Earthquake in Indonesia, Tremors in Singapore

Update on September 13:
It appears the earthquakes and tremors are yet to be over. Latest updates at the bottom of the post.

This is truly a classic case of the beauty of web 2.0 connectivity.

14 minutes ago at around 7.29pm, Otterman posted a vague message on twitter.com:

"So it was tremors, not a giddy spell. Adrian [lekowala] says neighbourhood getting out of flats in Sengkang... he's at ground floor now"


Photo by Lekowala in Sengkang

At 7.35pm, I reread the message and decided to investigate if there was an earthquake and by searching for "tremors singapore" on Google, the 2nd hit was NEA's website on "Latest Regional Earthquakes" which kindly provided me with the information I was looking for.

30 minutes ago at around 7.10pm, a earthquake of magnitude 7.15 on the Richter Scale was measured off the Southwest of Sumatra. The website reports that a "local tsunami may be generated near earthquake source but unlikely to affect Singapore". This really proves that NEA is on top of their updates. I am rather glad of their efficiency.


Location of earthquake at Sumatra in red square. Map from USGS.

However, it must have been rather serious for it to be felt all the way in Sengkang, Singapore. However, while I was happily sitting here in my office in NUS, I felt nothing and am still awaiting confirmation from Otterman if he felt the tremors or was it only Lekowala.

A class in Natural Hazard 2 years ago taught this monkey that our friends in the Eastern Singapore is more likely to feel tremors as the ground they are on are made of sedimentary alluvium material which is less stable than the granite and what not other hardier material that we are seated on.

Unbelieving that nobody else has picked up on this, at 7.44pm, I made a search on Google News and no news agency has picked up this earthquake yet. At 7.49pm, I again searched for news and see that Channelnewsasia has made a "breaking news" entry on their front page stating that a 7.9 earthquake has struck Indonesia. As usual, there are magnitude discrepancy during the first hour of the earthquake hitting. Google has also picked up a one line feed from Associated Press stating that a powerful earthquake has made Jakarta buildings sway. Apparently at 7.41pm, CNA has made a report of Singaporeans feeling tremors but did not mention any details of location, instead providing only background to the earthquake and past events.

I'm still waiting for images to come in and for Lekowala to show some photos or perhaps to blog about the tremors in Singapore!

Updates
7.58pm: Otterman said that he felt tremors not in NUS but at Holland Village. I stick to my original argument that Kent Ridge is on hardier ground, geologically. USGS reports the earthquake to be 7.8 but NEA has yet to make any changes. Subscribe to USGS's earthquake RSS feed from around the world to keep updated on the latest.


Photo uploaded by 9.

8.06pm: Found that at 7.35pm, a friend uploaded the earthquake location map (above) on flickr as well as the breaking news headline on CNN (below). The easy to use photo sharing mechanisms at work! Naturally he also blogged about it. Apparently at 7.14 Singapore time, all hell broke lose on the Hardwarezone Eat Drink Man Woman forum. Cowboybar is no slower with members posting about the tremors at around 7.20pm when a member felt the quake downtown. 5 minutes later, other members reported tremors from Bukit Panjang.


Photo uploaded by 9.

This sharing of information in real time, at different places in Singapore, sharing experiences and checking on friends is absolutely effective. Meanwhile, I am getting in touch with people on instant messaging programs. On the other hand, said friend is waiting for youtube videos of buildings shaking. Is that too optimistic? Depends on how badly it shook I suppose. This is indeed the age of information sharing and high speed connectivity.


Screenshot of Hardwarezone forum reporting on tremors. By Kingmeng

8.06pm: Otterman blogged about the tremors and updating me on MSN. He also blogged about the tremors from the March 2007 earthquake where he likewise did not feel anything on the Ridge. Nonetheless the SCDF Civil Defence handbook gives detailed guidelines on what to do in the event of an earthquake or aftershock tremors.


Taken from SCDF Website.

So far locations where tremors have been reported:

NORTH-NORTHEAST
1) Sengkang
2) Woodlands
3) Serangoon North
4) Hougang
5) Punggol
6) Toa Payoh
7) Khatib
8) Ang Mo Kio
9) Admiralty
10) Anchorvale
11) Yisun
12) Bishan
13) Kovan

SOUTHWEST-CENTRAL
1) Bukit Panjang
2) NUS Bukit Timah Campus
3) Holland Village
4) Raffles Place
5) Bukit Batok
6) Alexandra
7) Tiong Bahru
8) Clementi
9) One Raffles Link
10) Jurong West (selected areas)
11) Chua Chu Kang
12) Yew Tee
13) Boon Lay
14) Harborfront

EAST
1) Aljunied
2) Bendemeer
3) Bugis
4) Marine Parade
5) Bedok Reservoir
6) Tampines (selected areas)
7) Whampao Drive
8) Mountbatten
9) Geylang East
10) Eunos
11) Pasir Ris (selected areas)
12) Little India
13) Kallang

Areas that reported NO tremors:
1) NUS (Kent Ridge)
2) Jurong (selected areas)
3) Tampines (selected areas)
4) Pasir Ris (selected areas)

At 7.25pm, a member on the Hardwarezone EDMW Forum reported "another round" which I am guessing refers to another round of tremors. This meant there were more than one which is really quite interesting. Were this the secondary waves, aftershocks or something else?

Many also reported that they were giddy, nauseous and felt physically sick. Some who evacuated reported seeing police and ambulance in their neighborhood to tend to any potential injured residents. There were reports of pipes being broken, ceilings cracked, water supply turning brown from pipe damages in addition to the usual swaying. Most people straightaway attribute their giddiness to possibly ill health instead of considering the possibility that the ground was shaking. Could this be due to lack of experience with earthquakes in Singapore? Some veterans (who probably live in tremor prone areas) said this was the worst tremor they have felt.

