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There may be plenty of room for debate about whether some aspects of everyday life cause cancer — whether it’s drinking too much coffee, eating too much sugar or talking too much on a cellphone.

But the opposite seems to be true regarding the causal link with obesity, according to a scientific review by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Fourteen years ago when the IARC, based in Lyon, France, first reviewed relevant studies, its expert panel issued a report finding sufficient evidence that excess body fat increases the risk of certain cancers. Now, the group’s latest reassessment, published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, reaffirms those findings — and adds eight more cancers to the list.

“Since 2002 there have been a lot of new studies conducted. We felt like it was the right time to review the literature and maybe confirm the science that has been established,” said Beatrice Lauby-Secretan, lead author of the article and an IARC scientist responsible for the agency’s Handbooks of Cancer Prevention Series. The IARC is part of the World Health Organisation.

A working group of 21 independent international cancer experts reviewed more than 1,000 studies on cancer risk and excess body fat published since the IARC’s 2002 report. That evaluation identified that preventing weight gain can reduce the risk of colon and rectum cancer; a stomach cancer called oesophagus adenocarcinoma; kidney or renal cell carcinoma; postmenopausal breast cancer and cancer in the endometrium of the uterus. This year’s reassessment added to this list gastric cancer, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, ovary and thyroid cancers as well as the blood cancer multiple myeloma and meningioma — cancer that affects the tissue surrounding the brain and spine.

The risks are highest for corpus uteri, a cancer in the uterus, and oesophagus adenocarcinoma.

“The number of cancers that are linked to obesity has increased a lot, which means a much higher proportion of cancer that occurs today is due to obesity,” Lauby-Secretan said. Public health messages should be tailored to raising awareness about this fact, she added.

Results also were consistent for children, adolescents and adults younger than 25.

Overweight adults are defined in the study as those with body mass indexes (BMI) of 25 to 29.9, while obese adults have BMIs above 30. According to the study, an estimated 640 million adults worldwide were obese in 2014, which is six times more than in 1975. Around 110 million children and adolescents were obese in 2013, two times more than in 1980.

Meanwhile, the report also found that an estimated 4.5 million deaths in 2013 were related to overweight and obesity, a number that may increase as more cancers are found to be related to the condition.

“The epidemic of obesity has become a global concern,” Lauby-Secretan said.

Not all cancers have positive correlations with obesity, though. For example, there is only limited evidence of this link for fatal cancer of the prostate, breast cancer in men and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the most common blood cancer. Evidence is inadequate for cancers of the lung, testis, urinary bladder, brain or spinal cord. While excess fat does lead to higher risks of postmenopausal breast cancer, it does not have the same effect for premenopausal breast cancer.

The reason obesity may increase cancer risks, Lauby-Secretan said, is because excess body fat has been known to trigger chronic inflammation. It also disturbs the regulation of sex hormones. Both are common pathways for the development of cancer cells in the body.

But the awareness about the link can be low especially when Americans are inundated with news about how many substances — coffee or sugar, for instance — may or may not cause cancer. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research’s biennial survey released in February 2015, a little more than half of Americans realise that being overweight can increase cancer risk, a slight increase over prior surveys.

Alice Bender, head of nutrition programmes for AICR, said there will always be studies that disprove or prove links but when you look at the whole body of research, there is a scientific consensus on this particular point. And people can actively reduce cancer risks from excess body fat, Bender said, by eating healthier meals and exercising more.

“Oftentimes people are concerned about exposures in the environment or genetics or things you can’t control,” she said. “Rather than increase fear about this, we can see this as an empowering message: Here is something I can do to help myself lower the risk for many of these cancers... here are some lifestyle changes that I can make.”

Between the two researches, I found myself increasingly following the former one, which claimed that drinking wine before bed would help me lose weight. A study showed that wine and weight loss went hand-in-hand, thanks to a substance called resveratrol, a compound found in red wine that converted “white fat” into “beige fat” which was easier to burn off. Also, late-night sipping of wine curbed snacking that in turn, aided in dropping kilos.

The latter research of course rubbished the assertion of nightly drinking, and insisted I put down my glass at once, because even though the magical component in red wine converted “bad fat” into “good fat”, that was still fat and did not mean it would keep me from gaining calories.

So you see how academics out there contradicted each other? Just when I was rejoicing and beginning to enjoy my nocturnal ritual of gazing at the world through a crimson goblet of full-bodied Shiraz, all the while thinking that I was trimming my waist, out came the facts. A small glass of dry white wine had around 85 calories, medium dry- 95 calories, and sweet about 120. Also, a large (175ml) glass of red wine contained 120 calories.

