Features

CUPERTINO, California — If I’ve seen you taking photos with a tablet computer, I’ve probably made fun of you (though maybe not to your face, depending on how big you are). I’m old school: I much prefer looking through the viewfinder of my full-bodied, single-lens reflex camera, even though it has a large LCD screen.

But as I tested out Apple’s new iPad Air 2, I see why people like to shoot pictures with a tablet. Images look great on the large screen, and there’s less guesswork about whether or not small details, such as lettering on a sign, will be in focus.

And what you see — and get — with the iPad Air 2 is a better camera. The rear one now matches the iPhone’s 8 megapixels, up from 5 megapixels, and incorporates features such as slow-motion video. Packed with a faster processor, the 9.7-inch tablet is also 18 per cent thinner and 7 per cent lighter than the previous model, at about a quarter of an inch and just under a pound.

Apple is also updating its 7.9-inch iPad Mini, though the cameras, processor and dimensions haven’t changed.

The tablets go on sale this week, starting at $499 for the iPad Air 2 and $399 for the iPad Mini 3. Both now have fingerprint ID technology to expedite online purchases through Apple Pay. Gold joins silver and grey as colour choices, and pricier models have twice as much storage as before.

Improved camera

The iPad Air 2 takes sharper images. I can tell even before snapping the shot because I see all that detail on the screen. I’m able to read the small name tag on a baby bottle. Lettering on a van across the street looks clearer.

Last month’s iOS 8 software update brought panorama and time-lapse features to the iPad. With the iPad Air 2, you can snap 10 shots per second in a burst mode — great for restless kids, as you can choose the best shots later. You also get slow-motion video, though only at 120 frames per second. The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer 240 frames per second as well, so motion looks even slower.

The new Air’s front camera gets a burst mode, too, and the front sensor is better than before at capturing light for indoor and night selfies.

Unfortunately, the iPad still doesn’t have a flash. Although I prefer taking shots with natural light anyway, a lot of people like the flash. My advice is to light subjects with the iPhone’s flashlight.

Better viewing and sound

An anti-reflective coating reduces glare on the iPad Air 2. It’s a first for Apple and possibly a first for any consumer mobile device. I was dubious until I watched video with light shining in through my window. The coating didn’t eliminate glare completely, but made video viewable. The glare was too distracting on last year’s Air.

The coating also promises to improve contrast. However, I had to look hard to notice differences in some dull-colour scenes in Showtime’s “Homeland”. In many cases, the quality of the video stream makes a bigger difference.

To me, the iPad Air 2 also has better speakers. With the volume cranked all the way up, sound is louder on the new model. Apple says there shouldn’t be a difference, though I’m not complaining. (My neighbours might, though.)

Other changes

I’m glad to see the fingerprint ID sensor for unlocking both new tablets. Passcodes seem so last century, not to mention inconvenient.

That fingerprint can now be used to authorise Apple Pay purchases in apps. Unlike the new iPhones, the iPad doesn’t have a wireless chip needed for in-store transactions. Then again, I’d probably mock anyone who tried to wave a giant device over a cashier’s payment terminal. But I can see myself choosing a tablet over a phone for online shopping, and the fingerprint with Apple Pay will work nicely for that.

For the iPad Air 2 only, there’s a faster Wi-Fi technology called 802.11ac, though you need new home-networking equipment to take advantage of it. The Air also gets a barometer sensor to track elevation in fitness apps.

The bargain

Last year’s iPad Air was a huge improvement over the 2012 iPad, so this year’s update seems small by comparison. The improvements might not be enough for existing iPad Air owners to upgrade, but there’s enough there for those who have older models or are getting their first tablets.

The update in the iPad Mini is less pronounced. That makes it less tempting to save $100 by going for the Mini. For the same price as an iPad Mini 3, you can get last year’s full-size iPad with similar technical specifications. Bargain hunters should consider previous versions of the Mini, including the original model for $249, the cheapest iPad yet.

If you can afford it, though, spend more for added storage. For $599, you get an iPad Air 2 with 64 gigabytes, compared with 16 GB in the $499 base model. For $699, you get 128 GB. You’ll be surprised how quickly your iPad fills up with photos and video — especially now that I won’t mock you.

SEOUL — The latest version of Samsung’s popular big-screen Galaxy Note has gone on sale at a crucial time for the South Korean company as it suffers a rapid decline in profit from its global smartphone business.

With the Note 4 launch in the US last week, Samsung introduced one of the biggest design changes to the Note series since it started sales three years ago, ditching plastic in favour of metal for its frame.

The choice is not a result of a change in the company’s design policy, but a product of what Samsung does well: identifying the consumer trend and improving upon it. Yet it’s unclear if that’s enough to stanch sliding sales as the holiday shopping period nears.

By the end of 2013, Samsung had sold at least 48 million Galaxy Notes. The company would not reveal more recent sales figures. Even though reviews for the Galaxy Note 4 have been favourable, analysts said its redesign may not be enough as Apple Inc. has entered the large-screen smartphone category with the iPhone 6 Plus.