At 8.03pm, Channel news asia reports tsunami warnings being issued from Hong Kong, Malaysia and as far as Sri Lanka. Singaporeans as well should not be complacent as well if we are unlucky, and with the write geometry and strong enough magnitude, we would just see ourselves welcoming a tsunami. For now, I am just glad I am on high ground.

Likewise, Club Snap, a photography forum also has a thread with members reporting on experiencing tremors.

At 9.04pm, USGS website states 113 reports from Singapore of tremors as compared to no more than 20 from Indonesia, the place where it occured! This goes to show the wide gap in internet access within the region. Of course earthquake also means electricity being cut off. News report states that electricity and phones were disconnected due to earthquake.

9.45pm: saw Lekowala's photos of people gathering on the ground floor in Sengkang!


Lekowala even spotted somebody with a suitcase

See more photos from Seng Kang tremors here.

A discussion with my parents earlier reported that residents in the high floors at Teck Whye, Chua Chu Kang while those on the ground floor feels nothing at all. I guess that introduces another variable in the identification of tremor-prone areas. However, I am still assured that I am safe on Kent Ridge. But what if we had higher buildings on NUS, would I feel the shake? Engineering ultimately does determine the stability of buildings. Afterall the Japan Kobe earthquake was major because the buildings were unreinforced and not built to tolerate quakes.

10.03pm: watching Channel 8 10pm news now and it states within 2 hours, there were 3 earthquakes ranging from 6 to 8.0 magnitude. Tsunami alerts went as far as Sri Lanka and Australia but the alert has been called off [CNA].

Mainstream Media has also tapped on to videos taken by residents who called in to alert them of the tremors. No videos can be found on youtube yet. Reporters on TV also recount their own experience of earthquake at Caldecott Hill, in the news studio. Shenton Way Central Business District also saw evacuation.

I'm disappointed that mainstream media got video images before any bloggers did. Perhaps people have yet to upload their images on youtube. However, MSM-facilitated medium, Strait Times' Stomp saw many "readers" contribute their videos. I wonder if potential citizen journalists are lured by the exposure Stomp offers a piece of news and video as compared to one's own blog or youtube.

10.15pm: Found videos on youtube! Ironically, found youtube videos through google video and not directly via youtube's search function. 2 very short videos but here's a really haphazardly filmed one.



10.23pm: In order to explore the extent web 2.0 has been activated and deployed in the tremors, I made a search in various blog aggregators. Technorati finds at least 172 blogs about "september earthquake singapore". Del.icio.us finds none but it could be due to poor search keywords. Likewise digg has yet to find me anything.

Comparatively, citizen journalists are so far "losing out" in terms of video quality. Journalists with ample resources gets tip off from viewers who then visit newsworthy site in the business district and interview those involved while we get shaky videos. Although Stomp does get quite better videos. Is this a hint that perhaps we should maximize the infrastructure and facilities provided for citizen journalists by mainstream media?

So far I've found one other person who has linked this blog post in addition to Otterman.

10.39: My friend, 9, who is also following the progress of the tremors reporting closely tells me that upon closer filtering of technorati searches, there are only 55 blog posts related to today's tremor event, as opposed to 172 which I reported earlier. However, I think some blogs may be lost accidentally especially since he is searching for mentions of indonesia while I am searching for Singapore events. To add to the count, he has also linked this post.

10.48pm: check Channel News Asia again and saw that they expanded their reporting on Singapore tremors. The magnitude of the earthquake has now been readjusted and confirmed at 8.5!

The kind reporters from CNA also gave a history of earthquakes in the region where Singapore felt tremors.

6 March 2007 - magnitude 6.6
6 March 2007 - magnitude 6.1
18 December 2006 -
29 March 2005 -

According to NEA, at 9.02pm, there was another earthquake in Southern Sumatra of magnitude 5.7. In fact, 10 minutes ago, at 10:40PM there was actually another earthquake at magnitude 6.3! USGS has also adjusted their estimate of the first earthquake to be at 8.2.

A complete list of earthquakes tonight at Indonesia according to USGS:
5.9 2007/09/12 10:40pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.3 2007/09/12 09:17pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
5.7 2007/09/12 09:02pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.2 2007/09/12 08:21pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
8.2 2007/09/12 07:10pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA

If you find theres a discrepancy in the magnitude of the earthquakes from different sources, that is because of the nature of earthquake magnitude estimation. Adjustments have to be made according to where the seismograph that picked up the earthquake is located [wiki].

11.49pm: This will be my last update so to enable me to resume regular programming. The media socialist group has highlighted the following blogsearch engines to find out who has been blogging about the tremors. These include Google Blogsearch and icerocket.com

5.28am: Got an email where Otterman suggested that this might be the first blog post in Singapore about the tremors felt here. The post was made at 7.15pm. At 12.01am I was reporting privately to the media socialist group that tomorrow.sg had yet to pick up on the tremors but at 12.27am, tinkertailor tomorrowed this post and I picked it up on tomorrow's twitter feed right now.

Interestingly, the reason why I am awake and updating despite earlier stating that was my last update is because, mostly, of this earthquake. Thanks to the earthquake and updating this blog post, I skipped dinner and ended up with pretty bad gastric pains which is why I am awake at this ungodly hour. Coincidentally, a TODAY reporter friend of mine wrote at 9.32pm about a stomachache and the earthquake on her blog as well. Maybe we do not give MSM enough credit. To be a mainstream media reporter is not all that easy either. Citizen journalists are not committed to cover every story that comes their way while reporters are bound my professionalism, and their job essentially, and have no choice but to. I look forward to reading her article on the earthquake in tomorrow's today's TODAY.

I'm also looking at some of the places that linked me and I am very impressed by what I've found!

First of all, estoy en espanol! I got linked in spanish on global voices thanks to Preetam!

