Features

What good is a very fast computer if most of what you do is to work online, and your Internet connection is not up to your computer’s specs? It reminds us of the old question: what is the point of driving a Ferrari or a Porsche car in the middle of a traffic jam, in Shmeisani at rush hour?

Take Dell’s newest Series XPS15 laptop. It features Intel’s 7th generation Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core processor, a fantastic engine that gets most tasks done faster than you can start working on them. As for graphics, they are taken care of by the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 processor that comes with its own, dedicated 4GB memory. The combination of Intel and Nvidia processors makes an exceptionally powerful machine.

Dell is only an example. Lenovo also makes laptops that are real powerhouses. This includes the company’s ThinkPad T470 model that, just like the Dell, sports Intel’s 7th generation i7 processor.

Whereas computers’ speed and performance are stable numbers, the Internet’s stability is yet to match them. Despite significant improvement over the last few years, with 4G and fast ADSL everywhere, only Fibre Optics (FO) Internet provides the quality of connection that you can rely on and that is on a par with what most laptops can do in terms of processing. Unfortunately, FO does not, yet, cover all the areas in a city like Amman, though the main service providers like Orange and Zain, certainly are working on it.

The number of applications that work online largely exceeds those that you run offline (i.e. that do not need the Internet at all), and the trend continues. Even heavy software, such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, now works online. In short, a computer without fast, and more importantly reliable Internet, is not worth much these days. Soon there will not be any application or software programmes that does not depend on the web to work.

So should you pay more attention to your Internet subscription than to your computer’s processing speed? Where should you be spending more money, for in the end it is a matter of paying more on technology?

It is hard to dissociate the two aspects, and at this point in time, there is little doubt that we need the most powerful hardware we can buy, and to connect it to the fastest and most reliable Internet line. None is more important than the other, and they both constitute critical points.

FO does not only come with increased speed, starting typically at 100 Mbps, but the optical technology also ensures a very stable signal, much less subject to those annoying quick, unexpected disconnections and interruptions, when compared to ADSL.

The importance of powerful computers and excellent FO connectivity is critical if you are watching high definition Netflix movies, beIN sport events, if you have and use a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, or an Adobe online subscription to their celebrated Suite, to name only these four examples.

On the other hand, a certain number of application are more tolerant and will not really require you to spend a lot of money on FO or on superfast computers. This includes casual browsing of the web, social networking, paying your utility bills through online banking and eFawateer.com or checking the weather forecast.

SAN FRANCISCO — They may not have the cachet of entrepreneurs, or geek chic of developers, but data protection officers are suddenly the hottest properties in technology. 

When Jen Brown got her first certification for information privacy in 2006, few companies were looking for people qualified to manage the legal and ethical issues related to handling customer data.

But now it is 2018, companies across the globe are scrambling to comply with a European law that represents the biggest shake-up of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the Internet — and Brown’s inbox is being besieged by recruiters.

“I got into security before anyone cared about it, and I had a hard time finding a job,” said the 46-year-old, who is the data protection officer (DPO) of analytics start-up Sumo Logic in Redwood City near San Francisco. 

“Suddenly, people are sitting up and taking notice.”

Brown is among a hitherto rare breed of workers who are becoming sought-after commodities in the global tech industry ahead of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect in May.

The law is intended to give European citizens more control over their online information and applies to all firms that do business with Europeans. It requires that all companies whose core activities include substantial monitoring or processing of personal data hire a DPO.

And finding DPOs is not easy.

More than 28,000 will be needed in Europe and US and as many as 75,000 around the globe as a result of GDPR, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) estimates. The organisation said it did not previously track DPO figures because, prior to GDPR, Germany and the Philippines were the only countries it was aware of with mandatory DPO laws.

DPO job listings in Britain on the Indeed job search site have increased by more than 700 per cent over the past 18 months, from 12.7 listings per every 1 million in April 2016 to 102.7 listings per 1 million in December. 

The need for DPOs is expected to be particularly high in any data-rich industries, such as tech, digital marketing, finance, healthcare and retail. Uber, Twitter, Airbnb, Cloudflare and Experian are advertising for a DPO, online job advertisements show. Microsoft, Facebook , Salesforce.com and Slack are also currently working to fill the position, the companies told Reuters. 

