WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014 • plus@pen.com.qa • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741

COMMUNITY

MARKETPLACE

ENTERTAINMENT

PEOPLE

TECHNOLOGY

P | 4

P | 5

P | 8-9

P | 11

P | 12

• G4S Qatar hostsIftar, holdsdonation ceremony

• OSN revampswebsite to supportmultiplatform browsing

• British filmenters a newgolden age

• The dream: Toplay catch-upwith Heinz

• Smartwatchestargeted asnext ad frontier

inside

LEARN ARABIC • Learn commonly

used Arabic wordsand their meanings

P | 13

The house that 20,000 toothbrushes built

P | 10

Perfume makers are turning to preserve the scent of their fragrances in the face of new

EU anti-allergy restrictions.

WHAT’S IN A

SCENT? SCENT?

2 COVER STORYPLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

BY ASTRID WENDLANDT

SEAWEED may not be the first ingredient that springs to mind for per-fume. But algae are among obscure ingredients to which perfume makers

are turning to preserve the scent of their fragrances in the face of new EU

anti-allergy restrictions.The global high end perfume indus-

try, generating $25bn in annual sales, is readying itself for EU regulations that will come into force in early 2015.

These will ban widely-used ingre-dients such as oak moss, a natural substance, that was found in the origi-nal versions of best-sellers including Chanel’s No.5 and Miss Dior.

Perfume creators say they love oak moss for its woody, earthy notes which give it depth and help make scent last longer. But on the grounds that between one and three percent of the EU population could suffer an allergic reaction - such as dermatitis - Brussels is banning two of its core molecules, atranol and chloroatranol.

Perfume makers will only be allowed

Perfume makers Perfume makers face EU face EU anti-allergy curbsanti-allergy curbs

to use oak moss from which these two molecules have been removed. The mak-ers say this results in a much lighter and less vigorous scent.

“I am crazy about oak moss, it is one of my favourite ingredients,” says Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, perfume creator or “nose” at his niche Parfum d’Empire brand. A 100ml bottle of scent costs ¤120. Corticchiato, like many other “noses,” is anxious about the new wave of potentially costly rules emanating from Brussels.

The fragrance industry that sup-plies perfume makers like Corticchiato already has its own self regulation body — the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) — financed by providers such as Givaudan, New York-listed International Flavours & Fragrances, and Germany’s Symrise. It has imposed restrictions on a growing list of ingredients over the years for various health reasons.

In addition, perfume makers do a lot of their own in-house and post-market surveillance and do their own testing, which can cost several hun-dred thousands euros a year, depend-ing on the number of products and ingredients involved.

Leading brands such as Chanel, Dior and Hermes have ‘noses’ and their own research laboratories. They do not publish figures for the costs associ-ated with them but industry experts estimate them to be in the order of several million euros a year.

Small bottles of oak moss per-fume ingredients in the labo-ratory of the French Nicolai perfume brand in Paris.

Patricia de Nicolai, French perfumer who created the Nicolai perfume brand with her husband 25 years ago, smells perfume ingredients in the brand’s laboratory in Paris.

3PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

One solution for oak moss, Corticchiato says, is to add a touch of algae as its wet, iodised smell coupled with other ingredients, can help recreate oak moss’ mouldy character.

The European Commission is also banning a syn-thetic molecule called HICC, or lyral, which repli-cates the smell of lily of the valley. It too can cause dermatitis in allergy sufferers.

L’Oreal, which makes Lancome and Armani per-fumes, said it was looking for alternatives. It declined to say which of its perfumes contained lyral.

Perfume makers say they understand that their products need to be safe and recognise how damag-ing to their reputation any serious allergic reaction would be. But some say the industry is being unfairly targeted. Up until now, they say, there have only been minor cases of allergies manifested by skin irrita-tions or eczema.

“I think Brussels’ focus is a little exaggerated spe-cially compared to alcohol and cigarettes which are sold freely and do more harm than perfume,” says Patricia de Nicolaï who created the French Nicolaï perfume brand with her husband 25 years ago.

She says she has never received a complaint about allergy but has reformulated some of her best sellers such as New York and Eau d’Ete because they used oak moss and lyral respectively.

The European Union denies targeting perfume any more than any other industry and says its new regulation seeks to address scientists’ and doctors’ concerns about the health hazards related to the use of perfume.

NORTH-SOUTH PERFUME LINESSome inside the perfume industry say lobby groups

representing the interests of tobacco firms are better financed and better organised than those represent-ing perfume makers.

One reason is the sheer size of the global cigarette industry. In sales terms, it is more than three times the size of the perfume industry. Cigarette lobby groups include the tobacco manufacturers’ associa-tion and the tobacco retailer’s alliance.

By comparison, perfume makers rely on Cosmetics Europe, a bulky organisation that represents 4,000 companies including deodorant, toothpaste and per-fume providers which have very disparate interests.

Even within the perfume industry, there is no united front as some brands are more affected than others by IFRA and new EU regulation.

One of the industry’s biggest players, L’Oreal, says it uses mainly synthetic ingredients in its perfumes. These ingredients raise fewer allergy concerns than natural products found in niche perfumes and brands such as Chanel and LVMH’s Dior and Guerlain.

Another issue is that perfumes are not protected by intellectual property rights. The composition of a perfume is not legally recognised as a “creation of the mind” but rather an industrial formula that can be replicated and altered.

“Many perfumes have had to be reformulated even though they were considered masterpieces due to changing legislation,” said Olivier Maure, head

of Accords et Parfums, a supplier of major brands including Dior based in Grasse, likening it to “chang-ing the colours of the Mona Lisa”.

Some industry executives say Brussels’ recent focus on the perfume industry stems from its main advisory body, the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS). Many of the committee’s members come from northern countries such as Sweden and Denmark where there is opposition to perfume on health grounds.

“Clearly, there are more experts at the SCCS who are based in northern Europe than in the south but it is not a deliberate choice,” said David Hudson, spokesman for consumer policy at the European Commission. “We strive for geographic and gen-der balance but the primary selection criteria is expertise.”

Perfume is not as important to the economies of northern Europe as it is to southern countries. Perfumes and cosmetics are among France’s top five exports and the southern city of Grasse is the historic capital of the perfume industry where many lead-ing brands such as Chanel, Hermes and Dior source their essences.

Added to that, research shows people from north-ern regions tend to be more vulnerable to allergies than those living around the Mediterranean. One theory is that people in northern countries are more susceptible because of their lifestyle and generally cleaner environment.

MORE RESTRICTIONS?The SCCS published a report in July 2012 which

recommended banning oak moss’s core molecules and severely restricting the use of many core ingre-dients such as linalool, found in lavender, a move that threatened the high end of the perfume industry which relied heavily on these ingredients.

Brussels included a few of the SCCS’s recommen-dations, such as its ban on oak moss, and pledged to

investigate what levels of concentrations could be considered safe for natural ingredients so that con-sumers did not develop allergies to them over time.

Perfume makers are worried that this will lead to more restrictions. There have been suggestions that they should offer two types of perfumes - some with allergens in them and consumer advice about the content, and others with no allergen.

“I expected big groups to take the initiative on this matter but it turns out that they are the most risk averse,” said Corticchiato. One problem for big per-fume brands is that their label sells a dream which is incompatible with the message “this product may cause allergies.”

Dior, Guerlain and parent LVMH declined to com-ment for this article as did Hermes. Chanel said it stopped using lyral in 2010 and has been evolving its formulas in anticipation of new rules.

“At Chanel, we follow very closely talks about regu-lation and scientific findings concerning raw materi-als,” Jacques Polge, Chanel’s chief perfume creator for 36 years, said in an emailed response to questions.

Polge said Chanel controls its formulas and sup-ply chains to ensure its natural oak moss is bereft of the allergens targeted by Brussels. That way, “we can respect the original scent”.

But “once you change an ingredient or two it can be very difficult to keep the scent absolutely intact, especially if those ingredients played an important role in defining the scent,” says Maurice Roucel, creator of many perfumes including L’Instant for Guerlain and Hermes’s 24 Faubourg.

A few years ago, Roucel reformulated Dior’s Fahrenheit perfume to remove lyral along with a few other ingredients and he is now working on the reformulation of about eight perfumes to make them meet new regulation. “Big brands tell me: Replace this and that and make sure it smells the same and costs the same to produce,” Roucel said.

REUTERS

Perfume makers will only be allowed to use oak moss from which these two molecules — atranol and chloroatranol — have been removed. The makers say this results in a much lighter and less vigorous scent.

Testers and a bottle of per-fume ingredients are pictured in the laboratory of the French Nicolai perfume brand in Paris.

