europe’s greenest city • learn commonly2 plus | monday 27 january 2014 cover story by tom...

MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741

CAMPUS

MARKETPLACE

FILM

HEALTH

TECHNOLOGY

P | 4-5

P | 6

P | 8-9

P | 11

P | 12

• Indian schools mark 65th Republic Day

• LG after-sales service bus proves successful

• Whiplash and Rich Hill win top honours at Sundance Film Festival

• Omega-3 intake inversely linked to signs of brain ageing

• Apple plans move into mobile payments, says report

inside

Learn Arabic • Learn commonly

used Arabic wordsand their meanings

P | 13

P | 7

Soups: When finesse and technique hit the bowl

Pine cones, moss and rotten food are fuelling a Swedish city’s quest to be sustainable. Vaexjoe’s green goals encourage local farmers to go organic and everyone to reduce paper consumption and to use bicycles or public transport.

GREENEST CITYEUROPE’S EUROPE’S

2 COVER STORYPLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2014

By Tom Sullivan

Pine cones, moss and rotten food are fuelling a Swedish city’s quest to be sustainable, but people’s attachment to

their cars may put the brakes on its carbon-neutral ambition.

Nestled among glittering lakes and thick pine forests in southern Sweden, Vaexjoe has gone further than most in renewable energy, clean transport and energy conservation, promoting itself as “Europe’s Greenest City”.

“We started very early,” Henrik Johansson at Vaexjoe local council said.

“Our politicians realised in the ‘60s that if the city was to develop the lakes had to be cleaned up — they’d

been polluted by the linen industry in the 18th century and by the city’s expansion.”

The restoration of the most polluted waterway, Lake Trummen — infamous for its noxious smell as far back as the 18th century — acted as a catalyst for more ambitious environmental projects, he added.

“When I was a kid you wouldn’t have dreamt of taking a swim in it, but today you can,” said the 39-year-old environmental officer.

“That very obvious change has stayed in people’s minds — it showed that if you really want to do something and set your mind to it, you will succeed.”

In the 1990s, before global warming was grabbing headlines, the city council announced plans to abandon fossil fuels by 2030 and to halve carbon emissions in less than two decades — among a host of “green goals” that also encourage local farmers to go organic and everyone to reduce paper consumption and to use bicycles or public transport.

Today, Vaexjoe’s CO2 emissions are indeed almost half what they were in 1993 — one of the lowest levels in Europe at 2.7 tonnes per person — and almost half of Sweden’s already low average.

Energy from moss and twigsIn the 1970s Vaexjoe developed a

district heating and power system — pumping heat and hot water from a central boiler around the city.

That was not unique for Sweden, but the city-owned energy company went on to pioneer a changeover from oil to biomass — incinerating leftovers from the forestry industry.

Testing limits of sustainable living

Nestled among glittering lakes and thick pine forests in southern Sweden, Vaexjoe has gone further than most in renewable energy, clean transport and energy conservation, promoting itself as “Europe’s Greenest City”.

3

At the plant just outside the city, Bjoern Wolgast, the director, picks up a handful of tangled twigs, moss and bark, and breathes in the pungent pine fragrance as an excavator delivers a pile of the dusty material to a nearby conveyer belt.

“It’s totally renewable energy — Swedish forests still produce more than we take out,” he said, adding: “And we send ash back to fertilise the forest.”

Today almost 90 percent of the city’s 60,000 inhabit-ants get their heat and hot water from the plant, which also supplies about 40 per-cent of electricity needs.

Thanks to a series of fil-ters, the plant’s emissions are almost negligible — one-twentieth of the national limit.

But whether Vaexjoe really is “Europe’s Greenest City” is open for debate and the slogan irritates some locals, including ecological restaurant owner Goeran Lindblad.

“Why were we years behind other parts of the country in recycling food waste?” asked Lindblad, one of the first in Vaexjoe to start recycling food two years ago.

Buses fuelled by potato peels

Nonetheless, when the local council did start col-lecting organic waste things happened quickly.

Two-thirds of households signed up voluntarily — in return for lower charges — and today the city’s fleet of green biogas buses runs almost entirely on locally produced gas made from rotten food and sewage.

“It’s difficult to compare cities of different sizes but I’d say it’s one of Europe’s greenest — they’re very advanced and ambitious,” said Cristina Garzillo, a

sustainability expert at the local government network ICLEI in Freiburg, Germany.

Ryan Provencher, a 39-year-old engineer, moved to Sweden from Texas just over a decade ago and could be described as a fer-vent convert to the green revolution.

“We recycle just about everything. I only use my car about twice a week and tend to run or cycle to work,” he said.

Provencher lives with his wife and three children in Vaexjoe’s most environ-mentally friendly “positive house”, which sends more energy back to the local grid than it uses thanks to a roof covered in solar panels and an array of other energy-saving gadgets.

He says the contrast with life in Waco, where his par-ents live, is like “night and day”.

“Gas is so cheap there that nobody thinks twice about driving.”

Vaexjoe may be a world away from Waco, but many of its residents have a simi-lar love affair with the car — about 60 percent drive — and it has proved hard to change that, making the city’s fossil-free goal harder to achieve.

“We’re dependent on national changes and on car and fuel companies to make alternatives available. We can’t force people out of their cars,” Johansson said.

“But we’re making it more and more attractive to use bikes or buses and harder to drive shorter distances. And it’s pretty easy to make quick improvements: gas stations are already blending biofuels into ordinary fuel so everyone can start lowering their CO2 emissions.”

“By 2030 I think we’ll be at least 80 percent there,” Johansson said.

“And that would not be so bad!” AFP

PLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2014

The city’s fleet of green biogas buses runs almost entirely on locally produced gas made from rotten food and sewage.

PLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 20144 CAMPUS

The 65th Indian Republic Day was marked yesterday by all Indian schools in Qatar. The Indian flag was hoisted at their

premises and students presented cultural events depicting Indian freedom struggle and other landmark events from Indian history.

Bhavan’s Public SchoolThe Republic Day was celebrated at

Al Wakrah complex of Bhavan’s Public school by hoisting the Indian flag by A P Manikantan, Vice-President of the school. The Republic Day message was delivered by P N Babu Rajan, General Secretary and Vote of Thanks was proposed by Pushpa Rajan, Activities Cordinator.

Birla Public SchoolBirla Public School celebrated the day

by hoisting the flag at 7am at the school premises. The tricolour was hoisted by C V Rappai, Chairman, in the presence of Governing Council members Dr Mohan Thomas and Gope Shahani, Principal A K Shrivsatava, Vice Principal George Edison, staff, students and parents. Rendition of the national anthem by the school band was the highlight of the day.

DPS-MISDPS-Modern Indian School celebrated

the day with a special assembly conducted by students of the senior and junior wing. Chief Guest Hassan Chougule, President DPS-MIS, unfurled the Indian tricolour.

The inaugural speech by Nimra Siddiqui of VIII-H highlighted the sig-nificance of the day.

Principal Asna Nafees in her speech encouraged teachers to motivate stu-dents to serve the country by joining the armed forces and administrative services. A poem, epitomising the stature of India in the global arena, was recited by Aliya Habib Sange of IX-F.

Ideal Indian SchoolSchool President Dr Hassan Kunhi M

P hoisted the national flag at the school premises. Principal Syed Shoukath Ali, heads of sections, staff and students joined the celebrations.

Students in their speeches reiter-ated their bond with their motherland and called on the youth to live up to the traditions of their country and work for its betterment. Crystal Fay D’ Souza of class X spoke in Hindi while Alhaj Ashraf from class X presented his thoughts in English. The school choir from Junior, Girls’ and Boys’ entertained the audience with patriotic songs.

Tarab Iqbal of class IX welcomed the gathering and Akash Gireesh of class XI proposed a vote of thanks.

Indian schools mark 65th

Republic Day

DPS-Modern Indian School

Birla Public School

Shantiniketan Indian School

5CAMPUS PLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2014

MESMES Indian School marked the day at the Open

Air Auditorium of the school. Ceremonial parade, pageantry, procession, patriotic songs, dances and other cultural programmes were showcased to mark the importance of the day.

