Features

WASHINGTON — Five letters, six attempts, and just one puzzle to solve per day: The “Wordle” formula couldn’t be simpler, but in a matter of weeks the online brain teaser has got millions guessing around the world.

“It just grabs you,” daily player Susan Drubin told AFP of the code-breaking word challenge — perhaps best described as a cross between the retro board game “Mastermind” and a daily crossword.

“The great thing about it, is it only takes a few minutes, usually, and it’s a very nice, tiny distraction,” said the 65-year-old from the Washington suburbs.

The puzzle’s rise has been meteoric: According to The New York Times, 90 people played on November 1. Two months later, on January 2, more than 300,000 tackled the challenge. The Guardian put the daily player count last weekend at two million, and rising.

Wordle’s rules are disarmingly simple: Find the word of the day in six tries or fewer. Each guess must be a valid five letter word: Letters in the correct space turn green, while letters that are part of the answer but in the wrong spot turn yellow.

Only one word is offered up per day, and it is the same for everyone. Can’t crack today’s puzzle? You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow for the next one.

Although the game itself is accessed on a website, rather than an app, players can generate a shareable widget, with six lines of coloured squares indicating how many tries it took to solve the riddle — without giving away the day’s answer, of course.

After a couple of weeks, Drubin — like legions of players — took to sharing her results on social media under the hashtag #Wordle.

And thus, a viral phenomenon was born.

‘Just fun’

Part of what makes Wordle special is that it costs nothing to play — and is also, more unusually, ad-free. 

Its designer Josh Wardle, a software engineer based in Brooklyn but originally from Wales, has decided not to monetise the game.

“I think people kind of appreciate that there’s this thing online that’s just fun,” Wardle told The New York Times on Monday. “It’s not trying to do anything shady with your data or your eyeballs.” 

While the game website — “powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle” — is free of ads or pop-ups, it did not take long for enterprising copy-cats to try to mimic the game concept, devising app store clones for purchase which have since been taken down.

The lone app left standing is an unrelated game called “Wordle!” with an exclamation mark, created by a teenager five years ago.

Its developer Steven Cravotta, now 24, says he initially “had no idea what was going on” when his app starting logging more than 40,000 daily downloads.

“I didn’t know it was a craze,” Cravotta told The Wall Street Journal. 

Bragging rights

For Mikael Jakobsson, a research coordinator for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Game Lab, Wordle falls into the “gap-filler” category, a game “that you can pull out when you’re waiting for a friend or... for the bus”.

He puts its success partly down to how easy it is to share results with friends, either by social media or word-of-mouth.

When you crack the puzzle, “you feel very proud of yourself... You have that share button right there. So then you can brag a little bit about it, which we tend to like doing.”

Rachel Kowert, a psychologist specialising in video games, also points to the social comparison theory, which holds that everyone wants to evaluate themselves in relation to others.

The temptation is such that tongue-in-cheek debates have sprung up online about muting friends who tweet out their “humble-brag” scores.

Another key part of the game’s allure, says Kowert, is that being “limited to one a day gives you a sense of psychological scarcity”.

“You’re not overdoing it in any one session, and it keeps you wanting to come back to continue to play day after day,” she said.

Wordle is already being adapted into other languages, including French, having swiftly conquered the English-speaking world — although, spoiler alert, the Wednesday word’s American spelling triggered howls of online player protests from its creator’s fellow Britons.

SAN FRANCISCO — The data-tracking “cookies” at the heart of concerns over online privacy were meant to shield people, rather than serve as cyber snoops, their inventor told AFP.

California-based engineer and entrepreneur Lou Montulli said the original “cookie” he created decades ago was intended to make life online easier by letting websites remember visitors.

Yet, the technology has become a lightning rod, attacked for helping tech companies collect data on consumers’ habits key to the targeted web ad business that makes many billions of dollars per year.

“My invention is at the technological heart of many of the advertising schemes, but it was not intended to be so,” said Montulli, who created them in 1994 while an engineer at Netscape. 

“It is simply a core technology to enable the web to function,” he said.

