Features

PARIS — Humans have long been fascinated by chameleons changing colour to dazzle mates, scare rivals and confuse predators.

Scientists said they uncovered the mechanism of the feat, and that the results of their investigation astounded them.

Rather than use pigments to switch colour, nanocrystals in the lizards’ skin are tuned to alter the reflection of light, they found.

“We were surprised,” Michel Milinkovitch, a biologist at the University of Geneva told AFP.

“It was thought they were changing colour through... pigments. The real mechanism is totally different and involves a physical process,” he added.

Colour-switching in chameleons is the preserve of males.

They use it to make themselves more flamboyant to attract mates and frighten off challengers, or duller to evade predators.

The mature panther chameleon used in the study, for example, can change the background colour of its skin from green to yellow or orange, while blue patches turn whitish and then back again.

Skin analysis revealed that the change is regulated by transparent nano-objects called photonic crystals found in a layer of cells dubbed iridophores, which lie just below the chameleon’s pigment cells.

Iridophores are also found in other reptiles and amphibians like frogs, giving them the green and blue colours rarely found in other vertebrates.

In chameleons, however, nanocrystal lattices within the iridophores can be “tuned” to change the way light is reflected, the university said in a statement.

“When the chameleon is calm, the latter [crystals] are organised into a dense network and reflect the blue wavelengths” of incoming light, it said.

“In contrast, when excited, it loosens its lattice of nanocrystals, which allows the reflection of other colours such as yellows or reds.”

The team used biopsies of chameleon skin, pre- and post-excitement, combined with optical microscopy and high-resolution videography to study the phenomenon.

They also discovered that chameleons have a second, deeper layer of iridophore cells.

These contain “larger and less ordered” crystals that reflect infrared wavelengths from strong sunlight — in essence, a clever heat shield.

“The organisation of iridophores in two superimposed layers constitute an evolutionary novelty,” the team said.

“It allows chameleons to rapidly shift between efficient camouflage and spectacular display, while providing passive thermal protection.”

NEW YORK — In America, businessmen shake hands. In Japan, they bow. But all over the world airline executives engage in a greeting that is all their own: the exchange of model airplanes.

When airlines start flying to new cities, make deals with other carriers or finance new jets, these high-quality models — typically one to two feet long — provide the perfect photo backdrop, can help break the ice or serve as a cherished “thank you”.

While a business card might be quickly stuffed away in some desk drawer, models remain prominently displayed on the desk of politicians and industry power brokers. Puerto Rico’s governor, Alejandro García-Padilla, has models from JetBlue, Lufthansa, Avianca and local airline Seaborne in his office. Each has established or expanded service to the island since his 2013 inauguration.

“It’s one of these gifts that people get and don’t put in the closet,” says Jeff Knittel, who oversees aircraft leasing for financier CIT Group Inc.

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus took in 1,456 passenger plane orders from 67 airlines around the world last year. It also placed 30,000 of its own orders — for model Airbus jets.

Multimillion-dollar plane purchases are decided on the fuel efficiency of a jet, its maintenance costs, how much cargo it holds and how far it can fly. However, desktop models help start the conversation, says Chris Jones, the vice president of North American sales for Airbus.

“Putting a model on the table won’t sway a deal but it might get their attention,” Jones says. After the sales pitch, the model is left behind for the most-senior person. “It’s a little bit of a teaser.”

The tradition of exchanging model planes has been around for decades. Walk through the headquarters of any airline and rows of models — including those of competitors — can be spotted.

Gerry Laderman, senior vice president of finance and procurement at United Airlines has collected his fair share after 30 years in the business. There’s no room left in his Chicago office, so new acquisitions are displayed on the hallway windowsill.

“I stopped counting after 100,” Laderman says. “My wife doesn’t let me bring home models anymore.”

Model planes have their roots with aerospace engineers, who used them in an age before computers to design planes and then test them in wind tunnels.

Then in 1946, two workers from the Douglas Aircraft Co. started Pacific Miniatures with the encouragement of the aircraft manufacturer. It was right after World War II and Douglas faced a major challenge in getting nervous travellers to fly.

“They were tasked with promoting the romance and luxury of air travel,” says Fred Ouweleen, Jr., current owner of the company affectionately known as PacMin.

