Features

LAS VEGAS — Smartwatches don’t have to look ugly to be functional. Clothing and accessories designers are collaborating with engineers to produce computerised wristwatches that people will want to wear all day and night.

With Apple Inc. preparing to release a watch line that includes an 18-karat gold edition, rivals know they need to think beyond devices that look like miniature computers — with their rectangular screens and wristbands made of rubber-like materials. If the watches aren’t attractive, the market won’t grow beyond a small niche of users.

“The big brick on the wrist is not what a fashionable person is going to wear on a day-to-day basis,” says Cindy Livingston, CEO of Sequel, a Timex business that makes traditional watches under the Guess clothing brand. That’s especially so for women, she says — many of the existing smartwatches are simply too big for their wrists.

At the CES gadget show in Las Vegas this week, Guess said it’s partnering with Martian Watches to make a line of fashionable smartwatches. Guess took its leading line of traditional watches, Rigor, and incorporated Martian’s technology. From a distance, the new Guess Connect watch looks like a Rigor, with analog hands and a crown, or dial, on the right. Closer inspection reveals the addition of two control buttons and a small, one-line display for notifications near six o’clock.

LG, meanwhile, consulted with outside design experts and a sister company that makes fashion and home-decor products. Its first smartwatch was rectangular primarily because of production constraints. A round model followed just months later.

Other companies took fashion into account from the start. Burg’s Dutch founder, Hermen van den Burg, has had 20 years of work in design. At CES, the company showcased new stainless-steel models and one with Swarovski crystals, both due out in March. Van den Burg says a watch, as something you wear, is highly personal and must fit your lifestyle. Cogito filled an in-house design studio in Paris with people from the fashion industry. Last summer’s Classic model has room for just 24 characters of text, so that most of the face can be devoted to making the watch a watch. A fitness tracker coming this April will have interchangeable parts to add patterns on the rim.

The Consumer Electronics Association projects that US sales of wearable devices will reach 31 million this year, up 61 per cent. Most will be health and fitness devices, such as step counters. Although general-purpose smartwatches are expected to reach just 11 million, or about a third of all wearable devices, that’s more than quadruple what was sold in 2014.

Those seeking specialized functions might not care about design, but those looking to wear something around the clock might, says Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s mobile and business solutions division. Apple will “raise the bar”, de la Vega adds. “Others are going to have to work hard to stay up with it.”

High fashion won’t come cheap. Health-tech company Withings hired traditional watch designers to make a fitness-tracking watch called Activite, pronounced activity. It looks like a regular watch except for a second dial on the face to show progress toward that day’s fitness goals. The watch can measure a lot more, but you’ll need a smartphone app to view that. Activite is being manufactured at an unspecified watch factory in Switzerland, rather than in Asia, where consumer electronics are typically produced. With high-quality materials, including calf leather for the band, Activite costs $450, compared with $200 to $300 for typical smartwatches today. But even at that price, Withings sold out an undisclosed number in a day when it came out in November.

At CES, Garmin says it partnered with designer Jonathan Adler to make patterned straps for its Vivofit 2 fitness tracker, to be sold in sets of three for $40. And Sony is making a stainless steel edition of its SmartWatch 3 for $50 more, or $300.

Efforts to make wearable technology more fashionable are intriguing, but companies will still need to convince consumers they need yet another device, says Jorge Aguilar at the brand-consulting firm Landor Associates. Apple is one of the few companies that might pull it off, he says, but even the iPad and iPhone maker still needs to make the case for yet another screen.

Apple has teased consumers with promises of an Apple Watch that can locate parked cars in a crowded lot or unlock hotel room doors with a tap. It will also make smaller versions, which might appeal to women, and designs and bands appropriate for different settings, such as a workout or a night out. But a lot still isn’t known, including how much these fashionable configurations will cost. The base model will cost $349. There’s been speculation the gold edition could cost in the thousands of dollars.

At such a price, the wearer will be making much more than a fashion statement.

NEW YORK — Fast-food chains have a New Year’s resolution: Drop the junk.

As people express distaste for food they think is overly processed, McDonald’s, Taco Bell and other chains are trying to shed their reputation for serving reheated meals that are loaded with chemicals. That includes rethinking the use of artificial preservatives and other ingredients customers find objectionable.

“This demand for fresh and real is on the rise,” said Greg Creed, CEO of Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut.

During the presentation for analysts and investors last month, Creed said the company needs to be more transparent about ingredients and use fewer preservatives.

Recasting fast-food as “fresh” and “real” will be tricky, in large part because it’s so universally regarded as cheap and greasy. Another problem is that terms like “fresh”, ‘’real” and “healthy” have nebulous meanings, making it hard for companies to pin down how to approach transformation.

One way chains are looking to redefine themselves is by purging recipes of chemicals people might find unappetising. Already, packaged food and beverage companies have reformulated products to remove such ingredients, even while standing by their safety. PepsiCo, for instance, said it would remove brominated vegetable oil from Gatorade after a petition by a teenager noted it isn’t approved for use in some markets overseas.

