Features

PARIS — With its Lego-like avatars and easy-to-learn coding for budding programmers, the online gaming app Roblox has cornered the market in younger gamers, with 80 million monthly users, many of them under 16.

Now the platform, which has already taken the United States by storm, is setting its sights on Europe and Asia to become a global giant.

Kids log on to the mobile app after school to guide their avatars through obstacle courses full of pitfalls, escape from jail, dive into a treasure hunt or even to build their own adventure park.

None of it is very original, content-wise, and its simplistic, blocky style cannot compete with the lush aesthetics of the big studios’ games, but its 3D user-generated games are aimed at younger players, and at teaching them coding skills for the future. 

“It’s not a game, it’s a platform for creativity and play,” said Chris Misner, head of Roblox International. 

“We provide tools and support for people to build what their imagination wants. The only limit is their imagination.”

The company does not release much user data, but claims to have 80 million active players per month in more than 30 countries. Most of the players are aged nine to 12, while content creators tend to be 16 and over. 

Misner told AFP the company spends almost nothing on advertising — word of mouth has been enough to make it one of the most popular entertainment platforms among six-12 year-olds, according to Comscore.

“We have positive cash-flow,” said Misner.

‘Building houses’

“It is not the first ‘meta game’ to allow users to engage in world-building, but it’s certainly the first to have done so well,” said Laurent Michaud, of the online think tank Idate.

While it is free to play, Roblox makes its money from users buying up units of its virtual currency, “Robux”, to personalise their avatars or buy kit that helps them advance through the game.

The best developers can make money off it too. Alex Balfanz, a 19-year-old American, created several games before striking gold with his game “Jailbreak” in April 2017, which according to US media racked up more than $1 million in a year. 

But most of the 56 million games available on the app do not enjoy that level of success.

“Last year I was playing ‘Blocks bird’ with some friends. You have to get a job, you build houses and go to your friends’ houses for parties,” said Edouard Chatelain-Moor, 11, who lives in the US capital Washington.

“I don’t play that often now,” he said. “There are some good games, but you get tired of them after a while because updates are rare.”

Launched for computers in 2006, Roblox took a decade to really take off. It is now available on most devices, including Virtual Reality helmets and even runs summer camps to teach kids to code games.

‘Gang rape’

Last summer, Roblox gained a lot more publicity, but initially for the wrong reasons.

In June, a seven-year-old girl who was playing the game showed her mother the screen of her iPad, where her avatar was being attacked by two male characters.

It was a scene which the mother, Amber Petersen, later described on Facebook as a “violent gang rape” of her little girl’s online character.

“We were upset that somebody had violated the code of conduct,” said Misner, noting that 700 moderators oversee the platform. 

“It was very a specific incident, we were able to shut it down and put safeguards. It was contained and addressed rapidly.”

The disturbing incident has not dented the financial health of the gaming platform: five months ago, it raised $150 million in a round of investor funding and was valued at $2.5 billion, the magazine Techcrunch reported. 

“The money will be used to build our infrastructure and our network globally, to increase the performance of our platform and hiring lots of people,” said Misner. “We invest in technology, people, safety, creativity.”

As well as being available in English in dozens of countries, Roblox can also be played in Spanish, and has added some support services in French, German, Portuguese, Korean and Mandarin. 

It doubled its number of users last year in the European market, which it predicts will surpass its US audience in three to five years.

People with diabetes who regularly eat nuts may be less likely to develop heart disease, than their counterparts who rarely, if ever, consume nuts, a US study suggests. 

Diabetics who ate at least five 28-gramme servings of nuts a week were 17 per cent less likely to develop heart disease than people with diabetes who had no more than one serving of nuts weekly, the study found. 

Even just one serving of nuts might still be good for the heart, however. For people with diabetes, adding just one extra serving of nuts a week was associated with a 3 per cent lower risk of developing cardiac conditions and 6 per cent lower risk of dying from heart problems. 

“These data provide novel evidence that supports the recommendation of incorporating nuts into healthy dietary patterns for the prevention of cardiovascular disease complications and premature deaths among individuals with diabetes,” said lead study author Gang Liu, a nutrition researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how nuts might protect people with diabetes against heart disease. But it is possible that nut consumption may help improve things like blood sugar control and inflammation due at least in part to nutrients in nuts like unsaturated fatty acids, fibre, vitamin E and folate, and minerals like calcium, potassium and magnesium, Liu said. 

