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There is today one more way to stroll down memory lane to go reminiscing. We used to look at family photo albums we would store on a bookshelf, to read again letters received before 1990 kept in those nice envelopes with stamps on them, or perhaps we would watch old classic movies, or listen to songs from the sixties, etc. There’s now a better or at least a newer way to nostalgia and it’s thanks to IT. Just roll up your sleeves and go for a massive exploration of your e-mail box.

If a minority of us does a periodical clean-up of their mailbox, keeping it tidy and up to date, the vast majority doesn’t. I’d say that more than 90 per cent of the population leaves messages stored in the system for years. I see around me relatives, friends and colleagues with mailboxes holding 10,000 to 20,000 messages, the oldest dating back 10 years or even longer.

Never mind all the negative aspects, if any, of such massive pileup of digital data. They tell you to keep the place tidy and neat, but virtually all e-mail software applications today let you easily sort and retrieve messages in a snap, amongst tens of thousands. Moreover, as far as storage is concerned, and with dirt-cheap digital real estate, you can afford to keep 100,000 e-mails for 100 years if you like, without making your system wince at all. Cloud storage is now offered with unlimited storage capacity, for no or very little money, by most providers.

Besides, and notwithstanding pragmatic reasons, to clean up or not to clean up one’s workplace is a matter of personal attitude and tendency. Some like to keep their desk tidy and cannot work at all if it is not, while others enjoy working with loads of papers, files and various objects scattered on theirs. Dealing with a mailbox follows the same philosophy.

So if storage, money, messages retrieval and filing are not an issue, why then should you deprive yourself from keeping e-mail messages forever? Not to mention that cleaning up a mailbox is often seen as a rather tedious task. That is unless you start looking at the operation as a way to visit sweet memories, perhaps making a clear distinction between drastic clean-up and non-destructive exploration, noting that both will let you enjoy travelling in the past.

With the fast pace of modern life, retrieving and reading e-mails from only a few years ago reminds you how much has changed since. This is particularly true if your mailbox holds a combination or personal and business correspondence. Very few things remain valid after only a few years. Colleagues leave and change their work, children grow up, old e-mail addresses stop being valid and friends move to other countries. Reading e-mails from “the past” is a sure way to nostalgia.

Another interesting point of comparison is the writing style. It is amazing how much e-mail writing has evolved with time, and you can see it before your very eyes if you read an old e-mail and compare it with a recent one. It is now very concise, short and even more familiar. Even if mobile phone SMS jargon like OMG, GTG, BTW and LOL has never really been a trend in the world of e-mailing, there is a clear and constant evolution towards more abbreviation and speed. The comparison is guaranteed to raise a smile.

At the risk of exaggerating I would say that reading e-mails from yesteryears is comparable to archaeological digging for artefacts. I was reading a price quotation I had received from a computer supplier eight years ago that was still in my archived inbox. The extremely outdated technical characteristics made me laugh out loud (that’s a LOL). Even the price was a laughing matter, compared with today’s prices.

So if someone tells you that you should not leave all these messages piled up in your mailbox for years and years, that it is not good practice, and that you should do some serious clean-up every now and then, tell them that you see your mailbox as a precious source for memories.

WASHINGTON — A study of 15 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has found that patients’ brains have at least three distinct abnormalities when compared to healthy people, researchers said Wednesday.

The findings, if confirmed, could lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the troublesome condition that affects more than a million Americans, said the study conducted by Stanford University researchers in the peer-reviewed journal Radiology.

“Using a trio of sophisticated imaging methodologies, we found that CFS patients’ brains diverge from those of healthy subjects in at least three distinct ways,” said lead author Michael Zeineh, assistant professor of radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Researchers performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on 15 CFS patients and 14 age- and gender-matched controls.

They found CFS patients had slightly less white matter in the brain, as well as abnormalities in a nerve tract within the brain’s right hemisphere.

For CFS patients, “the differences correlated with their fatigue — the more abnormal the tract, the worse the fatigue,” Zeineh said.

