Features

Bad news would-be astronauts: Travelling into deep space could be bad for your heart.

In a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports, researchers found that astronauts who went to the moon were almost five times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than astronauts who remained in low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station (ISS).

The findings suggest that leaving the protective fold of the Earth and its magnetic field could be more damaging to the cardiovascular system than was previously thought.

“Space radiation comes in really fast and it creates a lot of damage in tissues,” said Michael Delp, a professor of physiology at Florida State University in Tallahassee and the first author on the paper. “It is more damaging than any radiation on Earth.”

Terrestrial earthlings are protected from deep space radiation in two ways. Most of the charged particles that come zipping through the solar system are deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field, also known as the magnetosphere. However, if a charged particle does make it through this magnetic shield, it runs into the atmosphere and dissipates a lot of its energy — the second line of defence. 

Astronauts on the ISS live beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, but still within the planet’s magnetosphere. Astronauts who have flown all the way to the moon, however, are no longer protected by this magnetic shield and are subjected to more space radiation, the authors explain.

To see what type of long-term effect this increased exposure might have on the human body, the authors looked at cause-of-death data for three groups of astronauts — those who had flown in low-Earth orbit, those who flew to the moon, and those who trained as astronauts but never flew in space.

The authors found that 43 per cent of astronauts who went to the moon died of heart disease, compared with just 11 per cent of those who stayed in low-Earth orbit and 9 per cent of those who never flew at all.

They also found that astronauts who ventured beyond the magnetosphere were no more likely to die of cancer than their low-Earth orbit and ground-based counterparts. In all three groups, about 30 per cent of deaths could be attributed to cancer.

“It may be that it would require longer missions for cancer to manifest itself,” Delp said. “If we saw longer exposures to the radiation, we might see a higher mortality rate due to cancer.”

Delp cautioned that the study’s findings come with several caveats. For starters, the sample group was very small. The researchers considered just seven deaths of people who had been to the moon. (An eighth lunar astronaut died after the analysis was complete). The low-Earth orbit group was composed of just 35 people, as was the non-flight astronaut group.

Delp said this is not unusual in space research.

“A lot of studies published both with humans and animals have very small numbers,” Delp said. “It’s the norm rather than the exception, but it means you have to be very cautious in your interpretations.”

He added that the group considered whether or not the findings were worth publishing, but ultimately concluded that they were.

“The numbers are what they are and the stats are what they are,” he said. “But we think it shows that there is a possibility that space radiation has a more adverse effect on the cardiovascular system then we anticipated.”

Several countries around the world, including the United States, Russia, Japan and China, have said that they hope to send people into lunar orbit in the next 10 years, subjecting astronauts to longer periods of exposure to space radiation than those who flew on the Apollo missions.

When asked if he thought his study would give any potential space traveller pause, Delp said: “I don’t think so. I think astronauts are very driven, and very focused and they already take big risks.” 

WASHINGTON — Red-light cameras are widely hated, but a new study says getting rid of them can have fatal consequences.

Traffic deaths from red-light-running crashes go up by nearly a third after cities turn off cameras designed to catch motorists in the act, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The institute is funded by auto insurers.

While cities continue to add cameras at intersections with traffic signals, at least 158 communities have ended their red-light camera programmes in the past five years, the study said.

Researchers compared trends in annual crash rates in 14 cities that had ended their camera programmes with those in 29 cities in the same regions that continued their camera programmes.

They found that, after adjusting for other factors, red-light-running crashes went up 30 per cent.

Further, all types of crashes at intersections with traffic signals went up 16 per cent. That finding suggests that red-light cameras deter other behaviour by motorists, not just red-light running, said Wen Hu, co-author of the study.

A second part of the study compared fatal red-light-running crashes in 57 cities with camera programmes to 33 cities that haven’t introduced cameras, finding that the rate of such crashes was 21 per cent lower in cities with cameras. The rate of all types of crashes at intersections with traffic signals was 14 per cent lower when cameras were present.

“Debates over automated enforcement often centre on the hassle of getting a ticket and paying a fine,” said the institute’s president, Adrian Lund. “It’s important to remember that there are hundreds of people walking around who wouldn’t be here if not for red-light cameras.”

Dozens of communities have ended their red-light camera programmes in recent years amid complaints that they are designed primarily to raise money through tickets rather than to enhance safety. Courts in some states have sided with motorists against camera programmes.

Jake Nelson, the AAA automobile club’s research director, said the club supports the use of red-light cameras if they’re used properly, meaning data show the need for them at particular intersections — usually, a high number of fatalities. And money collected through the program should be used exclusively for traffic safety programmes, he said. But when those tests aren’t met, AAA has joined with opponents in some communities to oppose them.

A motorist who runs a red light risks a T-bone crash where the front of one vehicle slams into the side of another. Those crashes are among the most likely to result in death or serious injury.

Other studies have shown that red-light cameras increase the likelihood of rear-end crashes as motorists race through yellow lights only to run into the back of a vehicle on the other side of the intersection. But rear-end crashes are more likely to be minor, with far fewer fatalities and injuries than T-bone crashes.

“I’m on the network.” “There’s no network today.” “We’re setting up a new internal network in our office.” “I enjoy social networking.” These apparently simple, commonly used expressions, where the word network is recurrent, belie its importance and its far-reaching impact on our world, on our current life and on the future.

The fact is that the word network is not to be taken lightly, and most of us only realise but a tiny part of what it actually represents. Another important fact is that the network concept extends far beyond computer networks and the Internet, the ones we first think of. From the gigantic electric power grids to the 100 billion neurons in our brain, from schools of fish to flocks of birds, everything is network, be it man made or in nature.

Relationships between people also function on the network principle. We talk of “network of friends, or acquaintances”. The power, the inherent property of networks is that they do not operate and link the “nodes” that make their web in a linear way but according to very complex structures that still have not been completely studied and analysed but that are significantly more powerful and faster that linear connections. Say you have 100 friends (in real life or on Facebook… it works in the same manner). To connect to friend #67 you do not have necessarily to go through 66 of them before reaching him or her; understandably. There are shorter paths across the network. We cannot always describe it but we know it and feel it instinctively.

To remind us of one of networking most stunning effects is the famous “six degrees of separation” concept that says that for any person on Earth to connect to any other out of the 7 billion alive, you have to go through a maximum of six persons. It’s the simple but incredibly efficient “a friend of a friend” system.

An example. He may not know it but the editor of this article is connected to American actor Harrison Ford through just four steps. I met and interviewed English musician Sting a few years ago (for The Jordan Times). Sting knows Harrison Ford, and of course I know my editor. Et voilà!

The six degrees of separation theory was set out by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy circa 1930. Whereas it has not been proven mathematically, experience has always shown that it works. It is a perfect illustration of the network notion.

More recently American scientists Duncan Watts and Steven Strogatz have been working on better understanding the notion. Observation of the behaviour of birds or fish in large groups shows that they move together in perfect synchronisation and communicate through advanced, instinctive networking connectivity. The show is usually nothing less than spectacular.

Although the concept is now more than a hundred years old, new research by Watts, Strogatz and others may have an impact that will simply change our world. It is like a new science that is emerging and which effects are yet to be seen but are not to be underestimated in any way.

The Internet itself is already in a new phase of networking. The current protocol structure referenced as IPv4 is showing its limits in terms of possible addresses (i.e. number of devices connected) and the world is moving to IPv6. Whereas the first can manage 4 billion addresses the second will be able to handle a number of addresses equal to 34 followed by 38 zeroes. Even if the number is hard to visualise, this certainly should be enough for a long, long time.

Understanding networks better, in a deeper manner, may shed a new light on the way the human brain functions, how we remember this or why forget that. It may improve the management of large databases and computer programming algorithms and methods. We may also better understand animals’ behaviour.

Next time you add one friend to your Facebook list of friends, remember that this simple, apparently ordinary addition will have a big effect. On the network it will impact on all “mutual” friends.

