A statistically unlikely lad!

[Andy in Sig]

I've just read a news item on a German website. A German lad who lives in Essen was walking along the other day when he noticed something bright in the sky, then heard something like a very loud thunderclap (which left him with tintinnitus or whatever it's called for an hour). He was struck a glancing along the arm by a meteorite which promptly buried itself in the ground but was retrieved and identified as such by scientists. The lucky bugger got away with just a long scuff-type wound on his arm.

It struck me that that has to be the longest odds-against incident in history. Then it dawned on me that at least half a dozen people on here will have a story which they reckon tops it. Go on then ...

 

[nigelnorris]

Once, when I was a student in the days before mobile phones, I got home from somewhere and checked to see if anyone had rung me by dialing 1471 or whatever the number is.

There was a missed call from a number I didn't recognise so I dialled it. Random friend of mine answered the phone, I said hi, he sounded confused, and the following ensued...

He was standing at a phone booth in New Street railway station in Birmingham having just arrived by train, about to ring a friend for a lift home. As he was about to dial the phone started to ring, so he answered it, and I was on the other end. What are the chances of that??

Completely by chance another friend had been through the station earlier that day and had tried to ring me from the same phone to tell me he was in town, which was the number I'd dialled back.

 

[Globalti]

Amazing!

 

[adscrim]

It struck me ...

Trying to top it yourself?

 

[PaulB]

I once got sick at the weekend. What are the odds of that happening? About a million to one, I reckon.

 

[dan_bo]

Once, when I was a student in the days before mobile phones, I got home from somewhere and checked to see if anyone had rung me by dialing 1471 or whatever the number is.

There was a missed call from a number I didn't recognise so I dialled it. Random friend of mine answered the phone, I said hi, he sounded confused, and the following ensued...

He was standing at a phone booth in New Street railway station in Birmingham having just arrived by train, about to ring a friend for a lift home. As he was about to dial the phone started to ring, so he answered it, and I was on the other end. What are the chances of that??

Completely by chance another friend had been through the station earlier that day and had tried to ring me from the same phone to tell me he was in town, which was the number I'd dialled back.

That is plain trippy!

 

[ColinJ]

Once, when I was a student, in the days before mobile phones (and not having a landline in my flat), I went to the call box down the road to make my weekly call to my mum. I dialled her number, there was a delay, some funny noises and then I got the ring tone...

Eventually the phone was answered but the female on the other end sounded like a 17 year old English girl rather than a 60 year old Scottish woman. I asked why she was putting on that strange voice, and she got a bit funny and demanded to know if I was Colin. A strange conversation ensued in which each of us tried to get the other to stop messing about and talk normally. It took a while for us to realise that we actually weren't talking to the right people. Turns out that the girl's boyfriend - obviously also named Colin - used to call her at that time most evenings from a different call box down the road. Pretty freaky huh?

Well, what was even freakier was that when I finally made contact with my mother, she had a weird tale to tell me of getting a call from a young man called Colin who thought he was talking to his girlfriend. A strange conversation had ensued in which each of them tried to get the other to stop messing about and talk normally. It took a while for them to realise that they actually weren't talking to the right people...

 

[Mr Pig]

When I was at primary school we were all working quietly one day, sums or something, and I knocked my pencil off the desk. When I bent round to pick it up it was standing on end on the floor!

I said to the guy opposite "Look, I knocked that off my desk and it stood on end!". He said "No way, you sat it up like that". No body saw it land and no one believed me :0(

When I was about twenty I was driving home from work one day eating an apple. I'd just finished it as I got to the roundabout next to the Chinese takeaway, which has a round bin sitting outside.

As I came off the roundabout I threw the apple core through the open driver's door window, to the left over the roof of the car, and it went straight in the bin! :0) Other people will have seen that one, roundabout was quite busy. Made me happy for the rest of the day :0)

 

[Bigtwin]

I went to Halfords to get an air filter for a Golf.

And they had one in stock!!!!!!!!!!!!!















Actually I made that up - they didn't. Nor an oil filter.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I read an article about that. It said it was a million to one shot he survived. I don't know how they worked that out. Millions of people don't get mown down by meteorites. Apparently it is more common than you think. I was reading a book yesterday that said IIRC it was 14 times more likely to be hit by a meteorite than it was to win the national lottery. It was highlighting people's poor perception of risk. Still that must mean a significant number of people get killed by meteorites each year, which we never hear about.

I've just read a news item on a German website. A German lad who lives in Essen was walking along the other day when he noticed something bright in the sky, then heard something like a very loud thunderclap (which left him with tintinnitus or whatever it's called for an hour). He was struck a glancing along the arm by a meteorite which promptly buried itself in the ground but was retrieved and identified as such by scientists. The lucky bugger got away with just a long scuff-type wound on his arm.

It struck me that that has to be the longest odds-against incident in history. Then it dawned on me that at least half a dozen people on here will have a story which they reckon tops it. Go on then ...

 

[gbb]

My experiences have been more about chance meetings when you least expect them...

My dad (John) had an identical twin (Peter), who were both in the RAF, although of course their postings were completely seperate....they never crossed each other at work in all the 28 years they each served.
But...it happened to each of them...where a stranger walked up to my dad (John) in Rhodesia in the 60s and said...'Peter i didnt know you were out here ?'
Peter had the same happen to him in some godforsaken part of the world.

I was stood at the airport in Kos a few years ago..fog had delayed all the flights, so the queues were incredible. I looked across the building and saw my next door neighbours daughters boyfriend. Not that remarkable...but certainly didnt expect it

Then there are the albeit not too remarkable, but hugely co-incidental conversations you have with someone you know...then find they've taken a similar path to yourself...
Ive worked extensively in Limmassol, Cyprus. When this has come up in converstaion, two different friends have worked / lived there too.
Of all the places in all the woild....

 

[got-to-get-fit]

i once gave my whole star wars collection to a jumble sale when i was about 16.

I moved to the complete other side of the country when i was 32 and went to a car boot sale, walking around i found a stall selling old start wars figures. Picking one of them up (bobafet) i felt a curious urge to look on the underside of his boot.

When i was a kid i used to scratch a cross into the foot of the figures so i would not get mixed up with friends when we had galactic battles.


Looking at the underside of bobafets boot 16 years later in a town 130 miles from the place where i gave my star wars figures away, can you guess what i saw????
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Nothing......was worth a look though

 

[nigelnorris]

Apparently it is more common than you think. I was reading a book yesterday that said IIRC it was 14 times more likely to be hit by a meteorite than it was to win the national lottery. It was highlighting people's poor perception of risk.

It makes sense when you stop to think that there are 6 billion people on this Earth. Only a few million play a lottery of any sort, but all 6 billion of us are in the market for getting brained by falling debris of some sort. [That argument probably fails if you stop to analyse the amount of surface area we actually occupy, but it made sense when I first thought of it.]

I think that with the number of satellites careering back to Earth nowadays getting spiked by a two ton radio aerial will also soon become a regular and noteworthy form of meeting one's maker.

 

[Bigtwin]

getting spiked by a two ton radio aerial will also soon become a regular and noteworthy form of meeting one's maker.

I think you'll find that will only happen once.

 

[nigelnorris]

[/b]
I think you'll find that will only happen once.

Haha yes that's one lottery without any likelihood of a rollover.