Uncanny Coincidence
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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 wife and I live in Scotland and about two years ago we had friends from the south staying with us for a few days. When they left on a Saturday they decided to break their journey home and booked an overnight stay at a Bed and Breakfast place just outside Nottingham. My wife and I were going to off to stay with friends in Suffolk leaving on the following Thursday after our friends left. On the Tuesday of that week we attended the funeral of an elderly (100 year old) friend. We also decided to break our journey going south and we called our friends to see if they would recommend the Bed and Breakfast they stayed at. They gave us a glowing report so we duly booked there for the Thursday night.
When we arrived the hostess invited us to join her for a drink and she asked us where we had travelled from that day. We told her we had come from Scotland and she said that she and her husband had just returned from Scotland themselves. Further discussion revealed that they had been at the same funeral as we had, sitting just behind us in the church. It transpired that the lady who had died had been the nanny of not only the Bed and Breakfast hostess but also of her children.
Date submitted:Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:01:12 +0000Coincidence ID:5951