I might not know much about Melania Trump, wife of the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, but I have discovered this: the prospective next first lady of America never went to a convent school. If she had, there is no way she would have copied one and a half paragraphs of Michelle Obama’s speech that she delivered at the Democratic Party conclave eight years ago, and pass it off as her own, at the Republican National Convention recently. Forget the plagiarism checker, the nuns would have instilled an invisible “originality checking” device into her conscience so effectively, that she would never think of imitating someone, even in her dreams.

The first time I peered into a dictionary I was around seven years old. The word I was looking for kept evading me. You have to remember that there was no Google to help us in those days. I went back and forth over the pages that had all the words with the letter “v” but for the life of me I could not find “voriginal”. I was sure that was what our new English teacher told us to be, under every circumstance, especially while writing our essays, speeches or articles for the school magazine. The entire evening I could not locate the meaning of the term and was devastated at the thought of facing our strict nun the next morning. She had a habit of ramming a wooden ruler onto her table very loudly to make a point. The sharp noise it produced had me shaking in my shoes. 

When my brother spied my tear stained face, his heart must have melted because he offered to help me. “Say the word out aloud”, he urged. I complied. “You sillybilly, your teacher was telling you to be ‘original’ which means to be unique, genuine or authentic. Train your ear to her ethnic accent and you will get it,” he laughed pulling my pigtails. I got it instantly. And I retained that knowledge for the rest of my life. Being original was the mantra that guided me and the lessons taught by our formidable nun stayed with me.

When I started my writing career more than two decades ago, I used to get derailed occasionally when I tried to impress the readers by using fancy language to describe simple things. It was an exercise in futility I soon realised, but at that time, I was full of my own importance. In one of the book reviews, instead of writing, “the skeleton came out of the closet”, I wrote “a concatenation of skeletons came tumbling out of the closet in quick succession”. The editor must be on leave because the entire phrase was carried verbatim, without any editing. I felt very uncomfortable about my showing off in the write-up, but a week later I read another writer’s opinion piece in the same broadsheet. Somewhere between denouncing the government and its policies he plagiarised my whole exaggerated idiom, word for word! I was both annoyed and amused. Annoyed because he had pinched my creative hyperbole without giving me any credit, and amused because, well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

“You know what I think?” I asked my husband. 

He kept reading the newspaper. 

“Melania’s secret speechwriter is Michelle,” I declared. 

“More skeletons in the cupboard?” he quizzed. 

“Tumbling out in quick succession,” I laughed. 

“Who,” he was puzzled?

“Plagiarists,” I said. 

“Ok,” he agreed, going back to the paper.

ABU DHABI — Solar Impulse 2 on Tuesday completed its historic round-the-world journey, becoming the first airplane to circle the globe powered only by the sun to promote renewable energy.

Cheers and applause broke out as the plane touched down before dawn in Abu Dhabi after the final leg of its marathon trip which began on March 9 last year.

Swiss explorer and project director Bertrand Piccard was in the cockpit during the more than 48-hour flight from Cairo, crossing the Red Sea, the vast Saudi desert and flying over the Gulf.

It capped a remarkable 43,000-kilometre journey across four continents, two oceans and three seas, accomplished in 23 days of flying without a drop of fuel.

“The future is clean, the future is you, the future is now, let’s take it further,” Piccard said as he disembarked.

“One thing I would like for you to remember: More than an achievement in the history of aviation, Solar Impulse has made an achievement in [the] history of energy,” he said. 

“We have enough solutions, enough technologies. We should never accept the world to be polluted only because people are scared to think in another way.”

Hours before landing, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon lavished praise on the team in a live-streamed conversation.

“My deepest admiration and respect for your courage,” he said. “This is a historic day, not only for you but for humanity.”

‘Achieve the impossible’

Dubbed the “paper plane”, Solar Impulse 2 circumnavigated the globe in 17 stages, with 58-year-old Piccard and his compatriot Andre Borschberg taking turns at the controls of the single-seat aircraft.