The company, based in Fullerton, California, created large cutaway models that showed aircraft interiors to a public that had — for the most part — never stepped foot on a plane. Those models would become a mainstay of travel agencies for decades.

Soon there was demand for smaller models that could fit on people’s desks and bookshelves. Today it is those models, scaled to one hundredth of the size of a jet, that PacMin is best known for.

“In the case of a fire, I think those would be the first things grabbed and taken out of the building,” Ouweleen says.

PacMin produces the planes for more than 4,000 customers around the world with the typical order just being a handful of planes. “A large order for us is 100,” Ouweleen says. Still, more than 15,000 models are sold a year ranging in price from $130 to $1,500 each, depending on the size, speed and difficulty of the order. Privately-held PacMin employs 165 people and sees $10 million in annual sales.

Members of the public generally can’t buy PacMin models, although plenty end up on eBay, with sellers generally asking $200 to $400.

Mark Jung estimates he has spent $45,000 buying model planes over the past 45 years. He now has more than 1,000. A few are PacMins but many are more affordable models made by competitor Gemini.

Jung, a former airline worker, now processes badges at Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s main airport. Every employee — those who work in stores, restaurants or for the airlines — must pass through his office to get their credentials.

During his 10 years there, many airlines have thanked him with a model. There are now more than 100 in the office; others are displayed at the airport’s museum. (As a public employee, Jung can’t accept gifts; he just holds onto the models on behalf of the airport.)

Airline executives sit in his office, see the row of planes and ask: “Where’s ours?” A model arrives shortly after.

“It’s a really great icebreaker,” Jung says, adding that he tries to avoid making the badging process feel like a trip to the department of motor vehicles.

Even those in charge of a fleet of real jets like to collect the models.

WASHINGTON — Scientific literature traces manhole cover explosions back nearly a century, but a series of such incidents in the Midwest city of Indianapolis has authorities looking for a quick solution.

A combination of power system design, winter road salt, older electrical cable insulation and basic chemistry have triggered underground explosions in older downtowns, launching 160-kilogramme manhole covers high in the air. One Georgia Tech engineering professor calculated the explosions could have the force of three sticks of dynamite.

"These things have been known to be launched 10 stories; they have found a manhole cover on top of a building in a certain downtown city," said Daniel O'Neill, who advises several utilities on the problem. "They are dangerous things. There are hundreds of these things happening every year."

The nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute's lab in Lenox, Massachusetts, has spent the last 25 years setting off what officials there call "manhole events". It's not for fun. Engineers are trying to find a way to keep manhole covers from flying.

"We're disappointed to say we've not yet solved the problem," said Matt Olearczyk, manager of distribution research for EPRI. He said, his team will keep at the problem "or we're going to die trying to fix it".

The EPRI team has come up with partial solutions, such as latching manhole covers to the ground with a hook-and-piston system. When there's an explosion, those covers lift a few inches to let off some pressure, but not so much as to let in oxygen to stoke the explosion.

Experts do know how and why these explosions happen amid thousands of kilometres of tightly bundled electrical cables.

It starts with the way electrical power is distributed in older downtowns underground. Cables are linked so that if one fails, others take over, O'Neill said.

Cable insulation can fray or kink due to age, wear and tear, high power loads during the summer and corrosive road salt. That exposes wiring, which can spark and smolder. Especially when the insulation is older and consists of an oily paper, that releases gases, including hydrogen, methane, acetylene, carbon monoxide and ethylene, O'Neill and Olearczyk said.

Then, salty or dirty water gives the electricity a path to the ground and the spark to set off explosions, O'Neill said.

That's why O'Neill and Olearczyk say they see more blasts events during the winter and in more northerly cities. The salt is a key ingredient. Consolidated Edison once compared manhole explosions to the streets where road salt was used and found a good correlation, O'Neill said.

The expensive process of replacing the cables with plastic insulated modern cables works well, Olearczyk said.

WASHINGTON  — Distractions — especially talking with passengers and using cellphones — play a far greater role in car crashes involving teen drivers than has been previously understood, according to compelling new evidence cited by safety researchers.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analysed nearly 1,700 videos that capture the actions of teen drivers in the moments before a crash. It found that distractions were a factor in nearly 6 of 10 moderate to severe crashes. That's four times the rate in many previous official estimates that were based on police reports.

