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MIAMI – People who eat lots of fried food and sugary drinks have a 56 per cent higher risk of heart disease compared to those who eat healthier, US researchers said Monday.

The findings in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, were based on a six-year study of more than 17,000 people in the United States.

Researchers found that people who regularly ate what was described as a Southern style diet — fried foods, eggs, processed meats like bacon and ham, and sugary drinks — faced the highest risk of a heart attack or heart-related death during the next six years.

"Regardless of your gender, race, or where you live, if you frequently eat a Southern-style diet you should be aware of your risk of heart disease and try to make some gradual changes to your diet," said lead researcher James Shikany, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Division of Preventive Medicine. 

"Try cutting down the number of times you eat fried foods or processed meats from every day to three days a week as a start, and try substituting baked or grilled chicken or vegetable-based foods."

The study included both white and African-American men and women aged 45 or older, who did not have heart disease when they began the study.

Participants enrolled from 2003 to 2007. They were first screened by telephone, then given an in-home physical exam, then they answered a food frequency questionnaire.

"Every six months, the participants were interviewed via telephone about their general health status and hospitalisations for nearly six years," said the study.

Participants fell into five different eating groups, including the Southern style eaters; those who favoured convenience foods like pasta, Mexican food, Chinese food, mixed dishes and pizza; the "plant-based" pattern which was mostly vegetables and fruits; the "sweets" pattern; and the "alcohol/salads" group which tended towards beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes and salad dressings.

The Southern-style eaters were the only ones faced with a higher risk of heart disease.

WASHINGTON – The use of software that blocks online ads is expected to cost websites some $21.8 billion globally in 2015, a study showed Monday.

The study, by software group Adobe and Ireland-based consultancy PageFair, found that the number of Internet users employing ad-blocking software has jumped 41 per cent in the past 12 months to 198 million.

The report said that while consumers have warmed to the idea of blocking online ads, they may not realise that the practice could hurt websites which rely on ad revenue.

Those losses are expected to grow to more than $41 billion in 2016, the study said.

“It is tragic that ad block users are inadvertently inflicting multibillion-dollar losses on the very websites they most enjoy,” said PageFair Chief Executive Officer Sean Blanchfield.

“With ad blocking going mobile, there’s an eminent threat that the business model that has supported the open Web for two decades is going to collapse.”

Consumers are able to install extensions on some Web browsers such as Google Chrome which block most ads. A similar tool is expected to become available on Apple devices with the release of the new iOS operating system later this year.

The report said that because of this growth, “ad blocking now poses an existential threat for the future of free content on the Internet”.

In the US market alone, blocked ads resulted in $5.8 billion in losses in 2014 and are estimated to cost $10.7 billion this year, PageFair and Adobe found.

Campbell Foster, Adobe’s director of product marketing, said he hopes the report sheds light on the online ecosystem

“Consumers, for the most part, accept the tradeoff that comes with “free” — I’ll give you information about me in exchange for your TV show, film, news article, or service — but draw the line at advertising that’s intrusive, annoying, irrelevant or downright creepy,” he said in a statement.

Succeeding the McLaren 12C super car it was meant to complement owing to popular demand, the 650S is based on the same basic chassis, suspension and mechanicals, but is better honed and more visceral in performance and design. With 25 per cent difference of components from its predecessor, the 650S delivers a more focused and sharper driving experience.

Sitting in between the more accessible 570S and P1 hybrid hypercar in the McLaren range, the 650S may be more visceral, engaging and racier than the 12C, but is no stripped out road racer. Instead improves on and distils its predecessor’s sublime precision, delicacy, intuitive intimacy, subtle fluency and driving accessibility.

Futuristic and flowing

Inspired by the P1 and now the corporate face of McLaren, the 650S’ moody, menacing and arrestingly swooping front-end, headlights and intakes create a sense of motion and resemble McLaren’s brand logo. Futuristically dramatic in demeanour, compared to its 12C predecessor’s sophisticated but more understated design approach, the 650S’ slatted rear lights are, however, little altered.

Thick scalloped wings serve as markers to position the front wheels’ through corners, while the 650S’ profile features a seductively rising waistline. Deep carbon-fibre covered side gills feed air to its twin-turbo mid-engine and reflect the McLaren emblem. An up-tilted carbon fibre rear bumper and diffuser assembly creates a greater sense of urgency to how the 650S sits on road.

