Features

A three time front-wheel-drive Nürburgring Nordschleife record holder in its previous two generation, the latest incarnation of the Renault Megane R.S. high performance is a quicker and more agile car that is almost certainly set to reclaim records sometime soon.

Released in its third incarnation earlier this year, the new Megane R.S. is more than just a faster and more focused track weapon. The latest in a long line of attainable, comfortable and compact daily performance cars from the French manufacturer’s RenaultSport skunkworks division, the new Megane R.S. is a more practical, efficient and technologically advanced than ever.

Urgent yet practical

Powered by a downsized but more powerful engine and most notably featuring four-wheel-steering for enhanced agility and stability, the new Megane R.S. most immediate departure from its 3-door coupe/hatchback predecessor is the adoption of a more practical 5-door design for improved rear seat access and daily usability. A more mature and evolved design with greater emphasis on width from its widened track, more prominent haunches, almost full width rear lights and narrower more aerodynamically efficient rear spoiler, the new Megane R.S. also trades its predecessor’s highly raked and low roofline for a more upright design for better rear headroom and improved visibility. 

If more practical and mature than before, the new Megane R.S. is, however, no less sporty, and in fact projects a tenser and more urgent road stance and demeanour. With a double layer LED light design and large bold emblem within a mesh grille, the new Megane R.S. also features bigger air intakes that incorporate an F1-style front blade in contrasting gun metal grey to underline Renault’s sporting heritage. Meanwhile prominent side sills lend a more grounded look while a bigger and more effective rear air diffuser sits between a large central exhaust tip and generates more downforce. Featuring functional side vents to dissipate heat and improve airflow.

Power and efficiency

Giving away 200cc displacement to its predecessor and powered by a retuned version of the same turbocharged 1.8-litre 4-cylinder used by the recently resurrected Alpine A110 sports car, the new Megane R.S. gains 11BHP and 21lb/ft. With a total output of 276BHP delivered at a higher revving 6,000rpm and 287lb/ft available throughout a broader, lower and more generously accessible 2,400-4,800rpm, the new Megane R.S. is 0.2-seconds quicker through the 0-100km/h dash at 5.8-seconds, despite a slight weight gain to 1,430kg, as fitted with the newly available and responsively slick shifting 6-speed automated dual clutch gearbox. Also more frugal, its combined cycle fuel consumption is just 7l/100km, compared to its predecessor’s 8.2l/100km.

Responsive off the line with its quick spooling turbo, the Megane R.S. pounces swiftly and tidily with the toque steer often associated with powerful front-drive cars virtually eliminated owing to the use of modified MacPherson strut front suspension with an independent steering axis pivot, just like the outgoing model. 

Effortlessly versatile throughout a generously abundant mid-range torque band for decisive in-gear acceleration, the Megane R.S. is builds power with an eager urgency and subdued snarl towards a higher peak than its predecessor. With little aerodynamic resistance and muscular delivery, the Megane R.S. defiantly and easily achieved high speeds, as driven at the Dubai Autodrome circuit, and is capable of a 250km/h maximum.

Corner carving

Reassuringly stable and with plenty of downforce generated to keep it planted through fast sweeping corners, the Megane R.S. also proved smooth, comfortable and highly settled for so sporting and composed a high performance hatchback riding on sticky and firm low profile 245/35R19.

Inspired by rally car technology, the Megane R.S. features hydraulic compressions stops within its dampers to act like a secondary internal damper at the end of wheel travel and bump stop. 

In practical terms this translates to a more settled and committed ride quality, with highly settled rebound and pendulum effect control, which also works to push the tyre into better contact with the ground for improved traction, cornering grip and braking.

Ever dynamically adroit in terms of ride and handling characteristics, the Megane Renault Sport’s piece de resistance is its 4Control four-wheel-steering system. Innovative to its segment and conceptually similar to recently featured cars like the Lamborghini Aventador S and Audi Q8, the Megane R.S.’ rear wheels turn 2.7° opposite to the front at moderate and lower speeds to effectively shorten the wheelbase for much enhanced agility and manoeuvrability, and alternately turn 1° in the same direction at speed for improved response and stability. On the already compact and manoeuvrable Megane R.S. the result is that it handles with the agility of a yet smaller segment hot hatch and the high speed stability of a larger car. 

Comfort and control

A revelation on the fast, demanding and sometimes intricate Dubai Autodrome circuit, the Megane R.S. was in its element. Braking with consistent confidence from a high speed straight and into a fast dipped carousel-like corner with rear wheels steering with the front, its stability was heroic. Impressing the feel of a tail slide while perfectly planted, it meanwhile fluently and easily recovers when tightening a cornering line by edging the rear out slightly.