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 20144 COMMUNITY/MARKETPLACE

AS PART of the Holy Month of Ramadan, G4S Qatar hosted an Iftar recently at Oryx Rotana Hotel. The Iftar was

done simultaneously with a donation ceremony and campaign for charities in support of various humanitarian pro-grammes, and the semi-annual employee award ceremony for direct staff.

Some respected clients of the com-pany were present during the event and shared a meaningful meal with almost 200 employees of the company. “In an unsteady market having its ups and down, G4S Qatar remains the largest and leading security company and we will continue to be doing so. Having said this, we wish to thank you for celebrating this significant event with us, as we want to share this bless-ing and celebrate this Holy Ramadan with all of you,” said Dr. Saif Al Hajri, CEO of G4S Qatar, during his opening remarks.

Moreover, three distinguished charitable institutions namely Qatar Charity, Qatar Red Crescent and Eid Charity were invited to receive cheque donations during a simple hand-over ceremony. They also received the vol-untary contributions from the employ-ees collected on the event date. This on-site donation drive was carried out to support numerous humanitarian programmes of the three institutions such as food, shelter, first aid, relief and

G4S Qatar hosts Iftar, holds donation ceremony

educational campaigns. On the other hand, 43 direct employ-

ees chosen and nominated by their respective division/department heads, were awarded for their outstand-ing commitment, exceptional service

and dedication. G4S Qatar sees to it that commendable employees are acknowledged and given the honour they deserve.

The Ramadan activity was a part of the “Ramadan Bi Aman” (For a

Safe Ramadan), an annual campaign for corporate social responsibility and welfare project which supports vari-ous humanitarian projects to help and reach out the underprivileged commu-nities worldwide.

IT’S THAT time of the year again when people’s thoughts turn towards generosity, togetherness and sharing!

Make Ramadan a special time for friends and family with Home Centre’s range of must-have home decor and entertaining essentials that cater to diverse customer pref-erences and budgets.

Home Centre’s team of buyers and stylists have put together a selection of traditional accessories and ornaments, luxurious furniture

McDonald’s opens at Al Meera, West Bay

MCDONALD’S Qatar, announced the newest addition to their ongoing mission of bringing in delicious foods to its community. It officially opened its door and welcome the customers with its worldclass

delicious ranges of food offerings on July 7 at its new expedient location at Al Meera, West Bay Area.

The newly-opened branch is more accessible and convenient to all burger lovers. McDonald’s is committed to serving the very best, and will not com-promise on food quality. All products served at all McDonald’s restaurants in the Middle East are Halal

Kamal Saleh Al Mana, Managing Director of Al Mana Restaurants & Food Co., the owner and operator of McDonald’s restaurants in Qatar said, “Another branch, another expansion, symbolises the company’s growth. This milestone truly gives us an extremely exciting mood to continuously offer healthier foods to our customers and this is the reason why we made it more convenient for our customer across the city.”

McDonald’s Qatar, Al Meera branch has a spacious dining areathat can accommodate a large number of customers. It has a separate ice cream counter for customers on the go and the kids will surely enjoy the play place facilities.

Festive collection at Home Centrepieces and lighting choices, classi-cal carpets, tableware and kitchen-ware that will recreate the richness and warmth of the festive season in your homes.

Details of the stunning Ramadan range will be revealed in the cata-logues available at all Home Centre stores from the 1st week of July 2014. The stores will additionally sport cutting-edge displays pro-viding shoppers with a mélange of ideas on creating aesthetically pleasing living spaces for gather-ings with family and friends.

The Middle East’s leading furni-ture and furnishing brand has even lined up an exciting set of gifts for purchases made during the period. Starting on July 3 and extending through the Eid festivities, every purchase worth QR350 (SR350, AED350, OMR35, BD35 and KD30) and above will qualify for an ele-gant Qahwa set from Home Centre. Perfect for those idyllic evenings that bring your family and friends together.

Committed to transforming houses into homes, Home Centre has been offering customers a wide selection of home décor options since 1995. Over the years, the con-cept has evolved into a household name across the region.

5MARKETPLACE PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

OSN, the region’s leading pay-TV network, has revamped its website (osn.com) to provide visitors an enhanced

experience and seamless access across multiple devices.

Featuring a new ‘responsive design’ that automatically optimises the web-site for any device, from smartphones to tablets, visitors can now surf, share and purchase an OSN subscription on-the-go anytime, anywhere at their con-venience. OSN’s revamped website also boasts an enriched content offering, allowing visitors the ability to share pages via social media and personalise their experience.

According to analysis carried out by

OSN, 21 percent of the total visitors to osn.com log on from mobile devices and tablets while new visitors to the site account for 47 percent of traffic. Users of Apple’s iOS operating system log on most frequently, followed by Android users.

Hamad Malik, Chief Marketing Officer, OSN, said: “Based on market and internet traffic analysis and feed-back from our customers, OSN has made a significant investment to rede-sign our website and enhance the over-all experience for our online visitors.

“Subscribing to OSN couldn’t be easier — with just a few clicks, you can subscribe to a variety of pack-ages from the comfort of your home or even while you’re out and about

from a mobile or tablet, securely.”The website features easy-to-access

menus and more indepth information on OSN’s premium content choices, schedules, subscription packages, as well as its value-added services such as OSN Play and OSN Privileges. Through the new attractive and engag-ing design, subscribers can also search their preferred OSN content, with dedicated country-specific information.

Visitors to the site can also upgrade their current subscriptions by select-ing additional services to complement their television viewing experience. Help and support functions have been enhanced as well.

To make the most of your browsing experience, log on to osn.com

OSN revamps website to support multiplatform browsing

Two fantastic offers from CMC

RAMADAN season is definitely a time for blessings with Domasco, the exclusive distributor for CMC in Qatar. CMC customers will be able to enjoy two fantastic offers this year.

“With every passing year, we present our customers with best deals during Ramadan.

This season, with every purchase of a CMC from the Veryca range, customers will pay 0 percent interest for the first 12 months and also get free registration and free 20,000km serv-ice for the first year,” explained Mohammed Majeed, Sales Supervisor for CMC Qatar.

“CMC mini bus customers will also benefit from QR5,000 cash back with three years 60,000km warranty and 24/7 road side assistance” he added. These two exclusive offers started on June 16 and will run throughout the Holy month of Ramadan until July 31 at Domasco’s CMC showroom on Salwa road.

During Ramadan, Domasco will operate, from 8am to 2pm and 7:30pm to midnight throughout the week and from 8pm to 11pm on Fridays.

AS Malaysia’s number one ranking export Proton has always been syn-onymous with practicality and reli-ability at an extremely competitive

price. This Ramadan, to the delight of cus-tomers, Domasco is ensuring that purchasing a Proton is once again a winning proposition by giving away a 39” Sanyo LED TV free with every car.

The Head of Sales & Marketing for Proton, Andrew Parrott said, “We understand our Proton customers and we know how much the free gift will be appreciated.”

“With only QR1,499 down payment, 1 year of free insurance, 2 years of free service for every 30,000km and 24/7 road assistance, new Proton buyers will have the chance to upgrade their car while benefiting from a

very generous deal this Ramadan” Andrew added. The Proton showroom is on Khalifa Street near the National Mosque and TV roundabout and will be open during Ramadan from 8am to 2pm and 7:30pm until midnight throughout the week and from 8pm to 11pm on Fridays.

Proton offers free gifts for all

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 20146 SCIENCE

BY MEERI KIM

PLANTS can sense and react to temperature changes, harsh winds and even human touch. But can they hear? They have no specialised struc-

ture to perceive sound as we do, but a new study has found that plants can discern the sound of predators through tiny vibrations of their leaves — and beef up their defences in response.

It is similar to how our own immune systems work — an initial experience with insects or bacteria can help plants defend themselves better in future attacks by the same predator. So although a mustard plant might not respond the first time it encounters a hungry caterpillar, the next time it will boost the concentration of defence chemicals in its system that turn its once-delicious leaves into an unsa-voury, toxic meal.

Now, biologists from the University of Missouri have found that this ready-ing process, called “priming,” can be triggered by sound alone. For one group of plants, the scientists carefully mimicked what a plant would “hear” in a real attack by vibrating a single leaf with the sound of a caterpillar chewing. The other group was left in silence.

When later faced with a real cat-erpillar, the plants that heard chew-ing noises produced a greater amount of insecticide-like chemicals than the silence group. They also seemed able to pick out those vibrations signalling danger; the playing of wind noises or insects’ mating calls did not trigger the same chemical boost.

Although the mechanism of how plants can discern sounds is not known, a deeper investigation could lead to advances in agriculture and natural crop resistance — as opposed to spray-ing costly and harmful pesticides.

“We can imagine applications of this where plants could be treated with sound or genetically engineered to respond to certain sounds that would be useful for agriculture,” said study author and biologist Heidi Appel.

