africa – Page 4 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Report Captures Picture of Global Opportunity Divide for Largest Youth Population in History

By Guest PostMarch 27, 2012Technologyafrica, brazil, britain works, cape town, eastern daylight time, employment, global, imagine cup, international youth foundation, iyf, iyf program, jobs, mexican youths, Microsoft, monica njau, naadiya moosajee, nairobi, ngos, opportunity for action, planet, sawomeng, Science, South Africa, sub-saharan, Technology, Thailand, the atlantic, william reese, youths echo

*Youths echo findings from International Youth Foundation report, which urges actions to help young people succeed.*

REDMOND, Wash. — March 27, 2012 — The numbers are staggering: Our planet has the largest youth population ever, with more than 1 billion people aged 15 to 24, and the figure is racing to 1.5 billion by 2035, according to “Opportunity for Action,” a new report being released today from the International Youth Foundation (IYF). The report shows that while some youths are succeeding, millions of others are not because they don’t have access to the necessary education, skills and opportunities.

Microsoft commissioned the “Opportunity for Action” report to bring attention to the urgency of the global youth opportunity divide — the gap between those who have access to a good education and the technology, skills and connections to be successful, and those who do not. No region of the world escapes the unsettling picture captured by the report. In Brazil, approximately 40 percent of firms have difficulty finding qualified staff to fill job vacancies due to low-quality education. In Asia, 70 percent of working youths are engaged in the agricultural sector, where jobs are seasonal and offer no protections or access to safety nets. And in sub-Saharan Africa, youths are grossly under-employed, leaving 72 percent of young people living on less than two dollars per day. (more…)

Mapping Tool Analyzes How Climate Change, Conflict and Aid Intersect in Africa

By Guest PostMarch 3, 2012Environmentafrica, aiddata, austin, brigham young university, ccaps data, climate change, dynamic mapping tool, dynamics, francis j gavin, ken lipenga, malawi, minerva initiative, patterns of conflict, policymakers, stability in africa, university of texas, world bank

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers have developed a new dynamic mapping tool that will help policymakers and other groups determine a country’s vulnerabilities to climate change and conflicts and show how these two issues intersect in Africa.

The pilot version of the tool was released this month by the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at The University of Texas at Austin and additional data tools are expected to come online starting this spring. (more…)

Microsoft Employees Give Back in Record Fashion

By Guest PostFebruary 8, 2012Technologyafrica, akhtar badshah, art with heart, arthritis foundation, big sister, community affairs, crissy house, digigirlz, economic environment, giving campaign, habitat for humanity, joe michaels, lisa brummel, lucky strike lanes in bellevue, marathon, Microsoft, microsoft employees, ms walk, sql server, united states

*Microsoft’s U.S.-based employees helped raise over US$100 million for thousands of nonprofits during the 2011 Microsoft Giving Campaign, the largest total in company history.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft employees raised a record-breaking US$100.5 million in 2011, topping last year’s total with donations to more than 18,000 community organizations across the United States and around the world.

Giving was up across the board in 2011—more employees participated, donating more time and money than ever before, which surprised some after 2010’s record year. (more…)

Examining The Changing Face of Christianity

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2011Cultureafrica, anthropologist, asia, chaplains in guatemala, charismatic christianity, China, christianity, christians, diversity, downtown toronto, Europe, faith, girish daswani, god, ju hui judy han, kevin o neill, korean missionaries, latin america, nigeria, North America, north korea, pamela klassen, pentecostal christianity, pentecostalism, politics of global christianity, rural villages, ruth marshall, simon coleman, social process, spiritual warriors, university of toronto, valentina napolitano

U of T leading centre for study of global Christianity

A century ago, 80 per cent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe and North America; today, nearly 70 per cent live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, making Christianity a predominantly non-Western religion.

A critical mass of scholars who are looking into the implications of this shift has made the University of Toronto a leading centre for the study of global Christianity.

