The Birth Lottery

8 years ago

True - where you are born and the gene pool you sprout from can be a gift.

Still up to you to do something with what you have.

Even if you are born with natural talent in sports or music or whatever....it won't amount to much if you don't work to turn that talent into a skill.

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TLTheLiberator

8 years ago

And there are a whole lot of sperm cells also competing to fertilize that egg.

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BigFrank Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

And there are a whole lot of sperm cells also competing to fertilize that egg.

True, but hopefully from a single donor.

Cheers. - Frank
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lanfear63 8 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

And there are a whole lot of sperm cells also competing to fertilize that egg.

Interesting medical fact: The sperms that were swimming to fertilize the egg that was to become Claude were the only ones ever seen doing the back stroke.
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Princess Balestra

8 years ago

Does the egg get a say here?

It is not her fault she mebbe hangin' around at the back while alla the sportier eggs go bouncin' round the gestatory tubin' in search of peenifish.

Mebbe she is a reader or a daydreamer, waitin' for better things.

Mebbe she has strict boundaries regardin' penetration on account of a super-thick exterior handed down to her by genetic accident.

But, yeah — mebbe she is so big an' fat she jus' got stuck in the tube tryin' to find pants that don't make her ass look like she was a frickin' hippo.

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TLTheLiberator

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Princess Balestra

Does the egg get a say here?

It is not her fault she mebbe hangin' around at the back while alla the sportier eggs go bouncin' round the gestatory tubin' in search of peenifish.

Mebbe she is a reader or a daydreamer, waitin' for better things.

Mebbe she has strict boundaries regardin' penetration on account of a super-thick exterior handed down to her by genetic accident.

But, yeah — mebbe she is so big an' fat she jus' got stuck in the tube tryin' to find pants that don't make her ass look like she was a frickin' hippo.

Does the egg have anything to say about which sperm enters it to fertilize it?

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BigFrank Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

Does the egg have anything to say about which sperm enters it to fertilize it?

Actually, there is scientific debate on this topic, with more than one scenario possibly determining which wiggler is actually allowed to be first to score a goal.

Sorry, it's the middle of hockey season. I'm all aflutter.

Cheers. - Frank
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Princess Balestra

8 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

Does the egg have anything to say about which sperm enters it to fertilize it?

I appreciate the subtlety of your question, an' in my 2nd mebbe I alluded to the potential variety within egg cell walls that may make some eggs harder to penetrate than others.

Does the egg choose?

Mebbe not, but in this regard, she is no less conscious than the sperm, I guess.

I jus' checked Google for any research into this area, but best I found was sumthin' from the University of East Anglia sayin' how eggs got a mechanism for distinguishin' the sperm of fellow species from that of other beasts.

Leastaways, that's how it works for salmon an' trout, but only under certain circumstances.

https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/media-ro...he-right-sperm

Hoomans climbed higher up the vertebral tree than these critters, but you gotta figure on the possibility for sumthin' similar goin' on with people eggs.

Originally Posted by BigFrank

Stay tuned. It's early and I'm not even fully awake. The best is yet to come. :-)

Cheers. - Frank

Excitement!

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David Beroff

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Princess Balestra

...best I found was sumthin' from the University of East Anglia sayin' how eggs got a mechanism for distinguishin' the sperm of fellow species from that of other beasts.

Not entirely sure I want to know how they conducted that particular study!

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Princess Balestra 8 years ago

Originally Posted by David Beroff

Not entirely sure I want to know how they conducted that particular study!

They had fish, they had a lake, they had wetsuits.
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- David Beroff 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Princess Balestra
  
  They had fish, they had a lake, they had wetsuits.
  
  That's an excellent first sentence to a great short story!
  
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  Princess Balestra 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by David Beroff
  
  That's an excellent first sentence to a great short story!
  
  Mebbe flash fiction...
  
  They had fish, they had a lake, they had wetsuits.
  
  Now all the team from Aquabeest Inc had to do was lure the behemoth to their submersible without being eaten alive.
  
  Janey swam out to the bait pod, clutching a shark's head to her rubbery bosom.
  
  Al's voice buzzed inside her helmet. "Make the drop quick. We got a shadow on the sonar."
  
  "I hear ya," said Janey — but before she could push the shark head onto the hook, a tentacle thrashed from the darkness and coiled tight round her waist.
  
  "Janey!" cried Al, "Just keep breathing! I'm sending Marty to get you!"
  
  Janey blinked to blot out the engulfing murk. Flashes of submersible blinked back like a cryptic code. As she span, breath crackling from her limp body, a shimmer of steely blue streaked into the whirlpool blackness.
  
