Otterman's 93rd blood donation

In my secondary education days, there would be representatives from the Health Sciences Authority coming down to promote blood donation. I'd always be the one that remains fascinated about the proceedings of it. In fact, all that I have recollection of are the needles and the snacks after that.

So, moving along with Siva on his 93rd donation made me understand a little more than I did about the proceedings of blood donation.

Stage 1
A form's to be filled out to make sure you aren't involved in any promiscuous activity of late. Or early for that matter. Next, you'll get to chat with a doctor personally to make sure the answers are correct and to screen you for your weight. Siva said the 2+ pages worth of questions are gone through one by one. That's how important it is to make sure the blood donated is clean and free from any diseases.

Stage 2
A blood test is done. Your finger gets pricked and blood forced out to be collected in a microtube. Siva said this is the only part of the entire process that hurts. (Can't confirm how true that is. Probably varies with individuals.) Next a tiny drop of blood's dripped into copper sulphate II to ascertain your blood density level's satisfactory for donation. (I've been told Airani has a high rate of failing this test.)

Stage 3
Green light to donate, and you'll proceed into this room with bendy chairs. and two movable arm rests. There's no preference as to which arm to have the needle inserted - all depends on the nurse's ability to get your vein to show itself.

Stage 4
After sterilising the area to have the needle inserted, the nurse delivers local anaesthesia to Siva and inserted the metal needle in. A small portion of blood is directed to a tiny pouch, which I was told for testing purposes. About 3/4 of the blood is used and the rest of blood flow is directed into the larger donation pouch. 450ml of blood's mixed with 46ml of preservative. This pouch is left on a haem-mixer which rocks the pouch gently till 450ml of your blood's inside. It also gives the rate of blood flow into the pouch. All the while, Siva has to squeeze a little sponge provided by the blood bank.

Stage 5
After the pouch fills up and the needle removed, the donor gets to rest for 5 minutes on the bendy chair. Meanwhile, your pouch of blood's whisked away for labeling. A gauze is used and an elastic bandage wrapped around it for flexibility and maximum ventilation for better recovery. And you're good to go!

Siva having donated so many times, has a Champion donor plague on the backdrop of the bloodbank's waiting area. Some photos are available on his blog and more information on his blood page.

Other Links:
How to be a blood donor
PDF copy of pamphlet blood donation

Sun Bears without the sun (and warmth)

We had a talk on Malayan sun bears by Mr. Wong Siew Te on Monday (18 June 2007) afternoon. Mr. Wong touched on the ecology and behaviour of sun bears through his picturesque presentation and created awareness to the threats faced by these cuddly forest bears in the later part of the talk. And finally, it is on the conservation of these bears.

Sun bear and its unique chest marking.
(Adapted from: http://www.mikekaplan.com/pictures/)

Sun bear is the smallest and least known bear in the world. It is unique as its chest bears a patch of yellow furs which no two bears have the same patch; it is akin to our fingerprint. Figs are the main food source for these bears though they do set their claws on termite nests too. Apparently, these bears do also have preference for smelly, rotting chicken innards. (Mr. Wong used them to lure the bears to the traps he set up for his research)

During the period from 1997 to 1999, Sun bears were reduced to skin and bones. There was a massive reduction in the production of figs due to El Nino. Hence, famine resulted. Moreover, haze generated from clearing forest land for agriculture had drastic effects on the main pollinators of the fig tree – fig wasps. The fig wasps’ respiratory system gone hay wire and they died. Without these pollinators, it is even more unlikely that figs flowers will fruit. Basically, the sun bears starved; orang utans survived as it got plenty of alternative food source. (Though Mr. Wong doubted they will survive if the famine persisted for a longer period of time).

Bear #120 and its loose skin as a result from starvation.
(Adapted from Mr Wong Siew Te's thesis)

Though natural disasters do threaten the livelihood of these bears, it is largely humans’ inconsiderate and selfish desires that eventually drive these bears to desperation. Besides the famine, other human activities which cause the declination in the sun bear population include harvesting the bear’s gallbladder for medicinal uses, keeping the cubs as pets (cause they are extremely cute, and human likes cute stuff), and extracting the bear’s canines to make accessories.

