It is the year 2120.  The US Constitution, under the intellectual opinion of an idiot administration, has been rewritten.  However, feeling the language of our forefathers to be too archaic, Congress revamped the Constitution using an easily readable type of English. Under Federal Law, the US government requires every citizen to own a SmartPhone.  Upon changing the Constitution, the US government texted its citizens this message regarding the new First Amendment.  It reads as follows: "The rite [sic] to speak your mind freely, whether it be orally or written, must be restricted in some sense to the surrounding circumstances—whichever they may be? Whenever possible, it is best to use coded language.  Long-winded phrases are unacceptable.  Moreover, most people cannot comprehend the big words or the complex sentences of that which make all men and women think abstractly.  Such big words make for a subversive society with a free-market system—a relic of the dreaded past!  Abbreviated, coded speech symbolizes the sensible economics of modern communication.  Anyone caught using big words or sleek eloquence shall be prostituted [sic] under the full extent of Federal Law.   Do not say or write anything you would not text to a deer [sic] friend. "

XOXO,

Uncle Sam, 2120.

                                                                                                                  

        

­­­­­

Center for Journalistic Communication (CJC)
_________________________________________________________________________________

Reliability and Fact-Checking Division

1473 News Worth Blvd

Creep Side, CA 93456

To:          Allison Cardeau, Assistant Editor

From:     Vincent Dawn, Editor-in-chief

Subject: ?^

Dear Allison:

4yeo: Asyk, aml,  igws < 3!  Please don't  </3.  Despite you being :-)(-: , 143 4EAE!!! 2nite, gnblfy:  \_/, l8r? Lfti >:-), :-x  Don't worry :-# T+  I'm not a :8) like the others.  O-G-<  d8:)! ) 0:-)

Afaic, wywhima.  2bcntd. @->->---
01100011011101010010000000110010011011100110100101110100011001010010110000100000010000010110110001101100011010010111001101101111011011100010111000100000010010010010000001101011011011100110111101110111001000000111100101101111011101010111001000100000011011010110000101101110001001110111001100100000011011110111010101110100001000000110111101100110001000000111010001101111011101110110111000100000011101000110111101101110011010010110011101101000011101000010111000100000001000000101011101101000011001010110111000100000011101110110010100100000011001110110010101110100001000000110001001100001011000110110101100101100001000000100100100100111011101100110010100100000011001110110111101110100001000000111011101101001011011100110010100100000011000010111010000100000011101000110100001100101001000000110100001101111011101010111001101100101001011100010000000100000010010010111010000100111001001110110110001101100001000000110001001100101001000000110000100100000011000100110010101100001011101010111010001101001011001100111010101101100001000000110111001101001011001110110100001110100001011000010000001100001011011100110010000100000011101110110010100100111011011000110110000100000011001000111001001101001011011100110101100100000011100110110111101101101011001010010000001101101011011110111001001100101001000000110111101110101011101000111001101101001011001000110010100100000011000100110010101101110011001010110000101110100011010000010000001110100011010000110010100100000011100110110100101101100011101100110010101110010001000000110110101101111011011110110111000100000011000010110111001100100001011100010111000101110000011010000101000001101000010100101100101101111011101010010000001100011011000010110111000100000011001100110100101101100011011000010000001101001011011100010000001110100011010000110010100100000011100100110010101110011011101000010111000100000001000000100001101101111011011100110011101110010011000010111010001110011001000000110100101100110001000000111100101101111011101010010000001110100011100100110000101101110011100110110110001100001011101000110010101100100001000000101011001101001011011100110001101100101011011100111010000100111011100110010000001101000011010010110010001100100011001010110111000100000011011010110010101110011011100110110000101100111011001010010111000100000001000000101100101101111011101010010011101110110011001010010000001100100011011110110111001100101001000000111001101101111011011010110010100100000011000110111001001101001011101000110100101100011011000010110110000100000011101000110100001101001011011100110101101101001011011100110011100100001001000000100100100100111011011010010000001101001011011010111000001110010011001010111001101110011011001010110010000101110001000000010000001001001011100110110111000100111011101000010000001110100011010000110010100100000010010010110111001110100011001010111001001101110011001010111010000100000011000010110111000100000011000010110110101100001011110100110100101101110011001110010000001110100011011110110111101101100001111110010000000100000010001010111100001110100011100100110000100100000011000110111001001100101011001000110100101110100001000000110011101101001011101100110010101101110001000010010000001010000011100100110111101100110001011100010000001010000 

Vincent

This one is for all the texters: What is this message saying? Is Vincent requesting something from Allison?
Is this in fact a technical document? Do you think this type of message symbolizes a breakdown in of our own communication? Would it have been better if Vincent had written this the old-fashioned way?
Explain why or why not?
To help you answer that question, think about the differences between technical writing
and regular literature as discussed in last Thursday's class. Your answer should be at least one paragraph.

