Friday 6 July 2012

News: Amazing Stuff From Last Week -- Part 2


Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and Honeycomb
Image from Slashgear
Here comes part 2 of the news,

Google is always about fun, including naming their Android versions, and at the biggest Google developers' event of the year -- the Google I/O 2012, they put up the new Android stuffed with jelly beans in their Googleplex, and so yes, they named their Android 4.1 as Jelly Bean.

(front to back) Jelly Bean, Éclair, (left to right) Cupcake, Froyo, Gingerbread
Image from Slashgear
Developers are all excited about this update, and so are the mobile manufacturers as we will be seeing newer and better Android phones pretty soon!


Image from CNet
Zynga should be a name quite familiar to the Hong Kong gamers, what might be less familar is the virtual sex, yes, virtual sex, that is allowed in their new game The Ville! Mummies and daddies won't be too happy with this, but that is much safer than actual sex, if you think of it this way, there are viruses, but just computer ones.

Image from BBC News
The last of the kind, Lonesome George the giant Galapagos tortoise, died on the 24th June 2012, and that of course, means another great specie has extinct. Scientists says this specie can live up to 200 years, and Lonesome George is only half of that age. Who said loneliness cannot kill? But why has it become the last of his kind? Humans.

So long, farewell to Charles Darwin's inspiration of his theories on evolution.

Image from The Raw Story
Noam Chomsky is a name everyone must know and should know in the English language studies and the linguistics department. What some might not know about him, is that he is also aware of how to play Lemmings, a 1991 video game.
Image from Wikipedia
In The Julian Assange Show, He said that "even a seemingly less complex issue like climate change makes him believe that humanity is, increasingly, “like lemmings going over the cliff.”" In the game, if you don't take care of the lemmings, they will mindlessly fall off the cliff one after another until they all die out.

Here's a real videos of real lemmings jumping off the cliff, blindly getting killed.


Is humanity really going this way? You may want to read more from The Raw Story.

Image from Getty Images
Lastly, David Beckham was disappointed for not being selected in the Olympic soccer team despite having done so much for the country. He was heartbroken as he publicly told the media, and so were his fans. Olympic team manager Stuart Pearce simply claimed that his decision on not selecting Beckham was because he's a football man, and he picks solely on football ability. That means, Beckham is no longer having the football ability needed to compete in the game. 


How will the Beckham fans + sponsors think? 


Knowing that he made a huge huge HUGE mistake, Pearce made some sort of save-his-own-ass act by announcing that Beckham may be offered a place on the "standby-list". What that means is if and only if, Giggs, Bellamy or Richards is injured, then Beckham will be able to join the 18-man squad. Thank you so much!


I think Pearce should learn something from this whole incidence, and that is, even if you have picked your best, your team is most likely not going to win the champion anyway, so after Beckham has done so much promotion for his country, he damn right deserves a place in the main squad! Not on the standby-list! The Olympic games is not about winning, it is about passion for the sports and sportsmanship! David Beckham deserves this more than anyone else on the list!





Vocabulary:
Éclair -- (n)(French) an oblong pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with icing.
virtual sex -- (n)[U] a sexual act where two or more people gather together via some form of communications equipment to arouse each other by transmitting sexually explicit messages.
lemmings -- (n) are small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic
humanity -- (n) [U] people in general



Resources:
News: Amazing Stuff From Last Week -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/07/news-amazing-stuff-from-last-week-part-1.html

Android Jelly Bean statue appears at Googleplex [UPDATE] @ SlashGear
http://www.slashgear.com/android-jelly-bean-statue-appears-at-googleplex-26235738/

New Zynga game The Ville allows virtual sex @ CNet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57460546-93/new-zynga-game-the-ville-allows-virtual-sex/

Giant tortoise Lonesome George to be embalmed @ BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18604682

Noam Chomsky tells Julian Assange: Humanity ‘like lemmings going over the cliff’ @ The Raw Story
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/26/noam-chomsky-tells-julian-assange-humanity-like-lemmings-going-over-the-cliff/

Noam Chomsky @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

The Julian Assange Show: Noam Chomsky & Tariq Ali (E10) @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iJjtEMamjc

The Disturbing Truth About Lemmings @ Zactopia
http://zactopia.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/the-disturbing-truth-about-lemmings/

David Beckham may be offered place on standby list after Stuart Pearce snubs him for Olympics @ The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/david-beckham-may-be-offered-place-on-standby-list-after-stuart-pearce-snubs-him-for-olympics-7904422.html

Éclair @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89clair_(pastry)

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/humanity_2