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Viewing posts by Peter Donovan

Outliers

Posted by Peter Donovan 15 years, 1 month ago

In general, statistical accuracy increases with the square root of sample size. Doubling your sensitivity and accuracy quadruples your cost. It's a power law, not a normal distribution, and it pushes us toward extremes.


Allan Savory interview

Posted by Peter Donovan 15 years, 3 months ago

An excellent interview of Allan Savory by Jonathan Teller-Elsberg deals with the difference between reductionist research and process-oriented management, and brittle and nonbrittle environments. Savory discusses why reductionist research and conventional paradigms limit innovation.


Lessons from the loess plateau in China

Posted by Peter Donovan 15 years, 4 months ago

Filmmaker John Liu has documented the World Bank's $500 million loess plateau watershed rehabilitation project since it began in 1995. He has made at least two compelling films about the project, including a 22-minute version was shown at the recent Copenhagen climate conference, and a more detailed 52-minute version.


Twitchell Island USGS project

Posted by Peter Donovan 15 years, 4 months ago

In the Sacramento Delta of California, a freshwater tidal marsh thick with tules and other marsh vegetation formed carbon-rich peat soils 60 feet deep in places. In the 1870s, farmers began to build dikes, drain the marshes, burn the tules, and farm the peat soils.


Allan Savory on desertification and climate change

Posted by Peter Donovan 15 years, 5 months ago

Allan Savory gave this talk in Ireland in November 2009. About 58 minutes.