CAMPUS Buying, roasting · image caused a stir when it made page ... boyant pop star Nicki Minaj...

WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741

CAMPUS

SCIENCE

FILM

HEALTH

TECHNOLOGY

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• Hamad Bin KhalifaUniversity celebratesQatar National Day

• Five mythsabout theNorth Pole

• Ralph Fiennes onDickens, Bond and Shakespeare

• Is it safe forpregnant womento eat peanuts?

• What is Bitstrips, and why were its comics all over your Facebook feed?

inside

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Learn Arabic • Learn commonly

used Arabic wordsand their meanings

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Nutty ideas: Buying, roasting and skinning tips

Selfie: noun, informalnoun, informal. A photograph that one . A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media websiteuploaded to a social media website

2 COVER STORYPLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013

With selfies, world turns camera on itself

Stuck on a ledge halfway up a 3,000-foot (1,000m) cliff in Oman, his climb-ing rope sliced in two by sharp rocks, Jimmy Chin did what anyone else

would have done in his predicament.He took a selfie.“I had some time to figure out what I was

going to do,” said Chin, a National Geographic photographer whose images of extreme climb-ing by the Straits of Hormuz appear in the magazine’s January issue.

“That’s when I took the selfie,” he said. “It was one of those moments when, ‘Well, I’m a Nat Geo photographer’. I had to document (the moment). It was pretty classic.”

Self-portraiture has been around for cen-turies, but the global proliferation of smart-phones with built-in digital cameras — plus the ability to share photos instantly on social media — has taken the genre to a new level.

With 2013 coming to a close, the publish-ers of the hallowed Oxford English Dictionary, arguably the final authority in anglophone lexi-cography, declared selfie to be their “word of the year.”

“Selfie: noun, informal. A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website,” according to Oxford. “Also: selfy. Plural: selfies.”

Internet search provider Yahoo meanwhile estimates that in 2014, about 880 billion pho-tographs will be taken. That’s 123 photos for every man, woman and child on Earth. Many will be selfies.

In Britain, a survey for Samsung found that 17 percent of men, and 10 percent of women, take selfies because “they enjoy taking good-looking photos of themselves.”

“I think ‘selfie’ is a term of endearment for the self, in a way,” said Sarah Kennel, curator of photography at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, who admits to taking the odd selfie herself. “It does reflect a kind of narcis-sism in our culture,” she said.

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron got tongues wagging when they took a selfie with Danish leader Helle Thorning Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in South Africa.

“What an incredible sign of the times,” chil-dren’s photographer Sarah Sloboda, author of the e-book How to Take the Best Selfies, said.

“That’s the kind of thing you can put in a time capsule to represent this period.”

No one knows if Obama and friends had even heard of Selfies at Funerals, an equally con-troversial Tumblr compilation of, well, selfies taken at funerals, mainly by young people.

“When a teen tweets out a funeral selfie, their friends don’t castigate them,” its founder Jason Feifer explained in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

3PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013

Self-portraiture has been around for centuries, but the global proliferation of smartphones with built-in digital cameras — plus the ability to share photos instantly on social media — has taken the genre to a new level.

“They understand that their friend, in their own way, is expressing an emo-tion they may not have words for. It’s a visual language that older people -- even those like me, in their 30s -- simply don’t speak.”

The year also saw Pope Francis in a selfie with teenagers at the Vatican, as well as pop diva Beyonce turning up in a smiling fan’s selfie in Australia, to cite a couple of Time magazine’s “11 most memorable selfies of 2013.”

From Los Angeles, gossip blogger Perez Hilton declared a pink-haired Miley Cyrus posing for herself in a skimpy Lil’ Kim Halloween costume his favourite among countless celebrity selfies over the past 12 months.

But there’s no need to be famous to become famous for a selfie.

Thanks to Reddit and other social media websites, goofy selfies of a proud twentysomething dad in the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon mimicking the faces of his newborn baby daughter went viral overnight.

“We just watched the camera screen and copied whatever face she was mak-ing,” explained Eddie Wheeler to his fel-low Reddit users.

In Norway, popular fitness blogger Caroline Berg Eriksen snapped herself in a mirror showing off a firm flat tummy just four days after she gave birth.

Critics branded her selfie a “dis-service” to women, but Eriksen struck back, saying she took it -- and shared it -- “because I’m proud of myself and

my body for something as tough as a pregnancy/birth.”

And then there was the young woman in New York who snapped a selfie with the Brooklyn Bridge -- and an attempted suicide leap -- in the background. That image caused a stir when it made page one of the New York Post.

“A selfie is a sort of perversion (and) a conquest of social virtual terrain,” said Paris-based travel photographer Jean-Francois Vibert, who blogs at www.macandphoto.com.

“Happily, perversion is not prohibited,” added Vibert, who namechecks the flam-boyant pop star Nicki Minaj for selfies “so ‘trash,’ it’s self-mockery. On that level, the selfie is decadence for a totally decadent era.”

Kennel said self-portraits are as old as photography itself.

The National Gallery’s current exhi-bition of the work of Charles Marville features selfies of the 19th century French photographer in which he styles himself as a suave Parisian boulevardier -- the hipster of his day.

Meanwhile, in London, the National Portrait Gallery has just put out a call for selfies to be included in a panel discussion on January 16 entitled “The Curated Ego: What Makes a Good Selfie?”

In announcing the event, organiz-ers identified Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia as “one of the first teenagers to take a selfie.” That was in 1914, when she was 13. Alas, she had no Facebook or Twitter account to share it on. AFP

Pope Francis with a puzzled Pope Francis with a puzzled look on his face in a “selfie” look on his face in a “selfie” photo taken with a group of photo taken with a group of teenagers visiting the Vatican.teenagers visiting the Vatican.

Sasha (left) and Malia Obama, daughters of US President Barack Obama, taking a selfie.

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 20134 CAMPUS / COMMUNITY

Hamad Bin Khalifa University celebrates Qatar National Day

In honour of Qatar National Day, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education,

Science, and Community Development (QF), organised a wide variety of cul-tural activities at the HBKU Student Centre. The programme celebrated Qatar’s rich history, with the par-ticipation of students, faculty and staff from HBKU and its partner universities.

Among the events was the Doha Drawathon 2013. The drawing mar-athon involved Qatari artists from across the country illustrating their feelings on Qatar and National Day.

The HBKU Student Center also hosted a selection of professional pho-tography from the Qatar Photographic Society and the traditional Ardah “sword dance.”

InstaArt Wall brought the Education City community together to build a unique Qatar National Day memorial.

Using the hashtag #celebratingqatar on Instagram, users were encouraged to submit pictures of what Qatar, and the community of Qatar, means to them. By submitting pictures, partici-pants were included in a draw and win-ners were announced every week for

the duration of the exhibition, which ran from November 22 till December 17.

Reem Al Othman, Director of Communications at HBKU said: “We are pleased to see the Education City community come together on

this happy occasion and enjoy such a diverse program of activities show-casing the rich history of Qatar. This nation has accomplished many great things, and has much to be proud of on its National Day.”

The Peninsula

In celebration of Qatar’s National Day, CGC hosted a blood donation campaign in association with Hamad Medical Corporation at its corporate offices in Doha recently. About 25 units of blood were collected from CGC staff. Tawfeeq Salem, CFO, CGC, thanked HMC for cooperation and support in organising the second blood donation campaign this year. He said, “CGC’s sustained efforts to help meet humanitarian needs reflect our commitment as a socially responsible com-pany. Above all, the National Day provided us with an opportunity to celebrate it differently and give back to society and prosper together.” An HMC representative presented a certificate of appreciation to Salem.

Blood donationBlood donation

Chemical engineering seminar series begins

The Texas A&M University at Qatar chemi-cal engineering programme in collabora-tion with ORYX GTL has launched the

ORYX GTL Excellence Seminar Series in Chemical Engineering. Professor Rafiqul Gani, of the Chemical & Biochemical Engineering Department at the Technical University of Denmark and a world-leading scientist on process systems design, delivered the inaugural lecture of this series.

