The Flying Saucer At Sunset

Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds with a smooth layered appearance that form in the troposphere, usually above mountain ranges. One was spotted in Singapore recently...

Eyes Of 30,000 Honeycombs

With 30,000 individual facets, dragonflies have the most number of facets among insects. Each facet, or ommatidia, creates its own image, and the dragonfly brain has eight pairs of descending visual neurons to compile those thousands of images into one picture...

A Kaleidoscope Of Colours, Shapes And Patterns

Spectacular and innovative in design, the Flower Dome replicates the cool-dry climate of Mediterranean regions like South Africa, California and parts of Spain and Italy. Home to a collection of plants from deserts all over the world, it showcases the adaptations of plants to arid environments...

Lightning Strikes, Not Once, But Many Times

Unlike light, lightning does not travel in a straight line. Instead, it has many branches. These other branches flashed at the same time as the main strike. The branches are actually the step leaders that were connected to the leader that made it to its target...

Are You My Dinner Tonight?

A T-Rex has 24-26 teeth on its upper jaw and 24 more on its lower jaw. Juveniles have small, sharp blade-shaped teeth to cut flesh, whereas adults have huge, blunt, rounded teeth for crushing bones. Is the T-Rex a bone-crushing scavenger?

Pandora 3D - Loving Earth In Recycled Luminescence

8:21 AM  , , , , ,  

Gardens By The Bay
Marina Bay
South, Singapore
September 2013
Pandora 3D is one of Keppel Club's main attractions showcased at the Earth Week Exhibition 2013 in March. As part of the Club's Go Green initiative and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, the green message is conveyed through a visually stunning 3D exhibit to remind everyone about the ailing earth and the pressing need to stop exploiting it. Made from 100% recycled materials with the staff's bare hands and taking 5 full days to set up, Keppel Club hopes that every visitor to this exhibition leaves with insights on the importance of human co-existence with Mother Earth.

The long queue outside the Pandora 3D tent -
Everyone is given the full opportunity to experience the exhibit in full...

Enter by stepping through ankle-deep dried leaves...
Do you get the feeling that you are in a forest?

When the curtain is lifted...

The explosion of colours just fills you...

Flowers glow in their luminescent rainbow...
   
A Keppel Club volunteer explains how the flowers are made from plastic bottles
and painted over with glow-in-the-dark paint...

How the flowers look like - in 2D and in 3D...

 A rubber frog on a leaf that glows in the dark...

A Navi warrior stands guard by the exit - Watch out, he moves!

Leaving the tent with a greater appreciation of the environment...


More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer Goes Green's Picasa at :


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LG G2 - Look Ma, No Side Buttons!

10:23 AM  , , ,  

Singapore
September 2013
Three months after the launch of the Optimus G Pro, LG is once again setting the standards for mobile communication with its superior features. The way mobile phones are used is set to change with the G2.
At the media preview, Merlion Wayfarer had the opportunity to test out the phone. Here's what she likes:
The LG G2 has revolutionized smartphone designs by placing all the buttons at the rear of the device, making it the first smartphone to be completely devoid of buttons at the sides of the phone.
What this means...
  • Easier selfies without the awkward manoeuvring to touch an onscreen button
  • Volume adjustment is much easier during a call

Audio Zoom enables users to zoom in the sound, as they zoom in the images while video-recording. This unique feature uses three stereo mikes, which amplify sound from the specified angle and deemphasize the surrounding noise, so you can zoom in on the sounds you want to hear, and tune out those you don’t.
What this means...
  • Not only is the image enlarged, the sound associated with the area is also amplified. In a noisy environment, the ambient noise is cancelled out resulting in clear audio for videos recorded.
Equipped with a 5.2-inch Full HD display, the LG G2 has the largest display in the 2.7-inch width smartphone category. The phone’s bezel to a mere 2.65mm on the side edge.
What this means...
  • No more huge chunky phones that can barely fit into your entire palm. The G2 is remarkably light and slim and fits easily into the handbag or pocket A visibly bigger screen with the same clear image and vibrant colours found in the Optimus G

The LG G2’s in-built camera offers 13 megapixels and Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) technology in a slim design without a protruding lens. Other notable features include Multi-point AF, to keep images in focus, and the 360-degree panorama which records a scene not just horizontally but in all 360 degrees.
Merlion Wayfarer finds it unbelievable that a mobile phone can have an optical stabilizer, a technology that has so far been limited to point-and-shoot cameras and DSLRs. Kudos, LG!
Like the Optimus G, the G2 can be used as a remote control for popular home electronic devices. What's better is that you can customize the keys of the remote control panel on the G2.
You’re not always the only one using your phone - but with Guest Mode, you can personalize a user experience for yourself or a guest, controlling which apps and capabilities are available depending on which mode you enable.
What this means...
  • Lending the phone to your children? No problem, they can use the Guest mode with the apps you want them to see.
The LG G2 will be available at major telcos from 21 September 2013.
The red carpet entrance to the event location - Merlion Wayfarer certainly feels honoured to be walking on the red carpet and included in the launch preview! 

The grand façade of the entrance to the pavilion...
Members of the media testing out various features of the phone...
 

Some of the exciting new features of the phones are highlighted in these display panels...
A photo for the media - Gadgets and ladies always go together?
Live testing of the Audio Zoom feature...
The generous goodie bag...
 

Learning from the consumer instead of following a manufacturer's agenda
- A truly meaningful tagline...

 Thank you, LG!

 
More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer's Picasa at :
  

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Sunset At The Waterway

10:25 PM  , , , , , ,  

Punggol Waterway
North-East, Singapore
August 2013

It was a cool breezy evening at Lorong Halus. 

The stones were a treasure trove of spiders with the Hippasa Holmerae (Lawn Wolf Spider) scuttling about everywhere...




In the water, hundreds of fishes and even more pondskaters were spotted...

 In the distance, a head was seen bobbing in the water. 
No, it wasn't an otter, but a Water Monitor Lizard (Varanus Salvator)...

The rays of the setting sun...

More photos are available on:

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Full Of Fish Scales This Morning

4:51 PM  , ,  

Singapore
24 August 2013

Merlion Wayfarer woke up to a sky full of fish scales this morning...


Cirrocumulus clouds are often found in rows and they look like little puffed-up ripples. Some people think these clouds look like fish scales. The broken or rippled nature of these clouds is caused by air turbulence - It's bad news for anyone flying through them, but great news on the ground because these clouds usually mean that the weather is going to stay the same with no major sudden changes.

True enough...
(Source : NEA)

More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer Goes Green's Picasa at :
Natural Phenomena - Clouds

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Moon No Blue Enough

3:04 PM  , ,  

Singapore
20 August 2013

Merlion Wayfarer read from Earth Sky that the moon on these two nights will be blue. 

There are different definitions for Blue Moon. By popular acclaim, Blue Moon refers to the second of two full moons in a single calendar month. A Blue Moon might also be the third of four full moons in a single season – a season being defined as the time period between a solstice and an equinox, or vice versa. Or, someday, you might see an actual blue-colored moon. A Blue Moon falls on the night of August 20-21, 2013. It’s a Blue Moon by the seasonal definition, that is, the third of four full moons to take place in a season, in this case between the June 2013 solstice and September equinox. The last Blue Moon by this definition happened on November 21, 2010.

This is the moon last night - the first shot was taken with Auto White Balance and the second one was taken with the Daylight mode, which more accurately reflects the colour of the moon...

Definitely no blue enough. Oh well, Merlion Wayfarer will be on the lookout again tonight!

More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer Goes Green's Picasa at :
Natural Phenomena - The Moon

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