Al Jazeera Should and Must Continue
The demand by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain to shut down Al Jazeera does not fall under any rational thoughts. It’s an absurd demand. (more…)
Tag Archives: egypt
For archaeologists, Middle East conflicts create ‘perfect sandstorm’ of challenges
Conflicts in the Middle East have made archaeological work increasingly difficult, but the work must go on, scholars said at a recent conference organized with the help of the Oriental Institute.
The task of digging ancient sites and studying artifacts always has been historically challenging, but recent regime changes and civil war further burden scholars who must maneuver through national bureaucracies and forge relationships for help. “By any stretch of the imagination, work during the last four years has become particularly difficult,” said Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute. (more…)
Surviving and thriving under climate change in the world’s deltas
Researchers from the University of Exeter are investigating the effect of climate change on deltas in South Asia and Africa to understand how people will respond and adapt.
Deltas are economic and environmental hotspots, with many large deltas in South, South-East and East Asia and Africa. The new $13 million project examines four deltas that are home to almost 200 million people, many of whom are farmers who provide food for a large proportion of the population.
The project will work with scientists, demographers and social scientists in the Nile delta in Egypt, the Ganges-Brahmaputra in Bangladesh and India, the Mahanadi in India and the Volta in Ghana. (more…)
World’s oldest weather report could revise Bronze Age chronology
An inscription on a 3,500-year-old stone block from Egypt may be one of the world’s oldest weather reports—and could provide new evidence about the chronology of events in the ancient Middle East.
A new translation of a 40-line inscription on the 6-foot-tall calcite block called the Tempest Stela describes rain, darkness and “the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses.” (more…)
Report shows lack of knowledge about World War One’s global impact
A widespread lack of understanding of the global scale and impact of the First World War has been revealed in a new report. Research by the British Council in the UK and six other countries shows that knowledge of the conflict – which began 100 years ago – is largely limited to the fighting on the Western Front.
University of Exeter historian, Dr Catriona Pennell, acted as historical consultant to the report ‘Remember the World as well as the War’. It explores people’s perceptions and knowledge about the First World War and highlights the truly global nature of the conflict and its lasting legacy. This links closely with Dr Pennell’s various research projects, including the ‘First World War in the Classroom’, an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project that seeks to establish how the First World War is taught in English Literature and History classrooms in England, and will provide the data set that will inform the nature and content of the Institute of Education’s WW1 Centenary Battlefield Tours Project. (more…)
A world of art at the Watson Institute
As a student in the Brown/RISD Dual Degree Program, senior Youbin Kang uses textiles to bring attention to global issues. Her work hangs in the Watson Institute as part of a new initiative to showcase art by students, faculty, and staff.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Banglatie, a knit garment made by senior Youbin Kang, hangs on a wall of the Watson Institute, its form loosely resembling the shape of a person, with arms, legs, and feet dangling from the nails that hold it in place. (more…)
IBM Study Identifies How African Businesses Can Overcome the Technology Adoption Gap
Research reveals common challenges preventing IT progress in Africa recommends steps to overcome technology roadblocks
Nairobi, Kenya – 27 Jan 2014: IBM IBM today announced the results of a new study entitled ‘Setting the pace in Africa: How IT leaders deliver on the potential of emerging technologies’, which found that while nearly 87 percent of African IT leaders rank new technologies such as analytics, cloud, mobile and social media as being critical to business success, only 53% are pushing forward with adoption. (more…)
Enormous scale of Nile ‘mega lake’ revealed
The eastern Sahara Desert was once home to a 45,000 km2 freshwater lake similar in surface area to the largest in the world today.
A study led by the University of Exeter has revealed that the mega lake was probably formed more than one hundred thousand years ago in the White Nile River Valley in Sudan.
Dr Tim Barrows of the University of Exeter and colleagues used a dating approach based on exposure to cosmic rays to measure the amount of the isotope beryllium-10 in shoreline deposits. Its abundance can be used to calculate how long rocks or sediments have been exposed at the surface of the earth. (more…)