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Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by tharne on Friday December 03, 2021 @09:30AM (#29430394)
I think this is one of those studies where you didn't really need to do a study.
Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by lallysingh on Friday December 03, 2021 @10:14AM (#29430918)
It's useful to measure things even if we already know that they're common. Numbers tell a story that beliefs cannot.
Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by 0xdeadb00f on Friday December 03, 2021 @09:22PM (#29438078)
The point is, the study has been done, and now there is an academic precedent and solid evidence people can cite now.

A lot of scientific studies are like this. Doesn't make them any less important.

Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by gwern on Friday December 03, 2021 @02:52PM (#29434463)
No, this is important. There are a lot of people who will tell you that 'selective breeding doesn't work and always backfires, because look how unhealthy some dog breeds are'.

This study is part of the evidence-base showing that that is wrong: those dog breeds are unhealthy because they are incredibly inbred with effective population sizes so small you may be able to count them on two hands.

The bulldogs will always be unhealthy to some degree because those faces are just not a good idea, but even there some bulldog breeds are far sicklier than others, and it's due to the inbreeding, and when you know that, you know how to improve them. This is important for stuff like agricultural breeding: the problems aren't inevitable, and are caused by specific mistakes, like starting with too few individuals, closing the studbook prematurely, and not outcrossing.

Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by psyc on Friday December 03, 2021 @09:40AM (#29430509)
I feel the same about a great many studies, but normally would never say so here. What if people found out I was tainted in my epistemologies?
Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by wheybags on Friday December 03, 2021 @10:26AM (#29431058)
New study shows most water is wet
Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by pilsetnieks on Friday December 03, 2021 @11:43AM (#29432002)
There is, however, a significant percentage of it in dry or gaseous form.
Re:Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred by Sohcahtoa82 on Friday December 03, 2021 @03:48PM (#29435217)
You got me thinking now...

How many chemicals/materials have different names depending on their state of matter, versus just having an adjective prepended?

When ice melts, it's called water. But when steel melts, it's just called molten steel.