Features

Felatun Bey and Rakim Efendi
Ahmet Midhat Efendi
Translated by Melih Levi and Monica M. Ringer
New York: Syracuse University Press, 2016
Pp. 167

Almost a century and a half after its publication in Ottoman Turkish, Ahmet Midhat Efendi’s short novel, “Felatun Bey and Rakim Efendi”, is still an enchanting read. While rather simplistic in plot and character development, it more than compensates by the nuanced insight it gives into changing times and attitudes in late-Ottoman Istanbul.

Some consider Ahmet Midhat to be the father of the Turkish novel. Like many educated Ottoman subjects of his time, he was preoccupied with his society’s relationship to modernity and Europe, and made it a main theme of this story, causing Orhan Pamuk to credit him with inventing the East-West novel.

The plot builds on the contrast between the two characters named in the title. Felatun Bey is born into riches but squanders his sizeable fortune on a French mistress and gambling, pursuing what he considers to be an alafranga (foreign) life style. Ironically, his name means Plato in Turkish, but his intellectual side is mainly pretention, while his demeanour is often abrasive, and he shows up at his clerical job only three hours a week.

Rakim Efendi is quite the opposite. Born into a family of modest means, he loses his father early and leaves school at 16 to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On his own volition, he becomes proficient in French and a range of subjects, enabling him to earn a comfortable living by tutoring, translation and petition-writing for foreign residents. He gets along easily with Europeans and adapts to their ways when in their company, but his home life is decidedly alaturka. 

Obviously, the author is making a moral point about the benefits of hard work and education, but he delivers it in such a humorous way that one doesn’t feel he is lecturing. He satirises Felatun Bey’s show-off version of being alafranga in a teasing way akin to a comedy of manners, replete with a few minor scandals. More crucial for Midhat’s reformist agenda is his use of Rakim Efendi’s character to dissect what it means to be modern, a concept that is not synonymous with foreignness. 

Rakim is sensitive, considerate, rational and charming. Ottoman-style, he has an Arab servant and buys a Circassian slave, but their mutual relations are not entirely traditional. Slave proves to be a malleable status as Rakim feels that he has bought Janan’s freedom, and provides her with French and piano lessons, as well as an elegant wardrobe and jewellery. While friends of all types urge him to take her as a mistress, he insists he loves her like a sister. How their relationship will evolve adds a bit of mystery and tension to the story, and makes parts of it serve as a treatise on love and its different varieties, suggesting the idea of companionable rather than arranged marriages.

Midhat is on record as opposing slavery, and the novel was written at a time when the slave trade was being gradually phased out in the Ottoman Empire, yet the author takes the opportunity to show that Ottoman slavery was kinder than its American version. 

Midhat’s style is fast-paced and often playful, combining straight narration with lively but subtle dialogue, and frequent author interventions related in a confidential tone as if sharing some well-intentioned gossip, or justifying how the characters are treated. Midhat seems to enjoy drawing comparisons between the alafranga and alaturka life styles wherein the latter are usually shown to be superior, at least for Turks, but without a trace of chauvinism. That’s just how it is, he seems to say. 

A. Holly Shissler’s afterword, which contains a fascinating biographical sketch of the author, explains that this was Midhat’s way of critiquing the notion prevalent during the Tanzimat reform era that the Ottoman state and society could be saved by “uncritical and indeed superficial adoption of European modes of life.” (p. 150)

To remind the reader that this novel was written in Ottoman Turkish with Arabic letters, several illustrations of the original text are included, which also show French words printed in Latin letters. Translation of the book was quite a project, as explained in the translators’ note. Special efforts were needed to capture Midhat’s experimental style which “moved rapidly between Ottoman conventions and newer forms of language, syntax, and narration influenced by contemporary French and British novels”. (p. xiii) 

The result is a unique, entertaining and enlightening book.

Awarded top honours at the annual Middle East Car of the Year (MECOTY) ceremony, the Volvo XC90 becomes the third car to win the prestigious regional award. Voted overall Car of the Year through a thorough nomination and 10 criteria scoring process the XC90 premium SUV claimed the jury’s overall top choice in a tight contest with the McLaren 570S exotic high-tech sports car hot on its heels as runner up, along with the yet more luxurious SV Autobiography version of Land Rover’s iconic Range Rover.

Pitting the best regionally available new cars against each other, the MECOTY awards is the Middle East’s only independent and most credible automotive. With a 12-member jury of established and specialist print, online and TV media motoring media of various nationalities and representing publications and outlets in the UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, MECOTY pooling together a variety of opinion and expertise. 

Organised by Custom Events L.L.C. and held in conjunction with the Abu Dhabi Motor Show and Custom Show Emirates at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre in the UAE, the 2016 MECOTY ceremony comes earlier in the year than in previous years. Held on Thursday evening, the MECOTY awards ceremony features 18 different nominated categories, and special, vox pop public and overall jury awarded Car of the Year recognitions.

Scored on 10 criteria each and based on juror evaluation test drives of eligible cars according to regional availability and market release dates, category winners are complemented by an overall award, chosen from a second round of voting among the top scoring vehicles. Meanwhile, the Public Car of the Year Award, is based on vox pop online voting, and was won by the Audi Q7, which was coincidentally the Volvo XC90’s rival in the Midsize Premium SUV category.

Tightly contested, the MECOTY awards featured several expected winners such as the Audi RS3, Jaguar XF and Ford Explorer in their respective Premium Performance Hatchback, Midsize Executive Sedan and Midsize SUV categories. Doing well on the night, Japanese manufacturers Nissan, Mazda and Toyota each gained two category trophies, with Toyota gaining a third if one includes its Lexus brand’s single win. Meanwhile, Audi and Jaguar Land Rover also bagged two trophies apiece.

