A sport at which nobody, or everybody, can excel isn't much of a sport. A game where everyone stands an equal chance of winning is probably a game that depends entirely on random probabilities, coin flips, and isn't much fun. So, the rules of sports are constructed around normal human abilities with a small but important amount of random unpredictability tossed in so that players have to respond to things they can't exactly predict (ex. our inability to throw, roll, hit or kick a ball exactly where we want it to go keeps everybody guessing). When you get right down to it, most sports come down to getting enough control, though never perfect control, over the throwing or hitting so that you can put the ball pretty much where you want it to go, or betting that your opponent can't so you can take advantage of his innacuracy. And, even without spending years mastering that control, the basic skills are nearly always within the range of normal human performance so that most people can play any sport with a little memorization of rules and a little training to get used to the specific physical skills. Not everyone will be able to be a professional, of course; natural physiological variation separates the pros from the hackers. But at its core, a game has to be playable by the average person to be a good game.

If you buy that, you might agree that it's strange to think that some people are designed (as in "Intelligent Design") to be better at sports.

First of all, Intelligent Design, silly as it is, isn't about a Designer who crafts each individual one at a time with skills designed to fit the current culture: I.D. is about the ultimate origin of man as a species. An active super-natural entity that fiddles around with individuals at that level isn't called a "Designer" - that's just plain ol' "God".

Secondly, every sport is designed by humans, to be played by humans (possibly with other animals as game pieces), with full knowledge of human abilities; we don't make games that require super-natural intervention to be good at. Humans make games for humans.

And finally, of course some people are going to be better at doing some things. The idea that some people are better at things that nearly everybody can do to to one degree or another isn't a radical one - it's the basis of pretty much everything humans do.

So, I'm with Atrios, this Washington Post article may be the stupidest thing I've ever read.

I'm a little surprised I haven't seen anyone make any "Katrina And The Waves" references .

Maybe after the storm passes...

Izzle pfaff: FUDD CALLS FOR "ASSASSINATION" OF BUGS BUNNY

'We've got the wesouwces,' explained Mr. Fudd. 'I think we should do it. Mr. Bunny has been a continual thweat to many of the things we hold deaw. He is a weading cause of decawwotization. He is a poisonous pwesence in the opera world. And his twack record with the env--env--env--enviwo-env--it's terrible. He has wuniously distuwbed gopher habitats between here and Albuquerque.'

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Stare at the center of this. Watch the green dot (there is no green dot). Watch the dots disappear (they don't disappear).

In the words of tbogg, God hates convertibles.

Yikes.

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Over at The New Republic, Michael Crowley writes about the possible demise of the "Rock Snob" - the guy who has dedicated many hours to searching-out and acquiring rare musical gems that he will only share with those special people who deserve to the honor, and who feels a certain smug pity for those uneducated in the details of 70's punk geneology: ex. the High Fidelity guys. Rock Snob is doomed because the sense of exclusivity you could get from knowing you're the only one you know with a copy of The Feelies first album is no longer available: "[t]hanks to the iPod, and digital music generally, anyone can milk various friends, acquaintances, and the Internet to quickly build a glorious 10,000-song collection." And even worse, "...when everything's instantly available online, the thrill is gone."

That's basically true, but as my multi-year search for a digital copy of The Colorblind James Experience's first album proves, not everything is available on line, or even on CD. Even in their hometown, even asking members of the band, even digging through the stacks at the record store where I first bought my casette copy of that album, 15 years ago, no luck. There are still gems out there that require patient excavation.

And, if everything is available for sharing, the Rock Snob can still find joy in pointing to the things people should pay attention to, and what they shouldn't waste disk space on - a self-proclaimed filter. After all, not everyone wil have the specialized knowledge and discriminating taste that he does. Or, even better, he can sit smug and quiet, sharing the knowledge of what's hip with those few who already know: elite, self-satisfied, correct.