Thursday, October 20. 2016

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

D Block Criminology 12 - Don't forget I need from you:

1. Violence as Entertainment Questions (Oct 4th)
2. Sexual Assault Questions (Oct 6th)
3. Serial and Mass Murder Questions (Oct 12th) AND
4. Robbery, Assault and Terrorism Questions (yesterday and the 18th)

Today we'll watch a Criminal Minds episode from season 4 "Amplification" where the BAU responds quickly after a someone releases a new strain of a deadly anthrax virus in Annapolis that threatens the public and puts a member of the team at risk.

C & B Blocks Social Studies 11 - Don't forget, you need to work on questions 1 & 2 from page 24 as well as question 2 from page 47 along with questions 2, 3, and 4 from page 28 of the Counterpoints textbook. Today we'll examine the horrors of trench warfare in World War One. We'll look at the advances in technology that caused the stalemate on the Western Front and the slaughter of millions of men. To begin we'll get into the nitty-gritty of war technology and weaponry through the video "First World War Technology". Alpha History WW1 Weapons. After, we'll take a look at the Schlieffen Plan and the Western Front. Next we'll look at what trenches were like and then we'll watch the Canada: A People's History episode "Go Out and Meet Death Bravely"


A Block Geography 12 - Today we finish Dante's Peak and don't forget that you have a series of questions to answer about the volcanology of the movie (you got the hand out with the questions yesteday). Today we'll get to the main portion of the volcanic eruption and the effects that Dante's Peak takes on the small town that sits in a valley near its base. Dante's Peak produces a Plinian eruption (lots of material ejected and very active). The order of eruption at Dante's Peak is:

1. Tectonic Earthquakes 
2. Harmonic Tremors 
3. Vertical Eruptive Cloud 
4. Spreading of the Eruptive Cloud and Ash Fall
5. Lava Flow 
6. Relative Calm 
7. Lahars 
8. Pyroclastic Cloud 
9. End of Eruptive activity - relative calm
10. USGS Vulcanologist Harry Dalton hooks up with Mayor Rachel Wando and presumably live happily ever after

So it's bad...not as bad as the scientific premise behind Volcano (with Tommy Lee Jones) but bad. From Erik Klemetti at WIRED

Now, here is what I think: I hate Dante’s Peak. It isn’t really the lack of much scientific basics – sure, they mostly understand how volcanic monitoring works but they miss the boat on how volcanoes actually work. It isn’t the acting – Linda and Pierce are good and believable. It isn’t the coffee-loving USGS geolackeys (that is accurate). However, it is the combination of everything – the over-the-top response from Harry about the volcanic rumblings, the resistance from his boss, the recalcitrant grandmother, the deus ex machina mine shelter. The damn dog jumping in the truck as they drive over an ACTIVE LAVA FLOW. The film is, at the same time, trying to be realistic while being wildly unrealistic, and in most cases, there was no need to be unrealistic when it comes to an eruption in the Cascades threatening a town. But no, we can’t take the time to actually portray real events (“Dante’s Peak” lacked a scientific adviser). Sure, it can be exciting but, for me, it was so frustrating that I couldn’t get over it.

My friend I agree, wholeheartedly.