I DID thorougly mess up the quote! It should have been: "The more you GENERALIZE about a population, the less you know about any individual in that population." Using "know" is a bit unfair, but depending upon what one knows more of, I suppose, both statements might be true.
Sorry, WT PS: I quite agree about the outliers. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan Blythe" <[email protected]> To: "Wayne Tyson" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 6:13 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] STATISTICS Help again and thanks for all the recent help > Unlikely since the statistical unit is often the x measured from an > individual. x can be for example size or age. As the percentage of > individuals sampled from a population reaches 100%, which approaches > complete knowledge of a population, you would in-fact know the value > for the x variable for any given individual. Perhaps you are > misquoting, or at least taking this phrase out of context? > There are at least two contexts that might justify such a phrase: 1. > in the case that we have limited time or resources to collect > information on a population, then we would have to choose between the > number of individuals sampled , N, or the number of variables measured > from each individual, x; 2. Often the outliers are the most > interesting individuals in a population. If the latter is the > meaning, then I would substitute the words "any individual" with "a > certain individual." > > > On Feb 19, 2009, at 7:15 PM, Wayne Tyson wrote: > >> Thanks again to everyone who helped with my recent enquiry about >> tolerance ranges and their mirror-images in the habitat fun-house. >> >> Now, begging your endulgence once again, can anyone help me with >> background on or explanation of this statistical dictum? Again, I'm >> working with a fading memory, so I may not remember the exact >> phrasing. >> >> "The more you know about a population, the less you know about any >> individual in that population." >> >> Gratefully, >> WT >> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.1/1962 - Release Date: 02/20/09 07:26:00