His lecture entitled “A New Paradigm for Chemical Engineering?” placed an emphasis on the sustain-ability of the chemical industry processes and the role of chemical engineers in minimising the raw material, energy usage and waste generation without compromising the economic value of the enterprise.

Ioannis Economou, professor of chemical engi-neering at Texas A&M at Qatar, commented on Gani’s lecture, saying; “It provided a good overview of the chemical engineering profession and how it has evolved over recent years. More importantly, he

gave a well justified link between global challenges related to energy and other natural resources and the solutions that chemical engineers can offer. Prof. Gani’s talk was very inspiring, especially for the young generation of chemical engineering students, but also engineering students from other disciplines.”

“This lecture went beyond the traditional concepts of unit operations that we learn in the classroom,” said Moiz Bohra, a senior chemical engineering

student. “Gani’s focus on process sustainability and modularisation of processes made us rethink our approach to chemical plant design, and inspired us to consider these elements in our future careers.”

The ORYX GTL Excellence Seminar in Chemical Engineering is a bi-monthly seminar series sponsored by ORYX GTL to cover a variety of topics that reflect the role of engineering and industrial chemistry in our lives. The Peninsula

5MARKETPLACE PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013

Canon LEGRIAmini unveiled

Salam Stores and Canon launched new addition to the camcorder range — LEGRIA mini. The event saw a presentation from Canon’s Middle

East Product Manager, Zamaqshari Zubair. The design of the LEGRIA mini gives users the

freedom to explore a range of different and creative angles from which to tell their stories and share their interests. With a Canon-designed ultra-wide angle f/2.8 lens, which captures Full HD movies at 160° and stills at 170° for easy framing, the LEGRIA mini ena-bles users to capture even more of the world around them. Those wanting to film in a more conventional style can simply tap the capacitive LCD screen to reduce the field of view to a close-up angle of 71°.

The Peninsula

Qatar-UAE Exchange and NaseemAl Rabeeh Medical Clinic tie up

Qatar-UAE Exchange has tied up with Naseem Al Rabeeh to offer discounts on consultation and diag-nosis charges for its gold card customers at the latter’s clinic. The firms have agreed on a 25 percent off for laboratory investigation, X-ray and ultrasound. Apart from this, general physician consultation will be QR20 and speciality departments QR25. Edison Fernandez, Country Head – Qatar-UAE Exchange, said: “We have joined hands with Naseem Al Rabeeh medical clinic to offer discounts to our gold card customers. We are glad to partner with Naseem Al Rabeeh as they too share our vision for good health for all. We are sure that this tie-up will bring lot of benefits to our customers.” Babu Shanavas, Chief Executive Officer, Naseem Al Rabeeh, said: “Providing affordable healthcare services has been our main aim. We are happy to partner with UAE Exchange as their approach to overall well-being matches with ours.”

Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels has launched a Doha first in Al Jasra Boutique Hotel, north of the

Falcon Souq and hospital in Souq Waqif market. Offering a Family FUNch - fun Friday Lunch - across two res-taurants, guests can sample delicious seafood at Al Sanbouk along with the exotic Moroccan fare of Argan.

While their parents are relaxing in the hotel’s contemporary surrounding, children can enjoy dedicated children’s buffet and a host of activities to keep them entertained — including face-painting, puppet shows, an art corner, nail art and games.

The FUNch, which runs from 12.30pm-4pm every Friday, offers a mouth-watering buffet selection in both restaurants with live chef stations serving hand-carved, marinated whole lamb and stir-fried lobster Asian style. Trademark dishes include Thai green

curry with Asian vegetables, chicken tajine with preserved lemon, mini pas-tilla with seafood, Moroccan vegetable couscous and US beef medallions with herb mash potato.

Executive pastry chef Chef Benoit Laboureux has created an extensive dessert buffet to include delicacies such as tiramisu, assorted mini éclairs, crème brulée, lemon tart, macaroons, fruit salad, cheesecake and home-made opera, pistachio and chocolate fudge cakes. Chocoholics can indulge in the chocolate fountain, while hot sta-tion options include Arabic favourite Um Ali, bread pudding, waffles and pancakes.

Alex Trager, Director of Food & Beverage at Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels, said: “Our Family FUNch offers families a wonderful opportunity to relax and indulge in some of Qatar’s finest cuisines. Our buffets offer the

very best quality seafood and shellfish, cooked exactly to taste, combined with the exotic spices and heady aromas of Argan’s signature Moroccan dishes.

“Al Jasra’s dedicated children’s sec-tion ensures that even our youngest guests have an enjoyable experience,

while adults can take time to unwind in the sophisticated style of one of Qatar’s most exclusive hotels.”

The Family FUNch runs every Friday from 12.30 until 4pm and is QR220 all inclusive.

The Peninsula

Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels launch ‘Family FUNch’

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 20136 SCIENCE

By Rob Huebert

Canada’s recent announce-ment that it may try to extend its territory to include the North Pole has led to a debate over

who owns this Arctic area, about 1.3 times the size of the United States. Let’s consider some of the biggest misconceptions about the North Pole and how its landscape is changing.

1. The North Pole is just like the South Pole.

Many often look at pictures of the North Pole and wonder where the penguins are. Did the polar bears eat them?

Of course, both poles are extreme environments with exceedingly cold temperatures during the winter months, and both have weeks-long periods of complete darkness or per-petual daylight. In addition to the fact that polar bears live in the North Pole region and penguins in the South, the two areas are very different in their politics and people. The South Pole is on a continent with no indigenous population, while the North Pole is in an ocean almost completely sur-rounded by coastal states — Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark (via Greenland) and the United States (via Alaska) — with inhabitants who have lived in the region for a long time.

The rules, laws and practices defin-ing the areas are poles apart. For example, the South Pole is governed by a treaty outlining what can be done there (mainly scientific research) and what cannot (resource development and military functions). Activity at the North Pole follows maritime trea-ties and international law. In other words, anything that can be done in any other ocean can take place at the North Pole. The South Pole cannot be claimed by any one state. But almost all of the seabed of the Arctic Ocean, including the region surrounding the North Pole, can be.

2. Canada, Russia and Denmark are each attempting a North Pole land grab.

Recent news reports suggest that the governments of Canada and Russia are vying for control of the region, as when much of Africa was divided up by colonial powers. But Canada’s and Russia’s efforts to determine their rights over the North Pole’s soil and subsurface are part of a well-estab-lished international process. Under the terms of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), both states have the right to resources such as oil, gas, minerals and anything else that exists on the bottom of the ocean more than 200 nautical miles off their coasts.

States have the right to determine

if they have an extended continental shelf, which is a natural extension of the underwater landmass. They must conduct thorough measurements (no easy task in the Arctic) and then give their findings to a body established by UNCLOS to check their science. This UN body determines only if the science submitted is correct. Then it is up to the states involved to resolve any overlaps. So far, Russia, Canada and Denmark are proceeding as the rules prescribe, and there is no reason to expect conflict.

3. There is no international law governing the North Pole.

The waters at and surrounding the North Pole are governed by the same international laws that apply to all other oceans. And as the ice there begins to melt, the water above the seabed will remain international waters. (We’ve lost about 20,000 square miles of ice per year since 1981.)

If, as the sea warms, new stocks of fish and marine mammals move to the waters in and around the North Pole, then international fish-ing fleets will have the right to pur-sue them. In general, the collapse of world fishing stocks is blamed on the weakness of existing rules, includ-ing the enforcement of fishing lim-its and faulty reporting of fishing stocks. Thus, those problems could be exported to the waters of the North Pole and become major international challenges.

