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October 28, 2014
U.S. News Releases Inaugural Best Global Universities Rankings
Photo: Harvard University - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Photo Credit: il.irenelee.
U.S. News & World Report, a leading U.S.-based publisher of education analysis and rankings, today unveiled the inaugural Best Global Universities rankings.
The U.S. prevails as the global leader among research universities, with many U.S. universities dominating the list of top schools. Harvard University claims the No. 1 spot overall, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at No. 2 and the University of California—Berkeley at No. 3. Of the 500 institutions ranked, 134 are in the U.S. Germany follows with 42 schools, and the United Kingdom with 38 schools. China makes a strong showing, with 27 schools in the top 500.
The publisher said that the 2015 Best Global Universities rankings offer the most comprehensive assessment of research universities worldwide as well as by region and country. The overall rankings include 500 universities spread out across 49 countries. There are four regional rankings of the top universities in Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Europe and Latin America, as well as country-specific rankings highlighting the top schools in 11 countries, including Canada, China, France, Germany and Italy. The rankings also feature the top 100 global universities in 21 subject areas, including fields such as economics and business, engineering, computer science and clinical medicine.
According to U.S. News, it developed the Best Global Universities rankings to help students accurately compare schools worldwide. “Increasingly, students are enrolling in universities outside of their own countries,” said Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer. “As higher education becomes more global, our new rankings will set standards and allow students to better evaluate all of their options.”
The Best Global Universities rankings - which are based on data and metrics provided by Thomson Reuters InCitesTM research analytics solutions - focus on institutions’ research overall. The methodology weighs factors that measure a university’s global and regional reputation; academic research performance using bibliometric indicators; and school-level data on faculty and Ph.D. graduates.
The 2015 rankings are U.S. News’ first evaluation of higher education institutions worldwide. For 30 years, U.S. News has produced the Best Colleges rankings, which help prospective students identify the best schools for them in the U.S.
2015 U.S. News Best Global Universities Rankings
Overall Best Global Universities
- Harvard University (U.S.)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.)
- University of California—Berkeley (U.S.)
- Stanford University (U.S.)
- University of Oxford (U.K.)
- University of Cambridge (U.K.)
- California Institute of Technology (U.S.)
- University of California—Los Angeles (U.S.)
- University of Chicago (U.S.)
- Columbia University (U.S.)
Best Global Universities in Asia
- University of Tokyo (Japan)
- Peking University (China)
- University of Hong Kong
- National University of Singapore
- Kyoto University (Japan)
Best Global Universities in Australia/New Zealand
- University of Melbourne (Australia)
- University of Sydney
- University of Queensland Australia
- Australian National University
- Monash University (Australia)
Best Global Universities in Europe
- University of Oxford (U.K.)
- University of Cambridge (U.K.)
- Imperial College London (U.K.)
- University College London (U.K.)
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland)
Best Global Universities in Latin America
- Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brazil)
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil)
- University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- National Autonomous University of Mexico
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 4:17 AM | View the original post
October 25, 2014
Japan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2015
Photo: JAPAN, Tokyo : A Model displays creation for the SANSAI SAITO / JOTARO SAITO designed by Sansai Saito and Jotaro Saito during the Spring/Summer 2015 at Mercedes-Benz FashionWeek TOKYO, on Oct 16, 2014 in Tokyo. © AFPBB News / JFWO / MBFWT.
Photo: JAPAN, Tokyo : A Model displays creation for the SANSAI SAITO / JOTARO SAITO designed by Sansai Saito and Jotaro Saito during the Spring/Summer 2015 at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week TOKYO, on Oct 16, 2014 in Tokyo. © AFPBB News / JFWO / MBFWT.
Photo: JAPAN, Tokyo : A Model displays creation for the SANSAI SAITO / JOTARO SAITO designed by Sansai Saito and Jotaro Saito during the Spring/Summer 2015 at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week TOKYO, on Oct 16, 2014 in Tokyo. © AFPBB News / JFWO / MBFWT.
