CORRELATIONS: Here’s one to think about: “correlation is not causation.”

The site https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations has some fascinating data showing totally unrelated information on a graph, which shows a correlation.

For example, the distance between Neptune and the sun correlates with the popularity of the first name Andrea. The graph plots the measurement of the average distance between Neptune and the sun as measured on the first day of each month and the popularity of the name Andrea from 1975 through 2020.

The closer Neptune got to the sun, the less popular the name Andrea became — or so it would seem.

Here’s another completely unrelated correlation: Air pollution in Tallahassee and the number of postal service machine operators in Florida, both of which have decreased, but are slowly increasing since 2019.

Another: The number of movies Russell Crowe appeared in correlates with customer satisfaction with Walgreens. Here’s what AI (artificial intelligence) created to say about the correlation: “Russell Crowe’s intense energy was being siphoned off by the film industry, leading to a nationwide shortage of gruff charm. This, in turn, resulted in Walgreens customers feeling a conspicuous lack of ruggedness and righteous indignation while shopping for their everyday needs.”

We hope you’re laughing as much as we are.

Here’s one with steadily rising lines — Google searches for “my cat scratched me” correlating with the Coca-Cola Company’s stock price.

And steadily decreasing lines — bachelor’s degrees awarded in liberal arts correlating with the number of pediatricians in Massachusetts. The AI-generated, completely false correlation is just too funny: “As the number of Bachelor’s degrees awarded in Liberal Arts decreased, there was a corresponding decrease in the availability of people who could properly interpret children’s finger paintings, leading to a decline in accurate early developmental assessments. This ultimately resulted in a reduced number of qualified pediatricians in Massachusetts as the demand for quality crayon-based diagnostics exceeded the supply.”