Features

Dr Tareq Rasheed
International Consultant andTrainer 

Did you know that much of our communication is conveyed through facial expressions, gestures and posture and much less through actual words?

Communication can be verbal (using words through writing or speaking) or non-verbal (body language, voice, tune and appearance). Research shows that body language is responsible for transmitting 55 per cent of the message, 38 per cent of the voice and tone and only seven per cent is transmitted by words!

What is body language?

Body language refers to various forms of non-verbal communication. A person may reveal clues as to some unspoken intention or feeling through their physical behaviour: Posture, facial expressions, hand or leg movements or a mix of these. I imagine body language as a combination of thoughts and feelings reflected in the body through signs.

Body language can also clearly communicate negative emotions (fear, depression, anxiety, etc…). Both epinephrine and cortisol play a very powerful role in preparing us for physical and emotional challenges, increasing heart rate, sweating, pupil dilation and so on.

Eyes don’t lie

The eyes are frequently referred to as the “windows to the soul” since they can reveal a great deal about what a person is feeling or thinking.

As you engage in conversation with another person, take note of their eye movements. Some common things you may notice include whether people are making direct eye contact or averting their gaze, how often they are blinking, or if their pupils are dilated.

You may know that sunglasses were invented to block out sunrays. But did you know that Chinese judges first wore tinted eyewear in the 12th century to hide their eyes in court so that no one could read their facial expressions?

Signs of lying

See if the person in front of you bites his lip while talking to you. He may also lick his lips, which could also indicate a lie. This also applies to children. 

Other signs: 

•Covering their mouth, trying to hide their words

•Covering a parent’s eyes and telling them innocently do not look at me

•Speaking with downcast eyes 

Try asking someone you suspect of lying the “what, why, when, where, who and how” questions about the topic after one or two weeks have passed since the lie. You will then discover the truth!

Hand movements

Hand movements also tell us a lot about thoughts and feelings:

•Standing with arms over the stomach is feeling reserved and closed

•Speaking with two hands in the pockets; feeling so confident and sometimes being arrogant

•Speaking with one hand in one pocket; feeling stressed and worried

•Standing with an open chest and hands down; openness and ease of communication

•Leg movements while sitting means the person is feeling stressed

These interpretations apply to most cultures and only in 75 per cent of the cases, so we cannot generalise. Also, these signs are interpreted in situations such as lecturing, interviewing, negotiating and other similar situations. 

Tone of voice

Voice can reflect confidence, hesitancy, dishonesty, fear and other emotions. People tend to raise their voices in public, speaking to stress an important point or topic and tend to lower their voices to attract attention. This is very important to manage while giving a presentation or in public speaking.

Start noticing your body signs in different situations and try to manage and adapt!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

LOS ANGELES — A blistering heat wave is baking the western United States, the latest to blast the northern hemisphere in a summer that has brought extreme temperatures across Europe, Asia and North America.

Climatologists say the kiln-like conditions in California, Nevada and Arizona are caused by a heat dome — a huge bubble of stationary high pressure that is trapping ever-hotter air.

And, they say, human-caused climate change is making these oppressive Heatwaves worse — hotter, longer and more frequent.

Here’s what you need to know about Heatwaves.

What is a heat wave?

Anyone suffering through sultry nights and sweltering days knows they’re in a heat wave, but there are a few technical definitions.

The one the US government chooses is: At least two consecutive days when the minimum temperature for the area is hotter than 85 per cent of July and August days in the same area, based on historical averages.

That minimum usually comes at night, which is important — after a very hot day, our bodies tend to cool off at night. But if the temperature remains elevated, that’s much harder. This is when people get ill.

It’s also important to localise the definition. People accustomed to 29ºC days are likely not fazed by 32 degrees. But if you live in a chilly, damp spot and the mercury hits 32, you’ll find it much harder to cope.

What causes Heatwaves?

Generally it’s an area of high pressure that parks itself in one spot, forming a heat dome — imagine a huge greenhouse that lets in the sun’s heat, but won’t let any air flow through.

The high pressure prevents clouds from forming as it pushes air downwards, compressing and heating the air — think of how a tire gets hot as you pump more air in.

Jet streams — air that flows high in the Earth’s atmosphere — usually move pressure systems around the planet.