V V Mahmood, President, MES Governing Body and Chief Guest, hoisted the Indian flag on the occasion. The Scouts & Guides, members of Campus Care Force (CCF), students of Kindergarten, Junior, Boys, Girls and CBSE-i Sections carried Indian flags spreading the messages of love and peace.

Nidhi Radhakrishnan, Assistant Head Girl, wel-comed the gathering while Chris Reggy, Assistant Head Boy, proposed vote of thanks. Aysha Sherin, Head Prefect compered the function.

K P Abdul Azeez, General Secretary, K P Abdul Hameed, President, IES Chittilappilly, P K Mohamed, Vice President, Hazmal Ismail, Director, Cultural and Co-Curricular Activities, MES Governing Board, A T Usman, member, MES Governing Body, other members of school manage-ment, A P Sasidharan, Principal, vice-principals and heads of sections, school officials, members of various socio-cultural organisations, parents, well-wishers, teachers and students attended the event. Gurpreet Bhalla, Head, Department of English, coordinated it.

Noble International School The Republic Day was celebrated by Noble

International School with the unfurling of the Indian flag by Chairman Husain Mohammed at the school premises in Abu Hamour.

Amrutha, Class V student, gave a speech in which she touched upon the history of India, the freedom struggle, attainment of independence, and the for-mation of the Indian Constitution.

All students — nearly 900 — made the tricolour flag formation to express their love for the mother-land followed by a parade by the Scouts and Guides.

Barath Silvester, HR Coordinator of Noble Primary, delivered the welcome speech.

Officials of the nanagement committee Moideen and Faisal Parappil and Administrator Cinil Kumar also attended the function. Rashmi Iyengar proposed vote of thanks. Dhanya Linto, CCE Coordinator, moderated the programme.

Shantiniketan Indian SchoolShantiniketan Indian School marked the day in

the general assembly ground of its Barwa Campus.The function began with prayer followed by a cer-

emonial parade and procession. K C Abdul Latheef, President of School Management Committee, who was the Chief Guest, extended his greetings. Centred on the theme ‘unity in diversity’, students presented a dance and procession representing the culture and traditions of different Indian states.

Principal Dr Subhash B Nair stressed the duties and responsibilities of students in the development of their country. Vice principals Shihabudheen Pulath and Manju Singh, Section Heads Dudley O Connor, Prabha Saji, Prabha Jayaprakash and Mehjabeen Hassan also attended. Salwa Jalaudheen, Assistant Head Girl, welcomed the gathering and Ahiyan Musthafa, Assistant Head Boy, proposed vote of thanks.

MES Indian School

Bhavan’s Public School

Ideal Indian School Noble International School

PLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 20146 COMMUNITY / MARKETPLACE

LG after-sales service bus proves successful

Almost two years ago LG –Jumbo launched a mobile bus service in

Qatar touring various parts of the country to provide on-the-spot tech-nical support to customers.

LG’s strategy of implementing inno-vative ways to provide more efficient services to customers has paid off and in the second year itself has shown positive results.

This specially designed mobile serv-ice centre brings LG-Jumbo technical teams closer to customers saving them time, effort and concerns.

“This unique concept launched by Jumbo Electronics with support from LG Electronics Gulf was one of the many firsts LG & Jumbo have come out with time to time” commented a spokesman from Jumbo Electronics.

The Peninsula

UBL Doha recently held a one day Customer Service Excellence Workshop at Gloria Hotel. Shahid Amin Sheikh, General Manager, UBL, Babar Ahmed, Head of HR International and Andrew Kenneth, Head of SQM and Project International, were present at the workshop along with all UBL Doha staff.

Ambassador of Japan Shingo Tsuda hosted a reception at his residence recently for the Japanese community in Qatar to celebrate the New Year. The function started with a New Year’s greeting by Tsuda. The ambassador wished for the good health and happiness of the Japanese people in Qatar and Japan’s further contribution to Qatar in various fields. More than 160 guests attended the reception and enjoyed the traditional Japanese New Year dishes and the atmosphere.

L’Atelier Du Chocolat opened its retail shop in Qatar in the pres-ence of the French ambassador

Jean-Christophe Peaucelle. The French chocolatier Serge Andrieu chose Doha as its destination to open its first con-fectionary shop in the Middle East. Located on the ground floor of the Gate Mall, West Bay, the boutique offers an assortment of fair trade chocolates, rang-ing from delectable bonbons to classic chocolate bouquets.

Commenting on the opening Andrieu, President and Founder of L’Atelier Du Chocolat, said: “We are delighted to open our first chocola-tier in the Middle East. L’Atelier Du Chocolat reaches out to customers with

exquisite tastes, offering them quality chocolates infused with exotic flavours. In addition, the lusciousness of the chocolate selection is solely attributed to the quality and concentration of our premium cocoa beans.”

Adding to the opening of the choco-latier, TBM Hospitality Co-Founder Ahmed Dahbour said: “It is an excit-ing step for TBM to support such a unique business venture, the main idea behind introducing a one of a kind con-cept to Qatar. At the heart of L’Atelier du Chocolat, we believe in attention to detail as well as the essence of creativity. We also have other interesting projects in the pipeline and are looking forward to launching them soon in Qatar.”

Chocophiles of every taste will find something to love in L’Atelier Du Chocolat’s broad range of delicacies. The most popular offering being the chocolatier’s bouquets assorted from

a selection of 19 different types of fine French chocolate, the Flavourful slabs presented gather exotic flavours from around the world.

The Peninsula

L’Atelier Du Chocolat opens shop in Gate Mall

FOOD 7PLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2014

By Jane Black

“You can always judge a restaurant by its soup.” The words my father had said a hundred times to me growing up ricocheted around my head as I

glanced up, red-faced, at Claire, the head teacher of the culinary school I was attending in London a decade ago. She was peering over my shoulder into my pot of consomme on the stove. I had whisked in the egg whites to collect the impurities, but the resulting “raft” had not clarified the broth as it was supposed to. Claire’s expression betrayed nothing, but it was as clear as my broth was not that I had failed consomme.

I went on to become a pretty good cook, sailing through sauces and pastas (and, I must add, plac-ing third in my culinary class). But I never entirely recovered from the idea that fancy soups — res-taurant-worthy soups — were somehow beyond my reach, best left to real chefs and, in the case of con-sommes, best left to top chefs.

Over the years, I’ve stuck with rustic soups. My favourite is Italian wedding soup, loaded with lem-ony chicken meatballs, pasta and greens. More often than not, I make the unfortunately named garbage soup, concocted with whatever leftover beans, meat or broth we happen to have on hand.

Chefs, of course, have long known that soups are deceptively simple. The 19th-century French chef Auguste Escoffier declared that “of all the items on the menu, soup is that which exacts the most deli-cate perfection and the strictest attention.” But it is also, he noted, essential to any chef ’s repertoire because “soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day, and awakens and refines the appetite.”

Clearly, I couldn’t let one failure a decade ago stand in my way. This past fall I was inspired to try again when I stumbled across a promising technique that promised to yield fabulous soup without stress or, frankly, too much work. It was a chilled carrot soup from chef Thomas Keller, published in Saveur maga-zine. Instead of using carrots and stock, as you nor-mally would, Keller simmered thinly sliced carrots in carrot juice, allowing it to evaporate and concentrate. The carrots, a little cream and more carrot juice were then pureed for an intense, almost caramelised flavour and served with a creamy mousse.

Even I could do that. And I did.The soup was delicious: rich, velvety in texture,

with an almost impossible-to-believe carrot-ness. I have no desire to pick a fight with a star chef such as Keller. But it was too sweet for me to eat a whole bowl. It would have been perfect served in an espresso cup as an amuse-bouche. It was divine smeared on a plate as a sauce for a piece of grilled fish, which is how I served it.

Still, the idea of using and reducing juices to inten-sify and finesse flavours was brilliant — and, it turns out, pretty common among chefs. Austin Fausett, executive chef at Trummer’s on Main in Clifton, Virginia, makes his carrot soup by cooking carrots and other vegetables in vegetable broth, then reduces carrot juice and adds fresh ginger juice. That adds intensity without overwhelming sweetness, as well as a subtle punch. The method works well with beet, apple or corn juice, too.

