Following the introduction of Changin Automobile to the Brunei market, authorised distributor GHK Motors Changan Brunei invited members of the media and influencers to take a closer look and test drive the subcompact sedan, Changan Alsvin, at the Changan Showroom in Sumbangsih Bahagia, Beribi yesterday.
The event saw the media being briefed on available models prior to the test drive, conducted with adherence to the standard operating procedures and health guidelines.
Being committed to bringing ‘dream cars’ to locals who love life with enthusiasm and technology, GHK Motors took pride in bringing the Changan brand to the local consciousness.
Starting with the launch of the Alsvin, GHK Motors hopes to bring the best experiences to local consumers through its beautiful styling and quality but without the premium price tag that normally comes with it.
As the number one automotive brand for the last 10 years in China, Changan Automobile invests five per cent of its annual revenues into research and development, having the best capability in automotive technology which allows them to introduce level three autonomous driving in China.
Under the Changan flagship, there is a wide range of beautifully designed and high-quality sedans, SUVs, MVPs and LCVs, as it is well on its way to electrifying all of its models by next year.
The brand aims to provide high quality products and service to customers to fulfil its mission of “pioneering auto culture and benefit human life” and striving towards its ambitious vision of “building the world’s leading automobile enterprise”.
Changan Alsvin sedans on display at the Changan Showroom in Sumbangsih Bahagia, Beribi. PHOTO: BAHYIAH BAKIR
WASHINGTON (AFP) – From the Mars Ingenuity helicopter’s first powered flight on another world to the launch of the James Webb telescope that will peer into the earliest epoch of the Universe, 2021 was a huge year for humanity’s space endeavors.
Beyond the science milestones, billionaires battled to reach the final frontier first, an all-civilian crew went into orbit, and Star Trek’s William Shatner waxed profound about what it meant to see the Earth from the cosmos, as space tourism finally came into its own.
Here are selected highlights.
RED PLANET ROBOT DUO
NASA’s Perseverance Rover survived its “seven minutes of terror”, a time when the craft relies on its automated systems for descent and landing, to touch down flawlessly on Mars’ Jezero Crater in February.
Since then, the car-sized robot has been taking photos and drilling for samples for its mission: determining whether the Red Planet might have hosted ancient microbial life forms. A rock sample return mission is planned for sometime in the 2030s.
With its state-of-the-art instruments, ‘Percy’, as the helicopter is affectionately known, can also zap Martian rock and chemically analyse the vapour.
The rocket carrying the James Webb telescope launches; and a livestream of the separation in space. PHOTOS: AP
A Soyuz-2.1B rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
Percy has a partner along for the ride: Ingenuity, a two-kilogramme rotorcraft that in April succeeded in the first powered flight on another celestial body, just over a century after the Wright brothers’ achieved the same feat here on Earth, and has performed many more since.
“Perseverance is sort of the flagship mission, it’s doing a long-term detailed investigation of this fascinating area of Mars,” Jonathan McDowall, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP.
By contrast, “Ingenuity, is one of these cute, small, cheap little technology demos that NASA can do so well,” he added.
The insights gained from Ingenuity could help scientists develop Dragonfly, a planned thousand-pound drone copter, to search for signs of life on Saturn’s moon Titan in the mid-2030s.
PRIVATE SPACEFLIGHT TAKES OFF
An American millionaire became the world’s first space tourist in 2001, but it took 20 more years for the promise of private space flight to finally materialise.
In July, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson faced off against Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos to be the first non-professional astronaut to complete a suborbital spaceflight.
While the British tycoon won that battle by a few days, it was Blue Origin that raced ahead, launching three more flights with paying customers and celebrity guests.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX entered the fray in September with a three-day orbital mission around the Earth featuring an all-civilian crew on Inspiration 4.
“It’s really exciting that finally, after so long this stuff is finally happening,” said space industry analyst Laura Seward Forczyk, author of the forthcoming book Becoming Off-Worldly, intended to prepare future space travellers.
But it was William Shatner, who played the swashbuckling Captain Kirk on the 1960s TV series Star Trek who stole the show with a moving account of his experience.
“What you’re looking down on is Mother Earth, and it needs protecting,” he told reporters.
A Russian crew shot the first feature film in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021, and Japanese tourists made their own visit there on a Russian rocket.
