Features

PARIS — Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” are losing their yellow cheer and the unsettling apricot horizon in Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” is turning a dull ivory.

Some of our most treasured paintings are fading, warn experts who would like more money for the use of sophisticated technology to capture the masters’ original palettes before the works are unrecognisably blighted.

“Our cultural heritage is suffering from a disease,” Robert van Langh, director of conservation and restoration at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, told AFP in Paris this week.

“These priceless icons of our culture are deteriorating,” he said. And the amount spent on conserving them “should be multiplied by ten”.

Van Langh was speaking on the sidelines of a conference on the use of synchrotron radiation technology in art conservation at the molecular level.

Synchrotrons, stadium-sized machines that produce beams of bright X-ray light, are used to analyse the chemical degradation of famous artworks gracing the museums of the world.

Much more science is needed to understand the chemical reactions that cause colour changes in canvases, in order to stop them, said Jennifer Mass, an art conservationist from Winterthur Museum in Delaware, who also attended the meeting.

“There are heaps of researchers ready to do this work, but very little money.”

Understanding the degenerative process would allow museums to display the precious works in the appropriate light, atmosphere and humidity.

But technology would also allow “digital reconstruction” of original pieces, as they were envisaged by their creators, for posterity.

“The goal is more preservation than restoration,” said Mass, adding that restorers would only in very rare cases touch up the original work of an artist. 

Fading like a flower

Experts already know that the iconic still life “Sunflowers” is browner today than when van Gogh captured it on canvas in 1888.

It turns out the Dutch impressionist painter had opted for industrial pigments, then new on the market, for his yellows, according to Belgian chemist Koen Janssens of the University of Antwerp.

Exposed to air, the yellow in cadmium, also used by Munch for his 1910 work “The Scream”, loses its brightness, while ultraviolet light — as from the Sun — turns it brown.

Janssens has also worked on van Gogh’s famous “Flowers in a Blue Vase”, which has suffered a similar fate but for a different reason.

In this case, it was a varnish applied after the artist’s death that became cracked and faded over time, obscuring the picture underneath.

Synthetic pigments like cadmium yellow, emerald green and zinc yellow — some of which can start losing their depth of colour in only 20 years — were also popular among other impressionists of the 19th century and painters of the early 20th like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

The works from this period are therefore more at risk of fading than those by the ancient masters, said Mass.

They are not exempt, though — for his blue hues the 17th century’s Rembrandt van Rijn used smalt, a type of ground-up glass with a tendency to turn grey over time.

According to Janssens, a further role of science could be to beat the drum for art conservation.

“As researchers, we are working on a simulation that will allow us to show what certain artworks will look like in 50 years,” if nothing is done, he said.

“If we don’t act, future generations will not see these artworks in the same way that we are,” warned van Langh.

Huge rambling mansions remind me of the days of my childhood. The bungalows we lived in had more rooms than inhabitants. The British had them built, during the Raj, and after independence, native officers inherited those dwellings. My father was one of them. 

But by the time we moved in, the fireplaces, all several of them, had developed cracks, and there were gaps in the ceiling, from which rainwater would trickle onto my mum’s expensive carpets. They were not actually so costly, now that I think about it. Those rugs on the ground, that is. It is just that on a government employee’s salary, she would painstakingly save money for many months, in order to buy these small luxuries. And once she purchased them, they acquired the status of family heirlooms. 

And the house rules, ah the house rules! We could not walk on them with muddy shoes, dirty sandals or wet slippers. In fact, it was safest to keep a secure distance, and generally tiptoe around gingerly, on silent feet. 

So you can imagine the ruckus that was caused in my home, every time raindrops had the audacity to fall on these floor coverings. There would be chaos universally, even if it were the middle of the night, with frenetic activity involving plastic sheets, mops and buckets. 

Everyone would emerge from his or her room to take part in this rescue mission. And we had plenty of those, like I said before, some of them locked up because of non-occupancy. Other than the dining, drawing, living, sleeping, lounging, bathin grooms and kitchen, we had several guest rooms too. 

