Regarding gold and copper:
Gold is much more stable than copper, it is almost completely un-reactive in air. Copper on the other hand (as does extremely conductive silver) reacts with CO2 and O2 in the air to form non-conductive copper-salts.

That is the reason that most contacts are gold-plated, not because gold is the best conductor.

The appropriate statistical test is the chi-squared test:
chi-squared=(expected-observed)^2/expected

24/39 versus 18/39 is no where near statistically meaningful.
EPIC FAIL for the WSJ!

Jeff
M3 Fronts, QS4 Rears