Features

Over the past one year I realised that it is not easy to make friends in Mauritius. Moreover, if you don’t speak Creole or French, you can pretty much say goodbye to any kind of interaction with your neighbours too because not a single hand of friendship is extended nor any assistance offered to the newcomers, and one is pretty much left to fend for oneself and find one’s own way around. 

Majority of the island’s inhabitants can trace their ancestry to India, but despite that, almost all of them end up observing the European rules of conduct. Which means that, among other things, meal times are sacrosanct here (especially the lunch hour that begins exactly at noon and can extend for as long as you choose), the shops shut at six in the evening on a weekday, at two on Saturday and stay closed for the whole of Sunday. Also, if you live in a gated community, the service entrance follows the same timing restrictions as well — with the security guards staring at you helplessly through the locked barrier, in case you enthusiastically take a short cut, and try to come in from the side lane.

In my compound at least, there are more pets than children and every house reverberates with the sound of barking dogs, from dawn to dusk. The bungalows are built in such a way that each next-door backyard is easily visible from the first floor balcony. Our neighbours can look into our garden and we can view theirs, especially when they organise barbeque parties by inviting a large group of people who eat and drink a lot and speak loudly in an alien tongue. 

The middle-aged couple, whose boundary wall is adjoining ours, has a beautiful lawn, and I have noticed both of them toiling there at different times. The husband does the bulk of the work, like mowing the grass, clipping the shrubs and pulling out the weeds. The wife clears the dead leaves and waters the plants. 

While I am busy watching them, quite discretely they scrutinise me too and in fact, from their vantage position the grass seems to be greener on my side of the fence, so to speak. It appears to be such since my gardener has chopped all the dried up branches that are high up on trees shielding the sunlight, with his innovative branch-chopping device that is entirely his own creation. My only contribution towards this “sickle-stuck-onto-long-rod” invention is settling the bill for the amount that is presented to me. 

However, our neighbours don’t know that of course. They think that whichever foreign country I arrived from, I must have got this gardening tool with me, and quite unexpectedly, they reach out to me, for assistance. They ring my doorbell and quite tentatively begin explaining but because of the language barrier I have no clue of what they are talking about. 

The man points to a tree, the woman makes hacking actions while their dog barks excitedly and dances in circles around me. 

“You want me to give you wood for a bonfire?” I guess aloud. 

They repeat the same gestures. 

“Sorry! Pardon!” I back off, shutting the front door. 

“I think they want to borrow your sickle-on-stick gadget,” my husband deciphers.

“Remember that Indian brand Onida television’s iconic tagline?” he asks. 

“Neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride,” I say automatically

“My garden is my joy,” I agree. 

“And your neighbours’ ennui,” my spouse laughs. 

Three in four parents are unaware when their teens have recurrent thoughts about suicide, and a big part of the problem may be that adolescents often deny feeling this way, a US study suggests. 

Researchers interviewed 5,137 adolescents, ages 11 to 17, along with one parent or stepparent. Most teens in the study did not report suicidal thoughts. 

But when they did, half of their parents were unaware these teens had thoughts of killing themselves and 76 per cent of parents did not know when teens regularly thought about death, researchers report in Paediatrics. 

“These findings highlight the importance of open communication between parents and adolescents and creating a safe and supportive family environment where adolescents feel comfortable disclosing their problems and concerns to parents and parents feel comfortable soliciting information from their teens having difficult conversations,” said lead study author Jason Jones of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. 

“Teens need to know they can depend on their parents in times of need,” Jones said by e-mail. “Parents should also not hesitate to seek help if they have concerns.” 

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among US youth ages 10 to 24, and suicide deaths rates among young people have been rising, researchers note in Paediatrics. 

More than two-thirds of teens experiencing suicidal thoughts do not receive mental health services. 

The current study recruited families from a large paediatric health care network, not from mental health clinics. The adolescents were 15 years old on average, and most of the adults who participated were their mothers. 

Among other things, interviewers asked the youngsters and parents if the children had ever thought of killing themselves or if they thought a lot about death. 

Overall, children and parents were more likely to share a common awareness of adolescents’ suicidal thoughts when children were older than when they were preteens. 

For girls, however, parents were more likely to recognise thoughts of death at younger ages and less likely to be aware of suicidal thoughts at younger ages. 

