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What better time to talk about renewing our goals and motivations than springtime! Whether it’s our diet or exercise, we all need a jumpstart to rev up our engines, especially after the long, grey winter months.

This past winter has been a brutal one if you consider all the challenges we’ve had with the way COVID-19 has changed our lives and interrupted everything we knew. Whether it’s our work, our child’s online schooling, or how we shop for groceries, this pandemic has definitely forced us to change so many things we took for granted.

Some of those changes are positive. Spending more time with our family at home is a blessing. Those we took for granted are suddenly appreciated when we realise just how close we may have come to losing our loved ones. This gratitude has taught me to recentre myself and live in the present instead of constantly worrying about the future or musing about the past. Worry robs us from being fully present for ourselves, our friends and our families.

What does this have to do with a desperate dieter?

When we are busy worrying about the future, our mind cannot focus on the present. This includes the food we mindlessly put in our mouths to numb ourselves from the stresses of the world around us. We have all been affected by COVID-19, directly or indirectly and watching the news certainly does not ease our minds. The more our minds are distracted, the easier it becomes to succumb to mindless and emotional eating, not to mention the temptation to skip workouts during self-quarantine.

Isolation doesn’t have to be desolation

In this Zoom and YouTube generation, workouts can be literally delivered into our homes thanks to computers and smartphones. We can isolate our muscles, working on each one of them at home, instead of isolating ourselves from any hope of getting stronger during a worldwide pandemic.

My challenge to us

Let’s make an intentional effort to turn off the news and take a deep breath. Let’s make it a priority to carve out quiet time to still our minds. Let’s become aware of our body and visualise the pain it must be in when we feed it food that is not good for it. Let’s imagine what our organs would say to each other if they could speak. Their conversation might go something like this: 

Chest: “God help me if she decides to eat another chocolate bar today! Didn’t I warn her enough with that heartburn last week?!”

Lungs: “If she doesn’t listen to me today, then I’m not sure how long I can last if she doesn’t quit smoking!”

Joints: “What are you complaining about? I have to carry triple the load and I’m almost at my breaking point!”

Kidneys: “If he won’t stop abusing alcohol, that’s it, I’m quitting!”

Liver: “I hope the rest of you come to my funeral and say something nice about me because I’m not sure how many more toxins I can filter!”

Pancreas: “You think your job is hard, come stand in my shoes and see what she puts me through, day in and day out! If she doesn’t quit her sugar habit, she’s going to become resistant to insulin any day now!”

When we refuse to be our own worst enemy, we become our own best friends. The first order of business is to renew our motivation if we are going to expect something better. We have to know that we cannot do this on our own. It will take people who love us enough to call us out when we mess up and get off track. It will take many tools to help us toil the soil if we expect our garden of life to grow. It will take time to pull the weeds out of our lives, like getting rid of those pesky sugary treats in our pantries that somehow made their way back in. It will take some hard, gut-wrenching decisions that have to be made when we peel ourselves off the television or computer screen and move our body instead.

Renewal doesn’t come easy but it’s worth it. Let’s get better at destroying and replacing bad old habits with new life-giving ones. Join me this season and let’s spring together into a better version of ourselves!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Summer with the Enemy
Shahla Ujayli
Translated by Michelle Hartman
Massachusetts: Interlink Books, 2021
Pp. 288

In “Summer with the Enemy”, the characters are paramount. None of them are typical, much less fit into any stereotype; each opens up a different world of perception. The author, Shahla Ujayli, dedicates her book to “the Raqqa of my memory”, and her characters’ personalities, each one uniquely moulded, are her main vehicle for recreating the city as it was in the 1980s — seemingly isolated but actually with many ties to the outside world. 