And fast-food chains are indicating they want to jump on the “clean label” trend too:

— Last month, McDonald’s USA President Mike Andres outlined improvements the company is working on, including the simplification of ingredient labels. Without providing details, he said to expect some changes in early 2015. The remarks came after the company reported a 4.6 per cent decline in US sales for November, capping two years of struggling performance.

“Why do we need to have preservatives in our food?” Andres asked, noting McDonald’s restaurants go through supplies quickly. “We probably don’t.”

— Subway, a privately held company that does not disclose sales, started airing TV ads Thursday for its new chicken strips free of artificial preservatives and flavours. After suffering bad publicity, the company said earlier last year it would remove an ingredient from its bread that an online petition noted was also used in yoga mats. The ingredient, azodicarbonamide, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and widely used as a dough conditioner and whitening agent.

—Chick-fil-A said in 2013 it would remove high-fructose corn syrup from buns and artificial dyes from its dressings. A couple months later, it said it plans to serve only chicken raised without antibiotics within five years.

— Carl’s Jr. last month introduced an “all-natural” burger with no added hormones, antibiotics or steroids. “We are obviously looking at other products on our menu to see which ones can be made all natural as well,” said Brad Haley, the chain’s chief marketing officer.

It’s not clear how far fast-food companies will go in reformulating recipes. But the nation’s biggest chains are facing growing competition. In the latest quarter, customer visits to traditional fast-food hamburger chains declined 3 per cent from a year ago, according to market researcher NPD Group. Fast-casual chains — which are seen as a step up from traditional fastfood — saw visits rise 8 per cent.

Part of the appeal of fast-casual chains is that they position themselves as being higher in quality. Chipotle, which touts its use of organic ingredients and meat from animals that were raised without antibiotics, said sales at established locations surged 19.8 per cent in the most recent quarter. And Panera vowed this summer to remove artificial colours, flavours and preservatives from its food by 2016.

The ethos of wholesome ingredients is increasingly being embraced across the industry. But not without some challenges.

Dan Coudreaut, executive chef at McDonald’s, has noted the difficulties in changing recipes. In an interview last year, he said McDonald’s is looking at ways to use culinary techniques to replace the functions of certain ingredients.

“If you take [an ingredient] out, what are you giving up?” he said.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, said there are likely many cases where artificial preservatives or colours could be replaced with natural alternatives without significant costs. Since their functions vary, he said companies would have to evaluate recipes product by product.

“Sometimes, food additives can be crutches or insurance policies. If a food is frozen, germs aren’t going to grow. But preservatives might be added just in case, or they may be used just because their supplier has been using it for so long,” he said, adding that such changes are “not a big deal” in terms of the overall health.

Michele Simon, a public health lawyer and author of “Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines our Health and How to Fight Back”, also said getting rid of additives here and there won’t be enough to change the way people think about fastfood.

“That’s just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Simon said. “These companies have a fundamental problem in who they are.”

LAS VEGAS — Imagine a world in which your garage door opens automatically as you pull into the driveway. The living room lights and heater turn on — perhaps the oven starts warming up, too. In the so-called “smart home”, cars, appliances and other devices all have sensors and Internet connectivity to think and act for themselves, and make your life easier.

We’re not there just yet, but we’re getting closer.

The smart home concept is known in tech circles as the Internet of Things. Current iterations primarily include our ability to control gadgets such as lights and security alarms or view data remotely through a smartphone app. At the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas this week, manufacturers will promote more devices and functionality. Some gadgets will be able to talk directly with one another, not just to an app. The four-day show opens to the public Tuesday.

That garage door? Mercedes-Benz would like people to imagine their luxury car of the future pulling in all by itself, without a driver behind the wheel, to bring its passengers home.

The carmaker unveiled the sleek concept car that it is calling F 015 Monday night when it turned a stage inside The Cosmopolitan on the Strip in Las Vegas into a scene usually reserved for annual car shows, attracting a swell of people on stage afterward wanting a closer look.

The car’s futuristic look belies some historic inspiration in its design. Dieter Zetsche, head of Mercedes-Benz, said the wheels were pushed to the outer edges much like a horse carriage, giving ample room inside for seating rather than wheel wells — in this case four modern swivel chairs that can face each other.

And much like those horse carriages, the passengers inside the car of the future can chat, read a newspaper, or even take a nap while their car would ferry them home.

“Mankind has been dreaming of autonomous cars since the 1950s,” Zeetsche said. He said his company has been working to make it a reality, albeit still a concept and not in production yet, since the 1990s.

“It’s basically a revolution,” he said of the car.

The Internet of Things could mean big business for gadget makers. The Consumer Electronics Association projects US sales of smart energy and security systems alone will total $574 million this year, a 23 per cent increase from 2014. Although that pales by comparison to the $18 billion spent on TVs and displays, growth has been swift. In terms of people smartening up their homes in earnest, though, it will probably be another two years before devices are cheap and widespread enough for the typical consumer, says Eduardo Pinheiro, CEO of Muzzley, which makes a hub that allows devices to talk to each other.

