Co-incidental Meetings
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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.
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In 1999, I was travelling in New York (from Australia) & had made email contact with a friend (who was a resident there) to say we should meet up. One morning I decided to walk around the city - stopping randomly & changing directions. About mid morning, I came to a crossing, looked up & there she was - my friend - on the other side of the road. There was my email reply right in front of me. Weird - but great catching up!
Similarly, I was travelling in London in 1997. I missed one tube train & was waiting for the next ... and my neighbour from Australia (who I had hoped to catch-up with too) came walking onto the train station. We both couldn't believe it. Same thing at my residential train station ... one morning I jumped on the train to go to work & walked straight into a friend from Australia who I thought had already returned to Oz & had wondered if he was still in London - turns out we lived only a couple of stops from each other ... so kept in touch the rest of my stay.
Finally, in Sydney one evening, I called a cab around 6pm to take me to a venue from the north of Sydney to the city. Went to my event, went for drinks in another part of the city & by 3am was ready to get home. I stood in the street & hailed a cab ... and turns out it was the same driver who had picked me up at 6pm. The driver & I both laughed.
Date submitted:Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:34:41 +0000Coincidence ID:5525
