Features

LAMBAHRAUN LAVA FIELD, Iceland — To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job.

With its black basalt sand, wind-swept dunes and craggy peaks, the Lambahraun Lava Field at the foot of Iceland’s second biggest glacier, Langjokull, was chosen as a stand-in for the Red Planet’s surface.

For three weeks, 15 scientists and engineers sent by the US space agency descended on the site, 100 kilometres from the capital, Reykjavik, last month to develop a prototype.

It will aim to continue the work of the “Curiosity” rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2012 in search of signs of ancient life and making preparations for human exploration.

Experts say that Iceland, a volcanic island in the middle of the north Atlantic, is in many ways reminiscent of the fourth planet from the Sun.

“It’s a very good analogue for Mars exploration and learning how to drive Mars rovers,” said Adam Deslauriers, manager of space and education, at Canada’s Mission Control Space Services. 

The company has been commissioned by NASA to test a rover prototype as part of the SAND-E (Semi-Autonomous Navigation for Detrital Environments) project.

‘Indestructible’

The prototype is a small, electric vehicle with white panels and an orange chassis.

It has a four-wheel drive propelled by two motors and is powered by 12 small car batteries stacked inside.

“This rover we have... [is] basically indestructible,” Deslauriers told AFP. 

“The rovers that we have on Mars and the Moon would be a lot more sensitive to the environment and conditions of Iceland. 

“A Moon rover is completely unprepared for rain,” he added, just as a rain shower swept in.

Equipped with sensors, a computer, a dual-lens camera and controlled remotely, the rover moves its approximately 570 kilogrammes at a leisurely speed of about 20 centimetres per second.

The speed needs to be slow to enable the rover to collect data and imagery properly, Mark Vandermeulen, a robotics engineer at Mission Control Space Services, said.

The meagre pace on the lava field is still two to four times faster than the speed it will be driving at its extraterrestrial destination.

Transmitting 

from Mars to Earth

Utilising its sensors and camera, the rover gathers and classifies data from its environment and sends back the findings to the engineers’ trailer.

The engineers then package the data and forward it to a tent where the scientists are huddled, to simulate how the data would be sent from Mars to Earth. 

The rover exploring Iceland is just a prototype for the one that will be going to Mars next year.

That one, which has yet to be named, will also be able to collect samples and store them in tubes to be brought back to Earth by future missions.

As the prototype isn’t capable of doing this, researchers walk to the area studied, armed with radiometers and other equipment, to collect all the data samples that the finished rover would be able to do.

‘Similar to Mars’

The sites are selected to study how the chemical composition and physical properties of the sand and rocks change, as they move from the glacier to a nearby river.

Before Mars became an inhospitable frozen desert with an average temperature of 63ºC, scientists believe that the planet shared many of the characteristics of the subarctic island.

“The mineralogy in Iceland is very similar to what we would find on Mars,” Ryan Ewing, associate professor of geology at Texas A&M University, said.

In particular, Ewing referred to minerals such as olivine and pyroxenes, both dark so-called mafic rocks, which have also been found on Mars.

“In addition to that, we don’t have much vegetation, it’s cold and we have some of the environments like sand dunes and rivers and glaciers that Mars has evidence of in the past,” Ewing said.

Iceland has previously been used as a training ground for NASA missions.

During the Apollo mission years, 32 astronauts in the mid-1960s received geological training in the Askja lava fields and near the Krafla crater in the north of the country.

The setting allows NASA to test equipment and procedures, as well as the people performing them, in extreme environments while remaining on terra firma.

Mission Control says it is planning to return to Iceland next summer before the launch of the next Mars rover mission, scheduled between July 17 and August 5, 2020.

By Helene Dauschy and Tom Little

STOCKHOLM — Swedish climate activist and global star Greta Thunberg understood climate change at an early age, and has rallied youths around the world and parents to her cause, sparking criticism along the way. 

