Features

LOS ANGELES — If you find it hard to predict which songs are destined for pop-chart success and which will flop, try asking a computer.

After analysing the attributes of more than half a million songs released over a period of 30 years, a computer algorithm was able to sort the successful songs from also-rans with an accuracy of up to 86 per cent.

A team of mathematicians from UC Irvine described how — and why — it accomplished this feat in a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

“There is something magical about music,” wrote the team, which was led by students Myra Interiano, Kamyar Kazemi and Lijia Wang. “Scientists have been trying to disentangle the magic and explain what it is that makes us love some music, hate other music and just listen to music.”

For the purposes of the study, the UCI team considered a song a “success” if it made it onto the Top 100 Singles Chart in the United Kingdom between January 1985 and July 2015. They compared these successes with all other songs that were released in the UK during that time period.

To quantify the acoustic properties of these 500,000 or so songs, Interiano and her colleagues relied on crowd-sourced data from two projects of the MetaBrainz Foundation — MusicBrainz and AcousticBrainz.

This data classified songs according to 12 acoustic properties, including whether they are sung by a man or woman, are happy or sad, and are acoustic or electronic, among other attributes. Songs are also categorised according to their mood and genre, such as hip-hop, blues, country and house music.

Less than 4 per cent of songs in the entire sample found their way onto the Top 100 Singles Chart. To see what set these songs apart, they employed a machine learning method known as the “random forest” algorithm to crunch through all the data.

Sure enough, some noteworthy patterns emerged.

“Successful songs are happier, brighter, more party-like, more danceable and less sad than most songs,” the team wrote.

That may sound like an obvious recipe for pop-music success. But it actually went against the dominant musical trends.

Over the decades, songs exhibited “a clear downward trend in ‘happiness’ and ‘brightness,’ as well as a slight upward trend in ‘sadness’”, the study authors reported. “The public seems to prefer happier songs, even though more and more unhappy songs are being released each year.”

That observation matched up with previous studies of song lyrics that found they contained fewer “positive emotions” and made more references to loneliness and social isolation as the years went by.

“It is interesting that, in this particular instance, acoustic characteristics of songs indicate similar patterns to those uncovered in lyrics,” the researchers wrote.

In addition, the successful songs in a given year tended to be less “male” than other songs released at the same time, according to the study.

To test the strength of their algorithm, they asked it to assess 1,052 songs that were released in 2014 and predict which of them charted and which of them were also-rans.

When the algorithm used song data from 2009 to 2013 as a guide, it was able to make the correct guess 75 per cent of the time, the researchers reported.

The accuracy got even better when the researchers included a non-acoustic variable — the “superstar” factor.

An artist was deemed a superstar if he or she had a song on the charts in the previous five years. In a given year, somewhere between one-half and two-thirds of successful songs were from superstar artists. That compared with no more than 2 per cent of songs in the larger pool that did not make the charts.

When the purely acoustic data were combined with the superstar data, the algorithm correctly identified successful songs 85 per cent of the time. The accuracy improved to 86 per cent when the algorithm trained itself on songs going back to 2004.

Even with this success rate, there are still limits on what computers can do, the team cautioned.

“We can see that, in general, successful songs are, for example, ‘happier,’ more ‘party-like,’ less ‘relaxed’ and more ‘female’ than most,” they concluded. But, “This does not necessarily allow us to naively predict that a particular ‘happy, party-like, not relaxed’ song sung by a female is going to succeed.”

AMMAN — Introducing an assertive new design language and face for Ingolstadt’s SUVs, the Audi Q8 also marks the four-ring brand’s expansion into the coupe-like end of the SUV segment. Launched globally earlier in the year and weeks ago in the Middle East, the chunky and luxurious Q8 is practical and reassuringly committed on the road. 

Built on a shared platform as other Volkswagen-Audi group SUVs like the Lamborghini Urus and Bentley Bentayga, the Q8 employs much of the high tech systems first introduced last year for the A8 flagship luxury saloon, including its standard 48-volt mild hybrid system and sublime optional four-wheel-steering.

Competing in a segment in which the BMW X6 and Mercedes GLE Coupe have virtually had a free run so far, the Q8 seems set to make quite the impact as Audi’s take on the so-called “four-door-coupe” SUV. With sculpted surfacing and pronounced ridges, the Q8’s design has a more solid and focused sensibility. Avoiding its competitor’s rakishly rising waistline and impractically descending roofline angles, the Q8 has a more grounded and hunkered down aesthetic, and more importantly, offers comparatively generous rear passenger space and driver sightlines. Mature, confident and imposing in appearance, the Q8’s focal design element is its new octagonal grille.