I don’t have a juicer. Although I was keen to improve my soups, I wasn’t willing to buy or store any new appliances. With advice from Jonathan Seningen, executive chef at the Catering Company and Elizabeth’s Gone Raw in DC, I started again. I sauteed onions and toasted curry powder. I cut the carrots into a small, uniform dice; that is essential for the vegetables to cook evenly. Next, I cooked the carrots in a little oil in a big soup pot. The goal was to soften them but also to let some of the water cook out so their flavour became concentrated. If you cook the vegetables only in broth, as most recipes recom-mend, you are adding liquid to the pot.

While the carrots — and, subsequently, diced apple — were cooking, I put a cup of carrot juice on the stove to boil and reduced it much further than Fausett does for his soup. That would give me that carrot-y intensity but not too much sweetness. (Later, I tweaked the recipe to use the carrot juice reduction at the finish.) Once everything was ready, I pureed the lot with some salt to season.

The soup, which I immediately dubbed killer car-rot soup, was table-ready straight from the blender. But to add a little more restaurant finesse, I pushed the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. The texture was rich, the flavour was the essence of carrot. My husband said it easily merited $12 as an appetizer.

Fresh-pressed juice can be expensive, however. I wondered whether I could get that luscious consist-ency and flavour without forking over $7 for a quart of it. With Seningen again as my guide, I experi-mented with celery root (celeriac), a winter vegetable that I love but that frequently ends up mashed with potatoes.

The first step was to figure out how to draw out the vegetable’s subtle flavour. Seningen suggested adding

a sachet of sweet and savoury herbs and spices. We settled on bay leaf, thyme and cardamom pods.

Seningen also recommended that I cook every-thing separately, to ensure that nothing was over- or underdone. I listened, mostly. (Such advice makes sense for chefs, who have someone else washing their dishes.) I cooked onions over low heat, making sure they didn’t pick up any colour. Then, in a separate pot, I cooked the diced celery root with the spice sachet until it was almost tender before adding the pears. Once everything was soft, I added the broth and cream.

Cream is probably a chef ’s No. 1 go-to weapon. Seningen recommended using a quart — a quart! — for this recipe. I’m sure the result would taste delicious, if I didn’t know what was in there. But I wanted a soup I could feel guilt-free about eating, so I used mostly broth and one cup of cream. With diced apple as garnish, the soup was a brilliant balance of sweet, salt and creaminess.

Dad, let me know when you are free for dinner. My restaurant is open for business.

WP-Bloomberg

Soups: When finesse and technique hit the bowl

PLU

S |

MO

ND

AY

27

JA

NU

AR

Y 2

014

EN

TE

RTA

INM

EN

T8

9

By

Piy

a S

inh

a-R

oy

Musi

cal dra

ma W

hip

lash

and d

ocum

enta

ry R

ich

Hil

l, a

bout

inhabit

ants

of

a p

overty

-str

icken

rural

US

tow

n,

took

top h

on

ours at

the S

un

dan

ce F

ilm

F

est

ival aw

ards

yest

erday,

a k

ey a

cco-

lade f

or i

ndepen

den

t film

s t

o fi

nd a

w

ider a

udie

nce.

Wh

ipla

sh,

the open

ing n

igh

t fi

lm

starrin

g M

iles

Teller a

nd J

K S

imm

ons,

enti

ced a

udie

nces

wit

h its

heart-

racin

g

story o

f a j

azz

drum

mer i

n a

n o

bse

s-si

ve p

ursu

it o

f perfe

cti

on i

n h

is c

raft

. T

he fi

lm w

on

both

the a

udie

nce a

nd

gran

d j

ury a

wards

in t

he U

S d

ram

a

com

peti

tion.

Th

e aw

ards w

ere a big

w

in fo

r

28-y

ear-o

ld w

rit

er-d

irecto

r D

am

ien

Ch

azell

e,

wh

o w

on

th

e U

S fi

cti

on

short

film

gran

d j

ury p

riz

e l

ast

year

at

Sun

dan

ce w

ith a

short

versi

on

of

Wh

ipla

sh, w

hic

h h

e t

hen m

ade i

nto

a

featu

re fi

lm f

or t

his

year.

“I r

em

em

ber m

y fi

rst

tim

e h

ere w

as

wit

h a

short,

and t

he w

hole

reaso

n w

e

made a

short

was

because

of

my e

xpe-

rie

nces

as

a d

rum

mer,”

Chaze

lle s

aid

. “N

o o

ne w

an

ted t

o fi

nan

ce t

he fi

lm

because

no o

ne w

ants

to m

ake a

film

about

a jazz

drum

mer,

surpris

ing,” h

e

added w

ith a

laugh.

The fi

lm h

as b

een

sn

apped u

p b

y

Sony P

ictu

res

Cla

ssic

s fo

r $

3m

, an

d

could

follow

the p

ath

of

its

Sundance

predecess

ors

such a

s 2010

’s W

inte

r’s

Bon

e a

nd 2

012

’s B

ea

sts

of

the S

ou

thern

Wil

d,

whic

h b

oth

won t

he g

rand j

ury

dram

ati

c

priz

e

an

d

su

bsequ

en

tly

landed O

scar n

ods.

Th

e gran

d ju

ry U

S docum

en

tary

priz

e w

ent

to R

ich

Hil

l, w

hic

h e

xplo

red

the liv

es

of th

ree a

dole

scent

boys

livin

g

in t

he r

ural M

isso

uri to

wn o

f R

ich H

ill,

who t

ry t

o o

vercom

e t

he s

truggle

s of

poverty

.“T

his

is

a s

mall fi

lm b

ut

it’s

got

a b

ig

heart

and w

e d

edic

ate

it

to t

he fam

ilie

s of

Ric

h H

ill, M

isso

uri, a

nd t

he f

am

i-lies i

n t

his

film

; th

e t

hree b

oys a

nd

their

fam

ilie

s w

ho w

ere s

o b

rave a

nd

so l

ovely

to l

et

us

into

their

liv

es

and

to t

rust

us

and r

eveal

som

e s

tuff

that

was

so t

ough,” c

o-d

irecto

r T

racy D

roz

Tragos

said

.T

he

US

docum

en

tary

audie

nce

aw

ard w

ent

to A

live

In

sid

e:

A S

tory

of

Mu

sic

& M

em

ory

, w

hic

h e

xplo

res

the

eff

ect

of m

usi

c o

n e

lderly

pati

ents

suf-

ferin

g f

rom

Alz

heim

er’s

dis

ease

.

“Th

is h

as been

an

overw

helm

ing

experie

nce f

or m

e,”

dir

ecto

r M

ichael

Ross

ato

-Bennett

said

. “I

just

made t

his

film

because

it

moved m

e, I

did

n’t

real-

ize h

ow

big

a t

opic

it

was.

”T

he S

undance F

ilm

Fest

ival

hands

out

28 a

wards

at

a c

erem

ony b

roadcast

live o

nline, th

is y

ear h

ost

ed b

y c

om

e-

dia

n c

ouple

Nic

k O

fferm

an a

nd M

egan

Mullally.

The a

nnual S

undance F

ilm

Fest

ival,

backed by acto

r-fi

lmm

aker R

obert

Redfo

rd’s

Sun

dan

ce I

nst

itute

, is

the

top U

S independent

film

fest

ival. T

his

year’s

edit

ion b

egan o

n J

anuary 1

6 a

nd

wrapped u

p y

est

erday.

In t

he w

orld

film

com

peti

tion

cat-

egorie

s, C

hilean-F

rench e

ntr

y T

o K

ill A

Ma

n p

icked u

p t

he g

rand jury p

riz

e for

dram

a. S

yria

n-G

erm

an e

ntr

y R

etu

rn t

o

Hom

s, a

sto

ry o

f tw

o y

oung m

en w

hose

lives

are t

urn

ed u

psi

de d

ow

n b

y t

he

Syria

n c

ivil w

ar,

landed t

he g

rand jury

docum

enta

ry p

riz

e.

