Talar Kazanjian- Ararat (2002)

This probably won't interest most of you since Armenia is not a well known country among people and its culture and history are not recognized by many, but I just thought I could share this trailer with you guys to explore more about the history.

Ararat movie trailer- Click

Ararat is the name of the famous Armenian mountain which today belongs to Turkey. It became some sort of a border between Armenia and Turkey. Many lands were occupied by The Turks after the massacre of the Armenians in their homeland. Until today, I have not visited the town I come from, which is called Ourfa, since it is now found in Turkey.

This movie is directed by a very famous Armenian director, Atom Egoyan. This movie is about the Armenian genocide in 1915-1918/19. The success of this movie gave Egoyan major publicity. I like this movie a lot because it isn't just a normal movie to me, it's a movie I can relate to myself and my family, and basically how I ended up in the U.A.E.


Photo courtesy of http://www.daronmalakianrocks.com/issues.html

Ola el Barkouki- Jane Goodall

      Jane Goodall

     Dame Jane Morris Goodall ( born April 3 1964 in london, England) is a British primatoligist, ethologist, anthropologist and UN messenger of peace. She is very known for her 45-year study of social and family reactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. Goodall has always been passionate about animals and Africa. 

     As a 23-year-old in 1960, she had traveled from England to Tanzania and bravely entered the little-known world of wild chimpanzees. She was equipped with nothing more than a notebook and pair of binoculars. But with her rare degree of patience, and fortified by characteristic optimism, she won the trust of these initially shy creatures. She managed to open a window onto their sometimes strange and often familiar-seeming lives. The public was fascinated and remains so to this day. 


     Today Jane’s work revolves around mobilizing action on behalf of chimpanzees, who are endangered, and all wildlife species. The Jane Goodall Institute works to protect the famous chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Tanzania, but recognizes this can’t be accomplished without a holistic approach that addresses the real needs of local people.


www.janegoodall.org

Talar Kazanjian- Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall, born under the name Valerie Jane Morris- Goodall, is a British primatologist with complete dedication to understand, protect, nourish, and preserve the lives of all living things, especially chimpanzees. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 that gives power and encouragement to people to make a difference to all living things. It all started after she encountered the Gombe chimps in Tanzania. She made the richness and complexity of chimpanzees communities more clear and obvious to people, and today, Gombe chimps are the world's best known through her Gombe Stream Research Center. In the 1980's, deforestation had a major negative impact on the life of chimpanzees in Africa. This incident encouraged Jane to change her focus from research to conservation. 

Haifa Beseisso - Jane Goodall

Everyone has a passion! Even if we don't really know about it, it still lies there somewhere you just got to dig for it. Jane Goodall on the other hand found her passion, her passion lies in Chimpanzees.
Jane started at a young age were she loved sitting outdoors, she used to sit outside her house and explore  the animals the filled her backyard. This passion for nature and animals grew with her, especially when she traveled to Tanzania from London at an age of 23 years old. Goodall entered the world of chimpanzees there and she closely approached them, she stared with a pair of binoculars and a notebook, and then grew to opening an institute that takes care and addresses the Chimpanzees needs.

 She wanted to bring the world into the world of those endangered animals, for they need the attention of people and the government to take care of them, and to stop whatever it is that we are doing to endanger their lives. Her institute, The Jan Goodall Institute, aims to protect the famous chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Tanzania.


http://www.janegoodall.org/jane-goodall

Maryam Abdallah - Jane Goodall

Darling Goodall getting lice out
her head ..  she's real star!  tee-hee 

Jane Goodall is one blessed woman who has found her calling... Chimpanzees! (alriiiiiight!!!)

But on a more serious note, Goodall has dedicated her life to preserving the forests in Africa from poverty stricken farmers who are looking to a quick buck to feed their hungry children.

If none of you have ever come across uneducated masses, let me just tell you, they are not the easiest bunch to convert. So Goodall goes into these communities with a mission to educate them and support them to start their own businesses in order to survive.

Goodall's keen interest in the 'great wild beasts' began in the 1960s when it was not common for a young lady to be living alone in Africa; she was lucky to have the support of her mother who accompanied her to Gombe in Tanganyika (present day Tanzania).

During her stay, Goodall observed the chimpanzees lifestyles and brought to light different aspects about their lives such the Alpha male, altruism and protection instincts.

Goodall's work in Africa inspired the creation of Roots and Shoots which is dedicated to improving communities and environment.

With friends like these by Alina Asif

“With friends like these” Hodgkinson criticizes facebook.The author talks about the disadvantages of facebook. How it disconnects people.  Facebook is like we have a second life with our profile, pictues, relationship status. Hodgkinson critizes the privacy of people as well. Its true that we don’t have any privacy these days. Its not only facebook but its even with our emails and other chatting sites as well. But facebook do give us the privacy setting advantage. Where you can set your settings for each member on your facebook. Hodgkinson points out the interference of advertisements. We are attacked with advertisements on Facebook. But I would like to say that advertisments are on the side so they really don’t irritate or disturb me. Frank Webster shows in Hodgkinson's article. The idea of “quantitative and qualitative” information. He wrote how people these days have became obsessed with the number of friends they have. The more friends you have on your account the better or cool you are.

I feel that yes facebook do have disadvantages but it even has its advantages. We can make new friends, we can be in touch with our old lost friends. It’s a good social network. About the privacy we can do our settings like who can see our pics, and who cant.  