“I would say that I get between eight and 10 calls a week about a role [from recruiters],” said Marc French, DPO of Massachusetts e-mail management company Mimecast. “Come January 1 the phone calls increased exponentially because everybody realised, ‘Oh my God, GDPR is only five months away.’”

GDPR requires that DPOs assist their companies on data audits for compliance with privacy laws, train employees on data privacy and serve as the point of contact for European regulators. Other provisions of the law require that companies make personal information available to customers on request, or delete it entirely in some cases, and report any data breaches within 72 hours. 

On a typical day, French said he monitors for any guidance updates for GDPR, meets with Mimecast’s engineering teams to discuss privacy in new product features, reviews the marketing team’s data usage requests, works on privacy policy revisions and conducts one or two calls with clients to discuss the company’s position on GDPR and privacy.

“Given that we’re trying to march to the deadline, I would say that 65 per cent of my time is focused on GDPR right now,” said French, who is also a senior vice president of Mimecast.

The demand for DPOs has sparked renewed interest in data privacy training, said Sam Pfeifle, content director of the IAPP, which introduced a GDPR Ready programme last year for aspiring DPOs. 

“We already sold out all of our GDPR training through the first six months of 2018,” said Pfeifle, adding that the IAPP saw a surge in new memberships in 2017, from 24,000 to 36,000.

Those companies who have DPOs, meanwhile, are braced for poaching.

Many of those firms reside in Germany, which has long required that most companies that process data designate DPOs. They include Simplaex, a Berlin ad-targeting startup. 

“Everyone is looking for a DPO,” said Simplaex CEO Jeffry van Ede. “I need to have some cash ready for when someone tries to take mine so I can keep him.”

If you spend a lot of time on your mobile phone, you will be happy to learn that your habit is not hazardous to your health, according to a new government safety report.

The findings, released Friday by the National Toxicology Programme (NTP), reaffirm the agency’s previous research.

“The reports don’t go much further than what we had reported earlier, and I have not changed the way I use a cellphone,” NTP senior scientist John Bucher said in a briefing.

The new evidence is based on experiments with rats and mice that were exposed to radiofrequency radiation for as long as two years. The rodents were bathed in the radiation for 10 minutes at a time, followed by a 10-minute break, for about nine hours a day.

The lowest level of radiation for rats was 1.5 watts per kilogram of body weight, which was equivalent to the maximum amount of exposure allowed for humans, the NTP said. At the high end, rats received 6 watts of radiation per kilogramme of body weight.

For mice, exposures ranged from 2.5 to 10 watts per kilogramme of body weight.

On the whole, the mice weathered the radiation just fine, with “little indication of health problems”, the NTP said in a statement.

The rats did not fare quite so well.

Both male and female rats exposed to radiation were more likely to experience cardiomyopathy, a disease that causes damage to heart tissue.

In addition, male rats exposed to the highest levels of radiation had an increased incidence of malignant tumours in the tissue that covers nerves in the heart. These nerve sheath tumours, called schwannomas, were not seen in female rats.

The researchers also reported that rats and mice exposed to radiofrequency radiation developed more tumours in the brain, prostate, liver, pancreas, pituitary gland and adrenal gland. But they said they were not sure whether the radiation was responsible.

Among non-cancer risks, rat pups had lower birth weights when their mothers were exposed to high levels of radiation during pregnancy and while they were nursing. However, the rats ultimately grew to normal size.

Strikingly, the rats exposed to radiation lived longer than rats in an unexposed group that served as controls.

The researchers were at a loss to explain this. Perhaps the radiation reduces inflammation, as is seen in a therapy called microwave diathermy, they said. Or it could just be chance.

“It’s a complicated situation here,” Bucher said in the briefing. “We’re seeing both positive and negative effects in these animals.”

Bucher also cautioned that the mice and rats in the study were exposed to far more radiation than humans experience through normal mobile phone use. “So, these findings should not be directly extrapolated to human cellphone usage,” he said in the statement.

The experiments used the type of radiation emitted by 2G and 3G networks that handle voice calls and text messages in the US NTP researchers did not test the newer 4G, 4G-LTE and 5G networks used for more data-intensive functions like video streaming.

The report will be reviewed by a panel of outside experts in late March. Independent scientists were critical of claims in a previous NTP study that linked cellphone radiation with tumor risk in the hearts and possibly brains of male rats.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the NTP to study the potential effects of the radiation emitted by cellphones in 1999. Back then, little was known about how the increasingly ubiquitous devices might impact human health.

