Thursday, April 25, 2024

Friday, April 26. 2024

Today's schedule is CDAB

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll look at the key question, "Why Is English Related to Other Languages"? English is part of the Indo-European language family. A language family is a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history. Indo-European is divided into eight branches. Four of the branches—Indo-Iranian, Romance, Germanic, and Balto-Slavic—are spoken by large numbers of people while the four less extensively used Indo-European language branches are Albanian, Armenian, Greek, and Celtic. English is part of the West Germanic group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.





And to help you with language diffusion for Indo-European languages (remember the question about the nomadic warrior and sedentary farmer hypotheses?)




You have two charts to fill in a three questions to work on for me today

D Block Physical Geography - Today we'll look at glaciers and we'll make sense of how they erode the landscape and examine the land forms they create. We'll understand the differences amongst the various alpine and continental glaciers and we'll define: cirque, arete, pyramidical peak, hanging valley, truncated spur, esker, drumlin, kettle lake, and fjord; along with some questions from your Geosystems Core text.


We'll watch the BBC Earth - Power of the Planet episode on Ice






A Block Criminology - Today I'm going to show you a television show called White Collar. Before we do, however  What is it that makes a successful business person and what kind of ethical behaviour is valued by corporate culture?




From USA network:

White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffery (Matt Boomer), a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay). When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He'll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can't be found on the right side of the law.

The episode I’d like you to show is called Hard Sell from season 1, which deals with stock manipulation and churning the value of stock in a boiler room (metaphor). From tv.com...

The scam is a "pump and dump", in which a group of "junior Gordon Gekkos" is selling bad stock. The guy in charge buys a large amount of dollar stocks, and has his men inflate the price by selling it over the phone. When the price peaks, guy in charge dumps the stock and leaves the buyers holding worthless shares. The average person loses $30,000, and some victims have lost their homes. The boiler room is mobile, moving to a new location after each stock dump 

 

What is the "Profit Motive"

B Block Legal Studies - Today we'll watch an episode of Law & Order from Season 23 "Human Innovations" A big tech CEO replaces hundreds of employees with an AI, then is murdered. After the chief suspect's confession is thrown out, Nolan and Maroun must decide whether to use a video which purports to show the murderer killing the victim—but which could have been a deepfake manufactured by that same AI. In some ways, the fearful future depicted in this episode is already here.

After, your questions from yesterday...

AAL p. 187
3. Why is it important for judges to be impartial?
4. Why is the role of a court recorder so important to the appeal process?

AAL p. 194
1. Describe the steps followed in jury selection.
2. Identify eight categories of people who are excluded from jury duty, and give one reason why you think each category is ineligible.
3. Explain the difference between a peremptory challenge and a challenge for cause.

Today's Fit...


 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 3:22 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Thursday, April 25. 2024

Today's schedule is DCBA

D Block Physical Geography - I believe the words were "Straight up work block"


Get after it! I'll come around and help where needed. Your questions are:
  • What is meant by an erosional coast? What are the expected features of such a coast? (p.302-3)
  • What is meant by a depositional coast? What are the expected features of such a coast? (p.304-5)
  • Describe barrier islands and their hazards as they relate to human settlement. (p.312-13)
  • Describe some of the problems caused by sea level rise in urban areas and wetlands (p.312-14)

C Block Human Geography - So, language. From Babbel magazine..."Why is Language Important?"
Language made the transmission of culture possible. As it stands today, it’s the basis of our entire worldview and way of life. Everything ranging from social norms to customs, shared histories, mythologies, religions and art forms are transmitted and mediated through language
Cultural identity is heavily tied up with language and language is ultimately important because it is the primary means through which humans have the ability to communicate and interact with one another. From the Assembly of First Nations "Languages and Culture"
Our languages allow us to share and communicate culture, world views, knowledge systems, values, traditions, customs, history, spirituality, and social and political identity to future generations. Our languages are living; they come from the land and they’re integral to our sense of self and a key aspect of self-determination.

From yesterday, you'll need to look at language families from pages 146-149 of the Cultural Landscape book in order to fill in a chart for me. To help you may also use the following online texts:


From the Guardian in 2015 A language family tree - in pictures



B Block Legal Studies - Today we'll look at the advantages of trial by jury and understand the methods and challenges to jury selection. For more on juries in BC check out:







After this we will write the answers to the following:

AAL p. 187
3. Why is it important for judges to be impartial?
4. Why is the role of a court recorder so important to the appeal process?

