• BookTalk.org News will soon go out via email in HTML format. The goal will be to keep people posted on our current book discussions and other relevant news items.
• Contest #2: "On The Importance of Reading" has started. Visit the Contests forum - the very top thread.
Please support our free community by making a credit card donation through our secure PayPal account. We appreciate and depend on the generosity of our members. Thank you!
Posted: Thu May 15, 2003 2:42 pm Post subject: Sqwark!com
Hi. I really like your site. I am doing something similar with sqwark.com, which has just become operational in the last few days. I am especially interested in Richard Dawkins' forthcoming appearance - that was quite a coup! I'll be staying tuned for it.
Posted: Sat May 17, 2003 11:33 pm Post subject: Re: Sqwark!com
EpigeneticsOf course, being me, when I visited your site I jumped immediately to the "science" link. I find the language of the genetics discussion exceedingly odd – "This staunch dogma is held as scientific fact by the mainstream biological establishment". As anyone with dealings with real science and real scientists knows, "dogma" is the farthest thing from how science operates; so such pugnacious language causes me to question the motivations of one who writes that way.
"Recent findings out of molecular genetics however, are placing this hypothesis under increasing strain." Actually, they are not. The reason that alternatives to random mutation are summarily dismissed is that no plausible mechanism has ever been proposed for them. I say, if you have a hypothesis concerning mechanism, then state it up front and loose the argumentative tone. If not, the rational thing is to fit new observations into known mechanisms.
Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 1:58 am Post subject: Re: Sqwark!com
Sqwark is just here to plug his upcoming book. I seriously doubt he will get involved on our boards or in the chat room. One of these days I'm going to create a forum specifically for aspiring authors and web site owners to share their information.
Right now...I'll leave this here as I know fully well how hard it is to get the word out there about your efforts to create something. I struggle with advertising BookTalk. Its a royal pain in the ass...trust me. So I no longer delete stuff like this. Eventually it will be moved into the correct forum, but right now that forum doesn't exist. I just hate to see members responding to posts like his thinking we just gained a new member. We didn't.