No Trespassing!!

I saw this sign outside of a construction site near my apartment. When they say "no trespassing" in Malaysia it looks like they mean it!

Welcome Back Tech Students!

By now all of the Texas Tech Univeristy students, faculty, and staff should be in a mad dash to finish up all of their summer plans before the Fall Semester starts at the end of the week. I hope that you all had a great summer and that you are excited about the new semester. I would feel sorry for you at the end of your summer vacation, but our semester in Malaysia has been going on for over 6 weeks now, so my summer vacation was cut short. It seems like a very exciting time at Texas Tech and I hope that you can all muddle along without me this year.

My blog is intended to tell you something about my life over here in Malaysia and to help you learn a little more about the people, history, culture, and environment of this beautiful country. I have been over here about two and a half months so far and I will remain until sometime in April. I try to update several times per week so please follow along with my adventures by checking in on the blog regularly.

I am teaching a course in the Program in Ecology and Biodiversity at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur called "Special Topics in Ecology and Biodiversity". If you want to see what I am teaching them and to learn more about some Malaysian students you can check out my teaching blog- http://umspecialtopics.blogspot.com/

I am anxious to keep up with news from ex-students, the Honors College, Biology Department, Book Club, Lunch Discussion, TTU, and Lubbock so please feel free to keep in touch and let me know what is going on back home (mark.mcginley@ttu.edu). Right now I am waiting to see who will start at quarteback and whether or not the Tuberville era gets off to a good start or not (I still haven't figured out how I am going to follow football while I am over here! The sports pages have several pages devoted to English soccer, but not a single report on the NFL or the Big 12!!!).

Ramadan continues

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan continues on.

Some Ramadan observations

For the last eight months or so I have been fairly faithful about eating 5-6 meals spread throughout the day. Eating in this way (along with eating the right food and exercising correctly) has helped me to lose a lot of weight and feel much healthier. Thus, I can't think of anything worse for my happiness and health than having to get up for an early breakfast and then not being able to eat (or drink) again until 14 hours or so later. As I mentioned in the last post, the Ramadan Buffets are very popular. The food stalls start cooking in the afternoon (some governmental official recently issued an edict that it was illegal to start cooking prior to 3 PM). The food stalls sell take-away food that people carry away in bright red plastic bags. I don't know if I have not been very observant in the past (certainly a possibility) or whether the red plastic bags are only used during Ramadan (maybe there are spies out there making sure that noone eats out of a red plastic bag before it's time). I was in the park across from my house near the end of the fasting period a couple of days ago and there was a family with their food spread out on a picnic table just waiting for the official eating period to begin.

Here is a link to a recent article about the buffets. http://www.mmail.com.my/content/45711-seri-menanti-ramadan-binge

Here is an article about "going green" during Ramadan. From my point of view, no one appears to be listening. http://nst.com.my/nst/articles/8tap/Article/

So How Has Ramadan Affected Me?

Although the Malay population of Malaysia is required to fast (if you are Malay, then you are by law Muslim), noone else is required to fast and there are no bans about eating in public during the fasting period like are found in some middle-eastern countries. Thus, Ramadan doesn't directly have very much affect on my daily life. I try not to walk around eating or drinking during the day (I carry my Coke Light back to my room in a plastic bag), but that is no big deal.

Ramadan has had a noticeable effect on meal time. Most of the food service has stopped on UM campus. A positive result is that there is much competition for space at lunch. However, many restaraunts are so focused in on preparing their Ramadan Buffet they don't bother to prepare much of their regular menu or else the run out of food (when they run out of a dish here they say for "curry chicken finished"- so lots of stuff is "finished" during Ramadan.) I find it frustrating for them to tell me all of the things they don't have after I have ordered them, why don't they just tell me what they do have?

