Recently, Fine Woodworking invoked the Golden Mean for designing furniture.
 The examples seemed ok, and some rule of thumb for proportion seems
useful, particularly for those of us who are artistically challenged.  But,
I noticed the many caveats about adjusting for the realities of available
wood, etc.  I then started examining high-end furniture in catalogues, etc.
 Yep, the proportions of some fit the magic ratio, but just as many didn't.

I suspect that if you look for data to support a preconceived notion,
you'll find it, especially if you toss in enough exceptions, rule bending,
etc.

Almost 30 yrs ago, there was a classic stats paper done on Diurnal Rhythms
of Unicorns.  The author (and I've forgotten the name), started by
assigning random numbers to unicorn activities (sleeping, playing, eating,
etc.).  He then used a random number generator (computer) to simulate the
daily activities of his mythical group of unicorns.  He next proceeded to
look for activity patterns in this random block of numbers.  Sure enough,
with enough curve fitting, averaging, seat of the pants assumptions, all of
which were carefully justified, he produced a beautiful set of curves
describing what the unicorns were doing at different times of the day.  As
I remember, they slept a lot during the daylight hours. His point, be
careful of finding shopping for statistical justifications until you get
the answer that you want.

Now, on another subject -- semantics, and a few of my pet peeves:

methodologies -- methods is fine, you don't need to add the -ology.  If you
disagree, tell me what is the difference between methods and methodologies?

hive versus colonies -- the hive is the box, the colony is the population
of bees, hopefully in the box.  Flying hives is a scary thought, and I
doubt that a hive lays anything.

Also, as an animal behaviorist, I was taught not to anthropomorphize animal
behavior, but in bee literature, we have queens and drones and workers,
nurse bees, a division of labor, etc.  Don't think were going to change our
jargon at this late date, but it is a contradiction.

Jerry

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