For now, the smart home is more about possibilities than practice. Many companies exhibiting at CES are laying the foundation for what a smart home system will eventually do, hoping to entice consumers to start thinking about upgrading to smart gadgets. It’s not always an easy sell.

Consider wearable devices that track fitness and other activities. In many cases, the novelty wears off quickly, and devices end up in drawers. But what if a wearable device that tracks sleep could tell the coffeemaker to start brewing as soon as you awoke? When the coffee’s done, what if the sprinklers on the front lawn automatically turned off so you didn’t get wet walking out the front door to work?

“It’s these great benefits that we need to explain,” says BK Yoon, Samsung’s CEO and chief of consumer electronics. “We can’t just talk about the Internet of Things because it’s so impersonal like a bedtime story for robots. We have to show what’s in it for them.”

That includes freeing people from chores to spend more time with family, pursue more hobbies and, in his case, spend “quality time on the putting green”, he says.

Some examples: Lucis Technologies will soon ship a smart lighting device called NuBryte that can learn your behaviour, such as what time you tend to come home. Sensors can turn on the night light if you wake up to use the bathroom but switch on brighter lights during the day. A coffeemaker from Smarter will soon use data from fitness trackers such as Fitbit. If you had a bad night of sleep, the coffeemaker will know to make the java stronger that morning. Other products focus on better notifications: A battery for a smoke detector to alert you on your phone when the alarm goes off, or a bracelet that vibrates when the baby cries in its crib. (Moms rejoice: The bracelet is even smart enough to alternate which parent it alerts to get up.)

“It’s got to be something people are seeing it can do and want it to do,” says Chris Penrose, AT&T’s senior vice president for the Internet of Things. “It’s got to make their lives better and be incredibly easy to use.”

“True consumer value will come when devices work in concert with one another and in many cases across manufacturers,” adds Brett Dibkey, a Whirlpool Corp. vice president. “The home adapts to the way consumers live rather than the other way around.”

At CES, Whirlpool will showcase dryers that can run at a slower, energy-saving cycle if you aren’t home and thus aren’t in a rush. The dryer integrates with Google Inc.’s Nest smart thermostat, which has sensors to figure out that no one’s home and then lowers the heat automatically. Meanwhile, a smart home hub called DigitalStrom plans to take cues from Nest. If Nest is trying to cool down the house, for instance, DigitalStrom will lower automated window shades to block out sunlight.

These are the building blocks for an eventual automated home. Once those building blocks are in place, services can better predict what you want. For example, Netflix is already good about recommending movies to watch based on your preferences, but it might suggest something different if it could read data from a wearable device or camera and tell that you’re with friends, or stressed out, says Shawn Dubravac, senior director of research with the Consumer Electronics Association.

The most muscular iteration of Chevrolet’s highly stylised retro-futuristic Camaro muscle car, the ZL1 is a high performance bargain with brutish power and performance.

More than just a simple point-and-squirt straight-line rocket, the Camaro ZL1 knows how to put power down through corners and in 2011 posted an impressive 7:41.27 lap time on the German Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit.

Engineered by General Motors’ Australian Holden wing, styled by Korean-born designer Sang Yup Lee and built in Canada, the mildly re-styled 580BHP Camaro ZL1 is a defining modern American muscle car. However, since late-2014 it has an even more thuggish foe to contend with in the form of the 707BHP Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.

Hunkered down and muscular

Quintessentially American in character, the Camaro ZL1’s sharp design pays homage to the classic original 1960s Camaro, and is anything but subtle in its sense of presence and aesthetic sensibility. Brazenly aggressive, with long snouty bonnet, wide body and rakishly low roofline, the Camaro has an uncomplicated sense of appeal.

With sharply defined lines, ridges, pinched hips and muscular haunches, combined with heavily browed face with deeply recessed lights and grille, the Camaro strikes an even more menacing stance with the more muscular ZL1 version’s bigger and lower bumper and air intakes, and more defined bonnet bulge necessary for the taller supercharged engine sitting somewhat far in the bay for balanced weight distribution.

Receiving only the single – rather than two-piece a side – rear light segment of an otherwise Camaro-wide facelift, the ZL1 soldiers on with an un-revised front-end, required for its unique ground effects and cooling airflow management, rather than receiving a bespoke new front fascia.

With front air splitter, wide engine and brake cooling ducts, special underbody covers, side skirts, front tyre deflectors and prominent bonnet vents, the ZL1 develops 29kg down-force to keep it pinned down at 241km/h, compared to the outgoing Camaro SS version’s 90kg lift.

Meanwhile, enormously wide low profile 285/35ZR20 front and 305/35ZR20 rear tyres work hard to effectively putting down the ZL1’s immense reservoir of torque and power onto the road.

Volcanic V8

Mechanically unaltered, the rear-drive ZL1’s glorious 6.2-litre supercharged is a bluntly effective contemporary take on a traditional American formula.

A burbling, cross-plane 16-valve OHV V8 with deep bass growls and intense top-end bellows underlayed with supercharger whine, the ZL1’s compact lightweight aluminium LSA engine eschews racy dry sump lubrication for a deeper wet sump and high capacity oil pump for consistent oil circulation through high lateral g-force corners. 

