Archive for October 4th, 2016
Exploring the Life of Nikola Tesla
Meet the William Shakespeare of science. (Electricity)
Along with Sabbah
Most powerful women Engineers in 2016
Nearly every element of our modern lives is a result of the work done by some engineer: running water, electricity, and the internet, as well as our buildings, cars, phones, computers, televisions — even our dating apps.
By Julie Bort. Feb. 24 2016
Humanity’s engineering feats are pretty astounding when you take a minute to think about them.
As February 21 to 27 is National Engineer’s Week, it’s a good time to ponder these wonders.
engineering has historically been an inhospitable profession for women. The industry is trying to change that, and while you can argue that it isn’t making enough progress, one thing is true: Many women did shrug off the haters and pursued their passion to build stuff anyway.
And they found themselves in fabulous careers.
it’s time for a shout-out to the female engineers with powerful careers who are leading important technologies at their companies or being pioneers in other ways.
No. 26: Intel’s Sumita Basu
Sumita Basu is a strategist and technical assistant to the Intel general manager running the technical group for client computing.
She’s been with Intel since 2002 with increasing responsibilities. In her last gig with the company, she oversaw the equipment installation for Intel factories worldwide — a huge job.
For her PhD, she did experiments with the International Space Station.
One of Basu’s most impressive accomplishments is that she invented the world’s first lead-free patterning process, allowing Intel to become the first chip company in the world to limit the use of that toxic substance in its manufacturing processes.
No. 25: Western New England University’s Heidi Ellis
Heidi Ellis is a professor of computer science and information technology at Western New England University.
In addition to teaching college students how to code, she has been a contributor to many important open-source projects for more than a decade.
She’s one of the founding members of the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS), where students write free, open-source software for projects that improve the human condition, such as apps that help during natural disasters and track disease outbreaks.
Ellis is a founding member of a project called Foss2Serve, which helps encourage more students to participate in HFOSS by educating professors on it. She’s also working with Red Hat to expand its Professors’ Open Source Software Experience, encouraging more professors to teach open-source coding.
No. 24: BofA’s Jennifer Braganza
Jennifer Braganza
Jennifer Braganza is a business-strategy manager at Bank of America running a federal compliance-training program that affects 40,000 employees.
She has also overseen other projects at BofA, some of which have affected millions of customers.
Braganza’s skill is to bring her training in multiple forms of engineering to complex business projects. She has undergrad degrees in chemical engineering and industrial and operations engineering. Plus, she has two master’s degrees in engineering from two different universities.
When not orchestrating complicated projects for BofA involving millions of people, she’s working with the animal-welfare organization she founded, Play with Purpose Pet Academy & Rescue.
No. 23: Bohemia Interactive Simulations’ Eva Saravia
Eva Saravia
Eva Saravia is vice president of global programs at Bohemia Interactive Simulations, a company that helps train military forces worldwide through simulation programs.
BIS’s simulation software is like a video game, only it’s not about pretending to kill zombies, but training real soldiers to face real combat situations. The company recently scored a $12.3 million, five-year contract from the US Marines and counts military organizations in the UK and Australia as customers, too.
Saravia came to BIS from Northrop Grumman, and is the company’s only female senior executiv
Globally ranks 3rd in debt, plummets in health and education: Lebanon
• October 1, 2016
Tonnie Ch and Ziad Abi Chaker shared Newsroom Nomad link.
Lebanon continues to struggle with seemingly endless crises, presidential and waste management included, leading to a significant drop in health and education.
This as the country’s debt continues to rise, ranking 3rd globally after Japan and Greece.
As for the most problematic factors causing the decline? Corruption comes at number one, followed by government instability, inadequate supply of infrastructure, inefficient government bureaucracy, and policy instability among other things.
How will this reflect on the newly implemented health scheme? Is the status quo sustainable? More details inside.
#NewsroomNomad #Lebanon #Health #Education #Corruption #Debt
Out of 138 countries included in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Report, released this week, the country came out at the 101st spot, ahead of only three Arab countries, Egypt (115), Mauritania (137) and Yemen (138).
The Bader Young Entrepreneurs Program, the group in charge of listing Lebanon in the WEF’s report, lamented the results, asking: “Isn’t it catastrophic to see the ranking of Lebanon in health and primary education going from 30 in 2014 to 52 in 2015?”
“Lebanon [which] has always been considered a reference in higher education and training in the region is down to position 66 this year. It is now clear that our political and economic deadlocks are starting to structurally impact our society and the health of our new generations.”
Our debt is also a matter of great concern with the debt-to-GDP ratio –an indication of the ability of a country to pay back its debts without incurring further liabilities– rising.
According to the Global Competitive Survey Lebanon came out third after Japan and Greece with a 139.1% debt-to-GDP ratio.
In July, Moody’s rating agency warned of the growing public debt in Lebanon as a major source of credit risk for Lebanese banks.
In fact almost all international rating agencies have repeatedly warned that Lebanese banks are becoming more vulnerable to unfavorable conditions.
Successive governments continue to tap into the local market and Lebanese banks to finance the public debt, which is now estimated at over $71 billion.
As for the most problematic factors causing the decline? Well, corruption comes at number one, followed by government instability, inadequate supply of infrastructure, inefficient government bureaucracy, and policy instability among other things.
These reports come at a time when Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced that starting October 1st, every Lebanese citizen above 64 years of age will be entitled to 100% medical coverage, designating $11.3 million from the annual budget for said plan.
But no details have yet emerged on how the new health scheme will survive throughout the years in light of the rising debt and the country’s ailing public hospitals that struggle to pay their staff, and of course the rise in pollution.
1,816 deaths related to air pollution were registered in Lebanon in 2013 alone according to The World Bank, prior to the garbage crisis of 2015-2016, which saw a spike in open waste incineration.
New studies by the American University of Beirut predict a much worse outcome as indicated in the below report, which unfortunately includes a widely shared yet false Numbeo “study”. (Where are the news editors?)
Whether the health scheme is viable or not is a matter that remains to be seen, as are the plans announced by the Ministry of Education that aim to incorporate more Syrian children into the school system as well as open 60 schools for children with special needs.
Are these schemes sustainable in light of rampant corruption?
Is it a matter pertaining to country’s growing reliance on international donors? Only time will tell.
Note: There are many resources that the government refuse to tap into, and related to the elite class who ravaged public property and transform it as a private belonging, especially along all the sea shore.
Adonis Diaries 