Right! So I was back to square one. To drink or not to drink was the question. Most women living in Mediterranean countries credited their slender figures to regular wine drinking. They did not eat mindlessly on the sofa throughout the day and their meals were planned events where every mouthful was savoured. It was this discipline of eliminating junk fare like chocolates and crisps and swapping it for wholesome home made food, which they enjoyed with a glass of wine that was relaxing as well as slimming, I realised. 

The motto, as always, was to drink in moderation. People who drank too much had larger bellies because alcohol was a powerful appetite stimulant so the more you drank the more you were tempted to eat. Besides, if you had a lot to drink, the alcohol interfered with your body’s ability to burn fat. “Alcohol blocked the burning of everything else,” said Marc Hellerstein, a professor of human nutrition at the University of California in Berkeley. In other words, if your body was overwhelmed with burning alcohol, your food would be more likely to get stored as fat. Perhaps this was the secret of late-night wine. By drinking it a few hours after dinner, you gave your body a chance to digest it when it would not have to compete with food.

While I was still undecided about the two theories, out came another new one where scientist Dr Gordon Shepherd, from the Yale School of Medicine, discovered that drinking wine gave our brains greater of a workout, than even solving math problems, by engaging more functioning parts of our mind, than any other human activity.

The molecules in wine did not have any taste or flavour, but it stimulated the brain of the wine taster, when they swirled the wine in their mouths, thus creating flavour the same way it created colour, he noted. 

“Aha! Time for a workout,” I announced popping open my favourite wine. 

“So late in the night you going to the gym?” asked my husband. 

“You can say that,” I responded evenly.

“Are you ill?” spouse checked my forehead.

“Never felt better,” I exclaimed swirling the red liquid.

“Salud!” I toasted, when he did not reply.

“Cheers,” he clinked glasses automatically.

Antidepressant use right before and during pregnancy may be linked with a higher risk of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, hints a new analysis of past research.

But pregnant women on antidepressant medications should not stop taking them, because the data that tie their use in pregnancy to ASDs are weak, said the study’s senior author. Additionally, there could be consequences to not treating depression during pregnancy.

“Each prescription should be evaluated individually,” said Dr Florence Gressier, of the Bicetre University Hospital in Le Kremlin-Bicetre, France.

Gressier and colleagues write in JAMA Paediatrics that up to 15 per cent of women have depression during pregnancy. Women with untreated depression are at an increased risk of complications and poor follow up for a number of chronic health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure.

The use of antidepressants during pregnancy is increasing around the world, write the researchers. The most popular ones, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are linked to a number of risks and some benefits during pregnancy.

The researchers add that other research suggests children exposed to antidepressants in the womb are at an increased risk for ASDs, which the US National Institute of Mental Health says are a group of developmental disorders that may affect communication, social and other skills.

For the new analysis, the researchers combed academic databases for studies that examined the link between antidepressant exposure in the womb and the risk of ASDs. They found 10 studies with mixed results.

When the researchers looked at six studies with 117,737 participants that compared people with autism to people without, they found that children were 81 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with an ASD if they were exposed to antidepressants during pregnancy.

Some of that excess risk, however, could be explained by the mothers’ past history of mental illness. 

The researchers found similar results when they looked at antidepressant exposure during specific trimesters.

There was no link between antidepressant use during pregnancy and ASDs when the researchers looked at two studies that followed 772,331 children over time.

Data from four studies did show 77 per cent higher odds of ASDs among children born to women who used antidepressants before pregnancy, .

“I think this is one of these situations where this gets a lot of attention in the media, but the results are actually pretty challenging to interpret,” said Dr Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, of the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry in New York. “In some ways, the strongest association with preconception exposure and increased risk of ASDs suggests to me at least there is something hidden here.”

Veenstra-VanderWeele, who was not involved with the new analysis, told Reuters Health it is difficult to account for several factors that may also explain the increased risk of ASDs. For example, the researchers cannot control for the severity of the mother’s mental illness and how resistant it is to treatment.

“From my perspective, the data on antidepressant use during pregnancy in relation to autism risk would not prevent me from prescribing these medicines,” he said.

More detailed data are required, Gressier told Reuters Health. For example, researchers should collect data on — among other things — the mothers’ depression during pregnancy, depression severity, if the mothers are taking their medications, the dose of the medication and use of other substances.

