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It is no hidden secret in my household that I do not like cooking. In all fairness, it should have been my most major preoccupation, considering I spend my every waking and sleeping moment with foodies. But Alas! It’s just one of those things that refused to take a hold on me. 

To call my family food obsessed would be a bit of an understatement. It might seem like an exaggeration but in my house, all key discussions, arguments, disagreements and quarrels, gallivant around this sole topic. On the flip side, all celebrations, revelry, merrymaking and festivities also hinge on this very same theme. Our dining table has witnessed both in equal measure: scenes of instant or protracted warfare, and reluctant or cajoling reconciliation. Sometimes on the same day!

Even while having one meal, we have been known to get into an enthusiastic debate about the next one. It is difficult for strangers, if they ever eavesdrop on our conversation, to make head or tail out of this. In fact, mostly it does not make sense to us also. Why is it that we cannot enjoy one meal before planning a subsequent one? We can, and we should, but meticulous details about a future dish makes its presence felt. And we go right back to squabbling over the imaginary imagery. 

The moodiness of the domestic staff that I have hired over the years, has assured that I do not lose touch completely with matters pertaining to cooking. More often than not, the maids are indisposed, and I find myself tying the kitchen apron strings around my own waist. 

Hence I know all the intricacies associated with an individual cuisine. Which particular condiment spices up a bland offering, and what to add to reduce the sharpness of an extra hot curry; I have it all down to a pat. 

But it is a good idea to stay away from me when I am wielding the kitchen knife. I don’t know how people say cooking relaxes them, because this specific activity tenses me up big time. Till all the ingredients are added, and the dish resembles the mental picture that I have of the final product, I am completely stressed. 

My spouse gets totally taken in by the television shows where, in a culinary demonstration, the chefs smile serenely into the camera. He thinks cooking is as easy as a walk in the park, and cannot understand why I make such a fuss over something so simple. 

Last week, the moment our cook called in sick, he offered to rustle up dinner. I was horrified at the suggestion because in over two decades of married life, I had never seen him boil an egg also. 

“You don’t have to do a thing; just show me where everything is,” my husband assured me at the very outset. 

“Two onions, three tomatoes, ginger and garlic,” he announced.

“And coriander leaves,” I added.t

“Can you please grind them while I cut up the cheese,” he instructed me politely. 

“Finished, now can I go?” I asked.

“Fry them till golden brown, will you?” he requested.

“I thought you were cooking,” I protested

“I am slicing the cheese, see,” he said without lifting his head.

“I think it is done,” I said ready to escape.

“Just add the salt, pepper and the rest of the garnishing also,” he guided 

“But you?” I began.

“Are chopping the cheese,” we said in unison!

Ah well!

NEW YORK — Microsoft ended support for the persistently popular Windows XP on Tuesday, and with an estimated 30 per cent of businesses and consumers still using the 12-year-old operating system, the move could put everything from the operations of heavy industry to the identities of everyday people in danger.

"What once was considered low-hanging fruit by hackers now has a big neon bull's eye on it," says Patrick Thomas, a security consultant at the San Jose, California-based firm Neohapsis.

Microsoft has released a handful of Windows operating systems since 2001, but XP's popularity and the durability of the computers it was installed on kept it around longer than expected. Analysts say that if a PC is more than five years old, chances are it's running XP.

While users can still run XP after Tuesday, Microsoft says it will no longer provide new security updates, issued fixes to non-security related problems or offer online technical content updates. The Redmond, Washington-based company says it will provide anti-malware-related updates through July 14, 2015, but warns that the tweaks could be of limited help on an outdated operating system.

Most industry observers say they recognise that the time for Microsoft to end support for such a dated system has come, but the move poses both security and operational risks for the remaining users. In addition to home computers, XP is used to run everything from water treatment facilities and power plants to small businesses like doctor's offices.

Thomas says XP appealed to a wide variety of people and businesses that saw it as a reliable workhorse and many chose to stick with it instead of upgrading to Windows Vista, Windows 7 or 8.

Thomas notes that companies that don't like risk, generally don't like change. As a result, companies most likely to still be using XP include banks and financial services companies, along with healthcare providers. He also pointed to schools from the university level down, saying that they often don't have enough money to fund equipment upgrades.

Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes, says that without patches to fix bugs in the software XP PCs will be prone to freezing up and crashing, while the absence of updated security related protections make the computers susceptible to hackers.