Citation

Hodgkinson, T. (2008, January 14). With friends like these [Article History].Retrieved from The Guardian.

Jane Goodall

This Lady is a wonderful human being, her whole life was spent with her fighting for what she believes in the most. Her work actually made  huge difference, her passion for her cause is inspiring, the institute she runs is pretty successful but before that her life is an exciting journey from the begining :

No other primatologist or ethologist has made the cover of National Geographic more than her. Not even Louis Leaky gets more recognition. Her name is synonymous with the names Flo, Freud, and David Greybeard. Jane Goodall is more than just the "chimpanzee lady". Her work gives new insight to our own humanness and humaneness. We now have the knowledge to explore our own behaviors and emotions in a new light.
We share many things with chimpanzees. Jane Goodall has shown us this through her research at the Gombe National Reserve in Tanzania. We share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. They often use facial expressions that look uncannily human, although we will never know if they truly possess any emotions that correspond with the expression. Chimps often greet one another with a kiss, hug, or gentle hand touch. Babies stay with their mothers until they reach adulthood. Chimps are omnivorous. They can make and use tools. All of these behaviors were researched and observed by Dr. Jane Goodall for the last 38 years.

BEFORE AFRICA

Jane was born in London, England on April 3, 1934. Her father, Mortimer, was an engineer. Her mother, Vanne, is an author. Jane grew up in a large house on the ocean near Bourenmouth, England. Two of Jane's aunts also shared the house with Jane's family (Uglow 1989).
Jane loved being outdoors. When she was a young girl, Jane spent as much time outside as she could. She would explore the various creatures that made their home in her big back yard. Jane loved the Tarzan stories. She thought she would make a better "Jane" for the handsome Tarzan. She read the Jungle Book and other stories that took place or were about Africa. She was fascinated by the mystique of the jungle. At the age of eleven, Jane decided that she wanted to go to Africa, maybe even live there.
Jane, as a child, had a very good relationship with her mother. Their good relationship continued, even as she fought her way to Africa, when no one else said she could do it. Jane remembers how understanding her mother was. Once, when Jane was 18 months old, Vanne found her with a bunch of earthworms in her bed. Vanne did not make a fuss about the mess; never mind there were slimy earthworms in her baby's bed. Jane's mother simply told her that she had to return the worms to the earth quickly, or they would die (Goodall 1996).

"My mother used to tell me, 'Jane, if you really want something, you work hard enough, you take advantage of opportunities, you never give up, you will find a way.'" (Davies 1997).

Jane married Dutch photographer, Hugo van Lawick, in 1964. They met while Hugo was at Gombe covering Jane for National Geographic. They shared a love for the jungle and its animals. They had one son, Hugo, better known as Grub (Goodall 1971).
Grub grew up in Tanzania as his mother did her research. She spent her mornings writing or observing, and her afternoons were devoted to him. Jane and Hugo wanted to raise their children in much the same manner as chimpanzees raise their babies. Jane admired the compassion and patience of Flo, an older chimp mother. Jane watched as Flo used distraction when her son Flint got a little mischievous. Jane breast fed on demand, when many British mothers were bottle feeding (Montgomery 1991).
Jane and Hugo later divorced, and Jane married Derek Bryceson, a politician and former head of the national parks in Tanzania. Sadly, Bryceson died in 1980 of cancer, after only five years of marriage (Nichols 1995).
Jane found respect for all living things through her mother, and her own love of nature. She did not go to college. She took secretarial courses, and she waited tables to help fund her first trip to Africa (Davies 1997). Soon her dreams of the African landscape would come true.

AFRICA

Jane, a young woman in her twenties, found herself in Africa. She took a secretarial job in Nairobi, Kenya to support herself. Jane didn't like the work much, but she was fulfilling a lifelong dream. It was only a year after her arrival before she heard that anthropologist Louis Leakey and his wife Mary were digging near her in Zaire. She made a trek to meet them. Leakey had been planning a research study of the great apes. He wanted to find more commonalties between them and humans. Leakey felt there was more to the great apes than we knew; our genetic link loomed large over us. What did it mean? He took Jane on as his secretary. She organized his research notes for the Natural Museum of History (Uglow, 1989). As his latest research project came into shape, Leakey thought Jane Goodall might be good for the project. It has been said that he wanted someone without a lot of training in field of ethology or primatology. He wanted an unbiased perspective on the subject. He chose Jane to start the project on Chimpanzees on the Gombe National Reserve in Tanzania. He funded the study, and told her in might take ten or more years to complete it. Jane thought possibly three.