Tonight, I went to a place where I usually eat about twice each week, but all of the tables with chairs were reserved for the post-fasting crowd so I was supposed to sit on a stool at at table over in the corner (I declined). At that point I had the need for something familiar, so I walked over to Pizza Hut. Big mistake (remember Malaysian Pizza Huts sell fish-sticks pizza, so there is very little familiar about Pizza Huts other than the sign)! I noticed that Pizza Hut didn't turn on their air conditioning until after the fast was over and the place started to fill up with the Ramadan crowd, so eating a sweaty meal inside didn't make me too happy. The list of places that I am boycotting until the end of Ramadan seems to grow every day. Maybe I will soon be limited to making my own peanut butter sandwiches.

Ramadan

Last Wednesday marked the beginning of Ramadan. For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of fasting where they abstain from eating, driking, and sex during daylight hours. (To learn more about Ramadan check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan).

Muslims will typically have a large meal in the morning before sunrise, fast all day, and they have a large meal to break the fast at sundown. In Malaysia there are a large number of "Ramadan buffets" that are active every night. Now I see only Chinese-Malaysians, Indian-Malaysians, and foreigners when I eat lunch in the mall. All on-campus food service is shut down during Ramadan (it must be tough for Malays working in the food service industry during Ramadan). Public buildings and some other work places close a bit earlier so that Muslims can reach home in time to break the fast.

I noticed today that the newspapers publish the official times for the start and the ending of the daily fast. Today the fast ends at 7:26 PM in PJ and KL. I will have to check whether people start looking at their watch more frequently as that time approaches.

Ain and Julie, the Malay graduate students at Tech, said that the daily fast lasts a lot longer when celebrating Ramadan in Lubbock than when celebrating in Malaysia because the sun sets so much later as you move away from the equator. I wonder how the Muslims make the daily fast in Alaska?!?

Ramadan Buffet at McDonalds!?!

A Look at KL from the LRT

Kuala Lumpur has a well developed mass transit sytstem. There are 5 distinct rail lines and one monorail line. I live near the Kelana Jaya/Putra LRT (Light Rail Transit) line which is shown in pink in the map above (I can see the train passing from my apartment window right now as I am typing this).

The trains that run on my LRT line have an automatic pilot so there is no engineer driving the train. That means that there is a window in the very front of the train which is a cool place to watch the world go by. Usually there are little kids looking out the window, and I guess that it would not help US-Malaysian relations for the tall white guy to kick them out of that spot. Luckily, on Saturday when I went to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Center)I had the front of the train all to myself. Here is what you see on the train as you go from Taman Jaya station near my house to KLCC. KLCC station is located right next the the Petronas Towers, so you can sometimes see my destination in the distance along the way.

The mighty Amcorp Mall (my home) viewed from Taman Jaya station



The view between Taman Jaya and Universiti stations


Universiti station (station next to UM)


The view between Universiti and Kerinchi stations


Kerinchi station (Keninchi station is located within a building- pretty wierd)


The view between Kerinchi and Abdulla Hukum stations (the large building on the right is the Mid-Valley Mall, one of the large, popular malls in KL)


Abdulla Hukum station


The view between Abdulla Hukum and Bangsar stations


Bangsar station (Bangsar is an upscale neighborhood where lots of expats live)


The view between Bangsar and KL Sentral stations


KL Sentral station (KL Sentral is the largest station in KL. Many of the lines cross at this point so Kl Sentral is a major point of transit from one line to another).


The view between KL Sentral and Pasar Seni stations


The Pasar Seni station


Between Pasar Seni and Majid Jamek stations the train goes underground as it passes through downtown KL.


It is not so easy to take a photo in a dark tunnel!

Learning Time- Week 5. Studying Rainforest Ecology in Malaysia

I have come to realize that there is a limit to what I can expect to teach in a one credit course. Thus, I have had to modify my expectations for the course a little bit. The students here are taking a much larger course load than thy are at home; students at UM earn their degrees in 3 to 3 1/2 years compared with 4 to 5 1/2 back home. Thus, I think that it would be much more useful if I could provide my students with a different perspective rather than trying to fill their heads with more knowledge.

