What are the odds of this happening?

by tc888
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I was online looking at a medical website doing some niche research for a website I was creating about remedies for nail fungus. The TV was on in the background and I was listening to a live chat show.

At one point the chat show host said the exact sentence I was reading online, not just after I read it but at the precise time I was reading it. He said "home remedies for nail fungus", so 5 words... totally synchronized.

I have no idea how to go about calculating the odds of that. Anyone have any idea what the odds could be?
  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    Originally Posted by tc888 View Post

    I was online looking at a medical website doing some niche research for a website I was creating about remedies for nail fungus. The TV was on in the background and I was listening to a live chat show.

    At one point the chat show host said the exact sentence I was reading online, not just after I read it but at the precise time I was reading it. He said "home remedies for nail fungus", so 5 words... totally synchronized.

    I have no idea how to go about calculating the odds of that. Anyone have any idea what the odds could be?
    Yes. If it happened already, the odds of it happening are 100%.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      tc888

      You sound like you are a mystic.

      Are you?


      Terra
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      Yes. If it happened already, the odds of it happening are 100%.




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  • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
    Looks like The League has found a new member.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Hope you get that nasty nail fungus problem figured out.
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      "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

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  • Profile picture of the author mkii
    Banned
    Originally Posted by tc888 View Post

    I was online looking at a medical website doing some niche research for a website I was creating about remedies for nail fungus. The TV was on in the background and I was listening to a live chat show.

    At one point the chat show host said the exact sentence I was reading online, not just after I read it but at the precise time I was reading it. He said "home remedies for nail fungus", so 5 words... totally synchronized.

    I have no idea how to go about calculating the odds of that. Anyone have any idea what the odds could be?
    Higher then you might think.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem

    If you leave the TV on and read enough stuff, sooner or later the matrix will glitch.
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  • Profile picture of the author tagiscom
    Originally Posted by tc888 View Post

    I was online looking at a medical website doing some niche research for a website I was creating about remedies for nail fungus. The TV was on in the background and I was listening to a live chat show.

    At one point the chat show host said the exact sentence I was reading online, not just after I read it but at the precise time I was reading it. He said "home remedies for nail fungus", so 5 words... totally synchronized.

    I have no idea how to go about calculating the odds of that. Anyone have any idea what the odds could be?
    This is similar to looking at your watch at just the right time to find, 4.44.44 showing, (or other matching numbers).


    Happens to me all of the time, but before the skeptics go on a bender, it can obviously be put down to your subconscious pulling a fast one.

    Or your intuition pulling a fast one, or some etheric beings pulling a fast one?

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    • Profile picture of the author Greg71
      You are The One.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Think about it...you have several things open on the same topic.

    They're going to use similar wording.

    Plus your RAS is filtering in these few words and phrases that are important to you right now.

    Then there's that pesky Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.

    Happens to me all the time.
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    • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
      Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

      Think about it...you have several things open on the same topic.

      They're going to use similar wording.

      Plus your RAS is filtering in these few words and phrases that are important to you right now.

      Then there's that pesky Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.

      Happens to me all the time.
      We have had this discussion before, what are the odds of that happening.

      When I was a kid, the song Rawhide popped into my head. The very next song that came on the radio was Rawhide. If I had been taught to announce spontaneous thoughts like this as some sort of prophecy when they occur I may have been have been looked upon as some sort of seer because it happens a lot.

      I understand that article and agree that most are coincidences and homing in on something just released or already out there are also valid explanations for many instances.

      However, I am a creature of habit, I tend to read the same newspapers, watch the same news programs and visit the same news website on a daily basis. I don't deviate from these to get my info.If I'm looking on youtube or the net in general for something it is usually about my random thought so that can be disregarded.

      Many, many times though has some obscure news item popped up on one or more of these set number of news outlets, usually within 24 hours of me thinking about it, as if in answer to my mental question or musing.

      The other observation here is that you may have received the information about what you are thinking about perhaps a year ago from these news outlets and the thought is, whatever happened to him or whatever happened about that? The time for more info request.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
        I decided I wanted a bloody mary this morning.

        I found I had vodka and bloody mix in the house!

        What were the odds of that happening?

        (this actually could be a trick question)
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        • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
          Originally Posted by Jill Carpenter View Post

          I decided I wanted a bloody mary this morning.

