Features

Six or seven years ago few people really understood what it was, and even fewer ones were able to come up with a clear definition of it. Now virtually all users of Internet-connected devices are familiar with it and do use it. We are talking about cloud storage.

If only smartphone users who rely on cloud storage to make continuous backup of their phone’s digital contents, indeed the vast majority of those who operate computers of all kinds, including mobile devices such as tablets for example, makes use of some form of cloud storage today.

Are all cloud storage services equal? Are there any special precautions to take with them?

Whereas there are several good such services available — perhaps a dozen — the best known and the most popular remain Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud (the famous “i” prefix says it all…), Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.

All will give you a basic amount of storage for free; typically about 5GB of it. Whereas this may be enough for some, particularly at the beginning, most users will find it not large enough after a while. Though subscriptions are different from one service to another, differences are not that big, any of the four above mentioned services will give you about 1TB of storage for a yearly paid subscription of $100. Again, these storage size and prices are averages.

The first thing to realise is that extensive usage of cloud storage calls for an as-fast-as-possible Internet connectivity, be it cabled or wireless. Indeed, once hooked on it, you will not only be buying more and more storage space, but will be performing increasingly large uploads and downloads to the web. Unless your Internet is really fast, you will feel frustrated at having all this space to store data but with slow upload/download (=save/open) speed. Ideally a good fibre optic subscription would be recommended.

The second aspect is the quality and the level of the service provided. I went through a near-catastrophic experience by the end of last summer only to be saved by the highly professional service of my cloud storage provider, Dropbox in this very case.

My computer had caught a bad ransomware virus. By the time I realised what was happening the virus had “locked” not only all the files present on my local hard disk but also all the files stored in my Dropbox, since I was always online and therefore my Dropbox contents were accessible to the virus.

Fortunately, after having contacted Dropbox to explain the situation, the company said they always keep previous versions of their users’ files as safety backup sets. These sets understandably were not affected by the virus, and therefore Dropbox were able to retrieve for me all my data stored with them, thanks to this excellent, smart precautionary measure. As for the files that were stored on my local hard disk, and that were completely lost, there were not many and were not important. All that was important was saved in Dropbox. I was happy to have a paid, professional cloud storage subscription.

While good cloud storage can work as an effective backup for all of your files, understanding the system, how it works and synchronises files, and carefully using it also matters. This is true mainly to watch and monitor files synchronisation and especially in cases where you have more than one device connected. Files synchronisation between your local hard disk and the corresponding cloud storage is an essential part of the system.

Whenever you launch your computer (or tablet, or smartphone), make sure that your cloud storage has finished synchronising all data and is ready for you, before you start working on any file stored in the cloud. This will avoid problems such as “conflicting versions of the same file found”. There is usually a small icon on the screen that indicates if synchronisation is done or not.

Some are tempted to run more than one cloud storage service at the same time. There is no law against that, but it may make your life with technology uselessly complicated, unless you happen to be very much tech-minded.

One in seven people with type 2 diabetes may be needlessly testing their blood sugar at home several times a day, a US study suggests. 

People with type 2 diabetes don’t need to test their blood at home if they have well controlled symptoms and don’t take medications that can cause dangerously low blood sugar, doctors say. For these patients, studies have not found that home blood sugar monitoring makes any difference in blood sugar levels. But still, many of them are pricking their fingers unnecessarily. 

For the current study, researchers examined data on more than 370,000 people with type 2 diabetes. Overall, almost 88,000, or about 23 per cent, had at least three insurance claims for test strips used to check blood sugar at home. 

More than half of the people testing their blood sugar at home didn’t need to do this, accounting for 14 per cent of the total study population, researchers reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

“Many type 2 diabetes patients not using insulin or other medications at risk of rapid changes in blood sugar levels are testing far more often then they need to be,” said lead study author Dr Kevin Platt of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

“This needless behaviour causes unnecessary pokes, worry, and costs,” Platt said by e-mail. “More is not always better when it comes to medical care.” 

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, is linked to obesity and aging and happens when the body can’t properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy. Left untreated, it can lead to complications like blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, and amputations. 

Many patients can keep their blood sugar in a healthy range with oral medications and don’t need insulin. Unlike insulin, which immediately affects blood sugar and requires regular testing to ensure blood sugar is in a healthy range, most pills for diabetes don’t require regular testing because they don’t cause rapid shifts in blood sugar, Platt said. 

Among people in the study who appeared to be needlessly testing blood sugar at home, about 33,000 individuals were taking medications that aren’t known to cause dangerously low blood sugar and another 19,000 were not taking any diabetes medicines at all. 

Half of the patients doing unnecessary blood sugar tests at home did these tests at least twice a day and half of them had testing supply costs of at least $325 a year, the study found. 

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how home testing directly impacted blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. 

And some patients might still need to test at home, even if they don’t need to do this multiple times daily, said Sheri Colberg a professor emerita at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, who has studied and treated people with diabetes. 

“Even if checking routinely may not change outcomes like overall blood glucose management, the benefit of having glucose testing strips available is that individuals — even non-insulin users — are then able to check their blood glucose when their usual routines vary, during times of illness or whenever other events may negatively impact their blood glucose,” Colberg, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

Patients should discuss their home blood sugar testing needs at every checkup, advised Dr Vanessa Arguello of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

“Diabetic patients who are using insulin or are on oral medications that may cause low blood sugars should monitor their blood sugars multiple times per day including before meals, at bedtime, occasionally after meals to learn about nutrition therapy, prior to critical tasks and when they suspect low blood sugars,” Arguello said by email.

“Diabetic patients who are not using insulin or are not taking medications that may cause low blood sugars can monitor their blood sugars less frequent from twice daily to every other day based on their diabetes goals established by the individual and their physician,” Arguello added.

In my previous life, I found long married couples quite irritating. By previous life I mean the initial stages of my youth, when I was single and held strong and unshakable opinion about every aspect of existence. The main reason for my exasperation with the much-married lot was that if one of them started a story, the partner took it upon himself/herself to conclude it. In short, they completed each other’s sentences and the listener had to constantly switch attention from one individual to another. During the course of the narrative, that is.

If it were as easy as one starting the recounting with the other taking over smoothly, it would not be so distressing. That politeness was generally reserved for short directives like 

“Would you like tea?” asking one. “Or coffee?” adding the other. The problem arose with “You know what happened this morning as I was making tea,” saying one. “It was not this morning, it was Monday evening and you were not making tea, you were boiling milk for the coffee,” rectifying the other simultaneously. 

In a situation like this my heart would sink and I knew I was trapped for the entire duration of the disagreement. And however unbiased you tried to be; in the end you would be dragged invariably into other people’s war of words. 

When it was time for me to enter holy matrimony I was determined to not succumb to this temptation and would relate my own experiences, without interrupting spouse when he narrated his. Initially it worked wonderfully because we were not a part of each other’s childhood and came from completely diverse backgrounds. A decade or so later, a lot of our accounts merged as we went through similar occurrences. Despite that there was no quarrel in our narration because, well, I was a talker while my husband was a listener and gradually I became an expert at telling his side of the story too.

However, with the passage of time my memory began to fail and I could not remember the finer nuances of events. For example, if our car broke down in a particular place, I found it difficult to recall if it was on the way to a party or on the trip back. I started consulting my husband to provide the correct answer but he was not used to this kind of fact-check, so to speak and came up with monosyllabic responses. “To”, he would say and that was it. I could do whatever I wished with that bit of information.

Soon I decided that it was too much of an effort to reconfirm everything therefore if I did not remember the specifics, I let it pass. The stories still played in my head though, but I stopped vocalising them.

One week later a cyclone struck in my part of the world and the sky reverberated with thunder, lightening and torrential rain.

“I can’t hear you,” my friend was on the phone.

“What’s the eerie noise?” she questioned.

“That’s the sound of the hurricane,” I told her.

“Has been going on since six in the morning,” I added.

“It’s only a whirlwind,” my husband announced.

“And started at nine not six,” he stated.

“You were fast asleep. How would you know?” I said.

“Who put a bucket under the leaking roof?” he asked.

“It was a dustbin not a bucket,” I corrected.

“I get the picture! Bye,” sighed my friend, disconnecting the phone.

The benefits of statins in reducing the odds of heart attacks and strokes far outweigh any risks of side effects, according to a scientific statement released by the American Heart Association. 

The statement, based on a review of a plethora of studies evaluating the safety and side effects of the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, is scheduled for publication in the journal Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. 

“For consumers, the message is that the benefits of statins well outweigh the risk of important harms,” said statement coauthor Dr Larry Goldstein, Ruth L. Works professor and chairman of the department of neurology and co-director of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute KY Clinic at the University of Kentucky. Patients “should discuss the reasons for taking statins and any concerns about risks with their healthcare provider”. 

