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Outward Bound Oman
Tahaddi Extreme kicks
off tomorrow |
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Eight young people from the Sultanate have
been selected for
an epic 100km challenge through the Rub Al Khali this month |
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Approaching the
summit
of high dune in Oman |
View looking
north from
the summit of the third
highest dune in Oman |
Scorpions will be
ever
present companions
throughout the journey |
Tahaddi Extreme
kicks off tomorrow |
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Outward
Bound Oman/Tahaddi, the country’s leading personal development organisation
yesterday revealed details of their latest challenge for Omani youth. Since
running its first course in October 2009, Outward Bound has organised ten
courses for young people from government and international schools on Al
Jabal al Akdhar and in the deserts of Al Abyad and Sharqiya, in addition to
running teambuilding courses for leading organisations in the corporate
sector such as Standard Chartered Bank.
On Monday, January 11, the next course is due to begin. Supported by MB
Holdings, Oman Mobile and Omantel, a team of eight young people will
assemble at Haima, in Al Wusta region, to attempt a 100 km journey on foot
through the Rub Al Khali, with the aim of reaching the summit of the third
highest sand dune in Oman. The Rub Al Khali is considered to be the largest
sand desert on earth, where temperatures in the summer reach 55 degrees
Celsius, but in winter drop to near freezing.
The challenge, which may last for up to ten days, will use the outdoor
environment to physically and mentally challenge the young participants and
help them develop key life skills sought by employers. Eight young people
have been selected from numerous applicants; Abad al Habsi from Muscat,
Shabib al Balushi from Seeb, Assad al Balushi from Seeb, Hamad al Thahli
from Bilad Sayt, Mohammed al Habsi from Buraimi, Ayman al Riyami from Nizwa,
Said al Balushi from Sur and Saif al Mamry from Rustaq will all have to draw
upon their teamwork, initiative, communication and perseverance skills to
succeed and reach their goal.
Joining the team will be leading Lonely Planet photographer Phil Weymouth
from Bahrain, and, fresh back from an expedition to the Amazon jungle, video
producer Jacki Hill-Smith from the UK. The journey will be led by Outward
Bound Oman instructor Mohammed al Zadjali. At the end of each day’s journey,
the team will send an update and images to the media via a satellite
connection, enabling people to follow their progress. The daily updates will
be posted onto the website www.outwardboundoman.com, where the public will
also have an opportunity to send messages of encouragement to the team.
Mark Evans, General Manager of Outward Bound Oman, said: “There is a
tremendous appetite amongst young people here in Oman to do something like
this. On all of our courses the young people have welcomed the opportunity
to get something different onto their CV, and to make the most of an
opportunity to challenge themselves, and step out of their comfort zones.
The young people on this course are outstanding individuals, all of whom
have the potential to become effective leaders in the future.
These young people are normal individuals who have grasped the opportunity
to do something out of the ordinary, and they are outstanding role models
for society.” Outward Bound Oman is a not-for-profit educational initiative
dedicated to using the outdoors to develop the life skills of young people
in Oman. It was set up in May 2009 by the founding partners BG Oman, Denton
Wilde Sapte, Shell and Suhail Bahwan. More information on the Tahaddi
Extreme project, including the team members, can be found at
www.outwardboundoman.com
The Outward Bound Oman/Tahaddi initiative is a first for the Middle East
region, recognising the importance of training and development for local
people, and supporting the commitment by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, to
develop the nation’s human resources in accordance with Oman’s Vision 2020. |
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Omani national -
Nabil al Busaidy,
who made history on April 29, 2009, when he became the first Arab to walk to
the magnetic North Pole, takes on the mighty Kilimanjaro in Africa on his
latest adventure |
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On the roof of
Africa |
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‘I know that I
must do what is right, As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the
Serengeti’
— Lyrics from “Africa” by Toto |
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In
fact, Kili rises a lot further than Olympus,
and at 5,895m is almost 3,000 meters higher. It is the highest mountain on
the African continent, but as an extinct volcano with a gentle gradient, it
is also the highest mountain in the world that you can ascend without doing
any mountaineering! And so, just before Christmas, my brother and I set off
for Tanzania, aiming to achieve what apparently 50 per cent of people who
attempt it, can’t do…reach the summit at Uhuru Peak.
