SUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017

Aamir heads to Beijing for premiere of ‘Dangal’

LIFESTYLE | 8 HEALTH | 10 BOLLYWOOD | 11Inflatable pool toys raise kids’

cancer risk

Email: dohatoday@pen.com.qa

o miere

D | 11

SENSORY SOUK

Alison Saraf and Raana Smith launched ‘Sensory Souk’, a unique online platform, to provide a wide range of sensory support products to help parents and caregivers of children with SPD.

P | 4-5

Pokemon Go players are happy &

friendly: Study

CAMPUSSUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017 03

Rajagiri Public School organised Fresher’s Day on April 9, to officially

welcome the newcomers of 2017-18. It was organised sepa-rately for juniors and seniors.

The new comers of each class were formally called out and were led to the stage. All of them were given a chance to introduce themselves. They told the student community about their family, old school, their ambition in life and their hobbies. The principal

came on to the stage and offi-cially welcomed them to Rajagiri family with a formal hand shake. The student and staff commu-nity gave them a big round of applause as a mark of welcom-ing them to Rajagiri Public School. It was an official func-tion that helped the newcomers belong to Rajagiri School and become part of the Rajagiri Fam-ily. From now on, they are entitled to be called ‘Rajagirians’.

Rajagiri Public School holds ‘Fresher’s Day’

In a ceremony held at Ideal Indian School (IIS) the students council of Boys’, Girls’ and Jun-ior Sections for the year 2017-18 were

administered oath of their office by the Princi-pal Syed Shoukath Ali.

Boys’ Section: Head Boy, Fawas Suhail; Assistant Head Boy, Fahad Aqeel; Cultural Sec-retary, Shreyesh,; Sports Secretary, Daron D’Souza; Assistant Cultural Secretary, Obaidiah

Joy; Assistant Sports Secretary, Modassir Baig; Head Prefect, Aimen Qureshi; and Head Sout, Amir Manzoor.

Girls’ Section: Head Girl, Anjana Satheesh-kumar; Assistant Head Girl, Shivani Thakur; Cultural Secretary, Sofia; Sports Secretary, Fathima Ismail; Assistant Cultural Secretary, Var-sha Kalyani; Assistant Sports Secretary, Twayyiba Naseem; Head Prefect, Rawan Abubekr; and Head

Guide, Rahma Nazarudeen. Apart from these, pre-fects, house captains, vice-captains and sports captains from the four Houses of boys’, girls’ and junior sections were also sworn in to their offices. Activity coordinator, house coordinators, house-masters and housemistresses were also inducted on the occasion. Sajith K, Zamina Sulfikar and-Shobha Rajesh are the House Coordinators of Boys, Girls and Junior Section respectively.

Students Council at Ideal Indian School inducted

COVER STORY SUNDAY 16 APRIL 201704

Fazeena Saleem

The Peninsula

Alison Saraf and Raana Smith, residents of Doha, recently launched ‘Sensory Souk’, a

unique online platform, as a trib-ute to their children. Sensory Souk focuses on products to help address challenges faced by children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) mainly due to Autism.

SensorySouk.com provides a wide range of sensory support products as well as authentic infor-mation to help parents and caregivers of children with SPD, a condition in which the brain has trouble interpreting information

from the senses.The idea of establishing Senso-

rySouk.com hit the minds of Alison and Raana as they met at the Child Development Center (CDC), while taking their sons for therapy.

They discussed on numerous occasions about SPD, their sons and the details of their therapy. Raana once loaned Alison a kids book about a child with SPD. They were very excited about it and dis-cussed where it was purchased and how tricky it was to find good, quality resources here in Qatar. They also wanted to share what they had learned on their journey and help to empower other fami-lies. One day It just came together

and turned it into a business. “SensorySouk.com is unique.

There really isn’t anything in the market that has been started by moms of special needs kids and offers the array of products that we do. We are doing this as a trib-ute to our children. It’s a labour of love, built with quality and care to give other parents what they need. The info we share is accurate, use-ful and accessible to all. We share the things we found useful and think other parents and caregiv-ers can benefit from,” Raana Smith Co- founder and managing direc-tor of SensorySouk told The Peninsula.

“We know that sourcing

support aids can be difficult in the region and so providing an online market place for sensory aids was really a way to support this net-work,” she added.

The platform provides a range of must have therapy tools to sup-port a community of sensational children and their families in Qatar as well as in the GCC region.

“All children on the autism spectrum suffer from sensory issues and our website focuses on products to help address those issues specifically. We offer both professional therapy tools and toys to help children organize, self-reg-ulate, play and extend their therapy learning at home,” said Raana.

Unique online platform supports kids with SPD

COVER STORYSUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017 05Referring to the selection of

products available she said, “First, as parents of Special Needs chil-dren, we have a good understanding of what kinds of products provide the best sensory support. We have taken our own experiences and worked with other parents, therapists, and chil-dren to identify product lines to address specific sensory needs. We are constantly working with schools, Special Needs centres and our parent network to ensure our product range is as comprehen-sive as possible, however, as we are always learning about new products, if someone needs some-thing that’s not on the site, please contact us and we will do our best to source it for you.