The study was published online in the journal Oecologia.

Despite not having brains or nervous systems in the traditional sense, plants are surprisingly sophisticated. They can communicate with one another and signal impending danger to their neighbours by releasing chemicals into the air. Plants constantly react to their environment — not only light and temperature changes, but also physical stimuli. Two famous examples are the Venus’ flytrap, which snaps shut when an unsuspecting bug contacts one of its trigger hairs, and the touch-me-not

Can plants hear? Study finds that vibrations prompt some to boost their defences.

plant (Mimosa pudica), which shrinks and closes its leaves upon even a slight touch.

“Plants certainly have the capacity to feel mechanical loads,” said plant biologist Frank Telewski, who was not involved in the research. “They can respond to gravity, wind, ice or an abundance of fruit.”

But trying to prove that plants can sense sound has been difficult.

“There is a long history of people interested in whether plants could hear sound, and that usually involved sounds that are very salient to us — music or tones of pure sound — just to see if plants would react,” said study author and biologist Reginald Cocroft.

Even though some people swear

that a soothing voice or classical music works wonders for their greenery, the scientific evidence is spotty. Experts believe that music in particular is too complex and varied to be able to use in a controlled study.

When pure tones are played, some experiments have seen changes in plant growth, germination or gene expres-sion. For instance, one recent study showed that young roots of corn will grow toward an auditory source playing continuous tones and even responded better to certain frequencies. But what would be the evolutionary advantage of responding to such stimuli?

One argument against plants per-ceiving sound is that being able to pick up on the music of Beethoven or a solid

note has no bearing on a plant’s well-being — but the leaf-chomping of a nearby insect certainly does. “None of the sounds used before are things that are ecologically relevant sounds in the plant environment,” Appel said.

Although it has not been proved, the suspicion is that plants can perceive sound through proteins that respond to pressure found within their cell membranes. Sound waves cause their leaves to vibrate ever so slightly, caus-ing the plant to respond accordingly.

Because chewing insects produce high-amplitude vibrations that travel rapidly to other parts of a plant, the researchers could record the fine movement of a leaf during a caterpil-lar feeding episode using a laser track-ing system. They then played back the recording to a group of 22 Arabidopsis plants, related to mustard and cab-bage, that had not been exposed to caterpillars before.

Appel then placed real caterpil-lars on the leaves of the group to feed. After waiting a day or two for the plants to mount their defences, she measured the chemistry of their leaves for insecticide-like chemicals called glucosinolates — the same substance that gives mustard its kick. If eaten in large doses, however, it becomes toxic.

Not only was the concentration of glucosinolates higher than a control group’s, but there was also a correla-tion between concentration and the strength of the vibrations. If the leaf moved a greater amount in playback, the scientist saw more of the chemical being produced by the plant.

To see whether a plant would react to any type of sound, the researchers tried playing a leafhopper mating call or blowing wind. In response to these, the plant did not appear to put up extra defences. Telewski, a tree expert who investigates perception of mechanical stimuli in plants, said this work show-cases a possible evolutionary advantage of perceiving sound: “I’m very impressed with the study — it’s very nice.”

He wonders whether other plants not being attacked could pick up on the vibration as an auditory SOS-type signal, because plants have been known to use airborne chemical signals in the same way. If the alarm can spread effi-ciently through a field, say, sound could potentially be harnessed in agriculture to ward off predators.

“It might be practical to see how loud you would have to play speakers in a field to get plants geared up to fight against an insect,” he said.

Biochemist Janet Braam, who was also not involved in the study, finds the results intriguing. “Testing whether similar results are obtained for other plant-insect interactions will be important next steps to understand how broadly applicable this phenom-enon may be,” she said.

WP-BLOOMBERG

ABOVE: A cabbage butterfly caterpillar feeds on an Arabidopsis plant. On an adjacent leaf, a piece of reflective tape helps record vibrations. BELOW: Heidi Appel and Reginald Cocroft, scientists at the University of Missouri, determined that plants respond to the sounds that caterpillars make when eating plants by stepping up their defences.

BIOTECHNOLOGY 7PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

IN 1992, a pair of scientists had a brainwave: how about insert-ing genes into rice that would boost its vitamin A content? By doing so, tens of millions of poor people who depend on rice

as a staple could get a vital nutrient, potentially averting hundreds of thou-sands of cases of blindness each year.

The idea for what came to be called “golden rice” — thus named for its bright yellow hue — was proclaimed as a defining moment for genetically-modified food.

Backers said the initiative ushered in an era when GM crops would start to help the poor and malnourished, rather than benefit only farmers and biotech firms.

“It’s a humanitarian project,” Ingo Potrykus, professor emeritus at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), one of the co-inventors of golden rice, said in a recent interview.

Yet the rice is still a long way from appearing in food bowls — 2016 has become the latest date sketched for commercialisation, provided the novel product gets the go-ahead.

With $30m invested in it so far, the odyssey speaks tellingly of the techni-cal, regulatory and commercial hurdles that have beset the “biofortified food” dream. First, it took scientists years to find and insert two genes that modified the metabolic pathway in rice to boost levels of beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A.

After that came the biosafety phase, to see if the rice was safe for health and the environment — and if beta-carotene levels in lab plants were rep-licated in field trials in different soils and climates. There were also “bio-efficacy” experiments to see whether the rice did indeed overcome vitamin deficiency, and whether volunteers found the taste acceptable.

These tests are still unfolding in the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh, said Bruce Tolentino, deputy direc-tor general of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). “We have been working on this for a long time and we would like to have this process completed as soon as possible,” he said.

But “it depends on the regulatory authorities. That is not under our con-trol.” Antonio Alfonso at the Philippine Rice Research Institute, which part-ners IRRI in the not-for-profit devel-opment of golden rice, said “it will be two or three more years before we can apply for commercialisation.”

The rice’s yield may also have to be tweaked to boost its appeal to farmers, whose buy-in is essential, he said.

SUPER BANANAComing on the heels of golden rice

is the “super banana” developed by the Queensland University of Technology in Australia with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Genetically designed, like golden rice, to be enriched with beta-carotene,

The long, slow march of ‘biofortified’ GM food

A file picture by International Rice Research Institute shows GM (genetically-modified) newly-developed ‘golden rice’.

the bananas were sent to the United States in June for a six-week trial to measure by how much they lifted vita-min A levels in humans.

If all goes well, they will start to be grown commercially in Uganda in 2020.

Project leader James Dale said so-called cooking bananas grown as the staple food in East Africa were low in vitamin A and iron.

“Good science can make a massive difference here,” he said.

Other research into biofortified food has looked at boosting levels of impor-tant micronutrients in cassava and corn, also called maize, but progress has also been faltering.

It took 15 years of enclosed research in the lab for British scientists this year to decide to seek permission for field trials of a plant called false flax (Latin name Camelina sativa).

Engineered to create omega-3 fat, the plant could be used as feed in fish farming. It would spare the world’s fish stocks, which provide food pellets for captive salmon, trout and other high-value species.

Environmental groups are defiant about GM-fortified foods. Some have dubbed golden rice “fool’s gold.”

Greenpeace, the most vocal and influential of the critics, says the risks of GM contamination to other plants and impacts on health may not emerge for years.

There are also suspicions that devel-oping countries are being used as a technological testbed — and contentions that malnutrition will not be ended by a magic bullet fired from a gene lab.

“This whole vitamin A issue is a red herring,” said Janet Cotter, a scientist with Greenpeace at the University of

Exeter, southwestern England. “Access to a better and diverse diet

is what people need, not a technical fix, (not) something based solely on rice or bananas.”

Andrea Sonnino, chief of the Research and Extension Unit at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said ensuring food security and a decent diet were very complex.

GM crops had a part to play in the solution, but not exclusively so. “We have to go with a set of possible answers to problems that in many cases are technological and in many cases are not, they are social, economic and so on,” he said. “We have to work in different ways, and not only on the technological front.”

AFP

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014 ENTERTAINMENT8 9

HOLLYWOOD NEWS BOLLYWOOD NEWS

Harrison Ford injury to halt Star Wars production for two weeks

ACTOR Harrison Ford is recuperating from surgery after break-ing his leg, but the injury on the set of Star Wars: Episode VII will force a two-week hiatus in filming, the Walt Disney Studios said. News of the stoppage comes after Disney initially said film-

ing would continue on schedule while Ford recovered. But shooting is on track to wrap up in the fall, the studio said, and the release date remains December 2015.

“In August, the team will take a brief two-week hiatus while adjust-ments to the current production schedule are made as actor Harrison Ford recovers from a leg injury,” Disney said in a statement posted on Sunday on the website StarWars.com. Ford, 71, was injured on the set of the reboot of George Lucas’ blockbuster Star Wars franchise last month during filming in England. The best actor Oscar-nominee for his role in Witness in 1986 is reprising his role as Han Solo in the film that is being directed by J J Abrams. Actress Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill will also reprise their roles in the film and will be joined by Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac.