As the novel begins, Lamees, who narrates the story, is in Cologne, where she has taken refuge from the Syrian war. Here, she reunites with Abboud, her best friend from childhood. Once again, she is on the banks of a famous river spanned by bridges, the Rhine, recalling her life in Raqqa on the Euphrates. “I’ve always loved bridges,” Lamees says, “they make return a possibility no matter how much time has passed!” (p. 8)

Return is both psychological and potentially physical, for she immediately plunges into childhood memories of events she shared with Abboud decades ago. Yet, return also has a future aspect, for one senses that as much as Lamees is glad to be in Germany and plans to make the most of her time there, she has not cut her emotional ties to Syria, despite or maybe because of losing her family there.

Abboud’s mother is Czech, his father one of many Raqqa men who studied in Eastern Europe in the 1970s and brought their foreign wives back to their country. Lamees’s family is also mixed by virtue of her grandmother of Armenian heritage, who grew up in Bethlehem, and had been a dancer in Beirut, Cairo and Alexandria in her youth — a past over which a thick veil of silence is enforced as soon as she sets foot in Raqqa, in order to avoid the disapproval of conservative townspeople. Still, these whiffs of a life beyond the known borders subtly penetrate people’s consciousness: “Those families gave our little town of Raqqa wings!” (p. 15)

Lamees recounts many escapades with Abboud. She spent more time in the streets than most girls since her mother had more or less abdicated her parenting role due to anger at her husband’s betrayal. After his mother returns to her country, Abboud ran wild with Lamees; for many years, she believed, wrongly, that one of their childish pranks had killed her grandmother. But her most fraught relationship was with her mother at whose side she stayed throughout the war, giving up her chance to complete her graduate work, which she hopes to resume in Germany.

One might assume that the book title refers to the time when Daesh took over Raqqa and imposed its extremist agenda, but relatively few passages are devoted to this difficult period. It is as if Ujayli wants to show that Raqqa and the Syria people are much stronger than Daesh. In her stream-of-consciousness narrative, it is also as though she wants to say that the personal sphere has more impact on the individual’s development than the political context.

Instead of focusing on the war or politics, she tells a story of great loves, heartbreaks, betrayals, disputes and reconciliations among family and friends. The point at which the personal and the political merge, however, is her portrayal of refugees: “Travel is neither a privilege nor a pleasure in the world of refugees and asylum seekers, but rather a stigma and dishonour. Germany is full of Syrians who arrived in a variety of ways — from First Class tickets to deadly sea-borne rafts, to crawling through forests and the bush”. (p. 37-38)

The narrative meanders back and forth through history, sometimes laced with myth, from ancient Arab science to Ottoman times and modern Syria, to beautiful descriptions of Cologne, the Euphrates and the harsh realities of living under dictatorship. Family secrets are revealed as is the impact of women’s potential being curtailed by outmoded prohibitions. “The ancient walls surrounding the old city of Raqqa contain endless stories” and Lamees relates them in a fascinating way. (p. 152) 

Gradually, the full dimensions of Lamees’s relationship with her beautiful, but usually depressed, mother unfold. After her father leaves Syria to be with his lover, her mother stagnates, until the arrival of a young German scholar who is doing research on the 9th century Arab astronomer, Al Battani, who had lived in Raqqa. Her mother brightens up at this unexpected companionship, but Lamees suspects that the time they spend together is more than research, and she fears being abandoned.

Throughout the narrative, Ujayli employs compelling, original imagery to convey the young girl’s conflicted feelings. “It was as if the world turned us into a chapter in a book…” (p. 90) In the face of grown-ups’ actions, which she barely understands, she feels like “a speck of dust in a battle no one paid attention to… He wants to steal our sky, our stars, our Al Battani… he also wants to steal my mother”. (p. 117-118)

Now, in Germany, this same man is key to Lamees continuing her graduate degree. How will she react? Has she attained the freedom and confidence she has been seeking? At the end, the author leaves the reader hanging; many questions remain unanswered but one has learned a lot about the unexpected twists and turns human interaction can take.

