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BERLIN — Even if you are terrified of heights, jumping out of a plane with a makeshift parachute may begin to look like a good idea once you know the aircraft is running out of fuel.

That, arguably, is akin to the mindset of climate scientists and policymakers brainstorming in Berlin this week on how to compensate for humanity’s collective failure to curb the greenhouse gases — caused mainly by burning fossil fuels — that drive global warming.

In 2015, 195 nations miraculously, if belatedly, vowed to cap the rise of the Earth’s average surface temperature at “well below” 2ºC, and to make a good-faith effort to hold the line at a 1.5ºC.

But the Paris Agreement did not mandate how or when to hit those targets.

With a single degree Celsius of warming so far, a crescendo of impacts — including tropical storms engorged by rising seas, along with deadly heatwaves, fires and droughts — suggest that time is not on our side and that the range of options is narrowing.

“It has become very clear that getting to 2ºC, and especially 1.5ºC, is very dependent on our ability to remove large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere,” Naomi Vaughan, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia, told the opening plenary of the Climate Engineering Conference 2017.

Indeed, 90 per cent of projections in the UN climate science panel’s most recent report that would keep the planet under the 2 C threshold depend heavily on such “negative emissions”. (The others assume greenhouse gas emissions peaked in 2010, when in fact they are still climbing.) 

“It is a matter of considerable concern that we are not sure how to do this on the scale needed,” Myles Allen, head of the University of Oxford’s Climate Research Programme, told AFP.

Deflecting sunlight

Michael Taylor, an atmospheric scientist from the University of West Indies, underscored the urgency in the aftermath of the two Category Five hurricanes — projected to increase in frequency — that recently ravaged the Caribbean.

“The region’s climate will be so significantly altered that it will not just be unfamiliar,” he told colleagues. “It will be unprecedented.”

One of two broad categories under the geoengineering umbrella, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) schemes include “enhanced weathering” of rocks that soak up CO2; large-scale production of charcoal from organic waste; sequestering CO2 cast off from burning biofuel plants; and sucking carbon dioxide directly from the air with high-tech machines.

Even the massive planting of trees — which store CO2 as they grow — is seen as part of the “CDR” arsenal.

The other, far more controversial approach to climate engineering, known as solar radiation management, would deflect enough sunlight back into space to cool the planet a degree or two. 

This, proponents say, could be done by injecting billions of tiny reflective particles into the stratosphere, or chemically brightening mirror-like ocean clouds.

“It will be very difficult to meet the Paris Agreement goal of even staying below 2ºC without resorting to at least one, if not both, of these forms of climate engineering,” said Mark Lawrence, scientific director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, which is hosting the four-day conference.

Impacts on a planetary scale

Some scientists think climate engineering of any kind is a slippery slope.

“It diverts attention away from the need to reduce emissions,” Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, and a former vice chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told AFP.

“CO2 removal gives the illusion that we can continue using fossil fuels indefinitely,” he said.

Other experts who have reluctantly embraced the necessity of geoengineering to help fix the climate are more nervous about fiddling with the sun’s radiative force.

“This is the first time since the development of nuclear weapons that we have a set of technologies which has the potential of impacting Earth, as well as human society, at a planetary scale,” said Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water in New Delhi.

Solar radiation management could disrupt rainfall patterns, and thus agriculture, say critics who also worry about what is sometimes called “termination shock” — a sudden warming if the system were to fail. 

There is also the danger of conflicts over side-effects — real or perceived, Allen said.

“Countries that are suffering from drought will blame whoever is doing solar radiation management for their troubles,” he said.

Because such technologies could be deployed unilaterally by a single country, or even a company, they also raise questions about who should set the rules.

“We have to imagine governance arrangements that have never been imagined before,” said Ghosh, who says research should continue in the meantime.

LOS ANGELES — “Blade Runner 2049” is heading for a downbeat $32.8 million opening weekend at 4,058 sites in North America.

Monday’s final result throws serious doubt onto what had been high hopes for a box office success story. In one of the most surprising turnarounds in recent years, “Blade Runner 2049” fell far short of expectations, which had been in the $45 million to $50 million range at the start of the weekend amid stellar reviews, strong advance ticket sales, and the revered status of 1982’s original “Blade Runner”.

Instead, the film grossed only a moderate $12.7 million on Friday, including $4 million from Thursday night previews. Saturday saw an 11 per cent decline to $11.4 million and Sunday’s total was $8.7 million.

