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The Sum of Our Days

Isabel Allende

Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

London: HarperCollins, 2009

Pp. 301

This is the sequel to “Paula”, the memoir Isabel Allende wrote in response to the tragic death of her daughter in 1992. “The Sum of Our Days” is also addressed to Paula, intending to keep her abreast of happenings in the lives of her loved ones, for in Allende’s world, the demarcation between the living and the dead is ever-shifting and porous. As she writes, Allende is still grieving, but life goes on; the family is expanding and there are new tragedies and joys to relate. Like all of Allende’s writing, fictional or otherwise, this book celebrates life, love, family, imagination, dreams and spirituality. 

After Paula’s death, Allende fears that her muse had dried up and she will not be able to write fiction again. Falling back on her earlier experience as a journalist, she assigns herself a topic to research, travels to India and the Amazon, and publishes “Aphrodite”, a collection of recipes, sensuous stories and aphrodisiacs. She also establishes a foundation to aid poor women in different parts of the world — an idea suggested to her by Paula. 

Gradually and with a concerted effort, the muse returns and one learns the inside story of Allende’s ensuing novels: “Daughter of Fortune”, “Portrait in Sepia” and “The City of the Beasts” — the first in a trilogy of children’s adventures which grew out of telling her grandchildren stories. In connection with telling about writing “Ines of My Soul”, she identifies the pattern in her fiction: “In nearly all my books there are defiant women, born poor or vulnerable, destined to be subjected, but they rebel, ready to pay the price of freedom at any cost. Ines Suarez is one of them. My female protagonists are always passionate in their loves and loyal to other women. They are not moved by ambition but by love.” (p. 267)

Judging from what the author reveals about herself in this book, it means they are all somehow similar in character, if not in background, to her. 

More than a literary memoir, this is a chronicle of family, though perhaps one shouldn’t separate the two as Allende often confides that she draws her characters and inspiration from real people, usually relatives. The loss of her daughter seems to have doubled her commitment to insuring the welfare of the remaining family. Allende’s love, caring and involvement — sometimes too much, she admits — in the life of her son and grandchildren, is at the core of the book. Gathering her extended family around the home she and her second husband, the lawyer Willie Gordon, build in Northern California is her top priority. The family is so expansive and branched that she calls it a tribe. Marrying a family member is enough to gain admittance; even in the case of divorce, membership is retained for those who continue to share their love. Blood relations is not a requirement; the tribe includes soul mates who contribute to its warmth and togetherness and share in its formative experiences. 

Though in many ways embracing her new life in the United States whole-heartedly, Allende continues to write in Spanish and to preserve the family traditions which she brought with her from her native Chile. “A tribe has its inconveniences, but also many advantages. I prefer it a thousand times to the American dream of absolute individual freedom, which, though it may help in getting ahead in this world, brings with it alienation and loneliness.” (p. 173)

Also, in other ways, her commentary on the American way of life and its politics are priceless. 

The first part of the book focuses on the efforts of Isabel and Willie to save his drug-addicted daughter from a previous marriage, and when that fails, to find a nurturing home for the premature child she gave birth to, who is not expected to live. But live Sabrina does, thanks to intense care and love from the tribe. Sabrina’s story is emblematic as the tribe’s fortunes swing from heart-rending situations worthy of Greek tragedy, to near miracles. There is also a fair share of tension in Isabel’s marriage and within the tribe, which she sometimes describes with tongue in cheek: “Fortunately… the family melodramas continued, because if not, what the devil would I write about?” (p. 57)

The years covered in the book (1993-2006) span the birth and coming of age of Allende’s grandchildren, the maturation of her marriage and deepening of the love between her and her husband. “The Sum of Our Days” is also about getting older gracefully. Allende is humbled by life but never daunted. Her prose, as always, is lush, passionate and evocative.

SANTIAGO, Chile — It’s a bicyclist’s dream: A bike that can’t be stolen.

The “Yerka,” a prototype designed by three young Chilean engineering students, is the latest entry in a recent trend of bikes that can be locked using some of their own parts. They include Brooklyn-based “Seatylock”, which uses its saddle seat as a lock, and Seattle-based “Denny”, which is locked with its detachable handlebars.