Rear-driven through six-speed automatic gearbox, the ZL1’s liquid-cooled heavy-duty limited-slip rear-differential distributes power to the driven wheel with best traction. 

Quick and smooth in automatic and sequential modes, the ZL1 would have however been an even more visceral and involving experience in six-speed manual gearbox specification, rather than the tested automatic.

Developing 580BHP at 6000rpm and 556lb/ft at 4200rpm, brawny ZL1 launches vigorously off-the-line, as its irresistibly brutal torque battles with a vigilant traction and stability control system. The result is a brilliant compromise of wheelspin, traction and forward motion, and with driver firmly pinned back in Recaro sports seat, the ZL1 blasts through the 0-100km/h benchmark in 4-seconds and onto a 290km/h potential top speed. 

With a mechanically-driven supercharger provides instant and progressive boost, the ZL1 provides off-the-line immediacy and freight train confidence through its muscular mid-range. Progressively and muscularly rising from languidly effortless tick-over to jack-hammer intensity at full chat in a seamless sweep through the rev range, the ZL1 delivers full-spectrum confidence.

Magnetic appeal

Built on GM’s Holden-developed Zeta platform with multi-link independent suspension on all corners, the Camaro ZL1 uses also features adaptive magnetic dampers to take the edge off its huge alloy wheels and low profile tyres firm ride. Automatically firm up for flat body control through corners, the ZL1’s magnetic dampers also loosen up over imperfect roads for more pliancy.

Riding smooth and firm — but not punishingly so — the ZL1’s ground affect airflow solutions and big footprint feels reassuring planted and stable at speed. 

Given its weight and performance, the ZL1 employs a highly effective Brembo brake system, with huge 370mm front and 365mm rear ventilated discs and six-piston front and four-piston rear callipers.

With sticky tyres pushed out to corners, the ZL1 delivers high grip levels, but given its immense reservoir of torque, one can easily un-stick the rear wheels — deliberately or not. It is more effective to dial in power smoothly through a corner’s apex to exit onto a straight with brutal pace and sure-footed poise, with its limited-slip differential putting power down as best as it can be used. 

To reduce parasitic power loss and improve efficiency the ZL1 uses variable ratio and effort electric steering, and with its long bonnet, one tucks in seemingly early but tidily into corners. However a heavier, non-variable or traditional hydraulic system might offer greater fluency, feel and intuitiveness.

Hunkered down

A compellingly powerful, composed and quick muscle car edging close to near-supercar performance, the ZL1 well handles its huge near 1.9-tonne weight through corners and rides with a smoothly firm consistency that is settled over rebounds from cracks and dips. However, the best advice for tall and wide drivers (over 188cm) is that they should avoid the sunroof option. 

With its hunkered down roof, small glasshouse, long bonnet and big dramatic haunches, the Camaro doesn’t offer the best visibility or most generous headroom, but without a sunroof it manages just fine, and especially with the much-appreciated reversing camera. However, the tested car’s optional sunroof’s reduced headspace compromised effective visibility and ergonomics. 

Ergonomically, the optional sunroof reduces side headroom, with tall drivers sometimes leaning to the centre of the cabin for the extra room directly under the sunroof, but with the steering wheel is angled slightly away from the centre – for crash safety – means that one’s right arm is close and left arm far from the ZL1’s flat-bottom multi-control steering wheel. 

Additionally, the ZL1’s four auxiliary gauges are welcome, but are positioned somewhat low in the centre console. Moody and swathed with suede-like material, the ZL1’s moody black cabin features squared-off retro-style instruments, head’s-up windscreen display, a USB and Bluetooth-enabled infotainment system, rear child seat latches and a 320-litre boot.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 6.2-litre, all-aluminium, supercharged in-line V8-cylinders

Bore x Stroke: 103.25 x 92mm

Compression ratio: 9.1:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, OHV

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential

Gear ratios: 1st 4.03:1; 2nd 2.36:1; 3rd 1.53:1; 4th 1.15:1; 5th 0.85:1; 6th 0.67:1

Reverse/final drive: 3.06:1/3.23:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 580 (587) [432] @ 6,000rpm

Specific power: 95.2PS/litre

Power-to-weight: 311.9PS/ton

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 556 (754) @ 4,200rpm

Specific torque: 122.6Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 400.6Nm/ton

Redline: 6,200rpm

0-100km/h: 4-seconds

Top speed: 290km/h

Fuel consumption, city/highway/combined: 18.1-/11.2-/15-litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 71.9-litres

Length: 4,841mm

Width: 1,918mm 

Height: 1,376mm

Wheelbase: 2,852mm

Track: 1,618mm

Kerb weight: 1,882kg

Weight distribution, F/R: 52 per cent/48 per cent

Headroom, F/R: 950/897mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,077/757mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,444/1,080mm

Cargo volume: 320-litres

Steering: Variable ratio /effort, electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 11.5-metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.5-turns

Suspension: Multi-link, anti-roll bars, adaptive magnetic dampers

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs 370 x 32mm/365 x 28mm

Callipers, F/R: 6-/4-pistons

Tyres, F/R: 285/35ZR20/305/35ZR20

LAS VEGAS — New technology is getting more personal. So personal, it is moving to connect and analyse our movements, our health, our brains and our everyday devices.