The key factors for the under-performance were the movie’s 163-minute running time — which limits the number of showings each day — plus far less traction among younger moviegoers than anticipated.

“The core of enthusiastic and loyal ‘Blade Runner’ fans were over 25 and predominantly male and propelled the film as expected to the top spot, but a lengthy running time and lesser interest among females made it tougher for the film to reach the original weekend box office projections,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore.

According to PostTrack, males over 25 represented 50 per cent of the audience and females over 25 were 27 per cent, while males under 25 represented 15 per cent of moviegoers and females under 25 were 8 per cent. Males gave the movie an A CinemaScore, while females gave it a B+.

Warner Bros. is handling domestic distribution on “Blade Runner 2049”, starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, through its output deal with Alcon Entertainment. Financed by Alcon and Sony and laden with special effects, the film carries a $150 million price tag. Denis Villeneuve helms the sequel film, which is set in a bleak 2049 Los Angeles with Gosling starring as an LAPD officer dealing with replicants seeking freedom.

Warner Bros. Domestic Distribution President Jeff Goldstein said “Blade Runner 2049” had fallen short of expectations in mid-sized and smaller markets along with the South and Midwest, where the running time and Major League Baseball play-offs appeared to have held down attendance.

“We did well in the major and high-profile markets,” he added. “Alcon and Denis made an amazing movie. The audience for it was narrower than we anticipated.”

Fox’s opening of survival drama “The Mountain Between Us”, starring Idris Elba and Kate Winslet, was the weekend’s runner-up, coming in slightly below projections with a moderate $10.6 million at 3,088 venues. Based on the Charles Martin novel, the film stars Elba as a surgeon and Winslet as a journalist who are left stranded together following a plane crash. Reviews have been mixed, earning the film a 46 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The fifth weekend of New Line’s blockbuster “It” showed plenty of staying power in 3rd place with $9.6 million at 3,197 sites. It will close the weekend with $305 million domestically plus $298.8 million internationally to top the $600 million worldwide mark.

Lionsgate’s animated “My Little Pony” trotted in 4th with a modest $8.9 million at 2,528 locations, slightly above forecasts. Based on the Hasbro toys and TV series, the movie’s voice cast includes Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Uzo Aduba, and Sia.

Fox’s third weekend of “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” come in 5th with $8.7 million while  Universal’s second weekend of “American Made” came in 6th place, followed by Warner’s third weekend of “The Lego Ninjago Movie” with $7 million. Focus Features’ expansion of Judi Dench’s “Victoria & Abdul” came in 8th with $4.2 million at 732 locations.

“Flatliners” ($4 million) and “Battle of the Sexes” ($2.6 million) rounded out the top 10.

PARIS — A house-size asteroid will give Earth a near-miss on Thursday, passing harmlessly inside the Moon’s orbit while giving experts a rare chance to rehearse for a real-life strike threat.

Dubbed 2012 TC4, the space rock will shave past at an altitude of less than 44,000 kilometres — just above the 36,000km plane at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth.

That represents about an eighth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

NASA’s Mike Kelley, who leads the exercise to spot, track and intimately probe the transient visitor, insisted there was “no danger. Not even for satellites”.

“We’ve now been observing TC4 for two months, so we have very accurate position information on it, which in turn allows very precise calculations of its orbit,” which will not cross that of Earth nor its satellites, he told AFP.

As its name suggests, the object was first spotted five years ago when it called on Earth at about double Thursday’s projected distance, before disappearing from view.

It is 15 to 30 metres wide — about the size of the meteoroid that exploded in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk in central Russia in 2013 with 30 times the kinetic energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The resulting shockwave blew out the windows of nearly 5,000 buildings and injured more than 1,200 people.

While the Chelyabinsk event caught everyone unawares, TC4 is one of thousands of space rocks whose whereabouts are known. 

Millions are not.

On its 609-day loop around the Sun, TC4 will return to Earth in 2050 and 2079, according to Ruediger Jehn of the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object programme in the Netherlands.

“We know today that it will also not hit the Earth in the year 2050, but the close flyby in 2050 might deflect the asteroid such that it could hit the Earth in the year 2079,” he told AFP by e-mail.

With a one-in-750 chance of hitting the planet then, TC4 is listed at number 13 on the “risk list” of objects posing even the remotest impact risk.