There is a cheeky word in my mother tongue Hindi, which is called, “faltu”. Its exact translation is, “unwanted”. I know it has a somewhat negative connotation, but our domestic staff would have no qualms about using the term. 

If a guest walked in unexpectedly, they would announce, “Faltu Sahib is here,” without batting an eyelid. They would then proceed to ask if they should prepare the “unwanted room” for the “unwanted visitor”. 

Even as a child, I would become embarrassed at such blatantly rude references to our poor unsuspecting callers. But these domestics, trained by their erstwhile employers, were simply immune to my pleadings. 

When I got married, for the initial decade or so, I lived in flats, where a couple of rooms were all we had. And so there was no point in earmarking anything with specific designations. Then we moved to a huge villa where, after allocating the usual quarters, we still had three extra guest compartments. One I turned into my study, but the other two were crying out for a name. 

Khanna Aunty was our first visitor here. An elegantly grey haired, wonderful lady, she arrived from Delhi, to celebrate her seventieth birthday with us. I loved her company and promptly christened the chamber she was staying in, as Khanna Aunty’s room. It helped to distinguish from the other parts of the house, and there was less confusion all around. 

Next, we were relocated to Jordan. As the packers unloaded the boxes I saw several pieces marked as Aunt K, in bold ink. 

“These will go into Auntie’s room,” declared one burly un-packer.

“Which one?” I asked. 

“You don’t know your own Aunty?” he was horrified. 

“She does not live here,” I clarified. 

“Why not?” he queried. 

“Never mind! At least Khanna Aunty’s room travels with us, just put it there,” I directed.

NEW YORK — Sure, you have a lot to do today — laundry, bills, dinner — but it’s never too early to start planning for your digital afterlife, the fate of your numerous online accounts once you shed this mortal coil.

Facebook, Google, Twitter and other sites have different policies on dealing with dead users. Some states are also considering laws that would automatically give loved ones access to, though not control of, their dead relative’s digital accounts, unless otherwise specified.

Unless you take action, you might not like the outcome: Would you want to give your spouse automatic access to your e-mail correspondences? Should parents automatically be able to browse through a deceased child’s online dating profile?

Now that you’re mulling your eventual demise, here’s a look at how some of the biggest Internet companies deal with deceased users’ accounts and what you can do to control your information.

Google

The company behind Gmail and Google Plus has a tool that lets you decide what happens with your account after you die or become inactive online for another reason, such as moving to a deserted island off the grid with no Internet access. The tool is called “inactive account manager”.

You can choose to have your data deleted after three, six or 12 months of inactivity. Or you can choose someone, such as a parent or a spouse, to receive the data. The tool covers not just e-mail but also other Google services such as Google Plus, YouTube and Blogger.

Before deleting data, Google will send a warning to a secondary e-mail address or a phone number if you have provided one. This, of course, won’t help if you’re dead. But you can also have that warning go to a loved one.

Google’s inactive account manager: http://bit.ly/XuvgqD

Facebook

The world’s largest online social network doesn’t give relatives access to dead people’s accounts. Instead, loved ones can request for your account to be “memorialised” if you die. This means no one will be able to log in or modify any settings, such as adding or removing friends or deleting content. In addition, Facebook won’t show the account in its “people you may know” section for suggesting friends and won’t send birthday reminders.

Privacy settings from when you were alive will carry over, and those can’t be changed. So if friends were able to post to your account’s Timeline, they’ll still be able to do so. The Timeline posts will be viewable by the same people who were able to see those posts before. Friends will also be able to send private messages, as long as they were able to before, even though no one will see them.

Facebook’s page on deleting or memorialising accounts: http://on.fb.me/1cyCi5e

Twitter

Twitter will deactivate your account if contacted by a family member or a person authorised to act on behalf of your estate. For this, the person will need a death certificate. Because many people don’t use their real names on Twitter, the company will also want a “brief description of the details that evidence this account belongs to the deceased”, its policy states.

