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【No. 0102】Meaning of "K" in "4K"

Mar 30, 2015 18:55
We recently came to use the word "4K" or "8K" as an resolution indicator.

If we use the word "4K," it probably means the resolution of 3820x2160, and this is comparable to four times the Full HD resolution(1980x1080).

Therefore I thought "4" of "4K" means "4 times."

However, the meaning of "K" was "kilo."

That is, "4K" represents that the width of the resolution is around 4000 pixels.
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【No. 0101】Irregular Verbs

Mar 29, 2015 19:57
I sometimes suffer from irregular verbs.

When people began to use English, almost all verbs were irregular.

It may be said that there were some sort of rules.

However, by many wars, many words with various origins came to be used as English, and English words and grammars became more and more irresponsible.

In order to organize them, people established a rule that past tenses/past participles put [-ed], as a result, many irregular verbs disappeared.

Currently, the number of irregular verbs that are taught in the United States high school is around 160.

Because people have a leaning toward simplify things, it is said that almost all irregular verbs will disappear in the future.

By the way, there are no irregular verbs in Esperanto, which is artificial language, and this language is registered in the Guinness Book as the language which have the smallest irregular verbs in the world.
  • in Diary
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【No. 0100】100th Post

Mar 28, 2015 17:47
Finally I reached this 100th post.

Since I have posted my journals on Lang-8 every day, today is day 100.

However, I still make the same mistakes (especially about "a" and "the") repeatedly.

I think making mistakes repeatedly is rude to those who corrected my posts.
(I'm real sorry.)

Reviewing repeatedly every day is very important, however, it is also difficult.

I'm considering a development of software that we can review a few our posts selected randomly.

For the time being, I will review my posts in order.
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【No. 0099】"Because" versus "Since" versus "As"

Mar 27, 2015 16:53
I didn't aware of the difference between "because" and "since" and "as," which can represent reasons as conjunctions.

However, I am sometimes corrected about how to use these conjunctions, so I'd like to summarize the differences of their nuances.

・"Because" is used when the reason is very important, or the reason is new/difficult information.
・"Since" is used when the reason is not important, or the reason is already known.
・"As" is a more casual expression than "since."
・"For" is also used as a conjunction that represents reasons, though, it's a bit old usage.

Since there are no clear rules about using these conjunctions, maybe no need to become nervous.

However, if we used "because" for a matter of course, it would sound as if mocking.

For example, "because it raining, it is humid."

I'd like to be careful.
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【No. 0098】Graduation from Doctoral Course

Mar 26, 2015 20:41
I have to write papers early, otherwise I cannot graduate from my university.

For the graduation, one more paper is needed by next January.

However, I want to graduate in next September, and to do this, three more papers are needed by next July.

Since an paper acceptance takes about three months, virtually I have to write three papers by next April.

This seems pretty difficult, but anyway I'll do my best.
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【No. 0097】Hot Spring

Mar 25, 2015 22:52
Today, I woke up at my university.

I had a little hangover headache, but I patiently did my research to submit a paper.

In the evening, I went to a hot spring with my junior.

The hot spring, which is surrounded by mountains, have a wide open-air bath, and it was really comfortable.

http://kano.arkoak.com/lang8/photo/zippuku.jpg

Nagano prefecture where I live has about two thousand hot spring facilities, so we can enjoy various hot springs.

Also, there are over 20 thousand hot spring facilities in total in Japan.

When you came to Japan, please do soak and relax in a hot spring bath.
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【No. 0096】Commencement Ceremony

Mar 24, 2015 18:31
Today was my juniors' commencement ceremony.

After the ceremony, I presented my juniors with cacti and alcohol as graduation gifts, and had photos taken with them.

Then, my junior who didn't graduate and I prepared for an after-party, while my juniors who graduated are going to the thank-you party.

Because the graduates will eat a lot of delicious cousin at the thank-you party, we prepared many kinds of sake for the after-party.

The graduates will finish the thank-you party and come back to our university soon, and then, the after-party will be held.

Since I will get drunk and get less able to post my journal, I'm writing while I can.
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【No. 0095】ColorIQ Challenge

Mar 23, 2015 16:24
In Japan, it is said that around 5% of men and around 0.2% of women have some sort of color blindness.

Today, I took a test of color sense on the following site:

http://www.xrite.com/online-color-test-challenge

This test is simple, all we have to do is to arrange color boxes by hue order.