“It will not be easy,” said Lee Sei-chul, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities. The Note 4 “is a nice product but response to the iPhone 6 Plus has been good”. 

Samsung estimated earlier this month that its July-September quarterly profit shrank to 4.1 trillion won ($3.8 billion), a 60 per cent plunge from record-high 10.2 trillion won a year earlier. Samsung is scheduled to disclose earnings for business divisions later this month and analysts believe profit from its mobile business plunged to about one-third of its level a year earlier.

Samsung’s first Note in 2011 is credited with making big-screen smartphones popular, especially in Asia, but the “phablet” market has become crowded with rival models since then. The Note 4 with its 5.7-inch screen faces competition not only from the new iPhone 6 series, but also from Chinese handset makers.

Samsung is also under pressure to make amends for design missteps in the Galaxy S5 smartphone that led to the departure of its design team chief.

Samsung designers and developers said the opinions of consumers and their demands drove the design changes from plastic to metal and guided the direction of the technology behind the S Pen, as the Note’s stylus is known.

“Giving the values that consumers want is important. I don’t think simply making smartphones beautiful is important,” said Kim Nam-su, a senior designer at Samsung’s mobile design team.

The Note 4’s metal frame is coated in the same colour as the rest of the phone’s body, except for the polished, chamfered edge.

The painted frame gives a sense of unity but also prevents users from leaving fingerprint marks, one of the main complaints about the Note 3’s glossy frame made of polycarbonate, a type of plastic. Though the Note 4 still uses plastic for the back cover, Samsung gave subtle, tactile patterns to imitate leather.

The Note 4’s adoption of a metal frame is a first for Samsung’s top-of-the-line smartphone and may foreshadow changes in its future flagship mobile devices. The Galaxy Alpha used metal a little earlier but its phone power falls short of the Note 4. Many other high-end smartphones such as iPhones have used metal for a few years.

Critics have long complained the plastic body of Samsung phones makes them look cheap for the price, which is higher than $600. Some reviewers compared the dimpled plastic back cover of the gold version of the Galaxy S5 to a band aid.

“Overall trends cannot be ignored,” said Kim.

But he said Samsung’s mobile team doesn’t think design is so important that other aspects of the phone should be sacrificed.

Though some people have complained about the protruded camera in Samsung phones, Kim said a slight protrusion in the rear camera in the Note 4 shows that when the phone’s performance is important, designers should help engineers to achieve their goal. The iPhone 6 also had its camera bulging from the back for the first time in the iPhone’s history.

An engineer behind the S Pen stylus said his team’s goal was to incorporate a natural note taking feature in the digital device and using the digital pen like a mouse in personal computers by clicking and dragging.

The Note 4’s stylus, embedded in the bottom right corner, responds to the screen faster and to more subtle variations of hand pressure than its predecessor, allowing more natural writing experience.

Despite a learning curve that still exists for first time stylus users, Samsung is trying to boost the use of S Pen by improving the user interface.

“There is a great possibility that it would become a major inputting device” for large smartphones, said Lee Joohoon, principal engineer at Samsung’s mobile team.

NEW YORK — The maker of America’s top sugar brand Domino Sugar is launching its first no-calorie “natural” sweetener extracted from the stevia plant in Paraguay, the strongest sign yet that the upstart product is threatening to eat into raw-sugar demand.

In less than a decade, the sweet-tasting stevia powder has stolen a big chunk of the $1.3 billion global market for artificial sweeteners as more health-conscious consumers use it in what they eat and drink.

Consumers’ appetite for artificial sweeteners like Cumberland Packing Co.’s Sweet’N Low and corn syrup has waned amid rising interest in foods perceived as natural.

The powerful corporations that dominate the global sugar market are also facing slowing demand, especially in the United States, for refined sugar that is used in everything from coffee to cakes. The US slowdown is due in part to concerns about extremely high rates of obesity and diabetes.

Big Sugar’s response? To offer new non-sugar products that are not calorific, are suitable for diabetes sufferers and, more importantly, are seen as a more attractive alternative for health-conscious consumers than artificial sweeteners.

“If you look down the sweeteners aisle at any supermarket, there are stevia products there. Whatever consumers are looking for, we want to provide,” Domino President and Chief Executive Officer Brian O’Malley told Reuters.

ASR Group, which sells Domino Sugar and is the world’s largest refiner of cane sugar, will launch its new product by the end of the year — its first to be made solely from the plant extract rather than a blend of sugar and stevia.

For ASR Group, which also owns the Tate & Lyle brand, it’s a bold move: sugar represents 98 per cent of its business.

But stevia’s low production costs and relatively high retail sales prices are a sweet spot for food companies.

After spying growing interest four years ago, Louis Dreyfus Corp.’s Imperial Sugar has its own blends of sugar and stevia, and agri business Cargill Inc.’s Truvia brand is the US market leader after entering the fray in 2008.