With carbon fibre body segments, including front air splitter and side mirror housings, used to reduce weight, the 650S’ also features long thin stalks for better aerodynamic flow. Meanwhile, revised aerodynamics and automatically rising spoiler/airbrake a 24 per cent down-force increase for and improve high-speed stability and steering precision and feel.

Manic and muscular

Reworked for the 650S, McLaren’s twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 engine features new pistons and cylinder heads, bigger intercoolers, freer-flowing exhausts and revised valve timing and engine management. Netting 25BHP and 57lb/ft rises over the 12C, the 650S more effortlessly delivers its 641BHP at 7,250rpm and 500lb/ft at 6,000rpm as it ferociously tears through to its Spine-tingling 8,500rpm rev limit.

And while mid-range torque remains abundant muscular, the 650S’ delivery, however, feels more urgent and peaky, rather than evenly spread across a plateau. Meaningful from tick-over and robust from 2000rpm, the 650S’ engine is muscularly rich in mid-range. Riding a broad and fulsomely effortless mid-range, the 650S is explosively swift, eager, intense and responsive as it reaches towards its top-end.

Truly special among turbocharged engines, the 650S twin-turbo V8 spools swiftly and delivers responsively crisp throttle control, like a well-sorted naturally aspirated engine. Just 40kg heavier in Spider guise — as tested — over the fixed-head Coupe, the 1,370kg al fresco 650S is just as quick through the 0-100km/h benchmark at 3 seconds flat. It also accelerates to 200km/h in 8.6 seconds and onto a 329km/h maximum.

Supple and stiff

Viciously swift beyond 6000rpm, the 650S seemingly compresses time and space, and following through a sweeping corner in a single gear, its long-legged rev limit provides throttle and handling fluency. A 7-speed dual-clutch automated gearbox features successively sharper settings, with momentary ignition interruption and exhaust popping on hard “sport” mode up-shifts. “Track” mode engages the clutch before revs drop for additional up-shift shove.

Built on a stiff and light carbon fibre chassis, the 650S Spider’s rigidity is exceptional for a convertible, even on rutted semi-dirt roads approaching the UAE’s Jebel Jais hill climb. The 650S’ stiffness also allows its innovative hydraulic ProActive Chassis Control suspension to work better. Actively adjustable, the 650S’ suspension delivers faultless agility, handling finesse and fluently forgiving ride characteristics.

Driven in convertible Spider guise, the 650S doesn’t use additional chassis bracing over the hard top version owing to stiff carbon fibre construction. Meanwhile, its  adjustable hydraulic suspension’ refinement, precision and effectiveness makes anti-roll bars redundant, and automatically softens and provides increased wheel travel for unique super car comfort, and alternately stiffens for sublime body control, and features three selectable stiffness levels.

Evocative and ergonomic

Glides over imperfections with uncannily supple fluidity, the 650S is nuanced, fluent, textured and adept through diverse conditions. Resolutely stable and refined at speed, the Spider was harmoniously in its element through the sprawling Jebel Jais switchbacks. With crisp scalpel-like sharpness, taut body control, tenacious lateral grip and darty agility the 650s tucks and weaves through successive corners with faultless fluency.

Flattering and enabling, the 650S is focused, sophisticated and buttoned down, hugging the road through corners and on rebound, while standard carbon ceramic brakes provide resilient, effective and fade-free stopping power. A model of clarity, the 650S’ quick and positive 2.66-turn steering is sublimely balance between nuanced feel, feedback, speed and reassuring directional stability.

Refined with rear buttresses and its 17-second folding back neatly behind the cabin, the Spider provides a visceral and acoustically charged alfresco experience to enjoy its growling and popping soundtrack. Elegantly minimalist and sophisticated inside with leathers, suede roofliner and metal and carbon fibre trim, the 650S Spider ideally and ergonomically accommodates larger drivers. A slim floating console maximises cabin space, while available equipment is extensive.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3.8-litre, mid-mounted, all-aluminum, dry sump, twin turbo V8 cylinders

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, continuously variable valve timing

Bore x stroke: 93 x 69.9mm

Compression ratio: 8.7:1

Gearbox: 7-speed automated sequential dual clutch, RWD

Ratios: 1st 4:1; 2nd 2.6:1; 3rd 1.9:1; 4th 1.5:1; 5th 1.2:1; 6th 0.9:1; 7th 0.7:1

