page 01 nov 28 - the peninsula · thursday 28 november 2013 • [email protected] • • 4455 7741...

THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741

CAMPUS

COMMUNITY

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TECHNOLOGY

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• 49 nurses graduatefrom Universityof Calgary–Qatar

• Tina Sani regalesaudience withclassical hits

• Mazda 3 hatchbackrides like carstwice its price

• A stand-updesk hasits own perils

• New apps givehomeownerssmart-home security

inside

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Learn Arabic • Learn commonly

used Arabic wordsand their meanings

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The first puzzle, made by 42-year-old Arthur Wynne, appeared on December 21, 1913 and was

an instant success. Now crosswords feature in nearly every newspaper in the world.

CROSSWORDS CROSSWORDS COMPLETECOMPLETE

100 YEARS100 YEARS

Frozen: Disney makes old-school cool

2 COVER STORYPLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013

By Merl Reagle

On a snowy evening in the early 1900s, a newspaper editor at the New York World was hunched over his desk

trying to think of something special for the Christmas issue.

Remembering the small word squares he’d solved as a young Brit in Liverpool, he drew a diamond-shaped grid with numbered squares and num-bered clues. It contained 32 words, and his simple instruction read: “Fill in the small squares with words which agree with the following definitions.”

The puzzle appeared on December 21, 1913, and what 42-year-old Arthur Wynne had created was the first cross-word puzzle.

It was an instant success. Mail poured in. Readers didn’t mind that the first puzzle contained some very unusual words, such as NEIF, TANE, NEVA and NARD. Or that the word DOVE appeared twice, once clued as”a bird” and once as “a pigeon.” Or that

the most unusual word was DOH, defined as “the fibre of the gomuti palm,” a clue that, if it appeared today, would elicit much the same reaction from solvers as it would from Homer Simpson.

Seeing the crossword’s popular-ity, Wynne pushed for the newspaper to copyright it, but his bosses, who included two of Joseph Pulitzer’s sons, considered the crossword a passing tri-fle. New York Times editorials labelled them a waste of time.

After just a few years, Wynne’s interest waned. He still made cross-words, but he also accepted reader sub-missions, becoming the country’s first crossword editor as well. By 1921, after eight years as captain of the crossword, Wynne handed the wheel to someone else.

That someone was a Smith grad named Margaret Petherbridge, a World secretary who had hopes of being a journalist. Like almost everyone on the staff, she was utterly uninterested in the crossword and simply picked the

ones that had interesting shapes. She never tried solving one.

However, the paper’s most popular columnist, Franklin P Adams, was an avid fan and began leaving his solved puzzles on Petherbridge’s desk, with the mistakes highlighted. Because the grids were a pain to create, the paper’s typesetters did their best to kill the crossword, running the clues in ever-decreasing tiny type and omitting some altogether.

After a year, Petherbridge had been shamed enough. She decided to try to solve a puzzle — and couldn’t. Rather than feel Adams’s glare, she set about organising the puzzles in her files. Within months she had devised rules for crossword creators — amazingly, a list still followed today. She simplified the numbering system (Wynne had always numbered the ending square of each word as well as the starting square), stressed the use of common English words (obscure foreign terms had crept in), limited the black squares to one-sixth of the grid and, in essence,

standardised the crossword puzzle.From then on, puzzles that had a

high degree of craftsmanship were first to be chosen. The crossword finally looked like a feature that was here to stay.

Then, in 1924, two Columbia grads decided they wanted to get into pub-lishing. Crossword puzzles were more popular than ever, yet there had never been a collection in book form. So they enlisted Petherbridge and two col-leagues to compile one: The Cross Word Puzzle Book. It sold 400,000 copies in only a few months.

Two more books followed, selling two million copies in two years. The two young publishers were Dick Simon and Max Schuster, and the first crossword book launched their careers.

And Petherbridge’s career. With the books, crosswords became a national phenomenon. Petherbridge married in 1926, becoming Margaret P Farrar, and under that name she would go on to edit the Simon & Schuster crossword series for 60 years.

Happy 100th to the Happy 100th to the crossword puzzlecrossword puzzle

3PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013

Crossword craze peaked over time. Commuter trains started putting dictionaries in every car. The Los Angeles Public Library had to enforce a limit on how long you could use the dictionary.

She called it her “inadvertent pro-fession.” When she started in the 1920s she never expected such a seemingly genteel activity to be so controversial. The crossword craze killed mah-jongg virtually overnight. (Mah-jongg deal-ers put this note in the New Yorker: “Roses are red, violets are blue, we’d like to cut your throats for you.”)

There was a crossword-related news story in the New York papers almost every week: A Baptist preacher con-structed a crossword for a sermon. A man refused to leave a restaurant until he finished a crossword and had to be escorted out by police. A Cleveland woman was granted a divorce because her husband was obsessed with cross-words. A Budapest waiter explained in a crossword why he was committing suicide; police were unable to solve it.

The Broadway show Puzzles of 1925 had a skit in which crossword fans were depicted as patients in a sanitar-ium. Commuter trains started putting dictionaries in every car. The Los Angeles Public Library had to enforce a limit on how long you could use the dictionary. England’s Queen Mary became a crossword fan. The Chicago Department of Health declared that crossword solving was beneficial to health and happiness. And thesaurus author Peter Roget was declared “the patron saint of crossworders.”

All the while, the Times called cross-word solving “a temporary madness,” serving “no useful purpose whatso-ever,” and an “epidemic” that would soon be over.

In 1942 the Times finally gave in and hired Margaret P Farrar as its first crossword editor.

So whatever happened to Arthur Wynne?

As readers of The Washington Post

may know, I make the crossword for the Post magazine every Sunday. I live in Tampa, Florida, but in this age of instant everything, I just attach the puzzle in an email and click “send.”

Such technology has made my puz-zling life much less puzzling. And it was while surfing the Web in the 1990s that I found Wynne’s grainy Associated Press obit from the January 17, 1945, Toronto Daily Star. It was one paragraph:

“Clearwater, Fla. (AP) — Arthur Wynn, credited with inventing the cross-word puzzle, died Sunday. . . . Wynn was born in Liverpool, England, and came to the US 50 years ago to enter the newspa-per business.”

First, I was stunned that the man who had invented a feature that was in nearly every newspaper in the world, even in 1945, was given such short shrift. Second, that they spelled his

name wrong. And third, that he died in Clearwater. There I was, a lifelong puzzle guy in Tampa, reading that the man who invented the crossword puz-zle had died 25 miles from where I was sitting.

Or, standing, since I had bolted out of the chair. I asked an editor friend at the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) to check its archives for articles. There were precious few, with nothing new.

I did know what most of us in the crossword world knew. Excellent books have been written about the crossword’s early days: The Compleat Cruciverbalist, Creative Cruciverbalists and What’s Gnu?

I knew that when Wynne was a boy he loved word games and the violin. He wanted to be a newspaperman, but his father, a newspaperman himself, forbade it. At 19, Arthur packed one bag and his violin, and with $30 in his pocket sailed to the United States. (Strangely, this mirrors my own life: At 20 I was a puzzle fan, played the organ and piano, and worked as a newspaper copy editor.)

Wynne found a newspaper job in Pittsburgh and played the violin in orchestras. Then he got the job at the World. He moved to Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and commuted every day. After inventing the crossword he became a frequent customer at New York’s famous Palm restaurant, where a wall caricature of him remains to this day. He worked for the Hearst papers in the 1930s. In 1941 he moved to Clearwater for health reasons and died four years later.

And that became the puzzle with no answer: Where was he bur-ied? Somewhere in Tampa Bay? If so, is there a gravestone? Or was

he transported to a family plot in Liverpool? Fifteen years later I still had no answer.

The break came in July this year. While surfing the Web, my wife, Marie, found the hometown obit of Wynne’s oldest daughter, Janet. It mentioned that there was another daughter living in Clearwater. Wynne had married a third time to a much younger woman and had fathered a child at 62. That daughter’s name was Catherine Wynne — they called her Kay — and she was 11 when her father died.

Her married name was Kay Wynne Cutler. She had turned 80 in April and was living in Clearwater. It took Marie only minutes to find her number and call. A bright-sounding woman answered. The conversation lasted 15 minutes. We tried not to show that we were giddy as kids in an ice cream par-lour. We agreed to meet.

Kay walks with a cane but is sharp. She laughs easily. She brought articles about her father. As far as she knows she is the only one in the family who is a crossword fan.