4. There is no military presence

at the North Pole.While there is no real threat of

conflict over the division of the sea-bed, there still is military activity in the region. And as the ice melts and the Arctic Ocean becomes similar to the other oceans, day-to-day naval activities for the protection of maritime trade will begin to occur there. There are two trends increas-ing the strategic importance of the waters around the North Pole. First, Russia has been building improved submarines to carry nuclear mis-siles. The key bases for these sub-marines and protective forces are in and around Murmansk, facing directly toward the North Pole. This has already caused the US Navy to ensure that its attack submarines are capable of operating in Arctic waters. So we could see some Cold War habits coming back into play when two navys once again begin to play games of cat and mouse under the ice.

Second, anytime the United States feels threatened by North Korea, it strengthens its anti-ballistic missile systems — and the primary land-based interceptor site is at Fort Greely, Alaska. The United States is in the process of adding more inter-ceptors because of recent actions by North Korea. The interceptors are in the Arctic not because of any US concern about a missile strike from its Arctic neighbours. But their location has not gone unnoticed by Russian authorities, who think US efforts may be directed against them — not rogue states or nonstate actors.

The presence of US and Russian military forces in the Arctic means that in times of conflict and stress elsewhere, the Arctic could easily become involved.

5. The only thing changing at the North Pole is the climate.

There is no doubt that the most dramatic changes in the region are related to the climate. (Many experts believe that the permanent ice cover will be gone as early as 2020.) But at the same time the North Pole is physically changing, exploration of the area is increasing. Improvements in marine technology — led by non-Arc-tic states such as South Korea — are allowing different types of vessels to enter the region, even in the pres-ence of ice. The ongoing discovery of untapped oil and gas fields in the area is also driving the development of bet-ter technologies. In short, the North Pole region is in a state of massive transformation.

Canada’s and Russia’s efforts to determine the outer boundaries of the continental shelf are among many transformations occurring at the North Pole. While there are some promising signs of international coop-eration, problems with fishing and increased submarine activities could soon emerge. The leaders of the Arctic states must ensure that the negative does not override the positive. We owe Santa no less.

Rob Huebert is a political science pro-fessor at the University of Calgary.

WP-Bloomberg

Five myths about the North Pole

FOOD 7PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013

By Susan Herrmann Loomis

Go nuts in the kitchen for the winter. They will seduce you and your guests with their delicious flavours and textures, and they’ll give your table an international

flair. With each crunchy bite, you will also be helping your joints loosen, giving your heart a little assist, and taking in protein, energy and fibre. They make perfect gifts for the holidays.

BUYING

� Although nuts in the shell keep longer than those out of the shell, it is impossible to judge their fresh-ness. Avoid any whose shells are cracked.

� Buy nuts from a shop where there is plenty of turnover, which indicates a better chance of freshness.

� Use your eyes. The nuts should have a light, even colour without dark or oily spots. They should look plump; a shrivelled, dried-out nut won’t taste good. If nuts are packaged, check the “sell-by” date.

� Use your nose. If the nuts are in bulk, smell them. There shouldn’t be an oily or off aroma.

� Use your palate. If the nuts are in bulk, taste them. Any reputable store should let you do that.

� Pay special attention when you buy pine nuts, walnuts and pecans; those are particularly perishable, as they are among the oiliest nuts.

STORING

� Store shell-on nuts in a cool, dark spot when you get them home, and crack them/use them as soon as you can.

� During the holidays, you’re likely to use up nuts quickly. They’ll keep in an airtight container in the dark for about two weeks. If you don’t plan to use them that soon, seal them in a plastic bag and/or container, label it, and store them in the freezer. (I measure them first, so I’m sure what I’ve got.) This is true for all nuts, nut flour (also called “meal”) and sliced nuts. Nuts can be used without being defrosted.

ROASTING

I have a rule of thumb for roasting nuts, but it varies based on the freshness and moisture content of the nut, the type of oven, the depth of nuts in the pan. Nuts help you know when they are toasted by filling the kitchen with their aroma. Stay close by your roasting nuts so that you can smell when they are ready; they will burn in an instant.

To roast nuts, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the nuts in a single layer in a metal baking pan or baking sheet. Roast until they begin to send a gorgeous, nutty aroma through the house, which can take anywhere from seven to 15 minutes. Check them after seven minutes, then every five minutes after

that. Once they are roasted to your liking (I like mine on the dark, rather than light, side), let them cool thoroughly before storing them. Once cooled, they are fragile and should be used or frozen immediately.

Nuts can be skinned after they’re roasted, but dif-ferent nuts require different techniques:

Andy Ricker, chef-owner of the famed Thai street food restaurant Pok Pok in New York, taught me a trick for skinning peanuts. He lets them fall into a bowl in front of a fan, which blows away the skins. You can also do this by blowing on them as they drop into a bowl. Another method is to rub peanuts in a sieve, then shake them vigorously. The skins fall to the bot-tom of the sieve; then you have to pick out the skinned peanuts one by one. The takeaway lesson: There isn’t an easy way to remove skins from peanuts.

Hazelnuts are a little easier. Roast them, then transfer them directly to a tea towel. Fold the towel over the nuts and let them cool, then vigorously rub off the skins in the towel. If some hazelnut skins are stubborn, you can roll them between your fingers, or if they can afford more roasting, return them to the oven and repeat. Some skin left on a hazelnut will not adversely affect a dish.

Almonds are simple. Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add raw, unsalted almonds; once the water returns to a boil, use a slotted spoon or Chinese skimmer to transfer the nuts to a colander. As soon as the almonds are cool enough to handle, squeeze them on their fat ends, and they will pop right out of their skins. If they become cool and the skins stick to the nut, just dip them back into the hot water.

Walnuts are tough to skin, and few recipes call for them that way. But it is possible and the results are stunningly delicious. Plunge raw, unsalted walnuts in boiling water for one minute, remove them, and with a paring knife, peel off all the gold skin you can.

Roast pistachios, then follow the directions for hazelnuts above, or roll the nuts individually between your fingers.

Loomis is the author, most recently, of Nuts in the Kitchen (HarperCollins, 2010). She blogs at onruetatin.com. WP-Bloomberg

Nutty ideas: Buying, roasting and skinning tips

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eft

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hatt

s’ p

roje

ct

aft

er I

did

. I

ow

e h

er a

role

in t

he

film

that

I am

doin

g n

ow

,” h

e a

dded.

Actr

ess

Shilpa S

hukla

, w

ho g

ave a

ste

rling p

erfo

rm

ance i

n B

ahl’s

B.A

. P

ass

, is

als

o b

ack in T

he I

nfo

rmer.

“What

Shilpa b

rought

to B

.A. P

ass

was

incredib

le. I

wante

d t

o c

ast

her

in m

y s

econd fi

lm, but

when I

sta

rte

d w

ork

on C

ity

Lig

hts

for t

he B

hatt

s,

we n

eeded a

prota

gonis

t w

ho w

as

26 y

ears

old

. I

could

n’t

sig

n h

er f

or C

ity

Lig

hts

.”“N

ow

I c

an w

ork

wit

h S

hilpa i

n T

he I

nfo

rmer.

I h

ave j

ust

the r

ole

for

her,”

he s

aid

.

Illay

araj

a is

fine

, say

s ne

phew

Musi

c m

aest

ro I

llayaraja

, w

ho s

uff

ered a

mild h

eart

att

ack,

is n

ow

abso

lute

ly fi

ne,

said

his

nephew

, T

am

il fi

lmm

aker V

enkat

Prabhu.

Illa

yaraja

suff

ered t

he h

eart

con

dit

ion

. T

he 7

0-y

ear-o

ld w

as

rush

ed t

o

Apollo H

osp

ital

here a

fter h

e c

om

pla

ined o

f chest

pain

. D

octo

rs

who

att

ended o

n h

im a

scerta

ined t

hat

he is

out

of

danger.

“My u

ncle

, our I

saig

nani (m

usi

c m

aest

ro),

is

abso

lute

ly fi

ne! T

hanks

for

the love a

nd p

rayers,

” V

enkat

post

ed o

n h

is T

wit

ter p

age.

The c

om

pose

r i

s under o

bse

rvati

on i

n t

he h

osp

ital, b

ut

he i

s expecte

d

to g

et

dis

charged s

hortl

y. Il

layaraja

has

com

pose

d m

usi

c for o

ver 9

00 fi

lms

across

several

languages.

His

work

in l

ate

st T

am

il d

ram

a T

ha

laim

ura

iga

l has

been r

eceiv

ed w

ell.

By

Piy

a S

inh

a-R

oy

From

Shakesp

eare t

o H

arr

y P

ott

er

to t

he n

ew

head o

f M

I6 in t

he J

am

es

Bon

d fi

lm

fran

ch

ise,

Ralp

h F

ien

nes

has

min

ed t

he c

om

ple

xit

y

of

his

characte

rs.

The 5

1-year-o

ld B

rit

ish a

cto

r m

ost

recentl

y t

urned h

is t

ale

nts

to u

nearth

-in

g t

he d

eta

ils

of B

rit

ish a

uth

or C

harl

es

Dic

kens’

extr

am

arit

al aff

air

.F

ien

nes sta

rs an

d ta

kes h

is sec-

on

d t

urn

as

dir

ecto

r o

n T

he I

nvi

sib

le

Wom

an,

out

in l

imit

ed r

ele

ase

in

US

th

eatr

es

on C

hris

tmas

Day,

chronic

ling

the h

ush

ed l

iais

on b

etw

een 1

9th

cen-

tury a

uth

or D

ickens

and a

ctr

ess

Nelly

Ternan.

Lou

ngin

g

in

the

cou

rty

ard

at

Hollyw

ood’s

fam

ed C

hate

au M

arm

ont

hote

l, F

ien

nes spoke about

decon

-st

ructi

ng D

ickens,

pla

yin

g h

eroes

and

villa

ins

and t

he n

ext

Bon

d fi

lm.

Wh

at

insp

ired

you t

o w

an

t to

bri

ng t

his

sto

ry o

f D

ick

ens’

lif

e and a

ffair

wit

h N

elly

Ter

nan t

o t

he

scre

en?

Audie

nces

have a

vague s

en

se o

f a

jolly m

an w

rit

ing s

lightl

y s

enti

menta

l,

big

sagas

whic

h a

re g

ood e

nte

rta

in-

ment

and g

ood s

torie

s, b

ut

they s

ee t

he

dark

ness

of

Dic

kens

in t

his

film

. T

he

dom

est

ic, arguably

we’d

say,

cruelt

y o

f D

ickens.

Dic

kens

is a

man o

f m

ass

ive

contr

ast

and c

ontr

adic

tions,

and I

lik

e

that

it m

ight

stir

it

up a

bit

, people

m

ight

talk

about

it.

How

do y

ou t

hin

k D

ick

ens’

rel

a-

tion

ship

wit

h N

elly

im

pact

ed h

is

port

raya

l of

wom

en i

n h

is n

ove

ls?

Est

ella i

n G

rea

t E

xp

ect

ati

on

s is

not

a p

ortr

ait

of N

elly,

but

is N

elly fi

ltered

through D

ickens’

anxie

ty a

bout

want-

ing a

nd t

ryin

g t

o r

each h

er.

I t

hin

k

Nelly p

robably

resi

sted D

ickens

for a

bit

, an

d t

hat

resi

stan

ce p

lays

out

in,

quote

un

quote

, “E

stella’s

cold

heart.”

... N

elly w

as

quit

e t

ough, sh

e w

as

quit

e

a s

trong-w

ille

d y

oung g

irl, a

nd I

thin

k

(his

lit

erary h

eroin

es)

all h

ave b

its

of

her in t

hem

.

You’v

e dep

icte

d li

tera

ry

char-

act

ers

bef

ore

, bu

t in

pla

yin

g

a

ren

ow

ned

auth

or

such

as

Charl

es

Dic

ken

s, w

ere

you n

ervo

us?

You’r

e alw

ays n

ervous,

you ju

st

wan

t any part

to be tr

uth

ful

an

d

alive an

d you ju

st

wan

t to

hon

our

what

you t

hin

k i

ts t

ruth

is

... A

ll t

he

scenes

pain

t a p

ortr

ait

of th

e D

ickens

that

I fe

lt I

got

to k

now

readin

g —

a

vit

al fa

mily m

an, centr

e o

f th

e p

arty

, centr

e o

f att

enti

on,

quit

e a

contr

ol-

ling f

ath

er,

auth

orit

ati

ve,

capable

of

great

kin

dness

and c

harit

able

events

. H

e c

an b

e a

very g

enia

l host

, charm

-in

g, very f

unny,

att

enti

ve, and h

e c

an

be r

uth

less

and t

ough a

nd b

oss

y a

nd

really c

ruel, h

e h

as a

pote

nti

al

for

cruelt

y t

here.

You

’ve

playe

d b

oth h

eroe

s and v

il-

lain

s, f

rom

Shak

espe

are

’s R

omeo

on

stage

to J

K R

ow

ling’

s dea

dly

Lord

V

old

emort

in H

arr

y P

ott

er. W

hic

h

do y

ou e

njo

y bet

ter?

I don’t

want

to p

lay a

ny m

ore

villa

ins,

I

don’t

enjo

y p

layin

g t

hem

, I’ve d

one it.

I

enjo

y p

layin

g c

om

plicate

d p

eople

. W

e

talk

about

good g

uys

and b

ad g

uys,

but

it’s

reducti

ve.

I th

ink I

wan

ted t

o b

e

an a

cto

r b

ecause

of

Shakesp

eare, and

Shakesp

eare’s

characte

rs

are f

ull o

f am

biv

ale

nce a

nd a

mbig

uit

y. T

hey s

tart

out

as

one t

hin

g a

nd e

nd u

p a

noth

er,

so

if

there’s

an inte

rest

ing journey f

or

a c

haracte

r a

nd t

he a

udie

nce h

ave t

o

work

hard t

o follow

the p

ath

of a c

har-

acte

r, I

lik

e t

hat.

You’r

e w

ell

know

n f

or

your

por-

traya

ls o

f S

hak

espea

rean l

eads

on

stage

, but

how

has

Sh

ak

espea

re

evolv

ed f

or

audie

nce

s now

?M

y s

ense i

s t

hat

it’s

goin

g t

o b

e

harder a

nd h

arder for y

ounger p

eo-

ple

to f

eel

excit

ed b

y t

he b

rillian

t,

ath

leti

c c

om

ple

xit

y o

f S

hakespeare’s

la

nguage,

whic

h f

or s

o m

any c

en

-turie

s h

as excit

ed people

by it

s

beauty

an

d it

s accuracy an

d it

s

inven

tiven

ess o

f E

nglish,

whic

h i

s

so e

xtr

aordin

ary.

But

we learn in t

imes

where E

nglish

is

so r

educed b

y t

he ... a

wfu

l com

muni-

cati

ons

of

Tw

itte

r a

nd F

acebook t

hat

people

are d

um

bin

g t

hem

selv

es

dow

n.

The d

elight

of

express

ing y

ourse

lf i

n

language o

r lis

tenin

g t

o s

om

eone, th

at’s

bein

g d

ilute

d.

You’r

e go

ing t

o b

e in

th

e n

ext

inst

all

men

t of

the

Jam

es B

ond f

ran-

chis

e as

the

new

hea

d o

f M

I6.

