Features

Hands & Hearts
Weavings from Jordan
Khalil Naouri
Editor: Katharine Scarfe Beckett
Design by Beyond, Amman, Jordan
Printed by National Press
Pp. 240

“Jordanian weaving is the work of artists. It is something to be fully experienced. You must see it, touch it, feel it and live with it. These pieces are so beautiful it is sometimes hard to imagine they were made for hard use.”

It is the avowed belief of the author of this precious book of aesthetic and documentary value that introduces the reader, novice and connoisseur alike, to Jordanian weaving and, by extension, a way of life.

Wishing to document this dying art form, Naouri, “passionate about traditional weavings that were made from forty to a hundred and fifty years ago”, has travelled the country’s length and breadth for well over a decade — initially trading in Jordanian weavings, later building a collection “to help share our heritage more widely” — to form a representative collection for this book and, later, a museum.

“I hope this will help us as Jordanians to begin to truly share and celebrate our rich history of weaving, and then to share Jordanian weaving with the world around us so it receives the attention it merits.”

Richly illustrated with different items woven for practical purpose of adornment, the book contains 150 photographs, mostly of the pieces that are part of a much larger collection of this passionate dealer turned scholar.

The colours and patterns of the rugs, pillow covers or decorative bands are amazingly similar, and akin to those of the region and the larger Mediterranean basin, proof that art and skill travel, and are adopted by mankind eager to learn and embellish its life.

“Rugs were traded and given between tribes, families, and individuals throughout Jordan, taking their designs with them to a new place where they might be imitated or adapted.

“Therefore, although we can recognise certain characteristics that belong to one town or region, there is no single, precise ‘code’ for the patterns in traditional weaving. Instead, each piece must be understood as itself, with its own maker, history and context,” says the author.

Made of sheep wool, goat hair and camel pile, the weavings are painstakingly created on, mostly, ground looms. Reds and oranges predominate, but there is also the whole range of browns, creamy white, dark blue and occasionally green.

While in the past the hues would have been made using natural dyes or simply the colour of the animal fibre, more recently weavers would resort to synthetic dyes.

“The process is harsh and unrelenting, like Jordan’s most extreme natural environments. However, when you experience a finished piece of Jordanian weaving, you do not feel the suffering, only the soul of its creator and the utility of the piece. There is no artifice here, just creativity and survival,” says Naouri who leaves no doubt about his passion for the outcome of this labour of love.

The items shown in this book are named in Arabic (with the English equivalent given), another attempt by the author to preserve tradition.

The reader will admire and come to learn the names of small bags for dried foodstuff (aliga) or bigger storage bags (idl), at times adorned with beads, buttons or shells; of village/town rugs (fijjeh) or of rugs used in bedouin tents (mafrash); of sleeping bags presented to newlyweds (ghafra) or of coverings for camel hindquarters (gafaya); but also terms used for certain patterns (Hosn design; nagesh, to create triangular blocks of colour; or ragm, a complex warp patterning in bands), and have a glimpse at a way of life by seeing the “saha” — “an often elaborately patterned dividing curtain for use inside the tent”, separating men from women — the “rasan” (camel headstall) or the “sfeefy” (long, colourful decorative bands for tents, camels and horses).

The book has another surprise: pages from a book published in 1958 from a manuscript by Maj. Gen. Frederick Gerard Peake, creator of the Arab Legion, who, in 1920, as lieutenant-colonel in the British army was sent to police parts of the territory then called Transjordan; and of maps showing the approximate geographical location of various tribes of Jordan.

The page from the preface of Peake’s book figured in Naouri’s book gives an idea of how Peake Pasha “came to know Transjordan well at about the same time that many of the weavings in this book were probably being created” and “explains a little how the three maps he made between the 1920s and 1930s came later to publication”.

“Jordan is a complex land of oral history, unique interpretations, and constant flux. Given these realities, it is important to realise that this is a book of art, not history,” says Naouri who, while going about documenting the items in his collection, recognised that although there are no definite characteristics setting tribes apart in the art of weaving, it is in fact possible to identify different types, origins and traditions within Jordan.

