Tuesday, June 13. 2023

Today's schedule is CDAB

C Block Human Geography - We'll look at Genetically Modified Organisms (connected to food). Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are living organisms that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained using modern biotechnology. US agricultural scientist  Norman Borlaug successfully bred what became known as miracle seeds of high-yielding dwarf wheat varieties. He and others launched what is known as the "green revolution"; yields could be doubled or even trebled with heavy doses of synthetic chemical fertilizers and other inputs. On the back of his discoveries, countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are said to have averted famines and started to export grains

Until last year, only four GM crops have been grown in Canada: corn, canola, soy and white sugar beet (for sugar processing). In 2016, GM alfalfa was planted for the first time and in March 2016, a GM potato was approved. The potato is genetically engineered to have less asparagine, an amino acid that oxidizes into acrylamide (a probable carcinogen) at high-temperatures (e.g. frying). Source Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN). Also AquaBounty Technologies has indicated that it sold GM salmon filets here in Canada where Atlantic Salmon have been endowed with a growth hormone taken from Pacific chinook salmon that makes it grow faster. GM is especially widespread in the United States. Three-fourths of the processed food that Americans consume has at least one genetically modified ingredient





You have some questions to answer for me:

1. There is little new land available for farming.  In fact, the current trend is to reduce agricultural land rather than increase it.  Identify and briefly describe three reasons why land is currently being removed from agricultural use.
2. Why do you think Europeans generally avoid genetically modified food while Americans generally do not? Does your family avoid foods made with GMO seeds? Why or why not?
3. Describe the characteristics of the “miracle wheat seed”.
4. Describe the characteristics of the “miracle rice seed”.
5. What specific problems do farmers in LDCs have which might prevent them from taking full advantage of the Green Revolution?
6. What three crops are often genetically modified?
7. Approximately how much of major crops in the US are genetically modified?
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified foods?

D Block Physical Geography - I lose you to the assembly this morning. Thursday = Anthropogenic Climate Change

A Block Legal Studies - We start today in the class before the learning commons where we'll look at Vicarious Liability & Occupier’s Liability 

Vicarious liability – a Defendant is held liable for another person’s tort even though they may have done nothing wrong. Companies are liable for their employees’ actions through vicarious liability (as are parents for their children) 

Occupiers Liability – An occupier is someone who is in control of property. You have a duty of care to ensure that your property is safe for others. The occupier should be able to foresee any harm and mitigate it. There are three classes of people who occupiers are liable to: 

1. Invitees are people who are on property for reasons OTHER than social visits. These people are owed the HIGHEST standard of care. 
2. Licensees are people who are on property on the implied permission of the occupier (social visits where no business is transacted). 
3. Trespassers are people who enter property without permission or a legal right. 

Take some time to review invitees, licencees, and tresspassers for occupiers' liability (which is relevant for cases 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8). The Insurance Bureau of Canada has great help with Occupier's Liability called Slip/Trip and Fall. On this site it indicates: 

As an occupier, you and/or your organization are required to keep areas such as aisles, stairs, ramps, walkways, driveways and parking lots reasonably safe for persons who are using them. Some common hazardous conditions include: 

• ice and snow that has not been cleared 
• unexpected elevation changes 
• uneven surfaces (e.g., cracks, gaps, potholes) 
• slippery surfaces (e.g., wet floors, tile flooring) 
• missing or loose handrails on stairs 
• debris on walking paths (e.g., boxes in aisles) 
• inadequate lighting. 

An occupier may be held liable for slips, trips and falls if he/she/it fails to provide a reasonable standard of care in keeping the premises free from hazards. In cases where there is more than one occupier – such as a landlord and a tenant or in the case of shared spaces – it is possible for liability to be shared. Who is held liable depends on the circumstances of the loss. The following are some of the criteria used to determine whether or not the appropriate standard of care was applied: 

• Whether the danger was foreseeable. 
• Whether the occupier’s conduct was in accordance with acceptable standards of practice. 
• Whether there was an adequate system of inspection (considering the risks involved) in place and carried out. 
• Whether the danger was allowed to exist for an unreasonable amount of time. 
• The ease with which the danger could have been prevented. 