Secondly, I found a blog dedicated to the use of technology changes that affect emergency management which I found absolutely interesting. Crisis, emergency, hazard management or whichever name you use, is absolutely pertinent and academically interesting for me. After reading so many posts, I must agree that hazard literacy is not very high in Singapore, probably due to our complacency and lack of exposure to hazards.

6.42am: USGS has yet again updated their earthquake lists. I can only imagine the worst in Indonesia right now. Original quake in Indonesia at 7.10pm now updated to 8.4. I am hoping all these relatively smaller quakes are after shocks. Hoping that my friends in Sumatra are alright. At around 1am, another quake was recorded further East in Indonesia near Dili. Since, no other quakes were recorded from Indonesia. Hopefully this is the end of the quakes for now.

A complete list of earthquakes tonight at Indonesia according to USGS:

5.3 - 2007/09/13 01:04am KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA
5.9 - 2007/09/13 12:37am SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.2 - 2007/09/12 11:35pm SOUTHWEST OF SUMATRA
6.0 - 2007/09/12 10:40pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA
4.9 - 2007/09/12 10:04pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 - 2007/09/12 09:17pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.7 - 2007/09/12 09:02pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.2 - 2007/09/12 08:21pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
8.4 - 2007/09/12 07:10pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA

Articles from Channel News Asia:
Singapore buildings sway after strong quake hits Indonesia, 12 September 2007 1941 hrs
Tremors felt most in homes in central Singapore, 12 September 2007 2227 hrs
The statement about Central Singapore being most affected seems to be based on very limited sample size of just Potong Pasir. I am sure Lekowala in Sengkang and people in Punggol and Hougang would feel very differently. Besides I consider that area Northeast Singapore
Many office workers in CBD evacuated from buildings, 12 September 2007 2331 hrs
Massive quake hits Indonesia, 13 September 2007 0047 hrs

13 September
12.07pm: The earthquakes has NOT ended yet! I was round. Shortly after I went back to sleep at 7.50am, tgwttihs said on twitter that she felt tremors and that's probably the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in the same Mentawai region in Indonesia! That happened at 7.49am and 7.50am we felt it in Singapore, give or take a few seconds response time to twitter that fact!

Just 30 minutes ago, annotated budak wrote on twitter that he felt tremors in Ang Mo Kio. Thinking he was joking, I checked the USGS website and saw that at 11.35am, there was yet another 7.1 earthquake!

I begin to see the trend that we feel tremors with earthquakes above magnitude 6.0. Sad to say I slept through it all, otherwise my home is either 1) on resistant geology or 2) my flat is not tall and vulnerable enough. I wonder how soon before Singapore real estate prices will be affected by areas where tremors are more prone.

I've smsed my friend in Sumatra this morning but have yet to hear from her and I'm getting really worried now actually.

Here's the list of earthquakes from USGS at 12.22pm:

7.1 - 2007/09/13 11:35am KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.5 - 2007/09/13 10:51am KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.9 - 2007/09/13 10:30am KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.0 - 2007/09/13 09:55am SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.2 - 2007/09/13 09:49am KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.2 - 2007/09/13 09:38am KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.8 - 2007/09/13 09:26am KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
7.8 - 2007/09/12 07:49pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.1 - 2007/09/12 07:19am SOUTHWEST OF SUMATRA
5.4 - 2007/09/12 06:17am KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.1 - 2007/09/12 06:02am SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 - 2007/09/13 01:04am KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA
5.9 - 2007/09/13 12:37am SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.2 - 2007/09/12 11:35pm SOUTHWEST OF SUMATRA
6.0 - 2007/09/12 10:40pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA
4.9 - 2007/09/12 10:04pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.3 - 2007/09/12 09:17pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
5.7 - 2007/09/12 09:02pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA
5.2 - 2007/09/12 08:21pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION
8.4 - 2007/09/12 07:10pm SOUTHERN SUMATRA

Selected Channel News Asia reports:
New quake hits Indonesia, tsunami alert issued
13 September 2007 0820 hrs
Indonesia hit by major aftershock; new tsunami alert issued,
13 September 2007 0921 hrs
Indonesia calls off fourth tsunami alert: meteorology agency,
13 September 2007 1043 hrs
Strong quake hits Indonesia; tremor felt in Singapore,
13 September 2007 1136 hrs

1.24pm: There was another earthquake.
5.2 - 2007/09/13 12:06pm KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION

Read full article here

Mystery of the dying ferns

Something is happening to the ferns!

This is quite a mystery to me as the bird nest ferns in the faculty of arts and social science in NUS all appear to have been met with a very hungry caterpillar or died off. More than 5 trees with a few ferns on each of these trees appear stricken with this predicament.


How it looks like normally

Could somebody perhaps explain to me or hazard a guess as to what may have caused this? Is this normal? I apologize for the poor photo quality. I will attempt to take more on Monday.

Read full article here

Charity Preview of Arctic Tale

"ARCTIC TALE is a story of unsinkable family devotion, unfolding courage and extraordinary survival. It takes audiences of all ages on an epic adventure inside an icy kingdom at the very top of the earth where a polar cub, Nanu and a walrus pup, Seela, are about to tackle the brave new world that confronts them as their ancient ways of survival are about to change"

Date: 11 September 2007
Venue: GV Vivo City Hall 3
Time: 7.00pm

This charity preview of Arctic Tale is organized by the Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES) in a bid to fundraise for the building of its Wildlife Rescue Centre which is also the first of its kind in Singapore.

The wildlife rescue centre will help save and improve the lives of wild animals that have been smuggled into our country. $575,000 has been raised and another $516,000 is urgently needed to complete the centre. Come watch the charity preview with family and friends! Tickets are at $80, $50, $20 and $10. ACRES urgently needs YOUR help!

