SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013 • plus@pen.com.qa • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741

MARKETPLACE

LIFESTYLE

HEALTH

WHEELS

TECHNOLOGY

LEARN ARABIC

P | 4

P | 6

P | 7

P | 11

P | 12

P | 13

• Salam Stores offersshoppers chanceto save 25 percent

• My hats offera cautionarytale for summer

• Many paediatricians still not using professionalinterpreters

• The new Mercedes-BenzS-Class hitsDoha roads

• Leap Motioncontrols PCswith wave of a hand

• Learn commonlyused Arabic wordsand their meanings

inside

The Wolverine: Logan’s curse is our blessing

P | 8-9

A lurkingA lurking problemproblem

Today’s children spend a Today’s children spend a fraction of their free time fraction of their free time outdoors – what a pity.outdoors – what a pity.

2 COVER STORYPLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

No freedom to play or explore outside for kidsBY PATRICK BARKHAM

Ivy and Albie arrive home from school and nursery, and slip through David and Katie Bond’s kitchen straight out of the back

door. After about 15 minutes, Albie, who is four, reappears, fist clenched. “Guess what I’ve got in my hands?” he asks. “Is it a worm?” guesses Helen, his grandmother. “Do you want to hold it?” offers Albie, opening his hand to reveal a tiny, sand-covered worm. “We’ve made a horrible mess out there.”

This hardly seems an exceptional scene, but it may be increasingly rare, and radical, for families today. Playing in the garden as a natural, daily event has only come about because Bond, who is a film-maker, has spent two years studying the declining role of nature in children’s lives for a new documentary, Project Wild Thing. The wake-up call, he says, came when he taped a camera to six-year-old Ivy’s head and recorded the time that she devoted to different activities: Her days were dominated by playing indo-ors at school, car journeys and playing indoors at home. She spent just 4 per-cent of her time outside.

Bond calculated another staggering fact. His mother, Helen, who is 81 and lives with the family in London, grew up in Hornsea, Yorkshire, and at the age of 11 roamed across 50 square miles. When he was a boy, in the 1970s, he roamed within 1 square mile. His children wander freely only as far as their 140-square-metre gar-den permits and he admits that they are fortunate to have such a large garden in the capital. “We’re so lucky compared with most Londoners,” he says. “I own a tree.”

It is difficult to decipher the pre-cise constellation of social and econo-mic changes that have made us afraid of nature, and curtailed a childhood outdoors. They are, however, visible through the lives of three generations of the Bond family. Helen was the eldest of three children growing up on

the edge of Hornsea. Her mother was a full-time housewife but the children were left to play on their own – in the garden, the surrounding countryside, the nearby golf course and beach. They were outside as much as possible in all weathers, she remembers. “It was just a fun place to explore because parts of it were a bit wild.”

It wasn’t idyllic: The sea (where they swam unsupervised by adults) was brown, there was barbed wire and old pillboxes from the Second World War on the eroding cliffs, and once, when she cycled the mile and a half to catch the school bus, a man exposed himself to Helen and her friend. Her friend told her mother, who said, “We all know they’ve got these things,” and that was about it. Bond contrasts this memory with modern overreactions: Ivy’s primary school recently circulated an email about reports of a white van seen outside school gates in the area and for three weeks the school run became a scrum until parents forgot about it.

Bond grew up in Canterbury in the 1970s. He did not roam nearly as far as his mother, but he played outdoors in the street with friends. Their favourite stomping ground was the local hos-pital. “We used to crawl through air-conditioning ducts and follow the pipes. It was an amazing adventure playground. We’d play dare, and see how far we could walk through the corridors before we were stopped,” he says. There was no secure fencing or security guards.

For his film, Bond returned to Canterbury and talked to some chil-dren he found playing in his old street. “They were very gloomy about their level of freedom, talking about how the neighbours complain if they make a noise or play ball games,” he says.

When a few children sneaked into the hospital grounds, the police were called. Computers arrived in Bond’s childhood when he was about 13, and were a hobby; now, they are wallpa-per. The children he interviewed in Canterbury celebrated extreme com-puter game-playing, in awe of a boy who devoted 10 hours non-stop to one game. “The bedroom was where they talked about having personal space and

freedom,” says Bond. “I didn’t feel like my bedroom defined me as a child. My outdoor space did. My children will be much more defined in their psyches by their indoor space than my mum or I ever were.”

When the Bonds moved into their house three years ago, they did some-thing Bond is embarrassed about now – they drained the pond. Everyone told them horror stories about ponds and toddlers. “It felt like we’d been got to, in a way,” he admits.

“Peer pressure is very strong,” agrees Helen. “You think you can make the world afresh for your chil-dren, you think you can make your own rules for your children, but you can’t.”

Society’s fears of the risks that lurk outside for children – from ponds to stranger danger – may be overwrought and irrational, but anxiety (the defining characteristic of British families, according to a Unicef report on child wellbeing) about tra-ffic is more logical. The growth in road traffic is probably the decisive factor preventing children playing on the streets as they once did. The Bonds live on a quiet residential road, but the traffic is still relentless, says Bond. “Until they are a lot older, I don’t feel comfortable with them cycling or walking around on the roads outside.”

The head teacher at Ivy’s school made the news when he asked parents of an eight- and 11-year-old to stop them cycling to school because of road safety fears. There may be new community efforts to close streets for children’s play, but Bond fears these once-a-year closures “tie into the idea that outdoor play becomes an event and a treat. So much of our children’s world has been turned into a treat by marketeers”.

Irrational fears about risks, rational concerns about traffic, stricter policing of private land and loss of derelict spaces, the rise of computers and social media and the commercialisation of play. “It really is a perfect storm,” says Bond of the factors stopping children roaming free.

3PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

Irrational fears about risks, ratio-nal concerns about traffic, stricter policing of private land and loss of derelict spaces, the rise of computers and social media and the commercia-lisation of play. “It really is a perfect storm,” says Bond of the factors stop-ping children roaming free.

He is convinced that fears over free-range children are not uniquely urban. Country children can be just as cooped up as city kids, and the latter used to wander in the nooks and crannies of cities as much as rural children explo-red the wilds.

Nor are they a groundless middle-class concern. He found parents in tough urban communities who were equally worried about their children’s lack of outdoor play; here, fear of crime was another inhibiting factor. In his film, Bond explores the role of commerce in encouraging everyone to stay indoors and wonders if nature could – and should – be marketed like crisps or computer games.

One insurmountable obstacle for parents wanting to send their children out to play is that all the other parents keep their kids indoors. In this envi-ronment, sending your children out to play, alone, without safety in numbers, would be “a lunatic decision”, admits Bond. “It’s like a Mexican stand-off – all the parents down the road are thinking the same thing.”

So what can families do? There may

be a growing awareness of the need to provide opportunities for outdoor play, but it can lead to nature becoming “an activity that is to be boxed up or con-trolled in the same way as swimming or music lessons”, says Bond. “The pres-sure to work, to earn, to provide, makes you treat the outdoors like a product that you need to get down your gullet quick and consume, and that stops it being a place where you get what play theorist Bob Hughes calls ‘soft atten-tion’. You see the children do it – Albie gets lost in himself and the outdoors.”

After talking to play experts, Bond is convinced that the best thing a parent can do is provide unstructured time outdoors. “It’s slightly contradictory, but you have to plan to be unplanned.” He began by identifying nearby places for unstructured play: Parks, National Trust properties, wildlife parks. The Woodland Trust’s website told him of all the woods in the neighbourhood, and then he found the ideal safe, wild and interesting place: Nunhead cemetery.

An old cemetery near my home is the place I take my daughters to play and explore the outdoors, but I worry that I will be told off for allowing them to frolic around in such an austere place. Bond has a rule that any tended grave must be left alone, but allows his chil-dren to clamber over the grand old gra-ves. He is sure the generation beneath the soil would quietly approve. And he is less fretful than many parents about what others think.

During the snow last winter, he was ticked off for sledging downhill with Ivy too fast. Parents were afraid that he would collide with their children. What did he do? “I just had to dig deep and keep sledging,” he replies.

Personally, I would struggle with such

disapproval, but this episode illustrates nicely something Bond points out – that the battle to get children outdoors is almost entirely a parental one. What if children simply prefer to stay indoors? “It’s mainly about persuading myself,” says Bond. “Children left to their own devices will gravitate towards the things they love, and they love being outdoors. For every really miserable wet week, there’s been some sort of ama-zing experience outdoors that we’ve had together,” he says.

Children don’t really notice the wea-ther, but Bond realised that if he reacts to it, they quickly follow his lead, just as adult fear, of spiders, say, can be quic-kly transmitted. “I’m very determined that the children will face the risks and discover them,” he says, although he admits that Katie is sometimes less relaxed about this approach.

For the Bonds, there are many fairly obvious benefits of having their chil-dren being active outdoors. On a holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, where Ivy and Albie played outside (in freezing condi-tions) all day, Bond noticed one result of great interest to any parent. “They slept well at night,” he says, laughing.

On a recent country walk, Ivy admi-red some lapwings that “flew like a rag-gedy bat flapping about in a tunnel”, she says. “They are very good at pretending they are injured to lead you away from their nest,” explains Helen.

The outdoors is a wonderful place to learn and Bond hopes to reverse the decline in knowledge that he has expe-rienced – he knows much less about the wild than his mother. Bond struggles to distinguish between a snipe and a cur-lew; his mother will always know. She can also identify bones when they are walking the Dales and is able tell the

children what is a rabbit or a sheep. When Bond and Albie were

recently playing in Nunhead ceme-tery, Albie found a freshly severed crow’s wing. It was still gooey, but Bond let his son play with it, and when they came home, they looked at the Internet to find out how a wing functions.

Ultimately, though, the natural world is fun. Watching Ivy and Albie delight in outdoor play is uplifting. “The only thing that’s anything like it is giving them a bar of chocolate,” says Bond, describing their joy.

What does Ivy like to do best of all? “Outside play, field play,” she says. Why? “There are huge blossom trees where you can run and catch the blossom. It’s really fun. I like playing outside because I can meet my friends and today Bella gave me a piggyback – and I love piggybacks.”

(Project Wild Thing is released in October.)

THE GUARDIAN

One insurmountable obstacle for parents wanting to send their children out to play is that all the other parents keep their kids indoors. In this environment, sending your children out to play, alone, without safety in numbers, would be “a lunatic decision”, admits Bond.

PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 20134 MARKETPLACE/COMMUNITY

The Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Qatar Chapter, recently elected its new office bearers at Best Western Hotel — Doha. As per its constitu-tion, the outgoing Vice President, Saman Fernando, was appointed new President. The executive committee for 2013-14 includes Sudarshana Wijesundara (Vice President), Letchumanan Kishodaran (General Secretary), Kamal Perera (Honorary Treasurer), Rukshan Karunaratne (Immediate Past President), Felix D Ponweera, Jayadeva Jayakody, Mohammad Lafir, Sanjeewa Jayanetti, Sarath Perera, and Subashchandra Suntharalingam. The chapter is affili-ated with the Sri Lankan embassy in Qatar.

Qatar Luxury Group’s QELA brand will open its first bou-tique in The Pearl, Qatar on September 25. QELA is Qatar’s first global fashion brand and draws its inspiration from

the Qatari heritage, which is reflected in the aesthetics of the collections.

QELA will offer a measured collection made by highly skilled craftsmen, designed and prototyped in QELA workshops in Qatar. QELA’s line includes stylish leather goods, sophisticated shoes, refined jewellery and women’s made-to-measure couture. This first collection epitomises subtle refinement and quietly understated, timeless fashion for the culturally savvy woman.

“The QELA woman exudes discreet yet confident elegance and shuns any form of ostentatious luxury. QELA’s collection is clean and the lines are clear, almost minimal, but each product is enhanced with precious and refined details. The desert-inspired smooth shapes and generous volumes provide a feeling of comfort and general well-being”, explains the QELA studio.

Following the opening of the first QELA boutique in Qatar, another boutique is planned in Paris. The boutiques will feature in-store exhibitions by local artists to create a space dedicated to culture that reflects the brand’s values of openness, creativity and spirituality.

“We wanted to create a relaxing, timeless space; somewhere our guests can go to escape and get away from it all, somewhere they can relax and take time to explore and discover the QELA collection in an artistic context” said Gregory Couillard, CEO of Qatar Luxury Group. The Peninsula

Qatar Luxury Group to unveilQELA fashion brand in Sept

DOMASCO, Qatar’s distributor of Honda automobiles, is offering cus-tomers many giveaways with every

purchase of a new Honda car and bike. In addition to the gift with every purchase, cus-tomers can enter a draw to be one of two lucky winners of a new Honda Jazz.

With the purchase of every new car, Honda customers will receive an iPad Mini along with a complimentary 20,000km serv-ice package.

Honda customers will also enter the draw to win one of two Honda Jazz cars. The first winner will be selected on Thursday and receive a white Honda Jazz. The second draw will take place on September 1 and the win-ner will receive a black Honda Jazz.

Motorbike buyers can also take advantage this Ramadan and receive a new iPad Mini.

Customers can purchase their new Hondas at the main showroom in Al Markhiya between TV and National Mosque round-about or the new additional showroom on Salwa Road across from HSBC Bank. The promotion continues until August 31.

Doha Marketing Services Company WLL

(DOMASCO) is a leading group company in Qatar with a diversified portfolio repre-senting some of the world’s most visible and award-winning brands such as Honda, Volvo, Raymond Weil, Kolber, Casio, Titan, Xbox and Sanyo.

It has more than 25 directly-operated showrooms and shops and a presence in many dealer stores in Doha. The major retail and service company is renowned for its exceptional after sales services for all reputed brands it represents in Qatar.

DOMASCO’s customer focus is enabled by an almost 500-strong team of experts with the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction.

Established in 1965 in Qatar, the group Hamad and Mohammed Al Futtaim Company evolved to its present form in 1995 as DOMASCO, a joint venture between the Al Futtaim Group and prominent Qatari shareholders. Today, DOMASCO continues to be managed by Al Futtaim, the UAE-based conglomerate with presence in the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Pakistan, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

The Peninsula

Every purchase of Honda car or bike includes a Ramadan giveaway.

Fabulous Ramadan gifts from Honda

This year Salam Stores, Qatar’s most exclusive style destination, is ensur-

ing that Ramadan is celebrated in full force by offering shoppers to save 25 percent in stand-alone stores and Salam. The iconic department store is running the promotion until August 15.

With the A/W13 season around the corner, Salam has pre-fall collections in store. Designers featuring in the promo-tion include Temperley London, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Zegna, Givenchy, Just Cavalli, Canali, Paul & Shark, Moschino, La Martina, Paul Smith, Diesel and many

more. Salam Stores is one of the Middle East region’s oldest and best-known department stores. Established in 1952 in Qatar, Salam Stores has since expanded its reach covering Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Muscat.

Salam Stores has distinguished itself as a leading retailer, offering latest on-trend clothing including fashion brands, perfumes, pho-tography equipment, homeware, jewellery, and accessories. Salam’s chain of cutting-edge department stores carries fashion merchan-dise and lifestyle products for women, men and children.

The Peninsula

Salam Stores offers shoppers chance to save 25 percent

Starwood Hotels & Resorts recently celebrated iftar with taxi drivers from across the

Middle East as part of its ongoing commitment to Ramadan.

Now in its fourth year, the ‘Iftar for Cabs’ campaign brought more than 34 hotels from across the region, including Sheraton Doha Resort &

Convention Hotel, together for a wor-thy cause.

During iftar, packs of food and bev-erages were distributed to cab drivers at the main entrance of each hotel.

Catering teams at each hotel pre-pared iftar packs which included a diverse selection of food and bever-age items. Associates from across

departments within the hotels, includ-ing catering, administration and guest services, joined forces to bring the ‘ini-tiative to life.

‘Iftar for Cabs is our way to say thank you to the cab drivers across the Middle East. The initiative in its fourth year and represents the spirit of the Holy Month of Ramadan. We

are proud of all our associates who came together yesterday to make this year’s ‘Iftar for Cabs’ another big success and I want to thank them for their continued support,” said Guido de Wilde, Senior Vice President & Regional Director, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

The Peninsula

Proton is giving customers the chance to win a trip to Abu Dhabi for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when they purchase

a new Proton this Ramadan.One winner will receive round-trip airfare

to Abu Dhabi with hotel stay and a ticket to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this November 3. Customers can enter the draw when they purchase a new Proton between July 9 and August 19.

Customers can visit the Proton showroom in Al Markhiya between TV and National Mosque roundabouts. The showroom is open during Ramadan Saturday through Thursday from 8am until 2pm and 7.30pm

Sheraton Doha Resort & Convention Hotel holds ‘Iftar for Cabs’

Hotel officials distribute iftar packs to taxi drivers.

Proton flying winner to Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

5MARKETPLACE/COMMUNITY PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

Homely suhoor at Grand Hyatt Doha’s Ramadan Tent

The Proton ... value for money

until midnight and Fridays from 8pm until 11 pm. The Peninsula

Grand Hyatt Doha’s Ramadan offerings do not stop at providing iftars and suhoors only. Hotel’s team is always surveying and researching what their guests need. To make their experiences

around the hotel, dreams come true during Ramadan; the team came up with the homely suhoor tray at Ramadan Tent.

Hardip Marwah, EAM Director of Rooms, highlighted that the tent is fully booked on daily basis and they had to extend suhoor tim-ing until 2am with the suhoor tray idea to make their guests more comfortable around the Andalusian-inspired tent.

“Our guests’ satisfaction is our number one goal to achieve,” said Puneet Baijal, Director of Food and Beverage. “And our Ramadan offerings are based on a long-term plan to achieve this goal. We studied their needs based on what we offer at Ramadan Tent this year and we realised that some guests prefer late suhoors to enjoy our entertainment more and make it easier for them with reserva-tions, as we are fully booked on almost daily basis.”

With its success with Ramadan Tent and private majlis offer-ings, Grand Hyatt Doha’s new proposed luxurious suhoor tray at Ramadan Tent will surprise you. It has the feeling of a homemade tray with Hyatt’s deluxe touch and taste. It consists of lots of options and accommodates vegetarians and light eaters with falafel, labneh, hummus, grilled halloumi cheese, foul, olives salad, and much more. Iftar buffet is for QR250; suhoor buffet from 8.30pm until midnight for QR200. Suhoor tray from noon to midnight for QR120. Discover Grand Hyatt Doha on http://www.doha.grand.hyatt.com and for bookings and inquiries please call +974 4448 1234. The Peninsula

The suhoor tray ... a nutritious treat.

The Ritz-Carlton, Doha has lined up activities for Ramadan as part of its Community Footprints programme

to establish and boost positive community engagement. The 374-room hotel is reach-ing out to disadvantaged children and less fortunate families to empower the local com-munity through positive change.

As part of Give Back Getaways initiative, the hotel has teamed up with The One, Qatar’s premium furniture retail chain, to sponsor renovation of the home of an under-privileged family. The initiative involves pro-viding donations and help and encouraging guests to join in half-day voluntourism expe-riences that make a lasting contribution to the community and create lasting memories for guests.

From August 5, the hotel will seek volun-teers for flooring, carpeting, painting, repair-ing and delivering brand-new furniture and other fittings. While the house is undergoing renovation, the hotel will host the family to experience genuine care and legendary service.

The welfare of children is also a focus during Ramadan. The Ramadan Tent in Al Wosail grand ballroom was an iftar venue for 75 children and adults from Dhreima

recently. As a continuation of its partner-ship with Qatar Red Crescent for the second year, the hotel has pledged to donate 150 iftar meal boxes daily to the organisation for the needy. Hotel staff are also visiting labour camps to deliver meals every day.

“The Ritz-Carlton, Doha aims to use this initiative to raise further awareness on the importance of sharing and giving back to the society during and after the holy month,” said Hoss Vetry, Cluster General Manager. The Peninsula

The Ritz-Carlton, Doha backs community initiatives

Hotel officials distributing iftar meals.

PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 20136 LIFESTYLE

BY RICHARD HARRIS

FOR the past seven years, few people have seen the top of my head. I’ve been “the hat guy.” In fact, I’m typing these words wearing

my Red Sox cap, probably my favour-ite from my burgeoning cap collection. The hat has become a virtual append-age, more a part of my identity than I had realised. When I updated my Facebook profile photo recently — the first without a hat — I was inundated with comments from friends and former colleagues who had never seen me without a hat or couldn’t remember the last time they had.

My affinity for hats was not a fash-ion statement; Rather, it had its roots in the foolishness of youth, which came back to bite me decades later.

As summer hits its peak, con-sider this a cautionary tale for sun worshipers.