Too many nuts may not necessarily be a good thing, however. 

“A handful of nuts is beneficial for heart, but it remains unclear what’s the ideal serving size,” Liu said by e-mail. 

More than half of the people in the current study did not eat nuts at all, Liu noted. 

“Whether the more nuts, the better, needs more studies in populations with large range of nut consumption,” Liu said. “Despite the high energy density of nuts, there is no evidence for an association between frequent nut consumption and weight gain, possibly explained by the satiating effect of nut consumption.” 

In the study, researchers used self-reported diet questionnaires from 16,217 men and women before and after they were diagnosed with diabetes and asked them about their consumption of both peanuts and tree nuts over a period of several years. All of the participants had type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, that is associated with ageing and obesity. 

During the study, 3,336 people were diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases. This included 2,567 cases of heart disease and 789 strokes. A total of 5,682 people died, including 1,663 deaths from cardiovascular disease and 1,297 deaths from cancer. 

Nuts were still associated with a lower risk of heart disease even after researchers accounted for other risk factors for heart problems like how long patients had diabetes, obesity, eating and exercise habits, medication use, and how much they ate nuts before they were diagnosed with diabetes. 

Tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, pistachios, pecans, macadamias, hazelnuts and pine nuts were more strongly linked to a lower risk of heart disease than peanuts, which are actually legumes that grow underground. 

“One reason why tree nuts might be more protective is that they tend to be consumed with the skin or outer peel, in which most antioxidants reside [at least the common nuts walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts], while peanuts are usually eaten without the peel,” said Dr Emilio Ros of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. 

“Also, peanuts are usually roasted and salted — the added salt might counteract the benefit from the original nut components,” Ros, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. Ros has received grants, research funding and other funds from California Walnut Commission and the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council. 

A one-ounce serving of nuts is about 24 almonds, 18 cashews, 12 hazelnuts and 14 walnut halves. 

“One to one and-a-half servings [28 to 42 grammes] per day is the ideal dose,” Ros advised. “In practical terms, it is best to recommend a handful [of dehulled nuts] — the bigger the hand [and the size of the owner], the bigger the dose.” 

Every once in a while a great, albeit unusual, group of people come together to create a movie that exceeds expectations. People whom you would never imagine working on the same project yet by some weird twist of fate actually do and create something successful. Today this achievement goes to none other than the recently released box office film “Alita: Battle Angel”.

Based on the Japanese manga comics created by Yukito Kishiro, the film has made itself a dominant feature last Valentine’s Day and over the weekend. “Alita: Battle Angel” director Robert Rodriguez, famed for such action movies as “From Dusk Till Dawn”, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” and “Machete”, took charge of a merry band of talented actors and actresses, and brought to life an amazing story literally giving new meaning to the jokingly teasing phrase “Anime eyes”.

I must admit, it was not the very capable director that made me optimistic about seeing this movie, but the very fact that James Cameron worked on this film as a producer and a writer. Cameron is best known for creating great action thrillers such as “Terminator”, “Aliens” and “Avatar”. The man is known to turn anything he touches to gold, the Midas touch of filmmaking if you will. This is why I knew, going in to the movie theatre, that I was about to watch something that is just as great as the rest of his portfolio and I was not wrong. 

The story of “Alita: Battle Angel” takes place after a great war in a distant dystopian future where hope is rare, cyborgs are everywhere and all that matters is your ability to survive the harsh reality. Alita, played by Rosa Salazar (“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials”, “Maze Runner: The Death Cure”, “Bird Box”), is a cyborg found and revived by Dr Ido, played by Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”, “Django Unchained” “Downsizing”), but she has no memory of her past or where she comes from. She finds herself being forced to fight the corrupt and merciless forces that rule society, but the more she fights the more she remembers and discovers who and what she really is.

The performance by the cast was incredible, especially Salazar. There is not a second from the moment she appears on screen that her character does not grab you by the heart strings. You will be emotionally invested from the beginning and feel as though you are going on the journey of discovery with Alita. 

Waltz plays the role of the father figure as if he was meant for it. With other famed supporting cast members such as Jennifer Connelly (“Blood Diamond”, “Inkheart”) and Mahershala Ali (“Green Book”, “Hidden Figures”) it is no surprise that they complement the film perfectly. And if action is what you seek, then look no further, there are plenty of cyborg fight sequences to quench your thirst. 