Swift, safe, stylish and sophisticated, the Audi S5 is the closest thing to a direct descendent to the iconic original Audi Quattro currently available. With the recently unveiled RS5 high performance iteration of the A5 compact executive coupe soon set to take the mantle of successor to the 1980s Quattro, the S5 nonetheless remains more powerful than any road-legal versions of game-changing and milestone model. Rather than an outright brute, the S5 instead bridges the gap between garden-variety A5 models and the RS5, and is perhaps the most well-rounded and accessible car in its segment.

Stylish and sporty

A more stylish, sleek and lower slung personal luxury sister to Audi’s highly accomplished and high tech A4 compact premium saloon line, the S5 is built on the same basic platform. Incorporating sophisticated five-link suspension in front and rear, the S5 also features a similarly more aluminium intensive lightweight body construction as its four-door sister, and sheds up to 60kg over its predecessor, first introduced in 2007. Utilising more sophisticated design including optimised underbody covers and automatic grille shutters, the A5-line achieves remarkable aerodynamic figures as low as CD0.25 and CD0.29 for the more aggressive S5.

A sexier and more stylish car than its’ predecessor, the new S5 seems flatter, wider and sportier, with longer bonnet and shorter front overhang for a sportier stance. Meanwhile, its fascia features bigger air intakes and a broader hexagonal single-frame grille flanked by more defined and slim headlights with LED elements creating a browed effect.

Crisp, clean and un-fussed, the S5’s body features elegant yet defined ridges and character lines, and a wavy line across the flank to draw attention to its wheels. A level waistline and flowing roofline trail off to a pert boot and sharp rear headlights to complete the S5’s aesthetic clarity.

Fast and frugal

Powered by the latest iteration of Audi’s 3-litre V6 TFSI engine, now with a single twin-scroll turbocharger for enhanced efficiency and in place of its predecessor’s supercharger, the S5 produces 349BHP peaking at a broad 5400-6500rpm top-end. Eager through revs and with its climb to peak power underwritten by a muscular 368lb/ft available throughout a wide 1400-4500rpm mid-range, the S5 is ever-flexible and responsive when on the move.

Overtaking with effortless refinement and with a distant snarl at full throttle and as revs build towards its redline, the S5 was surprisingly efficient during its first media test drive on Middle East roads in Dubai.

Efficient yet swift in real world driving conditions and on long motorway jaunts, the S5 officially returns 7.4l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency with the larger 19-inch alloy wheels, as driven. Shod with 255/35R19 tyres digging into the tarmac, and with a quick-spooling turbocharger and Quattro four-wheel-drive ensuring tenacious traction, the S5 launches smartly from standstill, achieving 100km/h in just 4.7-seconds and capable of an electronically-limited 250km/h top speed.

Meanwhile, its smooth, slick and swift shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox features a broad range of ratios to optimise performance, versatility, refinement and efficiency, and features sportier selectable driving modes for quicker responses and a paddle-shift manual mode for more engagement.

Committed and composed

Lighter than its predecessor and riding on a more sophisticated five-link independent suspension set-up front and rear, the new S5 is one of the most agile and balanced cars using Audi’s traditional driveline configuration. With a front weight biased configuration with the engine positioned in-line and ahead of the front axle, the S5 develops huge levels of traction with no torque steer. Traditionally, the downside to this is a nose-heavy driving dynamic, but this is little evident in the S5. Tidy and composed into corners, the S5 is tidy and responsive to directional changes, and features a self-locking centre differential to manage front-to-rear power distribution and enhance agility.

Developing vast levels of traction and grip, the S5 is committed and thoroughly reassuring in it road-holding through corners, able to carry high speeds with composure. Pushed to the edge of its grip limit, the S5’s instinct is for under-steer, but this is mitigated by easing off the throttle slightly or the electronic stability systems. 

For added agility, grip and handling ability, a limited-slip rear differential is optionally available. And while adaptive dampers are also optionally available, the demo car driven wasn’t so equipped, but was set-up with the right balance for taut body control through corners and comfort over textural imperfections.

Smooth and sophisticated

Riding slightly on the firm side over jagged bumps and cracks, the S5 Coupe is otherwise a smooth, comfortable and buttoned down drive with excellent high speed stability and settled vertical control over dips and crests. Featuring quick and direct steering with meaty feel, the S5 is also manoeuvrable and easy to place on the road. Highly practical and user-friendly whether driving winding roads, fast motorways or in town, the S5 benefits from terrific road visibility, aided by reversing camera and parking sensors and optional assistance systems. Highly adjustable steering and seats allow for an alert, comfortable and supportive driving position, while ambiance is airy and instrumentation clear.