GOMBE

Jane has been doing research at Gombe for 38 years now. Neither she nor Louis Leakey believed it would blossom into what it has become.
Jane was prepared to go the jungle on her own, to explore the lives of chimpanzees. The Tanzanian government in 1960 thought that it wasn't safe for a young English woman to venture deep into the jungle without a proper chaperone; so her mother, Vanne went along. They had a guide and supplies to help them from the nearest small village. Gombe sits along Lake Tanganyika, and borders Burundi and the Congo.
Jane was eager to establish a sense of trust among the chimps. She soon found a favorite observation point- The Peak, she calls it. The Peak overlooks most of the reserve. Looking North one can see Kasekela Valley. Jane made two very surprising discoveries during the first three months at Gombe. These observations changed what we know about chimpanzees, and our thoughts on primate (human) behaviors.
Jane was very discouraged and depressed after only a few weeks at Gombe. The chimps would not let her within 50 yards of them, and she had observed very little. Jane was getting discouraged about the project. She had never done research with animals, and the chimpanzees were certainly not cooperating with her. Vanne kept her spirits up by sharing stories of newly discovered friends. Jane and Vanne soon got sick. They had heard rumors of malaria in the area, but doctors had assured them that a vaccination would not be necessary. For weeks they lie in bed with fever and very little energy. Their guide David wanted them to go to the doctor, but they didn't want to make the long three hour trip by boat. Jane and Vanne finally gave in, and were given treatment for malaria. Jane would get malaria again a few months later.
One day, a large male chimp wandered into the camp. He eyed the tent from a nearby tree. Suddenly, he began stomping and screaming, as though he felt threatened. Jane soon realized the chimpanzee was eyeing a banana on the table just inside the tent. This would be Jane's chance to get close to the chimps. From that day on, bananas were kept near by for any curious chimps.
Jane eventually grew very close to the chimps at Gombe. They would soon allow her to follow them, as they led the way. They greet her as they do each other, with a touch or a kiss. Her sense of patience and trust won them over.
This event encouraged Jane to keep trying to form a sense of deeper trust with the chimps. Everyday, Jane was allowed closer. It was just three months into the study before Jane made her first big discovery. She was observing a male chimp, (David Greybeard, she later determined) up a tree with something pinkish in his hands. Two smaller, female chimps were nearby with their hands stretched out, as if begging. Jane used her binoculars for a better look. David Greybeard was eating the pink object. He dropped the object, and it fell to the ground. Some bushpigs came screeching out of the greenery, attacking David Greybeard. The pinkish object was a baby bush pig. David Greybeard was eating meat. This astounded Jane; chimpanzees had been thought of as herbivores, who occasionally ate small bugs. Chimpanzees had never before been seen or recorded as eating meat. Like humans, chimps are omnivores (Goodall 1971).
Jane wired Louis Leakey with this new discovery. He immediately sent more supplies and arranged for the project to be further funded. It was within weeks before Jane made another important discovery. David Greybeard was digging in a termite mound. He was using a thick grass blade as a tool, which is pretty amazing, but had not been documented before in nonhumans. What made the history books was what David did with the grass blade before he started digging. He had chosen a select sliver and peeled it to shape the blade to his liking. This was the first recorded occurrence of tool manufacturing in nonhumans (Nichols 1995, Goodall 1971).
Jane would soon see the intrusion of cameras and video equipment at Gombe. National Geographic began chronicling her study in 1964. They put her on the cover of their magazine, and did more T.V. specials on her than any other anthropologist. Leakey wanted Jane to get her Ph.D.. in ethology. He wanted her work to be accepted within the community. He didn't think Jane would be taken seriously. Jane hated the idea. She knew getting a graduate degree would take time, time away from Africa and her chimps.

"I didn't want a Ph.D..; I spent as little time there (Cambridge) as possible." (Montgomery 1991, pp. 101).

Jane received her Ph.D.. from Cambridge University in 1965. She is one of only eight other people to earn a Ph.D.. without a bachelor's (Montgomery 1991). Her adviser, Robert Hinde, said her methods were not professional, and that she was doing her research wrong. Jane's major mistake was naming her "subjects". The animals should be given numbers. Jane also used descriptive, narrative writing in her observations and calculations. She anthropomorphized her animals. Her colleagues and classmates thought she was "doing all wrong". Robert Hinde did approve her thesis, even though she returned with all of his corrections with the original names and anthropomorphizing. They are close friends today.

"It is not easy to study emotions even when the subjects are human. As we try to come to grips with the emotions of beings progressively more different from ourselves the task, obviously, becomes increasingly difficult. If we ascribe human emotions to nonhuman animals we are accused of being anthropomorphic-a cardinal sin in ethology. But is it so terrible? If we test the effect of drugs on chimpanzees because they are biologically so similar to ourselves, if we accept that there are dramatic similarities in chimpanzee and human brain and nervous system, is it not logical to assume that there will be similarities also in at least the more basic feelings, emotions, moods of the two species?" (Jane Goodall 1990, p.16).

MAJOR DISCOVERIES AT GOMBE 1964-1997

Jane has made the gap between chimpanzees and humans much smaller. Over the years, her observations have been heralded as landmark discoveries in primatology and ethology. The following is a timeline of observations made by Jane, as reported in her book In the Shadow of Man (1971), and in National Geographic magazine (1964, 1995).

• 1960: Chimpanzees as meat eaters
  
  
  
  First recorded instance of toolmaking by nonhumans
  
  
  
• 1964: Planning-Figan showed deliberate planning when he kidnapped baby Flint in order to get his mother Flo and the rest of the group to follow him.
  
  
  
  Using man-made objects- Mike used empty kerosene cans to intimidate larger males, and become the alpha male.
  
  
  
• 1966: Polio invaded Gombe and devastated both humans and chimps alike. Chimpanzees can also get AIDS.
• 1970: Awe-the chimps spontaneously danced at the sight of a waterfall Jane believes that expression of awe in chimps resembles the emotions that led early humans to religion.
• 1974: Warfare-a war broke out between the Kasakela males and seven males of a splinter group. This lasted four years; the rival group was eradicated, except for a few females. This type of violence had not been recorded in chimpanzees.
• 1975: Cannibalism-Passion killed and ate Gilka's infant, and shared the meat with her daughter, Pom. Together they continued eating infants for two years.
  
  
  
  Coalitions-Figan's status as alpha male was somewhat challenged when his brother Faben disappeared.
  
  
  
  
  Transfer of a female to a different group
  
  
  
• 1987: Adoption-Spindle, an adolescent female, "adopted" baby Mel, after his mother died of pneumonia.
• 1994: Consortship-researchers at Gombe have observed males leading females away from the community and establish short-term monogamous relationships. This is believed to be so the male can ensure that the offspring are theirs.
  
  
  
  Technology transfer-Chimps from one community "modeled" the toolmaking behavior of chimps in another community.
  
  
  
• 1995: Twins-Rafiki gave birth to only second set twins recorded at Gombe, Roots and Shoots.

Medicinal plants-chimps have been seen chewing the plant Aspilia, a medicinal plant believed to relieve stomach pains or reduce internal parasites.

GOMBE TODAY

Jane has been the Director of research at Gombe since 1967. She continues to promote conservation. Jane created the Chimpanzee Guardian Project. Jane has set up several halfway homes for injured or orphaned chimps found in the wild. She advocates the ethical treatment of Chimpanzees in research and zoos. She teaches the humane way to study chimps in a lab setting. Jane created the Roots and Shoots program for school children to learn about wild animals and conservation of the environment. The number of chimpanzees in the wild has dropped since Jane first began her study at Gombe. It was once thought that over one million chimps lived in parts of Africa, now only about 250,000 have been recorded. Jane also founded the Jane Goodall Institute. You can write them at Box 599, Ridgefield, CT 06877.
Jane continues to write and lecture. Her staff at Gombe has grown to several graduate students. She bides her time between her childhood home in Bourenmouth, England, and a home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Her awards include the Albert Schweitzer Award 1987, the Encyclopedia Britannica Award 1989, and the Kyoto Prize for Science 1990.

Jane Goddall by Alina Asif

Goodall has created her own “Good For All”. This was to support high quality, ethically produced products from the developing world.  Jane Goodall has changed the way scientists think about chimpanzees. Through her research with the animals in Africa, she has shown that chimpanzees can reason, make tools, and solve problems. She wrote an article roots and shoots about her research. Her message is to everyone that "The chimps are rapidly becoming more and more endangered," she tells her audience. "There is terrible pollution in the world, and we are destroying …

Azza Zarour- Jane Godall

I was very Impressed to know about Jane Godall and her experience to protect the chimpanzees . she now has big campaigns to spread the consciousness about this issue.  ( she reminds me with my sisters she just loves animals aoooooooo much and especially chimpanzees J J)  here are some information about Jane from her official website.  







"As a 23-year-old in 1960, she had traveled from England to Tanzania and bravely entered the little-known world of wild chimpanzees. She was equipped with nothing more than a notebook and pair of binoculars. But with her rare degree of patience, and fortified by characteristic optimism, she won the trust of these initially shy creatures. She managed to open a window onto their sometimes strange and often familiar-seeming lives. The public was fascinated and remains so to this day.

Today Jane’s work revolves around mobilizing action on behalf of chimpanzees, who are endangered, and all wildlife species. The Jane Goodall Institute works to protect the famous chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Tanzania, but recognizes this can’t be accomplished without a holistic approach that addresses the real needs of local people. Our conservation efforts include sustainable development programs that engage communities as true partners. These programs began around Gombe but now spread across the continent. Likewise the Roots & Shoots youth action program Jane and a group of Tanzanian students started in 1990 now spreads to more than 100 countries." 




If you want to know more about her just go check her website 
www.janegoodall.org/jane-goodall


Regards,
Azza

Azza Zarour- With friends like these

In the article “with friends like these” Hodgkinson criticizes facebook focusing more on its negative effects. In his article, he talks about how facebook became a very important part of our daily life, how facebook changed our social life, and how people bases their judgments upon others depending on their facebook accounts; based on their status, on how many friends they have, and their use and updates for their profiles. He says that people trusted the creators of the facebook “Geeks from California” and gave them their information without thinking deeply about the consiquences of that. Moreover, he emphasizes on the idea of connection, people became very disconnected rather than connected. The ideas of Frank Webster shows in Hodgkinson's article. The idea of “quantitative and qualitative” information. He explains how people became obsessed with the number of friends they have. To them, the more friends you have on your account the better but most of the people do not think of the quality of their friends.

I agree with Hodgkinson that we became disconnected form each other, and that some people nowadays bases their own judgmens upon others based on their facebook accounts. However, I disagree with him about the private information point. If we do not want to give our information we can easily not write them down when we start the account, we even can change them or delete some of the information about ourselves whenever we want.

I have my own experience about privacy in facebook. I loved the way the organizers of the facebook dealt with it. The story is that someone created a facebook account with my name and picture. He started to invite people to join his account as if it was me. What I did is that I wrote a status asking my friends not to add him and I reported him, and also my friends did to the organizers. When the people in charge saw that so many people reported this person they deactivated his account.

I wish Hodgkinso talked more about the facebook advantages. Facebook helped us a lot in so many different ways; it helped us use our time if we use it in the right way, it helped us know what are the latest activities and made the far places seem very close to us. But I am very convinced that we should all use it wisely and not to spend hours just chatting. In other words, not be addicted to it !

