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KristoffWixenschon

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Everything posted by KristoffWixenschon

  1. I hate wasting time on bad tv, so i try to do a pretty thorough check before I start a new series. However, I was pretty disappointed with the show Imposters. Its about a female con artist. It had a pretty strong first episode and great rotten tomato scores, which hooked me a little. The acting was so bad that I couldn't finish the first season. It's definitely not "the worst" show I've seen, but it's the one in recent memory that was a huge disappointment.
  2. What a sensational headline, eh? We live in the age of MSNBC/Fox News clickbait headlines.
  3. I think everyone handled this perfectly. The player quietly declined but was allowed to live in accordance with his values. The team did not have to showcase a player during practice that was visually opposed in support of LGBT issues.
  4. Agreed. There will always be social repercussions for having beliefs that go against the cultural norm. He will undoubtedly lose out on future sponsors, not be selected for leadership opportunities within the team, not be selected for future coaching opportunities, etc. There are consequences to having garbage opinions, but those consequences should always be decided on the social marketplace. Nobody should ever be forced into supporting something they do not agree with.
  5. I wonder if team management preferred that he didn't attend, rather than showing up and being a very visual symbol of non-support for LGBT awareness.
  6. He's choosing to exercise his right of free expression in a sport and country that supports free expression. He has a garbage perspective but we can't force opinions on people. He has the right to refuse, even if I don't agree with him. That's what makes the "west" truly free.
  7. I dont know much about the Jeremiah Johnson story. Is he much more developed than other 12 year old athletes (besides his moustache and middle aged man face)? But you ask a really interesting question: where to draw the line? Where do we draw the line to make sport as fair as possible? I think we can ask 100 different people and get 100 slightly different answers. That makes it an interesting question.
  8. Yeah! That's a great question! All human culture is made up and kind of arbitrary to begin with. All sporting rules are all made up too. So that leads us to your question: if it's all made up anyway, why is some variability in biology acceptable, but other variability is not? (I'm paraphrasing, forgive me) It's a really, really interesting question. Everyone is comfortable with some amount of biological variability in sport. But everyone also has a line where they think too much variability is unfair. And that line is different for everyone. I think people are uncomfortable with the biological discrepancy between males and females in competition because the degree of variability is greater. Basically, elite men are always stronger and faster than elite women. You rightly pointed out that height, wealth, and opportunity create discrepancy as well. But... I feel really comfortable in saying that the discrepancy caused by height, wealth or opportunity is not as great as the discrepancy caused by sex. I feel comfortable saying that because we see short men who can become some of the best in the world. We see poor men who become great. We see men who had suboptimal early childhoods who can become dominant. But we've never seen a female enter a male league and dominate. So the degree of variability is higher between sexes. Does that mean we should draw the line at sex? Maybe. But maybe not! We all draw the line in a different place. Personally I lean towards having separate leagues for males and females, as you can tell. I think one can make a good argument that the variability in biological traits is great enough to necessitate different leagues. As for the other discrepancies in height, wealth, opportunity you mentioned.. is the variability great enough to necessitate different leagues? Great question, all the rules are made up anyway.
  9. Maybe I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but I maintain not everyone can become incredibly muscular. Genetics are too variable. Some men and women are not designed to put on mass. But anyways, you are making an argument that men have variability in strength and speed amongst themselves, within their sex. As do women, have variability within the sex. And this is true! But the variability between elite men and elite women is MUCH higher than the variability between small elite men and large elite men. It just doesnt matter how hard Brittney Griner works. She can never be Lebron. Serena Williams could never be Nadal. Hayley Wickenhiser couldnt exercise enough to crack an NHL roster. Despite being the same size, Amanda Nunes would lose to Max Holloway every time. So the question of fairness is due to the degree of variability between sexes. A more interesting question is where individuals draw the line for the amount of variability they are willing to accept as fair. You are postulating that considering sizes within sexes should be considered to make sports extra fair. Most people consider separation of sexes in sport to be fair. And some people consider separation of gender to be fair. It's an interesting question, with a complicated non answer.
  10. None of this is true, unfortunately. Not any person can become a "muscular behemoth". The acknowledged problem is that most transgender women have a different body chemistry and structure than biological females. Asking biological women to "work harder" is a little hurtful and kind of insensitive, which is out of character for you. I'm talking about women at the pinnacle of their sport. We need to tell them to just work harder than the limits of their biology?