Spotl

ight

On

Short

Fil

mO

ther n

ota

ble

win

s at

the a

wards

inclu

ded D

ea

r W

hit

e P

eop

le fi

lmm

aker

Just

in S

imie

n landin

g t

he jury p

riz

e for

breakth

rough t

ale

nt.

The fi

lm, a c

on-

tender i

n t

he U

S d

ram

a c

om

peti

tion,

is a

sati

ric

al

narrati

ve b

ase

d o

n t

he

Tw

itte

r f

eed o

f th

e s

am

e n

am

e.

“I f

eel

so g

rate

ful

to b

e h

ere a

nd

have a

pla

tform

for t

his

film

, and t

hese

characte

rs

and t

hese

sto

rie

s th

at

have

been u

nder-s

erved for s

o long in fi

lm,”

Sim

ien, a f

orm

er fi

lm p

ublicis

t, s

aid

.F

ilm

maker C

utt

er H

odie

rn

e,

who

like C

haze

lle w

on a

specia

l ju

ry p

riz

e

for h

is s

hort

film

Fis

hin

g W

ith

ou

t N

ets

an

d t

hen

retu

rn

ed t

o S

un

dan

ce t

his

year w

ith a

featu

re-l

ength

vers

ion, w

on

the U

S d

ram

a d

irecti

ng a

ward.

Both

Hodie

rn

e a

nd C

haze

lle’s

suc-

cess sh

ow

grow

ing att

en

tion

bein

g

pla

ced

on

S

un

dan

ce’s

sh

ort

film

w

inn

ers.

Fil

mm

akers

can

use

the

Sun

dan

ce b

oost

to g

ain

fin

an

cin

g t

o

make f

eatu

re-l

ength

versi

ons

of

their

film

s.T

his

year’s

sh

ort

film

audie

nce

priz

e, sp

onso

red b

y v

ideo-h

ost

ing s

ite

YouT

ube a

nd b

ase

d o

n t

he n

um

ber o

f online v

iew

s th

e fi

lms

garnered, w

ent

to C

ha

pel P

eri

lou

s, d

esc

rib

ed a

s a “

met-

aphysi

cal

com

edy”

about

a m

an

who

is v

isit

ed b

y a

sale

sman w

ith n

oth

ing

to s

ell.

The U

S s

hort

dram

a jury p

riz

e w

as

aw

arded t

o G

regory

Go B

oom

.R

eute

rs

HO

LLY

WO

OD

NE

WS

BO

LLY

WO

OD

NE

WS

Whi

plas

hW

hipl

ash

and

and

Ric

h Hi

llRi

ch H

ill w

in to

p w

in to

p ho

nour

s at

Sun

danc

e Fi

lm F

estiv

alho

nour

s at

Sun

danc

e Fi

lm F

estiv

al

Salm

an u

nvei

ls O

Ter

i tra

iler

Hollyw

ood supersta

r S

alm

an

K

han

unveiled h

is b

roth

er-i

n-l

aw

and fi

lm-

maker A

tul

Agnih

otr

i’s

next

film

O T

eri

tr

ailer.

He s

aid

that

he w

ould

be s

een i

n

a s

ong in t

he fi

lm.

Produced b

y A

gn

ihotr

i an

d d

irecte

d

by U

mesh

Bis

ht,

O T

eri

featu

res

Pulk

it

Sam

rat

and S

arah-J

ane D

ias.

“Pulk

it c

am

e w

ith t

he s

crip

t and I

really

liked it.

The fi

lm t

urned o

ut

to b

e g

ood. I

am

als

o d

oin

g a

song i

n i

t,”

Salm

an t

old

reporte

rs

at

the launch.

Salm

an

, kn

ow

n f

or p

ortr

ayin

g l

arger

than lif

e r

ole

s on t

he b

ig s

creen, w

ants

to

stic

k t

o s

am

e k

inds

of

role

s.H

e said

: “I

would

li

ke to

do guest

appearan

ce i

n o

ther fi

lms,

but

would

n’t

w

ant

to d

o a

film

lik

e t

hat

because

acto

r

in m

e w

ill

get

kille

d.

I w

ant

to d

o l

arger

than lif

e r

ole

s sa

yin

g r

ight

thin

gs.

”

SRK

turn

s m

ento

r fo

r M

ohit

Rain

aB

ollyw

ood’s

‘K

ing o

f R

om

ance’ S

hah R

ukh K

han r

ecentl

y s

hared s

om

e

tips

wit

h s

mall s

creen a

cto

r M

ohit

Rain

a w

ho is

seen in a

serio

us

role

in

the T

V s

how

Devo

n K

e D

ev

Ma

ha

dev.

Shah R

ukh w

as

host

ing t

he 2

0th

Annual L

ife O

K S

creen A

wards

when h

e

called M

ohit

on s

tage a

nd t

he latt

er a

sked h

im t

o t

each h

im a

few

nuances

of

att

racti

ng a

varie

ty o

f role

s. T

hat’s

when S

RK

made h

im l

earn h

ow

to

spread o

ut

his

arm

s fo

r a

lady a

nd h

ow

to d

ance a

bit

. B

ut

all in v

ain

!A

source s

ays

that

the s

uperst

ar a

lso t

ook s

om

e t

ime o

ut

durin

g t

he

event’s

rehearsa

ls t

o g

uid

e M

ohit

who h

as

won p

rais

e g

alo

re f

or h

is a

ct

as

Mahadev. “S

hah R

ukh w

as

extr

em

ely

help

ful and c

o-o

perati

ve a

nd w

as

lendin

g a

help

ing h

and t

o M

ohit

durin

g r

ehearsa

ls.

He g

ot

dow

n t

o t

he

min

ute

st d

eta

ils

like t

he s

tance o

n s

tage, dia

logue d

elivery a

nd p

ati

entl

y

help

ed o

ut

Mohit

. “M

ohit

, w

ho i

s a h

uge S

RK

fan, w

as

more t

han h

appy t

o g

et

som

e t

ips

from

his

favourit

e a

cto

r,”

said

the s

ource.

Big

B am

azed

by

The

Wol

f of W

all S

tree

t

Megasta

r A

mit

abh

B

ach

ch

an

is

bow

led over by h

is T

he G

rea

t

Ga

tsb

y c

o-s

tar L

eon

ardo D

iCaprio

’s

perfo

rm

ance in T

he W

olf

of

Wa

ll S

treet.

He is

h

appy th

at

he to

ok

R

an

bir

K

apoor’s

recom

mendati

on s

erio

usl

y.

The 7

1-year-o

ld,

who i

s curren

tly

sh

ooti

ng fo

r

Bh

ootn

ath

R

etu

rn

s, is

“a

maze

d”

by t

he p

erfo

rm

ances

in t

he

Osc

ar n

om

inate

d m

ovie

.“T

he W

olf

of

Wa

ll S

treet

keeps

me

aw

ake t

ill now

, and t

he a

maze

ment

of

the fi

lm a

nd i

ts p

erfo

rm

ances,

natu

-ral

to t

he e

xte

nt

of

an

un

believable

fa

ct,

true t

o i

ts t

ext

an

d c

on

struct,”

Am

itabh p

ost

ed o

n h

is b

log in t

he w

ee

hours

of

Thursd

ay.

“Good I

took in t

he r

ecom

mendati

on

of

Ranbir

Kapoor,

who w

as

on t

he s

et

wit

h u

s,”

he w

rote

. R

anbir

will

be

seen in a

cam

eo in “

Bh

ootn

ath

Retu

rns”

.

Hugh

Jac

kman

set

to

play

pir

ate

in P

an

Acto

r H

ugh J

ackm

an h

as

been r

oped

in to

pla

y pir

ate

B

lack

beard fo

r

Warn

er B

ros’

upcom

ing p

roje

ct,

ten

-ta

tively

tit

led P

an.

The p

roducers

are

con

fiden

t he w

ill

deliver an

in

delible

perfo

rm

ance.

“H

ugh

Jack

man

alw

ays

deli

vers

indelible

perfo

rm

an

ces th

at

reson

ate

w

ith a

udie

nces.

