> Hello All,
>
> Recently, I watched the movie "Moneyball" even though I am absolutely
> clueless about baseball. The movie has not changed this fact however, the
> underlying story was fascinating, especially if you are familiar with the
> concepts and books of Michael Lewis. The main point that I took away was
> about the importance of asking the right questions about a well-established
> "game", and redefining the concept(s) of value using math and appropriate
> statistics. When values are misidentified in a game such as baseball, the
> consequences are almost invisible; the games are still played, players are
> still traded, hotdogs and tickets are still sold. There are just wrong
> choices of players that is considered as unfortunate picks by dinosaur
> scouts. This movie inspired me to think about the primary values defined in
> Ecology. What are those values that function in Ecology and/or communicated
> to societies? When values are misidentified in this discipline, what
> happens? The closest example I can think of is the shift in understanding
> "evil" invasive species which are believed to be coercing ecosystem changes
> but in fact may be valuable indicators of what is going on in a system.
> I would love to hear your thoughts.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> *Beyhan Titiz Maybach, PhD
> University of Denver, Colorado
> <http://www.beyhanmaybach.com>*
>