The study is unusual because researchers rarely have access to crash videos that clearly show what drivers were doing in the seconds before impact as well as what was happening on the road. AAA was able to examine more than 6,842 videos from cameras mounted in vehicles, showing both the driver and the simultaneous view out the windshield.

The foundation got the videos from Lytx Inc., which offers programmes that use video to coach drivers in improving their behaviour and reducing collisions. Crashes or hard-braking events were captured in 1,691 of the videos.

They show driver distraction was a factor in 58 per cent of crashes, especially accidents in which vehicles ran off the road or had rear-end collisions. The most common forms of distraction were talking or otherwise engaging with passengers and using a cellphone, including talking, texting and reviewing messages.

Other forms of distraction observed in the videos included drivers looking away from the road at something inside the vehicle, 10 per cent; looking at something outside the vehicle other than the road ahead, 9 per cent; singing or moving to music, 8 per cent; grooming, 6 per cent; and reaching for an object, 6 per cent.

In one video released by AAA, a teenage boy is seen trying to navigate a turn on a rain-slicked road with one hand on the wheel and a cellphone held to his ear in the other hand. The car crosses a lane of traffic and runs off the road, stopping just short of railroad tracks that run parallel to the road.

One teen driver is captured braking hard at the last moment to avoid slamming into the back of an SUV stopped or slowed in traffic ahead. Just a moment before, the girl had turned her attention to another girl in the front passenger seat in an animated conversation. The camera shows the shock on the girls' faces as they suddenly realize a crash is imminent.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has previously estimated that distraction of all kinds is a factor in only 14 per cent of all teen driver crashes.

The videos provide "indisputable evidence that teen drivers are distracted in a much greater per centage of crashes than we previously realised," said Peter Kissinger, the foundation's president and CEO.

Teen drivers using cellphones had their eyes off the road for an average of 4.1 seconds out of the final 6 seconds leading up to a crash, the AAA study found. Researchers also measured reaction times in rear-end crashes and found that teen drivers using cellphones failed to react more than half of the time before the impact, meaning they crashed without braking or steering away.

AAA and other traffic safety groups who previewed the findings said the study shows states should review their licensing requirements to restrict the number of passengers in cars driven by teens and change their laws to prohibit cellphone use by teen drivers.

"The findings of the AAA Report confirm what safety groups have suspected for a long time — distraction is more severe and more common in teen driver crashes than previously found in government data," said Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Teen drivers have the highest crash rate of any age group. About 963,000 drivers age 16 to 19 were involved in police-reported crashes in the US in 2013, the most recent year for available data. These crashes resulted in 383,000 injuries and 2,865 deaths.

ISTANBUL — Featuring heartthrob heroes, emancipated heroines and picturesque scenery, Turkish television drama series have taken the world by storm, gaining faithful audiences in dozens of countries across Europe, the Middle East and even the Americas.

But life on the sets of the dramas — with episodes that can last up to three hours in series of up to 50 parts — is not all glitz and glamour.

It is fraught with gruelling work, with crews routinely clocking 15 to 18-hour days at the expense of their families, their health and even their lives.

"The worst day I ever worked on a show was 27 hours" young Turkish actress Elif Nur Kerkuk told AFP. "It was like going back to slavery."

Kerkuk recalled how last year after 24 hours of shooting in central Turkey, the whole crew was piled on a bus and taken to Istanbul for another day of filming, with neither time to sleep nor prepare.

"I asked myself, is this it?... Is this going to be my life?" she asked. "But I stay in because I love it."

'No respect for life' 

A number of fatal accidents have prompted unions and actors to organise an industry-wide movement to put pressure on production companies and government to improve standards.

Selin Erden, a 26-year-old video assistant for the hit teen drama "Arka Siradakiler" (Those at the Back Row), died tragically when the set's sleep-deprived truck driver hit her during a cigarette break.

In September last year, Engin Kucuktopuz, a set worker for "Kacak Gelinler" (Runaway Brides), died of a heart attack after working 45 hours in three days.

