Features

WASHINGTON — Despite an aggressive crackdown by social media firms, so-called “junk news” is spreading at a greater rate than in 2016 on social media ahead of the US midterm elections, according to researchers.

Oxford Internet Institute researchers concluded that Facebook and Twitter remain filled with “extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary”, and other forms of “low-quality” news.

In analysing some 2.5 million tweets and 6,986 Facebook pages over a 30-day period, the study found that less than five per cent of the sources referenced on social media were from public agencies, experts or political candidates themselves. 

“We found that the proportion of junk news circulating over social media has increased in the US since 2016, with users sharing higher proportions of junk news than links to professional content overall,” the report released yesterday said.

It added that “junk news once concentrated among President [Donald] Trump’s support base has now spread to include communities of mainstream political conservatives”.

Philip Howard, director of the institute and a study author, said the latest research did not seek to analyse how much of the content came from automated accounts or “bots”, or whether it was directed from foreign entities.

But he noted that “this style of producing junk news probably has a Russian origin”, adding:“ That’s what the Russians used in the 2016 election, and now there are domestic sources copying that style.”

Tweaks not enough?

Howard said the efforts by Twitter and Facebook to root out misinformation amounted to “tweaks,” and that “the evidence suggests little tweaks don’t add up to a big impact”.

As part of the research, the authors created an online tool to allow anyone to follow and analyse low-quality news and posts.

Responding to the study, Twitter and Facebook questioned the conclusions and methods used by the researchers.

“We respect and appreciate strong independent research but we challenge some of the findings here,” a Twitter spokeswoman said in a statement to AFP.

“Many of the links deemed as ‘junk’ by the researchers are media outlets that reflect views within American society. Banning them from our service would be a knee-jerk reaction and would severely hinder public debate, the potential for counter narratives to take hold, and meaningful discussion of news consumption.”

Twitter said many of the sources cited in the study were “not foreign, not bots, and for the most part not coordinated. They are real people sharing news that reflects their views”.

Opposite conclusions

Facebook pointed to other research suggesting a decline in misinformation.

“The conclusions drawn in this research shouldn’t be seen as the authority on this topic,” Facebook said in a statement.

“The central takeaway of this study — that, ‘the proportion of junk news circulating over social media has increased since 2016’ — is actually based on data from Twitter and then applied to ‘social media’ more broadly.”

The Oxford researchers said that its definition of “junk” is based on specific criteria, including a lack of professional journalism practices, use of hyperbole or misleading headlines, and relying on untrustworthy sources of information.

Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University professor specialising in social media who is not affiliated with the Oxford study, said she was not surprised by the findings because of the design of social networks.

“Because clicks lead to revenue, social networks elevate junk news,” she said.

“If we are starting to feel like this is a world of reality TV, it’s by design, that’s how the system was built.”

Grygiel said that Twitter’s algorithms give priority to “verified” users, but that those who get the verification badge are more likely to be celebrities than academics or intellectuals, and this can result in proliferation of gossip and “tabloid-style” news.

She noted that while social networks have begun to crack down on “coordinated and inauthentic” efforts by foreign entities, this has not impacted what many consider as “low quality” news.

“I wouldn’t say they’re focused on downgrading tabloid content,” Grygiel said.

By Guy Faulconbridge and Paul Sandle

LONDON — Silicon Valley technology giants such as Facebook and Google have grown so dominant they may need to be broken up, unless challengers or changes in taste reduce their clout, the inventor of the World Wide Web told Reuters.

The digital revolution has spawned a handful of US-based technology companies since the 1990s that now have a combined financial and cultural power greater than most sovereign states.

Tim Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989, said he was disappointed with the current state of the Internet, following scandals over the abuse of personal data and the use of social media to spread hate.

“What naturally happens is you end up with one company dominating the field so through history there is no alternative to really coming in and breaking things up,” Berners-Lee, 63, said in an interview. “There is a danger of concentration.”

But he urged caution too, saying the speed of innovation in both technology and tastes could ultimately cut some of the biggest technology companies down to size. 

