Features

WASHINGTON — Comedy horror slasher “Happy Death Day” had an excuse to celebrate last weekend as it stormed straight to the top of the North American box office, according to industry figures released on Monday.

With takings of $26 million according to Exhibitor Relations, it comfortably knocked last week’s leader — the long-awaited “Blade Runner” sequel — into second place.

Starring Jessica Rothe, Universal’s “Happy Death Day” follows a college student who repeatedly relives the day she was murdered until she discovers who killed her.

“Blade Runner: 2049” continued what has been seen as a disappointing run — halving last weekend’s earnings with takings of $15.5 million. 

The highly anticipated sci-fi reboot features Ryan Gosling as a new Los Angeles Police Department “blade runner” charged with killing bioengineered androids known as “replicants”.

After uncovering a secret that threatens society, he embarks on a search for Harrison Ford’s character, a former blade runner who disappeared 30 years ago.

Sitting in third place was STX Entertainment’s “The Foreigner”, starring Jackie Chan as a Vietnam War special forces operator turned London businessman, who seeks revenge after his daughter is killed in a terrorist attack. 

Based on the 1992 novel “The Chinaman” by Stephen Leather, the action thriller took a modest $13.1 million.

Meanwhile, freaky horror sensation “It” — starring Bill Skarsgard as a creepy clown — slipped into fourth in its sixth week in theaters. 

With receipts dropping by over a third from last weekend to $6 million, the popularity of the box office smash based on a cult Stephen King novel — total earnings $314.9 million — seems to be gradually easing.

After spending its first weekend in second place, Fox’s “The Mountain Between Us” fell to fifth, with $5.8 million.

Starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba, the feature tells the story of a surgeon (Elba) and a journalist (Winslet), who fall in love as they fight to survive following a plane crash on a snowy Utah mountain range.

Rounding out the top 10 were “American Made” ($5.5 million), “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” ($5.4 million), “The Lego Ninjago Movie” ($4.3 million), “My Little Pony: The Movie” ($4.1 million) and “Victoria and Abdul” ($3 million).

Female adolescent athletes may take more than twice as long to recover from concussions as their male counterparts, a small study suggests. 

Researchers examined data on 110 male and 102 female athletes, ranging in age from 11 to 18 years, who sustained their first concussion while participating in sports. 

Half of the girls reported still having symptoms at least 28 days after sustaining a concussion, while half of the boys no longer had symptoms after 11 days, the study found. 

“We have known for at least the last decade that females who participate in similar sports as males have higher rates of concussion,” said Dr Mark Halstead, director of the Sports Concussion Clinic at St Louis Children’s Hospital. 

“Boys and girls likely have different recovery courses, but we have to treat each concussion individually,” Halstead, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Adult coaches need to create an environment and culture for their players that stresses that a concussion is an important injury to not downplay and encourage the reporting of symptoms.” 

Concussions represent almost 9 per cent of all injuries in high school athletics, note Dr John Neidecker, a sports concussion specialist in Raleigh, North Carolina, and his colleagues in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. 

Emergency room visits for sports concussions have surged in recent years due to both heightened awareness of these injuries and the increased intensity and duration of practices and competitions, they write. 

To assess the duration of symptoms, the researchers examined patient records for young athletes treated for concussions at one medical practice in New Jersey from 2011 to 2013. The athletes were 15 years old on average. 

Injured boys most often participated in football, wrestling, lacrosse and ice hockey. Most of the girls who sustained concussions participated in football, basketball, softball, field hockey or cheerleading. 

Overall, 75 per cent of the boys recovered from their concussions within three weeks, compared to just 42 per cent of girls. 

There was not a statistically meaningful difference in recovery time based on the type of sport played or whether athletes were participating in middle school or high school athletics. 

Beyond its small size and focus on a single medical practice, another limitation of the study is that the medical records rely on teens to accurately recall and report their own symptoms during exams, the authors note. The researchers also did not have a complete picture of the circumstances that caused concussions or the severity of injuries. 

It is also possible that some of the difference in recovery time for boys and girls was due to pre-existing medical conditions, said Dr Monica Vavilala, director of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Centre (HIPRC) at the University of Washington in Seattle. 

“More females had pre-existing migraines and mental illness which may be very important and more so than inherent biological differences,” Vavilala, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Larger studies that specifically examine sex biology are needed to understand the effect of sex on recovery trajectory after concussion.” 