By Charlotte Durand
Agence France-Presse

OXFORD, United Kingdom — Science and art collide in a new British exhibition which opened on Friday and hopes to raise awareness about the environmental impact of eating meat, while promising a guilt-free look at the “difficult problem”. 

“Globally we eat too much meat, and we need to reduce it,” said Kelly Richards, exhibition officer at Oxford University’s Natural History Museum.

“It’s a very nuanced, very difficult kind of problem to unpick,” she told AFP.

Rather than imposing dogma, she hopes the “Meat The Future” exhibition will “give people the information that allows them to make up their own mind about the kind of future that they want”.

The show uses interactive installations, a virtual supermarket, fake shelves and works from artists including Damien Hirst to highlight the environmental costs of meat consumption, which has tripled worldwide in 50 years. 

Visitors are met at the entrance by piles of fake burgers on a gingham tablecloth, each pile representing the average daily amount of meat eaten in different countries.

Britons eat on average 223 grammes of meat per day, a figure that is “a lot more than the global average”, and is “much above the recommended amounts”, said John Lynch, a physicist specialising in the environmental impact of agriculture.

Highlighting the urgency of cutting emissions in order to meet global targets for limiting warming, he said: “We probably need to do as much as possible on agriculture.”

The sector’s emissions, he estimated, would be halved if everyone became “flexitarian” — where people still eat meat, but only rarely.

Environmental score

Which type of meat is most polluting and in what way? What are the health risks and benefits of eating meat? 

These are the questions that 10 University of Oxford researchers have tried to answer in a mathematical but playful attempt to nudge visitors towards a more responsible diet. 

The show examines how supermarkets and restaurants “can influence our choices... and we talk about the kind of tools that we can use to fight back a little bit”, said Richards, in front of fake refrigerated shelves filled with ready meals. 

Visitors can also take a virtual shopping trip, with 10,000 products on offer that all come with a score evaluating their ecological impact. 

The “environmental score” takes into account water pollution, impact on biodiversity and the CO2 emissions produced in its manufacture. 

“If you go into a supermarket, you often don’t see that information,” Lynch said.

“So one of the parts of the research project is looking at different labelling schemes, so you might have a environmental score or a ranking... for your food product.”

The museum incorporates the ideas in its cafe where red and processed meats are off the menu, which boasts around 50 per cent vegan dishes. 

Insects for dinner

The exhibition also examines the advantages and disadvantages of meat substitutes. 

Under the microscope are vegetable alternatives, such as soy steaks, tempeh and tofu, as well as grilled worm aperitifs and cricket flour. 

While insects are not generally to European tastes, “I think we will see more insect consumption as it becomes more available and people have more awareness of it,” predicted Lynch, praising their environmental credentials and nutrition. 

Vegetable alternatives are often criticised for their own environmental cost, but “even though some of them do require more processing, for most of the alternatives out there, they’re still much more efficient than actually eating the meat”, Lynch added.

An even more radical solution is to eat meat created in a laboratory from animal cells. 

The emerging technology, which researchers have been working on for 10 years, was road-tested for the first time in a Singapore restaurant in January. 

It would be expected to drastically reduce CO2 emissions, but “we still need data to confirm it”, said Lynch, who pointed to the energy consumption of the labs.

But convincing the public to switch to test-tube meat could be a tough task.

“Some people are probably just not going to be interested,” said Lynch. 

Instead, he suggested that “if some people go vegan and some people just reduce their meat... , we’re still going to hopefully keep to the kind of sustainable limits of the planet”.

PARIS — The images capture drama billions of years ago in the early Universe — glinting galaxies, glowing with stars that have exploded into supernovas and blazing jets fired from black holes. 

Europe's giant LOFAR radio telescope has detected stars being born in tens of thousands of distant galaxies with unprecedented precision, in a series of recently published studies.

Using techniques that correspond to a very long exposure and with a field of view about 300 times the size of the full moon, scientists were able to make out galaxies like the Milky Way deep in the ancient Universe.