But the inventors of the Yerka have made a twist in that approach. The bike’s lower frame opens up into two arms that are then connected to the seat post and locked to a post, so thieves would have to destroy a Yerka to get it unlocked, leaving it valueless.

“That’s why our motto is ‘a bike that gets stolen is no longer a bike.’ What we have here is truly an unstealable bike,” said Cristobal Cabello, who came up with the design during a college engineering class with childhood friends Andres Roi Eggers and Juan Jose Monsalve.

In Chile and elsewhere in Latin America, the spread of designated cycling lanes, storage racks and bike share programmes are encouraging commuters to switch from cars to bikes, which are cheaper and environmentally friendly.

Cristobal Galban, who holds a doctorate in naval and environmental engineering and is director of the sustainability research centre at Santiago’s Andres Bello University, said a study by his team in 2013 found that “the use of bikes has doubled among Chileans” in five years.

“The main problem in Chile and elsewhere are the robberies, so the Yerka could help solve this,” said Galban, whose own bike was recently stolen.

Tony Hadland, co-author with Hans-Erhard Lessing of “Bicycle Design: An Illustrated History”, called the Chileans’ design “very clever”.

There have been relatively few attempts to incorporate anti-theft precautions into bicycle design, the British writer said.

Leaving aside the familiar shackle locks and chains with locks, most anti-theft accessories have been bolt-on devices, he said. The latter usually involve a piece that passes between the spokes to stop the wheel rotating, but they can still be easily picked open by a thief, he said.

“The most effective strategy commonly used in London today is to take the bike into the office with you,” Hadland said. “The Brompton folding bicycle, now almost an icon of London, is so compact and so easy and reliable to fold that many cycling commuters take their Bromptons into the office.”

“Other anti-theft strategies involve using a bike that looks so unattractive that nobody will want to steal it,” he said.

The young Chilean engineers said they began experimenting with their idea after Roi’s bicycle was stolen. First they built a PVC model, then constructed a working prototype.

Now, while waiting for the patent to be approved and carrying out more tests on the bike’s resistance to thieves, the team plans to launch a crowd funding campaign seeking to raise funds. They’re also looking for a partner who can invest $300,000 needed to produce a first batch of 1,000 bikes that they hope will be sold by mid-2015.

GREEN BANK, United States — In this rural speck of hyper-connected America, it’s easier to hear a cow moo than a cell phone ring.

That’s because Green Bank is home to the world’s most sensitive radio telescope, a device that catches the birth and death of stars and signals so faint they are mere whispers from space.

And, since the electronics of mobile phones and WiFi grids would mess with that delicate task, here technology that’s taken for granted in much of the world is severely restricted or banned outright. 

And a side effect of that radio silence is that Green Bank, population 143, has become a mecca for people who are sick — literally — of electromagnetic waves. 

They claim the migraines and other ailments they blamed on cell phones go away.

Charles Meckna, 53, is one such refugee. He moved here in July from Nebraska in the
Midwest, fleeing electromagnetic waves he said were making him seriously ill.

For him, the radio telescope is a saviour.

“If we happen to lose the radiotelescope, it’s done,” Mecka said, as he built a shed outside his small home in this town 350 kilometres east of Washington, DC.

Green Bank and the area around it in Pocahontas County are in the heart of a so-called “Quiet Zone” declared in 1958 to shield scientists’ super-keen eye on the universe. 

Standing 150 metres tall, with a white dish 100 metres in diameter, the telescope operates day and night capturing signals from space. 

“We can look at the birth of stars, the death of stars,” said Michael Holstine, business manager at what is formally known as the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory.

“This is the most sensitive radio telescope on the planet,” he said.

It can detect a signal that has the equivalent energy to the impact of one snowflake hitting the ground. But to achieve that, the radio environment has to be hush-hush quiet.

A one-of-a-kind “National Radio Quiet Zone” is observed around the telescope over an area of 33,000 square kilometres.

Radio transmissions have to be at a frequency as low as possible.