He added that future security patches released for Microsoft's newer systems will serve as a way for nefarious people to reverse engineer ways to breach now-unprotected Windows XP computers.

"It's going to be interesting to say the least," he says. "There are plenty of black hats out there that are looking for the first vulnerability and will be looking at Windows 7 and 8 to find those vulnerabilities. And if you're able to find a vulnerability in XP, it's pretty much a silver key."

Those weaknesses can affect businesses both large and small.

Mark Bernardo, general manager of automation software at General Electric Co.'s Intelligent Platforms division, says moving to a new operating system can be extremely complicated and expensive for industrial companies. Bernardo, whose GE division offers advisory services for upgrading from XP, says many of the unit's customers fall into the fields of water and waste water, along with oil and gas.

"Even if their sole network is completely sealed off from attack, there are still operational issues to deal with," he says.

Meanwhile, many small businesses are put off by the hefty cost of upgrading or just aren't focused on their IT needs.

Barry Maher, a salesperson trainer and motivational speaker based in Corona, California, says his IT consultant warned him about the end of XP support last year. But he was so busy with other things that he didn't start actively looking for a new computer until a few weeks ago.

Sam Glines, CEO of Norse, a threat-detection firm with major offices in St. Louis and Silicon Valley, believes hackers have been watching potential targets for some time now.

"There's a gearing-up on the part of the dark side to take advantage of this end of support," Glines says.

He worries most about doctors like his father and others the healthcare industry, who may be very smart people, but just aren't focused on technology. He notes that healthcare-related information is 10 to 20 times more valuable on the black market than financial information, because it can be used to create fraudulent medical claims and illegally obtain prescription drugs, making doctor's offices tempting targets.

That Hyundai’s crossover is an affordable and good value entry into the SUV segment was obvious ahead of a recent and lengthy local test drive event. However, what became surprisingly apparent quite quickly was that it was an unexpectedly fun and engaging drive when pushed hard through the lumps, bumps, cracks and imperfections of winding provincial back roads and routes less travelled. The Tucson may not be the most luxurious, refined, powerful or best looking of Hyundai’s crossover SUV range, but while it initially felt like drawing the shortest straw when allocated at the start of the recent multi-vehicle Hyundai driving event, the Tucson’s charms soon had one ignoring several car swap points for a few more kilometres in its company.

Sculpted and sharp

First introduced for 2010, the second generation Tucson’s corporate “fluidic sculpture” design language has been sharpened for its 2014 midlife facelift. Tall, wide and compact in length, the Tucson’s defined side character lines and rear haunches lend it a greater sense of on road presence than its predecessor. The Tucson’s high flanks are visually reduced by its side character lines and its lower body black cladding, which also serves to hint at possible or potential rugged off-road ability. Emphasising a sense of flowing lines, the Tucson’s door handles are linked with a prominent character line, while an upper and more defined line rises across the haunches and top of the rear light clusters, before descending to frame the license plate.

More visually complex than its similarly popular Kia Sportage cousin, the Hyundai Tucson’s bold lines and sharp edges are somewhat of an acquired taste. Central to the Tucson’s design is its wide and gaping trapezoidal grille, from which its wrap-around lights, side character lines, defined bonnet and lower intake designs stretch back. A gently sloping roof is topped with metallic rails and a short tailgate spoiler, while the Tucson’s cabin silhouette features a simple three pane glass arrangement per side, with rising outline ending with sharp raised wedge shapes. Driven with the more luxurious Limited version trim, the Tucson rides on 225/55 R18 footwear, which helps fill out its muscular side wings and tall and rising waistline.

Backroad blast

Offered with a choice of 2- and 2.4-litre four-cylinder engines mated to six-speed manual or automatic gearbox options and front or part-time four-wheel drive, the driven Tucson was the top of the line 2.4 auto all-paw driver. Developing 174BHP at 6,000rpm and 167lb/ft torque at 4,000rpm, the featured Tucson’s 10-second 0-100km/h acceleration time and 192km/h top speed are respectably timely, if not scintillating headline figures. Responsive off-the-line, the Tucson feels perky at urban speeds, but isn’t particularly urgent when driven in a half-hearted manner when road speeds pick up. The Tucson 2.4 however responds well to a more committed approach to gear changes and throttle inputs, as one ekes out every last horsepower to cover ground in a brisk fashion.