The difficulty in climbing Kilimanjaro can be distilled into two similar
words…altitude and attitude. A lot of failures are a result of fatigue or
altitude sickness due to the thin air, but been more are a result of
tourists on holiday, who underestimate the task, and are unaware or
unwilling to suffer the discomfort and strenuous effort required. Many of
these will give up one or two days into the trek to continue their holiday
in comfort…and I don’t blame them!
When deciding to go, there are 2 decisions to make. Which route to take, and
which guide company to use. The rule, as with most mountains, is that a
local mountain guide must accompany any climber, and so there are hundreds
of guides, and companies to choose from. Some will provide porters to carry
your bags, and chefs to cook your food, and others will just provide the
guide, and as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.
There are also several routes, namely, Marangu, Rongai, Lemosho, Shira,
Umbwe and Machame. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. I settled on
the Machame route for one simple reason. It had the highest success rate.
The profile of the Machame route meant we had to spend more time at
altitude, which meant more time to acclimatise. And this was the biggest
factor in my mind. The endurance required was never a doubt in my mind, as I
have done much longer and tougher, and the cold at the summit wasn’t a
factor as it was unlikely to compare to the North Pole. But how I would cope
with the thin air above 3,000m was an unknown, and therefore a concern.
The other concern was my brother. He had never done anything like this
before, so everything would be a steep learning curve for him, from walking
several hours a day, to sleeping in a tent. But the one thing he had
abundance of was attitude. Two days into the trek he got mild food poisoning
and was very sick. He was in a lot of pain, and had a fever, but he stumbled
along for 9 hours, never giving up. I was with him every step of the way,
mentally pulling or pushing him the whole way, but apart from the occasional
assistance, it was all his own work. And he has every reason to be proud of
his perseverance and accomplishment. After those two days of illness, I knew
he would have no problem getting to the top.
After 5 days trekking, we reached Barafu camp, which was our last stop
before our summit attempt. We went to bed early to be woken just before
midnight. In pitch black, we followed our guide and the tens of twinkling
lights from the head torches of all the other climbers also making their way
to Uhuru. This was actually the only time that I got into real trouble, and
it was due to the cold, something I had been complacent about. During the
trek to the North Pole, I had developed a cold injury on my left big toe,
and twice on the climb up, I had to stop and revive it, for fear of losing
it to frostbite.
But 8 hours after setting out, we were on the roof of Africa, and it was a
great moment for everyone there. People who were in agony moments earlier
were all laughs and smiles as they took photos. And no one enjoyed their
triumph more than my brother, who really had to dig deep into his reserves
of willpower to make it through the second and third day.
And as for me…well, my mind was never on Kilimanjaro...it was firmly fixed
on Mount Vinson in the Antarctic. This trip was never really my goal, only a
stepping stone in my preparation for a mountain that less than 1,400 people
have ever climbed, roughly half the number that has climbed Mount
Everest…but for a few moments, it was good to relax and savour our triumph
on the roof of Africa. |
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Tales of great Amazon
civilisation true |
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Huge geometrical
mounds in jungle suggest
an ancient culture to rival the Aztecs |
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It is
the legend that drew legions of explorers and
adventurers to their deaths: an ancient empire of citadels and treasure
hidden deep in the Amazon jungle. Spanish conquistadores ventured into the
rainforest seeking fortune, followed over the centuries by others convinced
they would find a lost civilisation to rival the Aztecs and Incas.
Some seekers called it El Dorado, others the City of Z. But the jungle
swallowed them and nothing was found, prompting the rest of the world to
call it a myth. The Amazon was too inhospitable, said 20th century scholars,
to permit large human settlements.
Now, however, the doomed dreamers have been proved right:
there was a great civilisation. New
satellite imagery & fly-overs |
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have revealed more than
200 huge geometric earthworks carved in the upper Amazon basin near Brazil’s
border with Bolivia. Spanning 155 miles, the circles, squares and other
geometric shapes form a network of avenues, ditches and enclosures built
long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the new world. Some date to as
early as 200 AD, others to 1283. Scientists who have mapped the earthworks
believe there may be another 2,000 structures beneath the jungle canopy,
vestiges of vanished societies.