"The light from these galaxies has been travelling for billions of years to reach the Earth; this means that we see the galaxies as they were billions of years ago, back when they were forming most of their stars," said Philip Best, of Britain's University of Edinburgh, who led the telescope's deep survey in a press release. 

The LOFAR telescope combines signals from a huge network of more than 70,000 individual antennas in countries from Ireland to Poland, linked by a high-speed fibre optic network. 

They are able to observe very faint and low energy light, invisible to the human eye, that is created by ultra energetic particles travelling close to the speed of light.

Researchers said this allows them to study supernova star explosions, collisions of galaxy clusters and active black holes, which accelerate these particles in shocks or jets. 

By observing the same regions of sky over and over again and putting the data together to make a single very-long exposure image, the scientists were able to detect the radio glow of stars exploding. 

The most distant detected objects were from when the Universe was only a billion years old. It is now about 13.8 billion years old. 

"When a galaxy forms stars, lots of stars explode at the same time, which accelerates very high-energy particles, and galaxies begin to radiate," said Cyril Tasse, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory and one of the authors of the research, published in a series of papers in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Around 3 billion years after the Big Bang, he said "it really is fireworks" in the young galaxies, with a "peak of star formation and black hole activity". 

The telescope focused on a wide stretch of the Northern Hemisphere sky, with the equivalent of an exposure time 10 times longer than the one used in the creation of its first cosmic map in 2019.

"This gives much finer results, like a photo taken in darkness where the longer your exposure, the more things you can distinguish," Tasse told AFP.

The deep images are produced by combining signals from the telescope's thousands of antennas, incorporating more than four petabytes of raw data — equivalent to about one million DVDs.

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK — The stars of “Friends” never really left us — they were simply on a break.

The cast of the beloved 1990s sitcom about six attractive, straight, white New Yorkers with ludicrously giant Manhattan apartments finally reunite on Thursday for a much-hyped and long-delayed special.

Details are under wraps, but fans can expect a “table read” of a classic episode, a recreation of the famous “Friends” quiz at Monica and Rachel’s apartment — and lots of hugs, tears and reminiscing.

“Where’s the tissue box?” asks an emotional Jennifer Aniston in a trailer that shows the gang reflecting on their ascent to stardom and firm real-life friendship.

“I love you guys so much,” she adds during a group embrace.

Their bond continues to be a profitable one.

Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer collectively negotiated one million dollars each per episode by the end of their colossally popular and zeitgeist-setting 236-episode, 10-year run.

In a sign of the show’s enduring appeal, the gang are reportedly pocketing $2.5 million each for the reunion.

Banking on nostalgia, parent company WarnerMedia originally planned the “unscripted special” as a blockbuster way to launch its HBO Max streaming service last year.

But filming was delayed by the pandemic, with producers determined to bring the gang back in-person to iconic sets like the “Central Perk” cafe at the show’s original studio outside Los Angeles. 

“We wanted to do it a year ago, give back to everyone — to all the fans, especially in the dark times we were all experiencing,” said Schwimmer in a recent interview. 

“Hopefully, a year later, people will still enjoy it.”

‘Pivot!’

“The One Where They Get Back Together” airs 17 years after the show’s finale drew more than 50 million viewers, each desperate to find out whether on-again-off-again Ross and Rachel would end up back together (spoiler: They would).

Thanks to reruns and now streaming, the show’s appeal has crossed generations, with viewers too young to remember its original run still quoting catchphrases like “We were on a break,” “How you doin”? and “Pivot!”

“No matter what time of day, where you are in the country, what kind of television service you have — chances are, you can still access an episode of ‘Friends’,” said Nick Marx, Colorado State University film and media studies associate professor.

Like “Frasier” and “Seinfeld”, “Friends” is one of “maybe four or five American sitcoms” from the “last real golden age of broadcast” with truly expansive appeal, in contrast to today’s “fractured” TV marketplace, he added.

