Features

LOS ANGELES — Family audiences turned out in droves over the weekend, propelling “Finding Dory” to a massive $135.1 million debut and establishing a new record for an animated film opening, industry data showed Monday

The sequel to 2003’s “Finding Nemo” was bolstered by strong reviews and residual affection for the Oscar-winning first film. It’s a return to form for Pixar after the animation studio behind “Toy Story” and “The Incredibles” suffered its first box office failure last year with “The Good Dinosaur”. But its decades of excellence continue to be the brand’s major selling points.

“It’s amazing when you look at the longevity of this brand, the viability of it, and the unfettered enthusiasm pretty much everyone has for Pixar,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore.

“Finding Dory” centres on a blue tang fish with short-term memory loss (Ellen DeGeneres) and her quest to be reunited with her long-lost parents. Its opening weekend results sailed past the previous high-water mark for an animated film — “Shrek the Third’s” $121.6 million launch in 2007 — and ranks as the second-best June debut, behind “Jurassic World’s” $208.8 million bow. Overseas, “Finding Dory” added another $50 million to its haul from 29 international markets, including Australia, Argentina, Russia and China, where its $17.5 million debut ranks as the biggest ever for a Pixar release.

The success of “Finding Dory” comes as Disney, Pixar’s parent company, has dominated the movie business, fielding the year’s three highest-grossing pictures globally in “Zootopia”, “The Jungle Book” and “Captain America: Civil War”. “Finding Dory” seems destined to join those films among 2016’s top earners, partly because it is appealing to all age groups. Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis predicted that the film was gearing up for a “run for the ages”, noting that it was playing well with both families (65 per cent of ticket buyers) and older audiences, with adults comprising 26 per cent of crowds.

“We became a film for everybody,” said Hollis. “We tapped into something really meaningful.”

The weekend’s other major newcomer, New Line’s “Central Intelligence”, also resonated with moviegoers, racking up a healthy $34.5 million from 3,508 locations. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart star in the $50 million action comedy. “Central Intelligence” revolves around an ex-geek (Johnson) who returns to his high school reunion as a muscular special agent and enlists the former class jock (Hart) to help on a dangerous mission. The opening weekend crowd was nearly evenly matched between men (49 per cent of ticket buyers) and women (51 per cent), with 57 per cent of customers clocking in over 25 years old. Universal co-financed the picture and is releasing it overseas.

Johnson and Hart were indefatigable spokespeople for the movie, plopping down on late night television couches and showing up on daytime programming to hawk “Central Intelligence”, while exploiting their presence on Facebook and Twitter to gin up excitement.

“They’re comfortable with and connected to social media,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president. “They’re very involved with their fan base and they’re always tweeting non-stop.”

Last weekend’s box office champ, New Line’s “The Conjuring 2”, slipped to third place. The horror sequel slid 62 per cent from its opening to $15.5 million. It has grossed $71.6 million in two weeks of release.

Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me 2” and Universal’s “Warcraft” rounded out the top five, grossing $9.4 million and $7.2 million, respectively. The sequel to “Now You See Me” has grossed $40.8 million in two weeks while the video game adaptation has netted $37.7 million over the same time span. “Warcraft”, with its $160 million budget, would be a financial catastrophe were it not for China, where the fantasy adventure has earned more than $200 million.

“Finding Dory” injects some energy into a domestic box office that had been sluggish in recent weeks, as several high-profile films such as “Alice Through the Looking Glass” and “Warcraft” collapsed and sequels like “X-Men: Apocalypse” failed to match their predecessors’ receptions. Still, the weekend ticket sales could not match the year-ago period when Pixar’s “Inside Out” debuted to $90.4 million and “Jurassic World” racked up $106.6 million in its sophomore frame. Final numbers are still being tallied, but it looks like revenues will be down roughly 4 per cent.

“That’s still a really good result,” said Dergarabedian. “We needed a box office hero and we got one with this little fish.”

Rounding out the top 10 films were: X-Men: Apocalypse” ($5.3 million), “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” ($5.3 million), “Alice Through the Looking Glass” ($4.3 million), “Me Before You” ($4.1 million) and “Captain America: Civil War” ($2.3 million).

With plans afoot to improve diesel fuel quality and finally lift restrictions on the import of diesel-powered passenger cars in Jordan — as recently reported — Jordanian motorists will have access to economic cars, offering hybrid-rivalling levels of fuel efficiency without the compromises often associated with mixed petrol-electric and pure electric cars.

Often more popular than even petrol cars in Europe, diesel-powered cars encompass a broad range of vehicles from sophisticated and refined high performance vehicles to tough workhorses and frugal fuel-sipping runarounds. One such car, and particularly relevant to and developed specifically for developing markets is the rugged, efficient, spacious and classy but affordable Peugeot 301 HDi.

Adaptable and aesthetic

Thoroughly well thought out and fit for purpose, the Peugeot 301 was introduced in late 2012 as a non-Western European car designed for the demands, preferences and conditions of developing markets, and only offered in saloon body style as popular in developing markets. It is adaptable and robust, elegant yet affordable but not “cheap” and reasonably well-equipped without over-complication.

Aimed at reclaiming the popularity of such rugged and comfortable developing market heroes as the legendary Peugeot 504, the 301 may be built to a budget, but looks, drives and feels like a class act. Designed to fulfil the needs of first-time family owners with a limited budget and much expectation, the 301’s design is classy and contemporary.

With broad and stylish chrome-ringed grille, and sculpted bonnet, the 301’s defined flank character lines create a sense of movement and integrate harmoniously with its rear lights. The 301’s sills and spoiler like bootlid meanwhile lend a hint of the subtly sporty. High-set, the 301’s boot accommodates a generous 506 litres volume and expands to 13,32l with the split folding rear seats down.

Frugal and muscular

Modern, thoroughly proven, efficient and without unnecessary complication, the Peugeot 301 HDi’s 1.6-litre turbo-diesel is an 8-valve SOHC design utilising common-rail direct injection technology. Driving the front wheels through a 5-speed manual gearbox, it develops 91BHP at 4,000rpm and 170lb/ft at 1,750rpm, which allows for sufficiently perky 11.2-second 0-100km/h acceleration and 180km/h top speed.

Refined and smooth for a diesel engine, the 301 is well insulated from diesel clatter, while pick-up from idle suffers little by way of turbo-lag, and with an intuitive clutch biting point helps to progressive feed in power delivery. With a robust and muscular mid-range sweet spot, the 301 pulls with versatile confidence in town, on incline and at highway speeds. 

Flexible and brawny in mid-range, the 301 HDi may give away a 1.5-second disadvantage to its 1.6-litre petrol-powered sister, but more than makes up for it with quicker more responsive 9.2-second 80-120km/h acceleration. Rising towards maximum power smoothly and with a 5,100rpm rev limit, the 301 HDi is considerably more economical than the petrol version, with frugal 4.3l/100km/h fuel consumption and low 112g/km CO² emissions, on the combined cycle.

Rugged comfort

Driven extensively through diverse conditions during its global launch in Antaly, Turkey, the Peugeot 301 proved a well-balanced machine, reconciling ride comfort, highway confidence and handling ability. Reassuring at speed and on long drives, the 301 felt settled on rebound, while its steering 3.15-turn steering wheel compromises responsiveness, feel and weighting with stability and user-friendly lightness.

Turning tidily with decent grip into corners, the 301 HDi’s massive low-end torque can induce torque steer, but can easily be dialled back. Compact and light, the 301 is agile on narrow winding roads and manoeuvrable in town, while its supple suspension and optional 195/55R16 size tyres comfortably soak lumps and bumps, but also provide good body lean control and lateral grip through corners.

Riding on front MacPherson strut suspension with disc brakes for refinement and ability and torsion beam rear suspension with drum brakes at the rear for affordable durability, the 301 is practical, economic, comfortable and capable in demanding locales. During test drive, segments of the route included heavily rutted, cracked, lumpy and bumpy Third World tarmac and dirt roads, which the 301 dispatched with supple confidence and good 139mm ground clearance.

Smart choices

Build to tackle difficult roads and for affordability, the 301’s strategic use and placement of low cost hard plastics and better quality materials and textures lend it a more upscale feel. A classy cabin design combines with plush looking but inexpensive glossy black and shiny chrome effect trim to keep it cost effective and aesthetic. Meanwhile centre console-mounted electric window buttons cut costs. 

With uncomplicated and user-friendly dash, contoured steering wheel, clear instrumentation and subtle cloth seat patterns, the 301 has a minimalist and unfussed sensibility. Spacious inside with good visibility to place it on road, the 301’s cabin is ergonomic and comfortable, with particularly good rear legroom. Meanwhile cabin refinement is high, and includes double sealed door barriers to protect from dust and damp.

Equipment levels are generous but well chosen for its segment and market, including quick cooling and effective A/C, fuel filler and boot release buttons, adjustable steering, CD/MP3 player and attractive alloy wheel options. Tailored for different markets, the 301’s standard and optional equipment list also includes ABS and emergency brake assist, electronic stability control, four airbags, seatbelt pre-tensioners, rear child seat Isofix mounts and five three-point rear seatbelts.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6-litre, transverse, turbo-diesel 4 cylinders 

Bore x stroke: 75 x 88.3mm

Compression ratio: 16:1

Valve-train: 8-valve SOHC, common-rail direct injection

Gearbox: 5-speed manual, front-wheel drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 91 (92) [68] @4,000rpm

Specific power: 58BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 78BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 170 (230) @1,750rpm

Specific torque: 147.4Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 197.4Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 5,100rpm

0-100 km/h: 11.2 seconds

80-120km/h: 9.2 seconds

Standing km: 32.9 seconds

Top speed: 180km/h

CO2, combined: 112g/km

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 4.9/3.9/4.3l/100km

Fuel capacity: 50 litres

Height: 1,466mm

Width (with mirrors): 1,748 (1,953)mm

Length: 4,442mm

Wheelbase: 2,652mm

Tread, F/R: 1,501/1,478mm

Ground clearance: 139mm

Luggage capacity, min/max: 506/1,332 litres (VDA)

Aerodynamic drag coefficient: 0.32

Kerb weight: 1,165kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Steering: electric-assisted rack and pinion

Turning circle: 10.7 metres

Lock-to-lock: 3.15 turns

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs 266mm/drums 203mm

Tyres: 195/55R16

NEW DELHI — Malnutrition is becoming the “new normal” as rising rates of obesity across the world coincide with persistent undernutrition in many poorer countries, according to a major study released Tuesday.

The Global Nutrition Report says the number of people who are obese or overweight is rising almost everywhere, fuelling an increase in diabetes and other diseases.

Malnutrition covers a range of problems — from deficiencies in important vitamins and minerals for the undernourished to excessive levels of sugar, salt, fat or cholesterol in the blood for the obese.

At least 57 of the 129 countries studied were experiencing serious levels of both undernutrition and adult obesity, putting huge pressure on health services, said the study.

“We now live in a world where being malnourished is the new normal,” said Lawrence Haddad, the senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and co-author of the report.

“It is a world that we must all claim as totally unacceptable.”

The study found some progress was being made, with the number of stunted children under five declining on every continent except Africa and Oceania.

Stunted children grow up to be weaker than their well-nourished counterparts, with their brains and immune systems compromised.

But the report’s authors said there had been too little progress in the fight against all forms of malnutrition.

Almost every country studied was falling behind in reducing levels of diabetes and of anaemia in women, for example.

One in twelve people globally now has diabetes and nearly two billion people are obese or overweight, according to the authors, who called for more funding for government initiatives on nutrition.

Their analysis found a $70 billion global funding shortfall to meet 2025 milestones to tackle stunting, severe acute malnutrition and anaemia.

The report highlighted the cost of malnutrition, which it said was “the number one driver of the global burden of disease”.

Africa and Asia lose 11 per cent of the gross domestic product every year due to malnutrition, it said.

Haddad said the key to success was political commitment.

“Where leaders in government, civil society, academia and business are committed — and willing to be held accountable — anything is possible,” he said.

“Despite the challenges, malnutrition is not inevitable — ultimately, it is a political choice.”

The Global Nutrition Report is an annual assessment of countries’ progress in meeting global nutrition targets established by the World Health Assembly — the world’s highest health policy body — in 2013.

These include a 40 per cent reduction in the number of children under five who are stunted; a 50 per cent reduction of anaemia in women of reproductive age; and a halt in the rise in the number of adults who are overweight, obese or suffering from type two diabetes.