She had the answer to my “grave” question. There was no burial site because there was no burial. Her father had been cremated. Kay says she was too young to know, but she thinks his ashes were scattered in the Gulf of Mexico. At the time, she was a stu-dent at Anona Elementary, a happy accident for the daughter of a puzzle creator — the name of the school is a palindrome.

Kay said her father used to say that he never made a penny off the cross-word puzzle. In this, the 100th anni-versary of his invention, I hope he can settle for recognition.

Reagle is a professional puzzle author.WP-Bloomberg

PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 20134 CAMPUS

Students of Qatar Petroleum’s Mesaieed International School (MIS) recently celebrated their success in international examinations and their academic performance in school. The students received their certificates and awards for achieving excellent results in their (I) GCSE, AS and A-level examinations in the presence of Maliq Omer Al Dafea, Chairman of the MIS Board of Governors, Eid Mubarak Al Muhannadi, Operations Manager-Gas Operations and MIS Board Member, and Nawaf Hamad Al Khalifa, Head of Personnel Administration and MIS Board Member. Also present during the awarding ceremony were Kevin John Massey, headmaster, and Jane Elizabeth Goldsack, head of secondary education at MIS. Mohamed Ghonim was presented the Student of the Year award and a certificate for being the best student in Qatar for IGCSE Computer Studies.

MIS students achieve excellent resultsMIS students achieve excellent results

UCQ graduates 49 nurses

Fourty-nine University of Calgary–Qatar students received their Bachelor of Nursing

degrees in a celebration at the Qatar National Convention Centre yesterday.

“The Qatar healthcare system is now richer with the addition of this batch of nurses who are equipped with the skills and knowledge to deliver world-class healthcare to the people of Qatar,” said Dr Kim Critchley, Dean and CEO.

“This is our largest graduating class ever. It is becoming clear that many more people are considering nursing as a career,” Critchley added.

“You are the future of nursing, founded on knowledge and faith, dedication, commitment and hard work and pol-ished with compassion and quality care. Earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing is your first step toward an endless path of knowledge. I urge you to continue learning and adding to your knowledge. I know that you have acquired world-class knowledge and skills during your studies at UCQ and I believe that you will positively change healthcare when you practice those skills,” Dr Nabila Al Meer, Deputy Chief of Continuing Care and Supreme Council of Health Nursing Affairs, said in a keynote address.

The Peninsula

IIS supports typhoon victimsIdeal Indian School has made a donation of QR31,329 to Qatar Red Crescent in aid of typhoon victims in the Philippines and Somalia. The contribution was collected from staff and students. Principal Syed Shoukath Ali handed over the cash to Munzer Ibraheem, an official from Qatar Red Crescent, in a ceremony organised in the school premises yesterday. The heads of the kinder-garten, junior, boys’ and girls’ sections were present on the occasion.

5COMMUNITY PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013

MAK-Qatar, a group of expats from Kerala engaged in sports and socio-cultural activities, has conferred edu-cation excellency awards on toppers in various exams. Dubai-based phi-lanthropist Dr K P Husain, Chairman, Dr Husain Charitable Trust, inaugu-rated the event and MAK President M Thahir was present. Hanan Faisal, Hadiya Abdussamad, Muhammed Sameeh Manikoth, Muna Nisar, Rania Samad, Hamad Yoonus P T, Shalina Abdul Hameed T T, Sheikh Karippali, Muhammed Basil, Basim Haris, Samah Mohammed Salih, Ashfaq Abdurahiman and Hamad Yoonus P were honoured.

Reception for Prof Yaseen Ashraf

Farook College Old Students Association (Fosa Qatar) will hold a reception in

honour of Prof Yaseen Ashraf, a former head of the English depart-ment at Farook College in Kerala and a prominent media person-ality. The function will be held at the Friends Cultural Centre auditorium in Doha on Saturday at 7pm, a press release said yester-day. All former students of Farook College in Qatar have been invited to attend. The Peninsula

Society of Sri LankanQuantity Surveyorsmarks 10th anniversary

The Society of Sri Lankan Quantity Surveyors (SLQS) Qatar celebrated their 10th anni-versary at a get-together on November 21 at

Crowne Plaza Business Park Hotel. The society was started in 2003 and is affiliated to the Sri Lankan Embassy. It has more than 500 members and is the largest Sri Lankan professional group in Qatar.

The chief guest at the event was Sri Lankan Ambassador Jayantha Palipana, who was accom-panied by his wife. The Director, Development, of Institute of Construction Training and Development, Sri Lanka, was the guest speaker at the event.

Country representatives from Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors, Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Institute of Quantity Surveyors Sri Lanka, and Chartered Institute of Builders were present at the event.

Two Sri Lankan guest artists, Rookantha and Chanraleka, along with local band Shayara gave a musical performance.

Ten founder committee members in Qatar were awarded with mementos and certificates in recog-nition of their service of establishing the society

10 years ago. On behalf of SLQS Qatar, President Susantha Kumarage and General Secretary Lalantha Amarasekera of the incumbent commit-tee thanked all who supported to make the annual event a success.

The Peninsula

Pakistan’s renowned classical and ghazal singer Tina Sani regaled lovers of Urdu music and poetry

with her performance at Intercontinental Hotel (The City) recently.

The event — an exclusive evening of pure music and poetry — was organised by Pakistan Professional Forum Qatar (PPFQ).

Sani, who was performing in Qatar for the first time, opened her reper-toire with Faiz Ahmed Faiz's famous poem Bimar Ko Bewaja Qarrar Aa Jae.

She also presented Parveen Shakir's

ghazal Abb Bhalla Chor Ke and Ahmed Faraz's ghazal Suna Hai Baatoon Se Phool much to the excitement of the audience.

Later, she presented all-time favour-ites of Faiz such as Anokha Ladla, Mujh Se Pehli Si Muhabbat Mere Mehboob Na Maang, Dasht-e-Tanhai and Hum Dehkain Ge Lazim Hai Hum Bhi Dehkain Ge.

Sani offered her apologies for not presenting Allama Iqbal's Shikwa Jawab-e-Shikwa due to time con-straints. “I promise that I will render

it when I come back to Qatar again,” said Sani, who entered the professional world of singing in 1980. In recognition of her valuable contribution to music spanning over nearly three decades, Tina was conferred the highest civil-ian award in Pakistan, the President’s Pride of Performance, in 2004.

Earlier, Malik Muhammad Farooq, charge d'affaires at the Pakisan embassy, praised PPFQ members for organising a cultural programme. Assuring every support to such events by the embassy, Farooq stressed the

need for holding cultural events more frequently.

The acting chairman and president of PPFQ, Adnan Kirmani, thanked Pakistan embassy, Commercialbank and other sponsors for supporting the event. He also highlighted future pro-grammes of the forum, including a free medical camp and a seminar on Islamic finance. PPFQ General Secretary Shabber Ali conducted the programme and rendered his poetry, which was well received by the audience.

The Peninsula

Tina Sani regales audience with classical hits

Tina Sani (left) rendering an old classical hit as the audience listens.

Senior Contract Adviser, Contract Department Senior Contract Adviser, Contract Department of Ashghal, Ahmad Ali Al Ansari, lighting a of Ashghal, Ahmad Ali Al Ansari, lighting a traditional Sri Lankan oil lamp in the presence traditional Sri Lankan oil lamp in the presence of Sri Lankan Ambassador Jayantha Palipana of Sri Lankan Ambassador Jayantha Palipana and other officials.and other officials.

PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013 MARKETPLACE66

Exoda was honored by Alcatel-Lucent with the ‘Special Recognition Award for SMB Business’ during Gitex 2013. This recognition is the result of Exoda’s efforts to drive Alcatel-Lucent’s SMB business. Elie Abi Nader, General Manager, Exoda, commented: “This recognition from Alcatel-Lucent is an excellent motivation for our team and will spur us to achieve more. The award is highly significant in Exoda’s growth to reach even greater heights.”

EXODA honoured by Alcatel-Lucent

Doha Marriott to host Spa Event today

Indulge in a little pampering at the Doha Marriott’s upcoming Spa Event. Doha Marriott’s Spa will

open up today for an evening of guilt-free self-indulgence where guests and visitors will have an opportunity to sample a selection of spa highlights.

“Come along and claim your compli-mentary skin care consultation, or enjoy a refreshing back, neck and shoulder massage. The evening will include a full programme of events, the opportunity to purchase Spa membership at a spe-cial discounted rate, and a full tour of the Spa’s facilities. Additionally, there will be a prize raffle draw giving you the chance to win some amazing gifts,” a hotel press release said.

