Tuesday, June 18. 2024

Today's schedule is CDAB

C Block Human Geography - We're off to the Learning Commons so you may work on your your term/semester long Urbanization SimCity Buildit  project. Remember, for this project, I needed you to build a city and as you played, keep a track of what you did, why you did it and what the results were. You will need to make a presentation (either video, podcast, prezi, webpage or a straight up written report) with photos and a written a narrative (minimum 500 words) describing your city’s key features and design attributes. 

The purpose of the City Narrative is to give me a quick overview of the future city’s infrastructure and its public services. Think of the City Narrative as a marketing piece that answers:

• What basic information should people know about your city (such as the name, population, age, and location)?
• What unique features does your city offer that make it unique?
• Why would someone want to live in your city? Are there any special benefits to living in your city?
• How did you lay out your city? Why did you do it in that manner?
• What kinds of industrial, commercial, and residential areas did you build? How did you decide where build them?
• What services (police, fire, medical, education) does your city provide? Where did you place them and why so?
• What is important to know about your city’s physical components (landmarks, parks, and recreation areas) and infrastructure (transportation, energy, waste disposal, pollution control)?
• How do you provide power to all areas of your city? Do you have renewable energy sources?
• How does your city dispose of waste and recycle?
• How do you manage pollution (water and air) in your city?
• What types of transportation are available to move citizens and goods throughout your city?

AND most importantly a summation 

• What did you learn about urban planning and city design (leadership, resource allocation, population satisfaction, trade, taxation and alternative sources of funding, city planning, services, and perception of politicians)?

If you choose to make a video, you can use these online video uploading sites 

Flixier
Movie Maker

InVideo

WeVideo - and from them Chroma Key: A Brief Guide to Achieving Movie Magic

CapCut Video Editor (and CapCut for Android)

If you choose to make a website then try:

Canva (you all have access to this through your Comox Valley School District email)

Wix

Office 365 Sway (through your Comox Valley School District Poral)

I will be grading you using the following core competencies and skills:

• Discuss what goes into planning and maintaining a city using geographic inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze data and ideas; and communicate findings and decisions 
• Draw conclusions about the variation and distribution of geographic phenomena over time and space through identifying basic city services and features (such as emergency services, transportation, and education), along with areas of zoning and the services that comprise city infrastructure (commercial, residential, and industrial)
• Evaluate how particular geographic actions or events influence human practices or outcomes through describing the consequences of decisions regarding various city functions (taxes, budget, services, etc.)
• Assess the significance of places by identifying the physical and/or human features that characterize them through explaining the importance of city location, placement of city features, and proportions in zoning
• Identify and assess how human and environmental factors and events influence each other in order to identify and build features that best represent successful city design.

Use the following to help with your report:

• Why Do Services Cluster in Settlements?

We generally find that most services are clustered in settlements. Rural settlements are centers for agriculture and provide a small number of services; urban settlements are centers for consumer and business services. One-half of the people in the world currently live in a rural settlement, and the other half in an urban settlement. A clustered rural settlement is an agricultural-based community in which several families live near each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings. A dispersed rural settlement is characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other farmers in settlements. In developing countries, migration from the countryside is fueling half of the increase in population in urban settlements, even though job opportunities may be scarce. Like I mentioned above Services cluster in developed countries because more people who can buy services live there and within developed countries, larger cities offer a larger scale of services than do small towns because more customers live there. 

• Where Are Services Distributed? 

A service is any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it.  Services cluster in developed countries because more people who can buy services live there and within developed countries, larger cities offer a larger scale of services than do small towns because more customers live there. The service sector of the economy is subdivided into three types: consumer services (retail and wholesale services, leisure and hospitality services, health and social services, and education), business services (transportation and information services, professional services, and financial services), and public services (provide security and protection for citizens and businesses). 

• Where Are Consumer Services Distributed?