After 30 days, a deactivated Twitter account is permanently deleted.

To respect the wishes of loved ones, Twitter says it may also remove images of deceased individuals that circulate on the site. The policy applies only in limited circumstances and was implemented recently, after some users sent altered images of Robin Williams to his daughter Zelda after the actor committed suicide in August.

The policy was also used to remove gruesome images of the beheading of journalist James Foley. The company’s CEO Dick Costolo said last month, in reference to the Foley images, that Twitter “is actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery”.

By Melissa Healy

Los Angeles Times (MCT)

Those with a body mass index, or BMI, above 40 are robbed of at least six-and-a-half years, on average, of expected lifespan, a study has found. And the toll in years lost rises with the degree of obesity, reaching nearly 14 years for the most obese — those with a BMI above 55, researchers said.

The study found that the reduction in life expectancy associated with being extremely obese was similar to that seen in adults who smoke. And as a person’s obesity rises to higher levels, his or her expected lifespan falls below that of smokers.

The findings come from a project that aggregated the results of about 20 long-term studies on obesity conducted in the United States, Australia and Sweden. They were published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Medicine, in what is believed to be the largest study to date of the health consequences of severe obesity.

Compared with their normal-weight peers, the extremely obese are more likely to succumb early to heart disease, cancer and diabetes. For men with “class III obesity”, the rate of death attributable to heart disease and diabetes is especially elevated compared with normal-weight males. For women in the same obesity category, cancer deaths dramatically outstripped those among normal-weight women.

But premature deaths attributable to all causes, from injury to chronic lower respiratory infections, were consistently higher in those with severe obesity, the study found.

The extremely obese — those who generally would need to lose 100 pounds or more to attain a “normal healthy weight” — are a fast-growing segment of the US population, now representing about 6 per cent of American adults.

The ranks of those with a BMI over 40 have grown fourfold since the 1980s. The population with a BMI over 50 has grown by 10 per cent in the same period.

Look up your BMI, a rough indicator of a body’s degree of fatness, at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm.

The medical costs for such patients are outsized as well, accounting for one in five healthcare dollars spent per capita in the year 2000.

The latest findings suggest that extreme obesity may be even more dangerous for men than it is for women and for younger adults compared with older ones. They come as evidence mounts that weight-loss medications, as well as diet and lifestyle counselling, work only modestly in helping the obese lose weight and keep it off.

Increasing research has shown bariatric surgery to be highly effective not only at inducing weight loss but at forestalling and reversing the health consequences of obesity. But the substantial costs of such surgery are expected to limit its widespread use.

As the extremely obese age and their ranks continue to grow, the authors of the current study said, their medical problems may reverse progress made in driving down cardiovascular disease through smoking-cessation programmes and more widespread treatment of risk factors, and in driving down cancer deaths with better prevention and treatment. Cancers more prevalent among the obese are those of the breast, colon, pancreas, ovaries, kidney, esophagus, thyroid and gall bladder.

“If current global trends in obesity continue, we must expect to see substantially increased rates of mortality due to these major causes of death, as well as increasing health care costs,” the authors concluded.

CAIRO — A bomb hit an Egyptian security force convoy in the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, killing six policemen in the restive region where jihadists launch regular attacks.

Two policemen were also wounded in the attack on the road between North Sinai provincial capital El Arish and the town of Rafah on the Gaza border, the interior ministry said.

"An explosive device went off near one of the APCs [armoured personnel carriers] of a joint police and army security convoy on the road between El Arish and Rafah, killing six policemen including an officer and wounding two others," the ministry said in a statement.

It said security forces had cordoned off the area and an investigation was being carried out.

The attack has not been claimed but the Sinai Peninsula is a hotbed of jihadist groups who regularly attack security forces in retaliation for a government crackdown against Islamist supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The crackdown targeting Morsi's supporters has left at least 1,400 people dead since his ouster on July 3, 2013.