While more severe concussions can produce more serious and lasting impairments, the study also did not detail the extent of cognitive, balance, vision or other symptoms, noted Anthony Kontos, research director of the Sports Medicine Concussion Programme at the University of Pittsburgh. 

“First and foremost, the current findings highlight the importance of seeking proper care following a concussion,” Kontos, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

“There are a lot of treatment interventions from behavioural management to vestibular and vision therapy that help athletes recover from concussions,” Kontos added. “However, a large number — estimates are as high as 55 to 60 per cent — of young athletes with concussions do not receive clinical care beyond the initial diagnosis.” 

Arriving to global markets late last year and in Middle East markets in recent months, the second generation Peugeot 3008 has already won European plaudits and is now nominated for the region’s own UAE-based 2018 Middle East Car of the Year awards. 

A stylish and seemingly upmarket — yet attainable — take on the compact crossover segment, the 3008 is a strikingly futuristic French take on an ever-popular segment, with a number of distinctive features and almost hatchback-like driving sensibility and agility. 

Distinctive and dynamic

A bolder, more dynamic and vibrant design than most rivals and its own MPV-like predecessor, the new 3008 is a compact and car-like drive but with distinctly sharp SUV-like styling. Fresh and feisty in aesthetic, the concept car-like 3008’s lines and surfaces are complex yet uncomplicated, and is chunky, sharp, defined and jutting in execution. 

Seemingly ready to pounce, the 3008 has a sense of forward motion about it, with pert rear, blacked out floating roofline design and tailgate-top spoiler.

Sporty and urgent in demeanour, the 3008 features scalloped wings, clamshell bonnet and pinched flanks. Meanwhile its fascia features a weaving chequered grille and claw like motifs for the front and rear lights, in reference to Peugeot’s lion emblem. SUV-like in design, the 3008’s 219mm ground clearance is generous for mild off-road driving. 

And while offered only with front — rather than four-wheel drive, the 3008 does, however, feature an Advanced Grip Control system, which leverages electronic traction control to maintain limited wheelspin to maintain momentum and traction over loose surfaces.

Confident efficiency

The most fuel efficient of the 3008 model all turbocharged model range consisting of two diesel and two petrol model, the 1.6 BlueHDI 120 S&S version — with stop/start function — is the sort economical vehicle that Jordanians can look forward to only if restrictions on diesel passenger cars are removed. 

Driven during the global launch event in Italy, the BlueHDI 120 is not quite as muscular as the range-topping 2-litre diesel-powered 3008 GT or the petrol THP165, but burning just 4l/100km combined, is even more economical than the 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol THP130.

Developing 118BHP at 3500rpm and a hefty 221lb/ft torque at 1750rpm, the BluHDI 120 isn’t as responsive off the line as other 3008s or as zippy at top-end as the petrol models. However, with one light-handedly working its six-speed manual gearbox and intuitive clutch pedal to keep it within its high torque mid-range sweet spot, the BlueHDI drives with confident, muscular and thrusting flexibility. With little by way of diesel clatter at low revs and smooth in mid-range, the BlueHDI 120 accelerates through 0-100km/h in 11.2-seconds and is capable of 189km/h.

Comfort and composure

Charging up a narrow, long and roughly paved route with flexible consistency and confidence during test drive, the BlueHDI 120 maintained its composure and verve even when driving over a sudden crest followed by a dip in the road imperceptible from the angle of incline. With its long wheel travel ensuring traction remained consistent, the BlueHDI’s supple springing allowed it to settle back down comfortably, while taut damping provided buttoned down reaction on rebound control, and altogether demonstrated poised vertical control.

Comfortable, forgiving and fluent over imperfections and even unpaved roads, the 3008 meanwhile demonstrates good body control, with slight yet progressive lateral weight shift well controlled with little lean for its segment.

Seemingly lighter on its feet, more eager and intuitive with front-wheel-drive and subsequently restrained 1304kg weight, quick and direct steering and comparatively narrow yet 205/55R19 tyres, the 3008 felt nimble, eager and tidy into corners and through narrow switchbacks. At cruising and highway speed, it was refined and stable, while brakes were reassuring and effective.

Well equipped and packaged

Stylishly designed, economical, reassuring and pleasant to drive, the 3008 is also well-equipped with a long list of standard and optional features including distance alert and brake assistance, dynamic cruise control, lane departure warning and blind spot warning systems. 