Welcome to the so-called Internet of Me.

One of the major themes at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is connecting thousands of objects that people use each day — clothing, cars, lightbulbs and home appliances.

But the challenge facing developers is making that information useful, and the CES is increasingly seeing inventions related to digital “coaches” and ways to improve health or fitness, or get better information about our cars or appliances, said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at the Consumer Electronics Association in his outlook for the show.

“The key to all of this is that something happens in the physical space, and we digitise it and feed it back into the physical space,” he said.

“No longer the focus is on what can technologically be done but what is technologically meaningful.”

Some of the new devices on display at a preview Sunday included apps to monitor and improve the quality of sleep, a connected baby bottle to measure infant nutrition intake, and sensors that analyse one’s golf swing to compare it to that of the pros.

Smart clothing, connected smoke detectors and dozens of new smartwatches and fitness devices are also in the mix.

Next phase of Internet

Smartwatches and other wearables are far more prominent at the show than ever before.

These new technologies “continue the trend of deploying the Internet in a personal way”, DuBravac said. “Nothing gets more personal than wearables.”

He said this represents a “third phase of the Internet”, after personal computers and mobile devices, to wearables and other connected objects.

“We are moving the Internet now from 2 billion smartphones to 50 billion objects,” he said.

“We are taking the Internet to new places, to your wrist. And you are going to see that across the show... It’s not just about the distribution and dissemination of information. The way we use the Internet will change.”

CES, which officially opens Tuesday, is one of the world’s biggest trade fairs devoted to technology, with some 36,000 exhibitors and an estimated 160,000 people in attendance.

The show also features new big-screen televisions with “ultra” high-definition displays, and an array of drones for personal and industrial uses. It also includes expanded sections for robotics and automotive technology.

The exhibition opens amid a mixed economic outlook for the global technology industry. The Consumer Electronics Association, which organises it, said spending on technology rose a mere 1 per cent in 2014 to $1.024 trillion, but that it is too early to know the trend for 2015.

“We have a very mixed spending picture,” CEA analyst Steve Koenig said.

The market is being driven by strong demand for new products like tablets and smartphones in emerging economies in Asia, and by modest economic growth in North America.

The picture is clouded by economic stagnation in the eurozone and Japan and “weak expectations” in big emerging economies such as Brazil, Koenig explained.

Russia, another large emerging economy, is being hit by economic sanctions that could dent tech spending.

The association predicted a drop in tech spending of 5 per cent in Europe and Latin America, and it remains unclear whether the rest of the world will pick up the slack.

Koenig said smartphone and tablet sales are growing at a healthy pace in China and other developing economies, and demand for new televisions is being driven by a “robust upgrade cycle” to the “ultra” high-definition displays.

At the same time, spending is being capped by the decreasing price for new mobile devices.

“A flood of low-cost devices is coming into the marketplace,” he said, noting the prominence of phone makers in China such as Xiaomi, which has pushed into the top ranks of manufacturers.

Shantaram

Gregory David Roberts

New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2003

Pp. 936

“Shantaram” is more than a novel. It is an invitation to share in an unparallelled human experience of adventure and soul-searching which is, in essence, a true story. As a young man in Australia, the author, Gregory David Roberts, resorted to heroin when his marriage fell apart, and then to armed robbery to sustain his addiction. Arrested and sentenced to 19 years in prison, he escaped, eventually arriving in Bombay, where he began a new life, assuming the name, Lin, and working first as a medic in a slum and then for a branch of the Bombay mafia.

The protagonist and narrator of the novel follows a similar trajectory, making it a type of autobiography. Reportedly, there has been debate as to whether all the particulars in the book are true or not, but this is beside the point. The impact of the story lies not so much in Lin’s adventures, though they are breathtaking, but in how he interprets the people and events with which he becomes involved. His experience in India and later when he follows a charismatic leader into the Afghanistan war of the 1980s, catalyse his search for himself and for meaning in life.

This is a novel that builds on contrasts and contradictions — the dazzling contrasts of India; the seemingly contradictory natures of people he meets, such as Khader Khan, the mafia boss who is simultaneously a devout Muslim and philosopher; and the tangled lives of other foreign fugitives, especially the mysterious Karla with whom Lin falls in love. 

Not least are Lin’s inner conflicts, his contradictory self-images and the self-doubt with which he struggles. Roberts’ writing style is more than equal to all these contrasts as it ranges from exquisite descriptions of the beauty of India and the spirit of its people, to harsh, graphic, profane accounts of gang violence and war, as well as the cruelty of poverty, which also kills. 