“Before breaking them up, we should see whether they are not just disrupted by a small player beating them out of the market, but by the market shifting, by the interest going somewhere else,” Berners-Lee said.

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook have a combined market capitalisation of $3.7 trillion, equal to Germany’s gross domestic product last year.

Love and hate

Berners-Lee came up with the idea for what he initially called “Mesh” while working at Europe’s physics research centre CERN, calling it the World Wide Web in 1990.

When asked who had the biggest intellectual influence on him, he said: “Mum and Dad”. 

“They were building computers, so I grew up living in a world where everything was mathematics and the excitement of being able to programme something was very fresh,” he said.

There was, he said, no “Eureka” moment. 

Instead, it was hard work, the experience of working in computer science and an attempt to overcome the frustrations of trying to share information with colleagues and students. 

“Eureka moments are complete nonsense. I don’t even believe the one about Archimedes. He had been thinking about it for a long time,” he said.

Now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford, Berners-Lee expressed dismay at the way consultancy Cambridge Analytica obtained the personal data of 87 million Facebook users from a researcher.

That scandal, he said, was a tipping point for many.

“I am disappointed with the current state of the Web,” he said. “We have lost the feeling of individual empowerment and to a certain extent also I think the optimism has cracked.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and pledged to do more to protect users’ data.

But social media, Berners-Lee said, was still being used to propagate hate. 

“If you put a drop of love into Twitter it seems to decay but if you put in a drop of hatred you feel it actually propagates much more strongly. And you wonder: ‘Well is that because of the way that Twitter as a medium has been built?’”

PARIS — Humans have hankered after chocolate for centuries longer than previously thought, scientists said on Monday, tracing the earliest known consumption of its key ingredient to more than 5,000 years ago in South America.

Archaeologists have long believed that ancient civilisations in central America started drinking concoctions of cacao — the bean-like seeds from which cocoa and chocolate are made — from around 3,900 years ago. 

But in a study that shifts the origins of chocolate centuries backwards, a team of scientists travelled to Santa Ana-La Florida, in modern day Ecuador, the earliest known archaeological site of the Mayo-Chinchipe civilisation.

They analysed artefacts from tombs and ceremonial pyres including ceramic bowls, jars and bottles as well as stone bowls and mortars for theobromine, a bitter chemical found in cacao. 

The team found starch grains characteristic of cacao in around a third of items examined, including the charred residue of a ceramic receptacle dated to be 5,450 years old. 

That suggests that humans have been consuming cacao for roughly 1,500 years longer than previously thought, and locates its discovery in the upper Amazon region. 

“This is the oldest trace of cacao identified so far and it’s also the only archaeological trace of the use of cacao discovered in South America,” Claire Lanaud, geneticist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and the study’s co-author, told AFP.

Unlike the sugar and fat-laden creations of chocolatiers today, cacao drinks were prized for their medicinal value and often served during religious ceremonies. 

Cacao was also a key trading commodity and its seeds were even used as payment and as currency in some parts of central America.

“Since these ceramic vessels are found in ceremonial locations, including as offerings in tombs, it is likely that cacao was an important component of ritually significant drinks,” said Michael Blake, from the University of British Columbia’s Department of Anthropology.

“There is a great deal of evidence that cacao was very important to peoples in northeast Peru, northwest Brazil and south Colombia and more,” he told reporters. 

“The medicinal uses are well documented and there are some accounts of people making fermented beverages from the sweet pulp.”

Last week research by a US-based team found evidence that cacao trees have been cultivated by humans for at least 3,600 years.

Blake said the findings of his team’s study — published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution — could be of use to botanists today trying to understand how cacao can adapt to our changing climate and receding rain forests.

“As a major crop today, used by most of the world’s population for an enormous variety of purposes, cacao is of great interest to humanity,” he said. 

“It is a major part of our human story, one intimately linked to the history and ongoing cultures of indigenous south and central Americans where cacao is still grown and used today.”

