[R] [OT] "normal" (as in "Guassian")

roger koenker rkoenker at uiuc.edu
Tue Mar 4 00:37:06 CET 2008


On Mar 3, 2008, at 4:59 PM, Peter Dalgaard wrote:

> Andrew Robinson wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 10:22:41PM +0100, Peter Dalgaard wrote:
>>
>>> Patrick Burns wrote:
>>>
>>>> Douglas Bates wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 8:25 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca 
>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 3/3/2008 9:10 AM, Rogers, James A [PGRD Groton] wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> As someone of partly French heritage, I would also ask how this
>>>>>>> distribution came to be called "Gaussian". It seems very  
>>>>>>> unfair to de
>>>>>>> Moivre, who discovered the distribution at least half a  
>>>>>>> century earlier.
>>>>>>> :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Just an example of Stigler's Law.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Taking this to a whole new level of "off topic", I wonder if  
>>>>> Stigler's
>>>>> Law is self-referential?  That is, should Stigler's Law more  
>>>>> correctly
>>>>> be attributed to someone else?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> No.  If Stigler's Law were named after some prior person,
>>>> then it wouldn't be an example of itself.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Only if said person actually was first to discover it, surely.
>>>
>>
>> I believe that Stigler believes that he was not the first to discover
>> Stigler's Law
> Which is why it is an example of itself...

This is getting a bit silly, but I would add, unless the discoverer  
had the
same name, cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_conjecture
but  I reiterate that the original attribution (by Stigler) is to Robert
Merton.
>
>
> -- 
>   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Øster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
>  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
> (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph:  (+45)  
> 35327918
> ~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)              FAX: (+45)  
> 35327907
>
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