Dropping several gears at once in paddle shift mode when approaching a series of chicanes, the R.S. turns in crisply and with superb body control. And with rear wheels turning opposite to front, quick and successive direction changes are executed with light-footed and nimble agility.

Comfortable, refined and sporty inside with optional Alcantara seats, contrasting stitching and smatterings of carbon fibre and aluminium the Megane R.S. delivers decent visibility and a supportive, well-adjustable driving position with integrated headrests.

Meanwhile its tablet-like infotainment screen can display various additional gauges for G-force, steering angle, temperature and more, and to suit different situations, one can choose from five driving modes including a customisable mode in terms of acoustics, gear shifts, stability setting and steering. 

Featuring numerous convenience, comfort and safety features in the more road-biased Sport version, the Megane R.S. is also available with driver assistance systems cornering direction lights, rear view camera, blindspot warning and parking assistance. 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.8-litre, transverse, turbocharged 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 79.7 x 90.1mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 276 (280) [205] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 153.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 193BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 287 (390) @2,400-4,800rpm

Specific torque: 216Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 272.7Nm/tonne

0-100 km/h: 5.8-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Fuel economy, urban/extra-urban/combined: 8.5-/6.1-/ 7-litres 

/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 158g/km

Length: 4,372mm

Width: 1,874mm

Height: 1,445mm

Wheelbase: 2,699mm

Track, F/R: 1,615/1,596mm

Overhang, F/R: 916/786mm

Ground clearance: 101mm

Cabin width, F/R: 1,418/1,420mm

Unladen weight: 1,430kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion, four-wheel-steering

Turning radius: 10.3-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts, independent steering axis pivot/H-beam

Brakes, F/R: 355mm ventilated discs/290mm discs

Stopping time, from 400-/1,000-metres: 14-/25-seconds

Tyres: 245/35R19

Mental engagement through problem-solving games like crossword puzzles, sudoku and brain teasers may not offset cognitive losses due to age-related dementia, a new study suggests. 

Still, practicing these kinds of activities throughout life might boost mental ability and provide a higher starting point before decline, researchers write in The BMJ. 

“This puts the ‘use it or lose it’ conjecture into question,” said lead author Roger Staff of the University of Aberdeen in the UK. 

Instead, childhood mental ability and intellectual engagement throughout life seem most related to cognitive scores after age 65, he said. 

“This idea is more about what you enjoy and gravitate towards throughout your life,” Staff said in a telephone interview. “Smart people want to engage rather than go home and not do anything.” 

Staff and colleagues were able to factor-in childhood ability when looking at decline in later years by analysing data from Scotland-wide testing in 1947 of all children born in 1936. Some of these students were recruited into a long-term study of aging when they were 64 and came back for testing up to five times over the next 15 years. 

During these visits, a psychologist administered tests to evaluate memory and mental processing speed. 

Staff’s team focused on about 500 participants, and also looked at their scores on a questionnaire measuring intellectual engagement, which the researchers defined as people’s interest, enjoyment and participation in reading, problem solving and thinking about abstract ideas as well as their overall intellectual curiosity. 

Overall, they found that early-life intellectual measures were associated with later-in-life engagement levels. In particular, early and continuing intellectual engagement in problem solving activities was tied to delayed cognitive decline in old age. 

Nevertheless, cognitive performance declined for everyone over time by about one point per year, indicating that decline cannot be prevented, Staff said. 

“We were expecting to find an association between intellectual engagement and the trajectory of decline and the received wisdom of ‘use it or lose it,’” Staff noted. “That seems important in terms of the group of friends and the interests you have to start with but not the rate of decline.” 

If decline starts from a higher level of cognitive ability, it will likely take longer to reach a level that is noticeable or interferes with functioning, the study team writes. 

“The higher up the mountain you are, the more you can lose before you’re impaired,” Staff said. “Essentially, people shouldn’t be afraid of a difficult task in front of them and should acquire a language or musical skill or tackle that dense novel.” 

Although cognition declines with age, targeted cognitive training programmes can improve certain specific abilities later in life, said Karlene Ball of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not involved in the current study. 

In her own research, she says, she has “found that improved cognition is long-lasting in that those who are trained are still better than they were prior to training, even after five-10 years”. 

“Novelty is important,” she told Reuters Health by e-mail. “Participants needed to be continually challenged by novel tasks which push them to greater and greater difficulty levels... which can provide people with a higher cognitive ability level to sustain function into later life.” 

All technological advancements have their pros and cons. Social media has its dark side too. 

Message to parents 

Users, especially teenagers, often seek social acceptance and relate the number of followers they get or likes they receive on their photos to their self-image.