New look, new segment

Dominating its visage, the Q8’s snouty eight-sided single-frame grille is set to adorn all future Audi SUVs, and was first seen on the 2015 Audi E-Tron Quattro Concept. While much of its design cues can be traced to the futuristic (and soon to be launched) E-Tron, the Q8 pays homage to its past. Discretely referencing the seminal and now classic 1980s Audi Quattro coupe, the Q8 features a thick grille frame flanked by heavily browed and moody headlights, blacked out section between its rear lights, and a similar C-pillar angle. But most pointedly, it features muscularly blistered wheel-arches in homage to the original Quattro.

Built using mixed materials including high strength steels for strength, rigidity and safety, the Q8’s extensive use of aluminium meanwhile reduces weight for the sake of dynamics, performance and efficiency. Offered with a single direct injection twin-turbo 3-litre V6 petrol engine and launch, and with more powerful and high performance V8s expected in the near future, the driven entry-level Q8 55 TFSI model proved confident and quick even on steep inclines and altitudes up to 2,000 metres above sea level, as driven on Oman’s Jebal Al Akhdar, and with a healthy 369lb/ft torque throughout a broad and accessibly versatile 1,370-4,500rpm at its disposal.

Seamless delivery

Responsive from idle owing to quick-spooling turbos evidenced by a distinctive turbo whistle with its frameless windows down, the Q8 pulls hard and consistent from tick-over to redline. And with 335BHP available at a 5,000-6,400rpm plateau, returns a brisk 6.2-second 0-100km/h time and 250km/h top speed.

Refined, smooth and quiet in delivery, the Q8’s mid-range versatility is aided by a smooth 8-speed automatic gearbox to best utilise output for performance and efficiency, and which becomes snappier, more responsive and concise in Dynamic driving mode. The Q8 is fitted with a standard 48v mild hybrid system, which helps it achieve moderate 7.2l/100km combined fuel efficiency despite its 2,195kg weight.

Powering various ancillary and electrical systems, and harvesting energy from regenerative brakes and the combustion engine, the Q8’s 48v hybrid system is not designed to contribute to driving the vehicle, but can provide a 5lb/ft torque boost back from the starter-generator when necessary.

Responsible for 0.7l/100km fuel efficiency saving, the 48v system allows for the engine to automatically switch off for 40-seconds between 55 to 160km/h, and for
stop/start system operation from 22km/h. Renowned for its tenacious traction, the Q8 Quattro four-wheel-drive system meanwhile drives with a 40:60 front-to-rear power split, but can re-apportion 85 per cent power rearwards or 70 per cent frontwards when needed for agility or road-holding.

Unexpected agility

Ascending through Jebel Akhdar’s tight and seemingly endless winding corners, it was the Q8’s optional four-wheel-steering system that most impressed. Aided by selective braking torque vectoring, the Q8’s four-wheel-steering allowed for uncannily tidy handling agility and road-holding that belies its size, height and weight, the Q8 dispatches quick hairpins without a hint of tyre squeal. Turning 1.5 degrees along with the front wheels for highway stability and responsive lane changes, the Q8’s rear-wheel-steering turns 5 degrees in the opposite direction at lower speed, or as necessary. Turning into corners like a smaller and lighter car, the Q8’s rear-wheel-steering acts to simulates a shorter, more manoeuvrable and nimble wheelbase.

Highly grippy and unexpectedly nimble through corners, and as stable, refined and settled at speed as expected, the Q8’s optional adaptive air suspension, meanwhile,  well compensated for its huge and firm 285/40R22 tyres on all but the sharpest and most jagged road imperfections. Taut and well controlled in Dynamic mode through corners, the Q8’s air suspension is meanwhile significantly smoother and more supple, forgiving and fluent in Comfort mode. Taking the edge off of rough gravel routes, the Q8’s air suspension is also a useful off-road tool and can raise ride height to 254mm for improved clearance and approach, break-over and departure angles.

Committed and comfortable

Designed for on road use, the Q8, however, delivers more off-road ability than is expected in its particular segment, and during test drive dispatched somewhat steep dirt road inclines with ease, and proved manoeuvrable, committed and adjustable driving over loose surfaces. A comfortable ride in most circumstances, the Q8 would have been more so with base specification 19-inch alloy wheels were they available for Middle East markets. Steering is meaty, quick and direct, but thinner wheels would improve road feel, while braking proved effective and resilient, if working hard downhill. Meanwhile, driving position is supportive and comfortable with good in-class visibility, aided by an optional 360° reversing camera.