“A star shape on a rug might equally well represent a constellation or a spring flower. It might simply be a pattern used traditionally by the tribe who made it, or it might be newly created by its weaver,” he however acknowledges, perhaps by way of underlining, that the process is painstaking and only fairly accurate.

Wherever they originated, the items in Naouri’s book and the thousands in his collection were lovingly acquired, carefully preserved and are displayed in the hope that this dying skill may be revived and that Jordan’s traditional heritage is not forgotten.

For, as he says, “Jordanian weaving achieves the remarkable feat of being both essential for the traditional ways of life and also breathtakingly gorgeous.”

The book is available at Shiraz Store, Jordan Intercontinental Hotel, Books@café, Jacaranda Images, Jordan River Foundation, Readers@Cozmo, Wild Jordan and Alia Airport bookshops.

CHICAGO — Mothers may say they don’t care whether they have a son or a daughter, but their breast milk says otherwise.

“Mothers are producing different biological recipes for sons and daughters,” said Katie Hinde, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University.

Studies in humans, monkeys and other mammals have found a variety of differences in both the content and the quantity of milk produced.

One common theme: Baby boys often get milk that is richer in fat or protein — and thus energy — while baby girls often get more milk.

There are a lot of theories as to why this happens, Hinde said Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting.

Rhesus monkeys, for instance, tend to produce more calcium in the milk they feed to daughters who inherit social status from their mothers.

“It could be adaptive in that it allows mothers to give more milk to daughters which is going to accelerate their development and allow them to begin reproducing at early ages,” Hinde said.

Males don’t need to reach sexual maturity as quickly as females because the only limit on how often they reproduce is how many females they can win over.

The females also nurse for longer than male monkeys, who spend more time playing off on their own and thus need more energetically dense milk.

It is not yet clear why human mothers produce such different milk for their babies, Hinde said.

There is evidence, however, that the stage is set while the baby is still in utero.

Hinde published a study last week that showed that the sex of the foetus influences the milk production of cows long after they are separated from their calves (typically within hours of the birth).

The study of 1.49 million cows found that, over the course of two 305 day lactation periods, they produced an average of 445 kilos more milk when they had female calves than when they had bulls.

They also found no difference in the protein or fat content of the milk produced for heifers than for bulls.

Much remains to be understood about how breast milk impacts infant development in humans, Hinde said.

Knowing more could help improve the baby milk formulas sold to mothers who are unable or unwilling to nurse their infants, she said.

“While the food aspects of milk to some extent are replicated in formula, the immuno factors and medicine of milk are not and the hormonal signals are not,” she said.

Getting a better understanding of how milk is personalised for specific infants will also help hospitals find better matches for breast milk donated to help nourish sick and premature infants in neonatal units, she added.

DETROIT — The race to increase vehicle fuel economy is taking a toll on quality.

Owners of three-year-old vehicles are reporting more problems than they did a year ago, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ annual survey of vehicle dependability. It’s the first time since 1998 that the average number of problems per vehicle has increased.

J.D. Power, a California-based ratings and consulting company, said engine issues accounted for most of the increase in problems reported by the original owners of cars and trucks from the 2011 model year. Owners reported an average of 133 problems per 100 vehicles, up from 126 problems a year ago. Only problems within the prior 12 months are counted.

Automakers are rapidly implementing new engine technology to save fuel, including direct fuel injection and turbo charging, stop-start systems that automatically shut cars down at traffic lights and transmissions with higher gears. But those more complex systems can cause problems. David Sargent, J.D. Power’s vice president of global automotive, said the company saw an increase in complaints about engine hesitation, rough transmission shifts and lack of power.

“While striving to reduce fuel consumption, automakers must be careful not to compromise quality,” Sargent said in a statement.

The scores could improve in coming years because since 2011, automakers have worked to make new transmissions shift more smoothly, they’ve refined clunky stop-start systems and improved other fuel-saving technologies.

Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac had the vehicles with the fewest reported problems. Lexus had just 68 problems per 100 vehicles, the only brand with fewer than 100 problems.