As a parent ensure that your teen knows that she is beautiful, smart, accepted and loved regardless of the results (acceptance) of the virtual world; otherwise, the future will be full of adults with personality and behavioural problems dependent on social media for their acceptance. We should be more cautious not to be trapped within these virtual platforms all day. 

Navigating different sites and applications can be entertaining for a short period and only if we are done with our priorities or in between breaks; as excessive existence on social media is definitely “ not to be” in the real world! 

Social media in numbers

At the International Mobile Summit 2018 in Amman a few months ago, one of the speakers pointed out that if you are planning to start any business, ask yourself this question: can my business be on mobile phones as a mobile application, website or social media platform? If the answer is yes, go ahead but if the answer is no then maybe you need re-think your plan. 

Needless to say, content is a crucial issue that most companies, projects, start-ups should take into consideration. Content varies between clean professional images to videos; interesting information is of major importance. Nevertheless, when developing content, keep your target audience in mind all the time so that they find your posts: 

• Interesting

• Convenient

• Useful

• Entertaining 

• Clear, not confusing

Professional presence on social media is your first impression — people meet you virtually before meeting you in the real world and so it is your image that you have not only to work on developing in the minds of your potential customers or clients, but also maintain this through every post and frequent interaction.

Below are interesting findings from Crowd Analyser’s State of Social Media 2018 report. Note that in all three countries, most social media users are male. Females, though, outnumber males when it comes to Snapchat. Most social media users in Saudi Arabia and Egypt prefer to publish their content in Arabic, while users in the United Arab Emirates prefer to publish in English.

Social media use in Jordan and beyond

Among all popular social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and Whatsapp, Facebook has the highest number of active users in Jordan and worldwide. 

According to StatCounter Global Stats for Jordan (May 2017-May 2018): 

• 60 per cent of social media users in Jordan are using Facebook

• Almost 35 per cent use YouTube

• Less than 2 per cent are on Pinterest 

• 1 per cent are on Twitter 

• Less than 0.5 per cent on Instagram

Instagram

• Saudi Arabia is one of the most active countries in the region on Instagram. Most users prefer publishing their content in Arabic. Their most engaging topic is news, followed by travel.

• UAE: Shopping, fashion and food are the most interesting interactive topics on Instagram for users in this country 

• Egypt: The main topics that interest Egyptians on Instagram are online shopping, followed by games.

Facebook

• Saudi Arabia: 16 million Saudis are active on Facebook and a majority of them are interested in publishing content about games and fashion shopping.

• UAE: Expats are 6 million out of 9 million active users in the country.

• Egypt: Egyptian users on Facebook compose a huge base of users that exceeds 35 million.

Twitter

• Saudi Arabia: KSA has the highest number of active Twitter users compared to UAE and Egypt. Millennials (those born after 1980) are the majority of users

• UAE: The majority of Twitter users are most interested in fitness and sport

• Egypt: Compared to other platforms, a small number of Egyptians are active on Twitter. Their favourite topic is music

Linkedin

• Saudi Arabia: LinkedIn users are top and middle managerial levels

• UAE has the highest number of users compared to Egypt and Saudi Arabic, which is not surprising, given that the country is a business hub in the region

• Egypt: Egypt has almost the same number of LinkedIn users as Saudi Arabia

Snapchat

• Saudi Arabia: Snapchat insights are slightly different from the norm. Saudi users are really active on this platform

• UAE: Millennials are the majority of users

• Egypt: Egyptians are not fond of Snapchat, at least not as much as Saudi users. Millennials tend to be the most active

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

A brief programme that encouraged people to track their weight and to be mindful of the excess energy in every holiday cookie or cup of nog seems to have helped participants get through the holiday season without gaining weight. 

The trial in the UK recruited participants in November and December of 2016 and 2017, and followed up with them about 45 days later. Those assigned to the weight-gain prevention program ended up losing 0.13kg, on average, while the control group gained 0.37kg, the study team reported December 10 online in The BMJ. 

“On Christmas Day alone, someone might consume 6,000 calories, or three times the recommended daily allowance,” said a co-author of the study, Amanda Farley of the University of Birmingham. 

“We were unsure how well the public would respond to the idea of controlling their food and drink over Christmas,” Farley told Reuters Health by e-mail. “But we found that participants were very motivated.” 

Past research has found that holiday periods are often when people put on extra kilogrammes, but they do not tend to lose that weight after the holidays are over. Since even a holiday weight gain of just a half a kilogramme to a kilo each year will add up over a decade, the study team wanted to explore tactics to help prevent putting on weight in the first place. 

They recruited 272 adults who were told only that they would participate in a study of winter weight gain. About half were randomly assigned to receive a general brochure on healthy living. 

