The power of genetic diversity

[Fate]

  We just covered HLA typing in immunology. I don't know if grumbler could pass the exam if he insisted a given major histocompatibility complex allele is not associated with a particular race.

[LaCroix]

nigerians have the same allele as cdm's dazzling urbanites?

[grumbler]

We just covered HLA typing in immunology. I don't know if grumbler could pass the exam if he insisted a given major histocompatibility complex allele is not associated with a particular race.

If you want to claim that races exist, then all you have to do is tell us h9w many races there are, define them, and tell us how to reliably distinguish between them. If the reliable indicator is HLA types, then why do we say "race" instead of the more accurate (and logically justifiable) "HLA type."

[Slargos]

We just covered HLA typing in immunology. I don't know if grumbler could pass the exam if he insisted a given major histocompatibility complex allele is not associated with a particular race.

If you want to claim that races exist, then all you have to do is tell us h9w many races there are, define them, and tell us how to reliably distinguish between them. If the reliable indicator is HLA types, then why do we say "race" instead of the more accurate (and logically justifiable) "HLA type."

Logically, knowing that there are at the very least two (Humans, grumblers) it follows that it's likely there are more. We just need to define them. I'm curious about the recent research into skull size and shape, which I think might be the break through we're looking for.

[The Brain]

Once you've stated something ridiculous on Languish you are supposed to defend it forever, no matter how retarded it makes you look.

[Slargos]

Once you've stated something ridiculous on Languish you are supposed to defend it forever, no matter how retarded it makes you look.

The motivation for your irrational defense of the evils of the atom is made apparent. 

[The Brain]

We just covered HLA typing in immunology. I don't know if grumbler could pass the exam if he insisted a given major histocompatibility complex allele is not associated with a particular race.

If you want to claim that races exist, then all you have to do is tell us h9w many races there are, define them, and tell us how to reliably distinguish between them.

Do spoons exist? What about grains of sand? Stars?

[The Brain]

Once you've stated something ridiculous on Languish you are supposed to defend it forever, no matter how retarded it makes you look.

The motivation for your irrational defense of the evils of the atom is made apparent. 

Fusion bombs don't kill people.

[Ideologue]

Or not. 

http://mixedandhappy.com/2011/03/05/looking-for-mixed-race-donors-because-her-life-depends-on-it/

So what?  If you can show me that acute lukemia is more common in Asian-Europeans, then you might have a point.  Even taking the blog entry on its face doesn't prove what you want to prove.

It's like saying Superman is limited in his options for organ donors.  It's true, but it doesn't signify anything beyond the fact that he'd better hope Kara Zor-El is willing to give up a Kryptonian kidney.

But if you really want to take completely artificial problems and misunderstand them so thoroughly that you believe they represent genetic fitness, then you should maybe look into how white people tend to get really fucking fat.

[Slargos]

Or not. 

http://mixedandhappy.com/2011/03/05/looking-for-mixed-race-donors-because-her-life-depends-on-it/

So what?  If you can show me that acute lukemia is more common in Asian-Europeans, then you might have a point.  Even taking the blog entry on its face doesn't prove what you want to prove.

It's like saying Superman is limited in his options for organ donors.  It's true, but it doesn't signify anything beyond the fact that he'd better hope Kara Zor-El is willing to give up a Kryptonian kidney.

But if you really want to take completely artificial problems and misunderstand them so thoroughly that you believe they represent genetic fitness, then you should maybe look into how white people tend to get really fucking fat.

Right.

[Pat]

Not to brag or anything...

There were most likely quite some cross-breeding between neanderthals and humans. People are known to fuck anything with a hole, including many of our four-legged friends, so why not something with two legs that is actually quite similar to us, narcissism of the small differences aside?

As for whether they would produce fertile offspring, I don't see any reason why not. Anyway as soon as we have mapped the neanderthal genome, which is in the making, we will simply compare their genome to ours and we will know if there are neanderthal genes among the humans who spread out of Africa. [...]

It has since been proven by the eminent Svante Pääbo that the humans who spread out of Africa do indeed have lots of neanderthal DNA and are quite different from those who did not spread out of Africa (and interbred with neanderthals).

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8660940.stm

"Between 1% and 4% of the Eurasian human genome seems to come from Neanderthals."

[LaCroix]

i would hope you're not bragging about looking at a migratory pattern of a group, the existence of a similar species to that group in its direct path, and making the connection that maybe something happened there 

[The Minsky Moment]

We just covered HLA typing in immunology. I don't know if grumbler could pass the exam if he insisted a given major histocompatibility complex allele is not associated with a particular race.

If you want to claim that races exist, then all you have to do is tell us h9w many races there are, define them, and tell us how to reliably distinguish between them. If the reliable indicator is HLA types, then why do we say "race" instead of the more accurate (and logically justifiable) "HLA type."

The argument is solid but the response suffers from a fatal defect: failure to consider the name on the post responded to.

[Eddie Teach]

We just covered HLA typing in immunology. I don't know if grumbler could pass the exam if he insisted a given major histocompatibility complex allele is not associated with a particular race.

If you want to claim that races exist, then all you have to do is tell us h9w many races there are, define them, and tell us how to reliably distinguish between them. If the reliable indicator is HLA types, then why do we say "race" instead of the more accurate (and logically justifiable) "HLA type."

The argument is solid but the response suffers from a fatal defect: failure to consider the name on the post responded to.

Grumbler is a rebel and doesn't need to follow the rules he created himself. 

[grumbler]

Do spoons exist? What about grains of sand? Stars?

Yep.  So do people.  Do magic spoons exist?  How about invisible grains of sand?  Intelligent stars?