Several dozen people disrupted the Master’s graduation ceremony at AUB Friday evening to protest against the awarding of an honorary degree to Donna Shalala due to her support for engagement with Israel.
Shalala, president of the University of Miami in Florida and a former U.S. secretary of health, has three honorary degrees from universities in Israel, and does not support a cultural boycott of the country.
Around 40 protesters heckled Shalala as she began her speech of thanks, shouting “boycott Israel.” Some held a large banner that read “Boycott Zionist Shalala.” Source
Tag Archives | aub
Cedar tree planted into wireless devices
No it’s not like really planting a cedar tree into some electronic device! But a research team at the American University of Beirut discovered that cedar tree shaped antennas are ideal for use in some wireless devices.
The team found that the geometry of the cedar, based on repetitive triangular parts, allows a cedar-shaped antenna to operate at multiple frequencies, which makes it suitable for many types of wireless devices such as mobile phones.
Karim Kabalan, professor and chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the mastermind behind the design, after two years of searching for an antenna that would be easy and inexpensive to fabricate and innovative, veering away from the usual rectangular and circular shapes. Source
The Lebanese Phalanges should be credited for the design though, it looks pretty much like their schematic cedar.
Thanks to @mkdubai
Huge photos directory of Lebanon
You’ve got to check this old photos directory of Lebanon by the digital documentation center at AUB, which I discovered through one of Sietske’s latest posts. It has more than 12,000 photos categorized by location (Mohafaza and Qadaa), and you can easily spend hours browsing them!
Metel Ma Shelta
I just came across a cool anti littering campaign called “Metel Ma Shelta” via Elie’s blog.
Knowing beforehand that people would definitely pick a 10,000L.L off the street, a group of graphic designers threw small pieces of paper on the streets with a the forged look of a 10,000L.L bill on one side, while the other side had “As you picked this up, you can pick up the litter of the streets as well” written on it.
I’m sure this wont make the people who might fall for this trick actually start picking up litter off the streets, but it may at least make them stop littering or stop the people around them from doing it.
The First Lebanese Bloggers Convention at AUB
I am very proud to announce that, in coordination with Outlook, AUB’s official newspaper, Mind Soup is hosting the first Lebanese Bloggers Convention at AUB.
During the convention/workshop, Lebanese guest bloggers will introduce the world of blogging to students and encourage them to express their ideas and opinions using personal blogs.
Also on the agenda is discussing the impact of blogging on the freedom of speech in Lebanon and the effect of blogging on the Lebanese society and culture.
Everyone is welcome to attend! If you are a non-AUB student and would like to attend, please send an email to moudz.mindsoup@gmail.com so that your access to AUB’s closed campus can be facilitated!
If you are a blogger and would like to be featured in this convention, please fill in this form: http://www.jotform.com/form/1200341481 after reading the rules below.
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Rules for applying (as guest speaker):
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– You should be a Lebanese blogger or an Arab blogger operating in Lebanon and can attend the blogger convention in AUB (Beirut)
– You should be 18 years of age or older.
– You should own a self-operated blog.
– Your blog should be at least 6-month old (updated on a weekly basis) or 1 year old (updated on a monthly basis).
– The convention is probably going to be in the English language, so you should be fluent in English.
Update (05/07/2010):
The event has been rescheduled to May 19th 2010 at 5:00 PM
Update (05/18/2010):
The event has been canceled due to the tuition increase protest.
Mashrou3 Leila – Raksit Leila video
I’ve been playing Raksit Leila for a while now, and I was delighted to see the official video coming out few days ago. Great music and great work on the video!
Transnational Tides and the Future of the Arab City – October 2-3, 2009
Under the Patronage of His Excellency
Mr. Ziad Baroud, Minister of Interior and Municipalities
The Yale Arab Alumni Association with the support of the Yale University Council on Middle East Studies and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy at the
American University of Beirut invites you to attend
Transnational Tides and the Future of the Arab City
A conference on urban sustainability
October 2-3, 2009
American University of Beirut
Keynote address by Mr. Talal Shair
Chairman and CEO, Dar Al-Handasah
Special video address by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri
Director, Yale Climate and Energy Institute
Chairman, Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Purpose of the Conference:
Our aim in organizing this conference is simple: to harness the potential of the Arab metropolitan network to build a sustainable, integrated regional future. “Transnational Tides and the Future of the Arab City” seeks to identify best practices and innovative strategies which globalizing Arab cities, governments, and institutions need to consider in order to improve urban welfare and sustainability. It features experts and decision-makers from the fields of urban planning and development, energy and communications infrastructure, environmental sustainability, higher education, sociology, culture, public policy, and public health. The conference program thus uniquely pairs academics and intellectuals with urban development stakeholders and practitioners, with the aim of yielding intelligent, implementable results.
About the Yale Arab Alumni Association:
The Yale Arab Alumni Association is a special-interest group for Yale alumni and affiliates with an active interest in the Arab World. It was established with the vision of connecting and engaging its global membership to advance Yale-Arab relations and stimulate dialogue on issues of importance to the Arab Middle East. A six-person Executive Board, under the guidance of an eleven-member Advisory Board, administers the organization. The Yale Arab Alumni Association is a not-for-profit incorporation registered in the state of Connecticut (USA) and is in the process of obtaining 501(c)(3) status as a non-profit organization.
You can check this link for the official website of the event, and you may click here for the registration details.
Toastmasters Lebanon
Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.
There are actually two toastmasters clubs in Lebanon, one is in Beirut and the other in Tripoli. And I got introduced to Toastmasters Lebanon a while ago via Nour’s blog “Sunken Treasure 6”. Nour is a member of Tripoli’s club and she posts frequent updates on her blog about what goes on in the meetings and sometimes shares with the tables topics that she’s going to be speaking about.
Per my readings of her blog posts, Toastmasters evaluation system helps the individuals identify the weaknesses in their communication skills and of course work on improving them. One thing I have been wondering about though is when do members decide that they got enough practice and no longer need what Toastmasters offers and thus choose to just stop attending. I think Nour can answer this by commenting on the post!
Anyway, you can get to know more about Toastmaster Tripoli through the below reportage by Mounzer Al-Merehbi which was aired on TeleLiban few days ago.
Mashrou’ Leila
I haven’t heard any of Mashrou’ Leila’s songs yet, but I have read many articles about their music being very nice.
Below is an article by Hanadi Dairi from Nahar Alshabab about them.
Click to Enlarge and read full article
If you know where they perform, plz let me know the place, I am interested in watching them live.
The scan is via Lubnanabad