Still, while its depiction of urban life centred around coffee houses and the latest “Rachel haircut” was once seen as modern, the show’s overall lack of racial diversity was slammed by some critics even during its run.

And storylines now seen as fat-shaming (young Monica) or transphobic (Chandler’s father) have been called out, particularly by some younger viewers.

“Many critics have observed the absurdity of the ‘New York City’ the characters inhabit — from the luxurious apartments they could never afford to the overwhelmingly white milieu they live and work in,” said Alice Leppert, Ursinus College associate professor of media.

But “sitcoms as a genre are traditionally reassuring,” she added.

Bieber and Beckham

British comic James Corden will host the reunion, interviewing the cast in front of the giant fountain on the sprawling Warner Bros Ranch used in the show’s famous opening credits.

Returning guest stars will include Tom Selleck, Reese Witherspoon, and Maggie Wheeler — better known the world over as the perennially shocked Janice.

From outside the “Friends” universe, celebrities including Justin Bieber, David Beckham, Lady Gaga and K-pop sensation BTS will drop by.

“’Friends’ has been everything to me,” said fan Joyce Blackwell, gathered outside the show’s famous Manhattan apartment building this week, ahead of the special.

“There’s no other show like it,” she added.

By Kelly Macnamara
Agence France-Presse

PARIS — A sprinkle of mycoprotein in your burger? Cities dotted with photo-bioreactors growing algae? Mass farming of house fly maggots? 

These are just some of the food innovations that researchers say will be crucial to combat malnutrition in the face of climate change and other system shocks.

With traditional food systems facing severe threats — including extreme heat, unpredictable rainfall, pests and soil degradation — researchers at the University of Cambridge say that it is time to totally reimagine the field. 

Pressure is also mounting to sharply curb consumption of meat and especially beef, a major source of greenhouse gases.

In order to improve diets and secure food supplies sufficiently to end malnutrition, they say high-tech farming methods — some pioneered for space travel — should be incorporated into food systems globally. 

And while some of the food they suggest growing may be familiar to customers of health food shops — single-celled algae spirulina or chlorella as well as mycoproteins derived from fungi — others may seem even more exotic, like insect larvae.

These include “houseflies, black soldier flies, and mealworm beetles”, said Asaf Tzachor, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, who led the research. 

“Admittedly these are non-conventional items,” he told AFP. 

But as nutritious food becomes scarcer, researchers say, these types of food will likely become essential parts of our diets. 

‘Perfect substitutes’

Rich in essential nutrients — including proteins, fats, calcium, iron, zinc and vitamins — they could be “perfect substitutes” for meat, milk, eggs and traditional crops, Tzachor said.

“You can eat them within your pasta or burgers or energy bars, for example. And these items can contain ground insect larva, or processed microalgae or macroalgae.” 

The paper, published in Nature Food, said that these “future foods” can be grown at scale in compact, environmentally controlled systems suitable both for urban settings and in isolated communities, such as on remote islands. 

The authors analysed around 500 published scientific papers on different future food production systems. They concluded that the most promising include microalgae photo-bioreactors, which use a light source to grow microorganisms, and insect-breeding greenhouses. 

These closed, controlled environments reduce exposure to the hazards outside, they said.

“We’re now at this historic moment, when what we refer to as state-of-the-art food systems can be deployed anywhere to mitigate malnutrition everywhere,” said Tzachor, adding the global food system needs “radical alterations”.

The United Nations estimates that almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019, even before coronavirus shutdowns disrupted food supply chains. 

With healthy diets of fruits, vegetables and protein-rich foods unaffordable to some 3 billion people, malnutrition can take the form of both undernutrition and obesity. 

‘Future food’?

Tzachor imagines a world where local communities design their own cultivation techniques, and of collaborations between engineers and chefs, although he concedes that this would require significant funding and training. 

Is it just too far-fetched to imagine that algae grown in a photo-bioreactor can solve malnutrition and change the global food system?

