to plug, pull the plug, discontinue, hold forth, chart topper 排行榜頂好級

On the occasion of her 65th birthday, we salute Madonna for her staggering catalog of chart toppers and pop perfection.

Plugging leaks is one of the most effective things firms can do to help combat climate change

The methane hunters

ECONOMIST.COM

A satellite called Claire is being used to monitor methane leaks

Kodak to End Kodachrome

Kodak plans to discontinue its iconic Kodachrome color film this year as photographers embrace newer films or digital imaging technology.

Never mind government budget cuts and shutdowns, weak growth in the emerging world and a summer disturbed by gyrations in financial markets. The American economy is plugging along at a surprisingly steady clip and dragging employment with it as it goes http://econ.st/18qgiEu

Schmidt held forth on a wide range of topics during the interview, including:
• Yahoo: "As you know we got within an hour of doing a very deep partnership with Yahoo, but we were unable to do it because of the government and their concerns over various parts of the deal."
• Smartphones: "This is the year of mobile phones. What we like is every one of these has a powerful browser and every one is used to search."
• And Google's new plug-in for Outlook: "I grew up with Outlook as well, which is why we're doing these things. It's very important to bridge the new kind of customer, the young customer, with the existing customer that has grown up with the Microsoft infrastructure."



hold forth
Speak in public, especially at great length. For example, Barbara loved to hold forth on the latest discoveries in astronomy. [Second half of 1600s]
 plug

verb (plugs, plugging, plugged)

[with object]

• 1 block or fill in (a hole or cavity):trucks arrived loaded with gravel to plug the hole and clear the road
• insert (something) into an opening so as to fill it:the baby plugged his thumb into his mouth

• 2  informal mention (a product, event, or establishment) publicly in order to promote it:during the show he plugged his new record

• 3 North American informal shoot or hit (someone or something).

4 [no object] informal proceed steadily and laboriously with a journey or task:during the years of poverty, he plugged away at his writing

pull the plug
to do something which prevents an activity from continuing, especially to stop giving money:
If the viewing figures drop much further, the TV company will probably pull the plug on the whole series.


1. Discontinue, end, as in The government pulled the plug on that program. [First half of 1900s]
2. Remove all life-supporting equipment, as in The family debated whether it was time to pull the plug on him.

[Second half of 1900s] Although this idiom undoubtedly alludes to cutting off electricity to an electrical device, it originally referred to the removal of a stopper that flushed an old-style toilet.
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company)

Airlines and upstarts seeking to deliver high-speed Internet services to passengers say they've learned from Boeing's decision to pull the plug on a similar service.