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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   6148 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 21, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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More sports ones:

  • Major League Baseball deliberately juiced the ball starting in the 1990s to increase offense

  • NBA referees can easily swing a game by 20 points. Michael Jordan was given preferential treatment by the refs that was tantamount to ensuring victory. Take a look at how officiating changes in the last couple of years have corresponded with James Harden's falloff as a scorer.

Related to MLB in the 90s, Jose Canseco and the Oakland As.

Sometimes I wonder how much of early Sabermetrics was a way to identify and sign new juicers in a way that preserved plausible deniability for ownership.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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