          I found I had vodka and bloody mix in the house!

          What were the odds of that happening?

          (this actually could be a trick question)
          Precognition of Spirit-ual needs.
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        • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
          Originally Posted by Jill Carpenter View Post

          I decided I wanted a bloody mary this morning.

          I found I had vodka and bloody mix in the house!

          What were the odds of that happening?

          (this actually could be a trick question)
          Gretzky - "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

          Jill - "I take 100% of the shots I want."
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Exactly one in 563,000,000 times.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      Suzanne has the exact odds, of course, but it is just a matter of tuning in your brain.

      For instance, haven't you noticed that when you or someone you know buys a new vehicle, let's say it's a 2015 Mustang, that suddenly you see 2015 Mustang's everywhere?

      It's not that they suddenly all decided to travel the highways and byways, it's just now that you have focused on the new car, you're sort of tuned into them now and you notice them. They jump out at you as you see them. They were all there before, you just didn't acknowledge them because they weren't in the foremost part of your brain/memory.

      It's really just that simple.


      Terra
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  • Profile picture of the author Khemosabi
    Okay, well, what are the odds of this happening?

    The other day I asked my husband to please go snack the horses. It was a barn day. My dog, Sadie, comes upstairs and starts whining. (potty).

    So, it's been 15 or so minutes since I asked him to go feed the horses, well, now I'm a little angry. So, I get the dogs, go downstairs, get all bundled up and head to the barn. He's watching T.V. in the bedroom, so he doesn't even notice that I came downstairs!

    While I'm walking out there, I'm playing the whole scene in my head. Yep, he's going to come out here and find the horses, heads down, eating! I figure, serves him right!

    Well, as you can already guess, I got into the barn, horses heads were down, eating.

    My evil plan had backfired on me!

    When I got back in the house, I had to tell him what had just happened. He laughed and told me he had even taken the dogs out with him!

    So, not only did my plan backfire, the dogs snookered me into another puppy treat!

    I think the other two made Sadie come up and convince me she had to go potty, so they could go out, come in and get another snack! They're still laughing at me!

    ~ Theresa (the smart one in the house!)
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  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    Originally Posted by tc888 View Post

    I was online looking at a medical website doing some niche research for a website I was creating about remedies for nail fungus. The TV was on in the background and I was listening to a live chat show.

    At one point the chat show host said the exact sentence I was reading online, not just after I read it but at the precise time I was reading it. He said "home remedies for nail fungus", so 5 words... totally synchronized.

    I have no idea how to go about calculating the odds of that. Anyone have any idea what the odds could be?
    We remember these instances, because they are so very rare.
    This synchronized event took maybe 5 seconds. How many billions of 5 second intervals does someone have in a life, where nothing like this happens? Nearly all of them.

    I'm always amazed that these occurrences don't happen more often.

    A related instance is that one day, I told my wife the next song that was going to play on the radio, and I was right. Psychic powers? Intuition? No. I had slightly memorized the loop of songs that played over and over that day....and just knew the next one up.

    But at that very moment, I didn't know why I knew the next song. I figured it out later....as I listened to the same music loop play again.

    But at no time did I think "This is an unexplainable phenomenon"
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    • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      A related instance is that one day, I told my wife the next song that was going to play on the radio, and I was right. Psychic powers? Intuition? No. I had slightly memorized the loop of songs that played over and over that day....and just knew the next one up.
      A similar thing happened to me when I was working for the insurance company back in the early years of this century.

      One day, all day, I had a piece of music lodged in my brain (The Great Gates Of Kiev from Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition). All day it was rolling around inside my head. At day's end, to get to the train station from the office, I had to walk through a shopping centre (The Queen Victoria Building in Sydney if you must know), and lo and behold, over the centre's PA system they were playing The Great Gates Of Kiev.

      Wow, I thought, what a coincidence. Not psychic, not karma, just pure coincidence.

      Anyway, the next day on my way back through the QVB to get to the office, they were playing The Great Gates Of Kiev again. That solved the mystery instantly. I'd obviously heard it playing on the way through the building the morning before without being aware of it and it had stuck in my head all that day.

      There's a simple explanation for many of the strange things that happen in life.
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      • Profile picture of the author perryny
        Ok, then what are the odds of this...

