Alexander Plaza
Mr.Ippolito
2/5/18
Forensics Review
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
I read “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky. The article describes the home of Kathy Lampi. Her mother passed away last June and Lampi kept her ashes on her shelf. Unfortunately, the Northern California wildfires last October devastated her home reducing her entire house to a pile of ash and rubble.To find her mother’s ashes among the wreckage Lampi was put in touch with the Institute for Canine Forensics. The dogs trained by the Institute are used for a wide range of jobs including looking for lost Native American burial sites or even the remains of Amelia Earhart, however, this “is the first time these kinds of dogs have been used to recover human ashes from wildfire disaster sites. Kris Black, trainer for one of the dogs stated, "We start imprinting them at a very young age and introducing that target odor…I feed her when she finds what her target source is”. An English Labrador was brought in to the wreckage of the home and the dog sniff around before laying down next to her findings. The archeologists then set off to work looking for a homogenous pocket of ash and eventually identifying ash that would belong to Lampi’s mother.
This article sheds light on an interesting field of forensics that utilizes canines to aid in investigation. The field described in the article is very important as the search for human remains in a disaster such as a fire may be extremely difficult for forensic archaeologists as they may have no idea where to look. Trained dogs prove extremely useful to the archeologists and make identifying humans within a wreckage possible, allowing for closure for the family.
I think the article did a very good job. It described a certain case and went into detail how the trained dogs and forensic archaeologists worked together to find Lampi’s mother’s ashes. The title is a bit misleading as it is not solely the work of the dogs but rather the collaboration between them and the forensic archaeologists so I would recommend that the author edit the title accordingly. Other than that, the article was very well made.
15 comments:
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
Alex’s review of the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky was well written. I thought that he did a good job in providing the context of the article to help better understand the topic. I also thought that he did a good job by incorporating quotes from experts. Alex also did a good job in being able to connect a fascinating area of forensics to the case which was discussed in the article.
Although Alex’s review was overall well done, there were some areas which could be improved. Although he provided quotes from experts, it would have been more helpful if he had incorporated more quotes and further explained them as well. Also, it would have been helpful if he were to elaborate more upon the advantage canines have in forensic science, further connecting it to our society.
Overall, I thought that Alex’s article was equally interesting as it was informative. Prior to reading Alex’s review of the article, I was not aware of the capability canines had to be able to detect human ashes.
Andrew Rotchford 2/5/18
Current Event 15
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
Alex’s review of the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky was well written.He did a great job in providing the context of the article so the reader can have a better understanding of the topic. He also did a good job and incorporated different quotes from the article into his review,.The last thing that Alex did a good job and is being able to Find a fascinating area of forensics and connected to our class by explaining the case with was discussing the article.
Even though I was just review was overall very well written there are some things that he could work on. One of the things that you could work on is using more clothes from the excerpts it would have been more helpful if you had a choice rated more closer to further explain them. Also It would have been helpful if he could elaborate more on the advantage canines have in forensic science.
In the end Alex did a great job In his review on the article. the thing that I learned when reading Alex's review is the capability canines had to be able to detect human ashes.
I thought Alex did an excellent job summarizing the article, and he made sure to go into enough detail that I really felt like I got the whole picture, but at the same time he wrote clearly and succinctly enough that it was engaging and didn’t feel tedious at all. I also think it was a very interesting subject that he chose for his review, since we don’t usually think of police dogs as a tool for forensic investigators. Another thing I liked was the use of quotes- I think it really added to the review as a whole.
I would have liked to hear a little bit more about the science of the topic, for instance why dogs are so much more effective than chemical tests or forensic technology at differentiating between human ashes and the rest of the ashes left by the fire. However, I can’t specifically fault Alex for not discussing that because it would depend on the content of the article, which didn’t seem to go into much detail on that front. Other than that it was a good review.
I was surprised to learn that dogs can tell the difference between human ashes and other kinds of ashes, since one would think that there’s not enough left besides carbon (and whatever else ashes are made of) to give them any distinct scent. I would expect ashes to just smell burnt, so it’s very impressive that dogs has a sense of smell that’s sensitive enough to detect such a subtle difference.
Zach Zucker
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
From Alex’s review of “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.”, I felt that I was able to learn many new things that he explained. Alex incited many great details in his review. For example, Alex did a good job explaining the background of the story and kept the timeline throughout the review very clear. This made it easy for readers to understand his review. Secondly, Alex added quotes from the article which gives the reader another incite about what others thought about the case. For example, Alex used the quote "We start imprinting them at a very young age and introducing that target odor…I feed her when she finds what her target source is”.to help set up his own opinion. Also, I thought Alex did a good job on adding his own thoughts and opinions into the review rather than just straight facts.