AAL p. 194
1. Describe the steps followed in jury selection.
2. Identify eight categories of people who are excluded from jury duty, and give one reason why you think each category is ineligible.
3. Explain the difference between a peremptory challenge and a challenge for cause.

A Block Criminology - You have four questions to answer for me:

1. What’s the psychology behind the con and what can we learn from it? (check out The 7 Psychological Principles of Scams: Protect Yourself by Learning the Techniques)
2. How does a con man identify a mark? (check out Maria Konnikova on How we Get Conned and her interview below) 
3. What are the nine phases of a long-con game? (check out The 9 Stages of the Big Con and the 4 Phases of Small Value Fraud)
4. What is the one fact that instantly makes you harder to con? (check out Protect yourself from scams and fraud) 


And John Oliver's take on Pig Butchering * and again, note potty mouth and adult themes so watch with care
Today's Fit...


 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 10:14 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Wednesday, April 24. 2024

Happy 90th Birthday to my Mom!

Today's schedule is BADC

B Block Legal Studies - Today we'll review the Provincial Superior court room, focusing on courtroom organization and then we'll discuss the roles and responsibilities of the judge, the crown prosecutor, defense counsel, the court clerk, court recorder, and sheriff. From the Canadian Department of Justice:

From yesterday, You'll need to work on questions 2 & 4 from page 200; questions 1 & 2 from page 207; and questions 2, 3, & 4 from page 211 of the All About Law textbook.

A Block Criminology - Remember, not all business is bad but we do need to understand the "corporate view" of white collar criminal activity. What is it that makes a successful business person and what kind of ethical behaviour is valued by corporate culture? To that end, 

"What is "Churning"?
What is "Short and Distort"?
What is "Market Manipulation"?

And a Canadian case study...Bre-X Minerals Ltd. was a Canadian gold mining company that infamously defrauded investors by falsifying gold samples and misstating its available gold reserves. Read more about the story at Investopedia or at Business Insider or from the Calgary Herald. The story was actually turned into the 2016 movie Gold

And...

So, some people use Enterprise / Business to con people, or the company, out of cash. You'll have four questions to answer for me:

1. What’s the psychology behind the con and what can we learn from it? (check out The 7 Psychological Principles of Scams: Protect Yourself by Learning the Techniques)
2. How does a con man identify a mark? (check out Maria Konnikova on How we Get Conned and her interview below) 
3. What are the nine phases of a long-con game? (check out The 9 Stages of the Big Con and the 4 Phases of Small Value Fraud)
4. What is the one fact that instantly makes you harder to con? (check out Protect yourself from scams and fraud) 


D Block Physical Geography - Today we'll focus on coastal processes and land forms. We will look at how water erodes, shapes, and creates coastal landscapes by focusing on long shore current & drift.

We'll analyze the differences between an erosional coastline

and a depositional coastline


We'll try to make sense of the hazards of living along depositional coastlines (think Cape Hatteras, North Carolina). Some facts:
  1. More than 155 million people (53 percent of the population) reside in U.S. coastal counties comprising less than 11 percent of the land area of the lower 48 states.
  2. Roughly 1,500 homes are lost to erosion each year.
  3. Nearly 180 million people visit the U.S. coast every year, and coastal states account for 85 percent of U.S. tourism revenues. The tourism industry is the nation’s largest employer and second largest contributor to gross domestic product.
  4. 71 percent of annual U.S. disaster losses are the result of coastal storms.
  5. Close to 350,000 homes and buildings are located within 150 meters of the ocean. Within 60 years, one out of every four of those structures will be destroyed.
For additional information and help on your questions go to:

University of Regina Geomorphology Class notes
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Geomorphology from space site
USGS Coastal & Marine Geology program
NOAA: What Threats do Coastal Communities Face?
AGI Interactive Map of Coastal Hazards

There's a great article on the dangers of people moving to coastlines at National Geographic 

There's a great web page on the Graveyard of the Atlantic: Sable Island Nova Scotia. Check out more on Sable Island here 

You can also find some very good before-after photos of the destruction caused to coastal land forms and human infrastructure by Hurricane Sandy at ABC News. 

