[Rooster61]

> A high correlation corresponds to predictive power...

That's a bold statement. And one that is unfortunately often times false. Spurious correlations pop up everywhere. They can be notoriously bad at predicting things, and care must be taken not to take rash actions based on correlations that may have no actual clout. I'd say denying someone a job based off of an algebra test is sufficiently rash.

[tjl]

There's some correlations I love that illustrate this. You have "Lack of Pirates Causing Global Warming":

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/03/23/true-fa...

and one I hadn't seen before, "Internet Explorer vs. Murder Rate",

http://chrisblattman.com/2013/05/24/correlation-versus-causa...

[ObviousScience]

Why do you think those correlations don't have predictive power, eg, that if you give me a graph of the pirate rate over a long period of time, I can't make a pretty good guess about the global warming rate?

Now, obviously, these are only very coarsely correlated because they don't reflect small scale variations in either data set (which is why the graphs are so coarse). However, in this case, both seem to actually be driven by a hidden factor (technology and societal advancement), which means that they'll actually likely stay correlated (as long as the correlations with the hidden factor stay strong).

Similarly, internet explorer and murder rates.

tl;dr: Your articles are correct that correlation doesn't imply causation, but I never argued that increasing math or computer science education would improve scores in the other. Instead, I merely argued that as long as they're correlated, knowing about one will tell you about the other.

(Also, the examples you picked don't meet my definition of strongly correlated, because they don't mimic fine features of the data, but that's actually secondary, because the argument you presented doesn't even relate to what I claimed.)

[spacehome]

If I'm trying to pick years with global warming and all I know is the pirate population, I can do pretty well.