Features

By Christeen Haddadin
Certified Money Coach

Throughout my 20s and well into my 30s, I was stuck in a toxic money pattern — random and reckless spending, few savings and no investments. Surprising? 

Perhaps not, but as I was a finance professional with no personal financial plan or clarity, it made no sense.

In 2011, 10 years into my career, I found myself jobless for a few months, even though I had been a high earner throughout my career. 

Those few months made it very clear how fragile my financial position was and the question that kept haunting me was, “What is stopping me from managing my money properly and taking charge of my finances?”

The search led me to money coaching

I started as a money coaching client and the journey was nothing short of transformational. Before I started the session, I had all my financial data ready. I accumulated information from my bank accounts and credit card statements and ran some numbers on an excel sheet. I was prepared to fire up my laptop to impress my money coach with my knowledge about finance. I never got the chance to do that. 

The coaching sessions had very little to do with financial knowledge. They were exploratory conversations, where my coach would ask probing questions to uncover what my subconscious has been telling me all these years.

Money is emotional

The exploration started with my first money memory as a child. As I slowly shed the shame, guilt and fear around money and opened up about my money history, experiences and challenges, the reason behind my struggle became crystal clear. I understood what money beliefs were guiding me and what money personality type was behind the wheel, driving my money decisions and behaviours. The realisations were so intense, so emotional – my husband would walk in mid-session, see me in tears, shrug and say: “who knew money was so emotional!”

We think money is crunching numbers and complex maths, but it’s so much more than that. There is a big emotional side at play. Prominent examples are retail therapy when you feel down, impulse purchasing when you feel excited, and withholding money when you feel angry. Most of the time, we are not even aware of those feelings and how they guide us.

Discovering my unconscious money beliefs

“Money unconsciousness is the root of our pain,” said my coach, and she was right. Once I became aware of my money beliefs and emotions and was guided by my coach to rewire them, I was able to take significant steps towards revamping my financial reality.

Budgeting became part of my routine. I started a savings plan with clear and meaningful goals. I began investing and allowing my money to grow and multiply.

Realising how effective and impactful money awareness is, one of my first saving goals was completing the training and certification programme to become a Certified Money Coach.

Combining money awareness with money literacy, and having a basic understanding of personal financial management, is the foundation of living a life where we have a conscious, purposeful and satisfying relationship with our money.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

By Issam Ahmed
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — An octopus named Marshmallow lies at rest at the bottom of her tank, suddenly shifting in colour from a pale white-green to brown and then orange, as her muscles twitch, suckers contract and her closed eyes shift around.

This moment was captured in remarkable footage shot by scientists in Brazil, who published a new study in the journal iScience on Thursday that says the sophisticated cephalopods experience at least two different types of sleep.

One of these states, which they dubbed “active sleep,” is akin to rapid eye movement (REM) in mammals, birds and some reptiles — raising the intriguing possibility that, like humans, octopuses experience dreams. 

“Octopuses are unique in terms of their complexity, both behavioral and neural,” senior author Sidarta Ribeiro of the Brain Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil told AFP, noting they have the most complex brains of any invertebrates. 

“But they’re nevertheless very different from us.”

To explore the question of octopus sleep patterns, the researchers continuously recorded four octopuses in their tanks over several days, then went back to analyse the footage. 

They found during “quiet sleep”, the animals were still, with pale skin and their pupils contracted to a slit. During “active sleep”, however, they dynamically changed their skin colour and texture, noticeably heaved and twitched, and their eyes moved around.

The pattern was cyclical, with the quiet period lasting around six or seven minutes and followed by an active cycle lasted about 40 seconds. 

The cycle might then repeat, or the octopus could wake up, but usually fell back asleep 30 to 40 minutes later. All told, their slumbers take up a quarter of the day.

To establish whether these states really represented sleep, the researchers devised visual and tactile stimulation tests, the paper’s first author, graduate student Sylvia Medeiros told AFP.