But they can meander. As the waves of a jet stream widen, they slow and can even stop. This is what leaves a ridge of high pressure in one place.

Are Heatwaves dangerous?

Yes, very. More people die from the heat every year in the United States than from any other extreme weather, including floods, tornadoes, and cold snaps, according to government figures.

A ferocious heat wave in Spain and Portugal in July left more than 1,700 people dead.

And hundreds died last year when a heat wave frazzled Canada and the western US, with temperatures of up to 49ºC.

When it’s very hot, our bodies find it more difficult to keep cool, which can result in a “cascade of illnesses”, according to the World Health Organisation.

These include heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke and hyperthermia.

“Deaths and hospitalisations from heat can occur extremely rapidly [same day], or have a lagged effect [several days later] and result in accelerating death or illness in the already frail,” the WHO says.

That means anyone who already suffers from problems with their heart or respiratory system is particularly at risk.

The effects of intense heat are not evenly felt across societies, and tend to be more acute in poorer, and more marginalised communities. 

Homeless people or those who work outside during the heat of the day are obviously at risk, but so are people living in neighbourhoods without tree cover, or near to sources of pollution like roads.

What is climate 

change doing?

Like all weather phenomena, climate change is super-charging Heatwaves.

Human activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels, has warmed the Earth by an average of around 1.2ºC since pre-industrial times. Much of this warming has happened in the last 50 years.

US government data shows Heatwaves worsening in concert with a warming planet: Every decade since the 1960s they have got longer, hotter and more frequent.

“Their frequency has increased steadily, from an average of two Heatwaves per year during the 1960s to six per year during the 2010s and 2020s,” the Environmental Protection Agency says.

“In recent years, the average heat wave in major US urban areas has been about four days long. This is about a day longer than the average heat wave in the 1960s.”

A study after last year’s record-breaking heat wave in Canada found it would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

The World Weather Attribution group said that global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, made the heat wave at least 150 times more likely to happen.

LOS ANGELES — Stanley Kubrick once famously said that J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy of novels was unfilmable.

It is hard to imagine what the great director would have made of Amazon’s $1 billion gamble on “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, a 50-hour television series based on the dry historical footnotes published at the end of book three.

The show, out Friday globally on Prime Video, aims to tap into the huge and enduring appeal of works still regularly voted the world’s best-loved novels of all time, as well as Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film adaptations.

It is central to Amazon’s bid to stand out in the “streaming wars” with Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max — whose own “Game of Thrones” prequel just launched — and is bankrolled by multibillionaire founder Jeff Bezos, a Tolkien mega-fan.

But populated by heroes and villains who are barely — if at all — referenced in Tolkien’s trilogy and its “Appendices” of fictional mythology, and featuring a largely unknown cast and creators, there is no doubting the scale of the gamble.

“It is quite nerve wracking — we’re building something from the ground up that’s never been seen before,” said Sophia Nomvete, who plays Princess Disa, the first female and first Black dwarf depicted on screen in Tolkien’s world.

“There’s definitely a few nerves. We want to get it right,” she told AFP at the Comic-Con fan event last month.

‘True colours’

“The Rings of Power” is set in Tolkien’s “Second Age” — a period of history in his fictional Middle Earth world thousands of years before the events of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”

So while a handful of characters from Jackson’s films reappear in Amazon’s show — mostly younger versions of elves such as Galadriel and Elrond, who are of course immortal — there is no Frodo, Gollum or Aragorn in sight.

Most characters from Tolkien lore are appearing on screen for the first time, and some have even been created entirely from scratch for the show.

“Tolkien hasn’t really written much about who he is as a person,” said Maxim Baldry, whose character Isildur was briefly seen fighting the evil lord Sauron in a flashback at the start of Jackson’s trilogy.

Here, Baldry plays a younger version of the tragic hero, struggling with the death of his mother, overbearing pressure from his father, and a romantic yearning for adventure.

“What a gift, firstly, to explore someone’s beginnings, finding their true colours, understanding who they really are,” said Baldry.

He added: “Season one is purely about setting up characters and introducing new characters to the family... fleshing out a pretty skeletal world that Tolkien just created in the Second Age.”

‘Wonderfully crazy’

The fate of the series rests in the hands of creators — or “showrunners” — Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, who pitched their concept to Amazon after it bought the rights in 2017, but had only a handful of previous projects credited on their CVs.

