Legend has it that storks deliver babies, and there are numbers to prove it. In 2000, British mathematics professor Robert Matthews found a correlation between birth rates in 17 European countries and the number of storks nesting in them. Coincidence? Why, yes, of course. Matthews had set out to demonstrate to his students the perils of equating correlation and causation. Yet his findings could be misconstrued to argue, albeit somewhat unconvincingly, that there is only a one in 125 chance This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Eight Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 49 Correction: Clutter A tidy room does not always beget a tidy mind. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Correction: The Starving Artist Bad times don’t always make for good art. Arts & Culture Issue 45 Correction: Spontaneous Generation A curious theory about the origins of life. Arts & Culture Issue 44 Correction Wikipedia is good, actually. Arts & Culture Issue 40 Correction On the scary shortcomings of “fearless” philosophies. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Correction Teenagers aren't lazy, they're exhausted.
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