We k

now

he w

ill

cre-

ate

a B

lackbeard w

ho w

ill

be a

pow

er-

ful

prese

nce i

n t

his

orig

inal

Pete

r P

an

adventu

re,” G

reg S

ilverm

an,

presi

dent

of

creati

ve d

evelo

pm

ent

and w

orld

wid

e

producti

on

at

Warn

er B

ros,

said

in

a

state

ment,

reports

acesh

ow

biz

.com

Dir

ecto

r J

oe W

rig

ht

will helm

the p

roje

ct,

whic

h is

yet

to h

ave a

n o

fficia

l ti

tle. It

will hit

theatr

es

in t

he U

S o

n J

uly

17,

next

year.

Hill

did

Osca

r no

min

ated

rol

e fo

r $6

0,00

0

Acto

r J

onah H

ill, w

ho p

layed t

he O

scar-

nom

inate

d r

ole

of st

ockbroker D

onnie

A

zoff

in

Th

e W

olf

of

Wa

ll S

treet, e

arn

ed

$60,0

00 f

or it.

In a

n inte

rvie

w w

ith r

adio

host

How

ard

Ste

rn,

the 3

0-y

ear-o

ld a

cto

r s

ays

he w

as

willin

g to

w

ork fo

r th

e S

AG

m

inim

um

(s

creen

acto

rs

guild m

inim

um

wage)

to

collaborate

wit

h d

irecto

r M

arti

n S

corse

se,

reports

eonline.c

om

.T

he

program

me’s

offi

cia

l T

wit

ter

accoun

t poste

d th

e fo

llow

ing:

“Now

on

H10

0 J

onah H

ill

tells

How

ard S

tern t

hat

he d

id t

he s

even-m

onth

Th

e W

olf

of

Wa

ll

Str

eet sh

oot

for $

60,0

00 b

ecause

he w

ante

d

the r

ole

so b

ad.”

The r

ole

has

fetc

hed a

n O

scar n

om

ina-

tion f

or H

ill

in t

he b

est

supporti

ng a

cto

r

cate

gory t

his

year.

Riha

nna

com

mis

sion

s se

lf po

rtra

itP

op s

tar R

ihanna w

ants

to g

ive a

ctr

ess

-m

odel C

ara D

ele

vin

gne a

self

-portr

ait

as

a s

ign o

f th

eir

frie

ndsh

ip. T

he 2

5-y

ear-

old

has

com

mis

sioned s

treet

arti

st B

am

bi

to c

reate

a g

iant

pain

ting o

f her b

est

frie

nd

as

a p

rese

nt

for t

he s

uperm

odel

and h

er

fam

ily,

reports

conta

ctm

usi

c.c

om

.“R

ihan

na w

an

ted to

sh

ow

C

ara h

ow

im

porta

nt

their

fr

ien

dship

is

to

her.

It

w

ill

be a

gif

t fo

r b

oth

her a

nd h

er f

am

ily.

Bam

bi cam

e u

p w

ith t

he c

oncept,

whic

h is

insp

ired b

y A

ndy W

arhol’s

fam

ous

image

of

Debbie

Harry,

an

d R

ihan

na l

oves

it,”

sa

id a

source.

“She e

ven a

sked B

am

bi to

do t

he p

ain

t-in

g o

n a

n o

ld p

iece o

f m

eta

l, s

o it

looks

com

ple

tely

uniq

ue a

nd q

uir

ky.

The

artw

ork

is

yet

to b

e d

elivered b

ut

will go s

traig

ht

to C

ara’s

fam

ily h

om

e

where it

will probably

sta

y,”

the s

ource a

dded.

PLU

S |

MO

ND

AY

27

JA

NU

AR

Y 2

014

ECONOMYPLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 201410

© GRAPHIC NEWSSource: Oxfam: “Working for the Few” report

The top 85 richest people in the world are wealthier than the bottom half��

S��!�N�"#�$�%�I$&�'�G�#$(�"��RICHEST �NE PERCENT

T�)�'��(#$�%�TAX RATES (selected countries, 1975-2008)

C�$&�$"��"#�$�!�G%�*�%�W��%"�

0% 10 20

U.S.

Singapore

Ireland

Japan

Italy

Australia

Spain

France

Norway

New Zealand

Mauritius

Sweden

Denmark

> $1 million0.7%

41.0%

,-..�...�,-��7.7%

42.3%

/�,-.�...68.7%

3.0%

,-.�...�,-..�...22.9%

13.7%

France (raised top rate of taxto 75% in 2013)

UK

U.S.Mexico Sweden

Germany

2008-2012

1980

% of wealth% of population

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2008

%Davos-Klosters

Switzerland0��22�23

HEALTH / FITNESS 11

Hearing loss may lead to brain tissues loss

If you are slowly finding it hard to hear at occasions, seek medical attention as soon as

possible because the hearing loss may mean faster brain degeneration, warns a study.

The brain shrinks with age, but the shrink-age may be faster in older adults with hearing loss, according to a study by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Aging in the US.

Those with impaired hearing were found to lose more than an additional cubic centimetre of brain tissue each year compared with those with normal hearing.

“Our results suggest that hearing loss could be another ‘hit’ on the brain in many ways,” says Frank Lin, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s school of medicine.

For the study, Lin and his colleagues com-pared brain changes over time between adults with normal hearing and adults with impaired hearing.

Lin and his colleagues said those partici-pants whose hearing was already impaired at the start of the study had accelerated rates of brain atrophy compared to those with normal hearing.

The study also gives some urgency to treat-ing hearing loss rather than ignoring it. “If you want to address hearing loss, well, you want to do it sooner rather than later,” added Lin.

The findings add to a growing list of health consequences associated with hearing loss, including increased risk of dementia, falls, hospitalisations, and diminished physical and mental health overall.

Soon, contact lensto treat glaucomaHere comes a glaucoma medicine sand-

wiched inside a specially-designed con-tact lens.

The lens, which can also correct vision, releases the eyesight-saving medication at a steady rate for up to a month.

The unique lens offers numerous potential clinical advantages over the standard glaucoma treatment and may have additional applica-tions, such as delivering anti-inflammatory drugs or antibiotics to the eye, says a path-breaking research.

“People using traditional eye drops for glau-coma are not getting any symptomatic relief and they’re not seeing better,” said Joseph Ciolino, an ophthalmologist who, along with his mentor Daniel Kohane, developed the new contact lens at Harvard Medical School.

What makes the new lens different from other prototypes is the many-layered construc-tion that places a ring of drug-releasing film in standard, FDA-approved contact lens materi-als, said a report by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The team showed in an animal model that their lens delivered the glaucoma medication - latanoprost - safely and consistently for four weeks at concentrations comparable to those achieved with daily eye drops.

The researchers hope a Phase I clinical trial to test the safety and ability of the lens to reduce pressure in the human eye could begin in about a year.

Agencies


By Shereen Jegtvig

Older women with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood had

slightly less brain shrinkage than women with low fatty acid levels in a new study.

The results may suggest that omega-3s protect the brain from the loss of volume that happens with normal aging and is seen more severely in people with dementia, the researchers say.

“The brain gets smaller dur-ing the normal aging process — about 0.5 percent per year after age 70, but dementia is associated with an accelerated and localised process of brain shrinkage,” said James Pottala, who led the study.

Pottala is an assistant pro-fessor at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine in Sioux Falls and chief statistician for the Health Diagnostic Laboratory in Richmond, Virginia.

He and his colleagues analysed data from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study to see whether omega-3s were asso-ciated with brain shrinkage in general, and in specific brain regions involved in memory and other cognitive processes.

The data covered 1,111 women who were, on average, 70 years old and had no signs of demen-tia at the beginning of the study. At that time, the amounts of the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapen-taenoic acid (EPA) and docosa-hexaenoic acid (DHA) in their red blood cells were measured.

DHA accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of the fatty acids

found in brain cell membranes, and it’s especially concentrated near the synapses where the cells communicate with one another, Pottala and his colleagues note in their report, published in the journal Neurology.

