The Vultures' Nest

Three Weapons: Pepper Sprays, Boomerangs and Online Reviews

Who would want to pepper-spray teenagers?

This morning, Te Rina Taite, Erin Rooney and Jess Klajman join host Sean Morahan to discuss three forms of weapon in the news this week.

On Monday, a video was posted to YouTube showing students at Barberton High School in Ohio, USA getting pepper-sprayed.

The students were in a criminal science technology class. The experience was to help students considering law enforcement careers to understand the effects of pepper spray. Participation was voluntary. The students’ parents sign a waiver.

The students line-up with their backs to a wall and a police officer sprays each of them in turn, in the face with pepper spray.

What value, if any, is there in doing this to students?

Can you see any potential problems?

Peanuts aren’t allowed in school. But pepper spray is?

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There’s been a lot of talk lately about the problems with plastic waste: the campaign to reduce plastic use, especially plastic shopping bags and news stories this week about Henderson Island in the Pacific Ocean where tones of plastic garbage have been washed ashore. At 2SER we don’t have the budget to pay for the adjectives needed to describe how much plastic rubbish there is on Henderson Island.

One company appears to be doing their environmental bit by producing a piece of plastic rubbish you can’t throw away. Fashion house Chanel launched their Chanel Boomerang.

Could Chanel’s Boomerang Come Back? And Bite Them on the Derrière?

Chanel have recently released a Chanel branded boomerang.

Chanel responded to Fairfax this week and said “Chanel is extremely committed to respecting all cultures, and regrets that some may have felt offended,”

What are your opinions on this?
Is it culturally insensitive? If imitating people’s skin colour via blackface is racist and insensitive, is this racist and insensitive?

What Recourse Do Businesses Have for Bad Online Reviews?

This week a UK restaurant got a bulk delivery of bad publicity when they threatened to sue a woman who left them an unfavourable review on TripAdvisor.

We reviewed online reviews.