Sunday, November 28, 2010

Marijuana Vs. Alcohol


Facts on Cannabis and Alcohol

Marijuana is far less toxic and less addictive than alcohol.
Alcohol use contributes to aggressive behavior and acts of violence, whereas marijuana use reduces the likelihood of violent behavior.

Marijuana is far less toxic and less addictive than alcohol. 

MARIJUANA EFFECTS ON HUMAN BODY

My Self Reflection

I was enlightened by knowledge of my ancestors during this course. It has changed my view of higher education from being merely the necessary route to my future career, to being a legacy and obligation i must withhold.

I learnt about the culture of my ancestors in Ancient Egypt. I also learnt about the sublime intelligence of my ancestors that much of the African community was robbed of knowing. I experienced an awakening of who my ancestors were and how great they were.


MY OUTLOOK:
Education is a way out of society's restraints
Who I am does not have to be who others think I am and also want me to believe I am
Life is shaped by me and with drive everything is possible, every obstacle can be overcome.

My passion now is to have success and later help others to achieve their own success.
My brain cannot be stolen. It is all I have and all I need.

WISDOM, INTELLIGENCE, EXCELLENCE, & DISCIPLINE AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY




Faculty Interview : BIOLOGY

SHOULD MARIJAUNA BE LEGALIZED?
GROUP PRESENTATION TOPIC


The Effect Of Marijuana on the human body


Interviewed Professor: Dr.Davis




The Topic Explained: The controversy that surrounds the legalization of marijuana as a medicine or for personal use continues to be a topic for debate at the state and federal levels within our country.  Is marijuana really harmful and addictive? Does it help bring relief to those who are sick?  What about compassion? It’s human nature to want to help others.  There are so many questions people must have when they are asked to make medical decisions about the health and well-being of others.  It doesn’t seem fair for the public to be burdened with decisions that should clearly be made by doctors and scientists.  We hope this section will help you make informed decisions about marijuana.



Q&A


Does marijuana have clinical value?

Yes, but there limited clinical value of the FDA approved form.

Do doctors prescribe marijuana?

Yes. (Not a popular treatment method however)

Does marijuana help with any diseases?
Yes. Glaucoma – Smoked marijuana has never been shown to be better or even just as good as existing drugs for relieving eye pressure, and its use brings with it many more side effects than the approved medicine.
Does marijuana have negative side effects?

  • Physical – Respiratory damage, increased risk of lung cancer, increased heart rate, reproductive damage in both sexes and immunosuppression.
  • Psychological – Paranoia, emotional disorders, increased risk of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders, memory loss, increased tolerance to intoxication, addiction to marijuana and other drugs (especially with its increasing potency), loss of ability to concentrate and loss of inhibition.




African Burial Ground

The African Burial Ground has been called one of the most important archaeological, historical, cultural and spiritual finds of our time. Dating back to the 17th century, the burial ground was designated a national monument in 2006 by President Bush, and opened to the public in 2007. A chilling reminder of a dark period in America's history, this sacred site gives voice to the free and enslaved African men, women and children who lived and died in New York in the 17th and 18th centuries and greatly contributed to the growth of America. It is the only U.S. national monument that memorializes the struggles of Africans forcefully brought here and others of African descent who have endured the injustices of slavery, segregation and discrimination.
Unearthed in 1991 during the construction of the Ted Weiss federal building in Lower Manhattan, an estimated 15,000 free and enslaved Africans were interred in this seven-acre burial ground, making it the oldest and largest African cemetery excavated in all of North America. While slavery is most often associated in the public's mind with the South, on the eve of the American Revolution, New York City actually had the largest population of enslaved Africans after Charleston, South Carolina.
After the burial ground was discovered, four hundred and nineteen ancestral remains were removed from the site and taken to Howard University for scientific study. They were re-interred on October 4, 2003 at the African Burial Ground National Monument after a funeral procession on Broadway in Lower Manhattan, lead by prominent African American leaders. The outdoor memorial designed by Rodney Leon is a living tribute to past, present and future generations. In February 2010, A new visitor center and exhibition opened on the ground floor of the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway.

Abandonment, Dismemberment and Reawakening: The History and Legacy of Howard Dr. Georgia Dunston

WHERE WE CAME FROM?

WHO WE WE WERE?


