This discussion reminds me of a (old) joke about proofs/correlation:
Guy gets into a compartment on the Brighton-London train and sits down. Opposite to him is a well-dressed gent reading the FT.
Soon after they leave the station, the gent mutters something under his breath and starts tearing small squares off his newspaper and throwing them out of the window.
The other chap watches this with amazement. After a while, his curiosity gets the better of him and he asks this guy what he's doing.
"Tigers! Keeping the sneaky devils away ha ha!", he replies.
"But there aren't any tigers in Surrey", says our man.
"Pretty effective then, eh?", replies the gent at the window...