It's never too late!

Yup! I'm back!
Sorry for the delay in posting, between life and life, there can only be moving forward :-)
(Thanks T. Harv Eker for sharing the above image).

Its Giving Tuesday!

It's giving Tuesday!
Please help in raising awareness and funds to build a school in Nepal!

Well, friends and family, your princess warrior has decided to join a group and head to Nepal (for a few days early 2014) and help build a school with BuildOn. Why? because I'm passionate about education, helping women, and live to travel :-)
I cannot do it without your help though; would you please please please help me fundraise by donating, and/or sharing my fundraising link below to everyone you know?

http://act.buildon.org/zinasahib

Together we can share the gift of education among our fellow human beings. That's a gift that lasts forever! (and yes, I really really really wanna visit Nepal ;-)

Science Ambassador Program! @ Aviva Community Fund

Program Overview

The SA program was established in 2006 by the NSERC/Cameco Prairie Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)—computer science professor Julita Vassileva—physics professor Chary Rangacharyulu, and chemistry professor Lee Wilson with funding support from the U of S, Cameco Corporation, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The goal of the SA program is to provide teachers in Aboriginal communities with practical, hands-on support, both in the sciences classroom and through extra-curricular science activities. Science ambassadors are undergraduate or graduate students in science and engineering whose primary role is to help teachers in the classroom teach science in an interesting, engaging manner. Most of their work is aimed at children in grades four to nine, years that are critical in determining whether students develop a keen interest in science and a desire to pursue science education in later years. Our ambassadors are young, energetic and committed individuals who have proven their ability to make real connections with the kids.

What makes this program so unique is the duration of the support our students provide. Unlike many other science outreach programs, our science ambassadors spend extended period of time in the community, generally six consecutive full weeks, or four days every six weeks from September to May. Since its inception, the program has reached over 1200 students, in 12 schools, in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta. With demand growing every year, we are confident this program will continue to grow well into the future.

Please vote here:

Sparking the Joy of Science Discovery in Aboriginal Kids

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day :-)

Breakthrough for mobile television

ScienceDaily (2010-02-14) -- Long Term Evolution, a new mobile telecommunications standard, is poised to revolutionize mobile internet. High transmission rates will soon be possible on mobile devices. For this purpose, researchers in Germany developed the cross-layer design SVC over LTE -- a coding method that offers HD films in real-time in the appropriate format for cell phones or netbooks.

Full article is here.

Social networking sites could solve many communication problems when disaster strikes

ScienceDaily (2010-02-10) -- Online social networking sites could solve many problems plaguing information dissemination and communications when disaster strikes, according to a new report.

Full article is here.

Reaching for the stars to create music of the universe

ScienceDaily (2010-02-03) -- While a supernova can be seen, it can't be heard, as sound waves cannot travel through space. But what if the light waves emitted by the exploding star and other cosmological phenomena could be translated into sound? That's the idea behind a "Rhythms of the Universe," a musical project to "sonify" the universe by Grateful Dead percussionist and Grammy award-winning artist Mickey Hart that caught the attention of Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist George Smoot of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Full article is here.

Design vs. Dyslexia: Innovation promises new hope for children with dyslexia

ScienceDaily (2010-01-27) -- Researchers are designing a 21st century electronic toolkit to speed learning for children with dyslexia.

Full article is here.

Fareed Lafta: first to represent Arabs to space, an Iraqi astronaut :-)

From: Taipei Times:

THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Friday, May 29, 2009, Page 6

“My parents still think I’m crazy.” — Fareed Lafta, a Dubai-based Iraqi extreme sports fanatic

He has been hailed as Iraq’s superman: a role model for the nation’s youth who flies, glides, dives and races motorcycles. He has already made the Guinness World Records by taking part in the first skydive above Mount Everest. But last week Fareed Lafta, a Dubai-based extreme sports fanatic, returned to Baghdad to seek backing for his ultimate ambition — to be the first Iraqi in space.

“I want to represent my country, and to be one of the men like Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin, who showed with all humility what it is to be a good human,” he said.

In his badged blue flightsuit and cap, he cut a curious figure as he lobbied for support among the suits, robes and turbans in Iraq’s parliament.

“I don’t know the mechanisms, I am not a politician, and I don’t want to be. I just need help to send me into space,” he said.