I would highly recommend that you check out some web pages to help with your project: 

Occupiers Liability Act [RSBC 1996] Chapter 337

Products Liability Act

Doing Business in Canada (Product Liability)

Family Compensation Act [RSBC 1996] Chapter 126

Host Liability - Commercial Hosts have a specific duty of care to their patrons so that they do not harm themselves from consuming alcohol. How to control patron’s alcohol intake:

• Every server needs to take and pass a “Serving it Right” course (experience and training)
• Every server needs to monitor patron’s alcohol intake
• No server can sell alcohol to someone who is intoxicated
• Take away keys, call taxis, call police

The Duty of Care for the commercial property exists through their patron’s to anyone who that patron’s come into contact with (third parties) Social Hosts have a specific duty of care to their licensees (where alcohol is served but there is no financial benefit) – there is also third party liability here…

There are some important sections involving "liability" for businesses and social guests on pages 406-410 (Occupiers' Liability: general invitees; commercial and social host invitees; licensees; trespassers; and the Occupiers Liability Act). These topics are relevant to all cases except for Case 7. For more on the BC Liquor laws (pertaining to case 5) check out the Serving It Right information here or for information on liquor law basics here.

BC Liquor Control and Licensing Act [RSBC 1996] Chapter 267

43 (1) A person must not sell or give liquor to an intoxicated person or a person apparently under the influence of liquor.

(2) A licensee or the licensee's employee must not permit
(a) a person to become intoxicated, or
(b) an intoxicated person to remain in that part of a licensed establishment where liquor is sold, served or otherwise supplied.

Liability of officer of corporation
77 If an offence under this Act is committed by a corporation, the officer or agent of the corporation in charge of the establishment in which the offence is committed is deemed to be a party to the offence and is personally liable to the penalties prescribed for the offence as a principal offender but nothing in this section relieves the corporation or the person actually committing the offence from liability for it.

Liability of occupant of establishment
78 On proof that an offence under this Act has been committed by

(a) a person employed by the occupant of a house, shop, restaurant, room or other establishment in which the offence is committed, or
(b) a person permitted by the occupant to be or remain in or on that house, shop, restaurant, room or establishment, or to act in any way for the occupant, the occupant is deemed to be a party to the offence and is liable as a principal offender to the penalties prescribed for the offence, even though the offence was committed by a person who is not proved to have committed it under or by the direction of the occupant but nothing in this section relieves the person actually committing the offence from liability for it.

From the Canada Safety Council dealing with Social Host Liability:

It is important for every social host to consider the consequences involved with the service of alcohol because there will continue to be lawsuits. The social host could be found to have a duty of care to guests and all those who are at risk due to the intoxication of the guests for events that could be foreseeable. Further, the host has a duty to monitor and supervise the service and consumption of alcohol during a party or event. The best course is to take risk management measures. The social host should check his or her insurance to determine if there is coverage for any incident that may occur on the property or as a result of actions from the property. When hosting a party, plan appropriately. This includes:

1. Either don't drink or limit your own consumption of alcohol in order to track that of your guests. 
2. Know your guests - it is much easier to track the changes in behaviour of those you know. 
3. Try to serve all drinks yourself and avoid self-serve bars to track and monitor your guests' consumption. Consider hiring a bartender trained in alcohol service. 
4. Have plenty of non-alcoholic choices. 
5. Serve lots of food that has protein and fat - salt encourages more drinking and sugar does not mix well with alcohol. 
6. Meet, Greet and Repeat - meet and greet all your guests as they arrive in order to determine if they have had anything alcoholic to drink before arriving. If the party is an open house or cocktail format, repeat the process as guests leave. 
7. If a guest is intoxicated, encourage him or her to give you their car keys if relevant. Buddy up with a friend to assist in persuading the intoxicated person to take a cab. 
8. Keep the phone numbers of cab companies handy and tell the guest that a cab has been ordered - don't give them the option to refuse. 
9. If the guest is quite intoxicated, keep that person with you until they have sobered or can be left with a sober responsible person. 
10. Only time will sober the person, not additional fluids or food. Offering a spare bed is a good recourse. 
11. If the person refuses to give the car keys or spend the night at your house, call the police. It may seem drastic, but it could be a choice between that of an upset friend or far more tragic consequences. 