The effects and animations bring this world of cyborgs to life and well worth the film’s $200 million budget. This movie is the best I have seen this year and has become one of my favourites. A good mixture of science fiction, action and romance, it is a movie fit for everyone. It will not disappoint. Quite the contrary, it leaves you wanting more. 

So if you have not seen it already, if you have some time during the week or during the coming weekend, and you want to watch an amazing film with your friends and family, or even by yourself, then I suggest you go see “Alita: Battle Angel”. You will not be sorry.

Newborns who don’t get baths right away may be more likely to be exclusively breastfed than infants who get whisked away to be washed soon after delivery, a US study suggests. 

Paediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeed infants until at least 6 months of age because it can reduce babies’ risk of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, allergies, childhood obesity and diabetes. While breast milk itself is linked to many of these health benefits, so is the skin-to-skin contact that happens when babies nurse. 

But many new mothers still don’t breastfeed exclusively in the hospital or stop doing so when they go home, researchers note in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynaecologic & Neonatal Nursing.

While some women stop nursing because it’s too painful or difficult, or because work schedules make it impossible, some previous research suggests that breastfeeding can get off to a better start when mothers are not separated from babies in the hospital and get more opportunities in those first few days for bonding and skin-to-skin contact. 

In the current study, researchers examined exclusive breastfeeding rates at one hospital that changed its newborn bathing policy from washing infants within two hours of delivery to delaying baths until 12 to 24 hours after birth. The study included 448 mothers and babies with deliveries under the old bathing policy and 548 mother-infant pairs who were covered by the new delayed bathing policy. 

The proportion of mothers who exclusively breastfed while in the hospital rose from about 60 per cent with rapid bathing to 68 per cent with the new delayed bathing policy. 

“Our previous practice encouraged early separation of mother and baby,” said lead study author Heather DiCioccio, a nursing professional development specialist at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield, Ohio. 

“We would bathe the baby on the warmer in labour and delivery or if the labour and delivery nurse was getting the mother up to the bathroom for the first time, we would take the baby to the nursery for the bath,” DiCioccio said by e-mail. “By delaying the bath, this separation does not happen.” 

During their hospital stay, mothers were 49 per cent more likely to exclusively breastfeed babies after the new policy, the study found. 

Women were also more likely to report they planned to continue breastfeeding at least some of the time when they were discharged from the hospital. 

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how the timing of newborn baths might directly affect breastfeeding. Researchers also lacked data on how many women breastfed babies after they went home from the hospital, and how many did so exclusively. 

But the study adds to the evidence that postponing that first bath may benefit babies, said Jennifer Yourkavitch, a lactation consultant at the Centre for Women’s Health and Wellness at The University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who wasn’t involved in the study. 

“Bathing an infant immediately after birth can instigate a negative chain of events for the breastfeeding experience,” Yourkavitch said by e-mail. 

A bath right after birth can make babies cold and require them to burn fat to stay warm, which in turn can cause stress and low blood sugar. When blood sugar gets too low, babies are more likely to receive formula, and formula supplementation can then make it harder to get infants to latch on the breast and nurse,” Yourkavitch added. 

The original muscle when appearing in 1964 and first to resurrect such cars in 2005, the iconic trend-setting Ford Mustang made stylish two-doors and performance cars more affordable and accessible. 

The best selling ‘sports car’ nameplate ever, the Mustang retains a quintessentially American flavour, but since its sixth generation incarnation circa 2014 has become a more modern and global car.

Revised and face-lifted for 2018, with a leaner, meaner look and more power, the latest Mustang is also more efficient, advanced and refined, with new gearbox, digital instrumentation, driver assistance safety systems, improved cabin and subtle yet highly effective suspension recalibrations.

Dramatic and athletic

A classic front engine and rear drive sports coupe with a moody shark-like fascia, lasciviously long bonnet, rakish fastback roofline and curt boot, the Mustang also has near perfect weight distribution. Evolved as a modern interpretation of its classic predecessors instead of an overt ‘retro’ design, the sixth generation Mustang features a seductive Coke-bottle waistline, muscular rear haunches, traditional three-strip vertical rear light signature and a forward slanted rear fascia echoing its forward jutting front to create a sense of urgent momentum. Best in solid bright colours matched with black alloy wheels, the Mustang also features twin ridge side character lines.