Before he leaves the earth’s atmosphere, Fareed, 30, plans to become the first civilian to skydive above Baghdad since the war — a mark of the improved security environment. He has brought his rig and parachute with him and is ready to go as soon as he can get clearance from the authorities.

“Diving over a city that has suffered from war is recognized in the skydiving community as a symbol that the war is over. Because I want to say to all the world that we are now in peace, and it’s not war any more,” he said.

Fareed’s growing fame in Iraq is timely.

“Iraqi youth need a role model like Fareed to take their mind off guns and violence,” said Ammar Shaabandar of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting in Iraq.

Fareed has been addicted to adventure since he was a boy.

“I would climb to the top of the cupboard in my bedroom and jump off. My mum got mad and punished me because I made a mess of my room. But it was the informal start of my career, aged five. My parents still think I’m crazy,” he said.

Raised in Baghdad, he left with his family for Dubai at the outbreak of war in 2003. There he continued a boyhood passion for motorcycle racing, quickly turning professional. He also became a scuba diving instructor and started freediving, achieving a lung-busting depth of 80m. He then took to the air, hang-gliding and paragliding to an international standard and gaining a private pilot’s license.

But it was the decision to take up skydiving that really changed his life, he said. He moved to Russia last year as part of an international team planning a record-breaking jump over the Himalayas. In Nepal they spent 21 days acclimatizing before the jump last October.

“We jumped from 9,000m, only about 500m or so above the peak of Mount Everest,” recalled Fareed, who sports the Iraqi flag on his jumpsuit. “It was amazing, truly amazing, to be soaring above Mount Everest. For a few minutes, I was emperor of world. I reached nirvana, absolute happiness.”

The kick from his Everest exploits was not enough, however. So in March, the restless Fareed returned to Russia to train as Iraq’s first cosmonaut. His fitness and skill levels meant that he completed the training in two months. Usually it takes trainees six months to learn how to breathe properly and cope with the G-forces, he said.

He specialized in space video and photography, and he wants to film while doing a walk outside the space shuttle.

For all his achievements, Iraq’s lone superman confesses to being lonely.

Iraqi girls do not want to come near a man who lives life at such a breathless pace, it seems.

************

An updated version of his status (as of 28th January 2010) is available (in Arabic only) here.

Cool School - Where Peace Rules - Human Development Scientists And Computer Game Developers Design Video Game That Teaches Conflict Resolution To Kids

ScienceDaily () -- Human development scientists and computer game developers designed a video game that teaches kids how to resolve conflicts peacefully amongst themselves. Inanimate objects, such as pencils and erasers, come to life to lead players through a series of common scenarios in which arguments are about to occur. The player is prompted for the non-violent solution and is rewarded for choosing correctly.

Full article is here.

Join us and share your story...

Dear ladies,

Check out WISETales - an online community for Women in Science and Engineering.

The aim of this community is to bring women together, to share their stories (successful and frustrating ones) about their experiences working in male-dominated fields/environments, so we can share and learn from each other.

Young female graduates in these fields could learn from the experiences of other skilled professionals, and these professionals have a space where they can reflect on their experiences.

I would like to invite you to check out the website and register to post your own story. Kindly note that to maintain privacy, no names or direct references to people or organizations are allowed. You are free to create any alias name, but your story has to be real.

The website address is :http://wisetales.usask.caorhttp://www.ourwisetales.com

Please join our community, and help spread the word to other women.

Interactive animations give science students a boost

ScienceDaily (2010-01-08) -- For a generation of students raised and nurtured at the computer keyboard, it seems like a no-brainer that computer-assisted learning would have a prominent role in the college science classroom. But many difficult scientific concepts are still conveyed through dry lectures or ponderous texts. But that could change if science professors take a cue from a new study on the use of interactive animations in the college science classroom.

Full article is here.

The story of two wolves...

I recently came across this short story, and wanted to share it with you....

"

One day an old Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson. He said, "There are two wolves fighting inside all of us - the wolf of fear and hate, and the wolf of love and peace."

The grandson listened, then looked up at his grandfather and asked, "Which one will win?"

The grandfather replied, "The one we feed."

"

No Facebook messages for IQ-SICAN inquiries please!

Dear future graduate students,

Hope all are well....

Please note that I do not answer any requests through Facebook. Simply because answering your messages on Facebook gives access to my profile, which I prefer to keep private.

