Tuesday, February 26. 2019

Today's schedule is CDAB

B Block Criminology - "Why is violence entertaining"? You have time to work on your questions from yesterday:

1. What is the attraction of violent films and video games?
2. Is there more violent imagery in media now as opposed to the past (think graphic, realistic visceral)? Why / Why not?
3. What kinds of people are drawn to violent imagery and what kind of violent images draw them to that form of entertainment?
4. What is “morbid curiosity”?
5. Are there any equally satisfying substitutions for violent entertainment?
6. What draws our attention to violent media events (news) that are not intended to entertain? 

After that we'll watch some Warner Brothers cartoons with all the glorious violence in them and we'll have a discussion about the acceptance of violence in our modern culture. We'll look at: Bully for Bugs; Rabbit Seasoning; For Scentimental Reasons; Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2^th Century and lastly The Ducksters. Criminal Harassment (Stalking), Sexual Assault, Assault, Attempted Murder, Aggravated Assault (torture), and Unlawful Confinement are just a few of the crimes in these cartoons...all violent crimes.

Is Bugs Bunny bad for kids? Comedy and violence are intermingled into a typical or formulaic narrative story.....Wile E. Coyote chases the Road Runner, Elmer Fudd chases Bugs Bunny, Sylvester chases Tweety Bird and they inflict carnage on each other. The end is always the same....someone wins, someone loses, the loser is humiliated and we laugh at them (good clean wholesome fun). While we watch the cartoons I want you to think about the implicit and implied messages that each cartoon sends to kids (rather than the explicit and obvious messages) and then we'll talk about what those messages do even if kids understand the difference between cartoon and real violence.

So now compare the violence in the Warner Brothers cartoons (from the 50's and 60's) with that of the Happy Tree Friends. Check out the following video: Happy Tree Friends A to Zoo . Let's be frank here, the cartoon is not meant for children but because of the "cute" characters what would it be like if we just let young children watch that cartoon unsupervised?

Consider the following:
Media Violence: Psychology
Cartoon Violence Project
Gender and Comm. Kids Cartoon Violence


D Block Law - So you have the block to finish work because tomorrow is our first test in the course. You need to complete the following:

Questions 1-4 on page 94:
1. Explain the difference between civil rights and human rights.
2. How do prejudice and stereotyping lead to discrimination?
3. Explain the difference between a complainant and a respondent.
4. What is the difference between intentional and unintentional discrimination?

Questions 4 & 5 from page 97
4. Explain the concept of a poisoned work environment. Provide an example.
5. Explain the difference between accommodation and undue hardship.

AND Question 5 from page 104
5. What types of remedies are available under human rights law?

along with Questions 1-5 on page 78
1. What are some of the current barriers to equality facing women?
2. What is pay equity?
3. How are different jobs compared under pay equity?
4. What is employment equity?
5. What groups are protected under employment equity laws?

AND Questions 1-3 on page 54
1. How has section 7 of the Charter, the right to life, liberty, and security of the person, been used to support proper disclosure during a criminal trial?
2. What type of information could give the police reasonable and probable grounds for a search?
3. When is a search

along with questions 1 & 2 on page 56
1. Explain your rights under section 9 of the Charter.
2. In your own words, what does “arbitrarily” mean?

Of course if you're done I have poster paper for your Human Rights project and I'll give you the paper once I've seen your ideas (a rough sketch). Remember you need to create a visually appealing Human Rights Campaign Poster that addresses the human rights violation by incorporating key information (What is happening? Where is it taking place? What rights are being violated? Who is having their rights violated? Why are their rights being violated?) as well as pictures, symbols, and colours. Your poster should seek to draw the attention of the public through the balanced combination of text and visuals in a creative, yet educational manner!

A Block Physical Geography - Yesterday we looked at earthquakes and the seismic gap concept (focusing on Izmit Turkey in 1999). Today....Oh today we look at Tsunamis and the west coast of North America. We'll watch sections of the Discovery Channel documentary "America's Tsunami: Are we Next?" You will have some questions to work on tonight in your week four package which are:
Why can tsunamis cause such damage and devastation? What are some characteristics of the wave that factor into how much damage it could cause? How do coastal or shoreline features factor into the extent of damage? What role could a warning system play? How effective would a warning system be for the west coast of Vancouver Island? Why?