In a radius of 16 kilometres around the telescope, anything that gives off a radio wave — WiFi, cell phones, TV remote controls or micro-wave ovens — is banned or restricted.

When you are trying to monitor a quasar, for example — super-distant, massive celestial objects that give off tremendous amounts of energy — a cellphone signal is like a loud, bothersome noise, Holstine said.

“A quasar typically gives a signal which is a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a watt. A cellphone is about two watts,” he said.

“It will completely drown out what the astronomers are trying to receive,” he added.

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity

The bottom line for non-astronomer earthlings is that dozens of people have come here seeking relief from an ailment called electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

A former construction foreman, Meckna now lives with his wife a few miles from the telescope.

He had been sick since the 1990s but took a long time to conclude the culprit was his cellphone.

“I didn’t even make the correlation,” he said, adding that the beginning of his woes his doctor gave him anti-depressants.

He suffered nausea, migraines and irregular heartbeat every time he got near a WiFi source. After two weeks in Green Bank, the headaches went away.

“I feel much better. I can have a life again,” said Meckna.

Still, it is not all gravy. Rather, he feels a bit trapped. “I am a prisoner and I hate it,” he said.

Diane Schou, who also suffered after an antenna was set up near her farm in Iowa, said she was essentially forced to come to Green Bank, her home since 2007.

“There is really no choice — to live here or to live elsewhere and have headaches,” said Schou, who is in her 50s.

Her pain was so awful she spent a time living inside a room built by her husband as a sort of “Faraday cage” — an enclosure built of conductive material, in her case aluminum, that blocks electric fields.

“At least here, I feel I have a future. I can dream what I am going to do. I can invite people over,” said Schou.

But she takes care to use any gadgets in her home with the utmost care.

She has a computer, which is hooked up to her landline phone and “very slow”. She turns it on a few minutes every day to see e-mails from her husband, who comes to live with her a few months of the year.

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity, a growing source of concern in a world more connected each day, is not formally classified as a disease by the World Health Organisation, although it does acknowledge its existence. 

Some studies blame electromagnetic waves but others call it a psychosomatic problem.

WHO says it plans to carry out a formal assessment in 2016 of the risk posed by the world’s billions of cellphones. 

Back in Green Bank, at Trent’s, a grocery store and gas station, the absence of cellphones is not a worry.

“We’ve never had cellphones here so I have never missed them,” cashier Betty Mullenax said with a chuckle.

TOKYO — A composer who claims to be the world’s fastest pianist says tinkling the ivories quicker than the human ear can hear is a surefire route to Nirvana.

Ukrainian Lubomyr Melnyk is working his fingers at a dizzying 19.5 notes per second, and reckons the result — what he calls “continuous music” — is the first innovation in piano playing for more than three centuries.

“The concert pianist is like a propeller aeroplane, but the continuous music pianist is like a jet plane,” Melnyk, 65, told AFP in an interview ahead of his first ever appearance in Tokyo. “It’s an enormous difference.” 

Melnyk, whose parents fled his home country after World War II, is credited with pioneering continuous music, a technique based on lightning quick notes that create a tapestry of sound.

“Nothing has happened with the piano for 300 years — since 1650, nothing,” he said. “What Scarlatti was doing, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev were still doing, 300 years later. 

“Finally something new has happened in the world of the piano. It’s terrible to think I could be the first and the last to do this.”

Melnyk, whose long silver hair swishes as he talks, says classical pianists are often gripped by fear ahead of a performance because each piece has to be note perfect.

But, he says, that’s not a problem for him.

“In continuous music you can’t make a mistake because you are living the music with the piano. My fingers disappear. 

“All I hear and experience when I’m playing is the actual music, the sound, the piano. I barely feel anything. I’m barely aware, my mind is racing and I’m just flying through this landscape. It’s beyond nirvana.”

Melnyk says he plays an average 19.5 notes on each hand every second, but the only way of measuring this is to count the number of times over a 10-second period that you play a given passage.

It is not, he says, possible to hear all 19.5 notes.