Also FYI...how does an electricity generation plant utilize the tides to produce electricity? Are there any sites in North America? Where are they?" check out the following...




C Block Human Geography - Today we look at the Key Question: Where Are Languages Distributed? Ethnologue estimates that the world has an estimated 7,102 languages...11 of which are spoken by at least 100 million people each (including English with the others being German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Japanese, Lahnda, and Mandarin).

In Canada more than 200 languages were reported in the 2021 Canadian Census of Population as a home language or mother tongue (a mother tongue is the language first learned at home in childhood and still understood). Quite obviously as a mother tongue, English (20,107,200 speakers) and French (7,189,245 speakers) are the most widely spoken languages however Mandarin (679,255), Punjabi (666,585), Yue/Cantonese (553,380), Spanish (538,870), Arabic (508,410), and Tagalog/Filipino (461,150) are also widely spoken. 

More than 70 distinct Indigenous languages are currently spoken by First Nations people, Métis and Inuit in Canada and all Indigenous languages spoken in Canada are considered at risk, being classified as either vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered or critically endangered. According to the 2021 Census, 148,895 people reported an Aboriginal mother tongue and just 85,835 people reported speaking an Aboriginal language most often or regularly at home (Language families include but are not limited to Algonquian, Inuit, Athapaskan, Salish, Tsimshian, Wakashan, Kutenai, Haida and Michif). 

There were 180,085 First Nations people in British Columbia in 2021, of whom 14,595 could speak an Indigenous language well enough to conduct a conversation, down 7.1% from 2016. Over half (58.1%) of the First Nations people who speak an Indigenous language in British Columbia learned it as a second language later in life, up from 52.1% in 2016. 

And for the 28,420 people who live in the City of Courtenay


You'll need to look at language families from pages 146-149 of the Cultural Landscape book in order to fill in a chart for me.






Today's Fit...


 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 8:50 PM 0 comments

Monday, April 22, 2024

Tuesday, April 23. 2024

Today's schedule is CDAB

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll try to answer the key question, "Why Do Folk and Popular Culture Face Sustainability Challenges, today focusing on environmental sustainability. For the question, "How is the playing of golf and golf courses an example of a popular custom which is not generally in harmony with the local environment?" 

The Coachella Valley (Palm Springs) is home to more than 120 golf courses in the Mojave Desert...

There are over 400 golf courses in Arizona, with most being in either Scottsdale or Phoenix, along with Tucson in the Sonoran Desert...

There are over 80 golf courses in Clark County (mostly Las Vegas) in the Mojave Desert...

You may disagree if you like, however it is important to note that Golf courses account for more than 5.1 million acres of land worldwide and use 13 trillion gallons of water every year (not to mention pesticides and herbicides) 

Check out:




some videos to help are:

Golf’s Colorful Language Goes With Any Green

After we'll look at the creation of uniform (homogenized) landscapes, landscape pollution and resource depletion. We end with a big thinking question:

Placelessness and uniform landscapes …… With the spread of pop culture throughout Canada (specifically restaurants, gas stations, coffee shops, national chains), are cities throughout our country losing their local diversity?  Are we becoming a nation that looks the same no matter what city you are in?  Explain.

Consider the article Graveyards of distinctiveness: how cities are making us all the same and then this quote to help:
Stroll into your local Starbucks and you will find yourself part of a cultural experiment on a scale never seen before on this planet. In less than half a century, the coffee chain has grown from a single outlet in Seattle to nearly 20,000 shops in around 60 countries. Each year, its near identical stores serve cups of near identical coffee in near identical cups to hundreds of thousands of people. For the first time in history, your morning cappuccino is the same no matter whether you are sipping it in Tokyo, New York, Bangkok or Buenos Aires.
This is one example of many chains that populate many cities all across Canada...all where you can get the same product in a store that looks the same in a place that looks the same....same same same. To help your question on placelessness with check out Places: Relationships and connections and





George Ritzer in "The McDonalization of Society" argued that homogeneity, predictability, efficiency and calculability are the core elements of the McDonaldization processes (the convergence of global culture - homogeneity). These elements endow McDonald's with a reliability and familiarity that both enforces the iconic status of the brand and appeals to customers throughout the world. It is these qualities that have contributed to the firm's success as a global force in addition to its association with Western or American culture. According to Ritzer, the homogenizing tendencies of globalization eliminate cultural distinctiveness, which he describes as a loss of meaningfulness or “nothing.” This would be an example of placelessness or homogenized cultural landscapes.

