Link issues

For reasons that are not at all clear, but that may be connected to the recent WordPress format updates, my tests of the links in the post – whether posted today or earlier – are not working to open up the PDF files so that they can be read. External links – the NPR stories and the extemp files link – are working. Until I can figure out what happened, you can find any of the articles I posted in the appropriate extemp file subfolder.

Update: This isn’t, apparently, the only blog to which this is happening, and WordPress finally seems aware of the problem. No estimated date of repair yet, though.

LD – M/A – humanitarian aid

Syria specifically – UN frustration, donor concerns, and UN blame for aid blocking.

CX – Venezuela and Cuba

Cuba first, plus Venezuela’s feelings towards Cuba, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez speaks out, a bad time to be a mayor, and currency issues.

Venezuela on NPR: Stories on investigating claims of excessive violence, and more on currency issues – the black market for dollars.

File update

For those with NatQuals this weekend, the Extemp files were updated this morning (through Wednesday) and again this evening (through today), to be as current as possible. They also have the most current articles for the countries in the CX topic.

Quotes, and the use thereof…

Konnikova on quotes, and how they’re used.

Take the time to read this one. There isn’t a public speaking event in high school forensics that doesn’t involve the fairly extensive quoting of other people’s words. If I, as a judge, have a complaint based on what I see practiced in rounds, it’s that we’ve substituted quotations for thinking. Simply repeating other people’s words, either without context or out of context (CX: yes, species extinction is bad, but there’s no way the author of the quote you read me intended it to be used as as extension of the point you started with), isn’t how this is supposed to work. Use the articles you read to get to the core ideas of a topic/subject (which is why I post the NX and FX articles I do, to give you new ideas to use), and then contextually reassemble those ideas into the form you want to use in your speech. And by all means, let me see evidence of your thinking. That’s what gets the extra points on my ballot.

File updates

With the state championship tournament this weekend, the Extemp, CX, and Voting folders have all be updated, through Wednesday’s news.

CX – 2014/15 – Oceans

A death worth noting; fifth paragraph is key to the resolution.

Issues with fish and other sea creatures.

LD – M/A – humanitarian aid

How does this article from Burma (Myanmar) impact the resolution?

LD – Resource Extraction

One last hurrah on the topic – from Nigeria, what happens to the money.

What you Should be reading – FX NX

Ukraine/Russia – Bittner, and Tucker on Putin’s motivations

Egypt – a change worth noting

Economics – Stiglitz on globalization and trade, Egan on GOP views of poverty, and Rivlin with an unexpected look at hands-on economics.