‘We are practising’

“We need to make very precise observations to be able to better predict the return in the year 2050,” Jehn said.

Flybys like this one are actually quite common — about three objects similar in size to TC4 graze past at a similar distance every year.

What makes TC4 special is that it has been chosen to test the global asteroid pre-warning system, fed by a network of observatories, universities and labs around the world.

The asteroid’s close approach will allow teams to evaluate how accurate they were in predicting its orbit and size, while using telescopes to learn more about its composition.

“For us this is a test case,” said Jehn’s colleague Detlef Koschny. “We are practising for the real serious case.”

Many scientists believe the Earth will once again be hit by a space rock of the size that wiped out the dinosaurs, though nobody knows when.

And even if they become better at predicting a strike, there is very little to be done about it, for now.

Futuristic projects mooted to deflect or destroy incoming space rocks have come to nought so far, and the only strategy would be to evacuate people in zones at risk.

TC4 will make its closest approach to Earth just before 0541 GMT on Thursday, at a point south of Australia, according to ESA and NASA.

It will not be visible to the naked eye nor with regular binoculars, “but it can be seen in the night of October 11-12 until about 4:00am from European observatories”, Jehn said.

Arguably Japan’s most accomplished premium automotive brand, Infiniti vehicles traditionally sold in its ostensible home market under the upmarket Nissan Skyline and other nameplates. Since 2012, Infiniti has sought to establish itself as a global brand and moved its corporate headquarters to Hong Kong. 

Its Nissan-Renault Alliance parent company announced a looser platform and driveline sharing alliance with Mercedes-Benz. This started with Mercedes donating an engine for the entry-level Infiniti Q50 executive saloon and most recently Nissan donating the Navara platform to underpin the recently launched Mercedes X-Class pick-up.

Swooping and sporty

For Infiniti, the alliance of convenience with Mercedes has however led to Infiniti’s entry into the premium hatchback segment. Based on the Mercedes A-Class’ platform and driveline, and built at the Nissan alliance’s Sunderland facility in the UK, the Q30 is Infiniti’s most ambitious gambit a car with broader global reach, and is aimed at the likes of the Audi A3, BMW 1-Series and the Q30’s own German donor. Arriving in late 2015, the Q30 is offered with a range of mostly Mercedes-sourced turbocharged diesel and petrol engines, and range-topping four-wheel drive Q30S 2.0T AWD.

Though sharing underpinnings and driveline with the Mercedes A-Class, the Q30S’ design sensibility is distinctly Infiniti. With snouty and broad mesh grille, deep side intakes, slim moody headlights, rakishly descending roofline, sportily long bonnet and low rearwards cabin, swooping lines and jutting ridges and surfacing, the Q30 is complex in detail yet uncomplicated in how it emits a sense of thrusting momentum and eager, ready-to-pounce motion. Sitting 20mm lower than garden-variety versions, the top of the line Q30S 2.0T AWD model drive rides on larger 19-inch alloys and wider, low profile 235/45R19 tyres.

Quick and confident

Powered by the same transversely-mounted 2-litre direct injection turbocharged petrol 4-cylinder engine as the Mercedes A250 4Matic and sharing the same four-wheel-drive system and 7-speed dual-clutch automated gearbox, the Infiniti Q30S is muscular, versatile, punchy and efficient. 

Producing 208BHP at 5500rpm and 258lb/ft torque through a broad 1200-4000rpm mid-range, and suffers little in the way turbo lag from idle. Launches responsively from standstill, and with all four wheels digging into the tarmac, the Q30S AWD sprints through 0-100km/h in 7.3-seconds and onto a 230km/h maximum, yet returns 5.5l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Refined and smooth, the Q30S’s early, broad and generous torque band allows for confident yet relaxed cruising and on-the-move and in-gear versatility for brisk overtaking and confident performance on steep inclines. Muscular in mid-range, its generous mid-range sweet spot underwrites a punchy and eagerly progressive delivery of power. 

Its dual-clutch automated gearbox is seamlessly smooth and swift shifting, and features different driving modes. Alert and responsive in Sport mode where down shifts are executed more eagerly and gears held longer, the Q30S also features smooth Comfort and more economical modes, in addition an engine stop/start system for further efficiency.

