WS MoreOrLess: 'Spurious Correlations'
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2014
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is the divorce rate in the US state of Maine linked to margarine consumption? It's one of many pairs of statistics featured on the 'Spurious Correlations' website started recently by Tyler Vigen. We talk to him about some of the funniest correlations he's found and the serious point he's trying to make. Plus: World Cup Office Sweepstake strategy. This programme was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the short edition of More or Less. |
| 0:02.0 | First broadcast on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.0 | Thank you for downloading from the BBC. |
| 0:09.0 | The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use |
| 0:12.0 | go to BBCWorldService.com slash podcasts. |
| 0:19.0 | Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:23.0 | We are a weekly numerical haggis, |
| 0:25.0 | stuffed full of tasty statistics and I'm Tim Harford. |
| 0:30.0 | Here at More or Less we're starting a campaign to ban margarine. |
| 0:35.0 | That's partly because butter is delicious, |
| 0:37.0 | but it's mostly because of the side effects of margarine. |
| 0:40.0 | You see, we've seen convincing evidence |
| 0:43.0 | that margarine consumption causes a divorce. |
| 0:47.0 | It's all in a cool chart on a website. |
| 0:50.0 | Let me just bring it up. |
| 0:53.0 | Yeah, I'm looking at it now. |
| 0:54.0 | It's totally, totally convincing. |
| 0:57.0 | All I need is some way to convey to you just how convincing it is. |
| 1:05.0 | Ben, could you come in for a minute? |
| 1:07.0 | Okay. |
| 1:08.0 | Right, Ben Crichton is more or less his violist in residence |
| 1:13.0 | and Ben is going to play some swooping elegant glissando notes. |
... |
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