Google joined a growing list of tech companies this week by announcing a new plan to block certain types of cookies, after the online ad giant’s previous proposals were roundly criticised. 

When discussing his invention, Montulli said the software snippets that let a website recognise individuals helped make possible features such as automatic log-ins or remembering the contents of e-commerce shopping carts.

Without what are called “first-party” cookies — which also are used by websites to interact directly with visitors — every time a person went online, they would be treated as though it were their first time.

But Montulli pointed to trouble with so-called “third-party” cookies, those generated by websites and tucked into visitors’ browsers, and ad networks that aggregate data from those snippets.

“It is only through collusion between many websites and an ad network that ad tracking is allowed to happen,” Montulli argued.

Websites share activity data with ad networks, which then use it to target ads for all their members.

Online ads arms race

“If you search on some strange niche product and then you get bombarded with ads for that product at a number of websites, that is a weird experience,” Montulli said.

“It is normal human pattern recognition to think if they know I was looking for blue suede shoes, they must know everything about me; then think I want to get out of this.”

Governments have taken notice, with the latest consequence being French authorities fining Google and Facebook 210 million euros ($237 million) this month over their use of cookies.

If one website in a network also collects personally identifying information about a user, say a name or e-mail, that could be “leaked” in a way that enables a browser to be associated with a person.

“It’s a network effect of all these different websites colluding together with the ad trackers,” Montulli said. “Cookies were originally designed to provide privacy.”

He said one possible response would be to stop targeting ads and start charging subscriptions for online services, which run on online advertising revenue.

Montulli also supports phasing out third-party cookies, but warned getting rid of the software snippets altogether would drive advertisers to employ more stealthy tactics.

“Advertising will find a way,” he said. “It will become a technological arms race; considering the billions of dollars at risk, the ad industry will do what they need to keep the lights on.”

Turning off third-party cookies could also unintentionally punish small websites by shutting them out of targeted ads that make money, giving even more power to tech giants such as Apple, Google and Facebook-parent Meta.

Regulation that keeps cookies in use, mandating controls such as letting users opt in or out of sharing data, may be the only viable long-term solution, Montulli said.

“You really couldn’t use the web without cookies,” he said. “But, we are going to need to be more nuanced about how they are used in advertising.”

A spacious seven-seat family newcomer to the Jordanian market since last month, the Geely Okavango was, however, first launched under the Haoyue nameplate in its Chinese home market back in 2020.

A comfortable crossover that is positioned in a more attainable price bracket, it was to be expected that the Okavango would be both a practical vehicle and refined ride during a recent and thorough test drive. However, it was the Okavango’s manoeuvrability, versatile performance and reassuring dynamics that proved to be above expectation.

Named after Botswana’s Okavango Delta region, Geely’s mid-size crossover may not quite be one for treacherous off-road expeditions, but is instead a ‘heroic’ three-row family vehicle, with three independently folding and sliding middle row seats. Ideal for long on-road touring with moderate dirt trail excursions, the Okavango’s sense of adventure is reflected in assertively moody yet classy styling elements such as slim, squinting and deeply recessed headlights, sculpted bumper, jutting and raised clamshell bonnet, faux lower skid plate and broad and charismatic ripple effect grille design.

An assertive package

Incorporating black lower cladding and slightly squared-off and prominent wheel-arches, the Okavango’s sophisticated but assertive design also incorporates restrained matte metallic accents, muscular rear haunches, slim expressive rear lights. It chiselled body meanwhile features prominent ridges, character lines and contrasting concave and convex surfacing. With a sense of momentum, its descending roofline and ascending waistline meanwhile seemingly converge towards its subtle tailgate spoiler. Visually well-concealing its bulk, the Okavango is generously spacious inside, and can accommodate up to 2,050-litres of cargo, with rear seat rows folded. 