Final drive: 3.3:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 641 (650) [478] @7,250rpm

Specific power: 168.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 467.88BHP/ton

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 500 (678) @6,000rpm

Specific torque : 178.47Nm/litre

Engine redline: 8,500rpm

0-100km/h: 3 seconds

0-200km/h: 8.6 seconds

0-300km/h: 26.5 seconds

0-400 metres: 10.6 seconds @ 222km/h

Top speed: 329km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 11.7l/100km

Fuel capacity: 72 litres

CO2 emissions, combined: 275g/km

Body structure: Carbon fibre monocell, aluminum front & rear frames

Height: 1,203mm

Width: 2,093

Length: 4,512mm

Wheelbase: 2,670mm

Track, F/R: 1,656/1,583mm

Dry weight: 1370

Weight distribution F/R: 42 per cent / 58 per cent

Steering: Power-assisted rack and pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.66 turns

Turning circle: 12.3 metres

Suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs, adaptive hydraulic damping

Brakes, F/R: Carbon ceramic discs, aluminum hubs, 394/380mm

Brake calipers, F/R: 6- / 4-pistons

100-0km/h: 30.7 metres

200-0km/h: 124 metres

Tyres, F/R: 235/35R19 / 305/30R20

LAS VEGAS – Hackers swarmed a Tesla sedan in a “hacking village” at the infamous Def Con conference on Saturday as the high-tech electric car maker recruited talent to protect against cyber attacks.

It was the second year in a row the California-based company was at the world’s largest gathering of hackers in Las Vegas and came on the heels of a massive recall of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles vehicles to patch a flaw that could let them be remotely commandeered.

“Hackers are a crowd that is really important to us,” Tesla’s Khobi Brooklyn told AFP while Def Con attendees took turns inside a black Model S sedan parked inside a casino convention area.

“It is a community that we want to be part of and collaborate with, as well as recruit from.”

Tesla recruiters were on hand, along with members of the California-based company’s security team.

Tesla cars are highly computerised. New features as well as software updates are pushed out to vehicles over wireless Internet connections.

“They are not messing with our software,” Brooklyn said with only a hint of hesitation.

She knew of no cyber attacks aimed at Tesla cars, at Def Con or anywhere else.

Tesla has worked with Lookout Mobile Security to find and patch software vulnerabilities in sedans, according to Brooklyn.

Data centres on wheels 

Lookout co-founder and chief technology officer Kevin Mahaffey and Marc Rogers of CloudFlare online security firm took part in a Def Con presentation on Tesla software defence flaws that were discovered and then shared with the company.

They referred to Tesla sedans as data centres on wheels, and urged great care when trying to hack vehicles that could be racing along at 160km or so.

“As cars become more connected, we need to think about them a lot more like smartphones where you are constantly testing and improving products to make they as secure as you can,” Brooklyn said.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a safety recall for 1.4 million US cars and trucks last month after hackers demonstrated that they could remotely control their systems, while they are in operation.

The recall came after cybersecurity experts Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek remotely commandeered a Jeep Cherokee, made by Chrysler, to demonstrate the vulnerability of the vehicles’ electronic systems.

Miller and Valasek presented details of the hack at a Def Con session on Saturday.

The recall involves a broad range of Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Chrysler cars and trucks produced between 2013 and 2015 that have radios vulnerable to hacking.

LAS VEGAS – Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. will release monthly security fixes for Android phones, a growing target for hackers, after the disclosure of a bug designed to attack the world’s most popular mobile operating system.

The change came after security researcher Joshua Drake unveiled what he called Stagefright, hacking software that allows attackers to send a special multimedia message to an Android phone and access sensitive content even if the message is unopened.

“We’ve realised we need to move faster,” Android security chief Adrian Ludwig said at this week’s annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

Previously, Google would develop a patch and distribute it to its own Nexus phones after the discovery of security flaws.

But other manufacturers would wait until they wanted to update the software for different reasons before pushing out a fix, exposing most of the more than 1 billion Android users to potential hacks and scams until the fix.

