unexpected meeting

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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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For me, the odd thing about this one is that the coincidence would not have occurred if everyone had been having a normal day. We run a pub in west wales. An engineering project was going on in the area, over several years, employing 'men from away'. A and B (now from East Wales) were on the project, running fairly routine days, and regularly popped in for a drink after work, before going back to their local accommodation for the night. Today, they had finished an hour earlier than usual. Ten minutes later C arrived - he had come down from Scotland (just south of Glasgow) driving an articulated lorry to deliver to the site, but had been told he would have to wait till morning to unload. So he had parked his lorry and come for refreshment too. A, B and C got chatting and realised that A and C knew each other from an earlier existence when they had different jobs and lived in Wiltshire. Any other day and they would not have met.
Total votes: 154
Date submitted:Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:57:07 +0000Coincidence ID:5999