For the Jordanian market, the Okavango is powered by a turbocharged direct injection 1.5-litre 3-cylinder engine and mild hybrid system – jointly developed with Geely’s Swedish subsidiary, Volvo – driving the front wheels through a 7-speed automated dual clutch gearbox. Developing 174BHP at 5,500rpm and 188lb/ft throughout a broad 1,500-4,000rpm range, the Okavango’s prodigious three-pot engine is supplemented with a 48V mild hybrid starter/generator motor, which recovers kinetic braking energy and assists for improved output and longer fuel-saving automatic engine deactivation, to achieve low estimated 6.6l/100km combined consumption.

Confident and quiet

With the Okavango’s mild hybrid system pitching in often, its integration is notably smooth, with little, if any, hint of the lift-off delay often associated with full hybrid systems. Producing a maximum combined 187BHP and 221lb/ft, the Okavango is responsive from standstill, and with a quick-spooling turbo, is estimated to accelerate through 0-100km/h in around 10.5-seconds and onto 190km/h. Versatile in mid-range, the Okavango is confident over-taking and driving up steep inclines. Meanwhile, its electric boost provides an easily accessible reservoir of torque across the range.

Smooth and refined in operation, the Okavango’s well-insulated cabin remains quiet even at high revs, while its engine is at its best through its torque-rich mid-range. With three driving modes available, the Okavango’s 7-speed dual clutch gearbox takes on slightly different driving characteristics, with shifts executed most succinctly and responsively in Sport. Comfort mode is meanwhile smoothest and most intuitive, while Eco mode adopts a more efficient, but less responsive shifting profile. Sequential manual shifting via the gear lever is also possible for more driver control.

Consistent companion

Driven extensively in various conditions, the Okavango proved to be a comfortable and smooth long distance companion, dispatching highway stretches with reassuring composure, stability and refinement. Meanwhile, it was supple and forgiving over most road imperfections, lumps and bumps, but perhaps a slightly firmer suspension rate would have been welcome over some bigger, more sudden bumps. Nevertheless, the Okavango’s comfort level impressed, as did its manoeuvrability in town, with a tight 10.6-metre turning circle, light steering and clear 360° reversing camera compensating for its high waistline.

Dynamically more accomplished and more agile than its size and height suggest, the Okavango weaves through winding country roads and snaking hill climbs with confidence and less than expected body lean. Turning in tidily, its steering gives decent feel for the road and vehicle position. On wet or damp roads, the Okavango’s instinct is to understeer and torque-steer slightly if pushed too hard into a tight corner. Serving to remind the driver of dynamic limits, this is entirely predictable and easily corrected by easing back on the throttle.

Composed comfort

Easy to place on road and composed through successive direction changes, the Okavango delivers reassuringly excellent rear grip, and predictable and notably consistent dynamics, given the absence of an all-wheel-drive system to send power rearwards mid-corner. Electronic stability control is meanwhile smooth, effective and un-intrusive, while brakes are reassuring and consistent, if feeling slightly sensitive to input at first. Though not an off-roader, the Okavango nevertheless features hill descent control for when needed, and usefully generous 190mm ground clearance for dry dirt roads and deeply rutted roads.

Spacious inside for cargo and passengers, the Okavango’s front and middle row seats provide good head and legroom, and twin third row seats are reasonably accommodating, while large rear doors with wide swing angles offer excellent access. Stylish and contemporary in design, the Okavango’s cabin well incorporates hard and soft surfaces and textures, and features user-friendly layouts and controls and a comfortable, well-adjustable driving position. Well-equipped with convenience, infotainment and safety features, the addition of a blind spot warning system would, however, be welcome for busy Amman roads.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse, turbocharged 3-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 82 x 93.2mm
• Compression: 10.5:1
• Valve-train: 12-valve, DOHC
• Electric motor: 48V electric starter/generator
• Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 174 (176) [130] @5,500rpm
• Specific power: 117.8BHP/litre
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 188 (255) @1,500-4,000rpm
• Specific torque: 172.6Nm/litre
• Combined power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 187 (190) [140]
• Combined power-to-weight: 112.7BHP/tonne
• Combined torque, lb/ft (Nm): 221 (300)
• Combined torque-to-weight: 180.8Nm/tonne
• 0-100km/h: 10.5-seconds (estimate)
• Top speed: 190km/h
• Fuel consumption, combined: 6.6-litres/100km (estimate)
• Fuel capacity: 60-litres
• Length: 4,835mm
• Width: 1,900mm
• Height: 1,780mm
• Wheelbase: 2,815mm
• Tread, F/R: 1,603/1,618mm
• Overhang, F/R: 985/1,035mm
• Ground clearance: 190mm
• Luggage volume, maximum: 2,050-litres
• Kerb weight: 1,659kg
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion
• Turning circle: 10.6-metres
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs
• Tyres: 225/55R18
• Price, on-the-road, with insurance: JD29,900-31,900
• Warranty: 6-years/200,000km, and 2-years service package