Kindly use this email address to correspond with me regarding your graduate education inquiries:

iqsican@gmail.com

This will also make it easier for me to keep track of our correspondences in one place / media.

On another note, and for your convenience, you many send me emails in Arabic to easily explain your situation. My answers will be in English though.

All the best....

IQ-SICAN

توقعات كارمن شماس 2010

بشكل عام صعوبات وتقلبات جذرية 2010 هذا ما وصفته كارمن لهذا العام، برج الحمل منعطفات مفاجئة، برج الثور تكاتف واجتهاد،برج الجوزاء تقدم وتغيير، برج السرطان فرص مهمة وتجارب متناقضة، برج الأسد استعادة موقع

، برج العذراء خروج من النفق، برج الميزان تقلبات جذرية، برج العقرب طائر الفينيق، برج القوس دعم للركائز، برج الجدي امتحانات وتجارب، برج الدلو استثمار ونجاح، برج الحوت حظوظ وفرص ذهبية.

برج الحمل.. معارف
مواليد برج الحمل الذين يصح وصف سنتهم بسنة الاجتهاد، اذ يجب ان يسعوا خلالها ويجتهدوا ويتعبوا ليحصلوا على مبتغاهم، في العام 2010، ثمة احتمال لأن يعرفوا شراكات جديدة ومعارف نافذة جدا مع ضرورة تنبههم لامورهم العاطفية والمهنية في الشهرين الاخيرين من السنة نظرا لعراقيل ومصالحات قد تواجههم.

برج الثور اجتهاد
عام 2010 هي سنة الشهرة لمواليد برج الثور حيث ينعمون بالحظ والشهرة والسمعة والتقدم، فالعازب يمكن ان يتزوج ومن يعمل يمكن ان يتقدم في وظيفته او مركزه ومن يرغب في الانتقال من شركة الى اخرى يمكن ان يجد نفسه في موقع افضل، اما عاطفيا، فالفلك يعد الثور بسنة حلوة ومستقرة.

برج الجوزاء.. ارتياح
من برج الثور الى برج الجوزاء الذي يعرف مولوده سنة ارتياح تدريجي لاسيما انه سيتنفس الصعداء من المشاكل الصعبة التي واجهها على مدى سنتين، لكن في الوقت نفسه الفلك ينصحه بالتركيز وعدم المبالغة او تشتيت تفكيره كي لا تكثر عليه الضغوط. عاطفيا ثمة حلحلة

وانفراجات وتطمينات.

برج السرطان فرص
سنة 2010 هي سنة العلاقات المتقلبة لمواليد برج السرطان الذين يجب ان يتنبهوا لأن علاقاتهم تمر بامتحانات وتجارب يكتشفون في ضوئها ما اذا كانت هذه العلاقات ستستمر ام لا التنبه واجب سواء في علاقاتهم العاطفية او المهنية.

برج الأسد.. زواج
مولود برج الاسد من جهته سيعرف سنة ارتباط وشراكة، فهي سنة زواج للعازب وسنة شراكة لمن يبحث عن شراكة مهنية، كما انها يمكن ان تكون سنة عقود واتفاقات وتعد من السنوات الحلوة جدا والمليئة بالحظ والانفراجات لمواليد الاسد.

برج العذراء.. حرص
وتقول كارمن انه في العام 2010 ينصح الفلك مولود العذراء بالمزيد من الحرص على ان مواليد الفترة الممتدة بين السابع من سبتمبر والثاني والعشرين منه هم اكثر من يجب ان يتنبهوا ويحرصوا على استقرارهم الصحي والمهني والعاطفي، اما مواليد الفترة الممتدة من الثالث والعشرين من اب/ اغسطس حتى السابع والعشرين منه فأكثر حظا وارتياحا.

يمكن وصف سنته بسنة القشور الزائلة، حيث يجب ان يتنبه الى كل ما هو زائف لوضع حد له والتأسيس لعلاقات متينة سواء كانت مهنية او عائلية.

برج العقرب.. استقرار
عام 2010 هو عام الاستقرار العائلي لمولود برج العقرب الذي بامكانه ان يتزوج اذا كان عازبا فيها المتزوج يرزق بأولاد ومن كانت صحته تعبة سيرتاح ويطمئن، وهي سنة انفراجات ومن افضل ما يكون على برج العقرب.