“The ear cannot hear that, you cannot actually discern the notes at that speed. The natural speed set by nature for pianists is between 13 and 14 notes per second.

“There’s a certain physical, mathematical limit to the speed of pianists. There is a limit and it’s a limit set by nature, by the universe.

Melnyk, appearing in Japan as part of the annual Red Bull Music Academy, which is being hosted by Tokyo this year, says performances — including of a three-hour composition played from memory — frequently slip into trances.

“When music happens it’s a mystical, mysterious, magnificent thing,” he smiles through his bushy silver beard. “I’ve actually fallen asleep while I was playing the piano and kept playing.

“You never get tired of playing — if you can stay awake you can play for 24 hours a day. I’m not claiming my music is as beautiful as Beethoven or Chopin. But I think it’s important that it exists.”

With all the fervour of an evangelist, Melnyk says he is desperate for others to share the joy he feels as his hands work a blur on the keyboard.

“In order to achieve the true power that comes out of the piano, you have to reach that level that you actually go past the sound barrier,” he said.

“I want to be like Tinkerbell and wave a little wand with some fairy dust and suddenly people know what it’s like to have this ability and speed, to have your body disappear.”

By Steve Johnson

San Jose Mercury News (MCT)

It will help you avoid traffic jams as you travel from work to that hot new spot you’ve been dying to try out, tell you on the way about the bar’s half-price coupons and let you check your home video monitors while knocking back a few to see if your cat is clawing the couch again.

But it also might alert your insurer if your car is weaving when you head home and report your frequent drinking to your boss.

“It” is the Internet of Things, which promises to transform daily life, making it easier to work, travel, shop and stay healthy. Thanks to billions of connected devices — from smart toothbrushes and thermostats to commercial drones and robotic companions for the elderly — it also will end up gathering vast amounts of data that could provide insights about our sexual habits, religious beliefs, political leanings and other highly personal aspects of our lives. That creates a potentially enormous threat to our privacy — even within the sanctuary of our homes.

“These are incredibly convenient devices,” said University of Colorado law professor Scott Peppet, who has extensively researched the Internet of Things. “They are magical.”

Nonetheless, he added, “I don’t think we’re being overly reactive to say, ‘Wait a minute, what are the constraints on using that information? I just want to know what you are going to do with my data.’ “

Just what happens to the data spewed out by all these interlinked machines is a deep concern shared by many security researchers, legal authorities, government officials and consumer advocates. They fear the information could be used to skew our credit ratings, jack up our insurance rates, help hackers steal our money, or enable spy agencies to compile detailed dossiers on each of us. Moreover, they say, this vast sea of data could be misused to put a high-tech twist on the age-old curse of discrimination, with unscrupulous landlords or employers excluding people based on the data they’ve secretly acquired.

The technology is quickly becoming reality, with scores of helpful smart devices already on the market, including some from Bay Area companies.

Sensors from San Francisco-based Lively alert relatives when an older family member fails to take medicine, eat or return home from a walk. Nest thermostats from Google in Mountain View, California, learn and automatically adjust to how warm or cool their owners want their houses. Mobile robots from Suitable Technologies of Palo Alto, California, feature screens that let people video conference from various locations. And dog owners can remotely check on what their pooches are doing with a smart collar by Whistle of San Francisco.

Among other advantages, the devices are widely expected to improve public health by keeping patients in closer touch with doctors, reduce highway deaths by automatically braking vehicles to avoid crashes, boost food supplies by helping farmers tend their crops, and quickly notify authorities about environmental mishaps. When the nonprofit Pew Research Centre queried more than 1,600 experts on the subject, 83 per cent predicted the Internet of Things will “have widespread and beneficial effects on the everyday lives of the public by 2025”.

Yet, with devices from cars to refrigerators to coffee pots recording everything we do and transmitting the information to others, many people may find the technology unnerving.

“The idea that when I’m in my house or on my property or in my car, I’m somehow in a surveillance-free zone — no, it’s not true,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Lee Tien. “We’re seeing just a tremendous explosion of surveillance.”

