Spurious Correlations is the virtual embodiment of a useful rhetorical cudgel: correlation does not equal causation. The clever thing about Spurious Correlations is that its fairly transparent about how it generates relationships. When you \discover a new correlation,\ you select a variable from a list of categories (\interesting causes of death,\ \sunlight by state,\ and so on), then let the site show you a long list of other data sets that follow roughly the same curve. Even if you know a correlation was semi-randomly generated by a fellow internet user browsing a drop-down menu, you find yourself trying to justify it in your head, or at the very least filing it away to write into a short story.
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