Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Celebrating Earth Day..

This is a great news to celebrate EARTH DAY today.. What else can I cay.. Oh ya.. This is not about fish!!
Well, at least the decision made by Scottish Energy Minister, Jim Mather NOT to proceed with the plan to build the biggest wind farm in Europe, is something "We are absolutely delighted" says the spokesman for pressure group Moorlands Without Turbines. The decision is made after 11,000 complaints against the scheme made by the locals to save the flying route of rare and endangered birds!
When Earth is getting warmer and warmer, wind energy is a good alternative though, but for this one, I agree and support the decision made by locals not to support the wind farm to be built at Lewis Is., Scotland. May be they could change the place.. So, Mother Earth will be happier.. The birds are safe and we get greener energy.. Who knows.. May God bless all human races..

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Estimating Species Richness

This is a response to Jem's comment.. Jem.. Thanks for leaving a comment.. Unless you can't get it here, I'll email the paper.
Actually, Prof. R. K. Colwell put up so many papers on his website (http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/Colwell). So very kind of him. Or go to Prof. Anne Chao's website (http://chao.stat.nthu.edu.tw/textfile/pub.html) for her 'technical' papers on the subject. Some are quite technical with mathematics equations and formulas. It took me some times to understand the contents but I guess it won't be a problem for you..
My advice: Search other relevant papers at Yahoo web search.
Since I'm here, I got so many papers from Yahoo web search. The 'hit' is better than Google. Just follow this two very simple steps:
1. Get a good paper/reference, say Colwell and Coddington 1994 (older paper, [probably] more hits!!)
2. Paste it there, and hit enter/return.. There you go..
(I tell you, a lot...)
So, who says you can not get references IF you are away from Univ. library or Univ. internet, huh!! Just get connected to internet..., anywhere.. ;-) [I'm not suggesting any of you (students especially!!) to not to go to library or Univ. when searching for references. This is just an alternative.. A good alternative, in deed!]

Friday, April 18, 2008

Oh yes!!!

At last, I got something to say about (my data on) fishes of headwater streams in Peninsular Malaysia. For the past few weeks, I've been busy analysing incidence-based data of headwater stream fishes to estimate how many are there? Today, I'm trying to write the 'output' of the analysis. It is one of the aim of my bigger reason for coming to St. Andrews. The result IS still preliminary but I hope to write a manuscript, soon. It worth reporting it..
Each day, I learn something new here. Well, one don't have to be in the class room to learn.. With a good guidance, a lot one can get.. Internet when it is used wisely, it does help a lot too.. For those who interested in analysing biodiversity, I suggest you read this paper: http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/RKCPublications/ColwellAndCoddington1994_hr.pdf

I hope you know what I mean..

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Once upon a time...

To those who wonder, where is the place that I used for this 'the banner' page was taken, I'll tell you about this awesome place, once it was.. Yeah.. but not anymore.. This is what's gonna happen to many of awesome 'place' for the name of development..
It's been a while since I last visited the place.. I the past, I used to go there with some frens, among other to do our fieldworks or on the way back from doing our fieldworks.. We use to stop here to get a 'refresment'.. Well.., not really like what you think, but more like what the kids are doing.. Just like them..
The place is call Sg. Beriah Kiri, at Kg. Changkat Lobak, not far from Bukit Merah. I can't really remember when the pic was taken but probably some times in 2000. It a cool place.. Unlike any other stream where you can dive, dip in or swim, this one is a 'blackwater' stream - the water more like tea or light, very light coffee.., emmm..., Nescafe probably.. The water is actually quite 'clear' but slightly tea-coloured. The underwater view is really something.. But it was all gone.. Too bad.. I miss it so much..