The first test involved playing a video of a crab on a screen that was placed next to the octopuses.

“When they are awake, because crab is a natural prey, they try to attack,” she said. But they didn’t try to pounce in the two states where they were presumed sleeping.

In the second test, they struck the octopus tanks with a rubber hammer, with the animals physically reacting and changing their colour when awake, but not when asleep.

‘Video clips, or even gifs’

Learning more about what makes us similar to octopuses, whom our species diverged from 500 million years ago, can shed new insight into our distinct evolutionary paths, said Ribeiro.

“If we see a similar phenomenon, in this case, a sleep cycle comprising quiet sleep and then active, it’s most likely due to convergent evolution,” he said, meaning our two species independently evolved the same biological mechanisms.

That in turn sheds light on the evolutionary pressures that shaped this behaviour.

For mammals, REM sleep represents a time of memory consolidation and triggers a variety of molecular mechanisms that have a restorative effect on brain health and cognition. 

The authors think this could be the case for octopuses too.

Most human dreaming also comes during REM sleep — so might this also be the case for the eight-limbed molluscs?

“We cannot affirm it for sure,” said Medeiros.

But if they do, it’s unlikely to be similar to the complex narratives we can experience, given how short the active phase is for octopuses, she added. “It should be more like small video clips, or even gifs.”

The colour patterns the octopuses form on their skins during sleep could offer a window into their minds, as they can mirror patterns they exhibit while they are awake. 

For example, the “half and half,” where they are black on one side and white on the other, is sometimes seen during courtship — so might an octopus that displays this pattern during sleep be dreaming of romance?

Maybe, but it’s too early to say, said Ribeiro, and the subject of future research.

The team next hopes to find ways to record octopuses’ neural data — a tricky proposition given they are moving around in water — and to learn more about the role sleep plays for the animals’ metabolism and cognition.

GENEVA — Lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic should be used to fight the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, which kill tens of thousands of people each year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday said.

The UN health agency warned that the world was running out of options for fighting so-called superbugs, with few new effective antibiotics in the pipeline.

But it said that the coronavirus crisis, which had dramatically deepened the global understanding of the health and economic implications of an uncontrolled pandemic, could spur progress.

The worldwide push to rein in the pandemic had proven that rapid progress can be made when there is enough political will, the WHO pointed out.

“Antibiotics present the Achilles heel for universal health coverage and our global health security,” Haileyesus Getahun, who heads the WHO’s anti-microbial resistance division, warned in a statement. 

“Opportunities emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic must be seized to bring to the forefront the needs for sustainable investments in [research and development] of new and effective antibiotics.” 

Among other things, he said, there should be a global mechanism to pool funding to battle the scourge of antimicrobial resistance, along the same lines as the mechanisms created to fund the development of COVID-19 vaccines.

Antibiotic resistance happens when bugs become immune to existing drugs, like antibiotics, antivirals or anti-fungals, rendering minor injuries and common infections potentially deadly.

Resistance has grown in recent years due to overuse of such drugs in humans and also in farm animals.

‘Insufficient’

Discovered in the 1920s, antibiotics have saved tens of millions of lives by defeating bacterial diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis. 

But over the decades, bacteria have learned to fight back, building resistance to the same drugs that once reliably vanquished them — turning into so-called “superbugs”.

To counter bacteria’s ability to become resistant to known drugs, a steady stream of new antibiotics is needed, but for pharmaceutical companies, developing competitive new products in this field is complicated, costly, and not seen as very profitable.

Almost all new antibiotics that have been brought to market in recent decades are variations of antibiotic drugs discovered before the 1980s, the WHO pointed out.

Since 2017, the UN agency has published an annual report on what antibacterials are in the pipeline, evaluating their potential for stemming the crisis.

In the report published Thursday, it concluded that none of the 43 new antibiotics currently being developed sufficiently address the problem of drug resistance in the world’s most dangerous bacteria.

