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A practical high performance brute with turbocharged 5-cylinder engine and resolute four wheel-drive roadholding, the Audi RS3 Sportback is somewhat reminiscent of the Ingolstadt manufacturer’s now iconic 1980s Quattro and 1990s RS2 models. With compact, more agile 5-door hatchback body and well over the 300BHP threshold, the RS3 is a rare beast counting only the Mercedes-Benz AMG A45 and just launched and long-awaited Ford Focus RS as competitors 

Transcending garden-variety “mega” or “hyper” hatchback and even its own mighty Volkswagen Golf R cousin, the RS3 Sportback and its practical bodied and four-wheel drive rivals are differentiated from front-drive high performance cars. A different sort of beast than track-oriented front-drivers like the Golf GTI Clubsport, Renault Megane RS, Seat Leon Cupra and Honda civic Type-R the RS3 offers all-weather ability, premium features and appointments, and more space and practicality.

Understatedly aggressive

Winner of the 2016 Middle East Car of the Year’s Best Premium Performance Hatchback award in direct competition with the AMG A45, the current RS3 was launched globally in 2015. The range-topping model in Audi’s current modular MQB (Modularer Querbaukasten, or modular transversal toolkit) platform-based A3 mid-size hatchback range, the RS3 is only the second such model, with improved performance, less weight and better weighting than its short-lived 2011-12 previous generation 335BHP predecessor.

Understated by sometimes wild performance hatchback aesthetics, the RS3 nevertheless stands out from garden-variety A3 models, including its lesser S3 performance sister model. With more muscular bumper, sharp lower lip and gill-like side intakes, its fascia features a broad tall metallic-ringed honeycomb hexagonal grille and inward tilted, moody and LED strip browed headlights. From rear it features more brightware, air diffuser, tailgate spoiler and massive dual oval tailpipes.

Elegant, cohesive and tightly penned, the RS3 features a ridged character line stretching across under a relatively level waistline, which allows for good visibility and an airy cabin ambiance. Riding on large tight gripping low profile 235/35R19 tyres, the RS3’s five-spoke alloy wheels provide easy views of its vast and highly effective 8-piston calliper 365mm disc front and 310mm rear brakes. Options include fade-free ceramic front discs and wider grippier 255/30R19 front tyres.

Ferocious five

Snarling and growling with a distinct off-beat 5-pot note, the RS3 Sportback’s 2.5-litre turbocharged 5-cylinder harks back to Audi’s most celebrated Quattro model. Mounted transversely, rather than longitudinally as traditional at Audi, the RS3 is, however, considerably more powerful and quicker than the historic Quattro. Developing 362BHP throughout 5,550-6,800rpm and brutal 343lb/ft torque peaking at 1,625-5,500rpm, the RS3 electronically governed 250km/h top speed can optionally be de-restricted to 280km/h.

Hand-built and award-winning, the RS3’s 5-cylinder is quite the gem, with intense 1.3bar boost, high 10:1 compression and direct injection, it suffers very little turbo lag, yet spins eagerly to a high rev limit. Responsive from low-end and brutally muscular in mid-range, the RS3 pulls hard throughout, underwritten by a muscular and broad torque band before seamlessly transitioning to an urgent climb to a wide and punchy peak power band.

With sticky tyres, responsive turbo boost aggressive low gearing and tenacious traction generated by its Quattro four-wheel drive, the RS3 launches ferociously off-the-line, with very little evidence of torque steer, owing to its four-wheel drive’s characteristics. Dispatching 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds, the versatile 1,520kg RS3 also accelerates through 80-120km/h in 4.1 seconds in fourth gear. Meanwhile, the RS3’s lightened components and mass, stop-start system, relaxed tall high gears and CD0.34 aerodynamics allow for restrained 8.1l/100km combined fuel efficiency.

Fluent, agile and tenacious

Driven through a 7-speed automated dual-clutch gearbox that seamless shifts between odd and even gears, the RS3’s sophisticated four-wheel drive distributes power between front and rear axle as necessary through an electronically controlled differential. Operating with rear-bias allocating between 50-100 per cent power to the rear, the RS3 also features brake-based toque vectoring, helping to steer the car by braking the inside wheels for enhanced agility into and better traction out of corners.

Riding on MacPherson strut front and independent multi-link rear suspension along with firm damping, the RS3 maintains good contact with the ground through hard driven corners and is settled and buttoned down on vertical rebound. With its four-wheel drive differential located on the rear axle — and other components shifted rearwards for better weighting — in addition to its four-wheel drive system’s characteristics, the RS3 turns crisply and tidily into corners, well-resisting under-steer usually expected from a front-wheel drive derived platform.

A fluent handling compact high performance car able to cover ground very rapidly and confidently, the RS3 is almost as agile, poised and tidy into corners as a rear-driver. With its active power distribution, one can even nudge the RS3’s rear slightly — in less interventionist stability control modes — out to shift weight and tighten a cornering line, while more power is sent forward to pull in and out onto a straight.

Classy and uncluttered

Direct and quick, the RS3’s variable-assistance steering is precise and well-weighted, but more instinctive “feel” would not go amiss. At speed the RS3’s steering is reassuringly committed while ride stability is planted and refined. Firm but not uncomfortable, the RS3’s suspension provides and taut cornering body control and a smooth buttoned down ride. Optionally, adaptive magnetic dampers provide more comfort and control, and like engine, gearbox, steering and differential, features selectable modes.

Restrained, tasteful, classy and uncluttered yet distinctly sporty, the RS3 Sportback’s cabin features clear instrumentation — including turbo boost gauge — and controls, many of which are accessed through a pop-up infotainment screen. Uncluttered, well-built and using quality leathers and choice of materials, the RS3’s cabin features prominent metallic-ringed vents and chunky contoured sports steering wheel. Supportive comfortable and highly adjustable, the RS3 provides a commanding and alert driving position.

Well spaced and practical for its segment, the RS3 Sportback features more generous headroom than saloon derivatives of Audi’s A3 line, as well as a usefully flat 280-litre boot, which expands to 1120 litres with rear seats folded. Well-equipped with standard convenience, infotainment and safety features, the RS3 can be specified with lightweight carbon-fiber sports bucket seats with integrated side airbags, Bang and Olufsen sound system and lane-keeping driver assistance, among numerous other features.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2.5-litre, transverse, turbocharged 5 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82.5 x 92.8mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 20-valve, DOHC, direct injection, continuously variable valve timing

Boost pressure: 1.3-bar

Gearbox: 7-speed automated dual clutch, four-wheel drive, electronic multi-plate clutch and differential lock

Ratios: 1st 3.563; 2nd 2.526; 3rd 1.679; 4th 1.022; 5th 0.788; 6th 0.761; 7th 0.635; R 2.789

Final drive, 1st, 4th, 5th, R/2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th: 4.059:1/3.45:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 362 (367) [270] @5550-6800rpm

Specific power: 146BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 238BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 343 (465) @1625-5500rpm

Specific torque: 187.5Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 306Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 4.3 seconds

80-120km/h, 4th/5th gear: 4.1-/5.8 seconds

Top speed standard/optional: 250/280km/h (electronically governed)

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined:

11.2/6.3/8.1 litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 189g/km

Fuel capacity: 55 litres

Length: 4,343mm

Width: 1,800mm

Height: 1,411mm

Wheelbase: 2631mm

Track, F/R: 1,559/1,514mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.34

Luggage volume, min/max: 280/1120 litres

Weight, unladen (kerb): 1,520kg (1,595kg)

Steering: Variable assistance rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 10.9 metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Brakes, F/R: Perforated, ventilated discs, 365 x 34mm/310 x22mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 8-/1-piston

Tyres: 235/35R19

DETROIT — Tesla Motors is working on modifications to its Autopilot system after it failed to stop for a tractor-trailer rig in a Florida crash that killed the driver of a Model S sedan.

CEO Elon Musk, in a Twitter post Thursday night, said Tesla is working on improvements to the radar system. Autopilot uses cameras, radar and computers to detect objects and automatically brake if a Tesla vehicle is about to hit something.

But in the May 7 crash that killed Joshua D. Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio, cameras in his Tesla Model S failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer from a brightly lit sky, and the car did not automatically brake, the company has said. Signals from radar sensors also did not stop the car, and Brown didn’t take control either.

Tesla wouldn’t comment Friday on Musk’s tweets or possible changes to Autopilot, which is being scrutinised by two US government agencies. Whatever changes are made have broad implications for Tesla and other automakers, who either have similar technology in place or are about ready to put it on the road as they move towards fully autonomous driving within the next decade.

Just after the crash was made public June 30, Musk gave an indication in a tweet that the radar was discounted in the Florida crash. His tweet, which since has been removed from Twitter, said that radar “tunes out” objects like an overhead road sign to avoid stopping the car for no reason. Experts say this means that the radar likely overlooked the tractor-trailer in the Florida crash.

Thursday, Musk tweeted that the company is working on changes that would “decouple” the Autopilot’s radar from its cameras and allow the radar to spot objects with fewer data points. Car sensors produce so much data that computers cannot process it all. So fewer data points are needed for self-driving systems to work.

Experts contacted by The Associated Press say it’s clear that Musk is focusing on the radar so his cars spot tractor-trailers in similar circumstances. “It kind of strikes me that they’re figuring out how to solve that problem,” said Timothy Carone, an information technology and analytics professor at the University of Notre Dame business school.

Radar can see through bright sunlight, rain, snow and other things that can block the sight of cameras, so it makes sense that Tesla would try to emphasise radar more after the Florida crash, said Raj Rajkumar, a computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who leads its autonomous vehicle research.

The cars’ software would have to be updated so it considers the radar data and determines if obstacles are in the way, Rajkumar said.

Tesla has said that it constantly updates the Autopilot system as the company takes in data from cars that are on the road.

Maybe calling someone a birdbrain should not be an insult.

Newly hatched ducklings surprised scientists with the capacity to understand the concepts of “same” and “different” — an ability previously known only in more intelligent animals such as apes, crows and parrots, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

“We believe the ducklings are the first species shown to do this right after birth,” said Antone Martinho, a doctoral student at the UK’s University of Oxford Department of Zoology and the study’s lead author. “We now think that many or most bird species that imprint could probably also do it.”

Ducklings usually learn to identify and follow their mother through a process called “imprinting”, which can occur in as little as 15 minutes after hatching. Imprinting is a powerful form of learning that can allow ducklings to follow any moving object, the scientists said.

The study marked the first time an animal, including apes, learned such concepts without reinforcement, Martinho said.

“The other animals that have demonstrated this ability have all done so by being repeatedly rewarded for correct performance, while our ducklings did it spontaneously,” said Alex Kacelnik, also of the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology and a study co-author.

To conduct the experiment, the ducklings were placed in an enclosed training area where various shapes in different colours and sizes were dangled in front of them.

During the first round of training in the shapes experiment, a duckling would chase two red pyramids, Martinho said. (Chasing something, usually their mother, is a typical first act for newly hatched ducks.) In the second round, it would need to choose to follow either two red spheres or a red cone and red cylinder.

Even though neither of the shapes in the second round were the pyramids the ducklings originally viewed, they chose the two spheres because, like the two pyramids, they are two objects of the same shape.

Similarly, ducklings trained with a red cube and red rectangular prism in the first round — two differently shaped objects — preferred the cone and cylinder in the second round, because both pairs were composed of “different” shapes.

A second experiment did the same thing for colour, where every shape presented was a sphere.

“The key point of our experiment was that the pair of shapes the ducks saw and learned in the first round never appeared again,” Martinho said.

The study is important because it shows animals not normally believed to be particularly intelligent are capable of abstract thought, Ed Wasserman of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa wrote in a related article in the journal.

It also shows very young animals can display signs of abstract thinking and that those behaviours can occur without explicit rewards or punishments, he added.

“The claim that abstract relational thinking is a unique ability of human beings can no longer be supported,” Wasserman concluded.

Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng
New York: Penguin Books, 2014
Pp. 292

Celeste Ng has an original, captivating, writing style. In her debut novel, “Everything I Never Told You”, she begins with the climax, then scrolls back and forth to reveal how things got to that point and what happened afterwards. The opening sentence reports that Lydia, the beautiful, 16-year old, favoured daughter of the Chinese-American Lee family, is dead. 

A sense of intimacy and empathy evolves as one follows the family’s struggle to cope with this sudden, unexplained loss. In an interview at the end of the book, Ng says, “Any act of writing is an act of empathy: you try to imagine yourself into another person’s mind and skin. I tried to ask myself the questions the characters would have asked themselves.” (p. 2)

And she does so in an authentic manner that makes her characters both complex and believable, even as they sometimes do improbable things. 

Like any family faced with death, and especially as all signs point to suicide, the Lees are filled with self-doubt, grief, bewilderment and guilt — feelings that are further complicated because each of them harbours secrets, and the family as a whole has an unwritten code of silence about the most pivotal events and dynamics in their lives. So each goes his or her own way in grieving and making sense of Lydia’s death. At times, the reader may want to grab one of them, especially the parents, by the shoulders and shout: Hey, let’s talk about this! — proof of how involved one gets in the story. 

“How had it begun? Like everything: with mothers and fathers. Because of Lydia’s mother and father, because of her mother’s and father’s mothers and fathers… Because more than anything, her mother had wanted to stand out; because more than anything, her father had wanted to blend in. Because both those things had been impossible.” (p. 25)

Lydia’s Anglo mother, Marilyn, cannot accept her death, much less that she might have committed suicide. Frustrated by her own failure to become a doctor after she became pregnant, she has poured all her ambitions into Lydia’s becoming one, mentoring her 24/7 to the point that the girl has no social life. James, the father, an American of Chinese descent, made it to the top, graduating from Harvard, but was denied a teaching position there because, as they said, he didn’t “fit”. When James gets a position at a mediocre college in a small Midwestern town, they become the only “Orientals” there. Though born in America, appearances render James and the children perpetual foreigners, subject to taunts and patronising remarks, as he had been in his childhood. He worries about Lydia not fitting in and is plagued by guilt that her perceived foreignness played a role in her death, fulfilling his mother-in-law’s prediction that Marilyn will regret marrying him. 

Nath, Lydia’s older brother, and Hannah, the little sister, both know things about Lydia that their parents don’t, but are reluctant to share the information at this late date. In their all-consuming focus on Lydia, the parents don’t really listen to them anyway. 

Yet, in the midst of the dysfunctional equilibrium that the family is locked into, there are heart-warming elements. The story of how Marilyn and James met, fell in love and married is romantic and quirky, and defies prevailing racial prejudices. It was his differentness that attracted her: she thought he would understand the indignities she had suffered while trying to become a doctor in a man’s world, whereas he was drawn to her ability to blend in. Despite their miscommunication, they all love one another, and the children are strongly bonded to each other, often communicating without words. 

“Everything I Never Told You” is a family story but also a story of gender and racial prejudice in mid-20th century America, which Ng recreates with well-placed details. She is also clever at using seemingly random details to round out her characters and denote their moods. By shifting the point-of-view from one family member to another, she enriches each incident, and adds the ambiguity of differing perceptions. This makes the book a page-turner as Ng carefully parcels out the facts, leaving many questions unanswered until the end: Did Lydia really commit suicide? Did Jack, the wild boy in the neighbourhood, play a role in her death? Will Lydia’s death break the family apart once and for all, or lead them to a new type of cohesion?

Stripped of all the details of time, place and ethnicity, this is a chronicle of lacking communication and missed opportunities among loved ones. Ng shows that fiction can have an impact on real life, for any thoughtful reader will re-evaluate their own personal relationships after having read it.

SERANG, Indonesia — Astride his white mare, a wide-brimmed hat shielding his eyes, Ridwan Sururi looks more cowboy than librarian as he winds towards the hilltop village, his horse Luna saddled with books.

Their arrival sends ripples of excitement through Serang, a quiet hamlet fringed by rice fields and a volcano on Indonesia's main island of Java.

"The horse library!" children shriek, sprinting towards the mosque where Luna is tethered. Slung over her saddle are two hand-made wooden boxes filled with books.

For many there, this unique mobile library is their only link to books. There is no traditional library nearby, and stores are kilometres away in big cities. It's a problem for villages across the sprawling Indonesian archipelago.

Sururi, a 43-year-old professional horse groomer, devised a unique way to encourage reading in his district.