Currently, one in four Americans over age 40 takes a statin drug, Goldstein and his colleagues noted. But as many as 10 per cent stop taking statins because of symptoms they fear are caused by the medications. 

The authors urge patients to see a healthcare provider before quitting statins because of presumed side effects, except in the case of one type of symptom: dark urine the colour of cola or coffee. That symptom can be the sign of the rare, but dangerous, side effect called rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which muscle fibers break down rapidly. The condition can result in acute kidney failure. 

Rhabdomyolysis is seen in fewer than one in 1,000 patients taking statin therapy, Goldstein and his coauthors reported. 

The other serious side effect is severe liver damage, which the authors reported occurred in about one in 100,000 patients taking statins. 

“Routine tests of muscle and liver function are not recommended,” Goldstein said in an e-mail. “An assessment of muscle symptoms and other medications that can affect the muscles is recommended as a baseline.” 

Most muscle aches and pains in people taking statins “are not serious and are not necessarily caused by statins”, Goldstein said. “These symptoms are more likely to be statin related if they affect both sides of the body and the thigh and shoulder muscles and occur within the first few weeks or months of starting treatment.” 

For statin users worried about muscle pains and aches, blood tests to measure creatine kinase levels can confirm or rule out rhabdomyolysis. 

“Severe liver impairment is very rare,” Goldstein said. “Symptoms can include skin and eyes becoming yellow, dark urine, abdominal pain, itchy skin, pale stool and bruising.” 

The researchers also determined that statins could raise the risk of diabetes — but only in people who were likely to develop the disease anyway, based on their risk factors. The risk for bleeding in the brain was not increased with statin use, except in those who had already had a stroke. 

However, the authors found “no convincing evidence for a causal relationship between statins and cancer, cataracts, cognitive dysfunction, peripheral neuropathy, erectile dysfunction, or tendonitis”. 

While there can be side effects, even rare serious ones, patients should ask: “‘What is the ‘side effect’ of not taking statins?’ It’s a 25 to 50 per cent increased risk of having a heart attack, a stroke or a premature cardiovascular death,” said Dr Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved with the new article. 

With respect to one of the more serious side effects — rhabdomyolysis — it is even more rare than the new statement suggests, if you look only at patients without heart disease who are taking statins to lower cholesterol as a preventive measure, said Fonarow. In those patients, the risk “is more like one in 50,000 or 100,000”, he added. 

Statins are among the “very few medications invented in the modern era that save lives”, said Dr Omar Ali, medical director of Cardiac Cath Lab at Harper University Hospital at the Detroit Medical Centre. 

“For the appropriate patients, taking statins for primary prevention saves lives and even in secondary prevention statins save lives,” said Ali, who was not involved with the new article. “The most important thing is to be in direct consultation with a cardiologist or primary care physician, so if you start experiencing any of the side effects, you can get in touch with your doctor sooner and get the appropriate care.” 

Among the most dramatic cars, the second incarnation of Lamborghini’s now flagship model range is every bit as exotically extrovert as expected of the raging bull brand. Introduced late last year and gaining the suffix “S” in place of the alphanumeric model designation from its name, and so dubbed Aventador S Roadster in open top guise, it remains one of the world’s defining supercars. Redeveloped for improved performance and driving, the Aventador S receives new driving modes, more power and most significantly since the Aventador model line first appeared in 2011 as coupe and 2013 as Roadster, four-wheel-steering now sharpens its agility and handling prowess even further.

Stealing the limelight

Immediately identifiable as a Lamborghini with the same squat, wide shape and sharply angular lines derived from its distant and iconic Countach predecessor, the revised Aventador S Roadster adopts a sharper and more assertive look than the pre-facelift model. With an emphasis on its already significant 20,30mm physical width and low 1,136mm height, the new Aventador’s face is noticeably less snouty and does away with the outgoing model’s vast side intakes and jutting shark-like nose. Instead, it features a more complex face with wider grille and intakes separated by gills and more prominent air splitter below. Meanwhile in profile, it features slightly revised vents and intakes.

A distinctively moody design that looks as fast is goes the low-slung mid-engine Aventador is a feast of jutting edges and sharply angled and defined lines, it has a larger than life persona that steals the limelight wherever it goes and next any other car. The revised Aventador S Roadster meanwhile has a more palpable sense of urgency, with new air intakes at the side of its rear buttresses, revised engine cover slats and a more layered, jutting, pert and now black rear fascia with more horizontal emphasis, slimmer upper heat extractors, and more prominent air diffuser slats and pyramid-like hexagonal central exhaust pipe cluster.