And that is where the Tucson 2.4 AWD is at its most impressively and engagingly best, when driven at the ragged edge of its performance envelope, when it covers narrow, snaking, sprawling, imperfect and desolate countryside lanes at a truly and unexpectedly swift pace. While its engine is refined and progressive as it builds to peak torque and power, and its automatic gearbox is smooth and timely — is not snappily responsive through gears — but one found the Tucson 2.4 to be particularly cooperative when being hustled by the metaphorical scruff of its collar. While it isn’t fair to label the Tucson 2.4 as an outright “slow” car, with its compact size, respectable but modest performance and relatively light weight, it is, however, one of few crossover SUVs which delivers the feel-good thrills of driving a well-sorted but slow and small car fast. 

Agile all-wheel driver

Akin to a well-sorted family hatchback among crossovers and SUVs, the Tucson’s relatively short wheelbase lends it cornering agility and maneuverability, while its comparatively wide track makes it stable and reassuring through curves and along fast straights. Underpinned by all independent front MacPherson strut and rear multi-link suspension, the Tucson copes well with road imperfections, while its spring and damper rates and 225/55R18 tyres find a happy compromise between supple absorption of rough road textures and body control through corners. On fast smooth, high-power hill climbs the Tucson needs to use full power and leans somewhat when pushed, but does well enough. However when hustled along sprawling and snaking country lanes, the Tucson can be masterfully capable when one drives fluidly, and with planning, by working the gears to keep revs high and by well-utilising momentum.

Driving hard on a straight and then braking hard and downshifting before a tight corner or sweeper, and then coming back on the power at the apex, the Tucson is willing and entertaining through corners. While its tall clearance allows it to cover rough roads easily, the Tucson’s maneuverability and measured suspension and quick steering rate give it somewhat of a rally car’s flavour on such roads — in fact Hyundai would do well to look into fitting their 200BHP 1.6-litre turbocharged engine into the Tucson. While the Tucson’s steering may not have the delicate finesse of a well-sorted hot hatch like a Ford Focus ST, it is however quick and accurate, and as pace pick up and roads worsen, it becomes more nuanced, responsive and engaging, with good feel and feedback for texture and position, even at the edge of the Tucson’s grip limits.

Bobbing and weaving

Bobbing and weaving along narrow and winding but imperfect back roads, the Tucson felt agile and alert, with a tidy nippy turn-in, while a fluent driving style allowed one to skirt around electronic stability control interventions through scant milliseconds of momentary front grip loss as road texture suddenly altered, while its four-wheel-drive system subtly reallocated power rearwards to keep it in line. Through clumsier and tighter corners, the Tucson is safety-minded and quickly reins in understeer. Though a road-based crossover with a smooth highway ride, in town maneuverability and unexpectedly agile handling, the Tucson’s raised ride, short overhangs and short wheelbase and low speed lockable four-wheel drive allow for limited but very useful off-road potential. 

A bigger car inside than its compact dimensions would suggest, the Tucson’s cabin features comfortable seats with good front adjustability and visibility, and generous rear leg and head room to allow a tall and wide passenger a comfortable sit behind a similarly sized driver, while boot dimensions are uniform and spacious. Dash, console and binnacle dials, buttons and functions are user-friendly and uncomplicated, and include steering controls. Cabin material seems well-fitted and honest — if not opulent — while the strategic use of soft textures and decent quality rich dark brown leatherette upholstery on the driven model added a touch of class. 

Driven in high-spec limited version, the Tucson featured steering tilt but not reach adjustability and three three-point rear seat belts but no Isofix child seat mounts, among numerous other features.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2.4 litre, all-aluminium, transverse
4 cylinders

Valve-train: 16 valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 174.5 (177) [130] @ 6000rpm

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 167 (226.5) @ 4,000rpm

0-100 km/h: under 10 seconds

Top speed: 192km/h

Fuel capacity: 55 litres

Length: 4,410mm

Width: 1,820mm 

Height: 1,655mm

Wheelbase: 2,640mm

Track, F/R: 1,585 / 1,586mm

Overhang, F/R: 880 / 890mm

Minimum ground clearance: 170mm

Kerb weight: 1,491kg

Gross vehicle weight: 2,050kg

Approach / departure angles: 28.1° / 26.9°

Steering: Hydraulic rack & pinion

Turning radius: 5.29 metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.99 turns

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

Brakes, F&R: Discs

Tyres: 225/55R18

WASHINGTON – "Make yourself comfortable, eyes closed, take a few full breaths," a woman's voice says softly. "If you find that your mind has wandered, this is good news."