The other half got advice to weigh themselves frequently, ideally every day, record their weight, and “reflect on weight trajectory”. They also got 10 tips for weight management, as well as a graphical list of holiday foods showing the amount of exercise that would be required to offset the calorie content of each — for instance, expending the calories in a mince pie requires 21 minutes of running, and a small glass of mulled wine requires 32 minutes of walking. 

The 10 tips for weight management included sticking to a regular meal routine, choosing reduced fat options, walking 10,000 steps daily, opting for healthy snacks, reading food labels, thinking twice about large portions and seconds, breaking up sitting time, reducing alcoholic and sweet drinks, slowing down while eating and aiming to include five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. 

About 80 per cent of the participants were women, roughly one third in the normal weight range, more than one third overweight, and the rest obese. 

The researchers’ goal was for participants to gain no more than half a kilogramme over the holiday period. 

Instead, the research team found that the intervention group, on average, lost a little weight while the control group gained a bit. The difference in weight gain between the groups was 0.49kg a statistically meaningful amount, the study team concludes. 

Based on questionnaire responses at the follow-up, people in the intervention group also scored higher for practicing “cognitive restraint”. However, there were no significant differences between the groups in changes in body fat percentage, emotional eating or uncontrolled eating. 

“Many people gain weight over Christmas, but that is not inevitable,” Farley said. “It is possible to demonstrate some restraint of eating and drinking and build in simple ways to be active while still enjoying the festive season.” 

Few randomised controlled trials have studied effective programs to combat the year-end bloat, noted Dale Schoeller of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who was not involved in the study. 

Although this study showed a change, it is hard to say which aspect was effective, Schoeller said. 

“It would be interesting to take this programme apart and try to understand what changes led to the prevention of weight gain,” he said in a phone interview. “Did restraint with food or alcohol, or compensating with exercise, make the difference, or was it a combination?” 

In this study, the majority of participants were white women in their 40s. Future studies should include different communities and could tailor the tips to appeal to different audiences and countries, said Rolando Giovanni Diaz Zavala of the University of Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico, who also was not involved in the research. 

“Once people are overweight, there are metabolic and neuroendocrine changes [possibly irreversible] that fight to regain weight lost,” he said in an e-mail. “Preventing weight gain seems to be the smartest strategy.” 

WASHINGTON — Researchers have found “different patterns” in brain scans among children who record heavy smart device and video game use, according to initial data from a major ongoing US study.

The first wave of information from the $300 million National Institute of Health (NIH) study is showing that those nine and 10-year-old kids spending more than seven hours a day using such devices show signs of premature thinning of the cortex, the brain’s outermost layer that processes sensory information.

“We don’t know if it’s being caused by the screen time. We don’t know yet if it’s a bad thing,” said Gaya Dowling, an NIH doctor working on the project, explaining the preliminary findings in an interview with the CBS news program 60 Minutes.

“What we can say is that this is what the brains look like of kids who spend a lot of time on screens. And it’s not just one pattern,” Dowling said.

The NIH data reported on CBS also showed that kids who spend more than two hours a day on screens score worse on language and reasoning tests.

The study — which involves scanning the brains of 4,500 children — eventually aims to show whether screen time is addictive, but researchers need several years to understand such long-term outcomes.

“In many ways, the concern that investigators like I have is, that we’re sort of in the midst of a natural kind of uncontrolled experiment on the next generation of children,” Dimitri Christakis, a lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ most recent guidelines on screen time, told 60 Minutes.

Initial data from the study will begin to be released in early 2019.

The academy now recommends parents “avoid digital media use — except video chatting — in children younger than 18 to 24 months”.

Six or seven years ago few people really understood what it was, and even fewer ones were able to come up with a clear definition of it. Now virtually all users of Internet-connected devices are familiar with it and do use it. We are talking about cloud storage.

If only smartphone users who rely on cloud storage to make continuous backup of their phone’s digital contents, indeed the vast majority of those who operate computers of all kinds, including mobile devices such as tablets for example, makes use of some form of cloud storage today.

Are all cloud storage services equal? Are there any special precautions to take with them?

Whereas there are several good such services available — perhaps a dozen — the best known and the most popular remain Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud (the famous “i” prefix says it all…), Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.

All will give you a basic amount of storage for free; typically about 5GB of it. Whereas this may be enough for some, particularly at the beginning, most users will find it not large enough after a while. Though subscriptions are different from one service to another, differences are not that big, any of the four above mentioned services will give you about 1TB of storage for a yearly paid subscription of $100. Again, these storage size and prices are averages.

