Dr Christy admits that orbital decay has an important effect on the data.

ECONOMIST: A heated controversy

Labour MP Tam Dalyell, whose constituency at the time was West Lothian, wondered how long English MPs would tolerate members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important effect on English politics while they themselves had no say in the matters outside England.

BBC: Answer sought to the West Lothian question

But, Blumenthal says, there may be an even more important Palin effect.

NPR: Candidates Vie For Female Voters' Attention

Consistency is an important measure of how cool you are, in effect, and we all know that the cool kids tend to win.

FORBES: How To Master Yourself, Your Unconscious, And The People Around You: Part 5

Equally important, it is not clear how much of an effect a one-off rebate will have on consumption, or how quickly that effect will come through.

ECONOMIST: The economy

But we now live in a time when power means being the platform instead of the source, when the town square is more important than the town crier, when influence is an effect of the media and not the cause.

FORBES: Oprah Book Club: When 2.0 Really Isn't

"It's a little implausible to have so much data that something is important to the disease, and then to find that it wouldn't have an effect, " said Miller.

FORBES: Pfizer Takes Cancer By Storm

Slower growth in China and India has a knock-on effect in the rest of Asia, for which China in particular is an ever more important market.

ECONOMIST: Banyan