Who needs a tv guide

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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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When I was on maternity leave with my first child, about 13 years ago, we never bought the local newspaper or the tv guide, I just took for granted what was on when and knew my favourite regular shows. In our area, this was also before digitial television, so there were only four channels, and no on-tv screen guides. It started out that being home with not much to do and I was bored with the midday movie and thought of a particular movie that I had not seen for many years and was a good one. A week later it was on the midday movie. This starting happening again and again, totally obscure movies that I had already seen or knew about and had wanted to see. Most times it was not that I would sit there and wish to see it, more like something triggered the thought. Like walking past a haridresser named "Bogarts" and thinking of the movie Casablanca, or something that was happening in "Logan" and thinking of the movie Logan's Run... It was probably about the third time before I realised this was such a funny coincidence but it continued every week or fortnight for about four months until I went back to work. Two years later when my second child came along, it started again. This time I started writing some of it down. If I tried to think of movies that I had not seen for a while, it didn't work. It was random things that just popped into my head for some obscure reason - like "wow where did that come from?" I noted that it was better than 50/50 odds on the random ones, but why who knows. I am pretty skeptical about psychics but I do believe in the power of attraction and that statistically coincidence happens more than we realise, just that we don't notice it as often as it occurs.
Total votes: 216
Date submitted:Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:59:18 +0000Coincidence ID:5425