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?

A Walk On The Butterfly Trail

Butterfly Trail
Orchard Road
Central, Singapore
February 2012

Conceptualized by Nature Society (Singapore), the Butterfly Trail @ Orchard features some 50 of the more common butterfly species that can be found in Singapore. This 4 km trail meanders all the way through the Orchard Corridor between the Singapore Botanic Gardens and the Tanglin area and the Singapore Management University and Fort Canning Park. 

It was a time to be carefree...

Delias Hyparete Metarete (Painted Jezebel) , Pieris Canidia Malayica (Cabbage White) , 
Doleschallia Bisaltide (Autumn Leaf)

A time to make new friends amidst the competition...
Delias Hyparete Metarete (Painted Jezebel)

And be together...
Chilades Pandava (Cycad Blue , Plains Cupid)

Resulting in hundreds of thumb-sized caterpillars in the heart of town!
 
Doleschallia Bisaltide (Autumn Leaf) Caterpillar

 So that one may grow up to be free again...

Danaus Chrysippus (Plain Tiger)



More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer Goes Green's Picasa at :
Lepidoptera - Rhopalocera (Butterflies)

Sources

The Southern Sunset Wind

Singapore
January 2014

The slanted rays of the setting sun wash the laden sky with golden light... 
 
At the mercy of a southern wind, 
a few fleeting stratocumulus puffs break away from the heavy mass and scoot across the sky...

A stunning sunset panorama...



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



How Many Legs Does A Caterpillar Have?

Caterpillars come in all sorts of sizes and thickness. Close-up, they can look like huge alien worms, with their bright colors, spots and stripes, and sometimes what looks like hundreds of legs. 


The number of legs that caterpillars can have varies with the kind of caterpillar and sometimes with its stage. Usually all of the butterflies or moths in the same family will have the same number of legs on their caterpillars. Most caterpillars of the larger moths and butterflies have 3 pairs of true legs, or a total of six real legs. And most have 5 pairs of prolegs on their abdomen, which makes a total of 16 legs.  


Upon maturity, the caterpillar will morph into a butterfly with only 6 legs (from the original pair of 3 true legs).



More photos are available on:

A Morning With Sleepy Liz & Hungry Cat

Tampines Eco Green
East, Singapore
November 2013

A quiet morning in the east amidst a recreated park...

A Calotes Versicolor (Changeable Lizard) spotted! 

Within minutes, it gets sleepy, and decides to take a nap...

Zzzzz...

Woah! Something buzzes by and it's instantly awake!

Even with a leg missing, this Oxyopes Birmanicus (Burmese Lynx Spider)
wanders around looking for breakfast...

Life in these grasslands are not easy, as seen from this dragon's torn wings...

A very hungry family of Cats eating, and eating, and eating...
 

See those cute little booties they are wearing?
   
Don't they just remind you of Heimlich from A Bug's Life?
 
Have you ever wondered how many legs does a caterpillar have?

Munching...

And munching...

And munching...

No leaf is spared, even if only a bit of it remains...

Some of them have pupated, yet others have grown so heavy that they've fallen off the tree!
   
A snapshot of a similar host plant with leaves still there...

And ending the day with a beauty...



More photos are available on:


Smart Technology Trends With LG

 The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the largest interactive technology event in the world with topnotch tech companies from around the world gathering to showcase their latest products.

Some of the key trends highlighted in recent tech reviews include:

Supersize Me Screens
Smartphones with ultra-large screens are now everywhere. More large-screen phones from major manufacturers seem likely.

Clearer Displays
2014 will open the door to pixel-sharp resolutions that'll go along with those ultra-large screens.

Hands-Free Controls
Voice actions, waving gestures, and tilting are all part of a greater category of controls that include gestures and voice actions that make your phone cooler and hopefully more convenient to use.

Ushering in 2014, a  key theme in technology advancement is the convergence of a professional and personal lifestyle in devices - bringing content and technology together to transform the way we live, work and play.

So, one may be left asking, with phones already being "smart", what is "Smart Control" for a phone?

Your smartphone is now a remote control
Control your home theater devices from the mobile phone you already own. With Quick Remote, you can add your TV, cable/satellite box, AV receiver, DVD player, and more, so that you can control them via your mobile phone. You can even setup different components for different rooms of your house such as your bedroom, kitchen, den, and office..

Swipe and tap control 
Swipe or tap your thumb across your smartphone screen to adjust the volume, change the channel, fast-forward, rewind, pause, play and skip forward or back...
The smartphone works hard to keep your life simple
Consolidate 10 remote controls into a single mobilephone. QuickRemote is compatible with over hundreds of home electrical devices...
A one-touch remote control 
With easy-to-use controls that you can customize, QuickRemote allows your young or elderly family member change the channel and adjust the volume easily. And simply press one button to switch to favorite activities, like watch TV or play a game...
Easy mobile setup 
With QuickRemote pre-installed on the LG G2, minimal setup is required. The app actually walks one through the process step-by-step right on your phone..

More than just a remote control
With an LG mobile phone, rethink your control over home entertainment and beyond...
 
Impressed with Smart Control? LG G Flex brings all these functions one step further - with an Ergonomic Curved Design - In portrait orientation, it follows the curvature of your face, enhancing voice quality by reducing the gap between the mic and your mouth...

Can TVs Be "Smart" Too?

Magic Remote
The most convenient and advanced TV remote with...
  • Universal Control : Control and access your set-top box, speakers, BDP, and even satellite TV with a single remote, a one-stop solution for maximum convenience
  • Pointing : Just point and click
  • Wheel : Scroll up and down, zoom in and out with a wheel - just like using a computer mouse
  • Gesture : Make simple gestures to conveniently change between channels
  • Voice Recognition Search : Speak to your remote to find what you want within the internet and LG Smart World

Miracast
WiFi Alliance certified MiracastTM allows you to enjoy easy and fast connection among TV, Smart phones, and Tablets without wires, enabling easy transfer and sharing of your digital contents right on the TV screen.


Tag On

Sharing between your mobile device and your television has never been simpler with Tag On, a feature that allows mutual content sharing and mirroring by simply "tagging" the smartphone to an NFC sticker provided with the TV...

Smart Energy Saving
The Backlight Control function controls the brightness of the TV. The Screen Off function lets you switch off the screen while keeping the audio on. Standby Mode Zero function sets your TV to a power saving mode where zero electricity is used..
Wireless Display (Wi-Di)
Intel's WiDi (Wireless Display) technology enables easy and fast connection between TVs and Laptop PCs without wires or internet network...

Time Machine II
With the newly updated version of the LG's popular Time Machine feature, TV programs can be recorded so that you can rewind, pause, or re-watch your favorite shows...
  
"LG’s brand slogan 'Life's Good' conveys a message that we are focus in enriching customers' lives with our products and services. Over the years we have observed customers' habits and design products that satisfy and keep up with their lifestyle. The modern and hectic lifestyle has made us more reliant on electronic gadgets, hence LG designed mobile communication products that will not only satisfy customer’s needs while on the move but also the interconnectivity within the gadget eco-system. We have incorporated Smart features within our TV and mobile phones such as NFC Tag On, Smart Share, Miracast and WiDi to harness technology to improve the way our customers can engage with their devices." 
--- Scott Jung, Managing Director, LG Electronics Singapore ---

Truly, LG is ahead because it learns from its users and supporters...
 
This gives the assurance that LG products give one the competitive edge to 
- Be First, Do It Right, Work Smart!