I luckily won a perfect score.

I was very happy, but according to the internet, there are a lot of people who won a perfect score.

The test seems easy for many people.

【No. 0094】Baumkuchen

Mar 22, 2015 20:26
Today, I ate a slice of Baumkuchen that is my junior's souvenir.

Baumkuchen is a cake that originated in Germany, balm means a tree, and kuchen means a cake.

Also, Baumkuchen has two etymologies.

One is that it had been baked while entwining soft doughs and a stick of oak trees.

The other is that a cross-section of this cake looks like tree rings.

Baumkuchen is very famous as a German cake in Japan, and we often use Baumkuchen as a gift of wedding etc.

However, I heard Baumkuchen is not very famous in Germany.

Someday, I'd like to eat Baumkuchen that are sold in Dusseldorf, Germany.

【No. 0093】Cactus

Mar 21, 2015 17:16
Today, I bought cactuses as graduation gifts for my juniors in next week's graduation ceremony.

I usually buy bouquet flowers as a graduation gift, but my juniors said like they want succulent plants like cactuses in advance, so I chose pots which several cactuses were planted.

It is easy to grow cactuses, and it will not wither easily.

Cactuses have thorns, but actually, they are leaves of the cactuses.

It is said that by the leaves shaped like thorns, the surface area would reduce, and it would prevent the evaporation of moisture.

In addition, the thorns have a role of cooling their bodies by scattering strong sunlight.

If you pulled out all the thorns, the surface temperature of the cactus would rise 10 degrees.
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【No. 0092】Traffic Light Color

Mar 20, 2015 11:26
　Traffic light colors are based on universal standard. According to the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), colors that can be used for traffic lights are "red, yellow, green, blue, purple and white," but we use only "red, yellow and blue-green" in most cases. Although a green light might look completely green, the actual color is usually blue-green. Since our eyes are sensitive to green, we view the blue-green light to be green light.

　Also, Japanese people refer to a green light as "青信号 (blue light)," though, we look it's green. It is said that the reason is that we represented all colors from green to blue using only the word "blue," or we thought the contrast of red is blue.
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【No. 0091】Japanese Loves Bath

Mar 19, 2015 12:54
Most Japanese love baths, and get in a bath everyday.

We take average thirty three minutes for a bath, and this is the longest time in the world.

I'm also get in a public bath that is attached to a sport gym everyday.

Since I can relax and feel good by taking a bath, I usually take about an hour for the bath.

I think the public bath is also excellent as a place of communication.

However, when you take Japanese public baths or hot springs, note that there are some bathing etiquette as the followings:

・You must wash your body before you get in a bath.
・You must not put your towels into a bath.
・You must take a shower after you use a sauna.
・You must wipe your body carefully before you return to a changing room.
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【No. 0090】Mouse and Mickey

Mar 18, 2015 18:56
In most cases, a mouse is a necessary component for us to use a computer.

There is a unit that represents a sensitivity of the mouse.

The name of the unit is "mickey," and 1 mickey means 1/100 inch mouse movement.

A mouse driver get information of how many mickey the mouse was moved, and then, cursor movements will be determined.

The godparent of this unit is Chris Peters, who was working at Microsoft as a programmer.

I'm not sure whether this name is a joke derived from some sort of characters or not, however, I think we should not poke into this thing to avoid a terrible eventuality.

Haha.
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【No. 0089】The Longest English Word

Mar 17, 2015 19:08
It was written that interesting things as the followings on a web site:

・"Almost" is the longest English word with all letters alphabetically sorted.
・"Rhythm" is the longest English word without vowels.

Since it was interesting for me that such familiar words are the longest, I searched these things.

Then, "aegilops" and "Adelops" were found as words whose letters are in alphabetical order.

That is, "almost" is an almost longest English word with all letters alphabetically sorted.

Also, "symphysy," "nymphly" and "TWYNDYLLYNG" were found as words without vowels.

Furthermore, it is said that the "y" of the "rhythm" is a vowel, isn't it?

In this way, there is a little difference between the facts and the written things.

I think that the author wanted to make an impact, so he used familiar words as the longest English words.
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【No. 0088】Chiba Travel Day 2

Mar 16, 2015 22:53
Today, my juniors and I went sightseeing in Chiba.

We firstly ate breakfast at a hotel, then we went to the Kamogawa Sea World.

