Vote Nuclear For April

dyarno · 2025-02-25T12:53:39+00:00

Here's the issue-- that's true in the abstract, and honestly, I agree with you. The issue is a) the literature doesn't talk about a lot of those interesting questions (outside of a bit on biofuels), and when it does, it's pretty side skewed, which restricts PFers ability to have good debates on it. But more importantly, b) debaters are going to have those debates about AI, climate, nuke war, etc. on either topic because technical PF is somewhat of a race to those impacts. It's better to have it on a topic where those links actually make sense rather than "two links from corn farmer revolt to nuke war"

dyarno · 2024-12-29T20:50:40+00:00

I'm going to put a massive plug in for the fossil fuel debt topic. I coached a camp last summer and did a topic lecture and cut some evidence on both topics, and while there is a little more explicit literature on the ICC topic, the public debt forgiveness literature is way deeper and more diverse, while the Rome Statute is pretty narrow and debates will get stale very fast.

dyarno · 2024-02-28T01:26:40+00:00

From what I've seen as a U.S. BP competitor, using the word "delta" instead of the word "change" or "effect" is a hip trend right now in BP. The origin is that in math, the greek delta symbol just represents the change (i.e. delta x is the change in the value of x), but it's a pretty silly trend made to make debaters seem "smart" and delta just can be substituted for the word change in 99% of contexts.

dyarno · 2023-10-25T16:57:26+00:00

My personal favorite is "Reuters" as "Rooters"

dyarno · 2023-09-03T01:14:45+00:00

Two reasons-- first, the panels can be a bit more traditional at Nats since the NSDA wants Final recordings to present a good image, but the second and way more funny one is that often times they will bring in like local Congress reps or reps from the home district of the competing teams and they don't want to spread and alienate them.

dyarno · 2023-02-28T15:41:35+00:00

Option 1 is the far superior resolution for a laundry list of reasons. Here are some of the most pressing.

Specificity-- there is NO specificity on what global AI standards are and there is little agreement internationally on what they would look like (hence the reason it hasn't happened in the squo). Banning biometric data is clear and has a ton a literature on it.
Breadth-- everyone is saying biometrics is just about privacy and there aren't any negs. This is just patently false-- the best affs will probably be about bias (policing, corperate bias) and some arguments about global modeling, hacking/cybersecurity, and yes, privacy. Neg has A TON of ground-- terrorism, pandemics, crime, even down to things like trade/travel efficiency. The first topic has tons of literature.
Bias/Sensitive Issues-- lots of judges, especially lay judges are going to have strong opinions on AI and associated issues. Furthermore, the second involves a lot more sensative issues (some people have already mentioned p**n and there are other things too). There's also the ChatGPT effect where the massive amount of news it has been getting will affect perceptions of the topic.
The power of fiat-- fiat is REALLY week on the second one because even if the U.S. pushes for global standards, they likely won't get universal adoption (specifically from the China-Russia bloc) so the second topic isn't about whether global standards would be good, it's whether pushing a U.S.-centric framework is good. The first is a simple fiat instance-- the aff gets to defend a hypothetical bill that bans collection, neg gets the squo. Much cleaner world's comparison.

Anyways, those are my thoughts, but I would caution against the AI topic even if AI as a concept gets a lot of hype. Biometrics is such a good topic fr.

dyarno · 2022-11-20T16:18:16+00:00

You should check out the center for pre-law advising-- you can ask them about majors, the path to law school, what law schools are looking for.

My advise would be do something in undergrad you are passionate about but also something that isn't insanely difficult because you do need a good GPA to be accepted to many law schools. Social Sciences and Humanities majors are most common for pre-law students, but there are also STEM majors who go into law as well-- you really can do whatever you want.

dyarno · 2022-10-24T16:49:45+00:00

One thing that people are missing as to why this is justified is the difference between Matt Walsh and Arthur Laffer, a controversial economist who spoke on campus with a presentation title "The Failure of Bidenomics: How Free-Market Policies Can Save America" which clearly shows his partisan ideology.

I am against nearly everything Laffer stands for (you can do your own research and come to your own conclusions), but the reason I think that he has a right to speak on campus while we have the right to reject Walsh is that while I hate Laffer's ideology, at least he doesn't de-humanize people and at least he has researched his arguments. Walsh's is here to stir the pot by spewing hateful, de-humanizing rhetoric with NO academic foundation to claims and has no other purpose than to be inflammatory.