With ups and downs for various manufacturers, even the focused and enthusiast pleasing Lotus Elise lost out to the Mazda MX-5 in the Sports Convertible category, while the glorious Lamborghini Huracan LP580-2 and 610-4 Spyder ceded prizes to the McLaren 570S and Ferrari 488 Spider in their respective Premium Performance Coupe and Premium Performance Convertible segments. Neck to neck in the Small SUV segment, the Kia Sportage bested its sister brand’s Hyundai Tucson, while the biggest and most unexpected upset was rugged yet refined and highly capable Ford Ranger missing out on the Midsize Truck trophy.

Highlights

Middle East Car of the Year & Best Midsize Premium SUV: Volvo XC90

A contrast to last year’s viscerally charged Ford Mustang MECOTY winner, this year’s top award went to the more clinical but deserving Volvo XC90. Much anticipated, the Swede SUV is the face of Volvos to come and highlights the Swedish brand’s sophisticated new design language, luxuriously minimalist interiors and versatile platform. Featuring a new 2-litre forced induction engine in all models, including a hybrid version. Strong on efficiency and safety, the XC90 features a comprehensive suite of advanced safety and semi-autonomous driving assists, bringing Volvo closer to its ambitious target of zero fatalities in its vehicles by 2020.

Best Premium Performance Coupe & Middle East Car of the Year runner-up: McLaren 570S

A more accessible and affordable McLaren and the first of the British high-tech exotic brand’s Sport Series cars, the 570S is designed to be an involving, intuitive and agile yet less complex car. Based on the same basic 3.8-litre twin-turbo engine and carbon-fibre and aluminium frame as its more powerful 650S sister, the 570S, however, features a more traditional suspension set-up and fixed aero kit, rather than the former’s sublime hydraulic suspension and active aerodynamics. Billed as a sports car for its almost telepathic chassis and steering reflexes and connectedness, the 570S, however, delivers super car performance.

Best Premium Performance Hatchback: Audi RS3

Despite giving away 14BHP and 0.1 seconds in 0-100km/h acceleration to its Mercedes-Benz AMG A45 rival, the Audi RS3 confidently romped home with the prize in the mega- or hyper-hatch segment. Scoring big for its composed and agile handling, the RS3 is compelling package with tidy turn-in, enormous roadholding, cornering commitment and drive-line fluency. Classy and understated for this segment, the refined RS3’s design, ergonomic cabin and 2.3-litre turbocharged engine also impressed, including the latter’s signature 5-cylinder burble and tractable low-end responsiveness. 

Best Midsize Executive Sedan: Jaguar XF

A class act executive saloon with sleekly elegant yet athletic lines, luxurious interior, classic front-engine rear-drive layout and a host of advanced driver assistance and infotainment features, there was little doubt of the Jaguar XF’s chances in this segment. Built on a lightweight aluminium frame and with fluently crisp handling and supple smooth ride quality, the XF also scored well for its 3-litre supercharged V6 engines’ robustly consistent delivery.

Best Midsize SUV: Ford Explorer

Handsome, well-equipped and affordably accessible, the Ford Explorer is a tough package to beat, with 7-seat practicality, cavernous interior and extensive convenience, safety, driver assistance and infotainment systems. When first launched in 1991, the Explorer was the right car at the right time to feed into customers’ growing SUV preference with a more practical and manageable compact SUV. Now more car-like in terms of a smooth supple suspension and frame, the Explorer also features a powerful yet efficient twin-turbo direct injection twin-turbo engine.

Complete List of MECOTY awards

Middle East Car of the Year (jury award): Volvo XC90

Runner-ups: McLaren 570S, Land Rover Range Rover SV Autobiography

Best Small Sedan: Hyundai Elantra

Other nominee: Volkswagen Jetta

Best Midsize Sedan: Toyota Camry

Other nominee: Kia Optima

Best Midsize Executive Sedan: Jaguar XF

Other nominees: Lexus ES350

Best Large Sedan: Nissan Maxima

Other nominee: Dodge Charger

Best Large Performance Sedan: Cadillac CTS-V

Other nominee: Chrysler 300 SRT8

Best Large Luxury Sedan: BMW 7-Series

Other nominee: Genesis G90

Best Small SUV: Kia Sportage

Other nominees: Hyundai Tucson

Best Small Premium SUV: Lexus RX350

Other nominees: Lincoln MKX

Best Midsize SUV: Ford Explorer

Other nominees: Honda Pilot

Best Midsize Premium SUV: Volvo XC90

Other nominees: Audi Q7

Best Large SUV (and special King of the Desert award): Nissan Patrol

Other nominees: Toyota Land Cruiser

Best Midsize Premium Performance SUV: Mercedes-Benz AMG GLE63 Coupe

Other nominees: BMW X6M

Best Large Premium SUV: Land Rover Range Rover SV Autobiography

Other nominees: Lexus 570

Best Family MPV: Honda Odyssey J

Other nominees: Kia Grand Carnival

Best Midsize Truck: Toyota Hilux

Other nominees: Ford Ranger

Best Hatchback: Mazda 2

Other nominees: Opel Corsa

Best Premium Performance Hatchback: Audi RS3

Other nominees: Mercedes-Benz AMG A45

Best Compact Sports Convertible: Mazda MX-5

Other nominee: Lotus Elise

Best Compact Premium Convertible: Volkswagen Beetle

Other nominee: Mini Convertible

Best Premium Performance Coupe: McLaren 570S

Other nominees: Lamborghini Huracan LP580-2

Best Premium Performance Convertible: Ferrari 488 Spider

Other nominees: Lamborghini Huracan LP580-2

Best Premium Luxury Convertible: Rolls Royce Dawn

Other nominees: Bentley Continental GTC

Public Car of the Year: Audi Q7

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple celebrated its 40th anniversary on Friday at the top of its game, as the Silicon Valley legend that sprang out of Steve Jobs’ garage to reshape modern life with its trendsetting gadgets.

