Skeptics and relevance their place in the scheme of things.(4)

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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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my son who is skeptical in that he thinks coincidences are irrelevant. However, he told me about the following. He's a carer and with his "client"(a keen local organist) they were watching old episodes of Alf Garnett in which Alf is pushing his wife in a wheelchair in the road confusing the traffic. The next day they went to the local town to buy a tape/cd, as a birthday present , of Reg Dixon the organist. Setting off they found that the wheelchair could not be pushed on the pavement, so they went onto the road, reminding each other, laughingly, of the Alf Garnett problems. They arrived at the music shop without incident. Flicking through "D" for Dixon section of tapes/cds they came across Alf Garnett singing Music Hall songs.Considering my son's skepticism he features in another coincidence,as follows. He was preparing to become a kidney donar for his niece who suffers from cystinosis, a rare condition and at 15year of age would now require a transplant.After all the various tests and safeguards he was fit and ready to go ahead with the transplant operation. But urgent events took over and his niece was called to Nottingham hospital where a kidney had become available after a road accident. About a year later after his niece contacted the donar's family, via the hospital, to express her gratitude it tranpired that the donar shared the first name and age of my son, the donar in waiting. My son also features in parts of 1.2.3. in this research above. Not convinced, however, of it's relevance to anything in particular.
Total votes: 170
Date submitted:Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:55:38 +0000Coincidence ID:5968