The Sensory Souk offers var-ies categories of tools such as therapy toys including books, games, musical instruments and puzzles. Education support tools include products which could help in handwriting, colouring and in numeracy. It also has a collection of tools important to be used at school and develop speech and language skills.

However, Sensory Souk is not just a market place but also aims at serving the community through educating and helping parents with useful information on autism and SPD related issues.

“We hope SensorySouk will be a service to the community. Our goal is to ‘Pay it forward,’ share what we’ve learned and empower like-minded parents as much as we can through knowledge, access to resources, and activities for their children,” said Raana.

Although it’s a new initiative

Raana says the response from the c o m m u n i t y h a s b e e n overwhelming.

“We’ve had so much encourag-ing and positive feedback which we are incredibly grateful for. We strive to be a service to our com-munity,” she said.

Products at Sensory Souk can be purchased online and will be shipped to the door step. Deliver-ies are made Sunday through Thursday and all orders are shipped from their warehouse in Doha. They offer a next-day, local delivery service within Qatar and within three days to Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

MARKETPLACE SUNDAY 16 APRIL 201706

North Indians’ Association (NIA), Doha-Qatar organised a Grand Hasya Kavi Samme-

lan on April 7 at DPS Auditorium in Al Wakrah. Around 450 people attended the event. Star attraction of the event was Padma Shree Ashok Chakradhar who anchored the Hasya Kavi Sammelan. Along with Ashok Chakradhar, four other well-known Kavis, Aashkaran Atal, Arun Jamini, Mamta Sharma and Sudeep Bhola entertained the audi-ence with their comical satire and jokes touching a wide-range of sub-jects from the current state of happening in society to some of the widely debated subject in India.

The poets also made an impact on the audience through their song recitals depicting love and stereo-types within different professions.

Even topics with a serious social

message were presented in a man-ner to simultaneously bring laughter and tears to our eyes while re-iter-ating our responsibilities to eradicate evil practices that plague our society. Kuldeep Kour wel-comed the gathering and Anshu Jain introduced & welcomed all kavi’s one by one on the stage. She was remarkable & flawless in render-

ing introduction to all kavi’s.The programme was blessed

with presence of Indian Ambassa-dor to Qatar P Kumaran as Chief Guest. Kumaran; ICC President, Milan Arun, and all Kavi’s were pre-sented with Shawls by managing committee members.

The event was well coordinated and presented by NIA President,

Praveen Sharma; Vice-President Sanjay Arora and Ex. Committee members Sudhir Gupta with sup-port from other Managing Committee members Harish Kan-jani, Mukesh Singh, Anil Mehta, Durgesh Gupta, Abhijit Sarkar, Shiv-ani Mishra, Chandra Gururani, Kuldeep Kour Bahl, Monika Modi and Renu Malhotra.

NIA organises ‘Hasya Kavi Sammelan’

Under the patronage of the Spanish Ambassador to Qatar, Ignacio Escobar,

Atlético Madrid’s first support-ers club has been officially inaugurated in Doha.

The launch ceremony took place at the Doha Exhibition Convention Center and it was attended by a large number of local and international media members, as well as members of the club and the Spanish community living in Doha. The

club’s president, Simón Ponce, stated: “We hope that the sup-porters’ club spreads the name of Atlético Madrid around the Middle East.”

Former Atlético player Rob-erto Solazábal, now the president of the Atlético veter-ans association, sent a message of support to the club as well. The club hopes to bring together all Atlético supporters living in Qatar for games and events in the future.

Atlético Madrid’s supporters

club launched in Qatar

Mediaplus and Friends Cultural Centre organ-ised a seminar in

connection with the World Health Day.

It underlined the importance of mental equilibrium as it would prevent a large number of diseases

Delivering the keynote address on the occasion, Dr Yaser highlighted that family bondage and friendship are very significant components of men-tal health. “If we are able to strengthen these areas it will make wonderful changes in our life,” he said.

Every one should feel there are some one to listen to them and take care of them when required. If this feeling is created the scope for depression will be minimum

Mediaplus CEO, Amanulla Vadakkangara, conducted the event. ICBF Vice-President, PN Baburajan, inaugurated the event.

Oil Gas Marine Publication Managing Director, Renu Gihar; Al Sulthan Medical Centre Man-aging Director, Abdul Samad; PK tar Group Managing Director, PK Mustafa; Elias Jacob and Shaji Monayi spoke on the occasion.

Mediaplus & Friends Cultural

Centre conduct seminar

CAMPUSSUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017 07

SIS Student Council members were conferred with leader-ship roles for the academic

year 2017-18 in a grand investiture ceremony. It was presided over by the President of SIS, KC Abdul Latheef.