Drew, C. (August 15, 2023). 10 Examples of McDonaldization of Society. Helpful Professor.

There were 165 Starbucks stores in 1992, and 3,501 in 2000, and as of the most recent count, there were 31,795 around the world, if you include the ones in grocery stores and airports. You can get Starbucks in the air. You can get Starbucks at sea. It is not only transnational but trans-elemental.

It's ubiquitous, it's everywhere. So, What does Starbucks Mean Anymore?

So, if you're up for it....here's Chapter 10 of his book, "The Starbuckization of Society?"


D Block Physical Geography - So we'll look at video from the last few days of posts (yesterday and last Friday), we'll continue our look at the Mississippi delta and floodplain and check out some other deltas. Lastly you have a few questions to finish before we dive into coastlines tomorrow:
  • Describe the main features of a floodplain, and explain the role played by natural levees, oxbow lakes, and riparian marshes. (p.282-3)
  • Explain why the country of Bangladesh is so susceptible to devastating flood. What factors upstream in the Ganges basin explain its form and pattern? Assess the consequences of settlement on this delta. (p.284-5)





A Block Criminology - Today we'll start our look at white collar crime. We will begin by learning how to identify a pyramid / ponzi scam (for more take a look at How Stuff Works).  I'll introduce to Edwin H. Sutherland's Differential Association Theory (he introduced the concept "white collar crime"). We'll look at individual exploitation of an institutional position, influence peddling & bribery, theft and employee fraud, client fraud and corporate crime. A great example of embezzlement and swindling was presented by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight...
 *Warning potty mouthed adult humour so please watch with care*


Another really good example of a text message scam can be found in a CBC news story...where bad cheques are forged and passed on to unsuspecting victims. Perhaps you have received an unsolicited email with the promise of some amazing money windfall for you and the person who has emailed you? These advanced fee "419" scams are called so because the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that makes it illegal to obtain money under false pretences is section 419. Millions of North Americans and Europeans are being targeted by scammers from Nigeria with very few being arrested or suffering any consequences.

419 is a modern day version of the 1500's Spanish Prisoner con when after the English defeated the Spanish armada in 1588-89, there were still a lot of English sailors who didn’t make it home. Letters began arriving to wealthy English families using the same idea, "if you can give me a small amount of money, then I can free this English prisoner.” In the same way then as today, the con man keeps squeezing more money and eventually begins threatening the victim. Canadian author Will Ferguson received the Giller Prize in 2012 for his book 419 - the tale of an email scam and a woman who sets out on a wide-ranging search for those she believes responsible for her father's death.

We'll also see what we can find on the Internet about white collar crime....spoil alert LOTS!

B Block Legal Studies - We'll continue with our trial procedure work today. There are basically seven steps in every criminal trial:

1. The case is called.
2. The trial begins.
3. The judge makes the “exclusion of witness order” if asked by either the Crown or Defense.
4. The Crown prosecutor presents the Crown’s case. Defense may cross-examine (question) each witness called by the prosecutor.
5. Defense presents their case by calling witnesses and possibly the defendant speaking themselves.  The prosecutor can cross-examine Defense witnesses.
6. Both Defense and the prosecutor make closing submissions to the judge.
7. The judge makes a decision.

Witnesses must answer all questions put to them unless it is considered privileged. Privileged information includes:

i) discussions between a client and his or her lawyer in situations when the lawyer was acting in a professional capacity,
ii) any information tending to reveal the identity of a confidential police informant, unless disclosure is the only way to establish the innocence of the accused, and
iii) communication between spouses.

A witness is required either to swear an oath or to solemnly affirm that he or she will tell the truth. Section 16(3) of the Canada Evidence Act permits a witness who is able to communicate the evidence, but does not understand the nature of an oath or a solemn affirmation due to age (under 14 years) or insufficient mental capacity, to testify – as long as he or she promises to tell the truth.

The judge decides whether to admit or exclude evidence, as governed by the laws of evidence, case law, the Charter, the BC Evidence Act, the Canada Evidence Act, and the statute creating the offence. Evidence must be relevant to the facts in issue. The facts in issue are those that go to establishing the essential elements of the offence and any legal defence to that offence. Evidence may be presented with respect to other issues as well, such as the credibility of a witness, provided that the evidence does not offend the collateral evidence rule. 


