Story of the day

[andrewducker]

Chatting to octopoid_horror about the lucky coincidence of one of the 7/7 bombings happening outside of the HQ of the British Medical Association, and he told me that:
A girl at work tore a tendon and fractured her foot playing rugby. Luckily one team was all physiotherapists and the other was all nurses.

One wonders just how often these things happen...

Comments

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

A minor car accident happened about a block from me one time during a parade. The parade was called The March of the Lebowskis and was comprised of hundreds of people in bathrobes. Among the people right next to the intersection where the accident occurred was at least one nurse, who checked out the people in the car and said You look okay, but get checked to be safe. They were okay.

Here's to people who can make other people feel better...

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

I suspect, like most coincidences, they happen exceedingly rarely but get flagged far more by anecdotal evidence, media etc, precisely because they appear to be coincidences - thus seem to happen far more often than they actually do.

For example, how many terrorist bombings have there been around the world in, say, the last decade? 500, 1000? How many of those happened outside the BMA or even a major hospital? I bet the answer's one, possibly two.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

There was a news story a few years ago about some woman who had a heart-attack on a plane. The cabin crew asked "is there a doctor on board?" at which point thirty-odd cardiologists, all on their way to the same conference, unanimously put their hands up. I understand the patient made a complete recovery.

[pete stevens (from livejournal.com)]

All the time to me. My running partner is a physio.

[broin.livejournal.com]

Supposedly Feymann:

“You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight. I was coming here, on the way to the lecture, and I came in through the parking lot. And you won’t believe what happened. I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!”

[andrewducker]

Yes, you're the second person to point out that coincidences happen all the time, and are not statistically any more interesting than the huge number of other things that happen.

That doesn't stop them being more interesting _to me_.

[broin.livejournal.com]

I didn't say they weren't interesting! Apologies, hugs. :)

[andrewducker]

Sorry, probably being oversensitive. I felt that that quote was saying "These are all miracles" - which _is_ entirely true, but misses the human factor that we extract meaning from certain events more than othrs.

[broin.livejournal.com]

I believe 'prone to pareidolia' is still on my profile here. =)

I know you know everything's equally likely. Sorry, I should have prefaced my post.

Feynman, you dick.

[andrewducker]

Dude! No making me laugh in the office! I get looks!

[broin.livejournal.com]

Hey, I know something that'll make you giggle. Check your email.

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

I believe not only was it just down the street from the BMA headquarters, but there happened to be a meeting on inside the BMA at the time involving several of the country's leading trauma surgeons.

Coincidences such as that are one-in-a-million events, and as we all know these happen nine times out of ten...

[andrewducker]

Indeed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/10509744.stm

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

So some things are coincidental, sure but..

"By yet another coincidence, a medical conference was also being held at the BMA. It meant dozens of doctors were on hand to offer lifesaving expertise. "

There were literally dozens of doctors inside the BMA having a conference? The chances of that are literally millions to one against it not happening ;)

[andrewducker]

Well, I doubt there are conferences there every day - the British Psychological Society only has one major conference per year. But there might be a rotating schedule of them or something I guess.

[guybles.livejournal.com]

I believe that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MillionToOneChance