For off-road driving, its generous 207mm ground clearance is helped by electronic assistance systems that include hill descent control. Inside, and for higher specification models, the 3008 can be optioned with scented air circulation, high quality sound system, massaging seats and an electric-assisted scooter stowed in the boot for use in urban areas after parking. 

Spacious and distinctly stylish inside, the lower spec BlueHDI 120 version driven featured good quality fabric upholstery and soft textured trim and tablet-style infotainment screen, but more generously specified models can even be had with real oak trim and leather seats. Uniquely designed, the 3008’s futuristic cabin features a small chunky steering wheel that one peers over to view the advanced and configurable digital i-Cockpit instrument panel. 

This layout, along with a high and well-adjustable driving position also provides better road visibility. Well packaged, the 3008 also provides good passenger and cargo space, including good rear headroom for tall passengers. 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6-litre, turbodiesel, transverse 4-cylinders

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, common-rail direct injection

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, front-wheel-drive

0-100km/h: 11.2-seconds

Maximum speed: 189km/h

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 118 (120) [88] @3500rpm

Specific power: 75.6BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 90.7BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 221 (300) @1750rpm

Specific torque: 192.3Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 230.7Nm/tonne

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 4.7-/3.5-/4-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 104g/km

Fuel tank: 53-litres

Length: 4447mm

Width: 1841mm

Height: 1615mm

Wheelbase: 2675mm

Track, F/R: 1601/1610mm

Overhang, F/R: 923/849mm

Ground clearance: 219mm

Approach/departure angles: 20°/29°

Boot capacity, min/max: 591-/1580-litres

Headroom, F/R: 915/912mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1493/1484mm

Kerb weight: 1304kg

Tyres, F/R: 205/55R19

On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements

Ella Shohat

London: Pluto Press, 2017

Pp. 464

This book contains a selection of the writings of Ella Shohat, Professor of Cultural Studies and Middle East Studies at New York University: “texts that critique the intellectual and methodological ‘separation fence’ that has segregated struggles, stories, and possibilities”. (p. 18)

While her research springs from her own background, these texts, written over a period of 35 years, show how she developed and expanded her ideas on displacement and the political/cultural silencing of marginalised populations into an inclusive global perspective. 

Born into an Iraqi-Jewish family that was forcibly transplanted to Israel in the early 1950s, Shohat’s original focus was on the precarious position of Arab Jews (Mizrahim) in the new state. She chronicles the abuses they suffered, including the kidnapping of their babies to be adopted by Ashkenazim (European Jews), a scandal that is finally being investigated by the Israeli government over half a century later. Overall, the Mizrahim were considered backward or worse by the Ashkenazi leadership, and Shohat zooms in on their cultural suppression. In fact, they had no voice, no real place in the official Israeli narrative, for they could not be both Jews and Arabs, the latter being designated as “the enemy”. “If Palestinians paid the price of Europe’s industrialised slaughter of Jews, Arab Jews woke up to a new world order that could not accommodate their simultaneous Jewishness and Arabness.” (p. 3)

Refreshingly, Shohat does not engage in competition about who has suffered most; nor does she equate the displacement of Arab Jews with the Palestinians’ dispossession, but contends that the two displacements are connected. “What is desperately needed for critical scholars is a de-Zionised decoding of the peculiar history of the Mizrahim, one closely articulated with Palestinian history.” (p. 121)

Thus, the status of Mizrahi Jews is not only an internal Israeli matter, but should be part of seeking a solution to the conflict. “Like the shared plural space that was Palestine, the Arab-Jew is a reminder/remainder of the plurality in the Arab world more generally. Both ‘Palestine’ and ‘the Arab-Jew’ in this sense are not only tropes of loss and mourning but also figures of inclusivity… the concepts evoke a memory of a shared past while also pointing to a likely future of re/conciliation.” (p. 10)

In 1981, when Shohat relocated from Israel to the US, she felt more at home in New York, which was filled with multicultural persons like herself, and she became part of the progressive academic community there. Shohat’s perspective in many ways overlaps with that of Edward Said, and she pays tribute to his great contributions to scholarship on the Middle East with his seminal work, “Orientalism”. It is not by accident that the title of her groundbreaking essay, “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims” (1988), was patterned on the title of one of Said’s early expositions of the Palestinian cause. Like for Said, breaking down false dualities is not only an academic exercise for her: “It is about rewriting our history and writing a new pathway for the future”. (p. 424)