It also pointed out that a full 82 per cent of recently approved antibiotics were derivatives of existing antibiotic classes with well-established drug-resistance, warning that “rapid emergence of drug-resistance to these new agents is expected”.

The report highlighted the urgent need to develop new antibacterial treatments, saying those currently in the pipeline were “insufficient” to tackle the challenge.

“While there are some innovative products in the pipeline, it is likely that only a fraction of these will ever come to market due to the high failure rates in the drug development process,” the report warned.

Faced with a dire lack of effective antibiotics, this year’s report for the first time also listed an overview of “non-traditional antibacterial medicines” that could help fill the gap.

It highlighted 27 such drugs in the pipeline, including monoclonal antibodies like the treatments being used for COVID-19.

Other non-traditional drugs being looked at as weapons in the fight against superbugs are antimicrobial peptides, antibacterial enhancers and bacteriophages — tiny viruses that infect bacteria, it said. 

By Patrick Galey
Agence France-Presse

PARIS — Noise pollution poses a long-term risk to tree populations and plant diversity that may persist even after the sources of excess noise are removed, according to research published Wednesday.

Manmade noise from construction, industry and the building of infrastructure such as roads and pipelines has increased dramatically since the middle of last century, and biologists are increasingly concerned about their impact on plants and animals.

While previous research has documented the short-term impact noise has on tree populations as it scares off pollinators such as insects and animals, few studies have investigated the long-term effects.

Researchers in the United States looked at tree populations in New Mexico that had been exposed to a high level of artificial noise for 15 years. 

They found 75 per cent fewer pinyon pine seedlings in noisy sites than quiet ones.

They then looked at plots where sources of noise had recently been added or removed and examined how populations recovered.

The team hypothesised that populations of the trees — in this case juniper and pinyon seedlings — would recover as the jay birds that help disperse them would return to the plots once the noise had disappeared.

Instead, they detected a long-term decline in seedling numbers as the jays refused to revisit the sites.

"The effects of human noise pollution are growing into the structure of these woodland communities," said Clinton Francis, biology professor at California Polytechnic State University and study co-author. 

"What we're seeing is that removal of the noise doesn't necessarily immediately result in a recovery of ecological function."

Jennifer Phillips, co-author of the research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, said the findings showed how the impact of noise pollution could put pollinating animals off even after the noise is removed.

"Animals like the scrub-jay that are sensitive to noise learn to avoid particular areas," said Phillips.

"It may take time for animals to rediscover these previously noisy areas, and we don't know how long that might take."

As governments continue to be confronted by growing evidence of the damage to nature caused by urbanisation, Phillips told AFP that the impact of noise pollution should also be factored in to planning decisions.

"I definitely think noise pollution, and other sensory pollutants like light, are under-accounted for in mitigation measures," she said.

Phillips said the study could help inform governments about noise pollution can indirectly impact biodiversity due to "mutualisms" or inter-linked effects between species.

PARIS — Among Covid patients, a lack of exercise is linked to more severe symptoms and a higher risk of death, according to a study covering nearly 50,000 people who were infected with the virus.

People physically inactive for at least two years before the pandemic were more likely to be hospitalised, to require intensive care, and to die, researchers reported on Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. 

As a risk factor for serious Covid disease, physical inactivity was surpassed only by advanced age and a history of organ transplant, the study found.

Indeed, compared to other modifiable risk factors such as smoking, obesity or hypertension, “physical inactivity was the strongest risk factor across all outcomes”, the authors concluded. 

The pre-existing conditions most associated with severe COVID-19 infection are advanced age, being male, and having diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease.

But up to now, a sedentary lifestyle has not been included.

To see whether a lack of exercise increases the odds of severe infection, hospitalisation, admission into an intensive care unit and death, the researchers compared these outcomes in 48,440 adults in the United States infected with COVID-19 between January and October 2020.

The average age of patients was 47, and three out of five were women. On average, their mass-body index was 31, just above the threshold for obesity. 