In the spring of 1975, what seemed like a good idea turned out to be a colossal blunder. During a college-break camping trip, a group of us decided to abandon the Chicago chill and head south. What possessed me, a fair-skinned guy, to slather myself in baby oil and lie out in the Florida sun, I still can’t say. But I was 21 years old, and we know that a college student’s judgement isn’t always spot on.

Rather than golden brown, I turned lobster red, sporting the mother of all sunburns, one so bad, in fact, that I spent the rest of the trip coating my back, chest and head with various ointments in a futile effort to lessen the sting and keep sheets of skin from peeling off — even from my scalp.

Thirty years later, I began noticing reddish, scaly blotches on my scalp, so I went to my dermatologist. He believed I was suffering from eczema and prescribed a topical cream. Even as the blotchy area grew, he remained convinced it was eczema. So my wife — smart woman — suggested getting a second opinion. It took all of five

My hats offer a cautionary tale for summer

seconds for my daughters’ dermatolo-gist to look at my scalp and determine I needed a biopsy.

Sure enough, the test came back positive for the slowest-growing form of skin cancer, basal cell. Although the doctor told me it rarely metasta-sizes and is seldom fatal, it needed to be removed. And because the cancer had covered a nearly two-inch square portion of my scalp, I would need Mohs surgery. That’s the technique that allows a surgeon to slice off one layer of tissue at a time (conserving as much tissue as possible) and then test whether there is any more cancer

present. If there is, the next layer of tissue is shaved off and tested. The pro-cedure keeps repeating until there is no more evidence of cancer.

As you’re scalped — you’re alert, but a local anesthetic numbs the top of your head — you must wait until the surgeon gets the all-clear that no more cancer remains.

But that was just the beginning. Once the cancer was removed and my scalp had healed, I underwent a cranioplasty to re-form the skull. This was to ensure that skin transplanted from my thigh could be grafted onto my scalp. Once the transplant was done, there was the matter of a bizarre-looking, one-inch-by-three-inch section of my scalp that didn’t grow hair. Think of it as the clearing in the forest. I didn’t care so much how I looked when I gazed into the mirror — okay, I did — but I really didn’t want to subject the outside world, let alone my family, to the medical-textbook exhibit that was my scalp.

So began a rotating series of hats — baseball caps mostly, but occasion-ally a more sombre, formal cap if I was attending a funeral or religious service. Sometimes, the timing was awkward, even at a ball-game when most of the fans in the stands were also wear-ing caps. When the public address announcer instructed men to remove their hats for the national anthem, I hoped those around me didn’t think I was unpatriotic when I kept mine on. I also recall switching jobs during this period and sending out an all-staff

Richard Harris’ affinity for hats is not a fashion statement; rather, it has its roots in the foolishness of youth when he got a severe sunburn that came back to haunt him.

e-mail, introducing myself as “the hat guy” to pre-empt the inevitable ques-tion of why I’m always wearing a hat to work. The cancer surgeon didn’t suggest I’d ever be able to grow hair on that newly transplanted scalp. So I was resigned to wearing a hat until my male-pattern baldness caught up with my blank patch. But a reconstructive surgeon later recommended harvest-ing hair from the back of the neck and transplanting it, follicle by follicle, to the new scalp that supposedly wouldn’t grow hair. Painstaking work. Worth a shot, I thought. The first attempt didn’t quite cover the spot, but a sec-ond round more or less did.

In the years since my diagnosis and surgery, I’ve remained healthy and cancer-free. I get my entire body checked regularly, and there’s no sign of recurrence. It has probably helped that my head has been covered vir-tually every day I’ve been in the sun for the past seven years. I have been through quite a few hats during that time, and something else occurred: Like many men in their 50s, my hair-line kept receding. So now there are many days when I go hatless. It has actually been liberating to feel the wind on the top of my head. Who would have thought I’d miss that?

It’s impossible to connect the dots from that fateful Florida trip to my subsequent basal cell cancer, but among the risk factors for that dis-ease are bad sunburns in youth. (My other risks, according to the American Cancer Society: having light-colored skin and being a man, which made me twice as likely as a woman to get basal cell cancer).

The episode did give me instant respect for the sun. It also made me smarter on all future excursions to the beach, where I maintain a ritual: Come armed with the highest SPF sunscreen I can find, stick the umbrella in the sand at an angle that provides maxi-mum shade, and cover up any exposed skin. Once you’ve had basal cell cancer, your odds of getting it again rise by as much as 44 percent, according to a 2012 study.

During my carefree youth, the dan-gers of the sun weren’t part of the national conversation to the extent that they are today. And there’s now much more focus on prevention. Case in point: The policy adopted last month by the American Medical Association, which urges schools to allow a sun-screen exception to rules forbidding students from brining over-the-coun-ter medications to class.

The AMA now “encourages all stu-dents to possess sunscreen at school” without obtaining a note from a doctor. And the association warns that “even just a few sunburns can increase a child’s risk of skin cancer later in life.”

Hats off to the AMA.(Harris is a documentary producer

and freelance writer.)WP-BLOOMBERG

During a college-break camping trip in 1975, a group of us decided to abandon the Chicago chill and head south. What possessed me, a fair-skinned guy, to slather myself in baby oil and lie out in the Florida sun, I still can’t say. Rather than golden brown, I turned lobster red, sporting the mother of all sunburns. Thirty years later, I began noticing reddish, scaly blotches on my scalp.

HEALTH 7PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

TALLER women may face a higher risk of many cancers than their shorter coun-terparts, according to a US

study released on Thursday.Researchers looked at a sample

of nearly 145,000 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 for the analy-sis published in the US journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. They found that each additional 10 centimetres (four inches) of height was linked to a 13 percent higher risk of getting cancer.

“Ultimately, cancer is a result of processes having to do with growth, so it makes sense that hormones or other growth factors that influ-ence height may also influence can-cer risk,” said lead author Geoffrey Kabat, senior epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York.

After 12 years of following women who entered the study without can-cer, researchers found links between greater height and higher likelihood of developing cancers of the breast, colon, endometrium, kidney, ovary, rectum, thyroid, as well as multiple myeloma and melanoma.

The height association remained even after scientists adjusted for fac-tors that might influence these can-cers, such as age, weight, education, smoking habits, alcohol consumption and hormone therapy.

“We were surprised at the number of cancer sites that were positively associated with height. In this data set, more cancers are associated with height than were associated with body mass index (BMI),” added Kabat.

Some cancers saw an even higher risk among taller women, such as a 23 to 29 percent increase in the risk of developing cancers of the kidney, rectum, thyroid, and blood for each additional 10 centimeters of height.

None of the 19 cancers studied showed a lower risk with greater height. The study did not establish a certain height level at which cancer risk begins to rise, and Kabat said it is important to remember that the increased risk researchers found was small. “It needs to be kept in mind that factors such as age, smoking, body mass index, and certain other risk factors have considerably larger effects,” he said.

“The association of height with a number of cancer sites suggests that exposures in early life, including nutri-tion, play a role in influencing a per-son’s risk of cancer.” AFP

BY KATHRYN DOYLE

CLOSE to half of paediatri-cians do not use a profes-sional interpreter when seeing patients and families with a limited understand-

ing of English, according to a new study.“We were surprised that the majority

of paediatricians still use family mem-bers to communicate with patients who do not speak English well,” said lead author Dr. Lisa DeCamp of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Using family members is not recom-mended because they are more likely to make errors while translating or to withhold sensitive or painful informa-tion for emotional reasons, DeCamp told Reuters Health. A professional interpreter or a bilingual doctor are the best options, she said.

DeCamp and her coauthors com-pared data from surveys conducted in 2004 and 2010, each including about 700 US paediatricians who saw patients with limited English proficiency.

The surveys asked doctors how they communicated with those patients: via bilingual family members, staff, a formal interpreter or educational materials written in patients’ primary language.

Most paediatricians said they used a bilingual family member, although the proportion reporting that technique fell from 70 percent to 57 percent between 2004 and 2010. The proportion of doctors using formal interpreters grew from 50 percent to 56 percent over the same period.

“Good communication is essential for accurate diagnosis and treatment,” DeCamp said. “If the patient and their provider don’t speak the same language errors in diagnosis can occur, treat-ment may be delayed or expensive tests may be ordered when they are not necessary.”

Though more paediatricians use interpreters now, they are still strug-gling to keep up with the demand from patients, she said.

Doctors in the study were twice as likely to use a formal interpreter in states where Medicaid reimburses for those services as in states without coverage, according to the results pub-lished in the journal Paediatrics.

More than 25 million people in the US do not speak English “very well,” and would benefit from an interpreter in the doctor’s office, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That number was 22 million in 2004.

“I am not surprised that physicians are not using professional interpreters as frequently as they should be,” said Dr. Darcy Thompson, who studies low-income and immigrant families at the University of Colorado Denver and was not involved in the new study.

“Medical schools and residency pro-grams are not adequately training pro-viders on this topic,” Thompson told Reuters Health. States and medical schools are moving toward requir-ing “cultural competency” train-ing for doctors, which is important, but more needs to be done, she said. Federal mandates require providing language services with healthcare, but those are difficult to enforce and

often go unheeded, according to Dr. Lisa Diamond of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre’s Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities Service in New York, who also was not part of the study team.

One problem is there are too few bilingual doctors, and often a poor sup-ply of interpreters, especially in rural areas, DeCamp said.

But in Diamond’s experience, even when interpreters are available in hos-pitals 24 hours a day, many doctors do not use them and instead rely on their own limited language skills, she told Reuters Health. The researchers all cited costs as an important factor.

According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, interpreters and translators were paid about $21 per hour in 2010. “At the time of our study only 13 states and DC reimbursed pro-viders for the cost of interpretation,” and then only for patients with public health insurance such as Medicaid, DeCamp said.

“Private insurance companies rarely cover the cost of interpretation, except in California where there is a law man-dating it,” she said.

Hospitals usually pay for transla-tion services with federal funds set aside for uninsured patients. But those funds will likely start to dry up soon, DeCamp said, since the Affordable Care Act aims to lower the number of uninsured people.

One way to solve the problem, she said, would be with mandates like those in California for private and public insurers to reimburse for interpreters.