In the nearly 20 years since that request, hundreds of studies by scientists at the NTP and elsewhere have allowed the FDA to say with confidence that “the current safety limits for cellphone radiation remain acceptable for protecting the public health”, Dr Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Centre for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement.

“Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumours,” he added.

The FDA and the Federal Communications Commission share responsibility for regulating radiofrequency-emitting devices like wireless phones and televisions.

The NTP is based at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

BANSKÁ STIAVNICA, Slovakia — In a small medieval Slovak town, couples are getting ready on Valentine’s Day to make a “deposit” about their romance in a place dedicated to love stories.

The “Love Bank” is the main attraction of an exhibition commemorating the world’s longest love poem, “Marina” by Slovak poet Andrej Sladkovic.

Written in 1844, the 2,900-line long poem tells the tale of the doomed love between the poet and Maria Pischlova.

They were star-crossed lovers, but unlike Romeo and Juliet their tragic romance is a true story. Marina’s parents shunned the poor poet and forced her to marry a wealthy gingerbread maker.

The house where Marina lived in the former silver mining town of Banska Stiavnica is now known as the “Epicentre of Love” and features an interactive exhibition inspired by the poem, including a “love-o-metre” measuring the strength of a couple’s affection.

“Our visitors say they are amazed by how a part of history and a poem that was on their elementary school compulsory reading list has been turned into a hands-on experience,” said Katarina Javorska, spokeswoman for the NGO running the exhibition.

100,000 boxes

For many couples, it is the “Love Bank” that attracts them to the site where they can store and preserve mementos of their romance.

A long tunnel in the basement of the house has been turned into a vault with exactly 100,000 tiny drawers, one for each letter, gap, and punctuation mark of the original, 174-year-old manuscript of “Marina”.

Lovers can only make “deposits” a few times a year — the next date is Valentine’s Day.

“My fiancee and I will come back in a couple of days and hide the cinema tickets from our first date here,” 24-year-old Dominika Hrabusova told AFP.

Another couple, Jan and Anna have brought their seven-month-old baby son along. “This is our fourth or fifth visit to Banska Stiavnica, before we got married we used to come more often,” said 38-year-old Jan.

“The town is a jewel box itself, I am impressed by how clever and inventive this exhibition is,” he adds, lauding the charm of Banska Stiavnica, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.

‘Register of Love’

As visitors to the exhibition pass through rooms combining modern design and 500-year-old rafters, a truly Potteresque experience awaits them: four “paintings” — large flat-screen TVs — on the wall suddenly come alive and act out scenes from the life of the poet and Marina.

In another room, one can flip through the pages of the “Register of Love”, weighing 53 kilogrammes and consisting of 3,200 pages that will be gradually filled with notes from lovers who visit the former dwelling of the poet’s muse.

The designers of the exhibition eye turning the “Epicentre of Love” into a major attraction, a sort of place of pilgrimage for lovers from across the globe.

“Some say it’s a bold and ambitious plan. But if millions are willing to make the trip to Verona to see the balcony of the imaginary couple of Romeo and Juliet, then I believe many will come to the Epicentre of Love to relive a real love story,” Javorska said.

LOS ANGELES — Universal’s opening of “Fifty Shades Freed” is dominating North American moviegoing this weekend with a solid $38.8 million at 3,678 locations as cinemas await the arrival of “Black Panther”.

Sony’s launch of family comedy “Peter Rabbit” wound up with a better-than-expected $25 million at 3,725 sites. Clint Eastwood’s thriller “The 15:17 to Paris” from Warner Bros. arrived above forecasts at $12.6 million at 3,042 venues for the weekend.

A pair of sturdy holiday season holdovers in their eighth weekends took fourth and fifth as Sony’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” finished with about $10 million at 3,126 sites and Fox’s “The Greatest Showman” grossed $6.4 million at 2,373 screens. “Jumanji” declined only 10 per cent from the previous weekend and will finish the weekend with $365.7 million in 54 days 38th place on the all-time domestic grosser list, $3 million behind “Despicable Me 2”. “Showman” slid only 17 per cent and has totalled $146.5 million.

The finale of the “Fifty Shades” trilogy — referred to in marketing materials as “the climax” — is also launching in 57 international markets this weekend with about $100 million, which brings the franchise total to about $1.09 billion.