Finished with an abundance of soft textures, leathers and rich optional black Alcantara roofline, the Q8 is designed in an elegant and user-friendly manner. Refined and quiet inside, the Q8 offers good cabin room, front and rear, for an SUV with a low coupe-like roofline, while luggage capacity is generous at 605-litres. Featuring twin large stacked infotainment screens with black glass haptic touch buttons, configurable Virtual Cockpit digital instrumentation, panoramic roof, Isofix child seat latches and Side Assist and Pre-sense safety system and four-zone climate control, it can also be equipped with seat ventilation, parking assistance and HD Matrix LED headlights.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3-litre, turbocharged, in-line V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 11.2:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Drive-line: self-locking centre differential

Power distribution, F/R: 40 per cent/60 per cent

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 335 (340) [250] @5,000-6,400rpm

Specific power: 111.8BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 368.8 (500) @1,370-4,500rpm

Specific torque: 166.9Nm/litre

0-100km/h: 6.2-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h (electronically governed)

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.2-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 168g/km

Fuel capacity: 85-litres

Length: 4,986mm

Width: 1,995mm

Height: 1,705mm

Wheelbase: 2,995mm

Overhang, F/R: 978/1,013mm

Track, F/R: 1,679/1,691mm

Ground clearance: 254mm

Approach/departure angles: 22.1°/23.8°

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.34

Headroom, F/R: 1,044/981mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,512/1,486mm

Loading height: 820mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 605-/1,755-litres

Unladen/kerb weight: 2,195/2,270kg (est.)

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

Steering ratio: 14.6:1

Turning Circle: 12.3-metres (as tested)

Suspension: Five-link, adaptive air dampers

Brakes: Ventilated discs, 375/350mm

Tyres: 285/40R22

Price, starting from: JD101,193

There is something we desperate dieters have in common: we often happen to be our worst enemy when it comes to sabotaging ourselves. Just when we need to be our best advocate and coach, our inner critic never gives us a break. 

We can’t even take a compliment without wondering what the motive is behind the well-intentioned person giving it. Yet, we are so ready to receive criticism and to believe negative comments others say about us without even challenging those thoughts. 

‘Stinking Thinking’

Living like this long enough causes us to develop patterns of what I call “Stinking Thinking” that does nothing but erode our internal dialogue and leads us to believe things about ourselves that simply are not true. These adopted beliefs that we allow to go unchallenged become self-fulfilling prophecies because, all of the sudden, we have labelled ourselves as Desperate Dieters who just cannot seem to take control of managing and controlling our weight. We become obsessed with food, calories and scales all the while the child inside of us is wondering whatever happened to just eating food when we are hungry and taking out all the emotions from this equation!

Is food our pacifier?

If we challenge ourselves beyond our comfort zones and ask ourselves some tough questions, then maybe we can get somewhere as desperate dieters. Have you ever asked yourself that maybe we are desperate dieters because we have desperately neglected to address deeper issues in our lives? These issues are more loaded than a piece of chocolate cake! We choose the easier road of eating that cake because we just do not want to deal with facing other issues we should be addressing.

For the desperate dieters food is the “go to cover” that pacifies and gives immediate comfort. For the smoker, it is the cigarette, for the drinker, it is the liquor, for the gambler, it is their favourite game but ultimately it is a high that ends with the lowest of lows, leaving one feeling empty, worthless, depressed and ready to check out again and so the vicious cycle repeats. The beginning of any healing must start with facing the painful reality of what current conditions we are facing.

Honest self-evaluation

We need to train ourselves to step out and take an outside look at ourselves as if we were someone else watching to get an objective view of what is happening and how we are responding to the stresses and challenges of our lives. Are we reaching inward or outward to replenish and restore our souls? If we fail to do these periodic self-examinations with honest and authentic objectivity, then we are choosing a losing battle. How else are we going to get better if we do not do these honest self-evaluations to see what mistakes we are making over and over again? At least then we can accurately diagnose the problem and adopt a smarter strategy to start moving forward.

Dive in!

My challenge for us this hot month of June as it is swim season is to get in touch with the kid inside us and dive right into the things that we are really passionate about. Each of us can make a list of all the things we truly do enjoy doing so let us start spending more time doing them! Life is too short to spend it obsessing about food. Let us for once act like kids and be able to take a compliment at face value and learn to say thank you when someone gives it. Let us get up from the sofa and put on our favourite music and move to our favourite beats that we used to listen to when we were active teens. Let us dare to dream again that there is hope for a better version of us. It starts with our inner thought dialogue and what we allow ourselves to believe about who we really are and not who someone else says we must be. 

