MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741
inside
Dench still
driven by lure
of the new
CAMPUS
P | 8-9
P|4
• Shantiniketan Indian
School organises
inter-house quiz
COMMUNITY
Just a short hop from the Indonesian
holiday hotspot of Bali, a Saudi tourist
and his family listen to the call to prayer
as the sun goes down on Lombok, the
self-styled “island of 1,000 mosques”.
• Six Senses Spa hosts Best
Buddies Qatar members for
yoga and sports
P|5
BOOKS
• Sophie Kinsella on
finding comedy
in shopping
P|7
HEALTH
• A workout
your ears
don’t need
P | 11
TECHNOLOGY
• The best
alternatives
to Photoshop
P | 12
INDONESIA AIMS
FOR GCC TOURISTS
LEARN ARABIC
•
Learn commonly
used Arabic words
and their meanings
P | 13
2
COVER STORY
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
Indonesia prays Islamic tourism
drive can draw more visitors
Pilgrims gather around a huge tree at a historic Islamic
shrine in Loang Baloq on the island of Lombok.
By Olivia Rondonuwu
J
ust a short hop from the
Indonesian holiday hotspot of
Bali, a Saudi tourist and his family listen to the call to prayer
as the sun goes down on Lombok, the
self-styled “island of 1,000 mosques”.
Lombok is at the centre of an Islamic
tourism drive in Indonesia, which has
the world’s biggest Muslim population
and is hoping to boost the number of
visitors from wealthy Middle Eastern
countries.
While aiming to continue to attract
Western tourists who flock to its pristine beaches, the island is also seeking
to promote its Islamic heritage, from
numerous places of worship to shrines
dedicated to ancient Muslim preachers.
“I love it here because I can hear the
azan (call to prayer) and people go to
the mosque to pray,” said 58-year-old
Sulaiman, the Saudi tourist, who gave
only one name and was accompanied
by his wife who was wearing an allencompassing burqa.
Indonesia is the world’s biggest
archipelago nation, made up of more
than 17,000 islands, but has long
lagged behind smaller, more developed
countries in Southeast Asia, such as
Malaysia and Thailand, in attracting
tourists.
Foreign visitor arrivals to Indonesia
rose to 8.8 million in 2013, according
to official figures, compared with 25.72
million in Malaysia and 26.55 million
in Thailand.
While there are no official figures
for “Shariah” tourism in Indonesia, the
sector is experiencing strong growth
internationally.
In a recent report, Muslim-oriented
business group CrescentRating, predicted the sector would be worth
$192bn a year globally by 2020, up from
$140bn in 2013.
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
Middle Eastern opportunities
“The economic growth of Middle Eastern countries
is very good and we see an opportunity there,” senior
tourism ministry official Rizki Handayani said.
Only around 190,000 Middle Eastern visitors came
to Indonesia in 2013, according to official figures,
but authorities hope their Islamic tourism drive can
increase numbers.
The government has produced tourist guides promoting Indonesia as a “Muslim friendly destination”.
It highlights the country’s best “Shariah” tourism
destinations and notes there are more than 600,000
mosques in the archipelago.
Lombok, long overshadowed by its better known
neighbour, Hindu-majority Bali, hopes the drive can
help raise its profile.
Authorities are planning to build a huge Islamic
centre that will contain a mosque, a hotel and a study
centre, and specially trained tour guides will point
Muslim visitors in the direction of the nearest mosque
at prayer time.
Other parts of Indonesia are hoping to benefit from
the initiative. Aceh province, in western Indonesia
and the only part of the country to enforce Shariah
laws, and the capital Jakarta are both seeking to lure
Middle Eastern tourists, who often bring many family
members with them and spend lavishly.
Riyanto Sofyan owns a chain of nine Shariah hotels
across Indonesia, including two in Jakarta.
Alcohol-free cocktails are available, the call to prayer is played five times a day through the buildings,
MTV has been removed from the list of TV channels
available in the rooms, as it is deemed too risque, and
hotel staff gently turn away unmarried couples.
In Lombok, hotels are also promoting themselves as
Islamic, with nine so far having gained coveted Shariah
certification. Echoing the system of stars for conventional hotels, Shariah accommodation is labelled with
the crescent moon, a symbol associated with Islam,
with the best receiving three.
A hotel must have signs pointing towards Makkah
and copies of the Quran in its rooms, as well as a
kitchen where halal food can be prepared, to gain its
first crescent moon.
Tourists visit an Islamic
centre in Mataram.
Authorities are planning
to build a huge Islamic
centre that will contain
a mosque, a hotel
and a study centre,
and specially trained
tour guides will point
Muslim visitors in the
direction of the nearest
mosque at prayer time.
Creating barriers
Despite the optimism of officials, there are concerns
that the push for Islamic tourism could put off other
visitors who want to sunbathe and relax on the beach.
But the local government insists it can promote
Shariah tourism without affecting the existing industry, and that party hotspots in the area — such as tiny
Gili Trawangan island, off the west coast of Lombok
— will remain unaffected.
Authorities are considering clearly demarcating
areas more suited to Muslim guests, where Western
tourists should cover up.
“We will make zones so that travel agents and guides
have clear options depending on their guests’ wishes,”
said local tourism chief M Nasir, adding that visitors
were already told they should not wear skimpy clothing
when they head into cities or visit religious sites.
Nevertheless for some Muslims, the clash of cultures
may still be off-putting. While Sulaiman, who comes
from Makkah, was enjoying his holiday in Senggigi,
the main tourist strip on Lombok, some aspects made
him feel uneasy.
“I am not comfortable with a tourist place where
there are people wearing things that are too revealing,” he said.
Others had concerns about trying to artificially separate Muslim and non-Muslim tourists.
American tourist Sarah Jorgensen, who was visiting
Lombok, warned such a move could lead to tensions:
“When you create borders then you have more opportunity for discrimination.”
AFP
Middle Eastern tourists walk along the beach
in Senggigi on the island of Lombok.
3
4
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
CAMPUS / COMMUNITY
Shantiniketan Indian School
organises inter-house quiz
T
he CBSE (i) section of Shantiniketan Indian
School organised an Inter-House Quiz titled
“Braingle”. Donald Dcosta conceptualised
Braingle — a brain teasing quiz event for both junior and senior students. Selected students from Blue,
Green, Yellow and Red Houses faced questions general knowledge, science, mathematics, English literature, social studies and general studies questions in
three rounds – general, audio-visual and rapid fire.
Blue House — Marwan Magdy, Abeer Bin
Mohammed, Lamiya and Ali Nadeem — emerged
winners in the junior category and the senior category title was won by Green House — Ziku Islam,
Astha Kumar and Giselle Fernadez.
Donald Dcosta and Annu Kumari were the quiz
masers in the junior category, while Afshan and
Christopher Jacob managed the senior category.
The Principal, Dr Subhash Nair, praised the
participants and the teachers for their hard work.
Dudley O‘Connor, Vice-Principal of the CBSEi
wing, closed the event appreciating the hard work
The Peninsula
of the Braingle Team.
QACC conducts beach
cleanup campaign
Q
atari Arabian Construction Company (QACC)
conducted a “Beach Cleanup Campaign” at the
Al Shamal beach recently. This was in line with
Qatar National Environment Day and also part of
the Company’s Sustainability and Environmental
Awareness Campaign.
Around 100 workers from QACC along with the
QHSE team took part in this Campaign which was
lead by the Company’s Area Quality Manager Jude
D’Silva.
A stretch of around 7 kilometres of the coast line
was cleaned and around 400 trash bags of waste
materials were collected and removed. The beach
cleaning team of Baladiya guided and supported the
QACC team in accomplishing this task.
The Peninsula
Qatari Arabian Construction Company staff
at the beach cleanup campaign.
Sherborne Qatar School rolls out
Smart Campus network solution
S
herborne Qatar has announced the
successful deployment of its latest Smart Education solution that is
enhancing greater levels of e-learning
for its students and faculty.
Sherborne Qatar selected Huawei
and Saturn to deploy a fully integrated
Smart Campus network, allowing both
staff and students to enjoy faster connectivity and a streamlined secure
access to the school’s network and
education tools.