The weekend saw a significant increase in moviegoing in the wake of a slow Super Bowl session with $138 million, up 46 per cent, according to comScore. Overall business was off 27 per cent from the same weekend a year ago, when “The Lego Batman Movie” led with $53 million.

Moviegoing will receive another major boost over the Presidents Day weekend with Disney-Marvel’s “Black Panther” opening Febreuary 16 and forecasted to take in as much as $150 million during the Friday-Monday period. Overall year-to-date domestic business as of Sunday is $1.234 billion, down 1.8 per cent from 2017.

“This weekend is merely the calm before the proverbial Marvel-powered storm as ‘Black Panther’ is poised to leap into theatres with potentially record-breaking results,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore.

“Fifty Shades Freed” sees Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson returning as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele in the conclusion of the events set in motion in 2015’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” and 2017’s “Fifty Shades Darker”. Though the “Fifty Shades Freed” launch wounded up above forecasts, it was not as strong as its predecessors. “Fifty Shades of Grey” opened with a sensational $85.2 million in 2015, while “Fifty Shades Darker” opened with $46.6 million on the same weekend last year.

“Fifty Shades Freed” generated a B+ CinemaScore with an audience that was 75 per cent female with 55 per cent under 30. “We were able to expand the audience beyond the core demographic, and it played well in all geographic areas,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution.

Orr credited the “exhaustive” marketing efforts and the chemistry between Dornan and Johnson for the continued strong performance of the franchise and noted that the studio expects strong playability in coming weeks. He also said there will be a significant bump in midweek performance with Valentines Day on Wednesday.

“Peter Rabbit,” a live-action/CGI animated film from Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, saw an uptick in Saturday business to finish well above recent projections. James Corden is voicing Peter Rabbit in a contemporary comedy highlighted by his feud with Mr McGregor’s heir (Domhnall Gleeson) as they rival for the affections of the warm-hearted animal lover who lives next door, played by Rose Byrne.

Eastwood’s “15:17 to Paris” is based on the book “The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and Three American Heroes” by Jeffrey E. Stern, Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos, about the 2015 Thalys train attack. The film, co-financed by Village Roadshow, stars Stone, Sadler and Skarlatos as themselves. Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer also star.

Fox’s third weekend of “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” finished sixth behind “Jumanji” and “Showman” with $6.2 million at 2,923 sites. The finale of the dystopian trilogy has taken in $49 million in 17 days.

Lionsgate-CBS Films’ second weekend of Helen Mirren’s historical horror film “Winchester” followed in seventh with $5.2 million at 2,480 locations. Fox’s eighth weekend of Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” finished eighth with $3.6 million at 1,865 venues to lift its domestic total to $72.8 million.

Fox Searchlight’s 11th weekend of Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” came in ninth with $3.2 million at 1,780 sites. The fantasy romance, that scored a leading 13 Oscar nominations on January 23, has a domestic total of $49.7 million.

STXfilms’ fourth weekend of heist thriller “Den of Thieves” edged Warner Bros. fourth session of “12 Strong” for the 10th spot with $3 million at 1,468 locations for a $41 million total. Afghan war drama “12 Strong” took $2.7 million at 1,901 sites for a 24-day total of $42 million.

A practical and premium compact SUV that is big on style and with plenty of big car high tech safety features, the Volvo XC40 is the latest model to join the Swedish automaker’s stable. Launched globally last November and available in the Middle East as of early this year, the XC40 is built on an all-new platform that is set to underpin other future Volvo models. For European markets, the XC40 brings a new non-ownership subscription-based model for car usage and services, named Care by Volvo, which for a monthly fee includes insurance, concierge, car sharing and parking services.

Feisty demeanour

With ridged and sculpted bodywork, the XC40 bears immediate relation to its larger XC60 and XC90 Volvo sisters. However, and perhaps to compensate for its smaller dimensions and create a similarly assertive presence, the XC40’s design elements seem to be moodier and more aggressive, including more heavily browed and slimmer headlights with Volvo’s Thor’s Hammer signature LED element. The XC40’s bumper, tailgate and rear spoiler also seem to be jutting in a more pronounced manner, while its broad grille and lower flanks feature concave surfacing, and a muscularly convex clamshell bonnet.