Can

you t

ell

us

any

more

about

the

new

‘M

’ or

the

film

?I

can’t

, I

know

noth

ing, I’ve n

ot

been

told

anyth

ing,

I have n

o i

nfo

rm

ati

on,

no d

ate

s, n

o s

ense

of th

e journey o

f m

y

characte

r a

t all! I

don’t

!R

eute

rs

PLU

S |

WE

DN

ES

DA

Y 2

5 D

EC

EM

BE

R 2

013

Ralp

h Fi

enne

s on

Dic

kens

, Sh

akes

pear

e an

d Bo

nd

HO

LLY

WO

OD

NE

WS

Beyo

nce

insp

ired

by

Mad

onna

Pop s

tar B

eyonce K

now

les

says

her insp

irati

on h

as

been s

inger M

adonna

and s

he w

ante

d t

o “

follow

in h

er f

oots

teps”

.T

he 3

2-y

ear-o

ld h

eld

a “

vis

ual alb

um

” sc

reenin

g o

f her s

elf

-tit

led fi

fth

alb

um

, w

hic

h f

eatu

res

17 v

ideos,

here o

n D

ecem

ber 2

1.U

smagazi

ne.c

om

reports

that

while a

ddress

ing t

he c

row

d,

Beyon

ce

said

: “I

felt

lik

e I

wante

d t

o f

ollow

in t

he f

oots

teps

of

Madonna a

nd b

e a

pow

erhouse

and h

ave m

y o

wn e

mpir

e.”

The “

Sin

gle

ladie

s” s

inger w

as

wearin

g a

sheer b

lack d

ress

wit

h h

er

hair

open f

or t

he s

creenin

g.

She a

dded t

hat

she w

ante

d t

o “

show

oth

er w

om

en, w

hen y

ou g

et

to t

his

poin

t in

your c

areer,

you d

on’t

have t

o g

o s

ign w

ith s

om

eone e

lse a

nd s

hare

your m

oney,

and y

our s

uccess

, you c

an d

o it

yourse

lf”.

Shee

n ca

lls e

x-w

ife ‘h

eart

less

ly u

gly’

Acto

r C

harli

e S

heen

is

so upset

wit

h h

is e

x-w

ife,

actr

ess

Den

ise

Ric

hards,

that

he c

alls

her “

heartl

ess

” and “

ugly

”. T

he 4

8-y

ear-o

ld e

xpress

ed

his

anger i

n a

serie

s of

text

mess

ages

to R

ichards,

42.

Accordin

g t

o t

mz.

com

, S

heen’s

text

mess

age r

ead: “L

et

me s

ee if

I got

this

str

aig

ht,

you w

on

’t e

ven

sprin

g t

he

gir

ls f

or 3

0 m

inute

s, f

rom

the 1

0 m

ile

house

I g

ave y

ou,

100 y

ards

aw

ay,

to

com

e d

ow

n a

nd o

pen

the g

ifts

their

dad b

ought

them

befo

re t

hey leave?”

“I h

ope y

our s

tockin

g is

bronze

-age

coal st

uff

ed a

long w

ith a

n a

ssortm

ent

of

8x10

’s o

f yours

so y

ou c

an s

ee h

ow

desp

icable

and h

eartl

ess

ly u

gly

you a

nd

your f

erm

ente

d s

oul conti

nue t

o b

e.”

He a

lso c

laim

s th

at

desp

ite t

he f

act

that

Ric

hards

would

not

allow

him

to

see t

he k

ids,

she h

ad t

he “

audacit

y”

to b

orrow

his

priv

ate

jet

to g

o o

n a

big

fam

ily t

rip

that

she b

anned h

im f

rom

.S

heen w

as

suppose

d t

o j

oin

Ric

hards

and t

heir

tw

o d

aughte

rs,

Sam

, nin

e, and L

ola

, eig

ht,

over t

he h

olidays,

but

Ric

hards

cancelled t

he p

lans.

The A

nger

Ma

na

gem

en

t st

ar s

ays

he w

ent

to R

ichards’

hom

e t

o p

lead

wit

h h

er t

o c

hange h

er m

ind a

nd t

o d

eliver g

ifts

to t

he k

ids,

but

he w

as

not

allow

ed t

o s

ee t

hem

.“T

his

is

the w

orst

X’m

as

I’ve e

ver h

ad,” S

heen a

dded.

Face

lift o

n Ro

bbie

W

illia

ms’

s w

ish

list

Sin

ger-a

cto

r R

obbie

William

s is

pla

nn

ing t

o h

ave a

facelift

an

d

liposu

cti

on a

fter h

e t

urns

40.

William

s adm

itte

d t

o b

e s

uff

erin

g

from

“m

id-l

ife c

ris

es”

and s

aid

he h

as

decid

ed t

o g

o u

nder t

he k

nif

e a

fter

his

bir

thday o

n F

eb 1

3, reports

con-

tactm

usi

c.c

om

.“I

am

goin

g to

h

ave everyth

ing

done.

I am

goin

g t

o h

ave a

facelift

, th

e c

hin

can g

o, liposu

cti

on. T

he m

id-

life

cris

es th

eory has been

creep-

ing u

p o

n m

e f

or s

om

e t

ime,” B

ang

Show

biz

quote

d W

illiam

s as

sayin

g.

Wil

liam

s

has

a

15-m

on

th-old

daugh

ter T

heodora w

ith

h

is w

ife

Ayda F

ield

.

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013 GUNS610

Sources: Concern Kalashnikov Company; Colt Defense LCC; World Bank’s “Weaponomics: The Global Market For Assault Rifles” report; FN Herstal Company

*Estimated figures

General specs for some of the most widely used assault rifles in the world.Assault rifles

Staff, 24/12/2013

FN-FAL Belgium

M-16 U.S.A.

PRODUCTION TO DATE*

AK-47 Russia

2 mlnunits

8 mlnunits

8 mlnunits

75 mlnunits

AR-15 U.S.A.

1,090 mm (model 50.00)

1,000 mm

901 mm (model AR6720)

850 mm

Caliber7.62x39 mm

600rpm

700-950rpm

650-700roundsper minute (rpm)

700-950rpm (cyclicmode)

Caliber5.56x45 mm NATO



11HEALTH PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013

By Andrew M Seaman

So long as they don’t have nut allergies themselves, pregnant women shouldn’t be afraid that eating nuts might trigger allergies in their child, according to a large new study.

In fact, when women ate nuts more than five times a month during pregnancy, their kids had markedly lower risk of nut allergies compared to kids whose mothers avoided nuts, researchers found.

“The take-home message is that the previous con-cerns or fears of the ingestion of nuts during preg-nancy causing subsequent peanut or nut allergy is really unfounded,” Dr Michael Young said.

Young is the study’s senior author and an attend-ing physician in allergy and immunology at Boston Children’s Hospital.

He cautioned that pregnant women shouldn’t start eating peanuts and tree nuts to prevent their chil-dren from developing nut allergies, however.

“Even though our study showed a reduction of risk, I really have to emphasize that the way our study was done only shows an association,” he said.

He and his colleagues write in JAMA Pediatricsthat between 1997 and 2010 the prevalence of peanut allergies tripled to 1.4 percent of US children.

For the new study, the researchers used data from a national study of female nurses between the ages of 24 and 44 years old. Starting in 1991, the women periodically reported what they ate.

The researchers then combined information on the women’s diets from around the time of their pregnancies with data from another study of their children.

In 2009 the women completed a questionnaire that asked whether their children had any food allergies. Of 8,205 children in the study, 308 had food aller-gies, including 140 who were allergic to peanuts or tree nuts.

Tree nuts include walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, macadamias and Brazil nuts.

Overall, the researchers found that eating nuts while pregnant was not tied to an increased risk of nut allergies among children. On the contrary,

the more nuts women reported eating during preg-nancy, the less likely their children were to have nut allergies.

About 1.5 percent of children of women who ate less than one serving of nuts per month during preg-nancy developed nut allergies. That compared to about 0.5 percent of children of women who ate five or more servings per week.

In other words, kids whose mothers ate nuts most often had about a third of the risk compared to kids whose mothers ate nuts least often.

The exception was children of women who them-selves had a history of nut allergies. In those cases, when women ate nuts five or more times a week during pregnancy, their children had about two and a half times the risk of nut allergies compared to the kids of allergic mothers who avoided nuts dur-ing pregnancy.

“Certainly this is reassurance that eating nuts during pregnancy will not increase your child’s risk of allergy,” Dr Loralei Thornburg said.

“In fact, it may be tied to a decreased risk of nut allergies.”

Thornburg was not involved in the new study but is a high-risk pregnancy expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

However, “if there is a strong family history at all or if the mother herself has any food allergy, then she should go talk to her physician, because there is not clear data on that,” Dr Ruchi Gupta said.

Gupta is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and an expert on food allergies and asthma.

In an editorial accompanying the new study, Gupta wrote that it will take additional studies and research to understand why a growing number of children are developing food allergies and how to prevent it.

“What I do like about the study is it adds evidence that mothers-to-be should eat whatever they wish and not worry that the consumption of certain foods will result in allergies,” she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/Ms92Cy JAMA Pediatrics, online December 23, 2013.

Reuters

Is it safe for pregnant women to eat peanuts?

Study unlocks mysteries about Alzheimer’s

Scientists have shed light on the three essen-tial puzzles regarding Alzheimer’s, a science

journal reported. Using high-resolution func-tional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) research-ers have clarified three fundamental issues about Alzheimer’s: where it starts, why it starts there, and how it spreads.

The findings could improve early detection of the disease, when drugs may be most effective. The study was published in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, reports Science Daily. “It has been known for years that Alzheimer’s starts in a brain region known as the entorhinal cortex,” said senior co-author Scott A Small, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

“But this study is the first to show in living patients that it begins specifically in the lateral entorhinal cortex, or LEC,” he said.

“The LEC is considered to be a gateway to the hippocampus, which plays a key role in the consol-idation of long-term memory, among other func-tions. If the LEC is affected, other aspects of the hippocampus will also be affected,” Small added.

The study also shows that, over the time, Alzheimer’s spreads from the LEC directly to other areas of the cerebral cortex, in particular the parietal cortex, a brain region involved in various functions, including spatial orientation and navigation.

Popping dietary pillscan harm the liverNext time you gulp down your favourite die-

tary supplement, or even take that concen-trated green tea pill to burn fat, think twice.

New data suggests that the unregulated die-tary supplements industry accounts for nearly 20 percent of drug-related liver injuries, up from 7 percent a decade ago.

According to a new study, reported by New York Times, teenagers are not the only consumers at risk, many are middle-aged women who turn to dietary supplements that promise to burn fat or speed up weight loss. “When people buy these dietary supplements, it’s anybody’s guess as to what they’re getting,” Herbert L Bonkovsky, director of the liver, digestive and metabolic disorders laboratory at Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, NC, was quoted as saying.

The supplement business is largely unregu-lated. In recent years, said NYT, critics of the industry have called for measures that would force companies to prove that their products are safe and made in accordance with strict manufac-turing standards before they reach the market.

The study found that many of the products implicated in liver injuries were bodybuilding supplements carrying unlisted steroids, and herbal pills and powders promising to increase energy and help consumers lose weight.

The investigators looked at 845 patients with severe, drug-induced liver damage who were treated at hospitals from 2004 to 2012. It focused only on cases where the investigators ruled out other causes and blamed a drug or a supplement with a high degree of certainty.

One product that patients used frequently was green tea extract, which contains catechins, a group of potent antioxidants that reputedly increase metabolism. Agencies

TECHNOLOGYPLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 201312

By Stuart Dredge

The first time hundreds of millions of people heard about Bitstrips was when its customised comic strips started appearing in their

Facebook news feeds in October, en masse.

Bitstrips has since gone on to become the second most-downloaded iOS app in the world in November, with the Canadian company raising $3m of funding just as its app topped app store charts around the world. But who is Bitstrips, why did it become so popular so quickly, and what will it do next?

A chat with chief executive and crea-tive director Jacob Blackstock (known as “BA” to friends and colleagues) provides some answers hinting that Bitstrips may be more than just the latest short-lived app craze

Blackstock was a voracious comics reader and cartoons viewer from an early age, falling in with a group of close friends who shared these interests, and would gather after school to read comics, but also draw their own, selling some of them at the local comics store.

Blackstock set up a creative studio with those friends, with the idea for Bitstrips born in 2007, and launching as a standalone website in 2008.

The idea was pretty much the same as the mobile app that’s been so popu-lar in 2013: people created an avatar of themselves, then customised vari-ous comic-strip “scenes” created by Bitstrips to create their own pithy stories, regardless of drawing skills or digital abilities.

“We kind of saw it as YouTube for comics. We basically gave people a character-builder tool and a comic-builder tool, and let them go nuts. Which they did! We saw all these cre-ative uses for it: people doing things with the tools that we’d made that we’d never even thought would be possible,” says Blackstock.

That included teachers in North America starting to use Bitstrips in the classroom, leading the company to launch a version called Bitstrips for Schools. That’s the second surprising thing about Bitstrips: its roots are as much in education as in enter-tainment, with its software licensed to all publicly-funded schools in its home province of Ontario thanks to a partnership with its Ministry of Education.

“Kids were getting really engaged with their schoolwork. It was a combi-nation of the fact that they’re using this medium that they love – comics – which is really visual, appealing and expres-sive, and also the fact that they had the avatars in their work. They weren’t just communicating through comics, they were communicating through their own avatars,” says Blackstock.

Bitstrips for Schools was also rewarding enough financially to fund the company as it worked on a new ver-sion of the main website, retooling it as a Facebook application which launched in 2012. By then, though, Blackstock and his colleagues had already realised that the service needed to go mobile.

“We launched on Android at the end of August, then on iOS on 1 October. And two weeks after the iOS launch, it reached this tipping point and went mega viral.”

The proof of that was in hundreds of millions of people’s Facebook news feeds in October and November. Until the mobile apps launched, people had created 10 million avatars using Bitstrips’ website and Facebook app, but in the two months after its iOS and Android launch, another 30 mil-lion were created.

The huge spike came as a surprise to Bitstrips: “We were in testing mode. We thought of it as a stealth launch where we could find the bugs and put in more features, before officially launching it,” says Blackstock. “We never told any-one about it, never spent a penny on

marketing, yet all of a sudden it was just exploding everywhere.”

Mobile analytics company App Annie claims that Bitstrips was the second most-downloaded app globally on Apple’s App Store in November, behind only MomentCam – a different personalised-comics app.

“It feels like one of those ‘overnight successes’ that was actually the product of seven years of toil,” says Blackstock, who notes that the viral effect – the average Bitstrip user has 50 friends who’ve created an avatar using the app – has been a big factor in the recent spike. “We see this as the app that turns your circle of friends into your own personal Springfield,’ he says, ref-erencing The Simpsons.

What next? Continuing to feed this community, avoiding the Draw Something trajectory of burning brightly on the app store then fading away, and actually making money from the app. On the former count, Bitstrips launches four new comic strips a day, as well as a recent batch of more than 150 Christmas-themed strips for users to customise and share. More than 2,000 scenes are already available in the app, with plans to continue this approach.

“We’re able to do things that are really timely: when there are current events, we can have a comic about that within 24 hours. It’s a way for our users to participate in news, media and memes,” says Blackstock.

This may sound like novelty terri-tory, but the ability to respond to topi-cal events – or more accurately, to give people the tools to respond to them – is one of Bitstrips’ most interesting

features, and part of a wider trend for tools (often apps) that remove the need to have, say, Photoshop skills to create and share visual content.

Bitstrips is already fielding calls from some celebrities too, wondering how they can work with the company.

What about the second challenge: avoiding becoming another flash-in-the-pan app? Especially if Bitstrips becomes known as “that annoying comics app” by people who don’t really like the strips, and specifically don’t like dozens of them clogging up their Facebook feeds?

Bitstrips can’t stop your friends and family over-sharing, but it does seem aware of the risks. It has already tweaked the app so users aren’t forced to share their comics to Facebook every time, for example: they can now choose to share them within Bitstrips alone, or via other means like Twitter and email.

He doesn’t talk about other forth-coming features, but I wonder if anima-tion – moving Bitstrips – are on the company’s roadmap too: cartoons in the TV sense of the word, as well as the comic-strip sense.