        I'm cleaning out my nightstand draw, which is basically a "junk drawer". I'm emptying the contents onto my bed, where my youngest (about 3 yrs old at the time) is sitting and looking at all the stuff I'm placing in front of him.

        I remove from the draw an old luggage combination lock, which I've lost the combination to a several years before. I try to pull it open... still locked. I try a couple of combinations I think it might be... no good. I give the lock to my boy and I go back to emptying the drawer as he starts spinning the combination dials.

        About 15 seconds later... "Click". He opens the lock.

        And sure enough, the combination he puts in is correct and continues to work - although I had zero recollection that that was the combination.

        And for the record, the odds are 1 in 720 if I'm not mistaken. But the fact he randomly entered the correct combination within seconds still bugs me out.
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  • Ok, here is the thing.

    It is now nearly 21 hours since the original post, an ' I am conductin' an experiment.

    I have been sittin' here, perfectly still, since I read it, an' I fugure that even though this is a leap year, it oughta be around 3 hours till I roll round again.

    If I am not back to report on what happens when I collide with myself, assume botha me exploded.
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  • Profile picture of the author Khemosabi
    Well, I think I have THE stumper!

    I have so much work to get done today. I asked every single one of my machines, including my OCD printer, to "just work"! I had the prep talk, the team talk, I even had the "I'll put your a$$es out in the sun all day if you don't work" talk.

    My #2 computer started it. (I have 5 computers, they know their numbers).

    #2, we'll call him doody head from now on, says my security needs an update. No biggie, right? While I'm working on #1, I go ahead and do the update. It stalls. Just sitting there in limbo (limpbo!), so I restart it. Comes back on, good to go. Nope. Windows needs an update. Update, restart... comes back on, security still needs updating. Got all that fixed.

    Now I have finished my documents that I HAVE TO HAVE PRINTED TODAY. Printer is out of yellow ink. Who cares? I need black and white. Nope. Let's just say at this point, printer says no cartridge found (it's in there), yellow was not out, and trying to trick the ******* lead to me being covered in ink, ink on my chair, the printer, and my nose. <--not sure how that happened.

    Need to load some photos off of an SD card. SD reader decided not to work, or the card isn't reading... who cares at this point!

    My wireless mouse, it was a gift. Some nice person knew I needed a new one, found one, waited for the ship from China to get here, drives from another state to bring it to me. It sucks rear ends folks. Freezes up, you have to keep clicking it to bring it back to life, then you end up on some site you don't want to be! I hate it!

    So, what are the odds that the sun is out? I was thinking, this morning, I wish my day would turn to hell, get ink on my nose, get nothing done, all so I can play outside!

    Weird eh?

    Now, I just want to be at Jill's house.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by Khemosabi View Post


      Now, I just want to be at Jill's house.
      Yes!

      I've moved onto vodka with my fake diet redbull at this point. Just started - cause - it is after 5pm and I've no where else to drive for the day.

      I had a low ink in the printer issue too, but I am overly prepared in that department.

      I have an epson artisan 835, rigged it when I got it with the plastic refillable ink cartridges, lots of back up ink (maybe $20 worth), and even drilled a hole out the back where there is a tube that catches all the extra ink which can be recycled (black only ) Dark blue is going quick because of a notes/planner page I like to print out copies of regularly.

      I've not bought more ink since I got this thing - I want to say 6-7 years? Did have to buy some cleaning stuff for it once, but that was only $20.

      It's set up to be wireless, Prints on cd/dvd, and I most certainly have gotten my moneys worth on it. Bought "refurbished" to top it all off.

      Anyway, have a small drop of blue ink on my finger as I neglected to put the gloves on.
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      • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
        There you go, it just happened again. Yesterday I was having a conversation with someone about 3D printing and speculating why they had not adapted it to create food dishes yet. Today on the BBC website, pretty much there it is, (or the beginnings of it)

        How 3D printing is shaking up high end dining - BBC News
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        • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
          I just watched like 5 different tarot/astrology readings and all of them mentioned that "scales of justice" card.

          All of them had very positive outlooks for me this month.

          All of them encouraged me to get some writing done.

          All of them said I'm on a huge new start of things.

          One of them said I might "get some" this month from an admirer.

          Really wondering about the odds on that last one....
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