Ludwig also said Google has made other security changes. In an interview, he told Reuters that earlier this year the team broke out incidence rates of malicious software by language. The rate of Russian-language Androids with potentially harmful programmes had spiked suddenly to about 9 per cent in late 2014, he said.

Google made its roughly weekly security scans of Russian phones more frequent and was able to reduce the problems to close to the global norm.

Ludwig said improvements to recent versions of Android would limit an attack’s effectiveness in more than nine out of 10 phones, but Drake said an attacker could keep trying until the gambit worked. Drake said he would release code for the attack by August 24, putting pressure on manufacturers to get their patches out before then.

Nexus phones are being updated with protection this week and the vast majority of major Android handset makers are following suit, Ludwig said.

Samsung Vice President Rick Segal acknowledged that his company could not force the telecommunications carriers that buy its devices in bulk to install the fixes and that some might do so only for higher-end users.

“If it’s your business customers, you’ll push it,” Segal said in an interview. Samsung is the largest maker of Android phones.

Ludwig said many Android security scares were overblown. He added that only about one in 200 Android phones Google can peer into have any potentially harmful applications installed at any point.

Drake noted that those figures exclude some products, including Fire products from Amazon, which use Android.

As with Apple’s iPhones, the biggest security risk comes with apps that are not downloaded from the official online stores of the two companies.

Stolen files from Hacking Team, an Italian company selling eavesdropping tools to government agencies around the world, showed that a key avenue was to convince targets to download legitimate-seeming Android and iPhone apps from imposter websites.

SAN FRANCISCO – Is it time for big television to start worrying about digital?

For years, the threats to traditional television have been present, but the digital revolution now appears to be gathering momentum, raising the prospect of shifts in viewing habits which could devastate an industry that has been lucrative for years.

The decades-old model for the industry has been built around cable and satellite TV offering high-priced “bundles” to consumers, and sharing revenue with the operators of cable and broadcast channels.

But viewers today have increasing choices through the Internet. They can subscribe to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon video, pick and choose subscriptions to individual channels like HBO or Showtime, or get slimmed-down packages of channels through new service providers.

Some viewers also watch free programmes streamed over YouTube or other websites.

The big threat to the industry is from “cord cutting”, which has been modest until now. If it accelerates, that could unravel the model which has worked for the industry for years.

Panic mode 

After the latest quarterly updates from major television groups, Wall Street investors appeared to be panicking over the future of the industry.

Disney — which owns the broadcast ABC network, and several cable channels such as sports TV group ESPN, saw its shares take an unprecedented 9 per cent dive after reporting earnings.

While Disney reported a “modest” number of subscriber losses, some investors saw red.

“Investors are reacting to a growing sense of the risk,” said Brian Wieser, analyst at Pivotal Research Group.

“The negative perspective is suggesting that the whole bundle, the whole business model is falling apart.”

Wieser said these fears are “overstated” but that did not stop a bloodbath in media stocks over the past week, with only a modest uptick at the end of the week.

Viacom and 21st Century Fox, which have prominent cable channels, each saw a 17 per cent plunge over two days. Time Warner, owner of cable channels like TBS and TNT, saw a 10 per cent drop. 

Neil Macker at the research firm Morningstar said it is not time to panic.

“While we share the concerns around cord-cutting, we note that 96 per cent of sports viewing is done live, providing some defence to the linear channel,” he said in a note to clients.

The big question for the industry is how fast the landscape changes.

A study by Deloitte found more than half of American viewers watched films or television programmes on streaming video, but only 3 per cent had cancelled pay TV subscription over the past year and 7 per cent were considering such a change.

While sports appears to be anchoring the pay TV model, other segments such as children’s channels and programmes appear vulnerable.

“The challenges facing linear ad-supported kids networks are greater than in other network genres,” said Morgan Stanley analysts in a research note.

“Aggregating kids channels across Viacom, Disney, Time Warner and Discovery, we estimate relevant demo viewership is down 30 per cent from mid-2013 to today versus 12 per cent for broader TV [ex-kids].”

Fears appear greatest for Viacom, which owns the Nickelodeon channel known for kid programming like “Dora the Explorer” and “Spongebob Squarepants”.

“Viacom has long been considered one of the most exposed to risks around the future of the cable bundle,” said BMO Capital Markets analyst Daniel Salmon in a research note.

“Viacom’s more youth-oriented audience and lack of major sports rights makes its networks more vulnerable to being excluded from a lower-tiered bundle.”