Some Background- UM

UM is ranked as the 180th best university in the world according to the 2010 Times Higher Education rankings (UM is tied with Texas A&M). UM's goal is to become ranked in the top 100 universities in the world. Gauth Jason, the Vice Chancellor (equivalent of President) of UM, is pushing for a change in research culture at UM which will result in professors publishing in journals with higher "impact factors". UM profs publishing in Science or Nature will receive a 25,000 ringgit (about $8000) bonus. To read more about the Vice-Chancellor's plans for increasing the status of UM check out his website http://vcoffice.um.edu.my/. It is interesting to examine the similarities and differences between UM's plan for improvement with the plan proposed by Texas Tech University President Guy Baily http://www.ttu.edu/administration/president/tier1/.

Publishing in these top tier journals is not easy, so I thought that it would be useful to look at they type of research on tropical rainforests that gets published in Science and Nature to give the students some idea of the type of work they will need to be doing to be competitive in the new environment.

Some Background- History of Ecology
The modern science of ecology evolved from the descriptive study of natural history. In the 1960s Joe Connell (one of my professors at UCSB and the person most responsible for getting me excited about becoming and ecologist)showed ecologists the value of well-replicated, controlled manipulative experiments in the field. Through the 1960s and 70s ecologists learned that many of the ecological interactions that we are interested in understanding are quite complex and take a long time to reach a conclusion. Thus, scientists realized the value of having teams of scientists working together over long time periods.

LTER

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program arose out of the need to foster long term ecological research. Prior to the establishment of the LTER program by the US National Science Foundation, most research grants in ecology lasted only 2 - 3 years making it hard to confidently conduct experiments that required a longer time frame. The LTER program funded groups of scientists working at particular sites and guaranteed funding for longer periods of time. There are currently over 20 LTER sites in the US many of which have been continuously funded since 1980. The value of the LTER approach has been recognized by scientists around the world, so there is now an Interanational Longe Term Ecological Research network with over 40 member nations (Malaysia is not currently a member of ILTER Network).

Long Term Ecological Research in Tropical Rainforests

Because tropical rainforests are so diverse and are dominated by long-lived trees, tropical rainforests require a long term approach. One of the best known examples of long term research on tropical rainforests comes from the "50 hectare plot" at the Smiithsonian Tropical Research Institute' (STRI) field site on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) in Lake Gatung in the Panama Canal. In the early 80s Robin Foster and Steve Hubbell established a 50 hectare plot on BCI where they mapped every tree, shrub, or sapling that had a diameter of greater than 1 cm at breast height (over 240,000 plants of 303 species). They have recensused this plot every 5 years since then. The data from this plot have led to many new insights into factors that determine plant community structure in tropical rainforests and have been the focus of many high profile publications.

The long term approach to studying rainforest ecosystems that has been so effective at BCI has now been applied to a number of rainforest systems around the world including three in Malaysia- Danum Valley in Sabah, Lambir in Sarawak, and Pasoh in penninsular Malaysia.

To Learn more you can follow along on my teaching blog http://umspecialtopics.blogspot.com/ or look at the presentation on slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/secret/tEQNn6QW5qqDsF.

The first homework assignment is due this week, so if you are playing along at home make sure you get your papers to me by noon on Wednesday, Malaysia time!!

Muzium Negara- The National Historical Museum

Last weekend I visited Muzium Negara, the National Historical Museum in Kuala Lumpur. I haven't talked much so far about the interesting history of Malaysia, so I will try to post more about that in the future. Malaysia is a relatively young country, formed in 1963. Rather than being linked by shared history and culture, the territory that makes up modern Malaysia were the formerly British colonies of the region (the Dutch colonies combined to form Indonesia). Thus a goal of the Malaysian government over the last 50 years has been to try to develop some sort of coherent shared national history and identity.

Muzium Negara focuses on four periods of Malaysian history- Early History, The Malay Kingdoms, The Colonial Era, and Malaysia Today.

