Food & Dining: School Food @Time Square Causeway Bay

Interesting wall decor
Image from Locky's English Playground

My Dropbox has been stacking up too many photos taken of visits to new restaurants, now that my confirmation report has been submitted, it is about time to clear them up.

Back in late June, my wife, baby Muse and I visited School Food at Time Square. My wife had been wanting to try out the food for a long while, so after several persuasions stretching across several months. I think it was time to let her have her say. (I'm just joking, she always has her say).

Pork fried rice
Image from Locky's English Playground

One reason why I never really wanted to visit this restaurant, was the lack of amazing, wowing food on the recommended food board they place outside their restaurant. What's so interesting about sushi at a Korean restaurant? Or fried chicken that looks inferior to that of Pizza Maru's? Why would I want to try replicas and not the original? Then I tried to persuade myself that, fusion food is always worth a try, so what the hell, just try it.

Strawberry special
Image from Locky's English Playground

I only opted for the pork fried rice, for it is the only dish that looked filling to me. It was good. The strawberry special was baby Muse's favourite.

Sushi
Image from Locky's English Playground

 Sushi was, well, sushi-like.

Sushi from a different angle
Image from Locky's English Playground

 The lack of soy sauce and wasabi but the presence of a few drops of salad sauce made the difference.

Carbonara Korean year cake
Image from Locky's English Playground

Carbonara Korean year cake was nice, but I have yet to try anything Carbonara that isn't nice. It is the safest sauce to go for if you know / don't know what you are doing.

Korean fried chicken
Image from Locky's English Playground

And we are near the last dish. (Really? That quick? Yes, really.) Korean fried chicken was better than McDonald's but still has a lot of work to do to catch up with those of Pizza Maru.

Well, these are just my personal opinions, my wife in fact is full of praises for them a lot and has recently said she wanted to visit the restaurant again. Though at a not-so-school-food price and really school-food quality, I wonder why there is always a waiting group outside the restaurant.

For more food and dining, click on the FOOD and DINING tags here.

Resources:
School Food @Openrice
http://www.openrice.com/en/hongkong/restaurant/causeway-bay-school-food/143281?tc=sr1

Food & Dining: Best Fried Korean Chicken and Pizzas by Pizza Maru Express!!!! @Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2015/05/food-dining-best-fried-korean-chicken.html

TV, Medical & Science: Heart, Skin, Lungs, Sklungs? House M.D. Prophecy Of A Fluidless Organ Preservation Box!!!

Lung in a box, in House M.D. Season 8 Episode 2 Transplant
Image from Fox

You all know how much I love House M.D., hence my PhD research subject. That said, I used to always visit and revisit Polite Dissent after every episode to get some professional medical knowledge, so that I do not get carried away by the awesomeness of the show. One episode which I remember particularly well, Season 8 Episode 2 Transplant, carried a fatal "design flaw" in their production, and that was the printine plexiglass organ preservation box shown in the above photo.

Polite Dissent has the following comments which I highlighted in the screen capture below:

Screencap of Polite Dissent
Image from Polite Dissent

I agreed with Polite Dissent. How can an organ survive without blood and fluid around the organ to keep it from drying up? Until today, I realised I was wrong when I saw the image below,

Heart beating in the organ preservation box.
Image from IFL Science

Here's direct quotation of parts of the IFL Science article:

"In the short term they’ll open the field," commented Korkut Uygun, a transplant surgeon from Massachusetts General Hospital, to the Technology Review. Uygun thinks that one day we'll have the technology to restore other organs, such as livers, up to an hour after they have undergone circulatory death, not minutes. And so far, there are 15 cases of the "heart in a box" successfully reanimating a heart from a donor after they've died.

The system could increase the number of hearts that are transported, overcoming issues such as the time limit heart porters have when transporting a chilled heart. Typically, an organ is cooled to about 4°C (39°F) to slow down the tissue's metabolic rate and the rate of degenerative processes. Lungs, for example, only last three to six hours on ice – whereas the Transmedics device preserves lungs for 24 hours without needing to cool the organ down.