REUTERS

Tall women face higher cancer risk, says study

Many paediatricians still not using professional interpreters

PLU

S |

SU

ND

AY

28

JU

LY 2

013

EN

TE

RTA

INM

EN

T8

9

BO

LLY

WO

OD

NE

WS

BY

MIC

HA

EL

O’S

UL

LIV

AN

A refr

esh

ing

su

mm

er

cockta

il o

f acti

on

-movie

sta

ple

s,

Th

e

Wo

lveri

ne

com

bin

es th

e bracin

gly

adult

flavour o

f everyone’s

fa

vourit

e m

uta

nt

anti

hero —

tortu

red,

boozy

X-M

an L

ogan, a.k

.a. W

olv

erin

e —

w

ith t

he fi

zzy e

ffervesc

ence o

f se

veral

mix

ers

from

the c

abin

et

of

Japan

ese

gen

re c

inem

a:

Noir

ish y

akuza

crim

e

dram

a,

sam

urai

derrin

g-d

o a

nd n

inja

acrobati

cs.

It

goes

dow

n

super-sm

ooth

but

packs

a p

un

ch,

erasi

ng n

ot

on

ly t

he

mem

ory o

f M

arvel’s

last

foray into

the

Wolv

erin

e m

yth

os,

the 2

009 s

tin

ker

X-M

en

O

rigin

s: W

olv

eri

ne,

but

als

o

wash

ing a

way t

he m

ore r

ecent

unple

as-

ant

aft

erta

ste o

f th

is s

um

mer’s

oth

er

Tokyo-s

et

acti

on t

hrille

r, P

aci

fic

Rim

.It

’s p

roof

that

you just

can’t

kill th

e

Wolv

erin

e. A

fter a

brie

f prolo

gue, th

e

film

opens

on t

he t

itula

r h

ero (

Hugh

Jack

man

), w

ho is

n

ow

a vir

tuall

y

hom

ele

ss a

lcoholic l

ivin

g i

n a

squalid

encam

pm

ent

in t

he w

oods,

where h

e’s

pla

gued b

y n

ightm

ares

starrin

g h

is late

la

dy love, Je

an G

rey (

Fam

ke J

anss

en).

Fan

s of

the X

-Men s

erie

s of

mov-

ies

will

recall t

hat

Logan

was

relu

c-

tantl

y f

orced t

o k

ill Je

an a

t th

e e

nd o

f th

e fi

nal chapte

r o

f th

e X

-Men t

rilogy,

2006’s

Th

e L

ast

Sta

nd.

In s

hort

order,

how

ever,

our h

ero is

on h

is w

ay t

o T

okyo, esc

orte

d b

y Y

ukio

(R

ila F

ukush

ima),

a m

agen

ta-h

air

ed

Haraju

ku g

irl w

hose

pow

ers

of persu

a-

sion a

re e

nhanced b

y h

er s

kill

wit

h a

sa

murai sw

ord.

A m

uta

nt

wit

h t

he a

bilit

y t

o forete

ll

people

’s d

eath

s, s

he’s

a g

reat

characte

r,

hin

ting a

t a s

oul as

dark

as

Logan’s. M

y

one c

om

pla

int

is t

hat

the fi

lm d

oesn

’t

do m

ore w

ith h

er; sh

e a

nd L

ogan a

re

kin

dred s

pir

its.

Yuk

io h

as been

sen

t to

retr

ieve

Logan o

n b

ehalf

of

her e

lderly

patr

on,

Yash

ida (

Haruhik

o Y

am

anouchi)

, w

ho

is d

yin

g. A

s w

e l

earn i

n t

he p

rolo

gue,

Logan w

as

once a

World

War I

I pris

-oner o

uts

ide N

agasa

ki, w

here h

e s

aved

Yash

ida’s

lif

e a

fter t

he a

tom

ic b

om

b

was

dropped. (Y

es,

Logan is

capable

of

surviv

ing a

nucle

ar b

last

. If

you h

ave a

proble

m w

ith t

he p

hysi

cs

of

that,

you

mig

ht

as

well s

top r

eadin

g n

ow

.)Y

ash

ida, it

seem

s, w

ants

to s

ay m

ore

than g

oodbye a

nd t

hank y

ou t

o h

is o

ld

frie

nd.

He h

as s

um

mon

ed L

ogan

to

take a

dvanta

ge o

f his

healing p

ow

ers,

w

heth

er t

he w

orld

-weary m

uta

nt

is

ready t

o r

elinquis

h t

hem

or n

ot.

That

them

e —

that

Logan’s

im

morta

lity

is

both

a b

less

ing a

nd a

curse

, and t

hat

Logan m

ight

actu

ally w

elc

om

e d

eath

—

has

been e

xplo

red b

efo

re, esp

ecia

lly in

the O

rigin

s film

. T

here, it

was

flogged

to n

um

bin

g e

ffect.

Here, it

’s a

garnis

h

that

doesn

’t g

et

in t

he w

ay o

f th

e f

un.

Fun, of

course

, is

subje

cti

ve.

It m

ay be a bit

of

a cli

ch

e,

but

Yash

ida’s

fam

ily h

as

both

vio

lent

mob

con

necti

on

s an

d a lo

ng h

isto

ry of

ass

ocia

tion

wit

h n

inja

s, e

mbodie

d b

y

Harada (

Will

Yun L

ee),

a b

odyguard

wh

o w

ield

s a bow

an

d arrow

li

ke

Legola

s. W

hen Y

ash

ida’s

granddaugh-

ter M

arik

o (

Tao O

kam

oto

) is

abducte

d

by g

unm

en, L

ogan’s

nih

ilis

tic inst

incts

are o

verrid

den b

y h

is h

eroic

ones

and

he b

ecom

es

the y

oung w

om

an’s

prote

c-

tor a

nd lover.

O

ne o

f th

e fi

lm’s

great

set

pie

ces

is

a fi

ght

that

takes

pla

ce b

etw

een L

ogan

an

d a

kn

ife-c

arryin

g J

apan

ese t

hug

that’s s

taged a

top a

speedin

g b

ullet

train

carryin

g M

arik

o.

The c

horeog-

raphy is

terrifi

c, if

pate

ntl

y a

bsu

rd, as

they d

uck a

nd fl

ip i

n o

rder t

o a

void

gett

ing s

lash

ed, or b

ash

ed in t

he h

ead

by p

ass

ing s

igns.

Logan

, m

eanw

hile,

aft

er a

fleeti

ng

encounte

r w

ith Y

ash

ida’s

fem

me-f

ata

le

docto

r (

Svetl

ana K

hodchenkova),

finds

his

recuperati

ve a

bilit

ies

increasi

ngly

com

prom

ised. T

rust

me, th

is is

all a

lot

less

com

plicate

d t

han it

sounds.

Where T

he W

olv

eri

ne d

elivers

isn’t

in

plo

t, b

ut

in its

core d

ynam

ic, w

hic

h

pla

ces

Logan i

n t

he f

am

ilia

r, i

f so

me-

what

pate

rnalist

ic, role

of sa

vio

r. T

hat’s

a w

elc

om

e ch

an

ge fr

om

O

rigin

s, in

w

hic

h h

is p

rim

ary m

oti

vati

on w

as

ugly

reven

ge.

It’s

perhaps

fitt

ing t

hat

his

characte

r h

ere, w

hen w

e fi

rst

encoun-

ter h

im i

n t

he w

oods,

all b

earded a

nd

lon

g-h

air

ed,

look

s a bit

li

ke Jesus

Ch

ris

t. It

’s sym

boli

sm

th

at’s driv

en

hom

e b

y a

ll t

he b

ullet

wounds

that

he

sust

ain

s, a

nd w

hic

h n

o l

onger i

nst

an-

taneousl

y h

eal, leavin

g b

loody s

tigm

ata

. C

ould

the t

hem

e o

f m

arty

rdom

be a

ny

more o

bvio

us?

But

forget

all t

hat.

There’s n

oth

ing

parti

cula

rly h

eavy a

bout

Th

e W

olv

eri

ne.

That

is,

oth

er t

han a

suit

of

souped-

up s

am

urai

arm

our t

hat’s

made o

f th

e

sam

e indest

ruct

ible

meta

l as

Wolv

eri

ne’s

retr

act

able

cla

ws.

Sure

ly y

ou’v

e s

een t

he

image in a

ll t

he b

us-

shelt

er a

ds?

No?

Then y

ou’r

e c

learly

not

payin

g

att

enti

on. E

veryone e

lse w

ho h

as

been

will

not

be d

isappoin

ted,

least

of

all

by t

he c

losi

ng-c

redit

s te

ase

r. F

or t

he

love o

f all t

hat

is m

uta

nt,

you’ll

want

to s

tay f

or a

glim

pse

of

what

prom

ises

to b

e n

ot

only

a d

eeply

sati

sfyin

g r

es-

urrecti

on o

f th

e W

olv

erin

e, but

certa

in

oth

er b

elo

ved c

haracte

rs, in

next

year’s

X-M

en

: D

ays

of

Fu

ture

Pa

st.

Th

ree

an

d a

half

sta

rs.

PG

-13.

Conta

ins

acti

on v

iole

nce, so

me o

bsc

en-

ity a

nd b

rie

f se

nsu

ality

. 13

1 m

inute

s.R

ati

ngs

Guid

e: F

our s

tars

mast

er-

pie

ce, th

ree s

tars

very g

ood, tw

o s

tars

OK

, on

e s

tar p

oor,

no s

tars w

aste

of

tim

e.

WP

-BLO

OM

BE

RG

HO

LLY

WO

OD

NE

WS

Rac

ing k

eeps

me

aliv

e: P

atri

ck D

empse

y

Acto

r

Patr

ick

D

em

psey,

best

kn

ow

n fo

r h

is role

as D

erek

Shepherd in t

he m

edic

al dram

a

Gre

y’s

An

ato

my,

con

sid

ers acti

ng as

his

job,

but

adm

its

that

racin

g i

s his

real

passio

n.

“The m

ore m

on

ey you

have, th

e fast

er y

ou g

o,” s

aid

Dem

pse

y.

“Racin

g i

s a d

iffe

rent

type o

f pass

ion.

I’m

an

acto

r, s

o t

hat’s

my j

ob.

That’s

my t

rade. R

acin

g is

alw

ays

a d

iscovery

...

findin

g d

iffe

rent

ways

to b

e t

urned

on. R

ace i

s alw

ays

changin

g, and t

hat

to m

e is

very e

xcit

ing. A

nd t

hat

keeps

me a

live,” h

e a

dded.

The 4

7-y

ear-o

ld h

as

been a

part

of

Gre

y’s

An

ato

my

sin

ce i

ts i

ncepti

on

in

2005,

but

he i

sn’t

bored o

f it

, reports

eonline.c

om

. “I

’m n

ot

necess

arily b

ored

wit

h t

he s

how

. I’m

incredib

ly g

rate

ful to

have a

show

that’s

been o

n f

or 1

0

years

. B

ut

I’m

not

the c

reato

r. I

’m n

ot

the w

rit

er.

