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• 08.30.10
  Disclosure on TVFT
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  Not here. There -- read all about it. We want your input.
  
  
• 08.26.10
  We’ve have said more farewells than Cher, the Who and the Eagles combined
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  However, I like Claire's analysis of the LD-as-policy material, which she put out as separate comments, which I'll connect here.Now that I've gotten a shout-out, I feel the need to clarify the argument I didn't quite make in my last comment. I agree that the nichification of LD is a concern, but I'm going to set that aside at first, since that's not what I was whining about.The claim "LD is turning into policy" is substantiated in various ways, among them references to "speed, various forms of argumentation, disclosure, etc." I personally don't care about speed, or theory (except when ...
  
  
• 08.26.10
  LD=Policy?
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  I don’t agree with this, from TD’s comment: i do not think that the best solution is to have all the money + power types play one game and everyone else play a game that is qualitatively different (and deficient in some serious regards). in fact, i would say that i am strongly against this…at the end of the day, are we seriously happy with a system that takes real world inequalities and brutally plays them out with the end result of emotional trauma for the weak and a renewed sense of entitlement and power for the strong. I don’t ...
  
  
• 08.25.10
  Disclosure final summary (or at least I’ll bet the VCA hopes it’s final)
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  I’ll say this. We are definitely in an era of multiple LD universes. Not merely the multiplicity of newbies and veterans, but the multiplicity of interpretations of what, exactly, the activity actually is, much less what it ought to be. True, like everything else, it has been changing since the day it was born, so this is nothing new. It wasn’t all that long ago that the Legion of Doom was predicting the end of life on the planet as we know it, thanks entirely to the existence of debate camps and their facilitators, who made Lucifer look like SpongeBob ...
  
  
• 08.25.10
  I can’t even follow me anymore
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  Ryan R says: Maybe I'm not understanding your math, but 6 cases per side means that worst case scenario (with your two debaters on opposite sides in round 7) you'd only have to disclose 8 of your 12 cases in prelims. Depending on whether one or both of them break, and depending on how flips work out, your remaining 4 should be able to run all-new cases at least through octas, possibly though finals. Seems pretty equitable to me, at least by the standard you set in your post.I'll leave aside my quibbles about the diminishing strategic returns for new ...
  
  
• 08.24.10
  More, because BT makes an excellent point
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  B Taylor comments, and I'll reply:So, be careful what you wish for. While disclosure rules of Bronx (and I guess the others) only require disclosure of what you have run, Bietz' article "The Case for Public Case Disclosure", Rostrum, May 2010 seems to read in favor of disclosing all in advance.Advance disclosure will certainly eliminate the constructive speech prep-out. But as noted the small team inherits a new problem even more daunting, the task of "prep-up". Your two varsity LD sailors will now be facing prep for 60 H-W cases, a load of 30 each to share. While the H-W ...
  
  
• 08.24.10
  Case disclosure – A challenge
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  Maybe I'm missing something, but I’m starting to believe that the fatal flaw of disclosure is enough to prove that the process, as it exists, absolutely works in favor of big programs and to the detriment of small programs. Stick with me on this.I have two—count ’em, 2—varsity LD debaters. That’s the whole shooting match. The entire varsity squad. Not two at a tournament, but two in total. There is no bench strength, as they say. And, as the VCA knows, I do not provide cases, positions, blocks, evidence, etc. My guess is that Bronx Science, Greenhill and Harvard-Westlake have, ...
  
  
• 08.24.10
  Case disclosure – A challenge
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  Maybe I'm missing something, but I’m starting to believe that the fatal flaw of disclosure is enough to prove that the process, as it exists, absolutely works in favor of big programs and to the detriment of small programs. Stick with me on this.I have two—count ’em, 2—varsity LD debaters. That’s the whole shooting match. The entire varsity squad. Not two at a tournament, but two in total. There is no bench strength, as they say. And, as the VCA knows, I do not provide cases, positions, blocks, evidence, etc. My guess is that Bronx Science, Greenhill and Harvard-Westlake have, ...
  
  
• 08.23.10
  Packing up all my cares and woes
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  I read that Toy Story Mania is shut down unexpectedly. This is unfortunate, as it is one of the big E-tix attractions at Hollywood Studios, and one for the whole DiDeAd group, as compared to, say, Expedition Everest, which is only for we heartier folk. It might come back up—the rumor is that they were fixing a fence or something—so maybe all is not lost. Oh well.The weather reports are pure summer Florida, with varying probabilities but not guarantees of t-storms every day, and 90-degree temperatures. Quelle shockeur, as they don’t say in France. There is a tropical disturbance kicking ...
  
  
• 08.21.10
  Hipmunk
  Coachean Life Comments Off

  This is a site worth looking at if you travel a lot, and need to find the best flights. It's new and still a little creaky, but it's also genius. Check it out: http://www.hipmunk.com/
  
  

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