Tag Archives: President Obama

Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Trails in Race for Egypt’s Presidency: UMD Poll

By Guest PostMay 22, 2012Politics2011 revolution, abd al menem abul fotouh, ahmed shafiq, amr mousa, arab league chief, arabs, Economy, egypt, egyptians, gamal abdel nasser, hamdeen sabahi, iran, islamic sharia law, islamist moderate, Israel, king abdullah, middle east, mohamed morsi, muslim brotherhood, nasserist, palestinians, parliamentary election, political scientist, presidency, President Obama, prime minister, recep teyyib erdogan, salafi, saudi arabia, shibley telhami, syria, turkey, umd poll, university of maryland

Majority of Egyptians Faults Brotherhood Fielding its Own Candidate

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – As Egypt prepares this week to elect its first president since the 2011 revolution, a new University of Maryland poll finds the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate tied for fourth place. Researchers describe the race as fluid.

The poll confirms the strategic damage inflicted by the Brotherhood’s decision to field its own candidate, after saying it would not. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed (71 percent) called the decision a “mistake.”

The poll also shows Egyptians approaching the race differently from Parliamentary elections, focusing more on personal trust and the economy over party affiliation. (more…)

New Book Says Financial Model For Higher Ed is Broken, Offers Ways To Overhaul

By Guest PostFebruary 22, 2012Economy2013 budget, american society, caucasian students, david w breneman, Economy, ethnic groups, financial model, harvard education press, higher education, hispanics, james b hunt, joni e finney, k 12 leaders, patrick m callan, paul e lingenfelter, postsecondary degree, President Obama, public policy, university of pennsylvania, university of virginia, university of washington, us system, william zumeta

Higher education, a jewel of American society and an engine of its economy, is under threat, and if the nation is to remain competitive the financial model must be overhauled, says a new book.

Authors of Financing American Higher Education in the Era of Globalization say reforming the model will take a long-term, top-level coalition composed of the president, the nation’s governors, college and K-12 leaders, and leaders in the business community. (more…)

2012 Economic Forecast from UMD Business Faculty

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2012Economy2012 economic outlook, american jobs act, banking industry, banking sector, black friday, canada, cliff rossi, congress, consumer spending, credit, debt crisis, Economy, european, foreclosure, global financial market, housing market, million dollar question, money, new york times, obama administration, President Obama, qr codes, revenue growth, robo signing, sba, sephora, small business administration, small business saturday, small businesses, unemployment, university of maryland, Wall Street Journal, walmart express

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A weak housing market, tight credit for small businesses, no significant growth in the banking sector, anemic consumer spending, and modest sales for retailers – that’s the outlook for 2012 according to experts at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

“Several important dynamics frame the 2012 economic outlook,” says Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teacher Fellow and executive-in-residence. These factors include:

Massive financial leveraging across the board by sovereign countries, state and local governments, banks, businesses, and individuals;
Fear and uncertainty among consumers and investors, despite faint signs of optimism at times;
Political self-interest and brinksmanship increasingly interfering with effective policy making. (more…)

IBM Announces Supercomputer to Propel Sciences Forward

By Guest PostNovember 15, 2011Technology10 petaflop system, 16 compute cores, aging nuclear deterrent, blue gene family of supercomputers, blue gene q, bob meisner, brian connors, Chicago, climate change, electric car batteries, energy efficient supercomputer, energy research, evolution of the universe, green500, grid and network management, high-performance computing, hpc, ibm, ibm powerpc, lawrence livermore national laboratory, llnl, mike papka, mira, multi threading for long code sections, national nuclear security administration, next generation supercomputing project, nnsa, powerful supercomputers, President Obama, sequoia, ultra scale technical computing platform, united states

*Blue Gene/Q tackles major challenges of the day, delivers up to 100 petaflops at peak performance*

ARMONK, NY – 15 Nov 2011: IBM today announced its next generation supercomputing project, Blue Gene/Q, will provide an ultra-scale technical computing platform to solve the most challenging problems facing engineers and scientists at faster, more energy efficient, and more reliable rates than ever before. Blue Gene/Q is expected to predict the path of hurricanes, analyze the ocean floor to discover oil, simulate nuclear weapons performance and decode gene sequences.