Desert Sorrows

Tayseer al-Sboul

Translated by Nesreen Akhtarkhavari and Anthony A. Lee

East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2015

Pp. 139

Tayseer al-Sboul (1939-73) needs no introduction in his homeland, Jordan, but in recent years, there have been efforts to make his works accessible to the English-language readership. In coordination with his family and the Jordanian Writers Union, Nesreen Akhtarkhavari, the director of Arabic Studies at DePaul University, has translated his novel, “You As of Today”, as well as the poems in “Desert Sorrows”, a bilingual book, where the Arabic originals appear across from their English version. This is the first English translation of all of Sboul’s poems, which were written in the years 1960-73, right up to the time of his tragic suicide at the age of only 34.

In the prologue, Otaba al-Sboul gives biographical information about his father, and explains the motivation for having his works translated: “By sharing Tayseer’s works with Western readers, we hope that a new channel of communication is established, and that his voice stands as a witness to our commonality as a human race.” (p. x)

Translating poetry is a notoriously difficult task. To render the poems in a form both true to the original and of high literary quality, Akhtarkhavari teamed up with Anthony A. Lee, a poet in his own right. Lee modified her literal translations to make them more poetic. Then they went back and forth until satisfied that the spirit and meaning of Sboul’s poems had been honoured. The positive results of their teamwork is apparent in the smoothly flowing expressiveness of the 36 poems in “Desert Sorrows”, to which each wrote an introduction.

Lee’s piece is very touching as well as enlightening. He writes frankly that he was not impressed with the first of Sboul’s poems he read. Then, in the next, he was struck by this line: “My life is winter.” “Suddenly, the poem caught me in its grip. Immediately I recognised Tayseer’s description of my own lifelong struggle with depression… He had sought to tackle the same terrible contradictions in the world that I had. He had struggled with evil and injustice, as I had. And he had found no resolution, as I had found none.” (p. xii)

Akhtarkhavari’s introduction gives an overview of Sboul’s life, focusing on what makes his writing outstanding and the political context in which he lived and wrote. Sboul was deeply affected by the 1948 Palestinian Nkbeh, the 1967 Arab defeat, and the beginning of Israeli-Egyptian peace talks after the 1973 war, which he considered the final defeat, and is probably what pushed him over the edge. Besides crediting him with innovation, Akhtarkhavari notes that his “imagery is derived mainly from his local environment and the symbolism is inspired mainly by Arab culture, literature and tradition. This is a departure from the excessive use of ancient mythology that has been employed by many other contemporary Arab writers”. (p. xxiii)

Having been challenged by the translation team to look for the political as well as the personal overtones in Sboul’s poems, one is ready to read them, and one finds an open heart and an open mind beautifully and sometimes painfully articulated in each one.

While the desert has negative connotations for some, this is not the case for Sboul. Reflecting his Jordanian origins, the desert is home, the repository of Arab heritage and dreams, but also of melancholy. He borrows imagery from nature to express his state of mind and the state of the Arab nation. There is joy and love, but they are always fleeting. In many poems, the allusions could be to lost love or to political defeat. Probably they refer to both; the personal and the political seem totally intertwined.  

In the poems, there is a reinterpretation of the stories of Adam and Eve, and of Scheherazade; there is protest against injustice and women’s subordinate position, but the overarching theme is an existential search for meaning in life. While some poems remind one of the European existentialists, Sboul’s quest is not only individual but concerned with the identity and future of his entire people. As he writes: “History frowned on a smiling people/Without a fight/Men were slaughtered.” (p. 105)

And his search is open-ended: “I am still searching, suffering, trying to catch the impossible,” he writes in another poem. (p. 59)

Reading Sboul’s poetry is key to understanding the dilemmas of his generation that have echoes in today’s youth who are still seeking justice and a better future.

WASHINGTON — A software tool unveiled Friday aims to help online firms quickly find and eliminate extremist content used to spread and incite violence and attacks.

The Counter Extremism Project, a non-governmental group based in Washington, proposed its software be used in a system similar to one used to prevent the spread on online child pornography.

The software was developed by Dartmouth University computer scientist Hany Farid, who also worked on the PhotoDNA system now widely used by Internet companies to stop the spread of content showing sexual exploitation or pornography involving children.

But social media firms have yet to commit to using the tool for extremist content, and some are sceptical about it, according to an industry source.