Although people already reveal much about themselves through their Internet searches and social media posts, that’s nothing compared with the trove of personal data likely to be disclosed by the Internet of Things.

Even when designed for limited functions, experts say, many of these Web-linked gadgets will record whatever they see and hear in homes, which could provide detailed dossiers on the people living there, especially when combined with what’s amassed by other interconnected machines. The personal data revealed could include everything from your friends, hobbies and daily routines to your political views, religious affiliation and even your sexual activities.

Your politics might be disclosed if you routinely watch like-minded programmes on your Web-connected TV and use your personal robot’s videoconferencing capabilities for online meetings with a group that shares your views. And if you’ve declared your political allegiance in private comments, your voice-activated gadgets might have picked those up and stored them as text on the Internet.

Your religious orientation, on the other hand, might be divulged by your Internet-linked refrigerator. Because those appliances are expected to become so smart they’ll automatically order more eggs, beer or other items for you when supplies run low, yours might signal that you’re Jewish, for example, if it frequently gets you kosher food.

Still other gadgets might put your love life on display if, for instance, you pick up someone you meet at that new bar after work.

That’s conceivable if your home security camera tapes the two of you undressing and its face-recognition software determines your date is a prominent local official, while your wearable fitness device calculates from the calories you proceed to burn that you must be having sex. Disclosing those details could prove embarrassing, especially if you’re both married. It could be even more so if your wireless health monitor a week later fires off an alert to your doctor that you’ve just contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

So how could others see that personal information?

Much of it is expected to flow directly from the gadgets to the businesses that made them. Legal experts say federal and state laws poorly regulate how the information can be used, and the companies already selling smart gadgets often are vague about what they do with the data or whether they sell it to others. Consequently, it’s possible someone’s personal details could bounce around the Internet and be accessed by countless people.

Such firms often say they “de-identify” the data so it can’t be attributed to individuals. Yet researchers have found it’s frequently possible to “re-identify” data by combining it with other available facts. As a result, a White House report in May concluded that data re-identification “creates substantial uncertainty” about peoples’ ability to control their personal information.

That raises another red flag for the administration and experts in the field. The White House study warns that the growing deluge of data could result in “discriminatory outcomes for disadvantaged groups”.

It’s illegal to discriminate against anyone based on their race, colour, religion, national origin or sex. But given the uncertainty about who might see the information disgorged by these smart gadgets, it’s widely feared the data might be used to treat people unfairly without their knowledge. For example, experts say, a person might get turned down for an apartment if their devices reveal their sexual or religious orientation to a disapproving landlord.

It’s also conceivable employers might refuse to hire someone after learning from a medical or fitness gadgets that they’ve got a health problem, said Rebecca Herold, a privacy consultant and adjunct professor at Norwich University in Vermont.

A powerful laptop, a new tablet, a high-end smartphone? Maybe, but there are high-tech gifts that are less expensive and that are also guaranteed to please.

With the end of year closing in and the gift-buying ritual already in sight, planning ahead makes sense. The popularity of high-tech gadgetry is helping a lot, making it easier to choose what would certainly please the intended recipients. It is said that kids from 8-year old and up are now after tablets more than they look to receive traditional toys. As for the grow ups, few gifts would appeal to them more than high-tech goodies. And yes, this includes the ladies in the population; well, at least when it comes to presents in the sub JD1000 category.

Apart from the mainstream laptop, tablet or smartphone equipment line, countless devices and accessories can be found that come to nicely complete and enhance our experience with the main units. A direct, global search on the web would bring up on your screen hundreds if not thousands of such devices and accessories, advertised by manufacturers anxious to sell you just about anything. Most devices, however, are ridiculous and useless. Good filtering and wise selection will still leave several a large number of fine, practical and truly useful accessories or add-ons as they are sometime called.

Bluetooth speakers are a treat. They let you stream music out of laptops, tablets and smartphones instantly and wirelessly to the eternal speaker. If the quality of sound will not be on a par with that of a high end, cabled stereo system, it will still be much better than that of the tiny speakers that come built in laptops and other computer-like equipment. Just like it goes with any accessory, beware of cheap Bluetooth speakers. Most will produce horrible sound and need to be recharged all too frequently, leaving you frustrated. Look for brands like Creative, Jabra, Bose, JBL or Logitech, for example. Without going to extremes, Bluetooth speakers between JD50 and JD150 usually will do a good job.  