In less than a year the now 16-year-old’s humble “climate strike” has become a global movement and set her up as a potential 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

As her strict climate ethos prevents her from flying she is preparing to travel to the New York UN Climate Summit on September 23 by sailboat.

Thunberg’s climate struggle began quietly in August 2018 when she skipped school for the first three weeks, and then on Fridays to spend the day outside Sweden’s parliament with a sign labelled “School strike for climate”.

Swedish media, at the time occupied by upcoming parliamentary elections, didn’t pay much attention to the young girl’s message, but only at first.

Since then Greta, most often seen wearing her hair in tightly knit braids, has diligently continued her weekly protest until recently.

“I’m planning to continue until Sweden is in line with the Paris agreement and that might take a while,” she told AFP TV in late 2018.

Her demands have attracted attention and she has been asked to address global leaders, and adorned the cover of international magazines such as Time and Vogue.

Around the world, young activists have heard the call and modelled protests of their own after Greta’s, leading to both praise and criticism.

“We are after all just children. You don’t have to listen to us,” she said during a speech to France’s national assembly in July, responding to some of her critics, who had dismissed her as a “prophetess in shorts” and the “Justin Bieber of ecology”. 

Climate 

conscious family

It was in school, when Greta Thunberg was about “eight or nine”, that her interest in climate issues was first piqued.

“My teachers told me that I should save paper and turn off the lights. I asked them why and they said because there’s something called climate change and global warming, caused by humans,” Greta told AFP.

The notion was strange to the young girl, who felt that if that was the case, “then we would not be talking about anything else”.

Since then she has stopped eating meat, drinking milk and buying new things, unless “absolutely necessary”.

Greta’s family, who lives in a spacious but cosy Stockholm apartment, has also made changes to their lifestyle.

As an opera singer, her mother Malena Ernman used to travel the world, but she has bowed to her daughter’s cause and given up on flights, now performing only in Nordic countries.

Her mother, father Svante Thunberg, an actor turned producer, and younger sister Beata became aware of how much the climate issue weighed on Greta’s shoulders when she became depressed.

At age 11 Greta stopped eating, started missing school and even stopped talking as the “existential threat” of climate change loomed overhead, her father said.

‘It was worth it’

When she was 12, Greta was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a mild form of autism.

“My brain works a bit differently so I see the world from a different perspective,” Greta explained to AFP. 

“I am very direct, I say it the way it is, and when I decide to do something, I do it without doubt,” she continued, adding that she considers her condition a strength.

Greta, who graduated from the ninth grade in June, has had to catch up on her studies from abroad, due to her many travels.

That hasn’t stopped her from getting mostly straight A’s, with the exception of physical education and home economics.

“If I hadn’t striked from school and travelled so much, I could have gotten an A in all subjects,” she confessed to newspaper Dagens Nyheter in June.

“But it’s worth it,” she quickly added.

In late May, the teenage activist announced she would take a sabbatical year to visit the Americas for a series of meetings on the theme of climate change, a journey expected to last several months.

“We have to take the opportunity to act now because it may be too late in just a year,” she warned in December.

By Adrianna Rodriguez

Harvard researchers are advising millions of people who take aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks to stop their daily use.

Some 29 million people 40 and older were taking an aspirin a day in 2017 despite not having a heart disease, the published study found.

The study also found that about 6.6 million of them were using aspirin on their own even though a doctor never recommended it to them. And nearly 10 million people over 70 who don’t have heart disease were taking daily aspirin for prevention, the researchers reported in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The discovery comes after multiple, extensive studies last year found that only a marginal benefit, if any, could be found when taking routine aspirin — especially among older adults.

Another study also found that taking low-dose aspirin is associated with an increased risk for bleeding within the skull for people without heart disease.

The studies run counter to what doctors for decades had recommended: a daily 75 to 100 milligrammes aspirin to prevent strokes or heart attacks.

“Many patients are confused about this,” said Dr Colin O’Brien, a senior intern medicine resident at Beth Israel who led the most recent study from Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre.