Then-army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi ousted Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, after millions protested against the Islamist's one-year rule.

More than 15,000 Morsi backers and members of his Muslim Brotherhood movement have also been jailed since his ouster.

The authorities say hundreds of police and army personnel have also been killed by jihadists since Morsi's ouster.

Sisi was later elected president, riding a wave of popularity following the crackdown.

Most attacks against security forces have been spearheaded by Ansar Beit Al Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem), an Al Qaeda-inspired jihadist group based in Sinai which launched rockets into neighbouring Israel.

It says its attacks against security forces are to avenge the killing of hundreds of pro-Morsi protesters.

The group claimed a bombing earlier this month in Sinai that killed 11 policemen. It also recently expressed support to the extremist Islamic State group that has seized territories in Iraq and Syria.

The police and army have launched a massive operation in the region to crush Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, killing scores of militants including several of its leaders.

Ansar Beit Al Maqdis is believed to be led by Bedouin militants, and several of its members who have been killed or arrested had fought alongside Islamist rebels in Syria.

The group adheres to an austere and militant version of Islam shared by Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups.

The security campaign has inflamed tensions in the historically marginalised Sinai, where Bedouin have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Cairo.

Despite the military and police operation, the militants have persisted in launching sporadic assaults and sometimes even set up impromptu checkpoints to target security personnel.

PARIS — Jean Paul Gaultier, showman of Paris fashion, is to bow out of ready-to-wear later this month after nearly 40 years of over-the-top, sometimes provocative collections.

The 62-year-old former “enfant terrible” of fashion, who famously designed Madonna’s cone bras, will devote himself to couture, the brand’s perfume business and other projects, the fashion house said in a statement.

Gaultier’s last ready-to-wear collection will be shown on September 27 during the spring/summer 2015 fashion shows in Paris.

The designer told industry journal Women’s Wear Daily the decision had been taken after an “in-depth assessment” of the future of the fashion house in which Spanish fragrance and fashion group Puig has a majority stake.

“We looked at various possibilities considering the present state of the company and we have reached the same conclusion,” he said.

“For some time, I have found true fulfilment in working on the haute couture, and it allows me to express my creativity and my taste for research and experimentation,” he added.

The designer, who still creates stage costumes for performers such as Kylie Minogue, said the decision came as the world of ready-to-wear had “evolved considerably”.

“Commercial constraints as well as the frenetic pace of collections don’t leave any freedom, nor the necessary time to find fresh ideas and to innovate,” he said.

“I will be able again to express my creativity without constraints,” he added.

Gaultier, who launched his own company in 1976, started his beauty business in 1991 and an accessories division in 2000.

He moved into haute couture in 1997, and his high-fashion collections are always a highlight of the Paris fashion calendar.

For the finale of his last couture show in July, Gaultier got the bearded Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst to parade down the catwalk resplendent in a black and red vampire-themed gown.

“She is bringing in a new genre — a man with a beard with... virility, but a great femininity,” he said afterwards.

In recent years, Gaultier, considered one of France’s most talented designers, has been the subject of a major retrospective by the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal.

Since 2011, the exhibition has been seen by a million visitors worldwide and is due to arrive in Paris in 2015.

One room in the exhibition is devoted to “Eurotrash”, the outlandish adult television show hosted by Gaultier and Antoine de Caunes on Britain’s Channel 4 during the 1990s.

The eccentric designer is still popular in Britain for the show and has said that he continues to be inspired by London where he went “to party” in the 1970s.

By Deborah Netburn

Los Angeles Times (MCT)

What happens when you take about 50 sixth-graders and send them to a nature camp with no access to computers, tablets and mobile phones? A new study suggests that after just five days their ability to understand non-verbal social cues improves.

Non-verbal social cues are the emotional information we pick up from people around us that is not communicated through words. It includes facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice and body posture.

As children spend more time corresponding with their friends via text rather than talking to them face to face, the researchers wondered whether they were losing the ability to read these important cues.