My top 10 favourite things to do

I make sure to do at least one of these everyday no matter how busy my schedule gets. I now give myself permission to just be who I am and enjoy doing the things I enjoy doing! I find myself reaching less for those comfort foods since I am finally showing myself some compassion and kindness. I am finally listening to myself and what my body is really craving: quality time wellspent, doing the things that will take better care of me! I am more in touch with my feelings and I’m thriving — not constantly needing to check out and zone out! 

1. My morning walk with my best friend and my nature walks in the evenings

2. Reading

3. Family drives

4. Dancing to favourite oldies

5. Watching mystery movies

6. Going to the movies

7. Playing chess

8. Swimming

9. Playing tennis

10. Connecting with friends and loved ones

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Bad Girls of the Arab World

Edited by Nadia Yaqub and Rula Quawas

Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017

Pp. 239

The word “bad” in the title of this book attracts attention and demands explanation. Co-editor Rula Quawas offers the following definition, showing that bad is used ironically: “The woman who dares to trample societal boundaries she had no part in creating in order to reclaim the power of her mind is likely to be labelled a ‘bad girl,’ improper and transgressive… Those who express themselves, refusing to be silenced, clear the way to equality and justice for others.” (p. 32)

Put in another way by Miral Al Tahawy: “’Bad girls’ do not peer fearfully around themselves, nor do they give great importance to their images in the mirrors of others; they do not consider red lines too seriously because they are more tolerant of their own faults and trained in toughness”. (p. 216)

As the other co-editor, Nadia Yaqub, points out, “women may choose to transgress social norms, or transgression may be thrust upon them”. (p. 3)

Alongside the daring women who purposefully brave the boundaries, are the “reluctant bad girls”, such as female orphans who are negatively labelled because of being born to an unwed mother with the father shirking paternal responsibility, leaving them without a legal status or family name. Another example of “reluctant bad girls” are the Palestinian mothers who were falsely accused of sending their children to die during the Second Intifada. 

Fortunately, Rula Quawas saw this book through to completion but she never actually held the finished product in her hands. Reading her chapter “Inciting Critique in the Feminist Classroom”, one realises just how much women in Jordan and elsewhere lost with her untimely death, but also how much knowledge and inspiration she imparted in her all-too-short life. As she describes her teaching, “Through the critical thinking of a feminist theory class, some Jordanian students gradually learn to empower themselves and recognise their innate capacity for self-reflection, self-determination, and consciously guided action. By rebelling against conventional, deep-seated assumptions and value judgements, they acquire a new and better understanding of women’s reputations and how society conceptualises female goodness and badness.” (p. 28)

This can be a joyful process which Quawas expressed in a poem: 

“Here we will stay. Jordanian women, uncovering the veils of ignorance.

Removing them from our souls, emerging as a fountain of hope, and holding the sun in our hands…” (p. 35)

Other chapters explore the experience of returning to an Arab country to teach after studying abroad, the difficulties of reconciling feminism with nationalism, the interplay between being female and other identities a woman may carry, and the conflicted relations between Arab and some Western feminists. Thinking out-of-the-box is typical for all the chapters in this book, but one in particular stands out for upending some common assumptions by addressing the conflicting narratives that arose in the wake of the Arab uprisings. While some lauded women’s strong, overt participation, others contended that this had not empowered them. While seeing truth in both these narratives, Amal Amireh contends that things are “less likely to change if revolutionaries insist that gender and sexuality are not central to the revolutionary process”. (p. 113)

To show that questions of gender and the body were intrinsic to the uprisings, Amireh examines the cases of four women who became famous during these events, including Fayda Hamdi who allegedly delivered the slap that drove Muhammad Al Bu’azizi to suicide and thus ignited the Tunisian revolution and showed the way for others. Her careful analysis reveals that gender did play a major role but in a much more nuanced and complicated way than usually assumed.

