On 6/30/07, John Winters <jdwinters_at_eastlink.ca> wrote: > Craig wrote about empiricism. What I actually wrote about was the difference between empirical evidence and anecdotal evidence; you seemed to be a trifle foggy on that. > Empiricism is good stuff unless you are quantifying data. The issues here > often have to do with quantification. See "Perceived Exertion" by Noble > and > Robertson to learn about human failings in detecting and quantifying > effort. I love people who include specious references in their arguments. The implication is, of course, that if you don't go and read that particular tome you've lost the argument. Why make this so complicated? Since this debate is about Caffyn's data then "detecting and quantifying effort" isn't relevant. He wrote it down daily and it had nothing to do with the detection or perception or effort. It was miles traveled per day over many, many days. Remarks about "quantifying" and fictional stories about butcher shops are merely barriers placed there to detour the reader into debating some other subject. How much simpler could this be? You add up the miles Caffyn paddled without a rudder and divide by the days he paddled. Then you add up the miles he paddle with a rudder and divide those by the days paddled. No quantifying necessary; at least nothing difficult. If you can figure out the miles-per-gallon on your car you should be able to understand this. In Caffyn's own words: "The statistics speak for themselves in showing the benefit gained from the addition of a rudder: Melbourne to Sydney: - HM stern - 30.6 miles per day Sydney to Brisbane - Skeg - 34.3 miles per day Brisbane to Cape York - Rudder - 39.2 miles per day" (* reference to this below) That doesn't look like "anecdotal evidence" to me. You are the one constantly demanding better evidence from others. Here is some data. If you don't like it, then set out to repeat it and prove it wrong and then tell us about it. Don't just sit there and type up superficial arguments based on irrelevant books. Craig Jungers Royal City, WA *http://www.watertribe.org/Magazine/May012000/May00Caffyn.asp *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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