Fresh and with an urgent demeanour, the XC40 seems to have a sense of motion even when still, and is offered with a variety of large alloy wheels, between 18- to 21-inches to enhance its grounded stance. Meanwhile underneath, it is built on a new Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform with front MacPherson and rear multi-link suspension, with standard, sport or optional adaptive dampers. Offered with either entry-level Momentum or sporty R-Design trim levels option at launch, the XC40 range is set to soon expand and include electrified drivelines, which the CMA platform is designed to accommodate.

Seamless sequence

Built to accommodate an electrified driveline from the ground up, the XC40 is presently available in either D4 Diesel or T5 petrol versions, with other turbocharged versions of both fuel types, and a petrol-electric hybrid model, soon expected. Driven at an event in Milan, Italy, the European market XC40 D4 AWD provided a good impression of model’s capabilities, and of the sort of modern highly efficient turbo-diesel engines that it has long been speculated might become available to Jordanian motorists should restrictions on Diesel passenger vehicles be rescinded.

As smooth and fluent as diesel engines get, the XC40 D4’s 2-litre common-rail sequential twin-turbo four-cylinder engine is particularly sophisticated, with almost petrol-like driving responsiveness, in addition to its muscularly high torque output, low-revving and frugal Diesel characteristics. With an air compressor keeping the smaller of its two turbochargers spooled and responsively ready, the D4 eagerly launches off the line with the turbo lag typical of forced induction oil burning engines greatly reduced, which second larger turbo provides more power and longer-legged ability at higher revs.

Versatility and agility

Pulling responsively from standstill through to redline, the XC40 D4 completes the 0-100km/h dash in 7.9-seconds, and can attain 210km/h, and returns frugal 6.4l/100km combined cycle fuel consumption. Flexible and effortless in mid-range, its versatility is aided by a smooth-shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox, who’s many ratios well exploit its engine for performance and efficiency. The Momentum spec model driven, however, doesn’t feature steering mounted gearbox paddle shifters. With a transverse engine layout and front-drive derived and biased four-wheel-drive, the XC40 delivers more power rearwards as and when necessary for traction.

Refined, reassuring and smooth driving, the XC40 is stable at speed and settled over undulations, but feels eager, rather than heavy or lumpy. Turning in tidy and crisp into corners and alert when changing directions, it’s comparatively short wheelbase and wide track lend it both stability and agility, while its steering is light, quick and precise, with a fair measure of road feel for so modern a crossover with big alloy wheels and tyres, which at 235/50R19, as driven, are among the smaller sizes available to the XC40 range.

Advanced and ergonomic

Tuned for a good balance of body control through corners and a comfortable ride, the XC40 is a relaxed, reassuring and refined drive. Well-insulated from harshness, noise and vibration, its cabin has a distinctly classy, yet innovatively functional quality. Premium in ambiance, materials, quality, materials and design inside, the XC40’s ergonomic and functional cabin features good space for its class, supportive seating and numerous smart storage spaces including under-seat trays, removable centre console bin and inductive phone charging. Controls and infotainment system are meanwhile intuitive to use and well up to date in functions and features.

Easy to manoeuvre in urban environs, the XC40 features an optional 360° surround view camera and a host of driver assistance and safety features including Volvo’s City Safety system, which automatically brakes if a potential collision is detected, while other standard features include Run-off Road and Oncoming Lane mitigation systems and lane keeping assistance. Optional features include semi-automated Pilot Assist with steering assistance at up to 130km/h, Blind Spot, Rear Collision and Cross-Traffic alerts, and adaptive cruise control.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 

Engine: 2-litre, twin-turbo Diesel, all-aluminium, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82 x 93.2mm

Compression ratio: 15.8:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, common rail direct injection, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 5.25:1; 2nd 3.029:1; 3rd 1.95:1; 4th 1.457:1; 5th 1.221:1; 6th 1.0:1; 7th 0.809:1; 8th 0.673:1 

Reverse/final drive: 4.015:1/3.2

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 187 (190) [140] @4,000rpm

Specific power: 95BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 295 (400) @1,750-2,500rpm

Specific torque: 203Nm/litre

0-100km/h: 7.9-seconds

Top speed: 210km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 6.4-7.1-litres/100km 

Fuel capacity: 54-litres

Length: 4,425mm

Width: 1,863mm

Height: 1,652mm

Wheelbase: 2,702mm

Track, F/R: 1,601/1,626mm

Approach/break-over/departure angles: 21.7°/21.9°/30.4°

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.34

Luggage volume, min/max: 460-/1,336-litres

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.4-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Braking distance, 100-0km/h: 36-metres

Tyres: 235/50R19

Not into the flu shot? Think of it as a heart attack vaccine instead.

