"Jim McGinn"  wrote in message
> >
> You lost me.
>
I gave an example of a mouse with a recessive allele for a furry tail being
lost when it was eaten by a hawk. I said that "we say chance (meaning
genetic drift) has eliminated the furry tail allele. You said "I would say
that Natural Selection has eliminated the allele".
After some discussion, I wondered if you were defining "Natural Selection"
differently, so I asked you the question about beans being selected a) by a
scoop and b) by a sieve. You replied that neither of these cases
approximated to Natural Selection.
Since I would regard the sieve example as a case of natural selection, and
the scoop selection as something excluded, this was somewhat bewildering,
since you are using a broad definition of NS to include a mouse being eaten
by a hawk, but not beans falling out of a sieve.
>
> Wrong version of gambler's fallacy.  Do some research.
>
I appreciate you don't want to repost the same stuff over again. However
what i have described is the normal meaning of "gambler's fallacy".
> > >
> > > Who decides what characteristics are heritable?
> > >
> > It's a bit technical, and there are some difficulties, particularly with
> > human populations. Basically there needs to be genetic variation
> > within the population, and the genes must contribute significantly to
> > the variation seen in the phenotype. Then you have a heritable trait.
>
> It's a prediction based on incomplete knowledge, right?
>
The definition is heritability = variation in genotype / variation in
phenotype.

varaition in phenotype is variation in genotype + variation due to
environment.

The problem is that it is often difficult to measure, particulerly in
humans, because the environment is partly inherited. It can be used quite
successfully to predict how well stock will respond to breeding programs.
However it gets very controversial when you try to measure the heritibility
of something like "intelligence" or "aggression" in humans.
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