Many things to post today, so i shall be organised and make an ordered list.
1. RSS News Feeder
Decided to use one to make life easier for me. No need to keep going back to individual websites to check for updates. As and when updates are made, they will be collated on this website, http://www.bloglines.com and you can see for yourself the latest posts and changes. Works for any site that does RSS Feed, and all blogs should have that too, if the user had enabled that. Great service.
2. Lipid Guy
Right. We are currently having lectures on plant lipid metabolism. And the 5 of us who are taking this module, have taken to calling the lecturer 'lipid guy', not because he is big, but because he lectures on lipids. No, seriously, we didn't coin this name specifically because he's big. It just happens that he's big and he's lecturing on lipids. Well, he's not terribly good at lecturing either. So, us 5 are now referring to him as the lipid guy. And i cannot stress how important that it has nothing to do with his size. A bit of an inside joke, though.
3. Phone
I managed to convince myself the phone is bad. So, yes. I curbed myself from splurging. YAY!
4. Seminar
Had a brilliant seminar today by this guy from University of Lancaster, talking about nitrogen signalling in root development. Hmm.. i'm really interested in plant responses to the environment, which is a module i'll be taking next term. Surely it's important to know how plants respond to the environment.
5. Ancient book
Just happened to glance at a book today, lying on the table in the library. It was a forester's manual to Dipterocarps (for the uninitiated, dipterocarps are a group of tropical trees, really common in malaya. Common names include meranti, shorea....and the like) The winged fruits. Strike a bell? Yah, this book or manual rather was written in the 1940s in Singapore by Symington. OH MY god... he wrote this during the Japanese occupation and had the book published in Malaya. I'm really intrigued, coz i have never looked at a book so old. The front cover had japanese words on it - a translation of the title in japanese (Romanji). The preface was in romanji too. Really amazing. Japanese in an English book. And the manual was priceless. So much lovely information about dipterocarps. And singapore was listed in it too. Surprising, considering how much forests we have cut down.. i'll go all the way out and say 99% of the original primary forest is gone in Singapore. What's left? Hmm.. a bit in the Botanic Gardens. That's probably the largest stand of primary rainforest left on the island. The rest are mostly disturbed, regenerated secondary forests. So, if you want to study effects of fragmentation in rainforests, Singapore is a great place to work in. Where else can you find McD's and Orchard Road (shopping haven) just 5 minutes away from primary rainforest. Not in the Amazon. Nor in the Zaire basin. Nor in Borneo. Hee hee... shameless plugging.
1. RSS News Feeder
Decided to use one to make life easier for me. No need to keep going back to individual websites to check for updates. As and when updates are made, they will be collated on this website, http://www.bloglines.com and you can see for yourself the latest posts and changes. Works for any site that does RSS Feed, and all blogs should have that too, if the user had enabled that. Great service.
2. Lipid Guy
Right. We are currently having lectures on plant lipid metabolism. And the 5 of us who are taking this module, have taken to calling the lecturer 'lipid guy', not because he is big, but because he lectures on lipids. No, seriously, we didn't coin this name specifically because he's big. It just happens that he's big and he's lecturing on lipids. Well, he's not terribly good at lecturing either. So, us 5 are now referring to him as the lipid guy. And i cannot stress how important that it has nothing to do with his size. A bit of an inside joke, though.
3. Phone
I managed to convince myself the phone is bad. So, yes. I curbed myself from splurging. YAY!
4. Seminar
Had a brilliant seminar today by this guy from University of Lancaster, talking about nitrogen signalling in root development. Hmm.. i'm really interested in plant responses to the environment, which is a module i'll be taking next term. Surely it's important to know how plants respond to the environment.
5. Ancient book
Just happened to glance at a book today, lying on the table in the library. It was a forester's manual to Dipterocarps (for the uninitiated, dipterocarps are a group of tropical trees, really common in malaya. Common names include meranti, shorea....and the like) The winged fruits. Strike a bell? Yah, this book or manual rather was written in the 1940s in Singapore by Symington. OH MY god... he wrote this during the Japanese occupation and had the book published in Malaya. I'm really intrigued, coz i have never looked at a book so old. The front cover had japanese words on it - a translation of the title in japanese (Romanji). The preface was in romanji too. Really amazing. Japanese in an English book. And the manual was priceless. So much lovely information about dipterocarps. And singapore was listed in it too. Surprising, considering how much forests we have cut down.. i'll go all the way out and say 99% of the original primary forest is gone in Singapore. What's left? Hmm.. a bit in the Botanic Gardens. That's probably the largest stand of primary rainforest left on the island. The rest are mostly disturbed, regenerated secondary forests. So, if you want to study effects of fragmentation in rainforests, Singapore is a great place to work in. Where else can you find McD's and Orchard Road (shopping haven) just 5 minutes away from primary rainforest. Not in the Amazon. Nor in the Zaire basin. Nor in Borneo. Hee hee... shameless plugging.
posted by Monty Elm at 2:17 am
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