For extra credit, try to decipher the coded message. Best of luck!

For this assignment, you get to be bad.  You are a debit collector for Annie May, a new student loan company.  Your company offers private student loans at almost outrageous interest rates.  You trick hapless students by offering an additional three-month forbearance on their repayment plan if they friend Annie May on Facebook.  Most of your chump-student-borrowers add you to their page, unaware of your sinister plot.  For any student who goes into default, you, as well-paid representative of Annie May, get to flood his or her Facebook page with messages regarding owed debt.   Here's what you need to do for full credit:

 (1)Write a brief action plan of how you intend to legally taunt your borrowers on their Facebook page.

(2) Compose a brief post, FB-style, in which you demand your money.  Make this as threatening as you can without crossing the harassment line.

(3)As a creditor, you have rights as well.  Discuss how your borrower might accidentally reveal his or her bad spending on Facebook?

(4)In Chapter 4, we covered ethics.  Do you think a bill collector's taunts violate any of the four social ethics discussed in the text?  Why or why not.

*Remember, this is worth 40 points.  I wish you the best of luck.

Hookem and Crookem Law Firm, L.L.C.

____________________________________________________

­­­

Date: May 11, 2012

To:  Ambulance Chaser Task Force (J. Pilarski, A. Cyrus, D. Davis)

From: Michael J. Hookem, Senior Partner

Subject:  Palsgraf v. Trans Florida Railroad

Our client, Annie Palsgraf, underwent plastic surgery last week.  Unfortunately, the package of fireworks, carelessly dropped by a TFR-employed porter, exploded, causing rockets to shoot from the fallen cardboard box.  One such rocket hit Mrs. Palsgraf right between the eyes, knocking her several feet from the commuter rail.   Her face, nearly blown off from the rocket's impact, became the least of her worries.  Other travelers, alarmed by the explosion, started pushing and shoving, ignoring our client as she stumbled to the ground.  As more rockets continued firing from the package, commuters began running for shelter, trampling Mrs. Palsgraf in the process.

Our client wishes to sue TFR for twenty million dollars.  I believe if we use proximate cause, we will win this case. Remember, as lawyers, we must have an argument that passes the laughter test.  This particular fact pattern suggests unforeseeable events.  For that reason, we should employ Cardozo's formula for negligence.  In case you've forgotten this is the formula for negligence:

·         Existence of Duty

·         Breach of Duty

·         Causation and Proximate Cause

·         Injury

To determine if there was an existence of duty, we must see if the severity of harm (SH) added to the likely hood of harm (LH) is more than the cost of precaution (CP).  Next, to determine whether a breach of duty existed, we have to determine what a reasonably prudent person would have done in the defendant's shoes.  Now we need to prove causation and proximate cause.  The standard we use is more likely than not.  So in this case, we would say, "More likely than not, but for the TFR porter dropping the package, the rocket would not have flown into Mrs. Palsgraf's face."  Second to last, we must prove proximate cause.  If we are using Cardozo, we must look from the defendant's perspective and use the foresight approach.  Then we must characterize the risk before determining the zone of danger.  The risk of a rocket firing from a fallen box and hitting someone in the face is moderate during a regular work day at the station.  Finally, we determine the zone of danger.  We want the incident to be foreseeable and the zone of danger to be remote enough to include the plaintiff.  Lastly, we need to say that it is clear Mrs. Palsgraf sustained injuries from the flying rocket.

I have confidence that there is more than a 50% chance we can win this case.  If you have any questions, please email me at hookem@scam.com

Blog Question:

Suppose you are council for TFR.  You are working with three other attorneys.  Discuss how you would organize a rebuttal to Hookem's claims.  Look to Chapter 3 and talk about your defense using strategic planning (subject, purpose, readers, and context).  Finally, discuss what, as a group, your project outcome would be.

*For extra credit:  Above, I have given you the entire formula for negligence.  This is just how J.P. Morgan or any plaintiff's lawyer would argue before a jury.  See if you can apply the negligence formula to brief fact pattern I've laid out for you.  Let me know if you need extra help.  Good luck!

July 31, 2012

Sean Watkins, Head-Scumbag Engineer

Apple Electronic Services: Complaint Dept.

2134 Citrus Drive

Los Angeles, CA

(2)Dear Mr. Watkins,

Hey, Watkins, what the hell, man?  I bought yet another IPOD Nano from your lousy company the other day.  This is the second one I bought, and I am, quite frankly, pissed off. (3)  You see, I went for a run the other day.  You know, like exercise. It's probably something a hard-working, coffee-drinking, pencil-pushing guy like yourself knows nothing about.  So, allow me to give you a brief tutorial on how the human body works:  When you move around a lot, you begin sweat, and when you sweat, you burn calories. And when you burn calories, you lose weight.  Now, I know pale, air-conditioned drones like you quiver at the idea of doing anything physical; however, for the rest of us beautiful people, we like to stay fit, which is hard to do thanks to your product.