Each time the industry manages to increase the speed of one of the specific aspects or applications in Information Technology in a significant manner, the first question that comes to our mind is “why always faster, technology already is fast enough?”

The question is raised again, now that ultrafast 5G wireless Internet is practically at reach, though in a limited number of countries and by only very few service providers for the time being.

The question may be relevant and the answer to it simple. Much faster — Internet in this particular case — is not about performing the same tasks faster, as much as it is about performing new tasks, some of them being considered as unthinkable without the noticeable increase in speed.

Surely you do not necessarily need 5G to upload a couple of photos to you friend, to watch a Netflix movie, to shop for a pair of blue jeans online, or to browse news websites. In most cases like these 4G would be more than enough. 5G is particularly attractive to the consumer because it will make a certain number of very high-tech, advanced applications possible.

This includes, for example and for now, monitoring and controlling driverless cars, remote medical assistance and even actual treatment for a large number and types of patients, assisting in various ways elderly people who are living alone, and last but not least entertainment applications based on Augmented Reality. There is little doubt that that when 5G is actually implemented on a large scale, in most countries, the industry will think of many more applications that can put 5G to good use.

Whereas the final 5G protocols are still under work some countries have already made 5G a reality. The world first 5G connection was made and achieved in Qatar last May by Ooredoo ISP, followed in August by Vodafone. It was quickly followed by several operators in the USA, Norway and South Korea, to name some of the few countries that are pioneering 5G usage.

At the same time, and from the purely technical viewpoint, the 5G protocols are still being finalised. They will reach Phase 1 in March 2019 and Phase 2 sometime in 2020. By then it is expected that most countries would have actually implemented 5G.

5G wireless Internet is essentially about speed, but not only that. Whereas, theoretically at least, its speed can reach up to a baffling 20 Gb/s (that is gigabits per second), 5G also brings with it lower latency and more stability of the signal, two non-negligible aspects of any Internet connection, as users know it all too well.

Latency is the time it takes the network to “react” or “respond”, and understandably is an important characteristic of any network or connection. The lower the better. Currently, and with a good 4G connection latency is somewhere between 10 and 20 milliseconds. With a cabled fibre optic connection it can go down to 5 or even 2 milliseconds.

Makers of cars, smartphones, tablets, and of all kinds of mobile devices that can be connected to the web, including of course mobile medical equipment, are making plans to include 5G connectivity in their products, to make it a “built-in” functionality. In less than two to three years it is going to be an important requirement. Internet users in Jordan are anxiously waiting for one of the local ISPs to announce the date when 5G will be available in the country.

SAN FRANCISCO — Whether you’re watching your favourite show on Netflix or backing up all-important cat photos to Google Drive, the “cloud” has become an essential part of our digital lives.

No, not those large white bodies of water vapour floating through the sky — the tech definition simply refers to having servers in remote data centres handling programmes or data that people or businesses can access anywhere from devices of their choosing.

“You name it, it’s happening in the cloud,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said. “It’s really where everything is being done now.”

Century-old technology stalwart IBM is making a $34 billion bet on cloud computing in the form of a mega-deal to buy Red Hat, a pioneering proponent of the open source movement that arose to counter giants like Microsoft whose models were based on keeping their source code secret.

Here is a look at the trend and its allure to technology titans such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM.

The cloud is everywhere

Developers craft software in the internet cloud.

Self-driving cars and smart cities will rely on computing in the cloud.

Web-based e-mail and company payroll systems are in the cloud.

Sales teams on the road manage accounts and tap into resources in the cloud.

While businesses in the past used on-site mainframes built by IBM or its rivals, it has become cost effective for firms to rent applications or data storage hosted and maintained in the cloud by providers such as Amazon or Microsoft.

Such arrangements allow businesses to easily access more or less computing power as needed, without having to invest in data centres or system maintenance.

Companies interested in tighter control of some of the data or processes opt for “hybrid clouds”, simply meaning that they let online data centres handle some of the computing work while keeping more sensitive aspects on their own machines.

Cloud future clear

The kind of computing power available in the cloud is seen as essential for processing data in real time for innovations such as cars safely driving themselves or cities allocating public services in real time as needs or situations change.

