a James Fischer snip followed by my > comments... 
This paper is worth a read.

"Moving to a World Beyond 'p < 0.05' "

>First off the established p values are not consistently applied over all disciplines. No matter what.....there is possibility (small) that something is significant when it is determined not to be or insignificant when it determined to be significant.  Whether the statistic means anything in the real world is only determined via application.. and most times any application or value is never obvious < imho it is only here were the value of science is monetized and every level of science before that just represent a cost (to someone).

>Somewhat to quote my father in law.. the largest power of statistic is to tell us what we DO NOT know about a population. < since statistic is about populations and not individuals it tells us little or nothing when it comes to the individuals within a population. And in some cases (like building a varroa resistant bee) the outlying individuals (hives) which have been excluded from any measure of statistical significance is all you should be interested in anyway...

>having had a background in large scale (production line) industry... the power of statistic to define 'quality' in a highly controlled environment of production is quite amazing. < which suggest to me applying statistic in the proper manner can lead to awesome results but misapplied and it tells you little or nothing.

>your milage may vary..

Gene in Central Texas... 

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