Book your tickets now, contact Andrew Tay at:
Email: andrew.tay@pacific.net.sg, Hp: 985 62262

Read full article here

Ubin Wayang after dark

Lots of after dark photos of Pulau Ubin recently. For somebody who has never been to Pulau Ubin after 6pm, this is definitely a first for me. I do feel quite bad for dragging my parents to drive 100 of kilometers on a Monday evening (27 Aug 2007) just so we could go to Ubin to see a stage performing to empty audience. It was very sad to see such a lonely sight. But remember never to take the empty seats for granted as some may have been left there for the "good brothers"!

The good news was that we apparently went on the wrong day and the crowd promised for the next day was supposed to be bigger thanks to the auction. But I wouldn't know since nobody I know was free the next day.

More photos on my flickr set and more stories to follow on Ubin Stories.

Read full article here

The value of feedback

I must admit in advance that my feedback today came about 15 days too late. When the 7th lunar month swung around 15 days ago, my family noticed that a large number of people in my estate were burning the joss paper on the floor and the grass instead of the usually-provided metal drums that serves as joss paper burners. I should have called the town council as I promised my dad 15 days ago but alas, I hope it is not too late!

We discovered that the phenomenon is due to the fact that after upgrading, the usual ratio of 2 burners to 1 block has now been reduced to something like 1 burner to 3 blocks. As such, many people were met with little choice but to burn as and where they can. [update: a detailed count is needed. I think the problem is one of unequal distribution]

This is seriously bad as I recall that this Chinese New Year, we had to queue up for the miserable 2 or 3 burners in the entire estate and the burners were so filled to the brim that things were spilling out. I guess as people become richer, the things they wish to offer to the gods and to the dead also increases. Naturally, we need more bins.

Today, being the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, is the "peak period" of the hungry ghost festival where chinese people believe the gates of hell are opened and the dead gets to roam the earth for a month. Coinciding with the full month, getai or staged variety shows and traditional chinese opera are performed for the dead as well as banquets, auctions for fundraising, prayers and lots of burning. Although my mom has no idea what is the reason for offerings on the midpoint of the month but there will be yet another offering ritual at the closing of the festival month.

As I was coming to school earlier, I noted that the problem of paper burner shortages has not been solved and 3 freshly burnt patches along the sidewalk was seen. As such, a quick call to the town council had them promising to send people to increase the joss paper supply in my estate! hurray! I hope they will call me back as they promised with update on the status of burner provision soon.

So what is the value of feedback?

Why did I bother recording down such a trivial call of "complaint" to the town council? There are positive feedback and negative feedback. Usually we are familiar with negative feedback, or "complaints". However, we seldom hear of positive feedback or "constructive feedback". Had I called to complain about the users being irresponsible, that would have been rather negative. However, I simply asked for more bins as a constructive solution at possibly, and hopefully, solving the problem.

How does feedback help? Feedback to the right places can mean
1) solving a problem permanently
2) giving support to people fighting for cause
3) express your opinions to decision makers who did not know of such feelings amongst the public before, and
4) propelling change, improvement and progress.

Feedback begins with the littlest things. It could be identifying clogged drains to Otterman's famous example of requesting for speed humps on a road. It is all about getting into the habit of providing constructive feedback. Eventually, when we are in such a habit of offering feedback and comments whenever and wherever needed, we will not even hesitate or procrastinate the phone call or email.

Personally, providing feedback comes as quite a task for me. It is not second nature for me to make feedback. Perhaps you like me feel that having to find that phone number or email address or even composing the email is just too much work, too much hassle. Perhaps you are worried of being a "nuisance" for civil servants.

In answer to that, I must say that feedback can be just a click away via www.cutredtape.gov.sg. If you are unsure of who to call or where to email, just use the form provided on the website.

Like me, because I know the town council is involved, I go directly to their website! In fact, each town council in Singapore now have their respective and individualized website. It's all very "connected".

And sometimes, feedback does not have to go directly to the agencies involved. There are many non-governmental organizations and even individuals who offer you a chance to express your views! For example, the Sentosa Reclamation EIA or the petition to save the Kranji countryside. If you have no idea what to say or how to express your opinions, you could simply say "I agree" or like a petition, sign your name!

There are so many ways we can express feedback and the only thing stopping us is our inertia. Break your inertia today! It took me 15 days to act on an issue I noticed. How long will it take you?

Read full article here

Chek Jawa after dark

This is my million dollar picture. One of those photos that make me feel so happy and accomplished despite going on a night walk and not seeing anything exciting. In fact, I'm happy to have this photo even if it made me miss the opportunity of seeing a Civet Cat on the Chek Jawa Boardwalk at 10pm at night!



These were taken yesterday night on the Chek Jawa Boardwalk after a BBQ at house number one which made us all feel the ingenuity and thought of General Surveyor Langdon Williams when he built the house. It was the life. The view of the sea, breeze in the hair, a glass of wine and a good meal at your patio.

After which we walked around the mangrove trying to look for owls and personally it was a wish to meet the banded krait up close and personal in the dark. No such luck for me. Not even a pit viper! Then I started wishing for an encounter with a dugong but other than a creaking pontoon at high tide, we heard no other sounds.

Which of course is a good thing considering we're right in the middle of the lunar 7th month also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival!

For more photos, zip on over to my flickr set!

Read full article here

Mainstream Media meets Citizen Journalism

Mainstream Media (MSM) and Citizen Journalism have never been happier bedfellows in all the talks I've been to than the talk on Journalism 2.0 by CNN's news anchor Kristie Lu Stout.



Unlike what I've previously speculated, this talk was organized by NUS' Communications and New Media Programme as part of its exposure module, NM1101E, lecture series. You can imagine my surprise when I entered the lecture theatre filled to the brim with fresh undergrads.