  11. There are size categories in combat sports. In team sports, smaller men compensate with speed and agility. The average person who went through puberty as a male will be stronger and faster than the average person who went through puberty as a female. Of course there is variability. There are many women on the planet who could beat the hell out of many men in their chosen sport. But when you look at elite women vs elite men, men easily dominate in any sport involving speed and strength, except maybe ultra marathoners. It's a really complicated issue. It can become an issue of perceived fairness and equality. I dont know how to come to a correct answer that works for everyone here. On the one hand, you are correct. By not allowing transgender women to compete with biological women, we do some harm by not affirming that person's stated gender. On the other hand, transgender women have an undeniable likelihood to be naturally stronger and faster than biological women. I can understand how biological women that are hoping for college scholarships or Olympic sponsorships would be upset by transgender inclusion. So we also do some harm to biological women here. Both sides seem correct here. It's interesting to see where people's individual sense of morality and fairness falls in this discussion. Either way you lean, somebody is feeling like they are being cheated out of the thing they care about most in the world.
  12. I disagree. Transgender people are just people. People like to play sports. They need a space to play and compete in their favourite thing. But it is true that a trans woman has unfair biological competitive advantages over someone who was born female. It doesnt make sense to have trans women in female sport. That's unfair. But we absolutely need to promote and support trans women and men in athletics. I would love to see financial support for transgender leagues for team or contact sports. And for individual non-contact sports, keep competing against whoever you want. But just make sure the scholarships, world records and prize money isnt being taken away from biological females. In fact, fund separate scholarships or professional prize money for transgender athletes.
  13. It could impact scholarships at the college level and prize money at the professional level. It could also mean the difference to making an Olympic team or being cut. Those are pretty real consequences.
  14. Does anyone know which rule Bettman is enforcing? I dont know enough about NHL policy. I dont disagree with the decision. I'm curious if the kid has the ability to file a grievance.
  15. Absolutely true! I'm just saying we don't know what is in this kid's heart. I hope its deep regret and compassion. Maybe it's not. And that would be awful.
  16. Absolutely disgusting. Where were Millers parents for all this? Clearly the kid had no moral direction from his family.
  17. Sure. Teammates, or ex girlfriends, servers, people in his circle... it always comes out eventually. Maybe he doesnt deserve a second chance. Thats possible. Maybe he does. What could he do to redeem himself (in your perspective)?
  18. You're not wrong! (Except the part about 14 year olds understanding the consequences of their behaviour on other people. They dont. They are in the process of learning this, but they do not understand it.) But yeah, obviously a false apology for the sake of public relations would be awful. And yes, a sincere apology is ideal. Ideally, the perpetrator learns how they impacted the victim, feels deep regret and compassion, truly integrate that experience and never have that behaviour again. We just dont know if this is the case here. It may be. He may be absolutely genuine. Or maybe the kid is a dirt ball for life. I dont know. Neither do you. I just think its wild how many people are willing to completely write off a kid for a situation they know nothing about.
  19. Its obviously disgusting behaviour. Also, teenagers are idiots. They follow their peers' influence and they are incapable of thinking through their actions. This kid is not beyond redemption. We cant be willing to completely write somebody off because of disgusting behaviour they once had when they were a teenager. If someone is sincere, they are worth forgiveness.
  20. There is such massive change in social development between the age he was then and the age he is now. He may be truly horrified at the actions of his younger self (as most of us are!). None of us know. We can only speculate. Most people mature over time. There is certainly societal value in accepting a genuine apology. It will be interesting to follow his story now that hes back in the spotlight.
  21. I'm glad that I'm not eternally judged for every awful thing I did when I was a stupid kid. I hope that was a huge life lesson for him and he has truly grown as a human being. We need to accept that people do grow over time. That being said, now I want to go YouTube some interviews of the kid.
  22. I dont know how Canada stacks up to other nations in corporate r&d, or federal grant funded r&d for that matter. It would be interesting to read more about that. It's sad how much manufacturing has left North America. That is a giant part of why we are seeing a declining middle class while corporate profits are higher than ever. But yeah I guess now I'm getting off topic too.
  23. That's true! There is an incentive to create a product in corporate research. They rarely do research for the sake of theoretical interest. I'm glad there is a mix of corporate, government and charitable donation based research. But this is interesting: https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/oecd-science-technology-and-industry-scoreboard-2015/science-and-innovation-today_sti_scoreboard-2015-6-en#page18 According to this, the top 250 private companies that spend the most on r&d, account for 70% of the global expenditure on r&d. 55% of those top 250 companies are based out of the US or Japan.
  24. Kind of. Research generation comes from both universities and the massive R&D departments of private companies. But we have to remember that university researchers dont only rely on federal grant money to fund research. A large amount of research is funded by corporations themselves, through the university.
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