General Motors Co. had the most winners in each segment, with eight, including the highest-ranked compact car, the Chevrolet Volt, and the highest-ranked pickup, the GMC Sierra. Toyota Motor Co. was second with seven segment winners, including the Toyota Camry minivan and Lexus ES luxury compact car.

Mini, Dodge and Land Rover had the most reported problems. Mini, the worst performer, had 185 problems per 100 vehicles.

The survey questioned 41,000 owners of 2011 model year vehicles between October and December of last year.

TORONTO –– A Canadian study that many experts say has major flaws has revived debate about the value of mammograms. The research suggests that these screening X-rays do not lower the risk of dying of breast cancer while finding many tumours that do not need treatment.

The study gives longer follow-up on nearly 90,000 women who had annual breast exams by a nurse to check for lumps plus a mammogram, or the nurse’s breast exam alone. After more than two decades, breast cancer death rates were similar in the two groups, suggesting little benefit from mammograms.

It’s important to note that this study did not compare mammograms to no screening at all, as most other research on this topic has. Many groups have not endorsed breast exams for screening because of limited evidence that they save lives.

Critics of the Canadian study also say it used outdated equipment and poor methods that made mammograms look unfairly ineffective.

The study was published Wednesday in the British journal BMJ.

Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer and cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. Nearly 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Many studies have found that mammography saves lives, but how many and for what age groups is debatable. It also causes many false alarms and over treatment of cancers never destined to become life-threatening.

In the US, a government-appointed task force that gives screening advice does not back mammograms until age 50, and then only every other year. The American Cancer Society recommends them every year starting at age 40.

Other countries screen less aggressively. In Britain, for example, mammograms are usually offered only every three years.

The Canadian study has long been the most pessimistic on the value of mammograms. It initially reported that after five years of screening, 666 cancers were found among women given mammograms plus breast exams versus 524 cancers among those given the exams alone.

After 25 years of follow-up, about 500 in each group died, suggesting mammograms were not saving lives. The similarity in the death rates suggests that the 142 “extra” cancers caught by mammograms represent over-diagnosis — tumours not destined to prove fatal, study leaders concluded.

The work was immediately criticised. The American College of Radiology and Society of Breast Imaging called it “an incredibly misleading analysis based on the deeply flawed and widely discredited” study. Mammograms typically find far more cancers than this study did, suggesting the quality was poor, the groups contend.

In a letter posted by the medical journal, Dr Daniel Kopans, a radiologist at Harvard Medical School, described outdated machines and methods he saw in 1990, when he was one of the experts asked to review the quality of mammograms used in the study.

“I can personally attest to the fact that the quality was poor,” he wrote. “To save money they used secondhand mammography machines” that gave poor images, failed to properly position breasts for imaging, and did not train radiologists on how to interpret the scans, he wrote.

It was bound to happen and we’re almost there. Wearable computers are the next critical phase in private computing. What could be more pleasant and convenient than to wear fancy eye glasses that let you watch video and browse the web displaying a large screen, with Dolby sound, merely by looking straight ahead of you, free to move around?

When desktops are too bulky and immovable, when laptops aren’t as portable as you would like them to be, when tablets are not powerful enough and smartphones too small to enjoy large images, wearable computers in the shape of eye glasses may just be the answer.

Call it augmented reality, computer-powered glasses or simply computer glasses, the technology may currently be the most thrilling aspect of living with the Internet and with computers. Epson and Google are the main contenders in this huge, promising market of which we have barely seen the tip. Epson calls its product Moverio and Google calls it, well… Google Glass.

Using the term “computer” for a device that is before anything else a sophisticated display would be exaggerated. The glasses do hardly more than display an image before your very eyes, on the transparent glass fitted in the great-looking frame, giving you the impression that you are watching a big, movie-like screen image.

They do come with impressive features like 3D, Dolby sound, a built-in camera, motion sensors and an advanced Android controller, all in the elegant casing of the glasses, but they also have serious limitations like cables to start with. Yes, the glasses are tethered to the pocket-size Android controller via cables. This alone takes out a good part of the wearable adjective. Using cables is going backwards.