Usual talks on the topic of Journalism 2.0 in Singapore have always been a congregation of bloggers and tech geeks littered with familiar faces amongst the crowd. The last of such talks I attended was by the local vlog and social media evangelist, Kevin Lim or more popularly known as theory.isthereason, on "Youtube and Beyond". Most of these talks are usually chaired by citizen journalists or social media advocates. Of course, there were talks by Jennifer Lewis, editor of Straits Times' Stomp.com.sg during Nexus 2007 on crowdsourcing the media.

Apart from the difference in audience, what made Kristie's talk particularly different was her background. Although it would appear that her examples of MSM integration with citizen journalism were very CNN-centric, she did mention other examples like Korea's ohmynews which was said to have influenced the election of the current President of South Korea. She did mention Straits Time's Stomp but personally, Stomp is a far cry from CNN's I-Report which operates on similar principles of engaging citizen journalists to contribute videos, photos and news to CNN. However, I do wonder why CNN credit these I-reporters as "amateurs" rather than I-reporters if they truly wish to integrate the two medium.



A key point which she mentioned was the need for more fact-checking, editorial and rigour in the writings and reporting by citizen journalists. This has always been the achilles' heel of journalism 2.0. She admits too that this requires a lot of resources and that CNN goes through great amount of double-checking and calling on sources which would not usually be available to citizen journalists. However, many journalism 2.0 websites which I admire like Wonkette, Ecorazzi and some Metroblogging cities usually have big team of contributors and resources. Sadly, they also set themselves up to appear as "gossip" sites which may do nothing for their credibility. Others like ohmynews work in an office no different from a traditional newsroom which says a lot on the amount of resources needed for a credible citizen journalism outfit.

Still we should not be disheartened. Kristie predicts that the future of Journalism 2.0 is moving towards greater social consumption of the news where people prefer to discuss with others about the news than to just react to it alone. She also advocates a greater integration between MSM and citizen journalism which in her words would be like a "CNN version of ebay live". An example is the recent CNN Youtube-debate where people film the questions they want to ask USA republican presidential candidates. In turn these questions are directed to the candidates for their response on TV.



I believe Singaporeans have simply not reached that level of online-social activism where they will make video responses to videos on Youtube and our local mainstream media have also not yet embraced all possibilities of citizen journalism in their reporting. Of course, trivial things like waterspouts and fires in shopping centres dominate the videos that eventually get on TV. One thing I cannot deny is that mainstream media still get more reach than online medium. No matter how quickly the internet is expanding throughout Singapore and the world, there are still more people watching television. If the two medium can be effectively combined, we can reach a greater audience with more effective news coverage.

In response to a question from the audience about whether the rise of citizen journalism hints at the weakness of mainstream media, Kristie made a point which I particularly liked.

"Mainstream media thinks of themselves as the watchdogs of industry and government and citizen journalists are in effect the watchdogs of MSM. [It's always good] to keep everyone on their toes."

While I am not able to reproduce every point that Kristie made at her talk, the take home message at the end of the day is the need for further integration between the two. MSM can take citizen journalists to a greater audience while MSM needs the additional inputs to evolve and expand. As citizen journalists, we should look into different ways of harnessing other mediums to broaden our reach.



And of course, to embrace the essence of citizen journalism, this monkey did not fail to report LIVE from the talk via twitter, the latest up and coming web 2.0 tool where you can subscribe updates via phone and RSS feeds.

Related Reads:
Here are some websites that were mentioned during Kristie's talk

1. In The Field Blog
   
2. CNN I-report
   
3. CNN Youtube debates
   
4. Youtube Debates
   
5. CNN's Impact Your World
   
6. Ebay Live
   

Read full article here

One of those moments #190807

Spotted on its usual pedestal at the GVN Green House on Pulau Ubin - Monkey turns Shrek ape! Seems like its the trend now to embrace pop culture as the new way of attracting green volunteers *grin*

Read full article here

Stormy Chek Jawa

The Naked Hermit Crabs and SEC's Green Volunteer Network did a joint recce of the Chek Jawa Boardwalk for upcoming guided walks at Chek Jawa on the morning of Saturday 18 August 2007.



A pleasant and cool morning was soon met with dramatic and stormy clouds that soon brought with it a rainstorm that the naked crabs and gvn volunteers waited out together at Ubin's House No. 1.



Meanwhile, it gave the monkey various photo opportunities to present nature in natural grayscale. No colours were tampered with!

For more photos, see my flickr set.

Read full article here

Journalism 2.0

Encountered this poster plastered all over NUS recently. It would appear that there is going to be a talk on Journalism in this new connected world of web 2.0.

The poster reads:

"Thanks to youtube, camera phones, podcasts and blogs - any ordinary person can report the news. Technology has empowered millions of citizen journalists to file scoops, fact check and expose mistakes. But it's also harder to know who and what to believe. Kristie Lu Stout navigates the promise and pitfalls of Journalism 2.0.

Venue: LT11, National University of Singapore
Kent Ridge Campus, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Arts Link Street
Date: Monday 20 August 2007
Time: 12.00 - 13.30"

I find it interesting that they got somebody from the traditional media to talk about Journalism 2.0 but hopefully it would provide a more objective perspective rather than either evangelist or detractor-mode.

What is more interesting that it is sponsored by Singapore Tourism Board. This could be because of the CNN Future Summit. It's all quite confusing. Future Summit is a television series aired on CNN hosted by Kristie Lu Stout, a CNN anchor based in Hong Kong. Of which, if I am not wrong, some of the Future Summit TV episodes were filmed in Singapore so it would definitely fall under STB premise of promoting Singapore as the backdrop of media programs like attracting movie producers to shoot in Singapore, etc. There is also a Future Summit Student Challenge for students in asia pacific but I think it is over already.

How is this related to Journalism 2.0? The CNN website writes that

"CNN Future Summit brings together some of the brightest minds of our time to see how science and technology are shaping our future. With a landmark television event this June and weekly stories on this site, we're inviting you to take part in an on-going discussion of the technologies and how they'll change our lives."