Spacious in front and with useable rear seats, the S5 Coupe notable features a generously accommodating and accessible 465-litre boot with flat floor. Thoroughly well-constructed with quality luxury materials and textures, the S5’s cabin is sophisticated to the eye and touch, and features a thick flat-bottom steering wheel, horizontal all-across vents for a sense of space, and user-friendly and intuitive controls and infotainment system. 

Thoroughly high tech, it features advanced infotainment including wifi hotspot for eight devices and predictive next generation driver-assistance and safety systems and adaptive cruise control, turn assist, traffic jam assistance, collision avoidance, rear cross traffic assistance and host of other driver aids.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3-litre, turbocharged, in-line V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 10.3:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 4.714; 2nd 3.143; 3rd 2.106; 4th 1.667; 5th 1285; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.839; 8th 0.667

Reverse/final drive: 3.317/2.848

Drive-line: self-locking centre differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 349 (354) [260] @5400-6400rpm

Specific power: 116.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 206.5BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 368 (500) @1370-4500rpm

Specific torque: 167Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 295.8Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 4.7-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined:

9.9-/6-/7.4-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 170g/km

Fuel capacity: 58-litres

Length: 4692mm

Width: 1846mm

Height: 1368mm

Wheelbase: 2765mm

Track, F/R: 1587/1568mm

Overhangs, F/R: 883/1044mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.29

Headroom, F/R: 1005/920mm

Shoulder width, F/R: 1404/1287mm

Luggage volume: 456-litres

Kerb weight: 1690kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.5-metres

Suspension: Multi-link, anti-roll bars

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres: 255/35R19

Spine surgeons are noticing an increase in patients with neck and upper back pain, likely related to poor posture during prolonged smartphone use, according to a recent report.

Some patients, particularly young patients who shouldn’t yet have back and neck issues, are reporting disk hernias and alignment problems, the study authors write in The Spine Journal.

“In an X-ray, the neck typically curves backward, and what we’re seeing is that the curve is being reversed as people look down at their phones for hours each day,” said study co-author Dr Todd Lanman, a spinal neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. 

“By the time patients get to me, they’re already in bad pain and have disc issues,” he told Reuters Health. “The real concern is that we don’t know what this means down the road for kids today who use phones all day.”

Lanman and co-author Dr Jason Cuellar, an orthopaedic spine surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, write that people often look down when using their smartphones, particularly when texting as compared to browsing online or watching videos. Previous studies have also found that people hold their necks at around 45 degrees, and it becomes even worse as they sit, versus standing, the study team writes. 

The impact on the spine increases at higher flexed postures, they add. While in a neutral position looking forward, the head weighs about 4.5 to 5.5 kilogrammes. At a 15-degree flex, it feels like 12 kilos. The stress on the spine increases by degree, and at 60 degrees, it’s 27 kilos.

“For today’s users, will an 8-year-old need surgery at age 28?” Lanman said. “In kids who have spines that are still growing and not developed, we’re not sure what to expect or if this could change normal anatomies,” he told Reuters Health.

Lanman and Cuellar suggest simple lifestyle changes to relieve the stress from the “text neck” posture. They recommend holding cell phones in front of the face, or near eye level, while texting. They also suggest using two hands and two thumbs to create a more symmetrical and comfortable position for the spine. 

Beyond smartphone use, the spinal surgeons recommend that people who work at computers or on tablets use an elevated monitor stand so it sits at a natural horizontal eye level. With laptops, they recommend a similar adaptation by using a separate keyboard and mouse so the laptop can be at eye level and still create a good ergonomic position while typing.

“It is difficult to recommend a proper posture for smartphone users. If we raise the phone at eye level to avoid the look-down posture, it will add new concerns for the shoulder due to the elevated arm posture,” said Gwanseob Shin of the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology Ergonomics Lab in South Korea, who wasn’t involved with the study.

“A more practical recommendation would be frequent rest breaks or some physical exercise that can strengthen the neck and shoulder muscles,” Shin told Reuters Health by e-mail. “Some apps can give alarming signals to users to avoid prolonged looking-down posture.”

Lanman recommends stretches and basic exercises that focus on posture as well. He tells patients to lie on their beds and hang their heads over the edge, extending the neck backward to restore the normal arc in the neck. While sitting, he recommends aligning the neck and spine by checking that the ears are over the shoulders and the shoulders are over the hips. 

“Ask your friend to take a photo of your upper body when you’re texting, then use the picture as the background image on your phone,” Shin said. “That will remind you to take breaks frequently. Even a short break of a few seconds — called a micro-break — can help our tissues recover.”

