Wednesday, March 13. 2019

Today's schedule is BADC-L

9:05 am – 10:05 am Block - B
10:10 am – 11:10 am Block- A
11:10 am – 12:00 pm Lunch Break
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Block - D
1:05 pm – 2:05 pm Block- C
2:05 pm – 3:15 pm Personalized Learning

B Block Human Geography - Today we'll once again look at the key question, "Why Is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal?" We'll examine the Internet and Social Media's influence on popular culture.


The Internet has made pop culture transmission a two-way street. The power to influence popular culture no longer lies with the relative few with control over traditional forms of mass media; it is now available to the great mass of people with access to the Internet. As a result, the cross-fertilization of pop culture from around the world has become a commonplace occurrence.

Valerie Berset-Price wrote a lovely piece called From Pop Culture to Global Culture: How Millennials and Technology Are Influencing Our World. In it she states

For Millennials (that would be you - my inset), two things are happening simultaneously: culture is impacting technology, and technology is impacting culture. On one hand, culture serves as a standard of judgment. It places an importance on what is acceptably good, valuable, and ethical. It conditions how and what we communicate, and it is the lens by which we perceive the world and, in some ways, the way the world perceives us. On the other hand, technology has served as a force for sweeping cultural change, joining the ranks of war, colonization, religious influence and military expansion as cultural modifiers. The expansion of the internet has allowed global communication and information to permeate everything from apartment walls to international borders...Such global exposure has provided the basis for peaceful international homogenization as well as deep conflicts of perspective, and technological advances have increased the speed and frequency of both.

In addition to individuals contributing to culture, Multinational, nongovernmental corporations can now drive global culture. This is neither entirely good nor entirely bad. On one hand, foreign cultural institutions can adopt successful American business models, and corporations are largely willing to do whatever makes them the most money in a particular market. However, cultural imperialism has potential negative effects as well. From a spread of Western ideals of beauty to the possible decline of local cultures around the world, cultural imperialism can have a quick and devastating effect. (from Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication).

Today you'll need to answer:

1. Why do developing nations view television as a new source of cultural imperialism?
2. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) is changing the way that popular and folk cultures are diffused. Give and support an argument for how the Internet might aid the preservation, or even expansion, of some folk cultural elements.
3. Why do many governments consider it important to limit the freedom to use social media?
4. A recent study of University of Maryland students found that not using any electronics for 24 hours produced anxiety, craving, and other symptoms akin to withdrawal from alcohol or drugs (FOMO). How do you think you would react to a 24-hour ban on all electronics?

A Block Physical Geography - Tomorrow is your Tectonics Unit Final Test. I hope you come prepared. To help...

Today we are watching one of the best/worst disaster movies of all time...Dante's Peak (oh Bond...James Bond I mean Dalton...Harry Dalton of the USGS Cascade Volcano Observatory you dedicated vulcanologist yet tortured soul). You will have a series of questions to answer about the volcanology in the movie (they are in your week 7 package). Believe it or not there are actually some good things about the movie. I'm a big fan of the lahars and the pyroclastic flow is a fairly decent recreation. What I really want is a truck that can drive over top and through a lava flow like the US Forest Service truck in the movie...That would be sweet! Seriously though there are too many errors in science to count but you'll need to try to identify a few. We'll finish the movie Friday.

D Block Law - Today we'll watch the Law & Order episode “Fools for Love” (season 10, episode 15). This episode is based on the Leslie Mahaffy, Kristen French, and Tammy Homolka cases.  Finally, I'd like you to finish with question 7 from page 179:

The plea negotiation has become the primary means of dispensing justice in Canada. It is effective, both for accused criminals looking to minimize their punishment and for prosecutors coping with the torrent of cases sloshing through the courts. Is it morally correct to trade the legal rights guaranteed by the Charter for convenience and cost savings? 

And for more on the case:


C Block Criminology - The 2016 GTI (Global Terrorism Index) report reinforces the fact terrorism is a highly concentrated form of violence, mostly committed in a small number of countries and by a small number of groups. The five countries suffering the highest impact from terrorism as measured by the GTI; Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria, accounted for 72 per cent of all deaths from terrorism in 2015. Similarly, only four groups were responsible for 74 per cent of all these deaths; ISIL, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qa’ida. While terrorism as a form of violence has a major psychological impact on the societies it touches, there are other forms of violence which are more devastating. Major armed conflicts resulted in more deaths in 2015 as well as the wholesale destruction of economies. The global homicide rate is 15 times the death rate from terrorism.

Fact-Check: Terrorism from Wolfram Friele on Vimeo.

Global Terrorism Index 2014 from Vision of Humanity on Vimeo.


Statistical analysis of the drivers of terrorist activity show there are two distinct sets of factors associated with terrorism, depending on whether the country is developed or developing.

The first set of factors which are closely linked to terrorist activity are political violence committed by the state and the presence of a conflict. The research finds that 93 per cent of all terrorist attacks between 1989 and 2014 occurred in countries with high levels of state sponsored terror, involving extrajudicial killing, torture, and imprisonment without trial. Similarly, over 90 per cent of all terrorist deaths occurred in countries already engaged in some form of conflict whether internal or international. This means only 0.5 per cent of terrorist attacks occurred in countries that did not suffer from conflict or political terror. This underlines the close link between existing conflicts, grievances and political violence with terrorist activity.

When analyzing the correlates of terrorism there are different factors that are statistically significant depending on the level of development. In the OECD countries, socio-economic factors such as youth unemployment, militarization, levels of criminality, access to weapons and distrust in the electoral process are the most statistically significant factors correlating with terrorism. This reinforces some of the well-known drivers of radicalization and extremism. In developing countries, the history of conflict, levels of corruption, acceptance of the rights of others and group based inequalities are more significantly related to terrorist activity.

I'll have you work on the following questions:

1. Despite cultural awareness and various initiatives in schools and in the media, hate crimes continue to happen in significant numbers in Canada. Discuss the types of hate crimes most prevalent in Canada and the current responses to them. 
2. Governments have tried numerous responses to terrorism. Discuss some of these responses. 
3. It is unlikely that the threat of punishment can deter robbery; most robbers refuse to think about apprehension and punishment. Wright and Decker suggest that eliminating cash and relying on debit and credit cards may be the most productive method to reduce the incidence of robbery. Although this seems far-fetched, society is becoming progressively more cashless; it is now possible to buy both gas and groceries with credit cards. Would a cashless society end the threat of robbery, or would innovative robbers find new targets?
4. Based on what you know about how robbers target victims, how can you better protect yourself from robbery?