[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: Statistics and other stuff



Sorry for the slightly off-topic post. 

The quotation about "lies, damned lies, and statistics" was popularized
in this country by Mark Twain. But in his autobiography, Twain rightly
credits the origin of the phrase to the British prime minister Benjamin
Disraeli.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
[mailto:carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu] On Behalf Of Alex Netherton
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 6:38 PM
To: Carolina Birds
Subject: Statistics and other stuff


Hi folks;
I have been enjoying the missives on statistics, especially the quote of
(I
think) Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens, to be exact). I have been a
Biologist for a long time, though not with any "papers"; I have only a
BS, and we all know what that *really* means, right? I find the science
of Biology increasingly becoming more and more mathematical, and it
disturbs me. How can we reduce the mystery of Life to a sequence of
numbers (and who can understand them after we do)? I took a course in
Plant Ecology, and felt I needed a graduate degree in mathematics to
understand it; needless to say, it is one of the reasons I never
finished grad school...

In the good old days of Biology (and Ornithology in particular), much of
the seminal work was done by folks like J. J. Audubon, Alexander Wilson,
even some by people like Bartram, (who was not really an Ornithologist
at all), and of course by C. Darwin (where does your father keep his
barnacles?). Much of this work was wonderment at Creation, and an
attempt at describing it and with sharing it with others, not really at
quantifying it. I think we are getting away from this wonderment in our
attempt to make Biology a "hard" science (and it *is* getting harder -
my advice; take a minor in Math when you major in Bio). The CBC and the
GBBC look to me an attempt to put the wonder back into it, while
collecting a little data, even though that data is not "solid gold".

Just a little something;
While my Pug was walking me the other day (or was it the other way
around... I'm never sure) I found out why some of the neighborhood birds
are upset around night fall. Here's the story. For some time now at
night fall, there has been a group of small folks in and around a line
of spruce trees (they are NORWAY Spruce Josh!) making a great fuss, as
though mobbing something. You can hear Song Sparrows, White Throated
Sparrows, Towhees, Carolina Wrens, Juncoes, and who knows what all
carrying on something fierce. When I go out and walk around the Spruces,
I see nothing, as the Spruces are so thick, it is all dark in there,
even in day light. When Piglet and I were walking by a few days ago,
hearing the danger calls, I wondered for the several hundredth time what
could be causing such a disturbance, and there from the end most Spruce
a large bird popped out and flew into a White Oak (native) and sat. It
was an Accipiter, and a beauty, and big. It had a buffy or gray breast,
and was of a size that I think it was likely an immature female Coopers;
there was no barring on the tail, and the breast was a solid gray. Looks
for all the world like the illustrations of a Gos, but I ain't going
there, but it was huge. Just went out the door, and the little folks are
at it again, so a large Raptor is in the Spruces tonight. I'm not even
going to think Gos; that just couldn't happen. Maybe on Mt. Mitchell, or
somewhere north of here... Alex Netherton The Appalachian Naturalist
Asheville, NC alex@alexnetherton.com http://alexnetherton.com