"Everything that your mother ever told you not to do when you were growing up, in our industry you crumple it up and throw it out the window," said Tilbe Saran, actress and secretary general of Turkish Actors' Union.

The union has been keeping a list of dangerous situations since the 1980s that have arisen from eager producers pushing the boundaries of safety: runaway trains, helicopter crashes, out-of-control explosions.

"Only in third-world countries do people work like this. But this is the 'Turkish way' of working: No supervision, no safety measures, no respect for life," Saran said.

In January, the labour ministry classified drama sets as "dangerous" workplaces, following street protests from the community, including some of Turkey's most famous actors and actresses.

The decision means that the sets will now be subject to inspections at regular intervals determined by the level of risk and will be required to employ safety experts and doctors.

But all set workers are employed as freelancers, meaning they lack insurance and production companies are not culpable when an accident or a death occurs on the set.

'Blood money' 

According to a 2014 report by consultancy firm Deloitte titled "World's Most Colourful Screen, TV Series Sector in Turkey", Turkish dramas reach up to 400 million viewers in 75 countries.

One incentive behind the long duration of the episodes is to reduce the total production cost when exporting a TV series, the report said.

A Turkish TV series episode lasts for around 150-180 minutes including ads, up from 45 minutes only a decade ago and long compared to Western standards.

Since 2004, when the television watchdog RTUK declared a minimum of 20 minutes between ad breaks, the channels have been lengthening the durations of TV series to make up for lost income.

"It's a vicious circle: the more popular dramas get at home and abroad, the more famous actors become per episode and the longer the episodes get," said Zafer Ayden, the head of the Turkish Cinema Workers' Union (Sine-Sen).

Since the producers of the TV series are essentially subcontractors of broadcasters, productions are prone to be cancelled immediately. Around 50-70 TV series are launched per season, and more than half are cancelled in the same season, mainly due to low ratings.

"Some people lose a lot money in this business, while others make millions. But in the end, it is blood money," Ayden said.

Last year a number of TV actors including Kenan Imirzalioglu, who stars in the popular Turkish drama series "Karadayi", were briefly detained in Istanbul on drug charges.

Most of the detainees admitted to drug use, saying that exhausting schedules pushed them to take drugs.

Imirzalioglu announced last month that after the finale of "Karadayi", one of the longest-running TV shows in Turkey, he will no longer appear in a television series until the working conditions on the sets change and the length of an episode is reduced to 60 minutes.

Bracing himself for another long day on the set, Altan Donmez, the director of the TV series "Seref Meselesi", adapted from the Italian drama "Onore e Rispetto" (A Matter of Respect) admitted to pushing his own crew too far.

"This is because we cannot shoot the episodes in advance for fear of cancellation. In order to produce a 140-minute episode, we have to work up to 16 hours a day for six days," Donmez said.

"We should all ask for humane treatment of humans," he said, putting the blame on the TV channels who want to air more advertisements during the shows.

Couples who are married for more than 50 years end up doing sweet things for each other. It’s not that the younger ones tied in the matrimonial bond do not do so. But somehow it seems more thoughtful when the elderly lot goes about it in a methodical manner. 

Take my own grandparents, for instance. Throughout my school years my feisty mother would take me to their house. Every summer! Sometimes for two months at a stretch. Why she inflicted this annual punishment on us I cannot say. It was supposed to be good for me to mingle with the extended family. It would teach us to be more considerate and accommodating, and the rest of it, she reasoned. But what it taught me instead was to miss my father, who would not accompany us, with deep longing. 

My dad and my mother’s dad were poles apart. If my father was funny, easygoing and affectionate, my grandfather was strict, unsmiling and a disciplinarian. Forget about laughing in his presence, we could not even talk loudly without him frowning at us. I could not understand why we were made to leave the warmth of my father’s house to go to that chill and claustrophobia of her father’s house.  

I belong to a generation where kids were not given any choices in the planning of vacations. Tickets were booked, bags were packed and we were on our way. But once there I would stubbornly refuse to conform. Every day, without fail, I complained to my grandmother about the absence of my father, and cried. It happened with so much regularity that she assigned a weeping time for me and gave me a small footstool on which to sit and weep. It was called the “missing Papa chair” and for nearly a decade, I made frequent use of it. The minute the clock struck three in the afternoon, I would drag it to the corner of the kitchen, and under the watchful eye of my grandma, sob my heart out. After a good half an hour of letting me vent my sorrow, she would appease me with mouthwatering sweets. 