Intensive care

Around half had no underlying illnesses, such as diabetes, chronic lung conditions, heart or kidney disease, or cancer. Nearly 20 per cent had one, and more than 30 per cent had two or more. 

All of the patients had reported their level of regular physical activity at least three times between March 2018 and March 2020 at outpatient clinics.

Some 15 per cent described themselves as inactive (0-10 minutes of physical activity per week), nearly 80 per cent reported “some activity” (11-149 minutes/week), and seven per cent were consistently active in keeping with national health guidelines (150+ minutes/week).

After allowing for differences due to race, age and underlying medical conditions, sedentary COVID-19 patients were more than twice as likely to be admitted to hospital as those who were most active.

They were also 73 per cent more likely to require intensive care, and 2.5 times more likely to die due to the infection. 

Compared to patients in the habit of doing occasional physical activity, couch potatoes were 20 per cent more likely to be admitted to hospital, 10 per cent more likely to require intensive care, and 32 per cent more likely to die.

While the link is statistically strong, the study — which is observational, as opposed to a clinical trial — cannot be construed as direct evidence that a lack of exercise directly caused the difference in outcomes. 

The findings also depend on self-reporting by patients, with a potential for bias.

WASHINGTON — Modern brains are younger than originally thought, possibly developing as recently as 1.5 million years ago, according to a recently published study— after the earliest humans had already begun walking on two feet and had even started fanning out from Africa.

Our first ancestors from the genus Homo emerged on the continent about 2.5 million years ago with primitive ape-like brains about half the size of those seen in today’s humans. 

Scientists have been trying to solve a mystery for as long as our origin story has been known: Exactly when and where did the brain evolve into something that made us human?

“People had thought that these human-like brains evolved actually at the very beginning of the genus Homo, so about 2.5 million years ago,” Paleoanthropologist Christoph Zollikofer, a co-author of the study published in the journal Science, told AFP.

Zollikofer and lead study author Marcia Ponce de Leon examined skull fossils from Africa, Georgia and the Indonesian island of Java, however, and discovered the evolution actually took place much later, between 1.7 and 1.5 million years ago.

Since brains themselves do not fossilise, the only way to observe their evolution is to study the marks they leave inside the skull.

The scientists created virtual images — known as an endocasts — of what had filled the skulls long ago.

In humans, the Broca area — part of the frontal lobe linked to speech production — is much bigger than the corresponding zone in other great apes, said Zollikofer, of the University of Zurich. 

The expansion of an area results in the shifting of everything behind it. “This backward shift can be seen on the fossil endocasts, when we track imprints of the brain fissures,” Zollikofer said.

‘Surprise’

By studying skulls from Africa, the researchers were able to determine that the oldest ones — dating back more than 1.7 million years — actually had a frontal lobe characteristic of great apes.

“This first result was a big surprise,” said Zollikofer. 

It signified that the genus Homo “started with bipedalism”, or walking on two legs, and that the evolution of the brain had nothing to do with the fact of already being bipedal.

“Now we know that in our long evolutionary history... the first representatives of our genus Homo were just terrestrial bipeds, with ape-like brains,” the paleoanthropologist said.

However, the youngest African fossils, dating back 1.5 million years, showed characteristics of modern human brains.

This signified that the evolution of the brain took place between the two dates, in Africa, according to the study.

The conclusion is backed up by the fact that more complex tools appeared during this same period, called Acheulean tools, which have two symmetrical faces.

“This is not random coincidence,” said Zollikofer, “because we know those brain areas that get expanded in this time period are those that are used for complex manipulative tasks like tool-making”.

Two migrations from Africa

The second surprising result of the study comes from observations of five skull fossils found in present-day Georgia, dating back between 1.8 and 1.7 million years.

The particularly well-preserved specimens proved to be primitive brains.

“People thought you need a big modern brain to disperse out of Africa,” said Zollikofer. “We can show these brains are not big, and they are not modern, and still people have been able to leave Africa.”