Twelve professionals have gathered in a conference room much like any other in downtown Washington. But this is no ordinary meeting. 

This is "mindfulness", a form of meditation that is growing fast in the Western world, including in the United States, and has been hailed for its benefits in reducing anxiety and depression.

In January, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that said in some cases mindfulness could be as effective as taking anti-depressant medication.

"Mindfulness is the friendly awareness of the present moment," Klia Bassing, 38, an instructor since 2004, tells AFP.

"Usually our mind goes into default mode, thinks about anything other than the present moment, usually leaning forward into the future about what could happen, worrying, planning or ruminating about something in the past that's already happened.

"With mindfulness, we come into the present moment and sense what's actually happening right now. The breath is only in the present moment."

Tangible benefits 

Bassing is founder of Visit Yourself at Work, bringing mindfulness to the workplace –– and there have been plenty of takers, from the World Bank in the US capital to the offices of law firms and insurance companies.

She has a dozen people on their lunch breaks seated around a conference table at the American Psychological Association (APA).

Her voice quiet but firm, Bassing instructs them to sit comfortably and breathe in deeply several times. 

"Feel the place where your body makes contact with the chair, the back on the seat, on the seat of the chair, where your back makes contact with the back of the chair, where your back doesn't make contact with the back of the chair..."

Patti Delande, 42, an application interface designer, says she has felt tangible benefits since starting to practise mindfulness with Bassing four years ago.

"I had a lot of racing thoughts right before bed and it was very difficult to fall asleep, but I can't remember the last time I've had that, so I think that is the direct result of just over the years trying to be more mindful, more aware of what's going on in my head."

Laura Labedz, a technical information analyst, 29, uses the technique in her work.

"If I catch myself getting annoyed by something, I can name it as being annoyed, which helps distance myself from it," she says.

"I can take deep breaths and I have also learned that emotions don't last forever –– good ones and bad ones –– so if you take the time to acknowledge your feelings in a certain way, you can get over the emotions faster."

Although meditation is associated with Buddhism, Bassing stresses that you do not need to be religious to do mindfulness exercise. 

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine and widely hailed as a mindfulness master, founded a mindfulness stress reduction programme at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979.

'More engaged' 

Susanna Galle, a neuropsychologist, explains that mindfulness modifies the activity of the amygdala, an area of the brain involved in emotions.

"There is a shift in the paradigm of medicine towards more acknowledgement that the body and the mind are connected," she says.

"People are going to their doctors and saying, 'I'm taking this mindfulness course and I'm feeling so much better.' The Buddhist and the yogi knew that a long time ago."

Holly Siprelle, assistant executive director, staff initiatives, at the APA, has witnessed first hand the benefits of providing mindfulness, yoga, massage and other "alternative" techniques for workers.

"The employees are happier at work, they are more engaged, we have a lot of longevity of employees here because the work is compelling," she says.

Bassing says that, contrary to the popular misconception that meditation involves sitting on the floor, legs crossed, mindfulness can be deployed "at any time –– and the more often, the better".

LONDON – As the home of cooked breakfasts and pints of beer, it is perhaps no surprise that Britain is the European king of anti-cholesterol drugs with some seven million users.

But recommendations to widen the use of "statins" –– the class of drugs used to battle cholesterol –– has sparked a national debate about their merits and whether they are really a silver bullet to stave off heart attacks.

Britain is the heaviest country in Europe and the seventh fattest of developed countries worldwide, with OECD data showing 24.8 per cent of adults are obese.

Britons also drink more than most rich nations and despite exercising more than most, the incidence of heart attacks is only slightly below the OECD average.

Alwyn Daniel, a 53-year-old from London, was put on statins two years ago after a visit to the doctor revealed a sudden jump in his cholesterol levels.

"My father died at 62 of a heart attack, so I started taking it because the doctor thought it might be a good idea," Daniel told AFP.

Seven million and counting 

Statins inhibit HMG-CoA, an enzyme in the liver involved in producing cholesterol.

Ten years ago, statins were only prescribed to people in Britain who had a 30 per cent chance of suffering a heart attack in the next decade, but their use has become more widespread.

The threshold is now 20 per cent and NICE, the body responsible for regulating standards in the state-run National Health Service, recently recommended it be lowered to 10 per cent.

This would increase the number of patients from seven to 12 million, or one in four adults.

Britain already consumes more statins than any other European nation and only slightly less than Australia, which has the highest rate of use among OECD nations.

"The main reason they are so widely prescribed is because the evidence shows that they are very effective," said Maureen Talbot, nurse manager at the British Heart Foundation charity.

The risk of suffering a heart attack is calculated using a wide range of variables, from age, weight and height, to family history and lifestyle factors, including cholesterol.

During a recent medical consultation in London, an AFP reporter was told he had a 12 per cent risk of having some cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years.

"It would lower to 9 per cent if you were on statins," the doctor said. "But before [taking them], stop smoking –– it would lower to 7-8 per cent."

Critics say statins are being prescribed too easily and that people should be asked to change their behaviour before turning to medication.

"I'm sure there would be a group of people that think that statins cure all evils and they can do what they like," the BHF's Talbot said.

"But I would say they are a small minority. The majority of people, if they are taking a tablet, will make changes in their lifestyle."

Daniel, the Londoner, insisted he did not see statins as a licence to eat whatever he wanted. "I don't have a cream cake just because I am taking statins," he said.

There are concerns about the potential side effects of the drugs, which range from nosebleeds, joint pain and nausea, to liver problems and an increased risk of diabetes.

Christophe, a 54-year-old Frenchman who declined to give his surname, starting taking statins six years ago but stopped a few months later after being diagnosed with hepatitis –– which he says was unrelated to the statins.

English breakfast 'is OK' 

The new NICE guidance has reignited the debate in Britain over the merits of statins.

Two articles appeared in the British Medical Journal questioning the use of the drugs, only to be condemned as a "disservice to British and international medicine" by leading statins specialist Rory Collins, of Oxford University.

Meanwhile a vascular surgeon, Haroun Gajraj, wrote an article explaining why he had given up statins after eight years –– and believed cholesterol levels were "all but irrelevant".

"Yes, it may, in some circumstances, be an indicator of heart disease but there is no evidence of a causal link," he wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

PHILADELPHIA — Sam Robinson said it’s been about 15 years since he last played the videogame Tetris on a Game Boy. On Saturday night, he played it on the side of a skyscraper.

Robinson, 30, was among the hundreds of Tetris fans who had a little fun Saturday with a big version of the classic video game on the side of the 29-story Cira Centre in downtown Philadelphia.

“It has been probably 15 years since I played Tetris last on a Game Boy, and it’s much different playing on the side of building that’s a half-mile away,” the city resident said. “Everything’s happening so quick.”

The hundreds of LED lights embedded in the building’s glass facade normally display colourful patterns. On Saturday night, images of super-sized shapes “fell” on two sides of the mirrored tower as competitors used joysticks to manoeuvre them, creating a spectacle against the night sky that organisers hoped inspired onlookers and players to think about the possibilities of technology.

It wasn’t the first time Tetris has been played on a building. But the 9,300-square-metre “screen” — which included the north and south faces of the structure — could be a record.

The spectacle kicked off a citywide series of events called Philly Tech Week. It also celebrated the upcoming 30th anniversary of a game revered as the epitome of elegance and simplicity, said Frank Lee, an associate professor of digital media at Drexel University.

Lee, a game designer who oversaw creation of the giant display, said putting it on an office building was like making a huge virtual campfire.

“This project began as a personal love letter to the games that I loved when I was a child — Pong last year, Tetris this year. But it ended up as a way of uniting the city of Philadelphia,” Lee told the crowd.

Lee already holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest architectural video game display for playing Pong on one side of the Cira Centre last year. Pong, the granddaddy of all video games, is an electronic version of paddleball developed by Atari in 1972.

Tetris, created by Russian computer programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984, challenges players to rotate and arrange falling shapes into complete rows.

It became a global phenomenon in the late 1980s after game designer Henk Rogers, who had seen Tetris at a trade show in Las Vegas, acquired the rights and struck a deal to put it on Nintendo’s original Game Boy.

Rogers, who was among the players on Saturday in Philadelphia, said he can’t believe the longevity of Tetris, which decades later continues to mesmerise players on more than 30 platforms.