The announcement comes amid growing concerns about radical jihadists using social networks to diffuse violent and gruesome content and recruit people for attacks.

“We think this is the technological solution to combat online extremism,” said Mark Wallace, the chief executive of the organisation that includes former diplomats and public officials from the United States and other countries.

The group proposed the creation of an independent “National Office for Reporting Extremism” that would operate in a similar fashion to the child pornography centre — identifying and flagging certain content to enable online firms to automatically remove it.

This system, if adopted by Internet firms, “would go a long way to making sure than online extremist is no longer pervasive”, Wallace said during a conference call with journalists.

He said it could be useful in stopping the “viral” spread of videos of beheadings and killings such as those produced by the Daesh group.

Wallace said he expects “robust debate” on what is acceptable content but added, “I think we could agree that the beheading videos, the drowning videos, the torture videos... should be removed.”

Faster action

Farid, who also spoke on the call, said he believes the new system would be an effective tool for companies that must now manually review each complaint on objectionable content.

“We are simply developing a technology that allows companies to accurately and effectively enforce their terms of service,” Farid said.

“They do it anyway, but it’s slow.”

Farid said he developed the software with a grant from Microsoft, and that he and the Counter Extremism Project would work to provide it to online companies.

The system is based on “robust hashing” or finding so-called digital signatures of content of text, images, audio and video that can be tracked to enable platforms to identify and stop content from being posted or reposted.

“The technology has been developed, it has been tested and we are in the final stages of engineering to get it ready for deployment,” Farid said. “We’re talking about a matter of months.”

Social networks have long stressed they will help legitimate investigations of crimes and attacks, but have resisted efforts to police or censor the vast amounts content flowing through them.

But governments in the United States, France and elsewhere have been pressing online firms to do more to curb extremist content.

And a lawsuit filed on behalf of a victim in the 2015 Paris attacks seeks to hold Facebook, Google and Twitter liable for the violence.

“Without defendants Twitter, Facebook and Google [YouTube], the explosive growth of [the Islamic State group] over the last few years into the most-feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible,” said the lawsuit filed by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, killed in Paris.

A tech industry representative, who asked not to be identified, said social media firms had concerns, including about privacy and the effectiveness of the tool.

“Child pornography is very different from extremist content,” according to the source, summarising tech firms’ views.

LONDON — British scientists say they have developed a model that can predict outbreaks of zoonotic diseases — those such as Ebola and Zika that jump from animals to humans — based on changes in climate.

Describing their model as “a major improvement in our understanding of the spread of diseases from animals to people”, the researchers said it could help governments prepare for and respond to disease outbreaks, and to factor in their risk when making policies that might affect the environment.

“Our model can help decision makers assess the likely impact [on zoonotic disease] of any interventions or change in national or international government policies, such as the conversion of grasslands to agricultural lands,” said Kate Jones, a professor who co-led the study at University College London’s genetics, evolution and environment department.

The model also has the potential to look at the impact of global change on many diseases at once, she said.

Around 60 to 75 per cent of emerging infectious diseases are so-called “zoonotic events”, where animal diseases jump into people. Bats in particular are known to carry many zoonotic viruses.

The Ebola and Zika viruses, now well known, both originated in wild animals, as did many others including Rift Valley fever and Lassa fever that affect thousands already and are predicted to spread with changing environmental factors.

Jones’ team used the locations of 408 known Lassa fever outbreaks in West Africa between 1967 and 2012, and the changes in landuse and crop yields, temperature and rainfall, behaviour and access to healthcare. 

They also identified the sub-species of the multimammate rat that transmits Lassa virus to humans, to map its location against ecological factors.

The model was then developed using this information along with forecasts of climate change, future population density and land-use change.

“Our approach successfully predicts outbreaks of individual diseases by pairing the changes in the host’s distribution as the environment changes with the mechanics of how that disease spreads from animals to people,” said David Redding, who co-led the study.

“It allows us to calculate how often people are likely to come into contact with disease-carrying animals and their risk of the virus spilling over.” 

The team tested their new model using Lassa fever, a disease that is endemic across West Africa and is caused by a virus passing to people from rats. Like Ebola, Lassa causes haemorrhagic fever and can be fatal. 

