April, 2010, Posts of the Month

When you find a post that is too good to be missed, nominate it here as one of the April, 2010, Posts of the Month (POTM).

You message subtitle should include the author's name and the topic/thread title.

Message Format:

Author: Author's Name Forum: Forum where posted Thread: Thread title Message #: Number and Link to the nominated message

Nominations should include a link to the nominated article, and a short comment on why the message deserves nomination.

Note: As always, this is not a thread for debates. Posts should be limited to nomination, seconds, and acceptance statements by nominees.

Edited by Admin, : March => April

Author:	ZenMonkey
Post:	Message 75
Thread:	Reduction of Alleles by Natural Selection (Faith and ZenMonkey Only)
Forum:	The Great Debate

ZenMonkey has neatly picked up on a key issue with Faith's speciation views that I think has gone unnoticed so far and that looks promising for clarifying the problems to Faith. Here he describes why it's unlikely for an allele to never be expressed:

ZenMonkey writes: I have always assumed this to be true; no allele can be so recessive that it never manifests at all. Sooner or later you have to have two parents both contribute the recessive allele. If they didn't, if an allele were both relatively recessive and also rare, I deem it highly likely that drift would remove it eventually if it were neutral. On the other hand, if it did affect reproductive success, then natural selection would keep it from being rare if the related trait was beneficial or eliminate it if the trait was disadventagous. Do you want to contest this, or can we both accept that there are no hidden alleles, only relatively rare and relatively common ones? It seems obvious to me that diploid organisms, by definition, carry only two alleles for each gene and no more, and donate one and only one to any individual offspring it produces. There is no other place for an allele to hide. And yet you say this (emphasis mine): Faith writes: I start with the argument itself, the idea that you have a built-in complement of alleles, age unspecified, that are available in all species for making a huge array of interesting variations, most of which never get expressed in this world, and do it simply by isolating portions of the gene pool, which is what ultimately brings about "speciation" and the inability to vary further along a particular genetic path.

Kudos!

--Percy

Author: AdminSlev
Forum: Coffee House
Thread: Why Ask?? Why have this forum??
Message #: Message 2

AdminSlev was on the job all of five days, I think, and this was his second post as an admin (other than just thread promotion). A new member was complaining that an anti-Christian bias on this site was stifling debate. Slev immediately came back with this reply:

quote:

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Do you have a concrete example of this ??

The Admin team is trying to do their best, and so positive criticism such as this is welcome.

However I've been for almost a year now (been assigned as admin only recently), and have very seldom seen anything like you are describing.

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That sort of calm, impartial rationality is the soul of good moderation, and AdminSlev showed it in spades. I just thought that this was a great debut in his new role.

I've been following along now on both threads. This is heartily seconded for POTM! Good job ZenMonkey. Its amazing now to see the waffling and goal post moving going on. Where's the integrity Faith?

I don't think it's fair to question Faith's integrity. Whatever's going on in her mind we cannot know for sure, but I'm sure she sincerely believes everything she says at the time that she's saying it, including her revisions of what she really meant in earlier posts.

--Percy

Author: Rahvin
Forum: Links and Information
Thread: Air Force Academy creates worship area for Pagans, Druids, and Wiccans
Message #: Message 193

Just Wow. Beautifully and simply written. Kudos

I second the nomination. Beautifully written & entirely above board.

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002

Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969

Since Evolution is only ~90% correct it should be thrown out and replaced by Creation which has even a lower % of correctness. W T Young, 2008

Thanks, both of you!