Life is a composition of activities, duties, and responsibilities. But the purpose of living might change from a person to another and life goals might be bigger than a human being capacities unless his ambitions are to make a change in the world.This genius, humble and hardworking undergraduate engineer has this dream to develop his environment to seek a better tomorrow for the future generations.
Being a nerd is studying for no reason, but being a genius is defined as a hard working person who seeks higher levels and success without being affected by the criticism, obstacles or the time frame of life. What distinguishes “Charbel” is that he never give up on a task or hard mathematical equation, he always search to find a way. his modesty, generosity, and patience lead him to reach multiple achievements, supported by his parents, friends, and instructors to study more, to work more and to dream more.
Many of his instructors and professors are amazed by his full control over his responsibilities, his excellent grades all over the years that he has been through especially being the first rank in the engineering faculty among all 4th years civil engineering students. the most surprising thing is that he studies new chapters alone or even inventing new theories in his field after hours of discovering, calculating and then introducing those equations to the professors with enough credible methodologies to approve it and include it in the curriculum.
This person could be the perfect example and reborn of a new technological and modern Einstein.
The photos used in this video are original and taken with a personal camera.The soundtrack, the graphics, and info charts are licensed under the Creative Commons.
To tell the story of my life was one of the hardest and emotional things but I’m sure now that everyone will know me better. Life is a track with ups and downs, we must benefit from all its opportunities, and we must learn from life’s disappointments and mistakes. Dancing and journalism are both turning points in my life and they made me who I am today. I discovered my passions in life and I wish that everyone seeks happiness and success.
The photos used in this video are original and taken with a personal camera.The soundtrack(URL:https://youtu.be/_Gd8mbQ3-mI), the graphics, and info charts are licensed under the Creative Commons.
Centuries ago, countries were aiming to prosper the extracted oil as a main source of power. Now, similar interests are being improved globally, specifically “Data”, the new structure of oil to supply the digital era. Such dominance has harmed the traditional media such as newspapers and magazines contently because digital platforms provide easy access, and a wider range of data for a cheaper price, whereas print media had a limited time and space in providing news. This is where traditional media has started to suffer especially when the majority of the audience requested the new technology without acknowledging the dreadful consequences.
“Adapt or die” Walid el Saqaf, one of the internet key holders and one the ICANN members.
Until the present-day, the Lebanese media is not only developing the online platforms, but is also considering changing the old techniques and style of publishing news and content through engaging technology into traditional and broadcasting media. From another perspective, journalists and internet users are trying to learn how to use the network to offer news with high standards. The dilemma encountered revolves around the fact that being an online journalist requires more than being an internet user; it is dangerous, sensitive, and requires professionalism, especially that the world’s media is changing from being a closed zone full of information and privacy to a more susceptible source that corrupts the old media.
Regionally, societies are facing many crises regarding the involvement of technology in media. This engagement led to harmful effects on the different publishing platforms connected to the economic and professional sectors.
A year ago, many newspapers have started to suffer from low income and were threatened of bankruptcy. “Al Safir” newspaper didn’t last too long under the pressure and announced the closure this publishing sector in March 2016 due to the advertisement and economic reasons. Various other magazines stopped printing their publications since they couldn’t earn any revenue from the printing medium and started to blog and post their content online through websites. This ongoing rivalry between traditional and online media has led the press organizations, especially the printing press, to compete with themselves and alternative digital platforms, especially that Lebanon business model is not adapted to the online context, which caused a revolution in the Lebanese media world.
When it comes to the online news, it is important to reconsider the content shared online since it lacks its privacy and its trustworthiness concerning their format and context. In every professional newsroom, journalists write their stories and discuss the 3 main key factors that offer the audience a good article:
The story must be correct and real.
The article must be loaded with information.
The story must be backed up with enough facts and evidence.
David Carr:” Not Free information means True information.”
Nowadays, the Lebanese audience read online articles because it is cheaper, more dynamic and is easily accessible by everyone with an internet connection. But the issue at hand remains in how to write the news that always has various political opinions in order to support a specific political party.
The same content could be fake, non-credible, and not related to any trusted sources. The reporters and journalists may not have the capacities and required skills to be working as an online journalist; when the source provided is wrong, the news will turn out to be wrong and this could put lives at a certain risk. Therefore, the publisher of the incorrect news will face various consequences. Instead, politicians, journalists and even citizens in Lebanon are spreading false and plagiarised stories just to engage the audience and the media.
Brian Stelter, a media reporter and a blogger associated with the “New York Times” stated that: “The media isn’t the message, the messages are the media”
Restarting antitrust on the digital information, as well as reconstructing traditional Lebanese media to maintain its identity, will not be an easy task to accomplish. This step will offer the Lebanese population more accessibility to data sharing and the old media will be neglected. But the most important thing is that each media platform must play its role as it is and to adapt to any global change, including all the professionalism requirements to reduce the confusion between the old and the modern world.