                           

please let me know what do you think. I will be happy to get your comments.
love you all :) :) :)
Azza

Jane Goodall - Khushboo Uttamchandani

Jane Goodall was a revolutionary English primatologist (a person who studies primates, which is a group of animals that includes human beings, apes, monkeys, and others). Her methods of studying animals in the wild, changed how chimpanzees (a kind of ape) as a species are understood, but also how studies of many different kinds of animals are carried out.

She created The Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in almost 100 countries, the Roots & Shoots network connects youth of all ages who share a desire to create a better world. Young people identify problems in their communities and take action. Through service projects, youth-led campaigns and an interactive website, Roots & Shoots members are making a difference across the globe.

Maryam Abdallah - With friends like these..

My nephew just started going to school and learning the alphabet. It seems ever since he has discovered this new skill, he doesn't have time to feed his pets or bake cookies with his mom and all this because, he can't seem to stop writing on her wall. My little bubba is only 3and he's already hooked to writing on walls; I don't see how there is going to be a facebook ghost town. For the love of Chuck Norris, I had a friend request by the black cat in AUD under the name Blacky AUD..ermm WHAT? (if you don't believe me, go facebook him, he really exists).

This whole wall and facebook business has got everyone involved, and I think it's time we took a minute to reflect.

Everyone's on facebook and let's admit it, whoever hasn't come across or understood the big plans Mark Zuckerberg and his money-making buddies have concocted is not going to think of commiting Facebook suicide. As for those who have read a few hair raising stories on Facebook, they still might not have deleting their profiles as the first thing on their to-do list.

(here are some hair-raising stories for your reference) Losing Face on Facebook: http://www.switched.com/2007/11/16/losing-face-on-facebook-five-true-stories-6/

Truth is, trying to get rid of facbook is like trying to lose weight - it's hard work. Coming up with catchy statuses (not discriminating against those who like to have heart-broken statuses), finding facebook moment photos to put up as your profile pic (what happened to saying Kodak moment?), accepting people you don't really want as your friends, and declining to go to private events because you rather be on facebook.. sometimes you can end up making enemies instead of friends... and who does all that to wake up one morning and say forget this i'm deleting my facebook profile? REALLY? (kudos to you my friend).

But apparently there is a big price to pay for every opportunity you get to stalk some randoms and stare aimlessly at your friend's photos and write on their wall.. and that is that Facebook will send your details to some giant corporations who will in turn send you the latest on your favourite items. Oh really? I don't see the problem with that (yet); but if you do, please comment and enlighten me.

However, I do have to say, if there was social club that sprang out of a desire to get rid of the natural world and disconnect people in the physical realm and then record everything that is said and brought to club meetings and then be told that the recorded material may be used against you even if you decide to leave the club... ermm.. HELL NO! I wouldn't want to join that club (and I don't think you would either, unless they have Farmville and you're addicted). But we're all stuck in a similar club and as much as you want to leave, it's hard, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that facebook is a free, easy way to stay in touch with our equally broke student friends around the world. It's also a good way to help low self-esteemed anti-social peeps feel like they have friends.

KEY definitions (from urbandictionary.com):

Friend:
A real friend is someone who: a)it's okay to fart in front of. b)you don't mind talking to on the bus for atleast 20 minutes. c)can borrow $5 and never has to pay it back d)you'll actually call up do stuff.

Facebook friend:
a person you would have absolutely no contact with if it wasn't for facebook.

How many friends do you have on Facebook?

clicking 'Home' 93,424 times

I wish the article 'With friends like these...' would have given us some tips on how to quit facebook because I know I'm not the only one who says I haven't got time to read and summarise my articles but at some point managed to waste an hour (or more) of my life clicking Refresh or Home, hoping something new will pop up on my Newsfeed.

Anyway, while I go facebragg and decline my 1000th invitation to Mafia Wars, a last note for reflection:
Can you remember the last crazy/dangerous thing you said or put up on facebook that could come back to haunt you? Maybe you never did something so irresponsible but I'm pretty sure if you did Facebook would have a record and may remind you of it when the time is right.


Thanks for reading... Ciamo! :-)

Ashwaq Hasan- Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is the world’s foremost authority on chimpanzees. At the Jungles of Gombe Game Reserve in Africa, she closely observed the behavior of chimpanzees for a quarter century. The observations and discoveries she did are globally heralded. She made, and making, a great revolution inroads into scientific thinking concerning the evolutions of humans.

Dr. Goodall had her Ph.D from Cambridge University in 1965. In 1984, she received the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize for "helping millions of people understand the importance of wildlife conservation to life on this planet."

Dr. Goodall has two books, Wild Chimpanzees and In The Shadow of Man. Also, she has extended her global outreach with the founding of the Jane Goodall Institute based in Ridgefield, CT.

Jane Goodall interview

 

websites:
1-http://www.wic.org/bio/jgoodall.htm
2-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDliq_Rt11o

Haifa Beseisso On FACEBOOK!



Person 1: Do you have facebook?
Person 2: No :)
Person 1(with  a weird looking face): No?! What do you mean by No? Everyone has Facebook!Why don't you?
Virginia Heffernan and Tom Hodgkinson answer this question in their articles that discuss Why people should not have facebook accounts.  The articles were published in NewYork Times and in the Guardian; and have succeeded in persuading some people to deactivae their facebook accounts.





Let's start with Virginia Heffernan's article, Facebook Exodus, she starts her article by saying that facebook which is a social network website has a lot of our private information and it does not promise us loyalty forever. And then backs this idea up by presenting reasons and some people's experience with facebook.