Dislocation and separation from their African roots led to a forced but temporary abandonment of a focus on wisdom as the ultimate goal of learning. Since its founding, Howard University represents a full embrace of its foremost responsibility as an agent for the reawakening of that legacy of learning. This lecture focuses on the history and legacy of Howard University in the pursuit of wisdom.


History
From the earliest days of American slavery in the 17th century, slave owners sought to exercise control over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, facilitated the retention of significant elements of traditional culture among Africans in the New World generally, and in the U.S. in particular. Slave owners deliberately tried to repress independent political or cultural organization in order to deal with the many slave rebellions or acts of resistance that took place in the southern United States,BrazilHaiti, and the Dutch Guyanas.[6]
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of theNile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It was part of a larger complex of civilizations, the Nile Valley Civilizations, of which regions south of Egypt (in today's SudanEritreaSomalia, and Ethiopia) are a part. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC[1] with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egyptunder the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia.[2] Its history occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods. Ancient Egypt reached its pinnacle during the New Kingdom, after which it entered a period of slow decline. Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign powers in this late period. The rule of the pharaohs officially ended in 31 BC when Egypt fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.[3]
The success of ancient Egyptian civilization stemmed partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended to defeat foreign enemies and assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.[4][5]


Hieroglyphic writing dates to c. 3200 BC, and is composed of some 500 symbols. A hieroglyph can represent a word, a sound, or a silent determinative; and the same symbol can serve different purposes in different contexts. Hieroglyphs were a formal script, used on stone monuments and in tombs, that could be as detailed as individual works of art. In day-to-day writing, scribes used a cursive form of writing, called hieratic, which was quicker and easier. While formal hieroglyphs may be read in rows or columns in either direction (though typically written from right to left), hieratic was always written from right to left, usually in horizontal rows. A new form of writing, Demotic, became the prevalent writing style, and it is this form of writing—along with formal hieroglyphs—that accompany the Greek text on the Rosetta Stone.


The Eloquence of the Scribes: Initiation, Expectations and Mastery – Continuing the Legacy of Howard University

Generations of students and faculty have walked the paths, halls, classrooms, and laboratories of Howard University in pursuit of the mastery necessary to fulfill the institution’s mission to develop learning and wisdom to build the good society. They were initiated into the tradition of lifelong pursuit of learning for service to the local and global community. This lecture aims at initiating them into a full awareness of this tradition, reminding them of the high expectations of this institution, their ancestors, and future generations that they continue the legacy.



Howard University aims to help change the lack of higher education in the under-privileged community. Many lives were touched by Howard University, and many more will be touched as well. The hands some were dealt are not as fortunate as everyone deserves intrinsically. For many African Americans, this was orchestrated since earlier times during slavery. The damage done (psychological, economical, social) would take a long to reverse if that is ever fully possible. Institutions, such as Howard University, help to do that very thing. HU is leveling the playing field one year group at a time. It is a place where social undesirable pressures and setbacks are less evident.


THE SEARCH FOR EXCELLENCE so excellence is no longer kept hidden
Higher education is increasingly available. African Americans are continuing to break free of shackles and chains and realize that they can show their greatness, intellect, and excellence. Many can now climb the social ladder using what their ancestors prized; intelligence, discipline, excellence. The world that our ancestors lived in is not the world we make for ourselves because we are becoming acquainted with our true selves. This is made possible by institutions such as Howard University, and by people who share similar dreams.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Power of Young People Dr. Alton Pollard, III

Young people have power as great as those of our ancestors, and often even greater.
They should learn from elders who used their power such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scot King, and Nelson Mandela.
These and the many others not mentioned have paved smoother roads for us, the young African people. Things would not been the same if they had not used their courage to have a voice. Opportunities would not have been so many for the African community. However, we must acknowledge that the mission is not complete. WE have to continue from where our elders, poets, and independence leaders have left off. We, the young people, must continue their legacy.

Today hip hop, R and B, and rap are some of the music genres mostly controlled by African Americans and associated with that sub-group in the US. Often, these artistes are the heroes and 'leaders' of the youth by popular culture. But is their message serving to encourage re-birth in the African society? Is it the same fight that our ancestors have fought for?.. The answer is 'no', far more times than it is 'yes'.

So where is the error and what can be done to get back on track??