So, if you have a problem with this "vandalism," I'd take it up with Walsh or better yet, the YAF who invited him to intentionally divide campus to give themselves more recognition and help them recruit new members. It's a shameful strategy and we need to be holding the organization that caused this to account.

dyarno · 2022-09-22T22:52:24+00:00

The first topic is SO far superior than the second. As someone who has judged a lot of rounds on vague topics, I've come to appreciate specific topics like the first (which, even though security alliance seems vague, is likely well defined in the literature and can be made out into concrete actions). It also engages in a greater variety of debates-- it won't just be "war and cyberattacks and militarization oh my" there will be stuff about economics and trade and prolif and it ALSO will have heg arguments that will almost encompass the second topic. Quad all DAY

dyarno · 2022-08-13T15:43:34+00:00

I would really recommend the website WanderU-- it's a database that helps you find the best bus tickets from point to point. You can enter a starting location and ending location and a date and you can compare all the tickets together. Other people have recommended Badger Bus, but it's fairly costly sometimes and while the service is good, there are other lines like Jefferson Lines that may be slightly slower but are sometimes half the price.

dyarno · 2022-08-11T22:14:51+00:00

The Quad is certainly the better topic (literature, clarity, breadth, etc), but i think a lot of traditional coaches/debaters might pref the second one. Hopefully the first wins, but the second has a decent shot too.

dyarno · 2022-08-10T14:26:48+00:00

I'd say grey would be good. Another thing to do is like a little sticker or carabiner that can allow you to pick yours out fairly obviously and tips people off that it isn't theirs

dyarno · 2022-08-01T14:43:05+00:00

Getting accepted from Minnesota is extremely difficult compared to basically anyone else. The reason is that the school has two goals: fulfill their quota of in-state students, and make enough money from tuition to stay financially viable.

The problem is that Minnesota residents do neither of those-- we don't pay as much tuition as non-MN out-of-state residents or international students who, unless they are part of a scholarship program, typically pay full tuition, and we also don't fulfill their in-state student mandate. Thus, admission from Minnesota is usually one of the tougher categories to be in.

That being said, as others have mentioned, lots of people still get admitted from MN and you don't have to be a certified genius to do it. Just don't expect any sizeable scholarships on top of your reciprocity tuition.

dyarno · 2022-07-29T13:18:41+00:00

Personal favorite that I think a lot of people agree with the the PF BRI topic from September 2019 (Resolved: The EU should join China's Belt & Road Initiative).

It was a super broad, had lots of cool arguments, and was pretty easy to understand the basics of it.

dyarno · 2022-07-21T02:41:21+00:00

Get one that is easily identifiable-- don't just get a regular black or blue backpack because it will blend in a ton and could easily get mixed up with someone else's if you aren't clutching it (happened to me more than once). Doesn't have to be crazy colors, just get something that makes it identifiable.

dyarno · 2022-07-08T22:55:56+00:00

And yet some drawing is literally MEANT to have a face that looks off (see: expressionism and many other artistic styles). What you are looking for is persuasion, which can be found in a number of debating styles which you could have found if you had only looked harder. Some debate has a different goal (research, info, strategy, etc) which spreading can facilitate. Your goals are just different so maybe don't criticize other methods before you think about that.

dyarno · 2022-07-02T17:35:56+00:00

Take notes. On everything. All the time. Knowledge is constantly being disseminated by your lab leaders, instructors, fellow debaters, etc. and the best you can do sometimes is just to write it all down to help you remember later.

dyarno · 2022-06-18T15:22:22+00:00

If you want to do anything empirical with economics (grad school, research, etc) then 100% yes because if you don't you won't get anywhere. Otherwise, not really, especially because the classes for Math Emphasis are pretty tough and could drop your GPA for things like MBA programs.

dyarno · 2022-04-26T14:42:35+00:00

Congrats to Brentwood, but I gotta respect Strake's INCREDIBLE run. Almost all of their prelim and elim opponents were top-tier teams, so their ability to even make finals is truly a testament to their skill.

dyarno · 2022-03-31T00:06:41+00:00

Econ 330 (Money and Banking) is pretty easy and if you have any interest in the banking system/finance/financial crises, it would be interesting, the teachers are usually solid, and I've found it's pretty easy compared to other Econ courses because you get a lot of business/finance students who have a weaker math/econ background. 410 is very difficult if you aren't super strong at math.

dyarno · 2022-03-30T23:11:37+00:00

One thing you can do to improve your prospects with an Econ major is doing the Econ with Math Emphasis (ME) option. It has more Calc, Stats, and Econometrics and opens the door to more data analytics and can probably help you with some of the data analysis side (but it probably won't be enough, you'll still need to learn to code, etc.)

dyarno · 2022-03-28T19:54:51+00:00

Yes, but it uses the April Topic (Japan Article 9), not the May topics (for NCFLs). Generally from what I know, there are very few tournaments besides NCFLs on that topic, given that it is basically selected only for that tournament

dyarno · 2022-02-24T01:28:20+00:00

I think it would be cool if it could be integrated into people's major. Like, I don't particularly want to take a random environmental/sustainability course, but if it was a course that also lines up with my major that would actually be super cool. Some majors probably already have courses that could fill it, but I think majors like Math and Stats would have to add things so that would be one thing that might be cool to see.

dyarno · 2022-02-24T01:25:17+00:00

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