Present on the occasion were General Secretary, Abdul Khader; Principal, Dr Subhash B Nair; Sen-ior Vice-Principal, Shihabudeen Pulath; Vice-Principal, Dudley O’Connor; Administrator, Abdul Salam; Head Teachers, Mehjabeen Hasan; Heena Imran; Mathew KC, parents and teachers.

Dr Subhash Nair, inspired lead-ers to be genuine, generous and generative and reiterated the core values of SIS as the guiding factor for development of the leadership

skills. Abdul Latheef, invested the badges of office on the Head Boy, Prabhat Shahi; Head Girl, Amina Karim; IT Secretary, Nishath Ahmed; Cultural Secretary, Sush-anth Kumar Deep; Literary

Secretary; Urba Chowdhury; Sports Captain; Farsan Riaz; Assistant Head Boy; Ahmed Mohammed and Assistant Head Girl; Montaha Ahmed. The badges were also con-ferred upon the House Captains and

House Prefects. Abdul Khader inspired young leaders with his words of wisdom. Vice- Principal, Shihabudeen Pulath, called the SIS Student Council as a global coun-cil of leaders.

Student Council members sworn in at SIS

MES conducted an open house interactive session for the mothers of the cur-

rent batch of Class XII students on April 6.

Almost all the parents of Class XII students of the Girls’ Section attended the meeting and got clar-ified about their roles and responsibilities in the preparation of their wards for the Boards.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the school Principal, Dr Mohammad Harun Khan, quoted Napoleon about the importance of mothers’ role and emphasised the need to support the child wholeheartedly.

He termed parenting as the toughest job and at the same time most enjoyable as well. “As

mothers have a crucial role to play in shaping and moulding the young ones, their contribution towards the academic success of children can-

not be underestimated, he added. Hameeda Kadar, Head of Girls’

Section, reminded mothers about the adverse effect of excessive use

of social networking sites and hence, requested them to exercise close monitoring on their children’s use of social networking.

MES conducts interactive session with mothers

LIFESTYLE SUNDAY 16 APRIL 201708

IANS

Pokemon Go players are more likely to be positive, friendly and physically active than

non-players, says a new study.Players of the wildly popular

mobile game “catch” wild, virtual Pokemon creatures lurking in places like parks and public build-ings, and train them to do battle against one another.

The researchers wanted study the effects of augmented reality games -- like Pokemon Go -- that make use of mobile technology to lay the playing field and rules over the real world.“There’s this idea that playing games and being on your phone is a negative social experi-ence that detracts from things, but there haven’t been many chances to ask large groups of players about their experiences,” said one of the researchers James Alex Bonus from University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US. The researchers surveyed

about 400 people three weeks after the game was launched, asking questions about their emotional and social lives and levels of physical activity before segueing into Poke-mon. More than 40 per cent of their respondents turned out to be Poke-mon Go players, and those people were more likely to be exercising

-- walking briskly, at least -- and more likely to be experiencing pos-itive emotions and nostalgia, said the study published in the journal Media Psychology.

“For the most part, the Pokemon Go players said more about posi-tive things that were making them feel their life was more worthwhile, more satisfactory, and making them more resilient,” Bonus said.

They were also more social. Players were more likely than non-players to be making new friends and deepening old friendships. “The more people were playing, the more they were engaging in behav-iours that reflected making new

connections -- making Facebook friends, introducing themselves to someone new, exchanging phone numbers with someone, or spend-ing more time with old friends and learning new things about them,”

Bonus said.Pokemon Go creator Niantic

now claims 65 million regular users and more than 650 million app downloads since its release in July 2016.

Pokemon Go players are happy & friendly: Study

If you are in dilemma about which photo to set as your profile picture on social

media, let a stranger choose it for you. It will convey bet-ter first impressions, a new study has found.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, Aus-tralia, found that images selected by strangers con-veyed more favourable first impressions than images peo-ple select for themselves.

This is in contrast to pre-vious researches that showed that people tend to portray themselves more favourably than others.

“Our findings suggest that people make poor choices when selecting flattering images of themselves for online profile pictures, which

affects other people’s percep-tion of them,” said David White, lead author of the study.

The study involved 102 students who were asked to select two out of 12 photos of their own face that they would like to set as profile picture in three online net-work contexts -- social networks, dating sites and professional networks.

The participants were then asked to do the same for 12 images of a randomly selected stranger.

“People tend to select images that highlight positive personality traits in line with the context of the website that the image was for,” the findings published the jour-nal Cognitive Research revealed.

Strangers can help you choose

better profile picturesEver wondered what causes your shoelaces to

loosen even when you tie them as firmly as possible?

It is because while running, the force of a foot striking the ground stretches and then relaxes the knot, a study has showed.

As the knot loosens, a second force caused by the swinging leg acts on the ends of the laces, like an invisible hand, which rapidly leads to a failure of the knot in as few as two strides after inertia acts on the laces.