Almost the only main character who is free of contradictions is Prabaker, Lin’s self-appointed guide who pulls him out of the expatriate milieu for a tour of “the real India”, beginning with his own village. Here Lin stays six months, learning Marathi and local customs, acquiring the name Shantaram, which means “man of peace”, and beginning his journey of self-understanding.

The first night, the villagers fear that he will be lonely, so they gather around his sleeping place. At one point, Parabaker’s father stretches out his hand to rest on Lin’s shoulder. “It may sound strange… but until that very moment I’d had no real comprehension of the wrong I’d done, and the life I’d lost… [In prison] I was too busy being punished, and feeling punished, to put my heart around it… It was only there, in the village in India, on that first night, adrift on the raft of murmuring voices, and my eyes filled with stars; only then, when another man’s father reached out to comfort me… did I see and feel the torment of what I’d done, and what I’d become… and how lonely I was.” (p. 124)

The time Lin lived in the slum was even more life-changing. Having prior first-aid training and putting it to use when a fire hits the slum, he is accepted into the community and even revered by the slum dwellers. He takes it as a learning experience. While recording all the tragedies and extreme difficulties of their lives, he also focuses on their ability to find happiness in simple things, their inventiveness in resolving problems and conflicts, and most of all, their key to survival — love, love for each other, and the mutual support it generates. 

Much that happens in the first two-thirds of the novel is not of Lin’s choosing. A combination of circumstances leads him to live in the slum; another combination, partly engineered by others and which he only understands in hindsight, lands him in prison in Bombay and then into working closely with the mafia. He leads a more comfortable life, but the new imprisonment, new torture, new fighting, new dangers — all of these cause him to keep reliving his past and question himself, and even threaten his sanity, but he rules out leaving Bombay. “The city had seduced me. I was in love with her. There was a part of me that she invented, and that only existed because I lived there…” (p. 459)

This book would be well worth reading if only for its fascinating inside view of the many faces of Bombay, but even more important is Lin’s interior landscape as we follow his quest to redefine himself and his values. You don’t feel you are reading a novel, but that you are living it. And you will never think exactly the same about the meaning of love, freedom, good and evil, forgiveness, human responsibility and redemption. “Shantaram” is available at Readers/Cozmo Centre.

MIAMI — US scientists encouraged 20 obese people to eat extra fast food for several months, and found that about a quarter stayed in good health despite the additional pounds they gained.

The study in the January 2 edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation was led by a team of scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri.

Subjects were encouraged to eat 1,000 extra calories per day, mainly by frequenting fast-food restaurants with the goal of adding 6 per cent of their body weight.

“This was not easy to do. It is just as difficult to get people to gain weight as it is to get them to lose weight,” said chief author Elisa Fabbrini, assistant professor of medicine. 

Those not suffering from ailments typically associated with obesity at the outset of the study — such as insulin resistance, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and excess liver fat — did not have these problems even after adding about 7 kilogrammes to their already overweight frames, said the findings.

The results mirror what scientists have seen in the general population, which is that about a quarter of obese people do not appear to suffer from metabolic complications that can lead to heart attack, diabetes and stroke.

But those whose did suffer from metabolic problems before the study grew even worse when they put on extra weight. 

Fat-regulating genes

All the research subjects were helped by dieticians to lose the weight they gained for the study, which was featured on HBO’s documentary “Weight of the Nation” while the research was under way.

Study authors said they now understand better how to distinguish obese people who will be more prone to ill health from those who may be more protected.

For instance, those with abnormal metabolisms accumulated fat in their livers, while the healthier people did not, even when they gained more weight.

“Another difference involved gene function in fat tissue,” the university said in a statement.

The study found that overweight people with normal metabolisms had more fat-regulating genes. 

“The activity of those genes increased even more when the metabolically normal people gained weight. That wasn’t true for people with abnormal metabolism,” the study found. 

Since obesity is known to contribute to dozens of health problems, more research is needed to figure out why some are particularly prone to problems from obesity.

“Could it be genetics, specific dietary intake, physical lifestyle, emotional health or even the microbes that live in the gut?” queried senior investigator Samuel Klein, director of Washington University’s Centre for Human Nutrition.

“We need more studies to try to understand why obesity causes specific diseases in some people but not in others,” Klein said.

AMARILLO, Texas — A new Thai and sushi restaurant sits on a busy corner, not far from the vast prairie that once epitomised Texas’ early cattle ranching days.

Only five years ago, owner Saw Lawla left his home country of Myanmar and resettled in Los Angeles through a federal refugee programme. Vexed by big-city life, Lawla was lured to the Texas Panhandle in 2011 by cheaper living, employment at a meat processing plant and a growing population of other Myanmar refugees.

“For our people, here is the best place,” said the 40-year-old, who recently opened Bagan Restaurant after pooling funds with four other refugees. “They can find a future here.”

Despite its reputation for anti-immigrant politicians, Texas has led the US in refugee resettlements for the last four years and continues to attract others who move here on their own, due in large part to a strong economy. Most are settled in large cities, but immigrant populations are also thriving in more remote areas like Amarillo, where subtle aspects of far-away cultures have taken root.