The imaging study also found abnormalities among CFS patients in two areas that connect the right arcuate fasciculus. Each connection point, known as a cortex, was thicker in CFS patients, the researchers said.

Until now, chronic fatigue syndrome has been difficult to diagnose, with its characteristic “brain fog” enduring more than six months and coinciding with a host of other symptoms.

“CFS is one of the greatest scientific and medical challenges of our time,” said the study’s senior author, Jose Montoya, professor of infectious diseases and geographic medicine at Stanford.

“Its symptoms often include not only overwhelming fatigue, but also joint and muscle pain, incapacitating headaches, food intolerance, sore throat, enlargement of the lymph nodes, gastrointestinal problems, abnormal blood pressure and heart-rate events, and hypersensitivity to light, noise or other sensations.”

Researchers said the findings must be confirmed in future studies but that these structural differences could point to the way toward a better understanding of what causes the disease and how to stop it.

Last week I came across at least three people who suffered from a strange disease. It did not involve aches and pains, which is the good part. But it meant getting sour burps, uneasiness in the throat and vomiting a couple of hours after the consumption of dinner. These unfortunate symptoms assailed all of them and there was nothing much they could do about it. 

I mean there were preventive steps that they could undertake, before the episode. Like, not eating anything during supper. Or, having an apple at dinnertime. But in case they forgot these harsh measures and indulged in a hearty meal, the consequences were drastic. 

Since everything is described in its abbreviated version these days, the physicians diagnosed their ailment as AR. Quite different from ER, which is an American medical drama television series, involving a group of emergency room doctors, including George Clooney, who is now married to the stunning Amal Alamuddin and, therefore, not considered as attractive as he once was. But here I digress. 

Incidentally, AR, which is also called Acid Reflex, is one of the top health related Internet search queries. Here, the stomach acid flows back into the food pipe which causes pain in the lower chest area. GORD, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease is confirmed if you have acid reflux that persists more than twice a week. Other indicators of the condition include: dry, persistent cough, wheezing, nausea, asthma and recurrent pneumonia, vomiting, throat soreness or laryngitis, chest pain, difficulty in swallowing, dental erosion and bad breath. 

So, why are so many people suffering from AR? Most often, the cause is attributed to lifestyle factors like low physical exercise, high ingestion of table salt, obesity, smoking, low fibre diet and medications for asthma, antidepressants, sedatives and painkillers. Research suggests that there is no link between GORD and the intake of coffee, alcohol or tea though some individuals might report an association with certain foods and drinks. 

How does one overcome the problem? Other than avoiding dinner, that is? Well, changing your routine helps and so does staying up for at least three hours following the last meal of the day or night. Going to bed immediately after feasting is unadvisable.

This is what the specialists recommend but I have noticed something else. I’m not an expert so no one listens to me, but I offer my observations anyway. What I have seen is that people who have AR are very fast eaters. They tend to swallow food without chewing. If you watch them closely when they are eating, it can be quite scary because the morsels disappear from their mouths minus any mastication.

This gulping of foodstuff is the main culprit, I feel. If they ask me I would make them count till hundred with each bite so that the salivary glands could start the digestion process in the oral cavity itself, instead of being pushed into the oesophagus in an indigestible state. 

Lost in thought I stared at the pudding in front of me. I had not even picked up my desert spoon when I saw that my AR suffering friend had already gobbled up the sweet dish. 

“I should have not eaten that,” he confessed. 

“Why not?” I asked. 

“Or so late in the night,” he went on. 

“Or so fast,” I agreed. 

“I gorge on food?” he was curious. 

“Almost inhale it,” I said. 

“How do I stop that?” he burped. 

“Chomp one, chomp two…,” I coached. 

PARIS — Scientists in Denmark said Sunday they had found genetic clues to explain why a small number of children have febrile seizures — brief convulsions — after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

They stressed there was no need to scrap the MMR vaccine — caught in a health scare in 1998 that watchdogs later declared groundless — and described its use as a “great achievement” in saving lives.

Reporting in the journal Nature Genetics, the team found that febrile seizures occurred in roughly one in every 1,000 children who were given the MMR vaccine.