Red blood cell levels of the omega-3s are good indicators of how much a person has con-sumed, the researchers add.

The researchers used an omega-3 index to describe the fatty acid levels seen among women in the study and to divide them into four groups: women with the highest levels had an average index reading of around 7.5 percent, while women with the lowest levels had an average of 3.4 percent.

Eight years after the women’s blood was tested, they under-went MRIs to measure the vol-ume of gray matter and white matter in their brains.

The researchers found that women with the highest EPA and DHA blood levels at the study’s outset had brains that were about two cubic centime-ters larger overall than women with the lowest levels.

In addition, the hippocampus, a brain region critical to form-ing and storing memories, was 2.7 percent larger in women who had fatty acid levels twice as high as the average.

Of 13 specific brain regions the researchers looked at, the hippocampus was the only one where they saw a significant difference.

The analysis adjusted for other factors that could influence the women’s brain size, including education, age, other health

conditions, smoking and exercise.The researchers didn’t meas-

ure cognitive function, only brain volume, so they cannot say whether the size differences they saw had any link with dif-ferences in memory or dementia risk.

The authors acknowledged other limitations in their report, including that they did not look at whether the women’s omega-3 consumption had changed over time.

It’s possible that some of the participants had changed their diets or started taking fish oil or other forms of omega-3 fatty acids, Pottala told Reuters Health in an email.

But in previous study, he and his colleagues showed red blood cell EPA and DHA levels and peoples’ dietary fish intakes gen-erally don’t change over time.

“If some subjects in our MRI study began taking fish oil sup-plements, then the reported ben-efits would be underestimated,” Pottala said.

Pottala says higher blood lev-els of omega-3 fatty acids can be achieved by dietary changes, such as eating oily fish twice a week or taking fish oil supplements.

Since the study does not prove that blood levels of omega-3s are the cause of the brain-size dif-ferences observed, or that those differences have any effect on cognitive function, the research-ers caution that more research is needed to know whether raising omega-3 levels would make any difference to brain health.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1f4kQ99

Neurology, online January 22, 2014.

Reuters

Omega-3 intake Omega-3 intake inversely linked to inversely linked to signs of brain ageingsigns of brain ageing

TECHNOLOGYPLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 201412

By Will Oremus

Making the rounds in the tech world this week is a scientific paper pub-lished online by a pair of

Princeton researchers. Using a model adapted from epidemiology, the paper predicts that Facebook is about to go the way of Myspace. Specifically, the authors conclude, “Facebook will undergo a rapid decline in the coming years, losing 80 percent of its peak user base between 2015 and 2017.”

Eighty percent! The paper rocketed to the top of Reddit’s technology sec-tion. For bloggers around the Internet, the headlines practically wrote them-selves. An uncritical three-paragraph write-up in Time has pulled in 21,000 Facebook likes and counting. Nothing sells on Facebook like another story about how Facebook is evil, uncool or — best of all — doomed.

I hate to be the Grinch who actually read the paper, but its conclusions are less bankable than Dogecoin. Which is to say, about as solid as one might cyni-cally expect from a paper on epidemi-ology and social networking published online without peer review by a pair of graduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

But it’s not the authors’ credentials that are the problem. They’re certainly no less qualified to write such a paper than I am to criticise it. The problem lies in the assumptions they make in order to reach their headline-grabbing conclusions. Let me summarize the paper’s underlying logic:

A) Social networks’ growth can be likened to the spread of an infectious disease.

B) In the case of Myspace, the net-work’s decline can also be likened to the spread of an infectious disease.

C) Like Myspace, Facebook has begun to show signs of decline after a period of rapid growth.

D) Ergo, Facebook will be dead within three years.

Let’s go through these one by one.Point A is fairly well documented

by this point. That’s why we call it “going viral.”

Point B is interesting, and less obvious than it might seem. As the authors acknowledge, social networks aren’t like the flu in that there’s no inherently predictable recovery rate. That is, you don’t necessarily join a social network with the expectation that you’ll be over it in a week. So instead of comparing the decline of social networks to recovery from an illness, the authors make an inter-esting leap. They hypothesise instead that the decline of a social network is like the spread of an illness — that

leaving is as contagious as joining.The way they wrote the paper, the

authors made it seem as though they arrived at this model a priori, then decided to try it out on Myspace, and voila — it worked! In their words, they “validated” the model by testing it on Myspace and finding that it was a good fit.

But wait: What reason do they have to believe that it works on any social network other than Myspace? The authors’ attempt to justify applying an epidemiological model to the decline of social networks in general — as opposed to just Myspace in particular — is contorted, bordering on comical. In the absence of concrete examples or literature, they draw yet another analogy, this time to “ideas”:

Ideas, like diseases, have been shown to spread infectiously between people before eventually dying out, and have been successfully described with epide-miological models. Again, this follows intuitively, as ideas are spread through communicative contact between differ-ent people who share ideas with each other. Idea manifesters ultimately lose interest with the idea and no longer manifest the idea, which can be thought of as the gain of “immunity” to the idea.

“Follows intuitively?” “Idea mani-festers?” Come on, now you’re just making stuff up. Sure, some ideas spread infectiously and then die out. Others, like democracy, gravity, and evolution, have shown impressive stay-ing power.

Anyway, where were we? Oh right, we’re still on Point (b). In short, if the paper had confined itself to the obser-vation that the decline of Myspace could be modelled using insights from

epidemiology, then we’d have no prob-lem. But we also wouldn’t be seeing the piece go nuts on Reddit.

Moving on to Point C, things get dicier still. The authors’ conclusion relies on the premise that Facebook is already showing signs of decline. At first glance, a chart highlighted in several media reports seems pretty convincing.

But that’s very odd, given that the social network has consistently reported massive, ongoing growth in both its active user base and rev-enue. These widely accepted metrics, it seems, are of no interest to the paper’s authors. Instead, they pull their data exclusively from Google Trends, which measures the number of Google searches for a given keyword over time. In other words, the researchers’ claim that Facebook is faltering is based entirely on an apparent dip in the number of people typing “Facebook” into Google in 2013.

They justify this bizarre choice of proxy data by arguing that it’s “advan-tageous compared to using registra-tion or membership data,” which can include inactive members. OK, then why not use daily or monthly active users, as industry analysts do? Seemingly unaware that Facebook

is a public company, the researchers claim that user activity data on social networks is “typically proprietary and difficult to obtain.” They back up this assertion with a rather amusing cita-tion: a study published in 2009 about — you guessed it — Myspace.

The Google Trends data on searches for Facebook, unfortunately, do not appear particularly reliable: There’s a huge spike in October 2012 that the researchers can’t really explain and end up simply throwing out. Yet they have no such qualms about an appar-ent dip in 2013. In fact, that dip is the key to their paper. If Facebook isn’t actually declining in popularity, then the Myspace model doesn’t fit.

The authors never entertain the pos-sibility of an alternative explanation for a dip in the Google Trends data. Facebook’s numbers show that its users migrated en masse from using the site on a desktop computer to accessing it via their phones and tablets in 2013, often via the mobile app. The paper makes no mention of this trend — nor the even simpler possibility that peo-ple aren’t searching for “Facebook” as much on Google because they already know what it is and where to find it. By the authors’ logic, I guess a Google Trends search for “broadband” would suggest that high-speed Internet began to wane in popularity sometime around 2005.

Which brings us to Point D, in which the authors finally “prove” the very thing that they assumed from the outset: that all social networks can be expected to follow the same trajectory as Myspace. They even admit in the section describing their model that it doesn’t work unless you assume that all social networks eventually decline.

It’s an old journalistic trick: Just add the words “research” or “study” to a sensational claim for instant credibil-ity. Best of all, you’re absolved of any responsibility for verifying its truth, since everyone knows journalists aren’t qualified to dispute scientific findings. Funny thing, though: If it hasn’t been peer-reviewed, and journalists aren’t qualified to dispute it, then what’s to stop it from simply becoming accepted as truth?

