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Monday, 21 September 2015 07:00
Six Greek Universities Ranked In The 2015/16 QS World University Rankings
The QS website included six Greek Universities in its 2015/2016 World University Rankings.
These six Greek institutions ranked globally known table. Specifically, the National Technical University (NTUA) ranked 376th, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ranked 461-470th, University of Crete 501-550, National and Kapodistrian University and the University of Patra were both placed between the 601st and the 650th position, while the Athens University of Economics and Business ranked above the 701st position.
Kathimerini reports that the National Technical University ranked 238th based on the "citations per facuty area" criteria. Furthermore, the NTUA's engineering technology faculty ranked withing the world's top 100 of its kind, occupying 67th place.
To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter
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Thursday, 24 September 2015 07:00
Greek Employment Grew By 1.2% In Second Quarter Of 2015
Employment growth in Eurozone accelerated marginally for the second straight quarter in the three months ended June, figures from Eurostat showed Tuesday.
Employment rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in the second quarter, following a 0.2 percent climb in the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter last year, employment edged up 0.1 percent.
On an annual basis, employment growth held steady at 0.8 percent in the three-month period to June.
Greek employment grew by 1.2 pct in the second quarter of 2015, compared with the first quarter of the year, Eurostat said on Tuesday.
According to a latest report, Greece along with Portugal (+1.3%) recorded the highest percentage increase in employment in the April-June period, followed by Ireland and Spain (0.9% each) and Estonia (0.8%). Employment fell in Finland (-0.3%), the UK (-0.2%), Bulgaria and Lithuania (-0.1% each).
The number of employed people grew 0.3% in the Eurozone and 0.2% in the EU-28 totaling 228.8 million men and women of which 151 million in the Eurozone in the second quarter of 2015, compared with the previous quarter. Employment rose 0.8% in the Eurozone and 0.9% in the EU compared with the second quarter of 2014.
To read more, please visit: Apokoronews
Employment rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in the second quarter, following a 0.2 percent climb in the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter last year, employment edged up 0.1 percent.
On an annual basis, employment growth held steady at 0.8 percent in the three-month period to June.
Greek employment grew by 1.2 pct in the second quarter of 2015, compared with the first quarter of the year, Eurostat said on Tuesday.
According to a latest report, Greece along with Portugal (+1.3%) recorded the highest percentage increase in employment in the April-June period, followed by Ireland and Spain (0.9% each) and Estonia (0.8%). Employment fell in Finland (-0.3%), the UK (-0.2%), Bulgaria and Lithuania (-0.1% each).
The number of employed people grew 0.3% in the Eurozone and 0.2% in the EU-28 totaling 228.8 million men and women of which 151 million in the Eurozone in the second quarter of 2015, compared with the previous quarter. Employment rose 0.8% in the Eurozone and 0.9% in the EU compared with the second quarter of 2014.
To read more, please visit: Apokoronews
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Monday, 28 September 2015 07:00
Could This Start-Up Save The Greek Economy?
A week-long start-up accelerator program kicked off mid-September in London with the aim of finding an idea that will make an immediate contribution to the crisis-worn Greek economy.
Six short-listed companies worked with mentors and investors, including Google executive Steve Vranakis and George Kartakis of Paypal-owned Braintree, to refine their ideas before competing in a Dragons Den-style event at the end of the week.
The ideas included a chemical formula to protect historical sites from graffiti, a scheme to recycle unused hotel toiletries, a Mastiha liqueur importer, an online education manager, a digital diary for booking civil weddings and an internet shop for items handmade by Greek businesses.
The accelerator challenge, which was run in partnership with Watershed Entrepreneurs, was organised by Reload Greece, a non-profit organisation that encourages entrepreneurship from Greek expats and others that will have a social and economic impact in Greece.
"As we are based in London, we are tapping into the diaspora, the global community who are connected with Greece," said co-founder Effie Kyrtata, a 25-year-old Athenian who moved to London seven years ago.
"We’ve seen a lot of people leave Greece and come to other countries – the brain drain, the lost generation – and lose contact with Greece. We want to create a bridge between Greece and the UK."
To read more, please visit: The Telegraph
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Friday, 02 October 2015 07:20
Greek Crisis Turned Into A Board Game
Nikolai Diekerts, 28, and Julian Schärdel, 29, are friends and they share a common passion: board games. However, they are interested in finding new games that escape the mainstream board game market rules and promote their own ideas.
It appears that the economic crisis which struck Europe and particularly the southern countries, such as Greece in 2009, was a source of inspiration for the two German nationals. €uro crisis is a satirical board game about the economic and political developments in Europe over the last years.