Sherborne Qatar’s previous network needed increased bandwidth
requirements to adopt new modes of
e-learning platforms. Following the
implementation of Huawei’s Smart
Campus Network, the school has been
able to accommodate the huge bandwidth required to ensure that interactive learning tools can be effectively
utilized in the classroom. With a
software-based infrastructure that is
more flexible than ever before, the new
network also allows for the infrastructure to be easily built and programmed
according to the education needs of the
faculty.
“Sherborne Qatar holds itself to the
high standards of our UK counterpart
with a vision to offer the best learning
experiences possible for our students.
We have seen the role that innovative
technology plays in enabling a more
dynamic, interactive and fruitful learning environment. We wanted to create
an engaging educational environment
for our students so that they are able
to reach the highest levels of academic
success. Huawei’s Smart Campus solution was able to address the issues we
were facing. The team helped us to build
a scalable infrastructure that allows us
the flexibility to easily extend e-learning
platforms to more college campuses in
the near future,” said Michelle Walker,
Sherborne’s School IT Manager.
Emad Ramadan, Director, Huawei,
Enterprise Business, Qatar said: “In
an increasingly digital age, educators are taking steps to deploy an ICT
infrastructure based on campus wide
networks that are agile and can easily accommodate new service requests
on demand. This has been a prevalent
trend in Qatar in light of its Smart
City vision to develop into a digital
knowledge economy. Being involved in
such collaboration is an important part
of Huawei’s commitment to enriching
the region’s education sector and building a better society through sharing
knowledge and ICT expertise.”
The Peninsula
COMMUNITY
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
5
Six Senses Spa hosts Best Buddies
Qatar members for yoga and sports
R
ecently, 63 members of Best
Buddies Qatar Clubs at the
Centers and Schools for
Children with Special Needs, participated in yoga and other sports activities organised by Six Senses Spa in
Sharq Village.
Six Senses Spa contributes to Best
Buddies Qatar through holding sports
sessions for its members yearly.
This year the exercising programme
was expanded to gym for boys under
watchful assistance of the Spa instructors. The events continued with basic
gym exercises followed with refreshing
outdoor walking along the seaside.
Participants had healthy lunch provided by Shaq Village.
Abdullah Almimi, High School
Programme Coordinator at Best
Buddies Qatar, commented: “Best
Buddies Qatar members with intellectual disabilities and their peer
friends without intellectual disabilities received great joy and expressed a
lot of enthusiasm and activity during
exercising.”
Francisca Rocha Antunes, Regional
Operations Director of Six Senses Spa,
said: “Six Senses Spa Doha at Sharq
Village & Spa is delighted to welcome Best Buddies Qatar members.
Following the success of previous
years’ Yoga class and massage workshop, Six Senses Spa is committed to
supporting Best Buddies Qatar’s cause
of enhancing lives and creating opportunities for people with intellectual
and developmental disabilities. It is
at the heart of Six Senses Spas to be
responsible and caring as we believe
that people are the heart of everything
we do. The experiences we craft, the
service we deliver and the connections
that we build are based on our deep
commitment to nurture people and
thus become positive participants in
the local communities. “
Laalei Abu Alfain, Executive
Director at Best Buddies Qatar, said:
Best Buddies Qatar members
exercising at the Six Senses Spa.
“We thank Six Senses SPA for holding
yoga events and other sports activities for Best Buddies Qatar members
yearly. We appreciate their support,
as well as other government and private sector entities, of Best Buddies
Qatar mission to enhance lives of
people with and without intellectual
disabilities through social integration
and one-to-one meaningful long lasting
friendship.”
The Peninsula
Cricket jersey launched
IES College of Engineering Alumni,
Qatar Chapter launched cricket jersey
for the upcoming Engineer’s Forum Inter
Alumni Cricket tournament. The Jersey
was launched by Basheer, Managing
Director of Loydence Group and team
sponsor of IESCEQC, by presenting the
jersey to Dipin Jose, Team Captain of
IESCEQC. IESCEQC committee members also presented ‘Team Manager’
Jersey to Basheer. The other dignitaries present were Linda Hadley, Principal
of Loydence Academy, and Hashique,
Business Development Manager of
Loydence Group, who also addressed
the gathering. The programme was
hosted by Edwin Sebastian.
SDC organises essay, drawing
and painting competitions
S
kills Development Centre (SDC) conducted essay,
drawing and painting competitions as part of
Qatar National Environment Day in co-operation
with Qatar Ministry of Environment and Koodu –
Nature Magazine.
On the topic — ‘Our Nature’ — children participated in pencil drawing and water colouring competitions. The essay competition was based on the
topic ‘Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan
and its impact of air, sea and land’. SDC director
Vijayakumar and Human Resource Manager Aquinlal
coordinated the competitions with participation of
about 500 students from various Indian Schools. The
price distribution to the winners would be at 6.30pm
on February 17 at the Skills Development Centre.
The public function would be chaired by delegates
from Ministry of Environment and other dignitaries,
a SDC pressnote said.
The Peninsula
6
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
COMMUNITY / MARKETPLACE
Music Lovers
Group to host
carnatic concert
of RaGa sisters
A
Sundanese organises ‘Botram’
O
ne of the Indonesian ethnic groups in Qatar,
Sundanese, held an event called ‘Botram’, a traditional family gathering at Marahland Family Park, Al
Wakrah.
The gathering was attended by the Indonesian
Ambassador Deddy Saiful Hadi and Endang Deddy Hadi
along with several embassy staff. Ambassador Deddy
himself comes from Sundanese who later became the
patron of this organization.
Deddy in his speech welcomed the establishment of
the organization.
As part of the event there was a show on how to bind
‘Iket’ (hat of Sundanese), demonstration of Sundanese
martial arts of ‘Pencak Silat’, traditional Sundanese children’s games and delicious traditional food of Sundanese.
f ter
hosting
Begum
Parween Sultana’s concert
on Hindustani Classical in
January, Music Lovers Group of
Doha is set to host its next event,
a carnatic vocal concert of RaGa
sisters (pictured) — Ranjani and
Gayatri — on February 27, at the
Al Falak Ballroom in Crown Plaza
Doha.
The sisters are highly renowned
musicians whose contributions
include studio recordings, television, radio, concerts, festivals and
lecture demonstrations. They have
appeared as soloists, violin duos,
accompanists, vocal duos, composers, educators and ambassadors of
Indian Classical Music.
Audience will be in for treat
with in-depth ragam-tanam-pallavis, soul stirring viruthams and
lively abhangs, which are special
features of Ranjani-Gayatri’s repertoire. Ranjani and Gayatri are
accompanied by top musicians of
South India — M Rajeev on violin,
N Manoj Siva on Mridangam and
Anirudh Athreya on Khanjira.
The tickets are available at
https://m.q-tickets.com/events/
raga-sisters-vocal-musical-liveconcert-doha, Indian Cultural
Centre and Anjappar Restaurant,
or contact 55841765. The Peninsula
The Peninsula
Salam Stores kicks
off store-wide sale
S
alam stores has announced the launch of its
popular sale with discounts up to 50 percent off
at Salam Store’s at The Gate Mall and The Mall.
The sale is on till March 11.
Salam Stores Regional Retail Manager, Feras
Oweidat commented on sale: “We are delighted
by the enthusiastic response we receive from our
regular and new customers to sales such as the
one we have just launched. Whether it is a change
in wardrobe customers are looking for or they are
out to pick up that perfect gift, we are confident
that, at Salam Stores our shoppers will find collections of items that reflect the great taste they
display. Salam Stores takes pride in bringing the
world’s best brands and placing them at the fingertips of our customers. So having a chance to cash
in on a great bargain is something they appreciate and value and we are happy to open up these
opportunities.”
A special feature of this up sale is that it includes
store-wide items and is not limited to selected merchandise or brands, thereby offering shoppers a
wide array of options and bargains to choose from.
Designers featured in this promotion include
Temperley London, Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna,
Givenchy, Just Cavali, Canali, Paul & Shark, La
Martina, Home ware and many more.
The Peninsula
BOOKS
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
7
Sophie Kinsella on finding comedy in shopping
By Ngozi Kemjika
B
est-selling English author Sophie
Kinsella (pictured) is back in shopping mode with her latest novel,
Shopaholic to the Stars, which takes
her intrepid heroine to Hollywood.
It has been four years since the release of the
last book in the best-selling series about the life
of a former financial journalist and compulsive
shopper named Becky Bloomwood.
In Shopaholic to the Stars, she relocates to Los
Angeles with her husband and begins a career
as a stylist but her Hollywood adventure may
not be what she was expecting.