The first thing to realise is that extensive usage of cloud storage calls for an as-fast-as-possible Internet connectivity, be it cabled or wireless. Indeed, once hooked on it, you will not only be buying more and more storage space, but will be performing increasingly large uploads and downloads to the web. Unless your Internet is really fast, you will feel frustrated at having all this space to store data but with slow upload/download (=save/open) speed. Ideally a good fibre optic subscription would be recommended.

The second aspect is the quality and the level of the service provided. I went through a near-catastrophic experience by the end of last summer only to be saved by the highly professional service of my cloud storage provider, Dropbox in this very case.

My computer had caught a bad ransomware virus. By the time I realised what was happening the virus had “locked” not only all the files present on my local hard disk but also all the files stored in my Dropbox, since I was always online and therefore my Dropbox contents were accessible to the virus.

Fortunately, after having contacted Dropbox to explain the situation, the company said they always keep previous versions of their users’ files as safety backup sets. These sets understandably were not affected by the virus, and therefore Dropbox were able to retrieve for me all my data stored with them, thanks to this excellent, smart precautionary measure. As for the files that were stored on my local hard disk, and that were completely lost, there were not many and were not important. All that was important was saved in Dropbox. I was happy to have a paid, professional cloud storage subscription.

While good cloud storage can work as an effective backup for all of your files, understanding the system, how it works and synchronises files, and carefully using it also matters. This is true mainly to watch and monitor files synchronisation and especially in cases where you have more than one device connected. Files synchronisation between your local hard disk and the corresponding cloud storage is an essential part of the system.

Whenever you launch your computer (or tablet, or smartphone), make sure that your cloud storage has finished synchronising all data and is ready for you, before you start working on any file stored in the cloud. This will avoid problems such as “conflicting versions of the same file found”. There is usually a small icon on the screen that indicates if synchronisation is done or not.

Some are tempted to run more than one cloud storage service at the same time. There is no law against that, but it may make your life with technology uselessly complicated, unless you happen to be very much tech-minded.

One in seven people with type 2 diabetes may be needlessly testing their blood sugar at home several times a day, a US study suggests. 

People with type 2 diabetes don’t need to test their blood at home if they have well controlled symptoms and don’t take medications that can cause dangerously low blood sugar, doctors say. For these patients, studies have not found that home blood sugar monitoring makes any difference in blood sugar levels. But still, many of them are pricking their fingers unnecessarily. 

For the current study, researchers examined data on more than 370,000 people with type 2 diabetes. Overall, almost 88,000, or about 23 per cent, had at least three insurance claims for test strips used to check blood sugar at home. 

More than half of the people testing their blood sugar at home didn’t need to do this, accounting for 14 per cent of the total study population, researchers reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

“Many type 2 diabetes patients not using insulin or other medications at risk of rapid changes in blood sugar levels are testing far more often then they need to be,” said lead study author Dr Kevin Platt of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

“This needless behaviour causes unnecessary pokes, worry, and costs,” Platt said by e-mail. “More is not always better when it comes to medical care.” 

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, is linked to obesity and aging and happens when the body can’t properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy. Left untreated, it can lead to complications like blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, and amputations. 

Many patients can keep their blood sugar in a healthy range with oral medications and don’t need insulin. Unlike insulin, which immediately affects blood sugar and requires regular testing to ensure blood sugar is in a healthy range, most pills for diabetes don’t require regular testing because they don’t cause rapid shifts in blood sugar, Platt said. 

Among people in the study who appeared to be needlessly testing blood sugar at home, about 33,000 individuals were taking medications that aren’t known to cause dangerously low blood sugar and another 19,000 were not taking any diabetes medicines at all. 

Half of the patients doing unnecessary blood sugar tests at home did these tests at least twice a day and half of them had testing supply costs of at least $325 a year, the study found. 

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how home testing directly impacted blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. 

And some patients might still need to test at home, even if they don’t need to do this multiple times daily, said Sheri Colberg a professor emerita at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, who has studied and treated people with diabetes. 

“Even if checking routinely may not change outcomes like overall blood glucose management, the benefit of having glucose testing strips available is that individuals — even non-insulin users — are then able to check their blood glucose when their usual routines vary, during times of illness or whenever other events may negatively impact their blood glucose,” Colberg, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

Patients should discuss their home blood sugar testing needs at every checkup, advised Dr Vanessa Arguello of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

“Diabetic patients who are using insulin or are on oral medications that may cause low blood sugars should monitor their blood sugars multiple times per day including before meals, at bedtime, occasionally after meals to learn about nutrition therapy, prior to critical tasks and when they suspect low blood sugars,” Arguello said by email.

“Diabetic patients who are not using insulin or are not taking medications that may cause low blood sugars can monitor their blood sugars less frequent from twice daily to every other day based on their diabetes goals established by the individual and their physician,” Arguello added.