The findings, pub-lished in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, may help understand things like DNA that fail under dynamic forces, the

researchers said. “When you talk about knotted structures, if you can start to understand the shoelace, then you can apply it to other things, like DNA or microstruc-tures, that fail under dynamic forces,” said Christopher Daily-Dia-mond, graduate student at the University of Cal-ifornia-Berkeley. Using a slow-motion camera and a series of experi-ments, the researchers assessed a pair of

running shoes that were laced-up and were on a treadmill.

They found that shoelace knot failure happens in a matter of seconds, triggered by a complex interaction of forces, as when running, the foot strikes the ground at seven times the force of gravity.

In addition, the study showed that some laces might be better than others for tying knots.

Why your shoelaces often get loose

FOODSUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017 09Sara Moulton The Washington Post

I love lamb year-round, although I know that for many folks, it happens to be a special-occa-

sion, feast-day dish. This recipe would indeed be great for Easter dinner - and just as wonderful as the star centerpiece of any Sunday supper.

I grew up eating roast leg of lamb cooked medium-rare. But many lamb-loving cultures prefer it well done - or beyond, as it is braised here. This low-and-slow method melts the connective tis-sue, resulting in meat so tender you can eat it with the utensil in its name.

Hands-on time for this is sur-prisingly brief; you can make it in a single day. But for the deepest fla-vor, you want to make it a day or three in advance, then strain the cooking liquid over the lamb in a bowl, cover and chill it.

The finishing touch is the pis-tou, a French version of Italy’s pesto. Green and herbalicious, it’s just the thing to transform wintry braised lamb into a meal that’s perfect for spring.

FRENCH SPOON LAMB WITH WHITE BEANS AND PISTOU

8 servingsServe with steamed buttered

asparagus, grilled bread and orange-endive salad.

For the stewOne 3 1/2- to 4-pound boneless

lamb shoulder roast, tied with kitchen or butcher’s twine

Kosher saltFreshly ground black pepper2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive

oil1 medium onion, coarsely

chopped

1 medium carrot, scrubbed well then coarsely chopped

4 large garlic cloves, crushed1 tablespoon tomato paste3 sprigs thyme1 cup vinegar1 cup regular or low-sodium

chicken broth4 cups cooked white beans (if

using canned, preferably no-salt-added and rinsed)

For the pistou2 packed cups basil leaves2 teaspoons minced garlic1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oilAbout 1/4 cup freshly grated

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeseFreshly ground black pepperSaltFor the stew: Preheat the oven

to 300 degrees.Season the lamb lightly all over

with salt and pepper.

StepsHeat 1 tablespoon of the oil in

a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the lamb and brown it well on

all sides, then transfer to a plate. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil, the onion and carrot to the pot, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Uncover and cook for about 10 min-utes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then stir in the tomato paste so it’s coating the veg-etables; cook for 2 minutes.

Return the lamb to the pot, fat side up, moving the vegetables around it and toss in the thyme sprigs. Pour in the vinegar and the broth. (The liquid will not cover the meat.) Cut a round of parchment paper the size of the top of the Dutch oven. Crumple the paper so it fits over the meat and vegetables, tuck-ing it down around the sides. Cover the pot tightly with a piece of alu-minum foil and then place the lid on top; you want a tight seal for this braise.

Slow-roast the lamb (lower rack) for 4 1/2 hours, or until the meat falls apart when you prod it with a fork.

Meanwhile, make the pistou: Combine the basil, garlic and oil in a food processor; pulse to form a paste. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in the cheese. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Transfer the lamb to a platter and cover it with foil. Strain the liq-uid and vegetables through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing firmly on the solids to extract as much liq-uid as possible. Discard the solids, transfer the liquid to a fat separator and discard the fat (you should have about 2 cups of liquid). Pour three-quarters of it into the Dutch oven, add the white beans and heat them gently over medium to medium-low heat. Add the remaining liquid to the pistou, whisking.

Remove the strings from the lamb. Cut the meat crosswise into slices; don’t worry if it falls apart a bit. To serve, spoon some of the beans onto each plate, top them with lamb and spoon some of the cooking liquid over them both. Drizzle pistou over each portion.

Tender is the lamb and easy on the cook

HEALTH SUNDAY 16 APRIL 201710

IANS

A combination of vaccine and chemotherapy sessions may help improve both

progression-free survival and overall survival rates for patients suffering from glioblastoma — a malignant tumour affecting the brain or spine, researchers say.

In a clinical trial, 11 patients received a vaccine targeting cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigen pp65, combined with high-dose chemotherapy (temozolomide).

The results, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, demonstrated a median progres-sion-free survival of 25.3 months and a median overall survival of 41.1 months in eight patients.

In the remaining three patients, the disease was progres-sion-free for more than seven years af ter diagnosis ,

the researchers said. “The clinical outcomes in glioblastoma patients who received this combination were very striking,” said lead author Kristen Batich from the Duke University in North Caro-lina, US. The typical median

survival for glioblastoma patients is less than 15 months.

