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DOHA 16°C—26°C TODAY LEISURE 12 & 13 D LIFESTYLE/HOROSCOPE 14 L L Jumada I 13, 1438 AH Friday, February 10, 2017 Community The Babelsberg studio is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world and its props depot has more than 1 million objects. Community The ‘Reverse Walk–Rewind the Pain’ event on March 3 aims to promote good health as well as raise awareness on health issues. P7 P16 Pushing boundaries in the wrong direction An Oscar-nominated Iranian director caught up in Trump travel ban. P2-3 COVER STORY MORAL STAND: Asghar Farhadi seen here at the National Board of Review Gala in New York last month, will not be attending the Academy Awards this month.

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Page 1: D C—26 C TODAY LEISURE LIFESTYLE OROSCOPE

DOHA 16°C—26°C TODAY LEISURE 12 & 13D LIFESTYLE/HOROSCOPE 14LL

Jumada I 13, 1438 AHFriday, February 10, 2017

CommunityThe Babelsberg studio is the

oldest large-scale film studio in the world and its props depot has more than 1 million objects.

CommunityThe ‘Reverse Walk–Rewind the Pain’

event on March 3 aims to promote good health as well as raise awareness on health issues.

P7 P16

Pushing boundaries in the wrong direction

An Oscar-nominated Iranian director caught up in Trump travel ban. P2-3

COVERSTORY

MORAL STAND: Asghar Farhadi seen here at the National Board of Review Gala in New York last month, will not be attending the Academy Awards this month.

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Friday, February 10, 20172 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITY COVER STORY

Community EditorKamran Rehmat

e-mail: [email protected]: 44466405

Fax: 44350474

Emergency 999Worldwide Emergency Number 112Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991Local Directory 180International Calls Enquires 150Hamad International Airport 40106666Labor Department 44508111, 44406537Mowasalat Taxi 44588888Qatar Airways 44496000Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444

Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies)Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365Qatar Airways 40253374

USEFUL NUMBERS

Quote Unquote

PRAYER TIMEFajr 4.55amShorooq (sunrise) 6.13amZuhr (noon) 11.48amAsr (afternoon) 3.00pmMaghreb (sunset) 5.25pmIsha (night) 6.55pm

The dream is to keep

surprising yourself, never mind the audience.

– Tom Hiddleston

LOADED DICETaking the sheen off art

“Do you know the answer to ending these wars and violence?” Asghar

Farhadi asked. “The only way is for the people of the world to come to know each other, not through politics but

through culture. If people the world over get to see and know each other and

understand how similar they are, they would be unwilling to kill one another”

The border guard took my passport and grunted. Two more guards arrived, eyed me, inspected my papers

and led me to a room. The door closed. Never a good sign.

It was around 3am in Tehran’s international airport and my presence had disrupted the calm of a winter’s night. Whispers, asides, a commander was summoned.

Days before I landed in December 2002, the Iranian government had ordered that American journalists be fi ngerprinted and questioned on entering the country. The decree was in retaliation for “American offi cials’ insulting behaviour toward Iranian nationals.” As I sat, a man walked into the room with a fi ngerprint pad, ink and paper. He took my hand but seemed confused; the guards pressed in closer, watching.

The man rolled one of my fi ngers over the pad. Too much ink. The print smudged. He grabbed a second fi nger. Another unreadable blur. The commander grew agitated. Bursts of Farsi crackled around me; the guards appeared to be giving advice to the man with the ink. The man yelled back. No-one was sure of the procedure. What had begun as menacing slipped into farce. The commander sighed and, wanting to regain control of the situation, ordered tea.

The man with ink handed me a tissue. I wiped my stained fi ngers. The guards laughed. The tea came. Silence fell. We were an American and four or fi ve Iranians with no common language. We nodded and gestured, men caught up in the politics of their governments, stirring sugar and sipping tea in the strange circumstances of the night.

I was reminded of that moment when Iranian director Asghar Farhadi announced that he would not be travelling back to Los Angeles this month to attend the Academy Awards. His movie The Salesman is nominated for an Oscar for foreign language fi lm. Farhadi’s decision came after President Donald Trump’s executive order to suspend the US refugee programme and temporarily prohibit entry to citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations.

Not having Oscar-nominated Iranian director

Asghar Farhadi at the Academy Awards will

diminish the ceremony, writes Jeff rey Fleishman

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3Friday, February 10, 2017 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITYCOVER STORY

Farhadi could have applied for an artistic waiver, but like Taraneh Alidoosti, the star of The Salesman, he decided to take a moral stand. In a statement directed at Trump and his own folks, he said:

“For years on both sides of the ocean, groups of hard-liners have tried to present to their people unrealistic and fearful images of various nations and cultures in order to turn their diff erences into disagreements, their disagreements into enmities and their enmities into fears. Instilling fear in the people is an important tool used to justify extremist and fanatic behaviour by narrow-minded individuals.”

Farhadi’s films are meditations on what crisis does to the soul, how it forces us to confront not the image of who we want to be but of who we are. His characters stand unadorned, flawed and imperfect, struggling for but not always finding redemption. Much like ourselves. Not having him at the Academy Awards will diminish the ceremony; filmmakers and actors may praise him from the stage, but it won’t carry the resonance of a conscientious cultural and international voice at a time that the Trump administration is peering inexorably inward.

The US and Iran have been enemies for decades. But there are people beneath the mistrust, wars, terrorism and geopolitical designs that shape their policies. On my 2002 trip to Iran, I drove through the snow to the mountains outside Tehran. Girls in black chadors sledded, boys skied.

I stopped at the home of Bahman Farmanara, a director harassed by the censors over his fi lm about a depraved gynaecologist. We talked about artistic integrity and how much he respected and was shaped by Hollywood pictures, including Rear Window and All About Eve.

He even liked the Renee Zellweger movie Nurse Betty, saying, “It was a silly thing. A way to escape … . Some fi lms are like Prozac, some like Valium.” But he said it was the art that mattered, the power of fi lm to transcend borders and speak truth.

Farhadi, whose 2011 fi lm A Separation won Iran its fi rst foreign language Oscar, was probing when I met him a few weeks ago. “Do you know the answer to ending these wars and violence?” he asked. “The only way is for the people of the world to come to know each other, not through politics but through culture. If people the world over get to see and know each other and understand how similar they are, they would be unwilling to kill one another.”