Mobile lifestyles ramp up reliance on cloud computing as people watch YouTube, post on Facebook, Tweet, send photos to friends, and work on the go.

Smartphones, tablets, and laptops can open windows into immense computing power in data centres.

The more people “cut the cord” and let go of traditional cable TV, the more they turn to the cloud.

Streaming television services accessible at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube are hosted and powered by online data centres, as are web-based e-mail and social media such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.

Online music rains from the cloud.

But the cloud also comes with concerns about who is controlling and protecting data stored by third-parties online.

Cloud computing platforms are tempting targets for hackers who see gold or power in the massive amounts of information behind data centre walls.

Some believe that will lead to a future with businesses preferring more balanced, or hybrid, setups with sensitive data kept in-house.

Amazon leading rivals

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is considered the leader in cloud computing, with Microsoft’s Azure platform its top rival.

“Amazon made a commitment to cloud computing and their CEO is now the richest guy in the world,” analyst Enderle said, referring to Jeff Bezos.

Amazon announced new AWS customers including Samsung Heavy Industries last week when it reported earnings for the third quarter of this year.

AWS net sales rose to $6.7 billion from $4.6 billion in the same period last year. AWS operating income jumped to $2.1 billion from $1.2 billion in the same year-over-year comparison of quarters.

Microsoft said last week that revenue from its cloud offerings to businesses soared to $8.5 billion in the recently ended quarter, up 47 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Alphabet-owned Google’s earnings for the third quarter showed that, while it still made the bulk of its money from online ads, the amount of “other revenue” that presumably includes cloud services increased to $4.6 billion, an increase of a billion dollars from a year ago.

China-based Alibaba is considered a fast rising contender, according to analysts.

Gartner forecast that the overall public cloud services market worldwide would grow steadily from $187.2 billion this year to $338 billion in the year 2022.

While consumers enjoy the benefits of cloud-hosted services, most of the money made by hosts come from catering to the computing needs of businesses.

Women who wait just a short time to become pregnant after delivering a child may put themselves and their next baby at greater risk for adverse events, a new study suggests. 

“We found for women of all ages, pregnancy within 12 months after a live birth come with risks,” said study leader Laura Schummers, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. The study was part of Schummers’s dissertation at the Harvard School of Public Health. 

When Schummers and her colleagues started the study, they thought they might find lower risks in the older women. That is because most of these short interval pregnancies in older women are by choice: The women are at an age where their fertility is waning and they want a chance to have more than one child, Schummers said. 

“Women who are 35 and older do quite often plan to have closely spaced pregnancies,” Schummers said. “Among younger women, the pregnancy is less often planned if it’s closely spaced. If someone has a baby and six months later they discover they are pregnant, perhaps that’s not intended. We thought because older women more often plan to have their pregnancies closer together they might not have the increased risks that are due to unintended pregnancies.” 

As it turned out, there were fewer complications among the babies carried by older women, compared to younger women. But there was still a slight increased risk when the spacing between pregnancies was short, the authors reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

But contrary to what the researchers had expected, short intervals between pregnancies — six versus 18 months — were linked with higher risks for death and serious complications (such as transfusions of three or more units of blood, being put on a ventilator, being transferred to an intensive care unit or organ failure) for older women, but not younger women. 

To look more closely at the impact of interpregnancy intervals, Schummers and her colleagues turned to the British Columbia Perinatal Data Registry, a database which contains a summary of information gleaned from obstetrical and newborn medical records. In the end, the researchers were able to take a closer look at 148,544 pregnancies that occurred over a 10-year period. 

While the study is interesting, it is not clear how well it would apply to US patients, said Tarun Jain, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a fertility specialist at Northwestern Medicine. “I think it’s important to be aware that these findings might not be generalisable,” he said. 

“Another important point,” Jain said, is that while shorter interval between pregnancies was associated with higher risks for older women, “the risk was still relatively low”. 

