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Crime Reduction Linked To Lead-Free Gasoline
Hugh Pickens writes "Even low levels of lead can cause brain damage, increasing the likelihood of behavioral and cognitive traits such as impulsivity, aggressiveness, and low IQ that are strongly linked with criminal behavior. The NYTimes has a story on how the phasing out of leaded gasoline starting with the Clean Air Act in 1973 may have led to a 56% drop in violent crime in the US in the 1990s. An economics professor at Amherst College, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, discovered the connection and wrote a paper comparing the reduction of lead from gasoline between states (PDF) and the reduction of violent crime. She constructed a table linking crime rates in every state to childhood lead exposure in that state 20 or 30 years earlier. If lead poisoning is a factor in the development of criminal behavior, then countries that didn't switch to unleaded fuel until the 1980s, like Britain and Australia, should soon see a dip in crime as the last lead-damaged children outgrow their most violent years."
Yes, that's exactly what this means, and that's exactly why they did it. If you don't believe the chinese government arranged this purposefully, well, maybe you've had too much lead exposure.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Of course the more interesting correlation is a group that prides themselves on being enlightened and rational above all else, like the fans of the FSM would be so out of touch that they didn't know that there where still pirates on the high seas and that it is a real problem for shipping. It's actually just a problem with their survey method. They used to do a catch-release system to estimate the number of pirates, and identify them by markings on their earrings, patches, hooks, peglegs, etc. They also used a certain set of criteria (apart from the basic one of piracy) to identify pirates, and as the surveys have continued through the years they've failed to update their processes and criteria for changes in pirate fashions. (Basically, that pirates have come to favor other beverages apart from rum, the gradual improvements in prosthetics and the improvements in naval safety and changes in naval warfare which have reduced the incidence of dismemberment among pirates... the drastic changes in pirate lingo and their favored methods of doing business...)
As a result, the most recent surveys only turned up a very small number of pirates: Captain Hook (who hasn't aged for a considerable period of time), the Dread Pirate Roberts (whose centuries-long career defies all explanation - the survey teams are still trying to find an explanation), and a handful of others...
Of course, the disciples of the FSM have not overlooked these new facts. For a while, there has been a certain amount of doubt as to whether the results of this study really indicated that a decline in the number of pirates was the cause of global warming. Some said there could be other explanations, while others insisted that the whole situation merited further study and that it was too soon to draw any conclusions at all. Now, though, I think we can safely say, with a moderate level of cautious near-certainty, that the decline of piracy might not actually be entirely responsible for the increase in global temperature. There may be other factors, too.
Bow-ties are cool.
China is taking care of this problem with their usual efficiency, so stop giving them a hard time.