Visceral vocals

Viciously vocal and searing swift, the Aventador S Roadster is powered by one of the world’s most viscerally charismatic engines. Lamborghini’s second all-new V12 engine and successor to the brand’s original Giotto Bizzarrini developed V12, which increased from 3.5- to 6.5 litres between 1963 and 2011, the Aventador’s new Audi ownership-era V12 also sees a power rise since first used for the Aventador LP700-4. Developing 730BHP at a stratospheric 8,400rpm, it is a decidedly over-square design with more emphasis on top-end power rather than torque. That said, the Aventador S nevertheless packs a mighty 509lb/ft at 5,500rpm, the point by which power peaks in most modern turbocharged cars.

Eager, free and responsive to rev hard and high and wind down, the Aventador S delivers superb throttle control to dial in exacting increments of power and subsequently balance slip and grip through corners. Urgent, insistent and evocative, the Aventador S vast mid-mounted 6.5-litre V12 goes through a charismatic medley of sounds from resonant and metallic staccato to an intense buzz-saw like wail as its reaches its crescendo. One of the last great naturally-aspirated engines in production, it may be a more rev-happy engine, but it certainly isn’t lacking at low-end, and digs deep to deliver a consistently progressive and rapidly escalating torrent of power from tick-over to redline.

Escalating aggression

Flexible in mid-range, capable of pulling hard in high gear and a 350km/h maximum, the Aventador S Roadster is scintillatingly swift in acceleration from standstill. With four-wheel-drive traction it smashes the 0-100km/h benchmark in just 3-seconds, passes the 200km/h mark in 9-seconds and hits 300km/h in 25-seconds, but is somewhat thirsty, with 16.9-litre combined fuel efficiency. Fitted with standard single-clutch automated 7-speed gearbox with three escalating swift shift modes, cog changes, however, lack the speed and seamlessness of its junior supercar Huracan sister’s dual-clutch gearbox. Nevertheless, it delivers quick and deliberate changes at speed and a charismatic experience, if at the cost of slightly jerky shifts at lower speeds. 

Built on a rigid yet lightweight carbon-fibre moncoque with front and rear aluminium frames and mixed material body including flourishes of exposed carbon-fibre, the Aventador S Roadster is meanwhile underpinned by a sophisticated and exotic double wishbone suspension with horizontal pushrod active magnetic dampers. Set up for a highly sporting character and riding staggered 255/30ZR20 front tyres for good steering feel and enormous low profile 355/25ZR21 at the rear for massive traction and grip, the Roadster is firm on the road and over jagged bumps in particular. Its softest damper setting does, however, keep it sufficiently forgiving. Meanwhile on motorway its, low and wide footprint keeps it impeccably settled and firmly planted.

Agility and stability

Carrying speed with confidence in abundance, the Roadster’s new four-wheel-steering ensures improved lane-changing stability, while improved aerodynamics and a 3-position adjustable pop-up rear wing provides 130 per cent more downforce at speed and through corners, and considerably enhanced efficiency in low drag position. Road-hugging and buttoned down, it rides like on rails through corners, with low-mounted and ideally positioned mid-engine engine providing a 53 per cent within wheelbase rear weight bias. The result is an immediate and crisp turn-in, highly controlled lateral body movement and huge grip levels when reapplying power by a corner’s apex, while its rear-biased four-wheel-drive automatically reapportion power where needed and ensures excellent road-holding through corners. 

Most significant is the Aventador S’ new four-wheel-steering, which at speed turns the rear wheels slightly in the same direction as the front for added stability, but in the same direction at lower speeds to effectively shorten the wheelbase and considerably enhance agility, manoeuvrability and road-holding. Necessitating suspension geometry and electronic stability and control alterations, four-wheel-steering makes a huge improvement to the Aventador’s driving dynamic and allows it send more power to the rear wheels for a more balanced driving style and to virtually banish understeer. Meanwhile its quick steering is direct and delivers good feel and stability at speed, while huge carbon ceramic brakes are tirelessly effective.

True to its kind

A unique and individual supercar that wears its unreconstructed machismo and old school charm on its sleeve, but is nevertheless underpinned by very modern technology, systems and development, driving the Aventador S Roadster is an occasion. Refined and well-insulated with its roof in place, it takes a more visceral character when the manually operated roof panels are removed and stowed in its front luggage compartment, but a happy medium is to open the rear letterbox screen to get the full audio experience without the open air exposure. Meanwhile, in the city, the Aventador can lift its front ride height from 115mm to 155mm to safely clear most ramps and bumps.

