Various interesting stuff

Society that does not protect its own defenders is bound to fall.

As for the Q, even I do not know...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=LGBTQQIP2SAA

The letter is bullshit and the university responded appropriately.

Dragatus wrote:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=LGBTQQIP2SAA

The letter is bullshit and the university responded appropriately.

Ahh, I had forgotten Urban Dictionary was a thing.

And yes, I think Venkat Reddy responded beautifully. There's a reason he gets paid for his position.

I feel like I missed the start of this conversation.

Jad.3 wrote:

I feel like I missed the start of this conversation.

This: http://www.kktv.com/content/news/Controversial-newsletter-compares-veterans-to-white-supremacists-441704493.html

Malak hid it as "Well then..."

Dammit, beaten at my own game! Well played, Malak, well played.

Jad.3 wrote:

Dammit, beaten at my own game! Well played, Malak, well played.

*Doffs hat in salute of own superiority*

https://futurism.com/how-we-inherit-masculine-and-feminine-behaviors-a-new-idea-about-environment-and-genes/

tl;dr:.
1) If gender (or other) traits are enforced by the environment they become less genetic. The reverse is also true.
2) It seems prenatal testosterone (and related hormones) may affect whether a child will copy behavior from men or women.
3) Brain structure implies sex with accuracy above chance, but it's very difficult to determine brain structure based on sex.

Though to me the implication of #1 seems to be that some sort of gender difference probably is (or at least was) beneficial. If gender differences grow greater in more egalitarian societies it seems that they must offer some sort of advantage. And I think #2 reinforces that.

The article claims #3 implies there is no such thing as a male or female brain, but I disagree. I think it just demonstrates that if you have many variables (the measured properties of all the areas of a brain) you can aggregate them into a smaller set of variables (sex), but not the reverse.

I think transgendered people are proof that there is such a thing as "male" and "female" brains. That and past experiments like the one boy who was raised as a girl after some surgical accident cut his dick off as an infant or whatever. Donno how I feel about the others, I'm not well-read on genetics. Environmental factors I don't think can be disregarded, but I don't think they alone can sell a kid one way or the other based on the above experiment.

The one from the accident was so happy with being forced to be a girl he killed himself...

Phenotype is always a result of play between genotype and environment, it is not new. As for sexual identification, we are biologically determined by the genotype: you are either XX or XY. Save fore chromosomal aberrations... As for the brain architecture, it has been demonstrated to be determined by testosterone levels during gestation. In a nutshell, we all start as girls, those of us blessed with functional Y chromosome and thus testosterone, evolve into higher forms of being.

I've heard about the one you're talking about too.

He was from a jewish family, and the head jew in charge of multilating newborn boys genitals was apparently trying out a new tool or technique he was not familiar with, so he could multilate newborn boys with more efficiency. In the genital multilation process, the head jew made a mistake and cut off the boy's entire penis. So, apparently with the family's acceptance, he removed the rest of the boys genitals and the family would try to raise him as a girl.

Except he didn't act as a girl. He didn't want to play with the girlish toys that were given him, he wanted his brother toys. He would not act "proper" and "girlish" and would get in fights, etc. And he had severe depression starting as early as 13 years of age and would end up killing himself.

<insert snarky comment about "sex is a social construct">


EDIT: Obligatory video

Karavolos wrote:

I think transgendered people are proof that there is such a thing as "male" and "female" brains.

Not really. A potential alternative explanation for transgender people could be that they are mentally ill and suffer from delusions. You need to confirm existence of "male" and "female" brains from other sources for that to not be the case.

Feral wrote:

Phenotype is always a result of play between genotype and environment, it is not new.

Read the article again. No one is claiming that is what is new. What is new is that differences between genders are going to manifest one way or another. If culture is not encouraging them, they become more "genetic".

ThePhilosopher wrote:

I've heard about the one you're talking about too.

Poor kid. And fuck genital mutilation of children. If adult men want to have bits of their dicks cut off to please God they can go ahead (IMO it would actually be a good way to prove how sincere their faith is), but doing that to children shouldn't be allowed.

ThePhilosopher wrote:

EDIT: Obligatory video

Good one.

For the lulz:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-26/charles-barkley-labeled-white-supremacist-telling-black-people-stop-killing-each-oth

I facepalmed... Could SWJs be that stupid?

From my own catedral of flesh:

https://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/anti-semitism-is-a-trick-oh-dear/

Ah, to clarify: some points there are a load of... The ones on Shoah mostly. But the rest rings suspiciously true.

I've yet to hear any scholarly arguments for the Holocaust-as-hoax mindset. Why is this so convincing? Do any of you have a decent description of them?

malak wrote:

I've yet to hear any scholarly arguments for the Holocaust-as-hoax mindset. Why is this so convincing? Do any of you have a decent description of them?

It is not convincing at all. Albeit making it the only genocide is just ludicrous. We have a Yazdi student at the Uni. His faith-based nation goes through 77th nation wide genocide as we speak. Stalin and Mao killed couple times as many people as Hitler. Nobody bats an eye. Pol Pot killed a third of his own nation. Nobody cares. Turks killed 75% of worldwide population of Armenians. USA, UK and France looked the other way.

What is a problem? Some people who decided to rebuild their nation on the basis of going through genocide, instead on a covenant with G*d. It is simply not based on truth as presented: as a unique, once in a history event.
Such massacres are sadly the norm.

I've heard that the Nazis killed more gypsies than they did Jews. I ask one of the smart people in this forum if they can confirm or deny this.

I am not so sure with numbers, albeit Birkenau (later restructured and renamed Auschwitz 3) was a death camp for Poles and Gypsies, not Jews. Gypsies were also sent to "regular" camps, together with commies, resistance members, priests, intelectuals, police officers, administrative workers, teachers, University proffesors, etc. from conquered nations. The idea was to kill off all those who were of lesser races and not immiedetaly useful in German industry, as well as those who could organize ressistance to German rule.

Biosteel. Much wow, even I heard about it before:

https://9gag.com/gag/a6VqpL8

https://futurism.com/new-genetic-data-study-suggests-that-humans-are-still-evolving/

There is a humble bundle on games seemingly close to Long live the queen and I am COMPLETELY sold on the visuals!

It is not so easy as shown, but I know people who use it and it is great:

https://futurism.com/1-evergreen-gene-editing-a-new-way-to-save-lives/

And this could make it better:

https://futurism.com/a-fourth-generation-dna-base-editor-could-replace-crispr/

Unless new Bubonic Plague is evolving:

https://futurism.com/99-of-the-microbes-in-our-own-bodies-are-still-a-total-mystery-to-science/

Jad.3 wrote:

There is a humble bundle on games seemingly close to Long live the queen and I am COMPLETELY sold on the visuals!

I checked and I see what you mean, though none of the games strike me as all that interesting.

https://futurism.com/suprise-georgia-tech-teaching-assistant-isnt-human-shes-robot/

I am relieved to see it is for teaching. I had Japanese suspicions at the beginning...