Armed with Luna, one of several horses under his care, and about 100 books donated from a friend, Sururi began road-testing his novel mobile library in early 2015, unsure if it would succeed. 

It was a huge hit. In no time, the father of four was fielding requests from schools and villages further afield, eager crowds greeting him on arrival. 

"The kids are always waiting for my horse and I," Sururi told AFP.

"Sometimes they even form a queue, waiting a very long time just to borrow a book."

Broadening horizons

In Serang, enthusiastic youngsters flick through picture books, young adult titles and even some classics in English. 

Some shyly pet Luna while waiting their turn to browse. Sururi believes the gentle nature of his six-year-old mare helps attract children, and pique an early interest in the books. 

"The horse makes me happy," said 10-year-old Arif, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, before settling in to read a book titled "Wild Animals".

But it's not just children discovering a love for reading via this charitable community library.

Adults are almost just as enthusiastic, many pausing work and emerging from their homes as Sururi and Luna pass through the narrow lanes of one village.

17-year-old Warianti, perusing titles alongside her elderly mothers, said villagers of all ages benefited from Sururi's visits, as most did not have time to source books elsewhere.

"The horse library helps increase the knowledge of local women through reading," she told AFP.

Adult literacy rates in Indonesia have climbed steadily in recent years, reaching nearly 96 per cent in 2013, according to data from the ministry of education.

But some provinces remain far behind others. Central Java, where Sururi makes his rounds, is lagging in the bottom third nationwide.

Nearly 5 per cent — or close to 1 million — adults in this mainly rural province remain illiterate. Sururi is aware of this, growing up in Central Java without access to a great deal of books. 

But the altruistic stable hand never underestimated the importance of reading, leading to his free-of-charge mobile book loaning service.

"That's the aim of the horse library, so that everyone can broaden their horizons, gain knowledge, become more intelligent," he said.

Sense of pride

Outside his simple home, Sururi has cleared an area where he dreams of building a permanent library, one stocked with many books and — perhaps one day — a computer.

But for now, everything is done by hand. The spines of all books are clearly labelled with a code for identification, and he keeps meticulous records so books are returned on time.

Like a conventional library, books can be borrowed free of charge but cannot be loaned forever. 

In Serang, Sururi checks his notebook and tells one boy he needs to first return an outstanding title before loaning another. The young student sprints off home, returning a short while later clutching the forgotten item, relieved to see his pick of choice remains untouched on the shelf.

Once the flurry of borrowing is over, the children settle down in small circles, bearing their new books with pride as Sururi packs up for another week.

Soon the air is filled with the sound of dozens of children reading aloud, older pupils helping their younger friends with difficult words or phrases.

"When I see kids chasing my horse I feel so proud," Sururi said.

"I feel like I'm needed, and that's hugely satisfying."

MODENA, Italy — His father wanted him to become a lawyer, and he nearly did.

But Massimo Bottura’s obsession with cooking instead has paid off: his restaurant, the Osteria Francescana, may have put the noses of conservative Italian chefs out of joint, but it now boasts the title “best in the world”.

Set in the heart of Modena in northern Italy, the Osteria already boasted three Michelin stars before it snapped up first prize at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards in June thanks to a creative cuisine that reinvents Italian traditional dishes.

Winning was a “very emotional” experience, Bottura told AFP, though he said one of the main differences between first and second place on the prestigious list was “the number of interviews” he is now asked to give.

With its blue-grey walls, taupe carpet, artworks on the walls and photographs of the singer Edith Piaf, there are just 12 tables and most diners come for the tasting menu, with its 220-euro ($245) price tag.

The fare may be world class but this osteria does not take itself too seriously. A wax sculpture of a security guard by American artist Duane Hanson startles diners at the front entrance. The levity continues once seated.

Dish names include “An eel swimming up the Po River” and “Yellow is bello”.

Bespectacled Bottura, 53, worked on one of his signature creations, “Memory of a mortadella sandwich”, for four years.

“I rely on my past, but I look at it critically and without nostalgia, because I want to bring the best of the past into the future,” he says.

He says he has always “sought to look at the world from under the table, with the eyes of a child stealing the pasta his grandmother” is making from scratch.

The kitchen — and the table he hid under while his grandmother fought off his quick-fingered brothers with a rolling pin — became “my safety place.”

When he was 23-years old Bottura, who was famous for rustling up culinary delights for his friends, dropped his law studies to open a Trattoria in Campazzo, in the countryside around Modena in the Po River Valley.

On his days off, he would study with French chef Georges Cogny, who had a restaurant two hours away.

“He said to me: ‘always follow your palate, because you have a great palate which will make Modena known around the world’”.

Two years and an interlude in New York later, it was another Frenchman that changed his destiny, Alain Ducasse.

After the Provencal food guru came to Bottura’s Trattoria, the Italian ended up going to work for him in Monte Carlo for a time.

Ducasse had a huge influence on him: “He taught me to be obsessed: obsessed with quality ingredients, obsessed with detail.”

Back in Modena in 1995, he opened the Osteria. Never satisfied, he jumped at the chance five years later to learn from another great master, Spanish giant Ferran Adria.

Adria taught Bottura the “freedom to be creative”, to think that “a sardine can be worth as much as a lobster, but it all depends on whose hands it is in.”

Bottura begins with local products and messes around with traditional recipes, drawing for inspiration on everything from his childhood kitchen to poetry, art and music, “compressing my passions into mouthfuls”.

His philosophy and creations at first perplexed and even angered Italy’s culinary old guard.

“It’s ironic isn’t it? Ten years ago they wanted to string me up in the main square because I ‘destroyed’ our grandmothers’ recipes”.

With the world prize in the bag, Bottura turns his mind back to his social projects, particularly his war on food waste.

His next big gig will see him set up a caffetteria in Rio which will transform leftover food from the Olympic Games Village into free meals for the poor living in the Brazilian city’s favelas.

Everything the excitable chef does comes with the support of his American wife Lara Gilmore, who left New York for him and gave the ok for his Spanish adventure even though she was pregnant at the time.

“I fell in love with Massimo’s kitchen before actually falling in love with him,” she says.

“He really got me with his creamy velvet artichoke soup.”

LOS ANGELES — On Snapchat, it’s always been about the last 24 hours.

With its requirement that photos and videos shared with friends be taken in the moment, the app has focused on the here and now rather than what you were up to last year or last week.

But the Los Angeles start-up, backed by billions of dollars in venture capital and valued at $16 billion, expanded its offerings Wednesday with a glance to the past.

The company introduced a digital storage bucket, Memories, for users to save their otherwise self-destructing images and resurrect them for future posts. So in the same way Instagram users feel comfortable sharing older memories by describing them as a “late gram” or a “throwback Thursday”, Snapchat users now have their own way to bring back old shots. A cloudy border on these pictures makes it clear to friends these are snaps from the past.

Previously captured photos and videos that weren’t uploaded to Snapchat before can be uploaded too, with the label “from camera roll”.

Memories, accessible by swiping up from Snapchat’s photo-taking feature, is one of the most complex additions in the company’s five-year history. Snapchat’s 150 million daily users, and its many more occasional ones, are expected to receive the new feature in batches over the next month. How they’ll perceive the incoming flood of nostalgia isn’t certain.

Memories heightens the competition between Snapchat and Facebook, two providers of online communications tools that together control the bulk of time young adults spend on their smartphones. Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, is far ahead in that category, but each new feature from Snapchat adds to the pressure on Facebook.

For example, Memories brings Snapchat users many of the capabilities that Facebook’s Moments app offers, including easy searches of old photos by location, date or other context clues.

But Snapchat seems to have pushed the bar ahead slightly. Memories, unlike Moments, includes a special, cordoned-off area for photos and videos. Users must enter a PIN to get into the My Eyes Only section. That means a friend helping someone decide which old images should be shared on Snapchat shouldn’t come across any nude shots belonging to the smartphone’s owner.

Posts saved in Memories are backed up online, giving users more reason to save shots from important life events on Snapchat as opposed to turning to Facebook, Google or Dropbox.

There are some limitations to Memories. Searches pull up only saved Snaps, whereas searches on Moments can include all photos stored on a phone. Using Memories also exposes those saved Snapchat posts, excluding those in My Eyes Only, to release when Snapchat receives a government order to turn over a user’s data.