To overcome these poor numbers, the researchers took advantage of CMV’s affinity for glioblastoma, with the viral pro-teins being expressed in roughly

90 per cent of these tumours. They used the CMV as a proxy

for glioblastoma, while target-ing the virus with pp65-specific dendritic cells to spotlight the tumour for the immune system.

Previous work had shown that TMZ generates profound lymphopenia or the loss of immune cells, which offers a unique opportunity to retrain the immune system, Batich explained. The researchers administered dose-intensified temozolomide (TMZ) as a strat-egy to further enhance the immune response. “The dose-intensified temozolomide induces a strong state of lympho-penia. With that comes an opportune moment to introduce an antigen-specific vaccine, which redirects the immune sys-tem to put all hands on deck and fight that target,” Batich said.

Combination therapy good for brain cancer patients

Inflatable toys and swimming aids, like bathing rings and arm-bands, that come with a

distinctive smell may predict a range of potentially hazardous sub-stances that are likely to increase the risk of cancer as well as other health issues in kids, researchers have found.

“There are always toys that emit a smell that is described by parents as ‘pungent’ or even

‘somehow seems poisonous’,” said Christoph Wiedmer from the Frie-drich Alexander Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg (FAU) in Germany.

Some of these compounds, which include carbonyl compounds, cyclohexanone, phenol and isopho-rone, might be critical when present in higher concentrations in chil-dren’s toys. Cyclohexanone can be harmful if inhaled, phenol is known to be acutely toxic and to presum-ably have mutagenic potential and isophorone is a category 2

carcinogen, which means that this is a suspect substance in the devel-opment of cancer in humans, the researchers said.

For the study, appearing in the journal Analytical and Bioanalyti-cal Chemistry, the team conducted tests using an inflatable beach ball, a pair of swimming armbands and two bathing rings they bought off the shelf from local stores and online suppliers in Germany.

The researchers then detected between 32 and 46 odours in each sample, of which up to 13 were quite intense.

A majority of these odorants were identified and among these were several fatty smelling mono- or di-unsaturated carbonyl compounds and their epoxidised derivatives, but also odouractive organic solvents such as cyclohex-anone, isophorone, and phenol.

“Modern products such as toys and children’s products are sourced from a wide variety of chemical and

physical manufacturing processes, and this complexity often makes it difficult for us to identify those con-taining contaminants and unwanted substances, and to determine their

causes,” Wiedmer noted. “However, we found that in a

number of cases our noses can guide us to ‘sniff out’ problematic products,” Wiedmer said.

Inflatable pool toys raise kids’ cancer risk

BOLLYWOODSUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017 11

IANS

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan taught his signature “Lungi dance” step to American film-

maker Brett Ratner, who expressed a desire to direct the actor in a sequel of “Rush Hour” in India here.

The two shared the stage at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFILM), which paid a trib-ute to Shah Rukh in its 60th year.

“One day I want to make a ‘Rush Hour’ sequel in India with SRK in it,” said Ratner, known for direct-ing the “Rush Hour” series and

“X-Men: The Last Stand”, and for producing the Oscar winning movie

“The Revenant”.Both the stars -- suited and

booted -- seemed to have immense fun during their conversation at the Castro Theatre here on Friday evening. Before their tete-a-tete, Ratner posted on Instagram a

photograph of himself with Shah Rukh.

“With the King of Bollywood - SRK - Getting ready for our conversation at SFFILM,” he cap-tioned it. Later, he posted a video wherein Shah Rukh teaches him how to groove to “Lungi dance” -- the catchy number from his blockbuster movie “Chennai Express”. Since the music wasn’t available, the charmer that Shah Rukh is, he took the mic and sport-ingly sang the song as well as taught Ratner some of the steps.

Ratner followed the steps well, and hugged Shah Rukh, who has spent a quarter of a century in Indian showbiz and is one of Bol-lywood’s most known faces across the globe.

“With King Khan doing the Lungi dance during the SFFILM. Inspir-ing, humble, a great dancer, and smells great too,” Ratner captioned

the video. Shah Rukh used the term “awesome” for Ratner, who even gifted him a doll modelled on him-self. “Thanx Brett Ratner for a great evening at the SFFILM, your doll is awesome like you,” he tweeted with an image where he is seen holding up the doll.The Bollywood ‘badshah’ also thanked the festival officials

for the tribute. “You made me feel special and all who came to attend. Love you and hugs,” he tweeted.

Shah Rukh’s “My Name is Khan” was also screened as part of the line-up of movies at the festival, which is even paying a tribute to John Ridley, Gordon Gund, Ethan Hawke and James Ivory.

SRK teaches ‘Lungi dance’ to Brett Ratner

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is in the capital to shoot a cameo for R Balki’s

“Padman”, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonam Kapoor.

Akshay, Sonam and Balki have been shoot-ing here for the film on a real life man who made sanitary pads accessible to women of his village, but Big B joined them yesterday.

