Locky's English Playground

Friday, 16 September 2011

Photography: Canon's new Powershot S100 is out!

Image from ZDnet

Hi guys! Look what's out! The once-on-my-shopping-list-S90-or-S95-successor is out! What's new? Watch the video below!

That was rather boring wasn't it? Well, official videos are always boring to watch, but the guy speaks pretty clear English, so not bad as a listening practice.

Then of course, you can also read the article from ZDNet, which is less tedious.

Or you can just look at the comparison below.

Model	Release date	Sensor resolution, size, type	Lens (35 mm equiv) zoom,aperture	Image processor	LCD screen size, pixels	Card	Size W×H×D (mm)	Weight (body, g)	Notes
Prosumer
S90	Sep 2009	10.0 MP 3648×2736 1/1.7" CCD	28–105 mm (3.8×) f/2.0–4.9	DIGIC 4	3.0" 461,000	SD, SDHC, MMC, MMC+, HC MMC+	100.0 × 58.4 × 30.9	175	New High Sensitivity System and higher ISO speeds, f/2.0 lens, image stabilization. HD movie feature removed.^[11] Bears similarity to earlierPowershot SD series models^[10]
S95	Aug 2010	10.0 MP 3648×2736 1/1.7" CCD	28–105 mm (3.8×) f/2.0–4.9	DIGIC 4		SD, SDHC, MMC, MMC+, HC MMC+	99.8 × 58.4 × 29.5	170	Hybrid IS, 720p HD video.^[12]
S100	Sep 2011	12.1 MP 4000x3000 1/1.7" CMOS	24–120 mm (5×) f/2.0–5.9	DIGIC 5		SD, SDHC, SDXC, Eye-Fi	98.9 × 59.8 × 26.7	173	GPS, 1080p HD video.^[13] Not to be confused with the older S100, the first Digital IXUS/ELPH camera.

Source from Wikipedia

Am I going to buy this? Nope! But if S100 is using DIGIC 5, and if DIGIC 5 is good, the upcoming EOS 8D or 7D Mk II might be using the new processor. As to the performance? Well, we'll see.

Vocabulary:
tedious -- (adj) boring

Resources:
Power for passionate photographers - the Canon PowerShot S100 and PowerShot SX40 HS @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbWKtpCwRE4

Canon PowerShot S100: Successor to popular S95 adds GPS, 5x zoom @ ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/digitalcameras/canon-powershot-s100-successor-to-popular-s95-adds-gps-5x-zoom/5286

Canon Powershot S series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_PowerShot_S#Compact_S_series

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/tedious?q=tedious

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Living: Lamps & LED @ Taobao

LED light bulbs arrived @ Locky's home

Unpacked from box

Have been busying with all sorts of work, so I missed one entry yesterday. To make it up, here's a good recommendation for all of you who are interested in switching to LED lights.

First of all, we have to learn something about light bulbs. The old, cost-ineffective, energy-inefficient, un-ecofriendly ones we used in the old days are called incandescent light bulbs, commonly known to have tungsten as the filament and halogen gas (iodine or bromine) as the gas filling.

Compact fluorescent lamp
Image from Wikipedia

Fluorescent tube with "beat effect"
Image from Wikipedia

As time goes by, more and more people have switched to fluorescent lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) (around 15% luminous efficiency), which is more energy saving than the incandescent light bulbs (around 3% luminous efficiency), but the mercury gas that is used inside the CFLs are dangerous if handled wrongly, and it promotes the use of mercury with every lamp you buy, plus, CFLs create "beat effect" which makes the light appear to be like water waves or ripples. After considering these points, I decided that I would not do any more damage to the environment. The only solution? Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)!!!!

The luminous efficiency of LEDs is roughly 10%- 12%, which is lower than the CFLs, so generally, more light bulbs are needed, and for people in Hong Kong, with each LED light bulbs selling at $170 each, more light bulbs mean much more money! But I have a source!

Taobao has given me a great chance to scoop great LEDs at low price this time round! And the LED provider Natsen has an organised factory and offers wide range of LED products, so after checking its website, I decided to go for the products!

On average, each LED light bulb costs around HK$30 including the delivery cost, which is only slightly more expensive than the local Philips CFLs, the products arrived safely packed and all are in good working conditions.