Jain, who was not affiliated with the new research, added, “You have to balance that against the fact that as you get older the probability of getting and staying pregnant decreases. If you wait too long it may be hard to get pregnant at all.” 

Leena Nathan often finds herself discussing that balance with her older patients. 

 “Many of my patients are older than 35 when they have their first child,” said Nathan, an assistant clinical professor in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of California, Los Angeles and medical director of UCLA Community OBGYN Practices. “And many of them do have short interval spacing between pregnancies because they are worried about their fertility. It is certainly a discussion during the postpartum visit after the first delivery.” 

Nathan does not expect the 40-somethings to put too much time between pregnancies. “In my moms who are older than 40, I counsel them about fertility rates and genetic mutations as they continue to age,” said Nathan, who was not involved with the new research, said in an e-mail. “These patients generally are very motivated and will take good care of themselves in order to have a healthy subsequent pregnancy even if it is less than an 18-month interval. I don’t discourage a shorter interval pregnancy in these patients.” 

Did you know that washing hands with soap and water is the best way to prevent a host of diseases? Most of the germs get transmitted from one person to another via their hands and when one unconsciously touches their nose, mouth or eyes with these contaminated hands, one falls sick. 

Also, when you wash your hands is as important as how you wash them. It is, of course, extremely essential to scrub them when they are visibly soiled, but one must follow the same routine before eating, after visiting the washroom, before cooking anything and after sneezing or blowing one’s nose. The way to properly clean them includes using soap, and lathering up, because rinsing them in water only, is not effective at all. 

Moreover, hands should be washed for a minimum of 15 seconds, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US. In order to help people, especially children, wash long enough, one option may be to sing a short nursery rhyme, or the Happy Birthday song, during the process. Ordinarily, the entire routine involves five simple and effective steps (wet, lather, scrub, rinse, dry). The water used should be clean and once lather is built — by rubbing the soap on the palm — attention must be given to the back of the hands, between the fingers and under the nails, before rinsing. 

Now, wiping of the hands correctly is also crucial because a new study from the University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac shows that hot-air dryers may be acting like bacterial bombs, shooting loads of spores from bathroom air directly onto your hands. The research compares the dispersal of viruses when people dry their hands with paper towels versus warm air dryers and jet dryers, and the result is that jet dryers are the worst offenders, spraying 1,300 times more viral plaques (clumps of viruses) than paper towels, and sending some of them nearly 3 metres from the machine itself!

Right! It is still unclear whether this investigation is funded by a paper-towel industry or not. Some manufacturers of jet dryers have made that accusation but so far there has been no substantive proof to support their claim. 

In the absence of water, liquid hand sanitisers are a good alternative, and depending on the active ingredient, it can be alcohol-based or alcohol-free. The former typically contains between 60 to 95 per cent alcohol in the form of ethanol or isopropanol. The effectiveness of hand disinfectant depends on multiple factors, including the manner in which it is applied (e.g., quantity used, duration of exposure, frequency of usage) and whether the specific infectious agents present on the person’s hands are susceptible to the antibacterial component in the product. In general, if rubbed thoroughly for a period of 30 seconds, followed by proper drying; it can actually reduce the presence of several bacteria, fungi and some viruses. 

Suitably convinced, on my last visit to the supermarket, I bought several bottles of the antiseptic liquid. My new maid was delighted with the purchase. 

“Your sunglasses are dusty madam,” she informed me. 

After squirting some hand sanitiser on it, my shades were shining.

“There are so many uses of this,” my maid exclaimed. 

“Mosquito bite? Pimple? Sunburn?” she recited. 

With each word she dabbed bits of it on my arm. 

“What are you doing?” I was aghast.

“Wait and watch,” she informed. 

“The welts have disappeared,” I murmured suddenly. 

“All germs under control,” she announced happily.

Poor oral health makes it harder for people with hypertension to manage their blood pressure, a new study suggests. 

Among people being treated for hypertension (high blood pressure), those with gum disease had average blood pressure readings 2 to 3 mmHg (milligrammes of mercury) higher than those without gum disease and were less likely to have their pressure under control with medication. 