It’s

a t

rade, quit

e h

onest

ly.

And t

hat’s

fine. A

nd w

hen y

ou’r

e o

n t

he s

how

, com

ing u

p o

n 2

00 e

pis

odes,

it

’s a

bout

surviv

ing. “T

here’s

not

a l

ot

of

hom

ew

ork

. Y

ou l

earn y

our l

ines

and t

ry t

o s

tay p

rese

nt

and t

ry n

ot

to g

et

caught

acti

ng. I’m

gla

d I

have

the g

ig, but

it’s

not

the s

am

e a

s bein

g in a

race c

ar,”

Dem

pse

y s

aid

.

Andre

w G

arfi

eld t

o st

ar i

n 9

9 H

omes

?

Acto

r A

ndrew

Garfield

is

report-

edly

in

ta

lks to

pla

y th

e le

ad

role

in d

irecto

r R

am

in B

ahrani’s

m

ovie

99 H

om

es.

If

the d

eal

is c

lose

d,

Garfield

, w

ho i

s know

n f

or h

is r

ole

in

the S

pid

erm

an s

erie

s, w

ill ess

ay t

he r

ole

of

a m

an

who w

orks

wit

h a

man

ipu-

lati

ve r

eal

est

ate

broker,

reports

hol-

lyw

oodreporte

r.com

. C

urren

tly,

the

producers

of

the m

ovie

are a

lso o

n t

he

look o

ut

for a

n a

cto

r, w

ho w

ill

be b

est

fo

r t

he r

ole

of

the m

anip

ula

tive b

roker.

M

eanw

hile,

Garfield

is

busy

shooti

ng

for t

he s

equel

to A

ma

zin

g S

pid

er-

Ma

n,

whic

h is

due f

or r

ele

ase

next

year.

Ric

har

d G

ere

sell

s es

tate

for

$6

5m

Acto

r R

ichard G

ere is

sellin

g h

is

12,0

00 s

quare f

oot

Ham

pto

ns

esta

te

here

for

$65m

. T

he

63-y

ear-o

ld a

cto

r’s

property

, know

n a

s S

trongheart

Manor,

boast

s of

12 b

ed-

room

s and 1

2 b

ath

room

s and inclu

des

a

neutr

al colo

ured liv

ing a

rea, hig

h c

eil-

ings

an

d a

spacio

us

gourm

et

kit

chen

w

ith n

um

erous

cupboards

and a

break-

fast

clu

b, reports

con

tact

mu

sic.

com

. T

he

outd

oor space h

as w

ell

-kept

law

ns,

blo

om

ing g

ardens,

a fi

repla

ce p

avilio

n

and e

ven a

sm

all p

ool.

Ther

e’s

a nat

ura

l ce

nso

rship

insi

de

my

syst

em:

Shah

Rukh

A ‘s

elf

aw

are’

acto

r w

ill

never

do

a

film

th

at

is

not

an

exte

nsi

on o

f his

perso

nality

, believes

superst

ar S

hah R

ukh K

han,

who r

efr

ain

s fr

om

sayin

g o

r d

oin

g

certa

in t

hin

gs.

“I

do b

elieve t

hat

an

acto

r, w

ho i

s se

lf a

ware,

will

never

do a

film

that

is n

ot

an e

xte

nsi

on o

f his

pers

onality

,” S

hah R

ukh, w

ho h

as

acte

d in m

ore t

han 7

5 fi

lms,

inclu

d-

ing r

om

an

tic,

acti

on

thrille

rs

an

d

dram

as,

said

.H

e s

hared h

is v

iew

s w

hile in c

on-

versa

tion w

ith lyric

ist

Praso

on J

osh

i at

an e

vent

where h

e w

as

honoured

wit

h R

aja

sthan P

atr

ika C

oncerned

Com

munic

ato

r A

ward.

“No m

att

er

how

good I

am

as

an a

cto

r..I

can d

o

this

role

als

o,

that

als

o,

I can

als

o

prepare...lot

of

thin

gs

I can d

o t

o c

hange m

y p

erso

nality

and b

e i

n t

he

role

that

I w

ant

to b

e. B

ut

as

hard a

s I

will tr

y, I

don’t

thin

k it

can e

ver

go b

eyond m

y u

pbrin

gin

g,” h

e s

aid

.“S

o, so

mew

here I

feel

that

my u

pbrin

gin

g i

s very s

imple

. M

y p

arents

have t

aught

me g

ood t

hin

gs,

perso

nally I

shy a

way from

talk

ing s

om

eth

ing

wrong,” h

e s

aid

. In

his

glo

rio

us

career S

hah R

ukh h

as

ess

ayed n

egati

ve

role

s in

Da

rr, B

aa

ziga

r and A

nja

am

, and late

r e

arned t

he t

ag o

f B

ad

sha

h

of

Rom

an

ce b

y p

layin

g a

perfe

ct

lover b

oy i

n r

om

anti

c fi

lms

like D

ilw

ale

D

ulh

an

ia L

e J

aye

nge,

Dil

To P

aga

l H

ai

and K

uch

Ku

ch H

ota

Ha

i. H

e w

as

als

o lauded f

or d

oin

g fi

lms

like S

wa

des

and C

ha

k D

e!

Ind

ia.

The a

cto

r s

aid

that

his

perso

nality

reflects

in t

he k

inds

of film

s he d

oes.

“I

can’t

say s

om

e t

hin

gs

in t

he fi

lms.

I feel th

at

it w

ill not

look g

ood w

hen

I w

ill w

atc

h t

hem

wit

h m

y k

ids,

even a

lone. T

here is

a n

atu

ral censo

rsh

ip

insi

de m

y s

yst

em

,” t

he 4

7-y

ear-o

ld s

aid

.“B

ut

havin

g s

aid

that,

I d

on’t

know

if

that

censo

rsh

ip i

s so

perso

nal

that

it m

ay h

appen, esp

ecia

lly m

y s

ense

of

hum

our,

that

people

get

me

wrong, it

hurts

som

e s

enti

ments

, it

dis

turbs

lot

of people

,” a

dded t

he a

cto

r,

who h

as

been involv

ed in m

any c

ontr

oversi

es

als

o. C

urrentl

y, t

he a

cto

r is

busy

prom

oti

ng h

is forth

com

ing fi

lm C

hen

na

i E

xp

ress

. D

irecte

d b

y R

ohit

S

hett

y, it

featu

res

Deepik

a P

adukone a

s th

e f

em

ale

lead.

Can

cer-

free

Man

isha

Koi

rala

fol

low

s st

rict

fi

tnes

s re

gim

e

Actr

ess M

an

ish

a K

oir

ala

, w

ho

has

success

fully b

att

led o

varia

n

cancer,

seem

s to

be f

ollow

ing a

st

ric

t fitn

ess

regim

e a

s su

ggest

ed b

y h

er

fath

er,

politi

cia

n P

rakash

Koir

ala

. “A

s dad h

as

persi

stentl

y a

sked m

e t

o w

alk

eig

ht

to t

welv

e k

ilom

etr

es,

I d

o i

t as

obedie

ntl

y,”

Manis

ha p

ost

ed o

n m

icro-

blo

ggin

g s

ite F

acebook.

“It

is f

ollow

ed

by s

tretc

hes.

Then I

do P

ranayam

a f

or

an h

our a

nd O

sho’s

kundalini

medit

a-

tion

befo

re s

leepin

g.

Als

o i

n b

etw

een

yoga, m

edit

ati

on a

nd a

yurvedic

mass

age

treatm

ent.

This

I s

ay is

‘proje

ct’

,” s

he a

dded. T

he 4

2-y

ear-o

ld, w

ho c

arved

her o

wn n

iche i

n t

he H

indi

film

indust

ry w

ith fi

lms

like B

om

ba

y, 1

942:

A L

ove

Sto

ry a

nd D

il S

e..,

was

adm

itte

d t

o M

um

bai’s

Jasl

ok H

osp

ital

on

Novem

ber 2

8 l

ast

year a

fter w

hic

h s

he fl

ew

dow

n t

o t

he U

S f

or f

urth

er

treatm

ent.

Aft

er s

pendin

g o

ver s

ix m

onth

s in

New

York

for t

reatm

ent

of

ovaria

n c

an

cer,

Man

isha r

ecen

tly r

etu

rn

ed c

an

cer-f

ree,

lookin

g a

s gorgeous

as

ever.

PLU

S |

SU

ND

AY

28

JU

LY 2

013

The

Wol

veri

ne: Lo

gan

’s c

urs

e is

our

ble

ssin

g

PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013 BOOKS610

Award winner Folarin finds place in literary world

Two weeks later, the school informed him that his senior year would be covered. (He subsequently met Oprah Winfrey and attributes the financial assist-ance to her help or the intervention of someone on her team.)

Four months later, Folarin was named a 2004 Rhodes Scholar. At Oxford University, he began to examine whether he should follow his father’s wishes that he earn a law degree at Yale University. At Oxford, he decided to take a different path.

“When I first got there a friend of mine said, ‘I love Philip Roth’,” says Folarin, who had never heard of the American novelist. He began reading contem-porary fiction and worked on what he describes as his first “failed novel”.

After a few years of detours — working as a spokesman for Google in London; taking a low-level position on the Obama campaign; a period of unem-ployment — Folarin moved to Washington in 2008 and connected with poets and writers here, includ-ing E. Ethelbert Miller. Those connections and that encouragement led Folarin to submit Miracle for the Caine Prize.

In London last week, where Folarin accepted the prize, he had a conversation with another finalist, whom Folarin declines to name. The other writer told Folarin that he should begin using his full Nigerian name — Oluwabusayo Temitope Folarin — rather than calling himself Tope (pronounced tow-PAY).

“Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t allow people to mispronounce his name,” said the other writer, according to Folarin. “I don’t see calling myself Tope as a capitulation,” Folarin says. And, he insists, it’s a better fit for his 21st-century hybrid Nigerian American life.

“I had to recognise that if I wrote about my miss-ing of Africa, my missing of Nigeria, my missing of my mom, then perhaps I could infuse my stories with a poignancy,” he says. “I’m trying to write back — even though I can’t be there physically. I’m trying to write back to Nigeria.” WP-BLOOMBERG

Tope Folarin, the 31-year-old was awarded the prestigious Caine Prize, given annually for a short story by an African writer. With the prize, Folarin gained instant legiti-macy, but his achievement also spurred a conversation in the lit-erary world about the boundaries of the far-flung African diaspora and what it means to be an African writer.

