This morning of May 19, 2024, I was attracted by the bright high pitched bird chirps at the boardwalk of Keppel wetland. Looking around, a small dark-brown and white bird perched on a small tree branch making calls. After the call it stayed there, preening, giving me plenty of time to take pictures. This was a Malaysia Pied Fantail.
The fantails are small insectivorous songbirds,common in southeast Asia. I saw them quite a few times before, but they typically foraging quietly, not making any noise. Fantails chirp frequently must mean they are making mating calls!
So I lingered around a bit, hoping to see bird mating.
Malaysia Pied Fantail
Soon a fantail appeared on the floor of the boardwalk with a dragonfly in its beak, and in a blink of eyes, it disappeared. I walked over, the fantail now stood on the rail of the boardwalk.
I stood on the board walk quietly for a couple of minutes, a fantail started making calls again. The fantail perched on a tree branch making calls, pausing, changing directions, then making calls again. Another fantail flew by! It first stood on a branch above the singing bird (male), and soon, flew to the same branch, and then getting closer. Not ready yet, the male flew away from the female despite all the efforts to attract it. No opportunity to see Fantails mating. In fact there is not much to see, except that the male mounts on the female's back, and they have a "cloacal kiss".
But we saw the outcome of some fantail's' mating, chicks in a fantails' nest, and we also saw both parent feeding their chicks, at the foliage garden last March.
The fantail nest has a shape of a cup. The chicks hide inside, and raise their beaks when they sensed that their parents are back with food. Initially the parent birds took turn to feed the chicks, then they joined force to feed the chicks together, yes - chicks, in fact there were two chicks in the nest... quite an enchanting scene.
"How we got to now" is a book by Steven Johnson, published in 2014.
In this book Johnson told fascinating stories of innovations in six areas that shaped the modern world - glass, ice, sound, clean, time and light. He had a unique view angle on technology innovation and its ramification, which might be indicated from the six groups he selected.
How we got to now is not only about technology itself, but also the impact and ramifications of the technology. For example, in the section on Glass, he told stories on how glass was discovered in the wilderness, and later manufactured in shops, how glass mirror was invented, and same about lens, telescope, microscope. Mirror improves human's self awareness, lens (spectacles, eyeglasses) enabled us to see better, telescope expanded our sights not only to distance on earth but also to outer space which fundamentally changed our world view, microscope allowed to see tiny things we could not see in our naked eyes - which led to breakthroughs in medical fields. A diversion from "seeing", from glass to fiber glasses, a strong ductile material was made from fragile, brittle material, and eventually led to fiber optics - which is the backbone of modern communications. No wonder he claimed glass was the most important material invented.
What strikes me the most is that we consider all these for granted, rarely or never think of how we got to now. On the other hand, our foresight is very limited - making conclusions on technology impact based on very short term analysis.
The one clear example is about clean - we went from dirty to clean, reduced diseases, improved life expectance, then from clean to super clean, we introduced wide spread allergy in modern societies!
The other good example is about ice (refrigeration, air condition). Air condition allowed us to live comfortably in hot summer, and then in the desert, where previously few people lived. Now there is a mega city in the desert, Abu Dubai. This seems like a human triumph over nature initially. But in the long run, living against nature has its cost, we need to consume more energy, which in turn make the life style not sustainable in long run.
The history of plastics, is written about in many books, and plastics is the worst example of long term negative technological impact on the earth and human society.
How can we as a society, have a historical perspective on technology, and a long foresight on its potential impact? The best way is to study and learn technology history, like we do for human history.
How we got to now made me think, it was a good read.
Notes
1. I actually listened to the audio book
2. LONG NOW is an organization which "encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years"
3. Another important theme of the book is that innovation is typically a process, an outcome of the advance in knowledge base, and there are many people who have similar ideas around the same time, not that only one single genius had a eureka moment.