A defining supercar and a visceral delight for the senses, the Aventador S Roadster is true to its segment, and isn’t the most practical, but one soon adjusts and accepts its idiosyncrasies, width and limited rear visibility. Stepping in past its sexy scissor doors is easy enough, the Roadster is driver focused inside in driving position and numerous buttons across its huge centre console, including a guarded firing button-like starter. Leather-bound and sportily luxurious, its low cabin requires tall drivers to hunker down for headroom and slouch for added visibility, but otherwise adequately spaced. Reversing visibility is meanwhile almost entirely dependent on the backup camera, but there is an admittedly unorthodox workaround technique!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 6.5-litre, mid-mounted, dry sump, V12-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 95 x 76.4mm

Compression ratio: 12:1

Valve-train: 48-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 7-speed automated single-clutch, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 3.909; 2nd 2.438; 3rd 1,81; 4th 1.458; 5th 1.185; 6th 0.867; 7th 0.844; R 2.929

Final drive, F/R: 3.273/2.867 

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 730 (740) [544] @8,400rpm

Specific power: 112.3BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 449.2BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 509 (690) @5,500rpm

Specific torque: 106.2Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 424.6Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 3-seconds

0-200km/h: 9-seconds

0-300km/h: 25-seconds

Top speed: 350km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 26.2-/11.6-/
16.9-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 394g/km

Fuel capacity: 85-litres

Track, F/R: 1,720/1,680mm

Ground clearance, min/mx: 115/155mm

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion, and rear-wheel-steering

Lock-to-lock, min/max: 2.1-/2.4-turns

Suspension: Double wishbones, horizontal pushrod active magnetic dampers

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated, carbon-ceramic discs 400 x 38mm/380 x 38mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 6-/4-piston callipers

Braking distance, 100-0km/h: 31-metres

Tyres: 255/30ZR20/355/25ZR21

Singing in a community choir may provide some psychological benefit to seniors, a small study suggests. 

Researchers had primarily hoped to see choir participation yield improvements in elderly people’s thinking skills and physical fitness, but that didn’t happen. They did, however, see improvements in loneliness and interest in life among seniors in the singing groups. 

The study was conducted at 12 senior centres serving racially and ethnically diverse communities in and around San Francisco. Half of the centres were randomly selected for the choir programme; the others served as a control group. 

Ultimately, 208 people participated in the choirs and 182 in the control group. None of them had been singing regularly with other groups. 

Overall, the average age was 71, and three-quarters of participants were women. Two-thirds reported being from minority racial or ethnic backgrounds. Forty-one per cent had been born outside the US, 20 per cent reported financial hardship, 25 per cent reported fair or poor health and 60 per cent had at least two chronic medical conditions. 

Roughly one in four participants had depression, but no one who enrolled in the study had any cognitive problems, the authors report in the journal Innovation in Aging. 

More than half of the patients in the choir group (55 per cent) had not previously sung in a choir as an adult, and more than half (56 per cent) rated their musical ability as poor or fair. 

Each of the choirs met 23 times over the course of six months. Professional choir conductors led the sessions, which also included physical activities such as walking to different parts of the room to sing. More than 90 per cent of people in both groups stayed in the study for the whole six months. 

At the end, there were no significant differences between the groups in the primary outcome measures of the study: scores on tests of cognitive function, lower body strength and overall psychosocial health. 

There were, however, significant improvements in two components of the psychosocial evaluation among choir participants. People in this group were feeling less lonely, and they were more interested in life — that is, their responses to survey questions indicated they were more interested in things, got more things done, were doing more interesting things and felt more motivated. 

Seniors in the control group, meanwhile, did not see a large change in their scores for loneliness at the end of the six months, and their interest in life declined slightly. 

“Because music [and singing] is integral to most cultures and are relatively easy and low-cost to deliver in community settings, community choirs . . . have the potential to improve the well-being of a large number of older adults,” study leader Julene Johnson of the University of California, San Francisco told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Older adults who feel lonely are more likely to be at risk of declining motor functions, poor physical well-being and even death, studies have shown. 

Johnson’s study adds to older research showing that music may give adults the opportunity to remain active and engaged. 

Choirs can also be tailored according to the culture of the communities, making them accessible to diverse populations, she and her colleagues point out, and are a relatively cheap tool for improving health outcomes. 

