Could it be that correlation does equal causation?
I wonder...
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I'm all for scientific -- and statistical -- literacy, but sometimes the calls for it exasperate me. Just a little. Not significantly. If you know what I mean. Or you think you know what I mean. Anyway.
Yesterday Wired carried a piece by Clive Thompson, Why We Should Learn the Language of Data. It'…
One of the key principles of skepticism, particularly in medicine, is that correlation does not necessarily equal causation. I emphasize the word "necessarily" because sometimes skeptics go a bit too far and say that correlation does not equal causation. I myself used to phrase it that way for a…
The phrase "Correlation does not imply causation" has developed in to a Falsehood, as I discuss here. This is in part because people often use the phrase to argue that a particular correlation has no meaning, which is a false argument. It is, of course, true that a correlation does not in and of…
Besides yesterday being Mothers' Day yesterday, I had a lot of grant stuff to do, which means that this one will be a quickie. On Saturday, a reader sent me a link to one of the most useful sites I've ever encountered. I realize that over the weekend it's spread around the skeptical blogosphere…
We should all do our part to stop global warming.
I'm going to become a Pirate.
No.
hmmm
Golly, I still drink milk. I must be especially cautious.
Today, I move on to the hard stuff - Ovaltine!
An investment banker got tired of the rat race so he decided to move out to the country and raise alpacas. He was checking out a small town and he chatted up one of the locals at the country store.
"Is the environment here healthy?" he asked.
"You betcha. When I first came here, I didn't have a hair on my head. I was incontinent of urine and of feces. I couldn't take a step -- I had to be carried from my bed to the bath. And just look at me now!" said the yokel, his cheeks glowing pink and his beating his chest with a strong, brown hand.
"How long have you been here?" asked the city slicker.
"Oh, I was born here."
Interesting piece in The Telegraph
Russiaâs witches and wizards face ad ban to protect cancer victims
Be sure to read to the end. o.O
For another take: http://xkcd.com/552/
@1
Hasn't global warming slowed down a bit during the last few years (at least if an AGW denialist squints just right at a carefully selected portion of the past decade) while piracy has increased of the coast of Somalia. There must be something to it.
#1 Jim
Aye!
*passes the rum keg and pasta bowl to Jim*
Actually considering how few humans on the planet drink the milk of other species, I suspect that most drug addicts did not start off drinking milk.
#7 Sauceress
But the price of rum has gone up! First, we need to slash the salaries of Presbyterian ministers.
Orac:
This is off-topic, but given your interest in the vaccine-autism debate and the Lupron-injecting, IRB-violating Geiers in particular, you might want to check out this new article out of Florida.
The Geiers now want access to the state's immunization database, and Governor Charlie Crist and his biggest donor, a chiropractor, are apparently pressuring health officials to give them that access.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-09-30/news/crist-backer-gary-kompothe…
And three minutes after you post that link, there is a new article. Wow! Orac is fast! ;-)