Wednesday, June 12. 2019

Today's schedule is BADC-L

B Block Human Geography -Today we'll continue our look at the Key Issue, "Why Do Cities Face Challenges"? Our focus will be on the division between the downtown CBD and the suburban residential neighbourhoods...using Vancouver as an example. We'll look at "filtering" (and SROs in Vancouver), public housing, gentrification and the Downtown Eastside (DTES). For help with your questions look at the following sites and videos:
The people of the Downtown Eastside
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside changing with development
City of Vancouver Downtown Eastside Plan
Welcome to Hell: A walk through the Downtown Eastside
Vice: Downtown Eastside




A Block Physical Geography - So today we'll look at natural climate forcing and anthropogenic climate change. From yesterday regarding natural climate forcing and climate feedbacks:

1. Milankovich Cycles (eccentricity, or orbit; obliquity, or tilt; and precession, or wobble)
2. the Thermohaline circulation system, and
3. Climate Feedbacks (including the PETM - Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum)

A rapidly rising population, the escalating level of industrialization and mechanization of our lives, and an increasing dependence on fossil fuels have driven the anthropogenic climate change of the past century. The biggest anthropogenic contributor to warming is the emission of CO2, which accounts for 50% of positive forcing. CH4 and its atmospheric derivatives (CO2, H2O, and O3) account for 29%, and the halocarbon gases (mostly leaked from air-conditioning appliances) and nitrous oxide (N2O) (from burning fossils fuels) account for 5% each.






D Block Law - After today there are 8 classes remaining in the semester, with just four more classes in the learning commons to complete your civil litigator project. You will have a final test on civil law (torts, negligence, and family law) tomorrow...hope you come prepared. I will bring previous examples of the project with me to the learning commons for you to peruse if you'd like.

C Block Criminology - Today we'll continue our look at the Russell Williams case from 2010. Yesterday in class we watched the CBC Fifth Estate documentary "Above Suspicion" and it reflected the Canadian coverage of the case. Today we'll look at the American coverage of the case, specifically the CBS 48 Hours Hard Evidence documentary: "Name, Rank, Serial Killer" and/or the NBC Dateline documentary "Conduct Unbecoming". We'll look at the "Cross Border Crime Stories" handout I gave you and after watching the episode perhaps you'll have a better grasp on the differences between our two legal cultures when it comes to crime coverage in the media. The biggest difference is the limitations on what can be reported about criminal prosecutions. Consider the differences in what was reported and how it was reported.


Remember Schadenfreude? Russell Williams was a heavy weight in the Canadian military. He was a powerful person who "fell from grace" which is part of what made his murders of Marie France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd a "newsworthy" crime story.

I have two questions for you to answer:

1. How did the Canadian and American coverage of the Russell Williams case differ? Use the NBC Dateline episode "Conduct Unbecoming" as well as the Fifth Estate episode "Above Suspicion" as your sources of information.
2. Do you think the news coverage of Col. Russell Williams' sentencing was too sensational? Do you think the court was right to release so much information and that the Canadian press were right to publish it all, or do you think that there is such a thing as too much information, and that there are some details we really don’t need to know? (Watch the following CBC story to help...