Although, Alex could add a few more ideas to his review to make it perfect. First, I think that Alex should add more about the forensics part of the crime. Along with this, there are parts where Alex can make his point more clear and concise through the review.
Overall, I think Alex did a good job summarizing the article and adding his own thoughts and opinions. I found this review interesting and informative because I have never heard of this case and I am happy Alex brought up this article for his review.
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR,
NPR, 3 Feb. 2018. www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage
Alex wrote an excellent review to the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes in Wildfire Wreckage by April Dembosky. He begins with a succinct and informative summary that provides the reader with all of the necessary information. I loved that he included a quote from one of the dog trainers, Kris Black, in order to help us understand how these forensic search dogs learn how to discern human remains from other materials. I also liked that he made sure to explain the collaboration involved between the canines and the archaeologists that is necessary for discoveries like the one mentioned in the article to be made.
Alex wrote a thorough and well-written current event report but there are two areas which he could improve upon. I think that he could have done a better job of connecting this article to forensic science and describing how the forensic dogs can otherwise be utilized by investigators. I also believe that it would have been interesting if Alex had explained the science behind how the trained dogs are able to detect human ashes.
After reading this article, I learned about an interesting case in which forensic search dogs helped archaeologists find the human ashes buried among the ash and rubble of a burned house. I am very curious as to how the dogs were able to find their target and I look forward to hearing if these canines are used in any similar way in the future.
Zixi Chen
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics
9 February 2018
Current Event #16
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
Alexander Plaza’s review on the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky is very interesting to read. First, he gave a detailed description about the background of the incident. He described how Kathy Lampi’s mother passed away and her ash was kept inside the house. After a disastrous wildfire, the house was destroyed and the ashes were lost. With the help from the well-trained dogs from the Institute for Canine Forensics, the family was able to recover the ashes. Alexander Plaza used direct quotes from the original article to emphasize the importance of the dogs and the difficulty of this task. At the end, Alex also gave his own opinion about the article and stated that the title of this article was a little misleading. He is carefully analyzing every aspect of this article.
Even though this review is very organized and easy to read, there are two areas of possible improvements. First of all, it would be nice if he could use a careful transition sentence between the two paragraphs to make the review more smooth to read. Also, he gave a very short description about this field of forensics. It would be nice if he can elaborate on the relation between this article and what we have done in class.
The importance of the dogs described in this article was surprising to me. It is extremely difficult to isolate someone’s ashes in a burned house full of many types of ashes. These dogs did excellent work, and with the current technology, I cannot imagine if this task can be completed in any way without the help from the Institute for Canine Forensics and their dogs.
Kevin Formato
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics
11 February 2018
Current Event #16
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
When reading Alexs Article I though he did a great job with describing how there are so many different ways forensic science can help so many people in many different ways. Another thing Alex did really well was talk about the background of the dogs are trained and how this was the first time they actually look for human remains I also thought this was a very interesting subject on how police dogs are trained into specialized forensic dogs
Overall I thought this was a great article overall but if would of changed a few things I would of added a little more about how the dogs are trained and why these dogs are so important to have. Also It was a little light on the forensics part even though I thought it was interesting I didn't think it had much to due with forensic science.
Overall I think Alex did a fantastic summarizing the article and I though he did a great job talking about his options in the article and not making it overwhelming and the is was one of the most interesting articles I have read all year and but overall it though he did a great job
YiFei Wu
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics
2/13/2018
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
Alex did a very nice job with her current event review on the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky. So the title of this article interested me which made me want to read the rest. Alex uses great examples of the case. I like all of those background she gave the audiences, which make it clear to understand. “Her mother passed away last June and Lampi kept her ashes on her shelf. Unfortunately, the Northern California wildfires last October devastated her home reducing her entire house to a pile of ash and rubble.To find her mother’s ashes among the wreckage Lampi was put in touch with the Institute for Canine Forensics. The dogs trained by the Institute are used for a wide range of jobs including looking for lost Native American burial sites or even the remains of Amelia Earhart.” This quote shows how detailed background Alex had in his article. Second, in Alex's article, he explained why the source and the evidence of the suspect is important in this situation. Third of all, he explained the aspect of this case form the original post which I appreciate the most.
I think Alex's post is very helpful as well as let us learn more about the forensic technology. But he can literally add more details to some stuff. First, he could explain the forensic technology in ashes more in depth which will help us to understand as well as by how the dog can smell the ashes that can help the scientist.
Overall, Alex’s review is really interesting and I am impressed by how the dogs can smell the ashes and help human.