As I grew older I noticed that though my grandparents were still very formal around one another, they were not completely immune to each other’s problems. My granny was more caring, definitely, but my grandpa would get visibly agitated if his wife was unwell. In the winter months her arthritis would act up when the sun did not shine for days. It would emerge for short periods in the middle of the afternoon and that is when he would start his car and place it under direct sunlight. 

Sometime later he would appear in the inner quarters announcing his presence with a lot of loud coughs. This gave my aunties a chance to cover their heads with a thin veil. He would then call out to my grandma and tell her that the car was ready. Ready for what, I wondered, because I never saw her going anywhere in it. 

Once I followed her and found her taking a nap in the backseat of the vehicle. It was warm and cozy inside. 

“Is it time?” my grandfather asked me. 

“For what?” I was surprised he was talking to me. 

“For you to get on the missing dad chair,” he deadpanned. 

“Ahem,” I said sheepishly. 

“I can place it on the front seat,” he assured.

“Thanks,” I muttered. 

“You are welcome,” he twinkled.

LOS ANGELES — Dystopian thriller “Insurgent” blasted its way to top spot at the North American box office last weekend, as Sean Penn action movie “The Gunman” fired a blank, data showed Monday.

The second big-screen adaptation based on Veronica Roth’s best-selling “Divergent” trilogy, “Insurgent” opened with $52.3 million according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The film stars rising talent Shailene Woodley as the youthful heroine Beatrice Prior battling a powerful alliance threatening her world in a post-apocalyptic Chicago.

Many predicted a bit of growth for this second film, which sees the return of stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Kate Winslet to author Veronica Roth’s dystopian world. But, both distributor Lionsgate and box office analysts see the consistency as a good thing.

“We’re extremely pleased with the outcome,” said Lionsgate’s President of Domestic Distribution Richie Fay.

“I think this is exactly where we thought we’d be,” he added. “We attracted a few more males this time around, and I think we’re headed in the right direction. The uptick from Friday to Saturday was considerably higher than it was for ‘Divergent.’ That, the A- CinemaScore and what’s coming into the marketplace will allow us to grow very nicely.”

According to Lionsgate, 60 per cent of audiences were female.

Rentrak’s Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian credits Lionsgate’s consistent release date strategy and impressive marketing campaign for the strong repeat performance.

“It’s really about driving a very fickle audience, that teen, YA — whatever you want to call them — they’re really tough to get a handle on. Their tastes change like the wind,” he said. “The key is keeping the young adult audience engaged, excited and enthusiastic.”

The opening numbers for “Insurgent” relegated Disney’s live action “Cinderella” remake to second spot.

The movie, starring Lily James as the enchanted princess and Cate Blanchett as her wicked stepmother, took $35 million in its second weekend.

Action flick “Run All Night”, featuring grizzled tough-guy Liam Neeson playing a hit man going up against the mob, was third with a whisker over $5 million in its second weekend.

But it was a disappointing debut for Oscar-winning actor Penn’s latest film, “The Gunman”, which earned only $5 million on opening.

“You have a lot of R-rated competition out there right now,” noted Dergarabedian, who also added that Penn’s foray into the action genre has not garnered the best reviews.

Despite a stellar supporting cast featuring Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone and Mark Rylance, the movie by “Taken” director Pierre Morel has suffered a critical mauling to date, dismissed by one reviewer as a “dull, generic retread”.

Fifth place was occupied by British spy spoof “Kingsman: The Secret Service”, which took $4.6 million in its fifth week.

Sixth spot, meanwhile, went to religious drama “Do You Believe”, another debutant this week with a disappointing opening haul. The film starring Mira Sorvino and Sean Astin earned just $3.6 million.

Sequel “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” featuring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Richard Gere, pulled in just under $3.5 million for seventh place.

“Focus”, a con-artist flick featuring Will Smith as a crook who takes on a protegee played by Margot Robbie had $3.2 million in ticket sales for eighth.

