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From:
James Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Thu, 26 Feb 2004 07:53:45 -0500
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Dave said:

> The golden mean refers to the numbers of parents of
> workers and drones not the numbers of actual insects

And how does even this calculation leave one with Phi?
x / y ~ 1.618...? Maybe I need more coffee, I don't get it.

Jerry said:

> 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?

OK, I'll bite.

Methodology
-----------

My "methodology" is that there is a "method to my madness".  :)

The suffix "ology" comes from the greek "logos", meaning "the logic of".
When you add "ology" to "method" you are then speaking about the underlying
logic behind a complex schema that would include your set of methods as a
whole. ("Biology" is a better example of an "ology", where we speak of the
field of study or the state of knowledge as a whole.) So, "methodology", even
though misused and overused as puffery far too often, by people who are
merely speaking of "methods" DOES have a specific proper meaning and use.

Method
------

My "method" is that "I type at 120 wpm, and click 'send'".

Other good examples of "method" are how one opens a hive, using a
survey of beekeepers to gather data rather than looking at all their
hives yourself, and the order of removal of the bolts on a Volvo
timing-chain cover.  These are specific (and more minor) techniques.
Methods are often subject to choice, and none of the choices you
make as to "method" imply that you have changed your methodology in
the slightest.

So, to make it perfectly clear, "Methodists use various methods to
verify that their methodology is valid".  :)

> Hive versus colonies - the hive is the box, the colony is the population...

Well, but if my hives became Africanized, the entire TOWN would flee.  :)

(The same problem exists when speaking of town, city, county, state...
"Poor choices" of collective nouns groups of people are misused much
more often than for bees.

If it is any comfort, I still have a t-shirt, over 20 years old that says
"Data Is!", while my wife has a matching t-shirt that says "Data Are!".
She is technically correct in a strict "I'll beat you over the head with
the 20-Volume Oxford English Dictionary" sense, but I consider "data" to
be a collective noun, since a single data point would be a "datum".

> in bee literature, we have queens and drones and
> workers, nurse bees...

What other choice of terms do we have?


         jim (Not what he used to be,
              not that he used to be much)

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