“The idea for this study came from looking at the way my older child and her friends’ older siblings were communicating,” said Yalda Uhls, who runs the Los Angeles office of the non-profit Common Sense Media. “I’ve been at parties where the kids are all hanging out, but instead of looking at each other, they are staring at their phones.”

Uhls, who is the lead author of the study published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour, wanted to see what would happen if a group of children had to spend an extended period of time communicating completely device-free.

Uhls and senior author Patricia Greenfield of the University of California, Los Angeles found a public school that sends its sixth-grade class to a wilderness camp near Big Bear, Calif., for five days. At the camp, the students have no access to electronics.

When the class of about 50 children arrived at the camp, they were asked to take two tests to measure their ability to read non-verbal social cues. In the first, the kids were asked to assess the emotions portrayed in 48 photos of people making faces. In the second test, they watched a video with the sound turned off, and then made a judgment about the emotional state of the actor.

At the end of the five-day camp, the students were asked to take the tests again. The researchers report that over the five days the kids went from making an average of 14.02 errors on the face-recognition test at the beginning of their camp stay to 9.41 errors by the end. For the video component, they went from getting an average of 26 per cent of the emotional states correct to getting 31 per cent correct.

“Honestly, we were pretty surprised that just five days would have that affect,” said Uhls. “But we think this is good news because if indeed lack of face-to-face time is changing people’s ability to understand emotion, our results suggest you can disconnect for five days and get better.”

The researchers gave the same test to a control group of 54 sixth-graders from the same school who had not yet attended the camp. That group had an average of 12.24 mistakes the first time they took the face-recognition test and 9.81 mistakes when they took it again five days later. For the video test, the students’ scores stayed flat, getting an average of 28 per cent of the emotions correct both times they were tested.

Though the children who were at the camp showed a larger improvement over the five days than those who did not go to camp, the end results were not that different.

“I noticed that too,” said Uhls, “but even though the kids ended up in the same place, they started at different places, so the change is what we are really looking at.”

Uhls and Greenfield said the results of their study suggest that it is important for kids to spend time away from screens, but it doesn’t necessarily suggest that all screen time is bad.

“The main thing I hope people take away from this is that it is really important for children to have time for face-to-face socialising,” said Uhls. “I love media, my kids are media-savvy, but it is really important to have a balance.”

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s chronic shortages have begun to encroach on a cultural cornerstone: the boob job.

Beauty-obsessed Venezuelans face a scarcity of brand-name breast implants, and women are so desperate that they and their doctors are turning to devices that are the wrong size or made in China, with less rigorous quality standards.

Venezuelans once had easy access to implants approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. But doctors say they are now all-but impossible to find because restrictive currency controls have deprived local businesses of the cash to import foreign goods. It may not be the gravest shortfall facing the socialist South American country, but surgeons say the issue cuts to the psyche of the image-conscious Venezuelan woman.

“The women are complaining,” said Ramon Zapata, president of the Society of Plastic Surgeons. “Venezuelan women are very concerned with their self-esteem.”

Venezuela is thought to have one of the world’s highest plastic surgery rates, and the breast implant is the seminal procedure. Doctors performed 85,000 implants here last year, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Only the US, Brazil, Mexico and Germany — all with significantly larger populations — saw more procedures.

There are no official statistics on how many Venezuelans are walking around with enhanced busts. But a stroll down any Caracas street reveals that the augmentations are at least more conspicuous here than in other surgery-loving places. Even the mannequins look they’ve gone under the knife.

Until recently, women could enter raffles for implants held by pharmacies, workplaces and even politicians on the campaign trail. During this spring’s anti-government street demonstrations, the occasional sign protesting the rising price of breast implants mixed in with posters railing against food shortages and currency devaluation.

“It’s a culture of ‘I want to be more beautiful than you.’ That’s why even people who live in the slums get implants,” surgeon Daniel Slobodianik said, fiddling with an FDA-approved pouch of saline solution no longer on sale here.

