Which photo is taken by Canon S100?

Here are, side by side, two photos of "city walk" (荃新天地) .

If I name the left photo as Photo 1 and the right one as Photo 2, which do you think is taken by S100?

Performances of two Canon Digital Cameras compared (1)

In taking photos of at normal distances (not too close nor too far), the difference in quality is fairly undetectable in both Canon S100 and 860 IS, except that the colour tone of the S100 leans to more blue while that of 860 IS to more yellow.

Photo taken by S100Photos taken by 860 IS

S100

Canon Power Shot S100 is a new model of handy digital cameras. It was a big surprise the day before yesterday that Tony gave one to me as a gift.

The resolution of the photos reaches 12.1 mega pixels. My original Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS is just 8.0. The new camera looks like a “Black Knight” while my old one “Silver armour”. The lenses of both cameras are hidden after they are turned off.

The zoom power of the new camera is 5x, but that of the old one is just 3.6x.

Yesterday, it so happened that a bus with the advertisement of this new camera passed by and stopped before the traffic lights. I managed to take only two photos of the "ad". The advertisement emphasized its special capability of taking good shots at night-time by the slogan, “in love with the night”.

Hopefully, from now on, I am able to take better photos with this light camera wherever I go.

Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg

In 2000, two German twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, aged 41, began to work on the ‘Miniatur Wunderland' which is a model railway attraction in Hamburg, Germany and the largest of this kind in the world.

In January, 2011, the railway consists of 12,000 metres of track in HO scale, divided into 7 sections: Harz, the fictitious city of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia and Switzerland.

The American section features giant models of the Rocky Mountains, Everglades, Grand-Canyon etc and Mount Rushmore.The Swiss section has a mini-Matterhorn.
The Scandinavian part has a 1.23-metre long passenger ship floating in a 'fjord'.

The Wonderland is expected to be finished in 2014, when the train set would cover more than 1,800 square meters and feature almost 21 kilometres of track, by which time detailed models of parts of France, Italy and the UK would have been added. It comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons. The longest train is 14 metres long. The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars - many with illuminated headlights... ...and 160,000 individually designed figures.

Thousands of kilograms of steel and wood were used to construct the scenery... The 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system that mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off.

The whole system is controlled from a massive high-tech nerve centre. In total the set has taken 500,000 hours and more than 8 million euro to put together, the vast majority of which has come from ticket sales.

By 2020, the exhibits expected to have reached its final construction phase, including at least a total of 10 sections in a model area of over 2,300 square metres. The section of an airport, named Hamburg International Airport, has been opened in May 2011. The exhibits includes 890 trains made up of over 11,000 carriages, 300,000 lights, 215,000 trees and 200,000 human figures. The creators will work on models of Italy and France. Soon a new airport called Knuffingen International Airport will be completed. Possible future additions include Africa, England or even a futuristic landscape.


Please visit the website at http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/exhibit/video/4-minutes-wunderland/

Helsinki

Helsinki (赫爾辛基) is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city reaches 588,941 in January 2011, making it the most populous city in Finland. Helsinki is located some 400 kilometres east of Stockholm, Sweden, 300 kilometres west of St. Petersburg, Russia and 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.

Helsinki is Finland's major political, educational, financial, cultural and research centre as well as one of northern Europe's major cities. Approximately 70% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region.

Helsinki has a humid continental climate. With the regulating effects of the Baltic Sea and Gulf Stream, temperatures in winter are much higher than those in the far northern location, with the average in January and February around −5 °C. Temperatures below −20 °C occur normally a week or two in a year.

Because of the latitude, days last less than six hours around the winter solstice with really low Sun rays, and the very cloudy weather at this time of year amplifies the darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long days in summer, close to nineteen hours around the summer solstice.

The average maximum temperature from June to August is around 19 to 21 °C. Owing to the marine effect, especially in the summer daily temperatures are cooler and night temperatures are higher than further away in the mainland. As near as Vantaa, the climate is surprisingly much more continental, with warmer summers and colder winters. The highest temperature ever recorded at city centre was around 34.0 °C in July and the lowest was −34.3 °C in January.

A mixed Chinese Shar-pei

Here is a female thirteen-year-old Chinese Shar-pei mixed with Rhodesian Ridgeback. She is quite protective and guards a house and backyard very well. When a stranger or car is near the house, she produces scary low-pitch growls from her abdomen. When she goes out, she often sniffs the ground and things more than other dogs.

Please note these:

A Chinese Shar-pei (沙皮狗) has typical wrinkled skin and is raised by Chinese for dog fight -- supposedly the loose skin makes it difficult for another dog to establish a firm bite on the body so she can easily escape being held down by another dog.

A Rhodesian Ridgeback is often used as a hunting dog and has very sharp sense of smell.