I guess Web 2.0 is the hot topic now. I will definitely try to attend the talk if I can wake up in time!

Related Reads:
Web 2.0 is the buzzword

Read full article here

Test your geography

Watch this vintage video of Yakko Warner from Animaniacs sing the countries of the world and see if you spot any errors.

Read full article here

Graduate Life

In light of my new career as a graduate student, I have started a new blog called "Monkey's Masterful Modulation" which records the joys, perils and challenges of graduate research and teaching.

Enjoy!

Read full article here

Of Food and Wastes

As many of you may know, I am recently enrolled in the Masters of Social Sciences in Geography at NUS on a research scholarship. Not much different from undergraduate life except I take lesser classes, teach a few and have my own office space.

But most importantly, I share the same campus space and eat the same food. Food which I may add have been sorely lacking since November 2006 when the Arts Canteen "The Deck" was closed for complete overhaul.


Me and my favourite drink stall uncle on the last day of the old Arts Canteen

In fact, during my "last look" at the arts canteen, a chat with my favourite drink stall uncle revealed that the canteen has been flooded during heavy rains thanks to the leaking roof.


My last look at my favorite view from the outdoors deck in the old Arts canteen

According to the NUS Office of Estate and Development (OED):

"The upgrading and redevelopments work is necessary to meet current National Environment Agency’s (NEA) standards for food outlets. With years of usage and the increasing number of students, there are also problems like leaking roof, poor ventilation and limited power supply capacity in the existing canteen which require enhancement. It is therefore timely now to renovate and improve on the serviceability of The Deck (Arts Canteen)."

So for 1 semester, we had to suffer what we called the Funeral Tentage where a caterer operated the Megabites Cafe. Ironically, as much as we hated it, Megabites now has its own permanent cafe in the Science Faculty. Perhaps compared to the Arts Canteen which has always spoilt us with delicious food, the "Funeral Tentage" became bad in comparison. However, there seems to be no such complaints over at Science except perhaps of cold food but that's another story for another post.


Welcome to the Funeral Parlour. Photo by Kean Bon

But having been back in school for a week now, I have been dreading going to Engineering and Science, or god forbid the business school, for my meals! As such, a phone call to OED this morning brings good news.


A model of the new canteen, taken from OED website

The canteen will be opened from next Monday, 13 August 2007. I suppose this week has only been 0 week with no classes being conducted so fans of the Arts Canteen can be assured that once classes start, food will be served!

I cannot wait! Thinking of the chinese economic rice stall, ba chor mee (mince pork noodles) and the yong tau foo stall is already making me drool!

But speaking of food, there will always be wastes. Interestingly, in a sojourn at the Engineering Canteen, I came across this poster.



It would appear that NUS is now embarking on food waste recycling which is a fantastic idea! In Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, they already have a strong vermiculture project on campus where earthworms to convert organic waste into fertiliser. In University of California Santa Barbara where I was at, a group from the Isla Vista and UCSB Worm Composting program, works not only within campus but also with the food outlets across town to collect their food wastes and feed it to the worm. In return the fertilizers produced are used to grow food! Talk about a closed cycle.

According to the poster, it seems that NUS, instead of an in-house campus compost, has tied up with IUT Singapore to send the campus food waste to their new Bio-Methanisation Plant in Tuas. Sad to say that this will probably not change the behavior of the students and staff much since the cleaners at the canteen does all the waste separation. But it is a good effort on the university's part to support food waste recycling by simply sending their food waste to IUT.

The IUT website has a comprehensive explanation for what happens during food waste recycling and I believe I might actually have passed by the facility before! In fact, according to IUT, they not only compost for fertilizer but also produce renewable biogas! For energy-strapped Singapore, the promised generation of 6 MW of electrical energy per hour at full capacity is enough to provide for 10,000 households. But this is only at full capacity so we should all send our food wastes to them! This definitely calls for a tour of the plant!

Read full article here

Bukit Timah Community Trail

For the last 3 months I have been working with National Heritage Board on the Bukit Timah Community Trail. This is the 3rd community trail I have helped to research and write for NHB. The first 2 were published last year - namely Balestier and Jalan Besar Community Trail.



This year, NJC approached NHB to consolidate a previously published set of 4 trails done by NJC as part of a cultural mapping project. As such, I got the opportunity to research deeper into the area which my dad and sisters grew up. It's also the first place where my mom lived after coming to the "mainland" from Pulau Ubin. I guess that's how my mom and dad met. They often recount stories of the places they dated around Bukit Timah.



Bukit Timah is a place close to my heart having gone there every Sunday after piano class at Jalan Jurong Kechil. My neighbor and babysitter also moved there when I was 12. My granddad lived off Sixth Avenue almost all of my life. I travelled down Dunearn Road and back on Bukit Timah Road everyday when I was studying at Whitley Road. Both my sisters studied at Nanyang Girls High School off King's Road where we would often go to Coronation Plaza afterwards. One of them later went to Hwachong Junior College also off BT.



Of course Bukit Timah Hill was our favourite haunt, not to mention Botanic Gardens where countless photos of me toddling around with swans and orchids fill the albums of my childhood. Beauty World was my favourite lunch haunt after piano class where my aunt will drive me. There was a rental bookshop in there that started me reading and gave me a constant source of Famous Five and other Enid Blyton books when I could not afford to buy them. The food at Beauty World top floor food center was of course famous. Later in my working life, my parents would often pick me up after work and we would eat the famous fish soup at Bukit Timah Food Center beside Pei Hwa. The sugarcane stall uncle was a family friend just as the sze char stall aunties are family friends from my grandparents time or simply people we know after decades of patronizing them.

Bukit Timah has so much memories for me. My first anniversary dinner in Singapore with my fiance was also at sixth avenue at the Brazilian churrascaria restaurant. When I was working on the other end of sixth avenue at the Holland/Jelita area, my parents would often drive us to the sze char shop near sixth avenue and pick up food on our way to my sister's place.

So much memories and only a trickle ended up in my little brochure about Bukit Timah. It's really just a highlights tour so I do apologize if your favourite haunt is missed out. Personally I could write a book about Bukit Timah and I might just end up writing a autobiography!



Yesterday at the launch, 2nd Minister for MICA, Dr Vivian B himself also grew up in Bukit Timah. In fact, he studied at NJC and is now MP for the Bukit Timah-Holland area. From reliable sources, he enjoyed the booklet immensely, hopefully as much as I did.



The launch took placed at Memories at Old Ford Factory. A fantastic place. Do check it out if you have the chance. It's not quite accessible but a short walk from the busstop really.



As part of the launch, it was my job to train some NJC students to guide the VIP entourage and media around Bukit Timah on a bus tour. There were 2 students on board as bus commentators and at selected sites, stationed guides give further elaborations and perhaps a short walk around. It was not an easy job, training guides. We provided visual aids and colorful stories. The caretaker's son at the Hoon San Temple was especially thrilled the minister visited. The kids though nervous had fun too. I am rather proud of them to have carried it off at such short notice, never mind the little mistakes here and there. It is over and we feel elated.



Apparently, I have been informed that my face appeared on the papers today, beside the NJC guides when they were introducing Masjid Al-Huda at Jalan Haji Alias yesterday. My dad kindly informed me that I looked like a schmuck. Hah probably too busy trying to make sure everything is going well to take note of photographers!



I must thank the many people who helped me. Lam Chun See and friend Peter Chan of Good Morning Yesterday and yesterday.sg were tremendous sources of oral history. My dad was of infinite help of course, driving me around to recce and providing me many stories. Victor Yue and friends at Taoism Singapore were absolutely helpful. Of course Ronni Pinsler who provided the picture of the Turf Club. What would I have done without them!



At the end of the day, where would I be without azure_v, my colleague at NHB who pulled me into the project. All the work she had to do, proofreading my careless mistakes and going through photos and layout. Hopefully she gets her well deserved break soon!

For a copy of the Bukit Timah Community Trail brochure or any of the previous Jalan Besar or Balestier publications, feel free to leave a comment, email or twitter me and I can pass them to you.

Photos of the events can be found at my flickr set.

Related Reads:
Bukit Timah Heritage Trail Launched, Channel News Asia, 23 July 2007
小册子助解武吉知马社区历史, Xin.sg, 23 July 2007 [Newsclip Video]
Take a stroll along Bukit Timah, Straits Times Interactive, 25 July 2007
寻找武吉知马的文化地图, Lianhe Zaobao, 24 Jul 2007
New History Trail for Old Bukit Timah, Straits Times, 24 July 2007

Read full article here

Launch of Harry Potter 7

A moment of history in the world, this monkey sought to capture the last time a person can experience the wait and launch of Harry Potter. Originally posted on Metroblogging, I was met with trolls and decided to remove the post. Later I decided to post it here for posterity. Photos have already been uploaded on flickr.

From 10pm to 7.01am on 21st July 2007, I was blogging LIVE from the Harry Potter Launch at Borders Wheelock Place

As of 4pm @ 20 July 2007, there were already 5 girls queueing! Operation Hedwig has started!

10.00pm: arrived at Borders! We are #14 in line. Got a friend to come down around 4pm to "chope" a place for us then my colleague came down to take over her. Haha shift work :) After that I arrived after work and me and the coworker are going to do the all-nighter!

10.27pm: came back from a quick dinner upstairs at Sakae sushi and found out that there is a queue outside that snakes around Patterson Road. Only a lucky few got the "interior" seats. We are one of them! Yay! Apparently somebody cried because she couldn't get the interior. Eek. TODAY reporter was around trying to get interviews but I will be more updated than them so get your latest here!

Some info from my "informants" about the few fans who got the first in line - They were apparently here at 7am! The official queue only began at 7pm. Oh dear. That'll go down in Harry Potter history I guess. Nobody can beat it since there won't be any other books!

The groups who were early are apparently fans of Harry Potter, manga and yaoi. My friends who befriended them thought I would get right along with them! Maybe it won't be such a long night after all. :)

Interestingly, most of the people queueing are girls! And what more, one of the girls in the first 10 in line was the first person in the last book's launch! This year somebody else topped her. Oh well. One time is enough I suppose.

A few groups of reporters have been coming around to interview the girls "first" in line. Photographers have also been going around. But here's the first look for you!

11.23pm: An American Harry Potter came and entertained us after a "stint studying in the US after Hogwarts". He showed us the disarming trick and the levitation trick with "volunteers" from the front of the queue. It was quite the ruckus. He quickly made off with his asian girlfriend after the end of the tricks. LoL how convenient. Is that Cho in the flesh or just a replacement? :P Photos to follow but I do not have my card reader with me right now to download photos from my DSLR camera.

Duelling between American Harry and the first witch in line.

12.14am: Borders officially closed 15minutes ago and we have been moved from our earlier "cozy corner" and now we snake around the inside of Wheelock Place around the circle of the main atrium. So far, nobody needs to move out of the Interior yet but there are almost 80 people here.

Veterans of Potter launches reports that previous years saw much better organization and a much larger crowd. We even met a girl who has made the entire costume according to the specifications on the Potter website. A true fan to wear a full london winter gear in the middle of monsoon summer in Singapore. Now she is being tucked to bed and assured that we will wake her up at 4.30am to don her costume! *phew* Hardcore.

Another group of girls are busy playing Harry Potter uno while the first two girls in the queue are busy studying for their O Levels?!

The people who were originally first but then now they're the first "seconds" in line :P

12.38am: There are now many sleeping bags and sleeping bodies found around the Interior. People with guitars and groups of loud chatting people have contrastingly taken over Wheelock Place. I cannot decide to sleep, read the Harry Potter 6 I brought along or just bask in anticipation. Meanwhile battery is seeping away with a power point just metres away from us. We'll see.

