Thursday, May 31. 2012

Today's schedule is D-C-B-A

D Block Criminology 12 - Today we'll start by watching the last fifteen minutes of the Leverage episode "The Boost Job" that we began yesterday. Again what I'd like you to pay attention to is the skill set that each member of the leverage team has: Nathan "Nate" Ford "The Mastermind"; Sophie Devereaux "The Grifter"; Alec Hardison "The Hacker"; Eliot Spencer "The Hitter"; and Parker "The Thief". I'd also like you to think of the types of crime in the show and how each one was perpetrated (auto theft, embezzlement, fraud, and theft). After we talk about this we'll look at White Collar Crime. We will begin by learning how to identify a pyramid / ponzi scam (for more take a look at How Stuff Works). After, we'll quickly look at individual exploitation of an institutional position, influence peddling & bribery, theft and employee fraud, client fraud and corporate crime. We'll end the class with a discussion about business and corporate culture. What is it that makes a successful business person and what kind of ethical behaviour is valued by corporate culture? From the Business Ethics Forum blog site:

An outstanding in-depth article on the Value of Corporate Values can be found in an article by Reggie Van Lee, Lisa Fabish, and Nancy McGaw in this month's S+B. Based on a survey at 365 companies in 30 countries, the authors claim "increasingly, companies around the world have adopted formal statements of corporate values, and senior executives now routinely identify ethical behavior, honesty, integrity, and social concerns as top issues on their companies’ agendas". The highlights of the survey and article are:

1. A large number of companies are making their values explicit. That’s a change — quite a significant change — from corporate practices 10 years ago. The ramifications of this shift are just beginning to be understood.
   
2. Ethical behavior is a core component of company activities.
   
3. Most companies believe values influence two important strategic areas — relationships and reputation — but do not see the direct link to growth.
   
4. Most companies are not measuring their “ROV.”
   
5. Top performers consciously connect values and operations.
   
6. Values practices vary significantly by (continental) region.
   
7. The CEO’s tone really matters.

The article provides quantitative data about these 7 findings and concludes with "A commitment to corporate values may be in vogue, but the public will remain suspicious until corporations both understand and can demonstrate that they are committed to using values to create value". What we are looking at is what makes people abuse the public trust in corporations. We will look at stings, swindles, and chiselling and discuss ImClone (Martha Stewart) and Bre-X. For more on Corporations look at the website for the documentary The Corporation (which we'll watch part of tomorrow)

C Block Geography 12 - Today we look at the ethics associated with resource use along with the different forms of "capital" and understand the concept of "natural capital". We'll also look at renewable and non-renewable resources along with the four ethical views on resource use (economic/exploitation; preservationist; balanced-multiple use; and ecological or sustainable). We'll talk about over-consumption and unsustainable resource use practices using the example of water consumption and the Aral Sea and we'll end the class with a seemingly simple question...."How Much do You Consume?" Don't forget that I need you to continue tracking your family's water consumption for the week and you can use the water footprint calculator at the H20 Conserve website. I'll then show you the National Geographic DVD Human Footprint. There is a great interactive flash site that is connected to the DVD which helps you calculate your Human Footprint.

B Block Law 12 - Today we have the notebook lab in the class to continue working on our major civil law project for the semester. I have looked over a few of your assignments so far an it appears that for the most part you're all on track. I want to remind you that there are only 12 classes left until the final exam and 14 classes left before the project is due.

A Block Social Studies 11 - Today we're in the library to work on an on-line population activity. The activity can be found in the Vanier K Drive (Assignments). You'll need to use the Population Reference Bureau's 2011 World Population Data Sheet to answer the questions. Answer the questions on the word document and make sure that you save it in your drive space. You'll submit it to me on the Vanier H Drive (Shared) as "your name socials 11 population assignmen"t. Here are the questions:

Find answers to the following questions using the current World Population Data Sheet.

1. What is the population of the world?
2. Rank the ten countries with the largest population (from largest to smallest).
3. The crude death rate (CDR) is the annual number of deaths per 1,000 population. Which country has the highest CDR? Which country has the lowest?
4. The infant mortality rate measures the number of deaths each year to infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births. Which country has the highest infant mortality rate and what is that rate? Which country has the lowest and what is that rate?
5. The total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children women would have if they maintained the current level of childbearing throughout their reproductive years. Which countries share the highest TFR and what is it? Several countries share the lowest TFR. What is it?
6. Which country has the "youngest" population, that is, the highest proportion of population under age 15? Which country has the "oldest" population, that is, the highest proportion of population over age 64?
7. In which country are people expected to live the longest? Which country has the lowest life expectancy?
8. In which African country does the highest proportion of people live in urban areas? In Asia? In Latin America? In Europe? In Oceania?
9. Gross national income in purchasing power parity per capita (GNI PPP) converts income into "international dollars" and indicates the amount of goods and services one could buy in the United States with a given amount of money. Which country is the wealthiest in terms of GNI PPP? Which is the second wealthiest?
10. A population grows because there are more births than deaths or more people are moving in than moving out. The difference between births and deaths is expressed as a percentage called the rate of natural increase. Which region is growing the fastest through natural increase? Which region is growing at the slowest rate?
11. Which country is growing the fastest through natural increase? Which country is growing at the slowest rate?
12. Rank the 10 countries with the largest projected populations for both 2025 and 2050 (from largest to the smallest). Which country's/countries' population is projected to drop out of the top 10 by 2050? Which country/countries is projected to be added to the top 10? Look back to the rankings for the current year. What are the major shifts in this ranking from now to 2050?
13. Rank the regions according to population size (from largest to the smallest).