The third challenge is how Bitstrips makes money, given that it doesn’t cur-rently charge for the app or its scenes, nor does it carry advertising. In-app purchases are one likely avenue – pre-mium scenes perhaps, in the same way that messaging apps like Line offer a mixture of free and paid stickers for people to send to friends.

Premium scenes might also be a way for Bitstrips to partner with celebrities, film studios and other popular brands – although it might also be able to charge brands to sponsor free scenes in the same way that websites like BuzzFeed sell “native advertising” that look like normal articles on the site.

“We’ve thought about those things, and we do have pretty detailed ideas. But we are really focused on growth and improving the experience right now,” says Blackstock, mirroring the words of other rapidly-growing-app entrepreneurs before him (Instagram, Snapchat, etc).

There are plenty of dangers for Bitstrips in the months ahead, but Blackstock says his company wants to prove that personalised, socially-shared comic strips are much more than a viral annoyance.

The Guardian

What is Bitstrips, and why were its comics all over your Facebook feed?

COMICS & MORE 13

Hoy en la HistoriaDecember 25, 1584

1620: The Pilgrim Fathers aboard the Mayflower proclaimed a colony at Plymouth Rock, a symbolic moment in American history1741: Anders Celsius devised the centigrade temperature scale1983: Renowned Catalan artist Joan Miro died at the age of 901995: The annual Christmas party on Sydney’s Bondi Beach ended in a mass punch-up involving thousands of rather too merry revellers

An Estonian Lutheran pastor described setting up a decorated spruce tree in the market square, the earliest known written reference to a Christmas tree

Picture: Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS

ALL IN THE MIND Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal,vertical, diagonal, forwards or backwards.

ARCHERY, ATHLETICS, BADMINTON, BASKETBALL, BEACH VOLLEYBALL, BOXING, CANOEING, CYCLING, DIVING, EQUESTRIAN, FENCING, FOOTBALL, GYMNASTICS, HANDBALL, HOCKEY, JUDO, MODERN PENTATHLON, ROWING, SAILING, SHOOTING, SWIMMING, SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING, TABLE TENNIS, TAEKWONDO, TENNIS, TRAMPOLINE, TRIATHLON, VOLLEYBALL, WATER POLO, WEIGHTLIFTING, WRESTLING.

LEARN ARABIC

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

Zits by Dennis Young and Denis Lebrun

Hagar The Horrible by Chris Browne

How to tell the time

What is the time now? Kam alssaça al'an?

It is �ve o'clock Alssaça al�amisa

It is ten past six Alssaça alssadisa wa ça�rat daqiq

It is �ve past seven Alssaça alsabiça wa �amsat daqaiq

It is quarter past �ve Alssaça al�amisa wa alroubouç

It is twenty past two Alssaça al�ania wa al�oul�

It is half past three Alssaça al�ali�a wa alni�f

It is �ve to ten Alssaça alça�ira illa �amsat daqaiq

It is ten to nine Alssaça altasiça illa ça�rat daqaiq

It is twenty to one Alssaça alwa�ida illa �oul�

It is quarter to seven Alssaça sabiça illa roubouç

ç = ‘a’ in ‘agh’ when surprised

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013

HYPER SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

CROSSWORDS

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

How to play Hyper Sudoku:A Hyper Sudoku

Puzzle is solved

by filling the

numbers from 1

to 9 into the blank

cells. A Hyper

Sudoku has

unlike Sudoku

13 regions

(four regions

overlap with the

nine standard

regions). In all

regions the numbers from 1 to 9 can appear

only once. Otherwise, a Hyper Sudoku is

solved like a normal Sudoku.

ACROSS

1 Sing the praises of

6 Online party reminder

11 Josh

14 “The Family Circus” cartoonist

15 Corral

16 Surgeon’s org.

17 Yellow-eyed birds of prey

20 Apple products since 1998

21 Solemn column

22 Part of a fraternity ritual, perhaps

28 energystar.gov grp.

29 Sound of delight

30 Spectrum start

31 Traces of smoke

34 Dr. Seuss’s surname

37 Decision reversal … or, literally, what can be found inside 17-, 22-, 49- and 58-Across

41 Church laws

42 Model’s asset

44 Counselors’ org.

47 It’s hot, then it’s not

48 Web video gear

49 Cybermenaces

56 Pants, slangily

57 Hunter in the night sky

58 How children should be, in a saying

65 Eye, to a bard

66 Apple products since 2001

67 Blast from the past

68 Code-cracking org.

69 Guitar accessories

70 Place to schuss

DOWN

1 Hosp. readout

2 Gen ___

3 ___ Bo (exercise system)

4 How elated people walk

5 “I want to try!”

6 Geologic span

7 Vice ___

8 Room offerer

9 Homophone of 3-Down

10 Maze’s goal

11 Where to order oysters

12 “My answer was …,” in teen-speak

13 Whacked good

18 Magician’s prop

19 Sound of delight

22 Embroider, e.g.

23 Movie that might have a cast of thousands

24 Transaction option

25 Unworldly ones

26 Gauge site, for short

27 Docile sorts

32 Pre-election ad buyer, maybe

33 Chaotic situation

34 Crystal-filled rock

35 Seemingly forever

36 Southeast Asian tongue

38 Swarming annoyance

39 Major Thai export

40 Late 19th-century anarchist’s foe

43 Ambulance letters

44 Pursues, as a tip

45 Wood-damaging insects

46 Simple creature

50 Wordplay from Groucho

51 Sonata finale, often

52 ___ Perot

53 River islet

54 Some Pacific salmon

55 Belfry sound

59 Razor brand

60 ___ creek

61 Blouse, e.g.

62 Hoo-ha

63 Letters on Halloween decorations

64 Near-failing mark

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30

31 32 33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40

41 42 43

44 45 46 47 48

49 50 51 52 53 54 55

56 57

58 59 60 61 62 63 64

65 66 67

68 69 70

T B I R D B O C C I S O SK E N A I A A R O N C P AT H U N D E R R O A D R E YS A T N A B T I T A N S

V E N T U R A H I G H W A YE R E A C E N O L I ES O A V E R A G A S R S

P E N N Y L A N ET D S G O A L S T A Y SH E L L E V I M R O TE L E C T R I C A V E N U ES U N D A E N A N R V SH I D B A K E R S T R E E TA S E L D O P A E B O N YH E R E S S A Y R I N S E

How to play Kakuro:The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some cells will contain two numbers.However, in a crossword the numbers reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get! They denote the total of the digits in the row or column referenced by the number.Within each collection of cells - called a run

- any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

14

EASY SUDOKUCartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

Easy Sudoku PuzzlesPlace a digit from 1 to 9 in each empty cell so everyrow, every column and every 3x3 box contains allthe digits 1 to 9.


CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

13:30 Football’s

Greatest Teams;

Benfica

14:00 Omni Sport

14:30 Rugby, Heineken

Cup; Sale V

London Irish

16:15 Transworld

Sport

17:15 Football’s Greatest

Teams; Benfica

17:45 Golfing World

19:00 Futbal Mundial

19:30 Scottish League

Highlights

20:00 Who Is Zatalan?

21:00 Fifa World Cup

Magazine

21:30 Jamie Carragher,

Stars

22:00 Fifa World Cup

Top 20 Moments

23:00 Andrew Cole,

Stars

08:00 News

09:00 Witness

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:30 Life Apps

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Al Jazeera

World

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 The Stream

18:00 NEWSHOUR

19:00 News

19:30 People &

Power

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Witness

15:30 English Premier

League Goal

Mania


League News


League Match

Pack

18:00 English Sports

News


League Football

22:00 Arsene Wenger,

Through His

Own Eyes


League News

13:00 Do Dil Bandhe

Ek Dori Se

14:30 Jodha Akbar

15:00 Pavitra Rishta

15:30 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke



21:00 Qubool Hai

22:00 Doli Armaano

Ki

22:30 Do Dil Bandhe

Ek Dori Se

13:00 Shake It Up

14:10 Good Luck

Charlie

15:00 Wolfblood

16:10 Violetta

17:00 A.N.T. Farm

18:30 Good Luck

Charlie

21:40 Shake It Up

22:25 A.N.T. Farm

23:10 Wizards Of

Waverly Place

14:00 My Dog's

Christmas Miracle

16:00 12 Wishes Of

Christmas

18:00 Home Alone: The

Holiday Heist

20:00 All American

Christmas-

PG15

13:15 River Monsters

14:05 Border Security

14:30 Storage

Hunters

17:00 Ultimate

Survival

19:30 Sons Of Guns

20:20 Storage

Hunters

21:10 How Do They

Do It?