Generally speaking, we spend as little time and effort as possible obtaining consumer services and therefore go to the nearest place that fulfills our needs. We travel greater distances only if the price is much lower or if the item is unavailable locally. A central place is a market center for the exchange of goods and services by people attracted from the surrounding area. The central place is so called because it is centrally located to maximize accessibility. Businesses in central places compete against each other to serve as markets for goods and services for the surrounding region. The area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted is the market area or hinterland. The Range of a Service is the maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service. People are willing to go only a short distance for everyday consumer services, such as groceries and pharmacies. But they will travel longer distances for other services such as a concert or professional ball game. As a rule, people tend to go to the nearest available service. Larger settlements provide consumer services that have larger thresholds, ranges, and market areas. The gravity model predicts that the optimal location of a service is directly related to the number of people in an area and inversely related to the distance people must travel to access it. The best location will be the one that minimizes the distances that all potential customers must travel to reach the service. To that end look at Central Place Theory, the Application of Central Place Theory, market areas, market area analysis, range of service, threshold of service and the gravity model (of services). Look at the rank-size rule and the primate city rule (in terms of services). 

From the Geographic Book website linked above...

Application of Central Place Theory:

Planning and Zoning - Central Place Theory has been used to determine the appropriate distribution of land uses within a region. By understanding the hierarchy of settlements and the range of goods and services provided by each settlement, planners can ensure that essential goods and services are accessible to all residents.

Transportation Planning - Transportation planning is another area where Central Place Theory has been applied. By understanding the range of goods and services provided by each settlement, transportation planners can design transportation networks that ensure that all residents have access to essential goods and services.

Retail Location - Central Place Theory has been used extensively in the retail industry. By understanding the range of goods and services provided by each settlement, retailers can determine the best location for their stores to maximize their customer base.

Land Use Planning - Central Place Theory has also been used in land use planning. By understanding the hierarchy of settlements and the range of goods and services provided by each settlement, planners can determine the appropriate mix of land uses within a region to ensure that all residents have access to essential goods and services.

• Where Are Business Services Distributed?

Global cities are most closely integrated into the global economic system because they are at the center of the flow of information and capital. Business services (including financial institutions, headquarters of large corporations, and lawyers, accountants, and other professional services) concentrate in disproportionately large numbers in global cities. The economic activities in a settlement can be divided into two types: basic and non-basic businesses. A settlement’s distinctive economic structure derives from its basic industries, which export primarily to consumers outside the settlement. Non-basic industries are enterprises whose customers live in the same community. In a postindustrial society, such as the United States or Canada, increasingly the basic economic activities are in business, consumer, or public services (while Vancouver’s basic sector in transshipment also has a cluster of business sectors that complement one another). Attracting talented individuals is important for a city because these individuals are responsible for promoting economic innovation. They are likely to start new businesses and infuse the local economy with fresh ideas.

More tomorrow.

D Block Physical Geography - Today you have your quiz on Weather, Climate, and Climate Change. It's just 25 multiple selection questions and you may use your note packages to help. In the time remaining, you should finish your Climate and Climate Change work package. Tomorrow we begin our final exam in the library.

A Block Criminology - Cindy, Casey, and Caylee Anthony...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, Schadenfreude, and the way fictional crime media represented the story (Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit). 

Remember this crime is relevant in that it represents a massive shift in what crimes are reported, spectacle culture and what is considered "newsworthy", how crime reporting changed with different media platforms, the polarization of society connected to injustice and outrage. Nancy Grace helped to shape a decade’s worth of suspected murderers and rapists in the public imagination, stressing their cruelty and alien coldness, tapping into a cultural enthusiasm for righteous witch hunts and armchair convictions (Lots more on this tomorrow and then next week with the documentary "15 Minutes of Shame")

This series provides an interesting eye on the topic of the media, true crime, and infamy (episode 2 is titled "Media Frenzy" look at the PEW Research Center article Casey Anthony Verdict Top Story for Public and Social Networkers)

Today we'll finish part 2 and conclude with part 3 of the retrospective 2017 Investigation Discovery documentary Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery

And after watching some media coverage of the media coverage tomorrow (*cough cough Nancy Grace)...you'll 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 and Cancel Culture apply to the Casey Anthony trial? Did the media shame, call out, or try to cancel Casey Anthony? 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 and from either Monica Lewinsky's story or those in the 15 Minutes of Shame video (Matt Colvin, Emmanuel Cafferty, or Laura Krolczyk) 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?

Remember, you'll get links to help on both Thursday and Friday and we'll watch "15 Minutes of Shame" to help.