  "Stay safe, stay clean, stay healthy," chirped Marty, flushing his robotic penguin flippers with a cephalopod-style display of strobe light. "A clean submersible is a happy submersible, so let's keep the germs at bay."
  
  Rotating scrub brushes sprang from Marty's underside to beat the tentacle back into the depths with their abrasive bravado — and three sharp squirts of anti-bacterial detergent.
  
  Janey's voice sang with joy. "Oh, Marty — you've saved us again, you cute little bird."
  
  "Sure glad we brought him along instead of the pool table," said Al. "He may be a standard cleaning droid, but he's an asset to every behemoth-busting underwater mission. I'm more than happy to tolerate his irritating squawks."
  
  As Al hugged Janey safe and close, Marty rolled a metallic eye into an ironic wink. "Ha ha ha, Captain Al. You are such a sarcastic f*cker!"
  
  Return soon for more underwater danger with
  
  AQUABEEST INC.
  "Two total losers an' a stoopid metal penguin"
  
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- agc 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Princess Balestra
  
  They had fish, they had a lake, they had wetsuits.
  
  But they couldn't borrow a boat. The end.
  
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Kurt 8 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

Does the egg have anything to say about which sperm enters it to fertilize it?

Obviously NO, judging by Claude's existence.
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Dennis Gaskill

8 years ago

I don't disagree with what you said, agc, but it's also true that life is opportunity and we do deserve credit for what we've done -- even if that only means we didn't screw things up.

Trouble is, we tend to judge others by our own reality, and that leads to false conclusions about them. Someone who could "look" like the biggest loser in the world may have overcome more than we ever will. We don't know what battles they have fought and won...or lost. We don't know what mental, emotional (and spiritual if you think that way) resources they have to work with. In their shoes, any of us might have done far less.

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BigFrank Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill

Someone who could "look" like the biggest loser in the world may have overcome more than we ever well.

Thanks, Dennis. It's nice to be acknowledged. :-)

Cheers. - Frank
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- Princess Balestra 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by BigFrank
  
  Thanks, Dennis. It's nice to be acknowledged. :-)
  
  Cheers. - Frank
  
  Ha!
  
  You are on a roll today.
  
  Thanks
  
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  BigFrank Banned 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Princess Balestra
  
  Ha!
  
  You are on a roll today.
  
  Stay tuned. It's early and I'm not even fully awake. The best is yet to come. :-)
  
  Cheers. - Frank
  
  Thanks
  
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Princess Balestra

8 years ago

Thanks Dennis.

It is worth bearin' in mind also the virtue of thoughts in the face of barbarism an' cruelty that are never carried over into actions 'done'.

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seasoned

8 years ago

I wouldn't necessarily call THIS, or IQ, etc... a genetic lottery. Take intelligence, for example. A lot of arguments have been made about nature vs. nurture. MY position here is IT IS BOTH!

If you are exposed in your X to careless people with a dearth of information, you may seem pretty dumb even if your genes could have produced something far better. The OPPOSITE is also quite true.

So what about weight and being fit? Well, there are various hormones and metabolic variances that can be, at least partially, genetic. As you get older,this also wanes. There are relationships that affect this ALSO. This could be partially genetic, but look at the age variances. It turns out that young kids have higher pulses and that is likely to help them compensate for this. Also, if some appendage is somehow damaged, it could greatly change your metabolism. If a leg is damaged, you may never even TRY to walk.

And what if your parents have workout equipment, or you really get interested(I mean seriously, as a participant) in sports? You will end up gaining fat at a lower rate.

Steve

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Floyd Fisher

8 years ago

Originally Posted by agc

Yanked from another thread, but I think the point is bigger than just that thread.

I find it interesting that people who won the lottery of birth, seldom appreciate how lucky they got and usually feel like they somehow earned it.

Born in America and get to make twice as much for working half as hard as the rest of the world? Hey man, I earned that.

Born with the tall gene?Born with the attractive gene? Ugly people should try harder to take better care of themselves and dress better so they look better.Born with the smart gene? Hey man, I earned that. Losers cause their own problems. (While generally true, they also didn't ASK to be born with an 85 IQ).

Born with all of the above Mr Quarterback? Hey man, I earned that.

Born with the skinny gene? I earned that, Fat people are lazy.

It sure would be nice if everyone appreciated the fact that they earned none of what they were born with.

(sigh. never gonna happen. ok, we now return you to your scheduled helping of reality).