Remodelled for a hungrier and more dramatic look with narrower inward tilted headlights framing its deep, broad and snouty mesh grille, the revised Mustang’s bonnet is lower and tauter, with a noticeably athletic curvature from silhouette. The Mustang also receives a new air splitter, repositioned bonnet air scoops and all LED lights. Subtly altered at the rear with a new bumper and spoiler options, the face-lifted Mustang’s rear lights look crisp and modern, while large quad exhaust tips hint at its muscular performance envelope. It also receives new colour options, including orange, light blue and crimson, and a revised Mustang badge.

Muscular delivery

Powered by Ford’s brawny and charismatic naturally-aspirated 5-litre V8 Coyote engine, the revised Mustang GT is familiar, but better than ever. Retuned and reworked with a new crankshaft and connecting rods, two knock sensors, increased bore diameter and with dual port and direct fuel injection, the Mustang GT is a higher revving, more capable and efficient performer, developing an additional 25BHP and 20lb/ft torque over the outgoing model. Producing a total of 460BHP at 7000rpm and 420Nm at 4600rpm, the 1707kg Mustang GT pounces through the 0-100km/h benchmark in 4.3-seconds or less and onto 250km/h, while returning 12.1l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Fluent yet ferociously progressive through revs, the Mustang GT’s delivery is consistently escalating. Digging deep and pulling effortlessly hard with a languid bass-rich low-rev burble that develops to pounding mid-range rumble as torque peaks, the Mustang GT is willing and urgent reaching for its thundering staccato top-end-crescendo. With rich induction percolation from the front, the Mustang GT’s active exhaust can provide a more vocal eight-pot rear rendition. Swift throughout and flexibly versatile when churning at little over tick-over or winding up to redline, the Mustang GT is ever responsive and ready to pounce out of corners, overtake with ease or charge through at full chat.

Seamless responses

Progressive in delivery and with precise, linear throttle responsive, one is able to dial in just the right increments of power through the driven rear wheels for an ideal balance between slip and grip when manoeuvring through switchbacks. The Mustang GT is meanwhile offered with a choice of six-speed manual gearbox for more driver engagement or a more convenient and quicker automatic. Driven in auto, guise, it now features Ford’s new 10-speed auto, in lieu of its predecessor’s six-speeds. With a broad range of ratios helping to reduce fuel consumption and improve performance, the new GT is also more versatile in mid-range.

The first Mustang with fully independent rear suspension in the form of an integral link set-up with good lateral stiffness and vertical absorption, the revised sixth generation Mustang, however, receives new dampers, anti-roll bars and rear cross joint axis. This makes the already adept Mustang a more responsive and sharper handling car. Turning with crisp tidiness and with fluently direct steering feel, the Mustang is balanced and adjustable through corners, delivering precise and intuitive feel and feedback of grip limits, position and road. The revised suspension also makes it a much more fluent handling car that seamlessly settles into a sharp corner with less seemingly sudden weight transfer.

Communication, comfort and control

Settled over imperfections and on rebound, and stable at speed, the Mustang GT feels reassuring but communicates an accurate feeling of speed. Finding a happy medium between stiff body control and ride comfort for so sporting a coupe, the Mustang was forgiving over all but the most jagged bumps.

Meanwhile, adaptive magnetic dampers that automatically become more supple for improved comfort and stiffen for enhanced roll control can be optionally ordered, but all Middle East Mustangs receives a limited-slip rear differential as standard equipment for both manual and automatic versions, to prevent wheel-spin and ensures better cornering agility, stability and traction.

With a sporty and low and well-adjustable driving position, one sits in comfort in the Mustang GT with a view of its long ridged bonnet. A practical sports coupe, the Mustang has an airier cabin atmosphere and better road views than other muscle cars, and in front offers seemingly better headroom for taller drivers. Coupled with its steering feel and balanced chassis, one always feels at the centre of action behind the wheel. Rear seats are meanwhile useable and boot space useful at 382-litre volume. Improved inside, the revised Mustang features slightly better seat side bolstering and more soft touch textures and surfaces.

An intuitive and visceral driving machine, the Mustang GT is also a well-equipped one, with new configurable 12-inch digital instrument cluster with various performance gauges, selectable driving modes and launch control with ‘drag start’ feature. Safety and driver assistance features available include pre-collision and lane keeping assists, pedestrian detection, distance alert, lane departure warning and a driver alert system. 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5-litre, all-aluminium, in-line V8-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 93 x 92.7mm

Compression ratio: 12:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential (optional)

Gear ratios: 1st 4.696; 2nd 2.985; 3rd 2.146; 4th 1.769; 5th 1.52; 6th 1.275; 7th 1.0; 8th 0.854; 9th 0.689; 10th 0.636 

Final drive ratio: 3.35:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 460 (466) [343] @7,000rpm

Specific power: 91.3BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 269.4BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 420 (569) @4,600rpm

Specific torque: 112.9Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 333.3Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 4.3-seconds (est.)