Join ‘em 

The television companies are not sitting still amid the changes. Many are investing heavily in content to make their channels more attractive, or joining the move to streaming.

Disney Chief Executive Office Bob Iger said threats from firms like Netflix can be managed with the right programmeming.

“We look at Netflix actually right now as more a friend than foe because they become an aggressive customer of ours,” Iger said on the Disney earnings call.

Others are embracing the shift to digital with their own streaming offerings. 

HBO, part of Time Warner, has begun offering the premium channel as a standalone service online, even though this has been losing money so far and may continue to see red ink this year.

CBS, which has its own streaming service as well as one for its Showtime premium channel, says this can generate income for the company.

At Showtime, “every million subscribers equals $100 million of profit, so it’s not a whole lot of subscribers for us to break even,” said CBS Chief Operating Officer Joe Ianniello.

Smartphones, phablets, tablets, laptops and desktops, from smallest to largest, are currently the five different formats of computers and computer-like devices available on the market. If each has its place in your life and sometimes in your heart, depending on what you are doing and where you are doing it, there are also market trends that are worth being aware of, if only to be better prepared to make a purchase decision when the time comes.

At the lower end (at least size-wise), smartphones are solidly anchored in our daily habits and the trend is expected to continue unabated, with a world user base approaching a staggering 2.5 billion this year. Similarly, laptops and desktops are here to stay, with the first type being now the preferred choice for full-power personal computing, at home and on the move more particularly, and the second still representing lower cost computing combined with security, especially against equipment theft, in most offices and businesses.

The change, however, seems to affect the tablets and phablets segment, both formats experiencing a serious drop in sales figures. That phablets are losing ground may be understood. Indeed these rather “strange” hybrid devices somewhere between smartphones and tablets never really made it. Most users would go to a smartphone or a tablet, considering that phablets do not really present any advantage when compared to the other two formats. For a couple of inches less in screen size you would get a smartphone, and for a couple of inches more you would get a tablet.

Manufacturers of tablets, chiefly Samsung and Apple, followed by HP, Asus and Acer, have been complaining of falling tablets sales for more than 18 months now. Recent figures have been disclosed by IDC (International Data Corporation) and show that sales of tablets indeed have been regularly going down, with a global drop of about 7 per cent over the last quarter. This is a significant, big change. Why is it happening?

Tablets are relatively expensive compared to entry-level laptops, and understandably less portable, definitely less pocketable, than smartphones. Apple iPad Air 2 tablet model is a good JD550; this is money that would buy you an excellent, though not really high-end, laptop fitted with an i5 Intel processor.

One of the main advantages of tablets so far has been the touch screen feature, since laptops and desktops — for the most — didn’t support touch screens, especially if running Windows 7 or older versions of Microsoft’s operating system. With touch-enabled Windows 8 and 10 systems, and new laptops and screens also supporting this functionality, tablets’ don’t have a particular edge anymore.

To push tablets further more towards the exit, there’s a whole new class of laptops that are fitted with touch screens that can easily, instantly be removed, “unplugged” from the main unit, and that can, therefore, function as tablets. Such versatile laptops are going to accelerate the demise of tablets.

There’s also a psychological factor. Perhaps the consumer has had enough having to choose between five different formats of machines. Ignoring tablets-phablets and, therefore, reducing the number down to three types (smartphones, laptops and desktops) would certainly make the choice easier.

Microsoft’s new Windows 10 started its life last week and already countless users have installed it on their computer. It would be interesting to see how and if this is going to affect sales of tablets in any way. We’ll probably be able to tell by the end of the year.

LAS VEGAS — A software glitch that allows hackers to commandeer a Jeep Cherokee while on the move is just a glimpse of dangers on the road ahead for the Internet of Things.

The ability to seize data from and take control of once-dumb devices that are now deemed “smart” with wireless Internet connections was a hot topic at the premier Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas Wednesday.

Researchers described how they remotely took control of a moving car or re-aimed high-tech sniper rifles, and many at the gathering warned the ramifications could be far more serious and wide-reaching.

For starters, many companies don’t even have teams tasked with making sure their smart devices are secure.

“Almost none of the Internet of Things device-makers have any real security teams, it is sort of a gold rush to market,” Black Hat founder Jeff Moss told AFP.