BY KRISSAH THOMPSON

THERE was a time when Tope Folarin (pictured) came almost daily to the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington not to sip iced lattes, as he’s doing on this recent Sunday afternoon,

but to learn his craft by reckoning with language. Back then, he sat in this bookstore cafe and copied poetry into a raggedy notebook.

“It pained me that I couldn’t afford to buy the books,” Folarin says, leaning in to take another sip.

Four years ago, as he wrote down verse after verse, his academic pedigree as a graduate of Morehouse College and a Rhodes Scholar were meaningless. He was out of work and unsure where he fit into the Washington scene. He did know that the story he would someday tell would be of the complexity of blending cultural and national identities. In his case, Nigerian and American.

Last week, the 31-year-old was awarded the pres-tigious Caine Prize, given annually for a short story by an African writer. With the prize, Folarin gained instant legitimacy, but his achievement also spurred a conversation in the literary world about the bound-aries of the far-flung African diaspora and what it means to be an African writer.

Folarin, who has lived in the District of Columbia for five years, has not returned to the homeland of his Nigerian parents since he was about a year old. His childhood memories are those of the place he was born, Ogden, Utah, and later Grand Prairie, Texas where he was reared.

Lagos is a place he sees only in his dreams. His mother, who became ill when Folarin was young, returned there when he was 6 years old. He has not seen her since. She and other relatives in Nigeria are souls with voices he cannot touch.

So is he an African writer? Is he an American writer? Does growing up virtually cloistered in Utah, eating moin moin and jollof rice in a household where Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey are played on repeat, make you Nigerian enough?

“It’s the same conversation I’ve been having my entire life about ‘where do I fit?’,” Folarin says. “I was prepared for the questions.” Toying with those queries (and sometimes accusations) has been an

important part of Folarin’s coming of age as a sto-ryteller. It is his relationship with Nigeria, a place he hardly knows but at the same time knows intimately, that shapes his writing and sense of self.

Amid the buzz of the bookstore cafe, his voice is devoid of any discernible accent — a result of his father’s insistence that his children mimic newscast-ers Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. Folarin, slight and ebony-skinned and dressed in a polo shirt and jeans, seems as much at home behind the cafe table as behind his black-framed glasses.

He says the mosaic of short stories he is currently polishing form a novel, and the story for which he won the Caine Prize — Miracle — is a chapter from that as-yet-unpublished book.

Folarin believes his work has a place in the dynamic space occupied by young writers of the African diaspora. Critical acclaim has come to sev-eral, including Taiye Selasi, a Ghanaian Nigerian writer who was born in London, raised in Boston and lives in New York, New Delhi and Rome, and Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo, an earlier winner of the Caine Prize and now a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. (The Caine Prize may be won by African nationals and by those born in or whose parents were born in Africa.)

Both Selasi and Bulawayo released novels this year. It was Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go, who coined the term Afropolitan, a combination of the words African and cosmopolitan, to refer to the generation of moneyed young Africans who jet-set around the world, are highly educated and know their parents’ home countries as well as the places they were born.

Folarin brings up Afropolitanism to refute those who would say he is not a Nigerian writer because he has not spent time in the country. “I haven’t been able to access this [cosmopolitan] lifestyle because I’ve been struggling and hustling my entire life,” he says. Folarin says he was the first black child to attend his Utah elementary school and recalls the day when a white classmate tried to wipe off Folarin’s dark skin color. When his skin colour did not change, the classmate declared Folarin dirty.

Folarin moved with his family to Texas at age 14. He found black classmates there, whom he was des-perate to impress. On his first day of classes, he put on red pants two sizes too small and a white shirt and thought he looked like Michael Jackson. “Everybody loves Michael Jackson, and he’s black!” he recalls thinking. The other children pointed and laughed.

Folarin’s father came to Utah as a college student and dropped out after Tope was born; he sold ice cream and cleaned trailers to sustain the family and he insisted that the children work hard in school. “He would say, ‘second place is first loser’,” Folarin says.

Folarin finished high school near the top of his class and enrolled at Morehouse College, the renowned, traditionally black, all-male college. But there, too, he experienced another form of culture shock. Folarin had never heard of the black upper-crust organisa-tion Jack & Jill of America or the black fraternities and sororities that are a large part of the social life of historically black schools. Folarin felt out of place and spent a year and a half as an exchange student, first at Bates College in Maine, then at a university in South Africa.

When he returned to Morehouse to complete his final year of study, he was told he had lost some of his financial aid package because he had failed to complete forms while abroad. He was broke, desper-ate to earn his degree in political science and was living on a friend’s floor. He did what any American would do: He wrote to Oprah.

11WHEELS PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

NASSER Bin Khaled Automobiles, the exclu-sive dealers of Mercedes-Benz in Qatar, launched the new 2014 Mercedes-

Benz S-Class at Nasser Bin Khaled showroom located on Salwa Road. The launch ceremony was attended by sco-res of clients and distinguished guests in the presence of Khaled Shaa’ban, General Manager, NBK Automobiles, and NBK management who were trea-ted to an exclusive unveiling of the new S-Class.

The brand new S-Class is the latest embellishment to Mercedes-Benz pres-tigious line-up introducing a breadth of features which is being installed as a unique design and becoming a driving force in the dense of car segment.

The Mercedez-Benz S-Class has been reworked for 2014 to retain the same distinctive style while enhan-cing safety and comfort as one. The Mercedes S-Class is the first car in the world to use only LED lighting inside and out. The new 2014 S-Class, which is available in both petrol and diesel engine versions, includes a range of new features such as radar sensors which offer 360 degree vision and detection system. The new S-Class provides the safest drive without compromising on comfort and new models even offer energizing massage functions, based on the hot stone principal.

“The new S-Class marks the begin-ning of a new era of modern luxury and safety in cars and the numerous inno-vative comfort and safety features will provide an all-new driving experience for Mercedes customers,” Khaled Shaa’ban, General Manager, NBK Automobiles, said. “It’s very exciting to be launching a product which showca-ses a host of ‘world’s firsts’ most nota-bly the exclusive use of LED lighting throughout, which positions Mercedes as a pioneer in the lighting sector, 100 years after the first use of electronic lighting in vehicles.” he added.

ABOUT THE NEW S-CLASS

Design: a modern take on tradi-tional design: The new S-Class retains the distinctive classic architecture that makes Mercedes so instantly recog-nisable, with a modern sporty touch. The radiator grille on the new S-Class is now larger, upright and distinctly three-dimensional in design, with its long flowing bonnet, domed roof line and the gently slanting rear end, the new S-Class has classic saloon propor-tions in keeping with the car’s sporty coupé-style intentions.

LED technology: The new S-Class is the first vehicle in the world to use LED lighting throughout, positioning Mercedes-Benz as a pioneer in the lighting sector, 100 years after the first use of electronic lighting in vehicles.

Drive system: In its first year the new S-Class line-up features two petrol models — S 400 and S 500.

Seats: Another world first featured in

New Mercedes-Benz S-Class hits Doha roads

the new S-Class is the energizing mas-sage function, based on the hot-stone principle and active seat ventilation with reversing fans. The seat developers have paid particular attention to the rear seats. There is a choice of five different rear seat variants including an Executive seat with a backrest angle adjustable by up to 43.5 degrees, allowing occupants in the rear to concentrate on work or relax in comfort.

Extended PRE-SAFE® protection: Building upon Mercedes-Benz’ground breaking PRE-SAFE anticipatory occupant protection system, the safety pioneer is increasing protection levels once again in the new S-Class.The new PRE-SAFE functions can help to prevent collisions with pedestrians and vehicles in front, defuse dangerous situations caused by traffic behind as well as enhancing the protection offe-red by the seat belts.

The PRE-SAFE Brake can detect pedestrians and initiate autonomous braking to avoid a collision at speeds up to 50 km/h. PRE-SAFE PLUS can recognise an imminent rear-end colli-sion and warn the following traffic by activating the rear hazard warning lights at a high frequency. With PRE-SAFE Impulse, the driver and front passenger are pulled away from the direction of impact by their seat belts at an early phase of the crash, which can substantially reduce the risk and severity of injuries in a frontal collision.

Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive: The system ensures that safety comes first without compromising on comfort. The new functions all rely on the same sensor system, with a new ste-reo camera together with multi-stage radar sensors.

New assistance systems include: • DISTRONIC PLUS with Steering

Assist and Stop & Go Pilot which is able to follow vehicles in traffic tail-backs semi-autonomously.

• Brake Assist system BAS PLUS with Cross-Traffic Assist to avoid rear-end collisions and collisions with cros-sing traffic.

• Active Lane Keeping Assist can detect oncoming traffic and, when the adjacent lane is not clear, to reduce the risk of the vehicle leaving its lane unintentionally by applying the brakes on one side.

• Adaptive High beam Assist Plus allows the high-beam headlamps to be kept on permanently without dazzling traffic by masking out other vehicles in the beams’ cone of light.

• Night View Assist Plus has been further improved and supplemented by a thermal imaging camera can alert the driver to the potential dan-ger posed by pedestrians or animals in unlit areas in front of the vehicle by automatically switching from the speedometer to a crystal-clear night view image and highlighting the sour-ces of danger.

• ATTENTION ASSIST can warn of inattentiveness and drowsiness in an extended speed range and notify drivers of their current state of fati-gue and the driving time since the last break. It also offers an adjustable sensitivity setting and, if a warning is emitted, indicates nearby service areas in the COMAND navigation system.

• PARKING PACKAGE including 360 ° camera, active parking assist and reversing camera.

• MAGIC BODY CONTROL uses road surface scan to detect unevenness in the road via stereo camera located behind the windscreen while magic Body Control instantaneously adjusts the sus-pension to deal with the new situation

• MAGIC SKY CONTROL changes the roof panel from dark to transpa-rent or vice versa within seconds. It reduces temperatures by 10°C, impro-ves interior lighting and provides exce-llent visibility for all passengers.

• MAGIC VISION CONTROL fea-tures small spraying holes in the wiper blades that guide and dispense water to clean the windscreen

• KEYLESS-GO PACKAGE WITH HANDS-FREE ACCESS function allows hands-off, fully automatic, ope-ning and closing of the boot lid

• BUSINESS TELEPHONY IN THE REAR features a convenient touch dis-play that allows the intuitive operation of functions such as seat adjustment, conference calls and call waiting. Calls can be conveniently transferred between the driver and the rear.

