rpjday@watrose.UUCP (rpjday) (05/02/86)
Sorry about the extra posting, but I didn't get a chance to read one of the latest postings pertaining to biorhythms, and I think it deserves comments. The excerpts in this posting are from rb@ccird2.UUCP. > Actually, there is more to it than is described in the "popular > books". There are several very small rythms involving such things > as digestive system, circulatory, and glandular activity which > form the basis for biorythms. This has nothing to do with the popular notion of biorhythms, which specifically deals with the previously-mentioned cycles of 23 days, 28 days, and so on, and cannot therefore be considered supporting evidence. > ... For example, the 28 day "Emotional > cycle" is also the 28 day menstrual cycle in women. Is that so? It is well known that womens' menstrual cycles are only APPROXIMATELY 28 days, and this doesn't include women who are involved in strenuous training for sports, whose periods may come up to three MONTHS apart. > For example, there's appearantly a 3 hour "sleep cycle", a 4 hour > digestive cycle, a 12 hour neuron cycle, and about 20+ others, > some as short as 1/60th of a second, some "sum of the cycles" run > as high as 7 years. In fact, life itself is much like the "hump" > of a sine wave. Again, this has nothing to do with the publicized notion of biorhythms, and just what do you get from summing various cycles, anyway? It has already been pointed out that, given two cycles whose durations, in days, are relatively prime, you can solve a Diophantine equation, and come up with cycles of any length whatsoever. Dr. Fliess, not seeming to understand this, was constantly surprised at how he could continue to get different cycles from linear combinations of the cycles he had. > Of course, not everybody's "Emotional cycle" is exactly 28 days, > nor are any other of the "major cycles". Great. Then why did you bring up the point? > The one good thing about following a "biorythm" or even astrology, > is that it helps you to "pace yourself". If you consistantly > push yourself to the limit all the time, you can overstress your > system. If on the other hand you work extra hard for a while, > then work a lighter schedule, you can plan time for things like > extra long days, followed by some shorter days for resting up. This is a perfectly reasonable idea, which has nothing whatsoever to do with biorhythms. (And how does astrology help you pace yourself?) > Guess what, the pattern often corresponds with the "physical" cycle. Really? News to me. Any references? > In some cities, police and fire department personnel are given > rotation based on their biorythms. If you make a statement like this, you should supply AT LEAST one police or fire dept. that uses biorhythms, so that someone living in the area can phone up and verify this. I would guess that, if you called up any of these cities, they would violently deny any such thing or, if pressed, admit it with a certain amount of embarrassment. United Airlines once charted several thousand pilots for their biorhythms, and found out there was no correspondence whatsoever, so they lost interest in the area. This did not stop people from citing United as a corporation that used biorhythms, even though United denies any use of biorhythms whatsoever. > Furthermore, during the full > moon, many people get very emotional in a bad way, therefore > police, fire, mental health centers, and hospitals often increase > staff starting the friday night of the full moon. (Again, which hospitals, which mental health centers, etc??) Studies have shown that there is little correlation between the full moon and violent crimes. One of the reasons for this myth is that people tend to remember bizarre events when there is a full moon, and they don't notice them when it isn't a full moon. It's also possible that there may be some correlation, but not the way that you think. If people believe that the full moon inspires lunacy, they may be more prone to do stupid things when there is a full moon (this is known as a "self-fulfilling prophecy"). The Hawthorne effect was alluded to in a previous posting. In effect, what may be happening is that people, knowing that they are being assigned work based on their biorhythms, are simply being extra-careful, which leads one to think that biorhythms are a good indicator of competence. > Lunacy is > a "Statistical Reality" even if there is no obvious scientific > reason for it. See above explanation. One of the most frightening statements I see in any newsgroup is of the form "I believe in XYZ, even though I know there's no scientific basis for it". If there's a correlation, there must be a reason for it. The reason, however, might surprise you. rpjday
rb@ccird1.UUCP (Rex Ballard) (05/09/86)
In article <8024@watrose.UUCP> rpjday@watrose.UUCP (rpjday) writes: >from rb@ccird2.UUCP. My intent in the first posting was to point out that the "popular" biorythms have little, if any sound basis. At the same time there are extrapulations on "biorythms" which *could* be used in the same way that "popular" biorythms are now used. > >> Actually, there is more to it than is described in the "popular >> books". There are several very small rythms involving such things >> as digestive system, circulatory, and glandular activity which >> form the basis for biorythms. > >> For example, there's appearantly a 3 hour "sleep cycle", a 4 hour >> digestive cycle, a 12 hour neuron cycle, and about 20+ others, >> some as short as 1/60th of a second, some "sum of the cycles" run >> as high as 7 years. In fact, life itself is much like the "hump" >> of a sine wave. > > Again, this