The study, published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, tested the model with Lassa and found the number of infected people will double to 406,000 by 2070 from some 195,000 due to climate change and a growing human population.

For some time now I’ve had this strange, uneasy feeling about social networks, without being able to clearly define it, to put it in words. Yesterday I found the sentence that says it so well: “On social networks you are not the client, you are the product they are actual selling and trading.” It came as an online comment posted by one of the readers of the French newspaper Le Figaro. It is the perfect expression, the translation of my feeling, and it is so true.

The reader was reacting to the just announced upcoming purchase of LinkedIn by Microsoft. It will be one of the most important takeovers by Microsoft since it acquired Skype in 2011 for $8 billion. The declared value of the LinkedIn deal alone, a trifle $36 billion, should make us realise, more than ever, that these people don’t do it just to please you, to entertain you, without a massive return in their favour. Whatever you the subscriber — I mean the product — get from them, they get a thousand times more from you. What hurts is the insidious, hidden character of what and how they get it from you.

Today, twelve years after Facebook, the most celebrated of them all, was launched, everyone knows how social networks profile you and then use the profiling mainly but not only in outrageously efficient targeted advertising. And yet, those who refrain are a minority. Statista.com estimates that Facebook has 1.6 billion active users and LinkedIn 433 million.

Whereas Facebook audience is global, covering all categories, networks like LinkedIn target professionals, those who want to post their business profile, who may be looking for a job, to recruit for a job, or simply who want to get in touch with colleagues or people in the same discipline. It is not about the witty thought of the day, of the children’s birthday pictures or someone’s graduation or trip to Hawaii.

Facebook, LinkedIn or other, whether personal or professional oriented, they all are more or less invasive. What is amazing is to see the vast majority gladly live with the “strings attached” phenomenon, with the knowledge that the network is using them.

Twelve years ago one could be forgiven because they would not know, but today with the countless stories exposing to the whole world, showing how personal data is collected and put to work, there’s hardly anyone left who is not aware of the real motive behind networking, of the fact that — again — the user is the real product in this incredibly lucrative market.

Social networks started in such a smart way that the number of those who became addicts now by far outweighs those who still enjoy some kind of self-control over their social networking activity. And of course, once you are addicted you don’t stop, even if you know how bad it may be for your health.

If you fully realise how you are being profiled and exploited as a product by social networks and do not mind the situation, given the benefit or the enjoyment you find in it, then it is all but fair and square. 

Sure, I do have a Facebook and a LinkedIn account. I’m even on Instagram (but not on Snapchat yet…), if only to please my children and their friends, to show how “young at heart and high-tech” I am. In the end I just cannot afford not to know how these networks function, what they do, how they do it. However, I don’t frequently visit and I always disclose as few as possible details about my life, my family, my friends and my work. I am extremely careful with any picture I happen to upload there, that is if and whenever I do upload any.

Congrats Microsoft.

Deep in the solidified lava beneath Iceland, scientists have managed an unprecedented feat: They’ve taken carbon dioxide released by a power plant and turned it into rock at a rate much faster than laboratory tests predicted.

The findings, described in the journal Science, demonstrate a powerful method of carbon storage that could reduce some of the human-caused greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change.

“These are really exciting results,” said Roger Aines, a geochemist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who was not involved in the study. “Nobody had ever actually done a large-scale experiment like they’ve done, under the conditions that they did it.”

The pilot programme, performed at Reykjavik Energy’s geothermal power plant under a European-US programme called CarbFix, was able to turn more than 95 per cent of carbon dioxide injected into the Earth into chalky rock within just two years.

“We were surprised,” said study co-author Martin Stute, a hydrologist at Columbia University in New York. “We didn’t expect this. We thought this would be a project that would go on for decades. Maybe 20 years from now, we’d have an answer to the question. But that it happened so fast, and in such a brief period of time, that just blew us away.”

When fossil fuels like coal or gas are burned, the carbon stored within them is released into the air in the form of carbon dioxide. This greenhouse gas traps heat in the atmosphere, triggering an increase in global temperatures that threatens polar ice reserves and contributes to rising sea levels. It also increases the acidity of the ocean, hastening the decline of corals and other marine life.

