Ah, but race is a thing. It’s just a cultural thing, rather than a genetic thing.
“Know thyself” is definitely something more people should consider.
He really seems like a good egg. May he last a thousand years.
Or at least, his writing.
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Well, I never! Except what’s been pre-processed for me, which I have no control over. Wag wag tongue
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I’m not sure what that article’s trying to say. It points out that phenotype is a fair predictor of ancestry (which is not in dispute) and that people commonly identify themselves and others by phenotypically implied ancestry (also not in dispute, as long as we remember that’s not the only way people identify people).
And it says this:
But racial categories, like film categories, aren’t immutable essences that perfectly sort humans into distinct groups. There aren’t a fixed number of racial categories, and the number researchers use is partially a matter of convenience… These categories aren’t real in some metaphysical sense, but they are useful, and they do have predictive value.
If “race” meant nothing more than all this, it would be an unobjectionable concept.
But it doesn’t. The whole point of the idea of race is that it is supposed to be an essential, immutable characteristic of a human being. It allows, indeed encourages, such pernicious nonsense as miscegenation laws and the one-drop rule. It permitted the horrors of antisemitism by enabling Jews to be regarded as a separate race, despite the fact that, say, British Jews look British and Ethiopian Jews look Ethiopian. It led to the Irish, despite centuries of shared history, a largely common ancestry and separation by maybe 30 miles of sea, being treated by the English as subhuman.
And as @Melz2 pointed out above, it has always helped the rich control the poor by persuading them that they had a greater common interest with those with whom they shared a skin tone than with those with whom they shared an economic status.
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So, Mr. Smart Scientist Guy, if there’s no such thing as race, why do I hate those people so much? Now who’s the dummy?!
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Just FTR:
Nope, I don’t think so: the brackets should include the publication date.
I might be wrong, since I don’t breath the code - I’m a botanist, after all. But I think I’m right. I’m on mobile, so I can’t check your friend Earl’s thoughts on that, but I’m pretty confident. 
I take your point but I think there are better examples in our history. Tasmanian Aboriginal people were isolated for 10000 years when the land bridge across bass strait closed. They are now the most interbred aboriginal population in Australia. There is nothing in the laws of physics which prevents a one day transit between Earth and Mars, with a constant boost. I suspect that once we have colonies on Mars, transportation technology will improve to make commuting feasible.
There is nothing in the laws of physics which prevents a one day transit between Earth and Mars, with a constant boost.
Except the wrinkle of people not wanting to be turned into spam on both acceleration and deceleration. 
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I said:
But thanks for not reading what I have to say.
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Lissen, we’ll work to push out the minimum viable product, and then fix all the bugs/move to a more sustainable platform later.
/dotcom
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I make it six days for Earth to Mars at 1g, assuming the distance is 2.5AU, which is the maximum possible. Its more than my guesstimate of 1 day, but you wouldn’t have to go that far most of the time.
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I like this game. “The Distinction between X and Y is a social concept. There is no difference between X and Y if we ignore all the obvious ways X and Y differ”. A variation on No True Scotsman:
- The distinction between plants and animals is a social construct. There is more variability within plants than between plants and animals (whatever that means).
- Insects are not a thing. There is more variability within insects than the entire rest of the animal kingdom.
- There is no real distinction between democrats and republicans. They agree on more than they disagree with (like we shouldn’t have murder, and crime should be punished, and there should be speed limits, and food products should be safe, etc.)
*There is no distinction between country music and rock & roll. They are the same music and chord progressions–one just has cowboy hats ***
(***metaphor might break down here)
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I wish my employers’s clients would work that way. Every project turns into a stream of last minute features. Then the project dies and goes nowhere.
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From the perspective of a European leftie, that doesn’t have the rhetorical impact you might hope for.
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it’s not mansplaining, is a homage!
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Domestic dog breeds are purposely bred to look different/ have different traits. And yet they are still the same species.
Humans have unequivocally been one of the least isolated species, we love to wander and share. The exact opposite of what makes a species split.
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I found this absolutely fascinating, some of the newest data on ancient genetic, archaeological, and linguistic patterns tracing migration patterns.
From the perspective of a European leftie, that doesn’t have the rhetorical impact you might hope for.
ETA: How did I manage to double-post? Apologies.
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