Borschberg, 63, smashed the record for the longest uninterrupted solo journey in aviation history between Nagoya, Japan and Hawaii that lasted nearly 118 hours and covered 8,924 kilometres last year.

No heavier than a car but with the wingspan of a Boeing 747, the four-engine, battery-powered aircraft relies on around 17,000 solar cells embedded in its wings.

The plane clocked an average speed of 80 kilometres an hour.

The pilots used oxygen tanks to breathe at high altitude and wore suits specially designed to cope with the extreme conditions.

They had to withstand temperatures inside the tiny cockpit ranging from minus 20oC to plus 35oC.

Piccard has said he launched the project in 2003 to show that renewable energy “can achieve the impossible”.

His dream has taken much longer than planned. The attempt was initially expected to last five months, including 25 days of actual flying.

But the aircraft was grounded in July last year when its solar-powered batteries suffered problems halfway through the trip.

‘Really exhausting’

The project was also beset by bad weather and illness, which forced Piccard to delay the final leg.

While in the air, the pilot was constantly in contact with mission control in Monaco, where a team of weathermen, mathematicians and engineers monitored the route and prepared flight strategies.

A psychiatrist who made the first non-stop balloon flight around the world in 1999, Piccard had warned the last leg would be difficult because of the high temperatures.

“It’s been two hours now I’m flying into high up and down drafts. And I can’t even drink. It’s really exhausting,” he tweeted on Sunday.

But he did not show signs of fatigue when he landed.

“It was a project that was very difficult, a lot of people doubted we could do it, so of course for the team it’s fantastic but also for all the people who believe in clean technologies,” Piccard told reporters after landing.

“The biggest challenge is to have an airplane that can fly perpetually, days and nights without refuelling, because there is no fuel. And to overcome all the scepticism of the different key opinion leaders in this world who were saying: ‘They cannot do it. It’s impossible’.”

While the pilots do not expect commercial solar-powered planes any time soon, they hope the project will help spur wider progress in clean energy.

“We can hardly believe that we made it. It’s still a little bit like in a dream. We have to realise that it’s the reality,” Piccard said.

“We have flown one after the other in the cockpit with Andre, 40,000 kilometres without fuel, and now the demonstration is done,” he said. “It means that the rest of the world has to take it further.”

First launched in 2011 after a long line of traditional body-on-frame SUVs since 1990, the fifth generation Ford Explorer is a uni-body SUV better reflecting contemporary trends for more spacious, economical and refined road-biased vehicles. Updated for 2016, the Explorer receives new technology and equipment, and a more upmarket and rugged design facelift.

Winner of the 2016 Middle East Car of the Year’s Best Midsize SUV award, the revised Explorer is offered with four engine choices depending on market, including two turbocharged 4-cylinder units. The Middle East receives a 3.5-litre V6, twin-turbocharged for the Explorer Sport and naturally aspirated for other models, including the next-to range-topping Explorer Limited, as tested.

Sculpted SUV

Longer and more spacious than its predecessors, the current generation 7-seat Explorer is a more design-led product, with sculpted bodywork, well-integrated shape and blacked-out pillars apart from a reverse angle C-pillar lending a sense of urgency. Revised for 2016, the Explorer’s previous three-slat grille is replaced with a perforated and upscale higher-set design, flanked by sharper LED front headlights and new rear lights, replacing a trend-setting wraparound design. It also received a new spoiler for better aerodynamics.

The Explorer is built on a uni-body frame with all-round independent suspension and transverse layout, with the engine driving the front wheels and its four-wheel drive system allocating power rearwards as required. Though not designed as a dedicated off-roader, the Explorer’s intelligent four-wheel drive monitors conditions and reacts to prevent slip, and with selectable multi-mode Terrain Management System, leverages the anti-lock brakes to manage power allocation, prevent slip and effectively simulate differential locks to maintain traction.

