H0n3sty's comments

True that it's not required, but I suspect that when a child is in physical contact with its mother during nursing their are other benefits. For instance, the release of beneficial hormones during this type of bonding is well documented. Do you know of any studies on the impacts of bottle feeding breast milk vs nursing? (hoping I don't sound oppressive)

evopsych - psychological traits are evolved adaptations

phrenology - the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities

My previous post was based on information from a recent study on Y-DNA which indicates a high differential in reproductive rate between men and women, with men reproducing at a much lower rate. This of course means that reproductive competition is much higher amongst men (at least in terms of successful reproduction) and might have lead to the aggressive pruning that we see in the y-chromosome. I'm also aware that competition has a heavy influence on evolution and that the sex chromosomes are not really isolated to gender specific anatomy.

Here's that study: http://genome.cshlp.org/content/25/4/459.full

I found another study (link below) on differences in personality traits across genders and culture. The authors found gender differences to be most pronounced in cultures that minimize traditional sex roles. Does this study fit your criteria?

http://www.cin.ufpe.br/~ssj/Genderdifferences%20in%20persona...

With respect to phrenology, I'm aware of studies linking brain size to intelligence. The meta-analysis (linked below) confirms this and actually notes a higher correlation among women.

http://www.govrel.vcu.edu//news/Releases/2005/june/McDaniel-...

From your previous post, I'm guessing you might have reason to discard this type of study. Could you please elaborate and share your thoughts?

> without regard to their race, creed, color...

Affirmative action does the very thing it purports to ensure against, by discriminating on the bases of race.

If you believe that one race is inferior in some way and cannot compete on a level playing field then you may feel that affirmative action is necessary to give them a greater advantage. You mentioned circumstances which basically form an inferiority from past accrued disadvantage (I know you called it disadvantage of circumstance, but try to follow me for a moment). This doesn't seem to be the case with affirmative action admissions programs because they lower the bar for Blacks and raise the bar for Asians. Sure Blacks, were treated worst than Asians throughout most of American history, but Whites were not treated better than Asians.

Often the greatest beneficiaries of these programs are not native born African Americans, but recent African immigrants whose ancestors were not enslaved in the US, and not subject to past discrimination and segregation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/nyregion/long-island-high-...

http://nypost.com/2015/04/05/meet-the-student-accepted-into-...

Incidentally, the two cases above would make good counterpoints to the idea of racial intellectual inferiority regardless of affirmative action and would likely have been able to gain admissions to a top university without it. But the unfortunate consequence of affirmative action is that many people will assume it is all because of their special treatment. Clarence Thomas had much more difficult obstacles to overcome, and he was subjected to this unfortunate assumption after graduating from law school.

I think the real intention of affirmative action is to achieve more equal outcomes across racial divides. I think that's a good objective. But I also think this is a policy that sounds much better than it actually works. If we're to have more equal outcomes, then we need more equal opportunities and we need an end to all forms of discrimination.

You're probably right about the labels but certainly wrong about the accuracy (thanks for the tip).

I'm not sure why some races perform better at some tasks, on average. I think that Blacks are faster sprinters than Asians, on average. I think that Asians have a higher preference for education than Blacks, on average. I think that the physical characteristics that we describe as races are shaped by evolutionary pressures. Darker skin is likely an adaptation for living closer to the equator. Blacks can probably withstand more direct sun exposure than Whites before developing skin cancer. None of this makes one race superior to another outside the narrow scope of the adaptive characteristic, and even then you only see the differences on average.

I suspect that the lower turnout of women in tech has more to do with preferences around work/life balance and family. But I wouldn't rule out other possible explanations. I've witnessed a few emotional breakdowns at work, but never from men. Which is fortunate because it seems that when men snap they go postal, on average.

> I disagree with a SCOTUS Justice who happens to be black

I like how you phrased that. Much more civil. Do you like George Carlin :D? -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRoOOm0-3_8

the belief that "ALL" members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

The belief that races may be different in average ability with respect to certain characteristics or that members of certain races have their own preferences is not racist. Some people like to use the term racist as some sort of a perverted trump card to silence an opposing view rather than engaging in an actual debate. Good luck trying to have a civil conversation with someone like that.

I hope your dislike of Justice Thomas is just because you don't agree with his politics. I think your use of profanity is inappropriate regardless of your reasoning.

Perhaps you would like economist Thomas Sowell better. Or perhaps you're unwilling to give honest consideration to other views.

If there's a technology you really like working with, then you might want to look on meetup.com to see if you can find some like minded people and look for an opportunity to present something. Some of the meetup.com groups discriminate based on gender or race, but the vast majority do not and are very welcoming :)

http://www.businessinsider.com/diversity-guru-discusses-whit...

Affirmative action does not help the groups it is directed towards, it simply handicaps them further by preventing them from being properly matched to their level or ability.

Clarence Thomas recently wrote about this in detail... Slaveholders argued that slavery was a ‘positive good’ that civilized blacks and elevated them in every dimension of life. A century later, segregationists similarly asserted that segregation was not only benign, but good for black students. Although cloaked in good intentions, the University’s racial tinkering harms the very people it claims to be helping

If you'd like to learn about the unfortunate real outcomes of affirmative action then I strongly recommend researching Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell.

Discrimination like this should be illegal.

It would also be very interesting to see how productivity changes with respect to demographic factors.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-26/merkel-con...

Trending happens regardless of political view. If they're manually suppressing views which don't align with FB management then users should be made aware of this.