PARIS — After training a network of telescopes stretching from Hawaii to Antarctica to Spain at the heart of our galaxy for five nights running, astronomers said on Wednesday they may have snapped the first-ever picture of a black hole.

It will take months to develop the image, but if scientists succeed the results may help peel back mysteries about what the universe is made of and how it came into being.

“Instead of building a telescope so big that it would probably collapse under its own weight, we combined eight observatories like the pieces of a giant mirror,” said Michael Bremer, an astronomer at the International Research Institute for Radio Astronomy (IRAM) and a project manager for the Event Horizon Telescope.

“This gave us a virtual telescope as big as Earth — about 10,000 kilometres in diameter,” he told AFP.

The bigger the telescope, the finer the resolution and level of detail.

The targeted supermassive black hole is hidden in plain sight, lurking in the centre of the Milky Way in a region called the Sagittarius constellation, some 26,000 light years from Earth.

Dubbed Sagittarius A* (Sgr A* for short), the gravity — and light-sucking monster weighs as much as 4 million Suns.

Theoretical astronomy tells us when a black hole absorbs matter — planets, debris, anything that comes too close — a brief flash of light is visible. 

Black holes also have a boundary, called an event horizon.

The British astronomer Stephen Hawking has famously compared crossing this boundary to going over Niagra Falls in a canoe: if you are above the falls, it is still possible to escape if you paddle hard enough. 

Once you tip over the edge, however, there is no going back.

The Event Horizon Telescope radio-dish network is designed to detect the light cast-off when object disappear across that boundary.

“For the first time in our history, we have the technological capacity to observe black holes in detail,” said Bremer.

The virtual telescope trained on the middle of the Milky Way is powerful enough to spot a golf ball on the Moon, he said.

The 30-metre IRAM telescope, located in the Spanish Sierra Nevada mountains, is the only European observatory taking part in the international effort.

Other telescopes contributing to the project include the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in the desert of northern Chile.

All the data — some 500 terabytes per station — will be collected and flown on jetliners to the MIT Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts, where it will be processed by supercomputers.

“The images will emerge as we combine all the data,” Bremer explained. “But we’re going to have to wait several months for the result.”

It is worth stopping, thinking and taking stock of the current cloud computing situation, mainly among consumers.

If pundits estimate that the phenomenon as it is known today was launched circa 2006, it is only since 2011 that the wide public has started to be really affected — no negative meaning implied here by the term “affected”.

There has been a noticeable slowdown throughout the entire year 2016. Despite the obvious, constant and insisting push by the industry to make you do more in the cloud all the time, it looks like some plateau value has been reached at this point. 

Take the most obvious example of Microsoft’s Office 365, the cloud-based version of the company’s indispensable Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.). It is not only its maker that is pushing you to use it but also countless online services.

Godaddy, perhaps the world’s largest and most powerful company providing domain name registration, hosting, website hosting and e-mail hosting, wants you to subscribe to its e-mail service that is associated with Office 365. It is only when and if you insist that you only want “regular, plain” e-mail hosting, without Office 365, that Godaddy accepts to provide a subscription with “no cloud attached”.

On www.windowscentral.com John Callaham last week said that “there are now 1.2 billion Office users and 60 million Office 365 commercial customers”. This clearly shows that the vast majority still prefers to use local versions of Office, installed on their computer, and not cloud-based ones.

Whereas some users go for cloud computing, and for parts of their work and data only, the rest chooses to stick to more traditional computing forms and methods. It all looks like some sort of modus vivendi, some equilibrium has been reached at this point in time.

Just storing files and data in the cloud, however, as opposed to working on cloud applications, has certainly gained ground, with more and more people choosing to save data up there, including personal contents such as photos, videos and even accounts.

The two reasons that are preventing consumers from going fully cloud have not changed over the last four or five years. First is the fact that trust in the cloud, when it comes to data confidentiality, is not complete, and it will probably never be so. Second is Internet connectivity that is not as perfect as one would need it to be to make you want to work all the time from the cloud. This second point, understandably, greatly varies from country to country.

I have been experimenting for quite a while with three of the major cloud storage services out there: Dropbox, Google’s Drive and Microsoft’s OneDrive, carrying the experiment in parallel on these three fronts, using actual data, intensively, and on a daily basis. None is perfect and all are useful and practical; I would say they complete each other. The average rating I would give them, the three of them combined, is 8 out of 10. I wish it were more in the range of 9.5 to 10. And this is just about straightforward storage, without any processing at all.

A large number of software products are gradually becoming available exclusively as cloud services. Despite the trend, a large number of users have decided to keep working locally and not remotely. 