From the 20th and 21st centuries, media has been considered as the “storyteller platform” that offers recent and global news to its audience to keep them up to date. But with the social media evolvement, political engagement and citizen reporting, all broadcasting and online platforms are dealing nowadays with fake and non-credible news issue that conquered all media agenda worldwide.
Creative Commons: Fake news Crisis
What is fake and what is real? As a start, fake news can be defined as false information that is not supported by credible and reliable sources to mislead the audience of acknowledging the truth especially in media, thus fake news is spread to hide the ultimate truth. Ethically, journalists and media are considered as open, objective and trustworthy sources with the responsibility of spreading the real news and to keep the audience awake on the daily updates. Instead, media is dealing with the engagement of diverse societies and groups as citizens, politicians and some media platform that caused an excessive propagation of fake news only for personal interests leaving the audience blindfoldedjust like in theUS elections where Mr. Trumpstarted to tweet rumors without relying on credible evidence to attack Mrs. Clinton.
The providers of fake news do not only start within the media platforms and journalists, but it also opens a wide chance for social media users to use clickbait only to grab attention andget more viewers.They disregard fact-checking the information shared on the open sources platforms whichin turn lets the audience engage more with the content. The exchange news strategy helps in spreading fake newsfaster and it could reach all the continents worldwide,taking into consideration the absence of censorship experts. As Pope Francis said in the ‘New York Times” article issued on the 7th of June 2016 that publishing fake news will harm societies internationally, hence contributing to “mental pollution” which in turn will be considered a threat to the humanity riches.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” MR Laughlin( The New York times)
The involvement of some politicians and journalists that lack media ethics is the main factor that leads to the increase of fake news in all broadcast and online media. This unethical process has led the readers to doubt the real news and where they became unable to differentiate between what is verifiable and what is invalid.
Creative Commons: Al-Arabia and Saad Hariri situation
A tangible experience that could clarify this problem is the incident that happened recently when Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was at Saudi Arabia. The “Al Arabia” website and TV station, one of the Saudi Arabia channels, said that Hariri wasn’t captured or investigated, but he “has been free to move around”. Various reports as France24 and CNN contradicted what has been said in Al-Arabia article. That was the real problem: Al-Arabia has been caught with invalid information about Saad Hariri and also faked what is already fake about the freedom of Lebanese PM on his visit to Saudi Arabia. Still, the authentic details are hidden for political reasons.
This post-truth political strategy (or political debates that ignores the main key point of a certain debate or issue ) give the chance for political parties to transmit propaganda and false statements to attack other groups. In addition, to further enhance fake news, many politicians rely on the “deception by omission” technique in order tofool media’s audience with misguided information that contains some of the truth just to grab the audience attention for political and personal interests.
“Protecting our Community is more important than maximizing our profits” Marc Zuckerberg- Bloomberg Businessweek article.
This news crisis cannot be solved easily, but nowadays professional ethical journalists, initiatives, and experts in the fact-checking can tackle this issue to maintain the media’s credibility and to help the audience to be aware of the fake websites and information.
As Magda Abou Fadil said during a conference At Notre Dame University(NDU) that as a journalist shouldn’t be satisfied with all the worldwide news spread daily through the digital platform, his job is to go deeper into the details to fact-check the credibility of those stories.
Among all fake news that is spread daily in media online and offline, fact-checking is a must before believing any news features or information. Professionally, Broadcast media and online platforms must first obey media’s law regarding the importance of publishing only the truth for the public interest and adapt to any global changes and development to maintain trust between the press and its audience.
Fact Checking
On the 7th of December 2015, the” Independent” website posted an article about the climate change and the EU actions regarding this issue which held the title:”There is NO EU solution to climate change as long as TTIP exists.”
In this article, the author explains how the EU representatives are blocking any investment discussions and development deals which are trying to solve the climate affair in order to protect the ecosystem and the environment. In addition, he mentioned the involvement of the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) as an initiative to help the EU in the temperature diversity issue, which in turn is increasing global warming. All the investments of TTIP are based on chemical materials that might contribute to air pollution, therefore this strategy between both organizations is not fixing the matter at hand, but is instead raising the pollution of the atmosphere.
Specialists in that domain have recently discovered that most of the information was deceitful, but some of the points mentioned might be true. In “The Guardian” article (July 2016), Arthur Neslen stated that various investments between both the EU and the TTIP aim to create a new form of energy that consumes a certain amount of fuel. This limited amount of fuel does not pollute the air which in turn maintains the earth’s temperature and protects the ozone layer as much as possible.
