Monday, March 2, 2015

Tuesday, March 3. 2015

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

C Block Geography 12 - Today in class you’ll look at tectonics and plate boundaries. You’ll have to take down a few notes on divergent, convergent, and transform plate boundaries along with hot spots and then you'll need to work on two questions on geothermal energy and the effects of the Juan de Fuca plate and ridge just off our shores.

For more on Plate Tectonics check out:

Earth Floor: Plate Tectonics
UCal Berkeley Plate Tectonics animated Gifs
NASA: Our Restless Planet animation library
Plate Tectonics Earth View
Plate Tectonics animations - University of Kentucky
UCAR - University of Michigan - Plate Tectonics
Essentials of Geology textbook Plate Tectonics animations

D Block Criminology 12 - Today we start with our first quiz in the course...RELAX I'm sure you'll do fine. There is a bonus question for you should you choose to complete it is on the last page of the quiz :) After we'll try to understand what a victim of crime is. For the first part of the class we'll discuss victims of crime and victimology. We'll look at the Holly Jones murder case in Toronto (2003) and the Victoria 'Tori' Stafford murder case in Woodstock (2009) to try to find out what impact that would have on their families, their classmates at school, their neighbourhood, and really the entire greater Toronto metropolitan area.

CBC News InDepth: Holly Jones
Holly Jones Memorial Site
Victoria "Tori" Stafford Murder Timeline
Can Crime Tori Stafford Page

B Block Social Studies 11 - Last week we looked at the five major political parties, their platforms and tried to select a party that most represents your beliefs. Today you'll take a look at other ways of influencing government such as civil disobedience, mass media, pressure groups and lobbyists (if you're good we may watch the first bit of the movie "Thank You for Smoking". You'll have to answer the following question:

  1. What is a pressure group? What is a lobbyist? How do they influence government?
  2. What is the role of the media in the political process (think news, reporting, campaigns, and advertising)?
  3. What is civil disobedience? What are the three "guidelines" for practicing civil disobedience? Should the Sierra Club of Canada allow acts of civil disobedience to be done in their name in order to block the development of either the Keystone XL or Northern Gateway pipelines? Would you? How? Why or Why not?
For more information on lobbyists:
Washington Post article on Lobbyists in Washington, D.C.
Great website on lobbyist industry in Washington (Center for Responsive Politics)
Canadian lobby website "Hillwatch"
Canadian Lobbying Act

The types of Mass Media include: Print media encompasses mass communication through printed material. It includes newspapers, magazines, booklets and brochures, house magazines, periodicals or newsletters, direct mailers, handbills or flyers, billboards, press releases, and books. Electronic media is the kind of media which requires the user to utilize an electric connection to access it. It is also known as 'Broadcast Media'. It includes television, radio, and new-age media like Internet, computers, telephones, etc. With the advent of Internet, we are now enjoying the benefits of high technology mass media, which is not only faster than the old school mass media, but also has a widespread range. Mobile phones, computers, and Internet are often referred to as the New-Age media. Internet has opened up several new opportunities for mass communication which include e-mail, websites, podcasts, e-forums, e-books, blogging, Internet TV, and many others which are booming today. Internet has also started social networking sites which have redefined mass communication all together.

American abolitionist/author/philosopher Henry David Thoreau lectured on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government" from which came the idea of civil disobedience. His belief was that as a citizen you do have an obligation not to commit injustice and not to give injustice your practical support. According to Thoreau, this means that if a law is unjust, and the legislative process is not designed to quickly get rid of it, then the law deserves no respect and it should be broken hence being civilly disobedient. So for us a modern day example may be the Keystone XL Pipeline project or the Embridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project. The Canadian chapter of the Sierra Club recently put an online poll on their website, to which about 1900 supporters responded. About nine in 10 felt “the climate crisis is so urgent that traditional legal campaigns are no longer sufficient.” They have chosen, however, not to practise civil disobedience. Should they?

Protestor's Guide to the Laws on Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience, Environmental Protest and the Rule of Law

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