Reasons that people quit facebook include, feeling that they have no privacy, feeling that facebook is stocking them, others feel like they are stocking other people on facebook (they felt as though they became so nosy in other people's business), and others just did not like how much time they were spending on facebook. Therefore all decided to quit.

The examples she mentions makes one think about how facebook can turn back on its users and how it may be using us and our personal lives entirely for its own success and growth. Yet, I have personally experienced a lot of good things that make me like facebook, they out weigh what seems to be negative about it.
 I am an active person in university, we organize so many events around campus, and to get the dear students involved we use facebook as one of the main means to get in touch with them, and to let them know about the event that is taking place, And indeed so many of them respond and attend events because they found out about the events through facebook. I have heard a lot of students say that they check their facebook more than they check their emails.
 In another article, With friends like These, Tom Hodgkinson speaks about how facebook changed the way people socialize, people in the olden days communitcated and socialized face to face while nowadays people would rather spend their weekends behind their desk drinking and connecting with their friends through writing them "ungrammatical facebook comments".

He speaks about how facebook made friendship become judged based on quaninty rather than quality, in a sense that the more friends that you have the cooler you are.

He goes on adding reasons to why he hates facebook, the American company that was created by what he calls "Geeks from California", he criticizes the fact that we gave them our information without knowing if they are reliable or not, we blindly trusted them.

However I would argue that Facebook did not force us to give them our information, there are a lot of options that give us the choice not to share our them or not to make them public. If one does not want their information exposed then simply do not give it!
Ironically, we see some people placing their personal infomation on Facebook on purpose to get attention and feedback from poeple; How many times did we find out about people getting married or engaged from facebook? It is kind of becoming a news social website.

My friend got engaged lately, I told her Congrats on you enagegement, she was like write do not tell me this here....write on my wall! :s
Weird huh?! I understand that point that both authors make about our relationships becoming less intimate and more electronic.
Thank You..
With Love..

Mohammed Dhaifallah-Summary of video "Facebook: Friends (and Moms) Without Borders"

The reason that makes this mother to use facebook is a call from her friend that told her she has a facebook account and she was looking for the high school friend. Moreover, finding a lost friend creates what is called "aha". It also used when you know new things that make you surprised. Additionally, facebook is designed to gain a person as soon as possible. Also, there are many institutions activities in facebook which makes thousands of people be parts of it.


However, I will link the information from this video to the article named "With friends like these ..." written by Tom Hodgkinson.By looking on the point of how the mother start using facebook is an example of a theory of human behavior by René Girard called "mimetic desire". According to Girard "people are essentially sheep-like and will copy one another without much reflection". Moreover, human beings love to be with flocks. In addition, I did not have account of facebook until last year. All my friends have an account, so that I created an account to be like them.
Moreover, the second point I want to talk about is when a person fiends maybe these friends only has an account but they stopped using it, which is called "ghost accounts"
Finally the last point is that the activities of the institutions are made because of advertising and well-funded project.
This video talks about shallow thing about facebook that children and non educated people know this information. It did not show the other side of disadvantages about it.

Fletcher, D. Facebook: Friends (and Moms) Without Borders [video report]. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,86888223001_1990764,00.html. (2010, October 29).

Mohammed Dhaifallah-Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is a British anthropologist, ethologist, primatologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Her achievements began because her child dream which is visiting Africa. After finishing high school her friend. When she travelled to Tanzania, she worked as ethlogist. She studied the human behavior, which was a new field when she began in 1960s. Moreover, Dr. Leakey encouraged her to study wild chimpanzees because of the close genetic link to human beings (the differences between them only 1%). She did her research in Research at Gombe Stream National Park. Additionally, she wrote papers for globally known scientific journals and she has also two books, Wild Chimpanzees and In the Shadow of Man. In the last ten years, she has had a major impact on how zoos and laboratories treat animals.

She also has a program in her Institute named Roots and Shoots. This program makes positive change happen for the communities (for humans, animals and environment). There are contacts from more than 100 countries that discussed the issues and the problems in our world and then find the solutions to take actions.

for more infromation about Jane Goodall

http://www.rootsandshoots.org/


http://www.wic.org/bio/jgoodall.htm

Rawan Khatib - With Friends Like These (Summary & Reflection)

Summary

Tom Hodgkinson's article "with friends like these" is a commentary on Facebook and its advantages and disadvantages. the article lists many disadvantages but little or none advantages except some that could be considered to be a bit superficial. For example Hodgkinson believes that Facebook has become the reason people have become disconnected rather connected. However Facebook has become a large part of our social life and we evaluate everything even people throughout that lens. For example now in American high-schools if we wish to see someone's "popularity" status we simply switch on the computer and see the number of Facebook friends.  It has become a contest between the idea of "quality vs. quantity".  He continues on to say that not only are we being disconnected from our societies and are becoming "chained to our workplace" but we can also create a second personality for ourselves thus losing touch with reality. On Facebook you can re-create yourself to be anyone you wish to be. 