Archer Daniels Midland Co., a major player in the US corn syrup market and global commodities trade, this month completed a $3 billion acquisition of Wild Flavors, looking to expand in the fast-growing “natural” markets.

To be sure, demand is still tiny compared with global sugar consumption of more than 170 million tonnes. It is also still a rare ingredient in US foods — only 1.5 per cent of new food products launched in the first nine months of 2014 contained stevia, Datamonitor Consumer’s database shows.

Some health experts caution the sweetener contains additives as well as the plant extract. Questions also remain whether its taste can really match the flavour of sugar.

Still, US consumers will eat and drink about 597 tonnes of stevia in manufactured food and drinks by 2018, with demand soaring from a meagre 14.5 tonnes in 2008, according to estimates from market research group Euromonitor International.

Over the same period, the country’s demand for artificial sweetener aspartame is expected to drop by a third to 3,243 tonnes, Euromonitor’s forecasts show. 

Natural no-calorie sweeteners “have definitely eroded some volume of traditional sugar sources”, said Steve French, managing partner of market research firm Natural Marketing Institute in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.

“It’s not that we’re using more sweeteners as a population, we’re just shifting usage across different types of sweeteners.”

Roots in Paraguay

Stevia’s roots go back to Paraguay and Brazil, where people have used leaves from the plant to sweeten food for centuries.

It became big business in the United States through a medical products salesman in Arizona called James May who got his first taste of stevia in 1982 when a Peace Corps volunteer returning from a stint in Paraguay gave him some leaves to try.

“After tasting them, I gave him my life savings to go back to Paraguay and send me some stevia leaves,” he told Reuters.

He now runs Wisdom Natural Brands in Gilbert, Arizona, whose SweetLeaf sweetener is used in salad dressings, tortilla chips and ice creams.

His big breakthrough came in 2008 when US regulators approved stevia as a sweetener after more than two decades of lobbying. Until then, it had been used in foods, but not as a sweetener.

Some 17 per cent of US consumers surveyed in 2013 by the Natural Marketing Institute said they use stevia, up from just 4 per cent in 2008. Just under half of consumers used table sugar, down from 57 per cent in 2008, the survey showed.

How natural is ‘natural’?

While much of stevia’s appeal is that it’s natural, some critics note that most products include more corn sugar and bulking agents than the stevia plant itself and that the term “natural” is tricky territory for food companies.

In 2013, Cargill agreed to pay $5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in a Minnesota state court that claimed its Truvia brand should not be marketed as “natural” because it is highly processed and uses genetically modified ingredients.

Truvia spokeswoman Katie Woolery said it is made from natural ingredients and meets all legal guidelines.

Even so, recent entrants are betting on stevia being more than just a US fad. In Japan, where it has been used since the 1970s, it has established a stronghold in products like sports drinks.

“Sugar could be in danger. If there’s a product out there that can taste enough like sugar, there’s potential for that product to take share,” said Jeff Stafford, a Morningstar analyst in Chicago.

Some household food and drinks manufacturers have already spotted the opportunity to sweeten products naturally without adding calories: Greek yoghurt maker Chobani has put stevia in its first light yoghurt brand, Simply 100, and PepsiCo. is launching a new soda this month that uses stevia.

LAISHUI, China — Grinning with pride, a Chinese farmer held out two precious walnuts — globes so precisely symmetrical that consumers in search of hand massages value them more highly than gold.

“Prices have skyrocketed,” said Li Zhanhua, standing in the shade of the leafy green walnut trees which have made him a small fortune. “Years ago, we could never have imagined this.”

Rolling a pair of walnuts between palm and fingers — believed to improve circulation — has been a Chinese pastime for hundreds of years.

“Mainly the walnuts are good for the body, that’s why people play with them,” Li said, plucking a deep brown pair out of a display case.

Walnuts were used as toys in China’s imperial courts as early as 220 AD, but were championed by officials during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) and have been a status symbol exchanged among the country’s elite ever since.

Demand has grown alongside China’s economic boom, and vendors say they are especially popular among the newly wealthy and gangsters profiting from Beijing’s grey economy.

Years of rising prices have transformed the lives of farmers in Laishui county, a few hours from the capital.

Just a decade ago, Li and his neighbours ploughed a hard-scrabble existence growing wheat and corn, but now take regular holidays from their mountainside village and own imported cars as well as apartments in a nearby city.

Li once sold a prized pair for 160,000 yuan, but added: “Even a relatively ordinary pair of walnuts can be more expensive than gold, in terms of weight.”

“We are all grateful for the huge changes the walnuts have brought us. All of our development depends on them,” said Li, who says he harvests up to 2 million yuan ($325,000) a year from his nuts.

“Before, just building a house or getting married would be a big expense for us. We didn’t imagine buying houses in the city.”

Going nuts

Images of the humble walnut are everywhere in Laishui, shining down from shop fronts, huge banners lining the streets, and naturally, printed on business cards.

Collectors are not interested in the edible kernel, but instead value its ridged brown shell, which grows concealed beneath a green husk.