With boys, the opposite was true, and parents were less aware of suicidal thoughts for older teens. 

White parents were more likely to detect suicidal thoughts in their teens than non-white parents in the study. 

About one in ten parents in the study were fathers, and dads were more likely to miss teens’ suicidal thoughts than mothers. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how parents’ recognition of teens’ suicidal thoughts, or teens’ awareness of their own feelings, might directly impact the chance of self-harm or death by suicide. It is also not clear if results from pediatrics health clinics in Philadelphia would be similar elsewhere in the country. 

Even so, the results highlight the potential for adolescents’ mental health problems and suicidal thoughts to go undetected, said Dr Jacqueline Grupp-Phelan of the University of California, San Francisco, Benioff Children’s Hospital 

“This is due to many reasons including the internal nature of suicidal thoughts, lack of systemic screening and the denying by teens that they are having these thoughts,” Grupp-Phelan, the author of an accompanying editorial, said by e-mail. 

“The most important take-home message for parents is ask your teen how they are doing, and if you notice a change in behavior or energy level, get help from their primary care provider or mental health professional,” Grupp-Phelan advised. 

Warning signs include sadness, loss of interest and withdrawal from activities, and social isolation, among others, Jones said. Parents can get more information on risk factors and warning signs for suicide from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention 

Touted as a giant leap forward for the iconic American manufacturer’s behemoth full-size family SUV offering the new Ford Expedition is the most luxurious and advanced generation yet. 

Featuring a more contemporary aesthetic treatment, the hugely spacious eight-seat third generation Expedition also adopts lighter aluminium-intensive body construction and a 10-speed automatic gearbox for improved performance, flexibility and efficiency, much like its F150 truck relation. 

It also gains improved interior design and refinement, and driver assistance, safety, infotainment and convenience features.

Modern makeover

Undoubtedly a considerably improved vehicle all-round, it is worth remembering that the new Expedition’s decidedly modern and downsized 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine and smooth, refined and space-efficient independent rear suspension had already been used in its long-serving predecessor, which in that way was more sophisticated than General Motors rivals. Distinctly old-school in design with a brutally blocky shape and vast glasshouse and tall roofline for space and visibility, the outgoing Expedition’s design would on first impression have seemed to have been simple.

Effectively creating the impression of mass towards the rear and minimising it above the front wheelarches to create a sense of urgency and tension, the old Expedition’s design has, however, been superseded with a more modern and hunkered down aesthetic with a lower descending roofline and higher waistline, but with a larger footprint and good packaging, the new Expedition is in fact more spacious inside in every which way but for third row headroom. Meanwhile in front, the new Expedition is more overtly assertive with a high-rise fascia and bonnet.

Confidently versatile

Behind its broad and dominant chrome mesh grille and under its dual ridged bonnet, it is powered by a high output version of Ford’s now familiar twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6 Ecoboost engine producing an additional 25BHP and 9lb/ft torque for service in the range-topping Platinum edition tested. A worthy alternative to traditional naturally-aspirated big displacement American V8 engines, the Expedition Platinum’s Ecoboost develops a full 400BHP at just 5,000rpm and 479lb/ft at 3,500rpm, of which a generous helping is available across the rev range. 

Quick spooling and responsive from low-end and with scant turbo lag, the Ecoboost is well up to the job of briskly hustling along 2,550kg of Expedition Platinum. Eager off the line and estimated to cover 0-100km/h in 6-seconds or less, the Expedition platinum feels effortlessly muscular and confident on the move. Meanwhile, its 0-speed automatic gearbox’s closely spaced ratios allow for quick acceleration that flows like a torrent, and a generous spread of ratios allows for efficiency, low-end response, mid-range versatility and refined low-rev cruising.

Comfort and capability

Driving all four wheels, the Expedition provides reassuring traction and road-holding, and while not designed as a hardcore off-roader, it does have improved off-road abilities over its predecessor. In addition to generous 249mm ground clearance and better off-road angles, the new expedition also receives an optional electronic limited-slip rear differential useful for low traction surfaces, towing and on-road handling. Capable of towing 4,218kg when fitted with a Heavy Duty Trailer Towing Package, the Expedition meanwhile generously accommodates between 591- to 2,961-litre of cargo, depending on seat configuration. 

