Reply #11: hey, have fun!

[treepig]

proving that statistically unlikely events take place is easy enough.

like the 18,181 - 18,181 - 18,181 vote total, that one's outrageously fishy at face value, if you wish to "prove" it statistically, well OK!

but it has absolutely no meaning without establishing cause and effect. without establishing cause and effect, you can't get things published in scientific journals (an area i'm familiar with) - your thesis would immediately be rejected as "speculation." i suspect a similar result would occur in a court of law (although i'm familiar with anecdotal evidence of strange goings-on in that venue, so who knows).

in any event, if you felt the need to debunk the outrageous examples i gave, that would seem to show an underlying insecurity on your part about the validity of your methods. just to be clear, i find your statistical correlations to be highly entertaining and encourage you to continue - but i'm just a bit confused as to your motive - are you here to entertain, or do you actually take yourself seriously?