Researchers have tried for years to figure out how to get that carbon back into the ground. Carbon dioxide can be pulled out of emissions and injected underground into briny waters or emptied oil and gas reservoirs, but there’s a risk that the gas eventually would seep back into the air or that the injection process itself might crack open a reservoir and allow its contents to escape.

Researchers have been looking to get that carbon back into the ground in solid form — something that nature has been doing for a while, although on a far longer timescale. For humans trying to quickly undo the damage of greenhouse gas emissions, that’s easier said than done. Sandstone does not react much with carbon dioxide. Some lab tests showed that basaltic rock, laid down by volcanic activity, might be more effective but on a scale of centuries, if not longer.

An opportunity for a field test arose when the president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, met researchers at Columbia and expressed his interest in cutting back the country’s carbon dioxide emissions.

“This is really the start of this, at the highest level, which is sort of unusual for research projects,” Stute said.

Together with Reykjavik Energy, the research team designed an experiment around the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant. In March 2012, they injected 175 tonnes of pure carbon dioxide into an injection well. A few months later, they followed with 73 tonnes of a mix of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. (The team wanted to see whether the process worked even if there were other gases present; if it did, it would save the time and money of having to separate the carbon dioxide out.)

The researchers separate the carbon dioxide from the steam produced by the plant and send it to an injection well. The carbon dioxide gets pumped down a pipe that’s actually inside another pipe filled with water from a nearby lake. Hundreds of feet below the ground, the carbon dioxide is released into the water, where the pressure is so high that it quickly dissolves, instead of bubbling up and out.

That mix of water and dissolved carbon dioxide, which becomes very acidic, gets sent deeper into a layer of basaltic rock, where it starts leaching out minerals like calcium, magnesium and iron. The components in the mixture eventually recombine and begin to mineralise into carbonate rocks.

The basaltic rock is key, the scientists said: Sandstone would not react with carbon dioxide this way. So is the presence of water; if the mix had been pure gas instead of gas dissolved in water, it’s unlikely the basalt would have helped form carbonate rocks — at least, not with such speed.

The scientists also injected chemical tracers into the mix, including a type of carbon dioxide made with the heavier, rarer isotope known as carbon-14. They also injected other trace gases such as sulfur hexafluoride, which is inert and does not react much with its surroundings.

When the researchers checked the water at monitoring wells later in the experiment, they found that the trace gases were still there (a sign that the water had gotten through) but that the proportion of carbon-14 molecules had significantly declined. As the water had continued to flow through the basaltic layers, the carbon dioxide had been left behind in the rock.

While much of this happened underground, the researchers also saw fine crystals of carbonate sticking to the surface of the pump and pipes at the monitoring well.

“They look like salt from a salt shaker… on the surface of this grey or black basaltic rock,” Stute said.

Based on other laboratory results, the scientists had expected the process to take centuries, if not longer. But the field test showed that this process, under the right conditions, happens at remarkable speed.

There are some limitations to this method. It requires basaltic rock, which, while it can be found in abundance in places like the United States’ Pacific Northwest region, can’t be found everywhere on land. Under the ocean, there’s plenty — but then there’s the question of whether salty water would be as effective as freshwater.

Storage is an issue. Pulling carbon dioxide out of emissions, let alone the atmosphere, is also a difficult challenge, the researchers pointed out.

Still, Aines said, “These results are so encouraging that it’s worth figuring out some of the places where that could be done, and trying that out on a larger and longer scale.”

In the meantime, at the Icelandic plant, operators are reportedly looking to scale up this process.

Two monkey stories marked my childhood. One was called “Copycat Monkey” and the other was “Monkey and the Cats”. Those were not the exact titles of the fables but if I had written them, I would have called them that. These were didactic tales that used simple situations to underline a moral message, and most of the children in my home country India, had heard them. Or read them. Or watched them being performed on stage. But I doubt if anyone in the entire world could relate them better than my hundred-year-old grandmother. 

Now the thing is that my grandmother was not actually a century old, but she looked that, especially when she took off her dentures. The fact was that even she did not know her actual age because she was not given a birth certificate in the small village where she was born. They did not have any concept of it because she belonged to an era where births and deaths were calculated according to the natural calamities that occurred at the time. The year that she was delivered, there was a flood in the river that flowed near her house, but deluges were such a regular catastrophe in that area that by this statistic she could even be 200. Or more! Who could tell? 

