In the 19th century, Kampong Glam was essentially an ethnic district with a strong Malay-Arab influence. It was a place where locals patronized for their Arab-Muslim traditional foodstuff and merchandise...
Sony’s latest innovative laser light source projector is High Dynamic Range (HDR) compatible with native 4K resolution, creating an amazling clear lifelike experience, as if you are there
yourself…
Iconic along this stretch of road is the rectangular block of a nondescript beige-tiled building. The facade of this building is blocked by an overhead bridge. And this is the front entrance to a shopping centre - the Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre… (USSC).
Enjoy brunch by the bay concept, complete with stunning views of the Marina Bay and its surroundings, and a fabulous menu and music programme to match at Monti…
Long battery life - Can last up to 3 days on basic usage!
Huge screen that's crystal clear with an amazing array of colours
Cool design - Merlion Wayfarer tested the black which looks really professional
32GB of internal memory - No MicroSD card is required for light users!
What's not-so-cool (Just 1!):
The wifi has to be manually reconnected every time the signal is dropped
Here are the photos from Merlion Wayfarer's hand-on testing:
Photos captured from other mobile devices are surprisingly clear - Here's the one from a tablet...
And one from another mobile phone - at an even closer distance...
That's how a S$10 note looks like to the LG Optimus G without zooming.
The grains on the note are actually visible!
To show the colour spectrum, here's a macro shot of the light rays at the back of a CD...
Visibility against a white background is no issue -
A bottle of correction fluid against a piece of paper...
For landscape shots, the Optimus G works well too:
A photo taken during the haze with the 13MP camera -
The contrast is not overpowering despite the level of particles in the atmosphere...
A digital zoom with the camera at the same location - The foreground is still clear...
Merlion Wayfarer gives the thumbs up for this phone for great camera functions and long battery life! (More information about the Optimus G - LG E975 can be found on LG Mobile.)
The day that Merlion Wayfarer looked forward to has finally arrived. (See "Marvel At The Small Things In Life".) On a warm weekend afternoon, she stepped into the Science Centre and found her way to the Annexe.
Pausing at the entrance to MegaBugs Returns!, she took a deep breath. What will she expect to find?
In she goes into the Warp Tunnel...
And emerges the size of a 20-cent coin where the world of bugs is revealed to her...
Curious ants swarmed around her, feelers twitching - some were milling around bits of biscuits and donuts left behind by some careless humans, others were protecting their nests...
Mere steps away stood a gigantic Rhinoceros Beetle - its single horn glinting menacingly in the light. Although it usually uses this horn when fighting other males, Merlion Wayfarer is not taking her chances with this one!
What's that smell? It's actually coming from these beetles which have rolled some feces into a ball! These balls are used as a food source or breeding chambers...
Hey look! Why is that dragonfly moving in this weird way?
Merlion Wayfarer learnt that like all insects, dragonflies are technically ectotherms. That does not mean that they are at the mercy of Mother Nature to keep them warm or cool. Dragonflies that patrol (fly back and forth, versus those that tend to perch) will fire up their wings, using a rapid whirring movement to warm up their bodies. Perching dragonflies rely on solar energy for warmth, but position their bodies skilfully to maximize the surface area exposed to the sun's rays. Some even use their wings as reflectors, tilting them to direct the solar radiation toward their bodies. Conversely, during hot spells some dragonflies will position their bodies to minimize sun exposure, and use their wings to deflect the sun.
Look what's resting on some logs - A Monarch Butterfly on one side and a Common Rose a short distance away. Monarchs are famous for their migration patterns which last longer than the lifetime of a single generation...
A boy exclaims in surprise - Look at that human over there! She is even smaller than a housefly...
Watch out! There is a ferocious centipede on the loose! It looks headed for...
An angry scorpion! They must be headed for the housefly as dinner!
The snail watches the scene calmly, gliding by and leaving a trail of slime in its wake...
Nearby, on a blade of grass, a praying mantis is watching a grasshopper...
(To see the life cycle of a praying mantis, catch "Bugs! 3D – A RainForest Adventure",
a documentary of the fascinating universe of insects magnified up to 250,000 times their normal size where a single raindrop can be as big as whole pond.)
What's this - A giant can of insecticide!
It must be used for spraying household pests like this American Cockroach...
And this mosquito...
And yes, the Aedes Mosquito with its striped legs can cause dengue (as this boy pointed out)
so do keep your home free of stagnant water...
Stand off with a bee... Luckily it's not the side with the sting...
Taking a short break underneath the shelter of some leaves, Merlion Wayfarer spotted a few little humans enjoying some fun activities...
Pretending to be a fly on the wall...
Adding colours to ladybirds and butterflies...
Counting how many insects they can spot...
Big humans teaching little humans how to identify insect calls...
Venturing into the cosy nest of a gigantic Singapore Blue Spider and reading Bugs Facts...
Learning how bugs communicate and how they can be useful to humans...
Figuring how a squirming little "worm" can end up as an insect with wings...
Most importantly, finding out what's a "bug" and what are the different types of bugs...
Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, Merlion Wayfarer ventured into the bouncing forest path, her legs sinking knee-deep into the leaves...
With a blinding flash, she was back to her normal size at the Science Centre. What a relief!
She went on to explore the other activities for normal-sized humans outside the exhibition...
Good photo opportunities with more bugs - The dung beetle is a popular crowd favourite...
Normal-sized humans are able to try on the creative bug costumes designed by students from a secondary school...
Other fringe activities include do-it-yourself insect kits, clay-modelling and a studio photo setup...
The sun is setting, better head off home before the insects come alive at night!
Thank you, Science Centre Singapore and Golin Harris!