And then there’s the price. Epson’s Moverio older not-so-great model BT-100 can be purchased for $400, whereas there isn’t yet a price tag on the newer, much improved BT-200. There’s a huge difference in the design quality and the functionality between BT-100 and the BT-200. The bottom line found in most technical reviews is “no comparison”. As for Google’s glasses, at about $2,000 they aren’t exactly a steal either!

Virtually all those who have tried these tech toys agree to say that this is only the beginning. In IT jargon all models of wearable display glasses are still in their beta, i.e. not final version. It’s the idea that counts and it’s a great one, beyond any doubt. One of the most striking descriptions was given by CNet: “Limited, fascinating, full of potential”. It says it all.

Perhaps the wisest approach to wearable displays now is to consider them as experimental technology. If you try to buy one thinking it’s going to be very friendly and flawless you will be in for a big disappointment. It is far from being a mature product like a tablet or a smartphone for example.

On the other hand if you are curious, have a lot of time and also some cash put aside, “trying on” a wearable display would make sense. At the speed things usually evolve in IT I wouldn’t be surprised to see wearable computer glasses become common staple in say three to four years. And of course by then they would be affordable, totally wireless and full-fledged computers.

NEW YORK –– Babies born prematurely may benefit from people talking to them while they are still in the hospital's intensive care unit, suggests a new study.

Researchers found that premature babies who were exposed to more talking from adults, such as their parents, in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), tended to score higher on development tests later on.

"This is certainly a remarkable, easy-to-implement and cost-effective intervention of informing moms of visiting their children in the intensive care unit," Dr Betty Vohr said.

Vohr is the study's senior author from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

She and her colleagues write in the journal Paediatrics that a baby still in the womb is exposed to its mother's voice, but a baby born very prematurely is kept in a NICU, where it is exposed to noises from monitors and machines but little talk.

Previous research has found that children born early are at an increased risk for language problems later on, but it's unknown whether talking to them early on will help their later scores.

For the new study, the researchers recruited families of 36 babies that were medically stable but born before 32 weeks of pregnancy and kept in the NICU.

A baby is considered "full term" if it is born between 39 and 41 weeks of pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Society for Maternal-Foetal Medicine (see Reuters Health story of October 22, 2013 here: reut.rs/189Cm4Q.)

The babies in the study wore vests equipped with devices that record and analyse the conversations and background noises near the baby over 16 hours. The recordings were taken at 32 and 36 weeks of gestational age.

Overall, the babies were exposed to more talking at 36 weeks than at 32 weeks, but the actual amount of talk each baby was exposed to during the study periods varied from 144 words to over 26,000 words.

The word tallies were then compared to babies' Bayley-III scores, which measure how a baby is developing in regards to motor, language and thinking skills, at seven and 18 months of age.

The researchers found that after taking into account a child's birth weight, the amount of talking a baby was exposed to at 32 weeks accounted for 12 per cent of differences in children's language scores and 20 per cent of variation in their communication scores at 18 months of age.

The amount of talking a baby was exposed to at 36 weeks also accounted for about 26 per cent of variation in thinking scores at seven months of age.

Overall, the researchers found that an increased amount of adult talk in the NICU was tied to higher language and thinking scores on the tests.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study showing that early exposure in the NICU of preterm infants to higher numbers of adult words is positively correlated with cognitive and language outcomes after discharge," the researchers write.

WASHINGTON –– Technology helps bring married couples closer together even though the use of electronic devices can be a source of tension, a US survey showed Tuesday.

The Pew Internet survey found 21 per cent of married or partnered adults felt closer to their spouse or partner because of exchanges they had online or via text message.

One in four of the couples surveyed said they texted their partner when they were both home together and 9 per cent have resolved an argument online or by text message that they were having difficulty resolving in person.

But the survey also found technology was a source of tension for some couples.

Twenty-five per cent of cell phone owners in a marriage or partnership said their spouse or partner was distracted by their cell phone when they were together.

And 8 per cent said they argued with their spouse or partner about the amount of time one of them was spending online.

The trends appeared magnified among younger adults surveyed, Pew found.

