At the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, many stores stopped accepting cash, and are still rejecting the payment method. This is because of the inefficiencies when dealing with cash, such as slow lines, counterfit bills, and the time it takes to process the money. However, by excluding cash payments, a business may be unintentionally discriminatory towards people unable to open a bank account.

The creation of websites like Sci-Hub, which illegally hosts and distributes millions of research papers for free, has drawn both praise and legal action. Supporters of the site argue that the website democratizes education, levels the playing field for universities without as much funding, and speeds up the research process. Any profit lost by websites like Sci-Hub is not affecting researchers, but rather publishing companies. These publishing companies argue that Sci-Hub impacts their ability to provide high-quality science, as well as encourages intellectual property theft.

Agustin is a tenth grader at a public school in Charlotte, North Carolina, who posted a picture one Saturday with his friends holding up various hand gestures. This photo was flagged as “suspicious” by his school, who had the school resource officer (SRO) question Agustin in school on Monday. Later, Agustin told his friend via an email on his school computer that he was feeling depressed and anxious about the SRO, which resulted in another visit from the police for a wellness check. These actions were taken for the protection of the school and of other students, but was invasive to Agustin’s privacy.

Amir immigrated to the United States from Lebanon, and has been living in Denver for just over 10 years. Due to working multiple low-wage jobs and medical issues in his family, Amir is poor. His extended family back in Lebanon, however, is much worse off, as his sister Yusra is a widow taking care of her 4 kids and their mother. Yusra had hoped that Amir’s move to America meant that he would be able to send financial support back to Yusra and their family in Lebanon. Amir is not in any situation to do this, but puts on the facade that he is wealthy so as to not disappoint his family.

A “deepfake” is a manipulated piece of audio, video, or images using AI to make the alteration as realistic as possible. This technology has beneficial impacts, such as allowing fans to produce content based on films. One such deepfake included Star Wars’ Grand Moff Tarkin, whose actor died in 1991. However, deepfake technology can also be dangerous, as many use it to make politicians, such as Nancy Pelosi or Former President Obama, say or do something that they never did.

At the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, U.S. Paralympic athletes received the same monetary prizes for medaling as their Olympic counterparts. However, many nations still have a large gap in the prizes for Olympians and Paralympians, such as Canada, who doesn’t pay Paralympians for medaling, and Japan, who pays them less. Proponents of this pay gap argue that the Olympics are much more popular, and therefore more profitable.

Due to the nature of news and journalism, many reporters have been fired or banned from covering certain events due to “bias” towards one aspect of the event they are not allowed to cover. News organizations see this as a way to maintain objectivity, which is impossible when a reporter has a strong opinion on what they’re reporting. Many reporters, however, believe that reporting on facts while addressing their point of view shows humility.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) has allowed for many women to become mothers where they otherwise would not have been able to. However, this has led to many issues arising, such as the case of Adrea Patel, who went to an IVF center, had the wrong embryos implanted, and was then sued by the genetic parents of the children and forced to hand over custody. These errors, along with IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies, have come to redefine parenthood as it is known.

Due to the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals, specifically ICU’s, have been operating at or above capacity due to increased numbers of people with the virus. Many of these patients are unvaccinated, where if they were vaccinated the risk of severe illness would drastically decrease. This has led many to wonder if the unvaccinated should be prioritized in hospitals since their illness was avoidable.

After an art exhibition was postponed indefinitely at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the question about whether the work of artists needs to be revisited or recontextualized after questionable content. Many argue that the work of an artist has to be separated from the art, because if it is not, a lot of historical art must be taken down due to the actions of artists in their time. Others argue that if art can be ruined by the understanding of how it was made, then maybe it isn’t as exceptional as it seems.

Nancy was given an ancestry test from her maternal cousins, and it led to a startling discovery; Nancy has a different grandfather than her two cousins, meaning their grandmother must have committed infidelity. Nancy is torn over telling her mother this, as both her grandparents, as well as her cousin’s mothers, are dead. Nancy wants to know if her mother knew this, but also knows with her family’s religious background it may alter her mother’s view on Nancy’s grandmother.

Private tech companies have been trying to balance keeping personal devices private and the demands of the government to give them access to phone data. One way that companies have avoided this issue is by using “end-to-end” encryption, where data being sent from one user’s phone to another is unable to be read by the company's server, thus making it impossible to hand over. In the spring of 2021, Apple partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to scan for “Child Sexual Abuse Material” on a user’s hard drive by converting it from a photo to a numerical number.

The Pasco County Sheriff’s office recently created a program to identify “prolific offenders” and try to empower them to live a lawful, productive, and fulfilled life. The PCSO also created a program to detect potential crimes and stop them from happening by creating a list of potential criminals and preemptively investigating them and checking in on them every so often. Many see this as an innovative way to prevent crime and provide help for those that may need it. Critics see this as an authoritarian overreach and leads to over-policing, as well as the invasion of privacy.

Humankind is now able to do something they were unable to: reduce the suffering of animals in the wild. Many have argued that, because humanity is able to end wild animal suffering, we should when there aren’t significant consequences. Humanity should do its best to make its impact on animals positive. Critics worry that this may disrupt complex ecosystems or meddle with the natural order. Others argue we should focus on ending the suffering humanity is responsible for, or that the task is so large it would be impossible to achieve.

Ghosting is the practice of cutting off communication (via text or otherwise) with no explanation or excuse from the person. Imani is a first year college student who wants to meet new people, so she downloads a few dating apps. Later, she decides online dating isn’t good for her and wants to prioritize her wellbeing, as well as avoid the demeaning or inappropriate comments from guys. Her friend Jake tells her that there’s nothing wrong with ghosting and that she should do it if it’s for her wellbeing.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, news organizations were at the front of relaying scientific information to the public. Due to the rapidly-changing manner of news, as well as trying to retain the trust of news consumers, news organizations were faced with issues as it related to the pandemic. Many times, news organizations would have to report something opposite of what they had previously, such as the effectiveness of masks and whether or not vaccinated people could contract COVID. News organizations also could not properly portray the statistics, which led to further confusion and resistance to science.

Facebook uses an algorithm that controls what a user will and will not see. In 2012, Facebook altered their newsfeed algorithm to conduct a psychological experiment regarding if emotional states are contagious via social media networks, but did not tell its users about this alteration. Facebook does, however, get consent to intentionally alter news feeds when a user agrees with the terms and conditions.

With the release of three vaccines for the COVID-19 variant, the Coronavirus pandemic is finally starting to look up. However, the pandemic has thrown the disparity between economic classes into full view. Vaccines are taking longer to get to those of a lower economic status, especially outside of Western countries, such as the United States and those in the EU. Countries unable to afford COVID vaccines are all relying on the same international fund to supply them, but it will take much more time and money for these nations to see a vaccination rate on par with the United States.

The New York Times masthead proudly proclaims that "All the News Fit to Print," which serves to remind its consumers that they are committed to impartiality. Following a wave of police killings of black men, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) wrote an opinion piece, which was featured in an issue of the Times, claiming that the US military should be deployed to quiet the civil unrest in the country. The release of Cotton's opinions sparked horror for readers and NYT employees as they felt his language could lead to further violent outcry. The Times apologized days after the op-ed's publication. Critics of the new's organization think that readers should know the positions their elected officials hold and that their response reveals liberal bias, which is not impartial reporting.

The release of Bird Box immediately had people comparing the story where people had to go blind to survive to how blindness, and disability as a whole, is perceived in society. Bird Box's actors and actresses are not blind, and can easily misrepresent what living with blindness is really like. Many people see an issue with casting an actor who does not belong to the group that the main character of the story belongs to. It also sparked a challenge where people wore blindfolds to do everyday things, which was interpreted as lowering blindness to a game. Others see no issue with it, as acting is the ability to portray something that you are not.