By Nashwa Beheiry
Digital banking expert

Although the pandemic accelerated the digital payment revolution, many people remain sceptical about using cards, whether Credit, Debit, Charge, Prepaid or Virtual cards. Here’s a 101 read about the different types of cards so that you can make informed choices.

Convenience

Is the precise word to describe all card types; they give you the benefits of:

• Not carrying cash or different currencies, especially if you are travelling

• Easy access to cash through ATMs or even banks 

• Millions of merchants around the world accept cards

• Paying bills; all utility providers accept card payments

• Managing your spending; card issuers provide statements that can help reconciliation, analysing, categorising and budgeting for your spending

• In case of dispute, the bank will take action on your behalf to solve the issue with the acquirer bank following rules and regulations of Credit card companies: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, depending on your card’s trademark

• Appropriate for travel, car rental, and hotel reservations

Depending on your card type and bank’s policies, you can also enjoy: 

• Extended warranty on purchases to protect any lost or stolen purchased goods

• In case of trip cancellation or baggage loss, you may be eligible for reimbursement

• Complimentary airport lounge access, free checked bag

• Free concierge services

• Worldwide luxury travel and exclusive entertainment offers 

• Cash-back whereby you earn points converted to cash for every transaction on your card

• Banks usually offer many promotions, discounts, and benefits. Always check these offers; this can help you save money and enjoy using your cards

Debit Cards

Debit cards offer direct Debit Cards is a key for direct access to your bank account. With this card, you can:

• Spend from the available balance in your account; this limits the risk of overspending

• Purchase goods without paying fees

• Withdraw cash. You don’t pay any fees when using an ATM that belongs to your bank. Fees will apply if you use another bank’s ATM

Some banks my take maintenance fees others may take annual fees all depending on your bank’s policy.

Charge Cards

Charge cards have a credit limit that allows you to fully utilise them and pay at the end of the card’s cycle. The main features of this card are: 

• You get a grace period to settle your outstanding balance in full up to (55 days), depending on the date of your transactions and the bank’s policy

• It helps you to control your spending

• Fees apply; issuing, late payment, interest, over-limit

Credit Cards

With credit cards, your bank grants you a credit limit to utilise and pay the minimum due amount at the end of each card cycle. This type of card will:

•Enable you to utilise the limit of the card without having the cash in your bank account

•Pay the minimum due amount monthly (a percentage of your outstanding balance) based on the bank’s policies

•The bank will charge interest on the outstanding balance, among other fees such as issuing, late payment, over-limit fees

With charge and credit cards, you must be careful when it comes to interest rates and fees. When they declare the interest rate as two per cent, it is calculated monthly. It is equivalent to 24 per cent annually.

Prepaid Cards

Prepaid cards are technically debit cards loaded with a certain amount of money instead of being linked to your bank account. You can load your card with the amount you wish.

The card will stop when your balance is zero, and then you can replenish the balance, and so on. This type of card is ideal for online transactions due to limited loss in case of fraud. It can also be a wonderful gift; some banks issue special prepaid gift cards.

Technology

The technology of cards evolved drastically during the last couple of decades from magnetic stripe to EMV Chip, then to virtual and Wi-Fi cards.

Magnetic stripe technology is that black stripe on the back of the plastic card where all the data is encoded. EMV Chip Cards have a smart encoded chip on the face of the card in addition to the magnetic stripe on the back; the chip adds more security features to the card.