Yet, Kim Weins (www.rightscale.com) last year stated that “private cloud adoption increased from 63 per cent to 77 per cent” in 2016. Other analysts estimate that the actual figure is more in the 55 to 58 per cent range.

Considering all the above it is reasonable to say that at this point in 2017 we are in a status quo and that the cloud computing trend is very slow, if not at a standstill.

When it was reported a few years back that Prince Charles talked to plants, I must admit that I laughed the loudest. I found the whole idea both amusing and endearing but later dismissed it as yet another regal eccentricity that the blue blooded royalty occasionally indulged in. Besides, this was nothing compared to some of the bizarre hobbies the various Maharajas and Maharanis of my home country India, had. 

The Nawab of Junagarh was said to have owned 800 dogs, each with its individual human attendant. Also, the last Nizam of Hyderabad used the “Jacob Diamond”, which was the fifth largest diamond in the world, as a humble paperweight. And, King Jai Singh of Alwar had ordered a fleet of Rolls Royce, only to use them as cleaning cars, for transporting the city’s waste. 

If all of the above were irregularities, how could talking to a car be the most natural thing in the world? Well, that was so, because long before cars started speaking to us via the GPS, we were all talking to our cars. Think back to how often you sat in your car, switched it on and prompted a “hey, start up now” encouragement to the engine? Or, if you could not find the windshield wiper knob on the wheel, you asked the car where it was, expecting an immediate response? Or when there was a tiny parallel parking space available in a crowded street, you checked with the car, to somehow get it accommodated there?

In fact, most women also had names for their cars and not all of them were christened “Betsy”. It was said that naming a car, in a sense, gave it a personality.  It was a way for the owner to form some kind of bond with their vehicle and feel a greater sense of responsibility.  

The first car that my parents owned was a black Ambassador, which did not actually have a name but for the longest period my siblings and I referred to it as “Adjust”. That is because despite all the other conversations my father and mother had in the car, that particular word cropped up most frequently. Ours was a spacious automobile where ideally five people could sit comfortably but at any point in time, there were at least four passengers in the back seat alone, with an equal number of kids on their laps, and three folks squeezed in the front, and more willing to be seated. My parents never refused a ride to anyone and simply asked everyone to “adjust”. 

Oh, how I hated being little and could not wait to get old enough to be in the driver’s seat. That was the only place where nobody else sat though there were instances when its leg space had to be “adjusted”. No one wore seat belts and none of the traffic regulations were enforced but surprisingly there were hardly any road accidents then. With so many people inside the vehicle, the engine could not accelerate, I guess. 

I still remember that my mother had performed certain prayers to welcome the car, which also involved splitting of a coconut and burning some incense.

“Don’t wave the incense sticks so close to Adjust,” my brother had warned. 

“You mean the car? Why not?” I asked. 

“She might get burned,” he scolded. 

“What will happen then?” I questioned.

“I will have to pour coconut water on her,” he explained. 

“Good adjusting, I mean, thinking,” I applauded.

BUSIA, Kenya — In this sunny part of Kenya, solar cookers — which trap sunlight to heat food — have surged in popularity in recent years. But a big problem remains: How to cook when the sun doesn’t shine?

Communities are now starting to sort out solutions, from insulated baskets that hold onto heat after the sun disappears to use of back-up fuel-efficient charcoal and firewood stoves.

“Fluctuations in sunshine can hinder cooking using the solar [system] but with the basket we nowadays prepare tea during the day and can drink it after sunset,” said Peter Wanga, whose family has been using a solar cooking system since last year.

The insulated basket “conserves enough heat to cook food even when there is no sunshine” — and is affordable and easy to use, he said.

In Busia County, in western Kenya, as many as 1,500 households have turned to solar cooking, mostly over the last four years, according to county ministry of energy figures. Other families have adopted more efficient charcoal or firewood stoves.

The changes in large part have been driven by Farmers with a Vision, a local community organisation based in Bumala Township.

Over the last four years, “we have sold thousands of solar cookers and energy saving charcoal and wood stoves, and also found a platform to promote use of solar energy appliances such as lighting equipment” said Didacus Odhiambo, the organisation’s chief executive officer.

He said the clean energy effort has faced significant challenges, including as many as 60 per cent of buyers defaulting on loans for equipment — a problem the organisation is still trying to sort out. Many households struggle to find the upfront money to buy the more efficient cooking technology, he said.

