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[Frumple]

@Brainbug: Probably worth noting it's nicely on the bad argument side since, near as I'm aware, what we've been able to parse about homosexuality on that front is that it's a pretty likely to be a feature, not a bug. It's a fair bit of a guess, in practice (as just about everything conjecturing about evolutionary history), but the argument that having a subset of non-reproducing members that still are otherwise functional is beneficial to a gene pool isn't a difficult one to sell by any means, and that's not exactly the only argument in favor, there.

... but yeah, generally, while there may have been good arguments against in the past (sorta', barely -- mostly related to disease, potential physical complications of the acts involved _{all still applicable to hetero relationships, mind, if with different degrees of incidence}, and reproduction _{which was always a poor one, considering homosexuals aren't sterile, just uninterested}), conditions today aren't conditions of the past save in very few locations where you seriously have bigger problems, and the concerns those arguments attempted to address are non-concerns at this point, if attended appropriately. Medical knowledge and material/chemical science beat the specter of Sodom below the point it mattered years ago.

E: And now take a moment of contemplation to anthropomorphize those, put them in lucha masks, and set them loose in a ring.

[Comrade P.]

Given the fuzzy nature of an electron's position, is there any way to define the size of one ine a way that make sense?

Well I suppose you have to work out a specific purpose for which you need to know a size of an electron, and then devise a definition from the information available on electron's nature.

[Arx]

Given the fuzzy nature of an electron's position, is there any way to define the size of one ine a way that make sense?

Not really, AFAIK. We have an upper bound on the size, but no real way to measure a lower bound (at least, with current technology).

[Sheb]

Given the fuzzy nature of an electron's position, is there any way to define the size of one ine a way that make sense?

Not really, AFAIK. We have an upper bound on the size, but no real way to measure a lower bound (at least, with current technology).

What does the upper bond relate to?

[Frumple]

... anyone happen to know if someone out there has actually taken the time to map popcorn consumption and/or sales rates to political events? We always hear "I'm going to need more popcorn", but I keep forgetting to remember to check if someone has actually taken the time to find out if we actually do.

[Yoink]

Has anyone ever made a good argument against LGBT, particularly gays?

...You went on to list three of them?*    
Also yeah, it is (in real cases, I believe a lot of people simply jump on the bandwagon these days with how fashionable it is) a mental illness that should really have more research put into treatment, but no-one likes to acknowledge that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   

* Albeit with exaggerated, histrionic wording in a clumsy attempt to push your views on the matter.   

[TD1]

Oh, man. Can of worms there, though I agree that it is a mental deviation from the natural pattern.

Actually, while the bomb is sitting on the table anyway, I have a question regarding homosexuality. Why are so many gays so obviously gay? The speech, the sentiments, the hand gestures. Sometimes even the clothing. It's surreal.

[redwallzyl]

Has anyone ever made a good argument against LGBT, particularly gays?

...You went on to list three of them?*    
Also yeah, it is (in real cases, I believe a lot of people simply jump on the bandwagon these days with how fashionable it is) a mental illness that should really have more research put into treatment, but no-one likes to acknowledge that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   

* Albeit with exaggerated, histrionic wording in a clumsy attempt to push your views on the matter.

Theirs actually a biological basis so that its not really a unintended mental illness or something but rather a mechanism to increase fitness through kin selection. think of it as similar to women having menopause. strictly speaking many common mental illnesses were advantages traits in the past. they wouldn't be so prevalent otherwise if they had not increases fitness. they are just highly inconvenient in our modern world.

Oh, man. Can of worms there, though I agree that it is a mental deviation from the natural pattern.

Actually, while the bomb is sitting on the table anyway, I have a question regarding homosexuality. Why are so many gays so obviously gay? The speech, the sentiments, the hand gestures. Sometimes even the clothing. It's surreal.

sense of belonging in a community after a life of oppression. you could even think of it as another gender in the sense that it is a constructed identity in a society to which people with certain attributes are expected to conform to to be seen as normal in the community and becomes deeply connected to identity, they don't fit the standard category so the make a new one for themselves. not a perfect analogy for many reasons but it kind of works. its not nearly as all inclusive, their are plenty of non obvious gay people you just don't notice them.