“If a game lasts a year, that’s amazing,” said Rogers, now managing director of The Tetris Co. “They usually go out of style very quickly.”

Rogers said several new Tetris products and initiatives are planned for release around its June 6 anniversary. He declined to discuss details.

SEOUL — When Samsung unveiled a new smartphone at the storied Radio City Music Hall, the Broadway-style spectacle was memorable not for technology but for a cast of giggling female characters who fantasised about marrying a doctor, fretted about eating too much cake, and needed a man’s help to understand how to work the phone.

The stereotypes were blatant even for an industry where skimpily clad booth babes are a staple of trade shows and high-level female executives are a rarity. A backlash spread online as the event, live-streamed on the Internet and broadcast in Times Square, unfolded.

How could an international company that wants to be seen as an innovator and spends more than $11 billion a year on advertising and promotions so badly misjudge its audience? Without too much difficulty and often it turns out.

A day before the Galaxy smartphone launch in March last year, the company was criticised in South Africa for using models in bikini tops to show its newest refrigerators and washing machines.

Some months later it was derided for a video promoting a fast data storage device known as a solid state drive. Two men in the ad immediately recognise the device and understand the benefits while a woman, who says she only uses her computer for simple activities such as looking at pictures, is befuddled.

Marlene Morris Town, a marketing professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, said the portrayals are “troubling” and imply that men are the sole target of the sales message. If women are the target, the implication is “they are significantly less competent and not able to grasp technology.”

Samsung is hardly alone in talking down to half of its potential customers.

Joking that gadgets made by LG Electronics distract attention from models, Facebook user Lee Sang-hoon collected two dozen images of the company’s products promoted by women with ample cleavage. The company’s promotion for a new curved TV was a woman showing off her thighs in a reclining pose.

“Among men, we talk about how LG does breast marketing,” said Lee, who noted LG seemed to have toned down its promotions this year.

Perhaps because depictions of females as adornments and submissive helpers have long been the norm in South Korean commercials and print ads, audiences have rarely questioned how homegrown technology giants such as Samsung and LG Electronics portrayed women. Even as these companies became global names, ingrained aspects of their corporate cultures hardly changed. Some of Samsung’s blunders took place under female leadership. A top marketing executive in its mobile team was a woman and gave the green light to the Radio City Music Hall performance.

Heeding criticism abroad and at home, Samsung this year tried for the first time to dispense with young women in tight clothes for a TV launch in South Korea. It was a small but somehow bold step as sexualised product launches are a fixture that provide fodder for tabloids and TV and much publicity for the companies.

“In the past, it seemed that a lot of reporters were focusing on something else, not our TVs,” said Kim Hyun-seok, head of Samsung’s TV business.

But far from winning plaudits, Samsung became the victim of the cult it helped create.

Without models, news photographers and camera crews refused to shoot a new curved screen television at the Samsung launch in February. Instead, they asked female assistants hired to explain technical features to stand next to the TVs.

For some, the phenomenon reflects that leadership in the tech and advertising industries remains predominantly male.

“Decision makers in the ads are nearly all men,” said Park Jae-hang, who worked at Cheil Worldwide, an ad and marketing unit of Samsung Group, between 1993 and 2009.

Ken Hong, a spokesman for LG, said the content of promotions boils down to what the audience wants.

“Using female models for tech product photos is popular with Korean readers so the media request them,” he said.

WASHINGTON – Being slimmer could be as simple as waking up early for some morning sunshine, US researchers suggested on Wednesday.

A small study of 54 volunteers showed that the leanest ones did not necessarily eat better or exercise more than the rest. They simply were exposed to more bright daylight earlier in the day.

The findings by Northwestern University researchers are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“The earlier this light exposure occurred during the day, the lower individuals’ body mass index (BMI),” said co-lead author Kathryn Reid, research associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. 

“The later the hour of moderately bright light exposure, the higher a person’s BMI.”

Participants’ average age was 30. They wore wrist monitors to measure their light exposure and sleep cycles, and kept food logs for the duration of the seven-day study.

Morning light was found to have an influence on body mass, regardless of a person’s physical activity level, caloric intake, sleep timing, age or the season. 

The study found morning light accounted for about 20 per cent of a person’s body mass index (BMI).

“Light is the most potent agent to synchronise your internal body clock that regulates circadian rhythms, which in turn also regulate energy balance,” said study senior author Phyllis Zee.

