[MillionPaths] re: Zen Bob's wisdom...

[Guest guest]

Ah, fiddlee-phoo...Harsha...now I have to write some absolutely

foolish thing so as to not get wrapped up in your flowing

praise...damn, there is always this test of ego...

OK, so my daughter is about to graduate from Cal Poly with a degree in

Biology, and is also working on a National Monarch Butterfly Project

as part of her graduate program, and she is trying to plot Monarch

Butterfly preferences and egg laying on milkweed plants. I comment

offhand that the results will show no statistical differences for

plants with or without seeds, flowers, etc., but that they will

reveal that Monarchs are victim to the "Betamax Syndrome" to which

she gives a blank look. I will explain later, I say with that wicked

Zenbob gleem in my eye.

"How can you know this about Monarch butterflies? When have you

studied them?" she asks challengingly.

"Ah, you'll see."

So, she plots her plots, I help here refine the comparative data

elements for the graphs, and I go back to work, as does she.

I later hear her swearing.

"I don't understand this, there should have been a significant

correlation between the condition of the plants and the egg laying,

but the distribution curve shows it to be totally below any

significant levels!" She is very upset.

"And the relationship of the plants that were in the unobstructed

direct path of their flight?" I ask.

"Well, that's the other weird thing. That shows a very high

correlation. They ignored plants that were much better for egg

laying in other areas, and mostly layed their eggs all along this

route that was wide open," she frowned.

"Ah, the Betamax Syndrome!" I chortled.

"What the hell is the Betamax Syndrome? You said you would explain," she complained.

"Well, when Video recorders were first invented, back when I used to

work for JVC, there were two competing formats...Sony had Betamax and

JVC had VHS, which as you may realize is the format that everyone is

familiar with today. But, Betamax was far superior in picture

quality to VHS, but still it lost the video war," I responded.

"Why? That makes no sense!" she complained again.

"Ah, it doesn't have to make sense, we're tallking about people,

creatures and nature here. Pure laziness and convenience always win

out. Nature likes the easy path. Beta could only record for up to

ninety minutes, and VHS could record for two full hours originally,

and movies are how long?" I quizzed.

"Oh, yeah, up to two hours long..."

"Right, so people just dumped Betamax for the ease of VHS, despite the

poorer picture quality. Seems like your Monarchs have done the same

thing, which I suspected they would," I replied.

"OK, Mr. Smarty (her favorite term for me), then how do I resolve the

distribution chart here to show these four variables...no I know what

you;re going to say about a bar chart...no my professor wants this on

an axial display for publication...how do I show that?"

"Well, you need a color display or print-out...you need four

distinctly different lines of information..." I began.

"Yes, but each of these lines contains two elements...I need to show

both the x and y relationship of each one, and to compare them

against the other items in the same chart," she continued.

"I like the look of bar charts. If your professor wants this on a

different display, I think you better ask him," I said, beating a

hasty retreat.

"Awe, you're copping out! You take me all this way and then you just run away?" she taunted.

"Hey, I got things to do, people to dazzle, and I need my afternoon nap," I closed.

She later told me that she had shared the "Betamax Syndrome" story

with her professor who had laughed aloud and enthusiastically agreed

that this was a perfect description of this behavior.

She will get the degree, of course. Not I.

Sigh.

Now that is why I must be humble.

Cheers,

Zenbob

Change Your Life.... http://www.igonet.net/zencommunications

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