Immigration bans and a rising global populism threaten cultural exchange. A suspicion of the other is pervading. I felt that, in what turned out to be a harmless hour or so, in that small room in the Tehran airport years ago. When we fi nished our tea, the commander and the guards stood and the man with the ink tried again. He rolled my fi nger over his pad and pressed it on paper. A clear print appeared. The fi ne, curvy lines of identity.

The man smiled and did my other fingers. My hands were a mess when it was done. The guards and the commander were relieved. I was given a box of tissues and sent on my way. The terminal was empty; my bag sat

alone near the carousel. I found a taxi and was driven into a city where I had never been, a place that flickered with the art of iconography.

I left Tehran in early January 2003, crossing the mountains

into northern Iraq. I arrived at the last Iranian outpost. Guards were cleaning their guns and listening to a radio. A few prayer mats were scattered in the dust. The guards looked at me as if I were lost. I handed them my passport

and after some consultation they decided I had the right paperwork and wasn’t a spy. They stamped my documents and pointed me down a road to the border. A light rain began to fall. —Los Angeles Times/TNS

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The Farhadi-directed film has won rave reviews.

Asghar Farhadi’s films

are meditations on what crisis

does to the soul, how it forces

us to confront not the image

of who we want to be but of

who we are. His characters stand

unadorned, flawed and imperfect, struggling for but not

always finding redemption.

Much like ourselves

Farhadi’s decision not

to travel to the US came

after President Donald Trump’s executive order

to suspend the refugee

programme and prohibit

entry to citizens of seven

predominantly Muslim nations

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Friday, February 10, 20174 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITY TRAVEL

Bellingham museum’s MegaZapper is electrifying, and exciting

The MegaZapper at the museum in action.

By Brian J Cantwell

Talk about a shocking experience. But, happily, it wasn’t.

I felt like Houdini, in one of those old

movies, where they wrap the master magician in 20 feet of chain secured with 20 padlocks, drop him into a swimming pool, then wait for him to swim victoriously to the surface.

But I was inside a cage – playfully called the “Cage of Doom” – perched on what looked disturbingly like an electric chair (it was really just an old barber chair).

The crackling bolts of electric energy zapping the outside of the cage were fully authentic, however. Zapping, to the tune of

4.5 million volts, from a Tesla coil, an electrical transformer named for Nikola Tesla, the mad-scientist inventor of the late 19th century.

This device is dubbed the MegaZapper, and it’s the big draw at downtown Bellingham’s Spark Museum, dedicated to electrical inventions through the ages.

This titillating demonstration of electronic wizardry you won’t fi nd elsewhere. It’s worth the trip.

Star of the show“I had this idea: We have this

Tesla coil, this big, bad coil, this is our Colossus, this is what people come to see, let’s build a little show around it!” says Tana Granack, the museum’s operations director, explaining the museum’s rebranding a few years ago from the American Museum of Radio and Electricity (yawn) to the Spark Museum (sizzle! zap!).

There’s plenty more to see in the museum, from a life-size replica of the Titanic’s Marconi wireless room, complete with a recording of the doomed ship’s actual distress call, to what’s billed as the first cellphone: a Collins wireless phone, invented in 1898, that looks like a wooden box with a swan-neck speaking tube and two big hula hoops wrapped in wire. Fit in your pocket? Not so much.

A phrenology helmet from the 19th century has a map of parts of the brain having to do with “blandness,” “agreeableness,” “sublimity,” etc. It bristles with screw-down electrodes emanating from a bronze hooped headpiece that connects to a box of batteries. Yikes.

You can make music (of a sort) on a Theremin, the only musical instrument you play without

touching it. Wave your hands over and around two aerials emanating from a black box and hear all pitches of electronic wheedles. (A variation on the instrument provided the woo-ooo electronic sounds in the Beach Boys hit Good Vibrations.) “I have eight guinea pigs and I say that’s what it would sound like if I ever stepped on one!” docent Minden Eden says.

Not far from that is a model of the fi rst AC-powered radio marketed in the United States, the RCA Radiola 30, housed in a wooden cabinet big enough for four or fi ve circus clowns to pop out of.

All that is interesting stuff . But the MegaZapper show is, indisputably, the big draw.

Hair-raisingThe lead-up to the Cage of

Doom demo with the bad-boy

Tesla coil is plenty of fun, too.Like watching the audience

volunteer get a good case of Bride-of-Frankenstein hair from the static electricity that Granack plays with like a kid with a new Lego set.

He slices the air with coloured fl uorescent tubes that light up like Luke Skywalker’s lightsabre, just from the electricity in the air around him.

Waving one of the tubes like a crazed orchestra conductor, Granack draws sizzling tones from a variac machine, playing a snap-crackle-pop version of “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite.” It is, ahem, an electrifying performance.

“Oh, my gosh,” a small child whispers in the audience.

“It’s loud and cool and exciting!” Granack crows.

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COMMUNITYTRAVEL

Getting zappedI’m one of a few in the audience

who has agreed to donate an extra $20 to be put in the cage for a zapping by the big Tesla coil. The science is that the cage disperses all the electricity and protects whomever is inside.

Nonetheless, we’re asked to sign a release acknowledging that “I could be seriously injured or even killed.” (Signs also warn anyone with a pacemaker against attending the show.)

“It’s not really going to kill us, right?” I ask Granack.

“It would be my last show!” he replies. Then, after a thoughtful pause, “And it would be a heck of a show!”

As I’m led to the cage, it feels and looks a lot like being led to my execution.

Granack’s assistant opens the gate to the Cage of Doom and there’s that suspect chair inside.

The door is slammed shut on me. The assistant stands by to make sure I don’t make a run for it.

Then all goes dark in the room until suddenly a blinding bolt of sizzling power splits the darkness and darts like a striking rattlesnake toward my cage.

Granack has instructed me to spread my palm against the inside of the cage to prove to myself that it’s harmless. I extend my hand to the bars, half expecting to be repulsed as if from a hot stove burner.

But there’s nothing. Just cold metal, with a soundtrack like a City Light transformer shorting out.

And guess what, I don’t die.It’s really worth the trip.

More to do and see around Bellingham

DiningNew last year and convenient

to downtown Bellingham’s museum district is a farm-to-table restaurant called Eat, whose founders include two French-born chefs. They add a delicious fl air to lunch dishes such as the coq au vin slider (on brioche bun with blueberry relish and herbed fries, $5) and seafood chowder, $9/bowl. 1200 Cornwall Ave., 4u2eat.com.