Top speed: 250km/h (est.)

Fuel consumption, combined: 12.1l/100km (ext.)

CO2 emissions, combined: 270g/km (est.)

Length: 4,788mm

Width: 1,915mm

Height: 1,379mm

Wheelbase: 2,720mm

Track, F/R: 1,585/1,653mm 

Legroom, F/R: 1,145/736mm

Luggage volume: 382-litres

Fuel capacity: 60-litres

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Steering ratio: 16:01

Turning circle: 11.5-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson Struts/integral link, anti-roll bars

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 352 x 32mm/320 x 30mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 6/1

Tyres: 255/40R19

More young men and women are binge-drinking into their mid- and late-20s today than a generation ago, increasing their risk of accidental injuries, deaths and a variety of chronic illnesses, researchers say. 

Historically, binge drinking among both men and women has tended to increase from age 18 through the early 20s then subside afterwards, the authors of a recent study note in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 

For the current analysis, researchers followed 58,012 high school graduates from 1976 to 2004, tracking their drinking habits from graduation through age 30. During the study period, the peak age for binge drinking by women rose from 20 to 22, and from 21 to 23 among men. 

By the end of the study, more women were continuing to binge drink from ages 21 through 30, and more men were still binge drinking at ages 25 to 26 than had been the case in the past, the analysis also found. 

“We have certainly seen a lot of social changes during the past 30 years in many areas of life,” said lead study author Megan Patrick of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. 

“The average ages of marriage and childbearing have increased, more young adults attend college and fewer of them are employed, which all likely contribute to the continuation of binge drinking further into the twenties,” Patrick said by e-mail. “However, even after we control for these factors [attending college, being employed, marital status, and parenthood] we still see that young adults are drinking later into their twenties.” 

Binge drinking involves having five or more drinks at one time, and surveys used in the study asked participants how often they did this over the previous two weeks. Doing it just once qualified people as binge drinkers in the study. 

Across all of the graduating classes in the analysis, about 32 per cent of participants reported binge drinking at age 18. This proportion rose to 41 per cent by age 21, then gradually declined to 28 per cent by age 30. 

The study was not designed to determine what factors might have caused shifts in the peak ages of binge drinking for men and women, and it also did not examine physical or mental health outcomes related to binge drinking. 

A limitation of the study is that it only included high school students in the 12th grade, which may underestimate overall drinking habits because dropouts are more likely to have alcohol use problems than youth who stay in school, the study authors note. 

Even so, the results suggest that prevention efforts focused primarily on adolescents and college students may also need to target young adults, said  Justine Welsh, director of addiction services at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia. 

“Binge drinking can result in negative social, psychological, and medical outcomes at any age,” Welsh, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

“Binge drinking is linked with memory/learning problems, contracting sexually transmitted diseases and being diagnosed with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke and certain types of cancer later in life,” Welsh said. 

“Delayed onset of alcohol use is still the most effect prevention strategy,” Welsh added. “However, for those who are already drinking alcohol, make sure to stay within the recognised guidelines.” 

For men, that’s no more than four drinks on any single day, and no more than 14 drinks a week, Welsh said. For women, that is no more than three drinks a day and no more than 14 a week.

By the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) 

For this rising generation, much about the way they see the world and choose how to engage in it will start in their households. Parents, guardians, and extended family can give more consideration to what kinds of citizens, and even activists, they will raise.

With the wave of unrest that has shaken the Middle East and the world over, children hear their parents discuss the news and start to ask questions. This is where you have a special opportunity to stress to your child that Jordan has been blessed with peace for so many years. This is due to the character of Jordanians, demonstrated so amply by protesters, security forces and leaders in the most restrained, non-violent extended protests to take place in the region in years. You can use current events and activism efforts to teach your child about the power of civic engagement.

Nurturing leadership

You can instil in your daughters and sons a sense of their potential to be decision makers and leaders so that they can take an active, leading role in not just their homes, but also in their communities by being visible, capable, powerful individuals who lead conversations, bring people together and facilitate change. 