Reflection

While reading this article i suppose i could relate to the Hodgkinson's idea that Facebook might not be the best social media to become attached to; however what struck me the most while reading the article was the fact that the author seemed to disdain Facebook and not only for the reasons mentioned in the article above but as well for personal reasons. For example when he spoke of the board of directors for Facebook he spoke with a high level of hostility and disdain specifically when he referred to one particular member, Thiel. He spoke of Thiel's personal spending habits which carries little significance to the article other than to prove that the board is in it for the money.  Another issue that struck me while reading this article was the fact that the author although having sufficient reasons to dislike Facebook looks past the benefits.  Such as the fact that Facebook can connect to those who we have lost touch with for years with a simple click of the mouse. Even thought it helps other to create a second personality although this might be damaging in some cases it can also help those who are shy experience it at least in a virtual reality before trying it in the real world.  For example speaking from a personal experience, thanks to Facebook I have been able to contact various employers in regards to different part time jobs and internships. As well employers have been able to view and comment on my personal past video's and commentaries. So although Facebook might have a negative connotation it can however also have a positive one. It depends on the user to realize the limits of Facebook and use it wisely. 

Citation
Hodgkinson, T. (2008, January 14). With friends like these [Article History].
Retrieved from The Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/
2008/jan/14/facebook 

Rawan Khatib - Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and now holds the title for the UN Messenger of Peace. She is considered to be one of the world's top experts on chimpanzees. She has founded the Jane Goodall Institute which works specifically on conservation and animal welfare issues.

Jane Goodall has as well established a youth action empowering program called Roots & Shoots. The program was founded by Jane and a group of Tanzanian students in 1990; it has now spread to more than 100 countries. This program should be regarded for the fact that it allows all communities and  societies to contribute and make a difference in several different manners.


http://www.janegoodall.org/jane-goodall

Reetu Sukhramani- Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. She is considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.
The Roots & Shoots program is about creating positive change for our communities, for animals and for the environment. The network allows many of us to contribute to our societies and inspires us to make a difference. I think it is mandatory for all of us to help our communities. Such programs assist us to contribute in some manner.


http://www.rootsandshoots.org/aboutus
http://www.janegoodall.org/

Reetu Sukhramani- With friends like these ...

Summary:

The article, ‘with friends like these’ by Tom Hodgkinson is quite appealing but at the same time awfully subjective. The author talks about the disadvantages of Facebook and it enormous effects. He also includes the historical background of Facebook including the founders as well as the investors.

He believes that Facebook disconnects people from their real relationships rather than connecting them. ‘Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations’, (Hodgkinson). He also mentions the competitiveness around friendship. ‘It seems that with friends today, quality counts for nothing and quantity is king’, (Hodgkinson).  

On Facebook, we can share information and be whoever we want to be. For example, have a second life. He also points out the interference of advertisements. We are bombarded with advertisements on Facebook.

Reflection:

I think the article helps us understand Facebook from a different prospectus. The author speaks about the disadvantages of a virtual world as opposed to the real one. His argument is quite comprehensible and lucid. But the author is way too subjective and I disagree with some of his opinions. We all have a different perception about the virtual world and maybe this is the reason as to why I might disagree with him.

Most of what he talks about is quite agreeable and after reading this article I do realize the consequences of having a Facebook account. The competitiveness that he mentions early in his argument is quite explicable because we all do it unconsciously.

‘In Praise of Oversharing’ by Steven Johnson can be linked to this article. I think there is a very fine line between private and public. This wasn’t the case earlier on but nowadays we tend to forget the difference between the two. I believe it is rather astonishing.

Citation:

 Hodgkinson, T. (2008, January 14). With friends like these [Article History].
Retrieved from The Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/
2008/jan/14/facebook

Seera Akra - Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is a famous British scientific scholar. She is a primatologist, an anthropologist, an ethologist. Thus, she studied the origin of species, specifically human beings, and animal behavior in general. However, she is mostly interested in studying and protecting chimpanzees.

Due to her extensive work, she was chosen as the UN messenger of peace. Jane Goodall has a website called Roots and Shoots by which she aims to connect young people to their origins, other animals, and the environment. Thus, the shoots and roots network organizes projects for those youths who are interested in making a difference. Moreover, Jane Goodall’s ideas and work are adopted by another institution which is named before her: The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI). It aims to protect apes in all fields and keep them preserved. It also raises awareness to youths making them more conscious about all living animals and their surroundings and ready to take action to protect them.


Here are the links to the 2 websites:

http://www.rootsandshoots.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethology

ROCK YOUR BRAINS!!

Answers: 

Q. What is the Internet costing us?

1. The development of the internet is not only affecting us as individuals but also as well as a society. We now have a lack of privacy, a loss of identity,  getting tired and bored of socializing through the internet rather than directly

Q. How does the Internet affect our social, political and economic lifestyles? 

2. The internet has affected our social, political and economic lifestyles in the sense that - 

Socially -  We are chained to our seats, socializing virtually with more people of whom we do not really or directly know. Thus, we are concerned with quantity rather than quality. We are having foreigners caring about us. We are turning into celebrities whom people view their pictures and follow their news.  

Politically - It has opened the door to anyone to become an expert in the political field. Due to this many do not research and do not follow the topic and just rely on other's posts and opinions. political people are having easier means of communication with their people though media like Facebook and Twitter. These are being used in elections and to raise awareness or spread information. 

Environmental - internet raises awareness about environmental issues like pollution. Also, as internet provides us with faster and easier means of communication between people around the world, pollution may be less as less transportation has to be used.

Q. Can you live without the Internet? 

3. No, it has become impossible for us to live without the internet for it has become involved in our daily part of our lives. we are indulged in the internet that it has become our society that we live in. Our whole styles if live, and some argue culture, is changed to become strongly attached to internet. Internet has become our way of life. 