Slobodianik used to perform several breast implants each week, but now performs closer to two a month. He says women call his office every day asking if he the implant size they’re looking for. When they can’t find it, they choose a second-best option, almost always a size up.

No one is giving the frustrated women much sympathy, especially not the government. The consumerism of plastic surgery has always jibed awkwardly with the rhetoric of socialist revolution. The late President Hugo Chavez called the country’s plastic surgery fixation “monstrous”, and railed against the practice of giving implants to girls on their 15th birthdays.

On social media, some Venezuelans take a judgmental tone, saying the panic over implants shows the real shortage here is values. Others joke that the scarcity will force Venezuelan women to start developing their personalities, using a Twitter hashtag that riffs on the Colombian telenovela “Sin Tetas, No Hay Paraiso” (“Without Boobs, There’s No Paradise”).

In the absence of US brands, plastic surgery has become an area dominated by Venezuela’s chief trading partner, China, whose goods are often given priority for import over those from other countries. They’re also a lot cheaper. While a pair of implants approved by European regulators can cost as much as $600 — about the same as the annual minimum wage here — the Chinese equivalent goes for a third of that. Some Venezuelan doctors refuse to use the Chinese devices, which are not subjected to random government inspections or clinical studies.

“I’m not saying they’re not safe, but I’ve removed more than a few ruptured Chinese implants. I just don’t feel comfortable with them,” Slobodianik said.

April Lee, an analyst at the Massachusetts-based healthcare research company Decision Resources Group, said the medical community frowns on the use of non-FDA-approved implants.

Unable to find the devices in doctors’ offices, some women are turning to the Venezuelan equivalent of the bartering website Craigslist, where sellers post pictures of black market implants of unknown origin sitting in sealed packages on kitchen tables, complete with stories of spouses who changed their minds and reassurances that the pouches remain sterile.

It’s not just women looking for a more attention-getting silhouette who are struggling; some patients are in urgent medical need. Lisette Arroyo, 46, waited two months this summer to get her ruptured implants replaced, dealing with intense itching while waiting for new devices to arrive from France. She had to buy them directly from the manufacturer before they could be shipped, spending the entire $300 in foreign currency the government permits Venezuelans annually. The surgery can cost another $800.

“This country is not what it used to be,” she said earlier this month as awaited surgery in a blue paper gown.

For the doctors trying to manage their patients’ expectations, the shortages are no less grave than Venezuela’s other hardships. Dr Miguel Angel Useche, who performed Arroyo’s delayed surgery, says women sometimes save for years for their operations, and to be told they must wait longer can be unbearable.

“Women call me up saying: ‘I’ve made so many sacrifices for this. How can you not help me?’” he said.

By Marco della Cava

USA Today (MCT) 

SAN FRANCISCO — The drone wars have officially begun.

Once the exclusive domain of DIYers passionate about buzzing parks and neighbours, tech titans are entering the fray with serious financial and grey-matter resources. Late last year, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos showed off his company’s drone delivery prototypes, and now Google reveals it has been secretly testing its own drones in Australian cattle country.

Dubbed Project Wing, the three-year mission successfully completed its first delivery August 13, a bundle of Cherry Ripe chocolate bars. Over subsequent days, the team from GoogleX — the Mountain View, California-based search company’s exploratory technology arm — air-dropped a range of other farmer-friendly goods, from medicines to first-aid kits.

The flights were a direct response to GoogleX lead and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who challenged his team to make a delivery to a real person via drone.

“We selected these items based on several conversations with local people about how aerial delivery might help them in their jobs,” GoogleX said in a recent release. “Over the course of the week, the team ran more than 30 successful delivery flights. We are now back in California reviewing what we’ve learned.”

Delivery by drone remains the stuff of the future, in part due to pending Federal Aviation Administration regulations regarding such unmanned flights. There’s also the simple matter of people getting used to oversize mechanical mosquitoes buzzing around. But for some drone industry observers, it’s a matter of when not if.