Two genetic variants came to light that pointed to a higher risk of a febrile seizure in the second week following MMR vaccination, they said.

They lie on genes that play an important role in how the immune system reacts to viral intruders.

Febrile seizures are the term for when a child develops a high temperature, loses consciousness and spasms.

The episode usually lasts for a minute or two, but apart from causing alarm for parents and the need for a checkup afterwards, is typically not dangerous.

A known but rare side effect of vaccination or viral infection, febrile seizures are different from epileptic seizures, which occur without fever.

In addition, four other variants were found that link to febrile seizures in general, and have no connection with the MMR vaccine.

These four lie on genes that help to govern ion channels, an essential communications link between nerve cells.

Children who had the highest tally of the four variants were almost four times likelier to have febrile seizures than counterparts with the least number.

The six variants are unlikely to account for more than just a small proportion of the genetic causes for seizures, the researchers said.

Further work should tease out other genetic culprits, hopefully leading to a diagnostic test to show which children could be at greater risk of a febrile seizure after a jab.

The study was unable to say whether children who had seizures did so as a result of getting a triple immunisation, as opposed to getting single shots to protect against the three diseases. The triple vaccine is the only available in Denmark.

In addition, the gene trawl was only carried out in Denmark, and it is unknown whether the same risk exists, or exists to the same degree, in children elsewhere.

Vaccine improvement

Lead scientist Bjarke Feenstra at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen said the research should throw up new pathways for exploring febrile seizures.

As far as the MMR vaccine is concerned, it could improve an already good and safe vaccine, he said in an email exchange with AFP.

“The MMR vaccine is a great public health success, estimated to prevent the death of more than one million children worldwide per year,” he said.

“The knowledge gained from studies like ours may ultimately lead to even safer vaccines.”

In 1998, a study published in the British journal The Lancet unleashed a scare that the triple vaccine caused autism.

Even though the allegation was scientifically debunked and the study was later withdrawn, fears about the MMR vaccine persisted, prompting some parents to refuse immunisation for their child.

That in turn reduced “herd immunity” — the protection that comes when everyone is vaccinated — and placed non-immunised children at risk.

DETROIT — Owners of electric vehicles have already gone gas-free. Now, a growing number are powering their cars with sunlight.

Solar panels installed on the roof of a home or garage can easily generate enough electricity to power an electric or plug-in gas-electric hybrid vehicle. The panels aren’t cheap, and neither are the cars. A Ford Fusion Energi plug-in sedan, for example, is $7,200 more than an equivalent gas-powered Fusion even after a $4,007 federal tax credit.

But advocates say the investment pays off over time and is worth it for the thrill of fossil fuel-free driving.

“We think it was one of the best things in the world to do,” says Kevin Tofel, who bought a Chevrolet Volt in 2012 to soak up the excess power from his home solar-energy system. “We will never go back to an all-gas car.”

No one knows exactly how many electric cars are being powered by solar energy, but the number of electric and plug-in hybrid cars in the US is growing. Last year, 97,563 were sold in the US, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank, up 83 per cent from the year before. Meanwhile, solar installations grew 21 per cent in the second quarter of this year, and more than 500,000 homes and businesses now have them, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Tofel, 45, a senior writer for the technology website Gigaom, installed 41 solar panels on the roof of his Telford, Pennsylvania, home in 2011. The solar array — the term for a group of panels — cost $51,865, but after state and federal tax credits, the total cost was $29,205.

In the first year, Tofel found that the panels provided 13.8 megawatt hours of electricity, but his family was using only 7.59 megawatt hours. So in 2012, Tofel traded in an Acura RDX for a Volt plug-in hybrid that could be charged using some of that excess solar energy. In a typical year, with 15,243 miles of driving, the Volt used 5.074 megawatt hours.

Tofel used to spend $250 per month on gas for the Acura; now, he spends just $50, for the times when the Volt isn’t near a charging station and he has to fill its backup gas engine. Charging the Volt overnight costs him $1.50, but the family makes that money back during the day when it sends solar power to the electric grid. He estimates that adding the car will cut his break-even point on the solar investment from 11.7 years to six years.

