Coachean Feed: public speaking, standardized tests, sexism on campus, compulsory voting, software patents

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Fear of public speaking is as common as can be. Having once painfully suffered from it myself, I am a true believer that the best cure is to do it, hence the best way to beat nerves as a debater is to debate more. That's also some of the advice in The neuroscience of stage fright — and how to cope with it. Plus there's other interesting stuff about the problem.
  
• Why It’s Time to Get Rid of Standardized Tests Hurry up, please, it's time. Except, in one form or another, I've been hearing this all my life. Since I used to be one of those people who, as they said, tested well, and since I knew there was no particular reason for that (brilliant I was, but not all that brilliant), I believe the underlying truth of this. Changing it? Something else altogether. Where's the PF topic on it?
  
• Sexism on campus? No way, right? Wrong. Is Student Life Becoming More Sexist?
  
• Our war on drugs is an abject failure. Why doesn't this surprise me?
  
• On compulsory voting. It could be a topic this year, or some year.
  
• And then there's software patents: