Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Avoiding someone

Back when I was in high school I had a crush on a random older boy in school. Randomly he got my number and we startred texting and never actually talked in person but it eventually fizzled out. Fast forward a few months and it was my moms birthday. She wanted to go for dinner at a restaurant where she worked in college. I knew this boy also currently worked at this restaurant so I spent an hour convincing her to go somewhere else instead because I really really really didn’t want to see him there (I didn’t tell my family this so it was even harder to change there mind). Finally I convinced her that we should go to a different restaurant and we settled on somewhere that was about an hour away from my house- much farther than we would normally go. Finally We get to the restaurant and get seated next to none other than HIM and his family. Went so out of the way to avoid him and ended up right next to him. Fast forward a year and we started dating.

Too Many Loaves of Bread

My Italian grandmother, who we called Nan, was obsessed with having enough Italian bread for dinner. Every holiday, she brought a crazy amount of bread to my Mom's house. In October of 2000, Nan passed away. On the day of her wake (visitation), my family returned to my mom's house to have dinner between the afternoon and evening visitation sessions at the funeral parlor. We ordered from a local Italian restaurant. When the order arrived, my mom checked it to make sure everything was correct. As the delivery guy was leaving, my mom noticed there was another bag she hadn't checked. Thinking it was for someone else's order, she quickly opened it. Inside there was at least a dozen loaves of bread. More than a loaf per person. Definitely more than a restaurant would ever send for the number of entrees we had ordered. We always joke that Nan, even in death, was making sure we had enough bread for dinner.

We Found Love Song Linked to Good Relationship News

I had a massive crush on a boy recently. I would constantly dream of being in a relationship with him. I had a playlist of songs that reminded me of him. The most frequent song I listened to almost every day keeping him in mind was "We Found Love" by Rihanna. One day, I was on my way to an event. On my social media page, I had asked people if they were going to the event or not. You could simply vote "YES' or "NO". In the car, I checked the poll and to my surprise, the boy I adored voted that he was attending the event. As this was all unravelling, the song "We Found Love" came on. This was a huge sign for me as I listened to this song every single day with him in mind. That night, we hit it off at the event. The next day I find out he has a crush on me. A few days later we go on our first date. That week we start our relationship.

Breaking Benjamin Concert Dates

Breaking Benjamin is my favourite band of 2000s. Breaking Benjamin had so many hits! The ones I remember are 'The Diary of Jane', 'Tourniquet' and their hit 'So Cold'. These are real masterpieces, not garbage like today! And it is awesome that Breaking Benjamin have a tour in 2019-2020! And I'm going to visit Breaking Benjamin concert in 2019. The tour dates is here: [url=https://breakingbenjaminconcerts.com]Breaking Benjamin tour dates 2020[/url]. Open the page and maybe we can even visit one of the performances together!

Finding Strangers were our Neighbours

Some 50 years ago I was a student at Oxford. During the Christmas holidays a friend and I climbed a snowy winter route on Tryfan (a mountain in Snowdonia). When we reached the top we headed towards Adam and Eve (two large rocks on the summit). There we met a couple having a picnic. We asked them where they had come from and they said "Oxford". We said "so do we - we live in Iffley Road". They said "so do we". We soon discovered that they were our next door neighbours - although we had never met. We rented semi-detached houses whose front doors faced in opposite directions - so had never chanced on them during the term we lived adjacent to them.

Multiple Coincidences in My Life

1) Grandmothers - Father's Mother - Elizabeth Ann<br /> Mother's Mother - Elizabeth Ann </p> <p>2) Father, Grandfather and Uncle - Father's Birthday - 18th December<br /> Mother's Father's Birthday - 18th December<br /> Mother's Brother's Birthday - 18th December </p> <p>3) A woman who worked in the same office as myself had the same Christian Name, same Middle<br /> Name, same married name and if that was not enough we also had the Same Birthday. </p> <p>4) Fireplace Renovation<br /> In my old house I wanted to install a cast Iron fireplace. The copper hearth surround was sold to me<br /> by an Antique shop owner called Andy. The person who gave me the cast iron fire was a fireman<br /> called Andy and the person who gave me the slate fire surround mantle piece was also called Andy. </p> <p>5. i.

Brother and Sister Hoax

During my mother's young years, she met a young fellow, who helped her to get to college, yet they came up with a story that he and she are brother and sister, grew up in different families, for that reason he knew local ethnic language and she did not. My mother never told us this story until I was in my 50s. However, when I was very young I also met a young fellow, and came to visit him far away unexpectedly. When asked by locals who I am looking for, I said for my brother, and when they mentioned we speak differently, I said we grew up in different families, for that resaon he spoke his ethnic language and I did not.

Mother–daughter memoirs.

In my mother's memoirs was a story about one of her asquitances, a dancer, who got job on a dancing team with famous circus. When I wrote my memoirs, I realised as I wrote about my dancing years, that I also had my dance team member, a girl, who got job with the same famous circus.

Meduza Gorgona.

When I was in my twenties, I was fomer art student, and drew Greek mythical character Medusa Gorgona. The drawing existed for several years until ruined by water. When my daughter turned 22, she, as Art Program student, drew, on her own accord, without ever knowing about my drawing, the Greek mythology character Medusa Gorgona.

Watch Holted.

Many years ago my cousin died and I was calling my mom with bad news. She picked up the phone, listened in disbeleaf and shock and when she looked at her watch, it stopped working. Prior to it her watch worked. She did not know what to make of it, she felt it is mystical.

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