Just saw this mentioned on social media, and it gave me enough of a giggle that I thought it'd be worth sharing here.
https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
It's a website that has a bunch of graphs with spurious correlations (essentially, two variables that look related but aren't). Here are a few of my favorites so far:
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/prod.mm.com/uploads/2024/07/31/1722431428_5941_the-number-of-movies-russell-crowe-appeared-in_correlates-with_customer-satisfaction-with-walgreens_mmthumb.png)
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/prod.mm.com/uploads/2024/07/31/1722431432_1402_viewership-of-the-big-bang-theory_correlates-with_google-searches-for-how-to-make-baby_mmthumb.png)
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/prod.mm.com/uploads/2024/07/31/1722431437_2819_google-searches-for-how-to-go-to-space_correlates-with_chipotle-mexican-grills-stock-price_mmthumb.png)
Hilarious...I don't need that rabbit hole....
Duke
MegaDork
7/31/24 9:35 a.m.
In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :
That one's the classic, isn't it?
Recon1342 said:
Only on GRM...
I think that's how I already know about this in the first place
RevRico
MegaDork
7/31/24 10:55 a.m.
I was expecting sandwiches, due to recent trends.
Sadly
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/prod.mm.com/uploads/2024/07/31/1722437694_screenshot_20240731-105347_mmthumb.png)
In reply to RevRico :
Well now I'm not sure if the relationship between sandwiches and myself is spurious...
But you also get data of events that actually *are* related, but not causally.
![Researchers in New York City did a study on ice cream sales and murder ...](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fus-static.z-dn.net%2Ffiles%2Fd95%2F82c9e68fc758559a472a7237ac7da5ec.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6d366f8f6204fcbeafcf9dc1ebecb32d114a5a4091bfcece144b02b4f1c51d13&ipo=images)
NickD said:
![](https://web.stevenson.edu/mbranson/m4tp/version1/fake-news/images/cheese-bedsheets.png)
What I got from that one is that the cheese marketing board is probably very happy with a 10+% increase in per capita cheese consumption between 2000 and 2007.
Yep, I teach an eight day crash course on engineering statistics and I pull up this site about every other month when I get to the "seven ways to do bad science" part of my lectures.
Correlation does not prove causality...it can be used to predict but not necessarily control.
NickD
MegaDork
7/31/24 4:52 p.m.
Keith Tanner said:
NickD said:
![](https://web.stevenson.edu/mbranson/m4tp/version1/fake-news/images/cheese-bedsheets.png)
What I got from that one is that the cheese marketing board is probably very happy with a 10+% increase in per capita cheese consumption between 2000 and 2007.
I didn't even notice that. Damn, the early 2000s were really a strong era for cheese!
You know, the more I eat Chipotle, the more I wonder about going into outer space. I see a correalation.
Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'.
In reply to wearymicrobe :
See also...
![www.lacan.upc.edu/admoreWeb/wp-content/uploads/201...](https://www.lacan.upc.edu/admoreWeb/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/test2-300x225.jpg)
RX Reven' said:
In reply to wearymicrobe :
See also...
![www.lacan.upc.edu/admoreWeb/wp-content/uploads/201...](https://www.lacan.upc.edu/admoreWeb/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/test2-300x225.jpg)
I spend a good chunk of time working with a predictive AI group. trust me I KNOW>
In reply to wearymicrobe :
Whenever I demonstrate the Box-Cox transformation to my students I hear George Carlin's old skit about the seven words you can't say on TV.
CJ
Dork
8/1/24 12:45 a.m.
Had a stats prof in college who rolled out that there was a direct correlation between the birth and suicide rates in New York City.
Of course it wasn't a causal relationship... maybe
prodarwin said:
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/prod.mm.com/uploads/2024/07/31/1722484188_img_6028_mmthumb.jpeg)
Definitely can't get killed by geese on other planets. Just saying.