Meanwhile, fossils from Java, the youngest specimens in the study, showed modern brain characteristics. The researchers therefore believe that there was a second migration out of Africa.

“So, you have a spray first of primitive-brained people, then things evolve to a modern brain in Africa, and these people sprayed again,” explained Zollikofer.

“It’s not a new hypothesis... but there was no clear evidence. And now for the first time, we have real fossil evidence.”

The smallest and most affordable of Chinese state-owned auto manufacturer Chery’s crossover SUV line-up, the Tiggo 2 is a fairly equipped, comfortable, convenient and practical vehicle, with reasonable levels of refinement and appeal. 

If not an outright premium vehicle by any means, and while only test driven quite briefly, the Tiggo 2, however, certainly shows a marked improvement at Chery, compared to products first reviewed in these pages when the brand was still a newcomer to the Jordanian market some 15 years ago.

Attainable and assertive

Among the smallest crossovers currently available, the Tiggo 2’s closest price competitor is the affordably iconic Lada 4x4 Urban. However, the two are conceptually different, with the Lada being significantly more off-road capable with its four-wheel-drive and extensive hardware. Meanwhile the Tiggo is a practical daily use front-drive crossover with useful 187mm ground clearance. Instead, the Tiggo 2 is perhaps something of a budget Nissan Kicks alternative that more closely competes with the Renault Stepway, Ford EcoSport or its own Chinese co-national Changan CS35.

Sculpted and statuesque with its squinting headlights, big lower intake styling, high-set rear lights, jutting tailgate spoiler, hexagonal grille and prominent sill and waistline creases, the Tiggo 2’s design is handsomely contemporary. If not a showstopper, the Tiggo’s design is nevertheless attractively assertive, with an athletic stance, yet is not exaggerated or seeming to promise more than it can deliver. Though an urban-oriented crossover, the Tiggo 2 features rugged styling flavours including lower black body and wheelarch cladding, and faux front and rear skidplates.

Linear delivery

Positioned transversely under its clamshell bonnet, the Tiggo 2 is powered by a Mitsubishi-derived naturally-aspirated 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine, as locally available. Driving the front wheels through a smooth shifting 4-speed automatic gearbox, the Tiggo 2’s engine develops 105BHP at 6,000rpm and 100lb/ft torque at 2,750rpm. Hauling its 1,215kg mass through 0-100km/h in a roughly estimated 15-seconds and capable of a 160km/h top speed, the Tiggo 2’s performance may not be scintillating, but reasonably well keeps up with traffic, as driven in urban conditions. 

Responsive to throttle input from standstill and steadily, linearly progressive in delivery, the Tiggo 2’s engine might not be quite as powerful as some rivals, but is fluent through revs and relatively smooth in operation, with no sudden surges or off-boost shortcomings as might be the case with some turbo engines. Additionally, its, albeit modest, torque is made available relatively low in the rev range for improved in-town and on-the-move flexibility. Comparatively light, and small, the Tiggo 2 claims low fuel consumption at 5.9-litres/100km.

Comfortable and manoeuvrable

A very much car-like front-drive crossover riding on MacPherson Strut front and torsion beam rear suspension, the Tiggo 2 proved to be a mostly comfortably modern, stable and competent handling vehicle, during limited test-drive opportunity. Untested under more demanding conditions, how the Tiggo 2 avails itself closer to its dynamic limits is not clear, but as driven, it smoothly and comfortably dispatched most bumps and lumps, but one particularly jagged pothole, which was felt and heard in a slightly more pronounced manner.

Manoeuvrable and easy to drive, park and place on the road with its compact dimensions, light steering and generally good visibility, local spec Tiggo 2 versions don’t come with, or particularly need, a reversing camera. Over low speed imperfections its ride was settled, but how it responds to vertical undulations at speed wasn’t clearly evident. Body lean was controlled, brakes were responsive, and ride and noise refinement again proved acceptably good, but again, more extensive testing would have yielded more detailed and nuanced insights.

