Starship Asterisk*

white pride, anyone?

makc, could you just for a moment consider that this forum isn't reddit or 4chan?

fair point, but my posts are quite far from /b/ stuff so far... whatever it takes to ge to 2k )

makc wrote:white pride, anyone?

Personally, what I'm most proud of is the transposed A/G pair in position 831 of my GNAS1 (chromosome 20) gene.

sorry, google only comes up with osteodystrophy. what this gene does?

[golf clap]

makc wrote:sorry, google only comes up with osteodystrophy. what this gene does?

Heck if I know. But I'm damned proud of my variant.

this ain't a joke, you know. serious business. ladies are proud with their big boobs. men are proud with their ..other parts. or, for another example, eye color. why not skin color, too?

It's pretty silly to be proud of any of those things, imo.

makc wrote:this ain't a joke, you know. serious business. ladies are proud with their big boobs. men are proud with their ..other parts. or, for another example, eye color. why not skin color, too?

makc, this is not serious business.

Pride for things one has no control over? Really? I like being tall, but I had no input into becoming tall. Ditto eye color and other genetic traits. Pride is for accomplishments, things done or achieved.

owlice wrote: I like being tall, but I had no input into becoming tall

Ah, another clue.

lol, Beyond!!

No worries O' silent flyer of the night. It didn't help a bit.

Not worried, but very amused!!

owlice wrote:I like being tall, but I had no input into becoming tall. Ditto eye color and other genetic traits. Pride is for accomplishments, things done or achieved.

In this interpretation, at least your parents can be proud of these things, because they did have certain degree of control over it.

In other news, you can not be proud lottery winner, if so. Whatever, can we change "proud to be white" into "happy to be white"? Does it really sound that different?

There's a huge difference between simply being content with your situation and being arrogant or boastful about it. It's important to make that distinction. The first would be stated as "I like my skin color." and the second would be stated like "My skin color is superior."

The white meat of the chicken/turkey breast is superior to the dark meat of the drum stick

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

makc wrote:Whatever, can we change "proud to be white" into "happy to be white"? Does it really sound that different?

I have no problem admitting that I'm happy to be white. While I regret the social truth, the fact is that is has served as an advantage. Like being tall. Like being male. Like being smart.

I'm happy to be all these things. And while I'm not proud of any of them, I'm proud of what I've made of them.

makc wrote:In this interpretation, at least your parents can be proud of these things, because they did have certain degree of control over it.

Really? How does that work? Your parents said "Lets make a tall human this time, and the next time we'll make a short one"? I don't see how parents have any control at all over the characteristics of their children. Even if they selected each other as partners based purely on genetic characteristics (and who does that?), they still have no real control over what sort of offspring they end up with.

How about a change of pace? Like, say, a cardboard bike? A cardboard bike
http://rethinkisrael.org/the-cardboard- ... ke_Article

makc wrote:

owlice wrote:I like being tall, but I had no input into becoming tall. Ditto eye color and other genetic traits. Pride is for accomplishments, things done or achieved.

In this interpretation, at least your parents can be proud of these things, because they did have certain degree of control over it.

No, they couldn't. They had NO control over my height (though I'm tall, I'm the "runt of the litter," as an exhusband teasingly tells me), nor my eye color (they couldn't be anything other than the color they are), nor my hair color (lighter than either of my parents').

I'm sure there are people who are "proud" of such things, things they had nothing to do with and could not help nor affect; people can be foolish about all kinds of things, including eye color and height, but then, they are fools.

Speaking of genetics and heredity, everyone has two biological parents, four grand parents, eight great grandparents, etc, etc. Assuming an average generation length of 30 years, one need go back no further than 1000 years, before one's ancestors alive at that time, outnumber the current population of the Earth. What does this mean exactly? From a genetic point of view, are humans just an inbred genetic soup?

Nitpicker wrote:Speaking of genetics and heredity, everyone has two biological parents, four grand parents, eight great grandparents, etc, etc. Assuming an average generation length of 30 years, one need go back no further than 1000 years, before one's ancestors alive at that time, outnumbered the current population of the Earth. What does this mean exactly? From a genetic point of view, are humans just an inbred genetic soup?

Yes, although it's not a uniform soup because of regional isolation.

Although the soup is slowly becoming more uniform, we are sadly still at a point where claims are rife, of one part of the soup being better than another part. I wonder if nature will finish the soup before this changes?