Powering a car with solar energy isn’t for everyone. Among things to consider:

Site

A south- or southeast-facing roof is a necessity, and there can’t be shady trees around the house. Sam Avery, who installs solar panels in Kentucky through his company, Avery and Sun, says dormers, chimneys and other design features can hamper an installation.

“If people do have a good site, it’s usually by chance,” he says. “I have to retrofit a lot.”

Cost

The cost of installing solar panels has come down, from $8 to $10 per watt eight years ago to $3 a watt or less now. But it’s still a huge investment.

Bill Webster, 39, a graphic designer at a nonprofit in Washington, DC, paid $36,740 for his solar array in Frederick, Maryland, three years ago, or around $3.60 per watt. Tax credits reduced his net cost to around $20,000.

Before the installation, his family was paying $1,500 per year for electricity. Now, he pays $5.36 per month, the administrative fee for connecting to the grid. That fuels his home and his all-electric Nissan Leaf, which uses around a third of the energy that his solar panels generate. Webster thinks he’ll break even on his investment in six years.

Some solar companies offer leasing programmes, which let customers pay a fixed monthly cost for panels. There are also some incentive programs; Honda Motor Co. offers $400 toward the installation of panels through SolarCity, a company that installs them in 15 states.

Buyers also could consider a smaller system just to power a car. A Leaf needs around 4.5 megawatt hours of electricity per year to go 15,000 miles. Eighteen 250-watt panels — a $13,500 investment at $3 per watt — would produce that much electricity.

The car

For Webster, who has a predictable round-trip commute of less than 50 miles and lives near a lot of electric charging stations, an all-electric car like the Leaf makes sense. But for Avery, who lives in rural Kentucky, the Volt was the better choice because he needs the security of a backup gas engine.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s fuel-economy website — www.fueleconomy.gov — lists the number of kilowatt hours that a car uses to travel 100 miles, which can help potential buyers calculate their energy needs.

In short, people considering powering a car with solar energy have some math to do. Or maybe they don’t. For Avery, the environmental benefit outweighs everything.

“The reason to go solar is not to save money,” he says. “The real reason to go solar is that we have to do it.”

GUIYU, China — Mountains of discarded remote controls litter the warehouse floor. In a dimly-lit room, women on plastic stools pry open the devices, as if shucking oysters, to retrieve the circuitry inside.

In a narrow alley a few blocks over, a father and son from a distant province wash microchips in plastic buckets. Men haul old telephones and computer keyboards by the shovelful off a truck.

Some items will be refurbished and resold, others will be stripped for components or materials such as copper or gold.

Business is booming in the Chinese town of Guiyu, where the world's electronic waste ends up for recycling — and is set to get even better.

But the industry has a heavy environmental cost. Electronic remnants are strewn in a nearby stream, and the air is acrid from the burning of plastic, chemicals and circuitboards.

Heavy metal contamination has turned the air and water toxic, and children have high lead levels in their blood, according to an August study by researchers at Shantou University Medical College.

Much of the e-waste that passed through Guiyu over the past few decades came from outside China.

Western countries are now making a greater effort to process their own e-waste, but Chinese domestic supply will soon be more than enough to step into any breach, campaigners say.

China's surging economy has transformed the country into a consuming power in its own right — it is now the world's largest smartphone market — and use of electronic devices has soared.

"Before, the waste was shipped from other parts of the world coming into China — that used to be the biggest source and the biggest problem," said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, one of China's foremost environmental NGOs.

"But now, China has become a consuming power of its own," Ma said. "We have I think 1.1 billion cell phones used, and the life of our gadgets has become shorter and shorter."

"I think the wave is coming," he added. "It's going to be a bigger problem."

'This cannot be allowed to go on' 

China currently generates 6.1 million metric tonnes of e-waste a year, compared with 7.2 million for the US and 48.8 million globally, according to the United Nations University's Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative.

But while US e-waste production has increased by 13 per cent over the past five years, China's has nearly doubled, setting the Asian giant on track to overtake the US as the world's biggest source as early as 2017.