“Increasing evidence suggests that loneliness is linked to broad-based physical and psychological morbidity, and it may reduce longevity,” said Dawn Mackey of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who was not involved in the study. 

“It’s encouraging that both arts-based and physical-activity based interventions may improve mental well-being for older adults and help them add quality to years,” she said via email.

Healthcare costs increased across both the groups during the study period, although the increase was smaller in the intervention group.

It remains to be seen whether healthcare costs over the long term could be saved by helping adults feel less lonely. 

“It is certainly possible that reducing feelings of loneliness and increasing interest in life may eventually save healthcare costs in the long term, but we have to test that hypothesis,” Johnson said.

Killing Commendatore

Haruki Murakami 

Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018

Pp. 681

Haruki Murakami’s latest book contains all the elements usually found in his epic novels: There is a first-person narrator, in this case, an artist who remains nameless; flashbacks to historical instances of human cruelty; a parallel world, and so on. But nothing is really the same. In “Killing Commendatore”, Murakami creates a handful of totally original characters and settings, while connecting several seemingly disparate stories from Japan to Vienna to the underworld into a single plot.

The story opens with a riddle elicited by a visit from the supernatural world. The artist-narrator is awakened by a faceless man who demands that he draw his portrait. The artist tries to beg off: “There was only a void, and how are you supposed to give form to something that does not exist?” (p. 4)

Yet, he is convinced that the incident is real: “If this was a dream, then the world I’m living in itself must all be a dream.” (p. 5)

This conviction steers the plot seamlessly between reality and the parallel world—a world governed by connectivity, according to a logic that is all of Murakami’s making. 

Rich cultural references, especially to music, are typical of Murakami’s novels, but this time though music is often mentioned, visual art predominates. Added to the protagonist’s work as an artist, there is the fact that it is a masterful but obscure painting that unleashes the plot. After the protagonist’s wife breaks off their marriage without notice, a friend offers him a place to stay in the mountains. The house belongs to his friend’s father who was a famous painter, but is now sinking into dementia in a care facility. Quite by chance, the protagonist discovers one of the old man’s paintings that he had hidden in the attic, as it records an incident in his youth he has tried to forget. When the protagonist unwraps it, he opens a perilous chasm that can only be closed if he undertakes certain acts: “The longer I looked at the painting, the less clear was the threshold between reality and unreality, flat and solid, substance and image.” (p. 240) 

The threshold is further undermined by the ringing of a mysterious bell in the night, and the appearance of a miniature human form that embodies an idea. They both intrigue and frighten him, but he soon understands that they provide the clues to what he must do to rescue Mariye, his art student who has disappeared. He undertakes a perilous journey somewhat like that of ancient mythical heroes. On the way, he realises he is living in a world governed by connectivity: As one of the guides on his journey says, “No one can tell what is or is not the real thing… All that we see is a product of connectivity. Light here is a metaphor for shadow, shadow a metaphor for light.” (p. 573)

The protagonist’s journey in the world of connectivity is intense and raises interesting philosophical questions, but it is less convincing and absorbing than the parallel worlds in other Murakami’s novels. More fascinating by far are the psychological implications of the interaction between the characters and the protagonist’s reaction to his otherworldly encounters, which account for the bulk of the narrative. 

While married, the artist had painted portraits on commission in order to have a steady income. Alone in the house in the mountains, he is free to return to his original intent of doing oil paintings with various themes. Yet, as soon as he meets Menshiki, his new neighbour, the latter, a mysterious, seemingly generous and cultured man, asks the artist to paint his portrait; he will pay any price. That done, Menshiki proceeds to request one of a young girl, who is the artist’s student and whom Menshiki thinks may be his daughter. While his commissioned portraits were replicas done to please the subject, in the new ones, the artist sets out to capture the subject’s soul. He is so technically skilful that he doesn’t need the subject to sit for him but takes up his paintbrush alone after extensive conversations with these two subjects. Though there is no sign that Murakami is himself an artist, his descriptions of this creative process are fascinating. The painting sessions are a play on appearance and reality as is much of the story.

Besides Murakami’s unique blend of fantasy and reality, his tone is also what makes his writing so distinctive. In the narrative, there is a constant collision of mundane actions and extraordinary occurrences, yet all is described in a matter-of-fact tone. The protagonist’s emotional reactions to even the most dramatic events are always understated. This may be what gives credibility to the fantasy elements in the story. It can also be Murakami’s take on the world where anything can happen.