Well-packaged accommodation

Responsive to sudden but small successive directional changes with no delayed follow through sensations, the Tiggo 2’s steering was also quite well-weighted, responsive, accurate, and with adequate levels of feel, if not quite best or most delicately textured in its class. Inside, the Tiggo 2’s driving position had good levels of adjustability, visibility and comfort, but didn’t have adjustable lumbar support, while lateral support could not be too accurately assessed. Steering wheel, gear lever and controls were meanwhile close to hand and user-friendly.

Well packaged for its compact frame, the Tiggo 2 delivers very good driver headroom and shoulder room, but slightly more thigh room for portlier drivers would be welcome. Rear passengers get above average head and legroom and adequate door aperture and access, while its deep flat floor boot accommodates 420 litres and more with split rear seats folded. Appointed cost-effectively the Tiggo 2’s hard plastics and fabric upholstery are, however, off-set with gloss orange and faux carbon-fibre accents for a livelier, sportier and cheerier ambiance. 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse, 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 77.4 x 79.5mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 4-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 105 (106) [78] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 70.1BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 86.4BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 100 (135) @2,750rpm

Specific torque: 90.2Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 111.1Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 15-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 160km/h

Fuel consumption: 5.9-litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Length: 4,200mm

Width: 1,760mm

Height: 1,570mm

Wheelbase: 2,555mm

Track, F/R: 1,495/1,484mm

Ground clearance: 186mm

Approach/departure: 24°/32° 

Luggage volume, minimum: 420-litres

Unladen weight: 1,215kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 10.5-metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 205/55R16

Price, on-the-road, with third party insurance: JD11,900-12,250

I want to ask every mother who is reading this to join me on a mission to better care for ourselves.

It’s past eight o’clock at night and I just managed to sit down after packing lunch for our daughter to take with her to medical school.

I am reminded of how we mothers serve our families all year long trying to make life easier for everyone around us. We cook, we clean, we organise and we plan. We work at our jobs outside the house only to come back and find more work at home that never seems to end. We do this day in and day out and consider ourselves blessed to have families that need us. But we are also blessed with backaches and heartaches as we find ourselves often depleted at the end of the day because we have neglected to take better care of ourselves. 

Your oxygen mask

I’ve mentioned this before but I’ll repeat it because we are a forgetful people. I know it’s hard to remember the last time we flew on an aeroplane given COVID-19 travel restrictions, but try our best to recall those inflight instructions. The one that tells us what to do with the oxygen overhead in the event of cabin pressure loss. They remind us to put that oxygen on ourselves first before our children. I know what you’re thinking because I’m a mother too. I always had a hard time picturing myself helping myself first before reaching out to help our children in an emergency. Yet this is what we must do because if we lose consciousness, we will not be able to help them at all!

So it is in our day-to-day life. If we don’t come up for air and take a deep breath to ensure our wellbeing, then it is our children who will ultimately suffer. Neglecting ourselves causes us to burn out and to be emotionally absent for our kids, or physically present for that matter, as we eventually succumb to a slew of aches that prevent us from being fully functional. These can vary from migraine headaches to other ailments as the body slowly breaks down when we ignore it. Physical and mental breakdowns are real and many have paid a high price learning this lesson the hard way. 

You might ask what any of this has to do in me, the desperate dieter. If you have been busy putting the ‘oxygen’ on everyone else around you and neglecting to take care of yourself, then I don’t need to explain. Self-neglect for me is:

•Eating leftovers while standing up in our kitchen because I don’t take time to sit down and eat a balanced proper meal

•Trying to scarf down a few bites while I’m driving to a meeting and hoping the police won’t ticket me for distracted driving

•Getting yet another headache because I forgot to drink water all day long and wonder why I’m so dehydrated

•Grabbing the chocolate bar at the grocery checkout because I basically checked myself out from the reality of my situation and gave up on even trying 

•Ruining my best handbag because I forgot I left my kids’ snacks that melted or crumbled into the bottom lining

My challenge to each of us

Let us make it a priority every single day to take some time for ourselves. For some, making it a point of sitting down at a table to eat will be a novelty. For others, making sure our phones are out of reach to prevent distractions while eating will be a miracle! Perhaps spending a few extra minutes in the shower will be a luxury we haven’t allowed ourselves as we rush to get to the million things on our to-do list. 