According to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, the two young men, along with three other friends, started participating in national board game championships four years ago, and they decided to create their own game, €urocrisis.
The game was first presented two years ago at a trade show in Essen, however, it has changed a lot since then, thanks to the advice and help that the creators received from several people. €uro Crisis is a tactical as well as a satirical game for 3-4 players who take on the roles of banks with the goal of enriching themselves at the expense of the struggling states.
To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter
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Thursday, 08 October 2015 07:00
Antikythera Shipwreck Artifacts Shed Light On Ancient Greece's '1 Percent'
A bronze chair arm — possibly the remains of an ancient throne — and a piece of a Greek board game are among the latest treasures raised from the site of the famous shipwreck Antikythera.
The ship, which went down in 65 B.C., sits off the coast of the Greek island of the same name. It was discovered in 1900 by sponge fishermen and has been periodically studied since.
This year, archaeologists discovered an intact amphora (a vaselike container), a small table jug (known as a lagynos) and a rectangular chiseled stone, probably a statuette base. Digging on the seafloor, they found broken ceramics, a piece of a bone flute, and broken bits of glass, iron and bronze. A section of bronze furniture may be the arm of a throne, according to the Woods Hold Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). A small glass piece looks to be a pawn in a chesslike game.
"This shipwreck is far from exhausted," project co-director Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist at WHOI, said in a statement. "Every single dive on it delivers fabulous finds, and reveals how the '1 percent' lived in the time of Caesar."
The first sponge diver to explore the wreck in 1900, Ilias Stadiatis, managed to bring a bronze arm from a statue up 164 feet (50 metres) to the surgace. The Greek government quickly sent naval support to the area, and divers brought up to 36 marble statues of heroes and gods, along with other luxury items and skeletons belonging to the crew and passengers. In 1901, the divers brought up an incredible astronomical calendar, the Antikythera mechanism, which could determine the positions of heavenly bodies like Mercury, Venus and Mars. It remains the most complex ancient item ever found, according to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
To read more, please visit: NBC News
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Monday, 12 October 2015 07:00
Wedding Dress By Greek Designer Among 15 Most Beautiful In The World
Modest wedding dresses that were once in fashion no longer are, apparently. Fashion trends now require that dresses are not only "heavier" and voluminous, decorated with luxurious lace, pearls, but also long-sleeved.
Popular wedding fashion website ''The Knot'' has presented the 15 most beautiful long-sleeved wedding dresses. Some are the works of world famous designers like Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera and others of their talented but less famous colleagues.
One of them is Greek designer Christos Costarellos, who lives and works in Athens.
The dresses by Christos Costarellos are unique, with a very fresh vision that aims to emphasize the charm and character of every woman who chooses to wear one of them.
In his penultimate collection he uses vapoury tulle, silk organza and other sheer fabrics like muslin and dotted tulle. The dresses are neo-romantic in style with the addition of some discrete and elegant traditional elements. Their main feature is movement.
To see a selection, please visit: Greek Reporter
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Thursday, 15 October 2015 07:00
Athens Ranks 1st Among 25 Most Influential Cities In The World
Two Greek cities, that have always been a magnet for art and culture, were included on the list of the 25 cities with the greatest impact on the world.
More specifically, the capital of Greece, Athens, ranked in first place in the list that was compiled by List25, the website that gathers and presents lesser-known intriguing information on a variety of subjects, while at #22 one can find Olympia, in western Peloponnese.
“Birthplace of Western civilization, Athens is the most influential city ever in the fields of philosophy, architecture, politics, science, and free thinking, as well as the original home of what is considered the most ideal system of government: democracy,” the website reads while it continues, referring: “Athens also became the first city to organize the first modern Olympics back in 1896. Some of its most famous citizens include giants such as Socrates, Plato, Solon, and Pericles.”
To read more and see the full list of the 25 cities, please visit: Greek Reporter
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Thursday, 15 October 2015 07:00
Greek Tomb Was For Alexander The Great's Friend Hephaestion
The archaeologist investigating an ancient Greek tomb from the era of Alexander the Great has suggested it was a funeral shrine for his closest friend Hephaestion.
Greeks have been enthralled for months by the mystery surrounding the Amphipolis monument. Now, Katerina Peristeri has revealed that fragmentary inscriptions link the tomb to Hephaestion.
Hephaestion died less than a year before the Macedonian leader. After his death in 325BC, Alexander was said to have ordered that shrines be constructed throughout the empire.
Monogram
Ms Peristeri's team believe the site at Amphipolis may have been designed by one of two architects, Dinocrates or Stesicrates, and built by Antigonus, another of Alexander's generals.
They also believe that tiny inscriptions found at the site show Hephaestion's monogram (two initials from his name).