Cuddly Bear's a victim.
(Adapted from: http://www.wfft.org/news2.htm)

Poor sun bears. It seemed that their lives and future are not that bright afterall. If only people could put in more effort into conservation (for the bears as well as for the environment).

More blogs on Mr Wong Siew Te's talk on sun bears:
Otterman speaks
The Annotated Budak
Raffles Museum news

BackUps

Another lesson learnt during internship's to backup my files. Normally, I don't back up because I don't see a need to. It's usually school projects that involve many people. Thus our backup would most probably mean each individual has a copy and that suffices.

Apparently that would be standing at the edge of a 101 level building with an ongoing typhoon when you're in a working environment. Always thinking that the world's going smoothly's just paving a way towards misery later on as I realised. And that is one path Siva's been trying to get us interns out of.

The possibility of accidents happening such as water spilling over the laptop, the dog running over wires and tripping it, the computer crashing or even a power failure, can cause severe and prolonged misery of losing information. I guess that's why there are programs which auto saves information like Blogger.

Anyway aside from that fact, Siva pointed out that I should make a copy of the scanned articles of MoST. Absentmindedly, I gave him his thumb drive without any notice on what's inside. The fact that he could have deleted them to derive more space on his thumb drive didn't hit me then. Well, it certainly dropped an impact when I asked for it yesterday.

I guess backups are apt for people with weak hearts. And for the general population too for that matter. Even if something ominous happens to the file that will get you the million dollar contract, you'll still be able to walk away a happy millionaire. If you backup that is.


Suggestions on what to backup

Crabby Search

Friday's (15.6.2007) field trip was meant for Daniel and his FYP. Despite the heavy rain in the late morning, Mr. Siva, Mr. Yeo, Daniel, and I hopped onto a mini lorry and began our search for fresh water crabs. We dropped off at Dr Ivan’s house first. I was a little puzzled initially as to why we had gone to someone’s house to look for crabs. I thought we may be engaging Dr Ivan’s help on the topic and perhaps moving on to some other place for the search. Little did I know that there is a forest hidden behind Dr Ivan’s house, and that is the forest where we would carry out our search!


The stream where we search for fresh water crabs; it’s long and rocky.

Dr Ivan owned part of the forest while the rest of it belongs to the army. Mr. Siva and Daniel began their search along the stream in the same direction and I followed them. I had no idea how different the fresh water crabs would be like, in terms of size and appearance, as compared to those commonly seen in the market. I was only told briefly to look underneath the rocks.

Soon, Daniel claimed that he had found one tiny crab in a dark moist hole beside the stream. In my excitement, I rushed up to take a look, and alas, I slipped and fell into the stream. Argh! Nevertheless, I managed to catch a glimpse of the mini crab before it scurried away. It was really minute, about 5mm, similar to a household spider. I guessed it must be a baby crab then (maybe it is really a spider?).

Being a novice, my search was rather unsuccessful. Feeling a little dismay, I decided to head back to the starting point, partly because the path is getting steeper and my lower leg was hurting from the slip previously. On my way back, I stopped by the hole where Daniel found the tiny crab. This time round, lady luck was on my side, I saw a much bigger crab (I’m quite sure it was a crab and not a spider). But before I could pull out my camera and snap a few shots, it scurried away and disappeared before my eyes. *cries* But to all curious readers who happened to be as ignorant as me, the following pictures may give you an idea on how they looked like:

Top view: Two crabs in a drinking glass. The big one is about 5cm while the small one is about 3cm. The small crab is really active; crawling around restlessly. I guessed it was a little traumatized from being trapped. The big one is rather sedentary. Perhaps there wasn’t much space for it to move too.

Front view of the crabs.

These two crabs were caught by Mr. Yeo. I really wondered how he could spot them as they camouflaged really well. The amazing part is, he found the two crabs within minutes! He’s good, isn’t he! In total, we managed to find about ten to fifthteen crabs in Dr Ivan’s forest in less than two hours.

After biding farewell to Dr Ivan and his family, we continued our search for freshwater crabs along a drain next to Meralodge. Mr. Siva commented that the stream closer to the forest was dry and therefore our search was confined to just a distance away from the drain. There was hardly any crab. Daniel managed to find one juvenile crab, a far cry from the fifty or more that populated the area in the past. The number of fresh water crabs decreases drastically due to pollution such as insecticides and oil. In fact we spotted oil on the soil while we were heading back to the main drain.

All in all, the trip is really an eye opener for an urban kid like me. I have never embarked on such a search before; the closest is Bukit Timah or Pulau Ubin guided trail. *so embarrassing* Moreover, I have a better idea on where to look for fresh water crabs now. Below is a rough guide to the perfect hideouts of the fresh water crabs:

1. Look for holes (mini caves) along the stream, best if it is dark and moist.
2. Alternatively, look for moist leaf litter. Be bold enough to rummage through them, though you are most likely to find wriggly worms beneath it.
3. Look under the rocks. But remember to place the rock back to its original position.

Walking in the Rain

Another activity organised by Siva that got me to work those fats off's Briskwalk. It's refreshing as promised; yet I wouldn't be too sure if it's due to the walk or the shower.

Armed with only a bottle full of water, I had to pick a make-shift umbrella off the leaf litter, which I have to say, worked better against the rain than I expected. Along with me, I have my dad who was lucky enough to find a large leaf with a perpendicular stem. My sis and Wenxian were equipped with rudimentary gear; a cap and a tiny face towel. My mum was the luckiest - she had Wenxian's umbrella!


Leaves as brollies.


Those crazy steep steps.

It was a satisfying morning after the slog in rain and perspiration. And perspire we did - after all those knee high steps and crazy slopes. Finally, we achieved the ultimate aim - reaching the highest topographical location in Singapore!


At the top of Singapore with my mentor

I expected a bird's eye, panaromic view of Singapore, but all there were available were tall thick trees and a whole lot of mist. I guess that's what nature parks should be about anyway - as little human disturbances or evidences of human intrusion as possible.


The summit!

Well, more can be found in habitatnews along with photos available here!

Crocs ahoy! 2

Here's a tiny sequel to the previous post on the little croc we got from Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve (SBWR) for preservation.

"Jeremy Ang (SBWR) dropped it off at the museum on 23 Feb 2007. They had discovered the baby crocodile drowned in a drift net left behind by poachers who frequently enter the reserve from Kranji.

Sungei Buloh will use it as a display specimen for education. There have been crocs in the area for some years, see: http://tinyurl.com/2ecnmb
and http://tinyurl.com/3c3466 "

Adapted from Raffles Museum Internship under Comments by Siva.

Having soaked in formalin, the croc specimen needs to be transfered to alcohol for storage purposes. Before that, it was soaked in water for a duration of 5-7 days to get rid of formalin.

According to Mr. Yeo, the best way to gauge is to use your nose. Once the formalin smell is gone, the specimen need not be soaked in water anymore. It can then be transferred into 95% alcohol. Even then, it still needs to be soaked for 5-7 days as well. 95% alcohol's used as it is more concentrated. Thus less water after evaporation as Mr. Yeo explained.


Croc out on the prowl - for a photo.

Formalin can also be used as the medium to hold the specimen but Mr. Yeo recommends alcohol as it will not harden the specimen. He also pushed aside the fact that the colour of the croc will fade as the alcohol he's been changing so far's clear.

A custom made tank according to the vitals provided by Mr. Yeo, will be ready for the croc probably this coming week by the staff from SBWR. After which, silicon will be used to seal it up to prevent alcohol evaporating off and the croc will be ready for display.

Museum Alive

It was a vibrant burst of life when the clock struck 11.40am on late Friday morning. Siva's friend David appeared with his, (if I'm allowed to use this adjective), troop off family members.


The entire family

They brought life with sounds and actions to the otherwise placid and dead quiet museum. It was a refreshing change. Above all, they all had the right responses; gasping and intercepting with oohs and ahhs at the right moment. Moments like when I told them the pasir panjang shark had human remains in its gut. It was the first time I experienced shock disbelief out loud from 14 people in unison - adults and children alike!


Beaming for the camera once again


Excited little kids

All in all, the tour ended and everyone was happy to learn something new in one way or another. Even if it's a short one hour of guiding, it definitely made my day. =)