LEDs installed @ Locky's home

I have included 3 links here and below for your reference:
http://item.tmall.com/item.htm?id=12515840278&prc=2
http://item.tmall.com/item.htm?id=12270500159&prc=1
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12403942359

Here are some tips for you before you buy:

LEDs are said to have a lifespan of 50,000 hours (5.7 years), 50 times longer than CFLs, so don't buy too many spare ones.
E27 (Edison) screw is more common for LEDs and there are more choices of LEDs with E27 than E14
E14 is smaller in size and is mainly candlelight shape, thus it is not my consideration
Do NOT get the light bulbs with the wrong screw!!!
The LED light bulb's bright part is not too hot even when it has been switched on for a long time, but the lower part (the heat sink) can be very hot! Be careful!
For more advantages and disadvantages of LEDs, please click on the link.

Do let me know if you have decided to try them out!

Vocabulary:
fluorescent lamps
compact fluorescent lamps (CLFs)

Monday, 12 September 2011

Message: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2011!

Locky's English Playground wishes everyone a very happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Image from touchaholics

And like every year (well, actually 2009 and 2010), let's not forget you can learn some English terms on this festive day!

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/10/message-happy-mid-autumn-festival.html

Resources:
Message: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2009!!! @ Locky's English Playground

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/10/message-happy-mid-autumn-festival.html

Food, Dining & TV: Sushi, Sashimi & Monsters Inside Me

Salmon
Iamge from Wikipedia

To be honest, I really like the rhyme in the title.

Okay, who likes sushi? Sashimi?

Has anyone of your heard that eating sushi or sashimi can give you worms and maggots in the brain? Well, maggots in brain is confirmed fake! Parasite fly larvae causing myiasis, or human cerebral myiasis was the truth.

But what about worms?

So infected sushi can give you worms in the guts, how about worms in the brain? Well, then you will have to eat undercooked pork. Here's the full video for both parasites:

And this is no joke!!!

So next time you eat raw fish, look before you eat! Or you will have monsters inside you.

What is really intriguing for me is that the videos really showed Anisakis worms getting energised by the lemon juice! So those people who claims that the high acidity in the lemon juice can kill the worms, they are wrong! Lemon juice may be as acidic as pH 2.3 (lemon juice was used in the test because it is similar to the pH of the gastric juice in the stomach, pH 1 to 2), but it is not enough to kill any Anisakids. I wonder how wasabi might affect them? One point to note is that, if you follow the flow of the video, this worm is more fierce when it is dead, then you might be thinking, it makes no difference for the worm to be dead before it gets into your body or after it has got into your body. In fact, there is a big difference, because if the worm is alive when it gets into your body, it will pass the stomach and reach the intestines when it triggers an immune reaction causing the bile obstruction. However, if the worm is already dead before it gets inside the body, then it should be digested in the stomach and will not reach the intestine as a living worm. So it is still safer to eat cooked or frozen seafood, that includes fish and shellfish. Let's not forget, the Anisakids first live in the crabs, shrimps and lobsters (the crustaceans) before getting inside the fish.

Have a happy meal!

Vocabulary:
Anisakis -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisakis
energised -- (adj) to make someone feel energetic or eager
parasite -- (n)[C] An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense
gastric juice -- (n) [U] a digestive fluid, formed in the stomach. It has a pH of 1 to 2 and is composed of hydrochloric acid (HCl) (around 0.5%, or 5000 parts per million), and large quantities ofpotassium chloride (KCl) and sodium chloride (NaCl). The acid plays a key role in digestion of proteins, by activating digestive enzymes, and making ingested proteins unravel so that digestive enzymes can break down the long chains of amino acids.

Resources:
Maggots Brain @ Snopes
http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/maggots.asp

Myiasis @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myiasis

Anisakis @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisakis

Medical & TV: Scabies, Monsters Inside Me & solutions -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/medical-tv-scabies-monsters-inside-me.html

Monsters Inside Me 2 @ Locky's English Playground YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2DEE3528F0AE393B

Salmon Worms @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG6NW6AjN_A&NR=1

Lemon Juice @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_juice

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/energize?q=energize
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric_juice

Friday, 9 September 2011

Idiom & Slang: Colors, Tool, Lightning & Sexy!

