The SUPERIORITY of MEN! Ahem, at least in Darts!

Classic Example Why Men are Soooo Wonderful!

Did my title grab your attention?

One of the fun things about genetic research is that we are beginning to reaffirm some of the thoughts commonly held not all that long ago… the fact that men and women are not clones of each other…. and viewing men and women as two distinct populations demonstrate many differences that can not be easily explained by the impact of the ‘environment’ or ‘societal’ expectations and training. Some of this stuff comes from our biology, like it or not.

Back to darts!

An interesting article in Human Nature Review makes some fun observations regarding , ” with no more data than that gleaned from a passing glance at your hands, a stranger might infer whether you are likely to have homosexual inclinations, are highly fertile, may eventually suffer from a heart attack or breast cancer, have musical aptitude or sporting prowess, and a suprisingly long list of other characteristics.”

Besides all of the above, here is the really really important stuff:

” Manning notes that the male digit ratio may be functional… thus increasing throwing accuracy.” He adds,” Today, this sex difference may be seen in male superiority in throwing darts.”

Nothing new here… we knew it all the time!

 Hmmm….Maybe that’s why I have to throw with the ‘crummy’ set of darts at home.

                       Typical Superior Dart Player... Male, of course!

Typical Superior Dart Player… Male of course.

Roger Freberg

Soccer: Give them 1 point for effort… but it’s not enough to keep me awake!

 Soccer only requires a ball

Americans have just never caught soccer fever or ‘World Cup” mania. This has lead some advocates to believe that this failure is due to some shortcoming in the American psyche rather than soccer’s lower sex appeal. Many cried over the failure of women’s professional soccer, but it’s demise wasn’t totally unexpected. Even today, there is a certain amount of drum beating to try to develop support for reintroducing U.S. professional women’s soccer, but unless they compete in the nude, it’s not likely to fare much better.

Soccer has a tough road to hoe in a country that invented or popularized many of the great sports in the world. My impression is that baseball addressed the shortcomings of cricket and American football and rugby evolved from socccer by reshaping the sport to better engage the spectators and participants.

Soccer marketeers are working hard to capture American’s imaginations. Articles about the world’s greatest athletes are soccer players or the fittest athletes are soccer players just don’t ring true to fans who watch Reggie Bush and Justin Gatlin. It doesn’t seem likely unless the criteria include running around for 90 minutes or so and not do anything interesting. The world’s best athletes are in sports that captivate the fans and pay their players like gods.

What do average Americans know about the last World Cup? They know some French guy head butted some Italian guy. It seems rather ironic that two countries that can’t win any wars would be competing for any kind of World Championship.

Soccer is not the ‘safe’ sport for kids that it is marketed. Statistics reveal that head injuries are one of the most common forms of injuries and they occur in about the same frequency in soccer as in American Football. In case you were dozing off… the quote was “In soccer, concussions make up 2-3% of all injuries. This is the same rate as for American football!” All that contact, and soccer still can’t keep me awake.

It is also not hard to understand why in many less economically developed parts of the world, locals have embraced a contest that requires only a ball. Ask any Division I AD about which sports cost the most and the least.
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