Smooth and responsive

Smooth and refined, the Explorer Limited’s naturally aspirated 3.5-litre V6 engine is of an oversquare that is progressive in delivery and eager to rev towards its redline. Developing 255lb/ft torque at 4,000rpm and 290BHP by 6,500rpm, the Explorer’s engine is responsive and with four-wheel traction, carries its 2101kg mass confidently off-the-line. While 0-100km/h acceleration is undisclosed in press material, one roughly estimates this to be about 8 seconds, while top speed is likely restricted to about 180km/h.

High-revving and eager, the Explorer’s engine is satisfyingly long-legged and consistently confident as it build up torque and transitions to power accumulation through gears. Responsive and smooth, its six-speed automatic gearbox features a short first gear ratio for responsive acceleration and in lieu of low gear ratios for off-road driving. Meanwhile, a tall sixth gear allows for relaxed, quiet and efficient highway cruising, and helps the Explorer achieve 12.6l/100km combined fuel consumption. Additionally, the explorer 3.5 runs on less expensive RON91 petrol.

Refined and reassuring

Quiet, comfortable and smooth riding on poked and lumpy roads, dirt roads and fast highways, the Explorer’s all-round independent suspension and forgiving spring and damper rates well absorb imperfections, despite the demo car driven riding on optional sporty low profile 255/50R20 tyres. Meanwhile, isolated sub-frames with enhanced mounts provide refinement from harshness and vibrations, and new door seals and acoustic glass reduce cabin noise well. Stable on highway, the Explorer may be supple, but it is settled on the rebound.

Designed with comfort in mind rather than a sporting disposition, the Explorer was, however,  composed and tidy on test drives through both narrow winding imperfect southern Jordanian backroads and smooth wide Dubai streets. Grippy on turn-in, it leans slightly but all-round anti-roll bars keep it controlled and reassuring through corners. Pushed hard into a corner on low traction surfaces, the Explorer’s instinct is slight, predictable understeer, which stability controls correct, but with long wheelbase and four-wheel drive, lateral roadholding levels are high, even on the Wadi Rum flats. 

Spacious and well equipped

A spacious seven-seater with roomy front row seats and adequately space third row seating, the Explorer middle row offers ample leg and headroom, with a split folding, reclining and sliding three-seat bench. The Explorer’s accessible cabin features good visibility and high levels of adjustability and convenience, numerous storage spaces and generous 595-2314-litre cargo capacity, depending on seat configuration. Comfortable for long journeys, the Explorer’s front seats could be better yet with slightly more side support and bolstering.

User-friendly in layout and with good materials used in prominent places, the Explorer’s cabin is extensively well equipped with convenience, infotainment and safety features, including 180° front and rear cameras with washers, improved perpendicular and parallel parking assistance, fast charging front and rear USB ports and hands-free automatic liftgate, new for 2016. The Limited version is equipped with voice-activated SYNC infotainment system, power-adjustable pedals, power outlets, inflatable middle row seatbelts and optional blindspot and rear cross-path warning, adaptive cruise control, hill descent control and numerous other features.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3.5 litre, V6 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 92.5 x 86.7mm

Compression ratio: 10.8:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, four-wheel drive

Ratios: 1st 4.484:1; 2nd 2.872:1; 3rd 1.842:1; 4th 1.414:1; 5th 1:1; 6th 0.742:1; R 2.882:1

Final drive: 3.65:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 290 (294) [216] @6,500rpm

Specific power: 83BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 138BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 255 (346) @4,000rpm

Specific torque: 99Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 164.6Nm/tonne

Fuel consumption, city/highway/combined: 

14.4-/10.5-/12.6 litres/100km

Minimum fuel requirement: 91RON

Length: 5,036mm

Width: 2,004mm

Height: 1,803mm

Wheelbase: 2,865mm

Overhang, F/R: 965/1,187mm

Track: 1701mm 

Ground clearance: 198mm

Approach/break-over/departure angles: 15.6°/16.9°/20.9°

Seating: 7

Headroom, F/M/R: 1,051/1,031/960mm

Legroom, F/M/R: 1,089/1,003/845mm

Shoulder room, F/M/R: 1,562/1,549/1290mm

Hip room, F/M/R: 1,455/1,442/1,033mm

Luggage volume, behind 1st/2nd/3rd row: 2314-/1243-/595 litres

Fuel capacity: 70.4 litres

Kerb weight: 2,101kg

Towing maximum: 2,267kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion

Turning circle: 11.85 metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link, anti-roll bars

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 350 x 32mm/343 x 19mm

Tyres: 255/50R20

DETROIT — In a world where motor vehicles can be weapons and cars increasingly depend on internal computers and Internet connections, automakers are under increasing pressure to find ways to guard against cyber attacks.