21:35 How It's Made

22:00 You Have Been

Warned

22:50 Treehouse

Masters

23:40 Mythbusters

13:00 Ellen DeGeneres

Show

14:00 Bones

15:00 Royal Pains

16:30 Coronation Street

18:00 Bones

19:00 Franklin & Bash

20:00 Perception

21:00 Marvel's

Agents Of

S.H.I.E.L.D.

22:00 Hannibal

23:00 Rescue Me

11:00 A Christmas

Wish

13:00 The Odd Life

Of Timothy

Green

15:00 The Big Year

17:00 Brave

18:45 Oz The Great

And Powerful

21:00 Christmas At

Castlebury Hall

23:00 This Is 40

14:00 Santa's Magic

Crystal

16:00 Polar Express

20:00 Santa Paws 2:

The Santa Pups

22:00 Santa's Magic

Crystal

23:30 Arthur's Missing

Pal


QF RADIO 91.7 FM ENGLISH PROGRAMME BRIEF

LIVE SHOWS Airing Time Programme Briefs

SPIRITUAL HOUR

6:00 - 7:00 AM A time of reflection, a deeper understanding of the teachings of Islam.

RISE 7:00 – 9:00 AM Today on Rise, Laura and Scott speak with Shabina Khatri from Doha News. Shabina will fill us in on everything that's happening locally here in Qatar.

INTERNATIO-NAL NEWS

1:00 PM The latest news and events from around the world.

DRIVE 3:00 – 4:00 PM A LIVE daily afternoon show broadcast at peak travel time. Today Nabil focuses on movies, what’s showing in cinemas and upcoming must sees with Amir Ghonim from the Doha Film Institute.

Repeat Shows

LEGENDARY ARTISTS

10:00 – 11:00 AM The show tells the story of a celebrity artist that has reached unprecedented fame. Throughout the episode the artists’ memorable performances/songs will be played to put listeners in the mood.

FASHION 12:00 – 1:00 PM A weekly show hosted and produced by Laura Finnerty. The show brings together the latest fashion trends along with exciting interviews with local and international designers.

INNOVATIONS 7:00 – 8:00 PM A weekly show hosted and produced by Scott Boyes. The show talks about all the newest and exciting advancements in the world of science and technology.

MALL

1Dhoom 3 (2D/Hindi) – 2.00, 5.00 & 10.30pm

Biriyani (2D/Tamil) – 8.00pm

2

Tarzan (3D/Animation) – 2.30pm

Frozen (3D/Animation) – 4.30 & 6.30pm

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (3D/Adventure) – 8.30pm

Blood of Redemption (2D/Action) – 11.30pm

3

A Madea Christmas (2D/Comedy) – 3.00pm

The Citizen (2D/Drama) – 5.15pm

Hours (2D/Drama) – 7.15 & 11.30pm

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2D/Comedy) – 9.15pm

LANDMARK

1Dhoom 3 (2D/Hindi) – 2.30, 7.30 & 10.30pm

Frozen (3D/Animation) – 5.30pm

2




Blood of Redemption (2D/Action) – 9.30 & 11.30pm

3

Hours (2D/Drama) – 3.00 & 9.00pm




ROYAL

PLAZA

1

Dhoom 3 (2D/Hindi) – 2.30 & 8.15pm



2



Biriyani (2D/Tamil) – 6.00pm

Hours (2D/Drama) – 8.45pm


3



Hours (2D/Drama) – 7.00pm



PLUS | WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013 POTPOURRI16

Editor-In-Chief Khalid Al Sayed Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

MEDIA SCAN A summary ofissues of the daydiscussed by the Qatari communityin the media.

• Some people complained against some construction companies working in the Old Al Salata area. They said the firms were blocking large parts of roads with their machinery and equipment, construction materials and construction wastes, which was leading to street closures and traffic jams.

• Some people demanded that banks check their ATMs in the Industrial Area and Al Mamoura, where many machines were not working properly. As a result, ATM cards often get stuck inside the machines, they said.

• There were talks on social networking sites about the arrest of the son of detained Qatari Dr Mahmoud Al Jaidah, while attending a court hearing of his father in the UAE on Monday.

• Many administrative staff in Independent schools were disappointed with the new human resources

regulation issued by the Supreme Education Council recently.

• Many people demanded that the Traffic Department monitor the drivers of heavy vehicles who are increasingly violating rules and using main roads in rush hours. They said other motorists were facing problems due to slow traffic caused by heavy vehicles.

• People demanded that the authorities enforce vegetable and fruit shops to use special vehicles to transport the products from the central markets to their shops. They said the vehicles being used were not properly covered and the perishable goods were exposed to the sun and dust.

• Some residents in the western parts of the country urged the authorities to establish a zoo in their area, saying they were forced to travel to Doha for the purpose.

IN FOCUS

A fly searching for nectar in a flower.

by Meena Gemini

Send your photos to [email protected]. Mention where the photo was taken.

Who’s who

Dr Abdulla Al Kubaisi, Member of the Board of Directors, Msheireb Properties

His earlier assignments included Principal Advisor to Qatar Foundation (QF), Chairman of

Qatar Science and Technology Park until 2007, and Dean of the College of Science at Qatar University. He serves on the Board of Directors of QF and Qtel. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Biology from Qatar University and Masters of Science in Chemistry from A&T State University, North Carolina. He earned his Doctorate in Chemistry from the University of London.

If you want your events featured here, mail details to [email protected]

Project Space: Magdi Mostafa: Sound Element When: Till Jan 5, 2014Where: Mathaf: Arab Museumof Modern Art

What: Egyptian artist Magdi Mostafa explores the dialogue between sound and space. Mostafa’s work evokes personal and shared memories, recalling different images and emotions to be experimented by the visitors. Free Entry

Relics — Damien HirstWhen: Until Jan 22; Sun-Wed: 10:30am–5:30pm. Tuesday ClosedThur-Sat: 12pm–8pm, Fri: 2pm–8pmWhere: Al Riwaq Exhibition Space What: The most comprehensive survey of Damien Hirst’s work ever shown and his first solo exhibition in the Middle East. Free Entry

L’âge d’or — exhibitionby Adel AbdessemedWhen: Till January 5Where: Atrium and ground floor of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art What: Curated by Pier Luigi Tazzi, the exhibition will showcase recent works, including drawings, paintings, sculptures and videos, many created by Adel Abdessemed. Entry: Free, open to all

Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim: A Leader’s Legacy When: Until January 30, 2014Where: QMA Gallery, Katara What: The first of its kind to showcase Qatar’s modern history, this exhibition presents new insights into Sheikh Abdullah’s life and legacy to Qatar’s people through exceptional artifacts, historic photographs, oral history interviews and original films. Free Entry

‘Our Qatar’Photography ExibitionWhen: Till Jan 18, 10pm to 10pm Where: Katara Gallery 2 - Bldg 18 What: “Our Qatar” is a Community Photography Installation project. Katara is inviting all those living, working and visiting Qatar to deliver to the Katara Art Studios, Building 19 at Katara Cultural Village Foundation, one photo that expresses the way they feel about Qatar and their life in the country. Maximum Size accepted is A3. For more information contact the Katara Art Studios Team at [email protected]: Free Entry

Events in Qatar

CAMPUS Buying, roasting · image caused a stir when it made page ... boyant pop star Nicki Minaj...

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