The Spa team of professional mas-seurs, instructors and specialists will be available throughout the event to answer questions. The event will start at 6pm, with light refreshments avail-able throughout the evening.

The Peninsula

In collaboration with Qatar Diabetes Association, Wyndham Grand Regency Doha recently

celebrated World Diabetes Day, a global event that unites millions of people around the world to raise awareness about diabetes.

To mark this day, celebrated every November 14, the hotel’s lobby was decorated with blue flowers and the hotel facade glowed in blue, a colour that is associated with

the worldwide event and diabetes awareness. In addition, employees and associates from both establish-ments came together wearing a pin representing the World Diabetes Day logo, a blue circle, to express their support for people with dia-betes and those who are working to raise awareness and prevent the spread of the disease.

“At Wyndham Grand Regency Doha, World Diabetes Day is one

of the leading awareness activities that we encourage our employees to participate in through our ‘Count On Me!’ initiative, by which we pledge to be responsive, respectful and deliver great experiences. It is important for us to take action to better understand diabetes and sup-port world initiatives for this noble cause,” said Ayman Lotfy, the hotel’s general manager.

The Peninsula

Wyndham Grand Regency marks Diabetes Day Wyndham Grand Regency marks Diabetes Day

The World Travel Awards have selected La Cigale Hotel to host their 20th anniversary grand

final ceremony. The event will take place on Saturday, November 30 in Al Wajba ballroom, and will include more than 700 guests, among them ambas-sadors and leading travel, tourism and hospitality professionals.

World Travel Awards Group Senior Vice President Kevin Taylor said: “We are thrilled to take World Travel Awards to Doha, Qatar for the second time, and to have La Cigale Hotel as host is an extra delight for us. Over the years the World Travel Awards win-ners shield has become trusted by the travel industry and leisure and busi-ness travellers as signifying excellence in quality of product and service, and we

are looking forward to the next twenty years.”

Housni El Yaman, Director of Sales and Marketing at La Cigale Hotel, said: “La Cigale Hotel is privileged to host the World Travel Awards Final gala ceremony at its unique Al Wajba ball-room — a venue that has hosted many prestigious events.”

“This was one of the most success-ful years for La Cigale since its launch in 2007. We were presented several awards and we are looking forward to winning additional titles this Saturday during the event,” he concluded.

The event will feature top artists from the Middle East such as Lebanese artist Maya Diab, the Enana dance group and electric violinist Micah.

The Peninsula

La Cigale to host WTA 20th anniversary gala ceremony

Porsche Design and BlackBerry have announced the new, all-touch Porsche Design P’9982 Smartphone from BlackBerry.

The P’9982 is fashioned from high-quality materials and features a customized version of the BlackBerry 10.2 Operating System.

The P’9982, which extends the Porsche Design luxury brand’s range of modern luxury smartphones, features a satin fin-ished frame forged from stainless steel, complemented by a hand-wrapped Italian leather back door.

Distinguishable by its special series of PIN numbers, owners of the P’9982 will

be instantly recognisable in the exclu-sive world of Porsche Design smartphone owners. The smartphone carries Porsche Design’s iconic styling uniquely through the BlackBerry 10 experience to give users an exquisite handset purpose-built to excel at mobile communications, mes-saging and productivity.

“Engineered luxury meets powered performance – what has been true for the first Porsche Design smartphone is even truer for the all-touch P’9882,” said Juergen Gessler, CEO of Porsche Design Group.

“Once again the collaboration with

BlackBerry has led to a device that imple-ments our iconic style credo without com-promises. With the P’9982 we extend our range of modern luxury smartphones and establish ourselves as a market leader in this segment.”

“The new all-touch P’9982 smartphone combines a unique design from an iconic brand with the power of BlackBerry 10,” said Nick Horton, Managing Director of Middle East and North Africa at BlackBerry. “Every aspect of this smart-phone has been purposely designed and built for a powerful premium experience.”

The Peninsula

Porsche Design unveils new BlackBerry smartphone

WHEELS 7PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013

By Jason H Harper

Who said modesty and fun can’t go hand in hand? Mazda’s latest 3 sedan and hatchback start at a humble price of around $17,700, and top out at less

than $30,000 with all the options. (Those $100 all-weather floor mats? Bring ‘em on.)

Jamming over narrow, bumpy Michigan roads, the Mazda 3 doesn’t seem scrappy or harsh, like many compact cars. Rather, it hums along smoothly over ragged ridges of bad pavement, showing off a supple suspension that’s so good as to be unlikely. Mazda has sprinkled engineering magic dust into that charming chassis: it rides as well as cars twice its price.

The 2014 model year is the third generation of the 3, and it’s an especially important car for Mazda, which is a niche player compared to Japan’s behe-moth brands, Toyota and Honda. The 3 is Mazda’s best-selling model in the US. So the all-new car, which went on sale in September, must have a broad appeal. To achieve that, Mazda offers the compact both as a four-door sedan and a five-door hatchback, with a variety of trim levels and two engine choices.

The base sedan has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder, with 155 horsepower, standard with a six-speed manual transmission. That gets 29 miles per gallon around town, and a full 41 on the freeway.

The more expensive models are available with a 2.5-litre four-cylinder with 184 horses and 185 pound-feet of torque. The downside is that, currently, it only comes with a six-speed automatic. The extra power sacrifices some efficiency, for 28 and 37 mpg in the hatchback.

It really is a shame about the transmissions, because the more potent engine would be sweeter if

it were also offered with the manual for maximum driving fun. After all, Mazda has one of the better stick and clutch combos in the business.

Though the company says buyers can expect one eventually, that’s of little help to them today. And the automatic could use a seventh gear, making the shifts smoother and a little less noisy, one of the drawbacks to the otherwise quite refined car. It’s one of the loudest I’ve driven in some time, a combination of racket from the tires, wind and engine.

The good side of the 2.5 litre is it rarely feels underpowered, especially on secondary roads, where it happily wrings its little heart out.

There’s plenty of midrange punch, which is to say it’s easy to surge from 35 to 55 mph. Steering on the car is good, and the Mazda negotiates through both curves and tight spaces with precision. While it isn’t pint sized like a Fiat 500 or Smart, it fits easily into narrow parking spots.

My test car was a Grand Touring hatchback with

a base price of $26,495 and $29,185 as tested. It was painted a flashy black that nicely complimented the gray rims on the 18-inch wheels.

The hatchback has the more captivating of body styles. It’s quirky, with a long, bulbous hood and a cabin placed further aft than one typically finds in a front-wheel-drive car. The sides are shapely, with an interesting interplay of contours. Compared to the last generation, the new look wins hands down.

(The compact segment used to be a barren desert design-wise, but has taken a serious turn for the better with competitors like the Ford Focus and Hyundai Elantra.)

The hatchback has plenty of room. It’s easy to pop luggage or groceries into the hatch, and I spent two hours in the rear seat with minimal complaint. My knees weren’t jammed against the seat backs, nor was my head jack-hammered into the roof liner.

Few buyers will ever buy a Mazda because of the fine qualities of its materials. The new interior design is clean and efficient, with a minimum of button clut-ter. However, you won’t spend much time running your hand over the leather-trimmed seats or plastic.

Plenty of electronic safety equipment is on offer, including blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alerts which come standard on the upmarket trim levels. There’s also an available lane departure warning and forward collision warning system if you’re into that kind of thing.

The car looks good, even adequately expensive, and doesn’t stint on the technology. But it’s really the overall drivability and ease of use that makes the new 3 as the new potential king of the compact cars. Pop it into sport mode and you may find yourself looking for the long way around to do errands.

WP-Bloomberg

The 2014 Mazda 3 S Grand

Touring hatchback at a glance:Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder with 184 horse-power and 185 pound-feet of torque.Transmission: Six-speed automatic.Speed: 0 to 60 mph in about seven seconds.Gas mileage per gallon: 28 city, 37 highway.Price as tested: $29,185 in US.Best features: Good design, peppy engine.Worst feature: Loud.Target buyer: The shopper who wants a compact with some pizazz.

Mazda 3 hatchback rides like cars twice its price

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tally

inju

res

the y

ounger A

nna w

ith a

shot

of

ice t

o t

he h

ead.

Aft

er t

hat,

Els

a

most

ly h

ides

in h

er r

oom

for f

ear o

f hurti

ng p

eople

, and t

he g

irls

becom

e

est

ranged.

But

on

Els

a’s

coron

ati

on

day,

the

new

queen b

ecom

es

frig

hte

ned —

one

of her t

rig

gers

for s

ponta

neous

ice c

re-

ati

on

— a

nd s

he a

ccid

en

tally f

reeze

s th

e f

jord a

round t

he c

ast

le a

s sh

e s

ends

Arendelle into

an e

ternal w

inte

r. E

lsa

flees

am

id a

ccusa

tion

s of

wit

chcraft

, and t

he m

ajo

rit

y o

f th

e m

ovie

is

spent

wit

h A

nna, w

ho h

as

alw

ays

adored h

er

sist

er,

as

she s

ets

out

to fi

nd t

he q

ueen,

brin

g h

er h

om

e a

nd g

et

her t

o c

ancel

the p

erm

afr

ost

. A

long for t

he r

ide a

re

the b

url

y K

ris

toff

and h

is p

et

rein

deer,

S

ven

, plu

s on

e o

f E

lsa’s

creati

on

s, a

ta

lkin

g s

now

man n

am

ed O

laf.

An

na i

s m

uch m

ore o

f a c

on

tem

-porary

rom

-com

h

eroin

e

than

an

Arie

l-th

e-m

erm

aid

type. S

he’s

clu

msy

, aw

kw

ard a

nd a

bit

of a d

ork

(alt

hough

she d

oes

a m

ean r

obot)

. B

ut,

refr

esh

-in

gly

, sh

e’s

no d

am

sel

in d

istr

ess

, not

even

durin

g th

e fi

lm’s

la

te scen

es

when s

he fi

nds

herse

lf i

n a

desp

erate

si

tuati

on.

Kris

ten

Bell,

who s

hot

to f

am

e a

s

the s

punky d

ete

cti

ve in V

ero

nic

a M

ars

, fe

els

lik

e t

he p

erfe

ct

pic

k t

o v

oic

e s

uch

a characte

r. A

nd she can

sin

g,

too,

alt

hough n

ot

quit

e a

s tr

ansc

endentl

y

as

Broadw

ay s

tar I

din

a M

en

zel, w

ho

voic

es

Els

a a

nd h

as

no t

rouble

hit

ting

the h

igh n

ote

s in

the s

om

eti

mes

cheesy

, alw

ays

soarin

g s

oundtr

ack. R

isin

g s

tar

Josh

Gad a

lso d

oes

mem

orable

voic

e

work

as

Ola

f, t

he b

rain

less

rube o

f a

snow

man

who’s

alw

ays

wan

ted t

o g

o

to t

he b

each.

The m

ovie

, w

hile d

azz

ling t

o look a

t,

may b

e a

lit

tle long for s

om

e s

mall c

hil-

dren. B

ut

its

surpris

ing a

nd p

oig

nant

endin

g, w

hic

h s

ubverts

so m

any f

air

y

tale

ste

reoty

pes,

feels

lik

e i

t can

cels

out

the m

ovie

’s s

mall fl

aw

s and d

rag-

gin

g m

om

en

ts.

Fro

zen m

ay b

e a

nod

to t

he p

leasu

res

of

vin

tage D

isney a

nd

old

fair

y t

ale

s, b

ut

there’s

noth

ing o

ut-

date

d a

bout

it.

WP

-Blo

om

ber

g

HO

LLY

WO

OD

NE

WS

Pri

yanka,

Dee

pik

a co

me

toget

her

for

K

offe

e w

ith

Kar

an

Priy

anka C

hopra a

nd D

eepik

a P

adukone s

hot

for K

aran J

ohar’s

talk

show

K

off

ee W

ith

Ka

ran r

ecentl

y. P

riy

anka t

weete

d a

pic

ture o

f th

e t

hree-

som

e t

ogeth

er a

nd w

rote

: “A

nd it’s

wrap o

n s

om

e f

abulo

us

Koff

ee... T

hank

you D

eepik

a P

adukone for h

avin

g m

y b

ack a

nd K

aran J

ohar for h

avin

g u

s.”

The f

ourth

seaso

n o

f th

e c

hat

show

goes

on a

ir o

n D

ecem

ber 1

on S

tar

Worl

d. S

uperst

ar S

alm

an K

han w

ill

featu

re i

n t

he o

penin

g e

pis

ode a

long

wit

h h

is fath

er S

alim

Khan. It

would

be S

alm

an’s

first

appearance o

n K

off

ee

wit

h K

ara

n s

ince it

began in 2

004.

Pra

bhudhev

a’s

dan

ce m

esm

eris

es S

RK

Prabhudheva i

s sa

id t

o h

ave g

rooved

so w

ell f

or f

orth

com

ing B

ollyw

ood

film

Ha

pp

y N

ew

Yea

r th

at

the fi

lm’s

lead

acto

r S

hah R

ukh K

han is

mesm

eris

ed b

y

the m

ult

i-fa

cete

d s

tar’s

magic

al m

oves.

“Too m

uch f

un

to s

ee P

rabhudheva

sir m

ove o

n t

he d

ance fl

oor.

Thank y

ou

for lig

hti

ng u

p H

ap

py

New

Yea

r...lo

ve a

nd

resp

ect

sir,”

Shah R

ukh, w

ho p

lays

a k

ey

role

in t

he fi

lm, post

ed o

n T

wit

ter.

Ha

pp

y N

ew

Yea

r als

o s

tars

Abhis

hek

Bach

ch

an

, B

om

an

Ir

an

i an

d D

eepik

a

Padukone. T

he fi

lm is

dir

ecte

d b

y F

arah

Khan.

Sw

ift

finds

Pri

nce

W

illi

am ‘v

ery

funny’

Sin

ger T

aylo

r S

wif

t consi

ders

her-

self

lu

cky th

at

sh

e got

to m

eet

Prin

ce W

illiam

an

d s

ays

he i

s very

fun

ny.

“He w

as very fu

nny.

I w

as

really h

appy h

e w

as

funny,

” conta

ct-

music

.com

quote

d S

wif

t as sayin

g.

Th

e 23-y

ear-o

ld sin

ger perfo

rm

ed

at

the a

nnual

Win

ter W

hit

es G

ala

at

Kensi

ngto

n P

ala

ce i

n a

id o

f youth

hom

ele

ssness

charit

y C

entr

epoin

t.W

illi

am

an

d

his

w

ife,

Duch

ess

Cath

erin

e, are t

he c

urrent

Patr

on o

f C

en

trepoin

t, t

he l

eadin

g c

harit

y i

n

Brit

ain

supporti

ng h

om

ele

ss y

oun

g

people

aged

16-25

years.

Wil

liam

att

ended t

he e

vent

solo

as

Cath

erin

e

opte

d t

o s

tay a

t hom

e t

o m

ind t

heir

fo

ur-m

onth

-old

son, P

rin

ce G

eorge.

The 3

3-y

ear-o

ld r

oyal jo

ined S

wif

t on s

tage f

or a

n im

prom

ptu

perfo

rm

-ance w

ith J

on B

on J

ovi at

the e

vent.

Upon a

rriv

ing a

t th

e g

ala

, S

wif

t sa

id: “I

am

abso

lute

ly e

xcit

ed. I

don’t

thin

k I

have e

ver p

layed a

t a p

ala

ce b

efo

re s

o it

is r

eally w

onderfu

l. I

t’s

really w

ondrous,

I t

hin

k t

hey h

ave d

one a

n a

mazi

ng

job o

f putt

ing t

his

togeth

er.”

The c

harit

y o

rganis

ati

on p

rovid

es

a r

ange o

f accom

modati

on a

nd a

ddit

ional su

pport

in h

ealt

h, educati

on a

nd lif

e s

kills

.

Rob

bie

wor

ries

abou

t dau

ghte

r in

son

g

Brit

ish s

inger R

obbie

William

s, w

hose

daughte

r insp

ires

his

lif

e g

reatl

y,

says

his

late

st s

ingle

Go G

en

tle t

alk

s about

his

worrie

s fo

r h

is c

hild.

His

daughte

r T

heodora R

ose

is

one-y

ear-o

ld a

nd s

he i

s aff

ecti

onate

ly

know

n a

s T

eddy. T

his

is

his

first

child w

ith w

ife a

nd a

ctr

ess

Ayda F

ield

, reports

conta

ctm

usi

c.c

om

.D

urin

g a

n i

nte

rvie

w w

ith b

iographer a

nd j

ourn

alist

Chris

Heath

on

F

acebook,

he s

aid

: “(

The t

rack i

s about

bein

g)

worrie

d s

he m

ight

meet

som

eone lik

e m

e —

and w

hat

she s

hould

do if

she d

oes.

”“M

y d

aughte

r i

nsp

ires

my l

ife g

reatl

y. T

here u

sed t

o b

e a

huge h

ole

in

my l

ife t

hat

I w

rote

many a

lbum

s about.

I d

idn’t

realise

it

was

a w

ife a

nd

daughte

r s

haped h

ole

, th

ey h

ave p

lugged t

hat

gap.”

“Everyth

ing I

do,

I do f

or t

hem

now

. W

hen

daddy g

oes

to w

ork,

it’s

daddy g

oin

g t

o w

ork

, not

Rob g

oin

g t

o w

ork

. I

feel

like t

here’s

a p

urpose

to

everyth

ing.”

Wit

h h

is 4

0th

bir

thday just

around t

he c

orner,

William

s sa

ys

he’s

enjo

y-

ing lif

e a

nd h

as

no p

lans

to r

eti

re.

“I w

ant

to j

ust

go f

or a

s lo

ng a

s I

can a

nd b

e a

s rele

vant

as

I can a

nd

try a

nd m

ake r

ecords

that

touch p

eople

’s h

earts

and b

ecom

e t

he f

abric

s of

their

liv

es.

That’s

my g

oal,”

he s

aid

.

PLU

S |

TH

UR

SD

AY

28

NO

VE

MB

ER

2013

Froz

en: D

isne

y m

akes

old

-sch

ool c

ool

By

Ca

rlo

s R

ua

no

an

d D

an

iel R

uiz

Th

ey

have

recorded

in

Am

eric

a a

nd frontm

an A

lex

Turner liv

es in L

os A

ngele

s

and a

ffects

an E

lvis

look in

their

late

st

sta

ge s

how

, but

the A

rcti

c

Monkeys r

em

ain

a B

rit

ish r

ock-a

nd-

roll p

henom

enon.

Non

e o

f th

e f

our m

em

bers —

all

from

Sheffi

eld

in n

orth

ern E

ngla

nd

is even

30,

but they alr

eady have

five a

lbum

s u

nder t

heir

belt

s a

fter

surfin

g an

In

tern

et-built fa

n base

to s

tardom

— o

ne o

f th

e fi

rst

rock

groups t

o d

o s

o.

On s

tage o

n t

heir

current

tour t

o p

ro-

mote

new

alb

um

“A

M”,

Turner s

ports

an

Elv

is P

resl

ey-s

tyle

pom

padour a

nd

sw

ivels

h

is h

ips.

Fam

ed fo

r vocals

in

flecte

d w

ith a

York

shir

e a

ccent,

his

sp

oken v

oic

e is

these

days

overl

aid

by

a C

alifo

rnia

draw

l.W

hile o

ther r

ock g

roups

of

their

gen

erati

on

h

ave m

orph

ed in

to m

ore

ele

ctr

on

ic o

r s

yn

thesi

zed s

oun

d -

fol-

low

ing t

he d

an

ce-fl

oor t

ren

ds o

f th

e

day -

the A

rcti

c M

onkeys

have g

one t

he

oth

er w

ay,

wit

h m

ore d

isto

rte

d g

uit

ar,

pow

erfu

l bass

lin

es

and M

att

Held

ers’

s si

gnatu

re p

ercuss

ion.

They h

ave c

onso

lidate

d t

heir

form

ula

on t

heir

late

st a

lbum

— w

hic

h r

anges

from

ballads

to p

sychedelic t

hem

es

—

and r

etu

rned t

o t

he t

op o

f th

e B

rit

ish

charts

.T

urner a

nd H

eld

ers

spoke in M

adrid

befo

re a sh

ow

at

the P

ala

cio

de lo

s

Deporte

s arena n

ear t

he b

egin

nin

g o

f a w

orl

d t

our t

hat

will la

st u

nti

l th

e m

id-

dle

of

next

year.

How

did

you e

scape f

rom

th

e

syn

th-f

ever w

e h

ad a

few

years

ago? Turn

er:

Oh, sy

nth

-epid

em

ic. I

did

n’t

know

it

was

goin

g o

n a

ctu

ally. W

e just

keep t

akin

g t

he t

able

ts, I

suppose

, drin

k

ple

nty

of

wate

r... I

t se

em

s like w

hen a

guit

ar b

and g

et

the s

ynth

s, i

t’s

like i

t’s

not

enough. T

hat’s

not

som

eth

ing t

hat

was

ever o

n o

ur a

gen

da.

But

I’m

not

goin

g t

o r

ule

it

out,

I’v

e g

ot

noth

ing

again

st.

You s

eem

to h

ave

str

uck

a b

ala

nce

bet

wee

n m

usi

cal

indep

enden

ce a

nd

com

mer

cial

succ

ess.

Does

it

have

so

met

hin

g to

do

wit

h b

eing

on a

mid

-si

zed l

abel

?T

urn

er:

Perhaps

it h

as

som

eth

ing

to d

o w

ith t

hat.

Lauren

ce B

ell,

from

D

om

ino,

who o

wn

s th

e c

om

pany,

was

who c

am

e t

o s

ign u

s in

the fi

rst

pla

ce.

He a

llow

ed u

s to

try d

iffe

ren

t th

ings

an

d .

.. I

thin

k w

ork

ing w

ith h

im h

elp

us

to a

chie

ve t

hat

bala

nce y

ou a

re t

alk

-in

g a

bout.

But

you f

eel

abso

lute

ly f

ree?

Turn

er:

I suppose creati

vely

, yes.

I m

ean

, I

will

ask

for h

is o

pin

ion

, it

’s

welc

om

e.

It’s

not

a s

ituati

on

lik

e y

ou

hear a

bout

wit

h a

label guy in t

he s

tudio

sa

yin

g, “I

was

lookin

g f

or t

his

or t

hat.”

You s

eem

to h

ave

a l

ot

of

resp

ect

for

your

old

songs

. H

ow

do y

ou f

eel

today

when

you’r

e pla

yin

g “

Ted

dy

Pic

ker

” or

“Danci

ng

Shoes

”?

Turn

er:

Som

e a

re m

ore e

njo

yable

th

at

oth

ers.

Som

eti

mes

it’s

tough t

o g

et

through o

ne o

f th

e o

ld o

nes

... Y

ou k

now

, you d

on’t

feel like t

hat

anym

ore. W

hen

you t

ell t

he s

am

e j

oke 6

00 t

imes,

you

won’t

hear w

hat

it is

anym

ore, but

then

som

eti

mes

like t

he 6

01s

t ti

me y

ou m

ight

see s

om

eth

ing in it

you d

idn’t

befo

re.

Do

you t

hin

k p

layi

ng

in A

mer

ica is

the

gate

way

to inte

rnati

onal su

cces

s?T

urn

er:

I don

’t k

now

because I

thin

k w

e’r

e k

ind o

f rela

tively

success

-fu

l in

tern

ati

on

ally,

you k

now

, to

nig

ht

we’r

e p

layin

g in t

his

huge p

lace a

nd t

he

sam

e t

om

orrow

.

You w

ent

to r

ecord

som

e of

your

alb

um

s in

the

Sta

tes?

Turn

er:

Orig

inally it

was

just

gett

ing

us

far a

way f

rom

this

kin

d o

f com

fort-

able

envir

on

men

t or w

hate

ver i

t w

as,

so

me v

ersi

on o

f ‘h

om

e’. T

he fi

rst

we d

id

over t

here w

as

the t

hir

d a

lbum

and a

t th

at

poin

t w

e r

eally w

ante

d t

o t

ear u

p

the r

ule

book a

nd w

ork

wit

h n

ew

people

. S

o w

e w

ent

to (

Queens

of th

e S

tone A

ge

frontm

an)

Josh

Hom

me’s

stu

dio

in t

he

dese

rt

and m

ade t

hat

“Hum

bug”

record

and t

hat

was

a m

ass

ive t

urnin

g p

oin

t fo

r t

he g

roup. I

thin

k w

e n

eeded t

o g

o

there a

nd f

resh

en u

p o

ur i

deas.

It

was

like if th

is b

and is

goin

g t

o c

onti

nue y

ou

need t

o m

ove f

orw

ard.

How

many

new

guit

ar

ped

als

and

stuff

did

Josh

ua s

how

you?

Hel

der

s: A

lot

of

machin

es,

a l

ot

of

pedals

. F

rom

what

I sa

w t

here w

as

a

lot

there.

Turn

er:

On t

he r

ecord w

e u

sed a

lot

from

his

collecti

on

. H

e h

as

got

som

e

tric

ks,

yeah.

I th

ink w

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adio

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Both

: S

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inute

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e A

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11FITNESS / HEALTH PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013

By Sydney Trent

If you’re going to start standing up at your desk at work, don’t kid yourself: You’re going to attract attention. Fortunately, I have my co-worker Monica.

When we started this little experiment six months ago, we found ourselves fielding lots of questions.”Why are you standing?” some pass-ing writer or editor would stop and ask us, as we stood like sentries along one of the main newsroom thoroughfares.

“Because we don’t want to die!” Monica would answer dramatically. What did I need to add after that?

The truth is, I wasn’t worried about dying when I began conniving to get a stand-up desk. Instead, I might label it fear of the blahs.

Over the years, I had concluded that sitting all day made me sluggish, less focused. On top of that, my neck and shoulders were routinely tight, and sometimes the pain interfered with my sleep. A company nurse adjusted my workstation more than once, but inevitably I’d begin unconsciously shifting myself out of correct posture the deeper I sank into my editing zone. I was vaguely aware of the trend toward standing in the workplace, but at the time The Post didn’t offer the option.

Yet the more I read about the benefits of stand-ing at work — a lower risk of obesity, cancer and death and as well as a boost in mood and alertness — the more I wanted a stand-up desk. I learned that even regular exercise might not protect me from the damaging effects of sitting too much. To top it off, someone my weight could burn about 310 more calories a day just by standing at work.

I called the company nurse again and asked whether there was any way I could finagle a stand-up desk. It turned out none were available. But eventually, she came to visit me at my sitting desk. She raised the (helpfully, motorised) desk to its height limit and measured away. In barely a week’s time, she returned with custom-made wooden boxes, painted black, to raise my keyboard and mouse pads so I could type in the ergonomically correct position when standing. To sit, I’d have to motor the desk down about four or five inches, remove the box under the keyboard and tilt the monitor screens down slightly.

Finally, I stood at my jury-rigged desk for the first time, excited to see what difference it made, but not without some trepidation. How long, I asked myself, would I be able to hack standing up?

The answer, as it turned out, was “Not so long.” I sacrificed my love of high-heeled boots, but even in my sensible heels and with short periods of sit-ting at meetings or strolling to lunch or to chat at a reporters’ desk, my feet began to ache before the day was half over. The newsroom floor of thin carpet over concrete was just too hard. I considered keeping more-cushioned shoes in my file cabinet to get me through the afternoon, but vanity got in the way. By around 2, after about 3 1/2 to four hours of standing, I plopped into my chair for the rest of the day. (Warning: If you are among the first to stand in a sitting office, your co-workers may think you are breaking the rules if you sit. Our office manager even jokingly threatened to remove my chair.)

I was determined not to surrender, and after a few weeks I noticed I did feel more energised. Standing up, it seemed, was priming my brain for action even if it was killing my feet. I went on Amazon, ordered a mat filled with soft gel — of the sort you use for standing to wash dishes — and pretty soon I could go till about 5pm without sitting.

But that’s just when things get really busy in a newsroom. So I’d let myself sit, motoring down my desk, removing the keyboard box and adjusting the screens. It truly was a lot of work to sit now. Eventually, I brought an adjustable plastic stool from home, pulling it out from under my desk when sitting time arrived. I used my cushy old desk chair when I needed to eat lunch at my desk. I avoided wearing my favourite high-heeled boots in the winter.

When the weather was warm, I would sometimes kick off my shoes and stand barefoot on my gel mat; it felt so good, it might have been sand on the beach. In fact, I was enjoying standing at work so much that even when I worked from home, I found myself yearning for a stand-up desk.

Monica had maintained her stand-up practice, too, and on the occasions we’d be standing together, we’d joke to passersby that we were protecting the men sitting around us. Every now and then, some unschooled colleague would ask why we were stand-ing, and I’d defer. “Because we don’t want to d-i-i-e-e!” Monica would proclaim, and everyone would laugh. Unlike me, though, Monica allowed herself to sit more, especially on days when she was flaunting her stylish high-heeled boots.

And then about six weeks ago, I began to feel a fleeting numbness in the toes of my right foot. My lower calf felt alternatingly pricked and uncom-fortably warm. As I did a Web search for possi-ble causes, my imagination took flight. Did I have deep vein thrombosis? Multiple sclerosis? A tumour pressing on my spine?

I made an appointment with my doctor. He checked the blood pressure in my ankle and my upper arm. It was roughly equal, meaning periph-eral arterial disease was unlikely. He asked a bunch of questions about my personal and family health history. Then, still hunched on his stool, he looked me in the eye.

Do you feel fatigued? Not at all.Any shortness of breath? Nope.The questions continued.The doctor’s conclusion: I was standing too

much at work. Those uncomfortable sensations were probably a result of hyperextending my knee, which could put too much pressure on the fibular nerve, a branch of the sciatic nerve, which starts behind the knee and runs alongside the fibula, or calf bone. Ironically, this can also occur when you cross your legs a lot while sitting.

As it turns out, you must check your posture constantly and move around, whether you sit or stand at work, because standing all day can be as bad as prolonged sitting. A 2005 longitudinal study in Denmark found that the incidence of hospitalisa-tions due to varicose veins was higher among those who stand or walk at least 75 percent of their time at work. The risk of hardening of the arteries was dramatically greater as well, according to a 2000 study conducted by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.

Of course, nurses and factory workers have known this for some time, but it seems to be largely forgotten in the stand-up-desk trend.

So this is a messy ending. I can’t urge you simply to “Stand and stave off premature death!” I can’t tell you you’ll most definitely feel great if you do. If you sit all day, you might even feel vindicated.

As for me, my doctor’s diagnosis of my leg pains did not prompt me to dismantle my stand-up desk. Now I follow my body’s cues. When I begin to feel lethargic or my neck or shoulders bother me, I shift

to standing, and almost immediately my muscles relax and I feel more energised. If my legs or feet later begin to ache, I’ll take the experts’ advice and elevate one foot or plop into my chair. And I try to move a lot more in general — doing shoulder rolls, shaking out my limbs, walking to chat instead of e-mailing, or visiting the water fountain down the hall.

And like my fellow sentry Monica, when I want to wear high-heeled boots, I’ll sit most of the day if I feel like it — guilt-free.

WP-Bloomberg

A stand-up desk has perils

TECHNOLOGYPLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 201312

By Irene Klotz

The entry of Space Exploration Technologies into the business of launching commer-cial satellites was delayed on Monday by technical glitch that sidelined the firm’s

Falcon 9 rocket.Launch of the rocket, which will carry a $100m

communications satellite owned by Luxembourg-based SES SA , was rescheduled for no earlier than Thursday, Falcon 9 product manager John Insprucker said in a launch webcast.

Previous SES satellites were launched primarily aboard Russian Proton and European Ariane rock-ets, which cost far more than the approximately $55m the company is paying for its ride on SpaceX’s Falcon booster, Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of SES, told reporters on Sunday in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

He would not say exactly how much SpaceX undercut the competition but did note that SES received a bit of a discount by agreeing to fly on Falcon 9’s first mission to the high altitudes that communication satellites require.

The rocket had been slated to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:37 p.m. EST (2237 GMT) on Monday, but delays, including a problem that cropped up less than four minutes before a final attempt to lift off, caused the mission to miss its 66-minute launch window. That prompted offi-cials to call off the launch attempt.

SpaceX has successfully flown its Falcon 9 rocket six times previously, including on September 29, when it test-launched an upgraded Falcon 9, the model that was slated for launch on Monday.

Three SpaceX rockets carried cargo capsules for Nasa to the International Space Station, a $100bn research complex that flies about 250 miles (about 400km) above Earth. The first two Falcon 9 mission were test flights.

The company needs three successful launches of its upgraded Falcon rocket before it will be eligible to compete to carry the US military’s largest and most expensive satellites, a market now monopo-lized by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Privately held SpaceX is aiming for a much higher altitude with the SES launch, its first stab at breaking into a global satellite industry worth nearly $190bn a year.

The satellite, known as SES-8, is expected to be positioned in an elliptical orbit that reaches more than 50,000 miles (80,000 km) from Earth, about a quarter of the way to the moon.

That altitude requires less fuel for SES-8 to fly itself into its 22,369-mile (36,000-km) high opera-tional orbit, thereby extending its service life.

SES has options for three more Falcon flights, including one on the firm’s heavy-lift rocket that is under development and expected to debut next year.

SpaceX’s launch manifest includes nearly 50 other launches, worth about $4 billion. About 75 percent of the flights are for commercial customers.

“Our prices are the most competitive of any in the world,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive. “We will force other rocket com-panies to either develop new technology that’s a lot better or they have to exit the launch market.”

SES’s Halliwell said SpaceX competitors were “shaking in their shoes.”

“There are a lot of people who hope that SpaceX is going to fail,” he said. “This is really rocking the industry.”

The global satellite industry had revenues of nearly $190bn in 2012, including nearly $90bn from television services alone, the Satellite Industry Association trade group reported in October. The US share of the market is 45 percent, the report said.

Reuters

By Natasha Baker

Home owners worried about security while they are at work or on vacation have a range of new smartphone apps

to help them remotely monitor their property and to notify them if there is a problem.

In the United States in 2012 there were more than 2 million burglaries, or about one every 15 seconds, according to government crime figures.

Large established companies and startups are offering apps that con-nect remotely to monitoring systems to help consumers keep their homes and property secure.

Viper Connect, for iPhone and Android, is an app that monitors homes and cars. The company supplies a do-it-yourself security system with motion sensors and video cameras, which can be placed around the home, and watched remotely.

“Traditionally unless a home had already been wired for security and automation, it was difficult and expen-sive for people to get the advantage of home security,” said James Turner, vice president of product development at Viper, which is owned by Directed Electronics, in Vista, California,

Thanks to wireless devices and

mobile apps that can control them, it is much easier, he said.

With the Viper Connect app home-owners can turn the security on or off remotely. If there is any motion in the home it sends a notification to the users. For an extra fee, real-time video feeds from cameras placed around the home can also be viewed.

The app can monitor up to 64 devices, including sirens, sensors and as many as eight cameras.

“Normally, when you’re a consider-ing home security system, you tend to think where are the areas in my home susceptible to break-in,” Turner said.

The starter kit, which includes two sensors, costs $229.99. Additional accessories are also available to con-trol lighting, thermostats and garage doors. The app is free but premium services, such as access to video feeds, costs $9.99 each month.

For $199, iSmart Alarm, connects to a similar system and lets users monitor their system without signing on for a monthly plan. The Oplink app, which costs $149, requires a monthly package that starts at $9.99.

AT&T also has a security app, AT&T Digital Life, for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone. Its basic package starts at $29.99 a month plus a $149.99 fee for equipment and installation. Users can monitor their

homes and remotely unlock doors to let someone in.

Most security systems will notify the homeowners, while others like AT&T Digital Life will call the police if there is a break-in.

Smartphone owners looking for a cheaper solution can turn to apps

such as Presence, a free app that lets users turn an old iOS device into a security camera that can be viewed remotely.

“It’s an emerging market and I think it will catch on rapidly in the next two to five years,” Turner said about secu-rity apps. Reuters

Apps give homeowners smart-home security

SpaceX delaysfirst commercial satellite launch

COMICS & MORE 13

Hoy en la HistoriaNovember 28, 2008

1582: English playwright and poet William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. He was 18, she at least 261943: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin held their first summit, in Tehran, to discuss the progress of WWII1994: A referendum in Norway rejected membership of the European Union2002: Twin Al Qaeda attacks in Kenya killed 15 people at an Israeli- owned hotel, and almost downed an Israeli jet at Mombasa Airport

Rajo Devi Lohan, aged 70, from India, became the world’s oldest first-time mother after giving birth to a baby daughter following IVF fertility treatment

Picture: Associated Press © GRAPHIC NEWS

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

BEFOG, BLOCK, BROWSE, BURY, CAMOUFLAGE, CONCEAL,DISGUISE, DREDGE, ENCLOSE, ENFOLD, ENQUIRE, ENSHROUD, ENVELOP, EXAMINE, EXPLORE, GATHER, HIDE, HUNT, INVESTIGATE, LOOK, OBFUSCATE, OBLITERATE, OBSCURE, PROBE, PURSUE, QUEST, SCAN, SCOUR, SEARCH, SECRETE, SEEK, SHIELD, STRIVE, SURF, VEIL, WRAP..

LEARN ARABIC

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

Zits by Dennis Young and Denis Lebrun

Hagar The Horrible by Chris Browne

With the Clothes Broadsuits Salesman

Towel Minšafa

Swimming suit Mayyo

Girdle Mišadd

Wool �oof

Silk �areer

Linen Kattan

How much is one meter? Ma �aman almitr alwa�id?

Give me three meters of this cloth

Aç�inee �ala� amtar min ha�a alnnawç

Where is the �nal price of this thing?

Ma houwa ssiçrou al'aeer liha�a alara�?

Note: ç = ‘a’ in ‘ag

PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013

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 Rainbow event

10 Given orally, at law

15 Maureen of “Tarzan the Ape Man”

16 Russian princess who was Nicholas II’s only niece

17 One of a chain owned by Wyndham

18 Platte River natives

19 “Unfaithful” Oscar nominee

20 See 26-Across

21 “Come on down!” announcer

22 Ode title opener

23 Receipt to redeem a credit

24 Place of imprisonment in book and film

26 With 20-Across, Conan’s domain

27 Worried about, in slang

32 What repeats in solemn hymns but isn’t in hymnals?

34 One who snaps

35 First-ever

36 “Indeed, mate”

38 Shaking

39 Pianist Gilels

40 Prepare for a long drive

42 Falls off

44 Maxwell rival

45 “The strain seemed doubly dear, / Yet ___ sweet”: Wordsworth

50 Butler who played Grace Kelly

51 Setting for the swing set?

53 Thor’s group

54 She told Willy Wonka “Loompaland? There’s no such place”

55 Signs of spring

56 Clear thinker’s asset

57 American tribe that lent its name to a state

58 Non-profit concerns?

DOWN

1 Monkey launched into space in 1958

2 Repeated cry from Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet”

3 Arizona natives

4 City whose name is Spanish for “flat”

5 Mayflower man

6 100 fils

7 Winged it?

8 Activia maker

9 Standard sudoku groupings, e.g.

10 No-spin particles

11 It includes the extradition clause

12 It’s between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo

13 Performance with nearly perfect pitch?

14 What a broke person is down to

24 Feeling no physical attraction?

25 Prepare to fire into the sky

27 Kind of earring requiring twisting

28 1919–33, in German history

29 Pre-takeoff command

30 One side in the Bay Bridge Series rivalry

31 Southeast Asian observance

33 Medieval love poem

37 Mae West reputedly said this “is good to find”

38 Military hut

41 Aspartame developer

43 Tiny groove

45 Ensure

46 Sounds that make frogs disappear?

47 “Jezebel” star

48 Coeur d’___

49 They go down when it’s cold

52 ___-C

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

S C O T P E C K S S O BT H R E E F O R O N E A R IR A I N B O W R O O M D O GI R O N A G E T I S S U EA L L E Y R U S S C O R AT I E R P O R E O I N K SE E S D O U B L E B O G E Y

M O R T A L S I NS T R U C K A N O T E C M DC H E S S G I N S C A A NY E T I S E V E S O R T AT R I C K Y S I T S O U TH A N I N T H E F U T U R EE P A S T E A L S B A S E SD Y E S H E L F R E S T

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.


CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

12:30 Boxing; Froch V

Groves

13:30 J Leaue

Highlights

14:00 Omni Sport

14:30 Juventus Channel

15:30 Futball Mundial

16:00 Uefa

Champions’

League; Psg V

Olympiakos

18:00 Uefa Europa

League: Shaktar

V Paok

20:00 Transworld

Sport

21:00 Uefa Europa

League:

Trabzonspor V

Apollon

23:00 Uefa Europa

League: Odessa

V Dinamo

Zagreb

08:00 News

09:00 Al Jazeera

Correspondent

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:30 People &

Power

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Witness

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:30 The Stream

18:00 NEWSHOUR

19:00 News

19:30 Soapbox

Mexico

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Al Jazeera

Correspondent

14:00 Uefa Champions

League; Bayer

Leverkusen V

Manchester

United

17:30 English Premier

League World


League Profile:

Tottenham


League Football

20:30 Uefa Europa

League: Tromso

V Tottenham

And Swansea V

Valencia

13:00 Do Dil Bandhe

Ek Dori Se

13:30 Ek Mutthi

Aasmaan

16:00 Khelti Hai Zindagi

Aankh Micholi

17:30 Pavitra Rishta

19:00 Do Dil Bandhe

Ek Dori Se

20:30 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

22:30 Silver Screen

(Peepli Live)

13:00 A.N.T. Farm

15:00 That's So Raven

15:25 Gravity Falls

20:50 Good Luck

Charlie

21:15 Gravity Falls

21:40 Shake It Up

22:00 Austin And Ally

22:50 Good Luck

Charlie

23:10 Wizards Of

Waverly Place

10:00 Mr. Destiny

12:00 Who Framed

Roger Rabbit

14:00 Elf

16:00 Mr. Destiny

18:00 Celtic Pride

20:00 High School

22:00 Under New

Management

13:15 Mythbusters

14:05 Border Security

14:30 Storage

Hunters

17:00 Ultimate

Survival

18:40 Mythbusters

19:30 American Guns

20:45 Property Wars

21:10 How Do They

Do It?

21:35 How It's Made

22:00 Sons Of Guns

22:50 Amish Mafia

23:40 Inside The

Gangsters'

Code

13:20 Call Of The

Wildman

14:45 Biggest And

Baddest

16:30 My Cat From Hell

17:30 Most Extreme

19:20 Growing Up...

21:10 North America

22:35 Cheetah

Kingdom

23:00 Swimming

With Monsters:

Steve

11:00 Five

13:00 Stealing

Paradise

15:00 The Odd Life

Of Timothy

Green

16:45 The Big Year

18:30 Skyfall

21:00 Warm Bodies

23:00 Hansel &

Gretel: Witch

Hunters

13:00 Flushed Away

16:00 The Apple &

The Worm

18:00 American Girl:

McKenna Shoots

For The Stars

20:00 Dr. Seuss' The

Lorax

22:00 Krazzy Planet

INNOVATIONS

LIVE SHOWS Airing Time Programme Briefs

SPIRITUAL HOUR

6:00 - 7:00 AM A time of reflection, a deeper understanding of the teachings of Islam.

RISE 7:00 – 9:00 AM A LIVE 2-hour morning show hosted by Scott Boyes. It focuses on a wide array of topics from Weather, News, Health tips, Sports News and interactive bits with the callers.

INTERNATIO-NAL NEWS

1:00 PM The latest news and events from around the world.

DRIVE 3:00 – 4:00 PM A daily afternoon show broadcast at peak travel time. Nabil discusses upcoming events in Doha with Khalifa Haroon from I Love Qatar.

THINK ABOUT IT

6:00 – 6:30 PM Is a show about ‘Spoken Word.’ The audience is introduced to a new artistic piece. Created by our very own Nabil Al Nashar.

DECADES 6:30 – 7:00 PM A journey through time. The show reminisces at the music, the inventions, and the events that ensued during that era and defined modern history. Hosted by Ms. Laura Finnerty and Scotty Boyes.

Repeat Shows

LEGENDARY ARTISTS

10:00 – 11:00 AM The show tells the story of a celebrity artist that has reached unprecedented fame. Throughout the episode, the artists’ memorable performances/songs will be played to put listeners in the mood.

INNOVATIONS 7:00 – 8:00 PM Innovations, a weekly show hosted and produced by Scott Boyes. The show talks about all the newest and exciting advancements in the world of science and technology.

MALL

1

Ongbak 3 (2D/Action) – 2.30pm

Geethaanjali (2D/Malayalam) – 4.30pm

Bullet Raja (2D/Hindi) – 7.15pm

Parkland (2D/Mystery) – 9.45pm

The Frozen Ground (2D/Crime) – 11.30pm

2Wadjda (2D/Arabic) – 3.00 & 7.00pm

Carrie (2D/Horror) – 5.00, 9.15 & 11.15pm

3

Delivery Man (2D/Comedy) – 2.30, 8.30 & 11.00pm



LANDMARK

1


Naveena Saraswathi (2D/Tamil) – 5.15pm



2Wadjda (2D/Arabic) – 2.30 & 4.30pm

Carrie (2D/Horror) – 6.30, 8.30 & 11.00pm

3




ROYAL

PLAZA

1


Naveena Saraswathi (2D/Tamil) – 4.30pm


Carrie (2D/Horror) – 9.45pm


2

Wadjda (2D/Arabic) – 2.30 & 4.30pm

Carrie (2D/Horror) – 6.30 & 11.00pm


3





PLUS | THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2013 POTPOURRI16

Editor-In-Chief Khalid Al Sayed Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

IN FOCUS

Fath Al Kheir sailing off on a 27-day voyage across the GCC.

by Cheryl Dolan

Send your photos to [email protected]. Mention where the photo was taken.

MEDIA SCAN A summary ofissues of the daydiscussed by the Qatari communityin the media.

Dr Khalid Kamal Naji, Associate Vice President for Administration (Facilities & Information Technology)

H e did his BSc in Civil Engineering from Qatar University and MSc in Civil Engineering from University of Texas-

Austin. He completed PhD in Civil Engineering from University of Florida. He had worked as Chairman of Civil Engineering, Assistant Director, Office of Institutional Planning & Development, Director, Office of the Executive Management Committee. He is the President of the PMI- Arabian Gulf Chapter Branch in Qatar since 2009. He was the founder and CEO of Al Alameia Engineering Consultants (2000-2005). He is a Remote Controlled Radio Jet Models Flying enthusiast. He won first prize in Gulf Model RC Air Racing in 2002.

Who’s who

• Some people have demanded that the

Supreme Education Council lay down

rules and impose restrictions on fee hikes

by private schools. Terms and conditions for

increasing tuition and other fees should be

very clear and adhered to.

• Some citizens and members of the Central

Municipal Council have urged the health

authorities to equip all medical facilities in

the country to treat coronavirus infections

and other communicable diseases. So far

eight cases of coronavirus infection have

been detected in the country and three of

the patients have died.

• The traffic department has been urged to

include behavioural tests in driving tests

to assess drivers’ reaction to difficult

situations, similar to such tests in Europe.

This is needed as some drivers now

routinely misbehave and do not follow the

ethical rules of driving.

• Some people have demanded that

the authorities ban a children’s game

available in the local market that poses

a risk to their health. The game involves

small magnetic balls that are used to

create different shapes, but the children

can swallow the balls, which can cause

suffocation and stomach problems, as

reported by a specialist at Hamad Medical

Corporation.

• Managers of manpower recruiting agencies

have complained about procedures at the

Indonesian embassy in Doha, saying they are

pushing up the cost of recruiting housemaids,

because of which many agencies are closing,

while others are exploiting the situation and

increasing their fees.

• Some citizens have demanded that the

authorities transport food subsidised by the

government in covered trucks to protect it

from the vagaries of the weather.

• There is discussion in the social media

about studies that found that 30 to 40

percent of divorces in Qatar are related to

financial matters.

If you want your events featured here, mail details to [email protected]

Jack and the BeanstalkWhen: Nov 28 - 7pm; Nov 29 - 2.30pm & 7pm; Nov 30 - 2.30pmWhere: Qatar National Theatre

What: Doha Players are bringing the magic of the traditional pantomime with lots of laughter and especially written for the audiences of Qatar. There will be lot of audience participation. Tickets: QR75 (adults and children). Available at the restaurant of THE One in Landmark Mall and from THE One in Villaggio.

Relics — Damien HirstWhen: Until Jan 22; Sun-Wed: 10:30am–5:30pm. Tuesday ClosedThur-Sat: 12pm–8pm, Fri: 2pm–8pmWhere: Al Riwaq Exhibition Space What: The most comprehensive survey of Damien Hirst’s work ever shown and his first solo exhibition in the Middle East. Free Entry

L’âge d’or — exhibitionby Adel AbdessemedWhen: Till January 5Where: Atrium and ground floor of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art What: Curated by Pier Luigi Tazzi, the exhibition will showcase recent works, including drawings, paintings, sculptures and videos, many created by Adel Abdessemed.Entry: Free, open to all

Ajyal Youth Film Festival When: Nov 26 - Nov 30; 4pm-10pm Where: Doha Film Institute What: The first Ajyal Youth Film Festival builds on DFI’s history of community-based programming. Ajyal continues to foster film appreciation among hundreds of young jurors and enhances film education by engaging families and educators through cinema.Free Entry

Omar Khalifa – “Infinite”When: Until Dec 15; 10am-10pmWhere: Katara Cultural Village What: This outdoor installation examines ‘the nature of being’. Using digital multiple exposure techniques, an image is crafted that gives a of other-worldliness and depth of perspective through the human form. Free Entry

Art Gallery by Morilza RamosWhen: Till December 1; 10am-10pm Where: Katara Gallery 1 - Bldg 18 What: This collection presented by G-Interiors, brings the original works of Brazilian artist Morilza Ramos to Qatar, where her authentic and gracefully painted panels will be presented for the first time in Doha. Inspired by contemporary and classical themes, Ramos creates artwork that simply adds a touch of value to any environment. Free Entry

Events in Qatar

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