Still in the wireless division, charging pads for smartphones and tablets are gaining popularity. With the ever-increasing use of smartphones comes the need to recharge them frequently, often more than once a day. Connecting and disconnecting a power cable is a tedious affair and would even end up damaging the physical connection slot or plug. Wireless pads are practical and friendly. Just place the smartphone on the pad and the latter will recharge the battery. In this domain Samsung and Duracell are well-placed and sell excellent pads for about JD50-70.

In the same spirit, external battery packs also come in handy to provide backup battery power for users on the go. They are available in various power ratings, and can fully recharge a tablet once or smartphone two or three times. Prices start from as little as JD15 and go up to JD80 or JD100, depending on the power reserve the battery pack can hold.

Offering hardware as presents to your friends or beloved ones is not the only way to satisfy their high-tech desire. There are less tangible, but not less appealing gifts you can make them.

A subscription to a cloud storage service, for example, would show your sophistication and flair. Prove to your friends that you are in and know what the current trend is. Besides, cloud storage is slowly but surely becoming a must. Sooner or later we’ll all be using it and even relying on it almost completely. Dropbox and Google drive are some of the most reliable and best such services and cost about JD50-70 a year for massive storage space; probably more than you can use.

Let’s not forget small software applications. People are as happy to receive such gifts today as they are to get hardware equipment. You can either offer a virtual coupon for a pack of apps to download on Google Play (Android) or App Store (Apple iOS), or a software universal media player like J. River Media Centre, for instance. Typically, the package would take JD30-60.

In the end they all are toys, one way or another.

CAPE TOWN — A high-tech version of the reputedly life-saving punch to a shark’s nose is being tested in an effort to protect humans without harming the toothy predators or other sea creatures.

In the blue waters of a small bay in Cape Town, a revolutionary experiment with an electronic barrier seeks to exploit the super-sensitivity of a sharks’ snout to keep swimmers and surfers safe.

The technology has been developed by South African experts who invented the electronic “shark pod” for use by surfers and divers — now marketed by an Australian company — and could be applied globally if successful.

The pod and years of research have shown that sharks will turn away when they encounter an electrical current — and that has prompted this experiment on a much larger scale.

A 100-metre cable with vertical “risers” designed to emit a low-frequency electronic field is in the process of being fixed to the seabed off Glencairn beach, and will remain there for five months.

“If successful, it will provide the basis to develop a barrier system that can protect bathers without killing or harming sharks or any other marine animals,” says the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, which developed the shark pod.

As for humans, “if someone touched the small part of an electrode that is exposed, they might experience a tingling sensation” but would suffer no harmful effects.

The barrier would mark a major shift away from the shark nets used in KwaZulu-Natal on South Africa’s east coast for the past 50 years, which also kill other animals and have been criticised as environmentally destructive.

Research has shown that sharks have a gel in their noses which makes them more sensitive to electrical currents than other species, and thus ordinary fish and sea life such as seals and dolphins should not be affected by the barrier.

“We are doing our damndest to do something environmentally friendly,” sharks board project specialist Paul von Blerk told AFP.

But the challenges are huge.

“It is easier to design things to put in space,” said Claude Ramasami, project manager at the Institute for Maritime Technology, which is helping the sharks board put its plans into practice.

This is because of the relentless power of the sea, shifts in the seabed, undersea structures and marine life — and simply using electricity in water.

One reason that Glencairn in the Cape was chosen as the site for the experiment is that it is relatively protected compared to the often pounding surf on the tourist beaches of KwaZulu-Natal, where Durban is the provincial capital.

The clear waters will also enable fixed cameras and shark spotters on nearby cliffs to monitor the movements of the predators within the bay and see whether the barrier turns them away from their usual cruising routes.

There should be no shortage of action — in a 25-day observation period, 53 sharks were seen off the beach.