As children partake in such engagement growing up, they will become good at organising and establishing networks of like-minded people. They will be ready by young adulthood to engage actively in politics and in moving beyond local community engagement to national-level engagement.

Fostering civic responsibility

Communities that take ownership of their residents and public spaces will, in turn, foster a strong culture of civic responsibility. 

Children raised in such communities will grow up with a different mentality and set of expectations when it comes to self-organising, activism, and collective responsibility, leading them to become better partners and citizens.

A more engaged and organised population is key to starting a New Arab Renaissance. Giving your children practice and experience with such engagement is one of the best ways to ensure that they can be part of something larger than themselves and help their country advance in ways that uplift all members and sectors of the community.

The power of empowerment 

The challenges young people face in Jordan are not insignificant, and many of them are consumed by cynicism and hopelessness. Parents can help turn the negative mentality infecting far too many youth into something positive by: 

• Showing them that change starts at home and in their neighbourhoods 

• Mobilising friends, family, and neighbours into being agents of the very change the cynics claim is not possible 

• Demonstrating that by working together as families and communities there is much that can be accomplished 

• Proving that active engagement versus passive resignation is a far more effective way to reach individual and community potential

Youths will feel confident and empowered having accomplished so much with their families, friends and communities, and will take that spirit with them as they engage in bigger and better projects. Your children will be the future leaders of the country, but they do not need to wait for the future to start being leaders in their own communities. 

Connection and collaboration

We do not want a lost generation of children — Jordanian youth are unaware of the power of engaging with their communities and giving into apathy. We also do not wish for refugee children who come of age in the camps of Zaatari and Azraq losing hope.

Wherever you are, there are people who can be engaged, issues that can be tackled, changes that can be made and hope that can be earned. Whether refugees or locals, you can raise young women and men to feel that they are part of a community, part of their nation, part of the world. And the easiest way to do this is through action, beyond the typical extracurricular activities. 

Teaching children through our own actions, to engage with and improve our communities, is not only good parenting, but will help build a better future for all of Jordan.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

Shlomo Sand

London: Verso, 2014

Pp. 295

Shlomo Sand, a history professor at Tel Aviv University, became famous after publishing “The Invention of the Jewish People” (2008), in which he deconstructed the historical myths about Jews as being a racial group and a wandering people in exile, and for which he was attacked by many Zionist critics. In the introduction to this new book, he writes, “I never expected that, at the beginning of the 21st century, so many critics would step forward to justify Zionist colonisation and the establishment of the State of Israel by invoking claims of ancestral lands, historical rights and millennia-old national yearnings.” (p. 10)

He had thought that most justifications would refer to the persecution of Jews in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but he had underestimated the strength of the rabid nationalism which Zionism has injected into mainstream Jewish thinking. 

With “The Invention of the Land of Israel”, Sand aims to deconstruct “the concept of the Jewish ‘historical right’ to the Land of Israel and its associated nationalist narratives, whose only purpose was to establish moral legitimacy for the appropriation of territory”. (p. 29)

To this end, he surveys the Bible as well as other Jewish holy books, and religious and philosophical texts from ancient until modern times, to show that up until the 18th century, “In no text or archaeological finding do we find the term ‘Land of Israel’ used to refer to a defined geographical region.” (p. 25)

Instead, other terms prevailed, such as the land (unspecified), the Land of Canaan or Palestine.

Perhaps the most important theme of this book is Sand’s strict demarcation between Judaism and Zionism; an entire chapter is entitled “Zionism vs Judaism”. According to Sand, traditionally in Judaism, “The need for a holy place in which perfect cosmic order existed never equated to a human desire to actually live in it or to be always in close proximity to it.” (p. 108)

Moreover, there were several religious injunctions against settling in the Holy Land, and pilgrimage was not particularly commonplace. 

Sand analyses how the advent of nationalism and, concurrently, anti-Semitism in 19th century Europe changed all that, motivating the establishment of the Zionist movement, its conscious dovetailing with colonial plans and its interconnection with Christian Zionism. As a result, Jewish history was reinterpreted and rewritten in retrospect, with a strong nationalist and racial/ethnic slant. “It was during this period that we see the beginning of efficient and consistent production of a new kind of collective identity that reshaped the Jewish past, making it more territorial.” (p. 208)

“At the end of the day, the Zionist revolution succeeded in nationalising the main elements of Zionist religious discourse... during the 20th century, the Holy Land became the ‘Land of Israel’,“ as Israel was established by force of arms and grew with the new territorial conquests in 1967. (p. 196)