Once again, it lies in the hands of the youth. Only in our lifetime and that of future generations can real change be done. The youth need to find and prize the truth of who we are and who we aren't. We need to know where we came from. We appreciate that music is part of us, but need to be weary of what we listen to. Violence and crudity is tainting the beauty of our music, and only we could take a stand. WE have the power to change the way we think of ourselves, by not submitting to what everyone else thinks and says we are.

BLACK POWER MOVEMENT

Howard Thurman and the Ancestors Dr. Alton Pollard, III

A quote by Howard Thurman that I found inspiring:
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."


Howard Thurman was very active in Howard University's history. Other ancestors who where explored in the lecture as  legacies of Howard University included Jarena Lee and Sojourner Truth
Howard Thurman (1899 – April 10, 1981) was an influential American authorphilosophertheologianeducator and civil rights leader

Thurman was selected as dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University in the District of Columbia in 1932. He served there from 1932-1944.
Thurman traveled broadly, heading Christian missions and meeting with world figures such as Mahatma Gandhi. When Thurman asked Gandhi what message he should take back to the United States, Gandhi said he regretted not having made nonviolence more visible as a practice worldwide and suggested some American Black men would succeed where he had failed.
 Howard Thurman's poem 'I Will Light Candles This Christmas' 

I will light Candles this Christmas; 
Candles of joy despite all sadness, 
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch, 
Candles of courage for fears ever present,

Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days, 
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens, 
Candles of love to inspire all my living, 
Candles that will burn all the year long.


Candles
"In the conflicts between man and man, between group and group, between nation and nation, the loneliness of the seeker for community is sometimes unendurable. The radical tension between good and evil, as man sees it and feels it, does not have the last word about the meaning of life and the nature of existence. There is a spirit in man and in the world working always against the thing that destroys and lays waste. Always he must know that the contradictions of life are not final or ultimate; he must distinguish between failure and a many-sided awareness so that he will not mistake conformity for harmony, uniformity for synthesis. He will know that for all men to be alike is the death of life in man, and yet perceive harmony that transcends all diversities and in which diversity finds its richness and significance." From The Search For Common Ground; An Inquiry Into The Basis Of Man's Experience Of Community.


Research and Methodology: Inscription as a Liberating Practice Dr. Dana Williams

This power point talks of the importance and usefulness of research. In essence, it says that research, when done conscientiously and sincerely, can lead on one on an intellectual journey on like any other. But what exactly are the steps to performing research on such a level as to produce such a “journey?” According to the power point, there are six main entities in research. The first is the Statement of the Problem/Challenge, where one identifies the purpose of the research and the fine tunes the research question. This is followed by the Literary Review in which one studies other similar writings and the way one’s piece will develop on those ideas. Thirdly one should begin to formulate how information and data will be gathered – a Methodology must be devised. After creating a Methodology, one must come up with a Framework for the structure and the presentation of the project and data. One must then state a thesis that he/she came up with, and provide evidence supporting that thesis. Lastly one must conclude by stating new information uncovered from the research, the limitations in conducting the research and what future studies can be taken on the research topic. The power point also shows the application the research process to a relevant class topic which further clarifies the concept doing proper research – it fluently coagulates and concludes the ideas.

OMOLUABI: Self Actualization and Communal Responsibility Dr. Segun Gbadegesin

In this power point, Dr. Gbadegesin speaks about the word, “Omoluabi,” which describes a person of character.  The presentation starts off with reference to ancient theology and philosophy. Dr. Gbadegesin focuses for a while on the Principles of Ma’at. These were guidelines by which the ancient Egyptians lived their lives, and it governed their society, laws and the way they interacted with each other and nature. The Principles of Ma’at was their ‘ten commandments.’ Also spoken of the is the Instructions of Ptahhotep and it is at this point that the word “character” is first mentioned in the power point.  We see that “character” holds great significance in meaning of this presentation. Omoluabi describes a person character, and, as we read on, it becomes clear that in this case “character” is equivalent in meaning to “integrity.” Also stated is that such a person has earned the respect of his community and peers through the integration of his education into his service to the community. It is then shown that “iwa,” which can be implied to mean “good character,” is central to many aspects of life including true beauty and religion. From here, Dr. Gbadegesin goes on to talk about the purpose of education and, by describing the commanding power of education in following slide, he manages to paint a picture of the fragility and acuteness of its impact on society. He finishes with description of the totality of university education, and the idea of the “Omoluabi” then fully comes together in a real sense.