To discuss the matter from another point of view, The New York Times’ journalist Sewell Chan claimed that the investments and deals of the TTIP can offer great services which would benefit the economic sector in societies, in addition to many public figures. Mr. Obama stressed on the affair by mentioning how little time humanity still has and emphasized that countries must act as soon as possible before it becomes too late. However, the article also mentioned the opinions of the Greenpeace initiative which accused the US and TTIP of providing investments to weaken the protection of the environment, by also stating that both EU and US positions regarding climate change were incorrect.
The independent article is somehow altered, and this example shows how societies believe that news and is increasing fake news crisis in media platforms through different ways.
Sustainability has been considered as a major target within societies, especially for the academic institutions whereas the internet development has reached a higher level and still working on including the environment into the network. This evolution aims at developing the educational and social involvement levels through technological, sustainable and well-organized environmental advancement. “Our common home” conference introduces an innovative environmental sustainability model that must be included in academic curriculums nowadays.
Mark Goldstein, a researcher in the international reseach center stated that:”Internet of Things is a transformative megatrends for sustainability”
How could it be related to the Internet of things?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and have the ability to transfer data through the network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. In the past few years, IoT has conducted to development in the educational field as OER(open educational resources) system or creating technological devices that facilitate content sharing.
Meeting this increased demand for resources and infrastructures will require new strategies. IoT promises to develop urban areas into “smart cities” capable of using information technology, improving quality of life, and achieving sustainability goals.
Creative Commons: IoT to sustainability
To reach a sustainable environment through IoT, Dr. Layla Khalaf Kairouz states:”If you care you have really to share”. She points out that sharing knowledge, content, new inventions and ideas through the network will lead the society to self-development, especially that education sustainability relies on the 3 Ps:
Program: to include technologic devices in the curriculum such as setting up OER learning strategy, offering easy online access, facilitating the use of information, and spreading internet literacy. IoT will offer courses related to society and tips for the good use of technology.
Policies: an environment cannot be sustained without rules and laws that organize the development through safe and positive ways. For instance, a global sharing network as the internet will help students to abide by environmental sustainability norms, and understand how to live in a sustainable society, how to benefit from this development and how to share it.
Practice: sustainability and IoT are directly related to practice. Energy, water, transportation and educational content are main key factors while applying IoT to achieve sustainability.Taking NDU parking as an example, instructors teach students on how to improve transportation landscape to apply it and gain more parking lots and to provide a safe and comfortable spot which can contain a specific number of cars. It will be equipped with sensors and cameras.
The advances in IoT technologies improve sustainability in universities are relying on engaging instructors and students and enabling them to participate in IoT initiatives: to develop the teaching system, it is a must to have interaction between both instructors and students to exchange information.
In order to ensure a transition between IoT and Environmental Sustainability, the following criteria should be folowed:
Saving water by installing technological devices to measure the amount of wasted and consumed water.
Switching from electrical engines to solar panels which provide better energy income.
Connecting things through network and facilitating the announcements provided to student even when they are offline.
Reducing air polution by using public transportation or using hybrid cars that consume electricity instead of fuel.
Don’t:
wasting water for no reason and inconsciously
leaving electrical devices turned on and plugged to the electricity
using things connected to the internet without acknowledging the literacy when it comes to IoT
Consuming 95 diesel fuel that contribute to more air pollution instead of the 98
“Do what you can with what you have where you are”
It is important to have materials to start developing through technology and include it in universities, but the most important thing is to strat thinking logically about what could be done on campus related to the intrests and demands of instructors and students with the availablere sources in every society to witness a valuable and benificial transformation to a sustainable and technology friendly environment. This dynamic exchange of data privately and publicaly will lead to great opportunities in the educational field and the workplace.
With technological development, societies have raised the value of money and increased the economy. In the last couple of years, internet users are dealing with a massive and huge new system called Digital currency or Bitcoins described as a balanced account that is stored electronically using the online card or other devices. This type of currency may be used to buy goods and services. Reference: Creative Commons: what are bitcoins?
“I think the internet is going to be one of the major forces for reducing the role of government. The one thing that’s missing but that will soon be developed is a reliable e-cash.”(Professor Milton Friedman 1999)
History:
It started first with crypto-currencies such as dotcom-bubble, E-gold, and liberty reserve which are a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions and to control the creation of additional units of the currency. In 1983 David Chaum evolved the idea of digital cash.Then in 2008 Bitcoin was invented and described as the first blockchain-based decentralized cryptocurrency.
Reference: Creative Commons: the difference between centralized and decentralized Bitcoins are divided into 2 different parts:
Such as PayPal, E-cash, and WebMoney, this system works directly with its user’s interest and demanding without the interpretation of any digital currency exchanger.Easy to access and to provide advanced trading functionalities
It’s a cryptocurrency system or a type of digital token that depends on cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, and decentralization.It doesn’t rely on a third holder service to maintain the user’s funds.This system works by creating Proxy tokens or through a decentralized multi-signature phenomenon.
