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AI explanation

^{Show image generation prompt} Model: dalle-3
Prompt: [A comic-book-style illustration with bold lines, muted colors, and a dotted halftone pattern from the 1960s] The illustration shows Ithaca, a picturesque city with a clear sky and scenic landscapes. The sun shines down, casting a golden glow, and the buildings are highlighted in warm tones. The city is surrounded by nature, featuring fresh, clean air and lush greenery. In the background, the rest of the United States is depicted with a similar clear sky, symbolizing a sense of peace and safety. The overall image conveys a serene and idyllic atmosphere, reflecting the calming effect of the clean, clear air on both Ithaca and the nation. The depiction should include only scenes, people, and objects, it should not include text or speech bubbles.

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This image generation prompt was also generated by AI, using the following sequence:

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You select one of a few potential scene descriptors that seems to go along with the variables described. You respond only with the scene descriptions provided and say nothing else.
User prompt: Here are two variables: Air pollution in Ithaca and Arson in United States. Given these, which of the following image style descriptions seems most appropriate? Pick the one that seems to be related to one of the variables at hand. Please respond with only one of the following potential descriptions: Woodblock painting Woodblock painting Whimsical illustration A comic-book-style illustration with muted colors and a dotted halftone pattern from the 1960s Concept art
ChatGPT: A comic-book-style illustration with muted colors and a dotted halftone pattern from the 1960s

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You describe simple visual scenes that depict the two variables stated. You combine both variables into one scene.
User prompt: Please describe a visual scene that prominently depicts both Air pollution in Ithaca and Arson in United States, in the following situation: As the air in Ithaca cleared up, it also cleared the minds of potential arsonists across the United States. With easier access to clean, oxygen-rich air, their fiery tendencies just couldn't ignite the way they used to. It's a case of environmental improvement leading to a nationwide cool-down in criminal activity.. Keep the description simple.
ChatGPT: In Ithaca, the sky gradually cleared of smog and pollution, allowing the sun to shine through and paint the city in a golden glow. The air became crisp and fresh, as if nature itself had taken a deep breath. Meanwhile, across the United States, would-be arsonists found themselves cooling off as well. With clean, clear air to breathe, the sparks of mischief and mayhem simply couldn't catch fire like they used to, leaving the nation a little safer and more at peace.

Model: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
System prompt: You write and improve image generation prompts for DALLE-3. You maintain the same subjects, but enhance the visuals.
User prompt: Please respond with an image generation prompt that would be likely to create an interesting visual using DALLE-3, using the following style: [ A comic-book-style illustration with muted colors and a dotted halftone pattern from the 1960s ] and depicting this scene: In Ithaca, the sky gradually cleared of smog and pollution, allowing the sun to shine through and paint the city in a golden glow. The air became crisp and fresh, as if nature itself had taken a deep breath. Meanwhile, across the United States, would-be arsonists found themselves cooling off as well. With clean, clear air to breathe, the sparks of mischief and mayhem simply couldn't catch fire like they used to, leaving the nation a little safer and more at peace. Keep the visual depiction simple. Do not include any words or speech bubbles.
ChatGPT: [A comic-book-style illustration with bold lines, muted colors, and a dotted halftone pattern from the 1960s] The illustration shows Ithaca, a picturesque city with a clear sky and scenic landscapes. The sun shines down, casting a golden glow, and the buildings are highlighted in warm tones. The city is surrounded by nature, featuring fresh, clean air and lush greenery. In the background, the rest of the United States is depicted with a similar clear sky, symbolizing a sense of peace and safety. The overall image conveys a serene and idyllic atmosphere, reflecting the calming effect of the clean, clear air on both Ithaca and the nation.

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*Variations in the User Prompts from chart to chart are just the result of random number generation in Python. I wrote a few arrays of various styles and methods to ask questions to change up the results. Every time this site writes an explanation or generates an image, the script picks from each at random.

I sequence the requests into multiple prompts because I find GPT 3.5 to perform much better with short, well-managed contexts. Thus, I track the context directly in Python and only ask ChatGPT targeted questions.

AI academic paper

Clearing the Air: An Examination of the Relationship Between Air Pollution in Ithaca and Arson in the United States The Journal of Ecological Quirkiness Jan 2024 Reminder: This paper is AI-generated. Not real!

