From a letter published in Nature Magazine 15 October 2009.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture08472.html

Introduction to letter;

Cooperative social systems are susceptible to cheating by individuals that reap the benefits of cooperation without incurring the costs. There are various theoretical mechanisms for the repression of cheating and many have been tested experimentally. One possibility that has not been tested rigorously is the evolution of mutations that confer resistance to cheating. Here we show that the presence of a cheater in a population of randomly mutated social amoebae can select for cheater-resistance. Furthermore, we show that this cheater-resistance can be a noble strategy because the resister strain does not necessarily exploit other strains. Thus, the evolution of resisters may be instrumental in preserving cooperative behaviour in the face of cheating.

Anupama Khare1, Lorenzo A. Santorelli1,2, Joan E. Strassmann2, David C. Queller2, Adam Kuspa1,2,3 & Gad Shaulsky1,2

Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
Correspondence to: Gad Shaulsky1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.S. (Email: gadi@bcm.edu).

Full letter can be obtained online for a fee or free to current subscribers of Nature Magazine.

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Welcome to BAUT. Watch your step. Here be monsters.
ToSeek
"Moderators should avoid sounding like moderators unless they're acting as moderators."
The Bad Astronomer
"I would venture to say this list holds true for anyone making any claim, not just one that is ATM."

OK.....

And what does this have to do with anything, particularly to BAUT and feedback on the forum. Or would you like this moved to Science and Technology?

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

I suspect it's yet another vague accusation of the mods being out to get him after his outburst against Moose.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Well to be fair, he shouldn't be classified as paranoid since we really are all out to get him.

Ya know; I'm just trying to be fair here.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Incidentally, I note that the system described in the letter does have a fairly close analogy to the BAUTforum, as the ATM'ers and CT'ers reap the benefit of the site without working to promote its main purpose.
In this analogy, moderators are the cheater-resistant strain.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Well, if you put one of those on it gives away the whole joke. I figured that if I was so presumptuous as to speak for the entire membership of this forum that the humorous intent would be self-evident.

Just incidentally, it has been shown that among populations of reef-dwelling service providers to larger predators (de-lousing, teeth-cleaning etc) up to 25% can be 'cheaters', i.e. just hitching a ride, before the system crashes and big fish revert to simply eating little fish. Apropos nothing much, it seems, in this thread lol.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Pardon a newbie question, but what is this site's main purpose? I had a quick look round the about baut section, but couldn't find any kind of 'mission statement' in the faq or newbie threads.

We don't need no stinkin' mission statement...

But, seriously, the first lines of the FAQ are:

I would say that sums it up pretty nicely.

You mean BAUT is not ISO9000 certifiied!?!

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Ok, that states what the main purpose of the rules are, but what's the "main purpose of the site" that Henrik refers to? I guess we'll have to wait for him to elucidate.

They try to shelter the moderators from this, they are such a high-strung bunch.


certif i ied
(um, extra 'i' there)

Registration is way too expensive for the Google-ads income of BAUT...

I'm so happy that my not infrequent typos are such as source of amusement to assorted members.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Would somebody like to define a "cheating" and a social amoebae? Both of those attributes are odd to me when used to discribe them.

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In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Science News: Cheating Is Easy For The Social Amoeba

Some amoebas cooperate. Some take advantage.

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I've known quite a few social amoeba...