News & Opinion: Mini-News Digest (24th Nov)

Sorry guys, still quite busy these days and I really can't cope with regular updates. Hope that as my own assignments' deadlines push closer I will be able to write more and regularly soon after that. Mini-News Digest today brings you a number of short news. The first one is from The Standard.

Bloody good fun in the Faroes, a mean clutch of 18 islands between Scotland and Iceland, as pilot whales are herded into a bay and slaughtered. The killers say they have a right to behave like this once a year as their Viking forefathers were doing it more 1,000 years ago. So this is a cultural event. Anyway, they add, the meat is not sold but divided among those of the Danish-flagged islands' 50,000 people who like the flavor. New Zealanders lately trying to save stranded pilot whales will surely understand. PHOTO: REUTERS

Still remember the last news digest about the stranded whales in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand? Those whales' death might have been unfortunately but this slaughter in Scotland and Iceland, is definitely intentional. When rituals come into play, outsiders have little say, all we can wish for is that rituals do not involve death, because a ritual involving killing and deaths, simply can't be a good ritual in today's world.

The second one is on stocks from the Global Post.

Image from Global Post

It's budgets, budgets and budgets. As US Congress failed to agree on the budget cut, world's stock markets continues to plummet. Changing focus back to Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index (HSI) has been dropping for almost the entire month in November. Will it once again test the support 16,170.35 on 4th October?

Image from AAStocks

Lastly, more trouble surrounding Apple's iOS 5.0.1, as I have already shared with you before, if you haven't upgraded to it, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING IT!!! Unfortunately, my own sister hasn't read my blog entry and did the upgrade herself and my suggestion for her was to stay positive and always bring her charger with her. Not upgrading from iOS 5 doesn't seem to guarantee trouble-free.

Image from Product Reviews

Despite an increasing number of battery drains complaints about the iOS 5.0.1, three more troubles pop out from the iOS 5. First being the absence of sounds from the ear piece and, in some, loudspeaker, then came the 404 of the WiFi signals which even the iOS 5.0.1 couldn't solve, and last by also the most notorious one, an Invalid SIM failure error which disallow you to make any calls. So much for the diehard Apple fans!

Could all these have happened if Steve Jobs were still around?

God knows.

But these tips might help you to save some battery juice. If you still think you have learnt something new, then you need to catch up with the technology news.

I'm not so sure about the point when the guy mentioned that you should fully drain your battery to zero once a month, because if you have read my previous entry titled Living & Technology: Lithium Battery Care, Your Phones and Cameras and the extra references I have put up, you'll know that the recharging of the lithium battery is a chemical process. Having used up all the battery and recharging it to the maximum to me sounds more like a chemically damaging process than a beneficial process. So, other than his advice on what to switch off, you shouldn't trust him too much on the chemistry he didn't explain.


Vocabulary:
clutch -- (n) [C + singular or plural verb] a small group of people or things
herd -- (vb) [I or T + adverb or preposition] to make animals move together as a group
slaughter -- (vb) [T] to kill an animal for meat
forefathers -- (n) plural noun literary someone's relations who lived a long time ago
stranded -- (adj) unable to leave somewhere because of a problem such as not having any transport or money
plummet -- (vb) [I] to fall very quickly and suddenly
404 -- slang, meaning "Not found" in computer terms.
diehard -- (n) [C] disapproving someone who is unwilling to change or give up their ideas or ways of behaving, even when there are good reasons to do so

Resources:
Potshot @ The Standard
http://thestandard.com.hk/show_image.asp?id=574


News & Opinions: New Digest (16th,17th & 18th Nov) @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/11/news-opinions-new-digest-16th17th-18th.html

Stocks plummet as Congress debt talks fall apart @ Global Post
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111121/stocks-plummet-congress-debt-talks-fall-apart

Tech Tuesday - Improving Battery Life - CBS 5 Morning News (KPHO) @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqExFJuEb9c

Living & Technology: Lithium Battery Care, Your Phones and Cameras @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/11/living-technology-lithium-battery-care.html

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/clutch_3
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/herd_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/slaughter_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/forefathers?q=forefathers
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/stranded?q=stranded
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/plummet?q=plummet
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/diehard?q=diehard+