Environmentalists have welcomed the experiment.

Alison Kock, a biological scientist and research manager for Shark Spotters in Cape Town told AFP it was “a really good idea”.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to look at new technology with the ultimate aim of replacing lethal control methods like shark nets and [baited] drum lines.

“The technology is really specific in that it targets a sense that only sharks and rays have. Mammals like dolphins and whales don’t have a sense like this, so they are not going to be affected,” she said.

The gel in the noses of sharks allows them to detect minute electrical fields such as a heartbeat to find prey in murky water, but as they approach within a couple of metres of the barrier the power should be enough to turn them away.

LONDON — The world's tallest and shortest men came face to face — well, face to shin — on Thursday to celebrate the 10th annual Guinness World Records Day.

The little and large act met as people across the globe tried to break all manner of weird and wacky world records, including banging heads, catching spears and throwing thongs.

Turkey's Sultan Kosen, who stands 2.51 metres tall, met with Chandra Bahadur Dangi from Nepal, who measures just 55 centimetres.

Kosen, a 31-year-old farmer, stooped down to shake hands with 74-year-old Dangi opposite the Houses of Parliament in London.

"I was very interested how tall he was going to be, about how far up my legs he would go, and of course once I saw him I realised how tiny he was," Kosen told AFP.

He said meeting Chandra was "amazing", although he admitted bending the long, long way down for photographs was difficult.

"I do have problems with my knees so if I stand too long I do get tired," he said.

Kosen added: "Even though he is short and I am tall, we have had similar struggles throughout our lives and when I look into Chandra's eyes I can see he is a good man."

As well as being the tallest man, Kosen's hands are the biggest in the world — an impressive 28.5 centimetres from the wrist to the tip of his middle finger.

Meanwhile Dangi, a primordial dwarf who makes placemats and head straps for villagers carrying heavy loads, is the shortest adult ever certified by Guinness World Records.

"I was very pleased to see the tallest man in the world, I was curious to meet my extreme opposite," he told AFP.

"I'm so pleased to be a Guinness record holder. Thanks to this I have visited many countries and met many people. I really love it."

Around the planet, participants were having a go at setting new world records.

In Australia, 500 children were trying to crack the "most people head-banging" benchmark, the most people simultaneously throwing thongs (as Australians call flip-flops), and the most spears caught from a spear gun under water in one minute, a record currently standing at seven.

An Australian-held record was under threat in China — the 289-strong benchmark for the most people eating breakfast in bed.

In the Shanghai Pudong Shangri-La Hotel, 388 participants spread across 202 beds were offered a 15-minute in-room breakfast in the hotel's Grand Ballroom.

In Japan, record attempts were on for the fastest 100 metres running on all fours and the largest number of paper aircrafts created in five minutes.

At the Moulin Rouge in Paris, various attempts were on, including the highest number of spinning splits in 30 seconds and "most times to position one leg behind the head in 30 seconds".

The farthest basketball shot backwards, currently 22 metres, was being threatened by the Harlem Globetrotters.

All the record attempts are assessed by adjudicators from the organisation.

Brewing firm Guinness launched their famous records book in 1955 to settle disputes among drinkers.

The books have sold more than 132 million copies in more than 100 countries.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Thursday made it easier for people to understand and control how their information is used at the leading social network while expanding its quest to better target ads.

The simplified data policy came as Facebook announced that work to improve targeting of ads in the United States is expanding to other countries.

Several months ago, Facebook began using information such as where people go on the Internet to help target ads.

For example, visits to an array of travel-related websites could prompt vacation ads to pop up for a person at the social network.

Feedback from a website where someone bought a stereo would raise the likelihood of them seeing ads for speakers or other accessories.

New ads come with a built-in option of people seeing why they were shown the marketing messages and allowing them to remove "interests" from advertising profiles at Facebook.

"We also wanted to make sure people could turn that off," Facebook advertising vice president Brian Boland told AFP.

"We are not changing the ways and places people opt-out, but we are going to enhance the way we apply those controls."

If a person opts out on any device, the choice will be applied no matter what smartphone, tablet, or computer they use to access Facebook, according to Boland.