Jobs, the late tech-savvy marketing genius, and Steve Wozniak, who invented the Apple computer, helped revolutionise how people use technology, and formed what would become the world’s largest corporation with an eye-popping $53 billion in annual profits.

The two college dropouts created the company that has changed the way people use computers, listen to music, communicate on the go, and made people at home in a world of “apps” tailored for work, play, education, health and more.

Apple’s hit products — the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad — command a cult-like following, long after the company’s humble beginning in Jobs’ Cupertino, California garage on April 1, 1976.

“Apple has defined modern Internet lifestyle,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Silicon Valley analyst firm Creative Strategies.

While other firms had major impacts on specific technologies or devices, “Apple had the greatest influence on the broadest range of consumer electronics”, Bajarin said.

Before changing the world with the iPhone and iPad, Apple transformed home computing with the Macintosh.

The friendly desktop machine referred to as the “Mac” and, importantly, the ability to control it by clicking on icons with a “mouse”, opened computing to non-geeks in much the way that touchscreens later allowed almost anyone to get instantly comfortable with smartphones or tablets.

The Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, was at the core of a legendary rivalry between late Apple co-founder Jobs and Microsoft mastermind Bill Gates.

“Apple heavily influenced the market with the Mac by introducing the mouse and the graphical user interface,” Bajarin said, referring to the then novel notion of controlling computers by clicking icons instead of typing commands using software speak.

Cult of Apple

Apple went on to “rewrite” the music market with the iPod; made the smartphone a mass market staple with the iPhone, and took tablets mainstream with the iPad.

Apple Watch quickly took the lead in the smartwatch market, despite making its debut later than those of rivals.

While Apple did not invent MP3 players, smartphones, tablets or smartwatches, its creations combined beauty, ease-of-use and capabilities that won zealous fans.

Jobs, who died in 2011 at the age of 56, was renowned for an uncompromising drive to combine technology with design to make products that were intuitive and hassle-free.

“Apple has taught us the supremacy of user experience and brand passion,” Forrester analyst Frank Gillett told AFP.

“Apple devices don’t just work great, they inspire allegiance. The Apple brand inspires passion on both ends of the spectrum.”

Gillett recalled early Apple days when loyalty to Apple or Windows computers was the type of topic that could easily trigger clashes in San Francisco cafés.

“It is Apple’s obsessive attention to detail, premium products that for some are status symbols,” the analyst said.

“It becomes brand fashion, with people throwing themselves into a community.”

Twists and turns

Apple’s path to becoming the world’s most valuable company was beset by surprising twists and turns, including product flops as well as board room machination that resulted in Jobs being ousted for a time as chief.

“It has been a remarkable story of peaks and crises that got us here,” Gillett said.

“It is a remarkable story of reinvention.”

The analyst wondered whether Apple stepping to the front lines in a battle over privacy and security of digital data on smartphones under Chief Executive Tim Cook will eventually be seen as another of the notable moments in its history.

The US government’s unexpected retreat in its campaign to force Apple to help unlock an attacker’s iPhone may only postpone an inevitable battle over encryption and data protection, say analysts.

Federal prosecutors and Apple spent weeks trading a volley of legal briefs related to the Federal Bureau of Investigaition demand that the tech company help investigators unlock the phone used by Syed Farook, who died in a shootout after carrying out a deadly December attack in San Bernardino, California, with his wife.

The case ended in a stalemate, but many expect the debate on encryption to resume.

Apple early this year raised the spectre of the end of a technological era after reporting the slowest growth sales ever of its market-leading, life-changing iPhone and warning it expects worse to come.

Many analysts say Apple is evolving from a device-making superstar racking up dizzying financial quarters to a company that can make a sizable and steady income from selling apps, digital music and more to the huge number of people using its devices.

Apple also has a war chest of some $215 billion in cash and securities, most of it overseas.

The company will move into its new “spaceship” design campus next year, according to Cook.

“We can’t wait to see what is in store for the next 40 years and share it with you.”

SAN DIEGO — Is healthcare going the way of Uber?

Though it may sound far-fetched, seeing a doctor could move in that direction if telemedicine gains more acceptance, according to health technology experts.

Instead of making an appointment in advance and sitting in a waiting room, patients could beam out a request to a group of health providers via a website or mobile app. The first doctor to respond gets the visit, which is then conducted on a smartphone or computer.

That service, called Ask Me, is available today from Boston-based American Well, one of several telemedicine companies that enable physicians to treat patients remotely through videoconferencing.

“When we think about consumers in 2016, what don’t we do online?” said Dr Peter Antall, chief medical officer of American Well. “We watch movies. We buy airplane tickets. We buy books. The Uberisation of heath care — accessing practitioners in an Uber-like manner — it sounds crazy. But it’s actually happening.”

Antall spoke about the changing landscape of consumer healthcare during the 21st annual Frost & Sullivan Medical Technologies conference in March in San Diego. The event highlighted technology trends that could reshape medicine in coming years. Topics ranged from the promise of telemedicine to medical technology companies tapping common mobile devices/apps for certain medical procedures.

Telemedicine has recently grabbed headlines as American Well, Teladoc, MDLive, Doctor on Demand and other companies have built technology platforms to enable online doctor visits.

These services typically charge about $50 per consultation. The most common ailments for American Well’s online patients include sinus infections, sore throats, flu, bronchitis and urinary tract infections.

