Re: Randy and some of us other stubborn folks who sometimes disagree with
posters. Its not personal, its how we are trained.
Researchers are supposedly trained to be objective, to test the null
hypothesis. That's a reflection of our background, training, and should mark our
professionalism - although we often fall short.
Wikipedia (which is NOT always the most reliable source of information,
but in this case gets it right) defines the null hypothesis as: "Null
Hypothesis is a phrase that was originally coined by _English_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England) _geneticist_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneticist)
and statistician _Ronald Fisher_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Fisher) . Basically, a null hypothesis is one which can be disproven, for
example "x does not have an effect on y." As a researcher, this approach often
puts one in the position of trying to prove the you're wrong, regardless of
what you really think. In this case, I probably really think that x does
have an effect on y".
Emotion is supposed to be canceled out, but I don't think many of us are
able to do that very well.
I sometimes get lost, too involved in issues, and find the null hypothesis
a bit counter-intuitive. At these times, I have a favorite quote that
reminds me of what I'm supposed to be doing: "Facts are Stubborn Things".
Years ago I looked up the origin of this quote, and I used to have it posted
on my office door - but someone 'cleaned' up my University Office door,
took it down.
So, since I seem to have more senior moments nowadays, I had to look it
up. AND, I was amused to find, that even the quote was hard to run to
ground, a bit stubborn on its own right. First, I found that it is being used
again in terms of the great Health Care debate - I got lots of recent Google
hits on the phrase.
Then I found that it was attributed to either Mark Twain or our Second
U.S. President, John Adams. But, no mention of anyone else. Yet, I knew that
the original was from a French novelist - assuming he didn't plagiarize it
from someone else.
So, in terms of "Facts are Stubborn Things", here are the facts about who
coined the phrase and how they used it:
"facts are stubborn things" - Alan-Rene Lesage, French Novelist,
1668-1747 This seems to be the original, assuming him to be an honest man.
"Facts are stubborn things and what ever may be our wishes, our
inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they can not alter the state of facts,
and evidence." - John Adams, 1735-1826 This is one of the most quoted -
seems that we want to claim this as a U.S. quote, important to our political
history. Hence, the term re-appears in the Health Debate.
"Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable." - Mark Twain,
1835-1910 This actually gets at the issues being discussed on Bee-L.
My apologies to those who may see this as being irrelevant to the informed
study of bees, but its what keeps me anchored.
Jerry
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