We saw performances of beluga whales, dolphins, killer whales and sea lions, also watched many variety of aquatic organisms there.

Animals in the aquarium were so cute, and we enjoyed.

After that, we ate lunch and went to the undersea observation tower of the Katsuura Marine Park.

We could observe organisms that really inhabit the undersea at 8 meter depth.

Next, we saw a beautiful beach at the Kujukuri Hama, and saw a lighthouse at the Inubosaki.

Finally, we went to the Ibaraki prefecture and ate delicious sushi.

It was fulfilling and fun trip.

Tomorrow, I will resume my work.
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【No. 0087】Today, I went on a trip to Chiba prefecture with my juniors.

Mar 15, 2015 23:57
Today, I went on a trip to Chiba prefecture with my juniors.

We departed at 5 a.m., passed through an undersea tunnel of the aqualine, and ate breakfast at umihotaru parking area.

The aqualine is a highway that connects Tokyo and Chiba, and this undersea tunnel is the longest in the world.

We exited the tunnel, and then, we arrived at the Umihotaru parking area, which is artificial island.

it was a really beautiful location.

Then, we went to capes and mountains, we ate a Lucullan fish cuisine at a hotel.

It was a fun day.

I'm drunk now, so maybe my post doesn't make sense.

I'm sorry in advance.
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【No. 0086】Why do we use the word "concent (コンセント)" as the meaning of "outlet?"

Mar 14, 2015 21:36
"Concent" is one of the most confusing Japanese-English words, which means "outlet."

I think almost all American don't know the meaning of "concent" as "outlet," while most Japanese don't know the meaning of "outlet."

Today, I'd like to introduce why "concent" came to be used for “outlet” in Japan.

About 100 years ago in Europe, outlets (sockets) that the one pole is in the center, the other pole surrounding the center had been used.

When the outlet was imported into Japan, Japanese gave it the name of "concentric plug" from the shape.

Afterward, the word "concentric plug" had been divided into "concent" and "plug," the meaning of "concent" became "outlet" of "plug."

Actually this story is one of the leading hypothesis.

There are other hypotheses, such as that it was derived from "consent."

When will the truth be revealed?
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【No. 0085】How many times should we knock a door?

Mar 13, 2015 22:43
Today, I learned how many times we should knock a door.

In Japan, most people think that we should knock a door 2 times anytime.

Essentially, Japanese rooms had been separated by a sliding door made of paper, so we didn't have a custom of knocking.

For this reason, we don't know what the number of knocking means very much.

I also didn't know that until recently.

Generally in the United States and Europe, knocking 2 times means toilet knock, knocking 3 times means close relationship with a person in the room, knocking 4 times means international standard protocol.

Although knocking 3 times is becoming mainstream in the Japanese business scene, nearly 90% of Japanese people knock 2 times yet.

Therefore, if you knocked 3 or more times in Japan, you might seem to be "cool."

But conversely, there is a possibility that you seem to be annoying to knock a door many times.

By the way, the reason for knocking 4 times is derived from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 "fate."

I heard the beginning of this song represents that the devil is knocking the fate door.
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【No. 0084】University Entrance Examination Day

Mar 12, 2015 20:17
　Today is an entrance examination day of all national universities in Japan. Since I couldn't go to my laboratory, I was working at my apartment almost all day. Today, I wrote an annual report of my study in English, however, it was really difficult for me. I wanted to use a lot of conjunctive words such as "therefore", but it is unsuitable for academic texts. So I want to distinguish the word "therefore," "hence" and "thus" well. I read some blogs that explain differences between them, but I haven't understood it yet. Actually, I had commissioned an institution to correct my short English paper last year, and many conjunctive words, especially "thus" and "hence" were modified. In the near future, I will post an article about these conjunctive words for my understanding.
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【No. 0083】Charity of Yahoo! Japan

Mar 11, 2015 18:12
　Yahoo! Japan is conducting a charity event that the company will donate 10 yen per every person who search for "3.11" on Yahoo! search today. The donation will be used for recovery of Tohoku region where was hit by a huge earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. Yahoo! Japan conducted this charity event also last year, and the company had set an upper limit to 5 million yen corresponding to 50 thousand searchers. However, over 250 thousand people had searched for "3.11" in that day, and finally Yahoo! Japan ignored the upper limit, then over 25 million yen was donated. I didn't know this charity event last year, but I participated to it this year. I wonder how many people search for "3.11" on Yahoo! search today.