Farmers root through truckloads of produce to find pairs with the most symmetrical pits and ridges, which bring the highest prices.

Size — the bigger the better — and colour also play a role, with deeper browns more valuable.

“Each one is unique, and becomes red as you play with it,” said Li’s neighbour Zhang Guifu, gripping a high-pressure hose while spraying a box of freshly husked nuts. “It’s valuable as a collector’s item and for boosting brain fitness.”

Different varieties’ names are as colourful as the nuts themselves. There is the “government official’s hat”, whose pitted surface and form recall the tasselled headwear of Qing dynasty courtiers, as well as the “chicken’s heart” and “lantern”, named for their shapes.

At an open air market, dozens of salespeople sat behind walnuts placed in rows or perched on revolving plastic podiums.

“At the high point of the season this whole area is packed with cars and people like a sea, you can’t even move,” said vendor Lin Changzhu, whose namecard shows two deep red nuts.

But local fortunes have encouraged another growth industry — walnut theft. To prevent pilfering, farmers like Li and Dong have fortified their fields with barbed-wire fences, grizzly guard dogs and security cameras.

Skin deep

With prices appreciating long term, investors facing low interest rates on bank deposits have turned to walnuts as a store of value, according to Chinese reports, and speculating on unpeeled walnut fruit has become a form of gambling, which is generally banned in mainland China.

In a practice called “betting on skin” buyers pay a fixed price for the nuts before their green outer covering has been removed, hoping that what is inside will be worth more than they shelled out.

Walnuts have been sold for generations in Beijing’s Shilihe market, where stalls also offer specialised walnut oil and brushes.

Dozens of mostly middle-aged men crouched smoking and commenting on lines of fruit set out on black cloth.

After prodding and measuring a series of specimens, and a prolonged debate, Beijinger Miao Yaoge rolled out 2,000 yuan in crisp red notes, before watching as the vendor cut open his chosen pair with a kitchen knife.

“Look, the husk is thin,” the seller exclaimed, suggesting a larger nut and prompting a flicker of a smile from Miao, 45, an imposing figure with a shaved head and a white tracksuit.

As they were given a final buffing, Miao — who reckoned they were worth around 2,500 yuan, giving him a profit on the deal — said: “This is Chinese culture. I’m happy with my walnuts.”

A brazenly brutish and beguilingly brisk Benz, the E63 AMG S-Model 4Matic re-draws the boundaries of the super saloon. Powered by the more powerful 577BHP version of Mercedes-Benz’ AMG performance arm’s 5-litre twin-turbo V8 engine and channelled through four-wheel-drive traction, the E63 AMG S-Model 4Matic is a luxury executive saloon, whose astonishing 3.6-second 0-100km/h acceleration belies its size, weight, and delves into bona fide contemporary supercar territory. What’s more is that the E63 is an un-apologetic saloon that doesn’t sacrifices space for a stylishly rakish roofline, and is probably the most spacious and traditional three-box saloon in its class.

Power projection

A car that projects its power and potential, the E63 AMG S-Model 4matic is wide and tall, with a roofline that flows well towards the boot-line, but is a classic saloon that doesn’t muddle the transition. Facelift since last year to better fit in with Mercedes’ current design language as exemplified by the C- and S-Class saloons, the E-Class had first arrived in 2009 and bridged the transition between the brand’s preceding twin oval saloon headlamps with twin diamond shaped headlamps. Now gone, the twin headlamps have merged into a single unit each side, with LED elements reflecting the pre-facelift design.

An elegant brute with bold creases and upright design, the revised E63 ditches the classic multi-slat Mercedes saloon car grille and bonnet-mounted emblem for a large grille-mounted tri-star with crosshair-like twin slats. More defined and chrome-ringed, the new grille looks snoutier, while re-designed lower intakes are gapingly wide and tall, and more upright and prominent.

With its waistline rising from the headlamp LED strip towards the boot-line and a side crease-line rising from front wheel-arches through the door handles, the E63 has a sense of forward movement. Sporty side skirts, rear spoiler and huge 255/35ZR19 front and 285/30ZR19 rear footwear complement its muscular presence.

Benz bullet

The more powerful E63 AMG variant, the S-Model features 28BHP power hike over the already brutally powerful standard model, and standard 4Matic four-wheel-drive to channel it immense 577BHP delivered at 5,500rpm, and 590lb/ft available throughout a broad 2,000-4,500rpm mid-range.

Blisteringly quick, the S-Model leaps off the line after a brief moment of turbo lag, and with its four wheels clenching the tarmac tight and its twin chargers primed, blasts down the drag strip at an astonishing rate, as tested at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. Defying its 1,940kg mass, the S-Model hits 100km/h in 3.6-seconds and is electronically restricted to a confidently attainable 250km/h.

Effortlessly versatile in its abundant mid-range, the S-Model surges through rev range, peak power and towards a 6,400rpm rev limit when driven in its most aggressive Sport+ automatic mode.