• AMBIENCE LIGHTING in 7 diffe-rent colours and 5 dimming levels crea-tes an unrivalled sense of well-being by lighting the interior in the mood desired.

• BURMESTER HIGH END 3D SURROUND SYSTEM features24 spe-cially designed speakers and 24 ampli-fier channels with a total system output of 1,540 watts. It impresses with visual effects: two tweeters installed in the mirror triangles of the front doors move into the most favorable position when the system is switched on, lighting up in one of seven freely selectable colours shades if the ambience lighting is active.

• TOUCH PAD allows the operation of the telematics system via handwri-ting recognition, zooming and scrolling with a two-finger gesture, recognition of favourite keys and haptic feedback.

The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class is available at the Nasser Bin Khaled Mercedes-Benz showroom located on Salwa Road.

THE PENINSULA

The Chairman of Nasser Bin Khaled (NBK), Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser bin Khaled Al Thani (third left); General Manager Khaled Shaa’ban (second left); Senior Marketing Manager Tariq Habbal (left); PC Sales Manager Tariq Honeini (right) and other officials at the launch ceremony of the new Mercedes Benz S-Class in Doha on Wednesday. SALIM MATRAMKOT

TECHNOLOGYPLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 201312

BY HAYLEY TSUKAYAMA

GOOGLE is taking another swing at commanding the television with its new Chromecast, a

low-cost accessory that plugs into a TV and allows users to stream video, share tabs from the Google Chrome browser, or play music from their smartphones, tablet or computer on the big screen.

The big selling point? The Chromecast lets users stream or share while also allowing the device to do other tasks. With the Chromecast, analysts said, Google appears to have learned a lesson from some of its own missteps and those of its competitors. The small device, which fits into a TV’s HDMI port, eliminates some of the usual frustrations with TV streaming. For example, while Apple TV and, to a lesser extent, the Xbox allow users to beam some content from their mobile devices to the television, the mobile devices then can’t be used for anything else at the same time. Google says that the Chromecast will enable multitask-ing on the laptop, tablet or other device without interrupting what’s streaming on the TV.

Chromecast also comes with built-in support not only for Google devices but also for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Chrome browser on Macs and PCs. That means that nearly every televi-sion can now get a Google upgrade — a major shift for the competitive landscape, analysts said. Now, said James McQuivey, a principal analyst at Forrester, “it’s not a war of smart versus dumb TVs — it’s a war of which smart TV”.

The Chromecast hasn’t caught up with the content offerings of competi-tors Roku and Apple TV — it launched with support for Netflix, but other popular services such as Pandora are yet to come, the company says. Google pointed out that it’s easy for developers to add Chromecast support to their existing apps, which could have the double benefit of beefing up content for Chromecast quickly and giving apps on Google Play a little something extra that competitors don’t offer.

And, finally, there’s the price. Apple TV and Roku are both priced to move with their newest models starting at $99. Chromecast costs $35.

That lower price, McQuivey said, draws a sharp line between Google and Apple and Microsoft and shows that the company has a different vision for how to make money off the television. Apple, he explained, aims for profit from the sale of its popular devices. Microsoft is splitting the difference by packaging multimedia entertain-ment in a dedicated device of its own, the Xbox One. The Chromecast is now available on Google Play, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. WP-BLOOMBERG

BY RICH JAROSLOVSKY

IMAGINE being able to control your computer and manipulate on-screen objects not with a mouse, keyboard or even your voice, but with a wave of your

hand. Now meet what makes it pos-sible: the Leap Motion Controller, an $80 device that’s already responsible for at least 73,600 online references to the Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise movie Minority Report.

The controller, which is about the size of a pack of gum, connects to your Windows PC or Apple Mac via a USB cable. Sensors on its top create an invisible bubble about two feet around, within which your hands’ motions and gestures are sensed and translated into actions on the screen. This being new technology, you shouldn’t expect a polished user experience, and indeed I encountered a number of hiccups. But early adopters willing to put up with its quirks can have some fun.

Using the controller and special Leap Motion-enabled apps, I was able to virtually dissect a frog simply by moving my hands. I was also able to page through a selection of New York Times stories, play drums and soar around the Earth at hyper-speed, all without touching the computer.

It took me a while to get the hang of controlling the screen with my hands, but once I did I found the Leap Motion device swift and sensitive. There was no discernible lag time in interpreting my gestures, and it could distinguish not just my hands but individual fingers.

The Leap Motion unit is a cousin to Microsoft’s Kinect, the motion

controller first introduced for the Xbox game console and now available for Windows PCs too. But the much-larger Kinect is designed for whole-body sensing, while the Leap Motion is intended for close-in work focusing solely on your hands.

Installation took about five minutes, and couldn’t have been much simpler. Once I connected the unit — Leap Motion thoughtfully provides two cables, one long and the other short — I downloaded the software and was ready to go.

Or would have been, except that the 2009-vintage machines I installed it on, a Windows PC and MacBook Pro, proved insufficient. Only up-to-date hardware is powerful enough to make use of the controller: at a minimum, an Intel Core i3 or AMD Phenom II processor, Windows 7 or 8 for Microsoft-powered PCs and Snow Leopard for Macs.

I was able to install it successfully on two more recent Macs and a Windows PC, all with i5 processors. But I ran into other issues as well. Sometimes, things on the screen would bounce around even when my hands were still; the company says that might have been caused by the amount or type of ambient lighting. (Among other things, halogen bulbs can cause interference, and a light located directly above the sensor can confuse it.)

In addition, Leap Motion’s digital-rights management scheme made my Symantec Internet-security program go nuts; the company says it’s working with antivirus companies to get their programs updated to recognize that its software poses no threat.

Initially, at least, most users will probably take advantage of the Leap Motion’s capabilities through dedicated apps downloaded from its online mar-ketplace, called Airspace. About 75 are available at launch, in categories rang-ing from games to productivity.

These early apps vary widely in qual-ity as well as price, and many of them seem more designed to show off the sensor’s capabilities than to perform useful functions. The Times app, for instance, displays only a handful of stories; you page through them with your hand, select one by hovering over it and scroll up and down by rotating your finger.

If the technology catches on, you can also expect to see motion control built into existing software. It’s already, for instance, supported in the Google Earth satellite-imagery virtual-globe programme.

The Leap Motion technology has stirred a great deal of interest in the tech community. At launch, the con-troller is being sold at Best Buy stores in the United States and from Amazon.com’s British site, while PC makers Hewlett-Packard and Asus have also struck deals to bundle it with some of their models. (HP has plans to build the technology directly into some machines as well.)

For now, it’s a work in progress, one whose transformative power is more theoretical than real. Still, it provides a fascinating glimpse into one potential future. Come to think of it, wasn’t that the plot of Minority Report?

(Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist.)

WP-BLOOMBERG

Leap Motion controls PCs with wave of a hand

Google ups the ante in fight for smart TVs

Michael Zagorsek, vice president prod-uct marketing for Leap Motion, demonstrates the Leap Motion Controller at the South By Southwest Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, last March. The con-troller detects hand motions and translates them into actions on the computer screen.

COMICS & MORE 13

Hoy en la HistoriaJuly 28, 1995

1858: Fingerprints were used as a means of identification for the first time1998: Monica Lewinsky agreed to testify about her relationship with U.S. President Bill Clinton2004: China opened its first Arctic research station at Spitzbergen in northern Norway2007: The Red Mosque, a symbol of Islamist resistance to Pakistan’s President Musharraf, was closed indefinitely after a month of violence

India’s Maharashtra state government renamed the city of Bombay as Mumbai, after the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi, the patron deity of the city

Picture: Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS

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

BOISTEROUS, BUMPY, BURNISHED, COARSE, CRUDE, FLAT,FLOWING, FLUENT, FLUID, GLOSSY, GRATING, HARSH,IRREGULAR, JAGGED, LEGATO, LIQUID, PUGNACIOUS,REFINED, RIDGED, ROCKY, ROUGH, SATIN, SERRATED,SILKY, SLEEK, SLICK, SMOOTH, STACCATO, SUAVE, WRINKLED.

LEARNARABIC

How to conjugate in the future:

Future = Sa+ Present Meaning

Remark: To conjugate in the future, you need to conjugate in the present then you add before it: Sa

Ana Sa Aktubu I will write

Anta Sa Taktubu You will write (m)

Anti Sa Taktubeena You will write (f)

Howa Sa Yaktubu He will write

Hiy’ya Sa Taktubu She will write

Nah’nu Sa Maktubu We will write

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

Zits by Dennis Young and Denis Lebrun

Hagar The Horrible by Chris Browne

PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

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 “The Black Stallion”

hero and others

6 Option for reduced fare

15 Pillbox relative

16 New York City has six

17 Onetime 25-Down rival

18 Potential result of fear

19 Info about touchdowns

20 Many man caves

21 Detective work

22 On the decline?

24 Quarters

26 Sing in court

30 Statement resulting in hand-raising

36 Minimal conflict

37 First commandment?

38 Bowery boy, say

39 Bluff

42 Fortuitously

46 Member of a loving trio

47 On the way out?

50 Azadi Stadium setting

51 “Great” 18th-century ruler

54 Sure to be won

55 Lana Turner’s “Mr. Imperium” co-star, 1951

56 Bebé’s nourishment

57 #1 hit song that asks “Are you somewhere up above?”

58 Ruins

DOWN 1 Thrown

2 1990s Senate majority leader and family

3 Like a joule and a watt-second, e.g.

4 Learns by doing

5 Informal states?

6 Bait fish for

pike angling

7 Unbending

8 Fish caught in pots

9 Skosh

10 They get booted

11 Options for reduced fare

12 In ___ heat

13 Mimic Mae West

14 Simon of opera

20 William of “My Three Sons”

23 Dish garnished with crushed peanuts

24 Getting a charge out of

25 Speed Six maker

27 Winner of seven French Opens

28 What some counters count

29 Out

30 “___ see”

31 Genealogy word

32 Refuel, in a way

33 Like Elvis Costello, but not Elvis Presley: Abbr.

34 Command level: Abbr.

35 Like some sgts.

39 Jeweler’s creation

40 Elicit eye-popping

41 She went to Haiti, in a Cole Porter song

43 Player of TV detective Spenser

44 Auxiliary

memory for fast retrieval

45 Pants parts

47 “Time’s up” sound

48 Dix et un

49 Fire

52 Org. whose seal has a flower

53 Currency unit taken out of circulation in 1953

54 Pay extension?

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 56

57 58

W I N D O W N S A D A P T C S I SA N A S A W A I T V O T R E R A N KR U I N T E S S A O R T O N A L O UD I V I D E D H I G H W A Y P A C E RS T E V E G E E S M I R K S

E V I L B E A D S I N P E R I LF A L L E N A P A R T L A S S D O L LL I E L A T I N S R O M E S W O R DA R M B O N E S S E V E R L I M E SB E A R P I T A C U M E N I O N

S N O T O R N A S U N D E R D S TK E Y H A R A S S R E T O T A L

H I D E R G O T O N E M P O W E R SI S I N G I D O L T O R I E S A S AG A R P E G A L B A N A N A S P L I TH O T R O L L E B O L A E T U I

B O R G I A O A K P C L A BT I M E R F R A C T U R E D S K U L L

W I K I E A T A T O D E T O E N D EA V E S C U R I E M O T T O R N A SY O R E O F A L L E N D E R S S 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.