“We wanted to find a huge Tolkienian mega epic. And Amazon were wonderfully crazy enough to say ‘yes, let’s do that,’” McKay said at Comic-Con.

At the London premiere on Tuesday, Bezos admitted that “some people even questioned our choice” to bring in “this relatively unknown team”.

“But we saw something special,” he said, according to Variety.

Early reviews have been generally positive. Variety said the show slots “neatly into Peter Jackson’s preexisting cinematic universe”.

Critics universally praised its lavish costumes, backdrops, visual effects and set-pieces, as well as Morfydd Clark’s central performance as Galadriel.

However, Time said it was “filled with beautiful images and tired archetypes”, and the Times of London said it “has the vibe of terrified executives carrying an exceedingly expensive vase across a slippery floor”.

$1 billion

The show has been dubbed the most expensive ever for television.

Amazon splurged $250 million on the rights from Tolkien’s estate, and some $465 million on the first season alone. It has committed from the start to making five full seasons, meaning the final cost is expected to pass $1 billion.

With high stakes has come considerable secrecy — even its actors have not been told the fates of their characters.

“No idea! I don’t even know what’s happening next season,” said Megan Richards, who plays Poppy Proudfellow, a character whose Harfoot race are ancestors of the hobbits.

“There’s an arc that Tolkien has given us for the Second Age. So there are certain things we know,” Daniel Weyman, who plays a mysterious man billed simply as “The Stranger,” told AFP.

“The thing that I hold on to is that our showrunners, they definitely know their arc. They know their arc already.”

LONDON — James Cook sits calmly at his desk, with the only sound the clickety clack of his typewriter. As he works, a portrait of a boy takes shape.

From Hollywood star Tom Hanks to the London Eye observation wheel, the artist can turn symbols and letters into art, earning him increasing attention.

Cook, 25, produces his work in a studio in London, surrounded by typewriters and artwork, with the white dome of the O2 arena visible outside.

He began producing typewriter art in 2014 when he was in college studying art and came across an artist from the 1920s who produced similar work.

Initially, he thought the idea was “impossible” — until he tried it himself.

“It was simply out of curiosity that I decided to go out and get my own typewriter,” he told AFP.

“Since 2014, I’ve just been slowly learning how to make drawings.”

Cook first thought depicting buildings would be easier because of the straight lines and the ease of moving from left to right on a typewriter.

“I couldn’t draw people’s faces before doing typewriter art,” he said. 

“In fact, I probably draw people better on a typewriter than I can draw free hand in pen or pencil.”

Cook never set out to make it a career and went to university to study architecture but interest online encouraged him to pursue typewriter art.

People donate typewriters to Cook as he gives the machines a “second life”.

‘Always a challenge’

Cook can produce art anywhere, including in the shadow of the London Eye or across the river from the UK parliament, the Palace of Westminster.

As the sun shines bright in a clear blue sky, he delicately produces his images using the “@” symbol, numbers and letters including “W” and “P”.

For a portrait, he uses the bracket symbol to recreate the curvature of the eyes’ pupils or to illustrate the skin’s complexion he will use the “@” symbol because “it has a large surface area”.

Methodically typing outside, he soon grabs attention.

“Before the invention of Microsoft Word and the rest of it, this is what we used to type letters with,” said David Asante, who works as an IT engineer at a hospital.

“For him to be able to turn it into a work of art, it’s amazing.” 

Cook says it was “really satisfying” to use a “limited” medium. 

Smaller drawings can take up to four to five days but portraits can take longer.

Panoramic drawings — pieced together at the end — can take between two weeks to a month.

He will host an exhibition from July until August where people can make their own typewriter art, and see his work including the signed portrait of Hanks.

He also hopes to set a Guinness World Record for the largest typewriter drawing.

But while it appears seamless to the viewer, Cook says it “never gets any easier”.

“It’s always a challenge.”

TOKYO — He is the creator of one of the world’s best-known manga, but “One Piece” author Eiichiro Oda shuns stardom with a carefree attitude that evokes the beloved hero of his work.

The 47-year-old famously refuses to be referred to as “sensei”, an honorific typically used to address seasoned manga creators of his status.