Ask yourself: 

•When was the last time you curled up with a good book and allowed yourself to rest with a cup of tea? 

•When was the last time you practised deep breathing to calm your mind, body and soul? 

•When was the last time you dared to love yourself enough to put the oxygen mask on yourself before reaching out to save everyone around you?

The Daniel Plan

I discovered the importance of being a good example to our children by showing them what it looks like to practice self-care. God willing, one day our daughters and sons will be parents too and when that day comes, they will remember how to keep their heads on straight in the middle of sleepless nights and exhausting days. They will recognise the importance of daily exercise and balanced nutrition. They will remember what I learned this week in the book, The Daniel Plan, that focuses on mind, body and soul as we care for the body that God gave us.

The authors remind us that we have three choices regarding our bodies: we can neglect, perfect or protect our bodies. Perfection is not what we’re after because that is not the purpose of our existence on this earth. We do not seek perfection lest we become so obsessed with our bodies that they become idols that control us. Nor should we neglect them as God entrusted them to us. Instead, we must focus on protecting them; after all, they’re the only body we have! It is in our control to protect our bodies by caring for them to better care for our loved ones.

Wishing each of you healthy days filled with joy, peace, harmony and rest!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

By Lucie Aubourg
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — Several hundred people have already booked their tickets and begun training for a spectacular voyage: a few minutes, or perhaps days, in the weightlessness of space.

The mainly wealthy first-time space travellers are getting ready to take part in one of several private missions which are preparing to launch.

The era of space tourism is on the horizon 60 years after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.

Two companies, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, are building spacecraft capable of sending private clients on suborbital flights to the edge of space lasting several minutes.

Glenn King is the director of spaceflight training at the National Aerospace Training and Research Centre, a private company based in Pennsylvania, which has already trained nearly 400 future Virgin Galactic passengers for their trips.

“The oldest person I trained was 88 years old,” King told AFP.

The training programme lasts two days — a morning of classroom instruction and tests in a centrifuge.

This involves putting the trainee in a single-seat cockpit at the end of an eight-metre-long arm and spinning them around to simulate gravitational force, or G force.

A medical team is on hand at all times.

‘Enjoy the view’

NASA’s training for shuttle crew members lasted two years but the duration has been drastically reduced by the commercial space industry because of the “numbers of people that want to get up in space”, King said.

“We can’t take two years to train these people,” he said. “We’ve got to get this down to a matter of days to get these people up.

“These people aren’t crews, just strictly passengers,” he noted.

“For a passenger, there isn’t a lot of work for you to do other than just relax, endure the G forces of launch or reentry.

“And then once you’re orbital, enjoy the view out the window.”

King said the pass rate for the training course has been “99.9 per cent”.

The cost ranges from several thousand dollars to as much as $10,000 if special care or medical monitoring is needed.

The single biggest barrier to “spaceflight for all” remains the price tag.

Some 600 people have booked flights on Virgin Galactic, the company owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, and thousands more are on a waiting list.

The cost per flight? $200,000 to $250,000.

Virgin Galactic hopes to take its first private astronaut on a suborbital flight in early 2022, with eventual plans for 400 trips a year.

Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has not yet published prices or a calendar.

Money aside, pretty much anybody could go on a spaceflight.

“You don’t have to be in perfect physical health now to be able to go to space,” King said. “I’ve trained people with prosthetic devices. I’ve trained people with pacemakers.

“All kinds of people.”

The US Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the aviation industry, recommended in 2006 that future “commercial passengers” on suborbital flights fill out a “simple medical history questionnaire.” 