Nowhere are the profit and environmental toll of e-waste recycling more on display than in Guiyu in the southern province of Guangdong, where some 80,000 of 130,000 residents work in the loosely-regulated industry, according to a 2012 local government estimate.

More than 1.6 million tonnes of e-waste pass through Guiyu each year, with recycling worth 3.7 billion yuan ($600 million) annually and attracting migrants from near and far.

"This work is tiring, but the salary is okay compared with the work in town," said a 30-year-old surnamed Ma, who left a salesman's job to dismantle electronics. "You can make 4,000 or 5,000 yuan ($650 to $815) a month."

At the same time, the town has made worldwide headlines for the devastating health impact of its tainted environment.

"People think this cannot be allowed to go on," said Leo Chen, 28, a financial worker who grew up in Guiyu.

The situation was better than a decade ago, he said, following authorities' interventions, but the effects of years of pollution remain.

"In my memory, in front of my house, there was a river. It was green, and the water was very nice and clear," he said. "Now, it's black."

'Morally complicated' 

Lai Yun, a Greenpeace researcher who has often visited Guiyu, said that while Beijing has tightened regulations enforcement is often lax, and the bottom line is that development cannot be obstructed.

"From the government's perspective, e-waste gathering and processing is important for the local economy," Lai said. "Research has shown that 80 per cent of households are involved in this work. So, if they don't expand this industry, these residents will need some other kind of employment."

Central authorities including China's powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) have invested heavily in Guiyu's recycling industry, pointed out Adam Minter, author of "Junkyard Planet", on the economics of the global scrap industry.

The overall picture was mixed, he said.

"There is an environmental good happening there — they're extending the life span of usable components, they're pulling things out and recycling them, or sending them to Korea and Japan, something that's very expensive to do in the US and the EU," he said.

"Yet they do it in a way that's not always good for human health and the environment," he added. "Recycling is a morally complicated act."

AMMAN — Artists from Jordan and Japan ask piercing, contemplative questions while celebrating cultural exchange at Dar Al Anda Art Gallery’s “East to East” exhibition.

Celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations between Jordan and Japan, the exhibition showcases paintings and sculptures by three seasoned Japanese and Jordanian artists.

In her colourful works of mixed media on canvas, Japanese artist Yuko Kawaguchi pays tribute to the closeness of Japan and Jordan.

The recurring motif of birds and butterflies, symbolising Jordanian-Japanese friendship, are hidden in her abstract artwork, with each piece offering a feast to the eyes.

Kawaguchi, who has been to Jordan nine times, uses traditional Japanese paper and acrylic mixed with ceramic powder to give her work a special character.

Highly detailed and layered, her artworks — dominated by hues of pink, blue and green — reward thorough examination with little nuggets of details and motifs hidden in plain sight.

For her contribution to the exhibition, Jordanian artist Juman Nimri chooses to pose vital questions about the future of a plight-ridden generation.

Paintings and installations by Nimri, who has often touched upon the issue of child abuse in her work, depict young children surrounded by bleak colours.

“I’m focusing on issues that affect children, especially in Arab countries, such as early marriage… but on top of all these problems, the wars and conflicts plaguing our region have exacerbated these children’s plight,” the artist said.

“We are all victims of what’s happening, but the biggest victims are future generations,” she told The Jordan Times.

The image of dolls is prevalent in Nimri’s work — an echo of lost innocence.

In one of her installations, a doll is covered all over in black handprints. Her mouth is forever silenced under the grip of oppression and destruction. 

“In this collection, I pose a number of questions without expecting answers… answers are only a way to escape the bitter reality,” Nimri wrote, commenting on her collection.

The artist said her participation in an exhibition with Japanese artists enriches her experience and gives her a closer look at art from the East, having previously participated in exhibitions with Western artists.

In their sculptures, Japanese artists Norio Takaoka and Ryosuke Shibata opt for simplicity. 

Working with marble, granite and other materials, Takaoka focuses on “the seeds” that grow into ideas, using nature as his inspiration.