Got a nice question from student Lim last week, and it is nice to share with everyone.

In Chinese, "show some colours to you" means "let you see how good/strong/fierce I really am", in English, there is a similar version, "to show your true colors".

What might be slightly different is that in the English version it means "to reveal the actual personality", which means it can be good or bad.

Image from peppermintpocky.tumblr.com

Eg 1,
My friend's football team was losing by 2 goals, but just before the end of the match, he showed his true colors and scored twice to earn his team a draw.

Image from seriable.com

When boys date girls, at first they behave as if they are romance kings, but when they get want, they'll show their true colors.Eg 2,

In the examples above, obviously eg 1 is good and eg 2 is bad.

If you happen to be in the situation in eg. 2, you are screwed!

Image from defenestreime

Screwed is word which is commonly heard in TV, it is slang, and it means to be in serious trouble.

House talking slang with kids
@ House M,D. Season 7 Episode 13
Image from Fox

He picked a guy who is three times his own size, he was totally screwed! I'd bolt if I were him.Eg 3,

To pick on someone your own size is the original expression, and it is used when someone is looking for a fight with someone smaller and weaker.

Eg 4,

You want to fight a little primary 5 kid? Go pick on someone your own size!!!

But in eg 3, I modified it to say a smaller guy tried to fight someone bigger and it was stupid to do. So, it would be smarter to bolt.

bolt is not slang in English, but it is slang in Cantonese, and the meaning is exactly the same!!!! Means to escape or run away quickly in a bad situation.

Bolt has many meanings, but the ones that can help you remember, maybe .... Bolt from Jamaica?

Bolt from Jamaica
Image from freeutil.net

... or a lighting bolt

Lightning Bolt
Image from lifeclever.com

Next time you see Britney again, you should bolt! She's just toying with your feelings! She's a tease! She doesn't love you!Eg 5,

If a person only enjoys exciting you sexually but never plans to have sex with you, that's a tease!

Where can we learn these amazing slang? I watched House Season 7 episode 13. You can try other dramas series. That's why I always say, watching TV is also a good way to learn.

Vocabulary:

to show your true colors -- to reveal the actual personality

screwed -- (adj) (slang) to be in serious trouble; to be in a position that is a result of a problem or bad situation that seems impossible to solve/get out of

pick on someone your own size -- said to someone who wants to fight a person who is smaller than them

bolt -- (vb) [I] to move very fast, especially as a result of being frightened

toy with sb/sth -- phrasal verb to not care seriously about someone or about their feelings, especially during a romantic friendship

a tease -- (n) slang disapproving someone who enjoys causing sexual excitement and interest in people she or he does not intend to have sex with

Resources:

http://www.englishclub.com/ref/esl/Idioms/S/show_your_true_colours_show_your_true_colors_695.htm
http://www.americanidioms.net/Show-your-true-colors/
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=screwed
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/pick-on-someone-your-own-size#pick-on-someone-your-own-size__1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/bolt_7
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/toy-with-sb-sth#toy-with-sb-sth__2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/tease_2

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Songs: House M.D. Unofficial Sound Tracks

Image from FOX

Got fed up searching for a song I like from the House M.D. episodes one by one, so I spent 2 hours finding most of the songs and music pieces from YouTube and in the end, I have found 144 videos and produced a playlist by myself. It contains 90% of every music piece used across 7 seasons of House M.D. Some have already been recommended in the earlier posts.

Having this playlist now, I can listen to all the songs in one go!! You may not be as a big fan as I am for the TV series, but surely you can find songs that you like here.

Resources:
House M.D. UST Playlist @ Locky's English Playground YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE382CF3D5FB2CD2

Song: Are You Alright? -- Lucinda Williams @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/09/song-are-you-alright-lucinda-williams.html

Song & People & TV: You Can't Always Get What You Want -- Band from TV & The Rolling Stone @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/song-people-tv-you-cant-always-get-what.html

Song: No Surprises -- Radiohead & Why Try to Change Me Now -- Fiona Apple @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/song-no-surprises-radiohead-why-try-to.html

Song: Passing Afternoon -- Iron & Wine @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/song-passing-afternoon-iron-wine.html