Well before multiculturalism and postcolonialism were common approaches in western academia, Shohat established her reputation as a cultural critic — and drew much criticism in Israel — with her book, “Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation” (1989), which expanded her critique of Zionism to include its (mis)representation not only of Arab Jews, but of Palestine and the Palestinians. Besides introducing Shohat’s ideas, the book serves as a review of milestones in the progressive organising and cultural politics in which she participated. In 1989, she attended the Toledo meeting between Sephardi Mizrahi Jews and PLO-linked Palestinians, including Mahmoud Darwish, later writing: “we insisted that a comprehensive peace would mean more than settling political borders, and would require the erasure of the artificial East/West cultural borders between Israel and Palestine, and thus the remapping of national and ethnic-racial identities…” (p. 177)

In 1996, Shohat was among the women who split from the Israeli Women’s Movement to form the Mizrahi Feminist Forum to go beyond “the simplistic Euro-Israeli analysis which reduces everything into a dichotomy of man-versus-woman”. (p. 98) Instead, they aspired to link Mizrahi, Palestinian and feminist concerns, and situate themselves in a multicultural struggle against racism and colonialism. 

Shohat also writes about Mordechai Vanunu, Palestinian and Egyptian cinema, how the media presented the US invasion of Iraq, the continuing relevance of Franz Fanon and many other topics. In all her writing, there is constant examination of concepts one often takes for granted such as nationalism, universalism and humanism. Shohat cherishes hybrid identities and cultural differences, but in a way that encourages the discovery of new-found commonalities. Reading this book will sharpen one’s critical skills, helping to sort out the truth in the avalanche of media to which all are exposed in today’s world.

Always on the cutting edge, Shohat’s ideas are doubly relevant today as efforts to find a democratic, peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are at an all-time low, and massive population dislocations have reached an all-time high.

PARIS — A large-scale switch from tobacco to e-cigarettes would cut smoking-related deaths by a quarter in the United States by 2100, even assuming the gadgets are themselves not risk-free, researchers recently said.

Scientists are still unsure about the potential harms of “vaping” as an alternative to traditional cigarettes, though most seem convinced it is at least safer.

Hypothesising that an e-cigarette carries only 5 per cent of the health risk of the real McCoy, and that only a handful of people will still smoke tobacco by 2026, the researchers said 6.6 million premature deaths could be prevented by 2100.

This represented a 25 per cent drop from the 26.1 million premature deaths projected under the status quo, with 19.3 per cent of American men and 14.1 per cent of women smoking in 2016, the study showed.

Per smoker, this amounted to an average gain in life expectancy of about four months, according to findings published in the journal Tobacco Control.

In a more pessimistic scenario which assumes that e-cigarettes come with about 40 per cent of the risk of traditional smokes, some 1.6 million premature deaths are avoided, said the research team.

This works out to an average life expectancy gain of just under a month per person.

A death is notched up as premature when a person departs before their expected age — say 75 or 80 depending on the country — and is usually preventable through a healthier lifestyle. 

Research is continuing into the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes, with critics fearful the gadget’s “safer” image will create a new generation of nicotine addicts and act as a gateway to traditional smoking.

But even under the researchers’ pessimistic scenario, there were “gains to a strategy that used e-cigarettes to reduce cigarette smoking”، study co-author David Levy of the Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington told AFP.

The benefits were “massive”, commented John Britton of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies.

The findings, he said via the Science Media Centre, “demonstrate the importance of embracing, rather than rejecting, the potential of this new generation of nicotine products”.

E-cigarettes, devices that seek to recreate the experience of tobacco smoking by heating a liquid to release a vapour that is inhaled like smoke, have exploded onto the market in recent years.

An estimated seven million people in Europe alone have taken up “vaping”.

According to the World Health Organisation, tobacco kills up to half of its users — more than seven million people per year.

Of these, nearly a million are people exposed to second-hand smoke.

When medical errors lead to serious injuries, patients and families may feel better when doctors take the time to listen to their feelings about the mistake and explain what can be done to prevent it from happening again, a small study suggests. 

The research team interviewed 27 patients, 3 family members and 10 staff members at three US hospitals that have established programmes to communicate with patients about medical errors and efforts to improve safety — and offer compensation when substandard care causes harm. In every case, patients had either accepted a malpractice settlement or been injured too long ago to file a lawsuit. 

