Cause and Effect

A study has found a correlation between the number of fast food restaurants in a city and the city's comparative obesity rate. The study's author draws what I find to be a surprising conclusion:

The strong relationship really suggests that access to fast food may indeed be one of the issues that may explain increasing obesity rates.

Why do I say "surprising"? Isn't it equally possible that a city filled with people with bad eating habits might be able to more successfully sustain a couple of extra Burger Kings? Or perhaps cities that are more designed for cars than for people have both a positive impact on the drive-thru business and a negative impact on physical activity?

But never mind these questions, local television news program! Send out a camera crew to shoot some footage of fat torsos and asses belonging to nearby pedestrians - you've got a story to run!
Comment posted by Don at 10:33 AM

 
Upgrade to Windows Irony, Service Pack 1

Coding Sanity has taken the plunge, upgrading to Windows XP from Vista, and he finds the performance improvements staggering. This might be the article that finally convinces me as well - if I wasn't in the IT support trade, and didn't feel like I should know my way around it, I would have kicked Vista from my laptop to the curb months ago.
Comment posted by Don at 10:22 AM

 
Estimates accurate to within plus or minus 88%

American right-wing rabid dog Michael Savage explains why Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize - 90% of the selection committee are into child porn, "according to the latest scientific studies". I thought the last bit was a really nice touch, myself - if Science says so, it must be true! I'm wondering how those studies were passed over for the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Hey, wait a minute - of course! Savage is right, it must be some grand conspiracy! That, or he's a moron.
Comment posted by Don at 11:40 AM

 
Domain and e-mails are all back in action

Now I just need to get back to writing. Unfortunately, I'm only slightly more interested in Karlheinz Schreiber than I am in the Leave Brittany Alone kid, so I'll have to look elsewhere for my fodder.

Thank you all for your patience - I'll look forward to the cards and letters once again.
Comment posted by Don at 1:25 PM

 
And I'm back

E-mail is still not functioning properly, but I'm back and ready to bitch about the news of the day again. Maybe this host could do me the favour of remaining in business?
Comment posted by Don at 10:53 PM