The book is carefully written and documented. Sand’s review of Jewish writing and thinking over centuries is broader and more detailed than the usual accounts of the birth of Zionism and Israel. Especially interesting is his account of the initially strong opposition to Zionism among major Jewish communities. His view of history is international and sweeping, giving a nuanced picture of cause-and-effect, as events in the Middle East are counterposed to those in Europe. His outlook is universalist, humanistic and oriented towards social justice, in contrast to the early debates about the merits of Zionism, which were conducted in an exclusively Jewish framework. “In all the debates... the presence of Arabs in Palestine was almost never raised.” (pp. 197-8)

Sand writes about the nakba but doubts that such a major displacement of Palestinians would have occurred if not for the war initiated by the Arab regimes. This doubt is not well-founded, since one half of the Palestinians who were dispossessed in 1947-8 were driven from their homes prior to the Arab armies’ entry into Palestine, i.e., the process was already well underway. The rest of the book is a generally accurate rendition of Israel’s settlement-building and Judaisation campaigns post-1948, but not as ground-breaking as the first part of the book. 

Other authors whose analysis is as incisive as Sand’s have despaired of the two-state solution by now, finding it surpassed by the reality of Israel’s settlement-building and fragmentation of Palestine. Sands also sees it as a “fading dream”, but as he does not envision a major Palestinian return, he cannot offer a better model for peace. Rather, he emphasises memory and the need for Israelis to acknowledge the pain they have caused Palestinians. Sand makes his own contribution to this in the afterword of the book, which is devoted to Sheikh Muwannis, the largest Palestinian village north of Jaffa, on whose ruins the author’s place of work and residence sprang up after the villagers were terrorised out of their homes by the combined efforts of the Haganah and Stern Gang in the spring of 1948. 

“The Invention of the Land of Israel” is available at the University Bookshop’s website.

The number of push-ups a man can do in the doctor’s office may be a good predictor of his risk of developing heart disease in the coming years, new research suggests. 

In a study of more than 1,100 male firefighters followed for 10 years, researchers found that the risk of atherosclerosis and of cardiovascular events, such as stroke and heart attacks, was 96 per cent lower among men who could do 40 or more push-ups during timed tests, compared with the men who could do fewer than 10. 

The findings could lead to an easy test for heart disease risk, said the study’s lead author Justin Yang, a researcher at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

“Using push-ups could be a no-cost and simple method to assess one’s functional capacity and predict future cardiovascular event risk,” Yang said. “For clinicians this is really important since a lot of tests vary in their results and are very expensive and time consuming. This can be done within a minute.” 

To look at possible predictors of heart disease, Yang and his colleagues turned to data on 1,104 Indiana firefighters who had health exams between February 2, 2000 and November 12, 2007. Along with push-up capacity, a host of other measurements were recorded at the same time, including age, VO2 max (the maximum rate of oxygen consumed during intense exercise), height, weight, resting heart rate, blood pressure levels, cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels and smoking status. 

At baseline, the firefighters’ average age was 39.6 years and their average body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) was 28.7, which is in the “overweight” range. “With firefighters pictured on calendars as muscular and very fit, we tend to think of them as different from everyone else, but this group is pretty much the same as the rest of the population,” Yang said. “Half of them were overweight or obese.” 

During the study period, there were 37 cardiovascular disease-related outcomes among the men, according to the report in “JAMA Network Open”.

While other factors, such as age, BMI and VO2 were also predictive of the risk for cardiovascular disease events, push-ups were the strongest indicator, Yang said. 

One strength of the new study is that it relies on a measure of strength rather than on self-reports of physical activity, said Kerry Stewart, a professor of medicine and director of clinical and research exercise physiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Stewart suspects that the men’s push-up capacity is simply a marker for their level of fitness. “You have to be pretty fit to do that many push-ups,” said Stewart who was not involved in the new research. “You would probably have to do a good amount of exercise on a regular basis to get to the level of 40 or more.” 

And fitness, Stewart said, is correlated with a number of factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol levels and abdominal fat. The findings underscore the importance of guidelines that emphasise both resistance training and aerobic exercise, Stewart noted. 

Dennis Bruemmer was not surprised by the findings. “We have long known that physical inactivity constitutes a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is associated with worse outcomes,” said Bruemmer, an associate professor of medicine and a cardiologist at the Heart and Vascular Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre in Pennsylvania. “Conversely, physical activity decreases cardiovascular risk.” 