“We averaged a wait time over the last three years of three minutes to see a doctor,” Antall said. “There aren’t many places in America where you can see a doctor in three minutes.”

A web of reimbursement rules and hodgepodge regulations continues to present hurdles for telemedicine, however.

Medicare, the nation’s larger insurer, does not pay for telemedicine services for the roughly 80 per cent of beneficiaries who live in urban areas, said Gary Capistrant, chief policy officer for the American Telemedicine Association.

Lawmakers have limited reimbursement for telemedicine in part because of concerns that it will increase costs by encouraging seniors to use more services.

Payments from private insurers varies state by state, Capistrant said. Though 29 states mandate that insurance companies cover telehealth visits just as they do in-person appointments, regulations are inconsistent nationwide.

In addition, doctors and hospitals in some states haven’t put the technology in place to deliver telemedicine to their patients, Capistrant said. Some surveys have shown a lack of patient trust in a virtual diagnosis compared with an in-person visit.

“Utilisation is very much a patchwork quilt,” Capistrant said. “The reimbursement and coverage is the biggest single barrier to the use of telehealth. We figure about 15 million people have used some sort of telehealth in the past year or so, but the data is not very good.”

Changes in reimbursement policies could spark wider adoption of telemedicine.

For example, Medicare will begin reimbursing health providers for hip and knee replacements under a bundled payment scheme starting in April. Doctors will get one flat payment to cover everything from pre-op evaluation to post-surgery physical therapy. Today, providers are paid for each procedure.

“That is a wonderful change that allows for a tremendous amount of innovation,” said Dr Joseph Smith, chief executive of the San Diego telemedicine company Reflexion Health. “We are leaving this model of everything having its own Medicare code and its own line-item reimbursement to bundling up. That represents a watershed opportunity for innovators to come in and add value.”

Reflexion Health, which was spun out of the West Health Institute in 2012, makes the federally approved Vera platform for remote physical therapy. It taps Microsoft’s Kinect motion tracking technology to coach hip and knee replacement patients through rehab sessions at home. Physical therapists electronically monitor how patients are doing.

“We are at a point where we have the challenge of unsustainable healthcare and an ageing demographic that is amplifying the issue,” Smith said. “We need ways to give people better access to healthcare on their own terms.”

Technology companies are betting on healthcare as a key growth market. San Diego-based Qualcomm is working with drug giant Novartis on a connected inhaler. The company’s wireless technology also is powering a fitness tracker for insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, which gives certain plan members credits of up to $1,460 a year against their deductible for being active.

Philips Healthcare, which makes ultrasound equipment, is tapping into ubiquitous smartphones and tablets to lower upfront equipment costs for hospitals.

Instead of buying a stand-alone ultrasound machine for several thousand dollars, hospitals can get a $199 monthly subscription to Philips’ Lumify. It provides an ultrasound transducer that connects to most Android mobile devices via the micro USB port.

Lumify uses a free app to display ultrasound images on these off-the-shelf smartphones and tablets. The app exports images to the hospital’s electronic medical records system.

“For $199 a month, it doesn’t take a lot of procedures to pay for that device,” said Randy Hamlin, a Philips Healthcare vice president. “It allows smart devices to be used along with a medical piece of hardware in a brand- new business model.”

Few people realise what their e-mail box really represents until they experience a crash or hacking and then lose all its contents. Though sending and receiving messages is what it is all about in the first place, the phenomenon has reached gigantic proportions in terms of size and even more so in terms of importance, of actual value.

Whatever your trade, your occupation, your age or your social position, virtually all your written communication goes through e-mail today, except for instant mobile channels like WhatsApp and the like, that remain confined to very short messaging. E-mail usage has become so common that it has replaced a good part of our telephone calls too. Don’t you make appointments, send invitations, ask simple questions and just say “good morning” with e-mail?

According to the Radicati Group, an American technology market research firm based in California, e-mail traffic in 2015 in the world was an average 196 billion messages per day of which 116 billion were business and 80 billion were consumer messages. Figures speak for themselves.

Because we have made it a habit to communicate essentially by e-mail our mailboxes have become the area where most of our digital contents are stored, with all that this implies. If you use Microsoft’s Outlook, just look at the size of the “.pst” file, the one where Outlook keeps everything, and you’ll realise how utterly important it is for you. In most cases the size reaches gigabytes, often exceeding 10 of them. I have seen Outlook files that were 40GB big.

The number and the variety of messages is one thing, and the attachments we often send or receive in the messages is another. They alone account for a huge part of the contents. They just come to add to the importance of the mailbox that has this way become our main filing cabinet, outdoing all other filing places.

Indeed, how many of us take the time to save an extra copy of this or that attachment, in a separate file, outside the mailbox, as an extra precaution, just in case? Very few. In the overwhelming number of cases we just rely on the mailbox itself, be it Outlook, Gmail or other. It’s where we work from, where we store most of everything and where we like to search for data, present or past.

A well-maintained mailbox can actually come to the rescue in some cases. Assume you have lost some documents or files that were placed in folders on your hard disk. If these documents were initially received or send by e-mail as attachments, you can retrieve them from there. Even better, acknowledging the importance of attached documents, thetechieguy.com offers a simple, free application that can automatically and globally extract all pieces attached to messages from Outlook and then save these pieces in a separate folder, as discrete files, one by one — no need to do a manual, tedious search-and-extract operation.

Those who use local Outlook sometime think of making back-up copies of the .pst file. Those who use an online system (cloud-based…) like Gmail trust the server to take care of making back-up copies. Whereas indeed reputable services like Gmail or Hotmail can be trusted for being careful with your mailbox contents, they all have experienced “memory loss” at some point in the past, albeit not very often.