Comfort and commitment 

Ensconced low with hunkered down seating and a long bonnet ahead, the Q30S has a sportier, seemingly more luxurious and traditional driving position than most hatchbacks in its segment where on sits high. This ambiance is well reflected by the Q30S’ agile and confident driving experience, with quick and light yet precise steering and tidy turn-in to corners. Maneuverable in town and eager and agile through winding country lanes and hill climbs, the Q30S AWD is flickable yet committed. Its tidy cornering lines and tight road-holding aided by a front-biased four-wheel-system that reallocates power to the rear wheels for traction and grip when necessary on low tractions surfaces.

Riding on tauter and lower sport suspension, the Q30S AWD well controls body lean through corners and feels settled and buttoned down with taut vertical control over dips and crests. Riding slightly on the firm side, the Q30S’s suspension and tyres nonetheless provide a smooth and mostly comfortable ride over imperfections and reassuring stability and refinement on high speed straights. 

Finding a good compromise between sportiness, comfort and stability, the Q30S AWD feels crisp through corners, with understeer and oversteer arriving late but progressively, and easily corrected, if one pushes too hard into or out of a tight corner.

Classy cabin

Classy, sporty and user-friendly inside, the Q30S’s cabin has a distinctly sporty ambiance, with small chunky steering wheel, well-adjustable driving position and supportive and comfortable “S” model specific sports seats with integrated, but non-adjustable, headrests. Rear space and 430-litre cargo volume is decent for its segment. 

A standard panoramic sunroof lends an airy ambiance in contrast to dark and business-like interior hues but likely reduces headroom slightly compared to non-panoramic base models. Cabin materials feature prominent soft textures and quality materials, and include some Mercedes-sourced switchgear. However, cabin design and infotainment system are distinctively Infiniti’s own.

Well-equipped with extensive convenience, infotainment and safety features, the Q30S comes with standard parking sensors, lane departure warning and around view monitor to complement good front and side visibility.

An additional Tech package adds intelligent cruise control and blind spot warning. Also standard to the S is a voice recognition and smartphone and Bluetooth integrated infotainment system with 10-speaker Bose audio system, and forward collision warning and stop system, adaptive brake assistance, and other features.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, turbocharged, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 83 x 92mm

Compression ratio: 9.8:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable timing, direct injection 

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, four-wheel-drive

0-100 km/h: 7.3-seconds

Maximum speed: 230km/h

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 208 (211) [155] @5500rpm

Specific power: 104.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 131.3BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 258 (350) @ 1200-4000rpm

Specific torque: 175.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 221Nm/tonne 

Fuel consumption, combined: 6-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 156g/km

Fuel tank capacity: 56-litres

Length: 4425mm

Width: 1805mm

Height: 1475mm

Wheelbase: 2700mm

Track width, F/R: 1563/1567mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.32

Luggage volume: 430-litres

Kerb weight: 1584kg

Steering: Electric-assisted, rack and pinion

Turning circle: 11.4-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Brakes: Ventilated discs, 320mm/discs, 295mm

Tyres: 235/45R19

ARUSHA, Tanzania — Nigerian neuroscientist Oshiorenoya Agabi may have found a way to solve one of life’s puzzling dilemmas: how to make air travel pleasant again. 

What if you could skip tedious airport security lines, while a special device able to sniff out explosives works silently in the background?

This is only one of the possible uses of what Agabi says is the world’s first neurotechnology device developed by his Silicon Valley-based start-up Koniku and unveiled at the recent TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania.

While those in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are working furiously to create machines that can mimic the brain, or — like tech entrepreneur Elon Musk — implant computers in our brains, Agabi has found a way to merge lab-grown neurons with electronic circuitry.

As many grapple with the finite processing power of silicon, the 38-year-old said he had looked to the brain which is “the most powerful processor the universe has ever seen”.

To simulate the power of just 204 brain neurons would require a supercomputer, he said.

“Instead of copying a neuron, why not just take the biological cell itself and use it as it is? That thought is radical. The consequence of this is mind-boggling,” he said.

So he and a team of geneticists, physicists, bio-engineers, molecular biologists and others set about doing just that, focusing on the problems that were particularly hard for silicon devices to solve. 

This includes detecting volatile chemicals and explosives or even illnesses such as cancer.

‘A world first’

Agabi said the Koniku Kore device is “a world first” and able to do just that, essentially through breathing in and smelling the air.

He said “major brands”, including those in the travel industry, had signed up and the start-up’s current revenues of $8 million (7 million euros) were expected to leap to $30 million by 2018.