Artificial intelligence thriller “Chappie” continued its slide down the rankings, earning $2.7 million to finish ninth.

“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” was still present on the box office charts in its seventh week in theatres, taking in $2.4 million in ticket sales to round out the top 10.

“Over the past couple of weeks, films driven by the female audience have done much better than films driven by the male audience. But that’s all going to change because ‘Furious 7’ is on the way,” said Dergarabedian.

“Put on your seatbelt and get ready, because it’s going to be an incredible ride in the coming weeks,” he said.

SEOUL, South Korea — Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty: Move over. And make way for laidback Brown bear and his irrepressible girlfriend Cony the bunny.

Once just digital stickers that users of mobile messaging app Line send to each other like emoticons, the bear, the bunny and their seven friends will soon be unleashed through stores, virtual reality and possibly an animated film.

For smartphone users in Asia where most of Line’s 181 million monthly users are located, the characters are as familiar as old school icons such as Hello Kitty and Disney’s animated stars. They are not well known in America or Europe but owner Line Corp. hopes to change that.

It plans to open 100 stores selling Brown dolls and other cute “Line Friends” paraphernalia worldwide over the next three years. It has already opened two stores in Seoul and its first Shanghai and New York stores will open this year.

Though partly an accidental strategy, the company says the bricks-and-mortar presence will draw more users to the app and help replicate its rapid Asian success in other regions. It will also give the company a backdoor into China, where Line is blocked along with other foreign messaging apps and social media sites.

“We never intended to do a character business,” Yoon Sunmin, who oversees Line’s character business, said in an interview that was the first time the company has outlined its merchandising plans in detail. “It exploded by accident,” he said, drinking coffee from a paper cup emblazoned with the dazed face of Brown.

Visitors to the newly opened flagship shop in Seoul’s trendy Gangnam district screamed with delight when they saw an outsized Brown bear greeting them near the entrance of the three-story store. Locals and tourists from Vietnam, China and Hong Kong queued to take a picture with Brown and other human-size cutout Line characters, as if they were pop stars.

Evelyn Tan, a 27-year  old from northwestern China, and her friend Keira Yi, 23, from Beijing, said they don’t use Line in China but came to look at Brown and other cute dolls.

“I have some friends from Taiwan and they use Line,” said Tan. “The stickers. They are so cute.”

Larger and more expressive than emoticons, the stickers have been a draw card for Line whose users are mostly in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, India and Spain. They also set Line apart from the bare-bones interface of rival WhatsApp, which was bought by Facebook for about $22 billion. Line is worth about $18 billion based on revenue from monthly users, according to Marcello Ahn, a fund manager at Quad Investment Management.

The popularity of the Brown and Cony stickers has also shaped a new trend in mobile communication.

Instead of typing messages, many users simply tapped a sticker showing a coy-looking Brown sitting on a toilet or eating a bowl of ramen. Users began to associate themselves with certain characters and the line-up now includes a bespectacled middle-aged man named Boss and James, a blond narcissist.

“People express their emotion with the characters so the depth of the interaction is different,” Yoon said.

Stickers also made Line the rare mobile messenger that rakes in cash, first by selling stickers for $2 a pack to mobile phone users and later by adding new businesses such as games and a taxi hailing service. Users can now sell stickers they make themselves to other Line users. There are more than 200,000 people around the world who do that.

Line Corp.’s net profit jumped 50 per cent in 2014 to 126 billion won ($112 million) on revenue of 670 billion won ($594 million), according to its parent, South Korea’s Naver Corp. The app was launched in June 2011.

Line also cashed in on the rock star popularity of its animal characters through mobile games and an animated TV show in Japan.

In China, the company hopes the stores and other ventures will put it in a strong starting position in case authorities ever relent on their blocking of the app.

The first Line Friends store in China will open in Shanghai’s Xintiandi shopping district in May, selling Brown dolls, Cony pens, Sally mugs and other goods such as kitchen utensils, stationery, jewellery and toys.

“We hope to resume the Line app service someday” in China, Yoon said. “If the Line app is resumed at a time when our characters are well known, it would be a powerful launch. We hope that in the countries where the Line app is not used actively, Line characters would promote the app.”