The recent studies prompted the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology to change their guidelines in March:

— People over 70 who don’t have heart disease — or are younger but at increased risk of bleeding — should avoid daily aspirin for prevention.

— Only certain 40- to 70-year-olds who don’t already have heart disease are at high enough risk to warrant 75 to 100 milligrammes of aspirin daily, and that’s for a doctor to decide.

The Harvard study shows just how many millions of people that were taking a routine aspirin in 2017 should be taking a second look at these guidelines

“Clinicians should be very selective in prescribing aspirin for people without known cardiovascular disease,” cardiologist Roger Blumenthal, who was not involved in the Harvard study, said in a March statement. “It’s much more important to optimise lifestyle habits and control blood pressure and cholesterol as opposed to recommending aspirin.”

Although people without a history of heart problems shouldn’t be taking routine aspirin, it’s still recommended for heart attack survivors.

The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology say regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding tobacco and eating a diet rich in vegetables and low in sugar and trans fats are among the best ways to prevent cardiovascular disease.

“We hope that more primary care doctors will talk to their patients about aspirin use, and more patients will raise this with their doctors,” O’Brien said.

Fake news is now beyond simple words and text. Deceptive, but advanced, very convincing fake video is the newest trend.

Hazards and threats on the Internet evolve as the technology itself does — for better or for worse. If the well-known, infamous hacking, data theft, viruses, phishing e-mails and Trojan horses are still here, their incidence has somewhat abated. This is because of increasing public awareness on the one hand, and thanks to the various methods available to get effective protection against them on the other.

The real annoyance — to put it mildly — now consists in the smart manipulation of images, still photos but mostly videos, using advanced techniques based on the latest artificial intelligence (AI) methods and software algorithms. It lets you create fake photos or videos that look very real. This reaches far beyond simple Photoshop editing or retouching.

The technique is often used to create fake videos of celebrities and politicians with the intention of damaging their reputation, making fun of them, hurting or humiliating them. The extent of the damage can be quite large sometimes.

Already plagued by the fake news phenomenon, often based on words, the media world now has to face incredibly realistic fake videos and images. The advanced software technique is called “deepfake”, a term that was adopted by the IT community less than two years ago. FakeApp and the open-source DeepFaceLab are two trade names of software that can generate entirely made-up, perfectly believable, stunning videos.

Among the possibilities of the deepfake technology, AI applied to videos lets the author, the “movie director”, not only put someone’s head on someone else’s body, with the consequences one can imagine, but also put, in the mouth of the character, words that were never said in the first place.

From Barack Obama and other leaders in the world of politics, to Taylor Swift in the pop music domain, many are those who have been victims of deceptive fake videos generated using the above described technique. Deepfake is also used on not-necessarily-famous people, to harm them on social networks, in personal, mean attacks.

The Swiss daily Aargauer Zeitung last year wrote “the manipulation of images and videos using artificial intelligence could become a dangerous mass phenomenon”.

Theverge.com says: “AI deepfakes are now as simple as typing whatever you want your subject to say. A scarily simple way to create fake videos and misinformation.”

The phenomenon is all the more complex when fake videos are sometimes created just for fun, for an honest laugh, with no intention of harming anyone. How then do you tell the difference, how can you predict what the intention of the video maker was in the first place?

The good news is that IT professionals have the necessary technical tools and skills to tell if a video was created using such AI-based software. To maintain a reasonable level of ethics on their network, social media like Twitter and Facebook, among others, are blocking videos created this way. That is when they can spot them in time. Otherwise they are removing them once detected.

Deepfake technology is simply making it more difficult than ever to tell what is true from what is made up in the digital world. At the same time, it is hard not to acknowledge the extraordinary power of AI and all it lets you do.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Mexico’s prickly pear cactus, which is emblazoned on the country’s flag, could soon play a new and innovative role in the production of biodegradable plastics.

A packaging material that is made from the plant has been developed by a Mexican researcher and is offering a promising solution to one of the world’s biggest pollution conundrums.