Wi-Fi Contactless cards work with NFC (Near Field Communication Technology), enabling you to pay with your card without touching the Point of Sale machine. This technology complies with social distancing.

Virtual cards are designed for online transactions. The bank will provide you with 16 digits, expiry date, and CVV2 (three security digits) upon your request. Some banks issue disposable virtual cards for one-time use, adding more security layers to the card. 

You can’t use virtual cards with transactions requiring showing a physical card, like car rental or hotel reservations. With disposable visual cards, merchants can’t refund cardholders. 

Let’s talk about security 

• Never disclose any information regarding your card (name, number, expiry date, CVV2, limit)

• Never give your card to someone else

• Before applying for a card, read the terms and conditions, benefits and fees in detail, ask about what you don’t understand

• If you lose your card, immediately call your bank and report the lost card

• If you receive an SMS notification of a fraudulent transaction, call your bank immediately, report fraudulent use of the card, and ensuring they block the card

• Always use your card at reputable stores and never let your card out of your sight

• Do NOT give your PIN to the merchant and ask him to enter it for you

• Always use your credit card responsibly or you will end up in debt

Enjoy happy and safe shopping!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

The Other End of the Sea
Alison Glick
US: Interlink Books, 2022
Pp. 253

This is a love story with more than one twist. Nothing is completely standard or expected, whether the characters, setting, plot events or conclusion. “The Other End of the Sea” is American writer Alison Glick’s first novel, and she bases it largely on her own experience living in Palestine and Syria in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Added to this reality-based origin, Glick’s fluid writing style, intense imagery and particular alertness to body language encourage visualisation of the scenes in the novel, while her thoughtful and sometimes ironic tone prods one to ponder the themes she raises, which range from the struggle for justice to the perils and promise of connecting the personal and the political. At other times there are downright funny episodes.

Rebecca Klein, a young American who is motivated by her father’s Jewish roots to visit Israel, staying with a middle-class family in Haifa and later on a kibbutz, tells the story in the first person. Her own family’s open-mindedness makes her all the more sensitive to the anti-Palestinian racism expressed by Israelis she met, and she begins to seek out the other side of the story. Returning to the US, she embarks on a history degree; when she graduates, she seeks a position at the Friends School in Ramallah. “So it was that Palestine revealed itself to me in layers.” (p. 19)

One soon discovers that the novel traces not just a series of events but a growth trajectory for Rebecca. Arguably, it is also a growth trajectory for Zayn Majdalawi, the charismatic Gazan she meets, marries, and has a child with. Yet, it is also clear that the pivotal period of his life is the fifteen years he had spent in Israeli jails.

Drawn together by overlapping political views as well as magnetic attraction, Rebecca and Zayn spend more and more time together, as he takes her off the beaten track in Gaza, introduces her to family and comrades, and includes her in his discussions with Israeli leftists. Then the first intifada erupts, eventually leading to the end of her teaching job when the occupation authorities close schools.

Soon she is spending most of her time in Gaza, researching and writing human rights reports for locally based NGOs. “My becoming acquainted with Gaza was like the blossoming of a romance — the more I saw and got to know, the more I wanted to know.” (p. 50)

There are a lot of hard facts packed into this book, including a first-hand look at the abuses of the Israeli occupation, Palestine’s history, milestones in the first intifada, and the 1990 US war on Iraq, but what makes it special is the less tangible, less quantifiable insight into Palestinian culture and the meaning of commitment and family. While Gaza is often dismissed as a miserable place, Rebecca tells us how Gazans create beauty, meaning and fun out of nothing. Zayn seems to her an extraordinary person: “A man who had not let the devastating, scarring events of his life so far narrow his vision of the future.” (p. 60)

The time spent in Gaza is the couple’s happiest and most satisfying, personally and politically, in great part because they are part of a tight-knit community sharing common goals. But the occupation authorities’ relentless pursuit of Zayn, due to his leadership role, makes him decide to go into exile and they end up in Syria, living in Yarmouk Camp on the edge of Damascus. From then on, the impact of exile on the individual’s psyche and ability to struggle for his/her ideals, looms large among the novel’s themes, speaking to an issue common to countless Palestinians, refugees and immigrants the world over. In Zayn’s case, Rebecca felt he was coming unmoored: “He had begun to float away”. (p. 152)