I just watched the movie I Am Pretty at the cinema in Amman. I walked out of it feeling determined to live life out of a confident soul instead of constantly letting my size and looks determine how I feel.

If you have not seen this movie yet, I recommend you watch it. It will open your eyes to all the ways we set ourselves up for success or failure simply based on how confident we feel about ourselves. Our feelings of selfworth affect our internal dialogue and how we present ourselves to the world around us.

Confident is beautiful

Whether we are a size two or a size 20, it’s not the number that defines us or adds to our value as human beings. Once we see ourselves from that lens then we are freed from the shackles of cultural norms that dictate what beauty should look like. What this movie proves is that confidence is beautiful. When I feel confident, I tend to make better choices. Self-confidence means I can connect with my passions on a deeper level instead of wasting time berating myself for eating the wrong food or messing up. When my confidence is high, I am able to recover much quicker when I make poor food choices. This is the key to living a healthy lifestyle that will last us for the remainder of our lives.

Cultivating confidence

Just like you would train for a marathon by running a few kilogrammes every day, you can train yourself to boost your confidence and rewire your brain to be kinder and more compassionate towards yourself. This is a lot harder than it really is because our brains have been hard-wired for so many years by our negative thinking. When we look in the mirror, how often do we focus on the beautiful things about us instead of looking at the things that we wish we could change? Have you ever thought what it might do to your life as a desperate dieter if you started focusing on the things you like about your body? Listen to what you tell yourself when you look into that mirror, to that inner dialogue. When you focus on the negative it becomes your obsession; it draws you deeper into that endless pit of toxic self-loathing that does nothing, but lower your self-esteem instead of empowering you to live the life God intended for you.

Disillusioned confidence

Many mistakenly believe that their value and self-worth are directly tied to that number on the scale and to those digits printed on that label sewn on the inside of their clothes. We have been raised in a society that makes us feel confident only when we are the right size, the right weight, wearing the right clothes, the right make up and being seen with the right people in the right places. Then, and only then, we might feel confident enough to matter. This kind of disillusioned confidence is dangerous because it is short lived. Beauty fades, size changes, people come and go and you find yourself trying to build another fantasy made up of a new illusion of pretending that you have got it all together when deep down in your soul you’re in fact just crumbling to pieces because you forgot who you really are. You have lost your true identity trying to be someone you are not because of this crazy rat race everyone is trying to run to be something they are not. There is more to us than the size of our clothes and the food we eat. 

Being you

Perhaps the most mature thing and most compassionate gift we can give ourselves is to just be ourselves. Here are some suggestions:

• Maybe we can make a truce with our poor bodies that have grown so tired of trying to squeeze into those skinny jeans

• Maybe we can actually start taking a breath, instead of holding our breath in, as we try to zip up those trousers we bought that are three sizes too small, thinking that we can lose 10 kilogrammes in a month!

• Maybe we can start being confident enough to wear our real size and not think twice about what that number says on our tags

• Maybe we can begin to understand that there is no such thing as “One Size Fits All” like the industry keeps pushing on us. We are all different shapes and sizes and that is what makes us all unique and beautiful

• Maybe we could focus on something else and discover that our obsession with food and weight is actually causing us to eat more since that is all that is on our minds

• Maybe if we trust ourselves enough, we could surprise ourselves and learn that we are mature enough to handle failure because that is not the worst thing that can happen to us. The worst thing would be to lose confidence in ourselves. The worst thing would be to lose touch with our beautiful soul and not recognise who we are anymore

Let us hold our heads up high and be confident in who God created us to be: beautiful, intelligent, vibrant, resourceful, creative, unique, courageous individuals who bring joy into the world we live in. Let our goal each morning be to do our best at being ourselves. Be the best you that you can be and walk confidently as you feel empowered to make the changes that you want to make and not what society imposes on you. Let us live fully and unashamedly and trust me, once you do that, taking better care of your body will come naturally because when you love your body, it will love you back!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Pregnant women should not be exposed to even low levels of a group of chemicals associated with a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders in children, scientists argue. 

Pesticides known as organophosphates were originally developed as nerve gases and weapons of war, and today are used to control insects at farms, golf courses, shopping malls and schools. People can be exposed to these chemicals through the food they eat, the water they drink and the air they breathe. 

Restrictions on these chemicals have reduced but not eliminated human exposure in recent years. The chemicals should be banned outright because even at low levels currently allowed for agricultural use, organophosphates have been linked to lasting brain impairment in children, scientists argue in a policy statement published in PLoS Medicine. 