For a few minutes on December 11, there were a record 19 humans in space when Blue Origin carried out its third crewed mission, the Japanese team were on the ISS along with its normal crew, and Chinese taikonauts were in position on their station.
The sight of wealthy elites gallivanting in the cosmos hasn’t been to everyone’s liking, however, and the nascent space tourism sector triggered a backlash from some who said there were more pressing issues to face, such as climate change, here on Earth.
GLOBALISATION OF SPACE
During the Cold War, space was dominated by the United States and the former Soviet Union.
Now, in addition to the explosion of the commercial sector, which is sending up satellites at a dizzying pace, China, India and others are increasingly flexing their space flight muscles.
China’s Tiangong (Palace in the Sky) space station – its first long-term outpost – was launched in April, while its first Mars rover, Zhurong, landed in May, making it the only the second country to achieve such an exploit.
“In the past 20 years since China finally decided to go big on space, they’ve been in catch up mode,” said McDowall.
“And now they’re kind of there, and they’re starting to do things that the US hasn’t done.”
The United Arab Emirates placed a probe into Martian orbit in February, becoming the first Arab nation and fifth overall to reach the planet.
Russia meanwhile launched a missile at one of its own satellites, becoming the fourth country to hit a spacecraft from the ground, in a move that reignited concerns about the growing space arms race.
Washington slammed Moscow for its “reckless” test, which generated over 1,500 pieces of large orbital debris, dangerous for low Earth orbit missions such as the ISS.
COMING SOON…
The year closed out with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, a USD10-billion marvel that will make use of infrared technology to peer back 13 billion years in time.
“It’s arguably the most expensive, single scientific platform ever created,” said chief advocate of the Planetary Society Casey Drier.
“To push the boundaries of our knowledge about the cosmos, we had to build something capable of accessing that ancient past,” he added.
It will reach Lagrange Point 2, a space landmark a million miles from Earth, in a matter of weeks, then gradually start up and calibrate its systems, coming online around June.
Also next year, the launch of Artemis 1 – when NASA’s giant Space Launch System (SLS) will carry the Orion capsule to the Moon and back, in preparation for America’s return with humans later this decade.
NASA plans to build lunar habitats and use lessons learned there for forward missions to Mars in the 2030s.
Observers are encouraged that the programme launched by former president Donald Trump has continued under Joe Biden – even if he hasn’t been as vocal in his support.
Finally, sometime next fall, NASA’s DART probe will smash into an asteroid to kick it off course.
The proof-of-concept test is a dry run should humanity ever need to stop a giant space rock from wiping out life on Earth, as seen in Netflix’s new hit film Don’t Look Up.
MIAMI (AP) – The NBA postponed Wednesday’s game between Miami and San Antonio after a combination of injuries and positive COVID-19 tests left the Heat unable to meet the league’s requirement of eight available players.
It was the 10th game postponed in the NBA this season because of virus-related issues. None has been rescheduled at this point.
Miami had 12 players listed as out for the game against the Spurs for a variety of reasons. The Heat beat Washington on Wednesday with eight players available – and of those, only five would have been able to play in San Antonio.
Gabe Vincent, who played 35 minutes in Tuesday’s win, learned after the game that he had a positive test and couldn’t travel. Jimmy Butler was ruled out for Wednesday after spraining his right ankle with about a minute left in the Wizards’ game and KZ Okpala was unable to play because of an injury he sustained on Tuesday as well.
The Heat also added PJ Tucker and and Zylan Cheatham, neither of whom played on Tuesday, to the health and safety protocols. And Tuesday’s game came after Miami guard Max Strus – who had been feeling no symptoms – was pulled after he warmed up, because of a positive test that required him to enter the protocols.
“That’s the perplexing thing about this right now, this variant,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I think we’ve gotten to a point – I’ve said it before – we need more information. Are there more asymptomatic cases? All of this is with the caveat of double vaccination, with a booster and then asymptomatic, what does that mean and what adjustments can we make there? I think it leads to a lot of confusion.”
Miami had tried to get roster help on Wednesday – ironically – from the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate, in part because those players could get to San Antonio relatively quickly and in time to play on Wednesday. Miami was in the process of signing Austin centre Aric Holman to a hardship contract, and it likely will need more reinforcements before its next scheduled game tonight in Houston.