Overall, 27 of the 30 patients and family members had received compensation, and 18 patients continued to receive care at the hospital where the mistake occurred, the study found. 

After mistakes, patient satisfaction was highest when communications were not adversarial and included compensation. Patients and families also expressed a strong need to be heard and expected the physician involved in the case to listen to their feelings about the mistake, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

“When things go wrong in the hospital, doctors tend to be focused on doing what they do best: conveying medical information and treating the patient,” said senior study author Michelle Mello, a law professor at Stanford University in California. 

“They may not realise that what many patients and families need is for them to stop talking and listen attentively to what families have to say about how the adverse event affected them, without redirecting the conversation to clinical issues,” Mello said by e-mail. 

Patients and families had some surprising advice for doctors and hospitals, Mello said. 

“Things like, don’t send a social worker to disclose the adverse event, because families see her coming and think their loved one has died,” Mello said. “Or, even if our doctor isn’t ‘a people person’ and is terrible at breaking bad news, we want to talk to him, because he’s the one accountable for what happened.” 

Another surprise was that both victims and clinicians said it was helpful to have plaintiffs’ attorneys join these conversations, said lead study author Jennifer Moore, of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. 

Overall, 35 of 40 respondents thought lawyers could help, the study found. 

“Some patients reported that their attorneys helped to heal the broken trust between them and their health provider,” Moore said by e-mail. “Several patients and families even described their attorneys as ‘angels’ because they were so pleased with the process and result.” 

Although patients and families expressed a strong desire to know what would be done to prevent errors in the future, 24 of the 30 participants said they did not get information about safety improvements, the study also found. 

“I suspect that hospitals simply underestimated the importance of providing this information back to patients,” said Dr Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 

“There is a strong incentive for hospitals to make changes to improve quality of care after an adverse event, not only to prevent future similar events from occurring but also because hospitals would look unfavourable if a second adverse outcome occurred and no steps were initially taken to prevent that second event,” Jena, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

Being open after errors may also help avoid litigation, noted Dr Gary Noskin, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and a researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. 

“Traditionally, hospitals follow a ‘deny and defend’ strategy providing a paucity of information to patients,” Noskin, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

At the end of the day, the study, while small, still highlights what may be a fairly universal need patients have after medical mistakes, said Dr William Sage, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study. 

“The importance of individualised engagement and empathy is really the take-home lesson from the study,” Sage said by e-mail. 

PARIS — The world had 10 times as many obese children and teenagers last year than in 1975, but underweight kids still outnumbered them, a study said on Wednesday.

Warning of a “double burden” of malnutrition, researchers said the rate of increase in obesity far outstripped the decline in under-nutrition.

“If post-2000 trends continue, child and adolescent obesity is expected to surpass moderate and severe underweight by 2022,” researchers wrote in The Lancet medical journal.

The team found that there were 74 million obese boys aged 5-19 in 2016, up from 6 million four decades earlier. 

For girls, the tally swelled from 5 million to 50 million.

By comparison, there were 117 million underweight boys and 75 million underweight girls last year after the number peaked around the year 2000, the study said.

Almost two thirds of the underweight children lived in south Asia.

Obesity ballooned in every region in the world, while the number of underweight children slowly decreased everywhere except south and southeast Asia, and central, east and west Africa.

The prevalence of underweight children decreased from 9.2 per cent to 8.4 per cent of girls aged 5-19 over the study period, and from 14.8 per cent to 12.4 per cent in boys.

Obesity grew from 0.7 per cent to 5.6 per cent among girls and from 0.9 per cent to 7.8
per cent in boys.

In Nauru, the Cook Islands and Palau, more than 30 per cent of children and teenagers were obese in 2016. 

In some countries in Polynesia and Micronesia, the Middle East, North Africa, the Caribbean and the United States, more than one in five children were obese.

Make healthy food affordable

Experts divide people into body mass categories calculated on the basis of their weight-to-height ratio. These range from underweight, normal weight, overweight and three categories of obese.

Obesity comes with the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, while underweight children are more at risk from infectious diseases.

Children in either category can be stunted if their diet does not include healthy nutrients.

“There is a continued need for policies that enhance food security in low-income countries and households, especially in south Asia,” said study author Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London.

