Category Archives: debate

If a tree falls in the forest…

“If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it still make a sound?” This, in essence, is the issue of privacy. If a specific action (or information) is unobservable (even after the fact) by no one else but the actor, then that act (or information) is, by

US Death Penalty Sans An Intellectual Argument

On October 23rd, 2009, the American Law Institute(ALI)  resolved to withdraw Section 210.6 of the Model Penal Code (MPC). The official copy of the resolution (proposed on April 15, 2009) is available here (in PDF). Why is this important? Simply because peeling back the obfuscating legalese reveals that this resolution has effectively demolished the intellectual

Smoking ban?… uh, no.

Mr. Ramadoss has spoken, he is stepping up his fight against tobacco smoking. From October 2nd, a blanket ban on indoor smoking goes into effect. While I understand that the intention is to reduce the prevalence of smoking, a major health concern in India, and protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, I do not understand how

Net Neutrality: what is it really about?

Net Neutrality has been an ongoing debate for quite a few years now. In its simplest terms, net neutrality is a principle that states that all traffic on the internet must be treated the same way; that there should be no preferential treatment to a specific kind or class of traffic. The are many camps