Regardless that bitcoins have emerged into the marketplace with different profiles and functions but still contain both advantages and disadvantages linked to the societies and countries:
Creative Commons: A gold bitcoin on a tablet computer: no insurance.
Pros
1-It’s far cheaper to produce and to transport.
2-It is a digital wallet secured by Online Banks.
3- Insurance starting with installment duplicity.
4- Reduce the possibility of bitcoin’s robbery
5- Direct Transfers for Immediate Settlement
6- Access to anonymous and Inaccessible Markets
7- Decreasing transfer fees
Cons
1-It’s not a material thing: it is not permanent
2- if one of the internet or the power grid is gone, bitcoins will be worthless.
3-A risky investment because it is stored in a worldwide connected web.
4-Increased Regulation
5-Limited Scaling
6-Lack of Applications.
Reference Creative commons: Pros of bitcoins
Along with the criteria of this digital wallet, hackers and fraudsters are creating a chaos in the economic field by stealing huge amounts of bitcoins around the world for illegal purposes. Nowadays, many governments are taking control of this system using experts in the digital currency field to increase the security level on these digital coins also by putting some restricted rules and policies on the illegal actions and services made by black hackers to maintain the accounts of the users.
Creative Commons: Bitcoins and economy
In Lebanon, as an example, there are no possibilities of creating a cryptocurency community or an open source in dealing with bitcoins. First, the internet isn’t 100% secured worldwide but in Lebanon, the internet is easily hacked because of the illegal internet IP addresses provided. Although, the government doesn’t have any laws regarding internet usage with no bitcoins literacy, specifically to protect consumer’s rights and funds.
“If Bitcoin becomes widespread, respected, and legitimate, that pressures all the central banks and banking companies to bring down those costs in order to stay competitive, Or everyone could just use Bitcoin,” Johnson.
Over the last few years, Bitcoins are controlling and affecting the economic field especially with its association with online black markets as Silk Road and Alphabay. The high usage of electronic currency contributed to a decrease in the use of normal money by relying on the scarcest, most divisible, transportable, verifiable and recognizable digital money in this digital age that could interrupt the ability of central banks to control over the economy. Although Bitcoins bring for themselves a great measure from claiming political debate because it plays as a wealth form for individuals interests. Also, This merge between the Dark web and bitcoins has facilitated illegal selling products through specific websites. But what will happen then?
“Nobody Can Stop Bitcoin” Bill Gates
People all over the world are dealing nowadays with the web 2.0. But many studies have conducted that digital money or cryptocurrency is 3.0web money software. This system has overcome the power of the internet and may overcome the capabilities of the internet experts.
However this technological currency is threatened in the future and all digital accounts could vanish if the dark web, controlled by anonymous users, dominates bitcoins illegally as it seems to happen with Silk Road. This inspiring system could have a bright future but bring along with it some harmful consequences.
The last Classico that happened on the 23rd of April this year at Camp Nou had its certain memory in Barcelona Club fans and a heartbreak towards Real Madrid lovers.
This Match took place in 23rd of April 2017 at Barcelona
with a number of audience and fans that exceeded 85 000.
“That was The Day When Messi Scored his 500 Goal in his career. In the process, Messi became the all-time top scorer in El Clasico” – (Alfredo Di Stefano).
This match ended by 3 to 2 to Barcelona club leaving many questions and thoughts to both clubs regarding the future of this competition between the biggest clubs worldwide. Barcelona considered that this win will lead Barcelona club to many achievements especially having Messi and many young players among their squad.
But from a different point of view, a legend always seeks to achieve more and a club always searches for the best. in the last couple of weeks, many articles, and reports stated that discussions have been made between both Barcelona and Manchester City clubs about transferring Messi to the Premier League by paying more than 400 million pounds. This rumors raised Real Madrid hopes on becoming the top “La Liga” club economically and in the UFAE champions league and also had given hope to other clubs that seeks perfection by getting Messi in their clubs, especially when Messi mentioned once that he won’t leave Barcelona until he retired.
Nothing is certain at that point, and all offers remain discussions until Lionel Messi takes the decision on staying at Barcelona where he made his turning points in his career or to make a new step and change all the Metrics in the world of football.
Finally, this Classico made many changes in last few months but it won’t be forgotten by any of Barcelona or Real Madrid fans because the achievement will remain always in the history of football no matter what happens in the future.
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With technological development, societies have raised the value of money and increased the economy. In the last couple of years, internet users are dealing with a massive and huge new system called 
Global news 