“We’ve just adapted,” Moore County Judge Rowdy Rhoades said. His county, just north of Amarillo, will soon have a third mosque to serve the population of Somalis and people from Myanmar who work at a nearby meat processing plant. “They’re just here to provide for their family, like anyone.”

The US State Department oversees the resettlement programme, which annually places tens of thousands of people who have fled their countries in about 190 communities. In a yea-long span that ended in September, Texas became the new home for about 7,200 refugees from more than two dozen countries, the majority from Iraq and Myanmar. Houston led the state with nearly 2,000 resettlements, followed by Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio.

Texas’ smaller cities have been accommodating the rest — including Amarillo, Abilene and Midland. In 2010 alone, Amarillo received 730 refugees, about the same as San Antonio and Austin.

Yet, the constant flow of refugees — hovering in the 400 to 500-person range in each of the last four years — has some of Amarillo’s leaders worried that the city’s resources are being overwhelmed. Among the biggest concerns are getting students up to speed in schools and addressing the language barrier. Dozens of languages are now spoken in Amarillo, Mayor Paul Harpole said, and emergency calls have sometimes taken nearly 10 minutes.

Resettlement agencies have responded, deciding that refugees would only be placed in Amarillo if they have family ties.

“We have no problem with bringing them here,” Harpole said. “But we want to be able to do the right job when we get them here.”

Amarillo’s rich history of being a refugee relocation spot dates to 1975, when Vietnamese were resettled here. Today, the majority of its refugees come from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The overall effect on the city’s demographics has been muted. Since 2000, its Asian population has jumped from about 3,600 to about 7,400 but still only accounts for 3.8 per cent of Amarillo’s approximately 197,000 residents.

More dramatic shifts are occurring in smaller communities such as Cactus, a town of about 3,000 in Moore County where the Asian population has gone from less than 1 per cent in 2000 to the most recent estimate of almost 28 per cent.

Farther south, refugees have been resettled in Abilene for only about a decade, but during that time, about 2,000 have arrived to the city of about 120,000 — most from the Congo, Bhutan and Burundi. Groups have clamoured to help, offering everything from language classes and other education opportunities to a programme that teaches refugees how to play tennis.

“It’s just a very, very welcoming environment,” said Susanna Lubanga, resettlement director of the International Rescue Committee in Abilene. “We have volunteers who started volunteering because they were at Wal-Mart and gave refugees a ride.”

Iraqi refugee Hamzah Hussein has spent almost a year in Abilene with his wife and four children. A former teacher and interpreter for the US army, Hussein has been stocking shelves at Wal-Mart at night and by day earned his commercial driver’s licence, which he hopes leads to a job in the oil industry.

“I’ve visited Dallas, but I like it here. It’s very quiet,” the 34-year-old said. “Over there it’s too much people, too much noise.”

BRATISLAVA — For Slovaks, it is the stuff of Marcel Proust’s madeleine recollections: a scrumptious, crescent-shaped pastry filled with walnuts or poppy seeds that triggers a rush of memories.

All but forgotten under the decades and drabness of communism, the tasty Bratislavske rozky — or bajgel, as they are also called — are making a comeback.

Slovak pedestrians munch away on the traditional treat at cafes and snack shops or just walking around the narrow cobblestoned streets in the old town of Bratislava.

The reward? A reminder of the rich history and vibrant cultural melange of this capital cut through by the Danube at the heart of Europe.

The cousin of the French croissant, the Italian cornetto and the Austrian Kipferl, the bajgel harks back as far as the 16th century but its exact provenance remains shrouded in mystery.

Turkish, German or Slovak? For expert Sandor Pap, it is to the residents of Bratislava, known as Pressburg under the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the late 19th-early 20th century, that the crescent cookie owes its beginnings.

“Back then, people didn’t care about questions of nationality or faith,” said the employee of the state-funded Bratislavske Rozky Association.

Case in point: the historic Schwappach pastry shop, an institution that has been around for centuries, goes by a German name but refers to its croissants by yet another term — their Hungarian designation, Pozsonyi kifli.

The bakery began churning out the treats over Christmas 1785, when master pastry chef Wilhelm Scheuermann included them in a holiday window display to much fanfare.

‘Recount their childhood’

Today, the Bratislavske rozky label comes with strict criteria.

“The croissants must be marbled and golden, meaning you have to brush on two layers of egg yolk. Their filling must make up 30 per cent of the total weight and they have to be baked chemical-free,” said Eva Bolemant, whom the association employs to market the sweets.

“The shape varies with the filling, allowing clients to tell them apart: those with walnuts are in the shape of a C, while the poppy seed variety look like a horseshoe or U.”

The pastries were widely available until the end of World War II. But communism’s command economy shuttered many family pastry shops and the original recipe got lost in the shuffle.

Bratislava’s croissants survived in home baking until they could resurface at pastry shops and cafes after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

“When we sell them at public events, like now at the Christmas markets, older people stop by and recount their childhood memories,” said Bolemant.

“And how their grandmothers made the pastries. But they regret that they no longer have the recipe.”