The new research underscores the importance of following the current American Heart Association guidelines, which recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, said Bruemmer, who was not involved with the new study. Such exercise, “could be easily be integrated into the workplace environment and should be part of work-life balance”, Bruemmer said in an email. 

By Stephen Nellis and Paresh Dave

SAN FRANCISCO — Software pirates have hijacked technology designed by Apple Inc. to distribute hacked versions of Spotify, Angry Birds, Pokemon Go, Minecraft and other popular apps on iPhones, Reuters has found.

Illicit software distributors such as TutuApp, Panda Helper, AppValley and TweakBox have found ways to use digital certificates to get access to a programme Apple introduced to let corporations distribute business apps to their employees, without going through Apple’s tightly controlled App Store.

Using so-called enterprise developer certificates, these pirate operations are providing modified versions of popular apps to consumers, enabling them to stream music without ads and to circumvent fees and rules in games, depriving Apple and legitimate app makers of revenue.

By doing so, the pirate app distributors are violating the rules of Apple’s developer programmes, which only allow apps to be distributed to the general public through the App Store. Downloading modified versions violates the terms of service of almost all major apps.

TutuApp, Panda Helper, AppValley and TweakBox did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Apple has no way of tracking the real-time distribution of these certificates, or the spread of improperly modified apps on its phones, but it can cancel the certificates if it finds misuse.

“Developers that abuse our enterprise certificates are in violation of the Apple Developer Enterprise Programme Agreement and will have their certificates terminated, and if appropriate, they will be removed from our Developer Programme completely,” an Apple spokesperson told Reuters. “We are continuously evaluating the cases of misuse and are prepared to take immediate action.”

After Reuters initially contacted Apple for comment last week, some of the pirates were banned from the system, but within days they were using different certificates and were operational again. 

“There’s nothing stopping these companies from doing this again from another team, another developer account,” said Amine Hambaba, head of security at software firm Shape Security.

Apple confirmed a media report on Wednesday that it would require two-factor authentication — using a code sent to a phone as well as a password — to log into all developer accounts by the end of this month, which could help prevent certificate misuse. 

Major app makers Spotify Technology SA, Rovio Entertainment Oyj and Niantic Inc. have begun to fight back. 

Spotify declined to comment on the matter of modified apps, but the streaming music provider did say earlier this month that its new terms of service would crack down on users who are “creating or distributing tools designed to block advertisements” on its service. 

Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds mobile games, said it actively works with partners to address infringement “for the benefit of both our player community and Rovio as a business”.

Niantic, which makes Pokemon Go, said players who use pirated apps that enable cheating on its game are regularly banned for violating its terms of service. Microsoft Corp., which owns the creative building game Minecraft, declined to comment.

It is unclear how much revenue the pirate distributors are siphoning away from Apple and legitimate app makers. 

TutuApp offers a free version of Minecraft, which costs $6.99 in Apple’s App Store. AppValley offers a version of Spotify’s free streaming music service with the advertisements stripped away.

The distributors make money by charging $13 or more per year for subscriptions to what they call “VIP” versions of their services, which they say are more stable than the free versions. It is impossible to know how many users buy such subscriptions, but the pirate distributors combined have more than 600,000 followers on Twitter. 

Security researchers have long warned about the misuse of enterprise developer certificates, which act as digital keys that tell an iPhone that a piece of software downloaded from the Internet can be trusted and opened. They are the centrepiece of Apple’s programmes for corporate apps and enable consumers to install apps onto iPhones without Apple’s knowledge. 

Apple last month briefly banned Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. from using enterprise certificates after they used them to distribute data-gathering apps to consumers.

The distributors of pirated apps seen by Reuters are using certificates obtained in the name of legitimate businesses, although it is unclear how. Several pirates have impersonated a subsidiary of China Mobile Ltd. China Mobile did not respond to requests for comment. 

Tech news website TechCrunch earlier this week reported that certificate abuse also enabled the distribution of apps for pornography and gambling, both of which are banned from the App Store.

Since the App Store debuted in 2008, Apple has sought to portray the iPhone as safer than rival Android devices because Apple reviews and approves all apps distributed to the devices.

Early on, hackers “jailbroke” iPhones by modifying their software to evade Apple’s controls, but that process voided the iPhone’s warranty and scared off many casual users. The misuse of the enterprise certificates seen by Reuters does not rely on jailbreaking and can be used on unmodified iPhones.