“The pulp is strained to obtain a juice that I then use,” said Sandra Pascoe, who developed the product and works at the Atemajac Valley University in the western city of Guadalajara.

That substance is then mixed with non-toxic additives and stretched to produce sheets which are coloured with pigments and folded to form different types of packaging.

“What we’re doing is trying to concentrate on objects that don’t have a long life,” she said, particularly “single-use” packaging.

Pascoe is still conducting tests, but hopes to patent her product later this year and look for partners in early 2020, with an eye towards larger-scale production.

The cacti Pascoe uses for her experiments come from San Esteban, a small town on the outskirts of Guadalajara, where they grow by the hundreds.

San Esteban is located in Jalisco state where, starting next year, single-use non-recyclable plastic bags, straws and other disposable items will be banned.

‘Drop in the ocean’

Mexico City and states such as Baja California have also introduced similar measures.

In May, the capital city adopted a “historic” ban on plastic bags beginning in 2020. From 2021, straws, plastic plates and cutlery, and balloons will also be banned if they’re made “entirely or partially from plastic”, according to the bill adopted by the local congress.

Pascoe says her new material would be no more than a “drop in the ocean” in the battle to preserve the environment.

Given the rampant production of industrial plastics and the time it takes to make her material, there would need to be “other recycling strategies” to make any concrete difference, she said.

Latin America and the Caribbean account for around 10 per cent of worldwide waste, according to United Nations figures.

In March, UN member states committed to “significantly reduce” single-use plastics over the next decade, although green groups warned that goal fell short of tackling the Earth’s pollution crisis.

Plastic pollution has become a global concern, particularly after bans imposed by China and other countries on the import of plastic waste from overseas.

Despite widespread alarm on the environmental cost, Asia and the United States lifted world production of plastic last year while Europe saw a dip, according to numbers released by the PlasticsEurope federation in June.

More than eight million tons of plastics enter the world’s oceans every year.

Older women who are under a lot of social strain may be more likely to develop brittle, fracture-prone bones after menopause than their counterparts with worry-free lives, a recent study suggests. 

Researchers followed 11,020 postmenopausal women over six years, giving them periodic bone mineral density (BMD) tests and mood assessments. Participants rated their level of social strain, or negative interactions or relationships; their social support, or positive relationships; and social functioning, or limitations in social activity. 

Each one-point increase in social strain scores was associated with 0.082 per cent greater loss of BMD in the neck, 0.108 per cent greater loss of BMD at the hip, and 0.069 per cent greater loss of BMD in the lower spine, the study found. 

“Fractures are a major societal burden affecting one in two older women, due to a variety of risk factors that lead to bone loss,” said Shawna Follis, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Arizona in Tucson. 

“We found that high social stress is one risk factor that increases bone loss in aging women,” Follis said by e-mail. 

Reduced oestrogen production during menopause and afterward can slow production of new bone tissues in women. Over time, this process leads to decreased BMD and increases the risk of osteoporosis. 

Bones thinned by osteoporosis are brittle and more easily fractured. 

Much of the previous research into connections between osteoporosis and mental health has focused on whether impairment due to bone thinning or fractures might contribute to mood disorders like depression or anxiety, the researchers note. 

In the current study, published in Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, high levels of social stress were associated with lower BMD even after researchers accounted for other factors that can impact bone health like age, education, chronic health problems, weight, smoking status, alcohol use, hormone therapy, age at menopause, physical activity, and fracture history. 

Lower social functioning was tied to greater decreases in BMD in the neck and hip, the current study found. And low social support was associated with greater decreases in the neck. 

The study doesn’t prove that social stressors directly impact bone mineral density, and researchers also didn’t look at the connection between various social stressors and falls or fractures. And it’s impossible to say from the study whether easing of social stress would have any effect on bone health. 

Still, the results suggest that older women who do a better job of managing stress may have healthier bones and a lower fracture risk, said Dr JoAnn Pinkerton, director of midlife health at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia and executive director emeritus of the North American Menopause Society. 