That is because the first week or so of a flu infection appears to make you much more susceptible to a heart attack, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The findings are based on 148,307 cases of patients who were tested for influenza. Among those tests, 19,729 turned up positive for the flu. And among those cases, there were 332 patients had at least one heart attack in the year before or after their flu specimen was tested. (The study authors tallied 364 hospitalisations for acute myocardial infarction overall, meaning that some unlucky folks had two or more heart attacks during the two-year observation period.)

Twenty of those heart attacks occurred within one week of a positive flu test. That, of course, was a rate of 20 heart attacks per week.

The other 344 heart attacks happened some other time in the two-year observation period. That worked out to 3.3 heart attacks per week.

That means the risk of a heart attack was six times greater in the first week after flu testing than at other times when the flu was less likely to be a factor.

The researchers redid their analysis by splitting up that danger week into two parts. They found that heart attack risk was 6.3 times greater during the first three days after a flu test and 5.8 times greater in days four through seven.

About one-quarter of the patients in the study were 65 years old, and the rest were older. When the researchers examined the two groups separately, the link between flu infection and heart attack risk held up only for the older group.

There was no sign of an increased heart attack risk in the rest of the first month after getting a flu test.

The researchers, led by Dr Jeffrey C. Kwong of the University of Toronto, acknowledged that they could not do their analysis based on the date when patients were actually infected with the influenza virus, or when they first began having symptoms, because the information was not available. However, in cases where patients get a flu test, they have been sick for only one or two days first.

Also, not all flu cases are severe enough to prompt patients to go and get tested. That means the results of this study may not apply to people with milder illnesses, they added.

The researchers did notice that when flu test results came back positive for certain kinds of respiratory infections instead of influenza, there was still an increased (though smaller) short-term risk for heart attacks. That suggests that it is not the flu itself that is the problem — it is the biological impact of a respiratory infection.

For instance, an infection can create conditions that make blood clots more likely to form and cause blood vessels to constrict. Infections also cause inflammation and can reduce blood pressure. All of these are risk factors for a heart attack, Kwong and his colleagues wrote.

The study’s results suggest that people who want to avoid a heart attack should be sure to get a flu shot — and that doctors and public health officials should encourage them to do so.

“Cardiovascular events triggered by influenza are potentially preventable by vaccination,” the researchers wrote.

Vaccines for other kinds of respiratory infections should be embraced as well, they added. Even simple actions like washing your hands, blocking your cough and keeping germy surfaces clean may reduce your risk of a heart attack.

By Silvia Zayadin

Any pet owner knows the enormous joy and comfort that an animal can provide, especially in troubled times. Research confirms the value of the human-animal bond in child development, elderly care, mental illness, physical impairment, dementia, abuse and trauma recovery.

People of all ages, both healthy and ill, benefit from living with a pet and are more active and social. The invisible ties that bind us to our pets can have a dramatic impact on our lives and our health. Having a pet in the home improves the health and well-being of everyone in the household.

People who have pets tend to have lower blood pressure, heart rate and heart-disease risk than those who do not. The extra exercise that playing and walking require and the stress relief of having a furry best friend who loves you unconditionally make pet ownership good for both mind and body! 

In one 2015 study published in Anxiety, Stress and Coping journal, a stressed-out group of adults were told to pet a rabbit, a turtle or their toy forms. The toys had no effect but stroking a living creature, whether hard-shelled or furry, relieved anxiety.

Animals are known to play a central, influential role in children’s lives. Studies report that children owning pets or interacting with them on a regular basis tend to be more responsible and independent.

Pets can be powerful allies for children battling health problems, too. In a study, therapy animals helped paediatric cancer patients become more motivated to participate in their treatment. Those kids were also more likely to stay optimistic and want to get better.

Another study found that an animal’s presence increased positive social behaviours among children with autism spectrum disorder.

