Thanks for stretching the concept of coincidence into a big baggy whore-cunt. This is, quite possibly, a worse thread idea than Ahpoo's epic name-changing opus.

I was looking for an academic and mathematical discussion of coincidence but found a populist article that is probably more relevant and accessible.

Here's a syzygy of pertinent quotes:

''Coincidence feels like a loss of control perhaps,'' says John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University and the author of ''Innumeracy,'' the improbable best seller about how Americans don't understand numbers. Finding a reason or a pattern where none actually exists ''makes it less frightening,'' he says, because events get placed in the realm of the logical. ''Believing in fate, or even conspiracy, can sometimes be more comforting than facing the fact that sometimes things just happen.''

"...Paulos and others say, that most of the time patterns that seem stunning to us aren't even there. For instance, although the numbers 9/11 (9 plus 1 plus 1) equal 11, and American Airlines Flight 11 was the first to hit the twin towers, and there were 92 people on board (9 plus 2), and Sept. 11 is the 254th day of the year (2 plus 5 plus 4), and there are 11 letters each in ''Afghanistan,'' ''New York City'' and ''the Pentagon'' (and while we're counting, in George W. Bush), and the World Trade towers themselves took the form of the number 11, this seeming numerical message is not actually a pattern that exists but merely a pattern we have found. (After all, the second flight to hit the towers was United Airlines Flight 175, and the one that hit the Pentagon was American Airlines Flight 77, and the one that crashed in a Pennsylvania field was United Flight 93, and the Pentagon is shaped, well, like a pentagon.)"

"What are the odds? The mathematician will answer that even in the most unbelievable situations, the odds are actually very good. The law of large numbers says that with a large enough denominator -- in other words, in a big wide world -- stuff will happen, even very weird stuff. ''The really unusual day would be one where nothing unusual happens,'' explains Persi Diaconis, a Stanford statistician who has spent his career collecting and studying examples of coincidence. Given that there are 280 million people in the United States, he says, ''280 times a day, a one-in-a-million shot is going to occur.''

Each of which paragraphs serves to incrementally confirm my assertion that this thread is founded on superstition, nerves, and an error of mind.

Oh my yes, the magic you can do with statistical analysis.  I remember reading about that in a magic book in elementary school.  The trick is that "a birthday" will be shared by two people, not "a specific birthday" like January 25 or something.

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Thanks for stretching the concept of coincidence into a big baggy whore-cunt. This is, quite possibly, a worse thread idea than Ahpoo's epic name-changing opus.

Each of which paragraphs serves to incrementally confirm my assertion that this thread is founded on superstition, nerves, and an error of mind.

Have you fucked yourself lately? If not you should go do so now...

This alignment of events when viewed from a personal perspective is an exact example of a coincidence.  You should note I didn't call it a "strange coincidence" or "statistically improbable" or even "unusual";  simply a coincidence.  Perhaps you'd be happier if I called it a "synchronicity"?

Emmeran wrote:

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Baywolfe wrote:

Oh my yes, the magic you can do with statistical analysis.

Therein lies the problem - we have all the knowledge we need to turn children into thinking adults, but somehow the vast majority of them exit university still living in a medieval world of magical thinking. And by "magical thinking" I include the vastly over-rated idiocy we brand "common sense" and "intuition." Statistics needs to come out of the scary math closet and into the primary classroom, so that even the cro-magnon knuckle-draggers among us can begin to wipe the mist of fairyland from their eyes.

Statistics merely prove that given enough data points (and no real reason to live) grown and educated individuals will attempt to apply math in places where it's not wanted or needed.  Coincidence is a nice little thing us normal and well adjusted humans do to amuse ourselves from time to time.

Statistics, probability, and odds form a holy triumvirate which, when used in conjunction and applied correctly, can make you a better person.  Or at the very least, a wealthier one.

Baywolfe wrote:

Emmeran wrote:

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Therein lies the problem - we have all the knowledge we need to turn children into thinking adults, but somehow the vast majority of them exit university still living in a medieval world of magical thinking. And by "magical thinking" I include the vastly over-rated idiocy we brand "common sense" and "intuition." Statistics needs to come out of the scary math closet and into the primary classroom, so that even the cro-magnon knuckle-draggers among us can begin to wipe the mist of fairyland from their eyes.

Statistics merely prove that given enough data points (and no real reason to live) grown and educated individuals will attempt to apply math in places where it's not wanted or needed.  Coincidence is a nice little thing us normal and well adjusted humans do to amuse ourselves from time to time.

Statistics, probability, and odds form a holy triumvirate which, when used in conjunction and applied correctly, can make you a better person.  Or at the very least, a wealthier one.

This I will heartily agree with.

Emmeran wrote:

WilberCuntLicker wrote:

Emmeran wrote:

Statistics merely prove that given enough data points (and no real reason to live) grown and educated individuals will attempt to apply math in places where it's not wanted or needed.

GIve it up, Mr. Magoo. If you want to spend your life in a state of myopic smugness, grousing about the visions of people who see better than you, that's your right. But when you say stupid things about the language of science (statistics), which you apparently know nothing about, you will be roundly laughed at. You're beginning to sound a lot like a fundamentalist Christian deflecting arguments for evolution with facile snideness and self-important vacuity. In joining them in the war against rationality, and by defaulting to empty criticism of every data point that doesn't fit snugly into your worldview, you signal (at best) your own intellectual laziness.

I thought I had sent you to go fuck yourself?

Now go, go fuck yourself and don't come back until you're done.

And do a proper job of it, no more half-assed fucking yourself like last time!

I've told you before: I have people who do that for me.