Two different chapters address outstanding writers, Samar Yazbek of Syria and Suhair Al Tal of Jordan, who broke with the traditions in which they were raised to write and act according to their convictions. Another chapter covers “Reel Bad Maghrebi Women”, filmmakers who depict “a new type of female protagonist who redefines the terms of her own oppression and possible emancipation”. (p. 167)

There is also a chapter on women singers in the Sudanese diaspora, whereby “alternative visions of Sudanese identity have emerged, and creative new artists have flourished beyond the reach of the state”. (p. 189)

The chapters in this book are varied in style, including personal experience, academic analysis and artistic contributions; they cover different Arab countries as well as Arab women abroad, different time periods and contexts, but they all converge on disputing, directly or implicitly, Orientalist notions that the oppression of Arab women is rooted in beliefs fundamental to Islam and Arab society. “Such culturalist analyses ignore how patriarchy as practiced in the Arab world today has grown out of colonial and neocolonial encounters with the West and the particular forms of modernity that have resulted from those encounters.” (p. 13)

Yet, in the afterword, writer Laila Al Atrash looks back at years of Arab women’s struggle for liberation, and queries: “I wonder how it is that we are still leading, decades later, the same fight against this attack on women and their accomplishments. How has our role, past, present and future, been eroded in the onslaught of politicised religion?” (p. 212)

WASHINGTON — Despite an aggressive crackdown by social media firms, so-called “junk news” is spreading at a greater rate than in 2016 on social media ahead of the US midterm elections, according to researchers.

Oxford Internet Institute researchers concluded that Facebook and Twitter remain filled with “extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary”, and other forms of “low-quality” news.

In analysing some 2.5 million tweets and 6,986 Facebook pages over a 30-day period, the study found that less than five per cent of the sources referenced on social media were from public agencies, experts or political candidates themselves. 

“We found that the proportion of junk news circulating over social media has increased in the US since 2016, with users sharing higher proportions of junk news than links to professional content overall,” the report released yesterday said.

It added that “junk news once concentrated among President [Donald] Trump’s support base has now spread to include communities of mainstream political conservatives”.

Philip Howard, director of the institute and a study author, said the latest research did not seek to analyse how much of the content came from automated accounts or “bots”, or whether it was directed from foreign entities.

But he noted that “this style of producing junk news probably has a Russian origin”, adding:“ That’s what the Russians used in the 2016 election, and now there are domestic sources copying that style.”

Tweaks not enough?

Howard said the efforts by Twitter and Facebook to root out misinformation amounted to “tweaks,” and that “the evidence suggests little tweaks don’t add up to a big impact”.

As part of the research, the authors created an online tool to allow anyone to follow and analyse low-quality news and posts.

Responding to the study, Twitter and Facebook questioned the conclusions and methods used by the researchers.

“We respect and appreciate strong independent research but we challenge some of the findings here,” a Twitter spokeswoman said in a statement to AFP.

“Many of the links deemed as ‘junk’ by the researchers are media outlets that reflect views within American society. Banning them from our service would be a knee-jerk reaction and would severely hinder public debate, the potential for counter narratives to take hold, and meaningful discussion of news consumption.”

Twitter said many of the sources cited in the study were “not foreign, not bots, and for the most part not coordinated. They are real people sharing news that reflects their views”.

Opposite conclusions

Facebook pointed to other research suggesting a decline in misinformation.

“The conclusions drawn in this research shouldn’t be seen as the authority on this topic,” Facebook said in a statement.

“The central takeaway of this study — that, ‘the proportion of junk news circulating over social media has increased since 2016’ — is actually based on data from Twitter and then applied to ‘social media’ more broadly.”

The Oxford researchers said that its definition of “junk” is based on specific criteria, including a lack of professional journalism practices, use of hyperbole or misleading headlines, and relying on untrustworthy sources of information.

Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University professor specialising in social media who is not affiliated with the Oxford study, said she was not surprised by the findings because of the design of social networks.

“Because clicks lead to revenue, social networks elevate junk news,” she said.

“If we are starting to feel like this is a world of reality TV, it’s by design, that’s how the system was built.”

Grygiel said that Twitter’s algorithms give priority to “verified” users, but that those who get the verification badge are more likely to be celebrities than academics or intellectuals, and this can result in proliferation of gossip and “tabloid-style” news.

She noted that while social networks have begun to crack down on “coordinated and inauthentic” efforts by foreign entities, this has not impacted what many consider as “low quality” news.

“I wouldn’t say they’re focused on downgrading tabloid content,” Grygiel said.

By Guy Faulconbridge and Paul Sandle

LONDON — Silicon Valley technology giants such as Facebook and Google have grown so dominant they may need to be broken up, unless challengers or changes in taste reduce their clout, the inventor of the World Wide Web told Reuters.

The digital revolution has spawned a handful of US-based technology companies since the 1990s that now have a combined financial and cultural power greater than most sovereign states.

Tim Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989, said he was disappointed with the current state of the Internet, following scandals over the abuse of personal data and the use of social media to spread hate.

“What naturally happens is you end up with one company dominating the field so through history there is no alternative to really coming in and breaking things up,” Berners-Lee, 63, said in an interview. “There is a danger of concentration.”

But he urged caution too, saying the speed of innovation in both technology and tastes could ultimately cut some of the biggest technology companies down to size. 

“Before breaking them up, we should see whether they are not just disrupted by a small player beating them out of the market, but by the market shifting, by the interest going somewhere else,” Berners-Lee said.

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook have a combined market capitalisation of $3.7 trillion, equal to Germany’s gross domestic product last year.

Love and hate

Berners-Lee came up with the idea for what he initially called “Mesh” while working at Europe’s physics research centre CERN, calling it the World Wide Web in 1990.

When asked who had the biggest intellectual influence on him, he said: “Mum and Dad”. 

“They were building computers, so I grew up living in a world where everything was mathematics and the excitement of being able to programme something was very fresh,” he said.

There was, he said, no “Eureka” moment. 

Instead, it was hard work, the experience of working in computer science and an attempt to overcome the frustrations of trying to share information with colleagues and students. 

“Eureka moments are complete nonsense. I don’t even believe the one about Archimedes. He had been thinking about it for a long time,” he said.

Now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford, Berners-Lee expressed dismay at the way consultancy Cambridge Analytica obtained the personal data of 87 million Facebook users from a researcher.

That scandal, he said, was a tipping point for many.

“I am disappointed with the current state of the Web,” he said. “We have lost the feeling of individual empowerment and to a certain extent also I think the optimism has cracked.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and pledged to do more to protect users’ data.

But social media, Berners-Lee said, was still being used to propagate hate. 

“If you put a drop of love into Twitter it seems to decay but if you put in a drop of hatred you feel it actually propagates much more strongly. And you wonder: ‘Well is that because of the way that Twitter as a medium has been built?’”

PARIS — Humans have hankered after chocolate for centuries longer than previously thought, scientists said on Monday, tracing the earliest known consumption of its key ingredient to more than 5,000 years ago in South America.

Archaeologists have long believed that ancient civilisations in central America started drinking concoctions of cacao — the bean-like seeds from which cocoa and chocolate are made — from around 3,900 years ago. 

But in a study that shifts the origins of chocolate centuries backwards, a team of scientists travelled to Santa Ana-La Florida, in modern day Ecuador, the earliest known archaeological site of the Mayo-Chinchipe civilisation.

They analysed artefacts from tombs and ceremonial pyres including ceramic bowls, jars and bottles as well as stone bowls and mortars for theobromine, a bitter chemical found in cacao. 

The team found starch grains characteristic of cacao in around a third of items examined, including the charred residue of a ceramic receptacle dated to be 5,450 years old. 

That suggests that humans have been consuming cacao for roughly 1,500 years longer than previously thought, and locates its discovery in the upper Amazon region. 

“This is the oldest trace of cacao identified so far and it’s also the only archaeological trace of the use of cacao discovered in South America,” Claire Lanaud, geneticist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and the study’s co-author, told AFP.

Unlike the sugar and fat-laden creations of chocolatiers today, cacao drinks were prized for their medicinal value and often served during religious ceremonies. 

Cacao was also a key trading commodity and its seeds were even used as payment and as currency in some parts of central America.

“Since these ceramic vessels are found in ceremonial locations, including as offerings in tombs, it is likely that cacao was an important component of ritually significant drinks,” said Michael Blake, from the University of British Columbia’s Department of Anthropology.

“There is a great deal of evidence that cacao was very important to peoples in northeast Peru, northwest Brazil and south Colombia and more,” he told reporters. 

“The medicinal uses are well documented and there are some accounts of people making fermented beverages from the sweet pulp.”

Last week research by a US-based team found evidence that cacao trees have been cultivated by humans for at least 3,600 years.

Blake said the findings of his team’s study — published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution — could be of use to botanists today trying to understand how cacao can adapt to our changing climate and receding rain forests.

“As a major crop today, used by most of the world’s population for an enormous variety of purposes, cacao is of great interest to humanity,” he said. 

“It is a major part of our human story, one intimately linked to the history and ongoing cultures of indigenous south and central Americans where cacao is still grown and used today.”

Each time the industry manages to increase the speed of one of the specific aspects or applications in Information Technology in a significant manner, the first question that comes to our mind is “why always faster, technology already is fast enough?”

The question is raised again, now that ultrafast 5G wireless Internet is practically at reach, though in a limited number of countries and by only very few service providers for the time being.

The question may be relevant and the answer to it simple. Much faster — Internet in this particular case — is not about performing the same tasks faster, as much as it is about performing new tasks, some of them being considered as unthinkable without the noticeable increase in speed.

Surely you do not necessarily need 5G to upload a couple of photos to you friend, to watch a Netflix movie, to shop for a pair of blue jeans online, or to browse news websites. In most cases like these 4G would be more than enough. 5G is particularly attractive to the consumer because it will make a certain number of very high-tech, advanced applications possible.

This includes, for example and for now, monitoring and controlling driverless cars, remote medical assistance and even actual treatment for a large number and types of patients, assisting in various ways elderly people who are living alone, and last but not least entertainment applications based on Augmented Reality. There is little doubt that that when 5G is actually implemented on a large scale, in most countries, the industry will think of many more applications that can put 5G to good use.

Whereas the final 5G protocols are still under work some countries have already made 5G a reality. The world first 5G connection was made and achieved in Qatar last May by Ooredoo ISP, followed in August by Vodafone. It was quickly followed by several operators in the USA, Norway and South Korea, to name some of the few countries that are pioneering 5G usage.

At the same time, and from the purely technical viewpoint, the 5G protocols are still being finalised. They will reach Phase 1 in March 2019 and Phase 2 sometime in 2020. By then it is expected that most countries would have actually implemented 5G.

5G wireless Internet is essentially about speed, but not only that. Whereas, theoretically at least, its speed can reach up to a baffling 20 Gb/s (that is gigabits per second), 5G also brings with it lower latency and more stability of the signal, two non-negligible aspects of any Internet connection, as users know it all too well.

Latency is the time it takes the network to “react” or “respond”, and understandably is an important characteristic of any network or connection. The lower the better. Currently, and with a good 4G connection latency is somewhere between 10 and 20 milliseconds. With a cabled fibre optic connection it can go down to 5 or even 2 milliseconds.

Makers of cars, smartphones, tablets, and of all kinds of mobile devices that can be connected to the web, including of course mobile medical equipment, are making plans to include 5G connectivity in their products, to make it a “built-in” functionality. In less than two to three years it is going to be an important requirement. Internet users in Jordan are anxiously waiting for one of the local ISPs to announce the date when 5G will be available in the country.

SAN FRANCISCO — Whether you’re watching your favourite show on Netflix or backing up all-important cat photos to Google Drive, the “cloud” has become an essential part of our digital lives.

No, not those large white bodies of water vapour floating through the sky — the tech definition simply refers to having servers in remote data centres handling programmes or data that people or businesses can access anywhere from devices of their choosing.

“You name it, it’s happening in the cloud,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said. “It’s really where everything is being done now.”

Century-old technology stalwart IBM is making a $34 billion bet on cloud computing in the form of a mega-deal to buy Red Hat, a pioneering proponent of the open source movement that arose to counter giants like Microsoft whose models were based on keeping their source code secret.

Here is a look at the trend and its allure to technology titans such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM.

The cloud is everywhere

Developers craft software in the internet cloud.

Self-driving cars and smart cities will rely on computing in the cloud.

Web-based e-mail and company payroll systems are in the cloud.

Sales teams on the road manage accounts and tap into resources in the cloud.

While businesses in the past used on-site mainframes built by IBM or its rivals, it has become cost effective for firms to rent applications or data storage hosted and maintained in the cloud by providers such as Amazon or Microsoft.

Such arrangements allow businesses to easily access more or less computing power as needed, without having to invest in data centres or system maintenance.

Companies interested in tighter control of some of the data or processes opt for “hybrid clouds”, simply meaning that they let online data centres handle some of the computing work while keeping more sensitive aspects on their own machines.

Cloud future clear

The kind of computing power available in the cloud is seen as essential for processing data in real time for innovations such as cars safely driving themselves or cities allocating public services in real time as needs or situations change.

Mobile lifestyles ramp up reliance on cloud computing as people watch YouTube, post on Facebook, Tweet, send photos to friends, and work on the go.

Smartphones, tablets, and laptops can open windows into immense computing power in data centres.

The more people “cut the cord” and let go of traditional cable TV, the more they turn to the cloud.

Streaming television services accessible at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube are hosted and powered by online data centres, as are web-based e-mail and social media such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.