“Recent literature suggests that poor oral health is associated with several highly prevalent conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke and obesity, and that it is related with increased mortality,” Dr Davide Pietropaoli from the San Salvatore Hospital, University of L’Aquila, in Italy told Reuters Health. 

“However, what we didn’t know and surprises us is that a condition known as periodontal disease can affect the efficacy of medications for high blood pressure.” 

The researchers analysed data from the annual US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2009 and 2014 on adults over age 30 with hypertension who underwent a dental exam, including 3,626 who said they were currently taking medication to control high blood pressure and 460 who said they were not. 

Based on the dental exams, about 52 per cent of participants had periodontal disease, a chronic inflammation of the tissue around the roots of teeth, which has also been linked to higher inflammation throughout the body, the researchers note in the journal Hypertension. Most of those with gum disease had moderately-severe cases, about 3 per cent had mild disease and 12 per cent had severe gum disease. 

Average systolic blood pressure — the pressure exerted on blood vessel walls when the heart pumps, and typically the first number in a blood pressure reading — increased progressively from mild to moderate to severe periodontal disease, researchers found. 

Overall, people with hypertension and periodontal disease were 20 per cent more likely than those without gum disease to have their hypertension uncontrolled with medication. 

In addition, blood pressure control was worse in patients with periodontal disease across all age ranges. 

Among hypertensive patients not taking blood pressure medications, systolic blood pressure averaged 2.8 to 7.6 mmHg higher in the presence of periodontitis, although periodontal disease did not seem to increase their risk of having blood pressure above 130/80 mmHg (the threshold for treatment). 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how gum disease or the inflammation it creates might directly affect blood pressure. 

Old dogs, new tricks: hunt the malaria.

“If our results are confirmed by dedicated trials, oral health could improve the treatment of hypertension, which is considered the most important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases,” Pietropaoli said in an e-mail. “Patients with treated high blood pressure may benefit from a dedicated programme for the reduction of oral inflammation from periodontal disease by referring to a dentist or periodontist.” 

The researchers also suggest that periodontal therapy, together with lifestyle measures (exercise, healthy diet, and so on), could help to lower blood pressure and possibly limit the need for high blood pressure medications.

The most popular car sold in Uzbekistan, where it is manufactured locally by the Uzbek-government’s and minority stakeholder General Motors’ GM Uzbekistan joint venture, the Chevrolet Cobalt is a practical value-oriented compact saloon car aimed squarely at developing markets.

Produced by GM Uzbekistan after the demise of its predecessor UzDaewooAuto, the Chevrolet Cobalt aims to compete with similarly sized, rugged and affordable saloons developed for similar world and developing markets, and is also sold in some export markets as the Ravon branded R4 model.

Confident Cobalt

Aimed at an often overlooked but increasingly more important segment for established Western manufacturers, the Cobalt is Chevrolet’s gambit at competing with cars like the Peugeot 301 and Citroen Elysee sister models and the highly successful Renault Logan, which itself is developed by the French brand’s Romanian wing Dacia. 

Taking on the previously used Cobalt nameplate for export as a Chevrolet, the Cobalt also competes with Russian car maker Lada’s Vesta and Granta saloons, both developed as part of Lada’s role in the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Tall and upright with a high level waistline and relatively narrow, the Cobalt’s design is not complex, but features prominent side character lines, and is quite practical for daily use. If not an outright “pretty” car, the Cobalt does, however, have a certain confident and assertive presence for such a value segment. Featuring big diamond-shaped headlights and a high clamshell bonnet, the Cobalt also incorporated Chevrolet’s twin stacked and horizontally-oriented grille design, resembling Cruze and Malibu models of the early 2010s.