“I’m not sure we have much choice there,” said Tzachor. Increasing environmental pressures on traditional farming will likely make this an “inevitable gradual process”, he added.

Having tried all the foods covered in the research, he told AFP he recommended micro algae in milkshakes.

“They get this nice greeny colour. And then I also know that I’ve got my dose of omega three and omega six and proteins. That’s probably my go to ‘future food’,” he said. 

Launched early last year, the fourth generation of the modern incarnation of the Honda Jazz is a small but practical city car, built from the ground up with electrification firmly in mind. Also known as the Honda Fit in some markets, and available with regular petrol combustion engine in other markets, the new Jazz is only available in hybrid guise in Europe and Jordan. An unconventional yet mechanically less complicated and compact design, the Jazz’s hybrid system delivers higher mechanical energy efficiency in a versatile and fun package.

A small 4 metre long hatchback, the Jazz’ design and clever packaging, however, take a leaf from the MPV playbook with its narrow yet tall body, comparatively long wheelbase and combination of low bonnet and large windscreen, rising at a near uniform angle to create an airy ambiance and unobstructed front visibility. Cleaner in design with less cluttered surfacing and lines than its predecessor, the new Jazz has a classy and more mature styling sensibility, with more conservative yet high-set rear lights, discrete side creases and a subtly snouty face.

Innovative electrification

Nestled behind its slim grille, the Jazz E:HEV drive-line set-up consists of a naturally-aspirated 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine and two electric motors in front, and a battery pack at the rear. Driving like an EV in most conditions, the Jazz E:HEV has three operating modes, chosen automatically for prevailing conditions. Its default driving mode is one where the petrol engine powers the first electric motor, which then powers a second more powerful and high revving electric motor to the drive the front wheels, and which also charges the hybrid system battery.

Operating as a generator most often, the Jazz E:HEV’s combustion engine rarely drives the front wheels directly, except at around speeds of 80-120kmh, when it is engaged through a single-speed clutch mechanism, in lieu of a full gearbox. Described as an e-CVT system, the Jazz’s simplified transmission limits the engine’s direct driving involvement. Meanwhile, the Jazz’s batteries are able to provide limited low speed pure EV driving — mostly at lower speeds — and can supplement the petrol engine with more power and a significant torque increase during its narrow direct drive range.

Confident delivery

Developing 96BHP at 5,500-6,400rpm and 96lb/ft torque at 4,500-5,000rpm from its petrol engine, the Jazz E:HEV’s effective maximum output is the 107BHP and substantial 186lb/ft developed by its electric drive motor. With maximum petrol engine direct driving power only available at a specific point, one has more rewarding and progressive delivery when it is driving the front wheels, but this is often supplemented by electric power. Through briskly driven, steep and sustained hill climbs, the Jazz holds up better than many rivals with quick electric charge recuperation.

That said, the Jazz but will face points where it drives on either petrol or electric motor when the battery is depleted on such demanding hill climbs. However, for most circumstances it operates exactly as intended. Smooth, confident and versatile when overtaking or on short steep inclines, the Jazz’s is characterised by its generous torque output. Flooring the accelerator from standstill, there is undoubtedly some torque steer tug owing to how instant and abundant is its twisting force, but this is brief and not exaggerated, and allows for relatively quick 9.4-second 0-100km/h acceleration.

Maneuverable and efficient

Capable of a top speed of 175km/h, the Jazz is a comfortable highway drive for its compact segment. Driving with more combustion engine input as a generator at higher speeds, the 

Jazz E:HEV’s innovative hybrid design is set-up for particular efficiency in town and in extra-urban conditions. With reduced frictional losses and with the engine operating in its most efficient load and rev range when acting as a generator, the E:HEV delivers frugal fuel consumption under moderate real world daily driving conditions, and is rated at 3.6l/100km on the combined cycle.

