24 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Florence Nightingale Worshiped Quantification
[Of her] Her statistics were more than a study, they were indeed her religion. For her Quetelet was the hero as scientist, and the presentation copy of his Physique sociale is annotated by her on every page. Florence Nightingale believed—and in all the actions of her life acted upon that belief—that the administrator could only be successful if he were guided by statistical knowledge. The legislator—to say nothing of the politiciantoo often failed for want of this knowledge. Nay, she we...Folksonomies: virtue quantification
Folksonomies: virtue quantification
1 Described here as being virtuously dedicated to statistics and measurement in medicine.
30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Life is "Enclaves" in a Whirlpool of Chaos
THE FOLLOWING IS QUOTED FROM BERGAN EVANS
ON NORBERT WEINER, NUCLEAR PHYSICIST
The second concept Wiener has to establish is that of entropy. Probability is a mathematical concept, coming from statistics. Entropy comes from physics. It is the assertion-- established logically and experimentally-- that the universe, by its nature, is "running down", moving toward a state of inert uniformity devoid of form, matter, hierarchy or differentiation.
That is, in any given situation, less organizat...
1 Life swirls in the opposite direction of increasing entropy in the Universe.
30 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Our Collective Memory
Taken globally, the set of traces that we leave in the world does without doubt add up to something. It is through operations on sets of traces that I understand an event that I take part in. Tolstoy wrote about the foot soldier in the Napoleonic wars. The soldier he describes cannot have the experience of the war he is waging nor the battle he is fighting because the only “global” traces of the war are inscriptions—notably, maps and statistics. There is no scalable observation that mov... 1 
notes
notesNo one soldier experiences a War. They experience details from their microcosm encounter with the war. The war itself is a collective memory experienced only in history books.
20 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Statistics as Religion
Her [Nightingale's] statistics were more than a study, they were indeed her religion. For her, Quetelet was the hero as scientist, and the presentation copy of his Physique Sociale is annotated by her on every page. Florence Nightingale believed—and in all the actions of her life acted upon that belief—that the administrator could only be successful if he were guided by statistical knowledge. The legislator—to say nothing of the politician—too often failed for want of this knowledge. ...Folksonomies: religion statistics
Folksonomies: religion statistics
1 notes
notesFlorence Nightingale saw nature as god's plan and statistics the means to understand it.
18 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Averages are Boring
The Charms of Statistics.—It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an enti...Folksonomies: statistics
Folksonomies: statistics
1 notes
notesStatisticians should be interested in more complex and beautiful things.
23 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Statistics of a Country
Statistics are far from being the barren array of figures ingeniously and laboriously combined into columns and tables, which many persons are apt to suppose them. They constitute rather the ledger of a nation, in which, like the merchant in his books, the citizen can read, at one view, all of the results of a year or of a period of years, as compared with other periods, and deduce the profit or the loss which has been made, in morals, education, wealth or power. Folksonomies: statistics
Folksonomies: statistics
1 notes
notesAre a means to see its progress "in morals, education, wealth or power."
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Discoverers Are Not Heroes
Do not expect to be hailed as a hero when you make your great discovery. More likely you will be a ratbag—maybe failed by your examiners. Your statistics, or your observations, or your literature study, or your something else will be patently deficient. Do not doubt that in our enlightened age the really important advances are and will be rejected more often than acclaimed. Nor should we doubt that in our own professional lifetime we too will repudiate with like pontifical finality the most...Folksonomies: discovery
Folksonomies: discovery
1 notes
notesThey are treated like villains, their discoveries rejected.
13 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Scientific Investigation is Benefited by the Familiar
More discoveries have arisen from intense observation of very limited material than from statistics applied to large groups. The value of the latter lies mainly in testing hypotheses arising from the former. While observing one should cultivate a speculative, contemplative attitude of mind and search for clues to be followed up. Training in observation follows the same principles as training in any activity. At first one must do things consciously and laboriously, but with practice the activi... 1 notes
notesWhen the investigation involves a small area of knowledge, the scientist's familiarization with it makes discovery easier because they will notice something unusual or unexplained.