Almost every team in the NBA has been dealing with a virus-related issue in recent days, with 119 players known to be in the protocols by Wednesday evening. That figure, which changes often as players test in and out, does not include coaches, staff and others in the protocols – including referees.
The NBA said on Wednesday that referee Justin Van Duyne had entered protocols, leaving the league with a two-man crew to work the game between Phoenix and Oklahoma City.
CNA – Micron Technology said on Wednesday a COVID-19 lockdown in the Chinese city of Xian would lead to delays in the supply of its DRAM memory chips, which are widely used in data centres.
Micron, one of the world’s biggest memory chip suppliers, said the stringent restrictions, which went into effect earlier this month, may be increasingly difficult to mitigate and had resulted in thinner staffing levels at its manufacturing site.
Chinese officials have imposed curbs on travel within and leaving Xian from December 23, in line with Beijing’s drive to immediately contain outbreaks as they appear.
“We are tapping our global supply chain, including our subcontractor partners, to help service our customers for these DRAM products,” Micron said in a blog post.
“We project that these efforts will allow us to meet most of our customer demand, however there may be some near-term delays as we activate our network,” the company said.
Micron added that it was working to minimise the risk of virus transmission and had employed measures including physical distancing and on-site testing and was encouraging vaccination.
THE WASHINGTON POST – It’s the season for “best” lists, a time that inspires terror in our hearts: Should we focus on the major hits, such as Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, and Naomi Novik’s The Last Graduate, or highlight more obscure works? We’ll try a bit of both.
Silvia: I veer toward horror and fantasy in my reading, so I was surprised when I realised I had read so many science fiction novels this year. Many had an ecological bent, such as Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer. Interestingly enough, I ended the year with a science fiction novel published in 1940s Mexico that seemed to have a great deal in common with VanderMeer’s novel. His Name Was Death, by Rafael Bernal (translated by Kit Schluter in 2021), is the story of a man who flees civilisation in favour of the jungles of Chiapas and learns to communicate with mosquitoes, intent on triggering an apocalypse. Not without its flaws, but interesting as an example of Latin American literature outside of the box of magic realism.
But my favourite science fiction book of the year was Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker, a melancholic tale about a near-future in which a corporation gives a couple a very special creature to raise. The perfect comparative title is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
Another favourite was How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters, a strong collection by Erica L Satifka, one of the brightest science fiction writers today who should be getting more attention.
Lavie: Weirdly, I’ve dipped into horror this year – maybe we’re trading places! I love American gothics, and Walter Goodwater’s The Liar of Red Valley has everything – a little town hiding secrets, an exciting story and creepy creatures galore. Then I went straight to Daryl Gregory’s Revelator, a tale about a strange creature in the Smoky Mountains and the equally weird family of women who serve it. I also liked Gregory’s The Album of Dr Moreau, about a boy band made up of animal-human hybrids.
My top title for science fiction this year has to be Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story of an android servant to a sick girl is surprising and tender, and I never knew where it was going. I came away with a sense that Ishiguro was channelling older science fiction master Clifford Simak, whose robots seem like the spiritual progenitors of Klara in the novel.
And Claire North’s excellent Notes From The Burning Age put me in mind of another classic, A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M Miller Jr.
But there’s been plenty more science fiction worth noting this year. Cassandra Khaw’s debut novel, The All-Consuming World, was ambitious. Stark Holborn hit home with science-fiction western Ten Low. Louise Carey’s debut Inscape is a high octane, cyberpunk-flavoured adventure. Elly Bangs’ Unity will also remind you of classic cyberpunk. Aliya Whiteley, whose collection impressed me earlier this year, continues to dazzle with Skyward Inn. The Cabinet by Un-su Kim is surprising and enchanting. The anthology Sinopticon, edited by Xueting Christine Ni, is superb, and worth it for Han Song’s story, Tombs of the Universe, alone.
Meanwhile Chen Qiufan’s latest project is a big collaboration with computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee called AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, a melding of fiction and fact about our coming artificial intelligence (AI) overlords.
Another hybrid worth noting is Bloomsbury’s Philosophy Through Science Fiction, which collects stories by authors such as Aliette de Bodard and Ken Liu and matches them with essays on philosophy. And my coffee table book of the year has to be the gorgeously illustrated Dangerous Visions and New Worlds, edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre. It’s the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls of science fiction, about the science fiction of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
In fantasy, I liked Sword Stone Table, which collects new Arthurian stories, edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington. But my fantasy book of the year has to be Karin Tidbeck’s weird and magical The Memory Theater, which came out earlier this year to little fanfare.
Silvia: When it comes to fantasy, I’m usually not inclined toward epic narratives, but Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm, with its intricate African-inspired world-building and lush descriptions, is a delightful addition to this genre. But by far my favourite fantasy book of the year is Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang. It’s a beautiful mosaic novel, composed of different entries in a quasi-bestiary.
For horror, aside from Stephen Graham Jones and Grady Hendrix’s latest novels (My Heart is a Chainsaw and The Final Girl Support Group, respectively), there are several smaller press titles worth hunting down: V Castro’s Goddess of Filth (for fans of possession stories), ST Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood (for fans of vampires), Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (for fans of psychological suspense) and Wendy Wagner’s The Secret Skin (for fans of Gothic tales).
What about you, reader? What did you love this year?
UPI – An Indiana library said a book recently arrived in the mail after being checked out from the location more than 53 years earlier.
Joe Sipocz, manager of the St Joseph Public Library’s River Park Branch in South Bend, said a package recently arrived in the mail from the San Bruno Public Library in California and it was found to contain a copy of Sir Gibbie, by Scottish author George MacDonald.
Sipocz said there was no note or other explanation for how the tome ended up at a California library, but inside was a stamp with the River Park Branch’s address and a due date card that said the book had been due back June 21, 1968.
“There was no withdrawal stamp in the book. It was not in a book sale,” Sipocz told the South Bend Tribune.
Sipocz hypothesised the book may have been checked out and then at some point moved cross-country with a former library patron before ending up at the wrong library.
“It was pretty neat, and then after all that was done, I had to go look and see, I thought I had never heard of this book, what is this book? So I looked it up and saw we don’t have any copies anymore, and now we do, or we’re going to have one,” Sipocz told WSBT-TV.
Sipocz estimated the book would have amassed about USD3,800 in late fees at the 15-cent-per-day rate the library charged until the 1990s, but the fine would have been capped at the USD5 cost of the book.
He said the library would not attempt to claim any fines for the tome, as the facility is doing away with late fees on January 1.
Sipocz said the book will likely be given a new barcode and go back into circulation.
Guardian Brunei re-opens its store at The Centrepoint, Gadong today after undergoing a complete revamp, in line with its new store concept.
In celebration of the opening, there will be many exclusive in-store promotions including three packs for BND5 for Guardian Handwash, three packs of Guardian Bodywash for BND9, buy-one-free-one Boditalks lotions, as well as BND10 specials for Kose’s face wash and Garden of Eden’s serums.
Customers can also save 30 per cent off on Japanese and Korean brands such as Kundal, SNP and Mediheal, and receive free gifts of a Kinohimitsu Royal Sweet Potato Sachet and popcorn (while stocks lasts).
There are also lucky draw prizes to be won when shopping at The Centrepoint branch, with a minimum spending of BND20. Lucky winners stand to win multi-functional all-in-one hotpot, steel BBQ grill and roasting pan, Korean style electric grill pan and Yankee candles. All promotions and lucky draw ends on January 16, 2022.
Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health Haji Maswadi bin Haji Mohsin officiates the opening of a Guardian outlet. PHOTO: BAHYIAH BAKIR
MADRID (AFP) – Spain on Wednesday imposed stricter capacity limits on sporting venues as the highly contagious Omicron variant drives record-high coronavirus cases, affecting top football clubs including Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Outdoor stadiums, which previously had no spectator limits, can now use up to 75 per cent of their total capacity, Health Minister Carolina Darias told a press conference.
Indoor venues can use 50 per cent of their capacity instead of 80 per cent and wearing face masks will be compulsory, she added.
The decision comes after La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona on Wednesday said more of their players tested positive as Spain reported a record-high daily COVID case total of 100,760.
Real Madrid’s Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Uruguay midfielder Federico Valverde, French midfielder Eduardo Camavinga and Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior are all infected.
SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia’s former parliament building caught fire during a rights protest yesterday, officials said, with the flames causing limited damage.