Even if these otherwise trusty services do take care of your mailbox, human errors happen, mailbox hacking happens (this one all too frequently), and they all lead to the painful, often irrecoverable loss of precious and big amounts of data, messages, photos, documents, videos and information of all kinds.

What is very important must be managed and maintained accordingly; it’s plain, common sense. Again, this is rarely the case, and it is not just about making extra security copies of the mailbox and its contents. It is also about keeping the place tidy and well-organised (good sub-folders naming and structure, etc…), using strong passwords and being extremely careful with suspicious contents received.

Those who apply these basic rules live a happy life with their mailbox, however big it gets.

SEOUL — For the past two years, 12-year-old Cho Sung-bin has spent nearly all his waking hours focused on a wooden board covered with black and white stones, honing the skills he hopes to translate into a lucrative career as a professional Go player.

“It’s fun. I never get tired,” said Cho, one of dozens of preteens sitting at rows of desks topped with playing boards at the Lee Se-Dol School of Go in central Seoul.

Many spend 12 hours a day practising match play with each other in the small, neon-lit, largely windowless rooms of the school named after the grandmaster they all hope to emulate.

Already well known in East Asia, Lee achieved global recognition earlier this month when he took on Google’s artificial intelligence AlphaGo programme in a five-match showdown. The 33-year-old lost the series, but the battle gave an unprecedented boost to the ancient board game’s international profile.

Go originated in China 3,000 years ago and has been played for centuries mostly in China, Japan and South Korea, with more than 40 million fans worldwide. 

The rules are simple — two players take turns placing black or white stones on a square board with a 19x19 grid. Whoever captures the most territory wins. 

But the strategies needed to secure victory are complex, with reportedly more possible move configurations than atoms in the universe.

‘An art form’

“Go is not just an entertainment. It’s an art form and a natural philosophy as much as a sport,” said professional player Seo Kon-Woo.

The game is also seen as a tool to help children improve their focus, with hundreds of private Go schools across South Korea offering after-hours tuition.

For those who show a special skill and affinity for the game, Go also offers a possible career path which, in the case of top players like Lee Se-Dol, can lead to fame and fortune.

“Many talented kids are discovered when they are five or six, and turn pro before they’re even 12,” said Kim Jung-youl, a veteran coach and head of the Lee Se-dol School.

Considered one of the greatest Go players of the modern era with 18 international titles, Lee started playing at the age of five and turned pro seven years later.

South Korea has around 300 professional players certified by the national Go association, and even those who don’t become star names can make a decent living from tournaments and teaching.

Dozens of competitions — both for individuals and “professional teams” sponsored by companies — are held in East Asia each year, with star players earning millions of dollars.

Too old at 20

Joining the professional tour requires at least a decade of tough training and the Korean Go Association, which only accepts 15 new members each year, estimates there are around 1,000 children currently studying in schools specialising in the discipline.

Potential professionals are usually identified when they are very young, and then pushed hard through a relentless streaming system that quickly ejects those not considered up to the mark.

Those who have failed to break through by the end of their teenage years are generally dropped from consideration by the association.

“It becomes nearly impossible to go pro once you’re aged over 20,” Kim said.

Cho Sung-bin said he had been on “temporary leave” from his normal school for two years, after begging his parents to let him go full time at Lee’s school.

“I meant to stay here only during school break, but playing Go is so much fun... much more than computer games,” he told AFP.

When his parents gave their consent, he swapped his home for a school dormitory he shares with dozens of other Go-playing children.

All major Go schools in the South Korean capital run their own dormitories, allowing them to attract the best students from around the country.

Cho has already taken a big step forward after being selected by the Go Association for an elite league, in which 132 students compete on a weekly basis and are ranked on their performances.

Those at the top of the table are on course for professional status, while the lower ranked players — or those who turn 19 — are unceremoniously replaced by better or younger players every two months.

Crushing pressure

For Jo Min-soo the expectation to perform was so great he almost had a mental breakdown after he joined the elite league aged 12. 

“I couldn’t handle the stress so didn’t play well,” he said.

Even a prodigy like Lee Se-dol suffered from the pressure — which brought on temporary aphasia when he was 12, leaving him with a high-pitched shrill voice that made him reluctant to speak in public for years.

Jo has dreamed of being a professional player since he was six, dropping out of school in 2013 to focus on his training.

But at 18, time is running out — a point brought home every day by the younger kids like Cho he shares a dormitory with.

“Compared to them, I’m too old... I’m feeling a bit desperate,” Jo said. 

“I started this because I love playing the game so much,” he said. “Now I’m not entirely sure... but this is the only thing I can do.”

The thing about doctors is that they seldom follow their own advice. They are also very reluctant to prescribe themselves or their family members with any conventional medicine. Believe me, it’s true. In an age where all literate persons who have the Internet at their fingertips, can self-medicate for any ailment within minutes, this comes as a great surprise. 

My father had a favourite joke that he used to crack at regular intervals. It went something like this: a man went to eat out with his family. When the food arrived, it was not good, so he asked to see the restaurant manager in order to complain. The manager is not in, he was told. He has gone to the next restaurant to have his dinner!

My dad, God bless his soul, found this anecdote so funny that he doubled up in laughter each time he related it to us. It amused him to no end that a restaurateur discovered the food in his place of work so unappetising that he went next door for a bite. If you cannot eat what your chefs have cooked, how could you expect your diners to do so, he wondered. 

Similarly, the doctors that I know personally hesitate to take the same drugs that they assign to other patients. If and when they are unwell, they try to look for unconventional methods of treatment like, homeopathic, Ayurvedic, Tibetan, Chinese, naturopathic and so on and so forth. Their deep knowledge of the subject makes them aware of the potential harm that allopathic medication causes, even as it heals. The know that the side effects are enormous and in most cases, one problem is fixed only to give rise to a new one that is caused by the drugs used to remedy the first one. 

