Tuesday, September 29. 2020

Today's schedule is:

9:15 - 11:50 D Block Social and Environmental Sciences

12:30 - 3:05 A Block Criminology 

D Block Social and Environmental Sciences - From the EPA in the United States...What is an Estuary?

An estuary is a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Estuaries, and their surrounding lands, are places of transition from land to sea. Although influenced by the tides, they are protected from the full force of ocean waves, winds and storms by land forms such as barrier islands or peninsulas.

Estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating more organic matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest, grassland or agricultural land. The sheltered waters of estuaries also support unique communities of plants and animals specially adapted for life at the margin of the sea.

Estuaries provide us with a suite of resources, benefits and services. Some of these can be measured in dollars and cents, while others cannot. Estuaries provide places for recreational activities, scientific study and aesthetic enjoyment. Estuaries are an irreplaceable natural resource that must be managed carefully for the mutual benefit of all who enjoy and depend on them

Why is this relevant? Because today we are off to the Courtenay River Estuary to look for evidence of thousands of years of fishing by the indigenous people who inhabited the lands you live on today. We will take you to the estuary and there are a few things...First,

Gila’kasla

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territories of the K’ómoks First Nation. We would like to thank them for the privilege of living on the land and the gift of working with their children.

Gila’kasla

Remember tread lightly on the shoreline, leave everything in its place, especially the small crabs (leave them on ground, do not step on them or poke them with sticks). Benton and I are honoured to have Lelaina Jules join us today. We will look for evidence of Traditional Ecological Knowledge at the low tide line today.  Results of highly detailed mapping and radiocarbon dating at a vast and largely unknown intertidal fish trap complex indicate a large-scale, technologically sophisticated Aboriginal trap fishery operated at Comox Harbour, Vancouver Island, British Columbia between about 1,300 and 100 years ago...So meet at Young's room and then we'll head to the bus loop for our very quick trip to the estuary. 

Some questions to consider:

1. What are the issues that you have to consider when planning for a responsible fishery?
2. Who is responsible for our ocean and fresh water fisheries?
3. What are key factors that have led to overfishing?
4. What are our present day responsibilities?

A Block Criminology - To start today, we'll share our "violence as entertainment" lists from yesterday and ask, "Why is violence entertaining"? Next, I'll have you work on the following:

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