Auto industry chiefs, security experts and government officials warned at an auto industry conference here Friday that hackers can threaten to do everything against cars that they do to other computers: remotely steal owner information, or hijack them and render them more dangerous than the truck that killed 84 people in Nice, France, on July 14.

“When you look at autonomous autos, the consequences are so much greater” than the Nice attack by a possibly Daesh-inspired man, said John Carlin, assistant US attorney general for national security, 

“We know these terrorists. They don’t have the capability yet. But if they’re trying to get people to drive truck into crowds, than it doesn’t take too much imagination to think they are going to take an autonomous car and drive it into a crowd of people,” said Carlin.

General Motors’ Chair and Chief Executive Mary Barra said that the advanced information technology that comes in new cars, especially “connectivity” systems linking cars to the Internet, creates huge new challenges. 

“One of these challenges is the issue of cyber security, and make no mistake, cyber security is foundational,” she said.

Barra pointed to the need to protect the personal data of customers who use their in-car system for banking or to pay for other services.

“The fact is personal data is stored in or transmitted through vehicle networks,” she said. 

On top of that is the complexity of the newest auto IT systems, which, she said, “opens up opportunities for those who would do harm through cyber attacks”.

“Cyber security is an issue of public safety,” she said.

Carlin said cyber attacks generally have cost the US economy billions of dollars, and that the problem is that hackers often outrace efforts to strengthen security.

That will be the case for the auto industry, especially as it pushes ahead with self-driving cars, he said.

“We know these terrorists. They don’t have the capability yet. But if they’re trying to get people to drive truck into crowds, than it doesn’t take too much imagination to think they are going to take an autonomous car and drive it into a crowd of people,” said Carlin.

The problem, said Steven Centre, a Honda Motor Co. vice president, is that carmakers are under pressure from consumers to add more and more connectivity features to their vehicles.

Using white hat hackers

The landscape is changing fast, according to Jonathan Allen, a cyber security expert with Booz Allen who is helping carmakers and their suppliers organise to deal with threats. 

Up until only two years ago, manufacturers tended to downplay the threat posed by hackers, he noted. But there has been a significant cultural shift within automotive business, which is now taking the challenge very seriously.

For one thing, the threat to the reputation of carmakers is far more substantial, noted Josh Corman, founder of I am the Cavalry, a cyber security consulting firm.

Online fraud is one thing, but hacking into cars could actually threaten “flesh and blood”, so that carmakers have to be even more vigilant, he said.

Jeffrey Massimilia, GM’s chief cyber security officer, said sharing information broadly across the industry is one of the keys to fighting off the threat. 

Within the past year, the industry and key suppliers have gotten government approval to share information among themselves on cyber security without the threat of anti-trust action.

Automakers are also recruiting “white hat” hackers who help hunt down vulnerabilities in the IT systems of cars.

“We should have a way for people to find things and report them,” said Titus Melnyk, senior manager of security architecture at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), which recently invited “the bug crowd” that looks for weaknesses in new software, smartphones, computers or consumer electronics.

“These threats are evolving.... At FCA we take that seriously,” he said.

It’s never too early to get kids into good sleep habits, and those habits might even protect against obesity later in life, a recent US study suggests.

Preschoolers who were in bed by 8pm were half as likely to be obese 10 years later as their peers who were still up after 9pm, researchers report in the Journal of Paediatrics.

“Encouraging kids to go to sleep early may be one way to prevent excess weight gain,” lead author Dr Sarah Anderson at the Ohio State University in Columbus told Reuters Health. 