Nothing scares the doctors in my family, and there are at least one dozen of them, more than when one of us goes to them for treatment. In such situations they are caught in a quandary because even while their professional side writes down the medicines, their personal side tries to tell us to avoid taking them. For someone like me who gobbles down tablets as and when Google search tells me to, I find their behaviour very irritating. I mean what is the point of pharmaceutical companies manufacturing all those painkillers if no one is ready to consume them? If there are no takers, won’t the several pharmacies shut down one after another? And eventually, how would the business of keeping us healthy work? 

I am lost in these thoughts when the phone rings. The number that flashes is an unfamiliar one. I pick up the cell reluctantly and hear the person on the other end of the line coughing loudly. There are four or five short cough sounds, which is then followed by a giant sneeze. All this even before we can greet each other. I move the receiver a little away from my ear. 

“Can you give me the turmeric in hot milk recipe?” a nasal voice asks. 

“Good afternoon doctor cousin,” I reply. 

“Our grandmother’s cough remedy please,” he snaps. 

“Have an antihistamine with warm water,” I suggest. 

“Am I supposed to mix it with black pepper?” he cuts in. 

“Cayenne,” I say. 

“Is that red or black pepper,” he queries. 

“I don’t know,” I admit. 

“Can you check it on Google?” he coughs some more. 

“Cure coming right up,” I promise. 

Chipping away at the genome of a tiny parasitic bacteria, genetic-sequencing trailblazer J. Craig Venter and colleagues say they’ve synthesised the shortest-known genome known to support life. This man-made set of genetic instructions contains only 473 genes, breaking the record held by the bacteria Mycoplasma genitalium, which with 525 genes contains the shortest-known genome found in nature.

Even with such a short list of genes, the researchers say the function of nearly a third of those genes remains a mystery — a hint that scientists still don’t fully understand the basic genetic requirements for life.

The so-called minimal genome, described in the journal Science, could help scientists better understand a cell’s essential instructions and shed light on the early evolution of life on Earth. The discovery could also pave the way towards creating designer microbes that could efficiently perform a host of functions useful for humans, from pumping out medicines to synthesising biofuels.

“As people start to think of industrial applications, de novo design using the repertoire of genetic pathways on this planet open up infinite numbers of new pathways that have never even been part of people’s imaginations before,” Venter said in a press briefing. “So I think it’s the start of a new era; it won’t happen overnight.”

Venter, who founded the La Jolla, California-based J. Craig Venter Institute and biotech company Synthetic Genomics, gained fame in 2007 for being the first human to have his entire genome sequenced. But long before that, he and his colleagues turned heads in 1995 when they reported that they had sequenced the first complete cellular genomes (one of which was M. genitalium) and showed four years later that many of those genes don’t seem to be necessary for growth.

In 2010, they announced that they had created the first synthetic organism by building a genome of M. mycoides from scratch and placing the finished product inside of a M. capricolum cell whose DNA they had removed.

But with a few exceptions, they had left M. mycoides’ genetic instructions mostly intact. This time the researchers wanted to create a living cell that had only the necessary genes for life.

This approach proved to be much harder, and to take much longer, than the team initially thought. Various estimates had put the number of essential genes anywhere from 256 to around 300, Venter said, and so the researchers took to designing with that in mind. They picked all of the genes that they thought were necessary in mycoides and put them together. Those directly designed cells did not work.

“No surprise to everybody now that has seen this paper, every one of our designs failed,” Venter said.

So the scientists began adding mycoides genes back to their designs until they got a functioning cell, and then divvied the genome up into eight overlapping chunks. They would delete genes in a given chunk and then add it back into the whole genome to see if the cell still functioned. If it didn’t work, they’d eliminated something essential. If it did work, they’d gotten rid of something that the cell hadn’t needed to survive.

They also found a number of quasi-essential genes, which, when deleted, would impair growth. Because the researchers needed to grow their bacteria fast enough to get their lab work done, some of these genes were kept in, even though there were not strictly necessary for life.

The scientists then synthesised their own version, consolidating the genes that worked together the way you might defrag your computer. This time, once they had inserted the man-made genome into an emptied cell of another species, it worked.

Although this is the shortest functioning genome now known, it is not the only minimal genome, the authors pointed out. First, they had to make concessions to include a few quasi-essential genes that sped up the growth time. Second, if they had started with a different critter — perhaps a photosynthetic or methanogenic bacteria, for example — they would have probably ended up with a different looking set of core genes.

But the research opens up a host of avenues to explore, the scientists said, pointing to the 149 genes in the minimal genomes whose exact function remained unknown.

“Knowing that we’re missing a third of our fundamental knowledge, I think, is a very key finding, even if there’s no other uses for this organism,” Venter said.

The next steps will include trying to nail down what those functions are; since some of those unknown genes seem to be shared by other species, they could point to basic required functions that scientists aren’t aware of yet.

And once they fully understand this genome, researchers can then start adding genes into the mix to see how they affect the cell, learning more about the additional gene in the process.

“One thing I’ve learned from this is the whole idea of the minimal genome is not quite as clear- cut as it seemed initially,” said project leader Clyde Hutchison of the J. Craig Venter Institute.

WASHINGTON — The extraordinary legal fight pitting the Obama administration against technology giant Apple Inc. ended unexpectedly after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it used a mysterious method without Apple’s help to hack into a California mass shooter’s iPhone.

Left unanswered, however, were questions about how the sudden development would affect privacy in the future, and what happens the next time the government is frustrated by digital security lockout features.