"In order to apply that setting for most publishers, you would have to go into the settings on each device to limit tracking," Boland said.

"What we are doing is if we see that setting once, anywhere, we will apply it across everywhere you use Facebook."

Facebook is expanding the ad targeting update to Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Canada and Australia with more countries to be added in the future, he said.

Steps taken by Facebook on Thursday included launching a "privacy basics" education centre that uses animation and video to walk people through tasks such as deleting posts or blocking unwanted viewers.

The effort by the California-based firm is in response to concerns by regulators and social network users regarding how well privacy is safeguarded online, Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan told AFP.

"They want information in an easily accessible format," Egan said.

"How it is collected and how it is used, in simple and precise data policies."

The education centre is starting with 15 short instructional videos in more than 30 languages, and provides the option of sending links to friends so insights can be shared.

Facebook also rewrote its data policy to make it easier to understand and navigate, and to add a part regarding information collected when people use a "buy" button being tested at the social network in the United States.

Information is collected when people use Facebook services for purchases or financial transactions, like buying something on Facebook, making a purchase in a game or making donations, according to a the policy.

"We are just being more clear," Egan said about Facebook's re-written data policy.

The advertising profile feature in new Facebook ads will reveal what, if any, targeting information came from purchases or other financial transactions, according to Egan.

Nothing was changed regarding data policies at Facebook-owned applications such as WhatsApp, the privacy officer said.

I have a lot to thank Shahrukh Khan for. He has got me out of so many sticky situations that I cannot even begin to list them. The next time I meet him I’m surely going to shake him by the hand and express my gratitude. It might not be an easy task but I will try it anyway. 

Who is Shahrukh Khan? In Asia, the Middle East and Africa, in fact in most of the Bollywood film-watching continents of the world, you do not ask such a question. That is because everyone knows this larger than life personality. But for those of still unfamiliar with his name, let me tell you a little bit about him. 

So, what does he do, other than save people of Indian origin in foreign lands? Also known as King Khan, he is my home country’s highest paid artiste. His salary has so many zeroes attached to it that it becomes impossible for a layperson like me, to even comprehend the actual amount. But that is not what makes him more popular than anybody else I have ever known. His fame rests on being the most recognisable face on our cinema screens. He dances, sings, does comic routines, romances the heroines, laughs, cries and bashes up the villains towards the end of the movie. In short, he is the consummate performer and from a toddler to an octogenarian, he has at some point in their lives, entertained each one. 

The reason why many people can relate to him is because his is a rags-to-riches story in real life too. Well, he was not literally a beggar when he joined the film industry, but he was not as affluent as he is now either. He came to Mumbai, which is called the city of dreams, with an impossible ambition. He wanted to become an actor. What he turned into, instead, was a superstar. The difference between these two terms is not as subtle as one might imagine, though both are used for individuals working in the same profession. Actors are appreciated for their acting talent but superstars are blindly followed for everything else. By millions of their adoring fans, that is. 

If Shahrukh Khan wore his hair in a particular manner, it became the most copied hairstyle in the next instance. If he was seen smoking a particular brand of cigarettes, his followers switched to it too. His mannerisms were also imitated instinctively. 

In one film he played a character with a mild stutter that stumbled over the “k” consonant, for instance, saying “k-k-k kiran”, rather than the usual “kiran”. In a matter of days his devotees developed an identical stammer too and words like “kitty”, “kite” and “kettle” were stretched into infinity. 

However, he takes all this adoration with a pinch of salt. I interviewed him once and saw how his admirers kept interrupting, with requests of autographs and photographs. Never once did he lose his cool with all this invasion of privacy. Maybe he is a far better actor than I give him credit for. 

Last weekend, while driving back from Petra, we were flagged down by a traffic cop for speeding. The moment he discovered our nationality he relented. 

“You know Shahrukh Khan?” he asked. 

“No,” said my husband. 

“Yes,” I said. 

“Give my regards to him,” he told me.

“Er, okay,” I muttered. 

“And next time don’t drive the “c-c-c car” so fast,” he smiled.