C Block Human Geography 11 - Today we'll look at the key question, "Why Is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal?" We will really focus on the diffusion of popular culture and look at the mass media of television. The world’s most popular and important electronic media format is television (TV). While the Internet has grown in popularity and importance in recent years, TV remains the foremost electronic media format. Television is a mirror of our world, offering an often-distorted vision of national identity, as well as shaping our perceptions of various groups of people.
In March 2011, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the argument that U.S. television was giving people around the world a distorted view of Americans. "I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling," (a side note, at its peak, Baywatch was broadcast in 142 countries and around the world more than 1 billion people have watched the show).
So you'll have some questions about television to work on today (tomorrow it's the Internet and Social Media) including "Why do developing nations view television as a new source of cultural imperialism?"
How to stop foreign TV eroding local culture
What is reality TV's influence on culture?
How have 24-hour sports stations changed society?
D Block Criminology 12 - Okay, so we know where violence comes from. We know what homicide is, the divisions of murder and why people do it. We understand what sexual assault is, the typology of assault and the motives for doing it. Today I'll finish up the violence section with you by looking at abuse, domestic assault and terrorism. For terrorism consider the following:
By design, terrorist attacks are intended to have a psychological impact far outweighing the physical damage the attack causes. As their name suggests, they are meant to cause terror that amplifies the actual attack. A target population responding to a terrorist attack with panic and hysteria allows the perpetrators to obtain a maximum return on their physical effort. One way to mitigate the psychological impact of terrorism is to remove the mystique and hype associated with it. The first step in this demystification is recognizing that terrorism is a tactic used by a variety of actors and that it will not go away. Terrorism and, more broadly, violence are and will remain part of the human condition. The Chinese, for example, did not build the Great Wall to attract tourists, but to keep out marauding hordes. Fortunately, today's terrorists are far less dangerous to society than the Mongols were to Ming China.
For more on this read Keeping Terrorism in Perspective at Stratfor
For information on terrorism check out:
Terrorism Watch and Warning
DHS Preventing Terrorism
Global Terrorism Database
FBI Terrorism
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada Terrorism
National Counterterrorism Center
I'll have you work on the following questions:
- Despite cultural awareness and various initiatives in schools and in the media, hate crimes continue to happen in significant numbers in Canada. Discuss the types of hate crimes most prevalent in Canada and the current responses to them.
- Governments have tried numerous responses to terrorism. Discuss some of these responses.
- It is unlikely that the threat of punishment can deter robbery; most robbers refuse to think about apprehension and punishment. Wright and Decker suggest that eliminating cash and relying on debit and credit cards may be the most productive method to reduce the incidence of robbery. Although this seems far-fetched, society is becoming progressively more cashless; it is now possible to buy both gas and groceries with credit cards. Would a cashless society end the threat of robbery, or would innovative robbers find new targets?
- Based on what you know about how robbers target victims, how can you better protect yourself from robbery?
B Block Physical 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 yesterday). 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:
- Tectonic Earthquakes
- Harmonic Tremors
- Vertical Eruptive Cloud
- Spreading of the Eruptive Cloud and Ash Fall
- Lava Flow
- Relative Calm
- Lahars
- Pyroclastic Cloud
- End of Eruptive activity - relative calm
- USGS Vulcanologist Harry Dalton hooks up with Mayor Rachel Wando and presumably live happily ever after
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.
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