“But our data also shows that the transition from underweight to overweight and obesity can happen quickly in an unhealthy nutritional transition with an increase in nutrient-poor, energy-dense foods.”

The team used the height and weight data of 129 million people older than five to estimate body mass trends for 200 countries from 1975 to 2016.

While obesity in children and teens appears to have plateaued in rich countries, its rise continued in low- and middle-income countries, they found.

“Very few policies and programmes attempt to make healthy foods such as whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables affordable to poor families,” Ezzati said in a statement.

“Unaffordability of healthy food options to the poor can lead to social inequalities in obesity, and limit how much we can reduce its burden.”

I have something against the size of cameras lenses in smartphones and that of speakers in miniaturised Bluetooth speakers. They are just too small to make great photos or great sound. This has nothing of a macho or other senseless attitude. It just stems from genuine keenness to see beautiful pictures and to enjoy full-bodied sound. 

It is actually one of the high-tech world contradictions. While the digitisation of picture and sound allows generating, preserving and duplicating them in extraordinary quality, technology at the same time is designing and manufacturing devices that reduce that quality.

Over the past few years engineers have succeeded making tiny camera lenses and squeezing them in smartphones. Admitted, the resulting picture quality cannot be labelled as bad, and year after year it all keeps improving. However, can we honestly compare photos taken this way with what one can achieve with a full-size dedicated DSLR camera and a lens that alone weighs 1 kilogramme and sometime more?

Nikon has just released a new full-frame DSLR, the D850. There are posts on the web of sample photos taken with it, coupled with the company’s 70-200mm stunning zoom lens. Just looking at the photos brings you a sense of beauty, of realism, of completeness that no smartphone camera can even come close to. Of course the D850 body alone is $3,300 and the lens about as much in the US market.

When you look at a picture taken with a smartphone, you may be happy with it, assuming it is a good shot in the first place. It is only when you compare it with what a big DSLR camera can achieve that the difference become obvious.

Smartphone makers entice you with numbers such megapixels and the like. But 24 megapixels with a smartphone camera is one thing and 24 megapixels with a DSLR is another! Perhaps the only part that could sustain some kind of fair comparison between the two devices is the internal digital processing of the photo once it is shot, but certainly not the lens.

It is a parallel situation with small speakers. The industry is now able to make units that generate incredible sound power from very little boxes. Just like smartphone camera makers tell you about megapixels to impress you, speakers manufacturers brag about watts.

Here again, 30 watts (real, RMS watts) in big wooden enclosures that weigh 10 kilograms or more cannot be compared to those hand-held, almost pocketable Bluetooth boxes that also arguably are able to blast 30 watts of music. Close your eyes, listen to both, and the difference will astound you. 

Bowers & Wilkins is a celebrated British maker of fine speakers. The average weight of their units is 30 kilogrammes and the dimensions a sizable 100x30x40cm. These are standard home speakers, not models meant for theatres or concert halls that understandably would be much heavier and larger. They also make a mammoth model called Nautilus that weighs 100 kilogrammes; still made for homes! But you do not need to go to such extremes to enjoy great music.

Given the current life style, the fast pace of living, and perhaps before anything else the need for mobility, we certainly need the small and the big, the affordable and the more expensive, the good and the better. What matters is not to be deceived by the advertisers’ arguments and not to take one technological wonder for another. To each its place.

Patients continue to be confused about the roles and responsibilities different doctors play in their healthcare, new research confirms. 

In a new study, gynaecology patients receiving treatment at a teaching hospital did not fully understand the differences between an attending physician, a resident doctor and a medical student. 

“Most patients don’t realise that in a teaching hospital, it’s the residents that are doing the majority of the work,” Dr Ronald Blatt, Medical Director of the Manhattan Centre for Vaginal Surgery in New York City, told Reuters Health in a phone interview. 

Dr Catherine Flood of the University of Alberta and colleagues surveyed 108 women awaiting major gynaecological surgery. Questions assessed patients’ knowledge of residents’ responsibilities as compared with duties of medical students and attending physicians. In addition, researchers measured patients’ comfort level with resident doctors. 

Most women — 83 per cent — understood that residents “had a higher level of training” than medical students, but only 60 per cent realised that a resident is actually a doctor, the authors report in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada. 

That might explain why only 50 per cent of respondents indicated that they would feel comfortable with a resident operating on them, even under the supervision of a practicing physician. 