Do you know how many business owners work 80 hours a week in the US? A lot.

Do you really think a tall attractive person is going to continue looking that way if they party all night, smoke two pack of cigarettes a day, and eat Cheetos by the 55 gallon drum full?

Have you ever tried actually going to college? A high IQ helps, but a lot of these schools still require you to work your ass off.

Tell me something....have you ever asked one of these NFL quarterbacks you're so jealous of how many nights they spent in film rooms instead of partying it up in the offseason?

I stopped exercising for 15 years, and am now paying the price with high blood pressure, and god knows what the hell else. Oh, and I weighted 117 lbs as a teenager. Skinny genes my ass, I'm now 20 lbs overweight as I type this.

How about instead of being jealous of everyone else has you wish you could have, how about instead focus on the things they have you don't want instead?

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agc

8 years ago

Thank you for a) proving my point. And.....

b) proving my point.

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

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agc 8 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

huh?

wtf are you even on about?
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yetitrailadventure

8 years ago

Cheers

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agc

8 years ago

Seen today on Bloomberg financial news.

The Odds of Becoming a Millionaire

And of course, those numbers are "only in America"

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seasoned

8 years ago

Originally Posted by agc

Seen today on Bloomberg financial news.

The Odds of Becoming a Millionaire

And of course, those numbers are "only in America"

Why is th federal reserve even doing such a study? HOW did they do such a study? And YEP! Most countries are more homogenous, or don't talk about such things. You're not going to see a lot of studies like this. From the CIA fact book:

US: white 79.96%, black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%, two or more races 1.61% (July 2007 estimate)

GERMANY: German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish)

DENMARK Scandinavian, Inuit, Faroese, German, Turkish, Iranian, Somali

FRANCE: They get more vague: Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese, Basque minorities

SPAIN: composite of Mediterranean and Nordic types

MEXICO: mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 62%, predominantly Amerindian 21%, Amerindian 7%, other 10% (mostly European)

CANADA Canadian 32.2%, English 19.8%, French 15.5%, Scottish 14.4%, Irish 13.8%, German 9.8%, Italian 4.5%, Chinese 4.5%, North American Indian 4.2%, other 50.9%

AUSTRALIA: English 25.9%, Australian 25.4%, Irish 7.5%, Scottish 6.4%, Italian 3.3%, German 3.2%, Chinese 3.1%, Indian 1.4%, Greek 1.4%, Dutch 1.2%, other 15.8% (includes Australian aboriginal .5%), unspecified 5.4%

ETHIOPIA: Oromo 34.4%, Amhara (Amara) 27%, Somali (Somalie) 6.2%, Tigray (Tigrinya) 6.1%, Sidama 4%, Gurage 2.5%, Welaita 2.3%, Hadiya 1.7%, Afar (Affar) 1.7%, Gamo 1.5%, Gedeo 1.3%, Silte 1.3%, Kefficho 1.2%, other 10.5% (2007 est.)

You see a pattern? They tend to be mostly white, or mostly black, and don't even point it out. The ONLY country using such terms is the US. Do the claims of racism exist in the other places? YEP! But it only seems to get the real press in the US. MY GOD though! There are blacks in EVERY segment of society, and there are a number that are respected in their fields, etc... Some are REALLY well paid. Look at Oprah! She wanted her own network, so she bought one. This week, we had a holiday because of one, MLK. I even spoke once of the guy that created high german, luteranism, and brought much of Germany together, MARTIN LUTHER. One person "corrected" me and said "NO, it's martin luther KING"!

OH, and there are PLENTY of poor whites.

Is America Racist? - YouTube

Steve

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sconer

8 years ago

I'm not really understanding the opening post. He's mad because someone else made a valid point.

Only a very small percentage of overweight people have a medical issue that made them overweight. The majority of overweight people eat too much, eat the wrong foods, and/or don't exercise.

While some people might have what the OP called a "skinny gene" (more like a fast metabolism), that does not effect the overweight person. The overweight person is overweight due to his own choices, not other people's genes.

And I say this as someone who was overweight, worked hard to lose weight, and struggles everyday to keep the weight off. It was 100% my fault that I was overweight, I have no one else to blame.

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Kurt

8 years ago

Originally Posted by sconer

I'm not really understanding the opening post. He's mad because someone else made a valid point.

Only a very small percentage of overweight people have a medical issue that made them overweight. The majority of overweight people eat too much, eat the wrong foods, and/or don't exercise.

While some people might have what the OP called a "skinny gene" (more like a fast metabolism), that does not effect the overweight person. The overweight person is overweight due to his own choices, not other people's genes.