Best in Sport+ where gear shifts are 25 per cent are quicker and one avoids hitting the rev limiter or up-shifting too early before its’ robust mid-range sweet spot, the S-Model’s 7-speer wet clutch automatic gearbox can, however, be used in a manual mode through the steering-mounted paddle shifters. Allowing one to avoid unwanted kickdowns or up-shifts, manual mode faithfully hold selected gears for more driver involvement, while ignition and injection timing is interrupted for quicker full throttle up-shifts.

Traction action

Fitted with a rear differential lock to help put power down when launching off-the-line and in handling manoeuvres, the E63 S-Model’s four-wheel-drive system is 67 per cent rear-biased in power delivery by default. Such a power distribution delivers a classic front-engine rear-drive feel, balance and driving dynamic, but with the added benefit of all-wheel traction and grip.

Though it adds an extra 95kg over the standard rear-drive E63’s weight, the S-Model’s four-wheel-drive system is key its’ beguiling acceleration time, and makes it a considerably more effective and drivable car on track, where the better distribution of power enables better traction and grip, and less electronic stability control intervention.

Reassuringly stable and confident at high speed as is expected of a German super saloon, the E63 S-Model is also unflappable through fast sweeping corners where its’ four-wheel-drive is aided by a torque vectoring system. 

Accurate and meaty, the E63’s steering is designed for high-speed stability but avails itself well through corners, where it turns-in tidily. With its’ adaptive damping and rear air suspension working hard to suppress body roll in its firmest Sport+ setting, the S-Model’s front wheels help pull it out of a corner as the rear wheels dig in and unleash their power. The result is less electronic intervention and power cuts better driving flow.

Sporty and spacious

Not a car that hides its weight, the E63 S-Model, however, well manages its immense power and torque, and substantial 1,940kg weight. This is most evident through tight and quick slalom courses, where one feels the huge sudden weight transfers, but its four-wheel-drive, adaptive suspension and electronic assistance and management systems keep it weaving faithfully through the switchbacks.

Benefiting from big and effective disc brakes, the S-Model can also be optioned with ceramic discs, which with their enhanced fade resistance, would be of particular use if one intends to regularly drive hard on track.

Classy and refined inside, the E63 S-Model is a spacious and elegantly sports saloon, with an ergonomic and smartly business-like cabin. Perhaps the most spacious car in its class, the E63 is a dedicated and luxurious saloon. Highly adjustable, comfortable and supportive front seats are matched by ample rear space, where tall and large occupants are well catered for.

With clear instrumentation, stitched leather flat-bottom steering wheel and carbon-fibre accents, the sporty E63 also features extensive standard and optional mod cons, and safety and infotainment systems, including various semi-automated and radar-based features like adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistance, among much more.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5.5-litre, twin turbo V8-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 98 x 90.5mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, direct injection, variable timing

Gearbox: 7-speed wet-clutch automatic

Ratios: 1st 4.38; 2nd 2.86; 3rd 1.92; 4th 1.37; 5th 1.0; 6th 0.82; 7th 0.73

Final drive: 2.65

Drive-train: four-wheel-drive, differential lock

Power distribution, F/R: 33 per cent/67 per cent

0-100 km/h: 3.6-seconds

Maximum speed: 250km/h (electronically governed)

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 577 (585) [430] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 105.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 297.4BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 590 (800) @2,000-4,500rpm

Specific torque: 146.5Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 412.3Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 6,400rpm

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 14.4-/7.9-/10.3-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 242g/km

Fuel tank capacity: 66-litres

Length: 4,900mm

Width: 1,873mm

Height: 1,466mm

Wheelbase: 2,874mm

Track width, F/R: 1,625/1,579mm

Luggage volume: 540-litres

Kerb weight: 1,940kg

Steering: Variable assistance, rack and pinion

Turning circle: 11.75-metres

Suspension, F/R: Multi-link/multi-link, air springs

Brakes: Ventilated & perforated discs

Tyres, F/R: 255/35ZR19/285/30ZR19

WASHINGTON — A comet the size of a small mountain and about as solid as a pile of talcum powder whizzed past Mars on Sunday, dazzling space enthusiasts with the once-in-a-million-years encounter.

The comet, known as Siding Spring, made its closest encounter with the Red Planet at 1827 GMT, racing past it at a breakneck 203,000 kilometres per hour.

At its closest, Siding Spring was 140,000 kilometres from Mars — a near miss by astronomers’ standards.

Before the comet buzzed Mars, it could be seen in space racing towards the brightly illuminated planet trailed by a cloud of debris. 

Scientists said the passing of the comet — also known as C/2013 A1 and about a kilometre wide — offered a unique chance to study its impact on Mars’ atmosphere. 

“What could be more exciting than to have a whopper of an external influence like a comet, just so we can see how atmospheres do respond?” asked Nick Schneider, the remote sensing team leader from NASA’s MAVEN mission to Mars.

“It’s a great learning opportunity.”

NASA’s fleet of Mars-orbiting satellites and robots on the planet’s surface were primed for the flyby, hoping to capture the rare event and collect a trove of data for earthlings to study.

