Shark Attacks

Seeing as some of us are involved in a course that involves data, I came across a story on the BBC that made me chuckle. It concerns how people will interpret data or statistics to prove that their point of view or actions were correct.

An example is that the smoking ban in Wales "caused" a 13% fall in heart attacks from October to December 2007, compared with the same period in 2006. What the author argues is as the ban began in April, did it also "cause" the rise in heart attacks in the first few months after the ban?

Can it also be 'proved' by gathering data that when ice cream sales rise, so do shark attacks? Readers of the BBC Magazine then submitted their own thoughts, some of which were really funny. Best of the bunch was David from London who wrote "Sharks like ice cream but find it really difficult to buy them, so they resort to eating humans in the hope they will still have ice cream inside them. (Strangely this logic also applies to mosquito bites in summer.)" Muuuuhaaahaha!

To read the full article, see here.

Clearly the author does not realise that it is easier to swim away from a shark if you are not trying to hold on to an ice cream.
The Late KingZog

Lol - my fave letter

Thanks for the link highly entertaining read