And I say this as someone who was overweight, worked hard to lose weight, and struggles everyday to keep the weight off. It was 100% my fault that I was overweight, I have no one else to blame.

Not to mention, the "fat gene" was probably a big advantage for the vast history of our species.

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lanfear63 8 years ago

They had fish, they had a lake, they had wetsuits...

What they did not have was a motive. They had a Whale of a time dredging up the bloated corpse of Claude Whitacre from the lake. A third crane had been brought in when the other two overheated. It was a Mammoth Tusk. Even more surprising was the coroner's report, that stated that the body had only been in the water for 4 hours and would have hardly swelled up at all.

Claude, despite his psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies would never hurt a fly.. said a passing feral black cat. He had no real enemies other than the evil Kurt, who had the perfect alibi in the shape of his 96 year old mother who suffered from chronic alzheimers. "He was at home with me" she said, "papering the landing..or papering something, i dunno, I never met him before". It was a sheer coincidence that the axe embedded in Claude's skull was the same make and model as in the collection Kurt had on his wall.

The police were baffled...

Someone else takes up the story....
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agc 8 years ago

Originally Posted by sconer

I'm not really understanding the opening post. He's mad because someone else made a valid point.

Where did someone else make a point in the OP? Where did I express anger in the OP?
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- sconer 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by agc
  
  Where did someone else make a point in the OP?
  
  In the quote that you embedded in the OP.
  
  Where did I express anger in the OP?
  
  Pretty much the entire thing.
  
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agc

8 years ago

Originally Posted by sconer

Only a very small percentage of overweight people have a medical issue that made them overweight. The majority of overweight people eat too much, eat the wrong foods, and/or don't exercise.

I agree. And I've posted nice pretty charts showing pretty much that. Please do try to keep up. Knocking down a single straw man doesn't fell an army.

So you're saying that someone born Black, in Camden NJ, With an IQ of 90, 5'2" tall, with a lazy eye and and a slightly slow metabolism... doesn't have just a wee bit more to overcome than a white, male (ironic that male adds to whiteness but also adds to blackness) with an IQ of 110 from a suburb with nice quiet schools, 6' tall, with an "aqualine nose" (I am so sick of that cliche from modern fiction), wavy blonde hair, a zippy metabolism and dashing good looks?

That because you, somehow, with all of your power and energy, managed to overcome eating too much, that you see no reason why the numbers should be so skewed against those people? Why, they are clearly just fat and lazy. No wonder they (over all, as a whole, although yeah sure an Oprah does come along every decade or so) get no where in life? Is that really your position?

Really?

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sconer

8 years ago

Originally Posted by agc

I agree. And I've posted nice pretty charts showing pretty much that. Please do try to keep up. Knocking down a single straw man doesn't fell an army.

So you're saying that someone born Black, in Camden NJ, With an IQ of 90, 5'2" tall, with a lazy eye and and a slightly slow metabolism... doesn't have just a wee bit more to overcome than a white, male (ironic that male adds to whiteness but also adds to blackness) with an IQ of 110 from a suburb with nice quiet schools, 6' tall, with an "aqualine nose" (I am so sick of that cliche from modern fiction), wavy blonde hair, a zippy metabolism and dashing good looks?

That because you, somehow, with all of your power and energy, managed to overcome eating too much, that you see no reason why the numbers should be so skewed against those people? Why, they are clearly just fat and lazy. No wonder they (over all, as a whole, although yeah sure an Oprah does come along every decade or so) get no where in life? Is that really your position?

Really?

In your last post you asked where you expressed anger in your post. The truth is that you are clearly angry in all of your posts. You are trying to be condescending towards me in this last post, but you are just making yourself look bad.

You made a statement in the OP, I refuted it. I never spoke about color or location. What I said was accurate. Nothing you said proved me wrong. You are just ranting now, mostly incoherent blabber about things I never even spoke about.

Oh, and linking to another one of your angry threads and telling me to "keep up" as if the members of this forum are supposed to study all of your words like you are some authority is a pretty damn silly and childish thing to do.

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agc

8 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

You see a pattern? They tend to be mostly white, or mostly black, and don't even point it out. The ONLY country using such terms is the US. Do the claims of racism exist in the other places? YEP! But it only seems to get the real press in the US. MY GOD though!

So your position is... what? That the darkies in America should shut up and take it up the economic a$$ like their better behaved brethren elsewhere do.

Got it.

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agc

8 years ago

Riiight. Carry on then.

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The Birth Lottery

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