He expects the problem to grow, with skilled hackers eager to push the boundaries.

“The Jeep hack is the beginning,” said Moss, who also founded the annual Def Con hacking conference that takes place later this week in Sin City.

“Criminals are geniuses at figuring out how to misuse this stuff.”

He theorised a scenario in which a connected home appliance, a toaster for example, is hacked and becomes an entry point for an attack that hops wirelessly to other online devices, such as entertainment systems. A hacker could then jump next door via wireless Internet to take over a neighbour’s home devices.

The possibilities for hackers are numerous — and chilling.

Data from smart appliances or other devices can be used to learn about people’s lifestyles or daily routines. Cameras in smart gadgets could be activated to spy on intimate moments people would prefer to keep private.

Adding to the problem is the fact that smart appliances, such as ovens or washing machines, are designed to last but do not typically get software updates. With time, hackers find vulnerabilities, and companies do not protect devices against attacks with new security software.

“You can see us racing towards a future where everything is connected, nothing is updatable, and it is going to last 10 years,” Moss said.

“Then, it is a numbers game. A million of anything is trouble, a 100 million is a disaster.”

Massive car recall

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a safety recall for 1.4 million US cars and trucks in July after hackers demonstrated that they could remotely control their systems while the vehicles are in operation.

The recall came after cybersecurity experts Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek remotely commandeered a Jeep Cherokee, made by Chrysler, to demonstrate the vulnerability of the vehicles’ electronic systems.

Working from laptop computers at home, the two men were able to enter the Jeep’s electronics via its online entertainment system, changing its speed and braking capability and manipulating the radio and windshield wipers.

The pair said it was a fairly easy job.

“We might be good at what we do, but this was a weekend project,” Miller said.

“What if we did this full time, or got paid to do it?”

Miller is a security researcher at Twitter and Valasek works at cybersecurity firm IOActive.

Miller and Valasek said they dug into automobile security because they wanted to make a point.

“Car companies spend millions of dollars on safety, and now this is a part of safety, whether they like it or not,” Valasek said.

After the report, Chrysler offered a free software patch for vulnerable vehicles, but said it had no firsthand knowledge of hacking incidents.

The recall involves a broad range of Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Chrysler automobiles produced between 2013 and 2015 that have radios vulnerable to hacking.

The hack involved Harman hardware and the Sprint mobile network, but fixes have been put in place to block the tactic, according to Miller and Valasek.

Moss said the potential for hacking Internet-connected power metres was especially troubling. Hackers could not only target individual homes but could cause trouble on city grids, perhaps by toying with electric power in entire neighbourhoods.

The Internet of Things promises to thrust into the spotlight an issue of liability that software makers have managed to avoid, according to Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Centre of Internet and Society at Stanford University Law School.

Most people might not think to sue a software maker when a computer crashes, but the odds are high they will when a smart car crashes, Granick said.

“Something that now has software in it but didn’t before is going to blow up,” added Granick, who gave a keynote presentation at Black Hat.

“Software liability is unavoidable, and it is necessary.”

Reading the newspaper first thing in the morning was a mandatory habit in my family when I was growing up. Actually, that is not strictly true. Picking up the daily paper from the garden, where the delivery boy threw it at the crack of dawn was more urgent. Whoever surfaced earlier was entitled to the entire broadsheet. It was like “the winner takes it all, the loser standing small” kind of scenario. 

I was never an early riser, so by the time I got my chance to read the paper; it had passed through several hands. The tea or coffee stains, however discreet, gave away the identity of the previous readers. Still, on the rare occasions that I woke up before daybreak I would grab the crisp newspaper eagerly. It usually happened when I had to catch a morning flight, but if I got the opportunity I would make full use of it. 

There were very few things in the world that could compare to the utter joy of reading a crisp newspaper. The crinkling sound that was made when you opened it up, the soothing smell of the newsprint, the witty headlines urging you to read the content, the international and domestic news, the opinion pieces that made you ponder, the matrimonial columns that made you smile, the sports section that congratulated a win or trashed a loss, the gardening, motoring and film reviews, the word jumble puzzle, the comic strip and the obituary page. To read it from cover to cover uninterrupted, with no family member asking for the inside sheets to be handed to them simultaneously, was pure delight. 

