Correlation vs. Causation

The difference between Correlation and Causation boils down to if something happened because of the action or if it was just a coincidence. A correlation is a statement about how closely together two things are related. A correlation does not mean that they are directly related to each other. A causation on the other hand means that two things have a direct impact on the other. Many times correlations are mistaken as causations but in reality what people are directly linking together is not always true.

Is Rachel Carson a murderer?

Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, created an environmental push in the United States that slowly leaked to other countries. The US banned DDT which then spread to other countries to ban or cut back on use. Countries that are prone to Malaria outbreaks started to curb back on pesticides like DDT. This affected the amount of people being infected and then dying. Dramatic differences were seen in the amount of deaths from pre Silent Spring to post Silent Spring. This is where the rationale comes from for the idea that Rachel Carson is a killer. This could seen as fact because it is known that DDT kills mosquitos which transmit the disease. So it is easy to say that she lead to thousands of people dying but at the same time mosquitoes have an ability to build up a resistance to pesticides over time. This reason might also explain how and why more people died after Carson's book came out. The fact that when DDT use was curbed back and deaths increased supports the idea that Rachel Carson is a killer but more factors go into it than just the amount of DDT used.

Statistics

What are the chances of making a hole-in-one in golf?

Tour player making an ace: 3,000 to 1

Low-handicapper making an ace: 5,000 to 1

Average player making an ace: 12,000 to 1

What are your odds at being a victim from a shark attack?

1 in 8 million

What are you odds at drowning in the bathtub?

1 in 800.000

What are the chances at playing professional baseball beyond the high school interscholastic level?

Approximately three in 50, or about 6.4 percent of high school senior boys interscholastic baseball players will go on to play men's baseball at a NCAA member institution.

About nine in 100, or about 8.9 percent of NCAA senior male baseball players will get drafted by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

Approximately one in 200, or 0.44 percent of high school senior boys playing interscholastic baseball will eventually be drafted by an MLB team.

What are the chances at playing professional football beyond the high school interscholastic level?

Approximately 6.0 percent, or less than one in 16 of all high school senior boys playing interscholastic football will go on to play football at a NCAA member institution.

Approximately one in 50, or 1.7 percent of NCAA senior football players will get drafted by a National Football League (NFL) team.

Eight in 10,000, or approximately 0.08 percent of high school senior boys playing interscholastic football will eventually be drafted by an NFL team.

What are the chances at playing professional soccer beyond the high school interscholastic level?

Less than three in 50, or about 5.6 percent of high school senior boys interscholastic soccer players will go on to play men's soccer at an NCAA member institution.

Less than one in 50, or about 1.6 percent of NCAA senior male soccer players will be drafted by a Major League Soccer (MLS) team.

Approximately one in 1,250, or about 0.07 percent of high school senior boys playing interscholastic soccer will eventually be drafted by an MLS team.

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve is the idea that all of the human's mitochondria came from one women. The reason for this is that the mitochondria is only passed down from the mother. The human race can have such diversity because we are so widely spread out. Each place where humans live provides different dominant traits to be present. These differences in dominant traits are acquired after a long period of time in one place. The Mitochondrial Eve is a person that contains all the traits blended together. She is very average and therefore each different demographic can shape the race in different ways.

Middle Eastern Man

Latino Man

American Man

Korean Man

A girl from the Rashaida Tribe in Africa

Girl from the Nuer Tribe in Africa

Representation of Mitochondrial Eve

Amphioxus & Evolution

Amphioxus is a creature that is considered to be related to humans in the evolutionary train of thought. Amphioxus is a worm with a fish-like body but lacking paired fins or other limbs. They can grow to be between 5-7 cm in length. The Amphioxus is linked to vertebrates and thought to have split from the vertebrates around 520 million years ago. They resemble vertebrates in that they have a hollow nerve cord running along the back, pharyngeal slits and a tail that runs past the anus. This split from vertebrates make the Amphioxus important to evolution. They serve primarily to help understand how vertebrates have evolved and adapted threw history.

Polywater

Polywater is an idea devised by Russian scientist during the 1960s. This so called new form a water was much thicker than regular water and also boiled at a higher temperature and froze a at lower temperature. Soon the US and British scientist found out about this new water and started to test this so called polywater because of its appearance of polymerizing (forming chains). The public soon began to fear that if polywater came into contact with regular water in lakes, oceans, or rivers, than an entire body of water could automatically change to polywater. Soon however, scientist began to notice that it was merely a laboratory error. It was noticed that there were contaminates in the glassware that made the waters viscosity, boiling point, and melting point change.

Links:

http://itotd.com/articles/588/polywater/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944149,00.html

Can All Websites Be Trusted?

The internet is filled with a lot of great resources but there are some that are a hoax. For example, the website http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ is a great example. The website looks real and even gives a scientific name to the creature. All of this helps to add to the credibility of the site. You will first start to question the reliability when they start mentioning Sasquatch. It is common understanding that Sasquatch does not exist. If people were not careful, they could start believing that there really are Tree Octopuses.

Here is another website that is pretty interesting:

http://www.shardsoglass.com/main.cfm