Faster cooking, more trees

The switch to more efficient cooking aims to cut deforestation in Kenya, and health problems related to cooking over smoky fires. Those who have bought the new systems say another attraction is that they require only about a third of the usual time to cook food or heat water — a big savings of women’s time.

Julius Magero, an official in the ministry of energy and petroleum in Busia County, said that besides protecting increasingly scarce forests, the stoves also are helping women spend less time searching for fuelwood.

Lilian Nyapola, a member of Farmers with a Vision, said the new technologies — most of which cost on average $25 to $60 — have led to a decline in use of firewood and paraffin, which are costly and emit smoke.

“The uptake of solar cookers and energy saving wood stoves and thermos baskets is high,” she said. She sells around 14 clean cooking devices a month, she said — enough that now virtually all of the homes in her neighbourhood now use them.

Nyapola said her 32-member organisation has worked in schools, churches and homes to train community members on the new technologies, and that men have backed women switching to new cooking technology, not least because food can be cooked faster and rarely burns, and children are not injured in fires.

To afford the equipment buyers can access credit from Farmers With a Vision, or local microcredit agencies, Nyapola said, with loans often paid back over half a year or more.

Odhiambo said the group is in talks with M-Kopa, a money lending scheme owned by Kenya’s leading mobile telephone company, Safaricom, to allow buyers to make payments for equipment via their mobile phones.

‘Battling cloudy days’

Originally the group focused only on selling solar cookers, Odhiambo said, but after complaints about problems using them on rainy or cloudy days, or at night, members broadened their approach.

Now the group offers a range of different solar cooking boxes, parabolic reflector cookers, solar thermos systems and other devices, including clean cookstoves.

Box cookers — designed with help from the Free University of Amsterdam — trap sunlight that shines through the box’s glass top, using it to heat food placed inside. The device “can cook when the sunshine is low and when not much light is available. It retains heat and can cook for additional three hours”, Odhiambo said.

He said his organisation also has partnered with EcoZoom, , a company that builds cast iron improved wood and charcoal stoves.

Daniel Maneno, an official with the national ministry of energy and petroleum in Busia County, called the initiative useful, particularly as training on renewable energy technology is provided free of charge.

He said the ministry is also promoting tree-planting efforts in collaboration with the Kenya Forestry Research Institute as part of a broader effort to protect trees and reduce deforestation.

Launched last year as the Stuttgart tri-star brand’s range-topping gambit into the compact executive coupe segment, the Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe is a beguilingly thundering thug with supercar-rivalling performance and a mesmerisingly addictive soundtrack from its twin-turbo V8 engine. A refined and luxurious compact high performance personal luxury coupe on the one hand, the C63 S is also somewhat of a handful when prodded. Direct and balanced dynamically but with brutish output, the C63 S Coupe is perhaps best described as a premium muscle car, not too unlike the Jaguar F-Type SVR sports car, featured recently in these pages.

Shark-fins and flares

The more powerful, wild-eyed and feverishly ferocious of two V8-propelled AMG skunkworks iterations of the more sedate garden variety Mercedes-Benz C-Class family of saloons, estates, coupes and cabriolets. Competes directly with the BMW M4 GTS and a speculated “Plus” version of the soon-to-launch Audi RS5, the C63 S Coupe’s potential is evidenced by its aggressive aesthetic take on the base C-Class Coupe’s fluent and flowing lines and arced roofline. With bigger, deeper and hungrier air intakes, lower front air splitter and sills, quad rear tail pipes, rear air diffuser, discrete spoiler and (non-functional) bulging rear brake vents, the C63 S cuts a muscular figure. 

Reflecting its wider track and reworked rear assembly, the hot C63 S Coupe features more potent and immediately obvious flared wheel-arches, so increases body width by 64mm at the front and 66m at the rear.

Meanwhile, twin bonnet ridges lend the C63 S a moodier and more dramatic presence, whether viewed from outside or protruding and shark fin-like from the driver’s seat. Driven in lairier Edition 1 trim, the C63 S features side race decal and an off-set go-faster contrasting stripe running along the bonnet, roof and boot. Edition 1 versions also receive larger alloy wheels with grippier staggered 255/35R19 front and huge 285/30R20 rear tyres.

Volcanic V8

Nothing short of villainous in the tingling sensations it evokes, the C63 S’ brutal twin-turbocharged direct injection 4-litre V8 engine stirs to life with a crack of thunder that settles to potent gurgling, burbling and crackling note at idle and low revs. Digging deep in its melodic repertoire, it goes through a resonant bass-rich mid-range staccato, intense, pounding growl as it races through towards a lofty turbocharged rev limit in the region of 7000rpm. Developing 503BHP at an urgent yet broad 5500-6250rpm top-end and a gut-wrenching 516lb/ft torque over an accessible 1750-4500rpm mid-range, the C63 S Coupe can attain an electronically-governed 250km/h or 290km/h when de-restricted. 