Orbital flights which go further and last longer would require a more detailed form and blood tests, X-rays and urine specimens.

Such flights, which cost millions of dollars each, are envisioned by SpaceX, the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, which has at least four planned over the coming years.

‘Inspiration4’

The first launch of only civilians, baptised “Inspiration4”, is scheduled to take place in September.

The American billionaire Jared Isaacman has fully paid for a trip powered by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will take him and three passengers on a three-day flight in low Earth orbit.

In January 2022, the company Axiom Space plans to send a former astronaut and three newcomers to the International Space Station.

It eventually plans trips to the ISS every six months.

Seven “space tourists” visited the space station between 2001 and 2009.

A company called Space Adventures served as the intermediary for those flights and has partnered with SpaceX to send four customers in orbit around the Earth next year.

A Japanese billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa, has reserved a flight on SpaceX’s “Starship” in 2023 and is inviting eight other people to come along for the ride.

So when can we expect space tourism to become commonplace?

Difficult to say, said Robert Goehlich, an adjunct assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide.

“Suborbital and orbital tourist flights are currently near to happen,” Goehlich said. “The exact forecast is a challenge for each scenario.

“A new investor might accelerate any schedule,” he said, “while an accident might decelerate any planning.”

Three major factors will need to come together: flights will have to be safe, profitable and environmentally friendly.

“In the long run, thinking about a mass space tourism market, surely sustainability aspects will play a more dominant role,” Goehlich said.

By Issam Ahmed

Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — Catnip is known to hold a special place in the hearts of felines, who often respond by rubbing their face and head in the plant, rolling around on the ground, then zoning out in a state of intoxicated repose. 

But the biological mechanisms by which it works its magic, and whether it confers any additional benefits to cats, had remained unanswered questions until now.

An international team of researchers recently published a study in Science Advances, finding that catnip and silver vine, an even more potent herb found in the mountains of Japan and China, ward off mosquitoes.

They also identified nepetalactol as the main compound of silver vine responsible for inducing an euphoric state, and discovered that it activates the brain's opioid reward system. The substance is similar to nepetalactone, the key psychoactive compound in catnip.

Masao Miyazaki, a professor at Japan's Iwate University, who was the senior author of the paper, told AFP the team had applied for a patent to develop an insect repellent based on their findings.

The team began by testing how 25 lab cats, 30 feral cats, and several big cats including an Amur leopard, two jaguars and two Eurasian lynx responded to filter paper soaked with nepetalactol.

The felines all spent more time with nepetalactol infused paper than they did with plain filter paper that was used as a control.

By contrast, dogs and lab mice showed no interest in the nepetalactol-containing paper.

Next, they tested how 12 cats responded to all the known bioactive compounds of silver vine, confirming that nepetalactol was the most potent of the substances.

To test whether the feline responses to the substance were governed by the brain's opioid system, they took blood samples to check beta-Endorphin levels five minutes before and after they were exposed to the nepetalactol.

Elevated endorphin concentrations occurred only after exposure to nepetalactol, and not the control substance.

When the researchers gave the cats naloxone, a drug that inhibits the effects of opioids, the cats no longer wanted to rub themselves against the nepetalactol.

Naloxone is commonly used in humans to treat an overdose of opioids.

But unlike opioids, the scientists think the response to nepetalactol is "non-addictive," because it works by triggering an increase in endorphins that are already produced by the body.

Drugs like morphine, on the other hand, stimulate the brain's opioid receptors directly, not indirectly.

Finally, they tested whether silver vine leaves repelled Aedes albopictus mosquitoes when cats rubbed against the plant. 

They found that significantly fewer mosquitoes landed on cats that engaged in this behaviour.

This, they wrote, was an example of "how animals use plant metabolites for protection against insect pests" which is seen for example in some bird species that rub citrus fruits against themselves, or chimpanzees that make sleeping platforms from trees with repellent qualities.