In a late night blog post on Friday, the vet-eran actor wrote: “I work tomorrow... A shoot for R. Balki for the film he does with Akshay Kumar. A special appearance for a few min-utes.” Amitabh and Balki have worked together in films like “Cheeni Kum”, “Paa”, “Shamitabh” and he also featured in cameos for the direc-tor’s other projects “English Vinglish” and “Ki & Ka”.

Talking about the director, Amitabh wrote: “Balki does carry his sincerity at every step of his creativity, and must have my presence in some form or another, and so here I am.” The 74-year-old actor has been busy with projects

-- including advertisements -- of late.He sported a heavily bearded look for an

ad, and many on social media conjectured it may be his get up for “Thugs of Hindostan”. But he had later denied it.

“It be for an advertisement that I worked on yesterday with the affable Imtiaz Ali, direc-tor of repute, for one of the products that I endorse,” he posted, even sharing some pho-tographs of two completely different looks that he has sported.

Turning a bit philosophical, Big B said: “And so goes the day and our life... Disguising our shapes and sizes... Hiding the real from the unreal... Never allowing the insides to reveal the outside... No matter what the confessions, the honest blurt outs, the compelling circum-stances... there shall always be that inner that no one shall ever discover. And long may that last.”

Big B shoots cameo for ‘Padman’

Bollywood star Aamir Khan will attend

the China premiere of his blockbuster Hindi entertainer

“Dangal” at the Bei-jing International Film Festival, which begins today. Aamir is a popular Bollywood face in China, especially after the super success of his movie

“PK”, which minted a record of over Rs100 crore with a release across 4,000 plus screens in the country.

“Dangal”, which made upwards of Rs 385 crore at the Indian box office, is expected to resonate well in China too. Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, the movie portrays an inspirational story of former Indian wrestler Mahavir Phogat, who trains his daughters Geeta and Babita to become world-class wrestlers.

The actor will be in China till April 21. After visiting Beijing, he will go to Shanghai and Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

Aamir heads to Beijing

for premiere of ‘Dangal’

HOLLYWOOD SUNDAY 16 APRIL 201712

AFP

Disney debuted its highly-anticipated first trailer for

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” at a fan event in the United States, sending the internet into a frenzy of excitement -- and speculation.

The footage from the eighth installment in the blockbuster space opera, due for release on Decem-ber 15, was shown at the “Star Wars Celebration” gathering in Orlando marking the 40th anniversary of the original movie.

The 132-second clip teases Luke

Skywalker’s first meeting with Rey as he teaches her the ways of the Force, opening with the young apprentice on the island where fans saw her find Luke at the end of “The Force Awakens.”

“Breathe, just breathe. Now, reach out. What do you see?” says a mysterious male voice as the cam-era focuses on a breathless Rey (Daisy Ridley) on her hands and knees beneath a cliff face. “Light. Darkness. And balance,” Rey replies.

“It’s so much bigger,” the voice says. “I only know one truth. It’s time for the Jedi -- to end,” says the

voice, which seems likely to be Luke (Mark Hamill).

The first fully-formed trailer for “The Last Jedi” had almost half a mil-lion views and more than 13,000 comments on YouTube within 90 minutes of being posted, with #The-LastJedi quickly becoming the top trending hashtag worldwide on Twitter. Directed by Rian Johnson (“Looper,” “Brick”), “The Last Jedi” was filmed on the west coast of Ire-land and at Pinewood Studios near London, which Johnson described as being “like Camelot... this myth-ical place” as he was growing up.

The movie sees the return of the characters introduced in 2015’s sev-enth installment, including Rey, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega) and a few members of the original crew, including Luke.

The trailer serves up a cameo from the iconic Millennium Falcon in a dogfight with TIE fighters and there’s also lightsaber-wielding bad guy Kylo Ren as well as Poe, Finn and droid favorites BB-8 and R2-D2.

The film also stars Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa, who appears briefly from behind in the trailer.

First ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ trailer thrills fans

Director Bill Condon is in talks to helm “Bride of Franken-stein”, a remake to the

eponymous 1935 movie. The “Beauty and the Beast” (2017) direc-tor might helm one of the movies set in Universal Monster Universe. The remake will be produced by Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan with David Koepp writing the script, reports deadline.com.

In 1998, Condon helmed “Gods and Monsters”, which followed the last days of James Whale, the direc-tor of the original “Bride of Frankenstein”. The Ian McKellen starrer went on to bag an Oscar for

Best Screenplay and earned nom-inations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Condon has films like “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh”, “Kinsey”, “Dreamgirls”,

“The Twilight Saga’s Breaking Dawn Part II” and “The Fifth Estate” to his credit as director.

Singer Harry Styles, who is no longer a part of band One Direction, is worried how he

will take toilet breaks between performances when he now per-forms solo.

The “Sign of the times” singer used to be able to step off stage to relieve himself mid-show when he was touring with the band, but now that he will be performing solo, he won’t be able to discretely disappear for a few minutes, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“I mean, when 1D used to tour, there used to be times when I could pop off stage and go for a wee during the show if I needed to, because someone else was doing something... And I can’t do

that anymore. I’m a bit worried about it,” Styles told radio station Key 103.