Madeleine Wickham, who writes under the
pen name of Sophie Kinsella, spoke about how
her childhood shaped her imagination and the
popularity of her books.
You grew up in a family of writers. How
much impact has this had on you?
In my family story telling was truly valued.
My parents told us an invented story every
night. My mother would create these amazing
characters and fantasy series and this all had
an effect on me growing up.
How did you conceive the shopaholic
series?
My “Visa bill moment” was my starting
point. I was shopping and I had a vision of a
girl, really myself, opening a Visa bill and experiencing all the emotions you feel when you
look at your Visa bill, from denial to anger and
disbelief. I saw the comedy in shopping, which
no author had yet explored.
The series is more than a decade old, how
do you keep readers interested?
I write stories which interest me and that is
how I’ve always written. Becky Bloomwood is
By Abby Ohlheiser
M
ark Zuckerberg reads a
new book every two weeks
(so he says) and he wants
Facebook’s users to join him. On
Wednesday, the Facebook founder
announced that his latest pick is On
Immunity: An Inoculation, a book by
essayist Eula Biss that investigates
why people fear vaccination.
“Vaccination is an important and
timely topic,” Zuckerberg wrote in a
Facebook post explaining his choice.
“The science is completely clear:
vaccinations work and are important
for the health of everyone in our
community.”
“This book explores the reasons
why some people question vaccines,
and then logically explains why the
doubts are unfounded and vaccines
are in fact effective and safe,” he
continues, noting that Biss’s book
is “relatively short” (it’s 216 pages),
and was recommended to him by
“scientists and friends who work in
public health.”
Zuckerberg’s year-long book club
works kind of like any other book
club. But it has more members than
always fresh because when I write about her
I feel exhilarated. She is funny, silly and gets
into so much mischief. For those reasons I am
always dying to know what happens with her
next.
What advice would you give to people who
want to get into comic writing?
Don’t be happy with the first draft. You have
to write and re-write. With comedy you need to
be tough on yourself but equally, not afraid to
put yourself out there. The best comedy comes
from truthful and embarrassing places.
The film, Confessions of a Shopaholic,
was based on your books. Will there be
another movie?
I haven’t heard of any firm plans to make a
sequel although with the movie world you never
know.
Reuters
Mark Zuckerberg’s latest book club
pick is all about fear of vaccines
a typical living room meet-up might.
Zuckerberg picks a book, announces
it, and anyone who wants to discuss
it (on Facebook, of course) in a couple
weeks is supposed to pick up a copy
and read it. In the past, Zuckerberg
has hosted live Q&A’s with the authors
of his picks, with mixed success.
There’s been a lot of discussion
lately about the effectiveness of
attempts to convince those who fear
vaccination of the scientifically sound
reasons behind mass inoculation. At
least one recent study has suggested
that using a fact-based argument
against anti-vaccination rhetoric is
ineffective, and could actually backfire
and make those with concerns about
vaccines even less likely to seek them
out.
Which is why Zuckerberg’s
particular selection on this topic is
interesting. Sure, it has literary merit:
The New York Times magazine selected
it as one of the 10 best books of 2014.
But there’s another thing, a more
important thing, that Biss’ book
contains: it introduces the wider
discussion of fearing vaccines through
the conversations the author had, as
a new mother, with other mothers.
Biss is an essayist, and On Immunity
is a personal book. It is also historical,
it’s a retelling of mythology and it is
also a product of research.
As the Times’s review of On
Immunity puts it, “Biss doesn’t linger
on the outbreaks, nor does she refer
to an ‘anti-vaccination movement.’
She speaks only of ‘mothers.’.” It
continues:
On Immunity concludes by inviting
us to relinquish illusions of the body’s
independence and acknowledge
our participation in a web of
interdependency. This isn’t a treacly
take on “community,” though. It’s the
blunt reality of blood banks and organ
donors. Biss reminds us that we owe
each other our lives.”
And here’s an excerpt from
the book itself, which follows Biss
describing her pediatrician’s response
to questions she raised about the
Hepatitis B vaccine:
“The belief that public health
measures are not intended for
people like us is widely held by
many people like me. Public health,
we assume, is for people with less
— less education, less healthy
habits, less access to quality health
care, less time and money. I have
heard mother of my class suggest,
for instance, that the standard
childhood immunisation schedule
groups together multiple shots
because poor people will not visit
the doctor frequently enough to get
the twenty-six recommended shots
separately. No matter that any
mother, myself included, might find
so many visits daunting. That, we
seem to be saying of the standard
schedule, is for people like them.”
Incidentally, earlier this month,
The Washington Post published
an opinion piece from a former
“vaccine skeptic” who said that an
earlier essay by Biss on the topic
helped her to understand for the
first time how “herd immunity”
actually works.
WP-Bloomberg
8
ENTERTAINMENT
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
BOLLYWOOD NEWS
HOLLYWOOD NEWS
Zayn Malik taken ill on stage
SRK hopes to impress kids with Fan
S
B
inger Zayn Malik was forced to leave the stage during One Direction’s
gig here, just three songs in after he began to feel unwell.
The 22-year-old exited just three songs into the performance here
Friday night with bandmate Niall Horan later informing the crowd he
was too sick to return, reports dailymail.co.uk.
A spokesperson for the group, which also includes Harry Styles, Louis
Tomlinson and Liam Payne, said: “Zayn was taken ill during the show but
it’s nothing serious.
“He wasn’t feeling that great beforehand but he tried to get through the
performance... Everyone is hoping he’ll be well enough for their next gig.”
It isn’t the first time Malik has pulled out of his One Direction duties
in recent months.
The star was also missing during the band’s appearance on “The Today
Show” last November, and was forced to defend himself over false drug
use claims made by host Matt Lauer following his no-show.
Dench still
driven by lure
of the new
I’m a victim of domestic violence: Berry
A
ctress Halle Berry is “damaged” after witnessing domestic violence
as a child.
The 48-year-old, who has a six-year-old daughter, Nahla, from a previous
relationship and 16-month-old son Maceo with husband Olivier Martinez,
was just five years old when she watched her mother “beaten day after
day after day” and get “kicked down stairs” by her husband and admits
what she witnessed has stayed with her.
“I’m a victim of domestic violence. I wasn’t married to a man that beat
me up, but my mother was,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted her as saying.
“Knowing that she wanted nothing more then for her little girls to see
her be empowered and be a woman of strength, but having no way to make
that happen was heartbreaking for me
“She stayed for too long and her children, my sister and I, saw far too
much and I’ve suffered the damage of being a child of domestic violence,”
she added.
Berry also worked for 15 years with the Jenesse Centre, a Los Angeles
domestic violence intervention programme.
Fergie’s ‘hypnotic’ way to health
S
inger Fergie says that she uses hypnosis for a variety of reasons, including to stop her from over-eating.
The “LA love” hitmaker, who has two-year-old son Axl with husband
Josh Duhamel, opened up about her trick to remain healthy while talking
to America’s OK! Magazine, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
She also notes that she goes to a trained therapist on a regular basis
and believes it helps her stick to a healthy diet.
“It works! I get into a very relaxed state, where she can speak to my
subconscious. It’s almost a dream state, so you’re highly suggestible. I’ve
done hypnosis for eating, and later I’ll got to the refrigerator and hear
her voice telling me to be sensible,” she said.
9
By Patrick Graham
A
fter a career spanning
seven decades, Oscarwinning actress Judi Dench
rails against the notion of
enforced retirement every bit as much
as the character she plays in her latest film.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold
Hotel renews our acquaintance with
a guest list of fading Brit retirees
whose lust for life is reinvigorated by
the fresh and unpredictable environment they find themselves cast into.
Holder of the unofficial title of
Britain’s favorite actress since well
before she turned 80 in December,
Dench plays Evelyn, a widow who
ends up running a business in her
new home.
The film offers a mix of Indian and
British themes, laced with hints of
British comedy classics like Fawlty
Towers and One Foot in the Grave
and dominated by the rough-edged
characters played by Dench and fellow
octogenarian Oscar winner Maggie
Smith.
Their experiences are worlds away
from the grim, one-dimensional fate
Dench says awaits many Britons as
care home residents.
“I always think that our system
over here is the wrong one,” she said.
“When you go in and you see people just sitting, you think there is no
stimulus.