More museumsNear the Spark Museum,

Whatcom Museum’s two distinctly diff erent buildings are both worth your time. With its Victorian cupolas and central clock tower, the Old City Hall (121 Prospect St.) is a wonder of architecture and spotlights history of this corner of the great Northwest. A block away, the museum’s modern Lightcatcher Building (250 Flora St.) attracts world-class art exhibitions. Admission $5-$10 (includes both buildings). whatcommuseum.org.

Got a kid in tow? The homespun Bellingham Railway Museum tells a bit of the history of regional railways, but a visit is mostly an excuse to watch and play with elaborate model-train sets that allow kids to push buttons to make signal gates drop and a model caboose bears the sign “Lucy’s Chew-Chew Caboose Cafe, Good Food Served in a Cupola Minutes.”

The hometown hillMount Baker looms high and

snowy east of town, and Mount Baker Ski Area – often one of the snowiest places on the planet – is about 80 minutes up Highway 542. Visit mtbaker.us for more info.

Farmers marketThe outstanding Bellingham

Farmers Market operates under cover at Depot Market Square in downtown from 10am to 3pm every Saturday from April through December and also the third

Saturdays of January, February and March. bellinghamfarmers.org

Monthly art walkFrom 6 to 10pm on the fi rst

Friday of every month, downtown’s Art Walk features galleries, studios,

museums, shops and restaurants. Bargain-hunters note: Whatcom Museum’s Lightcatcher galleries often off er free admission during Art Walk hours. Print a map: downtownbellingham.com/art-walk. – The Seattle Times/TNS

Interior of the Lightcatcher art gallery, part of the Watcom Museum, during a National Geographic photography show.

Looking down W. Holly Street in Downtown Bellingham with Rocket Dougnuts on the right.

Looking down Prospect Street in Downtown Bellingham to the old City Hall museum.

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Friday, February 10, 20176 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITY CUISINE

Pad Thai is a stir-fried noodle dish originating from Thailand and popular around the world. Typically stir fried with

eggs and tofu, the ingredients that go in a Pad Thai can vary across the world and depend on your personal preferences. The dish is well-liked everywhere, so much so that it was listed at number 5 on a list of “World’s 50 most delicious foods” compiled by CNN Go in 2011.

Following is a classic recipe for Pad Thai.

Pad Thai

IngredientsServes 2Pad Thai Noodles 250 gmShrimps 250 gmOil 4 tbspWater 2/3 cupPlum sugar 3 tbspTamarind paste 2 tbspFish sauce 3 tbspBlack pepper powder to tasteFirm tofu 80 gmShallot 1 -2 noGarlic 3-4 clovesEggs 3 nosBean sprouts 1 cup

Peanuts, crushed 3 tbspCoriander leaves few sprigs

MethodSoak the Pad Thai noodles in warm

water for 30 minutes, drain the water and keep in cold water.

Wash and devein the shrimps and set aside the shrimps and the shells.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok till smoking point, add shrimp shells and heads and stir fry for 3-5 minutes, till they turn bright orange.

Add 2/3 cup water and bring to boil and press the shells to extract more fl avour. Remove the shells and then the wok from heat.

Add sugar, tamarind paste, fi sh sauce and white pepper and salt to the above stock and mix well.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and sear the shrimp for 1 minute or until the shrimps turn opaque and their edges turn light golden brown.

Remove the shrimp from the wok and keep aside.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok; add sliced tofu to it and sear on both sides until lightly browned. Add thin slide shallots, garlic and eggs and stir fry over high heat.

Drain the noodles and stir fry for 30 seconds or until all the ingredients

are combined.Pour the prepared tamarind sauce

in the noodles and toss to combine well.

Once all the ingredients are well combined, add the bean sprouts and continue to stir fry until the bean sprouts are just cooked.

Toss in the prepared shrimp and serve hot garnished with fresh chopped cilantro leaves and crushed peanuts.

Delightful Pad Thai noodles

Pad Thai. Photo by the author

Chef Tarun Kapoor, Culinary Mastermind,

USA. He may be contacted at [email protected]

By Leah Eskin

The sandwich in need of housing can’t consult Zillow. Nor will the multiple listing service do. She’s got to pound the pavement of the actual market, in the bakery

aisle.Her dream home should have it all: sturdy

construction that can support a crisp chicken cutlet, room for the rambunctious peppers and tomatoes and neat curb appeal. Sliced bread is out of the question. Too many windows, as it were. Her agent suggests she confine her search to rolls.

In today’s hot marketplace, there’s plenty of inventory. The submarine: capacious, if a tad nautical. The hero: similar, though more grandiose. The club roll: compact, but rather exclusive. Ciabatta: overbuilt. Kaiser: bad karma.

The agent saves the best for last: the hoagie. It’s strong, but not tough. Spacious, but not sprawling. Complete with a tasteful, tender-crumb interior. The sandwich moves in immediately and, after a quick toast, closes the deal.

Exuberant Parmesan Sandwich

Prep: 15 minutesWait: 2 to 24 hoursCook: 15 minutesMakes: 2 servings

Ingredients1 cup buttermilkKosher salt2 chicken cutlets, 4 ounces each6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

cheese6 tablespoons panko breadcrumbsFreshly ground black pepper1 tablespoon olive oil1 tablespoon butter1 clove garlic, thinly sliced1 cup halved grape tomatoes1 cup yellow bell pepper matchsticks1/4 cup whole hot cherry peppers (from a jar)1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper 2 hoagie rolls1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

MethodMarinate: Whisk together the buttermilk

and 1.5 teaspoons salt. Add cutlets. Cover

and chill 2 to 24 hours.Dredge: Stir together Parmesan cheese,

Panko, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Pull cutlets out of their buttermilk bath and dredge in Parm mix. Heat oven to 250 degrees. Keep handy a baking sheet lined with paper towels.

Brown: In a medium skillet, heat oil and butter over medium. When hot, add garlic. Cook until golden and crisp, 1 minute; scoop out with a slotted spoon. Add cutlets to the pan. Cook until crisp brown outside and tender inside, about 3 minutes per side. Slide cutlets onto the baking sheet, and keep warm in oven.

Soften: Add tomatoes, bell peppers, cherry peppers and crushed red pepper to the skillet. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables have softened (but still hold their shape), about 5 minutes. Stir in crisp garlic.