When it is fully deployed in 2012 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the system, named “Sequoia”, is expected to achieve 20 petaflops at peak performance, marking it as one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. The capabilities this system represents will help ensure United States leadership in high performance computing (HPC) and the science it makes possible. Moreover, Blue Gene/Q is expected to become the world’s most power-efficient computer, churning out 2 gigaflops per watt. (more…)

Supercomputers Accelerate Development of Advanced Materials

By Guest PostNovember 5, 2011Scienceannette greiner, batteries, berkeley lab, berkeley lab chemist, capacity, clean energy economy, corrosion resistant lightweight aluminum alloys, daniel gunter, dynamic google of material properties, gerbrand ceder, kristin persson, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, lighter weight vehicles, massachusetts institute of technology, materials, materials project, michael kocher, MIT, nersc, nosql database technology, oxidation state, photovoltaics, President Obama, shreyas cholia, university of kentucky, voltage

*Berkeley Lab helps develop a Google-like search engine for materials research.*

New materials are crucial to building a clean energy economy—for everything from batteries to photovoltaics to lighter weight vehicles—but today the development cycle is too slow: around18 years from conception to commercialization. To speed up this process, a team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) teamed up to develop a new tool, called the Materials Project, which launches this month.

“Our vision is for this tool to become a dynamic ‘Google’ of material properties, which continually grows and changes as more users come on board to analyze the results, verify against experiments and increase their knowledge,” says Kristin Persson, a Berkeley Lab chemist and one of the founding scientists behind the Materials Project. “So many scientists can benefit from this type of screening. Considering the demand for innovative clean energy technology we needed most of these materials yesterday.” (more…)

Yahoo! and ABC News Launch Premier News and Information Alliance

By Guest PostOctober 3, 2011Technologyabc news, ben sherwood, bill weir, christiane amanpour, digital media company, george stephanopoulos, good morning america, nightline, President Obama, ross levinsohn, web, Yahoo, yahoo news, yahoo news network

Powerful combination leverages Yahoo!’s massive reach, content breadth, and technology with ABC News’ leading brands, trusted anchors, and global newsgathering operation

Debut of GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo! offers audience new ways to continue the conversation before, during and after the broadcast 24/7

Yahoo!’s and ABC News’ new exclusive slate of original online video programming kicks off today when ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos interviews President Obama live from the White House

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)— Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, and ABC News today announced a strategic alliance that will enhance and transform the delivery of news and information across the digital landscape. This multifaceted relationship blends Yahoo! News’ unmatched audience, as well as its depth and breadth of content, with ABC News’ global newsgathering operation and unrivaled lineup of trusted anchors and reporters. Yahoo! News and ABC News reach a combined audience of more than 100 million people in the U.S. each month on PCs, mobile devices and tablets. (more…)

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta

By Guest PostJuly 17, 2011Scienceasteroid, asteroid vesta, ceres, charles bolden, dawn, dawn spacecraft, dwarf planet, german aerospace center, gravitational pull, gravity, italian space agency, jet propulsion laboratory, los angeles, main asteroid belt between mars and jupiter, marshall space flight center in huntsville, max planck institute for solar system research, NASA, President Obama, spacecraft, university of california, vesta

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Dawn will study the asteroid, named Vesta, for a year before departing for a second destination, a dwarf planet named Ceres, in July 2012. Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system. The data also will help pave the way for future human space missions. (more…)

Political Narratives On Race, Southern Identity Influence National Elections

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2011Politicsafrican american, american south, americans, christina moss, democratic party, democrats, factor, god fearing, Obama, political power, President Obama, racial prejudice, regionalism, republicans, southern states, white voters, zell miller

New research from North Carolina State University shows how attempts to define the South by Republicans and Democrats may have set the stage for President Obama’s victories in Southern states – and shaped the way Americans view themselves.

“Every presidential election is a chance to discuss what it means to be American,” says Dr. Christina Moss, teaching assistant professor of communication at NC State and author of a paper on the research. “The South garnered a great deal of attention in the 2004 election season, and the narratives from that election may provide clues to Obama’s success in 2008.” (more…)