WP-Bloomberg

Apple plans move into mobile payments: Report

Apple is considering launching a mobile-payments service for its iPhone and iPad, which would compete with major players such as PayPal, The

Wall Street Journal reported.The newspaper, citing sources familiar with the matter, said Eddy Cue,

Apple’s iTunes and App Store chief, “has met with industry executives to discuss Apple’s interest in handling payments for physical goods and services on its devices.”

Apple manages purchases of digital content in its online store iTunes. Consumers can also buy mobile applications using their iTunes account, meaning the company already has hundreds of millions of credit cards on file.

“In another sign of the company’s interest, Apple moved Jennifer Bailey, a longtime executive who was running its online stores, into a new role to build a payment business within the technology giant,” the newspaper said, citing “three people with knowledge of the move.”

Apple could use the fingerprint reader on its latest model, the iPhone 5S, to limit fraud.

The company last year said it had 575 million registered users with its iTunes store and has sold 375 million iPhones over the last five years and 155 million iPads since its launch in 2010.

AFP

No, Facebook is not Myspace

COMICS & MORE 13

Hoy en la HistoriaJanuary 27, 1993

1994: The Mexican government called for electoral change to end an uprising in the southern state of Chiapas1997: U.S. scientists created the first atom laser, beaming atoms rather than light2011: Mass protests calling for an end to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh took place in Yemen2013: A fire at a nightclub in Santa Maria in southern Brazil killed over 230 people, most of them students

The UAE officially banned the use of children aged under 15 or weighing less than 45kg as jockeys in camel races, a popular sport in the Middle East

Picture: Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS

ALL IN THE MIND Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal,vertical, diagonal, forwards or backwards.

ACCESSORY, APPEARANCE, ARTISTIC, ATTIRE, ATTITUDE,CATWALK, CLOTHES, COSTUME, COUTURE, EMONSTRATION, DESIGN, DISPLAY, ELAN, ELEGANCE, EXHIBITION, EXPRESSION, FASHION, FINERY, FLAIR, FORM, GARB, LOOK, MANNEQUIN, MANNER, MILLINER, MODE, MODEL, OUTFIT, PANACHE, PARADE, PATTERN, POSE, RAIMENT, SHOW, STATEMENT, STYLE, SUPERMODEL, TREND, VOGUE, WALK.

LEARN ARABIC

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

Zits by Dennis Young and Denis Lebrun

Hagar The Horrible by Chris Browne

Kitchen Ware

Tea-cup Finjan �ay

Frying pan Miqlat

Knife Sikkeen

Oven Fourn

Pot Qidr

Kitchen Ma�ba�

Glass Coop

Can opener Fati�at çilab

Tea kettle Ebreeq �ayç = ‘a’ in ‘agh’ when surprised


HYPER SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

CROSSWORDS

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

How to play Hyper Sudoku:A Hyper Sudoku

Puzzle is solved

by filling the

numbers from 1

to 9 into the blank

cells. A Hyper

Sudoku has

unlike Sudoku

13 regions

(four regions

overlap with the

nine standard

regions). In all

regions the numbers from 1 to 9 can appear

only once. Otherwise, a Hyper Sudoku is

solved like a normal Sudoku.

ACROSS 1 What many checks are

for

12 Eyebrow-raising

15 One holding the line

16 Man, to Marcus

17 Alternative to lemon chiffon

18 1960s Greystoke portrayer

19 Chelsea-to-Chinatown dir.

20 Like some evidence in arson cases

21 More likely to encounter

23 Label for the

Bee Gees

24 Handles

25 Rajiv’s mother

28 Victor Herbert’s “naughty” girl

29 Thomas called the Queen of Memphis Soul

30 Long meals?

31 Hall monitors, briefly

32 Like Bush Sr., religiously

33 Pod : whales :: knot : ___

34 Land animals?

35 Quick “ha ha”

36 Apt to strike out

37 Sidewalk scam

38 A wide variety

40 Went back and forth

41 Notably high populace

42 Joins

43 He signed 5-Down in 1940

44 Bark part

45 Bitter, e.g.

48 Chemical ending

49 London tabloid

52 Laugh, in Lille

53 1994 Olympic skating champion

54 One of a pair of fraternal twins, maybe

55 Neighbor of the Gem of the Mountains

DOWN 1 Nicknames

2 Terminal projections, briefly

3 Cabinetry option

4 Motor additive?

5 “Witchcraft” singer

6 Minnesota county west of St. Louis

7 Large lunar crater

8 “Live at the ___” (Patsy Cline album)

9 Biblical boater, in Brest

10 Colombian cowboys

11 Mocha residents

12 Very tense

13 Dabbler

14 Like some nuts

22 Punch choice

23 Has something

24 Having missed the bell, say

25 Their anthem is “Lofsöngur”

26 Son of Marie Louise of Austria

27 Its boring bits can be quite long

28 Liver and kidney

30 Has over

33 Japanese glaze

34 Bikers’ mounts

36 Finely tempered swords

37 Game requiring many plug-ins?

39 Nordic flier

40 Home to Liszt and Goethe

42 American Revolution’s “Mad Anthony”

44 Pomeranian, e.g.

45 Cantatrice’s delivery

46 Yahoo

47 First name in mystery

50 25-Down occupy one: Abbr.

51 Landfill visitor

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16

17 18

19 20 21 22

23 24

25 26 27 28

29 30 31

32 33 34

35 36 37

38 39 40

41 42

43 44 45 46 47

48 49 50 51

52 53

54 55

K I C K S O F F A S P E N SA T O N E F O R R I B L E TP A K E T T L E E X A C T AO K I E S D E I S T A W NW E E L A D T O Y P O L

G A I T S D I R EG O O D C H A R L O T T E

Z I P A D E E D O O D A HF A M I L Y R E U N I O NA C M E A U D I TT E E S C I N E W C A RB F F N O N E S R H O D EA R I S E S V W B E E T L EC O V E R T A A A R A T E DK N E A D S N B A S T A R S

How to play Kakuro:The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some cells will contain two numbers.However, in a crossword the numbers reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get! They denote the total of the digits in the row or column referenced by the number.Within each collection of cells - called a run

- any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

14

EASY SUDOKUCartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

Easy Sudoku PuzzlesPlace a digit from 1 to 9 in each empty cell so everyrow, every column and every 3x3 box contains allthe digits 1 to 9.


CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

09:00 World Of Athletics

10:00 Dutch League,

Psv V Az

11:45 Italian League,

Verona V Roma

13:30 Nba Basketball

Magazine

14:00 Omni Sport

14:30 Nba Basketball,

San Antonio @

Miami

16:30 Nba Basketball,

La Lakers @

New York

18:30 Ski Magazine

19:00 Dutch League,

Ga Eagles V

Ajax

21:00 Transworld

Sport

22:00 Football Asia

22:45 Scottish League,

Dundee United

V St Johnstone

08:00 News

09:00 Meltdown

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 Africa on the

Move

12:30 Witness

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Empire

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:30 Talk To Al

Jazeera

18:00 NEWSHOUR

19:00 News

19:30 Counting the

Cost

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Orphans of the

Sahara

15:00 Fa Cup, Steve-

nage V Everton

17:00 English Premier

League Playlist

18:00 Sports News


League Profile,

Cardiff


League Football


League Goals

Of The Season

21:30 The Football

League Show

22:00 Fa Cup

Highlights

10:00 North By

Northwest

12:15 Hearts Of The

West

14:10 The Four

Horsemen Of...