One of the main challenges was finding a way to keep the neurons alive, a secret Agabi did not wish to expand on, saying only they could be kept alive for two years in a lab environment and two months in the device.

As AI improves in leaps and bounds, scientists are trying to make and succeeding in making machines more like our brains, able to learn and understand their surroundings: a prospect that is terrifying for many.

Musk, who has repeatedly warned about the perils of AI making humans obsolete, is working on a new project to implant “neural lace” brain-interface technology to prevent humans becoming like a “house cat” to potential machine masters.

However, Agabi, who grew up in Lagos where he helped his mother sell food on the streets, believes the future of AI lies in making machines more alive.

He believes his company could build a cognitive humanoid system based on synthetic living neurons in the next five to seven years.

“It’s not science fiction,” he told AFP.

“We want to build a brain of biological neurons — an autonomous system that has intelligence. We do not want to build a human brain.”

Agabi did a bachelors degree in theoretical physics in Lagos before taking an interest in neuroscience and bio-engineering for his PhD in London.

He spoke at the opening session of the four-day TEDGlobal conference, putting African ideas, innovation and creativity in the spotlight with a variety of speakers who each get an 18-minute window to get across their message of choice.

TED — originally known as Technology, Entertainment and Design — has built a global following for its online videos of inspiring talks devoted to “ideas worth spreading.”

The annual international version is taking place in Africa for the first time in a decade with a new crop of “TED Fellows” from the continent to take to the stage.

“This gathering couldn’t come a moment too soon,” said TEDGlobal co-curator Emeka Okafor. 

“Africa has experienced spectacular economic, demographic and creative growth, but both opportunity and danger are rising at an exponential rate. Our conference will gather the idea catalysts, problem-solvers and change-makers already hard at work here charting Africa’s own path to modernity.”

People who skip breakfast may be more likely to develop atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, than individuals who start each day with a hearty meal, a new study suggests. 

Even after researchers accounted for diet and other risk factors for heart disease, people who routinely skipped breakfast were significantly more likely to develop atherosclerosis compared to individuals who normally had a morning meal, the study found. 

“A greater percentage of energy consumed earlier in the day may favour cardiovascular health,” lead study author Dr Valentín Fuster of the CNIC in Madrid and Mount Sinai Heart in New York City said by e-mail. 

Previous research has linked skipping breakfast to a higher risk of problems that can lead to heart disease such as obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol, researchers note in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 

For the current study, researchers examined data from dietary questionnaires completed by 4,052 adults who did not have a history of heart problems. 

Overall, just 3 per cent of the participants reported skipping breakfast, while 69 per cent typically consumed a light morning meal (accounting for 5 per cent to 20 per cent of total calories for the day) and 28 per cent had a hearty breakfast (accounting for more than 20 per cent of the day’s caloric intake). 

Those who skipped breakfast were more likely to be male, smokers and dieters who consumed the bulk of their daily calories around lunchtime. 

When they ate, breakfast skippers tended to spend no more than 5 minutes on their morning meal and consume mostly coffee or orange juice. 

Compared to people who had a hearty breakfast, individuals who had a light breakfast were still 21 per cent more likely to have damage in a major artery in the neck and 17 per cent more likely to have damage in a major blood vessel in the abdominal area. 

In addition to having the greatest risk of atherosclerosis, people who skipped breakfast also had the greatest waist circumference, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. 

Participants who skipped breakfast were more likely to have an overall unhealthy lifestyle, including poor overall diet, frequent alcohol consumption and smoking. They were also more likely to be overweight or obese. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove that skipping breakfast directly causes heart problems or hardening of the arteries. 

Another limitation of the study is that some people may have been skipping breakfast because they were obese and were trying to lose weight or improve other risk factors for heart disease that could also contribute to atherosclerosis, the authors note. 

“Many overweight people who might be skipping breakfast or other meals in the hope of losing weight should keep in mind that studies have repeatedly shown that contrary to the commonly held belief, such habits can be associated with [weight gain] and might lead to significant metabolic abnormalities including the increased risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes,” said Dr Prakash Deedwania, author of an accompanying editorial and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. 

“Indeed, these studies have proved the age old concept that breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Deedwania said by e-mail. 

Individuals who regularly eat breakfast also tend to have a healthier lifestyle, exercising more, eating better and smoking less than people who skip their morning meal, said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a nutrition researcher at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York City who was not involved in the study. 