Photo: JAPAN, Tokyo : A Model displays creation for the YUKI TORII INTERNATIONAL designed by Yuki Torii during the Spring/Summer 2015 at Mercedes-Benz FashionWeek TOKYO, on Oct 16, 2014 in Tokyo. © AFPBB News / JFWO / MBFWT.
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 2:50 PM | View the original post
October 11, 2014
12th VOLVO OCEAN RACE Started Today
Photo: October 3, 2014. Team Vestas Wind during the practice Race in Alicante. Photo Credit: David Ramos/Getty Images/Volvo Ocean Race.
Photo: October 3, 2014. Team Alvimedica and Team SCA during the practice Race in Alicante. Photo Credit: David Ramos/Volvo Ocean Race.
Photo: October 11, 2014. Team Brunel and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing leave Alicante during the Start of Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Alicante to Cape Town. Photo Credit: David Ramos/Volvo Ocean Race.
The seven-strong fleet of the 12th Volvo Ocean Race raced out of Alicante, Spain, on Saturday October 11, for the punishing first leg to Cape Town, South Africa, with rains and strong winds forecast to greet them in the opening eight hours.
Team Brunel took the honours after the fleet bade farewell to a memorable Alicante nine-day stopover before heading out to the Mediterranean, through the Straits of Gibraltar and then into the Atlantic Ocean during the first week of a nine-month, 38,739-mile marathon.
The Volvo Ocean Race is the world’s toughest ocean race. Grand Prix sailing by the world’s best sailors, racing day and night for 39,000 miles around the world in nine leg stages.
There are seven teams, 66 sailors and 18 nationalities setting off in identical one design Volvo Ocean 65 racing machines. The first leg will take the fleet out into the North Atlantic, south across the Equator and into the South Atlantic, on into Cape Town 6,500 miles away. It will take them more than three weeks.
Start: Saturday 11th October, 2014; Alicante, Spain.
Leg 1 - Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa: 6,487 miles.
Leg Duration: 23 days approx.
The Teams:
- Team Alvimedica [USA/TUR]: skipper Charlie Enright [USA], crew from United States of America, Australia, France, Italia, New Zealand.
- Team SCA [SWE]: person in charge Samantha Davies [UK], 100% female crew from the United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and The Netherlands.
- Dongfeng Race team [CHN]: skipper Charles Caudrelier [FRA], crew from China, France and Sweden.
- Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing [UAE]: skipper Ian Walker [UK], crew from New Zealand, Ireland, UAE, Australia, Spain.
- Team Vestas Wind [DEN]: skipper Chris Nicholson [AUS], crew from Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Argentina, the Netherlands.
- Team Brunel [NED]: skipper Bouwe Bekking [NED], crew from the Netherlands, Lithuania, France, Belgium, Spain, Australia, Denmark.
- MAPFRE [ESP]: skipper Iker Martinez [ESP], crew from Spain, France, Brazil, the United Kingdom.
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 10:45 AM | View the original post
October 10, 2014
83 COUNTRIES IN COMPETITION FOR 2014 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OSCAR
Photo: Hollywood Costume Private Luncheon presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and hosted by Annette Bening, Crystal Lourd, Gwyneth Paltrow and Elizabeth Wiatt on October 8, 2014 at the Wilshire May Company Building. Sponsored by W Magazine and Bang & Olufsen. Pictured: Cameron Diaz. Photo Credit: Jordan Murph. © Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
LOS ANGELES, CA - A record 83 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 87th Academy Awards. Kosovo, Malta, Mauritania and Panama are first-time entrants.