Excess weight in children has become a major health problem in the US According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 17 per cent of children and adolescents — nearly 13 million kids — are obese.

Anderson and coauthors used data on 977 children who were born healthy in 1991 and who were tracked every year until they were 15.

When the children were 4 years old, on average, their mothers reported their usual weekday bedtimes. 

Half the kids had bedtimes after 8pm but before 9pm, one quarter went to bed at 8pm or earlier, and another quarter went to bed after 9pm. 

When the researchers looked at the kids’ weights at age 15, they found that preschoolers who went to bed before 8pm were least likely to be obese as teens. The likelihood of obesity was greater for the kids who went to bed between 8 and 9pm, and greatest for those who stayed up past 9pm when they were little. 

The rates of adolescent obesity were 10 per cent, 16 per cent, and 23 per cent, respectively, in the three groups.

The researchers factored in other possible influences on obesity risk, including socioeconomic status and mothers’ obesity. They also adjusted for “maternal sensitivity”, a measure of the quality of the mother-child relationship, such as whether mothers paid attention to their child’s emotional needs, how often they supported their child’s decisions and how often they let their child make decisions on their own. 

“Turns out that maternal sensitivity didn’t have an effect,” said Anderson. 

Not all households have the luxury of putting their kids to bed early, Anderson acknowledged. “If parents come home late from their jobs, it can be challenging to have a regular routine.” 

Even so, she said, it’s important for parents to think about their child’s bedtime, “so they get enough sleep and can function at their best”.

The study doesn’t prove cause and effect, said Dr Dennis Styne, who studies childhood obesity at the University of California, Davis and was not involved with the study. 

Obesity also runs in families, and if parents are obese, their children are at a higher risk of becoming obese, he said.

“Parents can’t change their genes, but they can instil good habits in their children, like when they should go to sleep and what foods they should eat,” Styne said.

A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rogues
Betty S. Anderson
US: Stanford University Press, 2016
Pp. 520

It is a daunting task to cover over seven centuries of Middle East history in a readable, handy-sized book, especially for a region so complex and still so little understood by the general public in the West. Yet, this is what Betty Anderson, Associate professor of Middle East History at Boston University, sets out to do. Based on her years of research and teaching, and intimate knowledge of new scholarship, she succeeds in producing a book that can serve as a university-level textbook or a source of information for anyone interested in knowing the background for breaking news.

Excellent maps, photos and boxes defining pivotal groups, places, phenomena and events, from Sufism, Janissaries and the Mamluks to the Alawi, Jerusalem and Hamas, supplement and enrich the text. 

How so much history can be condensed into a manageable form is due to Anderson’s approach. Starting with the Ottoman and Safavid empires, moving on to the emergence of the modern states, their development and then near demise in some cases in recent years, Anderson carefully identifies crucial themes, trends and continuities. Chief among these, she foregrounds “state governance as the core thread connecting the narrative across centuries and borders”. (p. xv)

The emphasis is not on single events but on the interaction between the governors and the governed over time — the stuff of which history is made. 

Human agency is of prime importance as denoted by the book’s subtitle, and the preface defines ruling, rebel and rogue actors. The first category is self-evident, referring to sultans, kings and presidents. Rebels, on the other hand, are those who “completely opposed the leadership and systems of governance ruling over them… For example a diverse group of rebels appeared throughout the Middle East in the years immediately after World Wars I and II because in those moments it was unclear… what type of government would result from the shifting events”. 

They wanted control over their local domains or leadership of the new states in the making. Examples include those who joined ‘Urabi’s rebellion in the 1880s, and the Free Officers and Baathists whose military coups ushered in new regimes in Egypt, Syria and Iraq in the 50s and 60s. Rebels also include “the Kurds, the Armenians, and the Palestinians who continually rejected the national claims of the governments ruling them”. (p. xviii)

Rogues, on the other hand, did not seek to overthrow the system but challenged their leadership to reform state governance, in order to gain positions in the state or access state resources. Examples range from the Jabal Nablus notables in the 18th century who pledged loyalty to the Ottomans, but acted independently in the economic sphere, to most participants in 21st century protests in Iran, Turkey and Arab countries. Even without overturning the system, rogues could be great change-makers as proven by Mehmet Ali. 

