Thursday, December 11, 2008

Rae-Dupree on Teamwork

Fascinating article here on teamwork and invention. What do you think?

Friday, December 05, 2008

DAWG Open House

DAWG revelers and friends assembled in San Diego at the National Communication Association convention this past November, to celebrate nearly three years of DAWG work and welcome new friends.

The occasion marked an opportunity to unveil the newly-minted, official DAWG logo, and to give away a related line of DAWG swag as part of a "Debate Balderdash" competition. Here, contestants were given a hypothetical term and asked to generate ingenious definitions of that term, with subsequent votes determining the most popular entries (and winning contestants). Some highlights include:

for the term "hyper-non-uniqueness",:
- "A word used to refer to groups that believe they are unique but are in fact both conformist and lame. Goths are an example of hyper-non-uniqueness" (Joe).
- "An awkwardly over-enthusiastic attempt at overwhelming the link" (Taylor).
- "The phenomenon when you realize that you are absolutely unique, just like everyone else" (Damien).
- "An extreme aversion to non-normative social constructs characterized by debilitating inability to think outside the box" (Andrew).
- "The state of ultimate, brutal, heart-aching conformity that kills a disad" (Carly).
- "An extreme sameness" (Brita).
- "The act of non-uniquing a disad so quickly your opponents don't even notice it - Boo-yah!" (John).

for the term "D.M.T. argument":
- "Destructive Maintenance of Temerity" (Autumn).
- "Double Mulitplicity Turniness Argument" (Marcy).
- "Damn its Mitchell time Argument, where quality of arguments are sacrificed for speed aka Gordon Mitchell" (unidentified).
- "Demilitarized Ticks - Ugly bloodsuckers which thankfully don't carry Lyme disease, bickering" (Cate).
- "Damien Mother Trucker" (unidentified).
- "Damning Mitigation of Timeframe" (Taylor).
- "Assertion based on the diagram of mutual truculence" (Andrew).
- "Dazzling Monstrous Thunder argument that truly brings the noise" (Carly).

for the term "Refutocracy":
- "A system of government based on a decentralized system of refugees integrated by common water and sewer transport" (unidentified).
- "Form of government characterized by staunch opposition to published scientific findings."

for the term "Vice-presidential burden of proof":
- "The requirement to prove an assertion beyond a glimmer of halfhearted belief" (unidentified).
- "The requirement that one must prove you didn't shoot someone in the face" (Damien).
- "Shooting in the face to ensure agreement" (Joe).
- "No proof needed - shotgun involved" (Marcy).

for the term "counter-maximalist fiat":
- "A car driven by Emperor Maxilullus that is overall ghetto, and thus counter-emperorial" (Tom).
- "When an administrative decree is reversed because it is so damn awesome" (Damien).
- "An order given by the shortest person in the room" (Andrew).

When all the dust settled and the points were counted, TOM ended up on the top of the Balderdash heap, and this position afforded him first pick of DAWG swag, which he used to select a DAWG tie (see image to right).