has nothing to do with the publicized notion of biorhythms, >and just what do you get from summing various cycles, anyway? It has >already been pointed out that, given two cycles whose durations, in days, >are relatively prime, you can solve a Diophantine equation, and come >up with cycles of any length whatsoever. Exactly, of course there might be several rythms might be harmonics of each other, several of these non-prime values *could* form more significant cycles. > >> Of course, not everybody's "Emotional cycle" is exactly 28 days, >> nor are any other of the "major cycles". > > Great. Then why did you bring up the point? > >> The one good thing about following a "biorythm" or even astrology, >> is that it helps you to "pace yourself". If you consistantly >> push yourself to the limit all the time, you can overstress your >> system. If on the other hand you work extra hard for a while, >> then work a lighter schedule, you can plan time for things like >> extra long days, followed by some shorter days for resting up. > > This is a perfectly reasonable idea, which has nothing whatsoever to >do with biorhythms. (And how does astrology help you pace yourself?) > >> Furthermore, during the full >> moon, many people get very emotional in a bad way, therefore >> police, fire, mental health centers, and hospitals often increase >> staff starting the friday night of the full moon. > > (Again, which hospitals, which mental health centers, etc??) >Studies have shown that there is little correlation between >the full moon and violent crimes. One of the reasons for this myth >is that people tend to remember bizarre events when there is a full moon, >and they don't notice them when it isn't a full moon. This tidbit came from my mother, who while working at Bethesda mental health center in Denver Colorado, and Arapaho Mental health center in Aurora over a period of 10 years, often noticed by the number of incoming "crisis calls", that she when she joked "must be a full moon" that it almost always was. > It's also possible that there may be some correlation, but not the >way that you think. If people believe that the full moon inspires >lunacy, they may be more prone to do stupid things when there is a >full moon (this is known as a "self-fulfilling prophecy"). There might be another factor as well. The tharapists, along with many of the clients, were paid bi-weekly. More importantly, during the full and new moons. Perhaps they were eating leftovers those last few days, and not as "well fed", worrying about their budjet. Clients who were paid during the full moon often got drunk or high with their paychecks. This peculiar economic pattern may have a great deal to do with "biorythms". Perhaps over an N year period of time, this pattern would shift to some other period of the moon? I also noticed a pattern in the family spending. During the weekend of the full moon, we would go on a "spending spree". The fact that dad just got is check was an important factor. Of course, based on this observation, a 14 day cycle should be strictly symmetrical, for some reason, it was not. Perhaps biological factors such as menstrual cycle for mom, lack of sex for dad,... could have accentuated these patterns. >> Lunacy is >> a "Statistical Reality" even if there is no obvious scientific >> reason for it. > > See above explanation. One of the most frightening statements I see >in any newsgroup is of the form "I believe in XYZ, even though I know >there's no scientific basis for it". If there's a correlation, there >must be a reason for it. The reason, however, might surprise you. > If the statistics differ significantly from the mathmatical probability over a sufficiently large sample, there is more than "pure coincidence" involved. There ARE perfectly logical explanations for such anomolies, but frequently they are buried because they don't "address the specific topic". There ARE perfectly logical explanations for things like astrology and biorythms. Basicly, they are "closest fits" of other observed phenomena. Yes, "following the pattern", will tend to smooth out the "cycles" to something more "predictable", but even if the pattern is ignored, the pattern described will be a rough approximation of the actual pattern. One of the interesting studies I remember hearing about on one of the electronic media (Lifetime I think), pointed out that smokers, were not major cancer risks solely for because of their consumption of tobacco (though it was a factor). Smokers also seem to eat more, excercise less, use more salt, use stronger spices, eat more colestoral, and in general abuse their body more than "reformed" smokers. In other words, statistically, you could live longer if you smoked for two or three years and then quit :-). In reality, you would live longer yet if you ate right, excercised, used less salt, and in general took better care of your body.
silber@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (05/20/86)
>The "Bi-weekly" cycle: >As I mentioned earlier, many people get paid on a "Bi-weekly" basis. >Which usually means, that every two weeks, it's friday and they have >a pocket full of money. Strangely enough, most companies bi-weekly >cycles coincide with the full and new moon. Furthermore, payday Since the lunar month is slightly more than 28 days long (about 28.4 if I remember correctly), the bi-weekly pay cycles will drift away from the full and new moons, such that after a year or so, the pay periods will be equidistant between them. I bet that in Israel they have problems arround the new moon. The Jewish calendar is lunar, with the start of each month occuring on the new moon. Ami Silberman