17:00 High Society

18:50 The Left-

Handed Gun

20:40 4 For Texas

23:00 Point Blank

13:20 Thrashin'

14:55 Full Moon High

16:30 Return Of A Man

Called Horse

18:35 Night They

Raided

Minsky's

20:15 Company

Business

22:00 Alphabet City

23:45 Blame It On Rio

14:00 A Christmas

Story 2

16:00 Ski Patrol

18:00 A Kiss For Jed

Wood

20:00 Deuce Bigalow:

European

Gigolo

22:00 Goon

13:15 How It's Made:

Dream Cars

14:30 Auction Kings

15:20 Flying Wild

Alaska

16:10 Fast N' Loud

17:50 Dirty Jobs

18:40 Man, Cheetah,

Wild

19:30 Sons Of Guns

20:45 How It's Made

21:10 Auction Kings

21:35 Baggage

Battles

22:50 Gold Fever

23:40 Ice Cold Gold

13:00 Prehistoric

Predators

14:00 Salvage Code

Red

15:00 Megacities

17:00 Breakout

18:00 Mystery Files

19:00 Inside

22:00 Somewhere In

China

23:00 World's

Toughest Fixes

13:20 Swamp

Brothers

15:40 Wildest Africa

16:30 My Cat From Hell

17:30 Wildest Islands

18:50 Really Wild Show

19:20 Journey Of Life

20:15 Shark Family

21:35 Swamp Brothers

22:05 Wildest Africa

23:00 Nature's

Newborns

13:00 Twigson

16:00 Gaturro

18:00 Big Top

Scooby-Doo!

20:00 Eleanor's

Secret

22:00 Scooby-Doo!

Music Of The

Vampire

MALL

1

Ezhu Sundara Rathikal (2D/Malayalam) – 2.15 & 10.30pm

Jai – Ho (2D/Hindi) – 5.00 & 7.45pm

2

The Nut Job (3D/Animation) – 2.30 & 6.15pm

Frozen (3D/Animation) – 4.15pm

The Numbers Station (2D/Action) – 8.00 & 9.45pm

Devil’s Due (2D/Horror) – 11.30pm

3


How I Live Now (2D/Drama) – 5.00pm

Ride Along (2D/Comedy) – 7.00pm

The Legend Of Hercules (2D/Action) – 9.00 & 11.15pm

LANDMARK

1

Jai – Ho (2D/Hindi) – 2.30, 5.15 & 11.00pm

Ezhu Sundara Rathikal (2D/Malayalam) – 8.00pm

2

Justin & The Knights Valour (3D/Animation)– 2.30pm

The Nut Job (3D/Animation) – 4.15pm



The Numbers Station (2D/Action) – 9.45 & 11.30pm

3



Ride Along (2D/Comedy) – 7.00pm


ROYAL

PLAZA

1

Ezhu Sundara Rathikal (2D/Malayalam) – 2.30 & 8.00pm

Jai – Ho (2D/Hindi) – 5.30 & 11.00pm

2

The Nut Job (3D/Animation) – 2.30 & 6.15pm


The Numbers Station (2D/Action) – 8.00pm

Devil’s Due (2D/Horror) – 9.45 & 11.30pm

3

Ride Along (2D/Comedy) – 3.00 & 11.15pm



13:00 Do Dil Bandhe Ek

Dori Se

14:00 Doli Armaano Ki

14:30 Jodha Akbar

15:00 Snack Attack

16:00 Aur Pyaar Hogaya

16:30 Qubool Hai


17:30 Pavitra Rishta

18:00 Bollywood

Business

18:30 Ek Mutthi

Aasmaan


Dori Se

19:30 Jodha Akbar

20:00 Pavitra Rishta

20:30 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

21:00 Qubool Hai

21:30 Aur Pyaar Hogaya



Dori Se

13:00 Wizards Of

Waverly Place

The Movie

14:35 Dog With A Blog

15:00 Wolfblood

15:25 Gravity Falls

15:50 Jessie

16:10 Violetta

17:00 A.N.T. Farm

17:20 Austin And Ally

17:45 Gravity Falls

18:30 Good Luck Charlie

18:55 Dog With A Blog

19:20 Violetta

20:05 Jessie

20:30 My Babysitter's A

Vampire

20:50 Wolfblood

21:15 Gravity Falls

21:40 Shake It Up

22:00 Austin And Ally

22:25 A.N.T. Farm

23:10 Wizards Of

Waverly Place

13:30 Friends

15:00 Two And A Half

Men

15:30 The Daily Show

With Jon Stewart

16:30 Two And A Half

Men

17:00 Late Night With

Jimmy Fallon

18:00 Arrested

Development

18:30 The Simpsons

19:00 2 Broke Girls

19:30 Trophy Wife

20:30 Web Therapy

21:00 The Daily Show

Global Edition

21:30 The Colbert

Report Global

Edition

22:00 Hello Ladies

22:30 Eastbound &

Down

23:00 Weeds


PLUS | MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2014 POTPOURRI16

Editor-In-Chief Khalid Al Sayed Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

MEDIA SCAN A summary ofissues of the daydiscussed by the Qatari communityin the media.

• Some people are surprised that insurance companies are forcing car owners to pay half the cost of original spare parts. They say the companies are obliged to cover the entire cost, especially if the owner has taken a full insurance cover, and the authorities should intervene to stop this malpractice by insurance firms.

• Some people have urged the authorities to repair taps and pipes leaking water in public parks and other places, as the volume of water going waste is not small.

• People are surprised at receiving international calls at odd hours from strangers, from countries where they do not know anyone. The telecoms authority and telecoms companies should stop such calls.

• Some Qatari veterinarians have urged the government to establish a veterinary college to train qualified veterinary doctors, who would provide professional medical care to the country’s livestock.

• Some people have complained about direct marketing at homes, wherein salesmen knock at people’s doors to sell various goods, disregarding families’ privacy and security concerns, as many of them come at night.

• Many users of Al Zubara road have demanded that the authorities develop the road, on which an increasing number of accidents are occurring due to lack of streetlights, narrow lanes and erosion of the asphalt layer.

IN FOCUS

A cat spotted in Wakra port.

by Rajkamal Easanan

Send your photos to [email protected]. Mention where the photo was taken.

Sheikh Falah bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, Chairman, Doha Group

Sheikh Falah served as the Minister of Labour, Housing, and Social Affairs from 1996 to

2006. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Doha Group. Sheikh Falah is also a key shareholder of Qatar Airways, Grand Hyatt Hotel Doha, Doha Bank, Al Ahli Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, and Al Ijarah. He is the Chairman of boards of directors of Al Ijarah and also serves as board member of the Doha bank Board of Directors and as Board Seat Holder of the Al Ahli Bank. Sheikh Falah graduated in finance from the United States of America.

Who’s who

If you want your events featured here, mail details to [email protected]

Willaim Close When: Jan 30-Feb 2, 8pm -10pm Where: Drama Theater, building 16 Katara.What: World renowned installation artist and musician and his unique, one of a kind and entirely original musical instruments. Willaim has created 100 types of instruments. His work explores connection between architecture and music. Entry: QR75-QR100-QR200

Sarah Brightman In Concert When: Feb 9, 7pm-11pmWhere: Qatar National Conventional Center

What: International superstar SarahBrightman is the worlds biggest sellingSoprano. She pioneered the classical crossover music movement and is famed for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves. Sarah has been the first to be invited to perform at the Olympic Games on two occasions.Entry: QR290 to QR1200

Cinderella BalletWhen: Feb 5-Feb 8; two shows will be held per day: From 4 pm till 5 pm and 7pm till 8pm Where: Katara Drama Theatre What: Moscow State Academic Dance Theatre “Gzhel’s” Cinderella is performed to the choreography of Konstantin Sergeyev, under the revision of Natalia Permyakova.Tickets: QR50-QR75 (available at Virgin)

Souq Waqif Spring FestivalWhen: Jan 24-Feb 6Where: Souq Waqif What: The entire Souq is sprawling with shows for everyone, some of which are Winter Wonderland birds, LED sparklers, Comedy Waiters, Men in Coats etc. The venues for these activities are The SouqAlley, Art Gallery, Main Parking and Outdoor Theater.

Free Entry

Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim: A Leader’s Legacy When: Until Jan 30Where: QMA Gallery, Katara What: This exhibition presents new insights into Sheikh Abdullah’s life and legacy to Qatar’s people through exceptional artifacts, historic photographs, oral history interviews and original films. Free Entry

Second World Trade Festival When: Until Feb 5 Where: Al W’aab area What: A big tent has been built in Al W’aab area for families to enjoy the world trade festival that has various items such as clothing to accessories and food as well. The tent also has a fun area for kids.Free Entry

Events in Qatar

europe’s greenest city • learn commonly2 plus | monday 27 january 2014 cover story by tom...

Documents