Our planned 2-hour outing at Kallang Riverside Park and National Stadium for Sunday May 5th, 2024, was stretched to a 15km, 5 hour exploration and sightseeing at the Junction of Geylang, Kallang and Rochor Rivers and beyond. Gorgeous weather made colorful buildings, lawns, rivers so much more beautiful - we were pulled forward by the vista!
Kallang Riverside Park
This small park is right at the junction of Kallang River and Rochor River. It has a large open meadow, and across the bay from National Stadium. Crossing Rochor river over a small pedestrian bridge, and walking through the underpass of Merdeka Bridge, a roof like large building - the Singapore Indoor stadium - appeared in front of us.
This bay was a busy place - a main training place for kayaking and dragon boat rowing.
open lawn
National Stadium of Singapore
Highrises by Rochor River
National Stadium (dome) and Singapore Indoor Stadium (The traditional roof like structure)
Orange roofed condominium clusters
Looking south, a cluster of buildings with bright orange roofs caught our eyes. We saw these buildings from ECP expressways many times before, from afar. Checking maps, the condominium cluster includes Costa Rhu, Pebble Bay, Parkshore, Sanctuary Green, Water palace, Casuarina Cove, Tanjong Ria and Camelot by-the-water.
Looking toward southwest, the Singapore Flyer (Ferris Wheel) and Sands Hotel appeared in the viewfinder.
The orange roof buildings, the blue sky, white clouds, and palm trees formed a beautiful tapestry any angle we looked at it.
Stadium Riverside Walk
Turning right and crossing Kallang river via sidewalk on Merdeka Bridge, we reached the national stadium. There was a rugby tournament going on in the stadium. Courtyard of the stadium and stadium riverside walk are beautiful and a good place for some wildlife.
pacific swallows
black napped oriole
crow
The stadium riverside walk was a quiet place with a different view of the condominium clusters, Singapore flyer and the sands hotel.
Tanjong Rhu Suspension Bridge
Tanjong Rhu Suspension Bridge and Lookout Tower
The suspension bridge connects the stadium area to the condominium clusters. The lookout tower was a good place to enjoy the vista from a high place.
View from the lookout tower 1
View from the lookout tower 2
We were attracted by the beautiful city landscape, and pulled forward. By now we walked 6km already. Not wanting to walk back, we decided to move forward to Bay East Garden and walk a big loop to go back to Kallang Riverside Park
Bay East Garden and Marian Barge
The trail at bay east garden provides a different and beautiful view of marina bay on this Sunny day with blue sky. The downside was that it has no shade and about a mile long. Seeing the marina bay from Northeast in bright daylight provides a totally different perspective and view. I thought that it was worthwhile to have a hike like the one we had at least once.
Marina Barge
The ocean
a olive backed sunbird
On the trail of Bay East Garden, I saw flying kites near the marina barge. I wonder where the big open place could be. It turned out to be the big Marina Barge rooftop lawn - it must be of size equivalent to a few track fields. It is a great place to fly kites even on a calm day due to breeze from the ocean. It is also a great place to see downtown skylines.
infinite meadow?
By now we walked about 10km, it was noon time, and we were hot and hungry. We had ice cream and lunch at Satay by the Bay, which is not a single restaurant but a high-priced hawker center.
Bay west
We walked along the bay west/Maria promenade to go back to Kallang Riverside park. Along the way, at Marina Bay side, we saw sculptures we did not notice before, and saw the man made concrete landscape in new light.
Despite not well prepared to the extended hiking, and some Sunburn at necks and ankles, we thoroughly enjoyed this trail.
Notes
This is a good long trail at Singapore - varying and gorgeous city landscapes, rivers, and greenery. Only a clear sunny day with dotted white clouds can make it as beautify as we saw on May 5th. The down side of this trail is that it has very limited shade, thus potential of sunburns.
Sunscreen on all exposed body surface is a must. One should reply sunscreen again after 2 hours under the Sun. Sun sleeve, Sun legging and Sun umbrella are great accessories for long exposure to the Sun.