Seeds for him are symbols of hope and new beginnings.

Mixing marble with metal to make a “flower”, the sculptor makes a comment on the “hybridity” of our world that mixes the organic with the artificial.

His art pieces are also based on balance, another inspiration from mother nature.

Shibata’s works of ceramic, porcelain and wood go back to the roots, the primitive image and design.

Each work is made up of carefully balanced pieces that form a simple image in what he describes as a “naïve style”.

Although using similar moulds, Shibata makes each piece unique by adding different patterns to it.

Jordanian sculptor Samer Tabbaa uses wood, steel, aluminium and even feather to create intriguing sculptures that also pose many questions rather than offering answers.

The abstract nature of his work leaves much to the viewer to discern. 

“Trying to explain my work would be as difficult as… trying to speak Japanese. I can only say that when I work I try to be true to the material and true to myself. I don’t always succeed, but then the line in art between success and failure is very blurred,” Tabbaa said, commenting on the sculptures.

“I have long admired Japanese culture and see similarities between my sense of aesthetic and theirs, so naturally the exhibition was valuable to me as an artist and I hope for more interactions,” he added. 

Jordanian artist Hani Alqam’s works of acrylic on wood celebrate the grotesque, with a striking mixture of colours that draw the viewer.

Alqam mixes the holy with the profane, using unsettling colours to depict angelic figures, with the stark contrast adding another level of depth to his work.

The exhibition continues through October 31.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has taken the wraps off a new app for iOS called Rooms that brings people together around their interests.

A “room” is a feed of photos, videos and text like Facebook or Instagram, but the focus is on a single topic chosen by the person who created it.

Already popular on Rooms: beat boxing, Kicks from Above (cool shoes in cool places) and mouth watering, home-cooked meals, not to mention families who have ditched suburbia to raise their kids on the road and Facebook employees obsessively playing Kendama, a traditional Japanese game.

For Josh Miller, product manager for Rooms, the app is a throwback to the early days of the Web when people from all over gathered in forums, message boards and chat rooms, and used pseudonyms to discuss topics they had in common.

As people spend more time on their phones, they are drifting away from the idea of the Internet as a place to connect with people they don’t know in real life, said Miller.

“Now you can connect with people anywhere around the world who like something as much as you do,” he said.

And in Rooms — unlike on Facebook — people can use pseudonyms. That’s a major departure for Facebook, which has always insisted that people use their real names.

Rooms is the latest mobile app to emerge from Facebook’s Creative Labs.

Creative Labs is building a new generation of mobile apps as part of the company’s effort to grab people’s attention on their smartphones.

Rooms targets real-time conversations both public and private that are dominated by Twitter.

Facebook is going after those conversations as competition heats up with Twitter over digital advertising dollars.

Earlier this year, Facebook rolled out Twitter-like “trending” topics that show popular stories on the site.

Last year, it debuted hashtags, with words preceded by “#” so users can more easily track conversations.

But Facebook is largely built around sharing private moments with friends so breaking into the public realm has been challenging.

Facebook bought Miller’s company Branch for about $15 million in January. Branch allowed Twitter users to more easily have small discussions.

Miller said at the time he was joining the giant social network with the goal of building Branch at Facebook scale.

With Rooms, people can be as public or as private as they want. Think of it as a Facebook group for your smartphone — except you’re not tied to your real identity and you’re not limited to your Facebook friends or friends of friends.

Rooms is designed to connect you with new people around all kinds of topics, including sensitive ones such as health issues, sex tips and personal finance.

People who create rooms can choose everything about them, from the colours used to the cover photos. They control who can participate in the discussions and what gets posted there. They can even use emoji to create their own “like” buttons.

Rooms has an equally liberal policy on what name or identity people use on the app. It doesn’t even ask for your first or last name when you sign up.

Miller says he’s Josh in a room that discusses the technology industry, but chose “jm90403” (his initials and hometown zip code) for a room he started on backpack travelling.

The goal is for people to use the name or nickname that makes them feel the most comfortable discussing the topic, Miller said.

They can use different pseudonyms in different rooms, but they have to use the same one in a specific room, Miller said.