PARIS — When a female praying mantis bites the head off her sexual partner, it is probably not out of anger. 

According to a recently published study, the mantis’ proclivity for devouring her mate may have evolved to better provide for her offspring.

In eating the male, a female ensures he continues to provide for their progeny even after death — as food.

“Sexual cannibalism... increases male investment in offspring,” said William Brown of the State University of New York at Fredonia, who co-authored a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

For the study, Brown and Katherine Barry from Australia’s Macquarie University fed crickets dosed with traceable radioactive amino acids to male mantises.

They then allowed the spindly insects to mate. 

For half the males it turned out to be their final act, while the lucky rest were rescued by their human handlers immediately after pairing.

The scientists tracked the flow of radioactive proteins through the bodies of the cannibalistic females, and through their eggs.

In females those who ate their mates, “there is an increase in the number of eggs produced subsequent to cannibalism”, Brown told AFP by e-mail.

A large proportion of the amino acids were absorbed not by the female, but passed on to the mini mantises.

In nature, male mantises are eaten by females in about 13-28 per cent of sexual encounters, according to the study. 

During the mantis mating season, males can make up as much as 63 per cent of the female diet.

Such behaviour, said the team, can “be considered an extreme case of male parental investment”.

Sexual cannibalism is when the female of a species consumes the male before, during or after mating. 

It is known to happen in some spiders such as the black widow, and scorpions.

Unlike male mantises, which can mate more than once and with different females before falling for the wrong one, some spiders mate only once in a lifetime, their sex organs damaged during copulation to the extent that they cannot be reused.

Once again robots are making the headlines. Whether it is Amazon’s robotic arms sorting out the stock of goods, packing the clients orders and dispatching them, or Google’s self-driving car, robots are on us, and for good.

Beyond the extraordinary prototypes that always manage to impress the crowd like Honda’s celebrated Asimo, robots working hard in manufacturing facilities have been around for several decades now. Still, Asimo that was first introduced by the Japanese carmaker in 2000 and that keeps being improved, becoming more intelligent, perhaps is the most human looking machine. Besides, Honda calls him humanoid. 

A few years ago I visited a fully robotised computer factory in northern Italy. It was run by Olivetti and had an output of one computer every 10 seconds. Robots were practically doing all the work there. There were a total of just five human beings in the huge super-high-tech factory. Their job was only to monitor the robots and to report any eventual malfunction so that a maintenance team would come and fix the robots.

There was a time when robots were purely a matter of science fiction. It is not the case anymore, even if their external physical shape today does not always exactly correspond to what people had in mind in the 20th century or what is usually shown in sci-fi movies like I, Robot (2004, Will Smith) and the like. In most cases they are robotic arms or robotic machine tools.

Apart from those found today in manufacturing, there is little doubt that we’re closer than ever to the real intelligent, “friendly” robot, the companion that would be affordable, that would help us with all the menial tasks at home (house cleaning, ironing, taking out the garbage, etc…). There is also little doubt that this is becoming possible thanks to the progress in computer technology. After all faster, more powerful, more dependable and cheaper computers constitute the backbone of robots, of their future.

The other elements are purely on the mathematical side of artificial intelligence and advanced programming techniques and languages, two critical aspects that still require some work before we can all get a robot like Asimo at home or in our office. Incidentally, the latter has its own website — http://asimo.honda.com.

Beside Honda’s flagship robot there are a few humanoid models on the market and can actually be bought. Whereas Asimo is the undisputed reference and leader, its $2,500,000 price tag makes it beyond reach. The other models are much less expensive but also are significantly more limited in functionality and much smaller in size (Asimo is 130cm tall and weighs 48kg), and therefore should be looked at as high-tech advanced toys.

To name only a few: Hovis, by Korean DingBu Robot is $2,000. Robotis OP, by American Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, is $10,000. Darwin Mini, by Robotis Mini, is a mere $500. Nao Evolution, by French company Aldebaran Robotics, is $8,000. Pepper, by Aldebaran and Japanese SoftBank, is $2,000.

Curiously what was very much intriguing to me when I was a teenager and started reading about robots was not the ability of the machines to perform this or that task, nor their shape, but the etymology of their very name. Still, learning that it comes from the Czech “robota” and means forced labour did not bring me any valuable scientific information, except that the meaning made perfect sense to me.

The very first programmable, digital machine referred to as robot was used by General Motors back in the early 1960s at one of its automotive manufacturing plants in the USA. Then countless sci-fi movies took it from there and robots, regardless of appearance or ability, became part of our collective unconscious. Soon, very soon, they will be in our homes, as surely as drones are seen and used almost everywhere today and smartphones have invaded us already.

SAN FRANCISCO — A media revolution is taking place, and most people over 35 years of age are not tuned in.

Millennials and their successors are shunning old-school television in favour of watching what they want whenever they wish on Google-owned YouTube or other video platforms like Dailymotion or Facebook.

“Young people don’t really watch TV any more; they watch online videos that are shorter and more talent-driven,” says Fabienne Fourquet, a former executive at A&E Television and France’s Canal+ who now heads the multichannel network 2btube.

“They don’t want to be Hollywood stars when they grow up, they want to be YouTubers. There is this whole other world.”

The new multichannel networks, or MCNs, are talent agents of sorts for creators of videos shared at online venues.

They help creators, often referred to as YouTubers, with video production and promotion along with finding partners or sponsors in return for a percentage of revenue.

Fourquet said popular subjects include music, comedy, sports, video games, fashion and beauty.

She noted that three-quarters of her viewers were younger than 34 years of age, and half were under 25.

“There are very few of us old people,” Fourquet quipped.

World tunes in

Self-described YouTuber Caroline Artiss has been a chef for 20 years, but opted out of restaurants and went to work for herself in catering in 2008.

Then, a friend showed her how simple it was to make videos for YouTube.

“It was just me and a tripod in my kitchen,” Artiss told AFP.

“Then people starting tuning in from all over the world.”

She recounted cooking her way across the United States for a multi-episode show after catching eyes at BBC America and a television network in Malaysia.

Artiss said she approaches her cooking videos from the perspective of a single mom — short on money and time but needing to feed a family.

She was signed on by a video network that describes itself as being tailored for a mobile generation and focused on “tastemakers” sharing passion for food and travel.

“It still blows my mind,” Artiss said.

“I am coming from a single mom, living in London, struggling to pay my bills to having an opportunity to start my own TV channel in a way.”

Artiss teamed with other chefs to open Gorgeous Kitchen restaurant at London Heathrow airport. 

She has a cookbook due out later this year and works with Youth Policy Institute to raise money to get fresh produce to low-income families.

Naturally, she did a video. It can be seen online at app.mobilecause.com/vf/YPIFRESH.

Television tomfoolery

An annual Vidcon gathering in Southern California has become a hot venue for YouTubers to connect with business opportunities and ecstatic fans.

Some 25,000 people were reported to have attended this year’s Vidcon, which took place in June.

“With the onset of digital video platforms and the fact that everyone has a smartphone in their pockets, we have democratised being a creator,” said Paladin co-founder James Creech, whose California company specialises in technology for finding budding stars in a vast universe where anyone can post content online.

“A 17-year-old in his or her own bedroom can compete with the likes of CBS and build an audience that would rival a major media company.”

Keys to hit online videos include being creative and regularly posting content, according to Creech.

Amateurs can outshine polished professional content with authentic connections that make viewers think of them as friends, he said.

“Regular TV is about cartoons and YouTube is about real people and the games I like,” 11-year-old California boy and online video fan Henry Crawford told AFP.

“Television is tomfoolery.”

Paladin indexes millions of channels, providing analytics that can narrow down videos by popularity, topic, language and more.

The YouTube channel with the most subscribers is that of Swedish video maker and comedian PewDiePie, who provides captivating commentary while playing video games.

Hot online video trends include “unboxing”, in which people film themselves or others opening packages with unknown contents.

A popular YouTube channel called Hydraulic Press features videos of things being crushed by just that piece of equipment.

Amazon-owned Twitch announced that it is experimenting with a new “Social Eating” category in which people streaming broadcasts on the service socialise with viewers over meals.

Traditional media companies would be wise to be worried by the trend, according to Creech.

“It’s a huge disruption,” Creech said. “We are in the midst of a revolution in media and it is very exciting.”