Penny Wars

Penny Debate: Should the United States keep the penny or get rid of it?

The U.S. Cent, or penny coin, has almost no purchasing power today. The cost of making the pennies (1.26 cents each) is higher than face value, and the melt value of pennies ranges from more than 2.4 cents for the pre-1982 copper pennies, to nearly a full cent for the zinc pennies. However, the penny is a very sentimental coin to most Americans, and many people fear that eliminating the penny would raise prices because things would need to be rounded to the nickel.

Love them or Hate them pennies don't seem to be going away any time soon.

Read this article and then make a 'T' chart showing the pros & cons of the 1 cent coin.

Walk Like an Egyptian

Protests in Egypt continue to escalate but how much do we as Americans really know about this African nation?

Click here to take the quiz.

Learn more about Egyptian History and make predictions on Egypt's future.

Get the 'Egypt Fact Sheet.'

Use the Inverted Pyramid to summarize the story.

Future News

What were the Top News Stories of 2010?

What will the Headlines be 10, 20, or 50 years from now?

Brave New World

A recent spate of mass animal deaths around the world has sparked a rash of conspiracy theories and doomsday predictions with many people taking to the internet to have their say, news.com.au reported Thursday.

From the U.S. to New Zealand, from Britain to Brazil, bizarre cases of birds, fish and crabs turning up dead en masse have been reported in the past two weeks and no one seems to know why.

Is this global warming, a government conspiracy, or could it be these animals have just become Overpopulated?

Environmentalists have long been concerned about the resources threatened by rapidly growing human populations, focusing on phenomenon such as deforestation, desertification, air pollution and global warming. But the worst-case scenario for people experiencing overpopulation, according to Lawrence Smith, president of the Population Institute, is a lack of fresh, clean water.

"If the water goes, the species goes," he said.

What are the consequences of overpopulation?

What are the solutions?

Oh Deer!

What are some of the problems deer create for our community?

What is the solution?

Read and evaluate the draft of the City of Oxford's Deer Management Plan. What letter grade would you give the plan? Do you prefer lethal or non-lethal alternatives? Choose the management option you think to be the best and be prepared to defend it in a class debate.

Why not release predators?

Who Killed Bambi?

The Ethical Implications of Charitable Giving

The material Slavoj Zizek discusses in this animated lecture is (not surprisingly, given its title) primarily from First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, published in 2009 by Verso. However, the topic of philanthro-capitalism is also found in Zizek’s (lesser read) Violence, published in 2008 as part of Picador’s brilliant and aesthetically pleasing BIG IDEAS//small books series. An excerpt:

“Good old Andrew Carnegie employed a private army brutally to suppress organised labour in his steelworks and then distributed large parts of his wealth to educational, artistic, and humanitarian causes. A man of steel, he proved he had a heart of gold. In the same way, today’s liberal communists give away with one hand what they first took with the other. This brings to mind a chocolate laxative available in the U.S. It is publicised with the paradoxical injunction: ‘Do you have constipation? Eat more of this chocolate!’ In other words, eat the very thing that causes constipation in order to be cured of it.”

Why do we buy Starbucks, Tom's shoes, or Organic Apples? What is the hypocrisy of buying these things?

Do you agree or disagree with what Mr. Zizek is saying? Is charity good or bad? Why?

We Care Alot

Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, giving $300 billion a year to charities. Sounds like a lot, right? But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the over One Trillion Dollars needed to keep U.S. charities in operation, more than the U.S. government collects in taxes. The rest comes from their own assets, government support, and foreign investment. Our visual guide to giving shows who’s paying and offers some tips on how to pick a charity of your own.