Despite the emphasis on human agency, there are no personality sketches of leaders, but a lot about their policies and how these impacted on the populations under their rule. Recurring patterns and dynamics are traced, most prominently how the expansion of education, urbanisation and economic change affected politics, by creating new social strata who time after time challenged rulers to fulfil promises of genuine independence from colonial powers, more participatory decision-making and economic justice. 

The book’s geographic reach allows for interesting comparisons — between the Ottoman Empire and the rule of the Safavid and Qajars in Iran, commonalities among the states that emerged from the colonial division of the region, and among the regimes established by military coups, as well as comparisons of the economic trajectories and their results in all these states right up to the present era of neoliberalism. 

While the book begins with empires, ensuing chapters focus more on social transformations and increasingly include a broadening scope of social and political actors — peasants, workers, students, women, nationalists, communists, clerics, notables, merchants, professionals and army officers. One sees how they reacted to and were affected by the world wars, foreign intervention, the oil industry, the Cold War, the Palestinian/ Arab conflict with Israel, recurring US invasions of Iraq, etc. 

There are explanations for why the Lebanese civil war assumed a religious form, for the rise of Islamism, indeed, for why the region seems to be in perpetual conflict. Throughout, Anderson avoids speculation and sticks to realism and objectivity in her analysis, finally concluding: “Because of these conflicts and crisis, it is difficult to determine in what direction the Middle East might go in the next decades.” (p. 455)

TOKYO — The clunky videocassette recorder is going the way of floppy disks, eight-track tapes and camera film as the world’s last manufacturer ends production of the once booming home-video technology.

Japan’s Funai Electric cited a sharp decline in sales and trouble sourcing parts for its decision to stop making VCRs at a plant in China by the end of this month.

Most of the consumer electronics firm’s VCRs were sold in North America in recent years, including under the Sanyo brand.

Sales have plummeted from 15 million units a year at their height to 750,000 in 2015 — although some may be surprised VCRs were still being made at all.

Demand appears largely driven by consumers who have large videotape collections that must still be played on VCRs. A Gallup poll several years ago found that 58 per cent of Americans still had one in their home.

The boxy machines — originally about the size of a briefcase with a top-loading slot for videotapes — entered into mainstream popularity in 70s and 80s, and spawned a new industry: tape rental stores.

But the outdated technology has long been eclipsed by DVDs and other more advanced options, while once ubiquitous rental shops have all but disappeared.

Panasonic pulled out of the business several years ago, making Funai the last VCR maker in the world, a company spokesman said Friday.

“A company that was making parts for us said it was too tough to keep making them with sales at this level so they stopped, which led to our decision — we can’t make them without that part,” he told AFP.

Funai has been overwhelmed with calls from desperate Japanese VCR tape owners who had not transferred treasured recordings of weddings and other special occasions on to other formats, he added.

‘Hi-tech’ Japan

Japan may have a reputation for hi-tech devices and futuristic robots, but many people still cling to seemingly outdated options including fax machines and flip phones.

Cassette tapes are also still popular while major DVD rental chains can be found in Japanese cities.

Last year, electronics giant Sony announced it would stop selling Betamax video tapes, ending the storied history of a product that had been ousted years earlier by the more popular VHS tape format.

The inventor of the Walkman first launched its Betamax products in 1975 as a household, magnetic video format for consumers to record analogue television shows. The popularity of Betamax tapes peaked in 1984 when some 50 million cassettes were shipped.

However, the format, initially supported by Toshiba and other electronics makers, is most remembered as the loser of a corporate battle over setting the de facto household video standard.

VHS, developed by another Japanese electronics maker that later became part of JVC, won the battle. 

But it lost the war as video cassette recorders were replaced later by digital formats, such as DVDs, which have themselves largely been replaced by online streaming technology.

Sony stopped making Betamax recorders in 2002, but it kept making tapes for diehard fans.