Despite mutual joy at the birth of their daughter, the couple’s relationship continues to deteriorate due to frustrating work and living conditions in Syria. What remains, however, is abiding respect. Despite her frustration and frequent anger, Rebecca continues to regard Zayn as an “intelligent, complex, essentially good-hearted person whose life had been buffeted by history and politics”. (p. 223)

“The Other End of the Sea” is not a lament over lost love or a romance gone astray. Rather, it is a window for reflecting on what ties us to other people: Political agreement? Similar culture and life style? Similar ideas about home and family? Respect for the other’s independence? Or is it a yearning to experience something new, to cross over into another culture? A different way of life? To join their struggle for freedom? The forward-looking perspective of the novel is reinforced by the ending, when Rebecca’s and Zayn’s daughter crosses into Palestine as a young woman.

By Lucie Aubourg
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — A chunk of a SpaceX rocket that blasted off seven years ago and was abandoned in space after completing its mission will crash into the Moon in March, experts say.

The rocket was deployed in 2015 to put into orbit a NASA satellite called the Deep Space Climate Observatory.

Since then, the second stage of the rocket, or booster, has been floating in what mathematicians call a chaotic orbit, astronomer Bill Gray told AFP on Wednesday.

It was Gray who calculated the space junk’s new collision course with the Moon.

The booster passed quite close to the Moon in January in a rendezvous that altered its orbit, said Gray.

He is behind Project Pluto, software that allows for calculating the trajectory of asteroids and other objects in space and is used in NASA-financed space observation programmes.

A week after the rocket stage whizzed close to the Moon, Gray observed it again and concluded it would crash into the Moon’s dark side on March 4 at more than 9,000 kilometres per hour.

Gray appealed to the amateur astronomer community to join him in observing the booster, and his conclusion was confirmed.

The exact time and spot of impact may change slightly from his forecast but there is widespread agreement that there will be a collision on the Moon that day.

“I’ve been tracking junk of this sort for about 15 years. And this is the first unintentional lunar impact that we’ve had,” Gray told AFP.

He believes that space junk should always be directed towards the moon when possible: “If it hits the moon, then we actually learn something from it,” Gray said.

‘Time to start regulating’

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell told AFP it’s possible similar impacts have taken place unnoticed. 

“There’re at least 50 objects that were left in deep Earth orbit in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s that were just abandoned there. We didn’t track them,” he said. 

“Now we’re picking up a couple of them... but a lot of them we’re not finding and so they’re not there anymore,” he added. “Probably at least a few of them hit the moon accidentally and we just didn’t notice.”

The impact of the SpaceX rocket chunk weighing four tonnes on the Moon will not be visible from Earth in real time.

But it will leave a crater that scientists will be able to observe with spacecraft and satellites like NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter or India’s Chandrayaan-2, and thus learn more about the geology of the Moon.

Spacecraft have been intentionally crashed into the Moon before for scientific purposes, such as during the Apollo missions to test seismometers.

In 2009, NASA sent a rocket stage hurling into the Moon near its south pole to look for water.

But most rockets do not go so far from Earth. SpaceX brings its rocket boosters back through the Earth’s atmosphere so they disintegrate over the ocean. The first stage is recovered and reused.

Gray said there could be more unintentional crashes into the Moon in the future as the US and Chinese space programmes in particular leave more junk in orbit.

The US together with international partners is already planning a space station to orbit the Moon.

McDowell noted these events “start to be problematic when there’s a lot more traffic”. 

“It’s actually no one’s job to keep track of the junk that we leave out in deep earth orbit,” he added. “I think now’s the time to start regulating it.”

SpaceX did not immediately respond to request for comment from AFP. 

Elon Musk’s company is currently developing a lunar lander that should allow NASA to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2025 at the earliest.