Apart from stores, Line is in talks to open a virtual reality amusement park in China. The first such park, where visitors can explore a virtual space with Line characters, will open in Bangkok this summer.

Line is also negotiating with Hollywood producers to turn its cute characters into an animated film for theatres or series for TV.

Line spun off Line Friends earlier this month to operate the character-related business independently from the company’s app business.

Though analysts are sceptical about the app’s future in China where Tencent’s WeChat is dominant, they say the merchandising business could be effective in the US and in Latin America.

“There is clearly an opportunity to take existing mobile properties to other channels and generate revenues,” said Jack Kent, the director of mobile media research at IHS Technology.

PARIS — Without reforms, the world will be plunged into a water crisis that could be crippling for hot, dry countries, the United Nations recently warned.

In an annual report, the UN said abuse of water was now so great that on current trends, the world will face a 40 per cent “global water deficit” by 2030 — the gap between demand for water and replenishment of it.

“The fact is there is enough water to meet the world’s needs, but not without dramatically changing the way water is used, managed and shared,” it said in its annual World Water Development Report.

“Measurability, monitoring and implementation are urgently needed to make water use sustainable,” said Michel Jarraud, the head of the agency UN-Water and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Surging population growth is one of the biggest drivers behind the coming crisis, the report said.

Earth’s current tally of around 7.3 billion humans is growing by about 80 million per year, reaching a likely 9.1 billion by 2050.

To feed these extra mouths, agriculture, which already accounts for around 70 per cent of all water withdrawals, will have to increase output by some 60 per cent.

Climate change — which will alter when, where and how much rainfall comes our way — and urbanisation will add to the coming crunch.

The report pointed to a long list of present abuses, from contamination of water by pesticides, industrial pollution and runoff from untreated sewage, to overexploitation, especially for irrigation.

More than half of the world’s population takes its drinking supplies from groundwater, which also provides 43 per cent of all water used for irrigation.

Around 20 per cent of these aquifers are suffering from perilous over-extraction, the report said.

So much freshwater has been sucked from the spongy rock that subsidence, or saline intrusion into freshwater in coastal areas, are often the result.

By 2050, global demand for water is likely to rise by 55 per cent, mainly in response to urban growth.

“Cities will have to go further or dig deeper to access water, or will have to depend on innovative solutions or advanced technologies to meet their water demands,” the report said.

The overview, scheduled for release in New Delhi, draws together data from 31 agencies in the United Nations system and 37 partners in UN-Water.

It placed the spotlight on hot, dry and thirsty regions which are already struggling with relentless demand.

In the North China Plain, intensive irrigation has caused the water table to drop by over 40 metres in some places, it said.

In India, the number of so-called tube wells, pulling out groundwater, rose from less than a million in 1960 to nearly 19 million 40 years later.

“This technological revolution has played an important role in the country’s efforts to combat poverty, but the ensuing development of irrigation has, in turn, resulted in significant water stress in some regions of the country, such as Maharashtra and Rajasthan,” the report said.

Empty taps and dry reservoirs

Water expert Richard Connor, the report’s lead author, said the outlook was bleak indeed for some areas.

“Parts of China, India and the United States, as well as in the Middle East, have been relying on the unsustainable extraction of groundwater to meet existing water demands,” he told AFP.

“In my personal opinion this is, at best, a shortsighted Plan B. As these groundwater resources become depleted, there will no Plan C, and some of these areas may indeed become uninhabitable.”

Last year, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that around 80 per cent of the world’s population “already suffers serious threats to its water security, as measured by indicators including water availability, water demand and pollution”.

“Climate change can alter the availability of water and therefore threaten water security,” the IPCC said.

Fixing the problems — and addressing the needs of the 748 million people without “improved” drinking water and the 2.5 billion without mains sewerage — requires smart and responsive governance, the new UN report said.

In real terms, this means putting together rules and incentives to curb waste, punish pollution, encourage innovation and nurture habitats that provide havens for biodiversity and water for humans.

It also means learning to defuse potential conflicts as various groups jockey for a precious and dwindling resource.

Tough decisions will have to be made on pricing, and on rallying people together.