The structures, many of which have been revealed by the clearance of forest
for agriculture, point to a “sophisticated pre-Columbian monument-building
society”, says the journal Antiquity, which has published the research. The
article adds: “This hitherto unknown people constructed earthworks of
precise geometric plan connected by straight orthogonal roads. The ‘geoglyph
culture’ stretches over a region more than 250km across, and exploits both
the floodplains and the uplands ... we have so far seen no more than a tenth
of it.”
The structures were created by a network of trenches about 11 metres wide
and several feet deep, lined by banks up to a metre high. Some were ringed
by low mounds containing ceramics, charcoal and stone tools. It is thought
they were used for fortifications, homes and ceremonies, and could have
maintained a population of 60,000 — more people than in many medieval
European cities. The discoveries have demolished ideas that soils in the
upper Amazon were too poor to support extensive agriculture, says Denise
Schaan, a co-author of the study and anthropologist at the Federal
University of Para, in Belem, Brazil. She told National Geographic: “We
found this picture is wrong. And there is a lot more to discover in these
places, it’s never-ending. Every week we find new structures.”
Many of the mounds were symmetrical and slanted to the north, prompting
theories that they had astronomical significance. Researchers were
especially surprised that earthworks in floodplains and uplands were of a
similar style, suggesting they were all built by the same culture. “In
Amazonian archaeology you always have this idea that you find different
peoples in different ecosystems,” said Schaan. “So it was odd to have a
culture that would take advantage of different ecosystems and expand over
such a large region.” The first geometric shapes were spotted in 1999 but it
is only now, as satellite imagery and felling reveal sites, that the scale
of the settlements is becoming clear.
Some anthropologists say the feat, requiring sophisticated engineering,
canals and roads, rivals Egypt’s pyramids. The findings follow separate
discoveries further south, in the Xingu region, of interconnected villages
known as “garden cities”. Dating between 800 and 1600, they included houses,
moats and palisades. “These revelations are exploding our perceptions of
what the Americas really looked liked before the arrival of Christopher
Columbus,” said David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z, a book about an
attempt in the 1920s to find signs of Amazonian civilizations.
“The discoveries are challenging long-held assumptions about the Amazon as a
Hobbesian place where only small primitive tribes could ever have existed,
and about the limits the environment placed on the rise of early
civilisations.” They are also vindicating, said Grann, Percy Fawcett, the
Briton who led the expedition to find the City of Z. Fawcett’s party
vanished, bequeathing a mystery and partly inspiring Conan Doyle’s book The
Lost World. Many scientists saw the jungle as too harsh to sustain anything
but small nomadic tribes. Now it seems the conquistadores who spoke of
“cities that glistened in white” were telling the truth. They, however,
probably also introduced the diseases that wiped out the native people,
leaving the jungle to claim — and hide — all trace of their civilisation. |
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Charlie Chaplin to be animated
star |
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By Phil Hazlewood in Mumbai
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Charlie
Chaplin is to be brought to life as a cartoon
character via an Indian-French collaboration that will see the legendary
British comedian featured in an animated television series. DQ
Entertainment, an animation and special effects firm based in the southern
city of Hyderabad, says it is to reproduce the entertainer’s slapstick in 3D
and computer-generated images for television.
The 11.5-million-dollar project is a joint venture with French media groups
Method Animation and MK2, according to the companies. Further details were
set to be announced by DQ Entertainment at a press conference in Mumbai on
Friday. DQ and Method Animation will make a total of 104 six-minute episodes
in India and France, Method’s chairman Aton Soumache said in Paris last
November.
The animated shorts — aimed at children aged six and above — will not have
any dialogue and are set to hit screens from early next year. “We’ve been
working for more than a year on the graphics concept to find an original way
of adapting Chaplin’s world,” said Soumache. “It won’t be a realistic
portrayal but more like a puppet in an offbeat universe. We’ll put him in
modern situations but at the same keeping his poetic, child-like view of the
world with a retro feel.”
The episodes have been inspired by sketches and gags culled from some 70
short films made by Chaplin involving his trademark bowler-hatted vagabond
character sporting a toothbrush moustache, ill-fitting suit and twirling
cane. But there will also be original content, Soumache added. London-born
Chaplin, who died in 1977, is recognised as one of the most influential and
recognisable comic actors & directors of the silent film period.