MALL

1

Honey Bee (2D/Malayalam) – 3.00 & 8.30pm

Texas Killing Fields (2D/Crime) – 11.30pm

2

Pattathu Yaanai (2D/Tamil) – 3.00 & 9.00pm

Darling Companion (2D/Drama)– 11.45pm

3Issaq (2D/Hindi) – 3.00 & 11.00pm

Monster University (3D/Animation) – 9.00pm

LANDMARK

1

Pattathu Yaanai (2D/Tamil) – 3.00pm

Issaq (2D/Hindi) – 9.00pm

Honey Bee (2D/Malayalam) – 11.45pm

2Pattathu Yaanai (2D/Tamil) – 9.00pm

Texas Killing Fields (2D/Crime) – 11.45pm

3

Issaq (2D/Hindi) – 3.00pm

Monster University (3D/Animation) – 9.00pm

Darling Companion (2D/Drama)– 11.00pm

ROYAL PLAZA

1Issaq (2D/Hindi) – 3.00 & 9.00pm

Texas Killing Fields (2D/Crime) – 11.45pm

2

Bhajatey Raho (2D/Hindi) – 3.00 & 9.00pm

Darling Companion (2D/Drama)– 11.15pm

3

Monster University (3D/Animation) – 9.00pm

Four Sisters & A Wedding (2D/Comedy) – 11.00pm

CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

07:00 IAAF Diamond

League 2013 -

London Round

09:30 Omni Sport

10:00 Leicester City vs

Monaco

13:45 Thailand vs

Liverpool

16:00 Italy vs Japan

17:15 Portugal vs Japan

18:30 IAAF Diamond

League 2013 -

London Round

21:00 ATP Vegeta

Croatia Open

2013

23:00 Trans World

Sport

00:00 Bank of the

West Classic

- WTA Tour –

2013

02:00 Brazil Prepares

03:00 Borussia

Dortmund vs

Bayern Munich

08:00 News

09:00 Al Jazeera

Correspondent

10:00 News

10:30 Inside Syria

11:30 Talk To Al

Jazeera

12:30 Earthrise

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Syria

15:00 Al Jazeera

World

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:30 Listening Post

18:00 NEWSHOUR

19:00 News

19:30 Wukan: After

The Uprising

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 Talk To Al

Jazeera

23:00 Empire

14:10 How It’s Made

15:30 Auction

Hunters

16:00 Auction

17:20 Border Security

19:10 Mythbusters

20:35 What

Happened

Next?

21:00 Evil Genius

21:30 Magic Of

Science

21:55 North America

22:50 Outback

Truckers

13:00 Seinfeld

14:00 Happy

Endings

14:30 2 Broke Girls

16:00 The Colbert

Report

16:30 All Of Us

18:30 The Mindy

Project

19:30 2 Broke Girls

20:00 Whitney

22:00 Saturday Night

Live

13:00 Dog With A

Blog

16:35 A.N.T Farm

17:00 Bolt

18:30 That’s So Raven

20:05 Shake It Up

21:40 Good Luck

Charlie

22:00 Shake It Up

22:25 A.N.T. Farm

23:10 Wizards Of

Waverly Place

10:00 12 Dates Of

Christmas

12:00 Sorority Wars

16:00 12 Dates Of

Christmas

18:00 Shark Tale

20:00 The Romantics

22:00 The Guard

14:20 Gadget Show -

World Tour

15:10 What’s That

About?

16:00 Mighty Ships

19:00 Oddities

19:30 What’s That

About?

21:10 Gadget Show -

World Tour

21:35 How Tech

Works

22:00 What’s That

About?

22:50 Futurecar

15:00 The Mob

Doctor

16:30 Coronation

Street

19:00 Psych

20:00 Burn Notice

21:00 C.S.I.

22:00 Defiance

23:00 Grimm

00:00 The Mob

Doctor

01:00 Burn Notice

02:00 Defiance

13:10 Masterchef:

Professionals

14:10 Vacation

17:00 Extreme

Makeover:

Home Edition

20:00 DIY SOS

20:30 Hairy Bikers

Come Home

21:20 Antiques

Roadshow

22:15 Bargain Hunt

13:00 A Fall From

Grace

15:00 Just Crazy

Enough

17:00 Love Will Keep

Us Together

19:00 On The Inside

21:00 Hideaways

23:00 A Separation

QF RADIO 91.7 FM ENGLISH PROGRAMME BRIEF

LIVE SHOWS Airing Time Programme Briefs

SPIRITUAL HOUR

6:00 AM A time of reflection, a deeper understanding of the teachings of Islam.

CHILDREN OF ADAM & EVE

8:00 AM 1.00 & 7:00 PM

The program will provide spiritual sustenance during the month of Ramadan bringing scholars of religions and special guests to discuss various topics of interest for our everyday lives.

YOUR HEALTH FIRST

9:00 AM A series of health tips to benefit the community throughout the observance of the month of Ramadan.

INTERNATI-ONAL NEWS

12:30 PM The latest news and events from around the world.

LIFE IN THE LIGHT OF FAITH

2:00 PM,5:00 & 9.00 PM

The program focuses on how “a life in the light of faith” uplifts and inspires people to live in the fullness of God.

RAMADAN 101 4:00 PM,7:30 & 10:30 PM

The program is a crash course to help you jump right into the spirit of the holy month. Every day the audience is introduced to a new word, this way you can learn more about the traditions and rituals of Ramadan.

MUSIC AND INFORMATION

ALL DAY Loads of music and of course information through QF Radio’s Factoids series.

PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

PLUS | SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013 POTPOURRI16

Editor-In-Chief Khalid Al Sayed Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: plus@pen.com.qa / editor@pen.com.qa

If you want your events featured here, mail details to plus@pen.com.qa

From Qurtuba To CordobaWhen: Until August 31, 1oam-10pm Where: Katara Gallery 1 - Bldg 13

What: This exhibition displays a variety of ornamental details -testimony of past splendour- which is often taken for granted by Cordoba’s dweller (s and visitors. The collection highlights emblematic monuments, walls, doors, towers, minarets and baths, including some examples of Mudéjar art, a more recent architectural style inspired by the influences of Al Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula. Free entry

Omar Khalifa – “Infinite”When: Until Dec 15; 10am—10pmWhere: Katara Cultural Village What: This outdoor photography installation examines ‘the nature of being’. Using digital multiple exposure techniques, an image is crafted that gives us a sense of other-worldliness and depth of perspective through the human form. Free Entry

Qatar National Library Heritage Collection When: Public tours twice every Sunday and Tuesday at 10am and 11:30am. Where: Qatar National Library What: Qatar National Library’s remarkable Heritage Collection is a rare trove of manuscripts, books, and artefacts documenting a wealth of Arab-Islamic civilisation and human thought. Among its more than 100,000 works, the collection contains an edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia, which was printed in Rome in 1478 and is the oldest printed map showing the name of Qatar or referred to in Latin as ‘Catara’. Free Entry

Events in Qatar

IN FOCUS

People at the sand dunes in Mesaieed.

by Geo Thomas

Send your photos to plus@pen.com.qa. Please mention where the photo was taken.

MEDIA SCAN

• There is discussion about a statement

by an official from the Supreme Health

Council that 66 percent of the nurses

and 13 percent of the doctors applying

for a job submit forged documents.

• There is talk about transforming all

institutions working independently

under the umbrella of the Supreme

Education Council into departments

operating directly under the Council.

• People are demanding that the

authorities ensure that shopping malls

have play areas for children, as many

parents take their kids with them when

they go shopping, and malls are closing

these areas during Ramadan.

• Some people are demanding that the

traffic department promote awareness

about Qatar’s traffic rules among

visitors, as many of them overtake

wrongly and cause confusion and road

accidents.

• There is talk about two warehouses

owned by the HMC in the Industrial

Area catching fire on Friday evening,

and people have demanded that the

authorities review safety and security

systems to prevent fires.

• Residents of Al Raffa area have

complained of drivers driving on lanes

allocated to bicycles, endangering the

lives of cyclists.

• There is discussion about a statement

by the traffic department about Qatar

being ranked first for a reduction in the

number of road accident victims.

• Discussion about results of the second

term examinations continues in social

media.

• Talk continues about the unrest in

Egypt, where the opposing groups are

dug in even as tensions escalate.

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

Coffee can reduce suicide risk by half, says studyLONDON: A study has suggested having two to four cups of coffee every day can reduce the risk of suicide among men and women by 50 per cent.

The finding was reached after researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health reviewed data from three previous US studies.

They found that the risk of suicide amongst adults, drinking several cups of caffeinated coffee on a daily basis, was about half compared to those who drank decaffeinated coffee, very little coffee or no coffee at all, Daily Mail reported.

The study, of 200,000 men and women, examined data which outlined their caffeine consumption both cof-fee and non-coffee sources — including

tea, caffeinated soft drinks, and chocolate.

Unlike previous investigations, said lead researcher Michel Lucas, “we were able to assess association of consumption of caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages”.

“And we identify caffeine as the most likely candidate of any puta-tive protective effect of coffee,” the research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health added.

Caffeine works by stimulating the central nervous system but may act as a mild antidepressant by increas-ing production of certain “feel good” neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline.

The researchers reported this could explain why earlier epidemio-logical studies have found a lower risk of depression among coffee drinkers in the past.

The authors, in spite of the find-ings, have not recommended that depressed adults self-medicate by increasing their caffeine consump-tion as an increase could result in unpleasant side effects.

IANS