Light weight by comparison to many similar hybrids and EVs at 1,230kg owing to its unique hybrid system, smaller battery pack and abbreviated mechanical transmission, the Jazz E:HEV is a more eager, agile and maneuverable drive than much of the competition. Tidy turning into corners with its light and quick 2.51-turn steering, the Jazz can be easily placed on road with its low bonnet, big windscreen, upright driving position and compact frame. It also benefits from slim 185/60R15 tyres, which also help provide decent steering feel and a forgiving ride comfort.

Versatile package

Nippy through narrow winding routes and eager to turn on the proverbial dime, the Jazz is at home through narrow sprawling A- and B- roads or on city streets. Easy to park and manoeuvre in such conditions, the Jazz’s handling is meanwhile confidently agile through hairpin corners. Well controlling body lean, the Jazz delivers good grip, but with slim tyres, short wheelbase and weighty battery at the rear, one can still adjust the rear to tighten a cornering line. Stable ion highway, its ride is meanwhile settled, vertically well controlled and comfortable over most road imperfections.

A well-packaged car that reconciles compact dimensions with a spacious interior, the Jazz provides a comfortable, well-adjustable driving position and above average rear space that accommodates taller passengers better than many larger cars. Luggage area is meanwhile versatile, and almost MPV-like in its versatile configurability; with rear seats folded down or folded up to create two separate compartments. Airy and with good visibility and equipment levels, the Jazz’s cabin is reasonably well equipped and user-friendly in instrumentation, storage space and ergonomics. Design is meanwhile fresh, modern and of good quality without being either low rent or luxurious.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse 4-cylinders, & electric motor

Bore x stroke: 73 x 89.5mm

Compression ratio: 13.5:1

Valve-train: DOHC, 16-valve, continuously variable valve timing

Gearbox: Single-speed, e-CVT automatic, front-wheel-drive

Petrol engine power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 96 (97) [72] @5,500-6,400rpm

Electric motor power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 107 (109) [80]

Petrol engine torque, lb/ft (Nm): 96.6 (131) @4,500-5,000rpm

Electric motor torque, lb/ft (Nm): 186.6 (253)

0-100km/h: 9.4-seconds

Maximum speed: 175km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 2.4-/

4.3-/3.6-litres/100km

CO2 emissions: 87g/km

Fuel capacity: 40-litres

Length: 4,044mm

Width: 1,694mm

Height: 1,515mm

Wheelbase: 2,517mm

Track, F/R: 1,485/1,475mm

Minimum ground clearance: 136mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 304-/1,205-litres

Doors/seats: 5/5

Kerb weight: 1,230kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.51-turns

Turning circle: 10.7-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Brakes F/R: Ventilated discs/discs, regenerative braking

Tyres: 185/60R15

Price, on-the-road, with 3rd party insurance: JD22,900

By Dina Halaseh
Educational Psychologist

Is your brain stressed? Did you know that stress affects our ability to make decisions efficiently, distorts our perception of reality and impairs learning and memory?

Our brains are only made to stress for 30 seconds at a time. Chronic stress is defined as a constant and prolonged state of stress. Stress also relates to trauma in many cases. Trauma alters brain chemistry and damages the nervous system and the body’s ability to handle stress. But not all stress is caused by traumatic experiences. 

Why does this matter? Chronic stress affects memory, immunity and even causes sleep disruption and depression. The number one ingredient for academic success is emotional stability. 

At the end of the day, we have one brain. We use it at work, home and everywhere! If our “home” brain is stressed, our brain is stressed everywhere!