Progressive delivery

Powered by a transversely mounted 1.5-litre DOHC 4-cylinder engine, the Chevrolet Cobalt produces a maximum of 104BHP at 5,900rpm and 104lb/ft torque at 3,900rpm. Making progress at a good rate to keep up with other traffic, the Cobalt 1.5L may not exactly be quick, but is as fast as basic value-minded family transport needs to be. In the absence of performance specifications being available, one would roughly estimate a 0-100km/h time of around 12-seconds or more and a top speed of possibly up to 170km/h

Driven briefly on a small circuit and at low to medium speeds, one found the Cobalt’s delivery to be progressive and acceptably refined, and with low engine at moderate rpm, yet, more pronounced near the rev limit. Driving the front wheels through a 6-speed automatic gearbox, the Cobalt shifts smoothly and with decent responses. A lightweight car at 1,152kg, and with unexaggerated width tyres and streamlined design, the Cobalt 1.5L is quoted to return 6.7l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Manoeuvrable and comfortable

Riding on MacPherson Strut front and torsion beam rear suspension as is virtually standard in its segment, the Cobalt seemed to be a comfortable car during brief test drive on a smooth yet small track. And while one did not get to drive it over rough real world roads, one would assume it would be a forgiving ride judging from its comparatively narrow and tall 195/65R15 tyres, and in how absorbent its suspension felt through tight corners. Meanwhile, its relatively long wheelbase lent itself to good rear grip, and one would expect also for decent highway stability.

Set-up for unsurprising and benign handling and safety, the Cobalt tended to understeer and lean slightly through aggressively driven narrow corners and hairpins, as to be expected, but remained reassuringly committed at the rear, with no unwanted slippage. Turning in tidy into corners at more moderate speeds, the Cobalts’ narrow body length and light steering help make it manoeuvrable and easy to park. Meanwhile its front disc and rear drum brakes proved confident and capable.

Comfort and space

With its level and upright roofline, the Cobalt’s cabin may not be the widest, but does provide good front and rear headroom, while its longish wheelbase allows for decent if not outright generous rear legroom. Seating is up right and comfortable enough with 4-way manual adjustment, while visibility is good, but would be better still were the waistline lower. A practical car with a generously sized 563-litre boot and split folding rear seats, the Cobalt, however, does not have a rear armrest.

User-friendly and uncomplicated inside, the Cobalt’s chunky and sport steering wheel was a plus point among the cabin’s grey hard plastics and upholstery and somewhat brightly coloured instrument cluster lights. Starting from JD13,090, the Cobalt is well equipped with more essential, rather than high tech or extravagant, equipment as standard on the range-topping LTZ model. Included are air conditioning, dual front airbags, Isofix child seat latches, two rear head restraints, electric windows and central locking, and a four-speaker MP3-enabled audio system.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x Stroke: 74.71 x 84.7mm

Compression ratio: 10.2:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Gear ratios: 1st 4.449 2nd 2.908 3rd 1.893 4th 1.446 5th 1.0 6th 0.742

Reverse/final drive ratios: 2.871/3.72

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 104 (106) [78] @5,900rpm

Specific power: 70.4BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 90.8BHP/tonne

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 104 (141) @3,800rpm

Specific torque: 94.9Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 122.4Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 6,500rpm

Fuel consumption, combined: 6.7-litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 46.9-litres

Length: 4,479mm

Width: 1,735mm 

Height: 1,516mm

Wheelbase: 2,620mm

Track, F/R: 1,504/1,509mm

Overhangs, F/R: 906/954mm

Unladen weight: 1,152kg

Cargo volume: 563-litres

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Suspension F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Brake, F/R: Discs/drums

Tyres: 195/65R15

Price, starting from: JD13,090

Being a new parent, people will tell you, is overwhelming. A new baby does not come with instructions. While frantic Googling is always an option, many turn to an even more comprehensive source of knowledge: their own mothers.

In those first days, weeks and months, new grandmothers (and grandfathers) can serve as resources in what feels like a prolonged guessing game of “What’s upsetting my baby?” But while they are often expert diaper changers and baby whisperers, the trouble with relying solely on mom’s knowledge is that a lot may have changed since she had babies of her own.

