[fblike]
Moving from its traditional February date, this year’s Stanford National Invitational, a fifth tier tournament in the National Points Race, attracted a smaller field. Twenty-six competitors faced off in International Extemp and twenty-four in United States Extemp and Brian Xu of San Marino High School (CA) took the titles in both categories. Xu defeated Michelle Huang of Irvington High School (CA) in International Extemp and teammate Joseph Kiang in United States Extemp. These wins give Xu his first victory in a National Points Race tournament this season.
Since Stanford allowed competitors to double in both extemp categories, our “St. Mark’s formula” was used to determine which competitors would receive National Points Race points. Xu, Kiang, and Huang occupied the top three places and there were several ties for the other points. As a result, Connor Wright of Lodi High School (CA) and Jennifer Xiao of San Marino High School will share the fourth place points awarded for Stanford and Karisa Anand of Sierra Canyon High School (CA) and Micalyn Strubble of College Preparatory (CA) will share sixth place points.
Here are the results of the 2016 Stanford National Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Although terrorism is not unknown in Indonesia, it had been seven years since the world’s largest Muslim nation was victimized by a large-scale terrorist attack. On Thursday, terrorists reportedly aligned with the Islamic State fired upon a busy shopping district in the capital of Jakarta, killing two people and wounding more than twenty others. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, was quick to condemn the attacks and stated his nation’s resolve not to succumb to the extremist message that the Islamic State propagates. However, there are fears that the attack may be a sign of bigger aims by the Islamic State in Southeast Asia as the group is reportedly looking into ways to extend its reach to weaken international efforts against it in Iraq and Syria. The attacks have also called into question whether Indonesian authorities are doing enough to fight extremism and the radicalization of young Muslim men.
Here is today’s premium R&D to accompany 
s a list of all our old quizzes, 
Since 2013, the European Union (EU) has been worried about the outcome of a referendum on Great Britain’s EU membership. A member of the EU since 1973, Great Britain has often stood for a different set of ideas than its EU counterparts, preferring economic liberalism and less financial regulation than EU bureaucrats in Brussels and rival heads of state in Paris and Berlin. One of Prime Minister David Cameron’s promises upon winning the British parliamentary elections last year was to hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership. This was interpreted as a sop to Conservative voters that bolted the party for the far-right United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which is fiercely anti-EU. Although a date for the referendum has not been set, Cameron is hoping that he can secure concessions from the EU on immigrant welfare benefits and economic regulations that he can in turn sell to British voters to make an exit from the EU – termed a “Brexit” – unthinkable. Considering the fact that Britain’s exit from the EU would rob the organization of more than 10% of its population and more than 15% of its economic power and the fact that recent polls show support for a “Brexit” rising, extempers need to consider how they should approach “Brexit”-style questions in the coming months as their likelihood of being asked at tournaments should increase.
Here is today’s premium R&D to accompany