Riding on double wishbone front suspension and a more sophisticated multilink rear compared to some competitors live-axle set-up. Available with optional adaptive dampers for improved ride quality, the Expedition proved smooth and comfortable on Dubai roads, even as fitted with the Platinum edition’s huge alloys and low profile 285/45R22 tyres. Well absorbing bumps and imperfections during a short test drive, the Expedition felt stable, settled and refined at speed, but without being particularly disconnected. Meanwhile, steering was well-weighted and braking reassuringly confident.

User-friendly and spacious

By no means a sporty SUV, but rather a large, comfortable and extensively well-equipped family one, the Expedition nevertheless proved a better handling machine than its live-axle rivals. Turning in with good grip and accuracy, the Expedition is balanced and body roll well contained through corners. Able to manoeuvre with more confidence and control than expected, the Expedition is comparatively easy to drive, and comes with a host of driver assistance systems to help helm such a big beast, including blind spot monitoring, lane keeping and parking assists, and adaptive stop and go cruise control.

Considerably better appointed inside than its predecessor, the new Expedition Platinum is kitted with more convenience and infotainment systems, and mostly uses better quality cabin materials. Ergonomics and layouts are similarly good and include a rotary gear selector and clear instrumentation. Largely spacious, it is more generously spaced in every direction bar third row headroom, which was better before. That said, the Expedition’s lower floor, compact rear suspension and tip and slide middle seats, provide noticeably considerably better third row seating even for tall adults compared to live-axle competitors.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3.5-litre, all-aluminium, twin-turbocharged, in-line V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 92.5 x 86.7mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 10-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

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

Reverse/final drive: 4.866/3.31

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 400 (405) [298] @5,000rpm

Specific power: 114.4BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 156.8BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 479 (650) @3,500rpm

Specific torque: 185.9Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 254.9Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: under 6-seconds (estimate)

Minimum fuel requirement: 91RON

Length: 5,334mm

Width: 2,029mm

Height: 1,940mm

Wheelbase: 3,111.5mm

Track, F/R: 1,717/1,706mm 

Overhang, F/R; 970/1,252mm

Ground clearance: 249mm

Approach/break-over/departure angles: 23.3°/21.4°/21.9°

Seating: 8

Headroom, F/M/R: 1,066/1,016/947mm

Legroom, F/M/R: 1,115/1,082/1,038mm

Shoulder room, F/M/R: 1,648/1,646/1,630mm

Hip room, F/M/R: 1,579/1,590/1,305mm

Luggage volume, behind 1st/2nd/3rd row: 2961-/1800-/
591-litres

Fuel capacity: 89-litres

Kerb weight: 2,550kg

Towing maximum, standard/optional: 2,993kg/4,218kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/multi-link, anti-roll bars, optional adaptive dampers

Brakes: Discs, ABS, EBD

Tyres: 285/45R22

Older people with type 2 diabetes may struggle more with verbal memory than their peers without the disease, a recent study suggests. 

Researchers followed 705 older adults without dementia for an average of 4.6 years. At the start, participants were between 55 and 90 years old, with an average age around 70, and 348 of them had diabetes. 

In people with diabetes, verbal fluency declined slightly over the course of the study, while it improved slightly in participants without diabetes, researchers report in Diabetologia. 

Diabetes develops when the body cannot properly use insulin to convert blood sugar into energy and the condition is associated with obesity and ageing. While diabetes has long been linked to cognitive decline and dementia, research to date has not offered a clear reason for this connection. 

Three times during the study, participants had brain scans to look for any signs of atrophy — tissue shrinkage — and they took cognitive tests involving verbal skills. 

Although people with diabetes already had more brain atrophy at the start, there was no difference between those with and without diabetes in the rate of brain shrinkage during the study. Atrophy also did not appear to explain the link between diabetes and cognitive decline. 

Still, the results suggest that brain changes associated with diabetes may begin earlier than previously thought, perhaps in middle age, said lead author Michele Callisaya of the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. 

For patients, this means it would be a mistake to put off thinking about brain health until they are older or experiencing symptoms of cognitive decline, Callisaya said by e-mail. 

“Recommendations for good brain health include physical activity, following a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, checking blood pressure and cholesterol, mentally challenging the brain and enjoying social activities,” Callisaya said. 