“For women who are anxious or have higher social stress levels, mindfulness, cognitive therapy, self-calming strategies, yoga, counselling, access to community building, or, if needed, medications might decrease the psychosocial stress levels,” Pinkerton, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

When women do have osteoporosis, there are still things they can do to prevent bones from becoming more brittle, Pinkerton added. 

“Calcium, vitamin D and strength training may prevent further bone loss,” Pinkerton said. “Although many women are fearful of the side effects associated with medications for treating osteoporosis, the side effects are actually rare while fractures may be life changing.” 

Osteoporosis medicines such as Fosamax (alendronate sodium), Actonel (risedronate sodium), and Boniva (ibandronate sodium) work by slowing down how fast the body removes old bone, allowing time to regrow bone and make fractures less likely. 

These medicines can cause nausea and abdominal pain, as well as rare but more serious side effects like cracks in the thighbone or damage to the jawbone. Alternative treatments include estrogen or two injected medicines, denosumab and teriparatide. 

WASHINGTON — A series of privacy missteps in recent months has raised fresh concerns over the future of voice-controlled digital assistants, a growing market seen by some as the next frontier in computing.

Recent incidents involving Google, Apple and Amazon devices underscore that despite strong growth in the market for smart speakers and devices, more work is needed to reassure consumers that their data is protected when they use the technology.

Apple said it was suspending its “Siri grading” programme, in which people listen to snippets of conversations to improve the voice recognition technology, after the British-based Guardian newspaper reported that the contractors were hearing confidential medical information, criminal dealings and even sexual encounters.

“We are committed to delivering a great Siri experience while protecting user privacy,” Apple said in a statement, adding that it would allow consumers to opt into this feature in a future software update.

Google meanwhile said it would pause listening to and transcribing conversations in the European Union from its Google Assistant in the wake of a privacy investigation in Germany.

Amazon, which also has acknowledged it uses human assistants to improve the artificial intelligence (AI) of its Alexa-powered devices, recently announced a new feature making it easier to delete all recorded data.

The recent cases may give consumers the impression that someone is “listening” to their conversations even if it’s rarely true.

“From a technology perspective it’s not surprising that these companies use humans to annotate this data, because the machine is not good enough to understand everything,” said Florian Schaub, a University of Michigan professor specialising in human-computer interaction who has done research on digital assistants.

“The problem is that people are not expecting it and it is not transparently communicated.”

Carolina Milanesi, a technology analyst with Creative Strategies, agreed that humans are needed to improve the technology.

“People have a somewhat unrealistic expectation that these assistants will by magic just get better eventually, that they can do machine learning and get better on their own, but right now we’re still at the beginning of AI, and human intervention is still important,” she said.

According to the research firm eMarketer, nearly 112 million people — one-third of the US population — will use a voice assistant at least monthly on any device, with many using AI-powered devices for searches, music and news or information.

A Microsoft survey this year of consumers in five countries found that 80 per cent were satisfied with their experience with digital assistants. But 41 per cent of those surveyed said they had concerns on privacy, trust and passive listening.

Some of the privacy fears surrounding smart speakers are based on false assumptions, analysts note.

The devices don’t record or transmit information until they are “activated” with a keyword or phrase such as “Hey, Siri” or “Alexa”.

But “there is always a risk of false activation”, Schaub noted.

“You have to trust the device and the company making the device that the microphone is only locally processing until the activation word is heard.”

Ryan Calo, faculty co-director of the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab, said that while the devices are not listening, there remain concerns over access to conversations.

“If employees are hearing things they shouldn’t have access to, that is really a red flag, it’s a bad practice,” Calo said.

Calo said the privacy concerns around digital assistants are likely to grow as the devices expand their capabilities.

“I worry about a trend where these systems begin to listen for more than just your affirmative command — it could listen for breaking glass or signs of distress, or a baby crying. All of a sudden the system is listening for all kinds of things and the frog gets boiled by incrementally heating the water,” he said.