Disney also announced that two new actors, Briton Pip Andersen and American Crystal Clarke, who were selected from more than 37,000 people during open casting calls, will have roles in the film. It is the first of three new movies that will continue the saga created by George Lucas, after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.05bn.

Won’t finance my movies: Mel Gibson

THE Braveheart star Mel Gibson says making films independently has become an extremely costly business, therefore, he has decided not to finance his movies anymore. “It’s tricky... Nobody would have

financed them, they more or less worked, but I would never have got anyone else to finance them. “I’m out of that business of financing my own films because they (studio chiefs) see you coming and take you for a ride. I’m not a fool,” The Hollywood Reporter quoted Gibson as saying.

The 58-year-old actor-director invested his hard earned money into his controversial films like The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto, but getting those projects onto the big screen turned out to be a challenge for him. “It’s difficult for the things I deem worthy to direct, where you can get a really good compelling story out of — nobody else has much faith in it and never did,” said Gibson.

Ryan Gosling magnetic, feels Gillian

ACTRESS Gillian Leigh Anderson has confessed her liking for The Notebook star Ryan Gosling and says she would love to work with him in a romantic film. The 45-year-old actress puts Gosling, 33, in

the same league with Hollywood hunks like Tom Hardy and Bradley Cooper because she feels he has the same magnetic effect on people, reports con-tactmusic.com. When asked who would she want to work with in a romantic movie, she said: “I do have a healthy appreciation for Ryan Gosling. I don’t know what it is. I haven’t met him, but I read something recently that said that from the moment he walked into a room, nobody could concentrate on anything else.” “I think some men do have that effect. Bradley Cooper has it, and Tom Hardy, who I think is one of the most extraordinary actors of our time,” she added.

Post baby, Mila Kunis plans to quit acting

PREGNANT actress Mila Kunis reportedly plans to turn her back on her Hollywood career once she becomes a mother, insisting, “I don’t eat and breathe acting”. The 30-year-old is expecting her

first child with fiance Ashton Kutcher later this year and she admits she has no plans to juggle movie and TV work while raising their baby, reports contactmusic.com. “I have never wanted to be the person who only has business on her mind. To me, this job has always been a hobby that turned into a great profession, but I don’t eat and breathe acting,” she told America’s W magazine. “I’m sure Meryl Streep has a very dif-ferent point of view. But I’m excited about being a full-time mum,” she added.

Not my fault that my dad’s a director, says Alia Bhatt

BEING filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter doesn’t make her privi-leged. Being successful doesn’t make her snobbish. And despite all the luxuries and luck, Alia Bhatt says her survival in filmdom is as difficult as any outsider and she has to work harder too to stay

put. “We get a platform, but we work as hard as an outsider. It’s not my fault that my father is a director. He has made a mark, so I can’t go with that tag for the rest of my life,” said Bhatt and Soni Razdan’s daughter.

Post her starry entry with Student Of The Year; she hit a hat trick when her following two films — Highway and 2 States — too hit the bull’s eye at the box office. And now all eyes are set on her next — Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. “Obviously my name will always be related to him because he is my father. I agree if I had not been Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter, the visibility that a girl called Alia wanted to work wouldn’t have been there,” Alia said in a group interview.

Despite having a Bhatt surname, she had to audition to bag the lead role in Student Of The Year. Audiences and box office are not lenient with star kids and only promote talent. “If I had not proved myself with my other two films, then audiences would not have accepted me. If I didn’t have that in me then obviously there would have been that struggle, but obviously there was something that connected me with the audience that is allowing me to be able to choose and be happy with my work,” said Alia.

The young and successful 21-year-old claims to have her feet grounded. “No, success shouldn’t sink in because then it goes to your head and you become over confident. Your work starts suffering. People start getting irritated. I don’t think that will ever help you to grow as an actor and a performer,” said the actress.

She doesn’t only act, Alia sings too and went behind the mike to croon Main tenu samjhanva ki for Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, a modern trib-ute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Talking about her role in Shashank Khaitan’s directorial, she said: “I am playing a girl called Kavya who belongs to a small town Ambala. Her concerns in life are very restricted. Her ambitions are not too high. “Her motto in life is very simple like get-ting married in designer Manish Malhotra’s lehenga and therefore she is carefree. She is always stress free, unlike me... Kavya gets happy without thinking much. And that is the reason why she is one different type of girl.”

Jugal Hansraj gets married in US

ACTOR-DIRECTOR Jugal Hansraj has married his lady love Jasmine in the US, revealed his friend Uday Chopra. “My friend Jugal Hansraj just got married yesterday (Sunday) in Oakland, Michigan to Jasmine…wish the couple a very happy married

life #PyaarPossible,” Uday, who starred alongside Jugal in Mohabbatein, posted on Twitter. Jugal, 41, started his career in 1983 as a child artist in the Naseeruddin Shah-Shabana Azmi starrer Masoom, following which, he featured in movies like Karma and Sultanat. Later, he turned full-fledged actor and starred in Aa Gale Lag Jaa and Papa Kehte Hain, but it was the 2000 movie Mohabbatein, which gave him visibility.

As an actor, Jugal’s career never took off in a big way and he turned to direction with animated film Roadside Romeo, which even won a National Film Award in 2010. Jugal even directed his friend Uday and Priyanka Chopra in Pyaar Impossible!. Not much is known about his wife Jasmine, but if reports are anything to go by, the newly wed couple will celebrate their union in Mumbai with a party soon.

SRK greets Singham Returns team

SUPERSTAR Shah Rukh Khan has wished his Chennai Expressdirector Rohit Shetty and veteran actor Ajay Devgn “best of luck” for their new movie venture Singham Returns. “Want to wish Rohit Shetty & Ajay Devgn & their whole team of Singham2 the best

of luck. May u entertain us as u have been doing for yrs,” SRK posted on Twitter yesterday. Shah Rukh shares a close bond with Shetty post their successful partnership for Chennai Express. Singham Returns is the sequel to the hit film Singham, which too starred Ajay. This time, he is expected to deliver a more power-packed performance alongside actress Kareena Kapoor, who plays his leading lady in the movie. Singham Returns is slated to release on Independence Day (August 15). Its trailer is due to release worldwide on Friday.

The glory days of Pinewood and Elstree are back with film-makers flocking to make their next big hits in Britain.BY DALYA ALBERGE

IN THE black-and-white era after the second world war when Alec Guinness was starring in Ealing comedies and Richard Attenborough played Pinkie in

an acclaimed 1947 film of Brighton Rock, it was clear that British films had the brightest of futures. In the fol-lowing decades, film studios such as Pinewood and Elstree became hives of cinematic activity. Then, in the 1990s, it all seemed to fade away.

Not any more. The glory days are back in the nation’s film heartlands. Buoyant, expanding and home to some of the world’s biggest stars, the leading studios are full to capacity and taking unprecedented bookings from interna-tional film-makers. Some high-profile productions are even being turned away for lack of space. Such is the boom, studios are now pursuing dra-matic expansions.

Last week Hollywood investment in Britain was boosted when Warner Bros confirmed that it is building three state-of-the-art sound stages at Leavesden, near Watford, expanding

the vast studio where it made the Harry Potter films and where the spinoff trilogy, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will be shot.

Pinewood Shepperton, home of James Bond, also announced that it almost tripled profits last year and now plans to double its site with a £200m expansion across a 100-acre former M25 landfill site. One of its executives, Andrew Smith, said this would make it “the largest studio group in the world”.

While the Pinewood Group is also involved in a new studio in Wales, other British studios expanding include Elstree in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, where Alfred Hitchcock directed the UK’s first “talkie” and Gregory Peck made classics like Moby Dick.

How times have changed. Elstree was derelict when it was acquired in 1996 by an entrepreneurial local council, which breathed new life into it – and ploughed back profits into local services.

Suffragette, a new film about women fighting for voting rights starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep, has just been filmed there, and Elstree is now so busy that, in the last three years, it has turned away productions worth £4m. Its planned multimillion-pound expansion of its 15-acre site will poten-tially double its revenue.

Ealing Studios, home of classics such as Kind Hearts and Coronets, plans to increase its site by about a third, 3 Mills Studios in east London, where Sir Ian McKellen will be filming A

Slight Trick of the Mind this month, is exploring a redevelopment, and the Scottish government is looking into establishing a new studio.

Producer David Parfitt, who won an Oscar in 1998 for Shakespeare in Love, said that the demand reflects “amazing confidence in the British film industry”. He added that many productions are “from the US, or at least backed by US studios” where a common language helps.

Barnaby Thompson, one of the owners of Ealing Studios and a leading producer, said that, while Weinstein’s comedy Chef was among Hollywood productions to start shooting there, it too had to turn away film-makers for a lack of space. Commenting on the UK boom, he said: “It’s still cheaper to shoot in Romania, but the tax credit just reversed that.”

The economic benefits to Britain are clear from Film London figures. Spending on feature films exceeded £1bn in 2013, with more than £868m generated from 37 inward investment features. Since the introduction of the UK film tax relief in 2007, production spend in the UK has exceeded £6bn.

High-profile feature productions included The Monuments Men, directed by George Clooney, and Disney’s Cinderella, starring Cate Blanchett. Since its introduction in April, high-end TV tax relief has also generated £395m for the UK.

Josh Berger, president of Warner Bros, UK, Ireland and Spain, said his company had made some of its “biggest,

most successful movies here”, exceed-ing expectations with Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes films, among others.

Films to be made at Leavesden, a former aircraft factory, include a new Tarzan action adventure, starring Samuel L Jackson. Film London is now looking at other “non-traditional spaces” such as Leavesden, including an old Ford factory in Cardiff.

Andy Paterson, whose acclaimed films include The Railway Man, starring Colin Firth, sounded words of caution: “You’ve got to be careful that you’re not just servicing productions from over-seas. We need to make sure that … our local industry, which is world-class, is driving a lot of that.”

A film like The Railway Man had a core British team behind it and took nearly £7m in the UK box office and a similar figure in Australia and New Zealand: “That’s a huge export … That movie cost £10m to make, but we only brought £2m of that from the UK. The rest was effectively bringing in invest-ment from overseas … and then it gen-erates colossal amounts of economic activity both in cinemas and DVD in the UK and worldwide.”

The British Film Institute has only £26m to support film development, production and distribution activity, he said. “That’s a tiny amount … So this would be a moment to take that boom – accept that it’s pouring billions into the economy – and readjust how you boost the local sector.”

THE GUARDIAN

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

British film enters a new golden age

ARCHITECTUREPLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 201410

BY OLIVER WAINWRIGHT

DUNCAN BAKER-BROWN has seen the future of housing – and it’s rubbish. “It’s a depressing fact,” the architect says,

“that for every five houses we build in the UK, the equivalent of one house in waste materials gets put into landfill.” What makes that even worse is that much of it is still perfectly usable.

To prove the point, Baker-Brown and his students at the University of Brighton have just spent a year build-ing a house almost entirely out of gar-bage. But is it the kind of place you might want to live in, or more like a strange hobbyist’s trash-cave worthy of Stig of the Dump?

Curling in the midday sun, a scaly surface of rubbery black shingles cov-ers the walls of the two-storey build-ing in the university grounds, like the ruffled plumage of some mysterious fowl. It turns out these are carpet tiles, 2,000 of them, salvaged from a nearby office building and hung with their waterproof underside facing outwards. “We had to blowtorch them on site to satisfy the building control officer,” grins Baker-Brown, who runs Brighton’s undergraduate structures course. “But they just wouldn’t ignite – they’re already fire-retarded for use as flooring.” Chopped up and repur-posed, they make an intriguing feath-ery facade that thankfully looks more Wallpaper* than Scrapheap Challenge.

Stepping inside, you find a series of rooms that could pass as a normal home. There are white-painted plasterboard walls – leftover paint on “damaged and returned” sheets of plasterboard that look brand new – and a fine timber staircase, finished with a decorative flourish of offcuts by carpentry students at City College Brighton and Hove.

The same students also made the structural frame of the house, craft-ing columns and beams from sheets of plywood discarded from site hoardings and concrete shuttering. Cross-braced with more offcuts, they are oversized at almost half a metre thick. “When you don’t know the provenance of the material, calculations have to be based on the worst-case scenario,” says Baker-Brown. The frame was

The house that 20,000 toothbrushes built

originally going to support a roof of concrete paving slabs, until a source of lightweight clay tiles appeared in the nick of time – sourced on the Freegle website (similar to Freecycle), like most of the materials in the project.

“It’s a process of designing where you have to be agile, and maybe change your plans according to what becomes available,” Baker-Brown says. Conceived as an educational tool more than an actual home, the building is pierced by little peephole windows that show what’s going on inside the walls – and, strangely, they reveal piles of toothbrushes and stacks of video cases.

“All the video rental shops seemed to be closing down while we were on site,” he explains. “So we took all the DVD cases and VHS tapes to use as insula-tion.” The 20,000 toothbrushes, mean-while, came from a company that cleans planes after long-haul flights. This vast quantity represents the harvest of just four days, which would otherwise end up in landfill, or the sea, joining the islands of plastic that are swirling around our oceans, some the size of Texas. Upstairs, the peepholes reveal stacks of denim, sourced from a local firm that imports jeans from China and slices off the legs to make cut-off shorts.

The house of waste built from recycled materials at the University of Brighton.

How these odd new forms of insu-lation (which are supplementary to conventional recycled sheets of poly-urethane foam) perform will be moni-tored throughout the year by a PhD student at Brighton’s department of science and engineering, who has fit-ted sensors throughout the house to measure temperature and humidity. The aim is to achieve something close to Passivhaus standards – aided by triple-glazed windows, the only brand-new element in the building, along with the wiring and plumbing.

So are any of these lessons scalable, or is this just a novelty exercise?

“It’s more of a provocation, to say we need to see a step-change in how we use materials,” says Baker-Brown. “The current ethos in the industry is to throw loads of material at the build-ing site, rather than risk having people hanging around if anything runs out. There has to be a way of storing and reusing all the surplus, rather than throwing it in landfill.”

Dutch architects Superuse have established an online Harvest Map for people to advertise such supplies, but it will take something far bigger to have any impact. “It needs a company like Amazon, with great big sheds and an online network,” says Baker-Brown, describing a future where all materials in new buildings will be tagged , so you know exactly what’s in them and how it can be reused when they come to be demolished. “Builders can avoid land-fill charges, and the materials can find a new home – it’s a culture of ReIY, rather than DIY.”

THE GUARDIAN

The interior of the waste house is built from off-cuts of plasterboard and wood, insulated with a host of recycled materials such as plastic and denim.

Who needs boring bricks? The house of the future will be made of trouser legs, VHS tapes and blowtorched carpet tiles.

PEOPLE 11PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

BY HOLLEY SIMMONS

MATT and Kori Wallace’s courtship is the stuff of preppy fantasies. The two, both 30, met on a coed soccer league in the District of Columbia in 2008, bonded over their shared Virginia roots and

got married last year in Charlottesville. Matt is a consultant at an alternative-energy firm,

and Kori is a marketing contractor with dreams of a more creative career. But there’s a twist — they are stirring up a condiment revolution by way of ‘Chups, their line of fruit ketchups they hope will one day be viable enough to compete with Heinz.

Considering that more than 650 million bottles of Heinz ketchup are sold annually, David probably had a better chance of defeating Goliath with a handful of Tater Tots. “It’s daunting, but we’re so small that we can’t go anywhere but up,” Matt tells me after changing out of his khakis and baby blue buttoned-down into shorts and a T-shirt. It’s a weeknight, and he has come straight from the office to get cooking at Union Kitchen, the culinary incubator in DC where he and Kori prepare ‘Chups.

“We’d like to be another staple on the picnic table,” Kori adds as she dices a white onion. “When people roll out the Heinz, we’re right next to it.”

The idea for ‘Chups first came to Matt, a self-taught cook, in June 2012. After making a recipe he found online for cherry ketchup to complement some home-cooked turkey burgers, he realised the versatility and novelty of the topping.

While doing a lot of research (“I know more about ketchup than anyone would ever hope to learn,” he says), he discovered that a tomato-free formula wasn’t so novel, after all.

America’s modern-day version of ketchup is a far cry from its supposed origin as kechap, a Southeast Asian sauce made of fish entrails and soybeans that dates to the 17th century.

The first recipe for ketchup in the English lan-guage was documented in a cookbook published in London in 1727. It called for anchovies, shallots, vin-egar and spices, but nary a tomato.

When the Colonies adapted the condiment, it was most commonly made with walnuts, mushrooms or whatever fruit was plentiful, which might have included tomatoes. It wasn’t until the 1850s, when the tomato crop was queen of the American produce market, that ketchup became synonymous with the pulpy red fruit.

“Tomatoes are a prolific plant,” says Andrew F Smith, the New York-based author of Pure Ketchup: The History of America’s National Condiment. “You can only sell so many, so what do you do with the rest? You can plow them back under, or you can figure out something to do with them. And the obvious answer was to make ketchup.”

What if a different fruit had been as prolific? “H.J. Heinz was the Google of his day,” says Matt. “He employed a lot of people and revolutionised interna-tional shipping.” Kori adds, “If he’d said, ‘I’m going to go with cherries,’ then cherry ketchup would prob-ably be the thing today.”

Matt and Kori spent a year testing recipes (all vegan and gluten-free) and gave away samples to friends and relatives. In January, they launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising $12,000. When it ended, more than 490 backers had donated $22,160.

The Wallaces offer five varieties of the condiment: Blueberry, mango, peach, plum and cranberry. “The ingredients by themselves don’t sound like they’d work, but the cooking process breaks everything down, and it stews together,” Matt says. They eschew high-fructose corn syrup for agave nectar and sugars

The dream: To play catch-up with Heinz

ABOVE: ’Chups flavours work as a marinade, dipping sauce or salad dressing base. BELOW: Matt and Kori Wallace who launched ’Chups line of ketchups.

that occur naturally in fruit. What results is an adapt-able, piquant paste that works as a marinade, dipping sauce or salad dressing base.

The condiment has also grabbed the attention of a rather influential force in the local food scene: Chef Jose Andres. Matt and Kori met him last year when they happened to be at the same holiday party.

“It was fate,” Kori says. “When we first started

researching for ‘Chups, we came across the fla-vored ketchups he did at his America Eats pop-up,” referring to Andres’ temporary restaurant serving classic American fare that opened in 2011 to coincide with a culinary exhibit at the National Archives. “We had to talk to him. We just had to.”

They introduced themselves and told Andres about their products. Andres told Matt and Kori they had three chances to tell him the correct reason why they wanted to make fruit ketchups.

Matt, a few Scotches deep, said, “To diversify the ketchup market.”

Nope.“To get more people using ketchup.”Try again.Then Kori said something to the effect of hon-

oring fruit ketchup’s roots in the American culi-nary tradition. Balloons and confetti might as well have dropped from the ceiling.

The next day, Andres’ assistant e-mailed the couple, requesting a tasting for Andres. When Matt and Kori arrived, the three of them geeked out over old American cookbooks that contained classic non-tomato ketchup recipes. Andres gave ‘Chups his seal of approval, and last month, when he opened a more permanent version of America Eats Tavern at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Va., he featured ‘Chups on the menu.

Matt and Kori say they are hoping the part-nership will lead to other opportunities at local restaurants, and they have their sights set on one establishment in particular. “We’d love to get ‘Chups into Nats Park,” Matt says. “To have it served during a baseball game would be a dream.” What could be more American?

WP-BLOOMBERG

Matt and Kori Wallace are stirring up a condiment revolution by way of ‘Chups, their line of fruit ketchups they hope will one day be viable enough to compete with Heinz.

TECHNOLOGYPLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 201412

Smartphone breaks boost productivity

IF YOU are looking to boost productivity as well as overall well-being of your employees, let them take short smart-

phone breaks to play Candy Crushor Temple Run or simply text a friend. Researchers at Kansas State University have found that allow-ing employees to take smartphone micro-breaks may be a benefit — rather than a disruption — for businesses.

“A smartphone micro-break can be beneficial for both the employee and the organisation. For example, if I take breaks of one or two min-utes throughout the day, it could provide me with refreshment to do my job,” explained Sooyeol Kim, a doctoral student in the department of psychological sciences at Kansas State University.

Through a study of 72 full-time workers from various industries, Kim discovered that employees only spend an average of 22 minutes out of an eight-hour workday playing on their smartphones.

He also found that employees who take smartphone breaks throughout the day are happier at the end of the workday. To study smartphone usage, Kim and col-laborators developed an applica-tion that the 72 study participants installed on their smartphones.

The app privately and securely measured the smartphone usage during work hours. “By interact-ing with friends or family members through a smartphone or by play-ing a short game, we found that employees can recover from some of their stress to refresh their minds and take a break,” Kim noted.

AT&T will be the first to sell LG smartwatch

AT&T Inc said that it will be the first US wireless car-rier to sell LG Electronics’

smartwatch, a wrist watch that connects to Android phones and answers voice commands, and goes on sale on July 11. The announce-ment comes as demand for wear-able devices surges. Juniper Research estimates the value of the wearable device market this year at $1.5bn, up from $800m in 2013. The LG “G Watch,” which was made in partnership with Google Inc, will sell for $299 and available for pre-orders starting on July 8. It has a 1.65 inch dis-play screen that delivers notifica-tions customers receive on their Android phones and can connect to calendars and applications. The announcement also comes as rumors swirl about the specifica-tions on Apple Inc’s smartwatch, which has yet to be announced, but is expected as early as October.

BY BRIAN WOMACK

EVEN before wearable tech-nology gains widespread popularity, advertising com-panies are devising ways to deliver marketing messages

directly to people who don watches, glasses and headgear that double as computers.

Case in point: InMobi Pte, a maker of mobile-ad tools, has a team of develop-ers creating virtual mock-ups of ads on smartwatches, head-mounted displays and other gadgets to get a feel for how they can serve as a platform for market-ers. The engineers, surrounded by pow-erful computers with large monitors at the company’s offices in San Francisco and Bangalore, India, are trying to get a head start in the nascent market, which has captured the attention of Google Inc and Apple Inc.

“Any device with a screen allows for an interesting opportunity,” said Atul Satija, vice president and head of rev-enue and operations at inMobi.

Millennial Media and Kiip have joined the search for viable wearable-ad technology, underscoring the appeal of the devices as marketing platforms. Shipments of wearables are projected to reach almost 112 million units in 2018, up from less than 20 million this year, according to IDC. While that’s still a tiny fraction of the more than 1 billion smartphones that will be sold in 2014, it’s enough momentum to induce ad companies to move products into devel-opment and out of the lab.

A hit product would not only spur sales for Apple, Google, Samsung Electronics and other companies that drove the smartphone revolution, it will also open up new ways to make money from apps, reach consumers and gather data. Given the limited display size of the devices, the ads will be smaller than those on smartphones — and could briefly take over small screens to show promotions for coupons, shoes or health insurance.

Wearables also promise troves of unique data in areas related to health, activities and location, giving marketers new ways to put ads in front of con-sumers. For example, the wearable-ad experiments could involve sending a user an electronic coupon for cookies when they’re in the snack aisle of a gro-cery store. Or marketers might try to

sell consumers a new pair of running shoes after collecting jogging data from a wearable gadget.

Devices such as computerised eyewear could even detect what a user is look-ing at when they’re shopping, said Julie Ask, an analyst at Forrester Research. “Knowing where I am is interesting,” Ask said. “Knowing what I’m looking at or studying for three to four minutes is more interesting.”

While the gadgets could make a “small dent” in mobile advertising in the coming years, much will depend on whether users embrace them.

“We go back to the creep factor, which comes up so often when talk-ing about personalization and in using data,” Yeager said. “You run into privacy considerations — consumers are defi-nitely aware of that. That’s something that they have to consider when they’re building these applications — how far is too far?”

Companies have to be mindful not to turn away users because they appear to be intrusive or use sensitive information, Yeager said. “I think the industry has learned a lot from how do you deal with privacy on the mobile side,” said Naveen Tewari, CEO of InMobi. Companies are also getting better at protecting con-sumers’ privacy, Tewari said.

Google Glass, one of the most closely watched platforms in wearables, cur-rently doesn’t allow advertising. The devices, still in trial phase, could have a more widespread rollout by the end of

the year, though that isn’t a certainty, company co- founder Sergey Brin said at a technology conference in May.

It wasn’t until 2011 — four years after the debut of the iPhone — that ads on smartphones took off, Yeager said, indicating that it will still be a while until wearable ads mature into viable businesses.

Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for

Apple, declined to comment on any plans for a smartwatch. Still, adver-tising, which generated 84 percent of Google’s revenue last year, is set to be integral to wearable gadgets. Google has been granted a patent that shows how images displayed on computerized eyewear could include paid promotions. The patent refers to “charging advertis-ers associated with the advertisements based at least in part on a per-gaze basis.”

The Glass team has no plans to use this patent now or in the foreseeable future, Google said. The company isn’t just using Glass to push into the weara-bles industry. In March, it unveiled Android Wear, a project to extend the smartphone operating system to watches and other gadgets. Google is teaming up with hardware makers such as HTC and LG Electronics as partners for the devices.

One of the early players in the weara-bles market is Pebble Technology, a star-tup that develops smartwatches. The devices, which have a simplified inter-face on small, black-and- white screens, have spurred conversations with part-ners about how advertising could work, according to Asad Iqbal, head of busi-ness development for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

Ad companies are also preparing to market on wearables. Kiip, which already sells tools to display ads via smartphones, has a team that’s looking at how the gadgets could carry promo-tions, according to Brian Wong, chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based company. Millennial Media has a small team investigating the poten-tial for smartwatches, according to Bob Hammond, chief technology officer. The company sees it as a natural extension of the growing number of places where ads can show up, be that on smartphones, cars or connected televisions, he said.

Users are growing more comfortable with ads on smartphones — even in the face of privacy concerns. Wearables promise consumers a more personal and mobile future — whether they’re attached to the wrist or through a small screen on computerised eye wear. Since these gadgets don’t need to be carried or stuffed in a pocket, they enable quick and casual interactions to fetch and share information, such as text mes-sages, photos or news updates.

WP-BLOOMBERG

Advertising companies are devising ways to deliver marketing messages directly to people who don watches, glasses and headgear that double as computers.

Smartwatches targeted as next ad frontier

COMICS & MORE 13

Hoy en la HistoriaJuly 9, 2011

1997: Mike Tyson’s boxing license was revoked after biting another boxer’s ear1999: NATO troops found 350 bodies in a ravine in Kosovo, victims of a massacre by Serb paramilitaries2004: The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s West Bank security barrier violated international law2008: Iran test-fired nine missiles, warning the U.S. and Israel it was ready to retaliate in case of attack over its disputed nuclear projects

Argentine singer Facundo Cabral, a huge star throughout Latin America, was shot dead in Guatemala City when unidentified gunmen fired at his car

Picture: Associated Press © GRAPHIC NEWS

ALL IN THE MIND Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal,vertical, diagonal, forwards or backwards.

ARCHERY, ATHLETICS, BADMINTON, BASEBALL, BASKETBALL,BOXING, CRICKET, CURLING, CYCLING, DIVING, FENCING,FOOTBALL, GOLF, GYMNASTICS, HANDBALL, HOCKEY,HORSE RACING, JUDO, LACROSSE, MOTOR RACING, NETBALL,POLO, ROUNDERS, ROWING, RUGBY, SAILING, SKATING, SKIING, SOCCER, SQUASH, SWIMMING, TENNIS, VOLLEYBALL, WRESTLING.

LEARN ARABIC

Baby Blue by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

Zits by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman

Hagar The Horrible by Chris Browne

Words and Expressions that are often used

When will you come and visit me?

Mata ta'tee liziyaratee?

This week Ha�a Alousbooç

I am busy Ana maš�ool

God willing Inša'allah

Glad to see you Ana saçeed birou'yatik

To buy Aštaree

To sell Abeeç

To win Arba�

Note: ç = ‘a’ as in ‘agh’ when surprised

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

HYPER SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

CROSSWORDS

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

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.

ACROSS 1 Cowboy chow

5 Distresses

9 Word from the Arabic for “struggle”

14 Simpson who said “Beneath my goody two shoes lie some very dark socks”

15 See 16-Across

16 With 15-Across, preparing to pop the question, say

17 Cash dispensers, for short

18 “___ first you don’t succeed …”

19 What a star on a U.S. flag represents

20 Subject of the book “Revolution in the Valley”

22 Beset by a curse

23 Pinocchio, periodically

24 Snarling dog

25 Poisonous

28 Person who works with dipsticks

33 Not much, in cookery

34 Powerful org. with HQ in Fairfax, Va.

35 Shine, commercially

37 People in this may have big ears

42 Shot ___

43 “Criminy!”

44 Actress Watts

45 Sioux shoe

49 Metaphor, e.g.

50 “Whazzat?”

51 Employs

53 Meal with Elijah’s cup

56 Journalist of the Progressive Era

61 Kick out

62 Vogue alternative

63 Starting score in tennis

64 Techie sorts

65 From the top

66 Managed, with “out”

67 Unable to hold still

68 Speaker’s place

69 Like Lindbergh’s historic trans-Atlantic flight

DOWN 1 Glitz

2 Meter maid of song

3 Gomer Pyle’s org.

4 Legendary lizard with a fatal gaze

5 Japanese dog breed

6 Notify

7 Pastures

8 Brother of Cain and Abel

9 Book after Deuteronomy

10 Person getting on-the-job training

11 Snopes.com subject

12 Upfront stake

13 Monopoly card

21 Specialty

24 Cartoonist Addams

25 Pack down

26 Detestation

27 ___ knife

29 Japanese mushroom

30 Grand ___ (wine of the highest rank)

31 Eskimo home

32 Stick together

36 Theater award since 1956

38 Word repeatedly sung after “She loves you …”

39 “___ amis”

40 Opposite of exit

41 Deals at a dealership

46 Partner of balances

47 Girl’s show of respect

48 Cell centers

52 Twists, as facts

53 Gaming giant

54 Smooth

55 Lighten up?

56 Quaff for Beowulf

57 Bone next to the radius

58 Gorilla pioneering in sign language

59 Knievel of motorcycle stunts

60 Make over

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40 41

42 43 44

45 46 47 48 49

50 51 52

53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63

64 65 66

67 68 69

T A P E G A P E N A L AN E I N A L O T M O T O RU S A I N B O L T A T T I CT O N G A U S U A L F A R E

P O M P S B L A R E DB A S I N S A R I

S E A S B O S C A R T S YP A R U S B P O R T A T EA R S O N L Y L E U L E E

I R A E D A N S KM I L L E R M O O R EU S E R S F E E S I P A D SG E T I T U S H E R E D I NG R O G S R A I L N I N AY E N S O I N K S O A P

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

14

EASY SUDOKUCartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

Easy Sudoku PuzzlesPlace a digit from 1 to 9 in each empty cell so everyrow, every column and every 3x3 box contains allthe digits 1 to 9.

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

13:15 Robson's New

Extreme Fishing

Challenge

14:05 Storage Hunters

14:30 Container Wars

14:55 Savage Family

Diggers

15:20 Dual Survival

16:10 Yukon Men

17:00 Fast N' Loud

17:50 Treehouse Masters

18:40 Futurescape With

James Woods

19:30 Gold Rush -

Season 2

Specials

20:20 How It's Made

20:45 How Stuff's Made

21:35 Container Wars

22:00 Treehouse Masters

22:50 Futurescape

With James

Woods

23:40 Mythbusters

08:00 News

09:00 Black France

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:30 Football

Rebels

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Al Jazeera

World

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 The Stream

18:00 NEWSHOUR

19:00 News

19:30 Witness

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Witness

13:15 Outback

Rangers

15:05 Safari Sisters

15:30 Dick 'n' Dom

Go Wild

17:25 Pandamonium

18:20 Penguin Safari

21:05 Safari Sisters

22:00 World's Wildest

Cities: Manaus

22:55 Galapagos

23:50 Animal Cops

Miami

13:00 My Name Is Earl

13:30 Friends

14:00 New Girl

15:00 Melissa & Joey

16:00 Colbert Report

16:30 War At Home

18:00 Community

18:30 New Girl

19:00 Last Man

Standing

20:00 The Goldbergs

20:30 Crazy Ones

21:30 Colbert Report

Global Edition

22:00 Wilfred

22:30 Veep

13:00 A Cat In Paris

14:30 Wheelers

16:00 The Water

Horse: Legend

Of The Deep

18:00 Speed Racer

20:15 Open Season

22:00 Wheelers

23:30 The Water

Horse: Legend

Of The Deep

14:00 Hotel

Transylvania

16:00 Barbershop

18:00 Beethoven

20:00 10 Things I

Hate About

You-

22:00 The Brothers

Solomon

13:50 Animal

Superpowers

14:45 Speed Kills

15:40 Hippo vs Croc

16:35 Manta Mystery

18:25 American Eagle

19:20 World's Deadli-

est Killer Three

21:00 Speed Kills

22:40 Manta Mystery

23:30 Caught In

The Act GPU

Reversions

13:00 Ellen DeGeneres

Show

14:00 Scandal

15:00 The Carrie

Diaries

16:00 Emmerdale

16:30 Coronation

Street

17:00 The Ellen

DeGeneres

Show

18:00 Scandal

19:00 Twisted

20:00 Royal Pains

21:00 Dracula

22:00 True Detective

23:00 C.S.I

09:00 The Double

11:00 The Chateau

Meroux

12:45 The Lady

15:00 Reviving

Ophelia-PG15

17:00 The Double

19:00 The Company

You Keep

21:00 Drift

23:00 Hick

13:00 The Great

Ghost Rescue

15:00 Zambezia

17:00 Superman:

Unbound

19:00 Limitless

21:00 The Letter

23:00 Haywire

MALL

1

Arima Nambi (2D/Tamil) – 3.00pm

Maleficent (3D/Action) – 9.00pm

Assasin's Bullet (2D/Action) – 11.00pm

2

How To Train Your Dragon-2 (3D/Action) – 3.00pm

Far Cry (2D/Action) – 9.30pm

Vikingdom (2D/Adventure) – 11.30pm

3Bangalore Days (2D/Malayalam) – 2.30 & 10.30pm

The Legend Of A Rabbit (2D/Comedy) – 9.00pm

LANDMARK

1Bangalore Days (2D/Malayalam) – 2.30 & 10.30pm

The Legend Of A Rabbit (2D/Comedy) – 9.00pm

2

Arima Nambi (2D/Tamil) – 2.30pm

Vikingdom (2D/Adventure) – 9.15pm

Far Cry (2D/Action) – 11.30pm

3

How To Train Your Dragon-2 (3D/Action) – 3.00pm

Assasin's Bullet (2D/Action) – 9.00pm

Arima Nambi (2D/Tamil) – 10.45pm

ROYAL

PLAZA

1

Ek Villain (2D/Hindi) – 2.30pm

Bobby Jasoos (2D/Hindi) – 9.15pm

Far Cry (2D/Action) – 11.30pm

2

Bobby Jasoos (2D/Hindi) – 3.00pm

The Legend Of A Rabbit (2D/Comedy) – 9.15pm

Maleficent (3D/Action) – 11.30pm

3

How To Train Your Dragon-2 (3D/Action) – 3.00pm

Assasin's Bullet (2D/Action) – 9.00pm

Vikingdom (2D/Adventure) – 11.00pm

13:00 Gangs of

Haseepur

14:00 Do Dil Bandhe Ek

Dori Se

14:30 Ek Mutthi Aasmaan

15:00 Doli Armaano Ki

15:30 Rasm Mein Rasoi

16:00 Kasamh Se

17:00 Hum Paanch

18:00 Word Match

18:30 Bollywood Business

19:00 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

19:30 Ek Mutthi Aasmaan

20:00 Do Dil Bandhe Ek

Dori Se

20:30 Jodha Akbar

21:00 Pavitra Rishta

21:30 Kumkum Bhagya

22:00 Qubool Hai

22:30 Aur Pyaar Hogaya

23:00 Doli Armaano Ki

23:30 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

13:45 Gok's Fashion Fix

14:30 Rachel Khoo's

Kitchen

Notebook:

Cosmo Cook

15:00 Bill's Kitchen:

Notting Hill

15:50 A Taste Of My

Life

16:15 Bargain Hunt

19:10 Nordic Cookery

With Tareq Taylor

19:35 How To Cook

Like Heston

20:00 Extreme

Makeover: Home

Edition

22:15 Bargain Hunt

23:00 Marbella

Mansions

23:45 Nordic Cookery

With Tareq Taylor

13:00 Austin & Ally

13:25 Phineas And Ferb

14:10 Good Luck

Charlie

15:00 Dog With A Blog

15:25 Liv And Maddie

16:10 Mako Mermaids

16:35 Win, Lose Or

Draw

17:00 Austin & Ally

17:45 Jessie

18:10 Jessie

18:30 Mako Mermaids

19:20 Violetta

20:05 Liv And Maddie

20:30 Jessie

20:50 Dog With A Blog

21:15 Mako Mermaids

21:40 Austin & Ally

22:00 Good Luck

Charlie

22:25 A.N.T. Farm

22:50 Shake It Up

23:10 Wolfblood

13:00 How Stuff's Made

13:30 What's That

About?

14:20 Mythbusters

15:10 Scrapheap

Challenge

16:00 Mega Builders

16:50 Science Of The

Movies

17:40 Prototype This

18:30 Alien Mysteries

19:20 The Gadget Show

19:45 How Stuff's Made

20:10 Mythbusters

21:00 Stephen

Hawking's Grand

Design

21:50 Alien Mysteries

22:40 What's That

About?

23:30 How The

Universe Works

13:00 Engineering

Connections

14:00 Pirate Patrol

15:00 Lords Of War

15:30 Mystery Files

16:00 Jurassic C.S.I.

17:00 The Numbers

Game

17:30 The Numbers

Game

18:00 Banged Up

Abroad

19:00 Situation Critical

20:00 Mad Scientists

20:30 Mad Scientists

21:00 Naked Science 2.5

22:00 Megastructures

23:00 World's Toughest

Fixes

00:00 Britain's Greatest

Machines

01:00 Best Of Hard

Time

02:00 Hunter Hunted

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2014 POTPOURRI16

Editor-In-Chief Khalid Al Sayed Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: plus@pen.com.qa / editor@pen.com.qa

IN FOCUS

Fishing boats anchored at Al Wakra.

by Farid Khan

Send your photos to plus@pen.com.qa. Mention where the photo was taken.

If you want your events featured here, mail details to plus@pen.com.qa

Events in Qatar

Katara Stars When: July 3-31, 10am-12midnight Where: Katara, near the mosque What: A wall has been put up in where every one is welcome to post their selfies or photos with family and friends taken by the Ramadan wall. The photos can also be published via Instagram and using the hashtag #katarastars or by sending the photos by email to katara.stars@wallpeople.org.Free entry

Building Our Collection: An Insight Into Museum Art Collecting When: Till August 30Where: Museum Of Islamic Art What: The exhibition looks at why MIA collects Islamic art, and how the museum’s collecting practices shape our understanding of Islamic art through artistic and cultural connections between different regions of the Islamic world. The majority of featured objects have never before been on display.Entry Fee

Brazil 2014 Fan Zone When: July 1, 4 and 5, 5pm-2am; July 8, 9 and 12, 9pm-2am; July 13, 7pm-1am Where: Katara

What: FIFA World Cup 2014 live screenings of the matches on a giant screen in an open-air venue cooled using state of the art technology. Live entertainment, dining and other activities for kids and adults are held at the venue. Free entry

The Holy Quran and Astronomy ExhibitionWhen: July 3-31, 10am-3pm, 7pm-12midnight

Where: Katara Building 19What: Up to 110 verses from the Holy Quran describing the creation of the universe and relating to astronomy and the cosmos adorn the walls of Katara Gallery Building 19. Different types of astrolabes, Holy Kaaba covers, calligraphies and Holy Quran from various eras are also showcased.Free Entry

Ramadan Cricket Cup at Industrial Town

When: July 6 to 24Where: West End Park Cricket Stadium in Industrial TownWhat: Twelve teams registered with Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) are competing in the T20 tournament organized by West End Park, under the aegis of Qatar Olympic Committee. Winner of the Ramadan Cup will bag QR 50,000 prize money.

BY IAN SAMPLE

THE world’s largest project to unravel the mysteries of the human brain has been thrown into crisis with more than 100 lead-

ing researchers threatening to boycott the effort amid accusations of misman-agement and fears that it is doomed to failure.

The European commission launched the €1.2bn (£950m) Human Brain Project (HBP) last year with the ambitious goal of turning the lat-est knowledge in neuroscience into a supercomputer simulation of the human brain. More than 80 European and international research institutions signed up to the 10-year project.

But it proved controversial from the start. Many researchers refused to join on the grounds that it was far too pre-mature to attempt a simulation of the entire human brain in a computer. Now some claim the project is taking the wrong approach, wastes money and risks a backlash against neuroscience if it fails to deliver.

In an open letter to the European commission, more than 130 leaders of scientific groups around the world, including researchers at Oxford,

Cambridge, Edinburgh and UCL, warn they will boycott the project and urge others to join them unless major changes are made to the initiative.

The researchers urge EC officials who are now reviewing the plans to take a hard look at the science and manage-ment before deciding on whether to renew its funding. They believe the review, which is due to conclude at the end of the summer, will find “substan-tial failures” in the project’s governance, flexibility and openness.

Central to the latest controversy are recent changes made by Henry Markram, head of the Human Brain Project at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne. The changes sidelined cognitive scientists who study high-level brain functions, such as thought and behaviour. Without them, the brain simulation will be built from the bottom up, drawing on more fun-damental science, such as studies of

individual neurons. The brain, the most complex object known, has some 86bn neurons and 100tn connections.

“The main apparent goal of building the capacity to construct a larger-scale simulation of the human brain is radi-cally premature,” Peter Dayan, director of the computational neuroscience unit at UCL, told The Guardian.

“We are left with a project that can’t but fail from a scientific perspective. It is a waste of money, it will suck out funds from valuable neuroscience research, and would leave the public, who fund this work, justifiably upset,” he said.

Europe’s decision to approve the HBP spurred US scientists to propose a major project of their own. The US Brain Initiative aims to map the activity of the human brain and could win $3bn (£1.75bn) in funding over 10 years.

Alexandre Pouget, a signatory of the letter at Geneva University, said that while simulations were valuable, they would not be enough to explain how the brain works. “There is a danger that Europe thinks it is investing in a big neuroscience project here, but it’s not. It’s an IT project,” he said.

But Markram staunchly defends the project, arguing that it was always about developing technology rather than basic neuroscience. THE GUARDIAN

Threat to boycott Human Brain Project