But she was a magical storyteller especially when she recounted the monkey stories in different voices. Her cat voice was rasping and kittenish and quite different from her monkey voice which was chirpy and coquettish. In the first yarn, a queen lost her pearl necklace. After some investigation it was discovered that a monkey had stolen it. A wise minister in the king’s Cabinet got several glass-beaded ornaments made and distributed them to a bunch of monkeys who wore it around their necks. The one who had the pearl necklace wanted to show off by copying the rest and came out of hiding to boast that hers was better than the fake ones, and was caught. The moral of the story was that “truth was always revealed only after proper examination”.

In the second one, which was my favourite by far, there were two cats that came upon a loaf of bread. Now according to my grandmother’s mood, this would change into a piece of cake or a chunk of cheese or even a slab of cookie. The cats divided it into two portions, but one wedge was slightly bigger than the other. They went to a monkey to ask for his help. He took a bite from the bigger slice but this made the first one larger. So he took a bite from that one too. This carried on till both the pieces disappeared inside the stomach of the monkey who ran away saying that it was his fee for sorting out the problem. The moral to this tale was that “if you quarrelled, someone else gained”. 

I knew these parables by heart and waited for the part where my grandmother wriggled her bushy white eyebrows and asked us to repeat the cryptic moralising conclusion. 

“What did this story teach us?” she would test my brother. 

“I know the answer,” I would interrupt. 

“Such a show-off,” my sibling would smirk. 

“I am asking you,” my granny glared at him pointedly. 

“No quarrelling,” he muttered. 

“In other words?” she would raise her voice. 

“Be nice to your sister,” he answered. 

“Correct!” my grandma and I would chorus together.

NEW YORK — Italy’s “Osteria Francescana” was crowned world’s best restaurant of 2016 at an awards ceremony in New York on Monday, the first Italian establishment to win the annual accolade.

Run by chef Massimo Bottura, “Osteria Francescana” pipped last year’s winner, Spain’s “El Celler de Can Roca”, in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, after coming second in 2015.

The Italian chef, whose world-famous restaurant in Modena came number three in 2013 and 2014, was emotional in accepting his award.

“I want to thank everyone because it’s been so hard, our job is all about art work,” an ecstatic Bottura told the ceremony. “It’s all about our work, in the kitchen everyday to work and succeed.”

With Spain’s “El Celler de Can Roca” knocked down to second place, the third spot went to New York’s “Eleven Madison Park”.

The top 10 was rounded out by restaurants in Peru, Denmark — former four-time winner “Noma” — France, Spain, Japan and Austria.

Three French chefs won individual honours, with Alain Passard of Arpege given a lifetime achievement award, French-born Dominique Crenn named best female chef and Pierre Herme best pastry chef.

The accolades came after critics complained last year that the system was open to abuse since the jury do not have to offer physical evidence of having actually visited any particular restaurant.

The bulk of those complaints came from France, which in 2016 made it into the top 10 for the first time in three years but has never managed to win first prize.

The board praised Bottura for his twists on traditional ingredients and his “Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano” in particular.

Half in Europe

The awards said he crafted the world-famous cheese into “forms and textures most diners will never have previously experienced”.

“The chef’s ambitious creations perfectly balance the demands of honouring heritage while embracing modernity,” the board added.

They praised his menu of “deliciously executed classics” such as tagliatelle with hand-chopped ragu and risotto cooked with veal jus.

The 2016 list included restaurants in 23 countries on six continents — but half were in Europe. Asia and the United States each had six in the top 50, while South America and Scandinavia each had five.

Spain had seven restaurants on the list, including three in the top ten.

The awards, run by trade magazine Restaurant, began in 2002 and have become a reference for the world’s foodies, but were hit last year by allegations of cosy deals between restaurants and jury members.

The contest is run by British media company William Reed, and criticism has focused on the methodology used to select the best restaurants.

Its jury is made up of 972 experts, including food writers, chefs, restaurant owners and gourmets. Members list their choices in order of preference, based on where they have eaten in the past 18 months.

There is no pre-determined checklist of criteria, but there are strict voting rules.

In the face of complaints, the organisers say consultancy firm Deloitte oversees voting, to ensure the “integrity and authenticity” of the process.