“Exposure to these organophosphate pesticides before birth is associated with conditions that can persist into late childhood and/or pre-adolescence, and may last a lifetime,” lead author of the statement Irva Hertz-Picciotto, director of the Environmental Health Sciences Centre at the University of California Davis School of Medicine in California, told Reuters Health. 

“Research on organophosphates now presents strong evidence that includes behavioural outcomes such as problems with attention, hyperactivity, full-blown ADHD, autistic symptoms or autism spectrum disorder or other behavioural issues,” Hertz-Picciotto said in an e-mail. 

Despite growing evidence of harm, many organophosphates remain in widespread use. This may be in part because low-level, ongoing exposures typically do not cause visible, short-term clinical symptoms, leading to the incorrect assumption that these exposures are inconsequential, Hertz-Picciotto said. 

“Acute poisoning is tragic, of course, however the studies we reviewed suggest that the effects of chronic, low-level exposures on brain functioning persist through childhood and into adolescence and may be lifelong, which also is tragic,” Hertz-Picciotto said. 

Once the organophosphates enter the lungs or the gut, they are absorbed into the bloodstream, and can pass through the placenta to babies developing in the womb. From there, the blood can carry these chemicals to the developing brain. 

To prevent prenatal exposure to these chemicals, the products should no longer be used for agricultural or other purposes, scientists argue. Water should also be monitored for the presence of these chemicals, and there should be a central system for reporting pesticide use and illnesses linked to the products. 

Absent a complete ban on these chemicals, doctors and nurses should receive training to learn how to recognise and treat neurodevelopmental disorders related to exposure, and clinicians should also educate patients on how to avoid or minimise exposure. 

Eating organic foods may also help curb exposure to pesticides, Hertz-Picciotto advised. 

Pregnant women can also help prevent neurodevelopmental disorders in children by taking prenatal vitamins with folic acid and iron. 

“We have known for several decades that high exposure to organophosphates can cause severe neurological impacts, and even death; this isn’t surprising, after all, because they were originally designed as nerve agents in the period between the two world wars,” said Dr Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Programme at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

Since then, widespread use of these chemicals at lower levels in pesticides was assumed to be harmless to humans, Allen, who was not involved in the paper, said by e-mail. 

“This was shortsighted,” Allen said. “The scientific evidence has piled up and it shows that even low-level, prenatal exposure can cause high-level, lifelong effects.”

Patients with irritable bowel syndrome may find that hypnotherapy helps them cope with their symptoms, a new study shows. 

Irritable bowel syndrome is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder with abdominal pain, stomach discomfort, altered bowel habits and other symptoms, the study authors explain in the journal Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 

“A lot of patients suffer from IBS worldwide, across age groups and cultures,” lead study author Carla Flik of the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, The Netherlands told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Worldwide, the estimated prevalence of IBS is 11 per cent, ranging from 14 per cent to 24 per cent for women and 5 per cent to 19 per cent for men. Some medications are helpful, but there’s no cure. 

Flik and colleagues conducted a randomised controlled trial in 11 hospitals in The Netherlands. Altogether they enrolled 342 patients with IBS and randomly assigned them into three groups. For 12 weeks, 142 patients received individual hypnotherapy, 146 did group hypnotherapy and 54 got educational supportive therapy instead of hypnotherapy. 

Flik based the treatment on a protocol developed at the University Hospital of South Manchester in the UK in the 1980s. It is a “gut-directed” therapy that includes progressive relaxation, soothing imagery and a focus on easing the individual’s abdominal symptoms. 

Patients in the new study reported that hypnotherapy was helpful not just immediately after the 12-week treatment period but also during the next nine months. 

At the end of the follow-up period, 41 per cent of patients in the individual hypnotherapy group and 50 per cent who got group hypnotherapy reported adequate relief from their symptoms, compared to 23 per cent in the educational group. 

Olafur Palsson of the Centre for Functional GI and Motility Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who wrote an editorial that was published with the study, told Reuters Health, “This is the largest trial of hypnosis treatment for IBS and in many ways is very well done.” 

“Psychological treatment has shown a high success rate in improving IBS,” he said in a phone interview. “Using the brain to help the gut is a different mechanism than using medications that treat the gut directly.” 

“Fundamentally, if the usual medical approaches don’t seem to be working well and you have persistent symptoms, this could be a good option,” Palsson said.