The diabetics in the study were a bit younger, 68 years old on average, compared with an average of 72 for the participants without diabetes. 

Researchers accounted for age, sex, education and risk factors like current or former smoking, obesity and elevated blood pressure or cholesterol. 

One limitation of the study is that the diabetics had relatively well-controlled blood sugar, and it is possible that the connection between diabetes and changes in the brain might be more apparent in patients with higher blood sugar, the study authors note. 

“There isn’t evidence that keeping blood [sugar] under control directly improves cognition or lessens cognitive decline,” said Dr Rebecca Gottesman of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. “But it is likely that long-term control of blood sugar has benefits for the brain,” Gottesman, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

Another limitation is that the study may have been too brief to detect meaningful differences in cognition and brain volume between people with and without diabetes because these changes can happen slowly. 

The diabetics might have had reduced brain reserve, or the ability to withstand damage, when they joined the study, said Jill Morris a researcher at the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Centre in Fairway. 

The good news is there is plenty that people can do to help keep their mind sharp, Morris said in an e-mail. 

“Keep your body and mind active,” she advised. 

“Diet and exercise are key components of brain health and can simultaneously impact blood sugar levels, insulin resistance, and cerebrovascular disease,” Morris added. “These factors are linked to important cognitive and brain-related outcomes in a variety of populations, and are especially important in individuals with type 2 diabetes.” 

By Dr Dana Fara’neh Batayneh

Dermatologist 

Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP) is a promising treatment that has gained a lot of attention as a safe, non-surgical therapeutic approach. It uses the body’s natural ability to heal itself! PRP is used in many fields of medicine like orthopaedics (to treat joint or tendon diseases), plastic surgery and oral surgery.

Blood is composed of red blood cells, white blood cells and plasma, the yellow-golden liquid that has platelets along with other ingredients. 

Platelets have long been known for their role in blood clotting; they stop bleeding and help in wound healing. It was not until recently that other important functions were discovered — namely tissue repair, growth and healing. This is due to multiple important proteins within platelets including cytokines and growth factors.

The idea of PRP is based on the fact that platelets, when present in high concentrations in tissues, release certain growth factors that start healing, tissue repair and cell renewal.

How is PRP session done?

A blood sample is drawn from the patient in a special tube, then spun in a centrifuge machine that separates the plasma from red and white blood cells. This leads to a much higher concentration of platelets in the plasma (therefore called platelet- RICH-plasma). 

Platelet count in normal individuals is around 200,000 on average; studies have shown that platelets need to be concentrated to a count around 1,000,000 (which is almost five times the normal) for the procedure to be effective. Plasma is then withdrawn from the tube (sometimes an activating agent like Calcium Chloride is added to the plasma to activate the platelets) and injected into the patient’s skin or hair, where platelets release growth factors and cytokines.

Face PRP

In the skin, these factors promote cell renewal, stimulate blood circulation and increase the production of two important proteins: collagen and elastin. These proteins give the skin its strength, firmness and elasticity. Three sessions are usually done, four weeks apart. Patients notice an improvement in skin texture, a more unified skin tone, a decrease in fine wrinkles and an increase in skin hydration and plumpness.

Hair PRP

In the scalp, these factors promote the formation of new blood vessels and new hair follicles. Three sessions are done, four weeks apart. Patients notice a decrease in hair shedding and an increase in hair density.

What can be targeted with PRP

• Hair loss

• Signs of skin ageing (fine wrinkles, loss of skin elasticity, dry skin)

• Sun damage

• Fatigued skin 

• Acne scars and wide pores 

• Skin pigmentation and melasma

No quick fix

PRP, however, cannot be used as a solo treatment, but be combined with other treatment options. For example, when treating patients with acne scars, PRP can be added to any treatment like Fractional Microneedling Radiofrequency, subcision, dermapen and so on. 

Studies have shown that when PRP is combined with any of these methods, results are much better than with any of these alone. Other ingredients can also be combined with the PRP sessions like mesotherapy injections (which can be done either during the same session or done a few days following the session) to add to the results of the sessions.

Factors affecting results of PRP sessions

Patient selection: Although PRP is a natural treatment that can work for everyone, some patients are better candidates than others. People who have low platelet count (thrombocytopenia), platelet disorders, types of anaemia, thalassemia, or infections are not candidates for PRP treatment.