Moms Love True Crime, But... Why?

Entertainment and Voyeurism: Our Obsession with True Crime, and the Lines We're Eager to Blur

And from Vice

While it may seem that cancel culture and call out culture align with the same purpose, both concepts differ in resolution. Call out culture has more of a direct focus on education and progress, provided the person being ‘called out’ has the desire to grow and learn from their wrongdoings or mistakes. Anyone can be called out, and by doing so, anyone can learn to educate themselves and/or change their perspective for the better. Cancel culture aims to rid the person on the receiving end of any kind of redemption. So while the two are similar, keep in mind that they both come to different conclusions. And if you’re going to cancel or call someone out, remember what you want from it.

And from Vox

All along, debate about cancel culture has obscured its roots in a quest to attain some form of meaningful accountability for public figures who are typically answerable to no one. But after centuries of ideological debate turning over questions of free speech, censorship, and, in recent decades, “political correctness,” it was perhaps inevitable that the mainstreaming of cancel culture would obscure the original concerns that canceling was meant to address. Now it’s yet another hyperbolic phase of the larger culture war. The core concern of cancel culture — accountability — remains as crucial a topic as ever. But increasingly, the cancel culture debate has become about how we communicate within a binary, right versus wrong framework. And a central question is not whether we can hold one another accountable, but how we can ever forgive.

Casey Anthony makes bombshell claims about daughter’s death in first ever on-camera interview

Nancy Grace Slams Peacock Casey Anthony Series

B Block Legal Studies - Today we continue our look at family law as a subject. Our focus will be on the types of child guardianship, access, and child support and we'll look at the Federal Child Support Guidelines (schedules/tables) and BC's Family Maintenance Enforcement Act. 

In BC the Family Law Act deals with guardianship, access and support and its guiding principle is: 

“What is in the best interest of the child?” 

• Needs (emotional, physical, mental) 
• Stable home 
• Keeping siblings together
• Maintaining parent-child relations
• Religious issues
• Parenting ability / conduct
• Extended family
• The wishes of the child (depending on age – must be over 12 but at 16 you can make the decision on your own) 

Guardianship is the term we use rather than custody and a judge’s decision is NEVER final – guardianship is fluid – a custody order can be changed at any time. There are two types of guardianship:  

1. Sole – one parent maintains all responsibilities for the child(ren). 
2. Joint – also known as shared parenting where both parents share the responsibilities for the child(ren) 

 Access refers to the visiting rights of parents with their child(ren): reasonable (flexible); defined (set in stone); supervised. 

The guiding principle of Canada’s child support law is that children should continue to benefit from the financial means of both parents just as they would if the parents were still together. Therefore, if you are divorced or separated from the other parent, you are both responsible for supporting your children financially. The Federal Child Support Guidelines (Federal Guidelines) are regulations made under the Divorce Act. They set out some rules and tables to show how much child support parents should pay when they divorce. The child support amounts in the tables reflect what parents living in the same province, with the same incomes and the same number of children would spend on their children. 

So, Parents have a duty under the law to support their children, even if one parent doesn't see or take care of the children. The money one parent pays to the other parent to help provide for the daily needs of the children is called child support or maintenance. The parent who the child lives with most of the time is entitled to child support from the other parent. If a child spends equal (or almost equal) time with both parents, the parent with the higher income will usually have to pay child support.  

When a child lives with a payor 40 percent of the time or more, that parent can argue that they don't have to pay as much support as the guidelines say. The judge or master may agree and order lower support amounts. This includes the time that you're responsible for the children, even if they're not physically with you. For example, if one parent has the children during the school week, the children are considered to be under that parent's care and control even when they're physically at school. 

Child support orders made in British Columbia are based on the Federal Child Support Guidelines. These guidelines contain clear rules that courts use to set child support as well as tables that list the amount of child support the payor has to pay. Support is based on both spouses Gross Income (total before deductions and taxes) also on how many children there are from the marriage, these amounts are based on how much they earn and how many children the payor must support. It is a monthly stipend that is paid by one parent to another up to the age of 19.

After, you should continue your work on the major civil law project that is due this Friday. Tomorrow we'll look at the division of assets and liabilities for Family Law 

Today's Fit...