While the 23-year-old is now with Columbia Records, he still values the opinion of his former label head, Simon Cowell.

Bill Condon in talks to helm

‘Bride of Frankenstein’ remake

Styles worried about toilet breaks

TECHNOLOGYSUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017 13

IANS

Artificial intelligence (AL)-powered machines can be reflections of humans and

can acquire cultural biases, a new study has found.

Researchers from Princeton University and University of Bath have found that common machine learning programmes, when trained with ordinary human language available online, can acquire cul-tural biases embedded in the patterns of wording.

These biases range from the morally neutral to the objectiona-ble views — preference for birds over animals to views on race and gender. “We have a situation where these artificial intelligence systems may be perpetuating historical pat-terns of bias that we might find socially unacceptable and which we might be trying to move away from,” said Arvind Narayanan, Assistant Professor at Princeton University.

Researchers believe that it is important to identify and address these biases in machines as humans

increasingly turn to computers for processing the natural language humans use to communicate.

In their findings, the research-ers found that the machine learning programme associated female names more with familial words, like “parents” and “wedding” than male names, while it associated male names with career attributes, like “professional” and “salary”.

“Of course, results such as these are often just objective reflections of the true, unequal distributions of occupation types with respect to

gender — like how 77 percent of computer programmers are male,” the study published in the journal Science noted.

The findings point out that machine learning methods are not

‘objective’ or ‘unbiased’ just because they rely on mathematics and algo-rithms. “Rather, as long as they are trained using data from society and as long as society exhibits biases, these methods will likely reproduce these biases,” said Hanna Wallach, a researcher at Microsoft Research New York City.

Human biases can sneak into AI systems

Google’s digital wallet Android Pay is joining several banks around the world including

Bank of America, Bank of New Zea-land, Discover, mBank and USAA, to make it even easier for its users to pay with Android Pay.

Android Pay powers in-app and tap-to-pay purchases on mobile devices, enabling users to make payments with Android phones, tablets or watches.

“This latest collaboration with banks expands Android Pay’s capa-bilities as an open platform, and moves us closer toward our goal of empowering mobile payments everywhere,” said Pali Bhat, Glo-bal Head of Payment Products, Google, in a post on Thursday.

If you are a customer of one of these banks, you can easily add

cards to Android Pay from your mobile banking app with just the click of a button. After completing the setup, you can use your phone

to tap and pay at millions of stores and wherever you see the Android Pay button in your favourite apps and on the mobile web.

Android Pay now works with mobile apps

Facebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram has surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of “Stories” feature, though the

format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013.According to a report in Forbes on Thurs-

day, Instagram’s “Stories” feature is now used by more than 200 million people every day

-- an increase of 50 million since January. On the other hand, Snapchat who launched the

“Stories” format in October 2013, had 161 mil-lion daily active users in February.

“Stories” feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.

“Instagram Stories appears to have directly hampered Snapchat’s user growth since its debut. Snapchat attributed its slowing pace in part to issues with Android updates and increasing com-petition. However, Instagram’s impact on the chat app seems undeniable,” the report noted.

Instagram ‘Stories’ growth surpasses Snapchat

Facebook is quietly develop-ing the most useful virtual assistant ever that may out-

shine Jarvis the artificial — intelligence (AI) assistant its CEO Mark Zuckerberg developed in 2016. The company’s experimen-tal assistant — called Facebook M

— is offered inside the company’s Messenger app and shows the value of having a true digital but-ler in your pocket.

Instead of just retrieving sim-ple pieces of information from databases, M can understand complex orders and take actions like booking theatre tickets or contacting companies for infor-mation, a report in MIT Technology Review said. M works like Apple’s AI assistant Siri.

FB developing new chatbot

BABY BLUES

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE

After an accident causes Robo-Dog to get lost and lose his memory, he

is taken in by a new family. Tyler enlists the help of Barry as they

scour the town in search of their missing robotic best friend.Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

NOVO — Pearl ROYAL PLAZA

MALL

LANDMARK

Fast & Furious 8 (2D/Action) 10:30, 11:00, 11:40am, 12:00noon, 12:30, 1:15, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 5:00, 5:20, 6:00, 6:30, 6:45, 8:00, 8:10, 9:00, 9:30, 9:40, 11:00, 11:15, 11:55pm, 12:15 & 12:30amGoing In Style (2D/Comedy) 11:00am, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 & 11:00pm Smurfs: The Lost Village (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00 & 8:00pm Yabani Asli (2D/Arabic) 2:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Rabbit School (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 1:30, 5:00 & 8:30pmRobo-Dog: Airborne (2D/Family) 11:40am, 3:10 & 6:40pmEloise (2D/Horror) 10:10pm & 12:00midnight Chips (2D/Comedy) 10:00am, 4:00 & 10:00pm Aftermath (2D/Thriller) 12:00noon, 6:00pm & 12:00midnight Fast & Furious 8 (2D IMAX/Action) 10:00am, 12:50, 3:40, 6:30, 9:20pm & 12:10am