The blaze occurred when police broke up a traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony by activists at the building’s entrance.
The Canberra building was home to the country’s federal parliament from 1927 to 1988 and now houses the Museum of Australian Democracy.
The museum said in a statement that it is “closed until further notice while we address fire damage caused by protesters today”.
There was no immediate news about the extent of the damage, but images showed flames and smoke coming from wooden double-doors at the building’s entrance.
The vast majority of the edifice remained untouched, and the blaze was said to have been quickly extinguished.
TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s imperial family is facing extinction due to a shortage of eligible emperors, but some experts said the ideas floated in a government inquiry for boosting the dwindling number of royals are out of touch.
With women barred from the throne under male-only succession rules, the place of Emperor Naruhito, 61, will one day be filled by his nephew Prince Hisahito instead of his only child Princess Aiko.
But if 15-year-old Hisahito does not have a son, the royal family, whose history dates back more than 2,600 years, will run out of male heirs to continue the bloodline.
Polls show the public broadly supports the idea of a woman taking the role of emperor – one that holds no political power under Japan’s post-World War II constitution but carries huge symbolic importance.
However, pressure to stick to long-held tradition from conservative lawmakers and voters, who revere the royals as the perfect example of a patriarchal Japanese family, makes female succession unlikely any time soon.
Officials are brainstorming possible solutions to the dilemma, and last week a specially commissioned panel submitted two suggestions to the government.
Japan’s former princess Mako Komuro and her husband Kei Komuro at the start of a press conference at the Grand Arc Hotel in Tokyo. PHOTOS: AFP
One is to allow royal women to keep their title and public duties when they wed outside the family. Currently, they must leave the family, as former princess Mako Komuro did in October after marrying her university sweetheart.
The second is to allow men from 11 former branches of the royal family abolished in post-war reforms to “rejoin” the direct line through adoption.
The panel’s report recommends that male lineage rules are preserved at least until Prince Hisahito becomes emperor.
But its ideas are “not at all based on the current family system in Japan or ideas about gender equality”, history professor at Chuo University in Tokyo Makoto Okawa told AFP.
“I think the public is wondering what’s wrong with Princess Aiko succeeding the throne,” said Okawa, who researches the imperial system.
Although traditionalists said Japan should not sever the “unbroken imperial line”, their logic is flawed, Okawa argued, because Aiko – who turned 20 this year – is both the emperor’s direct descendent and older than her cousin Hisahito.
Associate professor of Japanese history at Nagoya University Hideya Kawanishi warned that the panel’s proposals “will not solve the problem fundamentally”.
Some married women might not want to live a restricted royal life, while the adoption of male family members who grew up as regular citizens would be complicated, he said.
The issue has been debated for years – after Aiko was born, a government panel concluded in 2005 that imperial succession should be decided in order of age and not gender.
However, these discussions lost momentum after Hisahito’s birth in 2006, meaning the male bloodline could continue.
The latest panel report said it was necessary to discuss possible changes to succession rules in the future but, unlike in 2005, did not use the words “female emperor”.
This means that for the wives of male royals like Hisahito, “there will be pressure to conceive boys to keep the line going”, Kawanishi said. Royal women have long walked a difficult path in Japan.
Naruhito’s wife Masako, a former high-flying diplomat, struggled for years with a stress-related illness after joining the household, which some have put down to the pressure of producing a male heir.
Younger royals are also held to exacting standards. Mako and her husband Kei Komuro, both 30, were plagued by tabloid gossip over allegations that Kei’s family had run into financial difficulties, leading the former princess to develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
An empress is not an alien concept in Japan.
There have been as many as eight empresses throughout history, although their rule has often been temporary. The last, Gosakuramachi, was on the throne about 250 years ago.
The divine status of the imperial family was renounced after World War II following Japan’s militaristic sweep across Asia in the name of Emperor Hirohito.
Since 1947, royal succession has been dictated by the Imperial Household Law, and issues surrounding it remain a delicate topic tightly bound with ideas of national identity.
Nowadays, politicians are “scared of changing the system” while they are in office, Kawanishi said.
But after Mako’s wedding garnered huge attention, one way the debate could be pushed forward is “if the public becomes more interested in the subject, and pushes for discussions”, he said.