“The reason we have all the recommendations for babies is we can study them,” said Dr Renee F. Slade, a paediatrician at Rush University Medical Centre. “If there are only a few patients of a rare disease, it makes it hard to conduct research. But with babies, there are thousands of them born every day across the country, so we’re always learning, and best practices are always changing.”

Dr Adia George, a paediatrician at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Centre, said she often fields questions about old wives’ tales that are not based in research. For example, some moms or dads put coins on their babies’ umbilical cords to prevent hernias — a practice that is not medically necessary or effective. But George said that there is nothing wrong with certain things as long as they do not harm the baby.

“Typically, the type of advice that I give families is just advice. There aren’t really hard rules because everything doesn’t apply to every infant and every infant is different,” George said. “What grandmothers have done isn’t necessarily wrong, but it might be that what they’ve done hasn’t been proven to show any benefit, which is why we don’t recommend it.”

So what has changed in the last few decades since your mom had a baby?

1. Car seats stay rear facing for longer.

Since 2011, the American Academy of Paediatrics has advised keeping car seats rear facing until the child is two years old, instead of the previous milestone at 1. “Facing forward, there’s more stress on the neck when the car lurches forward in an accident,” Slade said. “So rear facing helps prevent more serious neck injuries.

2. A safe sleep environment is important.

While the “Back to Sleep” campaign started in 1994 to raise awareness of the importance of putting infants to sleep on their backs, Slade said these days, there is added emphasis on a safe sleep environment: no pillows, blankets, stuffed animals or bumpers in cribs. Additionally, the drop-side crib has been banned in the US since 2011.

3. No alcohol on the umbilical cord.

While parents were once instructed to pour alcohol on the umbilical cord to help it fall out, studies show that keeping the cord dry is better for healing. “While the umbilical cord is still attached, it’s recommended for babies to have a sponge bath only,” said George, who added that babies do not need to be bathed every day, but every two to three days.

4. No baby powder.

The AAP recommends against using baby powder. “No matter how careful you are with it, it gets up in the air and the baby can inhale it, which opens them up to respiratory problems and infections,” Slade said.

5. No water until six months.

“It’s no longer recommended for infants to have water until they’re starting solid food,” George said. “A newborn should have only breast milk or formula.”

6. A baby should not drink rice cereal.

Some mothers swear by adding a little rice cereal to a baby’s formula or breast milk to get them to sleep longer, but Slade said that practice of adding extra calories to liquid creates a higher risk of obesity. “Babies probably do sleep longer with the cereal, but there is a reason they’re waking up in the middle of the night,” she said. “They still need that nutrition when they’re less than six months old.”

7. Moms room with babies in the hospital.

It used to be common practice for a maternity ward to keep newborns in a nursery, but now babies typically stay with the mothers in a bassinet. “That way the mom is learning the baby’s cues right away and bonding,” Slade said. “At first, when we dropped the nursery, there were a lot of customer service issues and complaints from the moms that they couldn’t get a nap. But I never hear complaints now because rooming in is more of the expectation.”

8. Breastfeeding is more emphasised and supported.

The health benefits of breastfeeding for both mom and baby have been widely researched. The AAP recommends breastfeeding for at least the first year of a baby’s life if possible, and Slade said she has seen hospitals support this with more lactation consultants and lactation training for nurses. Under the Affordable Care Act, resources like breast pumps are also often covered by insurance.

9. The first paediatrician appointment is earlier.

Slade said it is a relatively new practice to have the first paediatric appointment just two days after mom and baby leave the hospital. This change came because mothers used to stay at the hospital for up to two weeks, and in that time, the baby was checked for things like jaundice or weight loss. “It’s a super valuable appointment,” she said. “You’re helping the parents when they’re totally overwhelmed and they need someone to answer questions.” Slade added that these days babies undergo a lot more testing before they leave the hospital for things like hearing problems, heart defects and jaundice.

10. Soft soles are better for learning to walk.

Though many mothers have the classic hard white baby bootie that has been passed down through generations, those are not best for a baby’s development. “When babies are learning to walk, we recommend bare feet in the house and a soft shoe with a more flexible sole when they’re outside,” Slade said.