“I think that, for everyone, consuming a healthy breakfast is a great way to meet guidelines for fruits, whole grains, lean protein,” St-Onge said by email. 

“It doesn’t have to be large,” St-Onge added. “Many people are not that hungry in the morning, and it doesn’t have to be very elaborate. 

The important thing is not to wait too long to eat, because people may then resort to unhealthy snacks or whatever they can grab on the go to give them a boost until it’s time to eat lunch, she said. 

“Having a healthy first meal just sets the tone right for the rest of the day,” St-Onge added.

By Andrew Evans 

AQABA, Jordan — On Day 38, the temperature hit 41°C.

Like a slow animal, I slid into a narrow crescent of purple shade, napping beneath a rocky overhang until the sun softened in the late afternoon. The song of a shepherd’s flute echoed off the canyon wall, and the sky glowed an almost digital blue.

By dusk I was hiking once again, shoes in sand, sifting through a kilometre of empty desert as a full white moon rose from behind a broken wall of mountains. The rippled dunes went on forever. Camels hovered on the horizon. The silence was tremendous. Night came with a spread of stars and a cooling breeze that gently ruffled my tent until I was lost in sleep.

Nowhere on Earth have I felt the unbelievable calm that I experienced on the Jordan Trail. This newly mapped 645-kilometre route leads walkers across the up-and-down landscapes and through the staggering history of this impressive little kingdom.

I began my hike in the northern village of Umm Qais, a cobblestone village mentioned in the New Testament — the place where Jesus cast demonic spirits into a herd of swine and sent them tumbling over a cliff.

For the first two weeks of hiking, I could feel my legs getting stronger as I tackled small hills painted green with springtime wheat. Olive groves and lemon trees shaded the path, along with the ancient Corinthian columns of many a Greek ruin. The epic past sits on the surface of Jordan. There were moments on the trail when I found myself sifting through shards of Roman pottery or the Stone Age tools of an even older civilisation, before trudging up the well-worn steps of a crusader castle.

About half the time on the trail, I camped in my own tent, enjoying the quiet wilderness and the pastoral view that I unzipped each morning. In larger towns, I checked into hotels for a hot, soapy shower and a fluffy bed. The rest of the time, I stayed with locals as part of the Jordan Trail’s home-stay programme. The complete trail network includes 52 smaller communities, where participating families host passing hikers for the night. Nothing beats breaking (fresh-baked) bread with a Jordanian family in their own home, all of us gathered together on the floor and dipping into plates of homemade hummus or aromatic rice and chicken roasted over a fire. In time, I found myself speaking more Arabic than I ever thought I could learn, while even the youngest children on the street know enough English to shout out, “Welcome to Jordan!”

The Jordan Trail is not exclusively for the young and athletic. Before this trip, i would never hiked more than five days in a row. I did not undergo any special training for my long-distance trek; I simply started walking, pushing through the first days and feeling my body getting stronger and leaner as the weeks flew past.

Hiking the Jordan Trail

What it is like to hike the newly mapped 645-km Jordan Trail, where walkers can explore the up-and-down landscapes and staggering history of this impressive little kingdom.

Rather than some intense physical feat, the Jordan Trail offers a slow-motion endurance test. The biggest struggle is coping with the daytime heat and taking care of your body by drinking plenty of water, eating good food, resting well and keeping your feet clean, dry and blister-free. (A support van transporting the bulk of our gear met our group each night and provided our tents, if necessary, fresh water refills and food. Licensed tour operators and local hiking companies can be found on the Jordan Trail Association’s website at jordantrail.org/join-a-group.)

The reward is an unforgettable journey through the heart of the Middle East, exploring lesser-known sites such as Mount Nebo, where some say Moses is buried, and Little Petra, an ancient metropolis carved from stone — minus the buses and crowds of nearby Petra. The final stretch leads hikers through whistling sandstone canyons and the cinematic red deserts of Wadi Rum, a recognisable backdrop from movies such as “The Martian” and “Rogue One”.

That last stretch of desert may be the hottest part of the journey, but it also might be the most beautiful section of the trail, where the rocky landscape is splashed with surreal colours, and Bedouin nomads wave you into their woolen tents for tea.

