Folding Plug (April 2009) – it was ‘the show-stopper at the The Royal College of Art’s graduate show’ and featured in Icon Magazine in June 2009: