THURSDAY 2 MAY 2013 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 CAMPUS MARKETPLACE HEALTH WHEELS TECHNOLOGY LEARN ARABIC P | 4 P | 6 P | 7 P | 11 P | 12 P | 13 • Lankan School takes part in SEC exhibition • Nutritious Food Day at SIS • Fauchon launches collection of premium flavoured teas in Qatar • See-through brains promise to clear up mental mysteries • Ready to ride . . . with only one wheel • Google Now: Evolution of search goes live for iOS • Learn commonly used Arabic words and their meanings inside The goal of the Doha Baroque Ensemble is both to recreate the period style and give lively performances of baroque music. A minute with: Anurag Kashyap on Bombay Talkies P | 8-9 period s lively pe of baroq Fusion of Fusion of baroque and baroque and Arab music Arab music
• Fauchon launchescollection of premium flavoured teas in Qatar
• See-through brainspromise to clear upmental mysteries
• Ready toride . . . withonly one wheel
• Google Now:Evolution of searchgoes live for iOS
• Learn commonlyused Arabic wordsand their meanings
inside
The goal of the Doha Baroque Ensemble is both to recreate the period style and give lively performancesof baroque music.
A minute with: Anurag Kashyap on Bombay Talkies
P | 8-9
period slively peof baroqFusion of Fusion of
baroque and baroque and Arab musicArab music
2 COVER STORYPLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 2013
By Isabel Ovalle
The Doha Baroque Ensemble, founded in 2011, gives an extra dimension to baroque pieces by
introducing Arab influences. The professional musicians who are part of this group are specialists in putting on period performances and playing on old instruments.
The goal of the Ensemble is both to recreate the period style and give lively performances of baroque music and to cre-ate a dialogue between oriental and occidental cultures. The Ensemble has held about ten concerts so far.
Three members of the Ensemble are German, with the other three hailing from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Egypt. The Ensemble is unique in its use of the ‘kanoun’, a tra-ditional Arab instrument, in its baroque repertoire.
Ines Wein, a German vio-linist, said she met Katrin Meingast, who plays the viola and is also from Germany, at a concert. Soon after, they found another violin player who also was interested in baroque music. Later, the others joined and the ensemble now has six regular members.
“We try to reconstruct the way of playing of the baroque times using antique instruments,” said Wein. A year ago, the ensemble began walking a new path, that of mixing baroque and Arab music.
“One of our basic ideas is to always use the instruments we have access too, like the Arab ones,” added the musician.
The violinist said that, sur-prisingly, the Arab way of playing and the historical way of playing baroque music were somewhat similar. “The fusion was very dif-ficult at first. First there’s a mel-ody and later you have to think a lot about ornamentation. It’s
about the good taste of a good musician,” she explained.
Meingast, the viola player, said currently there was a strong trend in Europe of playing his-torical instruments.
“It’s very common to find baroque ensembles that play the lute and percussion. In future we want to add more Arab instru-ments,” she added, noting that in some performances they were accompanied by a choir, namely, the Back choir.
Ines, the violinist, thinks peo-ple here are ready for this kind of music, “but they just don’t know about it,” she admitted.
However, many pieces of baroque music are very well known, but Europeans usually play for European or American audiences.
“That’s not what we want, we want to play for a wider audience and we have found some Arab people who are aware and they want to listen to something new,” said the musician.
A dialogue between A dialogue between Orient and OccidentOrient and Occident
3
Wein explained that baroque music had a lot of energy and it was not difficult to understand. In baroque times the music was composed at the court for the entertainment of the king and others in the court, where it was usually played as background music. “We don’t want to be only background music, we want the people listening to us,” said the violinist.
The ensemble faces the challenge of finding composers other than the well-known ones like Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Händel and Georg Philipp Telemann. Nevertheless, they also play some little known but great pieces by Maurizio Cazzati, Marco Uccellini, Tarquinio Merula, Jean-Marie Leclair, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern and many others.
Passion for baroque music requires research and innovation. “We find scores online, which were written by the composers. We go to the libraries and study the printed stuff and sometimes we play from the manuscript,” said Meingast.
The viola player admitted that finding the right venue for concerts was difficult, as was the maintenance of their antique instruments. “We bring them from Europe and pray that they don’t break here, because there’s no one to fix them,” she said.
Even though baroque music dates back to the 16th century, the Doha ensemble has many ideas like adding dancers and fireworks to their performances. The group is also considering holding concerts at private homes.”It’s a perfect way to get to know the people and interact with them. Music and art are a very good bridge for cultures to meet,” added the musician.
“Our music is a synthesis of Arab and European traditions and we hope the guests find our unusual use of Arab instruments and oriental percussion surprising and inspiring,” she added.
The group was recently invited to play at the Museum of Islamic Art in concert with Baroque Music from Dresden and is the founder of a concert series at the German School. It is being supported by the German Embassy in Doha since 2012.
To celebrate four decades of friendly relations between Qatar and Germany, a unique bilateral cultural evening was held on April 24 in the Rizon Jet VIP Terminal at Doha International Airport. During the evening, the Ensemble played a selection of Italian and German baroque pieces and Arab music.
Information about the ensemble and its upcoming perform-ances can be found at www.facebook/DohaBaroqueEnsemble.
Children of Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha at the school’s booth at the recently concluded Education Fair organised by the Supreme Education Council, which was held at the Doha International Exhibition Center. The school displayed its achievements through a series of photographs and the school prospectus was emailed to interested parties. Several Staffordians represented the school at the exhibition, giving visitors information about the school.
Lankan School takes Lankan School takes part in SEC exhibitionpart in SEC exhibition
Birla Public School students bag medals at School Olympics
Students of Birla Public School put on a commendable per-formance at the recently concluded School Olympics
Programme held in Doha. The table tennis team of Birla
Public School secured six gold med-als, eight silver medals and six bronze medals.
Garima Malik was awarded the gold medal under the individual cat-egory of preparatory category and Rushil Mohan, Shiva Raghav, Navin Raghav, Sidharth Kumar and Ajay Dinesh were gold medal winning team members of Level-2.
The eight silver medals were also bagged by the table tennis team of Birla Public School, of which five were won by Varsha Manoj, Sana Shinkangar, Srishti Agarwal,
Rajsree Singhvi and Sneha Karthik , the team members in the Primary Category. The other three silver med-als were won by Sana Shinkangar in the Individuals Primary category,
Narasimhan Ravi in the Preparatory category and Emil Rajesh in the Level-1 category.
The six bronze medals were won by Preparatory team members
Garima Malik, Sanchitha Nagaraja, Supradeepa Vella, Srishti R Shetty, Samiksha D Shetti and Shervin Frank of Level-1 category.
The Peninsula
The KG and Primary wings of Shantiniketan Indian School had a Nutritious Food Day in
their Barwa Campus. The slogan for the day was ‘Eat healthy and stay healthy”. The programme aimed at making the students understand the importance of a balanced diet.
Placards, posters and flash cards were prepared to instil in students the importance of eating healthy foods. Bulletin boards were decorated with information on good and healthy foods. Different programmes were staged by students from the Play School to standard II.
Nutritious snacks, fruit salad, veg-etable salad, Russian salad etc were prepared by the teachers and stu-dents. The students enjoyed prepar-ing salads and teachers were excited
to teach them to make a day’s meals. Thus, the day turned out fruitful for the students and teachers.
Many good chefs were appreciated and certified for the preparation of tasty salads by Mehjabeen Hasan, headmistress of the KG and Primary Wing. She shared some tips with the students and provided them with a wonderful learning experience.
Through easy and simple dem-onstration, the students were made aware of the side effects of junk food and how nutritious food plays an essential part in our diet, keeping us fit for healthy living.
The day came to an end with a promise by the students that they will take nutrient-rich wholesome food and avoid junk food.
The Peninsula
MES student wins people’s choice award
MES Indian School student J M Soorya Narayan (pic-
tured) won the People’s Choice Award for his exhibit in the ‘Transform’, Students’ Art Exhibition, hosted by Mathaf recently. Mathaf is the Arab Museum of Modern Art, dedicated to Arab culture and crea-tivity. Over 500 students from inde-pendent, international and expatriate schools participated in the exhibition. A P Sasidharan, Principal, felicitated the winner.
‘Nutritious Food Day’ at SIS
School officials with little chefs.
5COMMUNITY / MARKETPLACE PLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 2013
Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros Co are the ‘Exclusive League Partner’, ‘Exclusive Partner of H H the Heir Apparent Cup Partner’ and ‘H H the Emir Cup Sponsoring Partner’ for the 2012/2013 football season. A reception was organised for the HH the Heir Apparent Trophy at Al Abdulghani Tower recently and was attended by Dr Nasser Abdulghani Abdulghani, managing director, R K Murugan, sales and marketing director, senior managers and staff of AAB. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nasser Abdulghani Abdulghani said AAB was always proud to sponsor the prestigious event. AAB is planning to organise a lot of activities in the fan zone during the final, which will be held on May 4 at Al Sadd Stadium.
Reception forReception forH H the Heir Apparent CupH H the Heir Apparent Cup
C K Menon, chairman of OICC’s global committee, releasing a spoken Arabic guide written by Amanulla Vadakkangara by handing over a copy to Dr M P Shafi Haji, president of CIGI Qatar chapter. K M Varghese, advisory board chairman of Indian Cultural Centre, Habeeburahman KIzhissery, executive director of Friends Cultural Centre, and Banna Chennamangaloor attended the function.
Spoken Arabic Guide releasedSpoken Arabic Guide released
Dr Amer Tarraf (second right) along with ISA Qatar President Dr Amer Tarraf (second right) along with ISA Qatar President Nilangshu Dey and other ISA officials.Nilangshu Dey and other ISA officials.
Qatar Section of ISA – the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society, a professional body for instrumentation and control systems engineering professionals, organised its 78th technical seminar on “New concept of level detection for criti-cal applications in hydrocarbon industry” at Oryx Rotana Hotel recently. The main speaker was Dr Amer Tarraf, Managing Director of Baumer group. The seminar was presided over by Nilangshu Dey, President, ISA Qatar Section.
ISA Qatar seminarISA Qatar seminar
Skills Development Centre, Centre for Fine Arts and Performing Arts, located at New Salata is celebrating its
10th Anniversary at Al Ghazal Club Auditorium tomorrow from 5.30pm onwards.
During a press meet, the organisers announced that around 175 students will perform various cultural events including dance, music (instrumen-tal and vocal), yoga and a karate
demonstration. Fusion performances by Santosh Kulkarni (tabla), Sileeb Kumar (keyboard) and Rejeesh and Salil (violin) would be another high-light of the event.
The event is also going to have five ‘Arangettam, a debut stage perform-ance, with participation by 60 students.
As part of the celebrations, the organisers announced the publica-tion of Spectrum, the 10th anniversary souvenir.
On Behalf of Skills Development Centre, Managing Director P N Baburajan, Director A K Jaleel, Event Coordinators Santosh Kulkarni and Kalamandalam Devi chaired the press meet.
The (free) entry passes will be available at the Skills Development Centre office at New Salata and Al Ghazal Club Auditorium on the day of the event. For more information, call 44655433 or 55532367. The Peninsula
SDC to hold 10th anniversary celebrations tomorrow
SDC officials at the press meet.
Siwar to give joint concert with German MDR Leipzig Radio Children’s Choir
JCC’s Siwar Choir will join one of Germany’s leading children’s choirs; German MDR Leipzig
Radio Children’s Choir, for a con-cert tomorrow.
The choir will give a two-hour live performance, including sev-eral traditional Middle Eastern songs. The 40 talented Arab chil-dren comprising the choir will be accompanied by an orchestra of 33 musicians led by Maestro Nabih El Khatib. Special guests include internationally renowned artist Pedro Eustache, Lebanese pianist and composer Michel Fadel, and German Soprano Felicita Fuchs.
The concert will take place at the Qatar National Convention Center Theatre at 7.30pm.
Tickets are on sale at the Virgin Megastore branches at Villaggio and Landmark.
The Peninsula
PLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 2013 MARKETPLACE66
Total E&P Qatar concluded its first “Working in a team” train-ing, part of Total Management
Programme, which was held for the first time in the Middle East, at the Qatar National Convention Centre, in two sessions.
The event included participation by employees from Dolphin Energy and Total ABK (Abu Dhabi).
The training focused in a practical way on specific situations which young managers face in their day-to-day work, emphasising on public presen-tations, leading meetings, negotiating, team meetings, setting objectives, time
management, constructive criticism and management change.
In addition to presentations and interactive sessions, cooking was also a surprise activity, which was appreciated by the participants. It was designed to test their abilitiy to manage themselves effectively under time constraints.
Hend Hassan, a Laboratory Analytical Chemist engineer at Total Research Centre Qatar (TRCQ), who participated in the training, was appre-ciative of the exercises, commenting: “The training was very helpful. Some of the things I learned were how to be patient even if I am not comfortable
with a certain situation, how to say “No” in a polite way, how to deliver unpleasant messages in a good way, how to run a constructive meeting and so many other communication skills.”
Carolina Pretzel, Deputy HR Manager, Total E&P Qatar, emphasized the importance of more team building programmes, saying: “We conducted our first ‘Working together in a team’ training with great success, to enable our employees to familiarise them-selves with each other and learn how to work together in harmony. It helped us in understanding how we can better delegate, become more efficient, and
successfully exchange ideas and sup-port each other.”
Stephane Michel, Managing Director of Total E&P Qatar, said the new ini-tiative was a major contribution to Qatarisation. “The ability to get people of many different nationalities and cul-tural origins to work together is a key factor of success for a manager here in Qatar. Successful Qatarisation means that a newly recruited Qatari in a man-aging position should be provided the most recent leadership training avail-able within the company, and eventually contribute to improving it”, said Michel.
The Peninsula
Total brings management course from France to Qatar
Fauchon, the renowned creator of flavoured teas since 1886, has launched three premium quality
flavoured teas in Qatar.Unveiling the teas, Nasser Kalla,
Director General of Al Danah Trading, which partners Fauchon in Qatar, said: “Fauchon has been a name that is syn-onymous with gourmet teas and we have a rich history in the art of blend-ing luxurious flavours. So it is a joy for us to highlight three of these flavours and make them available in Qatar. Les Parfum de Paris is known as A taste of Paris; Les Parfum de Fruits et Fleurs, carries a delicate fruit and flower
fragrance and Les Parfums Gourmands is true gourmandize or indulgence to connoisseurs of tea.”
“Fauchon is deeply committed to upholding our reputation as one of the world’s leading flavoured tea producers. I am also happy to say that Fauchon has its own production unit, known as Herbapac, which is dedicated to the creation of flavoured teas. The com-pany has invested in an ultra-modern process and equipment where teas are selected by experts, flavoured, produced and packed, reflecting the house’s long-term commitment to excellence. ”
The Peninsula
Fauchon launches collection ofpremium flavoured teas in Qatar
Galaxy S4 hits Qatar Intertec, the Samsung dealer in Qatar, hosted a Samsung Galaxy S4 ‘First Sale Ceremony’ recently to celebrate the availability of the newly launched smartphone in Qatar. George Thomas, Intertec Group’s CFO, said: “The Samsung Galaxy S4 First Sale Ceremony was a great way to officially launch the widely anticipated device in Qatar and we are very pleased to be able to bring one of the most eagerly awaited smartphones of the year to this market.”
Awadhi Food Festival at Taj Rasoi Restaurant
Doha Marriott’s Indian restaurant, Taj Rasoi, started an Awadhi Food
Festival yesterday, and it will go on till May 31.
Taj Rasoi promises to tickle the taste buds with delicacies like Nawabi Biriyani, Murgh Shahzadi, Macchli Kebab and more. Chef Raj and his team are preparing an elaborate array of Awadhi dishes.
The Awadhi Festival is open Saturday to Thursday from 6.30pm.
George Thomas hands over a Galaxy S4 to Khalid Al Sharshani at the Samsung Galaxy S4 First Sale Ceremony at the Al Nasr showroom of Intertec.
HEALTH 7
By Sharon Begley
If Dr Karl Deisseroth were an architect, he might be replacing stone or brick walls with floor-to-ceiling glass to build transparent houses. But since he is a neuroscientist at
Stanford University, he has done the biological equivalent: invented a technique to make brains transparent, a breakthrough that should give researchers a truer picture of the pathways under-lying both normal mental function and neurological illnesses from autism to Alzheimer’s. In fact, the first human brain the scientists clarified came from someone with autism.
Deisseroth and his colleagues reported in the online edition of the journal Nature that they had developed a way to replace the opaque tissue in brains (harvested from lab mice or donated by people for research) with “hydrogel,” a substance similar to that used for contact lenses.
The result is see-through brains, their innards revealed in a way no current technique can: Large structures such as the hippocampus show up with the clarity of organs in a transparent fish, and even neural circuits and individual cells are visible.
The announcement comes just a week after President Barack Obama announced a $100m ini-tiative to plumb the mysteries of the brain, and offers hope that at least some of the technological breakthroughs the project envisions are within reach.
Neuroscientist William Newsome, who will co-lead Obama’s initiative, called the hydrogel tech-nique “a major technological innovation” that “will speed our mapping of the brain’s ‘circuit diagram.’” That mapping, he said, is “an essential goal of neu-roscience, and will probably be a substantial focus” of Obama’s brain project.
Until now, the only way to trace neural connec-tions was by cutting a brain into ultra-thin slices, examining each slide under a microscope to map the cells and then using a computer to virtually reassemble the slices to reveal the entire circuit.
But slicing the brain like so much salami deforms the tissue and makes it difficult to work out long-range connections, like those between such far-flung regions as the prefrontal cortex and the amygdale.
Neuroscientists have therefore long dreamed of studying intact brains, said Deisseroth: “That would give you a better chance of working out con-nections over large distances, which would help you determine structure-function relationships.”
CIRCUITRY AND SYNAPSESDeisseroth’s process, dubbed CLARITY (an ana-
gram for the technique), works by a delicate feat of biochemical engineering. It turns out that what makes the brain opaque are the fatty membranes that surround and support its cells.
Removing these layers by brute force, however, would make the brain tissue collapse in a puddle of neuro-glop.
Instead, Deisseroth and his colleagues immersed the brains of three-month-old mice in a vat of soft, jelly-like hydrogel. Molecules of the hydrogel seeped into the brain and took the place of the lipid bilayers, which were then removed through an electro-chemical process.
Once the hydrogel was in place, the scientists heated it to just above body temperature, causing the molecules to connect to one another and form a sturdy mesh that acted like a shell holding in the contents of each brain.
After eight days, the scientists had just what they had hoped for: an intact, see-through mouse brain.
CLARITY “is a giant step forward from hav-ing to slice the mouse brain into 1,000 pieces and looking at them each individually, then trying to reconstruct the relationships of all those slices,”
said neuroscientist Cori Bargmann of Rockefeller University, also a co-leader of Obama’s brain initia-tive. Because neural connections can be mapped in an intact brain, she said, “I think it will accelerate research in neuroscience.”
The Stanford scientists could see the thalamus and the brainstem, the cortex and hippocampus with the naked eye. Using a microscope revealed the white matter that serves as a brain’s trans-mission lines, carrying signals from one neuron to another in far-flung circuits that underlie mental function.
The scientists posted a three-dimensional tour of the transparent mouse brain on YouTube (here).
Crucially, the hydrogel is not only transparent
but also permeable. That allows scientists to infuse into the brain special fluorescent dyes and other molecules that attach to just one of the thousands of different kinds of brain cells, and even to indi-vidual proteins and other molecules, turning the circuitry a neuroscientist wants to study into char-treuse and other can’t-miss hues when viewed in special light.
“You can paint different wires different colours,” said Deisseroth, who is one of 15 experts on the team that will map out goals for Obama’s brain initiative. “We could see structures down to paired neurons on each side of a synapse,” the neural ver-sion of seeing that the toe bone is connected to the foot bone and the foot bone to the ankle bone.
Perhaps even more remarkably, the process worked on human brains, despite concerns that the use of preservatives like formalin or formaldehyde might block the hydrogel process. (Mouse brains are studied fresh.)
The scientists clarified one healthy human brain and one autistic brain. Even though the lat-ter had been pickled for more than six years, it took to the new method, revealing numerous “den-dritic bridges,” ladderlike connections within the brain’s white matter that resemble those in Down syndrome.
“CLARITY has the potential to unmask fine details of brains from people with brain disorders without losing larger-scale circuit perspective,” said Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, which helped fund the research.
Once other scientists begin to clarify brains, it could “transform the way we study the brain’s anatomy and how disease changes it,” said Dr Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. “The in-depth study of our most important three-dimensional organ” will no longer be “constrained by two-dimensional methods,” and the black box that is the brain could become down-right luminous. Reuters
PLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 2013
See-through brains promise to clear up mental mysteries
CLARITY works by a delicate feat of biochemical engineering. Researchers could see structures down to paired neurons on each side of a synapse. It has the potential to unmask fine details of brains from people with brain disorders without losing larger-scale circuit perspective.
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11WHEELS PLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 2013
By Moira E Mclaughlin
Every Wednesday night at a gym in Warrenton, Virginia, 23 kids, ages 9 to 16, gather to practice. But they don’t have a basketball. They’re not making layups or
running sprints. They’re doing something a lot more unusual than that.
They’re riding unicycles, which are bikes with one wheel and no handlebars. (“Uni” means one.)
“Ride in a line and then split off,” shouted Linda McLaughlin, who coaches the group, called the UniStars Unicycle Showtroupe, at a recent practice as the kids made two lines and then rode the length of the gym.
The group performs at about a dozen events a year, including parades and charity eventsThe UniStars will ride in the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington for the eighth time.
It will take the group less than an hour to pedal the 10 blocks up Constitution Avenue, past the muse-ums and watching families, but it has taken the kids countless hours of practice to get to this point.
Riding a unicycle, like riding a two-wheel bike, is all about “balance, confidence and determination,” said Michelle Carrico, who helps coach the UniStars.
New riders use the gym wall for balance. First they face the wall and sit on the unicycle with the palms of their hands on the wall. Then they ride alongside the wall, using it to help them stay on the cycle. Once they master that, the riders start push-ing away from the wall and learning how to turn by using their hips to steer.
“I wasn’t that good at first,” said Virginia Lawrence, 12, who has been cycling for about six years. “But then I just got better.”
Carrico’s three rules for the unicyclists are eyes forward, back straight and keep your bottom on the seat.
“It was frustrating at first because everyone else made it look so easy,” said Gabby Macari, 13, has been riding for four years.
Matt McLaughlin, 9, is the youngest rider in the
group. He started riding a couple of years ago. His older sister, Abby, helped start the UniStars with Linda, her mom and coach, in 2005 when she was 11 years old.
“I thought it was cool, so I wanted to ride,” said Matt. He mounts — or gets on the cycle — by putting the seat between his legs and then stepping on one of the pedals. “I caught on quicker than a lot of people,” he said. “I never got frustrated.” It took him only a couple days to learn, he said. (Wow!)
As the group rides up the parade route on Saturday, wearing black pants and lime green UniStars shirts, the riders will pause at times to perform tricks. They
will ride in circles, in lines, in figure eights and even in what they call a pinwheel, which is when two groups of cyclists form “X” shapes and the rest of the team makes a big circle around them.
“I don’t really get nervous,” said Matt, who will ride in his second Cherry Blossom parade this week-end. “It’s an awesome feeling. I just like being in front of crowds.”
This is Gabby Macari’s first time in the Cherry Blossom Parade. “I’m really excited to be able to do something so big and known,” she said. “I’m always nervous, but you kind of get over it when you’re hav-ing so much fun.” WP-Bloomberg
Ready to ride . . .Ready to ride . . .with only one wheelwith only one wheel
By Stuart Dredge
Google has launched its Google Now service for iOS devices, as an update to its existing Google Search app.
Accessed by swiping upwards from the bottom of the app’s homescreen, Google Now learns about its user through their activities and their his-tory in various Google services.
It then serves up weather forecasts, traffic reports, boarding passes, sports scores and other information when they may be relevant. On iOS, it’s the sole new feature in version 3.0.0 of the Google Search app.
Available for Android devices since the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean software was released in 2012, Google Now’s iOS incarnation has been subject to specu-lation this year.
In mid-March, Engadget discovered a promotional video for the iOS version of Google Now on YouTube, although it was swiftly deleted. Later in March, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt hinted that Apple approval issues were delaying the release of the new feature.
“It has been on Android for a while now, but we want to bring our prod-ucts to all of our users, in more or less the same way,” says Google’s Android product management director Baris Gultekin, the co-creator of Google Now from its days as a “20% time” project within Google.
He was talking on the eve of the iOS release, although a last-minute hitch
(yes, with Apple’s approval process) delayed the launch for a few days.
Google Now was unveiled at Google’s I/O developer conference in June 2012, and has been improved since then with the addition of more “cards” – the digital objects presenting information to its users. More than 25 are now available.
Gultekin (and Google) sees Google Now as a logical next step for Google’s search business, portraying it as part of the “evolution of search” from the original “10 blue links” search results page, through universal search return-ing more kinds of content; semantic search to provide answers as well as links; and natural-language voice search on mobile devices.
“Google Now comes after this: previ-ously you had to issue a search to get these answers, and with Google Now you get what you need before you even ask,” said Gultekin.
“We talk about it as the assistant that gives you information throughout the day, without you having to ask. It fits broadly into our strategy: we want computers to do the hard work so users can focus on what matters in their life.”
Gultekin said that Google Now started with the thought that “your phone is really contextual, so how can we make it even smarter?”, pulling in data from the various Google serv-ices for a demo that “got people really excited” internally.
It’s early days, even though Google Now has been available for the best part of a year on Android.
“This is just the beginning,” said
Gultekin. “Although we started this project as a 20% project, from another perspective Google has been working on this product for years: it’s built on top of all those Google services that people love.”
Like the Google Glass eyewear, Google Now has aroused suspicion from people who instinctively distrust any new product from Google that will help it gather even more information from users.
There’s clearly some sensitivity to this debate within Google. When I ask a not-quite privacy question about how much Gultekin’s team thinks about the eerie qualities of a service that aims to know what its users want before they do, he answered with what sounded like a pre-prepared response to the privacy concerns.
“We take privacy very seriously, and make it very clear what the user will get, and what kind of data we’ll be using, and lots of controls so they can turn things off that they don’t like,” he said.
“You can also opt out if you choose to. Users are finding it very valuable, but we also provide lots of insight into where this information is coming from, control and transparency.”
What about Google Glass, though?
As the initial crop of adopters fan out across the world showing their smart-specs off at technology conferences (or testing their waterproof abilities), does Google’s move into augmented eyewear have lots of potential for Google Now?
“Providing really quick insights at a glance is very important,” said Gultekin. “That’s what Google Now does on your phone, with Android through widgets. And Google Glass? Google Now is integrated: it does work on Google Glass…”
No more details for now, though. But Gultekin did have a little more to say about the future for Google Now, which boils down to gauging feedback and usage from users, and iterating accordingly.
“We’d like to understand all of our users’ needs in all different situations: what situations they find themselves in the most, and where they need assist-ance the most,” he said.
“It’s the intersection of the two where we can add a lot of value, so that’s how we go about thinking about new sources of data through various partnerships. The future is all about can we add even more interesting and useful content in various situations that we don’t today?”
The Guardian
TECHNOLOGYPLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 201312
HOUSE OF THE DEAD OVERKILL LR (£3.88)
If you, like me, have spent many a happy hour shooting at zombies in Sega’s House of the Dead console games, this all-new mobile version is defi-nitely worth a look. I say “all-new” – it’s more a “remix” of 2009’s The House of the Dead Overkill, with touchscreen-friendly controls and three worlds to explore.
EARBITS RADIO (FREE)Earbits is the latest streaming radio app,
with a focus on independent bands large and small. It promises to analyse the music stored on your Android smartphone, and use the data to suggest one of more than 350 stream-ing stations that you’ll enjoy. It uses an in-app currency called “Groovies” for users to earn on-demand tunes by supporting artists that they discover in the app.
IRON MAN 3 – THE OFFICIAL GAME (FREE)Fans of the Iron Man films will take a shine to
this tie-in game from Gameloft, which is billed as an endless-runner.
Actually, endless-flyer would be more accurate, as Iron Man zooms through Malibu Shores, New York and China battling villains, and avoiding traf-fic and obstacles. It’s freemium, so in-app pur-chases are used to speed up progress in upgrading Iron Man’s powers.
RE-VOLT CLASSIC PREMIUM (£2.93)In similar vein to the House of the Dead
game, Re-Volt brings back some fond memo-ries of Sega’s Dreamcast console. It’s a remote-controlled car racing game that’s been lovingly remade by developer WeGo Interactive, offering
14 tracks, 42 cars and five modes to tickle nos-talgic gamers’ fancies.
DOO (FREE)Doo is the latest cloud-storage app, this time
promising that it “puts all your documents, whether stored locally or in the cloud, in your pocket, along with the intellgent tag-based doo search”. A handy way to aggregate files, including those stored in Google Drive, Dropbox and Gmail.
ZOMBIE HQ (FREE)More zombies! This game was warmly received
in its iOS incarnation, and is now available on Android. Expect shooting, more shooting and – unusually for the genre – interior decoration as you “deck out your ultimate man-cave with pool tables, hot tubs, TVs, turntables, plants and more”. You don’t get that in The Walking Dead...
by Stuart Dredge/The Guardian
ANDROID APPS OF THE DAY
Google Now: Evolution of search goes live for iOS
COMICS & MORE 13
Hoy en la HistoriaMay 2, 1953
1775: Benjamin Franklin completed the first scientific study of the Gulf Stream1988: Seven Solidarity leaders were detained as thousands of shipyard workers went on strike in Poland2003: India and Pakistan restored diplomatic relations and transport links, broken off after an attack on the Indian parliament in 20012011: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead by U.S. special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan
King Hussein of Jordan succeeded to the throne. He ruled until his death in 1999, and was the second Arab head of state to recognize Israel
appear in “Gandhi” 7 Frozen beverage brand 8 Like a matador’s cape 9 Successor of
Muhammad, to Shiites10 Appraiser’s figure11 Maiden name of Harry
Potter’s mother12 Present occasion13 Rear of many a book18 In the heart of19 Only23 Wailuku is its county seat24 Sale tag condition25 W.W. II naval vessels:
Abbr.26 Disney tune subtitled
“A Pirate’s Life for Me”27 TV star who homered
off Koufax in a 1963 episode
28 Airport postings, for short
29 Bring a relationship to a close
32 Yankees’ #13, to fans
33 “La Bohème” role34 Psychedelic drugs, for
short35 Quick and detached, in
mus.37 Train travel38 Abbr. on the bottom of
a business letter39 Morgue ID43 Animals with collars, often44 Of service45 Winterize, as a coat46 Indian ruler47 Printing daggers
48 Cokes and such49 Pulse-taking spot52 Dull53 “___ calling?”54 Longfellow bell town55 Clarinetist’s need56 Writer ___ Stanley
Gardner58 Conan O’Brien’s
network59 Celestial altar
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S P I C E T I M O R B A DE R N E S I R A N I U L ED U L L P I C K L E S M B AA N A L Y S T D I S B A RN E W N A T O N O L T E
D U T C H D I G G E R SA G A L R I C B O TB U T T E R E N E M I E S
E O E R A W A D E SM U S T E R R O G E R SA T T E N A N A T S T UI T S A G O S T U C K U PL I P R U N G M A S T E R SE M O A Z E R A T R I B ED E T M O U R N A S N O 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 SUDOKUEasy 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.
Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate
CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15
14:00 English Sports
News
14:30 Concacaf
Champions
League
Monterrey V
Santos Laguna
16:15 Npower League
Barnsley V Hull
18:00 English Sports
News
18:30 Basketball Nba
Playoffs Round
1 Game 5
20:30 La Liga
Programme
21:30 Uefa Europa
League Chelsea
V Basel
00:30 Dutch League
Breda V Ajax
02:15 Rugby Heineken
Cup Clermont
Auvergne V
Munster
08:00 News
09:00 The Secret
of the Seven
Sisters
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
17:00 News
17:30 The Stream
18:00 NEWSHOUR
19:00 News
19:30 Artscape - The
New African
Photography
20:00 News
20:30 Inside Story
21:00 NEWSHOUR
22:00 News
22:30 The Stream
23:00 China Rising
13:15 Magic Of
Science
13:40 Mythbusters
14:35 Border Security
15:30 Baggage
Battles
16:00 Fast N’ Loud
17:50 Mythbusters
18:45 Sons Of Guns
20:05 How It’s Made
21:00 Baggage
Battles
21:30 Heroes Of
Hell’s Highway
23:20 Hellriders
13:00 Hooked
14:00 Python
Hunters
16:00 Mother Croc
19:00 Hooked
20:00 Python
Hunters
21:00 Ultimate
Animal
Countdown
22:00 Mother Croc
23:00 Man v.
Monster
13:20 Jessie
13:45 A.N.T. Farm
17:00 Austin And Ally
17:30 Suite Life On
Deck
19:10 Cory In The
House
20:00 Jessie
20:25 Wizards Of
Waverly Place
22:05 Jonas Los
Angeles
12:00 Turner & Hooch
14:00 Little Shop Of
Horrors
16:00 Envy
18:00 It Could
Happen To You
20:00 No Strings
Attached
22:00 Held Up (2010)
13:15 Safari Vet
School
13:45 Animal Precinct
14:40 Wildest Africa
16:30 Dogs 101
18:20 Project Puppy
19:15 Monkey Life
19:40 Rescue Vet
20:10 Call Of The
Wildman
21:05 Wildest Africa
22:00 Into The Pride
22:55 Untamed China
With Nigel
Marven
12:10 Viva Maria!
14:05 Love And
Death
15:30 What’s New
Pussycat?
17:15 A Funny Thing
Happened...
Forum
18:50 A Dog’s
Breakfast
20:15 True Blood
22:00 Coming Home
12:25 Guns For San
Sebastian
14:20 The Clock
16:00 Cheyenne
Autumn
18:35 Day Of The Evil
Gun
20:10 An American In
Paris
22:00 Straight Time
13:15 Emilie Jolie
14:30 Teo: Intergalactic
Hunter
16:00 Princess Lillifee
18:00 Hop
20:00 Return To
Halloweentown
22:00 Emilie Jolie
23:30 Princess Lillifee
TEL: 444933989 444517001
MALL
2
Amour (2D/Drama) – 2.30pm
Moondru Per Moondru Kadhal (2D/Tamil) – 5.00 & 7.45pm
Sound Thoma (2D/Malayalam) – 10.30pm
3
Shootout At Wadala (2D/Hindi) – 2.30pm
The Call (2D/Thriller) – 5.15 & 11.30pm
Sameer Abou El Neel (2D/Arabic) – 7.00 & 9.15pm
Oblivion (2D/Action) – 11.30pm
LANDMARK
1
Amour (2D/Drama) – 2.30 & 5.00pm
Sameer Abou El Neel (2D/Arabic) – 7.15 & 9.30pm
Oblivion (2D/Action) – 11.30pm
2
Croods (3D/Animation) – 2.30pm
Oblivion (2D/Action) – 4.30pm
The Call (2D/Thriller) – 7.00, 9.15 & 11.15pm
3
Sound Thoma (2D/Malayalam) – 2.30 & 10.45pm
Shootout At Wadala (2D/Hindi) – 5.15pm
Moondru Per Moondru Kadhal (2D/Tamil) – 8.00pm
ROYAL PLAZA
1
Amour (2D/Drama) – 2.30pm
Sameer Abou El Neel (2D/Arabic) – 5.00 & 7.15pm
The Call (2D/Thriller) – 9.30 & 11.30pm
2
Paranorman (Animation) – 3.00pm
Snow White & The Huntsman – 4.45 & 7.00pm
Love Wedding Marriage (2D/Comedy) – 9.15 & 11.15pm
3
Rise Of The Guardians (Animation) – 2.30 & 4.30pm
Jack Reacher (Action) – 6.30pm
The Awakening (Horror) – 9.00 & 11.00pm
QF RADIO 91.7 FM ENGLISH PROGRAMME BRIEF 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.
MORNING SHOW “RISE”
7:00 – 9:00 AM Rise, a LIVE 2-hour morning show hosted and produced by Scott Boyes. It discusses 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.
CORNERS 12:00 – 1:00 PM Corners, a LIVE 1-hour show that airs Tuesdays and Thursdays presented by Laura Finnerty and Nabil Al Nashar. The show focuses on a variety of topics… technology, politics, health, movies, music and a lot more. Tonight on Corners from 6pm – Laura gets you warmed up for the weekend with events from I Love Qatar- Call 44824488 from 6pm to join the discussion.
REPEAT SHOWS
FASHION 4:00 – 5:00 PM Fashion is a 1-hour weekly show hosted and produced by Laura Finnerty.
LEGENDARY ARTISTS
8:00 – 9:00 PM The show tells the story of a celebrity artist that has reached unprecedented fame.
STRAIGHT TALK
10:00 – 11:00 PM A weekly 1-hour Political show produced and hosted by Nabil Al Nashar.
PLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 2013
PLUS | THURSDAY 2 MAY 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]
If you want your events featured here, mail details to [email protected]
Hey’Ya: Arab Women in Sport When: March 7-Jun 16 Monday–Thursday, Saturday: 9am-8pmFriday; 3pm-9pm (Sunday closed)Where: QMA Gallery, Bldg 10 What: The Qatar Museums Authority will exhibit ‘Hey’Ya: Arab Women in Sport’ at QMA Gallery in Katara Cultural Village. The exhibition was first held in London during the 2012 Olympic Games. The exhibit originated in Qatar, beginning at the Arab Games’ Athletes Village in December 2011, where photographer Brigitte and documentary maker Marian Lacombe set up an outdoor studio, working with female athletes. They then travelled to 20 Arab countries from the Gulf to North Africa, documenting images and videos of 70 Arab sportswomen. Free entry
My Journeys Through Yemen — Moudhi Al HajriWhen: Until May 25; 10am-10pm Where: Katara Gallery - Bldg 22
What: Moudhi Al Hajri is one of the most interesting Qatari photographers today, her drive and passion for photography as a form of art, and as a medium that allows her to engage with the world she inhabits, is heartfelt and deep. Her photography is extremely compelling and uses her camera to engage with the world at large and its peoples, in many cases even to give them a voice. The exhibition is an attempt to share her involvement with Yemen. Tickets: Free
Designed To WinWhen: Until June 23; 10am-10pm Where: Katara - Bldg 3 What: Katara Exhibition in Collaboration with the Design Museum in London.Designed to Win celebrates ways in which design and sport are combined, pushing the limits of human endeavour to achieve records and victories of increasing significance and wonder. There will be an extensive educational programme and visiting artists’ talks complementing the expo.Free entry
Alighiero BoettiWhen: Until May 2; 10am-10pmWhere: Katara Gallery 1 & 2 - Bldg 13 What: First solo exhibition in the Middle East of works by Alighiero Boetti, one of the most important and influential artists of the twentieth century. Boetti used simple and often industrial materials, concentrating more on the creative conception of the work and leaving its execution to others – in case of the embroideries to Afghani women. This exhibition will provide a look at his oeuvre, including a wide range of embroideries from Mappas to small Arazzi.Free entry
Events in Qatar MEDIA SCAN
• It has been suggested to the Supreme Education Council that high school students be used as volunteers during important events in Doha such as exhibitions, conferences and sports tournaments as part of their compulsory voluntary working hours, in order to help them get work experience.
• Livestock owners are complaining of poor veterinary services due to a shortage of medicines and veterinarians in veterinary centres out of Doha.
• There are complaints about the increasing use of rooftops for storing waste, including inflammable materials. This requires strict action to stop this phenomenon.
• There are demands for boosting fishery by subsidising Qatari fishermen, providing them fishing equipment and fuel, establishing fish processing units, reducing fees and taxes on them, and providing maintenance services for fishing boats.
• There is talk about the first taxi to run on natural gas in Qatar, which is going to be operated by Mowasalat.
• There is talk about the opening of a fast treatment unit in the Emergency Department of Al Wakra Hospital, which will specialise in treatment of minor injuries and some diseases, and allow patients to be examined by specialist doctors.
• There is a suggestion to link the gates of residential complexes and parking lots with the fire safety system to allow them to open automatically in case of a fire to prevent crowding at the gates.
• There are demands that Ashghal speed up maintenance works on internal roads in some parts of Doha to minimise crowding during the month of Ramadan.
• There are complaints about Kahramaa workers leaving excavations open and not replacing old devices with new ones.
A summary ofissues of the daydiscussed by the Qatari communityin the media.
IN FOCUS
A view of the ceremonial court in Education City
by Matthew Crabbe
Send your photos to [email protected]. Please mention where the photo was taken.
Study says starving Virginia settlers turned to cannibalism in 1609
Settlers at Virginia’s Jamestown Colony resorted to cannibalism to survive
the harsh winter of 1609, dis-membering and consuming a 14-year-old English girl, the US Smithsonian Institution reported.
A recent excavation at the historic site revealed not just the remains of dogs, cats and horses eaten by settlers during the cold “Starving Time” of that year, but also the bones of a girl known to researchers simply as “Jane.”
This is the first direct evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown, the oldest permanent colony in the Americas, the Smithsonian said on its website.
The institution is the biggest museum and research complex in the world with 19 museums and gal-leries, most of them in Washington. It also includes the National Zoo.
“Historians have gone back and forth on whether this sort of thing really happened here,” said Smithsonian forensic anthropolo-gist Douglas Owls, who analyzed the bones after they were found by Preservation Virginia, a private nonprofit group. Reuters
