One of the first things you learn in statistics class is this: CORRLEATION IS NOT CAUSATION. Yet time and again you see the scare of the week meme going around because some scientist has found a correlation between X and Y.
Here's this week's and it's a doozy:
Dr. Fuller Torrey is studying whether a parasite in Fluffy's droppings causes schizophrenia, a mental illness that strikes 2.2 million Americans and is characterized by hallucinations, delusions and trouble regulating emotions.The Washington-area psychiatrist has found that people with schizophrenia were more likely to have had pet cats as young children, or their mothers kept the animals during their pregnancies. Torrey is now testing antibiotics against the feline parasite Toxoplasma gondii to treat schizophrenia.
In other words, he's forund a correlation and now he's testing for causation. There's no real proof of his theory. Except the article goes on to say this:
Torrey advises parents not to buy pet cats for young children.
Now I have an issue. If this meme catches on, a lot of animal shelters are going to get a wave of abandoned cats and have problems adopting out cats to people with kids. And at this point, all you have is a correlation, NOT proof of causation.