He is even reputed to show up at fancy restaurants and hotels dressed exactly like “One Piece” protagonist and pirate Monkey D. Luffy, in a pair of short trousers and sandals.

“I want kids who read ‘One Piece’ to think of me as their neighbourhood brother,” media-shy Oda said in a rare 2017 interview, published in a special magazine to mark the 20th anniversary of the franchise.

“I know I’m now old enough to be more like their uncle... so maybe a funny, easy-going uncle.”

It is a modest aspiration for a man whose tale about aspiring “pirate king” Luffy and a motley crew of fellow adventurers earned him a Guinness World Record for “most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author”.

The cultural phenomenon that has sold about 500 million copies worldwide will mark the 25th anniversary of its serialisation.

It is now on the cusp of its final arc, set to begin in next week’s edition of Japan’s weekly Shonen Jump magazine.

“One Piece” follows straw hat-wearing Luffy and his team as they hunt for the titular treasure coveted by all pirates.

Loud, gluttonous and lovably simple-minded, Luffy is meant to be an embodiment of how Oda sees his stated target audience: teenage boys.

“Every week I ask myself to assess what I’ve drawn: ‘Would I have enjoyed reading this when I was 15?’” Oda said in 2009.

There are few swoon-worthy romances in the series, as Oda believes his core fan base would not be interested.

“I know there are many adult readers nowadays, but if I align myself with their taste too much, I feel ‘One Piece’ would lose its value,” he said.

And Oda’s childlike impishness makes him well-suited to keeping his younger readership in mind. He has turned his house into something of an amusement park, with features like projection mapping, miniature trains and a claw crane.

“You could say he is Luffy himself”, one of Oda’s closest editors once told a Japanese TV programme.

A native of southern Japan’s Kumamoto region, Oda entered Japan’s competitive manga world at 17, when his action-packed maiden work “Wanted!” won a Shonen Jump award.

It was not quite smooth sailing from there though, and it took several flops before “One Piece” was serialised, when Oda was 22.

The work, partly inspired by his childhood fascination with pirate anime “Vicky the Viking”, was all-consuming for Oda.

“I think I was too passionate about manga in my 20s. I was even ready to skip my parents’ funeral if they died while I was on the deadline,” he recalled in an interview five years ago.

Over time, he relaxed into his role but his passion never faded and he relies only minimally on assistants, drawing almost every character and object himself.

“To me, drawing manga is a pastime. I never get stressed about it, so I’m confident I will never suffer karoshi [death from overwork],” he told the 2017 anniversary magazine.

But for all his popularity around the world, Oda has yet to win over some of his own family.

“My daughter is into more girly stuff,” he said in a 2009 conversation with a musician published by Switch magazine, jokingly lamenting the popularity of “Pretty Cure”, an anime franchise featuring evil-fighting schoolgirls.

“Buying ‘Pretty Cure’ goods for her makes me feel defeated.”

PARIS — The earliest known human ancestor walked on two feet as well as climbing through trees around seven million years ago, scientists recently said after studying three limb bones.

When the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis was discovered in Chad in 2001, it pushed back the age of the oldest known representative species of humanity by a million years. 

Nicknamed “Toumai”, the nearly complete cranium was thought to indicate that the species walked on two feet because of the position of its vertebral column and other factors.

However, the subject triggered fierce debate among scientists, partly due to the scarcity and quality of the available bones, with some even claiming that Toumai was not a human relative but just an ancient ape.

In a study published in the Nature journal, a team of researchers exhaustively analysed a thigh bone and two forearm bones found at the same site as the Toumai skull.

“The skull tells us that Sahelanthropus is part of the human lineage,” said paleoanthropologist Franck Guy, one of the authors of the study.

The new research on the limb bones demonstrates that walking on two feet was its “preferred mode of getting around, depending on the situation”, he told a press conference. 

But they also sometimes moved through the trees, he added. 

‘Not a magical trait’

The leg and arm bones were found alongside thousands of other fossils in 2001, and the researchers were not able to confirm that they belonged to the same individual as the Toumai skull.

After years of testing and measuring the bones, they identified 23 characteristics which were then compared to fossils from great apes as well as hominins — which are species more closely related to humans than chimpanzees.

They concluded that “these characteristics are much closer to what would be seen in a hominin than any other primate”, the study’s lead author Guillaume Daver told the press conference.

