In an earlier post I referred to an analysis that showed the effect of lead on the development of crime in our societies. We have difficulty seeing longer term developments, especially when a time delay of several years is involved. Data analysis can help us find interesting relationships. (correlation backed on strong causation)
Sometimes the amount of information you need is not stuck away in massive amounts of data points. Sometimes lots of knowledge (causation) needs to be put together to find complex social relationships that matter.
Today I remembered a video on sugar. To me this is viewing time well spend:
Update 22/04/’13: For a good read on correlation and causation this article from Forbes: Big Data News Roundup: Correlation vs. Causation
(coincidence)
Update 14/05/’14: Create your own correlations that have obviously no causality: Spurious Correlations (Via the verge: Spurious Correlations finds the hidden, totally pointless connections between everything) just an example:
