Poptarts

So I went to Waikerie's new lolly shop called Steve's Sweets the other week to get myself some sour lollies. I found them... eventually. I love eating Warheads, they are sour to begin with, maybe for about 30 seconds and then they are really sweet. If you haven't heard of them they are fairly small and have fruity flavours like apple, lemon, blue raspberry etc.

Well anyway so after I found the Warheards, I saw a Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar that I just HAD to have! I'm a little bit of a chocoholic. I love just about everything apart from dark chocolate, despite the fact that I did eat a dark Lindt chocolate last night but that's about the only exception!

Then... what did my eyes spot?! An amazing thing called a Poptart! Please correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they originated from America right? I have never tried poptarts before so I found it very intriguing.

It said on the packet instructions to microwave it for 3 secs on high. My microwave doesnt have a high, medium, or low setting so I guessed and went for 30 secs. I think 20 secs is better and that's what I did for my second one. It doesn't make the inside as hot. (I burnt my tongue on the first one :S)

Yes that is white and milk chocolatey type goodness oozing out of the poptart! XD

(3rd pic)

I think I shall be needing to buy more of these in the future!

Assignment 3

Defamation

Defamation: a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions.
Defamation- aspersion: an abusive attack on a person's character or good name.
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=defamation

Part 1
The blogosphere is full of defamatory and offensive statements. See if you can find something that you feel goes somewhere near defamation, or would be sufficiently inflammatory to annoy a company or individual or class of people into a lawsuit.

Identify the text which you believe is defamatory, inflammatory or offensive enough to give rise to a lawsuit. Explain your reasons for choosing it.


Potential Defamation Case
http://www.cyberbullying.info/examples/msg.php?eg=frawley

Greg Frawley left Hurlstone Agriculture High School after unidentified students set up a website to accuse him and another teacher of being child molesters who should be killed.

The highlighted orange words above show reason enough to encourage the two falsely accused teachers to be annoyed enough to give rise to a lawsuit. I chose this passage because it is an interesting example of cyber-bullying. More often than not, cyber-bullying is directed towards teenagers or younger children that are in the same school classes as the cyber bullies. In this case the abuse is directed at two high school teachers. It would take a very strong willed or several strong willed students to want to do something like this, and were taking a big risk by creating the website. Had the students been found out by the two teachers mentioned on the website, they may have been charged. Below is a more in depth article about the case.

The full story is featured here on the Sydney Morning Herald website:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/11/14/1100384429648.html?from=storylhs

This is a shorter version of the story...

Teachers subject to internet hate campaigns seek support
By Linda Doherty, Education Editor
Nov 15, 2004

A teacher vilified on a student-run website at a Sydney selective school has set up a support group for victims of web abuse by "flamers" who use the internet to publish malicious allegations.

Greg Frawley left Hurlstone Agricultural High School in the city's south-west after unidentified students set up a website "throwstones", to accuse him and another male teacher of being child molesters who should be killed.

The Hurlstone website, discovered in late July, recommended that the two teachers be "executed", accused some (other teachers) of paedophilia and one (teacher) of stealing. But in a letter to the director-general of the Department of Education, Mr. Frawley said the school did not initially lodge a critical incident report to the department to notify it that teachers could be at risk.

"Can you imagine how you would feel if a story posted on the internet stated that you were a child molester and that this message was rapidly communicated to students you taught?" Mr. Frawley wrote.

"You become an alien in your own world, stained with the worst social stigma of all... You start thinking that being dead is an option."

An education department spokesman said schools had sophisticated technology to monitor inappropriate internet use. But those behind the Hurlstone website have not been caught, and police say no charges will be laid.


Part 2

With your example for Part 1 in mind, imagine yourself as the offender, and then as the offended. Answer the following three questions from both points of view.

1. Why do people write these things?
2.What is their motivation?
3. Why would the offended people want to take action?

The Offender's Point of View

1.Why do people write these things?
They may not like the person or people for a particular reason. This case is about 2 teachers so maybe the offenders caused a lot of trouble with the teachers or didn't like their teaching methods. They may also be selfish kids who have not been disciplined enough to know the difference between what is right and wrong. They also may not feel compassion towards their victims and may even enjoy taunting them.

2.What is their motivation?
Boredom, expressing their opinions because they feel mistreated, or as I said they may enjoy causing trouble. They may also have no idea how to treat people due to their backgrounds or maybe that is the way their parents treated them when they were younger so they think this behaviour is normal.

3. Why would the offended people want to take action?
In the offenders point of view the offended people may want to take action to take revenge on them or to catch them in the act. They are probably only thinking about themselves and thinking along the lines of, "They want to get me into trouble". But they wouldn't get into trouble in the first place had they not caused any. The offenders may not realise how hurtful the statements they made are to the offended person's physical and psychological wellbeing.

The Offended Person's Point of View

1. Why do people write these things?
To damage the offended person's reputation and cause them pain. In this case I think this is what the offender's main aim was, as they had 4 websites made to defame teachers, not just one (website). If they had wanted to just complain about their teaching methods they could have either complained to the teacher themselves or talked to the principal, or if it was really bad the Minister of Education.

2.What is their motivation?
Again I think it was to cause trouble and from the articles I found it sounds like that's what the offended teachers thought too.

3.Why would the offended people want to take action?

In August 2004, one of the teachers, (Mr. Frawley) was talking to lawyers.

He wanted the Education Department to..." pursue defamation proceedings against the unknown students- and criminal prosecution for the death threats- to set a precedent to stop other technologically savvy students from copycat actions." He also contacted Yahoo Australia and begged them to shut down the student website involved in this case saying, "For every minute it (the website) continued operating the impact of defamation is growing out of control."

This teacher wanted to stop other people from committing defamation so that more people do not suffer from damaging accusations like this. His confidence was shattered from the comments on the website and it is unfortunate that the culprits were not found. They should have been taught a lesson so that they wouldn't be encouraged to start another website like this again. They might have by now.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/25/1093246584317.html

The lengths robbers will go to!

Found this on the ninemsn site... thought it was pretty funny this morning!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8107129/us-burglar-goes-overboard-with-disguise

US Burglar goes overboard with disguise

A US man has been caught trying to break into a museum dressed in a moss-like body suit often used by hunters and military snipers.

Disguised in a Ghillie suit, Greg Liascos was discovered when a police dog sniffed him out in nearby woods, The Daily Mail reported.

"His yelp gave him away," the policeman said, after initially thinking the dog was biting at the ground.

Security and surveillance was set up at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Oregon after the caretaker noticed unusual dirt and debris gathering over a number of days.

The caretaker followed the trail to a lift shaft behind the wall of the museum toilets, where he found a large hole in the plywood wall.

He told police about the unusual find and one day later museum security guards reported a break-in which led to the man-hunt.

Police dogs tracked Liascos, 36, to a wooded enclave where he was found looking very much like part of the forest floor.

Liascos was arrested on charges on burglary and criminal mischief.

A picture of Greg Liascos, inside his disguise, and out.

Animal Cruelty Article

Animal lovers suggest harsher penalties for animal cruelty offenders


Several local pet owners/animal lovers agreed recently that harsher penalties for animal cruelty offenders would be a good idea to seriously consider. Ramco resident Margaret Russell suggested that the offenders should do some community work.

(Ramco is about 15 mins from Waikerie. If you want to know where Waikerie is, please Google it :D)

"I'd put them to work in animal shelters, make them clean them out, make them look at pets and animals and I tell you what, they'd stop and think about what they've done. What punishment do they get? Growled at or a smack on the fingers or just spoken to? They're not punished. By not punishing them are they learning anything? Why not let them do something, let them think about what they've done."

One pet owner said she wasn't aware of the current animal cruelty punishments. However she had heard of fines and jail terms being possible punishments but suggested that most get waived or reduced to an extent.

She added, "I believe that animals should be treated to the same protection from cruelty as humans, and people that perform acts of cruelty on animals should receive the same punishment for it, as if they had abused a person."


An article posted on the ABC's website on Saturday August 14, 2010 stated that Tasmania's RSPCA organisation has renewed calls for magistrates to impose harsher penalties for animal cruelty, reporting a 37 percent increase in complaints over the past year.

The Acting CEO Michael Linke says most of the complaints involved the treatment of domestic animals.

"One of the worst was a cat with broken hips being left in a person's backyard for five days," he said.

Mr. Linke is calling for tougher penalties.


"More jail terms, higher levels of financial penalties."


Mr. Linke says about ten percent of the complaints related to deliberate animal abuse.


Recent acts of animal cruelty


When the pet owners were asked whether they had seen or heard about any recent acts of animal cruelty, 4 out of the 6 interviewees had heard of several cases each.



Margaret Russell said she saw the case with "Snowy" the cat on the RSPCA Rescue Show on TV. (On July 3, 2010 Snowy had his legs tied up, and his ears were mutilated. He was then set alight and left to die.) This is the link to the NSW RSPCA website featuring Snowy's story: http://www.rspcansw.org.au/snowy.





This is Snowy before July 3.
















This is Snowy after July 3 at RSPCA shelter.









However Mrs. Russell had a story closer to home to tell.


"I know people at Sunlands, they moved out of their house and someone asked, "What about your cats?" And they said, "They're alright." She asked, "Well have you been fed today?" They replied, "Yeah why what's that got to do with it?" She said, "Well these cats are hungry." They said, "They'll be 'right." Well you don't just leave your animals, that's cruel. You should be responsible for what you've got. It's sad when you see cats starving hungry, that's why they catch the birds, small frogs and other animals."


"It really irks me; it really makes me so mad to see anybody being so cruel to a helpless, defenceless animal. It's shocking."


Another pet owner had heard of a "Cat in the garbage bin saga", where a woman threw a cat into a bin and it was left there for hours. She had also heard of many animal cruelty cases occurring in foreign countries, such as dancing bears and was also aware of hoarders; "... people taking large amounts of animals into their homes in appalling conditions with little food, water and protection."

Lyn Crowhurst had heard of the following animal cruelty acts: starvation of horses, maiming of cats, neglect of dogs and again the bears in India/Overseas were mentioned. (In Pakistan people are still bear baiting, despite it being illegal in most areas of the country. There are also dancing bears in India still. There are ongoing efforts to eradicate both of these practises permanently.)


Jeanie Walker, animal activist and last remaining Democrat candidate in Australia had this to say in February this year," It has been extensively researched and proven that cruelty to animals is a precursor to violence and cruelty against humans. If perpetrators of animal cruelty keep escaping punishment then we are promoting a more violent society and this is totally unacceptable to the Democrats and the Australian public."

When asked if the general public should be made more aware about animal cruelty, some interviewees commented that the public is already aware of it through TV and the media. However, 2 interviewees both thought that the consequences of animal cruelty should be made more conspicuous in an attempt to dissuade people from committing such horrible acts.


In Australia penalties for animal cruelty offences vary in each jurisdiction. Each state and territory has their own jail terms and fines as follows:


State Maximum jail term Maximum fine


ACT, 12 months (2 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $10,000 ($20,000 for

aggravated cruelty)


NSW, 6 months (5 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $5,500($22,000 for


aggravated cruelty)


NT, 12 months, $13,000 (regardless of

deliberate or negligent)


QLD, 2 yrs, $100,000 (regardless of

deliberate or negligent)


SA, 2 yrs (4 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $20,000 ($50,000 for

aggravated cruelty)



TAS, 12 months (18 months for aggravated cruelty), $12,000 ($24,000 for

aggravated cruelty)



VIC, 12 months (2 yrs for aggravated cruelty), $12,000 ($24,000 for

aggravated cruelty)



WA, 5 yrs, $50,000 (regardless of

deliberate or negligent)



These penalties came from the following article on the Australian RSPCA website which was last updated on Jan 14, 2010: http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-are-the-penalties-for-animal-cruelty-offences_271.html


Animal cruelty needs to be seen as a more prominent issue. More often than not animal cruelty articles are made the sub story in the news and are ignored or considered unworthy of our time. I hope this article has made some sort of an impact into some people's minds about how horrible it can be and has informed more people that there are serious consequences for anyone who commits cruel acts towards animals.



References


http://www.rspcansw.org.au/snowy

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/14/2982885.htm

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/animal-cruelty-and-the-case-for-harsher-punishment/

http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/last-democrat-targets-rspca-in-animal-rights-fight/1738717.aspx

http://www.dogslife.com.au/dogs_life_articles?cid=12561&pid=6698179

http://www.wspa.typepad.com/compassionateplanet/

http://www.grantanimalwishes.com/some-of-my-projects.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear-baiting

http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-are-the-penalties-for-animal-cruelty-offences_271.html

Assignment 2

The other students in the Write Articles for Publications 2 course (Professional Writing) and I found out oh a few months ago now that we didn't have to add our assignments to our blogs!

However, we did have to make a blog and as far as I know we are being assessed on how well we manage our blogs. So I don't really have to do this, but as I assumed earlier that we did have to add our assignments on here, I guess I'm just going to keep going until the end of the course. (Only 8 assignments in total for Write for Publications 2) Yes I also know that it has taken me a while to blog these too.
So here goes...

Assignment 2

Part 1

Choose a subject for an article, and then a person or people to interview to make the proposed article viable.

I chose animal cruelty as my article subject and I wanted to interview some vets or a vet and some animal owners/animal lovers.

Arrange the interview(s). You may need to do more than one interview (to represent more than one point of view, or to augment the main interview)

Conduct the interview(s). Keep interviews short. Try not to let any single interview exceed 20 minutes.

Part 2

Complete and submit each of the following:

a) State the theme of your article. State the names and titles of the people you plan to interview. Write down the aim of the questions and the kind of response you want.

The theme of my article: (To discover) A rise or decline in animal cruelty and how to prevent it.

People I wanted to interview: Waikerie and or Berri Vets/vet nurses, and approximately 4 local pet owners.

Aim of my questions:

*To research whether animal cruelty is increasing
*To find methods of preventing animal cruelty
*To discover why animal cruelty occurs
*To learn the consequences of committing an act of animal cruelty
*To know what the general public and vet's opinions are about animal cruelty acts
*To see if there is a need to better inform the public about animal cruelty and its consequences

Response I would like:
I would like my interviewees to say, "Yes animal cruelty is increasing" so I can inform the readers of something new. If my interviewees say "No animal cruelty isn't increasing" and "No we don't need to make the public more aware about animal cruelty" then I don't have much to write about. However, it would be nice if it isn't increasing for the sake of the animals' welfare. I would also like to gauge from the interviewees a response about whether more media coverage or word of mouth is needed to spread the word about animal cruelty so that more people can react and take a stand against it.


b) Give a chronological summary of the interviews. Keep it short. Demonstrate to what extent- or not- your interview plans bore fruit.

I think I should have researched more about the more specific cases of animal cruelty instead of interviewing people in general about animal cruelty. I probably should have researched more before starting my interviews. Maybe I would have found more of a wide range of ideas and opinions about specific cases or maybe it is better that I just did general questions. I'm not sure how well my interviews or interview plans bore fruit. It's hard to judge just what people are going to say in an interview.

I managed to interview 6 pet owners including 3 of the people in Part 2 a). I rang and eventually emailed some questions to a vet in Berri but I have not had a response from them yet. (Berri is about 3 quarters of an hr away from Waikerie.)

There were a lot of different opinions about why people commit animal cruelty acts. Some thought it was due to a lack of responsibility and or they don't know how to look after or don't understand their animals. Interviewee Chris Steicke thought it was because some people may consider animals to be dumb and that they don't have feelings.

Others thought it was also due to power hungry people who like to feel they have control over their animals, seeing them as easy targets and take out their rage and frustrations out on them, especially if they don't know how to relate to animals.

Pet owner Margaret Russell said it was because, "They have too much time on their hands and they are just destructive."

Another person said some people use animals as a way to make money; by hoarding lots of animals to reproduce and then selling them.

I didn't really expect the pet owners/animal lovers to know everything about animal cruelty, especially regarding the rules and regulations if a person commits an act of animal cruelty. Most pet owners didn't know what the exact penalties are for committing animal cruelty. However, I did think there would be various opinions about whether animal cruelty is increasing or not so I thought it would be interesting to see how many people agreed or disagreed. Half of my interviewees thought animal cruelty is increasing and the other half disagreed or weren't sure.

Most interviewees agreed that there should be harsher penalties for people who commit animal cruelty acts and one suggested that the culprits do community service at a vet clinic; to teach them a lesson and so they can learn how animals act and how their harsh treatment affects the animals mentally and physically.

Some interviewees thought that there is enough media coverage about animal cruelty. However, some thought that there should be more coverage in newspapers and on TV, or just better campaigning for animal cruelty to show people how horrifying it is. Some also thought that the consequences (not just the acts) of animal cruelty should be emphasised more on TV.


Part 3

Write a summary, in 10 single sentence paragraphs of the proposed article. Remember, the article does not have to follow your original plan, but must pick up on the most important themes that came out of the interview(s).

This was before I wrote my article so I have a bit more information now. These paragraphs are a bit too general but these were what I had.


The reasons people commit animal cruelty varies.

Not sure if animal cruelty is on the rise.

How we can educate people about animals, reasons to get animals and and their behaviours.

The general public should be made more aware about animal cruelty via TV shows and other media.

The consequences of animal cruelty.

The consequences of animal cruelty (for the animals and the offenders) should be emphasized more through the media.

There should be harsher punishments for animal cruelty according to local pet owners.

Possible punishments for offenders could be community work at animal shelters/clinics.

Offenders should be prosecuted in the same manner as an offender who abuses another human being?

Will this decrease the amount of animal cruelty from occurring?