The museum was an interesting place to spend an afternoon. Unfortunately, I am easily distracted while in museums, so I forgot to take too many pictures. Here is a photo of an old throne.



You can see more of Muzium Negara at http://www.muziumnegara.gov.my/


You can learn more about Malaysian history on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia

How Did This Happen? The "Double T" in Malaysia

When I was in Malacca last weekend, we stopped at a 7-11 late at night to get some water and snacks. I noticed a sign in the window that caught my eye. Roughly translated, the sign says "remove your helmets and hats before entering the store". If you look closely you might recognize the offending ball cap as sporting the Texas Tech University Double T! (I have a hat just like it.)



In the last few days I have checked out 7-11s in PJ and KL and have noticed that all 7-11s have this sign posted on the front door. These signs could be the result of some Tech grad trying to get TTU some publicity. However, because the TT cap is inside of the big red circle with a red line through it (the universal sign for "NO"), I suspect that some diabolical Aggie or Longhorn is behind this.

Regardless, because of the ubiquity of 7-11s over here, this might be the most commonly posted photograph in Malaysia. As they say in the advertising world "any publicity is good publicity".

My Latest Misadventure

I know that my Mom doesn't want to hear about this, but there are many ways that bad things can happen when you are travelling and living in a foreign country. Some are highly unlikely, but cool (e.g., getting mauled by a tiger or mistaken for plankton by a whale shark) and others have a much greater chance of occuring, but are quite mundane (e.g., getting run into by some damn idiot on a scooter or dehydration from the sweat-fest that is daily life in KL). However, every now and then something totally unexpected will reach up and poke you in the eye.

The Dangers of Lunch
As I am sure I have mentioned before, eating Malaysian food usually means rice or noodles. Lunch today was noodle time- Uncle Chilli's Curry Noodle (soup). I am slowly learning how to eat soupy noodle dishes without making a complete mess of it (you try getting noodles out of a bowl with only a spoon and chopsticks!) Usually, I am still hesitant to order this whenever I have on a white shirt because I am sure to end up wearing some of it, but today I had on a red TTU shirt, so I was confident that I could at least hide any minor spillage until I got home.

I was carefully leaning over my bowl when a bean slipped from my spoon, landed in my bowl, and splashed a drop of spicy curry into my left eye. "Oh Shoot" I thought (maybe that is not an exact translation), "I just got Malahysian spice in my eye, this can't be good". I have learned to always keep the last sip of my drink in reserve becasue there is always that undiscovered chili waiting at the bottom of every dish. I wasn't sure how spashing a thimble full of ice lemon tea into my eye was going to help me (where was that eye-wash that we see in the Biology Department safety video every year when I needed it?!?). I quickly looked around the room to enjoy my last moment of binocular vision because I knew that Uncle Chili's spices were eating through my optic nerve as I sat there. Luckily, after only a few moments and a few tears I was able to open my eye, take out my contact, and continue on with my meal. Disaster averted. From now on, I am only eating at McDonalds. We all know how good that stuff is for us.

Malacca- People Watching

I passed by as several boatloads of school kids in their school uniforms returned from a river cruise. Obviously, they were not very interested in having their photos taken.








Just because you are wearing a head scarf doesn't mean that you can't style a trendy hat.

Malacca- Other Sights

Malaccan Skyline





Melaka River


Jonker Street

Jonker Street is a narrow street filled with street stalls selling every possible imagineable (and some not so imagineable) thing. There are many antique shops and cafes where you can order that Malaccan favorite rice ball chicken rice.

Malacca- Historical Places

Last weekend I visited Malacca, a coastal town located about 148 km (92 miles) south of KL. Malacca is a city rich in history and culture and also is well known for its shopping and food.



A Little History

Because of the importance of the Straits of Malacca as a trade route between the middle-east and the far east, Malacca (Melaka in Malay) was once the center of a great trading empire. Malacca was founded in the 1390s by Parameswara, a prince from Sumatra. Over the next 100 years or so Malacca flourished as a trading port and the Sultan of Malacca ruled over much of the peninsula and parts of Sumatra as well. Malacca holds an important place in Malaysian history because many of the important characteristics of Malay government and society, including the import of Islam, were formed.