Of similar ability as its epic and seamlessly high-revving naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 predecessor, Mercedes-AMG’s downsized twin-turbo 4-litre V8 is however tuned for more power in the current C63 S. With its turbos positioned within the cylinder banks for short gasflow paths and more instant boost and response, the C63 S suffers from virtually no lag off the line. And digging its vast rear tyres into tarmac, it rockets through the 0-100km/h dash in just 3.9-seconds. Volcanic when driven with intent, the C63 S’ vast mid-range reserves and vicious top-end power make short shrift of steep inclines and overtaking maneuvers, and even when cruising at low revs, it digs deep and pulls with effortless indefatigability.

Crisp and eager

Driving the rear wheels through a 7-speed automatic gearbox with escalating levels of automatic and manual paddle gear change responses from smooth to aggressive, the C63 S is at its best in S+ and Race mode. Shifting cogs with crisp and rapid precision in a sequence, the C63 S’ gearbox is however slower and less inclined to swiftly process more than one input at a time. Putting power to the ground through an electronically-controlled limited-slip rear differential, the C63 S can allocate power to the wheel best able to translate it into forward momentum instead of spin. This makes it more sure-footed, agile and effective through hard-driven corners.

Settled, reassuring and stable at speed with a buttoned down ride over imperfections and uneven textures, the C63 S is however also eager and alert through winding roads. With crisp and tidy turn-in from its quick and direct steering, one feels at the heart of the action when flicking through twists and turns on a winding hillclimb. Similar to many Mercs of recent years, the C63 S’ eager turn-in is reflected by a somewhat more playful — but balanced at the limit — rear, often reined in by electronic interventions if too much sudden power is dialed in. However, when driving with more intent and leaning onto the thick rear tyres and feeding in power more progressively, the C63 S grips hard and true.

Connected comfort 

Providing a more connected and in control feel for the car’s position through its direct steering and seating position than some more disconnected rivals, the C63 S instils confidence that is backed up by a raft of advanced driver assistance and safety assistance systems, and huge and tyrelessly effective ceramic disc brakes in Edition 1 spec. as driven. Well adjustable and highly supportive, the Edition 1’s  quilted leather AMG Performance seats’ high side bolsters do however seem to jab at an overweight driver’s sides on long drives in the C63 S’ taut and firm Sport+ and Race damper settings  and over imperfect road patches.

Switching to more supple Comfort damper mode for long commutes the C63 S glides with relaxed composure, and is more forgiving over urban cobblestone streets and bumps. Well-finished with quality materials and a more minimalist look than its predecessor AMG C-Class variants, the C63 S Edition 1 features grippy suede-like steering and carbon-fibre trim panels. Layouts are stylish and user-friendly, while convenience and infotainment systems generous and advanced. Visibility is generally good, with reversing camera and parking sensors to help, while front space is similarly good for larger drivers. However, nominal 355-litre boot space is significantly reduced by the inclusion of a spare tyre strapped down to the flat boot floor in place of a tyre-repair kit.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 4-litre, twin-turbo, in-line V8-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 83 x 92mm

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 7-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 4.38; 2nd 2.86; 3rd 1.92; 4th 1.37; 5th 1.0; 6th 0.82; 7th 0.73; R1 3.42; R2 2.23

Final drive: 3.06

Drive-line: Electronically-controlled limited-slip rear-differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 503 (510) [375] @5500-6250rpm

Specific power: 126.3BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 279.4BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 516 (700) @1750-4500rpm

Specific torque: 175.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 388.8Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 3.9-seconds

Top speed, electronically governed / de-restricted: 250km/h / 290km/h

Fuel consumption, urban / extra-urban / combined: 11.4 / 6.9 / 8.6-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 200g/km

Fuel capacity: 66-litres

Length: 4750mm

Width: 1877mm

Height: 1402mm

Wheelbase: 2840mm

Overhangs, F/R: 1012 / 1141mm

Shoulder width, F/R: 1392/1212mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.35

Headroom, F/R: 1023 / 905mm

Luggage volume (without spare tyre): 355-litres

Unladen / kerb weight: 1725/1800kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.29-metres

Suspension: Multi-link, adaptive dampers

Brakes: Ventilated & perforated ceramic discs

Tyres, F/R: 255/35R19 / 285/30R20 (optional)