[Frumple]

... though at least in my own experience, there's not actually terribly many that are particularly obvious. Part of that is just the area I'm in because holy shit you really do not want to come out around here, but I've been around folks from other joints or around places it was more accepted, and it was still... not common. Not necessarily uncommon, per se, and not like some kind of stigma among applicable communities or social groups (... save occasionally where, y'know, overt signaling has better than normal odds of seeing people hospitalized), but not common. Most homosexual folks I've met were just folks that happened to be homosexual. Now, depictions are lopsided as holy hell goddamn, but if it's even particularly close to that on the actual ground I've certainly not noticed. Probably certain areas or specific locations where there's significant divergence from that, and it's totes possible I've just been missing stuff 'cause for all in retrospect I run into 'em perhaps weirdly often for folks in this area I'm not the most terribly social person in the world, but as a general thing... not really?

Otherwise red's mostly on point so far as I'm aware. Probably chunks missing, though. Actual lgbt folks would have a better view, obviously enough.

[TD1]

I can't help but think of Pointless, which features so many gays one can't help but wonder if they're shoehorned in. You suspect which ones are gay before they speak. When they do speak, you know which ones are gay.

As for actual gays on the ground, never really known one. There were two girls used to kiss outside the school library, and one possible but can't be sure case. Oh, and there's one in a local shop who supposedly fancies my brother, who was quite incensed by the attention. Other than that, though, the local ones either aren't as brazen or less people are jumping on the social justice bandwagon.

[Frumple]

Heh. One of my parent's closest friends was gay. Used to drive me to school pretty often. One of my closer friends came out after they got out of this hellhole (though there, I didn't actually know until that point, ha). Roomed with a couple bi and one gay folk at different points in college (not intentionally, even, just random assignment). Goes on like that for a lil'bit, though memory's getting fuzzy at this point so eh. Like said, it's actually kinda' weird in retrospect considering, for example, the (one) kid that I'm not even sure was gay, just fairly flamboyant, got his arm broke for it at one point during our high school years. As might be completely unsurprising, there weren't exactly many people coming out from that age group around where I've mostly been stuck. Or any age group, for that matter. At least I can't recall anyone being murdered in the very immediate vicinity (most of the more urban areas nearby, now...). There's worse places in the states.

[Rolan7]

... anyone happen to know if someone out there has actually taken the time to map popcorn consumption and/or sales rates to political events? We always hear "I'm going to need more popcorn", but I keep forgetting to remember to check if someone has actually taken the time to find out if we actually do.

Pretty sure that's just a figure of speech.  People watching a debate or the election results as a group in person might buy some though... 
Honestly I'm more curious in alcohol sales.  Not even joking, I bet there was an uptick after the most recent election (possibly every close major election?)

[Frumple]

Oh aye, I'm entirely aware it's a figure of speech and probably little to no more. Just curious if anyone's actually checked. It seems like something a bored statistician or economist or somethin' would poke at on a lazy afternoon.

Alcohol sales, though, I'm pretty sure have been mapped to a few things. I can't remember what, and I'm entirely too out of it to feel like looking it up, but fairly sure it's happened.

[Frumple]

Oh, so far as evo stuff goes it's always good to remember that any one explanation is almost certainly wrong. Not that we can actually tell very often. Major behavior patterns usually tend to look like they benefit a handful of things rather than one specific thing. Evolution is very messy, intent is not involved, and things like to piggyback on other things. Lots of variables involved. Someone tells you it's just X, you probably need to pick up Y and Z and bludgeon them until the stupid falls out. Metaphorically. Probably.

Though yeah, there's alternate explanations with relationship forming and maintaining and keeping health up/aggression down for non-dominate members and so on and so forth. There's lots of explanations. It could actually be because it put homosexual members closer to a certain plant in their locality (different plants for different places!) that happened to make it more likely for their genetic kin to breed, for some ungodly reason. Checking (with longer lived species like us in particular) is pretty close to impossible, at the moment.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Since homosexual behavior is all over the place with social mammals (and occasionally outside that category), it's probably safe to assume it has a benefit, even if we can't quite identify it.

It certainly doesn't qualify by any meaningful standard as "mental illness". Definitely doesn't fit the formal one: Unusual (Appears in all human societies, so no), Maladaptive (Negative, when accepted by society there are no maladaptive traits), Abnormal (Arguable, but can something that appears universally really be abnormal?), Distressing (Nope).