There is no blood flow around a cooled organ so it is susceptible to damage, and there is no way to test its function. This is especially critical for a patient about to undergo the invasive surgery to receive it, and the months of adapting to the new organ afterwards. 

So yeah, that House M.D. prophecy has come true, again!!! After that black president of the United States one, which I will share in the near future.


Resources:
House — Episode 2 (Season 8): “Transplant” @Polite Dissent
http://www.politedissent.com/archives/8064

New Device Could Revive Dead Hearts +I fucking love science
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/heart-box-revives-dead-hearts

Auto & Environment: EV Numbers and Growth In Hong Kong As Of June/July 2015

EV Growth in Hong Kong

Image from Locky's English Playground

According to data from the Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong, as of 30th June 2015, the total number of registered EV in Hong Kong is 2279, an increase of 146 since May. This is considered as a high increase month, ranking 6th in overall highest monthly increase. The total number of registered private EV is 2012, an increase of 149 since May.

Provisional number for the total number of registered EV is 2456, an increase of 186 since June. If the final data is exact then this will be the 2nd highest monthly increase!!! Really encouraging numbers! As usual, it is predicted that Tesla Model S constitute by conservative estimation 70% of the total, thus hitting 1719.2 (this estimate already excludes the 340 EVs before Model S arrives in Hong Kong, with the assumption that the number of Tesla Roadster sold is negligible). That means as of today, the total number of Tesla Model S could have reached 2000.

(Findings from a very personal and unofficial EV-road-sighting "research" shows that it is common to spot 5-10 Tesla Model S, 1-2 BMW i3 and 0 Nissan LEAF during a round-trip drive between Tai Koo and Central on weekdays and 10 Tesla Model S, 1-2 BMW i3 and 0 Nissan LEAF on weekends.)

That said, the total number of registered vehicles in Hong Kong in June has reached 776,702, which means that EVs only constitutes 0.293% (=2279/776,702 x 100%) of the entire vehicle fleet in Hong Kong. A great start for EVs, but still barely, barely barely a start.

BMWHK sold 19 i3 to HKJC
Image from BWMHK

BMWHK sold 19 i3 to HKJC
Image from BWMHK

Personally, I do hope that Charged HK will get to meet the government officials again before the FRT waiver ends because Tesla Model X and III delivery will surely be encouraged or hindered by the decisions of FRT waiver. From the numbers, we have just enjoyed a good start and whether the best is yet to come, FRT will be a determinant.

Here's a side note, according to official press release by Tesla Motors, the innovative EV manufacturer has delivered 11,507 Model S worldwide for Q2 2015, thus a new company record for the most cars delivered in a quarter and represents an approximate 52% increase over Q2 last year.

Resources:
Promotion of Electric Vehicles in Hong Kong @Environmental Protection Department
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/prob_solutions/promotion_ev.html

Tesla Delivers 11,507 Vehicles in Q2 of 2015 +Tesla Motors
http://ir.teslamotors.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=920434

Tracking progress of EVs into Hong Kong +Tesla Motors Club
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/38932-Tracking-progress-of-EVs-into-Hong-Kong/page6?p=1137608&viewfull=1#post1137608

19 All-Electric BMW i3 Delivered to The Hong Kong Jockey Club Set to Drive Greener for Hong Kong
BMW i Fast-charging Station Unveiled at The Pulse, Repulse Bay @BMWHK
http://www.bmwhk.com/com/en/news/news-201507-01.html#

Science & Technology: What Do You Know About GPS?

Image from mihaeladanpress

GPS is really helpful, almost essential in our daily life, we have it in our phones, Tesla Model S has it and some other cars also have it, but how does it work? I find these two videos very informative and we can all learn something here. A nice break from EV talk, well, at least a bit. Enjoy!

Vocabulary:
trilateration


Resources:
How GPS Works @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/IoRQiNFzT0k

GPS Modernization Video @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chNQW22vVNI

How GPS Receivers Work @ HowStuffWorks
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/travel/gps.htm