1.15am: Was charging my laptop but got found out by security guard for tapping into their electricity and got unplugged. Too bad. We'll just have to conserve then. Talked to the two girls in front. They're secondary four girls studying for their prelims next week! Everybody else in the front of the line is asleep. Afterall they have been here since 9am!

2.12am: An enterprising man just came around distributing flyers for a "survival kit" of sandwich and drinks for $3. I feel almost tempted. Others are coming back with McDonalds since it's opened 24 hours but since I am a strict non-supporter of fast food, the survival kit sounds most enticing. But for now, I am going to nap and continue reading Harry Potter 6. Energy level is still high here but a tad dowsed with a number of people napping. Meanwhile, much activity inside the Borders bookstore as boxes of books are unloaded and staff getting ready for the big launch.

2.53am: The man selling the survival kit came back with the food on a book shelving trolley, peddling his wares to the people queueing. They may actually be from borders since they just pushed the whole trolley back into the store. At the same time, we were informed by the security guard that no photographs are allowed unless we are from the press! *outrage* What happen to citizen journalism? Bah. Anyways, the crowd has finally been told to move out of the Interior and an outside line has resumed with Borders Staff finally stepping out to do some crowd control. We also encountered veteran queue-cutter. Apparently these 2 girls who were trying to just sit beside us and mix in did the same thing last year! Then they tried further down the line but to no avail. Hopefully they've finally got their own rightful place at the end of the line. Meanwhile, this monkey is going back to sleep.

4.45am: The enterprising men turned out to be Borders Bistro. They just came up with the new menu - continental breakfast! The other half of my team hedwig returned and charmed the cosplay kids with big equipments. The line has now snaked out all the way to the end near Orchard Blvd. Unfortunately it also looks like it's going to rain soon. Luckily at 5.00am, we would be able to go in and start queueing with the festivities to begin. You will then be able to buy the book exactly at 7.01am. No more blogging for now but twitter updates all the way!

5.38am: We are now inside Borders queueing RIGHT IN FRONT of the cashier! We are #10, 11 and 12 in line! Some cheerleaders who were not quite effective just came over and tried to do something but then hagrid and the dementors just walked into the building!! It's kinda cute when "Hagrid" turned out to be the friend of the girl queueing behind us. *grin* She also asked the dementors if they wanted to kiss her. haha

6.00am: the quizzes are on right now and there is madness amongst the fans here. There are dances and kisses with the dementors and eager fans ready to rush out at the next question. Borders vouchers are given out. There is also a cameraman here - wonder if it's from the TV stations.

6.35am: the finalists of Hogwarts Next Top Model just got selected - Bellatrix, Moody, Luna, Snape and Mrs Longbottom. Cho Chang who were with us at the front of the line unfortunately was not selected. But the finalists are REALLY good. They have awesome costumes and excellent acting.

6.40am: the winner is Bellatrix!

7.00am: Countdown of the book began. 5-4-3-2-1!

7.01am: We got the book! It was nicely presented in a special orange Bloomsbury Harry Potter paper bag. Inside also contains a very nice Ty Beanie Hedwig owl!

After thought: On the bag is a sign which I thought was a rather wannabe esoteric sign. But it was only after reading the book that I realized the sign is actually an illustration of a very important element in the book. In fact, while reading the book I had difficult visualizing the sign but now it all clicked together.

7.15am: Queueing up for balloons that say "I got my Harry Potter at Borders".

7.45am: Home sweet home and the reading begins!

Read full article here

Monkey Graduation Editorial

Dear Animal Friends and Readers,

Firstly, an apology for my long silence on this blog. Perhaps a lack of inspiration has plagued this simian but honestly, my new holiday job at the National Heritage Board has kept me busy and exhausted at the end of the day. The Singapore Heritage Fest is held from 18 to 29 July this year at the Suntec City. The monkey will be seen at times moderating talks but mostly behind the scenes. It's crunch time and I do apologize if that has denied me the pleasure of writing and uploading photos. But mostly, it's almost a comfort to stay away from the computer after a long day staring at one and to read a book and sleep rather than to use the brain further.

But mostly, this editorial is to announce that this Monkey has finally graduated! I am now officially a graduate with a Bachelors of Social Science with second uppper honors in Geography from the National University of Singapore. But sadly I've also signed up to throw myself back into the foray of academia and student life by doing a Research Masters in Geography at the same university.

In other updates, the Chek Jawa boardwalk was opened yesterday but monkey sadly had to choose graduation jitters over rushing from Ubin to NUS within one morning. I even had to skip my friend Sharon's wedding! Sorry Sharon and I did hear that it was a fabulous wedding!

Despite my silence, the monkey has been working hard and having her hands full with several project underway. Mostly the monkey has now more or less become a member of the "friends of WildSingapore". We are planning an evil plan to take over the world and more news when the time comes. I do expect you boys and girls to be gripping your seats in anticipation at that news!

Monkey has covered several events this past month and visited many wild places in Singapore. I have photos a plenty and countless tales to tell. If it ever happens, it remains to be seen but for now, be happy that I am still alive! Sadly I was sick and am sick plagued with a violent cough that had me coughing throughout the entire commencement ceremony. If you heard somebody coughing, it was probably me. Blame it on the cough that has put me out of commission this past weeks.

LiveEarth has come and almost gone. It's been met with much criticism and I do hate to talk about it some more but we'll have one year to see how Al Gore's SOS team work with it.

Finally, congratulation to the graduation Class of 2007! Many of my friends have already begun jobs in the government sector like URA, STB while half the class is absconded to NIE for a life of teaching ahead of them. Whatever our paths lie, good luck!

Yours simianly,
Monkey

Read full article here