PRP method: Both the way the plasma is centrifuged and the injection technique affect the results of the PRP session,

PRP Kit used: Some kits yield higher platelet concentrations than others, which in turn leads to better results 

Are there any side effects?

• The PRP session is usually followed by a mild redness of the skin that usually lasts for hours

• Some bruising due to the needle injections can occur

My expert recommendation

PRP is a safe procedure that can be used both as a preventive measure to help delay signs of skin ageing and a treatment in addressing many dermatological concerns.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

WASHINGTON — Male birds are often the ones with the most vibrant feathers, or the most elaborate songs, but researchers said on Thursday that what lady birds could really appreciate is a male who shows his intelligence.

The report in the journal Science aligns with one of Charles Darwin’s old theories, which held that mate choice could contribute to the evolution of intelligence.

“Our study demonstrates that direct observation of cognitive skills can affect mate preference,” said the study, authored by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and at Leiden University in The Netherlands.

Researchers used 34 small Australian parrots, known as budgerigars, to test the notion that a suitor’s smarts could outweigh style or songs. 

A female bird was exposed to two similar looking males, in a cage in which she could only interact with one at a time. Prior study designs like this have shown that females tend to lean towards males with slightly nicer appearances, or more appealing songs.

Researchers could tell which male was preferred by the amount of time the female spent interacting with him.

Then, they swept away the lesser male to engage him in a special training session in opening a container filled with seeds.

The female — and her preferred male — received no such training, and were given open boxes of seed to eat from freely. 

Next, the female was placed in a cage with a sealed box of seed, and was allowed to watch the trained male cleverly open his sealed box of seed.

She also watched the untrained male — whom she preferred at first glance — being unable to open his container.

After that, eight of the nine females changed their minds, apparently, and began spending more time in the cage interacting with the more capable box-opening male than they had before the experiment.

“This finding supports hypotheses, starting with that of Darwin, that sexual selection may affect the evolution of cognitive traits across animal species,” said the study.

In other words, showing one’s intelligence could help one gain more mates and better spread one’s DNA on to future generations.

But experts caution that the notion is difficult to study in the animal world, particularly when complex behaviours like mating rituals are in play.

The researchers “offer convincing evidence that female budgerigars modified their mate preference in favour of trained males after observing them perform complex foraging tasks”, wrote evolution experts Georg Striedter and Nancy Burley of the University of California, Irvine, in an accompanying Perspective article in the journal Science.

However, it is not entirely clear that the females appreciated the box-opening as a sign of intelligence, they added.

“The fact that females lacked the opportunity to perform the foraging task themselves suggests that they may have had little basis for understanding the exercise as a problem in need of a clever solution,” they wrote.

“Instead, they might have attributed male success in opening the containers to superior physical strength.”

In any case, the two outside experts praised the approach as having “considerable promise for advancing empirical research on mate choice for cognitive traits”, and said it will likely “become an important tool for mate choice research in future studies”.

LAS VEGAS — Once confined to the realms of science fiction, near real-time translation devices that whisper discretely into your ear during a conversation are finally coming of age thanks to leaps in AI and cloud computing.

An array of companies at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) are promoting increasingly sophisticated devices that allow people speaking different languages to converse with the help of handheld devices or wireless earpieces.

Waverly Lab's "Pilot" headphones translate 15 languages and are priced from $180 to $250.

If each person in a conversation is wearing a Pilot, they can speak directly to one another using their own language.

During a brief demonstration in Las Vegas, an AFP journalist speaking French was ably translated into the ears of English-speaking Andrew Ochoa, boss of Waverly Labs.

The company was founded in 2014 in New York. Translation work was routed to the cloud by Ochoa's smartphone, where an application can also create a written transcription of a conversation.

Computer power in online data centres interpret what is said, and send the appropriate translations to listeners taking part in conversations, Ochoa explained.

As a result, there could be lag of a few seconds to allow for interpretations.

Machine learning 

Universal translators have long been a fixture of science fiction, from shows like "Star Trek" to the babel fish that sits inside the ear canal and feeds off brain wave energy in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

But they have only recently become viable in the real world thanks to the increasing power and speed of mobile devices, machine learning, and wireless connections.