Christianity today has more than 2.2 billion adherents worldwide. The majority are overwhelmingly poor, displaced from rural villages into overcrowded cities in search of work, and adhere strictly to the word of Scripture, which can command their loyalty far more than state or society. (more…)

Jeopardy! Winnings Spur IBM and Scripps Research Institute Collaboration to Fight Against Malaria

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2011Science, Technologyafrica, alex l perryman, asia, clean water techniques, critical to human health, drug resistant strains, economic distress, go fight against malaria, hiv, human competitors, ibm, jeopardy game, malaria, mike pique, multi drug resistant aids, plasmodium falciparum, renewable energy materials, ruth huey, sargis dallakyan, scripps research institute, south america, stefano forli, subhash sinha, supercomputer of the people, watson computing system, world community grid, world health organization

*Project to use 2 million PCs to crunch numbers, compress 100 years of research into just one*

LA JOLLA, CA and ARMONK, NY – IBM’s Watson computing system broke new ground earlier this year when it defeated two celebrated human competitors on the Jeopardy! game show. Now, The Scripps Research Institute is hoping to do something equally novel but more critical to human health with part of the prize money from that tournament: Find a cure for drug-resistant malaria. And it’s asking for the public’s help.

To that end, Scripps Research and IBM are encouraging anyone in the world with a personal computer to join World Community Grid, a sort of “supercomputer of the people” that will crunch numbers and perform simulations for “GO Fight Against Malaria”—the project that Scripps Research and IBM have launched at https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org. (more…)

Dr. Livingstone’s Lost 1871 ‘Massacre’ Diary Recovered; Discovery Rewrites History

By Guest PostNovember 3, 2011Culture, General1874, account of a massacre, adrian wisnicki, africa, arab slavers, birkbeck, british academy, british government, central africa, congolese village, david livingstone, doug emery, east african slave trade, eastern democratic republic of congo, evening standard, expedition, henry m stanley, horace waller, imperialist in africa, indiana university of pennsylvania, ink from berry seeds, keith knox, livingstone 1871 field diary, london standard, mike toth, national hero, new york herald, nyangwe, original diary, roger l easton jr, slave trade, spectral imaging, the last journals of david livingstone, the unspeakable horror, ucla, united states, university of london, victorian explorer

In Africa 140 years ago, David Livingstone, the Victorian explorer, met Henry M. Stanley of the New York Herald and gave him a harrowing account of a massacre he witnessed, in which slave traders slaughtered 400 innocent people. Stanley’s press reports prompted the British government to close the East African slave trade, secured Livingstone’s place in history and launched Stanley’s own career as an imperialist in Africa.

Today, an international team of scholars and scientists led by Dr. Adrian Wisnicki of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, publishes the results of an 18-month project to recover Livingstone’s original account of the massacre. The story, found in a diary that was illegible until it was restored with advanced digital imaging, offers a unique insight into Livingstone’s mind during the greatest crisis of his last expedition, on which he would die in 1873. (more…)

CT Study of Early Humans Reveals Evolutionary Relationships

By Guest PostSeptember 20, 2011Sciencea africanus, a boisei, a robustus, africa, anatomy of the face, anterior pillars, australopithecus, bony columns, brian villmoare, classic evolutionary puzzle, convergence, ct scans, east africa, facial features, fossil skull, hollow columns of bone, key ancestor of modern humans, parallel evolution, South Africa, william kimbel

CT scans of fossil skull fragments may help researchers settle a long-standing debate about the evolution of Africa’s Australopithecus, a key ancestor of modern humans that died out some 1.4 million years ago.

The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how CT scans shed new light on a classic evolutionary puzzle by providing crucial information about the internal anatomy of the face. (more…)

Hyenas’ Ability to Count Helps Them Decide to Fight or Flee

By Guest PostAugust 23, 2011Nature, Scienceafrica, animal behaviour, beacon researcher, chimpanzees, evolution of big brains, kay holekamp, Kenya, lions, michigan state university, sarah benson amram, sean dryer, spotted hyenas, study of evolution in action, virginia heinen, zoology

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Being able to count helps spotted hyenas decide to fight or flee, according to research at Michigan State University.

When animals fight, the larger group tends to win. In the current issue of Animal Behaviour, Sarah Benson-Amram, an MSU graduate student studying zoology, showed that hyenas listen to the sound of intruders’ voices to determine who has the advantage. (more…)

Tag Archives: africa