debate

Corn ethanol is ethanol produced from corn as a biomass through industrial fermentation, chemical processing and distillation. It is primarily used in the United States as an alternative to gasoline and petroleum (first-generation biofuel). Corn ethanol has been seen as an attractive option in...

Waterboarding is an aggressive interrogation technique used in the United States during the Bush Administration that many consider to be torture. It consists of immobilizing a prisoner on his or her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the...

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing Greenhouse gases that cause climate change. It was agreed on 11 December 1997 at the 3rd Conference of the Parties to the treaty when they met in Kyoto, and entered into...

In the United States, illegal immigration is a major problem. The social impact is particularly relevant on United States roads, where illegal immigrants are driving without driver's licenses and without the driving instruction required in obtaining a driver's license. Many believe that, for the...

There is significant debate in the United States as to whether gays should be allowed to serve openly in the US military. The current policy of "Don't Ask Don't tell", signed into law in 1993 under the Clinton administration, does not allow it. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" authorizes the discharge of...

Many illicit drug abusers inject drugs such as heroine directly into the blood stream with syringes or needles. For many users, sterile syringes are not readily available and drug paraphernalia laws in some countries make it an offense to distribute or possess syringes for non-medical purposes...

Many national, regional, and city governments in developed countries around the world have been experimenting with requiring restaurants and food chains to list on their menus the calories of the foods they offer. These efforts have been designed to respond to major obesity, health, and dietary...

Direct democracy is the term used to describe particular forms of voting within any democratic system. The term direct democracy is commonly used to refer to three distinct types of vote: 1. referendums, which are votes on a specific single issue or piece of legislation (instead of a party or...

Do corporations generally qualify for personhood/rights? Proponents of corporate personhood generally believe that corporations, as representatives of their shareholders, were intended by the founders and framers to enjoy many, if not all, of the same rights as natural persons, such as the...

The topic remains very heated around the world and in India too. Should gay marriage be legalized?

On January 12th, 2010, Google Senior Vice President David Drummond announced: "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an...

The question of where and how to store the radioactive waste that follows nuclear energy production has been at the heart of concerns with the energy source. In the United States, Yucca Mountain, near Las Vegas, was the most prominent underground facility ever proposed, where virtually all of...

In the US, Social Security is a social insurance program officially called "Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance" (OASDI), in reference to its three components. It is primarily funded through a dedicated payroll tax. Due to projected difficulties with social security programs, many have...

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (the DREAM Act) is a piece of proposed federal legislation in the United States that was most recently re-introduced there and the United States House of Representatives on March 26, 2009. This bill would provide certain illegal and...

There are currently 32 countries with compulsory voting around the world. They include Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Singapore, Cyprus, Greece, and others. Of these 32 countries, 12 aggressively enforce their mandatory voting laws with penalties of varying kinds...

Mountain top removal mining (MTR), also known as mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining that involves the mining of the summit or summit ridge of a mountain. Entire coal seams are removed from the top of a mountain, hill or ridge by removing the so-called overburden (soil lying...

The United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was signed in 1990 and entered into force in 2003. The Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) monitors implementation of the convention. The treaty is meant to ensure minimum...

Seattle has been planning to replace its Alaska Way Viaduct since 2001, when an earthquake in the region shook the above ground waterfront highway and created widespread concerns of it collapsing in the future. The question became how to replace the highly-used via duct. A deep-bore tunnel...

Collective bargaining is a means by which employees, in the private and often in the public sector, can collectively bargain with their employer in order to seek better pay and working conditions. Long taken for granted as appropriate and necessary in the private sector, collective bargaining...

With the USA and its allies involved in 2 major conflicts in recent years, military recruitment has become an important issue. But some parents and teachers have protested about military personnel visiting schools to talk to students about the armed forces. This often happened in the past...