“Present water tariffs are commonly far too low to actually limit excessive water use by wealthy households or industry,” the report observed.

But it added, “responsible use may at times be more effectively fostered through awareness-raising and appealing to the common good.”

Dreams of Joy
Lisa See
New York: Random House, 2012
Pp. 375 

“Dreams of Joy” features a Chinese family that is torn apart by personal failings, war and post-revolutionary borders, but persists in trying to reconstruct itself. Lisa See packs so many dramatic events, contrasting landscapes, human conflicts, personality shifts and socio-political changes into an average-size novel that one may be inclined to second the words of Pearl, who says towards the end, “I think I can have no emotions left in me, yet my feelings are so very big, their borders can’t be seen.” (p. 347)

As the novel opens, Joy discovers that her mother, Pearl, is actually her aunt; her Auntie May is her real mother; Pearl’s husband, who raised her, is not her father; and both women were in love with Z. G., her real father. Those who have read “Shanghai Girls” will know this background. “Dreams of Joy” is a sequel, but can be read alone.  

Confused and anguished by the sudden revelation of these family secrets, Joy runs away from home in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, and heads for The People’s Republic of China to find Z.G. and join the revolution, in defiance of her family’s distain for communism. It is 1957. The revolution is relatively new. Joy is only 17, and has no idea of the choices her mother and aunt faced in escaping after Japan’s invasion during World War II, but soon she will make agonising choices of her own. 

As Joy narrates her journey to Shanghai, where Z. G. is a famous artist, and then to a small Chinese village, where she joins a people’s commune, marries and has a child, one admires her ingenuity and determination. At first, one may not be so strongly drawn to Pearl, who narrates the other half of the novel. As she sets off for China, returning after 20 years to find her daughter and bring her home, she seems a bit stuffy and embittered, but her coming to terms with the past sparks personal growth. Her search for Joy becomes a search for joy. Both Joy and Pearl navigate precarious psychological and physical borders, while May plays a supportive role from back home in the US. 

The novel is filled with delicious as well as horrifying images and details. Chinese culture and art, both pre- and post-revolutionary, is showcased. Pearl’s memories recreate “the good old days” in Shanghai; villagers are seen synthesising the new revolutionary culture with their inherited folk traditions, but Joy begins to notice that the proclaimed equality for women is mainly symbolic. Each major character is identified by his or her astrological sign and its adherent characteristics.

Joy, for example, is a Tiger, thought to be romantic and artistic, but also rash, and she lives up to all these qualities. Yet, her experience and the values acquired from her family push her beyond a pre-determined character as she matures and begins to see the world with more realism and nuances. The author creates characters who grow, using their assumed nature to fight the burden of the past; most of those who fight against fate are women, especially mothers.

Chinese cuisine is also showcased in both its opulence and its absence. One reads of the luscious variety of the pre-revolutionary, upper-class diet, but also village food, while simple, is relatively plentiful and healthy, until Chairman Mao declares the Great Leap Forward soon after Joy joins the people’s commune. It is now known that a combination of wrong agricultural practices and the setting of totally unrealistic goals led to mass starvation in China at that time. 

Yet, knowing that millions died during the Great Leap Forward is nothing compared to reading See’s vivid descriptions of the daily meaning of slow starvation in terms of human suffering, and the lengths to which people will go when they are starving. The peasants knew that this policy wouldn’t work, but no dissent was tolerated, locking thousands into their “fate” — a man-made catastrophe. 

The battle between fate and human empowerment is only one theme explored in this novel. There are also different visions of the Chinese Revolution, from Joy’s original idealism about creating a new society of equality, to Pearl’s middle-class opposition, and Z.G.’s pragmatic compromises to stay in favour with the party. All the major characters love China, but tragically, most are unable to live there.

The overriding theme, however, is the power of a mother’s love for her child. The story shows that such love is not restricted to the birth mother but can flourish in any woman who has cared for a child. Having a daughter pushes Joy to define her priorities. She realises she is not motivated by art for art’s sake, nor by politics, but by emotions. “Of these emotions, the strongest is love — love for my two mothers, my two fathers, and my baby… We’re three generations of women who’ve suffered and laughed, struggled and triumphed.” (p. 322)