We often read comments that say "correlation does not equal causation." And we know it’s true. Sometimes the two things that are correlated do not cause each other, but both may be caused by some third force. Other times, the only thing they have in common is that they look like they correlate. The site Spurious Correlations takes various datasets and graphs them comparatively. These highlight the way statistics can be presented to the public as if one thing has something to do with another. Some are funny in that they obviously have nothing to do with each other, like the graph at the top. Some correlations are so close they are spooky, yet you try to tell yourself that they are not related.
And some correlations seem to make sense in some strange way.
There’s even a button that will help you look up more correlations. -via Metafilter