His most famous works include The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City
Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940).
Discussions are ongoing to show the series in France from 2011 as well as in
Britain and Germany, Soumache said. DQ Entertainment has worked with a
number of high-profile studios and |
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production houses,
including Nickelodeon, The Disney Group, Cartoon Network and a host of
international broadcasters. The Indian firm has a 20 per cent stake in
Method and has previously worked with them on computer-animated adaptations
of French children’s classics Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) and Le
Petit Nicolas (Little Nicolas).
MK2 is one of France’s biggest independent film companies and owns the
international rights to the Chaplin films, which it has restored and
reissued on DVD and in cinemas. The Chaplin estate gave its permission for
the project, which MK2 hopes will allow new generations to discover the
comic genius. India’s Business Standard newspaper said on Thursday that
funds for the projects will be raised by a share offering from DQ
Entertainment. The financial daily said DQ hoped to raise 1.5 billion rupees
by divesting nearly 25 per cent of the company’s equity in an initial public
offering.
An additional 620 million rupees would be raised from internal sources and
bank loans, it added. Animation and special effects have become a growth
market in India, as the domestic film industry, including Bollywood, turns
to more modern production methods. The trend has led to the creation of a
number of specialist companies, who are being increasingly used by Hollywood
and other foreign studios because of their lower costs. Home-grown
computer-generated television series based on Hindu epics like Ramayana and
The Mahabharat have proved popular.
Disney worked with India’s Yash Raj Films last year on a full-length
animation feature, Roadside Romeo, although the movie flopped at the box
office. India’s animation and special effects industry is expected to be
worth 23.3 billion rupees this year and is expected to grow to 39.4 billion
rupees by 2013, consultants KPMG said last year. — AFP |
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Each pound at birth
lowers risk of developing TB |
The
more a newborn weighs, the better its chances
of being protected from tuberculosis (TB), according to a new study that
says that every pound decreases the risk of developing the disease later in
life. University of Michigan (U-M) researchers looked at how much protection
additional birth weight adds against developing TB years later. They found
that every 1.1 pound of birth weight decreases the risk of developing TB
later by 46 per cent among identical twins.
The findings are important because TB infects about a third of the planet’s
population, and is second only to HIV in deaths caused by a single
infection. The link between birth weight and developing TB is much stronger
for males than females, who are only about 16 per cent less likely to
develop TB for every 1.1 pound (500 grams) of birth weight, said Eduardo
Villamor, study author. Villamor, associate professor at the U-M School of
Public Health, said the risk decreased by 87 per cent for infant males with
each pound.
Low birth weight of babies is a larger problem in developing countries, but
it occurs everywhere, he said, according to a U-M release. Villamor worked
with colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and began the research
while at Harvard. The study is slated for publication in the February
edition of Infectious Disease. |
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Beware of
kitchen spoons when administering syrups |
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Beware
of innocuous kitchen spoons — they can be unwittingly dangerous, especially
when administering liquid medicine. Former cold and flu sufferers were asked
to pour one teaspoon of nighttime flu medicine into kitchen spoons of
differing sizes. Depending upon the size of the spoon, 195 former patients
poured an average of eight percent too little or 12 per cent too much
medicine. “When pouring into a medium-size tablespoon, participants
under-dosed.
But when using a larger spoon, they poured too much medicine,” said Brian
Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, who led the study.
“Twelve percent more may not sound like a lot, but this goes on every four
to eight hours, for up to four days,” Wansink explained. “So, it really adds
up to the point of ineffectiveness or even danger.” In his book Mindless
Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Wansink shows how smaller plates can
unknowingly decrease how much people eat, and how taller glasses can
decrease the amount of alcohol poured by even expert bartenders.
“Simply put, we cannot always trust our ability to estimate amounts,” said
study co-author, Koert van Ittersum, marketing assistant professor at
Georgia Tech. “In some cases it may not be important, but when it comes to
the health of you or your child, it is vital to make an accurate
measurement,” added Ittersum. Wansink and van Ittersum recommend using a
proper device — a measuring cap or dropper, or dosing spoon or syringe — to
measure liquid medicine, says a Cornell release. These findings were
published in the January issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. |
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