像水墨畫的相片

原來在煙雨濛濛下照出來的相是那麼有詩意，像水墨畫，有山巒層次，亦有夢幻水城感。

相中的摩登水警輪把恬靜的吐露港海水破開了，留下來的是漂過的痕跡。若果把這艘水警輪換成一艘孤舟配一個船伕搖曳著櫓向前進的話，是另外一番味道！

Lemon tree

It was the first time I saw lemons growing on a living tree in the garden of my old classmate, Fred. They reminded me of an old song sung by Everly Brothers:

When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me,
'Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree.'
'Don't put your faith in love, my boy,' my father said to me,
'I fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree.'

Chorus:
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the lemon is impossible to eat.

One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie,
A girl so sweet that when she smiled, the stars rose in the sky.

We passed that summer lost in love, beneath the lemon tree,
The music of her laughter hid my father's words from me.

Chorus

One day she left without a word, she took away the sun.
And in the dark she left behind, I knew what she had done.
She left me for another, it's a common tale but true,
A sadder man, but wiser now, I sing these words to you.

Chorus

吃喝玩樂

親家老爺奶奶在我生日前一日非常客氣地請我飲中午茶，為我做生日，當然開心不已，這裡要說聲多謝。我們也帶同兩位孫女一齊前往附近酒樓吃個飽。

桌上擺滿蒸飯，腸粉，粥及點心。這邊廂艾莉辦完「大事」後吃得特別開胃，喝著粥也是挺開心的，表情趣怪。那邊廂阿比吃少少是循例公事。正因為距離上學的時刻尚早，要打發時間，她向我借部手提電話玩遊戲，總算得到些微樂趣！

祝大家龍年行好運

明天是農曆新年年初一，也是龍年的新開始，我在這裡借用以上幾張相謹祝大家
財星拱照，龍精虎猛，財源(像繡球)滾滾來！

鴨腳木果實

今天有大發現，一早經過火車站附近往第一城的通道。幾串紅、橙、黃的袖珍果實從路旁的鴨腳木鑽了出來，它們足以吸引我和太太駐足一看。可愛、細粒、圓渾得像小波子的果實實在吸引雀鳥來啄食。

從網上資料得知鴨腳木的花也是很小。白色的星狀花特別精緻，有天線似的五柱雄蕊向外伸展，簡直是鬼斧神工的植物設計。下面相中的果實是綠色或紫色和我所見果實顏色有很大分別。究竟差異原因為何，我尚未觀察到，或許諸君可指教一下。

可愛的芍藥

今年出現在屋苑的年花有芍藥和菊花。前者特別驕艷奪目，就讓我展現它們給大家欣賞。

這些芍藥長出的花很大，成半球狀。花瓣微妙地向內及外捲曲，中央部分新出的則捲成蛋卷狀。所見顏色大多是深紅至紫紅色。最神奇的是有一些芍藥花的花尖部分竟然是白色的，給予人一個變幻的感覺。在相片右下方那朵漸變顏色的芍藥花正是我的最愛及令我雀躍不已的特異奇花！

A Cathay plane was going to land on Sydney Airport

Thanks to Yin Ping who was busy taking photos of the landscape of Sydney from her small window before the plane she took landed on Sydney International Airport.

She was sitting at the port side of the plane, so she could see the shore line of Middle Harbour, North Harbour, North Head, South Head and the large Port Jackson. The modern buildings of Chatswood, in the centre of the photo, stood higher than the others in the district Willoughby. Further south-east was the district of Mosman.

Soon the plane flied over North Sydney. The Harbour Bridge, Opera House and the busiest city proper of Sydney could be seen. The most conspicuous building was the Sydney Tower, the tallest in the city.

From the bottom photos, the landscape of Sydney Harbour appeared indented and complicated like a maze. It comprised of many headlands, inlets and islands.

武直九

前天在馬鞍山竟然見到一架駐港綠色中國武裝直九直昇機在吐露港上空遊弋，大大小小轉了幾個圈。飛得最近最低的正是最先那一次，可惜我來不及拿相機，錯過了良機，但是它帶給我一個驚喜。所見，這直昇機最遠飛到八仙嶺那一邊。現考一考你的眼力：左上方那張照片應該隱約見到它的踪跡。

「武直-9」直昇機機是中國版的法國海豚式直升機。其動力和飛航系統十分先進。函道式尾槳，極大提高了貼地飛行的安全性。這對多數時間在超低空擦樹梢飛行的武裝直升机來講是很重要的。

「武直-9」机上的柔性槳葉在技術上相當先進。它還有2套獨立的液壓系統，提高了直升机 的戰斗生存力。

「武直-9」由于攜帶大量外掛，無可避免的增加機的重量，為了減輕重量，「武直-9」的机體最大限度地採用了複合材料，不但減輕了重量，也使它的最大航程非常惊人，達到1，000公里。同時自動導航儀和GPS 系統等精密飛航系統非常使得。但是「武直-9」也存在著重大缺陷，薄弱的裝甲和缺少夜戰能力使這種直升機在最近和將來都不會大量裝配部隊用。