The Great Father (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 11:00pm Rabbit School (2D/Animation) 2:30pmRobo Dog: Airborne (2D/Family) 2:15 & 9:15pm Smurfs: The Lost Village (2D/Animation) 4:15pmThe Fate of The Furious 4:00, 6:00, 6:30, 8:30 & 11:00pm Eloise (2D/Horror) 5:00 & 11:30pm Shivalinga (2D/Tamil) 6:45pmKadamvan (2D/Tamil) 9:00pm

Smurfs: The Lost Village (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 3:45pmRabbit School (2D/Animation) 2:00pmThe Great Father (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 11:00pm The Fate of The Furiour 3:45, 6:15, 8:30, 8:45 & 11:15pm Robo Dog: Airborne (2D/Family) 5:30pm Shivalinga (2D/Tamil) 5:30pm Beauty & The Beast (2D/Family) 7:15pm Eloise (2D/Horror) 9:30pm Kadamvan (2D/Tamil) 11:15pm

The Fate of The Furiour 3:00, 4:30, 5:30, 8:00 & 11:00pm Beauty & The Beast (2D/Family) 2:15pm Smurfs: The Lost Village (2D/Animation) 2:30pmRabbit School (2D/Animation) 4:30pmShivalinga (2D/Tamil) 6:00pm The Great Father (2D/Malayalam) 6:45 & 10:30pm Robo Dog: Airborne (2D/Family) 9:00pm Eloise (2D/Horror) 9:30pm Kadamvan (2D/Tamil) 11:15pm

SUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017

VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

CINEMA PLUS14

ROXYRabbit School 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00pm Begum Jaan 2:00, 4:30 & 7:00pmFast & Furious 8 2:00, 4:45 & 7:30pm Great Father 2:00, 5:00 & 8:00pm Kadamban 8:00pm Shivalinga 9:30pm

ROBO DOG: AIRBORNE

ASIAN TOWNThe Great Father (Malayalam) 4:30, 7:00pm Take Off (Malayalam) 4:30 & 6:30pm Shivalinga 3:00 & 9:30pm Kadamban (Tamil) 7:30pm

CROSSWORD CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

ALL IN THE MIND

08:00 News08:30 Fault Lines09:00 Agora: From

Democracy to The Market

10:30 Inside Story11:00 News11:30 Talk To Al

Jazeera 12:00 News12:30 TechKnow13:00 NEWSHOUR14:30 Inside Story15:00 Al Jazeera World16:00 NEWSHOUR17:00 News17:30 Listening Post18:00 Newsgrid19:30 101 East 20:00 News20:30 Inside Story21:00 NEWSHOUR22:00 News22:30 Talk To Al

Jazeera

13:10 Welcome To The Ronks

13:20 Stuck In The Middle

17:05 Eco Club 17:10 Elena Of

Avalor 17:35 Liv And

Maddie 18:00 Disney The

Lodge 18:25 Little

Mermaid 2 19:50 Welcome

To The Ronks 20:00 Star

Darlings20:30 Bizaardvark 20:55 Bunk’d 21:45 Disney The

Lodge 22:10 Girl Meets

World 22:35 That’s So

Raven

13:45 Mekong: Soul Of A River

16:30 Running With Wolves

18:20 Predators Up Close With Joel Lambert

19:15 Rugged Justice

20:10 Pit Bulls & Parolees

21:05 Lone Star Law

22:00 Predators Up Close With Joel Lambert

23:50 Gator Boys01:40 Mekong:

Soul Of A River

12:15 The Wheel: Survival Games

13:05 How Do They Do It?

13:30 Storage Hunters

14:20 Gold Rush15:10 The Island

With Bear Grylls

16:00 Outback Truckers

20:10 Storage Hunters

21:00 Supe-rtruckers

21:50 Snaketacular 22:40 Running

Wild With Bear Grylls

23:30 Fast N’ Loud

King Features Syndicate, Inc.

BRAIN TEASERSSUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017 15

Yesterday’s answer

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku

is a number-placing puzzle based on a

9×9 grid. The object is to place the

numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

that each row, each column and each

3×3 box contains the same number

only once.

ARCHERY, ATHLETICS,

BADMINTON, BASEBALL,

BASKETBALL, BOXING, CRICKET,

CURLING, CYCLING, DIVING,

FENCING, FOOTBALL, GOLF,

GYMNASTICS, HANDBALL,

HOCKEY, HORSE RACING, JUDO,

LACROSSE, MOTOR RACING,

NETBALL, POLO, ROUNDERS,

ROWING, RUGBY, SAILING,

SKATING, SKIING, SOCCER,

SQUASH, SWIMMING, TENNIS,

VOLLEYBALL, WRESTLING.