“Google’s announcement of its planned UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) delivery service further demonstrates [its] potential,” says Michael Toscano, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The technology promises “to revolutionise industries... whether it is helping farmers survey their fields, search for lost hikers or filming Hollywood movies, UAVs are capable of saving time, money and most importantly, lives.”

GoogleX, perhaps best known for its self-driving car project, is calling Project Wing a self-flying vehicle. Headed by Nick Roy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Aeronautics & Astronautics department, the project took flight in earnest in July 2012. A hybrid approach was deemed best, with wings for fast forward flight, and four rotors for vertical take-off and landing. In a drawing provided by Google, the package is seen nestled inside the plane’s body, and is lowered by a chain from heights of 35 to 50 metres.

The next two years were then spent refining the prototype before heading to a ranch 160 kilometres inland from Brisbane. The site was chosen, according to Google, for its “rolling hills, open sky and long-standing history of innovation with UAVs. Out in the countryside, the temperature varies drastically by time of day, winds shift by the second, and weather rolls in unexpectedly.”

Although bullish on its progress, Google says consumers shouldn’t expect drone deliveries for years. The reasons include complexity (“These planes have much more in common with (our) self-driving cars than the remote-controlled airplanes people fly in parks”), sophistication (“They will fly a preprogrammed route with just the push of a button”), and variety (“Over time, what you want to deliver and where and why will determine what vehicle you want to use”).

In the coming months, GoogleX’s Project Wing team will drill down deeper on reducing the noise of its drones, improving the precision of its flights and delivery targets (“to the size of a doorstep”), and making sure its self-flying vehicles are able to see and avoid each other while in flight.

Often perceived as the thinking man’s mass market auto maker, Honda is a safe pair of hands maker that is at the same time often subtly sporty and highly innovative, and enjoys a dedicated clientele. Launched as a 2013 model year, the latest generation Accord is a spacious, easy-to-drive and thoroughly sensible mid-size saloon with understatedly handsome appeal.

Though a mildly face-lifted version has already begun appearing in some regional markets, a recent test drive of the soon-to-be-outgoing model’s zippy engine, direct driving experience and ergonomics make it still one of the few standout cars in a rather grey, functional and uninspired automotive segment.

Understated elegance

Not one for extravagant, wild or overstated aggressive or futuristic designs that are betrayed by dull driving and cramped interiors, the Honda Accord is, however, a handsome, refined, and understated design. Smart and practical in execution, the Accord’s big glasshouse provides good visibility and cabin space. Its big rear lights are easy to see; its large boot is accommodating; and its side mirrors extended away from the body for better aerodynamics.

Sized at 225/50R17, the Accord’s footwear looks suitably large in proportion to its body in terms of aesthetics, but are also compromised well to deliver the right amount of road feel, grip and suppleness over road imperfections.

An evolutionary design, the Accord’s elegantly flowing lines are tighter, sharper, and more detailed and designed. With deeper lower air intake wider at the bottom and prominent lower bumper ridges, recessed foglights subtly raised bonnet and deep twin ascending flank crease lines — at door handle and sill levels — the wide Accord has a subtly athletic presence and eager stance on the road. 

Twin chrome slats and thicker chrome grille outline and L-shaped lower lighting elements lend the Accord’s fascia an uncluttered, understated, clean and classy appeal. Smooth and flowing sportily into the rear deck, the Accord’s silhouette, however, doesn’t sacrifice space or functionality.

Smooth spinning

Smooth and revvy, the Honda Accord’s 16-valve variable-timing 2.4-litre, transverse, 4-cylinder engine develops 173BHP at 6,200rpm and 166lb/ft at 4,000rpm, and mated to a five-speed automatic gearbox, should return 0-100km/h acceleration in 9.8-seconds or less and a top speed of around 226km/h.

