Current Event: University of the Pacific Hosts the Jon Schamber High School Speech & Debate Touranament in Stockton

University of the Pacific Speech & Debate Team

 A couple of weekends ago on October 28th through 30th, the University of the Pacific Debate team hosted on campus the 32nd annual Jon Schamber High School Forensics Tournament. This tournament a full, two day tournament for the high school students in Stockton or near Stockton. The tournament features the following: CX (Cross Ex) Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and Radio Broadcasting, Ten Different Individual Events. The Pattern A individual events are Expository, Dramatic Interp, Impromptu, Thematic Interpretation, and OPP. The pattern B events are Oratory, Humorous Interp, Extemp (Combined National & International Topics), Duo Interpretation, and Oral Interpretation.

Current Event: Think Fast! Students Sharpen Lifelong Skills in Debate Competition

Last weekend on November 4th through 6th, one of the largest college debate tournament, hosted by the University of the Pacific Debate team, took place on campus at the University of the Pacific. This tournament was the Paul Winters Invitational- a full, two day IE/NFA/LD/NPDA/CEDA tournament. University of the Pacific's Speech and Debate Team was founded in 1854. It is now one of the oldest, more accomplished, and prestigious debate teams in the state of California. Pacific team did very well and took third at this host tournament.

Culture: Nature vs. Nurture in Stockton

Southwest Hall in 1800s - Stockton State Mental Asylum

Current Southwest Hall 

I recently found out that Southwest Hall, the second largest residence hall at the University of the Pacific, was originally the Stockton State Mental Asylum. This was an interesting bit of information that made me realize that if Kaspar Hauser had lived in Stockton during the 1828, he would most likely had put into the Stockton Mental Asylum, the current Southwest Hall because people in Stockton would had considered him insane for claiming to grow up in a cell and for not being able to speak any human language. Hauser was a German youth who claimed to grow up in a darkened cell and showed up in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany at the age of approximately 16-17. Kaspar was and has remained a hot topic for the psychology realm today due to his unique situation.


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Current Event: Drunken Monkey in Stockton!

Drunken Monkey

Today, October 28, 2011, Dr. Robert Dudley from UC Berkeley gave a seminar talk on "The Drunken Monkey: Is Alcoholism in Modern Humans an Evolutionary Hangover?" at the University of the Pacific's Biology Building. The Drunken Monkey hypothesis was first proposed by Dr. Dudley. "The drunken monkey hypothesis proposes that human attraction to ethanol may have a genetic basis due to the high dependence of the primate ancestor of Homo sapiens to fruit as a food source. Ethanol naturally occurs in ripe and overripe fruit and consequently early primates developed a genetically based attraction to the substance" (Wikipedia).

Current Event: UOP Engineering Boat Race!