Problem variable:	Which variable has a problem? Air pollution in Ithaca Arson in United States Neither / both
Issue:	What is the issue? The data is incorrect The chart isn't displaying properly There is a typo The source link is incorrect A calculation is wrong Something else
Additional details: Optional
Confirm you are a human:

Data details

Why this works

1. Data dredging: I have 25,237 variables in my database. I compare all these variables against each other to find ones that randomly match up. That's 636,906,169 correlation calculations! This is called “data dredging.” Instead of starting with a hypothesis and testing it, I instead abused the data to see what correlations shake out. It’s a dangerous way to go about analysis, because any sufficiently large dataset will yield strong correlations completely at random.
2. Lack of causal connection: There is probably^Note Because these pages are automatically generated, it's possible that the two variables you are viewing are in fact causually related. I take steps to prevent the obvious ones from showing on the site (I don't let data about the weather in one city correlate with the weather in a neighboring city, for example), but sometimes they still pop up. If they are related, cool! You found a loophole.
   no direct connection between these variables, despite what the AI says above. This is exacerbated by the fact that I used "Years" as the base variable. Lots of things happen in a year that are not related to each other! Most studies would use something like "one person" in stead of "one year" to be the "thing" studied.
3. Observations not independent: For many variables, sequential years are not independent of each other. If a population of people is continuously doing something every day, there is no reason to think they would suddenly change how they are doing that thing on January 1. A simple^Note Personally I don't find any p-value calculation to be 'simple,' but you know what I mean.
   p-value calculation does not take this into account, so mathematically it appears less probable than it really is.
4. Outlandish outliers: There are "outliers" in this data.^Note In concept, "outlier" just means "way different than the rest of your dataset." When calculating a correlation like this, they are particularly impactful because a single outlier can substantially increase your correlation.
   
   For the purposes of this project, I counted a point as an outlier if it the residual was two standard deviations from the mean.
   
   (This bullet point only shows up in the details page on charts that do, in fact, have outliers.)
   They stand out on the scatterplot above: notice the dots that are far away from any other dots. I intentionally mishandeled outliers, which makes the correlation look extra strong.

Try it yourself

# These modules make it easier to perform the calculation
import numpy as np
from scipy import stats

# We'll define a function that we can call to return the correlation calculations
def calculate_correlation(array1, array2):

    # Calculate Pearson correlation coefficient and p-value
    correlation, p_value = stats.pearsonr(array1, array2)

    # Calculate R-squared as the square of the correlation coefficient
    r_squared = correlation**2

    return correlation, r_squared, p_value

# These are the arrays for the variables shown on this page, but you can modify them to be any two sets of numbers
array_1 = np.array([0.221264,0.273481,0.145604,0.294521,0.290984,0.260223,0.234146,0.236111,0.277778,0.258621,0.146552,0.225627,0.229917,0.186335,0.142045,0.214876,0.114943,0.151685,0.0858726,0.054755,0.136232,0.0692042,0.128571,0.0683761,0.0538244,0.0541311,0.0831025,0.0396601,0.0777778,0.0196629,0.0137363,0.0722222,0.033241,])
array_2 = np.array([41.7,41,40.8,37.3,39.6,36.7,34.6,32.6,29.7,28.8,24.7,27.7,26.8,25,23.6,23.1,24.4,22.6,21.6,19.5,18.1,17.5,17.6,14.9,14.5,13.7,14.1,13.2,12,11,13.9,8.9,11.6,])
array_1_name = "Air pollution in Ithaca"
array_2_name = "Arson in United States"

# Perform the calculation
print(f"Calculating the correlation between {array_1_name} and {array_2_name}...")
correlation, r_squared, p_value = calculate_correlation(array_1, array_2)

# Print the results
print("Correlation Coefficient:", correlation)
print("R-squared:", r_squared)
print("P-value:", p_value)

Reuseable content

• High resolution line chart ^Note The image linked here is a Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG). It is the highest resolution that is possible to achieve. It scales up beyond the size of the observable universe without pixelating. You do not need to email me asking if I have a higher resolution image. I do not. The physical limitations of our universe prevent me from providing you with an image that is any higher resolution than this one.
  
  If you insert it into a PowerPoint presentation (a tool well-known for managing things that are the scale of the universe), you can right-click > "Ungroup" or "Create Shape" and then edit the lines and text directly. You can also change the colors this way.
  
  Alternatively you can use a tool like Inkscape.
  
• High resolution line chart, optimized for mobile
• Alternative high resolution line chart
• Scatterplot
• Portable line chart (png)
• Portable line chart (png), optimized for mobile
• Line chart for only Air pollution in Ithaca
• Line chart for only Arson in United States
• AI-generated correlation image
• The spurious research paper: Clearing the Air: An Examination of the Relationship Between Air Pollution in Ithaca and Arson in the United States