However, not everyone was convinced by the team's revelations.
Prof Panayiotis Faklaris of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki told Greek radio on Thursday that there was no indication that the tomb had any connection to Hephaestion or that Alexander had ordered it to be constructed.
There had earlier been speculation that the tomb may be linked to Alexander the Great's mother Olympias or his wife Roxana.
And earlier this year, bones were recovered at the site that belonged to at least five individuals including an elderly woman, a newborn child and two men, one of whom had been stabbed.
To read more, please visit: The BBC
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Monday, 19 October 2015 07:00
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s ‘Chevalier’ Wins Best Film At London Film Festival
Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s comedy “Chevalier” won best film at the 59th BFI London Film Festival at the award ceremony at Banqueting House in London Saturday, while Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” took the first feature prize, known as the Sutherland Award.
In her film, Tsangari, who earned critical acclaim with “Attenberg,” lampoons male antagonism and competitiveness. A group of six men are on a fishing trip when they discover a mechanical issue with their yacht, and moor in a harbor to make repairs. While stuck there, they kill time by playing “Chevalier,” a game designed to determine who is “best in everything.”
Jury president, Pawel Pawlikowski, the director of Oscar-winner “Ida,” described “Chevalier” as a “study of male antagonism seen though the eyes of a brave and original filmmaker.” He added: “With great formal rigor and irresistible wit, Athena Rachel Tsangari has managed to make a film that is both a hilarious comedy and a deeply disturbing statement on the condition of Western humanity.”
Pawlikowski’s fellow jurors were producer Christine Vachon, actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristin Scott-Thomas, and director and screenwriter Mabel Cheung.
“The Witch” is about a 17th-century New England family torn apart by tension and the suspicion of witchcraft. Jury president, “Appropriate Behavior” director/screenwriter Desiree Akhavan, said “The Witch” “stood apart as the announcement of a new voice in contemporary cinema. A horror film that felt as though it were reinventing the genre with each frame and truly shocking moments that evoke both terror and empathy. With an impressive command of cameras as well as truly heartbreaking performances — it presented a fresh, feminist take on a timeless tale.”
The jury also commended Martin Butler and Bentley Dean’s “Tanna,” saying “It’s a rare skill to give a voice to a typically marginalized community that doesn’t condescend or patronize and for this reason the jury would like to give special mention to ‘Tanna’.”
Akhavan’s jury comprised director and fine artist Clio Barnard, who won the Sutherland Award in 2010 for her feature debut “The Arbor,” James Kent, the director of “Testament of Youth,” actor Allen Leech (“The Imitation Game”), and chief film critic of The Times, Kate Muir.
To read more, please visit: Variety
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Thursday, 22 October 2015 07:00
A Greek Start-Up Goes Global
In the spring of 2012, 35-year-old Imperial College graduate Nikos Moraitakis was an Upstream executive in Dubai, far away from the noise of crisis-stricken Greece, but when a new round of elections was announced back home in May that year – a situation which would lead the country to the brink of Grexit – he decided to return and set up his own company together with fellow Upstream executive Spyros Magiatis. Perhaps as a response to those who felt his decision was “crazy,” Moraitakis had already created “The Drachma Start-up,” a blog with a telling subtitle: “Diary of an Entrepreneur with Incredibly Bad Timing.”
Three years later, their company, Workable, which develops software to facilitate the hiring process for companies, is reaffirming its reputation as the country’s most promising start-up firm. Recently, the company announced it was set to receive the largest amount of funding ever given to a local start-up – 27 million dollars. The financing comes from core investor Balderton Capital as well as Notion Capital and 83North (formerly Greylock IL, the venture capital firm which headed a previous round of funding).
Workable currently employs 48 people, compared to 30 at the beginning of the year, while its turnover has risen fivefold in the space of 12 months.
Meanwhile, the company’s client base is increasing by 15 percent every month and, according to Moraitakis, the target is for revenues to quadruple by the end of 2016.
More than 3,000 companies in 52 countries use the company’s software, which, according to Daniel Howden, Workable’s vice president for marketing, “democratizes hirings” by allowing small to medium-sized companies lacking specialized human resources departments to compete with larger firms in the headhunting process.
The company operates primarily in Athens – with a staff of 36 – as well as London and Boston – now the company’s headquarters. “We hope to continue with the majority of employees working in Greece, as we plan to increase our staff to 150 people within the next year,” CEO Moraitakis told Kathimerini. Most of the members of the Greek team, “who are earning salaries that are considerably higher than the market average,” belong to one of the age categories worst hit by the crisis, 25- to 35-year-old graduates, said Moraitakis. Now the fresh funding will go toward the company’s growth plans.
To read more, please visit: ekathimerini
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