Whenever I travelled abroad, I also enjoyed reading the newspapers that were published by the host countries. The format, which was presented differently by them, was always interesting as stories were offered from their domestic and nationalistic points of view. Sometimes, two or three newspapers printed in the same city focused on the identical news but from a completely diverse perspective. It was remarkable to see how the paper trails attempted to lead the reader to believing in their version of the fact. 

Surprisingly, the youth of today do not read newspapers. They don’t have the time or the inclination to do so. They listen to bits of news on the television or read the headlines on their smartphones while commuting from one place to another. It is no wonder that the future of the newspaper industry is in serious jeopardy. The circulations have dropped to such an extent that most of them are striving to survive on a skeletal staff.

Yet, folks of my generation like to read the broadsheet. They also believe that whatever appears in print is the gospel truth. 

My own mother force-fed me spoonsful of the vomit inducing fish liver oil for several years because a newspaper report claimed that it was beneficial for both my eyesight and pimples.

“Cod liver oil is not good for the eyes after all,” she said in dismay one day, looking up from the paper she was reading.

“Don’t believe everything you read mom,” I replied.

“It’s written here, see?” she showed me the newspaper.

“Check the byline,” I urged.

“Your name is printed on top. You wrote this?” she was aghast.

“It seems like,” I laughed.

“You made it up? Your skin is clear,” she stressed.

“But my eyesight is not,” I argued removing my spectacles.

“I will fix it, wait,” she warned.

PARIS — The unprecedented degradation of Earth’s natural resources coupled with climate change could reverse major gains in human health over the last 150 years, according to a recent published sweeping scientific review.

“We have been mortgaging the health of future generations to realise economic and development gains in the present,” said the report, written by 15 leading academics and published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.

“By unsustainably exploiting nature’s resources, human civilisation has flourished but now risks substantial health effects from the degradation of nature’s life support systems in the future.”

Climate change, ocean acidification, depleted water sources, polluted land, overfishing, biodiversity loss — all unintended by-products of humanity’s drive to develop and prosper — “pose serious challenges to the global health gains of the past several decades”, especially in poorer nations, the 60-page report concludes.

The likely impacts on global health of climate change, ranging from expanded disease vectors to malnourishment, have been examined by the UN’s panel of top climate scientists. But the new report, titled “Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch”, takes an even broader view.

The “Anthropocene” is the name given by many scientists to the period — starting with mass industrialisation — in which human activity has arguably reshaped Earth’s bio-chemical makeup.

“This is the first time that the global health community has come out in a concerted way to report that we are in real danger of undermining the core ecological systems that support human health,” said Samuel Myers, a scientist at Harvard University and one of the authors.

Danger of bee decline

A companion study on the worldwide decline of bees and other pollinators, led by Myers and also published in The Lancet, illustrates one way this might happen.

The dramatic decline of bees has already compromised the quantity and quality of many nutrient-rich crops that depend on the transfer of pollen to bear fruit.

Pollinators play a key role in 35 per cent of global food production, and are directly responsible for up to 40 per cent of the world’s supply of micro-nutrients such a vitamin A and folate, both essential for children and pregnant women.

The complete wipe-out of pollinating creatures, the study concludes, would push a quarter of a billion people in the red-zone of vitamin A or folate deficiency, and cause an increase in heart disease, stroke and some cancers, leading to some 1.4 million additional deaths each year. A 50 loss of pollination would result in roughly half that impact, the researchers found.

Scientist are still debating exactly why pollinators are dying off, but there is no disagreement that all the possible causes — pollution, insecticides, land-loss — are related to human activity.

A second companion study examines for the first time the impact of decreased zinc levels in staple crops such as wheat, rice, barley and soy caused by higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the main driver of global warming.

Already, nearly a fifth of the world’s population is at risk of zinc deficiency, which can cause pre-mature delivery, reduce growth and weight-gain in children, and compromise immune functions. By 2050, projected CO₂ emissions could place an additional 150 million people at risk, according to the study published in Lancet Global Health.

“Our civilisations may seem strong and resilient, but history tells us that our societies are fragile and vulnerable,” Richard Horton, editor in chief of The Lancet and a co-author of the main report, said in a statement.

Introducing the concept of planetary health, the report calls for urgent action, starting with a paradigm shift in the way we understand the relationship between our environment, social or economic progress and human health.