"We apply some features of AI, such as machine learning and neural network, to translation models," Ochoa said.

"Those technologies have matured enough to make this possible."

Software neural networks can be trained to understand phrases even if words are new to them, eliminating the need to feed entire dictionaries into systems.

Some 35,000 pairs of Pilot headphones have sold in less than a year, with customers including businesses such as hotels with keen need to engage customers speaking various languages, according to Ochoa.

China-based TimeKettle was at CES with WT2 earbuds that worked in a way similar to Pilot.

A Pocketalk device being shown off here by Japanese firm Sourcenext took smartphones out of the translation equation and hoped to be a hit during the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

"We realised that, thinking about the 2020 Olympics, many Japanese only speak Japanese," said Sourcenext spokesman Richard Gallagher.

Pocketalk, which appeared reminiscent of an early-generation mobile phone, could translate 74 languages and was priced at $299, according to Gallagher.

"Thanks to machine learning, it progressively understands you better; your pronunciation," he said.

"It can adapt to the user."

Gallagher noted strong sales, with particularly heavy in retail, taxi, hotel or restaurant operations.

Chinese company iFlytex, a heavyweight in AI and voice recognition in Asia, presented a Translator 2.0 at the show capable of translating between Chinese and 30 other languages.

The latest Translator model was priced about $400.

The Netherlands-based Travis laid claim to the first pocket-sized translation device infused with AI and boasted having already sold 120,000 devices.

Internet giant Google meanwhile offers free translation software that ties up with its Pixel earbuds launched two years ago.

This week at CES, Google announced it was building translation capabilities into an array of new products through its virtual assistant software.

It is the first, and most basic thing you learn when you study business or marketing: that any given product has a lifespan. While this may be a very short or a very long lifespan, depending on the product, the duration is irrelevant and does not change the principle, the concept.

At this point in time one may start asking whether the e-mail system as we know it is dying, if it is getting near its end.

The question may surprise many a user. Indeed, for the vast majority of us e-mail is still the main form of communication, be it at work or for personal use. The flexibility and the functionality of the two most popular e-mail software clients, Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook, ensure not only communication but also filing and storage of the messages exchanged.

These last two aspects of the technology — filing and storage — make us rely on the system to keep and then to retrieve correspondence and documents. For most users this is virtually the only way, the only place where they save and store their documents; hence the importance of the system.

However, despite having been globally adopted since the late 1990s, traditional e-mail is now challenged by a certain number of elements that could announce the beginning of its end.

The first is spam — obviously. In spite of antispam measures and however effective they may or may not be, this is still a major nuisance, a threat and a waste of time. 

And then there are the countless other, newer digital means of communication, with WhatsApp in the lead. There is no doubt that a large number of messages, including eventual audiovisual attachments, are now exchanged via WhatsApp instead of “regular” e-mail. Speed, convenience and instant feedback make people love WhatsApp. 

Moreover, widely used cloud storage, with folders and web links that let you easily share messages and large digital content with your correspondents, are being more and more frequently used instead of e-mail.

WhatsApp, Messenger and in general social networking as well as all shared cloud storage services, also present a major advantage compared to email: they ensure a higher degree of protection against threats and better control of privacy; not a minor point.

At the corporate level, intranets and shared folders on company servers’ hard disks let employees exchange messages and enjoy instant two-way notification with colleagues by bypassing traditional e-mail.

Perhaps it not yet the very end of it, as IT pundit Keumars Afifi-Sabet put it rather wittily last September in www.itpro.co.uk: “Like reports of Mark Twain's death, the demise of e-mail has been greatly exaggerated over the years.” According to quora.com an average of 300 billion e-mails are sent and received every day, with more than half of them (some believe as much as 90 per cent) being spam or digital threats of various kinds.

Still, it is impossible not to notice, not acknowledge that e-mail usage is clearly on the decline. I can easily distinguish at least two categories of the population that are using e-mail significantly less than say four or five years ago: those in the under-30 age category and IT professionals.

For the rest, I would say let us just wait and see.

GENEVA — The palm oil industry is deploying tactics similar to those of the alcohol and tobacco industries to influence research into the health effects of its product, a study published by the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. 

Evidence of the health impact of palm oil is mixed, with some studies linking consumption to several ailments, including increased risk of death from heart disease caused by narrowing arteries, the report said. 