برج القوس دعم
مولود برج القوس يعرف اهتمامات مالية في العام الجديد، لكن المراهنات ممنوعة والفلك ينصحه بالابتعاد عن التهور والعشوائية، هي سنة لا تخلو من التقلبات، اليقظة خلالها مهمة وضرورية.

برج الجدي.. تغيير جذري
ومن القوس الى الجدي الذي يعرف مولوده سنة تغييرات جذرية على ان الحظوظ والايجابيات ستبدأ بالظهور ابتداء من الاسبوع الثاني من يناير/كانون الثاني، لاسيما على الصعيد المالي، المهم ان يعمل كي لا يأتي التغيير سلبيا في حياته.

برج الدلو.. الأكثر حظا
اما برج الدلو فهو اكثر الابراج حظا وسعادة سنة 2010، حتى ان وجهه سعد على الآخرين، هي سنة نجاح وتقدم وازدهار انتظرها مولود الدلو منذ احدى عشرة سنة، حيث تختفي المشاكل وتتسهل كل الامور.

برج الحوت.. ينتظر
وختاما مع مولود برج الحوت الذي يعرف في العام 2010 المزيد من التجارب، وهو الذي عانى في العامين 2008 و2009 من تقلب

ات صعبة ستظل تطول مواليد الفترة الممتدة بين التاسع والرابع عشر من مارس/اذار، اما مواليد شهر فبراير/شباط فهم في امان في العام 2010 ويجب ان يستعدوا لأن سنة الحظ عندهم اقتربت وستكون في 2010

Best wishes for a Happy New Year / Decade!

Top 10 moments in social media in 2009

Posted by Mark Milian | December 29th, 2009 at 9:49 pm |

This year was certainly significant in the world of online social media. Facebook surpassed 350 million users — more than the U.S. population — and Twitter’s short blogging service skyrocketed in popularity, led by celebs, tech lovers and top companies.

Here’s a look back at 2009’s biggest events in which social media played a major role.

10. "Word of Web." As people spent more time chatting online and in public spaces like Twitter, buzz surrounding product and entertainment releases became instantly quantifiable. The elusive word-of-mouth promotion could now be measured, and "word of Web" became that new currency. (Marketers love to use the word "viral.")

The movie "District 9" played the game rather well. The low-budget sci-fi flick started the buzz train early with cryptic alien decals around major cities before its release. Despite relatively low advertising spending, the movie did extremely well. The fact that it was actually a good film certainly didn’t hurt.

9. Whopper Sacrifice. Facebook was quick to kill this marketing ploy, but Burger King had a picnic with this one. The Whopper Sacrifice game asked Facebook users to delete 10 friends in exchange for a free burger. In just a couple of weeks, 233,906 friends were dropped like a bad habit.

It proved to be a hilariously successful way to promote a brand that seemed to get only more controversial and creepy over the course of the year.

8. Google Wave. In Gmail-like fashion, the exclusive nature of Google’s newest product (people vied for a limited number of invitations from friends) made it the must-have free service of 2009. Of course, once people finally got hold of Wave, their lust died down.

The interface is still pretty confusing, and the team continues to struggle with growing pains in its mission to create a stable collaboration platform. However, it packs some intriguing technologies that could very well transform journalism in addition to a number of industries. But right now, e-mail replacement it is not.

7. Twitter and Facebook under hack attack. Just when it seemed like Twitter had finally outgrown its glitches and constant bandwidth overload at the beginning of the year, summertime rolled around and,poof!, Twitter was down. And Facebook. And LiveJournal. And YouTube. What’s going on?

It was the first major malicious attack that successfully targeted a number of massive social sites. It wouldn’t be the last. A source at Twitter tells us the denial-of-service attacks had been going on for months, and they were also aimed at Facebook, which was seeing increased downtime too.

In addition to the site-aimed missiles, users were increasingly targeted for phishing scams. They were showing up in practically everyone’s Facebook inbox and Twitter direct message list.

As Microsoft knows all too well with its Windows platform, along with majority market share comes an army of bad guys.

6. Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN. In lieu of creating a separate list for "top 1 stupidest moments in social media," we guess this deserves a mention. The former star of "That 70s Show," under the guise of his Twitter alias @aplusk, led a high-profile campaign against CNN’s breaking news account.