While Pap and Bolemant insist there is no official original recipe and every family uses its own, there is a version patented by the city’s well-known master pastry chef Vojtech Szemes.

The pastries gained their European Union-legislated “traditional specialties guaranteed” trademark in Slovakia. Yet two of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire countries — Austria or Hungary — could just as well have claimed it: Pressburg, alias Bratislava, lay at the crossroads, right on the border with the two “modern” states.

Bratislava’s croissants are now starting to make a name for themselves outside Slovakia.

One store, the FantastiCo, a small but trendy glass-windowed corner shop that makes only Bratislavske rozky which are touted as among the city’s best, began selling the rolls last year on an “E-shop”.

Orders quickly came in by the dozens. Today, they arrive in the thousands, with more and more coming from abroad.

WASHINGTON — In the air, in your car, on your back — new technology at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is showcasing the growing number of ways to live the “connected life.”

The so-called “Internet of Things” is leading to a wider range of wearable tech, from sports shirts to smart watches to sleep monitors to connected refrigerators.

The vast 2015 International CES, one of the world’s biggest electronics fairs to be held in Las Vegas January 6-9, shows how technology is permeating virtually all sectors of life — from entertainment to automobiles to kitchen appliances, in sectors including health, fashion and sports.

“The ‘Internet of Things’ is the hottest topic in tech right now,” said Karen Chupka of the Consumer Electronics Association, which organises the annual event.

“It’s all about the opportunity to connect everyday items like cars, home security systems and kitchen appliances to networked devices like PCs and smartphones for greater control and management of our everyday lives.”

Also on view will be the newest and biggest television displays featuring “ultra high definition” that is catching on with consumers.

So-called 4K television sets are coming down in price and becoming mainstream, and some reports suggest the show may feature newer, even more realistic “8K” displays.

Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates, said that 4K “is a really obvious play for the industry and consumers” because it can mean big-ticket purchases, and deliver a better image.

While 4K television has been around a few years, the market may be ready now, says Bob O’Donnell at the research firm Technalysis, with prices for TV sets falling below $1,000.

The 4K format “is more 3D-like than 3D”, O’Donnell said. “The quality is so high it makes you feel like you’re there.”

Curved and bendable screens should be on display, and perhaps some folding ones as well.

In the air, CES will for the first time have a dedicated space for drones to accommodate the growing interest in unmanned flying devices. This comes with interest in drones for everything from law enforcement to crop management to search-and-rescue missions.

A separate robotics zone will be 25 per cent bigger than last year, with at least 18 exhibitors. Some robots are connected to the Internet cloud, or controllable by mobile device and capable of seeing, hearing, feeling and reacting to the environment.

Tech on your sleeve

A wider range of wearable technology will also be on display at the show, in a key segment among the 35,000 exhibitors.

While smart watches and fitness bands have been on the market, “I expect to see more smart garments, including smart shirts and smart bras”, said Angela McIntyre, analyst at the research firm Gartner.

“We’ll be seeing more traction with smart garments next year.”

These garments are likely to replace more restrictive heart-monitoring straps and bands which are “effective but uncomfortable”, McIntyre said.

More important than the wearable items themselves will be the platform behind them. Users will be looking for ways to use the data in a productive way, said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas.

“A wearable device can tell you that you have walked 10,000 steps. But we need more than that,” Llamas said.

“People are looking for devices which tell us when we need to go to sleep earlier, skip dessert, or get up and take a walk around the office.”

A major battle is taking place to be the software platform for wearables, with Google, Apple, Microsoft and others seeking domination.

“There is no dominant company yet,” McIntyre said.

“What we will be seeing is a shift from the device and its app to having an integrated account where people can get insights about their fitness and health not just from one device but from several wearables.”

Smart glasses and watches will also be out in force, even before the commercial launch of items such as Google Glass and the Apple Watch. Rivals will be looking to get into these markets, although consumers may want to wait for anticipated products, such as the Apple Watch, due sometime in 2015.

O’Donnell said the successful smart watches will pay close attention to style.

“The watch is a very personal device, it’s much more personal than a phone you put in your pocket,” he said. “That’s going to lead to experimentation.”

While smart glasses will be on display, O’Donnell said “there are a lot of privacy and creepiness issues” to be overcome.

Home and car electronics

The “smart home” segment will be significant, with connected devices such as light bulbs, ovens, refrigerators, window systems and garage doors. But software is equally important in this market as well.

O’Donnell said consumers want an integrated system to avoid having a multitude of different apps, but that developers want an open system that is easy to access.

“On the connected home side it’s all about getting these things to talk to each other,” he said. “So I can have a control panel that can talk to a smart lightbulb or thermostat.”

In a sign of the importance of automotive electronics, CES will have 10 car manufacturers showing their entertainment, safety and other technical advances — from self-parking cars to systems that use Big Data to navigate or diagnose problems.

“We are seeing ways to collect data from the car, send you firmware for the vehicle, real-time traffic, Wi-Fi hotspots for the passengers,” O’Donnell said.

“We could see better diagnostics, so you can tell if your spark plug is going to die and needs to be replaced.”