On Day 45, my once-in-a-lifetime journey finished on the glistening shores of the Red Sea, just a few kilometres from the Saudi border, where I stepped over the white waves and collapsed into the warm, shallow saltwater. My elation had less to do with actually completing the full trek — or the fact that I had lost just over 11 kilogrammes along the way — and far more to do with the incomparable joy of truly knowing a country in a way that few tourists ever experience.

As a lifelong traveller who has been to over 100 countries, I know that there is no better way to see a destination than on foot, living among the people who call the place home. That is the allure of the Jordan Trail: to be fully immersed in a timeless culture, forget all about the outside world and follow the sun all the way to the sea.

If you go

Running the length of the country, the Jordan Trail is divided into eight distinct parts, with each section taking four to six days to trek. Our group split up some of the longer daily distances into two-day hikes and added rest days at the end of each section, so that our total thru-hike took 45 days. Since the official opening of the trail earlier this year, a few adventurous solo hikers have completed the journey in fewer than 25 days. 

For shorter trips, visitors might consider tackling one or two of the more dramatic sections, such as Umm Qais to Ajloun Castle, Dana to Petra, or Petra to Wadi Rum. Whether travelling as a supported group — highly recommended for inexperienced hikers — or as a go-it-alone solo hiker, a strict “leave no trace” policy is encouraged. 

The route is not well marked in places, so a GPS device is essential to stay on course. From a weather and scenery standpoint, February through April is an ideal time to do the hike. For more information on arranging home stays, hiking guides and other support services, contact the Jordan Trail Association at jordantrail.org.

Meditation may help reduce the risk of heart disease when it is added to proven approaches like lifestyle changes or drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, US doctors say.

In its first guidelines dedicated to meditation, the American Heart Association (AHA) stresses that the benefits haven’t been clearly established because studies have generally been too small, brief or poorly designed to draw broad conclusions. But the AHA research review concludes that meditation may have some benefits beyond just reducing stress, said Dr Glenn Levine, chair of the AHA task force on clinical practice guidelines. 

“Meditation can be considered as an adjunctive lifestyle intervention in those interested in this practice,” Levine, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said by e-mail. “We do not believe meditation should be undertaken as a substitute for well-established and recommended lifestyle and medicinal interventions.” 

The practice of meditation dates back as far as 5000BC. While meditation is associated with certain philosophies and religions, today it is practiced by people from many walks of life as a way to improve focus and relaxation, Levine and colleagues note in the Journal of the American Heart Association. 

The guidelines do not address mind-body practices such as yoga and Tai Chi because the physical activity in these pursuits has been proven to help lower the risk of heart disease. 

Instead, the AHA focused on sitting meditation, including a variety of common forms such as: Samatha; Vipassana (Insight Meditation); Mindful Meditation; Zen Meditation (Zazen); Raja Yoga; Loving-Kindness (Metta); Transcendental Meditation; and Relaxation Response. 

Among other things, these inactive forms of meditation may be associated with decreased levels of stress, anxiety and depression, and improved sleep and overall well-being, the AHA guidelines note. 

Meditation might also help lower blood pressure, but there is not enough evidence yet to show whether or how much blood pressure might decline for individuals. 

Some studies have also suggested that meditation might help people quit smoking, the guidelines conclude. 

Meditation may help lower the risk of heart disease by countering the impact of stress on the body, said Dr James Stahl, a researcher at the Geisel Medical School at Dartmouth College and at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in Lebanon, New Hampshire. 

When people are under stress, their fight or flight response can kick in, leading to a release of stress hormones as well as spikes in blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen consumption and a release of inflammatory chemicals in the body, Stahl, who wasn’t involved in the guidelines, said by e-mail. 

“This is perfectly appropriate when confronted by a tiger but not so much if ordinary things like traffic trigger this response,” Stahl said. 

Meditation can trigger the opposite of a fight or flight response, encouraging the body to slow down and improving risk factors for heart disease like metabolic problems or inflammation. 

Some patients may even be able to try meditation along with diet and lifestyle changes before they move on to drugs, Stahl said. Meditation will work best, however, if people practice with the help of a trained professional. 

With regular practice, meditation may also help improve quality of life, especially emotional and spiritual aspects, said Bei-Hung Chang, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester who was not involved in the guidelines. 

“Meditation generally has low risks, and low costs,” Chang said by e-mail. “Once learned, the technique can be practiced anytime and in any place, and integrated into one’s way of life.” 

LONDON — Fish have complex individual personalities, a British university study found in recently published research.