The @cnnbrk profile was among the most popular on the social network at the time when Kutcher challenged the news network to a race to a million subscribers. The winner would donate money to a malaria charity.

Amid all the free promotion, the ridiculousness factor multiplied by a hundred when we saw digital billboards springing up with the directive "follow Ashton Kutcher" and a link to his page.

Kutcher won, and you can’t downplay such unstoppable tactics as Twittering a few, um, choice photos of his wife, Demi Moore. Lucky twit.

5. Susan Boyle launches career. Perhaps the most notable product of that "word of Web" we talked about earlier, this 48-year-old Scottish singer rose from absolute obscurity after low-key appearances on "Britain’s GotTalent," England’s precursor to "American Idol."

Videos of the dowdy singer resonated online as the YouTube videos echoed in every corner of social media. Both Boyle and show creator Simon Cowell have acknowledged the massive role the Internetplayed in her newfound fame.

4. R.I.P. Michael Jackson. TMZ was the first to confirm Michael Jackson’s death. For an hour or so while news organizations cautiously ignored or speculated on its validity, the social Net was ablaze with mourning and cynicism. By the time the L.A. Times confirmed the news, the information was already being debated to death on Twitter in bite-size bits.

The death of one of the biggest pop stars in recent history was a perfect example of how quickly big news can spread on the Web.

3. R.I.P. Jeff Goldblum? The Web is also fantastic at quickly spreading misinformation. Most of the time, you don’t even need a bogus news story to accompany your false tweet.

Here’s a list of notable people who didn’t die this year but had their "obitweets" spread far and wide: Jeff Goldblum, Natalie Portman, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Michael Lohan, alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, Jared from Subway, Emma Watson and P. Diddy.

2. Iran "green" protests. The violent political protests in Iran spurred support from countless international sympathizers in the form of turning their avatars green (not to be confused with turning blue for "Avatar" or going ’50s cartoony for "Mad Men.")

Though the movement was really big on Twitter and prevalent on the streets of Iran, no change actually happened. The revolt, dubbed the "Twitter Revolution," was listed as Salon’s third-most-bogus story of the year.

1. Hudson River plane landing. Demonstrating the true power of social media, the iPhone snapshot of the rescue mission in the Hudson River was legendary. The picture says a thousand words about how no moment has to be missed just because a reporter or photographer didn’t happen to be near the scene. Anyone can be a reporter for a moment and broadcast to the world.

Top photo: Twitter creator Jack Dorsey. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times. Middle photo: Ashton Kutcher. Credit: Associated Press. Bottom photo: Hudson River plane landing. Credit: Janis Krums via Twitpic

Privacy concerns could limit benefits from real-time data analysis

ScienceDaily (2009-12-18) -- Society will be unable to take full advantage of real-time data analysis technologies that might improve health, reduce traffic congestion and give scientists new insights into human behavior until it resolves questions about how much of a person's life can be observed and by whom.

Full article is here.

Iraq-born teen cracks math puzzle

By AFP on Thursday, May 28, 2009

STOCKHOLM - A 16-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in Sweden has cracked a math puzzle that has stumped experts for more than 300 years, Swedish media reported Thursday.
In just four months, Mohamed Altoumaimi has found a formula to explain and simplify the so-called Bernoulli numbers, a sequence of calculations named after the 17th century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, the Dagens Nyheter daily said.
Altoumaimi, who came to Sweden six years ago, said teachers at his high school in Falun, central Sweden were not convinced about his work at first.
“When I first showed it to my teachers, none of them thought the formula I had written down really worked,” Altoumaimi told the Falu Kuriren newspaper.
He then got in touch with professors at Uppsala University, one of Sweden’s top institutions, to ask them to check his work.
After going through his notebooks, the professors found his work was indeed correct and offered him a place in Uppsala.
But for now, Altoumaimi is focusing on his school studies and plans to take summer classes in advanced mathematics and physics this year.
“I wanted to be a researcher in physics or mathematics; I really like those subjects. But I have to improve in English and social sciences,” he told the Falu Kuriren. – AFP

Source

Texting, tweeting ought to be viewed as GR8 teaching tools, scholar says

ScienceDaily (2009-12-14) -- Carol L. Tilley, a professor of library and information science at Illinois, says that critics who equate texting with literary degradation are wrong, and that they also overlook the bigger role that texting and its distant cousin, "tweeting," could play in education and research.

Full article is here.