Skepticism 101: Fun with Correlations

Today I have some interesting data to share with you.

Proof: That we we need to Reduce space exploration

Would you like to see the US spending on science, space and technology increase? If so then rather sadly if it does indeed happen, the price we will pay for this is that more people will kill themselves.

Really?

Yep, here is the proof … solid irrefutable evidence that spending on space exploration motivates people to kill themselves. If you look below then you can clearly see that as the US spending on science and space increases, so also does the suicide rate, so the action to take is quite obvious, simply stop all space exploration.

US_spending_on_science__space__and_technology_correlates_with_Suicides_by_hanging__strangulation_and_suffocation

Skeptical?

OK, so how about this then …

Proof: That that we need to Mine more Uranium

You do of course know that Uranium is quite deadly, in fact here is some solid evidence of that. Quite clearly as the price of Uranium in the US has increased, the number of accidental poisonings by alcohol has also increased, so obviously lots of people are becoming depressed about the rising price of Uranium and as a result are drinking themselves to death.

The solution is obvious, simply mine more Uranium so that the price drops and thus reduce the alcohol poisoning rates.

The above and lots more, all comes from a wonderful site called “Spurious Correlations“, where you can find lots more similar quirky examples. It was created by Tyler Vigen as a fun way to look at correlations and to think about data – and of course he nails it because it is fun (No really it is, please do not take these correlations seriously)

Now least you still don’t get it, then permit me to spell it out …

correlation does not imply causation

Now, for fracks sake, will somebody please ring up the Daily Mail and explain this rather basic principle to them, because when you consider their constant flow of health scare stories, they clearly do not grasp this.

 

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