Calo also expressed concern that devices may be turned on remotely, a potential threat to civil liberties.

“If law enforcement gets a warrant, it could turn your Echo into a listening device,” he said.

Schaub said consumers are also concerned that data from the devices may be used for ad targeting.

“People want these benefits but without allowing their data to be used against them,” he said.

Still, the allure of digital assistants will mean the market is likely to keep growing.

Schaub said one way to reassure consumers would be to build privacy features directly into voice commands so users can understand how their data is used and make better choices.

“Companies should see this as an opportunity to engage with customers about how they are protecting them,” he said.

In extreme heat, electric fans may offer some relief when it’s very humid, but when temps are dangerously high and humidity is low, fans can actually make a person feel hotter, increasing strain on the heart and raising core temperature, a new report warns. 

The authors point out that current guidelines for fan use are based on the “heat index” rather than the actual temperature, but “a combined value such as heat index [HI] is not appropriate for advising whether fans should be used or not”, said the study’s senior author, Ollie Jay, associate professor in the faculty of health sciences and director of the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory at the University of Sydney, Australia. 

Jay added, “In very-hot dry conditions the HI was relatively lower, yet fans were detrimental; but in hot-humid conditions the HI was relatively higher and fans were beneficial.” 

In their study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Jay and colleagues found that in the very hot-arid condition, fans could increase body temperature and also cardiovascular strain. That “means that the heart has to do extra work to maintain blood pressure because as one gets hot, blood is diverted to the skin to facilitate cooling and the heart must beat more times per minute”, Jay said in an e-mail. “Another form of strain [on the body] is dehydration, which also contributes to increases in body temperature and cardiovascular strain.” 

To take a closer look at the conditions under which fans can cool, the researchers recruited 12 men who were not taking any medication and had no medical conditions that would alter their ability to thermoregulate. All of the men completed four two-hour sessions, each of which occurred on a different day. 

The men were asked to sit in a climatic chamber that simulated either very hot, dry conditions or hot, humid conditions. The heat index for the humid runs was higher than for the arid runs even though the temperature was lower in the humid condition. 

The men’s temperature was measured rectally and heart strain was assessed using three-lead electrocardiography and blood pressure. The researchers measured dehydration by keeping track of sweat. 

Fan use in the humid conditions reduced core temperature and cardiovascular strain while improving comfort. In the arid conditions fan use raised core temperatures and cardiovascular strain and made the men feel hotter, even though the heat index was lower than it was in the humid condition. 

While the researchers used pedestal fans for their study, “the principles are the same for a ceiling fan”, Jay said. 

The new study “is very interesting”, said Dr Matthew Levy, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

“There are some significant takeaways: people in hot, humid conditions tend to do better with a fan. In situations where air conditioning is not possible, this means people would do better with a fan than nothing at all.” 

That’s because the fans can help with heat loss through evaporation of sweat, Levy said. “But in a dry environment, the fans just push more warm air toward you,” he added. 

Now in its tenth iteration since first launched as a somewhat frumpy yet efficient, reliable and affordable hatchback back in 1972, the modern Honda Civic is a mainstream compact car distinguished by its striking design, smooth driving and responsive handling. Sold in Jordan as a saloon, but also available globally as a hatchback and coupe, and with a broad range of engines for different markets, the Civic proved impressive even in entry-level specification, as driven briefly on Jordanian roads in 1.6 DX guise.

Sporty style

Longer and heavier than its predecessors, the latest incarnation Honda Civic first arrived as a more refined and mature offering to compete with the larger end of the compact saloon segment, including the Volkswagen Jetta, Nissan Sentra and Toyota Corolla, to mention but a few. A more complex design with a moodier, sportier and more overtly aggressive design and fashionably low-slung roofline, the latest Civic ditches its predecessors’ clean surfaces and neutral aesthetic character. Instead, it features more bulging bodywork with wavy, almost Coke-bottle wheel-arches and waistline.