“It is interaction with people that
stimulates us. To put all these people
in a room, where maybe the television
might be on but half of them may not
even be able to see it. That’s wrong.”
She has ridden out problems with
deteriorating eyesight and says she
has much more work in her yet.
“I’m fine, once I know where everything is,” she said. “At home I know
where all the steps are. I wouldn’t be
good going into a darkened room, like
in a cinema where I can’t see where
the steps are, so I get someone to be
with me.”
Dench made her professional
stage debut in the 1950s, and for
much of her career as a leading
light of Shakespearean theater, she
and husband Michael Williams ran a
household that included her daughter
and three of their four parents.
“Sometimes it wasn’t easy but it is
worth it. Even the thing of one complaining about the other, it’s something, it’s a life, it’s something to get
heated up about and not just sit in a
chair.”
She sees threads of such multi-generational living running through the
Indian backdrop to the new film and
says Britain has something to learn
from communities “where the family
is all kept together, where there is a
family unit”.
“As a society we are still a bit cold,”
Dench said.
“It’s just the thing of stimulus I
think. I’m such an advocate for not
stopping, just going on and being challenged. I long to do ...the sort of things
that I haven’t done before. And I will.”
Reuters
Cameron Diaz, Transformers, Kirk Cameron top Razzies
By Lindsey Bahr
C
ameron Diaz and Kirk Cameron received the dubious
honour of being dubbed the year's worst actress and
actor at the 35th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards
(aka the “Razzies”) on Saturday night.
Diaz earned the title for her performances in the raunchy
comedies The Other Woman, in which a wife and two mistresses of the same man team up to make his life miserable,
and Sex Tape, where a couple accidentally releases their
private performance to the cloud.
The modern-day remake of Annie, which also featured Diaz
as Miss Hannigan, along with Jamie Foxx and Quvenzhané
Wallis as the plucky foster kid, was named worst remake,
rip-off or sequel.
Cameron, meanwhile, picked up the award for Kirk
Cameron's Saving Christmas, a widely derided and somewhat
self-explanatory faith-based comedy, which also won worst
picture, worst screen combo (Cameron and his ego) and
worst screenplay.
Razzie favourite Michael Bay was granted worst director for Transformers: Age of Extinction, or, as the Razzies
call it, “Age of Ex-STINK-tion.” Although Bay's film may
have grossed over $1bn worldwide, that didn't save the silly,
explosion-happy movie from more than one Razzie win.
Transformers supporting actress Nicola Peltz was spared,
but Kelsey Grammer was not as lucky. The five-time Emmy
winner picked up worst supporting actor not just for his
role as the evil counter-intelligence agent, but also for his
performances in Legends of Oz, 'Think Like a Man Too, and
Expendables 3.
Megan Fox, who gained fame from the Transformers franchise, was recognised as worst supporting actress for playing
the tenacious reporter April in the Michael Bay-produced
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Ben Affleck was the only one who was spared. The actordirector who won for the terrible 2003 movie Gigli, was
acknowledged with a Razzie redeemer award thanks to
his Oscar-winning film Argo and his performance in David
Fincher's Gone Girl.
The Razzies are handed out at a ceremony in the heart of
Hollywood on Oscar eve, although those honoured seldom
show up.
The ignominious awards are chosen by 811 members in
47 US states and 20 foreign countries who pay a minimum
annual fee of $40 their first year and $25 thereafter.
As the Razzie organizers noted, their society is not alone in
panning Saving Christmas. Users of the international movie
database IMDB.com rated it the No. 1 worst movie of all
time, while it scored a rare perfect “Zero” rating on critic
aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
In the film, the child star of television’s “Growing Pains”
who later became an evangelical Christian tries to “put
Christ back into Christmas.”
AP
ollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is working hard to surpass the
expectations of someone with his upcoming movie Fan and its not of
the director or writer — but of his little fans.
“Hav the sweetest & hard workingest kids on ‘Fan’. Hope i live up2 their
innocent expectations & mak them lov films more than they already do
(sic),” King Khan tweeted.
After entertaining with Happy New Year, SRK has turned all his focus
on Maneesh Sharma’s directorial Fan.
The superstar, often called the King of Romance, will be seen playing
the role of a fan.
No film sequel pattern for Shraddha
A
ctress Shraddha Kapoor seems to have turned into a reigning queen
of sequels in Bollywood with films like ABCD 2, Rock On 2 in her kitty.
But the actress says there is no particular pattern she follows while choosing films, but just looks for good scripts.
“I did not realise this pattern, but I feel extremely fortunate to be
working with such talented people and being a part of such good scripts,”
Shraddha said in a statement.
After failure in Teen Patti and Luv Ka the End, the actress rose to fame
with romantic film Aashiqui 2 in 2013, sequel of the 1990 movie Aashiqui.
Shraddha has been paired with Varun Dhawan for the first time for the
sequel of Remo D’Souza’s dance film ABCD: Anybody Can Dance.
And Shraddha will be seen sharing screen space with Farhan Akhtar
in the sequel of rock musical Rock On!!.
The actress has carved a niche for herself in the film industry with her
performance in films like Ek Villain and Haider. She has also showcased
her dancing skills in songs like Dance Basanti.
I’m open for TV shows: Anushka Sharma
A
fter featuring
in hit films like
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,
Band Baaja Baaraat
and PK among
others,
actress
Anushka Sharma
is now keen to do a
television show.
Anushka
was
present on the set
of crime-based show
“Savdhaan India” to
promote her upcoming film NH10 when
she was asked about
her plans to make
an entry into small
screen.
To that she said:
“No, actually I
haven’t thought
about it. But, I
always be open for
every kind of creative opportunity
that might come my way. So, in near future if a show that has a good
story comes my way, so I would be open for sure.”
Directed by Navdeep Singh, NH10 is a story of couple that goes on a
road trip which gets transformed into a complete nightmare, making it a
fight for survival.
Apart from Anushka, the film also star Neil Bhoopalam and Darshan
Kumaar in key roles and it is slated to release March 6.
10
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
GREECE
!
!"
#
$ %
&Extension
to bailout expires
at midnight
-%
'&("(
of Greek Treasury bills mature.
"(
loan from International Monetary
Fund due for repayment
#&"(
of
Greek T-bills mature
MAR
'&"(
of
APR
T-bills mature
MAY
)
&
)
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of T-bills
JUN
IMF loan due
mature
for repayment
JUL
)&*"+
repayment
due on bond held by
/
0!$&
European Central Bank and
AUG
Greek finance
other eurozone central banks
minister – elected
#,&*"
repayment
SEP on mandate to end
to ECB and eurozone central banks
austerity
&"(
IMF
loan due
OCT
.&"(
IMF
"+
loan due
$
1!
2&
German finance
,+
minister – Germany
has contributed 3+
DEC
to Greek bailout
Sources: Bruegel, BNP Paribas
Pictures: Associated Press
© GRAPHIC NEWS
HEALTH / FITNESS
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
By Vicky Hallett
Even insufficient sleep
may lead to diabetes
D
uring her first workout at Orangetheory
Fitness in Fairfax,
Virginia, Donna Reid
was blown away by two things:
“how hard it was and how loud
it was.” The 51-year-old adored
the studio’s interval training program — a mix of treadmill, rowing
machine and resistance exercises
— but when it came to the accompanying music assaulting her eardrums, well, that didn’t seem so
sound.
“I want to do something good
for my body. I don’t want to do
something detrimental at the
same time,” says Reid, who asked
the trainer to turn down the volume. She got her wish for a few
minutes. But when it soon crept
up again, Reid knew she’d need a
different tactic.
She’s settled on earplugs, which
she brings without fail to her five
Orangetheory sessions each week.
A couple of classmates have commended this strategy, although
they haven’t followed her lead. As
for the rest?
“When it’s a song they like,
they’ll yell out to the trainer to
crank it up. I think they’re crazy,”
Reid says.
At the very least, they’re probably not thinking about the potential ramifications of that request.
Loud noise, like sun exposure,
is the sort of thing that might
not seem harmful at any given
moment, but the cumulative
effects can be devastating and
irreversible, says Deanna Meinke,
a professor of audiology at the
University of Northern Colorado
and co-director of Dangerous
Decibels, a public health campaign
targeting noise-induced hearing
loss.