Hayley Berry
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics
12 February 2018
Current Event #16
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
I read Alex's article review on “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage”. There were many good things that he did during the review that made it more interesting to read. I thought that he did a great job with the description of what the article was talking about. I also thought he did a great job including some context into it with a quote from the article itself. Another thing that I thought he did very good on was the way he tied it back to the world and our forensics class.
Although there were some really good things about the review, I thought that there could be some changes to the review that would make it a lot better. One thing that I thought he could have done was not put so much summary into the review. Another thing that he could have done better on was the description of the training of the dog. I think it would be interesting to go into more detail about how the dog was able to sniff out the ashes.
Overall, I thought that the article was very interesting and really fun to read because it taught me so many things that I did not know before. One thing that I learned that was really fascinating was the extent in which dogs can find things. I always knew they could sniff out bombs if they were trained to but I never knew the other possibilities.
Catherine Faville
Forensics
Current event 16
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
I read Alex’s analysis on the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” written by April Demosky. Alex does a good job in giving explicit details in the case, she filled her review with good examples and background information from the article. It was interesting to see how she was able to tie the world and the forensics case together.
Even though her review ws good, i feel as though she could have made some improvement in the review. If she dialed down on the summary part of the review, it would have been an easier read. There was too much summary, to the point where the important part of the article was drowning with all the background information. Also if she would have added more information on what makes the dog able to sniff the ashes, it would have been interesting to learn more about how they do what they do.
Overall, i found the review interesting and informative, it was interesting and fun to learn about different type of dog in the police force, rather than a tracking dog. It taught me something i did not know before, i only knew about tracking dogs and bomb sniffing dogs, but i didn't know the other uses dogs could be used for in the police force.
Hana Eddib
2/13/18
Forensics
Current event 16
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
Alex's review of his article was very well written. He did a great job of discussing the article in context with just the right amount of detail without including too much. I appreciated that Alex included quotes directly from the article to help provide a point of view directly from the case. I also appreciated that he discussed the importance of canine use in forensics.
While Alex wrote a very good review, there were two aspects he could've improved. I wish he would have discussed how canines have changed our advances in forensic analysis. I also wish he could've discussed any problems that could with relying on dogs with forensic evidence.
Overall Alex did a really great job on his review. I was very surprised to see that dogs have to ability to decipher human remains from ashes from a burnt house.
Jack Harwood 2/13/18
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
Alexander Plaza’s review on the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky is very interesting to read. Alex did a great job summarizing the story and providing lots of background details on utilizing graphics and technology. He also supplied the reader with very informative details and specific statistics. Lastly, I felt that you did a great job at explaining why it is relevant in modern society by explaining what forensic scientists could do wrong.
I believe your review could have been significantly better if your writing flowed better. It was slightly choppy and it felt like you were just listing facts. However, that being said, it allowed me to remember and understand your review more clearly. Also, I would have like to see more quotes from the author. It validates your points and with ethos, it makes your review more credible.
Overall I thought that Alex did a great job with the article and this was a very interesting read. These dogs did excellent work, and with the current technology, I cannot imagine if this task can be completed in any way without the help from the Institute for Canine Forensics and their dogs.
Liam Grealy
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics
14 February 2018
Current Event #16
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
In this current event article, Alex was able to accurately summarize the article, “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage. ” This article was mostly about how dogs can be trained to have use in the forensic field to help in locating bodies. Alex did a good job touching upon the important point of this article, describing how a dog was used to help find remains from a wildfire. In addition to this, Alex was able to talk about the relevance of this article, and how dogs can be used to help locate bodies which would ordinarily be missing forever. A last thing Alex did well, was accurately criticize what the author could have done to make the article better. I agree with Alex and saying that the article was too vague and he could have summed up the important points better and included more detail.
Although Alex did a good job addressing the main points, I think he could have gave more details in his summary. Another thing Alex could have done was improve his grammar and format of paper. One last thing that Alex could have worked on was add additional information on the topic, although he did a good job summarizing it, I had to go back into the article to clear up any questions I had about the article.
One thing I was impressed with from reading this article and review was that The dogs are used for a wide range of jobs including looking for lost Native American burial sites or even the remains of Amelia Earhart.
Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.
His review of the article “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky was well written. He did a great job in providing the context of the article so the reader can have a better understanding of the topic. He also did a good job and incorporated different quotes from the article into his review. The last thing that he did a good job and is being able to find a fascinating area of forensics and connected to our class by explaining the case with was discussing the article.
Even though I was just review was overall very well written there are some things that he could work on. One of the things that you could work on is using more clothes from the excerpts it would have been more helpful if you had a choice rated more closer to further explain them. Also It would have been helpful if he could elaborate more on the advantage canines have in forensic science.
In the end he did a great job In his review on the article. the thing that I learned when reading Alex's review is the capability canines had to be able to detect human ashes.
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