(3)Let me explain my difficulty. I promise not use too many words because I know how illiterate you are:  When I exercise, I sweat.  Sweat drips.  Yes, it does.  It's a natural phenomenon scientists call gravity.  So when the sweat, the downward pull of gravity causes the drips to fall on my Nano.  The salts fall into the guts of the IPod, causing a short.  This short burns out my IPOD, and then when I run, I am without my tunes.  This sucks!  I mean, this is second time my Nano shorted out.  Honestly, can't you California egg-heads design an MP3 player impervious to human fluids?  For $200, your product should be almost bulletproof.  Whoever heard of an MP3 player ruined by sweat?  My Sony Walkman from the 90s can take more abuse.  I can drown that damn thing in water and it still works.  However, just a few drips of sweat render your Nano retarded.

(4)Seriously, Watkins, I don't know such pond scum like you gathered enough cells to grow a spine and stand upright.  I suppose someone in your gene pool forgot to float over a sub-average brain.  How hard is it to design a protective case for a product used during exercise?  Because of you and your company's lack of foresight, I must request a new Nano.  As they say, "Third time is the charm."  Maybe by the fifth Nano you'll be inspired to lay off the Twinkies and do what you're paid to do.

(5)Sincerely,
Zeus in a Speedo,
a.k.a Charlie Sheen

IamGoduarenot@gmail.com

Instructions:  First, turn in your book to page 276.  Look at the sample letter vs. Sheen's letter.  Identify the five mistakes in this letter.  

Second, you must write Charlie Sheen a response email to this complaint.  Remember, you are a brand steward for a Apple.  As insulting as Mr. Sheen is, he is also a customer paying for your product.  Write a professional email in which you try resolve this issue as best you can. 

Third, in a separate paragraph, explain why it is important you remain calm, cool, and collect when writing Mr. Sheen back.  What could be at stake by writing angry response back to him?

You must do these three things to get the full 20 points.  I wish you the best of luck.

            The Two Prisoners

               (I)

Gina was a good-time gal;

A real looker of a hooker if there ever was one:

Her creamy skin glowed in the city light,

And she'd show you a good time if the price was right.

                 (II)

Some hot-blooded, naïve boy

Thought he could love a woman like her.

He paid his money, and she broke his heart.

He lost his head over a smoky tart.

                  

                  (III)

Downtown, on one cold and windy Saturday night,

He lurked in the shadows, holding a knife.

Gina came walking by in her sexy coat,

Ran up behind her and he slit her throat.

                   (IV)

Now the rich pretty boy's in jail today,

With a sunken heart and head hung low.

Some fake good news to him I chime,

While I spend his daddy's cocaine money and bide my time.

                 (V)

No wants to lose the love they have

No one wants to feel what they really feel.

No one wants to see what they see.

It's better to be prisoner than to be set free.

             

                 (VI)
I had love once too:

Didn't kill her with a knife—

Didn't spite her when she went away,

But the memories haunt me to this day.

                (VII)

So, I paid my money, and I broke her heart:

Watched as our love crumbled piece-by-piece.

Career-driven, I stuck with my books

And never noticed the tears that stained her good looks.

             

             (VIII)

Years have gone by,

I sit alone with my filing cabinet full of horrors,

Sometimes with a sunken heart and my head hung low:

How I got so poisoned I guess I'll never know?

                 (IX)

At night, alone, I sigh her name,

A lone voice hits the dark ceiling.

No reply from the one I was so fond:

So I wake up alone to wade through the world's shallow pond.

                (X)

Me and the rich boy side-by-side:

I sit outside but so does he.

Both of us killed what we loved

Pushed what never should have been shoved.

                (XI)

No wants to lose the love they have.

No one wants to feel what they really feel.

No one wants to see what they see.

That's why it's better to be a prisoner than to be set free.

               (XII)

We want to see the world for what it's not.

Give me a shovel of sand to throw on your weary head.

Truth is around for all to see

But I'd rather be prisoner again than set free.

For this last blog posting, you are to write a brief analysis of this poem.  To do this, you must, in your own words, answer these two questions:  Is it easier to live a lie and be happy or is it better to face hard realities of life that plague us day-to-day? What is the main message of this poem?  From there, discuss some of the ethical components of this poem in relation to this poem.  Is there any justice, utility, or care going on here?  Please explain.  Best of luck on your final blog response.