Refined in operation, the Accord’s four-pot engine is progressive in nature, but once one approaches near its maximum torque point, it becomes noticeably livelier. Once revved into its high sweet spot the Accord’s 2.4 becomes more responsive and eager and will spin happily through to its rev limit. An under-square design engine with precise throttle response, the Accord’s engine also quickly winds down on throttle lift-off

The Accord’s 2.4 engine’s revvy characteristics has a certain sporting sensibility absent from many rivals and which would work well with a manual gearbox to better exploit the Accord’s potential and capable chassis. The five-speed automatic gearbox version tested, however, seemed to be tuned more for economical rather than spirited driving.

The Accord’s five-speed auto gearbox is one to be driven with firm throttle inputs if one wants decisive kickdowns and responses at low speeds. 

However, driven in a more relaxed manner, it delivers a smooth and clean shift, but for greater driver input, would have been better with sequential, or individually selectable gears, rather than three driving positions.

Clarity and comfort

A big car that seems to shrink around the driver, the Honda Accord’s driving dynamics stand out for their spot-on combination of comfortable and refined ride, and sporty and direct handling. 

Not a car that is overly stiff in an attempt to seem sporty or soft, wallowing and vague in its interpretation of comfort, the Accord gets it just right for its segment. 

And though it loses its predecessor’s sportier, more sophisticated and costlier double wishbone front suspension for more conventional MacPherson struts, the Accord nevertheless feels special in its segment in its smooth, sure-footed, agile and reassuring suspension, chassis and steering set-up and driving style.

Light and quick, the Accord’s steering is user-friendly for congested town driving and wrist-flick quick for winding roads. Stable and reassuring at speed, the quick steering delivers clarity through corners, with crisp turn-in and good feel and feedback. Threading through winding roads, body roll is well restrained, and its chassis copes in a fluent and sure-footed manner.

Sporty, tight and fluidly following road curvatures and textures, the Accord feels manoeuvrable, responsive, agile and expectedly good fun to drive through tight or sweeping corners and fluidly processes sudden direction changes in its stride. Its low-rolling resistance tires promote efficiency, but stickier tires would yet better complement its handling ability.

Airy ambiance

Nimble, eager and crisp in handling, the Accord is feels reassuringly stable at speed, and settles well on the rebound from undulations and sudden crests and dips. Taking road imperfections smoothly, the Accord’s damper and spring rates are well tuned for comfort, handling and composure. A big glasshouse provides good road visibility for when manoeuvring, while ergonomic, supportive, comfortable and adjustable seating allows one to find an upright and alert driving position. 

Airy and ergonomic with good refinement from noise, vibration and harshness, the Accord’s unpretentious cabin promotes a relaxed yet alert and confident driving position. A large speedometer and clear instrumentation are complemented by intuitively user-friendly and un-distracting controls.

User-friendly, functional and spacious the Accord features terrific front and rear space, where tall and wide passengers are accommodated well even when sitting in a row. Design is airy, elegant and uncomplicated, with cloth upholstery, logical layouts, big buttons and generally good textures and plastics, with harder textures not prominent.

Rear headspace is generous, adjustable steering travel is long, while A/C, USB connectivity and steering controls are standard, and dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth connectivity, parking sensors and other options are available on the EX model and up. Safety systems include standard stability and traction control, front and side airbags, ABS and electronic brake-force distribution, all-round three-point seatbelts and Isofix childseat latches.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2.4 litre, transverse, 4 cylinders 

Bore x stroke: 87 x 99.1mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 16 valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 5 speed automatic, FWD

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 173 (175) [129] @ 6,200rpm

Specific power: 73.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 112.3BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 166 (225) @ 4,000rpm

Specific torque: 95.5Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 146.1Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 9.8 seconds (est.)

Top speed: 226km/h (est.)

Fuel capacity: 65 litres

Length: 4,890mm

Width: 1,850mm

Height: 1,465mm

Wheelbase: 2,775mm

Tread, F/R: 1,584/1,586mm

Ground clearance: 141mm

Kerb weight: 1,540kg

Steering: Variable electric-assistance rack and pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.56 turns

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Tyres: 225/50R17