You can find more information at:
PBS documentary "The Wave that Shook the World"
PEP Tsunami Preparedness website

From Canadian Geographic...

After shock
The devastation of last year's Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia offers vital lessons for the west coast of North America
By Jodi Di Menna and Steven Fick

In the year since a massive earthquake and tsunami rocked the Indian Ocean, the question "What if it happens here?" has gained urgency in western North America. The geology of the Cascadia subduction zone off the Pacific coast is so strikingly similar to that of Sumatra that scientists in British Columbia have used data from last year's disaster to refine models of how a megathrust earthquake — on the order of magnitude 9.0 — would affect the province's coast.
"The Sumatran earthquake was the type closest to what we expect in Cascadia," says John Cassidy, a seismologist at Natural Resources Canada in Sidney, B.C. "We set out to learn as much as we could from what occurred in Sumatra so that we could be better prepared when our big one happens."
Geological deposits and coastal First Nations lore indicate that large earthquakes have hit the West Coast every 200 to 800 years, and since the last one shook the region 305 years ago (the article is 10 years old so it is 315 now), scientists believe Cascadia could be ready to rupture at any time. In fact, in September (2005), Vancouver Island slid to the west about the width of a pencil, an event that occurs every 14 months and increases pressure along the fault line. "This slipping motion means we're one step closer to a big earthquake," says Cassidy.

The Sumatran experience gave scientists an idea of what to expect when it does happen. Using information gathered from that event, Cassidy and his colleagues plotted the same pattern of aftershocks and crustal deformation onto a map of the North American coast .
Predictions by computer models were largely confirmed by the Sumatran events, but in some cases, there were unexpected variations. Shaking was stronger than expected and felt farther inland, and the tsunami flooded higher up on shore and with more variation from place to place than scientists had anticipated. These insights will eventually make their way into building codes and engineering designs in earthquake- and tsunami-prone areas, but more immediately, the Sumatran disaster has led authorities to adjust their reaction strategies by adding warning systems and by increasing public awareness.
"Educating people to be better prepared is the most important aspect," says Cassidy. "The Boxing Day images were a graphic reminder of what can and likely will happen in the future. The key is to use the information and learn from it."

And from the Vancouver Sun:

Small quakes regularly rattle the west coast, but megathrust quakes are a different beast. Cascadia’s subduction quakes are huge – magnitude 9 or more. The last one stuck Jan. 26, 1700, creating a tsunami that destroyed First Nations villages and swept across the Pacific causing damage in Japan. There is no predicting when the next on will strike. But experts say there is a 12% probability a Cascadia megathrust earthquake will hit in the next 50 years. Because the Pacific Northwest coast is not heavily populated, a Cascadia quake and tsunami is not expected to be as deadly as the Sumatra quake. But it will be a major disaster. Emergency planners in B.C. and the U.S. estimate the number of deaths could exceed 10,000 with another 30,000 people injured. Communities on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the U.S. states will be hit hardest, but aging buildings and infrastructure in Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle and Portland are also at risk of damage and collapse. The economic impacts are expected to be far-reaching with damage from a Cascadia quake and tsunami expected to cost Canada up to $75 billion – almost twice B.C.’s annual provincial budget – and another $70 billion in the U.S.

B Block Human Geography - Today we'll try to answer the Key Questions "Where are Migrants Distributed and Why Do People Migrate?" We'll look at the difference between a migrant and a refugee. We'll look at in-migration (immigration to) and out-migration (emigration from) and patterns of international migration. We'll look at a brief history of immigration policy in Canada (Hint hint it's kinda Eurocentric up to the late 1960's), Zelinski's migration transition (what stages of the DTM do we find in and out migration) and lastly push and pull factors for migration. You'll have some work to complete for me in your week 5 package.