According to the September 2017 issue of the journal Anthrozoös, children raised in families with pets were reported by their parents to: 

•Have better general health

•Be more cooperative

•Be more physically active 

•Be less moody 

•Have fewer behavioural problems

•Have fewer learning problems

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

The American Quarter

Jabbour Douaihy

Translated by Paula Haydar

US: Interlink Books, 2018

Pp. 170

Lebanese novelist Jabbour Douaihy situates his story in Tripoli, in the north of his country. Though it is Lebanon’s second largest city and filled with noteworthy ancient architecture, particularly from the Mamluk period, Tripoli seldom gets the attention it merits. With his beautifully flowing prose, Douaihy seems determined to make up for this neglect by ushering the reader into the city’s streets, markets and homes, recalling its social customs and parts of its history. As the title suggests, the focus is on the American Quarter, so-called because of the abandoned Evangelical School there. By the time the story opens during the US invasion of Iraq, the building has for many years housed a branch of the Syrian intelligence agency—one of many ironies which subtly portray the author’s own attitudes.

Contrary to what one might expect, the American Quarter is now a poor neighbourhood. Many of the main characters are clustered in a single, crumbling building: “Here and there one could still see remnants of the building’s original embellishments—a rose-shaped carving on the marble mantel above the heavy door of resinous wood, or the crumbling stone etchings along the edge of the roof—all manifestations of its current wretched state that betrayed the presence of a former life… That was before Tripoli was inundated by the poor folk from the nearby mountains who could no longer subsist on harvesting the locally grown Im Husein apricots, or any other fruit trees for that matter.” (p. 2) 

The novel contains many fascinating and quirky characters which Douaihy draws with equal amounts of humour and empathy, but there are three that are pivotal to the plot. Intisar, an attractive, enterprising woman with a worthless husband and several children, including a disabled son, to raise on her own, is by far the most interesting. She has put all her hopes for the future on Ismail, her oldest son, but despite completing high school and enrolling in a vocational training institute, nothing in the world he sees around him motivates him to do something with his life. Every day, Intisar, like her mother before her, crosses the city on foot to work as a housekeeper for the Azzams, a notable family with a long history of nationalist leadership. Now, only one son, Abdelkarim, remains in the Azzam mansion, and he seems totally cut off from the city’s life. Overprotected as a child, he fell prey to melancholy and “started to develop the feeling that the world was somewhere he was not”. (p. 39)

He conquered this melancholy during the years he spent in Paris, where he fell in love with a ballerina, but it returned with a vengeance after she disappeared, and he returned to Tripoli. Now he spends his time alone, listening to music, drinking and mourning his lost love. He only arouses when Intisar hides Ismail at the mansion because he is wanted by the police, and the two men confide in each other during a long night.

Meanwhile, extremists manage to marginalise the town’s beloved sheikh who speaks out against the US invasion of Iraq, but also opposes sending young men to fight, saying that “the most important jihad is man’s struggle against himself”. (p. 117)

The fundamentalists take over his mosque, preaching an intolerant version of Islam and recruiting for jihad. With the Iraq war raging not far away, their vision gains credence among some disenchanted sectors of society. 

Intisar is not blind to these changes. “She’d been impressed by repeated references to the widespread despair infecting the city’s old neighbourhoods and its connection to the surge in violence and fundamentalist movements in the area.” (p. 22)

But it takes a while before she realises that Ismail has been recruited by the jihadists. Events pile up, and one does not know if Ismail will carry out his assigned mission which entails widespread killing of civilians. 

Douaihy’s treatment of Ismail’s radicalisation is thought-provoking. He does not over-dramatise or editorialise. Simply put, Ismail’s life gains a kind of coherence, even if only temporarily. Nor is it assumed that such conversions only happen to misfits or the psychologically disturbed. Rather, the novel’s descriptions of life in the American Quarter provide socio-economic background for making such a choice. The implication is that it can happen to almost anyone among the vast pool of frustrated Arab citizens, if job opportunities are scarce and all avenues to a better future are blocked.

Ismail’s radicalisation is linked to Tripoli’s decline. “At one time, this same city had fought off the French Mandate, and it stood in solidarity with every Arab cause… But nowadays, the city couldn’t be bothered. During elections, the rich went around buying votes—rich people with fortunes amassed by questionable means.” (p. 99)

Added to this is the alienation caused by the abuse of power, torture, killings and imprisonment enacted by the military and secret police. 

Commenting on a burning question of our time, “The American Quarter” is both a tribute to Tripoli’s proud heritage and a warning of the consequences if inequality and injustice are allowed to prevail. Yet, Douaihy’s social critique has a light touch, cleverly belittling and satirising the corrupt and hypocritical.