With a snouty grille featuring a thick slat that extends across and atop its squinting, recessed and heavily browed headlights, the latest Civic has a distinctly sport demeanour that includes big lower side intakes, scalloped edge bonnet and a rakish roofline that trails off towards a ridged rear deck. At the rear, the Civic features faux bumper vents and slim boomerang lights framing its fascia. Fastback-like in profile Civic saloon’s conventional rear boot has a low load height and taller vertical measurement to compensate for its short horizontal length in terms of access.

Eager and willing

The smaller of two naturally-aspirated engines available, and offered alongside various turbocharged engines, the Civic DX’s 1.6-litre four-cylinder is a single overhead camshaft design, yet with 16-valves. Equipped with Honda’s variable valve timing and lift control i-VTEC system, it is a relatively high-revving engine with a 6,700rpm rev limit and its123BHP output peaking at 6,500rpm, while maximum torque is delivered at 4,300rpm. Progressive and smooth in delivery, the Civic 1.6 does become somewhat more eager, athletic and responsive as the rev counter tilts ever nearer towards the red line.

Capable of motivating its restrained 1,255kg weight through the 0-100km/h sprint in an estimated 11.6-seconds and on to a 196km/h maximum the Civic 1.6 is reasonably quick given its power output, while fuel consumption is modest at 6.7l/100km, combined. Driving the front wheels through a continuously variable transmission (CVT), the Civic 1.6 is willing and eager to redline, unlike some CVT vehicles. Using a more robust and durable timing chain design instead of a belt, the Civic’s engine whines slightly noise when pushed hard to near its rev limit.

Nimble yet confident

Seamlessly smooth in delivery when driven in auto mode, the Civic’s CVT doesn’t seem to discourage high revs like some CVT systems, and can also shift through pre-set ratios through the gear lever, for a more involving drive that mimics a traditional gearbox. Similarly smooth and settled in its ride quality, the Civic felt alert and light on its feet, yet reassuringly stable and refined at speed, while road imperfections were well dispatched with the base DX model’s un-exaggerated 215/55R16 tyres providing mostly good comfort and absorption, if being slightly firm over some more sudden ridged textures and bumps.

A tidy and fluent driving car with light, quick-turning steering that is direct and well-insulated, the Civic tucks eagerly into a corner, with reassuring front grip, good body roll control and confident adherence to a chosen cornering line, while modest width tyres allow for good steering feel for a modern electric-assisted system. Responsively changing directions, it has a nimble and agile feel, but remains well planted on the road. Grippy through corners with its independent MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension, the new Civic’s longer wheelbase helps maintain stability, if at the cost of some mid-corner adjustability.

Refined ride

Well-refined inside from noise, harshness and vibrations, even if its engine sound rises slightly at high revs, the Civic feels sophisticated, sporty and smooth. A more-driver-oriented car than many compact saloon rivals, the Civic provides a supportive, comfortable and alert driving position with good front road and instrument visibility, and good semi-electric driving seat and steering wheel adjustability. Easy to accurately place on the road, the Civic’s sleek low roofline and rakishly slanted pillars does reduce rear and side visibility slightly, compared with a boxier and taller design.

With logical, clean and user-friendly layouts and controls inside combine with a good low driving position, the Civic has an air of effortless civility about it. Meanwhile material used is most of decent if not luxurious quality, but seems well built and pleasant. Driven in entry-level DX trim, the Civic’s equipment level covers most of the important things, but for more sophisticated and advanced driver aids, like useful lane departure and blind spot monitoring systems, one would need to upgrade to a higher specification.