For example, the forearm bones did not show evidence that the Sahelanthropus leaned on the back of its hands, as is done by gorillas and chimpanzees.

The Sahelanthropus lived in an area with a combination of forests, palm groves and tropical savannahs, meaning that being able to both walk and climb through trees would have been an advantage.

There have been previous suggestions that it was the ability to walk on two feet that drove humans to evolve separately from chimpanzees, putting us on the path to where we are today.

However, the researchers emphasised that what made Sahelanthropus human was its ability to adapt to its environment.

“Bipedalism [walking on two legs] is not a magical trait that strictly defines humanity,” palaeontologist Jean-Renaud Boisserie told the press conference.

“It is a characteristic that we find at the present time in all the representatives of humanity.”

Our ‘bushy’ family tree

Paleoanthropologist Antoine Balzeau of France’s National Museum of Natural History said the “extremely substantial” study gives “a more complete image of Toumai and therefore of the first humans”.

It also bolstered the theory that the human family tree is “bushy”, and was not like the “simplistic image of humans who follow one another, with abilities that improve over time”, Balzeau, who was not involved in the research, told AFP.

Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, said in a linked paper in Nature that the study’s “authors have squeezed as much information as possible from the fossil data”.

But he added that the research will not offer “full resolution” of the debate.

Milford Wolpoff, a paleoanthropologist at the US University of Michigan cast doubt on whether Toumai is a hominin, telling AFP that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.

The study was carried out by researchers from the PALEVOPRIM palaeontology institute, a collaboration between France’s CNRS research centre and Poitiers University, as well as scientists in Chad.

Guy said the team hopes to continue its research in Chad next year — “security permitting”.

Chadian palaeontologist Clarisse Nekoulnang said the team was “trying to find sites older than that of Toumai”.

Perhaps the most evocative of car segments, the classic front-engine, rear-drive roadster best captures the fun factor inherent to the act of driving and to cars themselves. Stylish and balanced in proportions, the classic roadster configuration and proportion lend themselves to great looks and great handling, while its open top cabin provides a more visceral sense for the peed and sound of the car, and the elements.

A automotive recipe focused on the driver, with its balanced dynamics, design and open and personal two-seat eating, the roadster is the antidote to more practical yet less viscerally immersing cars, regardless of size, segment or capacity for speed. With wildly varying cylinder count, price, power and sophistication levels, the Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster, Jaguar F-Type P450 and Mazda MX-5 Roadster represent three of the best such cars.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster

Aston Martin’s latest exotic convertible, the V12 Vantage Roadster shoehorns the British luxury manufacturer’s vast 12-cylinder engine under the bonnet for spectacular results from the now otherwise familiar model line. Limited to just 249 examples, the V12 Vantage Roadster also adopts a more assertively shapely widebody design to accommodate a wide track suspension, which in turn delivers more sure-footed handling to accommodate the larger, heavier and more powerful engine.

Seductively stylish with its long bonnet, short, pert and tapered rear and now provocatively broad hips, the V12 Vantage Roadster inherits the same engine as its Coupe sister, which is slung far back behind its enormous and hungry grille for a balanced front-mid configuration. Gaining lightweight panels, restyled bumper, more effective aerodynamics and optional lightweight package and rear wing, the V12 Vantage Roadster also features huge fade-resistant carbon-ceramic brakes.

Displacing 5.2-litres, the V12 Vantage Roadster’s twin-turbo 12-cylinder is a howling and relatively high-revving engine. Enormously capable and charismatic in its acoustics and delivery, it produces 690BHP at 6,500rpm and 556lb/ft torque at 5,500rpm. Powering the rear wheels through a 8-speed automatic gearbox and limited-slip differential for enhanced agility and traction, the V12 Vantage Roadster rockets through 0-100km/h in just 3.6-seconds and scythes through the rushing wind until 322km/h.