In 1511, the Portugeuese took over Malacca and the Malaccan government fled farther south in the peninsula. The Portuguese build a fort, A Famosa, to help them control the town. Unforutnately, for the Portuguese, controlling the town did not mean controlling trade in the region and Malacca dropped in importance as a shipping port during the Portuguese reign. In 1641 the Dutch forced the Portuguese out of Malacca and the Dutch ruled until the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 awarded Malacca to the British.

In 2008 Malacca was selected as a World Heritage Site and it remains a popular tourist destination. As an American I know that I have a rather truncated view of world history. It was cool to visit a center of civilization that existed well before Columbus even thought of sailing the ocean blue.

A Formosa

All that remains of the Portuguese fort, A Famosa, is the gate.




Christ Church

Christ Church, bult in 1753, by the Dutch.



Francis Xavier Church

Francis Xavier Church, built in 1849 by the British.


St. Francis Xavier known as the "Apostle of the East" for his missionary work in Southeast Asia.

Convocation at UM

Rather than holding graduation immediately after the end of the semester like we do in the states, graduation ceremonies are held during the middle of the next school term. They have been holding graduation ceremonies at UM for the last couple of days. Because the graduataion ceremonies take place in the Dewan Tunku Canselor building located directly across the street from my office, I have had a front row seat for the festivities. The bright coloration of traditional Malay and Indian-Malaysian clothing, combined with the royal purple graduation robes made for a colorful sight, which my photos, of course, fail to do justice. The excitment of the graduates and the proud faces of the parents and grandparents are the same at all graduations around the world.

Over 6500 students will be awarded degrees from UM this week. Benjamin Ong Jia Ming, who graduated with a degree in Ecology and Biodiveristy received the Royal Education Award as one of the two top graduates. It was great to see an ecologist as one of the top performing students.!

Leaving the morning graduation ceremony




A Tradition We Should Try at Tech?

On convocation days there are a large number of booths spread across campus selling gifts for the new grads.

Winnie the Pooh is often a featured attraction (don't ask me- I report, you decide)






If anybody at Tech starts selling Winnie the Pooh at graduation and I don't get a cut, then I will be pretty ticked off.

Any Problems From Holding Graduation on a Typical School Day?

At Tech we hold graduation on a Saturday so that there is no competition for parking spaces. At UM they solved the parking problem simply by allowing people to park on the lawn. Many families were holding picnics on the lawn- sort of a "graduation tailgate".


Congratulations to all of the graduates. I hope that the future of Malaysia is in good hands.

Learning Time- Weeks 3 & 4- Role of Plant Competition in Temperate Regions

The structure of ecological communities is affected by both abiotic and biotic interactions. What role does ecological competition for resources play in determining plant community structure in temperate desert and prairie ecosystems? Competition can affect traits of individuals,popultion parameters such as population size and spatial dispersion, and community parameters such as species diversity.

In deserts, competition for water may play a role in causing the relatively even distribution of desert shrubs.

Prairies can often appear as a virtual monoculture, where one species dominates vast portions of the landscape. David Tilman, from the University of Minnesota, has developed a mechanistic model of competition for resources. Tilman and his then grad student Dave Wedin (Dave W. is now a professor at Nebraska) tests Tilman's R* model of competition using four species of prairie grasses at Cedar Creek Natural History Area in Minnesota. Their support of the R* model and the insights gained from their experiments confirm the utility of having our ecological investigations guided by theory.

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/oDCwnUzckOmSna

Next we will examine whether or not insights that we have gained into the role of competition in temperate regions are useful when applied to tropical rainforests.

These photos of my students are obviously staged. For the photo at the top of the post I asked them to pretend to be interested enough to answer a question. For this photo I asked them to look thoughtful.