May 12, 2014

Apologies for posting my old articles ...

With the current discussion of the merits of the human biodiversity perspective that suggests that nature, as well as nurture, can often play a role in human affairs, there have been a number of assertions that this kind of thinking is obviously crude, unsophisticated, ignorant, and fallacious. These characterizations, though, tend to be lack links to examples. 

So, I've been posting on my blog some of my old articles as examples of what human biodiversity awareness can contribute. By putting them on my blog, I make them easy to share via social media. For example, below is my 1997 "Track and Battlefield" article in National Review that has largely succeeded in changing the conventional wisdom to reject the once popular idea that women would someday equal men in most sports. Please note that to demonstrate that, I had to explain the racial patterns seen in running, as well as deal with the non-genetic human biodiversity question of the impact of steroids.

This article is now 17-years-old and ought to remain a model for how to disentangle the effects of nature and nurture.
    

16 comments:

Douglas Knight said...

Speaking of old articles, what is the origin of the phrase "human biodiversity"? Jonathan Marks published a book with that title in 1995. Did he invent it? When did you start using it?

Anonymous said...

Of women's sports in particular, about three years ago sports columnist for Foxsports Ben Haller made mention that women's sports in general and women's soccer in particular has a steroids problem and it is starting at younger ages than ever before.

In 2012 right before the London Olympics, US Women's Soccer goalie Hope Solo tested positive for a banned substance, making her the first American women's soccer player to fail a drug test.

One has to wonder because a few years before, she had injured her shoulder and needed extensive surgery. The world cup may not be as stringent as the world doping agency employed by the Olympics and while not facing relatively lax for the World Cup probably forgot that she'd face more stringent testing for the Olympics.

Nothing was done though and the US won the gold.

But for those who think that its mainly men athletes who cheat via PEDS, guess again. Like the men, the starting age for PED usage is getting younger all the time. After all, the stakes are higher than ever before.

Steve Sailer said...

Yes, anthropologist Jonathan Marks published a book entitled "Human Biodiversity" in late 1995, predating any use by me of the term. As far as I can tell, he was the first person in history to use the term.

I independently came up with the term later in the 1990s. I used Alta Vista to search for any earlier uses and found his book. I've always given Marks credit for originating the term, such as here:

https://www.vdare.com/articles/can-hbd-trump-pc-steve-sailers-address-to-the-hl-mencken-club

Steve Sailer said...

Edward O. Wilson had been effectively publicizing the word "biodiversity" throughout the 1990s, so it was inevitable that one or more individuals would eventually stick "human" in front of "biodiversity."

Anonymous said...

Sailer, a man of excess humility and excess pride.

He apologizes for posting an old article but then says it's the model for all such writings.

Anonymous said...

Minor errata:

"tend to be lack links to examples."

Anonymous said...

It is actually a wonderful article...

Anonymous said...

Steve, in your article toward the concluding paragraph you somewhat "missed" calling it on Marion Jones, one of the biggest all time PED users.

1.You should read the book Game of Shadows, where it breaks down the BALCO lab and its direct connection to Barry Bonds, Giambi, Marion Jones as well as other Olympians in general.

2. Another track and field event where white women tend to do well and give black women some heady competition is in the hurdles. Sally Pearson from Australia is the '12 Games Gold Medalist. Generally whites tend to do well vs blacks in hurdles of both genders perhaps because the runner doesn't run in a straight (or oval shaped) line but must jump over obstacles of 3' high. Perhaps this obstacles evens the genetic playing field and gives whites a chance to pull even in the event.

Steve Sailer said...

I'm apologizing to my regular readers who have seen me link to it dozens of times before.

I worked on the database behind it obsessively throughout 1997 when I was fighting cancer. The odds were pretty high it would be the last article I'd ever write, and I wanted to leave behind something that could serve as a model for how my way of thinking about human biodiversity could solve intellectual quandaries.

Anonymous said...

Education Realist on the lack of diversity in franchising etc

I wonder who will shine a light on that area?

Anonymous said...

Steve Sailer now has a page on RationalWiki,http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Steve_Sailer.

Oswald Spengler said...

RationalWiki should be renamed "Angry SWPL Goodthinker Wiki."

Anonymous said...

Ripping off The Noo Jok Times and a few other respected media outlets by running the same story?

Wadda ya think ya r a jornalist?

Anonymous said...

"Angry SWPL Goodthinker Wiki" made me laugh!
Until i saw that rationalwiki site is a registered charity with 501c3 status, accepting tax deductible donations through Paypal. They publish pure venom. Go figure.

eah said...

Mr Sailer,

Thanks for your work. You don't have to apologize.

Anonymous said...

That rationalwiki page about Sailer is disingenuous garbage, like everything else on that site.

It's unfortunate that smart college kids are indoctrinated into this loser mentality...what other bloggers have called "The Cathedral" or the "Hivemind."

This is from an old post on the Heartiste blog:

What is the “Cathedral”? It’s high time Le Chateau gave credit where it’s due, to a one Mr. M. Moldbug. In shortened form, the Cathedral is the sum total of the American entertainment, media, academic and government industrial complexes, staffed, led, and filled out to brimming by hordes upon hordes of self-annihilating, snarky leftoids propagandizing their infinite lies to their masters in the belching hells.