Having a plan will allow you to prevent problems from happening or a least, handle the problems in the least unpleasant way and perhaps, allow you to enjoy your own party. 

Some of you asked about creating letterheads in Microsoft Word...

How to Make Letterhead in Microsoft Word

Create a Letterhead in Microsoft Word

B Block Criminology - Oh...Casey Anthony and the Media frenzy that was and still is...I want you to try to make sense of the crime (Casey and Caylee Anthony), the media's coverage of the crime (particularly Nancy Grace), feminist perspectives on criminology, the bad mother motif, and Schadenfreude. HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. To her credit Nancy Grace was a criminal prosecutor in Georgia. Here is a CNN bio on her..

HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. Grace had her own trial of Casey Anthony in the media. Here is a sampling of her coverage





After the verdict here's what she had to say - which further shaped the public's opinion of Casey Anthony even after she was found not guilty by a jury of her peers



Now, here's what the media had to say about the media covering the Casey Anthony trial



And here's what CBC had to discuss about Nancy Grace on the show Q



Does the trial have a longer lasting impact on the USA or was it just 15 minutes of fame and a distraction from mundane daily life? Because of her actions, Nancy Grace has been spoofed on SNL and MadTV to name just two... 

HBO had a television series called The Newsroom and they had an amazing bit on Nancy Grace's coverage of Tot Mom...



CNN did a retrospective piece on the trial here

Grace is currently the host of the podcast Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and the Fox Nation series of the same name and is also the founder of the website CrimeOnline. Grace told The Daily Beast in an article titled Nancy Grace Doesn’t Regret a Goddamn Thing  

“I report and cover and investigate very disturbing criminal cases. I consider those facts to be evidence. If other people consider true crime to be sensational, I would say that they’re wrong,”

You should take some time to understand the German psychology/sociology term Schadenfreude. This term deals with a big concept - that as humans, we have a private rush of glee when someone else struggles (we take delight in another person's pain and misfortune). Schadenfreude registers in the brain as a pleasurable experience, a satisfaction comparable to that of eating a good meal. Schadenfreude is a common and normal part of life but can become dangerous if we lose empathy, fall into demonizing others, or lapse into “us vs. them” thinking.

There is a human fascination with murder as entertainment and news media companies have turned the story of the death of a toddler into a prime time circus...a story that we can safely watch and perhaps feel a little guilty pleasure in the fact that we're better than Casey Anthony. Her pain and suffering on television brings us delight and makes us feel good in that we are not the monster that the media has portrayed her out to be...sigh.

Matt Wild wrote a piece called The guilty (and not-so-guilty) pleasures of Dateline NBC and in it he stated

...for an alarming number of Americans—myself included—Dateline has become appointment viewing. Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and their ilk are fine, but there’s a distinct, guilty pleasure in staying home on a Friday night, dimming the lights, sounding off on Twitter with other like minded fans, and watching the sordid true-life tales of murderous spouses (usually husbands), sorrowful family members (usually parents), and sinister motives (almost always infidelity) unspool over the course of an hour, all narrated by the stern and sonorous Morrison, or the rumpled and incredulous Mankiewicz. Murder, shattered families, and desperate cries for justice: perfect for a cozy night of popcorn, wine, and incessant tweeting.

So you have a question to answer for me: 

Regardless of your opinion of Casey Anthony is it possible for her to escape the negative label of "Tot Mom" and will she ever be able to avoid the horrible mother image presented by CNN and Nancy Grace? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas. How does the concept of Schadenfreude apply to the Casey Anthony trial? How would low self-esteem make someone more likely to seek out schadenfreude-filled crime media? Is Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat) good or bad for criminal trials and the news/media coverage of them? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas

You should consider the following when answering your question: 

1. Think about who reports information and how that information is used.
2. Think about your privacy and how you manage your on-line presence.
3. Think about how social media can be introduced as evidence at trials.
4. Think about how social media can be used for reporting during trials.
5. Do viewer/user comments about media coverage of a trial provide valuable feedback for discussion or not? Why?
6. Is public shaming protected by the right to free speech or is this a case where our old norms and principles have simply been exposed as unfit for a new era?