The study, “The palm oil industry and non-communicable diseases”, called for more research and tighter regulation of the $60 billion industry, and said researchers should be wary of being influenced by lobbyists. 

“The relationship between the palm oil and processed food industries, and the tactics they employ, resembles practices adopted by the tobacco and alcohol industries. However, the palm oil industry receives comparatively little scrutiny,” it said. 

Oil palm plantations, mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia, cover an area roughly the size of New Zealand, and demand is expected to grow as more countries ban trans fats, which the WHO wants banned globally by 2023. 

Trans fats are prepared in an industrial process that makes liquid oils solid at room temperature, and are now widely recognised as bad for health. 

Palm oil is naturally more solid than most other vegetable oils, and the demise of trans fats will leave it as an easy choice for ultra-processed foods, said the study, co-authored by researchers at the UN children’s fund UNICEF, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Britain’s University of Exeter. 

The study said labelling is often unclear, and palm oil can be listed under any one of more than 200 alternative names, turning up frequently in foods such as biscuits and chocolate spread. 

“Consumers may be unaware of what they are eating or its safety,” the study said. 

The authors of the study, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, said they found nine pieces of research showing overwhelmingly positive health associations, but four of them were authored by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. 

“The contested nature of the evidence suggests the need for independent, comprehensive studies of the health impact of palm oil consumption,” they wrote. 

The study also pointed to the health effect of the production of palm oil in countries where it is grown, with slash-and-burn agriculture causing air pollution and haze linked to premature deaths, respiratory illness and cardiovascular diseases. 

“Of major concern is the effect of exposure to particulate matter on foetal, infant and child mortality, as well as children’s cognitive, educational and economic attainment.” 

Just before the advent of my birthday each year, childhood memories came surging at me. It has nothing to do with the date of my arrival — though I loved the simple celebration that my grandparents arranged in their house where I was born — each time I visited them. 

In my Dad’s home there was total chaos, of course, because I shared my birth month with my older brother, which resulted in my parents hosting a joint party for the two of us. It did not please anyone, but by the time they figured it out, we had flown the nest, so to speak. 

From a very young age, my older sibling took it upon himself to indoctrinate certain skills in me that could be considered perfectly worthless today. 

So along with handcrafting a catapult, collecting glowworms, pressing dried flowers inside the pages of an old book and making a swing out of discarded car tyres, he also taught me how to fly a kite. Now, children these days might not even know what kite flying is all about, but during my time, it was right at the top of “a list of things one had to learn to survive in a backyard of a beyond small town”.

While kite flying seemed like fun, getting it off the ground was not as easy as it appeared to be. The wind conditions and the shape of the kite played a big role, but the most important factor was the right technique. 

In fact, there was a complete science behind it, with enough lift and so on to counteract its weight, before it was airborne. 

Also, the cord attached to the kite had to be strong so that it could cut the strings of the other kites flying nearby in the kite-fighting competitions. Kites were mostly made from a lightweight thin paper and the spars from flexible wood, usually bamboo. 

The goal in a kite-fight was to bring down one’s neighbour’s kite by using an abrasive line, which was coated with a mixture of finely crushed glass and rice glue, called “manjha” in the local language. It took a lot of practice and expert precision to manoeuvre a fighting kite, but winning a battle earned the victor the respect and praise of the entire community. 

In all this I was the designated kite runner, you know, the person who ran to collect the trophy from where it fell after being skillfully brought down. 

I don’t know why I was given this job because I was definitely not the fastest sprinter but I had the sharpest vision and could detect a fallen kite from a distance. Moreover, in the true spirit of “winner takes all”, I would proclaim the prize as mine till my brother turned up to over-rule my decision. 

When Beatles, the rock band, released their “Nowhere Man” record in 1965, it took roughly 10 years to reach our shores in India. The minute I heard the lyrics I knew that henceforth the tormented would become the tormentor and over the ages I took full advantage of it. 

Last week I telephoned my sibling on his birthday. 

“He’s a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land”, I sang. 

“Making all his nowhere plans for nobody” I hummed. 

“Doesn’t have a point of view”, I intoned. 

“Knows not where he’s going to”, I continued.

“Isn’t he a bit like you and me”, my brother joined in laughingly.