Government prosecutors asked a federal judge on Monday to vacate a disputed order forcing Apple to help the FBI break into the iPhone, saying it was no longer necessary.

The FBI used the unspecified technique to access data on an iPhone used by gunman Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after they killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December. The justice department said agents are now reviewing the information on the phone.

But the government’s brief court filing, in US District Court for the Central District of California, provided no details about how the FBI got into the phone. Nor did it identify the non-government “outside party” that showed agents how to get past the phone’s security defences. Authorities had previously said only Apple had the ability to help them unlock the phone.

Apple responded by saying it will continue to increase the security of its products.

“We will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations, as we have done all along,” the company added in a statement, while reiterating its argument that the government’s demand for Apple’s help was wrong.

“This case should never have been brought,” the company said.

FBI Assistant Director David Bowdich said Monday that examining the iPhone was part of the authorities’ effort to learn if the San Bernardino shooters had worked with others or had targeted any other victims. “I am satisfied that we have access to more answers than we did before,” he said in a statement.

The dispute had ignited a fierce Internet-era national debate that pitted digital privacy rights against national security concerns and reinvigorated discussion over the impact of encryption on law enforcement’s ability to serve the public.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, said in a statement that while it was “preferable” that the government gained access to the iPhone without Apple’s help, the fundamental question of the extent to which the government should be able to access personal information remains unanswered.

Issa, a critic of the administration’s domestic surveillance practices, said the government’s legal action against Apple raised constitutional and privacy questions and that “those worried about our privacy should stay wary” because this doesn’t mean “their quest for a secret key into our devices is over”.

The surprise development punctured the temporary perception that Apple’s security might have been good enough to keep consumers’ personal information safe even from the US government.

And while the Obama administration created a policy for disclosing such security vulnerabilities to companies, the policy allows for a vulnerability to be kept secret if there is a law enforcement or national security rationale for doing so.

The withdrawal of the court process also takes away Apple’s ability to legally request details on the method the FBI used in this case. Apple attorneys said last week that they hoped the government would share that information with them if it proved successful.

The justice department wouldn’t comment on any future disclosure of the method to Apple or the public.

Denelle Dixon-Thayer, chief legal and business officer at Mozilla, which makes the Firefox web browser, said in a statement that “fixing vulnerabilities makes for better products and better security for everyone” and the “government needs to take that into account” and disclose the vulnerability to Apple.

Jay Kaplan, a former NSA computer expert who’s now CEO of cyber-security firm Synack, said it is likely Apple will pursue avenues to further lock down their operating systems and hardware, especially as a result of the public announcement of some new technique to crack their phones.

US Magistrate Sheri Pym of California last month ordered Apple to provide the FBI with software to help it hack into Farook’s work-issued iPhone. The justice department relied on a 1789 law to argue it had the authority to compel Apple to bypass its security protocols on its phone for government investigators. While Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in New York ruled last month in a separate case that the US was seeking broad powers under that legal argument, the decision wasn’t binding in the California case and the justice department is appealing.

Technology and civil liberties organisations say they’re concerned the case is far from settled, with some worrying that smaller companies might not have the resources to fight off similar demands.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had argued that helping the FBI hack the iPhone would set a dangerous precedent, making all iPhone users vulnerable, if Apple complied with the court order. He as well as FBI Director James Comey has said that Congress needs to take up the issue.

Apple was headed for a courtroom showdown with the government last week, until federal prosecutors abruptly asked for a postponement so they could test a potential solution brought to them by a party outside of the US government last Sunday.

The encrypted phone was protected by a passcode that included security protocols: a time delay and auto-erase featured that destroyed the phone’s data after 10 tries. The two features made it impossible for the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what’s known as a brute-force attack. But with those features removed, the FBI said it would take 26 minutes to crack the phone.

A law enforcement official said the FBI would continue to aid its local and state partners with gaining evidence in cases — implying that the method would be shared with them. The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to publicly comment.

High on the waiting list for assistance likely is Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who told a US House panel earlier this month that he has 205 iPhones his investigators can’t access data from in criminal investigations. Apple is also opposing requests to help extract information from 14 Apple devices in California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York.

With a sharp yet more refined design evolution and more power than ever, the new Cadillac CTS-V is a more concerted effort to muscle in on the premium super saloon and executive car market. In a segment traditionally dominated by German manufacturers, the CTS-V ostensibly outguns its premium segment competitors in terms of firepower, and challenges the non-premium world’s most powerful regular production saloon Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.

More convincing harmonised and distinctly American in character, the CTS-V may not have the ultimate refinement, nuance or badge snob appeal of some European rivals, but makes particular gains in design and cabin luxury, and is an utterly compelling feel good alternative. Part sophisticated executive and part brutish muscle car, the CTS-V stands out not just for sheer power, but for its honest, unpretentious and hugely entertaining charisma.

Visceral and athletic

A more sophisticated well-reconciled and mature evolution of Cadillac’s Art and Science design language, the CTS-V employs both more complex and muscular surfacing, and more classic and visceral lines and proportions. Meanwhile, its fascia features hints of both concept and retro Cadillacs, with a slim vertical LED strip converging with swept back headlights and trailing along the waistline and to the rear light tips. 

From profile, the CTS-V’s long bulging bonnet, short front overhang and cabin-rear proportions with short curt rear deck and flowing roofline lend it a classy yet athletic character. Sporty side vents ahead of the A-pillar extend to side character lines to create a sense of momentum, while subtly wide wheel arches and a tapered rear section evoke a distinctly purposeful, road-hugging and urgent impression, complemented by big bore quad tailpipes.

Employing both defined ridges and elegantly athletic curves, the CTS-V — in Cadillac tradition — also features extensive metallic flourishes including grille surround and mesh. Proudly emphasising its high performance nature, the CTS-V’s aero kit is designed to reduce lift and features jutting carbon-fibre front air splitter, rear diffuser, and boot-tip spoiler and prominent bonnet-top engine bay extraction vents. A lightweight carbon-fibre bonnet helps achieve perfect weight balance, with 52.7 per cent front bias.

Instant boost

A herculean high performance saloon well-worthy of its “super” sobriquet, the CTS-V’s supercharged incarnation of General Motors’ venerable, robust and compact aluminium OHV design 6.2-litre V8 engine, gains 84BHP over its predecessor. Developing 640BHP at 6400rpm and 631lb/ft torque at 3600rpm, the CTS-V performance figures are beguiling, with 0-100km demolished in a supercar-like tyre-vaporising flurry of 3.7 seconds as its vast grippy 295/30R19 rear tyre struggle to put power down to tarmac.

However and more important than sheer headline stats, is the CTS-V’s effortless immediacy. With mechanical driven supercharger providing instant and consistent boost, the CTS-V is never found wanting, pouncing off the line with alacrity, brawny and versatile in mid-range, and eager, urgent and explosively powerful as it races to its 6,600rpm rev limit. Capable of 320km/h and with instant, indefatigable delivery, the CTS-V’s on-the-move acceleration is phenomenal, and remains vigorous even when cruising in 8th gear.

Thunderously bassy, growling and wailing and howling at full tilt, the CTS-V can however automatically deactivate 4 cylinders when cruising to save fuel. But given the temptation to overtake and re-activate all cylinders, real world fuel consumption remains thirsty despite more restrained optimal figures. Driven through an 8-speed automatic gearbox with manual p[addle-shift mode holding ratios to red line, the CTS-V’s driveline is slicker, quicker and smoother than before, but not quite like an Audi RS6 Avant.

Agile brute

Balanced and eager through corners, the CTS-V feels alert and nimble and agile for a 1.9-tonne saloon. Turning tidily into corners, the CTS-V also grips well at the rear when one leans onto the outside tires during fast sweeping corners. However, with so much torque on tap it is all too easy to unstick the rear tires on hard acceleration, and kick out the rear through a moderately quick cornering manoeuvre and or to initiate potentially lurid drifts.

Given vast power reserves but no track driving opportunities available to adequately explore at-the-limit handling, one it would seem that the CTS-V’s balance and precise throttle control would seem to serve to well control slides. However, on road, one would do well to be wary of applying too much or too sudden power in corners — especially in low traction conditions — and of course to keep its extensive electronic stability and driver assistance systems switched on.

Steering is meaty and quick at 2.37 turns lock-to-lock, but with decent feel and good precision, allowing one to place it well on road. Meanwhile massive ventilated brake discs and multi-piston callipers provide good pedal feel and immense stopping power, but without horizontal perforation, present with slight fade after moderately heavy, but hold well with more assertive pedal pressure.

Supple and sporty

A refined and comfortable highway cruiser, the CTS-V is stable, settled and committed at speed. Riding on MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension with adaptive magnetic damping, the CTS-V’s features adjustable ride modes. Taut, focused and buttoned down in firmer sport and race settings, the CTS-V has terrific body control through corners and feels firmer — but not uncomfortable — and sportily settled on rebound. Sport and Race modes also alter gearbox auto shift points and speed.

Driving in comfortable Tour mode, the CTS-V’s dampers soften somewhat, with a bit more slackness on compression and rebound than some rivals. Nevertheless, Tour mode works particularly well in being supple and comfortable over jagged bumps, with a smooth and absorbent ride quality that well takes the edge off stiff low-profile tyres, and retain good control of lateral weight transfer. Meanwhile 265/35R19 front tyres provide adequate steering feel and crisp, taut grip on turn-in.

Luxurious if slightly busy in terms of cabin design and layouts, the CTS-V features plenty of quality leathers and soft textures, and features extensive creature comfort and infotainment features, and a touch sensitive controls. Spacious and accommodating in front, it features a well-adjustable driving position with good visibility, supportive seats and configurable instrument binnacle with a central rev counter and HUD windscreen projection. Meanwhile rear space and boot capacity are decent, if not the most generous in this segment.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 6.2-litre, supercharged in-line V8 cylinders

Bore x Stroke: 103.25 x 92mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, OHV, variable valve timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive, limited-slip differential

Gear ratios: 1st 4.56 2nd 2.97 3rd 2.08 4th 1.69 5th 1.27 6th 1.0 7th 0.85 8th 0.65

Reverse/final drive ratios: 3.82/2.85

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 640 (649) [477] @6400rpm

Specific power: 103.9BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 340.4BHP/tonne

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 631 (855) @3600rpm

Specific torque: 138.75Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 454.7Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 6600rpm

0-100km/h: under 3.7 seconds

Top speed: 320km/h

Fuel consumption, city/highway: 16.8/11.2 litres/100km* *GM estimate

Fuel capacity: 72 litres

Length: 5,021mm

Width: 1,833mm 

Height: 1,454mm

Wheelbase: 2,910mm

Track, F/R: 1,577/1,554mm

Kerb weight: 1,880kg

Weight distribution, F/R: 52.7 per cent/47.3 per cent

Headroom, F/R: 1,026/952mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,160/899mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,446/1,392mm

Hip room, F/R: 1,366/1,353mm

Cargo volume: 388 litres

Steering: Electric-assist rack & pinion

Turning circle: 12.3 metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.37 turns

Suspension F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link, adaptive magnetic dampers

Brake discs, F/R: Ventilated 390 x 36mm/365 x 28mm

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

Tyres, F/R: 265/35ZR19/295/30ZR19