Specifications

• Engine: 5.2-litre, twin-turbocharged V12-cylinders
• Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive, limited slip differential
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 690 (700) [515] @6,500rpm
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 556 (753) @5,500rpm
• 0-100km/h: 3.6-seconds
• Top speed: 322km/h
• Length: 4,514mm
• Width: 1,982mm
• Height: 1,274mm
• Wheelbase: 2,705mm
• Weight: 1,855kg
• Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/multi-link
• Tyres:F/R:275/35R21- 315/30R21

Jaguar F-Type P450 Convertible

First introduced in 2013 as a latter day successor to the iconic 1960s Jaguar E-Type, the F-Type is intended to capture and convey the premium British brand’s sporting heritage and potential. Face-lifted for 2020, the F-Type gained a more aggressive look courtesy of slimmer horizontally-oriented and heavily-browed new headlights. Jaguar’s longest-serving current model, the F-type remains available with the manufacturer’s beguilingly brutal and magnificently bellowing supercharged 5-litre V8 engine.

The most powerful F-Type Convertible variant with a classic roadster rear-wheel-drive configuration, rather than all-wheel-drive, the P450 is a slightly de-tuned version of the manufacturer’s supercharged V8, but nevertheless delivers a mighty 444BHP punch at 6,000rpm and an enormous 428lb/ft kick of torque available throughout a vast 2,500-5,000rpm range. Driven through an 8-speed automatic gearbox the P450 blitzes the 0-100km/h acceleration benchmark in 4.6 seconds and onto a 286km/h maximum.

Expected to be retired upon introduction of a replacement model, the F-Type’s supercharged V8 is a contemporary classic. Muscular throughout its rev range and vociferously vocal, it launches with immediacy from standstill, pulls with effortless ability in mid-range and accumulates power with unabated ferocity at top end. Stable at speed and agile through winding roads, the P450 is, however, best driven with progressive and measured inputs when exiting corners.

Specifications

• Engine: 5-litre, supercharged V8-cylinders
• Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 444 (450) [331] @6,000rpm
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 428 (580) @2,500-5,000rpm
• 0-100km/h: 4.6-seconds
• Top speed: 285km/h
• Length: 4,470mm
• Width: 1,923mm
• Height: 1,307mm
• Wheelbase: 2,622mm
• Weight: 1,718kg
• Suspension: Double wishbones
• Tyres,F/R:  255/35R20 - 295/30R20

Mazda MX-5 Roadster 2.0L

The car that re-invigorated the classic front-engine, rear-drive roadster as modern, reliable and affordable when introduced in 1989, the Mazda MX-5 remains true to its “just right” recipe in its fourth generation, circa 2016-onwards. Sporting more tech and equipment than previous generations and available with optional automatic gearbox and electric folding hard-top, the MX-5 is, however, best and truest to character with lighter standard manual gearbox and fabric roof.

A more basic fun roadster that is light and powerful enough for brisk performance and great handling without going to a Caterham’s stripped down extreme, the MX-5 is meanwhile comfortable, convenient and well-equipped without being over-wrought or over-complicated, or too heavy, too fast and too expensive. More dramatic than predecessors, the small, slinky and sexy MX-5 now adopts curvier wheel-arches, waistline and bonnet, with perfect proportions oozing tension and athleticism.

Equipped with the more powerful naturally-aspirated 4-cylinder of two engine options, the MX-5 produces 181BHP at a high-strung 7,000rpm and 151lb/ft torque peaking at 4,000rpm. 

Engineered with a rewarding high-rev bias, the lightweight MX-5 carries its 1,025kg mass through 0-100km/h in 6.5-seconds and onto 219km/h. 

Renowned for engagingly balanced and precise rear-drive handling and steering, the nimble MX-5 also features an optional limited-slip differential for added stability, agility and performance.

Specifications

• Engine: 2-litre, naturally-aspirated 4-cylinders
• Gearbox: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel-drive, optional limited slip differential
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 181 (184) [135] @7,000rpm
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 151 (205) @4,000rpm
• 0-100km/h: 6.5-seconds
• Top speed: 219km/h
• Length: 3,915mm
• Width: 1,735mm
• Height: 1,230mm
• Wheelbase: 2,310mm
• Weight: 1,025kg
• Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/multi-link
• Tyres: 205/45R17

By Ghadeer Habash
Internationally Certified Career Trainer

The summer is full of events and celebratory occasions and many will wish to capture these memories on their phones and post them too! But before you click away on social media, consider these social media etiquette tips.

•Choose a photo where everyone looks good — not only you! People tend to post the best photo of themselves regardless of how others look. Give others the consideration you would wish for yourself 

•Before clicking away, ask the permission of everyone in the photo before you post on your social media account 

•Crop those who don’t wish their picture to be posted or those who are not in your group

•Get permission to tag them or mention them (many people are not comfortable with being mentioned or tagged for different reasons); respect their privacy

•Never post a photo of someone eating, chewing or swallowing 

•Never post a picture or video of someone looking inappropriate while sitting or leaning

•It’s always nice to give photo credit where it’s due

•It’s courteous to thank those who invited you to the dinner or the event organisers for hosting you

•Avoid sharing political opinions

•It’s not courteous to post negative remarks or negative opinions; for example, “I didn’t find the food great”

•Always check for grammatical and spelling mistakes before posting

•It’s in poor taste to exploit social events with family and friends to promote yourself or your business; if in doubt, ask the hostess or host before you post

•Before you post, take a moment to think through it. How does it represent you and those in the photo or video? Are you proud of the post and feel it is an accurate representation?

Avoiding the use of Snapchat or ‘live’ streaming

Here are some reasons of why you should avoid being obsessed with your phone and with capturing the moment on film: 

•To enjoy the moment, not only to show that your life is better than it might be! 

•Staying on your phone all the time conveys a message of disrespect to everyone sitting at your table

•Snap and Live don’t allow you to edit; if anything or anyone shouldn’t appear at that moment, it’s too late! 

•Not everybody will have been invited to the event you are attending, so this may create hard feelings for others

•By filming your friend’s home live, you are inviting outsiders, whom you may not know yourself, into your friend’s home and privacy

Lastly, try to live the moment and avoid comparing yourself to others. Remember, comparison is the thief of joy.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

ABU DHABI — Oscar beats the summer heat of the United Arab Emirates by working out in a gym, hitting the treadmill twice or three times a week. Nothing unusual in that — except that Oscar is a dog.

As the Gulf's increasingly fierce temperatures become dangerous to health amid fears over the pace of climate change, those who can afford not to work outside in the blazing sun stay inside in air-conditioning.

And for owners of pampered pets able to splash the cash, an air-conditioned gym for dogs has become an attractive option.

"During the winters I used to take him outside, but [in] summers he used to stay isolated," says Oscar's owner Mozalfa Khan, a Pakistani expat.

"Because whenever I take him outside he's sick because of the heat."

The resource-rich Gulf is among the regions most at risk from global warming, with some cities facing the prospect of becoming uninhabitable by the end of the century.

Temperatures often soar above 45ºC  in the UAE, and can remain above 40ºC even after midnight.

The UAE, like other Gulf countries, goes into partial hibernation during its long, hot summers, with those who can afford it staying cloistered in air-conditioned homes and workplaces.

Heat threat to health 

Oscar, a Welsh Corgi, now works out at Posh Pets Boutique and Spa in Abu Dhabi, a shop and grooming salon that offers what's billed as the UAE's first gym for dogs.

Staff carefully secure him with a harness on one of two adapted running machines before he begins to run, with glass barriers on either side to stop him falling off.

Rather than being set to specific speeds, the treadmills automatically adjust themselves to the pace of each dog.

Oscar's owner started bringing him to the gym in the Emirati capital after a vet advised against walking him outside in summer because of the risk of heat stroke.

"Last summer it was really difficult for me because there was no place like this," says Khan.

With the high heat and humidity, "we walk for only two, three minutes and he's done, he doesn't want to walk".

Mansour Al Hammadi, the dog-loving owner of Posh Pets, charges a dirham (25 US cents) a minute for use of the treadmills, or $7.5 for a half-hour run.

Dogs should exercise at least 30 minutes a day, experts say.

"So imagine when you can only walk them one or two minutes a day," Hammadi tells AFP.

"We've closely studied the project to make it 100 per cent safe. Everything was chosen with care and not at random, to avoid any future problems and so as not to harm the dogs," he adds.

Destiny, a seven-month-old German Shepherd, is another regular, bursting into the gym and playing with the other dogs.

"For the dog's health, it's better that she does some exercise and tires herself out," says Destiny's owner Fahed Al Monjed. "Using an indoor running machine is the best solution."

Destiny may indeed take some tiring out. In a recent competition on the treadmills, she set the fastest speed.