“The message is that you should get more bright light between 8:00am and noon,” she added.

As little as 20 to 30 minutes could be enough to affect BMI, the study said.

SAN FRANCISCO — A new mobile messaging application called FireChat is empowering nearby smartphone users to stay in touch even when there’s no cellular service or Internet connection.

In just two weeks since its release on the iPhone, FireChat already has provided a flicker of hope for people pining for more effective, secure and affordable ways to communicate. That’s because the free messaging app harnesses a technology called wireless mesh networking, which might someday allow a myriad of devices to connect like links in a chain.

The technique might someday be used to tie together thousands of devices with built-in radios and make it possible to be online without having to pay for the access. It could also enable online communications in remote areas or disaster zones without WiFi or cellular signals. Furthermore, the conversations in these so-called “off-the-grid” networks can’t be easily hacked into by spies and mischief makers or shut down by governments trying to stifle free speech.

“We are trying to create networks built by the people for the people,” said Micha Benoliel, CEO of Open Garden, maker of the FireChat app.

Open Garden, a San Francisco start-up with just 10 employees, is taking another step toward its ambitious goal with Thursday’s release of a FireChat app for Android phones.

FireChat could be an even hotter commodity on Android given the demographic differences between that platform’s user base and the typical iPhone owner. The app already has been installed on more than 1 million iOS devices.

Many smartphones running on Google Inc.’s free Android software are cheaper than Apple Inc.’s iPhone. That has made Android phones the top-selling mobile devices in less affluent countries, including in regions where Internet access is inadequate or expensive.

Google is among the big Internet companies intrigued with mesh networking’s potential to bring more of the world online.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s executive in charge of Android, has touted mesh networks as a way to connect wearable computers, such as the company’s Glass eyewear. Mesh networks also could be used to bring a wide variety of everyday appliances online, helping to build an Internet of things instead of just websites.

FireChat’s reach so far is limited. When connecting off the grid, iPhone app users have only been able to send text and photos to other FireChat users within a range of 30 to 100 feet (10 to 30 metres).

Later this year, Open Garden plans to upgrade FireChat’s iPhone app so off-the-grid users will be able to hopscotch through a daisy chain of devices to extend the reach of a local network. If this works, a FireChat user sitting in the right-field bleachers of a baseball game would be able to text with a friend on the other side of the stadium if enough other iPhone users in the ballpark also are on FireChat.

This extended range will be available immediately on FireChat’s Android app because Open Garden released a mesh networking app for that operating system nearly two years ago.

FireChat’s iPhone app piggybacks on an often overlooked feature called the Multipeer Connectivity Framework that Apple Inc. included in its latest mobile operating system, iOS 7, released last September. Apple says more than 80 per cent of people using its mobile devices rely on iOS 7.

For now, Android phones and iPhones with the FireChat app won’t be able to engage in off-the-grid conversation. Open Garden, though, believes it will eventually be able to make mesh networking work on phones running on different operating systems.

FireChat’s development was driven by the popularity of other mobile messaging apps such as Snapchat and WhatsApp that enabled smartphone users to text and send pictures to their friends and family without having to pay smartphone carriers.

Like texts and photos sent on Snapchat, nothing transmitted through FireChat is saved. All content evaporates once the app is closed. FireChat also allows all its users to remain anonymous, another feature that is becoming popular on a variety of mobile messaging apps, such as Wickr and Rumr.

SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter-owned Vine said Thursday it was adding an option for private messages sent using the service’s looping short videos.

“From Vine’s early days, we recognised that there was a growing desire and need for private messaging on Vine,” product manager Jason Toff said in a blog post.

“We’ve watched the community come up with some clever ways to send videos to their friends as we’ve been working on this solution. Now you can privately send Vine videos and text messages to your friends. You can even send videos to anyone in your address book, even if they aren’t on Vine.”

Twitter bought the small team at Vine, a start-up based in New York, in October 2012, prompting talk the messaging service intended to do for smartphone video what Instagram did for pictures.

The new offering comes amid intense interest in smartphone messaging apps.

Facebook this year unveiled plans to buy the messaging service WhatsApp in a deal worth up to $19 billion in cash and stock.

That came after the service known for disappearing messages, Snapchat, reportedly turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook.

And Viber, another messaging app, was scooped up this year by Japanese online giant Rakuten for $900 million.