Toast: Open rolls. Cover the bottom faces with mozzarella. Toast in a toaster oven or under a hot boiler until cheese melts, about four minutes.

Build: Stack one chicken cutlet on each bun bottom. Top with tomato mixture. Close. Squish. Munch. – Chicago Tribune/TNS

A saute of tomatoes, yellow bell peppers and cherry peppers bolsters the crisp breaded cutlet in this chicken Parmesan sandwich.

Hoagie roll stands up best to hearty chicken Parmesan sandwich

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7Friday, February 10, 2017 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITYOFFBEAT

A picture of Marilyn Monroe in Babelsberg studio.

By Klaus Peters

“Everything’s a bit dusty in here,” Peter Armbruester, who looks after the props at the Babelsberg Film Studio outside Berlin,

says apologetically. “But we’re not allowed to clean in here.”

In fact, Armbruester’s customers value a used look. “If everything was brilliantly polished they wouldn’t want it any more,” he says.

The Babelsberg studio is the oldest large-scale fi lm studio in the world and after 105 years of fi lm-making, its props depot has

more than 1 million objects, the biggest collection of its kind in Europe.

It was on February 12, 1912 that the studio lights were fi rst switched on at Babelsberg in a hastily erected greenhouse for the silent fi lm Der Totentanz (The Dance of the Dead), starring Asta Nielsen.

Fritz Lang’s dystopian sci-fi classic Metropolis followed in 1926 and The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel), starring cinema icon Marlene Dietrich, in 1929.

Alfred Hitchcock spent time there in the 1920s, learning his trade as a director’s assistant and fi lming The Blackguard with Graham Cutts.

The legacy of the studio’s long history is housed in several halls dating back to the time when Babelsberg was part of former East Germany.

“And every object tells a story,” says studio spokesman Eike Wolf.

One enormous attic is full of all sorts of chairs and armchairs from various eras, while the shelves are fi lled with fi les from the Nazi period, the postwar Allied-occupation of Germany and East Germany.

Behind Armbruester is the US Army record player that puts Bill Murray in a sentimental Christmas mood in the 2014 World War II-drama Monuments Men.

And on the shelves around his desk, radios, records and books from diff erent eras await

interested parties from across Europe.Set designers looking, for example, to

recreate a typical East German fl at from the 1970s would fi nd everything they need in Babelsberg, from the fruit bowl for the living room to the drying rack for the bathroom.

The wall of one room is covered in antlers while all kinds of lamp shades hang from the ceiling.

One secret star of the collection is a stuff ed badger dressed up as a night watchman with a halberd, a historical weapon combining a spear and a battleaxe.

“I laughed about the badger at fi rst but then I saw him in an old episode of Tatort as a decoration in a village pub,” says Wolf, referring to Germany’s longest-running soap opera. He’s since seen the armed badger in a few fi lms.

“Most recent was when I went to see Bibi und Tina 2,” says Wolf, referring to a popular German children’s fi lm.

But the badger has lost its comedic value over time, he says. “You have to see everything through the eyes of the set designer.”

But it isn’t just set designers and photographers who come to Babelsberg’s props collection.

One famous resident in the nearby city of Potsdam uses it to furnish his villa for Baroque-style parties and borrows costumes

for his guests.In one corner of the depot, an oversized

Oscar statuette awaits delivery to the US Embassy for a reception to mark the Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale.

The props depot is especially well endowed with objects dating from the 1920s to the 1940s, and from East Germany between the 1960s and the 1980s, says Wolf.

The costumes collection, which is now owned by the neighbouring Babelsberg Film Park and has more than half a million outfi ts, uniforms and accessories, is especially in demand around Halloween and Carnival time, says Wolf.

“People can borrow clothes from all sorts of eras,” says Wolf. “From a caveman’s bear skin to a modern suit.” -DPA

A stuff ed badger finds TV stardom through the props collection of Babelsberg studio.

A look inside the treasure trove of Babelsberg Film Studio.

Europe’s largest props store is a treasure trove for set designers

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COMMUNITY INFOGR

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COMMUNITYRAPHIC

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Friday, Febraury 10, 201710 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITY CAREERWISE

Learning to become a YouTube rockstar at university

By Sophie Rohrmeier

When Annemarie Sommer enters the seminar room she’s convinced that in order to be

a YouTube sensation, you have to do things others wouldn’t think of doing.

When the 15-year-old leaves, she knows that in fact, YouTube stars don’t necessarily have the best videos – but they are the best connected.

“How to Become a Rockstar on YouTube” is a workshop being given for teenagers by scientists at a German university in an eff ort to uncover the power of data.

Your video’s content can be really cool – but that doesn’t matter if nobody’s watching it, says Kai Fischbach, the dean of IT who’s leading the workshop at the University of Bamberg.

“Success on YouTube depends on the content – but also how connected you are, and with whom,” he says.

“If you only have two followers, but they’re Barack Obama and Bill Gates, and they recommend you, that can work.”

The mechanisms of success and failure are the fi rst lesson for the class of teenagers who are attending the workshop this afternoon.

The second is a life lesson, “because we all leave behind a data trail,” says Fischbach. Data can be extremely powerful and he wants to show that using science.

Because fans feel a strong

connection with the celebrities they follow, a recommendation for a product by one of them can be extremely eff ective, says media researcher Nicola Doering of the Technische Universitaet Ilmenau in an article for an industry magazine.

“When a popular YouTuber on beauty products praises a new lipstick or a certain protein shake, thousands of young people rush off to buy those products,” writes Doering.

YouTube says it has more than a billion users and every day they play videos with a collective length

of several hundred million hours and generate billions of clicks.

That demand creates stars as well as a market.

Vincent Valentine regularly attracts hundreds of thousands of views for his prank videos as do comedians Kassem G and Lilly Saini Singh aka Superwoman and fashion vlogger Bethany Mota.

Paul Pieczyk, 16, has no desire to be a YouTube star. Well, perhaps a bit. “I always wanted to become better known,” he says. “Because it’s fun when I can do things that

are exactly what people like.”He makes gaming videos on

YouTube as “Mcquasi” and has 300 followers. “When I had less than 100, I always wanted to reach 100,” he says. “Now I want to reach 500.”

The more subscribers he has to his channel, the more reach he has. “Then you can do things with other people, take part in things,” he says. With more famous gaming YouTubers, for example.

That’s exactly where researchers in Bamburg say success lies on YouTube.

Good cameras and lighting, HD quality and professional editing aren’t enough. What’s essential is to network with channels that have lots of, or very important, subscribers.

Fischbach and his colleagues are using the platform’s popularity to enthuse young people for their research and to raise their awareness.

Businesses, for example, dedicate a lot of time and eff ort to fi nding out which channels they need to use to reach their customers.

Data and scientifi c analysis allow them to predict what topics will be in the spotlight in a few weeks time – and who the stars will be.

But only a tiny minority of video producers will go on to make YouTubing their main profession, according to Doering.

She warns that young people start with high expectations of quick fi nancial rewards and Internet fame and are more than likely to be disappointed.

In fact young people have little idea of the business model behind social networks, according to a study by Germany’s JFF Institute for Media Education.

YouTube stars are diff erent to fi lm or pop stars, says the institute’s research director, Niels Brueggen.

They seem more easily accessible to viewers and so are easier to identify with and more likely to become role models.

“The fact that their success is not self-made or down to how nice they are but is driven by an agency – it’s good to be able to see that,” he says. – DPA

Posting videos on YouTube for a living is a professional career to which many young people now aspire. But becoming success is about more than making a good video, say the teachers of university YouTube rockstar course.

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COMMUNITYLEISURE

Colour by choice

Maze Picture crosswordConnect the dots

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Friday, February 10, 201712 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITY CARTOON

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13Friday, February 10, 2017 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITYLEISURE

Sudoku is a puzzle

based on a 9x9 grid. The

grid is also divided into

nine (3x3) boxes. You

are given a selection of

values and to complete

the puzzle, you must fill the grid so that

every column, every row and every 3x3

box contains the digits 1 to 9 and none

is repeated.

Sudoku

verklempt(fuhr-KLEMT, vuhr-)

MEANING:

noun: Overcome with emotion; choked

up.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Yiddish farklempt (overcome

with emotion), from German

verklemmt (inhibited). Earliest

documented use: 1991.

USAGE:

“But it always makes me a little

verklempt too, like my heart’s in my

throat and I’m overcome with love.”

Christie Blatchford; All Connected to

the Hip; The Ottawa Citizen (Canada);

May 28, 2016.

inexorable (in-EK-suhr-uh-buhl)

MEANING:

adjective: Incapable of being

persuaded, moved, or stopped.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin in- (not) + exorare (to

prevail upon), from ex- (out) + orare (to

pray, beg). Earliest documented use:

1553.

USAGE:

“Another star who shuff led off this

mortal coil before continuing down

an inexorable slide toward personal

catastrophe and artistic irrelevance:

Doors frontman Jim Morrison, whose

insouciant visage also graced pulp-

stock posters of the time.”

Jim Reed; Join the Cult of Marilyn;

Savannah Morning News (Georgia);

Jun 6, 2013.

visage (VIZ-ij)

MEANING:

noun: Face, appearance, or expression.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old French vis (face), from Latin

visus (sight, appearance), from videre

(to see). Ultimately from the Indo-

European root weid- (to see), which

also gave us guide, wise, vision, advice,

idea, story, history, previse, videlicet,

vidimus, vizard, and invidious. Earliest

documented use: 1303.

USAGE:

“The poor victim’s visage grew gentler.

The fury which had contracted it was

followed by a strange smile full of

ineff able sweetness, gentleness, and

tenderness.”

Victor Hugo (translation: Isabel F

Hapgood); The Hunchback of Notre

Dame; 1888.

ineff able (in-EF-uh-buhl)

MEANING:

adjective:

1. Incapable of being expressed:

indescribable.

2. Not to be expressed: taboo.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin in- (not) + eff ari (to speak

out), from ex- (out) + Latin fari (to

speak). Ultimately from the Indo-

European root bha- (to speak), which

also gave us fable, fairy, fate, fame,

blame, confess, and infant (literally,

one unable to speak), apophasis, and

confabulate. Earliest documented use:

1450.

USAGE:

“I love walking the midway, opening

my senses to the overload: the smells

of hot oil from the food stands and

excrement from the livestock pens

rising to mix in an ineff able eff luvium

of mortality and feeding.”

Primo Levi; The Complete Works of

Primo Levi; W.W. Norton; 2015.

— wordsmith.org

Yesterday’s Solutions

Wordwatch

DOWN1. Resolve (6)2. O Centigrade (8,5)3. Cold (5)5. Not precise (7)6. Of fireworks (13)7. Straight (6)8. Convenient (5)13. Result (7)15. Modifies (6)16. Player (5)17. Muddled (6)20. Pale (5)

ACROSS1. Failing (6)4. Pinched (6)9. Mistake in writing out (8,5)10. Confused by brilliance (7)11. Garret (5)12. Pry (5)14. Store (5)18. Store-house (5)19. Fettered (7)21. Calm (13)22. Long seat (6)23. Fished (6)

ACROSS1. Say your piece? (6)4. Reorganised Delhi’s defence (6)9. Induce to become religious? (4,2,7)10. Gratifies Reginald with drinks (7)11. It is returned before the tax (5)12. A number fit to accommodate (5)14. Follow but walk wearily (5)18. Broadside of some colossal volume (5)19. Seating is never enough with such chairs (7)21. Unlikely to keep out of trouble long? (8-5)22. Run and see, perhaps, to make certain (6)23. It’s used to bring down, or lift up (6)

DOWN1. Do they always give straight decisions? (6)2. What I should have done, were I in your position! (7,6)3. Not qualified to sum up (5)5. You’re meant to put an arm in it (7)6. It currently shows the time (8,5)7. Engine gives out before the Spanish final (6)8. Humble sailor on a rough sea (5)13. He’s slow but sure (7)15. Get out a piece of fire-fighting equipment (6)16. Signs in at the women’s hostel (5)17. Maintain there’s some body in the beer (6)20. Mince pies with a brown colour (5)

Quick Clues

Cryptic Clues

Yesterday’s Solutions

QUICKAcross: 1 Apprehensive; 7 Magic; 8 Angle; 9 End; 10 Breakneck; 11 Trauma; 12 Severe; 15 Customers; 17 Ass; 18 Topaz; 19 Might; 21 Adventitious.Down: 1 Authenticity; 2 Egg; 3 Eschew; 4 Slackness; 5 Vogue; 6 Fecklessness; 7 Media; 10 Bamboozle; 13 Enact; 14 Hermit; 16 Sapid; 20 Get.

CRYPTICAcross: 1 Arch criminal; 7 Cable; 8 Lingo; 9 Ida; 10 Night-club; 11 Effect; 12 Salute; 15 Eloquence; 17 Air; 18 Get on; 19 Alive; 21 Red letter day.Down: 1 Atomic energy; 2 Cob; 3 Ice age; 4 Ill-at-ease; 5 Annul; 6 Double brandy; 7 Chaff; 10 Nocturnal; 13 Usage; 14 Infant; 16 Outre; 20 Ire.

Mall Cinema (1): Singam 3 (Tamil) 2pm; Heartbeats (2D) 4:45pm; Singam 3 (Tamil) 6:45pm; Rings 3 (2D) 9:30pm; Singam 3 (Tamil) 11:15pm.Mall Cinema (2): The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 2:30pm; The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 4:30pm; Jolly LLB2 (Hindi) 6:30pm; John Wick: Chapter 2 (2D) 9pm; Jolly LLB2 (Hindi) 11:15pm.Mall Cinema (3): The Space Between Us (2D) 2:45pm; Kung Fu Yoga (2D) 5pm; The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 6:45pm; Balu Mahi (Urdu) 8:45m; John Wick: Chapter 2 (2D) 11:30pm.Landmark Cinema (1): Singam 3 (Tamil) 2:15pm; Heartbeats (2D) 5pm; Singam 3 (Tamil) 7pm; Rings 3 (2D)

9:45pm; John Wick: Chapter 2 (2D) 11:30pm.Landmark Cinema (2): The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 3pm; The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 5pm; The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 7pm; Jolly LLB2 (Hindi) 9pm; Jolly LLB2 (Hindi) 11:15pm.Landmark Cinema (3): Balu Mahi (Urdu) 2pm; The Space Between Us (2D) 4:45pm; John Wick: Chapter 2 (2D) 7pm; Kung Fu Yoga (2D) 9:15pm; Singam 3 (Tamil) 11pm.Royal Plaza Cinema Palace (1): Jolly LLB2 (Hindi) 2pm; Singam 3 (Tamil) 4:30pm; The Lego Batman Movie (2D)

7:15pm; Heartbeats (2D) 9pm; Singam 3 (Tamil) 10:45pm.Royal Plaza Cinema Palace (2): The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 2pm; The Lego Batman Movie (2D) 4pm; Singam 3 (Tamil) 6pm; John Wick: Chapter 2 (2D) 9pm; Jolly LLB2 (Hindi) 11:15pm.Royal Plaza Cinema Palace (3): Balu Mahi (Urdu) 2:15pm; The Space Between Us (2D) 5pm; Balu Mahi (Urdu) 7pm; Rings 3 (2D) 9:45pm; John Wick: Chapter 2 (2D) 11:15pm. Asian Town Cinema: Singam 3 (Tamil) 12:30, 1, 3:15, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10pm, 12, 1 & 3am; Jolly LLB 2 (Hindi) 12:30, 6:15pm & 12am; Jomonte Suvisheshangal (Malayalam) 12:30, 6:15, 9:15pm & 12:15am; Bogan (Tamil) 3:30pm.

Page 14: D C—26 C TODAY LEISURE LIFESTYLE OROSCOPE

DIY projects are surging in popularity right now and it’s easy to see why. A successful DIY

project can fix a problem or make a much-needed improvement to your home, while also providing you with the satisfaction of a job well done. Best of all, it allows you to save money over hiring a professional contractor to do the work.

But is it possible to conquer several DIY projects in a short period of time? Sure, you just need the right multipurpose tools for the job. Below are three tools you can pick up at any hardware store, and each will allow you to tackle a slew of projects with just one purchase,

making each tool the perfect project time saver.

Add these three multipurpose tools to your lineup today:

Multipurpose tool 1: StainA staining project is an easy,

cost-eff ective way to completely recreate a look in your home. You may purchase one colour of stain or several, depending on how many staining projects you plan to do and the proximity of your projects in your home. When you purchase your stain, you can use it to:

Stain your front door. Your front door is a focal point in your home and staining it gives the face of your home a completely new look.

Stain your wood fl oors. Darker

fl oors are growing in popularity and a fresh coat of stain can give your home that look without an expensive replacement.

Stain a table or other piece of furniture. Whether you want it to be an accent piece in your room or you’d like it to match your new décor, a fresh coat of stain saves you from having to replace a cherished piece.

Multipurpose tool 2: GREAT STUFF(TM) Multipurpose Black Insulating Foam Sealant

Sealing the gaps and cracks around your home will save you money by making your home more energy effi cient, while also increasing your home’s comfort. In fact, one can of GREAT STUFF(TM) has a multitude of uses in and

around the home, including: Seal gaps and cracks around

attic doors. This will prevent your home’s heat from escaping during the winter and will better control the temperature in your home.

Seal areas around vents and duct work. In addition to helping better regulate the temperature in your home, these projects can also ward off pests and vermin that are looking for warmer temperatures inside.

Tackle other jobs as well. The capabilities of GREAT STUFF™ Multipurpose Black Insulating Foam Sealant apply to projects outside the home as well, so whether you have a project in mind or one arises along your journey, it’s always handy to have a can on hand.

Multipurpose tool 3: Degreaser

If you have a heavy duty cleaning project to tackle in your home, a good degreaser can help. Degreasers dissolve water-insoluble substances and they can help you:

Clean stainless steel and appliances. Grease and oil collect naturally in any kitchen and their particles can linger on kitchen equipment. Applying degreaser can remove them quickly and cleanly.

Remove adhesives. Whether the sticker was supposed to go there, it was an accident or the subject of child’s whim, applying degreaser can clean the spot good as new.

Eliminate heavy buildup around bike chains and engine parts. Buildup is a natural product of use, but it also jeopardises effi ciency. Apply degreaser to these areas to have your favourite objects running like new.

Your mind is already full of DIY projects you’d love to tackle, you just need to fi nd the time to do them. Effi ciency is key and the more projects you can tackle with one tool the better. Add these tools to your next home goods trip and you’ll have your DIY project start off on the right foot.

© Brandpoint

Friday, February 10, 201714 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITY LIFESTYLE/HOROSCOPE

ARIESMarch 21 — April 19

CANCERJune 21 — July 22

LIBRASeptember 23 — October 22

CAPRICORNDecember 22 — January 19

TAURUSApril 20 — May 20

LEOJuly 23 — August 22

SCORPIOOctober 23 — November 21

AQUARIUSJanuary 20 — February 18

GEMINIMay 21 — June 20

VIRGOAugust 23 — September 22

SAGITTARIUSNovember 22 — December 21

PISCESFebruary 19 — March 20

Today the Moon shining in Leo shines on your fellow fire sign and

fifth house of romance, fun and creativity. What a great way to end

the work week. Make fun plans for the weekend.

It’s not always right for you to try to help others out when they really

do need to stand on their own two feet. If you overly mother and

nurture them, chances are they won’t learn much.

Uranus the planet of the unexpected remains standing strong in

your relationship zone, alongside lovers Venus and Mars. How you

work with others and play well with others is very important right

now.

Don’t let a friend talk you out of or into something today when

you’ve already well and truly made your mind up. You and you alone

know what’s best for you right now goats.

There is nothing better than finding like minded people, is there? You

often have very strong opinions about things and how wonderful is

it when those opinions are shared?

Avoid those people who want to mess with you today Leos. The

Moon in your sign is making things more emotional for you and you

should try to stay calm all day long.

Don’t put too much emphasis on a rumour or story floating around

today Scorpios. Listeners never hear good of themselves as they say.

Stop and make sure you know what you’re going to say to someone

before you go ahead and say it today. Mercury the communicator in

your sign is a huge help today.

Unless you really feel something has to be done, don’t go out of your

way to do it Gemini’s. Save your energy for the things and people

you really want to do and achieve.

Be optimistic today – even if things look grim or as if they won’t work

out. You of all people know just how much wonderful energy you

have in store and how much you keep in reserve.

The Moon in Leo, Venus, Mars and Uranus in Aries and Saturn in your

sign makes this a very fiery time indeed. You have more energy than

usual – so you should really tackle all those things that you’ve put in

the ’too hard basket’.

Money and how you save it, spend it and appreciate it or waste it is

very important to you at this time. There are 3 major players in your

second house of self–worth and cash flow for the month of February.

Tackle your DIY projects with these 3 multipurpose tools

Page 15: D C—26 C TODAY LEISURE LIFESTYLE OROSCOPE

Friday, February 10, 2017 15GULF TIMES

COMMUNITYSHOWBIZ

How Indian film industry can get its box off ice math rightBy Radhika Bhirani

India may be among the world leaders in terms of movies produced each year, but authentic information on box offi ce statistics is still not available.

Even though the screen count per million population in India is one of the lowest, given the sheer diversity and complexity of the (approximately) $2 billion Indian fi lm industry, a centralised box offi ce analytics system remains a daunting challenge.

“For a country of our size and diversity, adoption to change always is a slow process... But it shall happen sooner than later,” Kamal Gianchandani, Chief Of Strategy, PVR Ltd says.

“We are of the belief that the time has come for the Indian movie Industry to move towards an era of data effi ciency and analytics to optimise its potential,” he added.

The movie exhibition company PVR Cinemas — with its circuit of 562 screens in 48 Indian cities — recently tied up with US-based global media measurement and analytics company comScore (formerly Rentrak) — which records box offi ce fi gures from over 125,000 screens in more than 25,000 theatres across the globe.

The company fi rst entered the Indian market in 2014 in a tie-up with Aamir Khan starrer PK. But that was a one-off association for one fi lm.

“India is the most challenging market across the world because of the diversity, complexity and large number of single screens. So it has been an extremely challenging market, and the progress has been very slow, but steady,” Rajkumar Akella, Managing Director, comScore India – Theatrical said.

Film business and trade expert Girish Johar feels there are still about fi ve to 10 years

before India can have a full-fl edged system in place, given how “geographically vast and fragmented” the market is.

comScore collects 95 per cent of the global box offi ce data, and the remaining, Akella said, is largely from India as the country “literally accounts for three to four per cent of the data”.

In the recent past, the race to the ‘Rs100-crore club’ has seen an unprecedented rush and noise in the country. The box offi ce numbers given out are mostly from the producers, distributors or trade pundits — without a stamp of authenticity.

These are mostly based on Daily

Collection Reports that they get from theatres.

Film industry veteran Amit Khanna says the calculation method of box offi ce fi gures in India is not in sync with what’s practiced the world over.

“It’s wrong. People in India give out gross fi gures after subtracting the entertainment tax, whereas they should report in net, which is what the consumer spends on a ticket,” Khanna, former chairman of Reliance Entertainment said.

If all stakeholders — producers, distributors and exhibitors — start providing information to a service like comScore, it

could give the industry a uniform currency of box offi ce fi gures.

How does it work?“We collect data directly from theatres.

It’s an automated software, so that’s most accurate without manual intervention,” Akella explained. However, he added, as of now they rely on manual feeding of numbers for single screens which have not started e-ticketing.

Is connectivity not an issue?“As a country, we are well on course to

achieve 100 per cent connectivity, superior bandwidth and 4G services. Technology is proliferating. E-ticketing solutions are available and aff ordable to even single screens,” Gianchandani said.

Johar feels the government must make eff orts to give incentives to single screens to motivate computerised ticketing.

Having said that, one cannot ignore how the dominance of single screen theatres vis-a-vis multiplexes in the Indian market, is quite a challenge in a single point system of box offi ce reporting.

Khanna said: “If India has about 9,000 screens, about 7,500 of them are single screens.”

“Single screen exhibitors sometimes under-report ticket sales while trying to save on entertainment tax, and that distorts the fi gures. On the other hand, distributors and producers hike their numbers by 10 to 15 per cent when they give out the fi gures,” he added, also pointing out how the fi lm industry is currently in a bad shape given the dearth of screens.

According to the KPMG-Ficci Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2016, the screen penetration at India stands at 6 per million versus 23 per million in China and 126 per million in the US.

The report says there’s is a need to have at least 20,000 screens in order to do justice to all the fi lms that are being produced in the country. — IANS

By Gary Thompson

Hidden Figures – a period movie about three black female mathematicians – is not the kind of movie

Hollywood looks to for lavish box-offi ce returns.

Yet the modestly budgeted $25 million drama has shot past $100 million and is the best word-of-mouth title (judged by audience retention) at the multiplex — the movie has left audiences in tears, and Hollywood scrambling to explain its success.

Perhaps, the best explanation comes from Margot Lee Shetterly, who wrote the book on which the nonfi ction movie is based.

All Americans, she writes, want to believe in the “triumph of meritocracy, that each of us should be allowed to rise as far as our talent and hard work can take us.” This story of three women — (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe), whose math and engineering skills allowed to them rise past obstacles of race, class, and gender, and through the ranks of government aerospace workers to make contributions to Gemini and other missions — provides evidence of “something we believe to be true but don’t always know how to prove.”

Writer-director Theodore Melfi said he viewed his job as simple: “To be honest, just don’t mess it up. Just tell the story. It’s such an amazing tale. Everybody who hears about it has the same reaction:

How is it I’ve never heard about this story?”

Part of the reason: It was classifi ed. The women worked on top-secret projects. The United

States was in a space race with the Soviet Union, and intelligence services (even after the Cold War) kept a tight lid on the work at the Virginia facility where Katherine Johnson (Henson), Mary Jackson (Monáe), and Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer) worked as human “computers,” making complex mathematical calculations necessary to blast a rocket into space (and, as we see, ensure the safe return of astronauts like John Glenn).

In a quiet way, Hidden Figures confl ates the space race with another ambitious national project: civil rights. The imperative of besting the Soviets has a NASA manager (Kevin Costner) looking for the best person for the job, so stand-out “computer” Johnson is chosen for the most formidable mathematical tasks, even as she is

relegated to a segregated restroom and coff ee pot.

Her persistence, and her excellence, cause those obstacles to fall away (Vaughan and Jackson have similar story arcs), to be exposed as irrational and counterproductive. Hidden Figures is a story of diversity wrapped in a classic American narrative of striving, augmented with touches of faith and family that add to its widespread appeal.

Something else struck Melfi about the women (he met and interviewed Johnson, as did Henson). There was something self-eff acing about her – she defl ected praise, turned it instead to her coworkers, and talked endlessly about “the team” at NASA. —Philadelphia Daily News/TNS

Hidden Figures director talks race and space

CANDID: “It’s such an amazing tale,” says Theodore Melfi.

Page 16: D C—26 C TODAY LEISURE LIFESTYLE OROSCOPE

Friday, February 10, 201716 GULF TIMES

COMMUNITY

Going forward bywalking backwards

Much like reverse lunges, walking backwards is said to put less stress on the knee joint compared with walking or running forward. Photo by Caravanum/Flickr

Of all the times you thought of moving forward in your fi tness routine, did you ever think that the answer could lie in something as simple as moving

backward? Retro Walking, or Backward Walking, has been catching the fancy of people across the world, and it’s all set to hit Qatar now.

The driving idea behind California Tortilla Reverse Walk–Rewind the Pain, in association with Qatar Diabetes Association, was to fi nd a way to promote good health as well as raise awareness to health issues while “contributing to doing good to and for local charities”. The Reverse Walk event, which is also partnered by Qatar Foundation, will be held at Aspire Park on March 3, from 3pm to 7pm. And the news itself might be a cue for you to include reverse walking into your fi tness regimen.

Known by many names such as retropedalling, retro walking, backward walking, walking backward as well as retro motion, reverse walking is said to have originated in ancient China, where it was practised for good health. In the modern world, it’s become quite the rage in Japan, China and parts of Europe, where people use it to build muscle, improve sports

performance, promote balance and more, says a note by Reverse Walk, an initiative founded by four companies; Nehmeh, Roots, Exoda, and Makyna.

So what exactly does reverse walking do? “The muscles of the front (tibialis anterior) and back (gastro/achilles) of the shin and ankle are strengthened, owing to the increased strain of performing an unfamiliar exercise. Walking backward increases cardiovascular endurance signifi cantly more than walking forward under the same conditions. We expend more energy and burn more calories than those who work out at the same pace consistently for a longer duration. When engaging in a new activity which requires a greater eff ort, we exert ourselves more. The increased metabolism will result in weight loss for those who press on,” says Reverse Walk about the benefi ts.

Much like reverse lunges, walking backwards is said to put less stress on the knee joint compared with walking or running forward. Studies have shown that using other muscle groups by performing diff erent exercises protects our muscles and tendons from overuse. The knee joint and the patella joint (the joint where the kneecap glides on the knee), in particular, benefi t from

backward walking.“Adding a new activity to our regular

exercise routine prevents boredom, so we are less likely to stop exercising. For those over 50, improving our balance and co-ordination is even more important. Backward locomotion improves the functions of our cerebellum which co-ordinates and balances our bodily movements as well as fl exibility. Because we are on the constant lookout for danger and obstacles on our path, practically all of the fi ve senses (and even the sixth) are sharpened. Our refl exes are sharpened at the same time. It can help prevent the development of a hunchback. It promotes blood circulation and prevents lumbago,” says Reverse Walk.

As part of a few testimonials put together by Reverse Walk, sportsman Ziad al-Darwish says, “When you walk backwards it gives you a chance to work out all of those muscles in your legs, such as your quadriceps and calves, which take a backseat to your hamstrings during regular walking. Reverse Walk also works out my hamstrings in a diff erent way and increases their fl exibility.”

Executive professional Melissa Estrada says, “People do look at me funny but when I walk backwards, it actually puts less strain

and requires less range of motion on my knee joints, making it ideal for people like me, who have knee problems or injuries. Also, I take my little baby in her stroller without worries.”

Elaborating on the benefi ts of reverse walking, Dr Joseph Mercola, on his website Mercola, says, that since backward walking eliminates the typical heel-strike to the ground (the toe contacts the ground fi rst), it can lead to changes in pelvis alignment that help open up the facet joints in your spine, potentially alleviating pressure that may cause low back pain in some people.

“Interestingly, when you walk backwards, your heart rate tends to rise higher than it does when walking forward at the same pace, which suggests you can get greater cardiovascular and calorie-burning benefi ts in a shorter period of time,” Dr Mercola points out. “There appear to be benefi ts for your brain, too. Researchers found that when you walk backwards, it sharpens your thinking skills and enhances cognitive control. This may be because even though backward walking is a physical activity, it’s also a ‘neurobic’ activity, meaning it requires brain activity that may help you stay mentally sharp. Plus, since it puts your senses into overdrive as you move in an unfamiliar way, it is also known to enhance vision as well.”

Reverse Walk–Rewind the Pain on March 3 aims to promote good

health as well as raise awareness on health issues. By Anand Holla