“There is a good reason in a lot of situations why you don’t want people to know who you are and it’s not because of something sketchy,” Miller said. “We want to give people flexibility because that’s what they want.”

Rooms, Miller added, is planning Android and desktop versions.

AMMAN — Celebrated Venezuelan composer and conductor Pedro Mauricio Gonzalez Brito is in Jordan for a special concert. The event aptly titled “An Evening in Caracas” will take place on Thursday, at 7:00pm at the Jordanian International School in Tlaa Al Ali. The maestro will be conducting the Jordanian National Orchestra. He arrived in the country on October 18, and has already had a few rehearsals with the orchestra.

Talking to The Jordan Times at the Venezuelan embassy in Amman, Brito expressed his satisfaction with the local orchestra, saying that from the very first rehearsal session he could tell that, overall, the level of the musicians was “rather high”. He voiced his sincere pleasure at being in Jordan and working with the local musicians. His personal approach to music is characterised by authenticity and simplicity. This is felt in his compositions and in the natural way he talks about music, in general.

He then introduced the programme of the concert and that will include the overture from Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra, Mozart’s symphony No. 36 in C major, excerpts from Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and last but not least, one of his own compositions, Cantos Indigenas (Indian/indigenous chants) that he wrote in 2002. The work is an orchestral ode to the indigenous population in Venezuela in particular, and in Latin America in a broader manner, where ancestral traditions involve singing in most everyday chores.

Attending one of the rehearsals, on Sunday in the evening at the National Music Conservatory (NMC), The Jordan Times had the opportunity to listen to a good rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It was also a chance to see the two parties, the visiting conductor and the local musicians, enjoying the experience and communicating with gestures, English and Arabic not being spoken by the conductor.

The Venezuelan maestro is also a renowned contrabass player in his country and regularly performs with the Venezuela Philharmonic Orchestra. The visit to Jordan is one of the rare opportunities he has had to conduct a music ensemble outside his country. He also spoke of his love for all periods of music, from baroque to classical, romantic, modern and then contemporary, but admitted to have a special weakness for Mozart works.

The project comes to support and to increase the momentum of the Jordanian National Orchestra, an initiative mainly animated by Her Majesty Queen Noor Al Hussein, and Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the orchestra’s chairman. It is held under the patronage of the Venezuelan ambassador to Jordan Fausto Fernandes Borge, and Abu-Ghazaleh. The orchestra is hosted by the NMC, whose director and conductor Mohammad Othman Sidiq is closely working with Brito to carry out the entire project, from the joint rehearsals to the concert day.

One of those few cars that tick so many boxes and do so much so well, the latest version the range-topping Volkswagen Golf R is practical but compact, refined but focused, nimble but grippy, classy but understated and scorchingly brisk but utterly civilised. 

Quicker, more efficient and a more responsive drive than the car it replaces, the new R is the most powerful regular production Golf in its full fat 296BHP Euro-spec version.

The Middle East spec version driven is, however, detuned to 276BHP for better hot weather operation. But with near identical headline figures and effortlessly swift real world performance, one could hardly tell the difference.

Clean, classy lines

Built on Volkswagen’s new modular MQB platform, which incorporates partial aluminium construction, the new Golf R sheds 46kg over its predecessor in a like-for-like comparison in terms of model specification, which contributes to its improved performance, efficiency and handling.

Though lighter the new Golf R is a slightly bigger, wider and longer car than the one it replaces, with a longer wheelbase but sits lower, and in most ways is a roomier car. The more aggressively tuned and substantial sister to the front-drive Golf GTI, the yet hotter four-wheel-drive Golf R hot hatch gains an additional pair of driven wheels and some 90kg mass.

Sitting 5mm lower, the more muscular Golf R also does without the GTI’s nostalgic red pinstripes and tartan cloth stylistics, and gains a more purposeful appearance including bigger, more angular alloy wheels, quad tail pipes and more chiselled air intake and bumper assembly. With centre intake angled downwards and larger single slat side intakes, the Golf R has a distinctly more draped, road-hugging and urgent demeanour.