Digital Reproduction by Alina Asif

Alina Asif

I believe that digital divide has changed our society. almost every person have an access to the internet these days. This helps connecting people. There are no limitations who can use and who cant. Urban areas have more access where as rural it is still very less, almost its close to having nothing. Its good to be well connected with others. This helps you to have ideas and different opinions on your and others ideas. These days if we dont have access to internet we become handicap, like your world has shut down. Many people work through internet these days. In the beginning only few people had the access like men, wealthy, white and young people. But today everyone use it example, women, white, black, children and even old retire people. Some make formal use of internet and some make informal use of internet. But the key point is that everyone use internet these days and is connected to the outer world. A lot of things are influenced by the society. Internet is influenced the most by the society. Social pressure on people force them to use the internet.

Hargittai, E (2008). The digital reproduction of inequality. In Social Stratification. (Eds.) David Grusky Boulder, co: Westview Press. 936-944.



BY: ALINA ASIF

Sweet to Tweet Summary- Khushboo Uttamchandani

The Economist. 2010, May, 8. Sweet to Tweet. Retrieved from The Economist website: http://www.economist.com/node/16056612.


Sweet to tweet Summary – Khushboo Uttamchandani

The article talks about resent popularity of using Twitter and social media for politics being a powerful strategy. It helps the politicians have a more personal relationship with its audience. This is mainly because of the constant tweeting, and also as a reder or a follower of a certain politician one would think that the tweet is written by him, thus giving us information from the source directly versus threw a reporter. However, you have to put together a solid strategy, be on top of things and have good support to ensure your campaign works in your favor.  What can happen is, polititions start using social media without a good team behind them, having social media backfire. If used correctly it is good and powerful, but if it is mismanaged, it can hurt your reputation instead of help it.

Seera Akra - Summaries and questions

Heffernan, V. (2009, August 26). Medium: Facebook exodus. The New York Times.


Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/

30FOB-medium-t.html

Summary of: Facebook Exodus

This article discusses the reason for which some little percentage of people is leaving Facebook. The reasons put by interviewed people who left Facebook could be summed by the following: feeling used in commerce, feeling followed and watched, going public, not getting enough satisfaction of direct socialization, losing identity, being discouraged by others, ownership of Facebook user’s involvement into the site, wasting time, and getting tired and bored.

I have some questions inspired by this article:


1) Are these minor behaviors or do they signal a more similar behavior in the future causing a return to other ways of socializing?

2) What makes people so indulged in Facebook that they wait till they realize that they are exposed to the public and decide to stop using it?

3) Does the taste of social experience differ from a person to another? And how does this affect people’s use of facebook?

--------

Hodgkinson, T. (2008, January 14). With friends like these [Article History].


Retrieved from The Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/

2008/jan/14/facebook

Summary of: With Friends like These

The article is aimed to prove that Facebook is made by people who show us that Facebook helps us socialize better and gain more friends, while in fact Facebook sentences us to isolation and usies us as consumers to commercialize products. It is so popular that it cannot be removed from the society and it is concerned with quantity of friends rather than quality. People responsible for creating Facebook have neoconservative libertarianism minds and one of them is a smart and rich uber-capitalist and futurist philosopher Peter Thiel. He also believes in value of virtual things rather than physical, thus he made PayPal, an e-commerce that free money from flow restrictions. He made Facebook to satisfy this purpose too and make trading free depending on people imitating each other by using Facebook. Another person who has an influence is Jim Breyer and he was part of PayPal which is related to the CIA, which makes Facebook a spying tool for the CIA. Facebook privacy policy also proves the latter.

Here are my questions:

1) Why should the virtual world just for being so?
2) Is it intentional that the writing of Facebook policies is very small and hard to read?

Nawar Al Akawi - Syrian Diaspora

 
Diaspora:

Diaspora is referred to any group migration or movement from a home country to another country. For instance, Syrians living in UAE are part of the Syrian Diaspora in UAE. Syrians living in Argentina are part of the Syrian Diaspora in Argentina, and so on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/magazine/14syrians-t.html?_r=1

 - This is an article by Zev Chaftes of The New York Times Magazine about the Jewish Syrian Community in Brooklyn; summing up to 75000 Syrians. They call themselves the Ess-Why, a self-created entrepreneurial and mercantile empire, many of which live in multimillionaire mansions. This article talks about their initial start in New York as normal city people, and they started opening stores in Manhattan; eventually becoming successful entrepreneurs. 

http://sy-in-london.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2010-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=7

- This page I found was particularly interesting because it is a blog of a Syrian girl in London entitled " Syrian in London : Snapshot from a Syrian girl's daily life in The City " . She has many interesting and creative thoughts about the new era of Facebook and online communities, War in Gaza, and freedom of choice and speech. The blog does not give much valuable information about the rest of the Syrian "Community" in London, but we do have an individual's perspective which gives us a small idea about the rest of the community, despite the fact that she has only 6 followers.

http://www.sana.sy/eng/282/2010/07/03/296532.htm

- This article is about a visit of the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to the Syrian Communities in Argentina and South America. Even though there is no direct information about the Syrian community and their accomplishments in Argentina, the article quotes : "noting that the Syrian community was particularly successful in South America and Argentina, managing to earn the real amity of the country's people. " Furthermore, it was pointed out that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was well known in the area due to the scatter of the syrian communities around town.