MAVEN, NASA’s latest Mars orbiter, reported back to Earth in “good health” after spending about three hours ducking a possible collision with the comet’s high-velocity dust particles, the US space agency said.

“We’re glad the spacecraft came through, we’re excited to complete our observations of how the comet affects Mars, and we’re eager to get to our primary science phase,” said MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky.

“Mars Odyssey hard at work now to image #MarsComet Siding Spring, after closest approach & before dust tail hits,” NASA said on Twitter, referring to one of its robotic spacecraft.

Duck and cover

The comet — a ball of ice, dust and pebbles — is believed to have originated billions of years ago in the Oort Cloud, a distant region of space at the outskirts of the solar system.

As it hurtled through space it created a meteor shower and shed debris which scientists had feared could damage valuable spacecraft. 

“All it takes is a little tiny grain of sand travelling at that speed and you’ve got damage to solar arrays, or your propulsion line or critical wires,” said Schneider. 

Before the comet entered the Red Planet’s orbit, NASA moved its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey and MAVEN to avoid damage by the comet’s high-speed debris.

All three orbiters later reported back with a clean bill of health after taking shelter behind Mars, NASA said.

The comet travelled more than 1 million years to take its first pass by Mars, and will not return for another million years, after it completes its next long loop around the sun. 

The comet was discovered by Robert McNaught at Australia’s Siding Spring Observatory in January 2013.

Its flyby of Mars was not likely to be visible to sky watchers on Earth.

WASHINGTON — Free meals, four months of maternity leave and now egg-freezing: Facebook’s latest gift to its employees has rekindled debate on the role of women in the company.

The move aims to at the very least show that “we have a lot of work to do to help companies really understand what they need to do”, said Carolyn Leighton, who founded WITI, a network of women working in the tech sector.

As for paying to have eggs frozen — which allows women to put off having children — she dismissed the idea as “ridiculous”.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook with women who found it insulting,” Leighton said.

“They felt they were just trying to deflect the conversation about equal pay for women,” she said, recalling that in the United States, a woman doing the same job as a man earns 77 per cent what he does.

That is apparently not the goal of Facebook, known among companies in Silicon Valley for its groundbreaking ideas on personnel management, in offering this coverage up to $20,000.

“We take care of all our employees and the people who matter most to them,” said a Facebook spokesman, outlining the company’s
healthcare benefits.

There is no universal, government-funded healthcare programme in the United States, and most Americans get their healthcare from their employer.

At Facebook, the benefits include fertility treatment, surrogate mothers for homosexual couples and sperm bank access. This is all on top of three free meals a day at the office, medical care on site and a car wash.

‘Generous’ maternity leave’

“We don’t have women-specific benefits. We have benefits for people at Facebook,” the spokesman said, insisting that the four-month maternity leave is quite generous in a country where much shorter periods are often granted.

Apple, which will start paying for egg freezing in January, said it wanted to give its workers the power to make their lives productive as they take care of their loved ones and raise their children.

“Surely what they meant to say was, ‘We want women at Apple to spend more of their lives working for us without a family to distract them,’” Jessica Cussins of the Centre for Genetics and Society wrote in a Huffington Post editorial.

But Chavi Eve Karkowsky, an obstetrician in New York, wrote in the online magazine Slate that when it comes to delayed child bearing, “the two factors that come up again and again are financial stability and the availability of an appropriate partner”.

Of the second factor, she added “this is the one that I think creates the egg-freezing push”.

The procedure that was once mostly used by people with cancer and is not harmless and its results not guaranteed.

The debate has rekindled the controversy over women in the workplace, a key issue for the women’s liberation movement.

A week ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was forced to apologise after advising women to trust their “karma” rather than be assertive and ask for a raise.

Last year, Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg published “Lean In”, a memoir presented as a modern feminist manifest in which she urged women to work to succeed in juggling their careers and family life.

Women make up 50.8 per cent of the US population and 47 per cent of the workforce. But they account for only 16.6 per cent of senior positions in the workplace and 8.1 per cent of the highest paying jobs, according to the Centre for American Progress.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — For years, the notion of on-demand, anywhere television has been slowly disrupting the traditional pay TV industry. Now it seems that streaming video has hit a watershed moment.

In the past week, HBO announced it would launch a standalone streaming service in 2015 to deliver hit shows like “Game of Thrones” and “Girls”, directly to viewers without a cable or satellite subscription.

That was followed quickly by CBS, which said it was offering a Web-only subscription service, bypassing the cable, for its shows like “NCIS,” as well as its archive including “Star Trek” and “Twin Peaks”.

Spanish-language broadcaster Univision is also set to make its shows available through a website and app, without cable, sources said.

Over the past few years, online services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have been gaining viewers at the expense of cable and satellite services.

But the entry of content powerhouses like HBO (a unit of Time Warner) and CBS change the landscape because they bring new and popular shows that had not been available on streaming before, said James McQuivey at Forrester Research.