The survey found 42 per cent of 18-29 year olds with cell phones in serious relationships say their partner has been distracted by their mobile phone; but 41 per cent in the age group said they felt closer to their partner because of online or text conversations.

“Technology is everywhere and our relationships are no exception,” said Amanda Lenhart, a Pew researcher and lead author of the report.

“And for younger adults and those in newer relationships, tools such as cell phones and social media were there at the beginning and play a greater role today for good and for ill.”

The survey also found two out of three people in a marriage or committed relationship shared a password to one or more of their online accounts with their spouse or partner.

One in four of those in a couple said they share an e-mail account with a partner and 11 per cent of these couples have an online calendar that they share.

The Pew researchers found those who have been married or partnered 10 years or less have different digital habits.

Those who were already together as a couple at the advent of a new platform or technology were more likely to jump on together, while those who begin relationships with their own existing accounts and profiles tend to continue to use them separately as individuals, the report said.

Some 9 per cent of adult mobile phone owners surveyed said they have sent a sext –– or sexually suggestive image –– of themselves to someone else, up from 6 per cent in 2012.

And one in five cell owners have received a sext of someone else they know on their phone, up from 15 per cent who said this in 2012.

The report is based on a survey of 2,252 US adults from April 17 to May 19. The margin of error for married or partnered adults is estimated at 2.9 points and for cell phone owners 2.4 percentage points.

NEW YORK –– For people with osteoarthritis of the hip, pain levels tracked with the weather over the course of a small two-year study, Dutch researchers say.

They looked at reported pain levels in a previous study of arthritis, then went back to weather records to document the conditions each day.

It turns out the participants’ aches were just a little worse and joints just a little stiffer when humidity and barometric pressure levels rose.

“This is something that patients talk about all the time,” Dr Patience White told Reuters Health. A rheumatologist and vice president for Public Health Policy and Advocacy for the Arthritis Foundation, she was not involved in the study.

Osteoarthritis affects about 27 million Americans. Common risk factors include getting older, being obese, having previous joint injuries, overuse, weak muscles and genetics.

White said she often sees patients who say they are sensitive to the weather.

“Nobody’s bedridden by the weather change,” she said, “It’s not severe pain, they just ache more.”

More than 60 per cent of patients with osteoarthritis say that weather conditions, such as rain, barometric pressure and temperature have an impact on their pain and stiffness, according to the study team, which was led by Desirée Dorleijn, of Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam.

Past research attempting to investigate the weather connection had yielded inconsistent results, so Dorleijn and her colleagues looked at self-reported hip pain and function in 222 osteoarthritis patients who participated in a glucosamine sulphate study.

The patients enrolled in the study filled out questionnaires every three months for two years, including the Western Ontario and McMasters University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), which is scale for self-assessment of pain and function. The WOMAC scores range from 0 to 100, with 0 indicating no pain.

The researchers gathered weather reports for the days the patients filled out the questionnaires. The information gathered from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute included average temperature, wind speed, hours of sunlight, rainfall, humidity and barometric pressure.

Patients who underwent surgeries for their arthritis were dropped during the study; so 188 participants completed the full two years of monitoring.

About 70 per cent of participants were women, averaging about 63 years old.

The average starting WOMAC pain score was 23.1 and the function score was 35.1. Those scores improved slightly — each by about two points — throughout the study.

But when the researchers compared weather conditions to pain and function scores, they found that pain scores worsened by one point for each 10 per cent increase in humidity. Function scores worsened by one point for every 10 hectopascals (0.29 of an inch) increase in barometric pressure.

For a change to be considered “clinically relevant”, it has to alter the WOMAC score by at least 10 points, Dorleijn’s team writes in the journal Pain.

Since variations in humidity and barometric pressure are limited, they could account for changes of five to six WOMAC points at the most, they write.

White agreed that requiring a 10-point change to be significant is the accepted approach to using the WOMAC scale. But that doesn’t mean the pain wasn’t real, she said.

“This is about people seeing a little bit of change, whether it’s the humidity or barometric pressure or function or pain,” White said.

Apart from its small size, the study did have some limitations, White noted. For instance, the patients didn’t have severe osteoarthritis and the pain was only in one joint. Still, she thinks it was a good study.

