I think franchise QBs are almost as important as franchise players in the NBA because of parity across the league. The QB is the one position where the difference between the top and bottom 10 is greatest and has a disproportionate impact on the game. There are 11 players on offense yes but the QB contributes a lot…

So why doesn't the nfl have this tanking problem even though it routinely over nights franchise QBs to the worst team without the messy uncertainty of a lottery?

I enjoyed that and I'm African.

Ok so I guess I have no idea what it means for something to be a social construction. Corn by your definition is a social construction. And I believe if you look at the entire genome there is more variation within humans than between humans and chimps so that would make the human chimp distinction a social…

I'm aware of the fact that Africans have the greatest genetic diversity my point is that that fact doesn't mean certain traits cannot be overwhelmingly more common in Africans than non Africans and vice versa. I used physical traits as an example because that is most obvious. Plotting the skin tone or leg length or…

Whoever you're responding to could be a racist troll so I'm not necessarily supporting whatever their case was but just wanted to point out that if your theory on African genetic variation is exactly as you state it we'd expect to find Africans with the same physical characteristics found in all other races.... we…

Of course that is why no one thinks dark skinned Indians or really tan Italians are African. Racial categories is a proxy for genetics although it is less than perfect it is still very descriptive.

Are the different breeds of dogs social constructions? The existence of subgroups of races or mixed race people doesn't mean race is a social construction. Also the idea that there is absolutely no consistency is untrue. No one thinks the Roma people are African so at least that is consistent. Most naive Africans…

But race is based on genetics... just like species are based on genetics. Even though no one can tell you what that means we know a leopard and cheetah aren't the same thing and the categories bulldog and a golden retriever aren't "social constructions" whatever that means

But race is based on genetics... just like species are based on genetics. Even though no one can tell you what that means we know a leopard and cheetah aren't the same thing and the categories bulldog and a golden retriever aren't "social constructions" whatever that means

We also have this problem with race and gender but in those cases we address the problem by simply dismissing the categories as social constructions .... and by we I mostly mean jezebel's commenteriat

Yeah so no that is not the obvious casual factor. It could be a casual factor but its not the most obvious. I will like to see studies that show that black and white women of similar stress levels are similarly obese. That will go a long way to show that the stress factor isn't simply co-relational.

I always found this social construction idiocy ridiculous as if whatever that made my skin darker, my legs longer and my nose flatter also decided it wasn't allowed to implement any other adaptions that would not agree with the sensibilities of the humans it expects to occupy the earth in 2000s ... what exactly will…

Are you considering this explanation because you'd prefer no genetic differences or because you are aware of scientific evidence that precludes any genetic differences?

Actually I was comparing Nate Silver to talking heads. No he does not fit the definition of a talking head

Except that this has no anecdotal accuracy to real life, whether that life is mine or belongs to the people around me.

I hate that the Daily Show resorts to propping up straw men to knock them down albeit hilariously. Yes it is supposed to be funny but these are serious issues and TDS isn't exactly SNL. Its is kind of a news show, actually it used to be most intelligent news show out there. The writers and correspondents are smart…

Also black people aren't literally black so there's that. Sometimes we create less than perfect labels to describe things usually they're harmless and aren't worth complaining about

Everything you said are consequences of the fact that living organisms are strongly predisposed towards procreation for no functionally reason whatsoever beyond the obvious fact that without this predisposition there wouldn't exist any organisms to be predisposed to anything.

Yes we make probabilistic statements it doesn't mean its always informative. I am weary of those statements that confer more substance that the underlying process and inputs into the system deserve. It is okay to say Germany and Portugal appear to be more likely to advance than the US is and this is pretty much the…