Causation by Statistics

Never before have we had so much information. The most expensive bananas in the world are in Australia. I do not know why I need to know that but it was so easy to find out. 
We have pretty pie charts, bamboozling bar charts and excel spread sheets on everything from every angle. My brain hurts! 
And when you start accumulating data, you get the ability to correlate facts and that means that you can draw conclusions. 
I am sure that if we collected data on the colour of people's tea shirts in Asda, and their buying habits, we would soon discover that if you put on a white tea shirt, you are more likely to purchase bananas than apples, but that the incidence of people buying apples, increases when they wear a red tea shirt. Or can it be that our fruit diet affects our choice of clothing?

This week we have been told that the taller you are, the higher the risk that you will get cancer! An "expert" on TV admitted that the reason for this is not yet known, but perhaps it is because a tall person has more cells to go wrong. Am I buying this explanation? It sounds a bit like saying that any 2 legged men, who want to reduce the  risk of cancer, can do so by having one leg amputated! 
And yet inspite of all this data, and all these correlated patterns, a hospital doctor admitted to us yesterday, that we still do not know why people get breast cancer. (It can't just be height, Mandy doesn't quite make five foot!)

To be honest, I blame computers. It doesn't mean we should, just because we can. 
Anyway, statistics are deceptive. It is true say that world-wide, and in every single country in the world, people on AVERAGE  have less than 2 legs.  Fact.

Oh, and just one more thing, as you read this you should be aware that you can do so because you have an above average number of eyes. And the chances are too, that you have an above average number of legs.