Scientists from Exeter University in southwest England studied how individual Trinidadian guppy fish behaved in various stressful situations and discovered wide differences in how they responded.

The researchers studied their coping strategies in situations designed to trigger various levels of stress.

They found their modes of behaviour could not simply be explained as risk-taking or risk-averse.

“When placed into an unfamiliar environment, we found guppies have various strategies for coping with this stressful situation — many attempt to hide, others try to escape, some explore cautiously,” said Tom Houslay, of the university’s Centre for Ecology and Conservation (CEC).

“The differences between them were consistent over time and in different situations.

“So, while the behaviour of all the guppies changed depending on the situation — for example, all becoming more cautious in more stressful situations — the relative differences between individuals remained intact.”

The tiny guppies were individually transferred to an unfamiliar tank, to create a mild level of stress, while a higher level of stress was caused by adding models of predatory birds or fish.

The study found that while introducing predators made the guppies overall more cautious, individuals still retained their distinct personalities.

“We are interested in why these various personalities exist, and the next phase of our research will look at the genetics underlying personality and associated traits,” said Alastair Wilson, from the CEC.

“We want to know how personality relates to other facets of life, and to what extent this is driven by genetic — rather than environmental — influences.

“The goal is really gaining insight into evolutionary processes, how different behavioural strategies might persist as species evolve.”

The paper, entitled “Testing the stability of behavioural coping style across stress contexts in the Trinidadian guppy”, was published in the journal Functional Ecology.

As Cat Stevens used to sing in his famous song: “Baby, baby, it’s a wild world… a lot of things turn bad out there.”

Searching for information on the web probably is the one single action that most people in the world take every day, countless times each day. Apparently very simple, it often leads to deception, and the result can be real bad.

The variety of information you make look for is infinite. It could be simple and straightforward, like for example the name of the capital city of Montenegro, or that of the 35th president of the USA, or the time of day now in Ushuaia, Argentina, in which cases there is little room for deception of course.

At the other end, it could be a more elaborate search if you are looking for solutions to problems, for medical advice, for free software, or how to remove a given virus from your computer. There is a huge number of web sites that are only waiting for you to fall into their trap, and whose intention is to lead you to something totally different from what you came there for in the first place.

These hunters are smart. They are aware of the most common types of web searches you may initiate and therefore they “act” as if they have the information. “Act” here means that their web site has fake information that seems to correspond to what you are looking for. This is what you see when Google, for example, returns the search result. It is only when you click on one of the suggested results that you enter the “false result site”.

What they would do to you then varies from harmless but annoying advertising to downright hacking and the possibility to introduce in your computer a Trojan horse, one of the oldest but nastiest forms of viruses, with the aim of stealing from your machine data, passwords and so forth.

One of the worst forms of such deception is when you look for free software and the treacherous site shamelessly tells you “here it is, click to download it for free”. And of course, it is all designed to make it look good, attractive, genuine, with some very convincing brands logos displayed and all the usual hype that goes with great web site design.

Another kind of search that often leads to deception is when you look for the user manual of a device, an instrument, a machine or a house appliance. Countless sites will invite you to download the manual, until you do so and discover that this simply is not it.

It is surprising to see that after all these years of mass, global computing, of Internet and technology awareness, there is still a huge number of people who do fall into the trap. The temptation to download the miracle solution, and for free what is more, is hard to resist apparently.

Avoiding these misleading results and the ensuing consequences is not so difficult. First of all one has to keep in mind that there is absolutely nothing completely free on the web. There are always strings attached. So whenever a site proposes such a deal, stop and think what could be hidden, read more, take the time to check. When in doubt just refrain.

Double checking is also part of the game. Whenever I find a suspicious result, I copy the link that is proposed and I proceed with another, parallel search where I type “is this link legitimate?”. It always provides interesting feedback and warning. Eventually I repeat it two or three times, until I am convinced of the comments I read. It may be time consuming but it is the price to pay for safety.

Whenever you find a button inviting you to click on it to download a software product or a pdf document, just hover the mouse over the button, without clicking yet, and look at the bottom of the screen where the link that the button represents is displayed. By reading it you can have an idea of the contents and if it is real or not.

For instance if the link reads http://www.catalogs.com/dishwasher-usermanual.pdf then there are good chances that this is really what you came here for. You can go ahead and click to download. Otherwise avoid, at any cost.

Yes, it is a wild world out there.