Compared to its predecessor, the new R has more defined lines and angles rather than rounded edges, and is an altogether more handsome and classy design, with more muscular bonnet, cleaner design lines, sharper headlight and more crisply styled rear lights.

Digging in hard 

Long gone are the days of V6-engine Golfs, for which Volkswagen’s iconic hatchback is all the better, considering the high output, and lightweight and efficiency gains of the new Golf R’s four-cylinder engine. A more powerful and upgraded variant of Volkswagen’s familiar turbocharged two-litre, the R’s engine features a new cylinder head, bigger fuel injectors and turbo, and different pistons over the next most powerful Golf GTI variant.

Developing 276BHP at 5,500-6,200rpm and 280lb/ft torque throughout 1,800-5,500rpm, and mated to a finger-snap shifting automated dual clutch gearbox (DSG) and latest generation Haldex four-wheel-drive system, the Mid-East Golf R demolishes the 0-100km/h sprint in five seconds flat, and tops out at 250km/h.

With tenacious four-wheel-drive putting its prodigious power down with superb effectiveness and civility, the Golf R doesn’t suffer wild torque-steer or wheel-spin, but rather digs in and bolts away.

With a slight gruff grown at low revs that grows to an almost Subaru boxer engine-like burble, the Golf R’s engine spools up quickly and with negligible turbo lag. Riding an abundant and wide mid-range wave of torque for effortless on-the-move flexibility, the Golf R pulls clean from low rpm, and swiftly and consistently builds towards a maximum power plateau. Responsively tractable throughout its rev range, the Golf R’s muscular engine effortlessly delivers a truly brisk performance without fuss or drama.

Reassuring thrills

With its 8.5l/100km combined fuel efficiency in mind, the Golf R up-shifts smoothly and early in default auto mode, but takes a more reticent approach in sportier gearbox shift modes, where gears are held longer for a better response. Well able to support a seventh gear on the highway, the DSG version Golf R comes with a six- rather than Volkswagen’s newer seven-speed auto-shifter.

The six-speed DSG however provides very responsive top gear on-the-move acceleration. Able to reapportion up to 100 per cent power to rear wheels if the front wheels slip, the Golf R’s four-wheel drive system provides the sure-footed traction and grip that allow for its electronic stability systems to be completely switched off.

Far nimbler, more agile and involving than its 1495kg weight might suggest, the Golf R is a crisp and thrilling yet benignly reassuring hot hatch. With quick and precise steering turning tidily in the Golf R’s front wheels dig in as it darts through a corner.

With the four-wheel-drive working to maintain a tight and faithful cornering line, the Golf R’s clear and eager throttle response allows one to easily adjust the line on-throttle, while the rear wheels receive more power should the front try to run wide. Flickable and agile, the Golf R is eager through switchbacks and through tight and fast turns, with superb body control. 

Classy cabin 

Flat and poised through corners, the nimble Golf R’s quick steering ratio and manual mode gearbox paddle shifters mean one never need change from the quarter-to-three steering position. Quick and light on its feet in its agile and nippy handling, the Golf R is, however, also firmly planted and highly reassuring through fast sweeping bends and on the highway. 

With four-wheel drive, the Golf R’s statuesque but unexaggerated 225/40R18 footwear can both provide high levels of traction and grip, and at the same time a good steering feel and just enough suppleness to keep it comfortably firm over imperfections, while vertical control on rebound is taut and settled.

A fluid drive with four-wheel drive ensuring stability and less electronic intervention, the Golf R is responsive, intuitive and eager, and with adjustable, supportive and comfortable seats one finds an ideal driving position. With easy ingress, big glasshouse visibility, and well-adjustable and sporty steering wheel, one accurately places the Golf R on road.

Classy yet sporty with quality fit and finish, the Golf R is a driver-focused environment with good cabin space for larger occupants, driver-tilted centre console and clear instrumentation. With between 343- to 1,233-litres luggage room depending on seat configuration, the five-door Golf is practical and convenient, while the safety, infotainment and standard and optional equipment list is extensive.