Researchers have raised concerns about music at gyms since
the 1980s, Meinke notes, but the
fitness industry doesn’t seem
all that interested in dialing it
down. A study released last year
by Australia’s National Acoustic
Laboratories compared sound levels from fitness classes in 20092011 with those from 1997-1998.
The finding: High-intensity offerings are even noisier than they
were a decade ago, with indoor
cycling classes topping the list of
culprits, blaring tunes as loud as
99 decibels.
As a general rule, adults can
safely tolerate 85 decibels for up
to eight hours. But get even a tiny
bit above that, and the time frame
shrinks rapidly, Meinke says. The
human ear can handle 91 decibels
for two hours, and 94 decibels for
just one hour.
A sign that it’s too loud: You
experience ringing in your ears —
tinnitus — after you’ve stepped out
of the gym. You might also have
temporary hearing loss, but the
effect is often too slight to notice,
11
L
A workout your
ears don’t need
says Matthew Bakke, chairman
of the audiology department at
Gallaudet University. If you think
it may be too loud, it probably is.
But the more you’re exposed to
loud music, the less likely you are
to mind it, he adds.
Once permanent hearing loss
creeps in, however, you won’t be
able to ignore that. The condition
isn’t like sticking in an earplug,
which muffles everything. Instead,
soft sounds are blocked and loud
noises seem to get louder, Bakke
explains. That’s why, as we age, we
tend to be bothered more by blasting music. (Or, as Bakke puts it: “I
sound like a crotchety old man.”)
As seniors become an increasingly important target for the
fitness industry, trainers need
to take extra note of noise, says
Bernadette O’Brien, an 84-yearold aerobics instructor, who raises
these issues at conferences around
the world. Music is an integral
part of all of her classes — “It creates a mood, makes you feel nice
and encourages you to move,” she
says.
But turn it up too loud, and “the
chronologically enriched” won’t be
happy about it. “And they will tell
you,” O’Brien adds. To prevent
that, she recommends just 60 decibels for seniors.
That’s a little overcautious, says
Meinke, who notes that normal
conversation is 65 decibels. Still,
she’d like to see volume levels
come down overall to that 85-decibel level, accompanied by an education push in gyms. Audiologists
could lead classes in hearing
health, Meinke suggests, and clubs
could lend out noise dosimeters,
devices that are worn throughout
the day to measure cumulative
exposure.
These days, however, you’d be
lucky simply finding a fitness
facility that has a noise policy of
any kind — at least one that its
management will discuss publicly.
Orangetheory Fairfax declined to
comment for this article, as did
SoulCycle, the indoor cycling studio that’s recently added two locations in the Washington area.
Booming bass may be bad for
your ears, but it’s good for business, says Teri Bothwell, group fitness director of Sport & Health.
The Washington-area gym chain
trains instructors to keep their
playlists near the 90-decibel mark
by using sound monitors (which
are now available as apps and
accessible to anyone with a smartphone). That safety decision has
led to occasional complaints from
members demanding louder tunes,
particularly in Zumba classes.
“They’re not happy, and some of
them have gone somewhere else,”
Bothwell says. “At boutiques, it’s a
party and it’s loud, and that’s part
of what people pay for.”
The ones who are really paying,
however, are the instructors who
spend countless hours in these
environments. Even in gyms that
pay attention to noise, “it’s the
industry joke that we’re all deaf
at 35,” Bothwell adds.
Asuka Boutcher, who teaches
crowds of up to 300 students at
her studio, Kazaxe, in Springfield,
Virginia, jokes that she’s surprised
she can still hear at all. Loud
music is what gives her dance
classes a clublike atmosphere that
lets students lose their inhibitions.
“It’s a chance to be crazy and go
wild. If the music’s too low, no one
is going to work out to that,” she
explains.
But while she’s willing to put
her own hearing at risk, Boutcher
recognises that it’s not a laughing
matter. That’s why she’s settled on
the same solution Reid did: earplugs. There’s a big bucket of them
available free for any student.
“It’s surprising other fitness
classes don’t do it,” Boutcher says.
“Because it’s an obvious thing to
WP-Bloomberg
do.”
ack of sleep can elevate levels of free fatty
acids in the blood, accompanied by temporary
pre-diabetic conditions in healthy young men, a
new research reveals.
While examining the impact of sleep loss on
24-hour fatty acid levels in the blood, the study said
insufficient sleep may disrupt fat metabolism and
reduce the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugars.
The researchers found that after three nights of
getting only four hours of sleep, blood levels of fatty
acids — which usually peak and then recede overnight — remained elevated from about 4 a.m. to 9am.
“As long as fatty acid levels remained high,
the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugars was
reduced,” said Esra Tasali, assistant professor of
medicine at the University of Chicago and senior
author of the study.
The results provide new insights into the connections, first described by the University of Chicago
researchers 15 years ago, between sleep loss, insulin
resistance and heightened risk of type 2 diabetes.
For the study, the researchers recruited 19
healthy male subjects between the ages of 18 and
30. They found that sleep restriction resulted in
a 15 to 30 percent increase in late night and early
morning fatty acid levels.
The nocturnal elevation of fatty acids (from
about 4am to 6am) correlated with an increase
in insulin resistance — a hallmark of pre-diabetes
— that persisted for nearly five hours.
“Curtailed sleep produced marked changes in the
secretion of growth hormone and levels of noradrenaline — which can increase circulating fatty acids,”
noted study’s lead author Josiane Broussard.
The result was a significant loss of the benefits
of insulin. “This crucial hormone was less able to
do its job. Insulin action in these healthy young
men resembled what we typically see in early
stages of diabetes,” he pointed out.
Something as simple as getting enough sleep
could help counteract the current epidemics of
diabetes and obesity, they concluded.
New treatment for muscle
cramp found effective
A
new treatment developed by US researchers has been found effective in reducing the
intensity of muscle cramps by as much as thrice.
The new treatment may bring hope for people who suffer from muscle cramps or spasms
due to neuromuscular disorders diseases such as
multiple sclerosis or from nighttime leg cramps
that hampers sleep. “These leg cramps can cause
distress, interrupted sleep, reduced quality of life
and interference with activities of daily living,”
said study author Rod MacKinnon, a Nobel laureate and co-founder of Flex Pharma in Boston.
Currently, there are no approved treatments
for nocturnal leg cramps, MacKinnon said.
The new treatment is based on research that
shows cramps are caused by excessive firing of
neurons in the spinal cord that control muscle
contractions.
The treatment is designed to stop the firing of the
neurons by stimulating the transient receptor potential (TRP) on channels. For the study, the researchers used an electrical neurostimulator to induce
muscle cramps in the feet of 37 healthy people.
While half of the participants received the
treatment other half received a placebo. When
participants received the treatment, which was
taken by mouth, their cramps were three times
less intense than when they received the placebo.
Agencies
12
TECHNOLOGY
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
The best alternatives to Photoshop
Adobe’s Photoshop has been the dominant force in
image editing for a quarter of a century, but now
there are lots of good competitors – some free,
some paid for, some even work in the browser.
By Samuel Gibbs
A
dobe’s Photoshop is now 25
years old and is arguably the
pinnacle of photo editing.
But, at £8.57/month, it’s also
much more expensive than most people
can afford, so here are some alternatives for 25 years of photoshoppery.
The five best …
Pixelmator — best for Mac
£22.99 - OS X
Pixelmator is arguably the best
photo editor on a Mac. It handles even
the largest photos with ease, replicates
as many Photoshop tools as are generally required, as well as Photoshop file
support, and has an excellent heal tool
that can interpret what’s around it and
fill in detail.
Excellent for quick touching up of
photos to detailed manipulation for
novices and pros alike. There’s even a
very capable £7.99 iPad Pixelmator app
with many of the same tools and ease
of use that make the Mac app great.
Paint.net — best for Windows
Free - Windows
Paint.net started life as a simple
replacement for Microsoft Paint, but
evolved with new features such as multiple layers and more advanced photo
editing tools. Today it is one of the
fastest free photo editors for Windows,
with a capable feature set that stops
just short of some of the professional
manipulation tools.
Excellent for quick edits, crops and
the majority of daily photo editing. Best
of all, it’s free.
Adobe Lightroom — best for bulkmanaging photos
£99 - Windows, OS X
Arguably the best photo manager,
Adobe Lightroom has enough tools,
even for professionals, to avoid having to open up a separate image editor,
including some of Photoshop’s healing
and manipulation tools. It also has a
solid collection of batch processing
and automated correction tools based
on lighting, lens and camera models,
which makes it fast for most jobs.
Aviary Photo Editor — best for
mobile
Free - Android, iOS
Aviary is a solid image editor with
very capable image touch-up and
resizing tools, now owned by Adobe.
It’s straightforward interface makes
it easy to use and has more to offer
than most mobile editors obsessed with
Instagram-style filters.
Autodesk Pixlr - best in the
browser
Free - Windows, OS X, Android, iOS
and web
Pixlr is a free jack of all trades photo
editor with a solid tool set for almost
any project. The web app is one of the
most fully featured, while its mobile
and desktop apps are also solid. Some
of Pixlr’s most advanced features
require a $15 a year subscription, but
it has the backing of Autodesk, making of some of the best computer-aided
design tools.
The best of the rest …
PaintShop Pro
£48 - Windows
Photoshop’s long-standing rival.
PaintShop Pro is cheaper than its juggernaut of a rival but similarly specified. It lacks some of Photoshop’s most
advanced features, and is bettered by
some of its newer often-free competitors, but is still a capable editor.
Serif PhotoPlus X7
£79.99 - Windows
PhotoPlus is a solid all-round image
editor for Windows from the company
that created Affinity Photo for OS X. It
has a decent set of tools, including lens
correction tools and other favourites
of photographers. The only downside
is that many of the advanced tools
require more manual manipulation
than some other programs and therefore it isn’t as beginner friendly.
Photoshop Elements
£79.10 - Windows, OS X
Photoshop’s cut-down cousin
Elements has improved dramatically
over the last couple of years from a
tool to avoid to a photo editor for everyone else. It has many of the same
tools as its bigger brother, save for the
advanced Content Aware Fill and a few
other professional tools. Solid for most
tasks, although free or cheaper tools
with similar features are available.
Acorn 4
£22.99 - OS X
Another excellent image editor for
OS X, Acorn is billed as the “image
editor for humans”. It’s packed with
advanced tools and filters but has a
stripped back, simplified user interface that is designed to be familiar to
Photoshop users and easy to pick up
for notices.
Affinity Photo
Free - OS X (in beta)
Affinity Photo attempts to be
Photoshop on a budget, but not dumbed
down. It’s fast, packed with advanced
tools and is aimed at professionals. Part
of that tool set is end-to-end CMYK
16-bit per channel editing, RAW
processing and a Photoshop Content
Aware Fill-like tool called Inpainting.
Gimp
Free - Windows, OS X and Linux
Despite the unfortunate name –
GNU Image Manipulation Program –
Gimp is one of the most capable free
open-source photo editors available for
Windows, OS X and Linux. It has some
very powerful tools, but isn’t as user
friendly as some others.
Aperture
£59.99 - OS X
Apple’s long-standing photo organiser and editor, Aperture is one of the
most efficient ways of tweaking groups
of photos, and making and reviewing
small adjustments. The magnifying
loop tool is particularly effective. It’s
simpler to use than many of its competitors and can be used in conjunction
with iPhoto.
Apple Photos
Free - OS X
Photos is Apple’s replacement for
both iPhoto and Aperture, which will
be available in the spring. A preview
was made available of the app, which is
fast, with enough tools to make photo
management and tweaks easy.
Picasa
Free - Windows, OS X
Picasa is Google’s photo manager
and editor. It plugs into Google+, but
is a solid simple organiser and can be
accessed through the app or on the
web. It has enough tools to quickly
tune photos, with a few fancy filters
thrown in.
ACDSee Pro 8
$99.99 - Windows
ACDSee is an Adobe Lightroom
analogue with photo management at
its heart. It is fast and effective, but
has limited metadata sorting and no
automatic correction based on lens
profiles. It has enough editing tools to
improve the odd photo, but some of it
can be a clumsy mix of destructive and
non-destructive editing.
The cheaper ACDSee 18 lacks
some of the more advanced features
but could be a good option for photo
management.
Preview
Free - OS X
Apple’s built-in image and document
viewer for OS X is a bit of a dark horse.
Underneath its simple viewing exterior
hides a fast and effective image editor
that’s perfectly capable of cropping,
resizing, reformatting and simple touchups. It is particularly good at editing
a bunch of images at once.
Microsoft Paint
Free - Windows
Microsoft’s original image editor. It’s
changed a bit in recent years and is still
a solid, basic image editor. It’s worth a
go for nostalgia’s sake at the very least,
or for simple cropping and resizing jobs
that really don’t require something as
powerful as Photoshop.
Sumo paint
Free - web
A Photoshop facsimile in the
browser, the free Sumo Paint is an
excellent quick photo editor. Many of
the advanced tools are only available in
a $19 pro version, but for straightforward touching up of images, resizing
and similar the free editor does the job.
PicMonkey
Free - web
PicMonkey is free, browser-based
image editor with a solid feature set
for simple photo touchups, adding text
to images and adding frames. Images
can be taken from a computer or various cloud services, including Dropbox
and Flickr. A paid-for upgrade removes
the ads and gives access to more fonts
and effects.
The Guardian
COMICS & MORE
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
13
LEARN ARABIC
The Professions
Watch-man
Mouraqib
Broker
Simsar
Jeweller
Jawharee
Gold-smith
ayi
Barber
allq
Black-smith
addad
February 23, 1945
Watch-maker
Saçatee
Teacher
Mouçallim
U.S. Marines captured Mount
Suribachi on the Japanese island
of Iwo Jima. Their raising of the
U.S. flag became the subject of a
Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph
ç = ‘a’ in ‘agh’ when surprised
Baby Blues
by Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman
Hoy en la Historia
1685: German-born British composer
George Frideric Handel was born
1905: The Rotary Club was founded
by a Chicago lawyer to enable
professionals from diverse
backgrounds to exchange ideas
1965: Stan Laurel, thinner half of the
Laurel and Hardy comedy duo, died
2006: Yoweri Museveni, credited with
improving his country’s response to
HIV/AIDS, was re-elected for a third
term as President of Uganda
Picture: Associated Press
Hagar The Horrible
Zits
by Chris Browne
© GRAPHIC NEWS
ALL IN THE MIND
Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal,
vertical, diagonal, forwards or backwards.
by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman
ABYSSINIAN, ANGORA, BALINESE, BENGAL, BIRMAN,
BOBTAIL, BOMBAY, BURMESE, CHARTREUX, CHAUSIE,
CHERUBIM, CYMRIC, HIMALAYAN, JAVANESE, KORAT,
LONGHAIR, MALAYAN, MANX, MUNCHKIN, NEBELUNG,
OCICAT, PERSIAN, RAGDOLL, SIAMESE, SIBERIAN,
SINGAPURA, SOMALI, SPHYNX, TIFFANIE, TIIFFANY,
TONKINESE.
14
CROSSWORD
1
2
3
4
5
6
14
7
8
9
24
25
29
21
27
22
28
31
33
34
35
36
37
38
42
39
43
48
13
16
30
41
12
19
26
32
47
11
18
20
40
10
15
17
23
CROSSWORDS
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
44
49
45
46
50
51
52
56
57
61
53
54
55
58
59
60
62
63
66
67
68
69
70
71
64
65
ACROSS
1 Where buses are parked
6 Where buffalo roam
11 ___ Harbour, Fla.
14 Big Indian
15 “___ case of
emergency”
16 When août occurs
17 Words on a birth
announcement
19 Aurora’s Greek
counterpart
20 Ending with farm
21 Has coming
23 Magazine with
a back-cover fold-in
26 Quota for a rep to
achieve
29 2009 Peace Nobelist
31 Island setting for
“Pirates of the
Caribbean”
32 Title island of a 2005
DreamWorks animated film
36 Only non-U.S. M.L.B.
team, on scoreboards
37 Oldest continuous
democracy in Central
America
40 Say further
43 Words from class
clowns
47 Sisterly
50 Landscapist’s prop
51 Where to find money
exchange shops
55 Before now
56 Pitchers?
57 Title for a French
nobleman
59 “Kidnapped” monogram
60 Like the Oscars … or
the answers to this puzzle’s
seven italicized clues?
66 Driving need
67 First name in cosmetics
68 Question before takeoff
69 Suffix for braggarts
70 Tournament favorites
71 Follow
DOWN
1 N.B.A.’s Erving, to fans
2 Agua, across the
Pyrenees
3 Slumber party attire,
informally
4 Bran muffin topping
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
18
22
23
24
25
27
28
30
33
34
35
38
39
40
“Let’s roll!”
Like most of Wyoming
Out of the way
Harry Reid’s state: Abbr.
Bestow on, to Burns
Win over
Opposite of six-pack
abs, ironically
In a single try
Cigarette ad claim
Stephen of “The Crying
Game”
Mobiles, stabiles, etc.
Alice, to Dennis the
Menace
Litigators’ org.
Henry, to Dennis the
Menace
Prefight psych job
Cheerio-shaped
___ ’n’ cheese
___ expected
(predictably)
Circus prop
___ in cat
Kind of comfort
Top-rated
Ancient fertility goddess
HYPER SUDOKU
41 Marginal things?
42 It often shows a band’s
name
44 Rebs’ org.
45 Bud holder, of sorts
46 ___-mo
48 Some Scandinavian
coins
49 Salon supplies
52 Like a land
A
M
I
D
S
T
R
E
N
O
I
R
S
K
I
K
I
D
E
E
F E R
E D U
N I N
T O
C O F
G U F
I T S
S
R
S
R
A
H
A R
E S A
N C H
R A
O P E
N
A
R U
J A
I T Y
F E E
F
N
Y
S
U
R
I
E
L
O
N
C
D
S
R
A
P
baron
53 Derby bouquet
54 CPR pro
58 Original sin locale
61 “Cats” inspirer’s
monogram
62 Scarfed down
63 Hip-hop’s ___ Racist
64 Dot follower, on campus
65 Food factory supply
E D E
R O Z
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How to play Kakuro:
The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be
of any size. It has rows and columns, and
dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like
in a crossword, some of the dark cells will
contain numbers. Some cells will contain two
numbers.
However, in a crossword the numbers
reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers
are all you get! They denote the total of the
digits in the row or column referenced by the
number.
Within each collection of cells - called a run
- any of the
numbers 1
to 9 may be
used but,
like sudoku,
each
number
may only be
used once.
YESTERDAY’S ANSWER
Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate
How to
play Hyper
Sudoku:
A Hyper Sudoku
Puzzle is solved
by filling the
numbers from 1
to 9 into the blank
cells. A Hyper
Sudoku has
unlike Sudoku
13 regions
(four regions
overlap with the
nine standard
regions). In all
regions the numbers from 1 to 9 can appear
only once. Otherwise, a Hyper Sudoku is
solved like a normal Sudoku.
S
T
E
A
K
EASY SUDOKU
Easy Sudoku Puzzles
Place a digit from 1 to 9 in
each empty cell so every
row, every column and
every 3x3 box contains all
the digits 1 to 9.
YESTERDAY’S
ANSWER
CINEMA / TV LISTINGS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2D/Action)
– 11:30am, 4:30, 9:30pm & 12:00midnight
Sou2 Tafahom (2D/Arabic) – 2:00 & 7:00pm
Dragon Blade (2D/Action)
– 11:00am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:55, 9:20 & 11:50pm
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
(Animation) 3D – 10:00am, 2:00, 6:00 & 10:00pm
2D – 12:00noon, 4:00 & 8:00pm
Boys of Abu Ghraib (2D/Drama) – 11:50pm
The Wedding Ringer (2D/Comedy)
– 10:30am, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30, 6:30, 8:40 & 11:00pm
Plan B (2D/Arabic)
– 10:10am, 2:10, 6:10 & 10:10pm
The Boy Next Door (2D/Thriller)
– 12:10, 4:10, 8:10pm & 12:10am
The Atticus Institute (2D/Horror)
– 10:40am 2:50,, 7:00 & 11:30pm
Housebound (2D/Horror)– 12:40, 4:50 & 9:00pm
Plan B (2D/Arabic) – 11:00am, 3:30, 8:00pm
& 12:15am; Dragon Blade (2D/Action)
– 1:00, 6:00 & 10:00pm
Dragon Blade (2D/Action) – 5:00 & 8:00pm
Boys of Abu Ghraib (2D/Drama)
– 10:20am, 12:20, 2:20 & 10:30pm
Kingsman: The Secret Service (IMAX 2D/
Action) – 10:30am, 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, 8:30 &11:00pm
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2D/Action)
– 11:00am & 4:00pm; Dragon Blade (2D/Action)
– 1:30, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pm
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
(2D/Animation) – 3:00pm
Kingsman: The Secret Service
(2D/Action) – 5:00pm
TEL: 444933989
444517001
13:05
13:35
14:05
14:55
15:25
15:55
16:25
17:10
17:40
18:10
19:35
20:00
20:45
21:45
22:35
23:25
23:55
15:40
16:35
17:30
18:25
Song One (2D/Drama) – 9:30pm
20:15
21:35
Anegan (2D/Tamil) – 2:00pm
The Wedding Ringer (2D/Comedy)
– 5:00 & 9:00pm
MALL
22:05
23:00
Housebound (2D/Comedy) – 7:00 & 11:00pm
3
My Family
Doctors
Casualty
Gavin & Stacey
Last Of The
Summer Wine
Lead Balloon
Weakest Link
Eastenders
Doctors
Lark Rise To
Candleford
The Job Lot
Scott & Bailey
The Shadow
Line
Call The
Midwife
Mistresses
Roger & Val
Have Just Got
In
Gavin & Stacey
13:50 Roaring With
Dragon Blade (2D/Action) – 7:15 & 11:00pm
2
15
Whiplash (2D/Drama) – 2:30pm
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
(2D/Animation) – 4:30 & 6:15pm
Pride
Tanked
Gator Boys
The Lion Queen
Roaring With
Pride
Tanked
Lion Man: One
World African
Safari
Into The Pride
The Wild
Life Of Tim
Faulkner
08:00 News
08:30 101 East
09:00 Lifelines: The
Quest For
Global Health
10:30 Inside Story
11:30 Letter From My
12:30
13:00
14:30
15:00
16:00
17:00
17:30
19:00
19:30
20:30
21:00
22:30
23:00
Child
Witness
NEWSHOUR
Inside Story
Empire
NEWSHOUR
News
Talk To Al
Jazeera
News
Counting the
Cost
Inside Story
NEWSHOUR
The Stream
The System
13:00 Animal
Intervention
14:00 Mega
Breakdown
15:00 Car SOS
16:00 Hunter Hunted
18:00 Perilous
19:00
20:00
21:00
22:00
23:00
Journeys
Car SOS
Hunter Hunted
Alaska Wing Men
Perilous
Journeys
The Living
Edens
The Atticus Institute (2D/Horror) – 7:45pm
Plan B (2D/Arabic) – 9:30pm
13:30 Better Off Ted
14:30 Community
15:30 The Daily
Boys of Abu Ghraib (2D/Drama) – 11:30pm
1
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
(2D/Animation) – 2:45pm
Badlapur (2D/Hindi) – 4:30pm
16:30
18:00
19:00
Dragon Blade (2D/Action) – 7:00 & 9:15pm
Song One (2D/Drama) – 11:30pm
2
Dragon Blade (2D/Action) – 2:30pm
20:00
21:00
Housebound (2D/Comedy) – 5:00 & 9:00pm
The Wedding Ringer (2D/Comedy)
– 7:00 & 11:00pm
LANDMARK
3
22:00
22:30
Whiplash (2D/Drama) – 2:30pm
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
(2D/Animation) – 4:30pm
Show With
Jon Stewart
The Goldbergs
New Girl
Two And A
Half Men
Wilfred
The Daily
Show With
Jon Stewart
Girls
Curb Your
Enthusiasm
12:00 Emmerdale
12:30 Coronation
14:00
15:00
16:00
16:30
17:00
18:00
19:00
20:00
21:00
22:00
23:00
Street
Unforgettable
Crisis
Emmerdale
Coronation
Street
The Ellen
DeGeneres
Show
Unforgettable
Bones
Revenge
Bates Motel
Banshee
The Client List
Boys of Abu Ghraib (2D/Drama) – 6:15pm
Song One (2D/Drama) – 8:15pm
Plan B (2D/Arabic) – 9:45pm
The Atticus Institute (2D/Horror) – 11:30pm
1
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
(2D/Animation) – 3:00 & 4:45pm
Dragon Blade (2D/Action)
– 6:30, 8:45 & 11:00pm
Boys of Abu Ghraib (2D/Drama) – 2:30pm
2
The Wedding Ringer (2D/Comedy) – 4:30pm
18:00
The Atticus Institute (2D/Horror) – 6:30pm
18:30
19:00
19:30
20:00
20:30
21:00
21:30
22:00
22:30
23:00
00:00
00:30
01:00
ROYAL
Badlapur (2D/Hindi) – 8:30pm
PLAZA
Housebound (2D/Comedy) – 11:00pm
3
13:00
13:30
14:00
14:30
15:00
16:00
17:00
17:30
Whiplash (2D/Drama) – 2:30pm
Song One (2D/Drama) – 4:30 & 8:00pm
Housebound (2D/Comedy) – 6:00pm
Plan B (2D/Arabic) – 9:30pm
The Wedding Ringer (2D/Comedy) – 11:15pm
Jamai Raja
Bandhan
Doli Armaano Ki
Jodha Akbar
Kasamh Se
Hum Paanch
Teenovation
Neeli Chatri
Waale
Maharakshak
Aryan
Bandhan
Hello Pratibha
Jodha Akbar
Jamai Raja
Kumkum Bhagya
Qubool Hai
Satrangi Sasural
Doli Armaano Ki
Hello Pratibha
Best of Fear Files
Jodha Akbar
Kumkum Bhagya
Jamai Raja
13:05 Hannah Montana
13:30 Wizards Of
14:20
14:45
15:00
15:20
15:45
16:10
17:00
18:40
19:05
19:30
20:20
22:00
22:25
22:50
23:10
Waverly Place
Austin & Ally
Disney Mickey
Mouse Shorts
Binny And The
Ghost
Binny And The
Ghost
Liv And Maddie
Violetta
Frenemies
Binny And The
Ghost
Binny And The
Ghost
Violetta
Liv And Maddie
Suite Life On
Deck
A.N.T. Farm
Shake It Up
Wolfblood
12:15 Fantomworks
13:05 Auction Hunters:
13:30
13:55
14:20
15:10
16:00
16:50
17:15
17:40
18:30
19:20
20:10
20:35
21:00
21:50
23:30
00:20
Pawn Shop
Edition
The Liquidator
Auction Hunters
Railroad Alaska
Highway To Sell
Fast N' Loud
How It's Made
How It's Made
Alaska: The Last
Frontier
Gold Rush
Gold Divers:
Under The Ice
The Liquidator
Auction Hunters
Gold Rush
Gold Divers:
Under The Ice
Alaska: The Last
Frontier
Fast N' Loud
12:45 From Up On
14:30
16:00
18:00
20:00
22:00
23:30
01:00
Poppy Hill
Cinderella
Quest For A
Heart
Jelly T
Hammer Boy
Cinderella
Quest For A Heart
Barbie In The
12 Dancing
Princesses
14:15 Chalet Girl
16:15 Surviving
18:00
20:00
22:00
Christmas
Seeking A Friend
For The End Of
The World
HairBrained
The Food
Guide To Love
13:00 Lost Christmas
15:00 Temptation:
17:00
19:00
21:00
22:45
01:00
Confessions
Of A Marriage
Counselor
Grand Piano
A Secret
Promise
The Citizen
Barney's
Version
Grand Piano
13:30 Return To Nim's
15:15
17:00
18:45
21:00
23:00
Island
Five Thirteen
Ender's Game
The Book Thief
Christmas In
ConwayInsidious:
Chapter 2
16
POTPOURRI
PLUS | MONDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2015
Nasa to look
for alien life on
Jupiter’s moon
N
asa will start a mission to
Jupiter’s moon Europa in the
hope of finding signs of life on the
frozen planet.
The agency is reportedly encouraged by the blasts of water vapour in
the moon’s polar region.
The research team thinks this
could be a way to sample the liquid
water, which is normally inaccessible
through the thick layer of ice covering the moon, Inquisitr reported.
“Europa is clearly such a prime
target for astrobiology that having a
workshop like this to try and figure out
all the ways in which we could possibly
sample its oceana [is] critically important,” Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist at
California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
was quoted as saying.
The project has got $30m approved
from the White House for the first
phase, part of a $18.5-bn request
that is still awaiting Congressional
approval.
IN FOCUS
The total cost of the Europa mission, from start to finish, would be
more than $2bn.
Nasa has a rough plan for the
mission, sending a vessel that would
travel to Jupiter’s orbit and make 45
flybys of Europa over 3.5 years.
In addition to collecting water
samples, the mission would also
measure and map the icy shell covering the surface, which could lay the
groundwork for a future mission to
Europa.
First spacewalk to
let space taxis park
on ISS completed
N
asa astronauts have successfully completed first of the three
spacewalks to reassemble parts of
the International Space Station (ISS)
to create parking spots for Boeing
and Space Exploration Technologies
(SpaceX) — two commercial space taxis.
The 6-hour, 41-minute-spacewalk
from Expedition 42 astronauts Barry
Wilmore and Terry Virts was meant
to prepare the ISS for a pair of international docking adapters (IDAs)
that will allow future commercial
crew vehicles to dock.
Wilmore and Virts ended their
spacewalk with the repressurisation
of the Quest airlock at 2.26pm (EST)
February 21.
They also rigged a series of power
and data cables at the forward
end of the Harmony module and
“Pressurized Mating Adapter-2” and
routed 340 of 360 feet of cable.
“The cable routing work is part
of a reconfiguration of station systems and modules to accommodate
the delivery of new docking adapters
that commercial crew vehicles will
use later this decade to deliver astronauts to the orbital laboratory,” Nasa
said in a statement.
The duo will venture outside the
space station again Feb 25 to deploy
two more cables and lubricate the
end of the space station’s robotic arm.
Astronauts have now spent a total
of 1,159 hours and eight minutes conducting space station assembly and
maintenance during 185 spacewalks.
Nasa has awarded contracts to
Boeing and SpaceX to develop, test
and fly capsules that can taxi astronauts to and from the station.
Agencies
Events in Qatar
Doha Film Institute Screening
Awards season showcase
When: Feb 27-28
Where: Katara Drama Theater building 16
What: Don’t miss out on the Awards
Season buzz with the Doha Film Institute’s
celebration of classic and contemporary
award-winning films, taking place at Katara
following the 2015 Academy Awards. Watch
four acclaimed feature films from Academy
Awards history — Whiplash, Les Choristes,
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and
Casablanca .
Visit dohafilminstitute.com for
more information and tickets
Family Art Workshops
When: Till March 31, 2015
Where: Katara Art Studios - Bldg 19
What: Katara Art Studios is hosting a
series of Diverse Family Art Workshops
from September 2014 to March 2015.
They invite families to attend with their
children aged between 5 years old to 10
years old.
The cost of each workshop is
QR150
Doha Jewellery & Watches
Exhibition
When: Opens to public from Feb 24-28;
12noon-22pm, Friday 4pm to 10pm
Where: Qatar National Convention Centre
What: The Exhibition distinguishes itself
from other exhibitions as the chosen venue
for international product launches in the
world of jewellery and watch design and
manufacturing. The aims of the exhibition
are to demonstrate the latest trends in
the industry today; showcase the most
magnificent gemstones and sophisticated
timepieces in the world.
Free admission, pre-register at
http://www.djwe.qa
by Cheryl
Here There Exhibition
When: Till March 30, 2015; Opening
hours Sunday-Wednesday 10:30am –
5:30pm, Tuesday closed and Thursday
12pm – 8pm.
Where: Al Riwaq Exhibition Hall
What: The Qatar Brazil 2014 Year of
Culture closes with a grand finale event as
QM Gallery Al Riwaq presents Here There,
a showcase of works by artists from Qatar
and Brazil.
Free entry
Mal Lawal Biennale
When: Till February 28
Where: Doha Exhibition Center
What: Spread over 5,000sqm space, the
expo is divided into 11 categories and offers
a feast to the eyes and intellect of visitors
with a diverse array of objects.
There has been a rise in the number of
participants from 90 in the first edition to 152
this year, 110 of whom are from Qatar and
42 from other GCC countries.
Free entry
An old fort seen in between Dukhan and Al Shahaniya.
Send your photos to [email protected].
Mention where the photo was taken.
If you want your events featured here,
mail details to [email protected]
Acting Editor-In-Chief Dr Khalid Al-Jaber Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]