In my previous life, I found long married couples quite irritating. By previous life I mean the initial stages of my youth, when I was single and held strong and unshakable opinion about every aspect of existence. The main reason for my exasperation with the much-married lot was that if one of them started a story, the partner took it upon himself/herself to conclude it. In short, they completed each other’s sentences and the listener had to constantly switch attention from one individual to another. During the course of the narrative, that is.

If it were as easy as one starting the recounting with the other taking over smoothly, it would not be so distressing. That politeness was generally reserved for short directives like 

“Would you like tea?” asking one. “Or coffee?” adding the other. The problem arose with “You know what happened this morning as I was making tea,” saying one. “It was not this morning, it was Monday evening and you were not making tea, you were boiling milk for the coffee,” rectifying the other simultaneously. 

In a situation like this my heart would sink and I knew I was trapped for the entire duration of the disagreement. And however unbiased you tried to be; in the end you would be dragged invariably into other people’s war of words. 

When it was time for me to enter holy matrimony I was determined to not succumb to this temptation and would relate my own experiences, without interrupting spouse when he narrated his. Initially it worked wonderfully because we were not a part of each other’s childhood and came from completely diverse backgrounds. A decade or so later, a lot of our accounts merged as we went through similar occurrences. Despite that there was no quarrel in our narration because, well, I was a talker while my husband was a listener and gradually I became an expert at telling his side of the story too.

However, with the passage of time my memory began to fail and I could not remember the finer nuances of events. For example, if our car broke down in a particular place, I found it difficult to recall if it was on the way to a party or on the trip back. I started consulting my husband to provide the correct answer but he was not used to this kind of fact-check, so to speak and came up with monosyllabic responses. “To”, he would say and that was it. I could do whatever I wished with that bit of information.

Soon I decided that it was too much of an effort to reconfirm everything therefore if I did not remember the specifics, I let it pass. The stories still played in my head though, but I stopped vocalising them.

One week later a cyclone struck in my part of the world and the sky reverberated with thunder, lightening and torrential rain.

“I can’t hear you,” my friend was on the phone.

“What’s the eerie noise?” she questioned.

“That’s the sound of the hurricane,” I told her.

“Has been going on since six in the morning,” I added.

“It’s only a whirlwind,” my husband announced.

“And started at nine not six,” he stated.

“You were fast asleep. How would you know?” I said.

“Who put a bucket under the leaking roof?” he asked.

“It was a dustbin not a bucket,” I corrected.

“I get the picture! Bye,” sighed my friend, disconnecting the phone.

The benefits of statins in reducing the odds of heart attacks and strokes far outweigh any risks of side effects, according to a scientific statement released by the American Heart Association. 

The statement, based on a review of a plethora of studies evaluating the safety and side effects of the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, is scheduled for publication in the journal Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. 

“For consumers, the message is that the benefits of statins well outweigh the risk of important harms,” said statement coauthor Dr Larry Goldstein, Ruth L. Works professor and chairman of the department of neurology and co-director of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute KY Clinic at the University of Kentucky. Patients “should discuss the reasons for taking statins and any concerns about risks with their healthcare provider”. 

Currently, one in four Americans over age 40 takes a statin drug, Goldstein and his colleagues noted. But as many as 10 per cent stop taking statins because of symptoms they fear are caused by the medications. 

The authors urge patients to see a healthcare provider before quitting statins because of presumed side effects, except in the case of one type of symptom: dark urine the colour of cola or coffee. That symptom can be the sign of the rare, but dangerous, side effect called rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which muscle fibers break down rapidly. The condition can result in acute kidney failure. 

Rhabdomyolysis is seen in fewer than one in 1,000 patients taking statin therapy, Goldstein and his coauthors reported. 

The other serious side effect is severe liver damage, which the authors reported occurred in about one in 100,000 patients taking statins. 

“Routine tests of muscle and liver function are not recommended,” Goldstein said in an e-mail. “An assessment of muscle symptoms and other medications that can affect the muscles is recommended as a baseline.” 

Most muscle aches and pains in people taking statins “are not serious and are not necessarily caused by statins”, Goldstein said. “These symptoms are more likely to be statin related if they affect both sides of the body and the thigh and shoulder muscles and occur within the first few weeks or months of starting treatment.” 

For statin users worried about muscle pains and aches, blood tests to measure creatine kinase levels can confirm or rule out rhabdomyolysis. 

“Severe liver impairment is very rare,” Goldstein said. “Symptoms can include skin and eyes becoming yellow, dark urine, abdominal pain, itchy skin, pale stool and bruising.” 

The researchers also determined that statins could raise the risk of diabetes — but only in people who were likely to develop the disease anyway, based on their risk factors. The risk for bleeding in the brain was not increased with statin use, except in those who had already had a stroke. 

However, the authors found “no convincing evidence for a causal relationship between statins and cancer, cataracts, cognitive dysfunction, peripheral neuropathy, erectile dysfunction, or tendonitis”. 

While there can be side effects, even rare serious ones, patients should ask: “‘What is the ‘side effect’ of not taking statins?’ It’s a 25 to 50 per cent increased risk of having a heart attack, a stroke or a premature cardiovascular death,” said Dr Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved with the new article. 

With respect to one of the more serious side effects — rhabdomyolysis — it is even more rare than the new statement suggests, if you look only at patients without heart disease who are taking statins to lower cholesterol as a preventive measure, said Fonarow. In those patients, the risk “is more like one in 50,000 or 100,000”, he added. 

Statins are among the “very few medications invented in the modern era that save lives”, said Dr Omar Ali, medical director of Cardiac Cath Lab at Harper University Hospital at the Detroit Medical Centre. 

“For the appropriate patients, taking statins for primary prevention saves lives and even in secondary prevention statins save lives,” said Ali, who was not involved with the new article. “The most important thing is to be in direct consultation with a cardiologist or primary care physician, so if you start experiencing any of the side effects, you can get in touch with your doctor sooner and get the appropriate care.” 

Among the most dramatic cars, the second incarnation of Lamborghini’s now flagship model range is every bit as exotically extrovert as expected of the raging bull brand. Introduced late last year and gaining the suffix “S” in place of the alphanumeric model designation from its name, and so dubbed Aventador S Roadster in open top guise, it remains one of the world’s defining supercars. Redeveloped for improved performance and driving, the Aventador S receives new driving modes, more power and most significantly since the Aventador model line first appeared in 2011 as coupe and 2013 as Roadster, four-wheel-steering now sharpens its agility and handling prowess even further.

Stealing the limelight

Immediately identifiable as a Lamborghini with the same squat, wide shape and sharply angular lines derived from its distant and iconic Countach predecessor, the revised Aventador S Roadster adopts a sharper and more assertive look than the pre-facelift model. With an emphasis on its already significant 20,30mm physical width and low 1,136mm height, the new Aventador’s face is noticeably less snouty and does away with the outgoing model’s vast side intakes and jutting shark-like nose. Instead, it features a more complex face with wider grille and intakes separated by gills and more prominent air splitter below. Meanwhile in profile, it features slightly revised vents and intakes.

A distinctively moody design that looks as fast is goes the low-slung mid-engine Aventador is a feast of jutting edges and sharply angled and defined lines, it has a larger than life persona that steals the limelight wherever it goes and next any other car. The revised Aventador S Roadster meanwhile has a more palpable sense of urgency, with new air intakes at the side of its rear buttresses, revised engine cover slats and a more layered, jutting, pert and now black rear fascia with more horizontal emphasis, slimmer upper heat extractors, and more prominent air diffuser slats and pyramid-like hexagonal central exhaust pipe cluster.

Visceral vocals

Viciously vocal and searing swift, the Aventador S Roadster is powered by one of the world’s most viscerally charismatic engines. Lamborghini’s second all-new V12 engine and successor to the brand’s original Giotto Bizzarrini developed V12, which increased from 3.5- to 6.5 litres between 1963 and 2011, the Aventador’s new Audi ownership-era V12 also sees a power rise since first used for the Aventador LP700-4. Developing 730BHP at a stratospheric 8,400rpm, it is a decidedly over-square design with more emphasis on top-end power rather than torque. That said, the Aventador S nevertheless packs a mighty 509lb/ft at 5,500rpm, the point by which power peaks in most modern turbocharged cars.

Eager, free and responsive to rev hard and high and wind down, the Aventador S delivers superb throttle control to dial in exacting increments of power and subsequently balance slip and grip through corners. Urgent, insistent and evocative, the Aventador S vast mid-mounted 6.5-litre V12 goes through a charismatic medley of sounds from resonant and metallic staccato to an intense buzz-saw like wail as its reaches its crescendo. One of the last great naturally-aspirated engines in production, it may be a more rev-happy engine, but it certainly isn’t lacking at low-end, and digs deep to deliver a consistently progressive and rapidly escalating torrent of power from tick-over to redline.

Escalating aggression

Flexible in mid-range, capable of pulling hard in high gear and a 350km/h maximum, the Aventador S Roadster is scintillatingly swift in acceleration from standstill. With four-wheel-drive traction it smashes the 0-100km/h benchmark in just 3-seconds, passes the 200km/h mark in 9-seconds and hits 300km/h in 25-seconds, but is somewhat thirsty, with 16.9-litre combined fuel efficiency. Fitted with standard single-clutch automated 7-speed gearbox with three escalating swift shift modes, cog changes, however, lack the speed and seamlessness of its junior supercar Huracan sister’s dual-clutch gearbox. Nevertheless, it delivers quick and deliberate changes at speed and a charismatic experience, if at the cost of slightly jerky shifts at lower speeds. 

Built on a rigid yet lightweight carbon-fibre moncoque with front and rear aluminium frames and mixed material body including flourishes of exposed carbon-fibre, the Aventador S Roadster is meanwhile underpinned by a sophisticated and exotic double wishbone suspension with horizontal pushrod active magnetic dampers. Set up for a highly sporting character and riding staggered 255/30ZR20 front tyres for good steering feel and enormous low profile 355/25ZR21 at the rear for massive traction and grip, the Roadster is firm on the road and over jagged bumps in particular. Its softest damper setting does, however, keep it sufficiently forgiving. Meanwhile on motorway its, low and wide footprint keeps it impeccably settled and firmly planted.

Agility and stability

Carrying speed with confidence in abundance, the Roadster’s new four-wheel-steering ensures improved lane-changing stability, while improved aerodynamics and a 3-position adjustable pop-up rear wing provides 130 per cent more downforce at speed and through corners, and considerably enhanced efficiency in low drag position. Road-hugging and buttoned down, it rides like on rails through corners, with low-mounted and ideally positioned mid-engine engine providing a 53 per cent within wheelbase rear weight bias. The result is an immediate and crisp turn-in, highly controlled lateral body movement and huge grip levels when reapplying power by a corner’s apex, while its rear-biased four-wheel-drive automatically reapportion power where needed and ensures excellent road-holding through corners. 

Most significant is the Aventador S’ new four-wheel-steering, which at speed turns the rear wheels slightly in the same direction as the front for added stability, but in the same direction at lower speeds to effectively shorten the wheelbase and considerably enhance agility, manoeuvrability and road-holding. Necessitating suspension geometry and electronic stability and control alterations, four-wheel-steering makes a huge improvement to the Aventador’s driving dynamic and allows it send more power to the rear wheels for a more balanced driving style and to virtually banish understeer. Meanwhile its quick steering is direct and delivers good feel and stability at speed, while huge carbon ceramic brakes are tirelessly effective.

True to its kind

A unique and individual supercar that wears its unreconstructed machismo and old school charm on its sleeve, but is nevertheless underpinned by very modern technology, systems and development, driving the Aventador S Roadster is an occasion. Refined and well-insulated with its roof in place, it takes a more visceral character when the manually operated roof panels are removed and stowed in its front luggage compartment, but a happy medium is to open the rear letterbox screen to get the full audio experience without the open air exposure. Meanwhile, in the city, the Aventador can lift its front ride height from 115mm to 155mm to safely clear most ramps and bumps.

A defining supercar and a visceral delight for the senses, the Aventador S Roadster is true to its segment, and isn’t the most practical, but one soon adjusts and accepts its idiosyncrasies, width and limited rear visibility. Stepping in past its sexy scissor doors is easy enough, the Roadster is driver focused inside in driving position and numerous buttons across its huge centre console, including a guarded firing button-like starter. Leather-bound and sportily luxurious, its low cabin requires tall drivers to hunker down for headroom and slouch for added visibility, but otherwise adequately spaced. Reversing visibility is meanwhile almost entirely dependent on the backup camera, but there is an admittedly unorthodox workaround technique!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 6.5-litre, mid-mounted, dry sump, V12-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 95 x 76.4mm

Compression ratio: 12:1

Valve-train: 48-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 7-speed automated single-clutch, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 3.909; 2nd 2.438; 3rd 1,81; 4th 1.458; 5th 1.185; 6th 0.867; 7th 0.844; R 2.929

Final drive, F/R: 3.273/2.867 

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 730 (740) [544] @8,400rpm

Specific power: 112.3BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 449.2BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 509 (690) @5,500rpm

Specific torque: 106.2Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 424.6Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 3-seconds

0-200km/h: 9-seconds

0-300km/h: 25-seconds

Top speed: 350km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 26.2-/11.6-/
16.9-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 394g/km

Fuel capacity: 85-litres

Track, F/R: 1,720/1,680mm

Ground clearance, min/mx: 115/155mm

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion, and rear-wheel-steering

Lock-to-lock, min/max: 2.1-/2.4-turns

Suspension: Double wishbones, horizontal pushrod active magnetic dampers

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated, carbon-ceramic discs 400 x 38mm/380 x 38mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 6-/4-piston callipers

Braking distance, 100-0km/h: 31-metres

Tyres: 255/30ZR20/355/25ZR21