“It doesn’t necessarily cannibalise the other streaming experiences but it creates a new focus for the viewer because it has the hit series, and that drives a lot of interest,” McQuivey told AFP.

Moving to new model

Jeffrey McCall, professor of communication at DePauw University, said these developments show the TV industry is increasingly moving towards the on-demand, online model.

“We’re not there yet, but these announcements show we are headed in that direction,” McCall said.

“For CBS and HBO, there’s no need to deal with cable companies. When they put their content over the Internet, they can reach consumers on their own terms.”

This means an acceleration in “cord cutters” in the cable industry and could force the providers to break up the expensive “bundles” consumers are forced to buy when they want popular channels like HBO or sports channel ESPN, said McCall.

Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies said the new trend is “scaring the carriers” such as Comcast, the dominant cable provider, which fears the hugely profitable cable system will turn into “dumb pipes”.

“There’s going to be a recomposition of video content distribution... separating the pipe from the content,” Kay said.

According to the research firm SNL Kagan, US cable and other traditional pay TV firms lost some two million customers in 2013.

Roughly 84 per cent of US households subscribe to pay TV, according to Leichtman Research, but that has been slowly falling since 2010.

Leichtman survey shows 22 per cent of those who move don’t get a pay TV subscription at their new residence, with 11 per cent of those without a cable or satellite package saying they can manage with digital services like Netflix.

McCall said that with increasing services online, “people can find enough stuff and not pay for 100 channels they don’t want”.

This trend has been gradually increasing, and McCall expects a “major shift” within 10 to 15 years.

“Consumers can get out of these huge cable packages and create their own online a la carte programming,” he said.

But McCall said big conglomerates like Comcast — which owns NBC and which is seeking to merge with Time Warner Cable — can survive by offering both content and distribution.

Morningstar analyst Neil Macker said the new HBO and CBS services are not necessarily aimed at cutting profitable ties with cable.

“They’re not trying to accelerate cord cutting,” because of the large number who are still on the cable bundle, said Macker.

“I don’t think it’s really a competitor to Netflix, I think it’s an additional channel.”

Still, he noted that others like HBO rival Showtime would likely follow the trend, aiming at some 10 million US home with broadband Internet but not pay TV.

Sports is wild card

McQuivey said one thing holding back the move to online TV is the availability of live sports such as NFL football and NBA basketball.

“As long as people can’t get sports any other way, they will keep the existing pay TV model,” he said.

“The pay TV model will decline a little more sharply but it is not going to disappear.”

At some point in the coming years, said McQuivey, consumers will have a greater ability to break free from expensive cable bundles” and select the channels and content they want.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean consumers pay less. They might pay more, but they would like it if they could have access to everything on HBO and everything HBO ever aired,” he said.

Over time, the industry will adapt to give consumers what they want.

“They want to watch the best programme on the device they want when they want to watch,” said McQuivey.

And because cable firms are losing their grip, it gives programme producers more options.

“I think we’re going to see a rise in independent production without having distribution secured,” he said.

“I think we’ll see an explosion of great programming.”

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

US: Penguin, 2012

Pp. 313

“The Fault in Our Stars” is the endearing and invigorating love story of two exceptional American teenagers. Hazel and Augustus are extraordinary in terms of intelligence and imagination, but their exceptionality also has its downside: They meet in a support group for cancer survivors, somewhat euphemistically named, since each week someone is missing from the group meeting, never to return. 

Hazel is the novel’s narrator, serving as the reader’s personal guide into the mental and physical world of young cancer patients or as she calls it, “The Republic of Cancervania”. Diagnosed at the age of 13 with terminal cancer, she is being treated with an experimental drug that has bought her a few years, but “I did not yet know the size of the bite”, she says. (p. 26) 

Her activity level and quality of life are severely restricted by poorly functioning lungs, and an oxygen tank is her constant companion. She lives with the knowledge that she can and will suffer a fatal relapse at some undesignated time. 

An avid reader, Hazel is quite analytical about her situation. At times, her insights seem amazingly philosophical, as when she says: “Cancer kids are essentially side effects of the relentless mutation that made the diversity of life on Earth possible.” (p. 49)

Her incisive and wryly humorous comments dispel many misconceptions about how cancer patients may think about themselves and their disease, and how they would like to be treated by others. When confiding that her parents are worried about her being depressed, she adds, “Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying.” (p. 3)

While this conclusion jolts, it also brings cancer into the fold of a long list of human ailments and the human condition as such, since we all die. However, as Hazel has discovered, most people don’t know how to deal with those approaching death, especially the young. Hazel’s parents try valiantly, but her mother’s “hovering” is sometimes too much, and her circle of friends diminishes as most of them feel so awkward about her condition that they basically disappear. 

Until falling in love with Augustus, Hazel is very introverted. Mainly, she reads and re-reads “Imperial Affliction”, the only book she has found which deals with death in a credible manner. She feels guilty about the pain she is causing her parents and what they will do after she dies. Initially, for the same reason — fear of causing pain, she tries to cool the almost magical attraction she and Augustus feel for each other. Augustus is, after all, billed as cured, expected to survive her, but there are many wild cards in the deck in the Republic of Cancervania.

