On Jun 6, 12:21*pm, Paul Grieg > wrote:
> On Jun 6, 9:53 am, Peter Brooks > wrote:
>
> "In health matters, mistaking correlation or association with
> causation is an error frequently committed by those interpreting data.
> The sun rises after the rooster crows; therefore roosters cause the
> sun to rise. Eight out of ten gang members chew gum; therefore banning
> chewing gum will curb gang violence. The association of wine and
> improved cardiovascular health is only an association, and researchers
> frequently attribute the lifestyles of the wine drinkers and/or the
> antioxidants are the reason for the improvement - not the alcohol."
>
Jailing gang members will cut the consumption of chewing gum and
improve the aesthetics of the street. You can understand the
statistics and make sense of them.

Antioxidants have recently been shown to be dangerous in excess,
particularly if consumed as tablets. So this is really yet more reason
to tuck into the red.

My flight last night was delayed by five hours, so I had a chance to
sample some quite good red wine. I'd enjoyed seeing some meerkats
(mongooses) this last week, they really are quite charming creatures -
particularly if viewed from a distance. The airport business lounge
(open to me because of the long delay) had some red wine with pictures
of meerkats on the bottles. I fear that this, coupled with the health
benefits I've had reinforced by this discussion, led me to enjoy more
than I should have. It had a beneficent side-effect for my fellow
travellers, though. They were a very sad bunch until I entertained
them with a little sketch on the wonders of travelling with South
African Airways - even the SAA officials seemed to approve of it.

My wife is peeved that I don't even have the hangover that I ought to
have in these circumstances...