Standard fabric upholstery meanwhile has a nice feel but would be better in a darker tone than the driven demo car’s light beige. Spacious in front and with a generous 519-litre boot and good rear legroom owing to its longer wheelbase, the Civic low roofline does reduce rear headroom for tall adults.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 81 x 77.5mm

Compression ratio: 10.7:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, SOHC, variable valve timing and lift control

Gearbox: Continually variable transmission (CVT), 7-speed auto, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 123 (125) [92] @6,500rpm

Specific power: 77BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 98BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 111 (151) @4,300rpm

Specific torque: 94.5Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 120.3Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 6,700rpm

0-100km/h: 11.6-seconds

Top speed: 196km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 9.2-/5.2-
/6.7-litres/100km 

Fuel capacity: 47-litres

Length: 4,630mm

Width: 1,799mm

Height: 1,416mm

Wheelbase: 2,700mm

Track, F/R: 1,543/1,577mm

Ground clearance: 133mm

Luggage volume: 519-litres

Kerb weight: 1,255kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.5-metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.22-turns

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multilink

Brakes, F/R: Ventilate discs/discs

Tyres: 215/55R16

It’s all in the name. Think about it. They call it a DIET for a good reason. You DIE trying to get the results you want, never satisfied with what you’ve got, or you DIE trying to figure out a better way to do this.

Dieting is a never-ending cycle that sets us up for failure over and over again. Yet, somehow we fall for it over and over again as we desperately cling to improve our lot. I realised this week that one of the silent victims that suffer in this vicious cycle is someone we never pay any attention to; It’s the innocent victim inside each of us that I will call our metabolism. 

We starve it to the point that it sits in the “Time Out” corner trying to figure out what trouble it’s in all the while we suffer even more while it sits there, burning fewer calories than ever before. This is our story, and it’s a sad one because our metabolisms are shutting down due to the many years of exposing our bodies to unhealthy diets in the pursuit of fitting into skinny jeans.

What does it have to take for us to stop dieting and start eating for nutrition, energy, vitality and good mental health? What does it have to take before we starve our brain cells to the point where we are dizzy and can no longer think straight? 

Stripping the power away from food

This month, let’s take a stand and take the “desperate” and the “diet” out of our vocabulary — we are much stronger than we give ourselves credit for. 

We’re only desperate if we think we are, so my plea to all of us is to step into positivity and take back the power we lost along the way when the world convinced us that we needed to ‘go on a diet’.

We become consumed by what we focus on and hence our days are filled obsessing about forbidden foods we are trying to avoid. We can break this cycle of abuse by stripping the power away from food and treating it for what it is: It’s food. It’s fuel for the body, let’s take the emotions (both the guilty and excessive pleasure) out of the equation and go back to the basics of eating to live instead of living to eat. 

I am convinced that we can pull it off if we set our minds to it because I do not doubt that we are stronger than we think we are. You are stronger than your willpower has led you to believe. Many of us have chosen to give up due to not having a dream big and exciting enough to be passionate about and make us forget about food.

Resurrecting those dreams

I challenge every desperate dieter, myself included, to resurrect those bigger dreams that we’ve buried for so long. Hidden energy and excitement that you never realised you still had will overflow and you’ll get out of bed in the morning so excited to start your day to fulfil your new dream with the goals you’ve set for yourself.

You’ll stop obsessing about your breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and scales. The size of your dress will take second place to the size of something much bigger: what are you going to do today to make a real difference in the world you live in? What is the lasting legacy you are going to leave behind when your time on earth has expired? Will people remember you for the size of your heart or the size of your jeans?

These are the questions I want us to start asking ourselves because once we start thinking more about being kinder and more compassionate to ourselves and the world around us, the food part will take care of itself. Once we get off our sofas to make a difference in the world we live in, even if it’s just for a few hours a week, our metabolism will come out of that “time out” corner and start to burn more calories. 

More importantly, we will stop beating ourselves up and putting ourselves down and begin to respect ourselves with our heads help up high in gratitude for all our Creator has given us. Let us stop taking our lives for granted because every breath we take is a gift.

Sweet friend, let’s stop wasting our breath and start living the life we are meant to live. Not as obsessive, desperate dieters who are living to diet but as healthy, enlightened individuals who are blessed to live an abundant life, making better lifestyle choices without being enslaved to the process.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine