The Keeper of the Keys

Jerk: to give a quick suddenly arrested push, pull, or twist to

Smash: a hard overhand stroke

Overhand: made with the hand brought forward and down from above shoulder level

Hinge: a jointed or flexible device on which a door, lid, or other swinging part turns

Deafening: very loud

Shaggy: covered with or consisting of long, coarse, or matted hair

Matted: a piece of coarse, woven, plaited, or felted fabric used especially as a floor covering or a support

Mane: long heavy hair on a person's head

Tangled: exceedingly complex

Beard: the hair that grows on a man's face often excluding the mustache

Mustache: the hair growing on the human upper lip

Glinting: of rays of light

Stoop: to bend the body or a part of the body forward and downward sometimes simultaneously bending the knees

Strode: past tense of stride

Stride: to move with or as if with long steps

Budge up: to move in order to make space for someone, especially when sitting

Come on, you great lump: get up from that sofa and do some work

Squeak: to utter or make a short shrill cry or noise

Crouch: to lower the body stance especially by bending the legs

Fierce: violently hostile or aggressive in temperament

Temperament: characteristic or habitual inclination or mode of emotional response

Crinkle: to form many short bends or ripples

Rasp: to utter in a raspy tone

Trodden: past participle of tread

Tread on (someone's) toes: to do something that upsets or offends (someone)

Tremble: to shake involuntarily (as with fear or cold)

Icing: a sweet flavored usually creamy mixture used to coat baked goods

Grate: a barred frame for cooking over a fire

Shrivel: to draw into wrinkles especially with a loss of moisture

Crisp: easily crumbled

Crumble: to break into small pieces

Packet: a small bundle or parcel

Snort: to force air violently through the nose with a rough harsh sound

Roaring: great in intensity or degree

Flickering: moving or shining irregularly or unsteadily

Sag: to droop, sink, or settle from or as if from pressure or loss of tautness

Squashy: softly wet

Swig: a quantity drunk at one time

Sizzling: to burn up or sear with or as if with a hissing sound

Poker: a metal rod for stirring a fire

Fidget: to move or act restlessly or nervously

Chuckle: to laugh inwardly or quietly

Pudding: blood sausage

Gulp: to swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one swallow

Cower: to shrink away or crouch especially for shelter from something that menaces, domineers, or dismays

Growl: to utter a growl

Quail: to recoil in dread or terror

Dread: to fear greatly

Furious: exhibiting or goaded by anger

Rage: violent and uncontrolled anger

Ashen: of, relating to, or made from ash wood

Grunt: the deep short sound characteristic of a hog

Hog: any of various animals related to the domesticated swine

Swore: past tense of swear

Shriek: to cry out in a high-pitched voice

Dratted: damn

Spawn: the eggs of aquatic animals (such as fishes or oysters) that lay many small eggs

Freak: a sudden and odd or seemingly pointless idea or turn of the mind

Rant: to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner

Scuttle: a short swift run

Outrage: an act of violence or brutality

Gargoyle: a person with an ugly face

Blimey: gorblimey

Gorblimey: used to express amazement, surprise, or perplexity

Shudder: to tremble convulsively

Foghorn: a horn (as on a ship) sounded in a fog to give warning

Curse: a prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one

Ruin: to damage irreparably

Reparable: capable of being repaired

Tosh: foolish talk or activity

Glare: to stare angrily or fiercely

Clench: to hold fast

Weirdo: a person who is extraordinarily strange or eccentric

Eccentric: deviating from conventional or accepted usage or conduct especially in odd or whimsical ways

Wizard: one skilled in magic

Battered: damaged or worn down by hard use

Spear: a thrusting or throwing weapon with long shaft and sharp head or blade

Codswallop: words or ideas that are foolish or untrue

Trance: a sleeplike state (as of deep hypnosis) usually characterized by partly suspended animation with diminished or absent sensory and motor activity

Reckon: estimate

Stump: challenge

Blazing: burning very brightly and intensely

Clout: to hit forcefully

Toad: any of numerous anuran amphibians (especially family Bufonidae) that are distinguished from the related frogs by being more terrestrial in habit though returning to water to lay their eggs, by having a build that is squatter and shorter with weaker and shorter hind limbs, and by having skin that is rough, dry, and warty rather than smooth and moist

Sorcerer: wizard

Revenge: an act or instance of retaliating in order to get even

Retaliate: to return like for like

Boa: any of a family (Boidae) of large snakes that kill by constriction and that includes the boa constrictor, anaconda, and python

Beam: to smile with joy

Give in: surrender

Hiss: to make a sharp sibilant sound

Wand: a slender rod used by conjurers and magicians

Growl: to complain angrily

Crackpot: one given to eccentric or lunatic notions

Lunatic: insane

Squeal: to make a shrill cry or noise

Clasp: embrace

Howl: to emit a loud sustained doleful sound characteristic of members of the dog family

Slam: to shut forcibly and noisily

Rueful: exciting pity or sympathy

Eyebrow: the ridge over the eye or the hair growing usually in a line or arch on the skin over it

Eyelid: either of the movable folds of skin and muscle that can be closed over the eyeball

Eyelashes: the fringe of hair edging the eyelid — usually used in plural

Grateful: appreciative of benefits received

Gamekeeper: a person in charge of the breeding and protection of game animals or birds on a private preserve

Kip: sleep

Wriggle: to move the body or a bodily part to and fro with short writhing motions like a worm

Dormouse: any of numerous small, nocturnal, furry-tailed Old World rodents (family Myoxidae synonym Gliridae) that live mainly in trees and resemble small squirrels

https://www.merriam-webster.com/

石匠與圍裙

丁新豹︰「共濟會會員都有頭有目，如在美國，就曾有十四任總統及十八任副總統跟共濟會關係密切。」

港督

盧吉 (Frederick Lugard) 1907 to 1912
梅含理 (Sir Francis Henry May) 1912 to 1918
金文泰 (Sir Cecil Clementi) 1925 to 1930

共濟會名譽會員︰
夏喬士·羅便臣 (Hercules George Robert Robinson)
麥當奴 (Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell)
卜公 (Sir Henry Arthur Blake)

粵音

身陷囹圄

凌與

母女對話

龍︰這麼多年這麼艱難困苦的生活，是一種甚麼力量支持著一個女人？

應︰你現在自己有了小孩，應該知道了吧？！最困難的時候，覺得筋疲力盡怎麼也熬不過去的時候，看看孩子還那麼小，只好咬緊牙關硬撐過去，硬撐過去，無論怎麼樣，要把這四個小孩栽培出來。

Housewife

Hausfrau (German)

好斯服勞 - 家庭主婦

大館

1841年，英國皇家海軍登陸香港後，港英殖民政府委任威廉 ．堅上尉（Captain William Caine）為香港首席裁判司主理治安，並於荷李活道設置裁判署。最初，裁判署還只是個草棚，日後則成了前中區警署建築群，是香港早期的司法重地。

Information: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/

延長口罩使用時間

剛才在誠哥間 Watsons Health 買了兩包共十片 Cancare 加護TM三吋乘三吋 sterile gauze pad (消毒紗墊)，合共花費 HKD 16。將紗布展開，變成六吋乘三吋兩層厚度，放在口罩與面部之間。上班午飯後移除紗布就最適合。然而，還有一個問題未解決，暫時除口罩喝水要很小心。

口罩使用時間最多爲八小時。若要延長口罩的壽命，最好不要直接讓口鼻緊貼著口罩內層，以防口罩直接吸收濕氣跟口沫。將透氣的紗布，裁成口罩的大小，在戴口罩前墊一塊在口罩內側，每四小時更換一塊紗布保持衛生。

https://coronavirus.hku.hk/healthographics-faqs-on-the-surgical-mask/

晨曦

明原堂

梅堂 (May Hall)、盧吉堂 (Lugard Hall) 及儀禮堂 (Eliot Hall) 合稱「明原堂」(Old Halls)。

節錄自《香港歷史散步》

In 1992, the oldest building, Lugard Hall, was demolished to make way for campus redevelopment. Eliot Hall and May Hall were converted into offices and classrooms for teaching and research purposes.

https://www.hku.hk/visit/heritage.php

大教堂

The cathedral (教區總教堂) is a much larger place of worship than a church and is run by a bishop (主教). A church is run by a group of clergymen (男神職人員) or priests (祭司). The bishop usually resides on the cathedral premises (房屋建築及附屬場地).

聖約翰座堂

反省檢討

「中國傳統文化的優劣，的確需要從頭檢討反省，但反省必須認真了解才能做得徹底。並非一知半解或徒觀表面行為︰抓住一些人人共知的缺點，就大加批判，就算檢討。」

由冷變暖

「現代人好誇耀理性、利害、機械效能，結果，愈來愈變得冷漠麻木……但，如果情能重鑄人生，我們為什麼不試一試？」

信任

高雄先生說︰「對別人有信心，就是對自己有信心，人是靠信心支持的，自己失去了信心，人生就很悲哀了。」

港鐵四驅工程車

恒生指數期貨

鑑於香港股市日益受到注目，其相關對沖工具的需求亦不斷上升，香港期貨交易所早於一九八六年五月推出恒生指數期貨合約。

每張恒生指數期貨合約價值等於恆生指數之點數乘以50港元（例如當恒生指數為20,000點時，恒生指數期貨合約價值為一百萬港元），每一個點數的升跌代表合約價值50港元的升跌。恒生指數期貨的交易月份分別為現月（又稱即月）、下月及最近的兩個季月。

Bacteria and viruses in permafrost

2020年2月13日星期四

【明報文章】月前坊間出版了一本書，名叫《生死時刻──對抗氣候災劫的關鍵十年》，由本地天文台前高級科學主任暨科普作家李偉才博士撰寫。書裏，李氏提到全球暖化導致永久凍土融化，大有釋放古老細菌及病毒之虞。我再在網上延伸閱讀，讀到英國廣播公司引述一位進化生物學家的話：「極度寒冷，沒有氧氣，並且無日照的永久凍土是細菌和病毒的儲存庫，古老的永凍層中可能蘊藏着能感染人類或動物的病原體，包括過去曾引起全球流行病的細菌和病毒。」

https://news.mingpao.com/pns/觀點/article/20200213/s00012/1581532212385/李灝麟-穿山甲的願望-從動武變共舞

Climate change is melting permafrost soils that have been frozen for thousands of years, and as the soils melt they are releasing ancient viruses and bacteria that, having lain dormant, are springing back to life.

"Permafrost is a very good preserver of microbes and viruses, because it is cold, there is no oxygen, and it is dark," says evolutionary biologist Jean-Michel Claverie at Aix-Marseille University in France. "Pathogenic viruses that can infect humans or animals might be preserved in old permafrost layers, including some that have caused global epidemics in the past."

In a 2005 study, NASA scientists successfully revived bacteria that had been encased in a frozen pond in Alaska for 32,000 years.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-are-diseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up

搬龍門之前的數據

But while the overall number of cases continues to rise, the latest figures released by the Chinese National Health Commission show the number of new daily confirmed cases has begun to decline from a peak on 5 February.

Epidemics can slow down and then accelerate again, infectious disease experts say.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51235105

觀星地點

西貢的西灣景色優美，一向備受露營和行山人士歡迎。但近日有市民發現，西灣與咸田灣之間出現了一個木製「蛇陣」，原來是漁護署興建的一個觀星台。雖然三月才正式啟用，不過現時已引起不少山友討論，他們認為建築沒有採用傳統「天圓地方」的設計，反而用了近年政府新式建築常用的「蛇」概念，突兀之餘，又因該處不設觀星儀器且只容納廿人，令他們不禁反問：觀星為何需要一個台？

HK01
2019年2月

Parenting

在這樣的大環境之下，關起門來做個細心、溫柔的母親，你覺得足夠嗎？試想想，你在家裡教小孩「活」讀書、重思考，學校為了文憑試，卻強迫孩子死記生吞。你在家裡給孩子準備最營養的早餐，商店供應你的，卻是充滿防腐劑、添加物的食品。你在家裡教導孩子珍愛自然生命，出了門的孩子卻根本看不見、感觸不到自然動植物。(大國領袖的目光是短期經濟效益，可持續發展的科研看得很輕。)

改篇自《美麗的權利》

羅海星

Lo Hoi-sing was a Hong Kong businessman born into a communist Hong Kong family. He was famous for rescuing Chinese dissidents (異見人士) in Operation Yellowbird (黃雀行動) after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, for which he was arrested in 1989. He was later released at the request of British Prime Minister John Major in 1991.

「黃雀行動」從1989年6月中旬開始，持續約半年之久，共營救出133名中國的民運人士。

Paris Foreign Missions

The Missions Etrangères de Paris departed in the 1970s.

The Bauhinia blakeana, Hong Kong's official floral emblem (徽章), was discovered growing in the gardens of Béthanie by French priests (祭司) in the 1880s.

Spurrier, P. (2016). The Heritage Hiker's Guide to Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Form Asia.

祝福

「希望你能快樂地，偶爾也有悲哀地生活著。」

Covid-19

 Coronavirus Disease 2019

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51466362

孫中山紀念館

甘棠第樓高四層，樓宇正面由花崗石及紅磚砌成，一樓和二樓有弧形露台，並有木製的百葉窗，欄杆則雕有花紋，以希臘式石柱承托，中間有「H」字代表大宅業主乃何氏家族，不同角落鑲有彩繪玻璃。建築物屬英皇愛德華時期 (Edwardian Period) 風格。甘棠第是香港其中一座最早以鋼筋構建，並有供電線路鋪設的私邸。

節錄自《香港歷史散步》

上環文武廟

文武廟是供奉文昌帝及關帝的廟宇，而上環的文武廟更是香港開埠初期華人的仲裁機關，在香港眾多廟宇中有著特殊的地位。文武廟是早年華人及行會聚集議事的地方，而有關本區經濟、商業發展或其他大事，亦多在此仲裁、商議。

節錄自丁新豹《香港歷史散步》

October, 2015

1/125 sec. f/4.5 16 mm

ISO 200

Fujifilm X-A2

The earliest of these voluntary organizations (established by local Chinese elites) was the Man Mo Temple, founded in 1847 by Loo Aqui (盧阿桂) and Tam Achoy (譚三才). Although its ostensible (外表的) purpose was to worship the gods of literature and war and to observe religious festivals, the temple served other important functions. It soon became the main social center for Hong Kong's Chinese population, regardless of their regional or occupational affiliations (聯繫). The temple also evolved into the self-managed, informal government of the Chinese community, with the merchants electing a committee to deliberate (仔細討論) disputes. Thus, between the Man Mo Temple and the smaller neighborhood committees, the Chinese community soon developed mechanisms for managing its own affairs. Although the European community often eyed the temple suspiciously for clandestinely (祕密地) controlling "native affairs," the colonial government was happy with the arrangement since it fit with the government's policy of ruling the Chinese on the cheap.

Carroll, J.M. (2007). A Concise History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

恐慌

為了避免恐慌，專家對病毒的變種風險隻字不提。正因為變種，新型冠狀病毒才會由小型哺乳類動物間傳播，變成動物傳人，再變成人傳人。下一步的基因洗牌，無人能預測。第二點是傳播途徑，現時已經證實的有飛沫、接觸以及糞口傳播。CDC不排除非典是經空氣傳播，而有專家指出新型冠狀病毒的傳播速度比非典更高。所以，新型冠狀病毒能否經空氣傳播，是未知之數。

Some viruses are highly contagious (like measles), while other viruses are less so. It’s not clear yet how easily 2019-nCoV spreads from person-to-person.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html

In addition, it is possible that SARS-CoV might be spread more broadly through the air (airborne spread) or by other ways that are not now known.

https://www.cdc.gov/sars/about/faq.html

Einstein And The Bees

In terms of agriculture, the loss of bees would dramatically alter human food systems but would not likely lead to famine. The majority of human calories still come from cereal grains, which are wind-pollinated and are therefore unaffected by bee populations. Many fruits and vegetables, however, are insect-pollinated and could not be grown at such a large scale, or so cheaply, without bees. Blueberries and cherries, for example, rely on honeybees for up to 90 percent of their pollination. Although hand-pollination is a possibility for most fruit and vegetable crops, it is incredibly labor-intensive and expensive. Tiny robotic pollinator drones have been developed in Japan but remain prohibitively (使人望而卻步地) expensive for entire orchards (果園) or fields of time-sensitive flowers. Without bees, the availability and diversity of fresh produce would decline substantially, and human nutrition would likely suffer. Crops that would not be cost-effective to hand- or robot-pollinate would likely be lost or persist only with the dedication of human hobbyists.

https://www.britannica.com/story/what-would-happen-if-all-the-bees-died

患病時的想像圖案

should connect

不分黃藍，統一戰線，同心抗疫

Walled City

Excluded (排除) form the 1898 lease of the New Territories but subsequently claimed by Britain after Qing troops helped villagers resist British rule in the New Territories, this small area became an independent enclave (指在一國境內卻隸屬另一國的一塊領土) where the British generally took a hands-off (不觸及) approach. Although the Walled City had almost disappeared by the eve of World War II it was revived after the war and after the 1949 revolution.

Carroll, J.M. (2007). A Concise History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

銀河系

Photo: phys.org

近來有個無知的疑問。上圖是否一個以地球作觀點，銀河的橫切面？

廢

農曆新年期間，母親大人觀看無線風水節目，我被迫聽到兩句。
丞丞師傅連日環食和日偏食都混為一談，枉為堪輿學家。

〈纏腦的人〉

「在先進的二十世紀，腳，是暫時不纏了，但是飯少吃兩頓，使體質羸弱，太陽少曬一點，使肌膚養白；書少讀幾本，使目光如豆；腦筋不動，使個性溫馴。會做的事假裝不會，使他有優越感；不會做的更別去學，傻著眼，作手足無措狀，激發他的英雄氣概。萬一非做不可，就做它個亂七八糟，再來個淚眼汪汪，讓他心碎了。」