Correlation vs. Causation

Statements like smoking and  lung cancer have a correlation are hardly controversial anymore. Enough research on this topic has be done to be confident that there is a correlation between smoking and and increased likelihood of getting lung cancer. Other examples of obvious correlation would be overweight people and their diet/ lifestyle or  not brushing ones teeth and getting cavities. As one can see there is a correlation between those things and it doesn't matter which way the correlation goes but with causation this is very different. Even though it might seem obvious that smoking causes lung cancer, a bad diet leads to overweight and not brushing your teeth leads to cavities and therefore smoking is the causation for lung cancer bad diets the causation for overweight and so on it might be possible that people that have an increased likelihood for lung cancer just tend to get addicted to smoking or that peoples overweight causes them to eat fast food. Even though this examples are ridiculed it shows how it does not matter in which direction correlation goes but it does matter in what direction causation goes and it can be very hard to tell which even causes the other at times.

Rachel Carson/ Silent Spring killing over 1 million africans each year

Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases there is in the world right now. Especially in Africa people are in constant danger of contracting and dying of Malaria. And all that even though there are things that proved to be effective in the war against malaria.In the early 1960's when DDT was used to fight Malaria only about 10% of the worlds population were in risk of contracting malaria. 50 years later, and without DDT being used this number rose to about 40%. So why did people stop using DDT in the war against Malaria? Well, in her book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson listed all the dangers, and potential threats that DDT has to the environment and to people and with her book gaining popularity, she contributed to DDT getting banned. But recent studies have shown that there is no clear evidence that DDT causes cancer and a lot of Carson's logic was influenced by bias on her side. In 2006 the WHO suggested to stop the ban of DDT to be able to use it to fight DDT. And maybe without Carsons and Silent Spring a lot of people wouldn't have contracted DDT during this 50 year period.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6083944
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSu5JJqLf_0

Statistics

What is the probability of being on a plane that crashes?
1,515 accidents with 303 fatal ones out of 22,800,000 flight hours.

What is the probability that you will get struck by lightning?
1/6250

What is the probability that you will have a stroke before you die?
 1/6

What is the probability that you will get cancer in your lifetime?
 1 in 2.4

What is the probability that you will get pregnant with twins?
 1 in 100

 What is the probability  that high school kids will drink alcohol before they graduate?
8 in 10

Amphioxus

The amphioxus or lancelet is of importance because it is seen as a "living fossil" an contains clues about evolution

Scientific Inquiry Hoax Website

http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/

This site is set up the same way a legit website would be and you can find everything from FAQ to free samples but of course the is no such thing as dehydrated water. This site was made to make fun of some ridiculous products that actually hit the market.