JGSDF parachute(696MI) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Sorry for the delays in posting, I’ve been very sick, and finally just getting this one out. More to come, more frequently, especially during and after the USU Nationals this weekend. I love learning something new.  Upset after losing a debate that he “shouldn’t have,” the debater comes into the…

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Power in international relations (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This recent article in Foreign Policy is about the insular nature of international relations departments, and how there are two default tracks within those departments. Some departments try to encourage more outreach or impact by indicating tenure standards that look to see if the faculty member’s work has…

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My public speaking class has not been doing a very good job with a recent assignment, and I can’t find many resources to help them out. The assignment seems easy to us – find an article that makes a claim that you think is ridiculously wrong. Prove to the audience how wrong that claim is…

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The Vienna IV seems like a competition that time forgot. It’s a competition that reaches back to European debate the way it was long before I got involved in it, to a time when the more weird or inside-joke funny the motion was, the better the tournament. These are examples of motions and procedures that…

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The newest issue of Contemporary Argumentation and Debate has just been published online and via open access. If you are interested in debating at all, you should read it. The editors have done an amazing job with this issue – and for international readers it will give you a sense of where the attention of…

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echo chamber of the Dresden University of Technology (Photo credit: Wikipedia) THB it is unacceptable for CA teams to set motions at debate tournaments if there is a high probability they would be making competitors debate about topics that they have had traumatic personal experiences with. This motion was the final round at the Pan-Pacific…

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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 well past 1950. The books feature briefs on a motion, followed by the transcript of a debate on that motion between two universities. Many are available for…

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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 debate was gameified – that is, the actions taken by a debate program were within the frame of the dative: “we are doing this for the upcoming…

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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. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Having a mental or emotional problem? Go see the psychologist. Feeling sick? Go see the physician. Toothache? The dentist will see you for that.…

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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 attend to, the only one we can be sure about. Paraphrasing Bruce Lee, the past is an illusion, the future is imaginary.  All we have is what…

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