Tips to decrease stress levels

• Journaling can help transform unsaid ideas into words, moving our thoughts from our subconscious mind towards our conscious mind and onto paper. This helps release hidden stress and vocalising our thoughts
• Exercising can help not only increase the good hormones, but also decrease stress and cortisol (your stress hormone)
• Breathing helps calm down heart rate and decrease stress levels. We can take deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling when we feel negative emotions. This works even for young children; teaching them to breathe when they are stressed or crying is a great way to regulate feelings
• Practising gratitude helps the brain find more positivity in our life. Many people find it helpful to end the day with listing three positive self-affirmations and finding three things to be grateful for from their day
• Spending some time in nature is a big stress reliever. Research has found that as little as 10 minutes in nature can help us relieve stress and feel happier 
• Sleeping is a powerful stress reducer. Following a regular sleep routine calms and restores the body, improves concentration, regulates mood and sharpens judgment and decision-making
• Good nutrition helps combat stress. Eating regularly throughout the day and avoiding large amounts of caffeine reduces stress. Decaffeinated green tea is a good substitute to the caffeinated variety
• Meditating has proven benefits, including offsetting the negative health effects of stress. Praying or connecting spiritually helps us find serenity and calmness and reach a place where we have a new perspective on stressful situations

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

WASHINGTON — Imagine being able to control a robotic arm from a distance, using only your mind. Now imagine being able to feel when its fingers grasp an object, as though it were your own hand.

US researchers published a study in the journal Science on Thursday about the world’s first brain-computer interface that allowed a volunteer with paralysis from the chest down to accomplish this very feat.

The team say their work demonstrates that adding a sense of touch drastically improves the functionality of prosthetics for quadriplegics, compared to having them rely on visual cues alone.

“I am the first human in the world to have implants in the sensory cortex that they can use to stimulate my brain directly,” Nathan Copeland, 34, told AFP. 

“And then I feel as if a sensation is coming from my actual hand.”

In 2004, Copeland was in a car accident that left him with a serious spinal cord injury and without the use of his hands or his legs.

He volunteered to participate in scientific research, and six years ago underwent a major operation to have tiny electrodes implanted in his brain.

Two sets of 88 electrodes the width of a strand of hair are arranged into “arrays” that resemble tiny hairbrushes and penetrate deep into the brain’s motor cortex, which directs movement.

Fewer than 30 people in the world have these kinds of implants, the study’s co-lead author Rob Gaunt, an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, told AFP.

What’s unique about Copeland is an additional set of electrodes that are connected to his somatosensory cortex, which receives and processes sensations.

“When we’re grabbing objects, we use this sense of touch very naturally to improve our ability to control,” explained Gaunt. 

The team developed an interface that is “bi-directional” — meaning not only can it “read” instructions from the brain and send them to the artificial limb, it can also “write” sensations from the device and transmit them back.

The idea of sending tactile feedback to the somatosensory cortex goes back decades, but doing so in a way that is controlled and is understandable by the circuitry of the brain was a challenge.

After operating on Copeland to install the electrodes, the team held their breath.

“No one knew what to expect because this had only been done in monkeys and you can’t ask a monkey what something feels like,” said Copeland.

Then came the moment of truth, when they tried sending their first touch signal. 

“It was really faint,” he recalled. He asked them to try again, to be sure it was real. 

“Oh yeah, that’s what that feels like, and it was just super cool,” he said.

Before the interface could be put to work with the robotic arm, the scientists had to perform a series of tests with Copeland.

First, they needed to learn which electrodes caused what sensation when activated, and which fingers they were associated with, to set up the robotic hand correctly.

They also made him watch videos of the robotic arm moving left or right and recorded the electrodes that lit up when he was asked to “think” it was him controlling it.

Copeland sat next to the metallic black robotic arm and was asked to pick up a series of small objects like rocks, spheres, and place them on a box — with either the tactile sensors switched on, or off.

“The sensation gave me that assurance and confidence to know that I definitely had a good grab on the object and I could lift it up,” said Copeland.

The team wants to further refine the prosthetics because “we don’t want to just do science experiments in the lab, we want to actually build devices that are useful to people in their homes,” added Gaunt.

Copeland got his brain-computer interface set up at home when the COVID pandemic shut down the university, and has used his downtime to learn how to draw on a tablet and even play video games.

He does this by using his mind to send signals directly to the computer, rather than using the arm to push buttons.

“It is just second nature to me now,” he said.