Recent Exercises

  • Debate’s Discourse

    I have recently started collecting these strange books I found by accident called University Debaters Annual. One was published for each academic year from sometime around 1900 until…

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    4 min read

  • Tournament-Centric debating

    trophies (Photo credit: Shockingly Tasty) Debate programs have been, for almost as long as they have existed, been competition-oriented. Before there were tournaments, the triangular leagues ensured that…

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    4 min read

  • Go See the Rhetorician

    The Rhetoricians, circa 1655, by Jan Steen (1625-1679), in the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. The museum permits photography and does not restrict usage of the photographs.…

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    4 min read

  • New Semester, Only Semester

    In the Zen tradition, the length of a life is always one breath. This emphasizes the Zen outlook that the present moment is the only one we can…

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    4 min read

  • Stop Hosting Worlds

    My advice to those hosting or bidding to host the WUDC in the future is to try their hardest not to be Worlds. The world championship, before this…

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    4 min read

  • Adjudication

    Of course I would forget to mention in the last post one of the best experiences I had this past year – working with the great authors in…

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    4 min read