Online music rains from the cloud.

But the cloud also comes with concerns about who is controlling and protecting data stored by third-parties online.

Cloud computing platforms are tempting targets for hackers who see gold or power in the massive amounts of information behind data centre walls.

Some believe that will lead to a future with businesses preferring more balanced, or hybrid, setups with sensitive data kept in-house.

Amazon leading rivals

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is considered the leader in cloud computing, with Microsoft’s Azure platform its top rival.

“Amazon made a commitment to cloud computing and their CEO is now the richest guy in the world,” analyst Enderle said, referring to Jeff Bezos.

Amazon announced new AWS customers including Samsung Heavy Industries last week when it reported earnings for the third quarter of this year.

AWS net sales rose to $6.7 billion from $4.6 billion in the same period last year. AWS operating income jumped to $2.1 billion from $1.2 billion in the same year-over-year comparison of quarters.

Microsoft said last week that revenue from its cloud offerings to businesses soared to $8.5 billion in the recently ended quarter, up 47 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Alphabet-owned Google’s earnings for the third quarter showed that, while it still made the bulk of its money from online ads, the amount of “other revenue” that presumably includes cloud services increased to $4.6 billion, an increase of a billion dollars from a year ago.

China-based Alibaba is considered a fast rising contender, according to analysts.

Gartner forecast that the overall public cloud services market worldwide would grow steadily from $187.2 billion this year to $338 billion in the year 2022.

While consumers enjoy the benefits of cloud-hosted services, most of the money made by hosts come from catering to the computing needs of businesses.

Women who wait just a short time to become pregnant after delivering a child may put themselves and their next baby at greater risk for adverse events, a new study suggests. 

“We found for women of all ages, pregnancy within 12 months after a live birth come with risks,” said study leader Laura Schummers, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. The study was part of Schummers’s dissertation at the Harvard School of Public Health. 

When Schummers and her colleagues started the study, they thought they might find lower risks in the older women. That is because most of these short interval pregnancies in older women are by choice: The women are at an age where their fertility is waning and they want a chance to have more than one child, Schummers said. 

“Women who are 35 and older do quite often plan to have closely spaced pregnancies,” Schummers said. “Among younger women, the pregnancy is less often planned if it’s closely spaced. If someone has a baby and six months later they discover they are pregnant, perhaps that’s not intended. We thought because older women more often plan to have their pregnancies closer together they might not have the increased risks that are due to unintended pregnancies.” 

As it turned out, there were fewer complications among the babies carried by older women, compared to younger women. But there was still a slight increased risk when the spacing between pregnancies was short, the authors reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

But contrary to what the researchers had expected, short intervals between pregnancies — six versus 18 months — were linked with higher risks for death and serious complications (such as transfusions of three or more units of blood, being put on a ventilator, being transferred to an intensive care unit or organ failure) for older women, but not younger women. 

To look more closely at the impact of interpregnancy intervals, Schummers and her colleagues turned to the British Columbia Perinatal Data Registry, a database which contains a summary of information gleaned from obstetrical and newborn medical records. In the end, the researchers were able to take a closer look at 148,544 pregnancies that occurred over a 10-year period. 

While the study is interesting, it is not clear how well it would apply to US patients, said Tarun Jain, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a fertility specialist at Northwestern Medicine. “I think it’s important to be aware that these findings might not be generalisable,” he said. 

“Another important point,” Jain said, is that while shorter interval between pregnancies was associated with higher risks for older women, “the risk was still relatively low”. 

Jain, who was not affiliated with the new research, added, “You have to balance that against the fact that as you get older the probability of getting and staying pregnant decreases. If you wait too long it may be hard to get pregnant at all.” 

Leena Nathan often finds herself discussing that balance with her older patients. 

 “Many of my patients are older than 35 when they have their first child,” said Nathan, an assistant clinical professor in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of California, Los Angeles and medical director of UCLA Community OBGYN Practices. “And many of them do have short interval spacing between pregnancies because they are worried about their fertility. It is certainly a discussion during the postpartum visit after the first delivery.” 

Nathan does not expect the 40-somethings to put too much time between pregnancies. “In my moms who are older than 40, I counsel them about fertility rates and genetic mutations as they continue to age,” said Nathan, who was not involved with the new research, said in an e-mail. “These patients generally are very motivated and will take good care of themselves in order to have a healthy subsequent pregnancy even if it is less than an 18-month interval. I don’t discourage a shorter interval pregnancy in these patients.”