The 2014 submissions are:
- Afghanistan, “A Few Cubic Meters of Love,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director;
- Argentina, “Wild Tales,” Damián Szifrón, director;
- Australia, “Charlie’s Country,” Rolf de Heer, director;
- Austria, “The Dark Valley,” Andreas Prochaska, director;
- Azerbaijan, “Nabat,” Elchin Musaoglu, director;
- Bangladesh, “Glow of the Firefly,” Khalid Mahmood Mithu, director;
- Belgium, “Two Days, One Night,” Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, directors;
- Bolivia, “Forgotten,” Carlos Bolado, director;
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, “With Mom,” Faruk Lon?arevi?, director;
- Brazil, “The Way He Looks,” Daniel Ribeiro, director;
- Bulgaria, “Bulgarian Rhapsody,” Ivan Nitchev, director;
- Canada, “Mommy,” Xavier Dolan, director;
- Chile, “To Kill a Man,” Alejandro Fernández Almendras, director;
- China, “The Nightingale,” Philippe Muyl, director;
- Colombia, “Mateo,” María Gamboa, director;
- Costa Rica, “Red Princesses,” Laura Astorga Carrera, director;
- Croatia, “Cowboys,” Tomislav Mrši?, director;
- Cuba, “Conducta,” Ernesto Daranas Serrano, director;
- Czech Republic, “Fair Play,” Andrea Sedlakova, director;
- Denmark, “Sorrow and Joy,” Nils Malmros, director;
- Dominican Republic, “Cristo Rey,” Leticia Tonos, director;
- Ecuador, “Silence in Dreamland,” Tito Molina, director;
- Egypt, “Factory Girl,” Mohamed Khan, director;
- Estonia, “Tangerines,” Zaza Urushadze, director;
- Ethiopia, “Difret,” Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, director;
- Finland, “Concrete Night,” Pirjo Honkasalo, director;
- France, “Saint Laurent,” Bertrand Bonello, director;
- Georgia, “Corn Island,” George Ovashvili, director;
- Germany, “Beloved Sisters,” Dominik Graf, director;
- Greece, “Little England,” Pantelis Voulgaris, director;
- Hong Kong, “The Golden Era,” Ann Hui, director;
- Hungary, “White God,” Kornel Mundruczo, director;
- Iceland, “Life in a Fishbowl,” Baldvin Zophoníasson, director;
- India, “Liar’s Dice,” Geetu Mohandas, director;
- Indonesia, “Soekarno,” Hanung Bramantyo, director;
- Iran, “Today,” Reza Mirkarimi, director;
- Iraq, “Mardan,” Batin Ghobadi, director;
- Ireland, “The Gift,” Tom Collins, director;
- Israel, “Gett, the Trial of Viviane Amsalem,” Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz, directors;
- Italy, “Human Capital,” Paolo Virzì, director;
- Japan, “The Light Shines Only There,” Mipo O, director;
- Kosovo, “Three Windows and a Hanging,” Isa Qosja, director;
- Kyrgyzstan, “Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains,” Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, director;
- Latvia, “Rocks in My Pockets,” Signe Baumane, director;
- Lebanon, “Ghadi,” Amin Dora, director;
- Lithuania, “The Gambler,” Ignas Jonynas, director;
- Luxembourg, “Never Die Young,” Pol Cruchten, director;
- Macedonia, “To the Hilt,” Stole Popov, director;
- Malta, “Simshar,” Rebecca Cremona, director;
- Mauritania, “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako, director;
- Mexico, “Cantinflas,” Sebastián del Amo, director;
- Moldova, “The Unsaved,” Igor Cobileanski, director;
- Montenegro, “The Kids from the Marx and Engels Street,” Nikola Vukcevic, director;
- Morocco, “The Red Moon,” Hassan Benjelloun, director;
- Nepal, “Jhola,” Yadav Kumar Bhattarai, director;
- Netherlands, “Accused,” Paula van der Oest, director;
- New Zealand, “The Dead Lands,” Toa Fraser, director;
- Norway, “1001 Grams,” Bent Hamer, director;
- Pakistan, “Dukhtar,” Afia Nathaniel, director;
- Palestine, “Eyes of a Thief,” Najwa Najjar, director;
- Panama, “Invasion,” Abner Benaim, director;
- Peru, “The Gospel of the Flesh,” Eduardo Mendoza, director;
- Philippines, “Norte, the End of History,” Lav Diaz, director;
- Poland, “Ida,” Pawe Pawlikowski, director;
- Portugal, “What Now? Remind Me,” Joaquim Pinto, director;
- Romania, “The Japanese Dog,” Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, director;
- Russia, “Leviathan,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
- Serbia, “See You in Montevideo,” Dragan Bjelogrli, director;
- Singapore, “Sayang Disayang,” Sanif Olek, director;
- Slovakia, “A Step into the Dark,” Miloslav Luther, director;