Augustus himself throws a number of wild cards into the deck of how to keep living when you know you are dying. His great fear is that death means oblivion, and his drive to create extraordinary experiences in the meantime shakes Hazel out of her depression.

His biggest feat is arranging a trip for them to Amsterdam, where the author of “Imperial Affliction” resides. Hazel has questions to ask him. Although their encounter with the reclusive author does not turn out as expected, the trip itself is a game-changer in terms of Hazel and Augustus learning that they have choices and that their determination to act on them means something.

“The Fault in Our Star” throws off all sentimentality and platitudes in favour of a very life-affirming, if painful, exploration of reality. Although Hazel and Augustus concur that “The world is not a wish-granting factory”, they insist on keeping their wishes and dreams, and this insistence makes life worth living. (p. 214)

One would not think that a love story about young people dying of cancer could be entertaining but John Green’s creation of these two irrepressible and charming characters, and his clever replication of how teenagers actually talk, is highly entertaining.

You will laugh, cry and, most of all, learn. The knowledge to be gained from this book is invaluable for anyone who needs to relate to a cancer patient — or confront other tragic circumstances. This is a book that will expand your humanity. “The Fault in Our Stars” is available at Readers Bookshop.

By Deborah Netburn 

Los Angeles Times (MCT)

Some of the water molecules in your drinking glass were created more than 4.5 billion years ago, according to new research.

That makes them older than the Earth, older than the solar system — even older than the sun itself.

In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers say the distinct chemical signature of the water on Earth and throughout the solar system could occur only if some of that water formed before the swirling disk of dust and gas gave birth to the planets, moons, comets and asteroids.

This primordial water makes up 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the water on Earth, the researchers estimate.

“It’s pretty amazing that a significant fraction of water on Earth predates the sun and the solar system,” said study leader Ilse Cleeves, an astronomer at the University of Michigan.

This finding suggests that water, a key ingredient of life, may be common in young planetary systems across the universe, Cleeves and her colleagues say.

Scientists are still not entirely sure how water arrived on Earth. The part of the protoplanetary disk in which our planet formed was too hot for liquid or ice water to exist, and so the planet was born dry. Most experts believe the Earth’s water came from ice in comets and asteroids that formed in a cooler environment, and later collided with our planet.

But this theory leads to more questions. Among them: Where did the water preserved in the comets and asteroids come from?

To find out, scientists turned to chemistry. Here on Earth, about one in every 3,000 molecules of water is made with a deuterium atom instead of a hydrogen atom.

A deuterium atom is similar to a hydrogen atom except that its nucleus contains a proton and a neutron, instead of a lone proton. (Both atoms also contain a single electron.) That makes deuterium twice as heavy as hydrogen, which is why water molecules made with deuterium atoms (HDO) are known as “heavy water”.

The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen throughout the universe was set by the Big Bang. But for water in the solar system, the proportion is slightly higher.

Water with a high deuterium content can only form under specific conditions. The environment needs to be very cold, and there needs to be enough energy to power the reaction that binds hydrogen, deuterium and oxygen. Over the past several decades, researchers have come up with two possible — and competing — explanations of how this heavy water took up residence in our solar system.

The first is that it came from interstellar water ice that formed in the huge cloud of gas that gave birth to our sun and the solar system. Stellar nurseries can be found throughout the universe, and they are rich in both heavy water and regular water (H2O), the researchers said.

The second possibility is that the violence and energy of star birth ripped apart that interstellar water, and its building blocks got reprocessed within the protoplanetary disk that would eventually coalesce into the planets and other heavenly bodies.

For the past several years, Cleeves has been trying to determine just how much energy was able to penetrate the cold, dense region of the planet-forming disks around stars.

“This study was kind of a side project,” she said. “We realised that if the amount of energy in the disk is as low as we think, that means the water in our solar system couldn’t have formed here, and it had to come from somewhere else.”

Using computer models, she and her colleagues concluded that the disk was certainly cold enough for heavy water to form. But the gas would have been too dense to allow X-rays to enter, and the solar winds and magnetic fields would have had no trouble deflecting cosmic rays.

Without these energy sources, Cleeves said, deuterium and oxygen couldn’t have formed heavy water.

But it would have been easy for cosmic rays to penetrate the gas cloud before it collapsed into the protoplanetary disk, she said. There, those rays could have helped heavy water get made.

Ted Bergin, an astronomer at the University of Michigan and co-author of the Science study, said the results suggest there may be an abundance of ancient water in young planetary systems throughout the universe.

Most stars and their solar systems are formed in water heavy stellar nurseries similar to the one that birthed our sun. If interstellar water can survive the trauma of our sun’s birth, it is likely it can survive the birth of other stars as well.

“They are all made out of very cold material, with water, and that is being provided to planets as they are being born,” he said.