You'll need to work on questions 2 & 4 from page 200; questions 1 & 2 from page 207; and questions 2, 3, & 4 from page 211 of the All About Law textbook.

Today's Fit...



 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 9:04 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Monday, April 22. 2024

Although EVERY day is Earth Day...Nonetheless Happy Earth Day!


Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Criminology - Today we are off to the learning commons / library for our next blog assignment for the term and I'd like you to answer the following:

What characteristics must a good burglar have? What theory of criminal behaviour best predicts the development of a good burglar? If a good burglar is a professional thief then is their career path similar to other professionals like lawyers or doctors? What can you do to reduce the chances of being victimized by a good burglar?

Look at Neil Shover's explanation on page 234-237 in the CRIM textbook.... Neal Shover studied the careers of professional burglars and uncovered the existence of a particularly successful type--the good burglar. Shover also discovered that a person becomes a good burglar through learning the techniques of the trade from older, more experienced burglars. 

B Block Legal Studies - Today grade 12 students are required to complete the Ministry of Educations Student Learning Survey in the library. After attendance, you'll head to the library to complete this. After, we'll focus on How a Criminal Trial works, including the presentation of evidence (Crown first then Defence), the rules of evidence (including voire dire -  A Voir Dire is usually referred to a "trial within a trial". It is usually held during the Crown's case in order to determine the admissibility of evidence. For example, Voir Dires can be held to determine whether a confession is voluntary and admissible or whether it should be excluded under section 24(2) of the Charter. If the evidence heard in the Voir Dire is deemed to be admissible, counsel can agree not to repeat the evidence and the Voir Dire will form part of the evidence at trial. Two very common Voir Dires are a challenge to the admissibility of items seized in a search and a challenge to the admissibility accused confession to the police), and types of evidence (circumstantial, hearsay, privileged, and character).

Before a trial takes place, at the arraignment hearing, some of the things that will be discussed are:
  • whether the prosecutor is proceeding summarily or by indictment;
  • whether the prosecutor has made full disclosure (given all of the information the defense needs, like witnesses’ statements);
  • the number of police, expert, and other witnesses that the prosecutor plans to call if the case goes to trial;
  • the time estimate for the prosecutor’s case; and
  • whether an interpreter is needed.
The arraignment hearing will likely be handled by a judicial case manager. At the hearing, the judicial case manager will ask how the defendant wants to plead. At this point, the defendant has three options:
  • plead guilty (before a judge),
  •  plead not guilty and set a date for trial, or
  • ask for an adjournment

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll try to answer the key question, "Why Do Folk and Popular Culture Face Sustainability Challenges?" The international diffusion of popular culture has led to two issues, both of which can be understood from geographic perspectives.
  • First, the diffusion of popular culture may threaten the survival of traditional folk culture in many countries. 
  • Second, popular culture may be less responsive to the diversity of local environments and consequently may generate adverse environmental impacts.
So we'll examine these two things today. We'll start with the potential loss of folk culture through assimilation which is a process of giving up cultural traditions and adopting social customs of the dominant culture of a place, acculturation which is a process of adjustment to the dominant culture of a place all while retaining features of a folk culture, and syncretism which is the creation of a new cultural feature through combining elements of two groups. See this site here. To help think of:




Or the story of Chanie Wenjack set to the music of Gord Downie (the Tragically Hip singer who died of brain cancer in 2017).

D Block Physical Geography - Today we look at stream profiles, deltas, and floodplains. We are focusing on the erosive action of rivers along with the land forms that they create. You will need to copy a meandering stream profile and a diagram on oxbow lake formation. We'll start by looking at flooding along the Mississippi. Stretching across more than 1.245-million square miles (40% of the Continental USA), 31 states, and two Canadian provinces, The Mississippi is the fourth largest river in the world. In 2019, spring floods broke records in many parts of the Mississippi River basin. River levels peaked at record highs in 75 locations in the Missouri River basin alone, and constant high water weakened levees until they collapsed. The United States federal government estimated the floods along the Mississippi caused $20 billion in damages. At least 14 people died.

Today's Fit...


 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 7:43 PM 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)