“They did the best they can do, and they did find a little bit of change. They decided it wasn’t significant,” she said.

But, she said, just because findings didn’t reach statistical significance from the researchers’ point of view, they can be significant from the patients’ point of view.

These days it is all about how you market yourself. The world is not interested in observing you as you are, but perceives you as you want to be perceived. Everything is contrived and nothing is left to the imagination. Even emotions are manufactured and marketable.

So, if you love someone, it is not just enough to care for the person deeply but one has to visibly show it in several different ways. Like buying gifts, remembering birthdays, addressing each other in particular endearments, exchanging cards, calling up constantly, writing e-mails and SMSs and last but not the least, engaging in public displays of affection. There is an entire industry that thrives on manipulating us in this manner.

There is no such thing as privacy anymore. Private, which is loosely defined as something that is secluded from the sight, presence or intrusion of others, is an alien term. With the advent of social networking sites, one gets to know so much in detail about so many people that one is left reeling.

But it was not always like this. I remember the age of subtlety. In fact my childhood was spent during that time. Things were not perfect then. The telephones did not work mostly, the cars were not air conditioned, the roads were pot-holed and the journey of a few miles took a large part of our day. Still, there was romance everywhere.

People then had ample time, and there was a delicacy and refinement to every little thing. For instance, picnics or a trip to the movies would be organised in immense detail. From the table linen, to the crockery and cutlery, to the food menu, all of it would be meticulously planned and discussed. An entourage would be sent a day earlier to secure the picnic spot or the film tickets.

In the majority of cases a professional photographer would also be invited. Scenes of revelry would be captured in his lens and later postcards would be made out of the most spontaneously clicked picture. This would later be converted into season’s greetings cards and circulated amongst friends.

Similarly, there was a gentle nuance to romantic love also. Lovers took great pains to keep their beloved’s identity a secret and never announced their besotted state publicly. Love was something to be felt and experienced between two individuals, and not for the voyeuristic pleasure of all and sundry. My own parents, who adored one another, followed a certain formality in their conversation, and spoke to each other most respectfully.

Brought up in such a scenario, when I got married, the first thing I wanted to hide was my wedding bangles that proclaimed to the world that I was a new bride. My shyness would make me stumble over my alien legally wedded name also.

Over the years I managed to overcome quite a few of my inhibitions. But public display of affection was still unfamiliar to me.

The other day, the flight I was travelling on took a sudden plunge. In sheer nervousness I closed my eyes and clutched my husband’s hand for reassurance.

“Are you alright?” spouse inquired in an amused voice.

“Are we still alive?” I asked, without opening my eyes.

“If you keep pinching my hand like that, one of us might not be,” he laughed.

“Sorry” I said moving away immediately.

“Don’t be, there might be more turbulence, who can tell?” he grinned, grabbing my hand right back.

Safety first?

HANOI, Vietnam — The young Vietnamese creator of hit mobile game Flappy Bird has removed it from the App Store and Google Play saying it ruined his life.

The game which was uploaded in 2013 but only surged to the top in downloads earlier this year was removed early Monday.

The success of the game that based its appeal on being simple and also maddeningly difficult made its creator Nguyen Ha Dong, 29, a minor celebrity.

The game was downloaded more than 50 million times on App Store alone. In an interview with The Verge website, Dong said Flappy Bird was making $50,000 a day in advertising revenue

But tech blogger Carter Thomas said the sudden popularity of Flappy Bird might have been due to use of fake accounts run by computers to create downloads and reviews.

Thomas said he couldn’t prove his suspicion and that the success of Flappy Bird might also be explained by it being “just a wildly viral game”.

Dong, from Hanoi, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the Internet sensation caused by the game “ruins my simple life” and he now hated it.

“I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore,” he wrote.

Dong had agreed to talk to The Associated Press about the game in an interview scheduled for Friday, but cancelled.

On Twitter he didn’t address the inflated downloads allegation but denied suggestions he was withdrawing the game because it breached another game maker’s copyright.

“It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore,” he wrote.