“Typically, patients are under the impression that [surgical] residents merely assist in pre-and post-operative procedures when, in reality, they are performing the actual surgery,” said Blatt, who was not involved with the new study. “This, of course, is only when the practicing physician is fully confident in the resident’s capability. It’s actually one of the benefits of getting treatment at a teaching hospital. There are more practitioners keeping a close eye on things compared to non-teaching hospitals.” 

Residents have graduated from medical school. They practice in teaching hospitals or clinics under the direct or indirect supervision of an attending physician for several years before deciding on a sub-specialty. But it is important to note that “resident” can mean anything from a first-year intern who is just out of medical school to a chief resident who is in his or her final year of training. 

In this study, while 92 per cent of the women surveyed believed in the importance of knowing their doctor’s level of training, only 63 per cent reported actually having such knowledge. Fifty-six per cent of those polled reported a desire to learn more about the role of resident doctors. 

“Considering the significant role of residents in patient care, educating patients is essential to improve their comfort and the overall consent process,” the authors write. 

This study is the first of its kind in the gynaecological discipline, but there are a few limitations worth noting. The sample size was small and comprised only of a region-specific Canadian cohort, which limits the generalisability of the results. 

To promote a better understanding among patients, the researchers suggest “placing placards throughout teaching hospitals, handing out pamphlets in waiting rooms, or reviewing consent forms in greater depth in the office setting”. 

Previous research, they note, shows that informed patients tend to be more actively involved in their own care and have better health outcomes than their uninformed counterparts. 

“Considering the valuable role that residents play in patient care, educating patients about their providers is essential to improve their satisfaction, comfort and the overall value of the consent process,” the researchers conclude. 

The contrast between the exuberance of Indians and the reticence of the British is most apparent when you emerge from a flight that takes off from one country and lands in the other. In a span of a few hours you can encounter diametrically opposite cultures, from the departure gates of one airport — where the relatives or friends are weeping and hugging their loved ones while bidding them goodbye, to the arrival area of another — where every traveller is received with an impassive and measured restrain.

So, what exactly is the famous British reserve? Why are the Brits generally disinclined to show emotions or feelings or to act in any way that could be viewed as slightly off centre? Where do they get the idea of restricting their gestures and tempering their language? Is it true that most of the nation’s men and women are prone to show “passive” personality traits, as confirmed by the latest research from Mintel Market Intelligence Agency in London? 

Alexandra Richmond, senior consumer and lifestyles analyst at the firm says “far from being a negative label, the fact that the English are more likely to be passive personality types, is something we can be proud of. Passive, in this instance at least, doesn’t stand for not caring or becoming lazy, but shows someone who is easy-going and who wants to keep the harmony. Rather than being a pushover, the Brits are shy of confrontation, going out of their way to avoid causing unnecessary conflict. A passive personality type will presumably be quieter than others but they choose their words wisely and when they do speak, they are likely to say something worth listening to”. 

Also, according to social anthropologist Kate Fox, Brits have struggled to greet each other since “how do you do” became out of fashion. This formal yet standard greeting was a safe way of starting a conversation with strangers but these days they do not know how to interact because its demise has left England puzzled. “There is a ‘nice to meet you’ but quite a lot of upper class people are not happy with that because the etiquette books frown on it. Every single other nation on the planet has a straightforward ritual for greeting someone. We seem to be the only ones who can’t reach a consensus on what is appropriate,” she noted. 

Right! That is why the British have adopted the habit of speaking about the weather which is a conversation starter, an ice breaker or just a greeting and can be used for all sorts of social reasons. But when one says that it is cold and windy today, it does not mean that you are reciting a meteorological report. It is simply a manner of saying hello to an unknown person.

Passing the front desk of the hotel in London on day five of my stay, I notice a new face behind the counter. Accustomed to the usual British reserve from the staff there, I am surprised to hear a cheery “cold, isn’t it” directed at me from an immaculately dressed lady.

“It’s freezing,” I agree.

“Carry an umbrella,” she suggests.

“Thundershowers are forecast at noon,” she continues chattily.

“She’s definitely not English,” says the voice in my head. 

“The weather is unpredictable, like back home,” she drawls. 

“You are from San Francisco,” I state.

“How did you guess,” she asks. 

“I am an Indian clairvoyant,” I joke. 

“Not a British one, thank God,” she laughs.