功夫熊貓

最近早上艾莉和阿比愛看自家影院的功夫熊貓2，對片中肥胖胖的主角功夫熊貓有深刻的認識。

就在今個星期三中午阿比上學後，我們和艾莉往附近商場逛一逛。一個巨大的功夫熊貓忽然出現在艾莉的視線內，我試探式問她想不想和功夫熊貓一齊拍照，當然她立即點點頭，微笑著在不同位置給我擺甫士。她的甫士有功夫熊貓打功夫時的姿勢，有型有款，但缺乏力度。其實她平時不斷作角色扮演，模仿餐廳侍應，問客人(即是公公婆婆)叫什麼食物或飲品，或扮護士替我探熱，或扮木偶奇遇記裏面的木偶。這裏統統都是她看電影VCD的得著。

庫茲涅佐夫號航空母艦

最近走訪叙利亞是俄羅斯現役最新型的航空母艦─庫茲涅佐夫號(Kusnzov) 航空母艦。該母艦是在蘇聯時期(1983年)開工建造，為重型航空巡洋艦。在建造過程中吸收了約800個學科的專家參加，7000多家工廠提供了材料和設備，可謂集蘇聯科技發展大成之作。

該艦建造時期原名蘇聯號、克里姆林宮號、布里茲涅夫號、提比里西號，但1991年服役時易名庫茲涅佐夫號，舷號063。和其他俄制航空母艦一樣兼具巡洋艦的武裝，扣除艦載機仍有相當強大的戰鬥力量。現部署於北方艦隊，是俄羅斯唯一一艘航空母艦。

The Dying and Flowering cosmos

In this composite photo, there is a cosmos (秋英) plant at the edge of dying, the one inside a small white cup. That is Abby’s plant taken home from her kindergarten. Abby is supposed to look after it, but she is incapable to do that at her age of six.

The unfavourable conditions which lead the plant to death are:
(1) Lack of watering.
(2) Planted in too little soil (around 27 cu. cm)
(3) Receives inadequate sunshine.

The cosmos plants that grow in a secondary school near my home (see the other photos) are different. They are planted in pots, some arranged in rectangular shape and some isolated ones. It is amazing to find beautiful flowers in yellow and orange growing out of their buds.

Cosmos are herbaceous perennial plants growing 0.3–2 m tall. The leaves are simple, pinnate, or bipinnate, and arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are produced in a capitulum with a ring of broad ray florets and a center of disc florets. They attract birds and butterflies. The flower colours are white, red, yellow, pink, purple or even chocolate brown.

Cosmos is native to scrub and meadow areas in Mexico where most of the species occur, Florida and the southern United States, Arizona, Central America, and to South America in the north to Paraguay in the south.

CCSC OSA新春團拜

張祝珊英文中學舊生會「聚賢閣」將於二零一二年二月四日（正月十三，星期六）舉辦「新春團拜」是次活動將有老師出席，與歷屆舊生一起歡渡新年。活動詳情如下：

日期：二零一二年二月四日（正月十三，星期六）

時間：下午二時至四時三十分

地點： 學校禮堂

活動形式包括遊戲、表演、昔日照片放映及茶聚等

Modern Titanic

On 13 January 2012, at around 22:00 local time, Costa Concordia, after three hours of sailing, ran aground on a reef just off the shore of Isola del Giglio on the western coast of Italy. The ship began listing heavily towards the starboard side and sank partially. As a result of the impact on the rocks, a 150-metre wide hole, was made.

The ship was carrying 3,200 passengers (around 1000 Italians, 500 Spaniards, 160 French and some Chinese) and 1,000 crew; in the next few days the bodies of 11 people were found. Two South Korean passengers and an Italian crew member were rescued from the ship on 15 January, more than 24 hours after the accident. As of 16 January 2012 around 16 people had not been accounted for. By 18 January, the figures had been revised to eleven confirmed dead and 23 missing.

It was originally an 8-day cruise, starting from Civitavecchia (奇維塔韋基亞 Italy) to Savona (薩沃納 Italy) , then to Barcelona (巴塞隆納 Spain), Palma (帕爾馬 Spain), Tunis (突尼斯 Tunisia), Palermo (巴勒莫 Italy) and back to the starting port.

She was built at Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente yards in Italy. The name Concordia was intended to express the wish for "continuing harmony, unity, and peace between European nations.

Elly poses

Chinese New Year is drawing near. Elly first feels its atmosphere at a shopping plaza close at home.

Recently, the public display of puppets at Sunshine City is closed and replaced by Chinese New Year decorations. Chinese costumes, embroidery crafts, necklaces, huge knitted balls and walled pictures filled the hall of display. Since the coming Chinese New Year will be the Year of the Dragon, a large beautiful dragon, knitted by high skilled craftsmanship, is displayed. The eyes of the dragon are not conspicuous.

Elly is happy to see such decorations at this time of the year and does not miss the chance of posing and have some photos taken. Here she is, holding her "Minnie" handbag, smiling and standing on both legs (she sometimes stands on one leg like a crane for poses). Whenever a photo is taken, she asks to see it.