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I found the comments section following this article is especially funny. My favorite, the thread claiming that lead poisoning is the only statistic correlated
by vt240 11y ago
I found the comments section following this article is especially funny. My favorite, the thread claiming that lead poisoning is the only statistic correlated with the violent crime rate... The authors proof- a single academic pre-print. I love the new internet science.
- pja 11y agoIIRC the correlation between lead exposure & violent crime rates 20 years later is fairly good: you can track it on a state by state level as each state banned lead additives in fuel at different times. But proving any cause with a with a 20 year delay in its effect is going to be very difficult. At best it seems reasonable to believe that lead in fuel was a sizable chunk of the problem, but it’s certainly not proven beyond doubt.
- vt240 11y agoYea, there have been a couple good summary articles I've seen here on Hacker News. Personally I find it kind of mind boggling. It's like discovering the cause of Alzheimer's, dementia, or autism. I just find it funny, when discussing issues in comments, the depths people will go to, to frame things in black and white.