- Slovenia, “Seduce Me,” Marko Santic, director;
- South Africa, “Elelwani,” Ntshavheni Wa Luruli, director;
- South Korea, “Haemoo,” Shim Sung-bo, director;
- Spain, “Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed,” David Trueba, director;
- Sweden, “Force Majeure,” Ruben Östlund, director;
- Switzerland, “The Circle,” Stefan Haupt, director;
- Taiwan, “Ice Poison,” Midi Z, director;
- Thailand, “The Teacher’s Diary,” Nithiwat Tharathorn, director;
- Turkey, “Winter Sleep,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
- Ukraine, “The Guide,” Oles Sanin, director;
- United Kingdom, “Little Happiness,” Nihat Seven, director;
- Uruguay, “Mr. Kaplan,” Álvaro Brechner, director;
- Venezuela, “The Liberator,” Alberto Arvelo, director.
The 87th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 15, 2015 in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
The Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 1:32 AM | View the original post
October 5, 2014
U.S., India to Collaborate on Mars Exploration, Earth-Observing Mission
Photo: The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, targeted to launch in 2020, will make global measurements of the causes and consequences of a variety of land surface changes on Earth. Image Credit: NASA.
Photo: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (left) and Chairman K. Radhakrishnan of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signing documents in Toronto on Sept. 30, 2014 to launch a joint Earth-observing satellite mission and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars. Image Credit: NASA.
In a meeting Tuesday in Toronto, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), signed two documents to launch a NASA-ISRO satellite mission to observe Earth and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars.
While attending the International Astronautical Congress, the two space agency leaders met to discuss and sign a charter that establishes a NASA-ISRO Mars Working Group to investigate enhanced cooperation between the two countries in Mars exploration. They also signed an international agreement that defines how the two agencies will work together on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, targeted to launch in 2020.
“The signing of these two documents reflects the strong commitment NASA and ISRO have to advancing science and improving life on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “This partnership will yield tangible benefits to both our countries and the world.”
The joint Mars Working Group will seek to identify and implement scientific, programmatic and technological goals that NASA and ISRO have in common regarding Mars exploration. The group will meet once a year to plan cooperative activities, including potential NASA-ISRO cooperation on future missions to Mars.
Both agencies have newly arrived spacecraft in Mars orbit. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft arrived at Mars Sept. 21. MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars. ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India’s first spacecraft launched to Mars, arrived Sept. 23 to study the Martian surface and atmosphere and demonstrate technologies needed for interplanetary missions.
One of the working group’s objectives will be to explore potential coordinated observations and science analysis between MAVEN and MOM, as well as other current and future Mars missions.
“NASA and Indian scientists have a long history of collaboration in space science,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for science. “These new agreements between NASA and ISRO in Earth science and Mars exploration will significantly strengthen our ties and the science that we will be able to produce as a result.”
The joint NISAR Earth-observing mission will make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes. Potential areas of research include ecosystem disturbances, ice sheet collapse and natural hazards. The NISAR mission is optimized to measure subtle changes of the Earth’s surface associated with motions of the crust and ice surfaces. NISAR will improve our understanding of key impacts of climate change and advance our knowledge of natural hazards.
NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimeter across. This allows the mission to observe a wide range of changes, from the flow rates of glaciers and ice sheets to the dynamics of earthquakes and volcanoes.
Under the terms of the new agreement, NASA will provide the mission’s L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid state recorder, and a payload data subsystem. ISRO will provide the spacecraft bus, an S-band SAR, and the launch vehicle and associated launch services.
NASA had been studying concepts for a SAR mission in response to the National Academy of Science’s decadal survey of the agency’s Earth science program in 2007. The agency developed a partnership with ISRO that led to this joint mission. The partnership with India has been key to enabling many of the mission’s science objectives.
NASA’s contribution to NISAR is being managed and implemented by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 1:02 PM | View the original post
October 3, 2014
Commemoration of International Day of Non-Violence
Photo: A wide view of the Trusteeship Council Chamber, UN Headquarters, New York, during the special event marking the International Day of Non-Violence, organized by the Permanent Mission of India to the UN. The Day of Non-Violence is observed on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the non-violence philosophy, as an occasion to disseminate the message of non-violence. October 2, 2014. United Nations, New York. UN Photo/Cia Pak.
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 12:30 PM | View the original post
October 2, 2014
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-2015 show US strength on the Wane
Photo: Main Quadrangle, University of Chicago, USA. Photo Credit: Luiz Gadelha Jr.
According to Chris Parr of Times Higher Education, despite the California Institute of Technology’s claim on the top spot for the fourth consecutive year, evidence is emerging of a decline in the power of US universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-2015.
And, according to him, despite the fact that Harvard (second), Stanford (fourth), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (sixth), Princeton University (seventh), the University of California, Berkeley (eighth) and Yale University (joint ninth) all make the top 10, there is evidence of an overall decline for US universities, with significant losses further down the league table. This includes the University of Chicago, which slips from ninth to 11th.
The US has 74 universities in the top 200, down from 77 last year. Some 60 per cent of those institutions rank lower than they did 12 months ago, with an average fall of 5.34 places per university.
It is a similar story for Canada. While the University of Toronto retains 20th place and the University of Victoria joins the top 200 in joint 173rd place, all other Canadian top 200 universities have lost ground.
The UK, meanwhile, has lost three universities from the top 200 (the University of Reading, the University of Dundee and Newcastle University), and now has 29 top 200 institutions, down from 31.
Conversely, the leading Asian institutions continue to rise, and the continent now has 24 universities in the world top 200, four more than last year. Two Asian universities make the world top 25 (the University of Tokyo and the National University of Singapore), while six feature among the top 50.
“Western universities, in many cases starved of vital public funding, are losing ground,” said Phil Baty, THE rankings editor, who added that there was “something approaching a crisis” for US state institutions.
Philip Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, said that the “serious hit” in funding to the “great American public universities” had major implications for US science and competitiveness.
He added that on average Canada had a better higher education system than the US, without the “peaks nor the valleys” found among the ranking positions of American universities. “[Canada’s] top universities are excellent, but could easily be even better if they had the additional funding - and probably the competitive spirit - needed,” Dr Altbach said.
In Europe, Germany gains two new top 200 representatives (Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen and Technische Universitat Dresden), to overtake the Netherlands as the third most represented nation behind the US and the UK.
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15 — Top Twenty:
Rank — Institution — Country
- California Institute of Technology — US
- Harvard University — US
- University of Oxford — UK
- Stanford University — US
- University of Cambridge — UK
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology — US
- Princeton University — US
- University of California, Berkeley — US
- Imperial College London — UK
- Yale University — US
- University of Chicago — US
- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) — US
- ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich — Switzerland
- Columbia University — US
- Johns Hopkins University — US
- University of Pennsylvania — US
- University of Michigan — US
- Duke University — US
- Cornell University — US
- University of Toronto — Canada
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 11:02 AM | View the original post
