Mind the gap!

Are gap years just for spoiled, lazy, rich kids in wealthy countries, or should more students have this experience?  Do gap years hinder academic progress?  If you take a gap year, how should you spend it?  How should it be financed?  Do you agree with this writer’s assessments of the benefits of taking a gap year?

Don’t blame me.  I’m sick.

Here is another article on gambling.  Can gambling addiction be considered a disease?  Does this author do a good job of assessing the pluses and minuses of considering an addiction a disease?  Does it depend on whether you are the person with the addiction or the person who is trying to help someone get over the addiction?

Sportsmen or showmen, athletes or actors?

Does professional sports still have anything to do with sports, or is it mainly a business (and a business based on entertainment at that)?  Do you agree with this writer, who sides with the coach, or does the commissioner have a point?  Would your answer change if you had paid for tickets and did not get to see the star players?

Making them pay

  
How can countries effectively tax multinational corporations, if they should indeed be taxed?  What do you think of the idea of making their tax offences public, perhaps with the aim of informing customers so that they can feel free to boycott or take their business elsewhere?  Do you think Cameron’s claim that this would violate their confidentiality valid, or is this blurring the line too much between individuals and corporations?

Oops.  So maybe that joke wasn’t so funny.

 

There are a lot of interesting points made both in this article and in the comments which follow. (You are free to reference those too.)  A sample:  Do companies have a right to censor their employees?  When is it legitimate to judge others for what they say on social media?  Does this case show that protecting one’s privacy in the world of the internet is a lost cause?  Is this issue about censorship, freedom of expression, or being civil?

Gonny say guid bye to the Sassanachs?

This is the last entry you can comment on for December.

Do you agree with the author that the chances of other countries forming in Europe due to secession are next to none?  Why do these regions want independence?  Is it just emotional, or are there other important motivations?  What would it take for these countries to successfully split off, as Slovakia did about 10 years ago?  Does every nationality have the right to its own nation, and if not, what special privileges and protections should be given to minorities?  If you were from Svidnik, would you be interested in creating an independent Ruthenia?