Thursday, November 20, 2014

Friday, November 21. 2014

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

D Block Criminology 12 - Today in Criminology class I'm going to show you a television show called White Collar. From USA network:

White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffery (Matt Boomer), a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay). When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He'll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can't be found on the right side of the law.

The episode I’d like you to show is called Hard Sell from season 1, which deals with stock manipulation and churning the value of stock in a boiler room (metaphor). From tv.com...

The scam is a "pump and dump", in which a group of "junior Gordon Gekkos" is selling bad stock. The guy in charge buys a large amount of dollar stocks, and has his men inflate the price by selling it over the phone. When the price peaks, guy in charge dumps the stock and leaves the buyers holding worthless shares. The average person loses $30,000, and some victims have lost their homes. The boiler room is mobile, moving to a new location after each stock dump.


Yesterday we watched the DVD Scammed in class and then talked about corporate crime. 419 scams are called so because the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that makes it illegal to obtain money under false pretences is section 419. Millions of Americans and Europeans are being targeted by scammers from Nigeria with very few being arrested or suffering any consequences.

419 is a modern day version of the 1500's Spanish Prisoner con when after the English defeated the Spanish armada in 1588-89, there were still a lot of English sailors who didn’t make it home. Letters began arriving to wealthy English families using the same idea, "if you can give me a small amount of money, then I can free this English prisoner.” In the same way then as today, the con man keeps squeezing more money and eventually begins threatening the victim. Canadian author Will Ferguson received the Giller Prize in 2012 for his book 419 - the tale of an email scam and a woman who sets out on a wide-ranging search for those she believes responsible for her father's death.


Top Scams of 2012 (Global TV Calgary)


C & A Blocks Social Studies 10 - Today we will take a look at first contact between European and Aboriginal Peoples on the prairies in Canada. We'll review the concept of worldview and then spend time examining the relationship that developed between the Aboriginal Peoples and both the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company on the Canadian Prairies.

Remember the Conquistadors and Aztec civilization? Montezuma, the Aztec leader, believed that Cortez was the return of Quetzalcoatl, the exiled deity who vowed one day to return and claim his kingdom. Aztec mythology tells of a fair-skinned god, Quetzalcoatl, who sailed east to join the sun god, warning that he would return.

"Many came also to gape at the strange men, now so famous, and at their attire, arms and horses, and they said 'These men are gods!'" – Francisco Lopez de Gomara, from The History of the Conquest of Mexico, 1552

Why would Montezuma believe in this? Technology mixed with a sense of foreboding doom that existed in Mexico. Today we will watch an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Who Watches the Watchers?" From the official Star Trek website:

A team of Federation anthropologists, working in a camouflaged outpost on Mintaka III, have been observing the Mintakans — a race of Vulcan-like humanoids whose development is at the equivalent of earth's Bronze Age. But when an explosion rips through the post, the expedition's leader, Barron, and his assistant, an elderly woman named Warren, are seriously injured. A third team member, a young man named Palmer, is dazed in the blast and wanders away from the site. Beaming down to assist the Federation officials, the Away Team is spotted by two Mintakans, Liko and his daughter Oji. Stunned by the sight of Warren being beamed up to the U.S.S. Enterprise, Liko accidentally slips and is critically injured in a fall. To save his life, Dr. Crusher beams Liko up to the ship, although it violates the Federation's Prime Directive, which states that members are not to interfere with other cultures. Regaining consciousness in Sickbay, Liko overhears Picard promising Barron that he will find Palmer. Despite the fact that Crusher performs a procedure to remove his short term memory, it doesn't work and Liko returns to the planet describing "the Picard" to other Mintakans as a god, capable of healing wounds and reversing death.

I'd like you to think about what happens in the Star Trek episode and then tomorrow we'll discuss the connections between what we see today and the relationship that developed between the Aboriginal Peoples and the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company.

B Block Law 12 -  We'll start with time to finish up your questions from the week (questions 2, 4 and 5 from page 270; 2 & 5 on page 273; 1, 3, & 5 on page 281; 4 & 5 page 283) and then I'll give you a quick review of the Criminal Law defenses we've been looking at in order to get you ready for Tuesday's mid-unit test. After this I'll give you the rest of the class to get yourself organized for the test; don't forget to ask questions and seek help if you need it.

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