What the odds that the Goggle Street View car snapped an image of the place that I worked at over 40 years ago at the same time that the same model vehicle, in the same color configuration, that I currently drive was driving past?
You should ask, what are the odds that something in that view will somehow be relevant to you. It might be a pedestrian wearing the same shirt you currently have on.
Life is full of the potential for strange coincidences.
I once drove past my mother and sister in the backwoods of Vermont. (Yes, I pulled over.) At the time I lived in NJ, my mom Long Island, my sister NYC.
What were the odds? Well, multiply those odds by a life full of potential acts that can result in coincidence.
Conincidences? Sometimes life is a B**ch. I try not to believe in coincidences, I'm a true believer that our future is being constantly created by our actions. But something happened that made me wonder if life (or god or karma) is just making fun of us.
I hated (still do) my old boss/partner, he was a cut-throat manipulative smart-ass. It took me a couple of years to cut all business with him, finally I had to file a restraining order (yes, it was that bad!) in court and change to a new industry. Silly me thinking I was free.
Well, I lived happily for a few months, until my daughter needed special music lessons. The best music teacher (40+ years + a room full of national awards) in town is retired, but accepted to give lessons to my daugher after school in his house (my daugher was very well recommended by her principal). We were thrilled, until we found out that the teacher lives right in front of my old boss/partner's house. :(
I didn't know it was possible to have such a bad luck. Our town's population is over 300,000 people, what were the odds that the music teacher lived right in front. And what were the odds that the many times I visited my old boss/partner I never saw the music teacher.
Well, I'm going back to the court to find out what to do now, then to find a good witch (LOL) to clear all this non-sense.
Jimmy the Greek would figure it out. It has something to do with the frequency of ownership of that car. You own one. What's the chance of another being captured in that picture? Count the easily identified cars in that picture. Figure out what percentage of cars on the road are the same as yours. Do something with those numbers and come out with the odds. Easy for Jimmy.
Funny how that goes. In the 70's I lived on the north side of Chicago. My brother lived on the border of Indiana. He asked me to go with him to Wilmette where he had a interior painting job to estimate. He wasn't familiar with the north suburbs. We drove out there, and while he was busy "estimating" I chatted with the homeowner. He looked familiar, and I asked his name. Sure enough, he was the hotshot federal attorney who had been on the news lately, and was going after Harry Aleman, a mob hitman. It so happened I knew his eyewitness to the murder, and me and my wife were best friends with the witness's brother and sister-in-law. Anyway, I mentioned that and got something of a subdued grilling from the prosecutor. I knew I was being grilled by the questions he was asking about my friends. He verified my friendship with the friends later too. What I didn't know is that Bobby, the witness, was in the witness protection program. It was no big deal, except for the coincidence of me being drawn to that house by my brother. Of course he didn't get the job, and in retrospect I should have kept my mouth shut.
So I went on Google Maps to see what was in front of the High School I went to in the 60's. Went to street view, looked around for about 10 seconds and spotted IT!! There is was plain as day, a nearly new Jeep Grand Cherokee in EXACXTLY the color I was thinking I would try to get ... and I have been giving very strong thought to trading in my old 92 Explorer on a nearly new Jeep GC in that exact shade of red. What are the odds of this coincidence????
I think the real question is, what are the odds that when you look at
When my mom and dad retired they moved to a farm about 4 hours drive to a n eighboring state. They lived near two very small towns, the larger being ar ound 6,000 population. One of the friends they made, turned-out to be neigh bors (who they never knew) that lived directly behind them, across the alle y. They had a cyclone fence and shrubs...so, even as kids we never saw insi de their yard!
neighboring state. They lived near two very small towns, the larger being around 6,000 population. One of the friends they made, turned-out to be nei ghbors (who they never knew) that lived directly behind them, across the al ley. They had a cyclone fence and shrubs...so, even as kids we never saw in side their yard!
When my daughter (let's call her Sue) graduated from college (350 miles fro m home) we went to the Parent's Reception the night before the ceremony. My daughter introduced to one of her classmates (Bob) a guy she had become friends with 4 years earlier when they first started college. They were on the Ultimate team together and hung out a lot. His home town is not too far from our home town, another suburb of our main city, but they met at colleg e and became friends.
Later that night, Bob introduced us to his parents and we sat together for coffee and small talk. After a while Bob's mother told my wife that she see med really familiar. "Maybe we've met before?" They tried to come up with a com mon activity, job, etc. They finally kept going further and further back in tim e until they found the connection:
Bob and Sue had been in the same pre-school class when they were 3 & 4 year s old. They *thought* they had met in college 350 miles from home, but in reality they were "friends" from almost 20 years prior.
What's the odds they snapped an image of a place where I've lived for over 25 years and got a car that looks just like mine? Oh, wait a minute, it is mine. I took the Harley to work that day.
Those guys get around. They're currently looking for people to hump a backpack model around the back country.
On Fri, 9 Oct 2015 19:54:02 -0400, "Robert Green" wrote:
1974 Edy was attractive as they come. Probably too petite to model, but she was a Vanity Fair cover girl in miniature. About 5' 3". She was sweet on me, but I was happily married, and didn't pursue her. I thought about it, but she was too "mysterious" to my taste. I met her in Wright Junior College where I got an associate degree. After my night shift at IH, I would drive directly to school and shower before my eight and nine o'clock classes. When done with those classes I'd repair to a soft chair in the quietest part of the school library, and sleep for a couple hours. At noon I'd feel Edy's soft hand on my shoulder, gently prodding me awake. We'd go from there to her car, and she'd drive to a nearby IHOP, where I'd have breakfast and she'd have coffee. Then back to my afternoon and evening classes. Same routine every Tuesday and Thursday. We did a fair amount of talking about photography, which was the only class she was taking, and some general conversation. At the IHOP, in her car, the school lounge, cafeteria, etc. The only thing I found out about her is that she was from my neighborhood, and her mother was still in their house on Central Park. She herself lived in a luxury apartment by O'Hare, provided by her "boyfriend." She got "cuddly" with me now and then. Once she chased me down in a school hallway, after I'd grabbed a cup of coffee from the cafeteria. We chatted about 5 minutes when a look of surprise appeared on her face, and she said "Wait, my coat." She went running back to the cafeteria and returned wearing her coat. It was a waist length mink coat. I didn't say anything. The girl was a cipher to me, and though she seemed attracted to me, I felt no real attraction to her. She was eye candy. I liked that. Anyway, the semester was 4 months long and we parted ways.
1984 - Ten years later I go to the Excelsior bar - downtown Chicago, where I was working at the time - to meet my buddy, who was a commodity trader at the CBOT. I asked the barmaid for a beer, and noticed her staring at me. Then I recognized her. It was Edy. She still looked good. We talked a while, mostly inanities, time flies and so on. But we had no real interest in each other, and me and my buddy had only a short lunch and some things to talk about. As we walked out of the bar, he said "That's something you knowing Edy from school. You know, she was Ken Eto's girlfriend." I told him I suspected she was a "kept woman," but didn't know who was keeping her. Eto had been in the news - fellow mobsters had done a failed hit on him. Here's the "odd" part , which I read much later. This is from the President's Commission on Organized Crime, Record of Hearing VI Chicago, Illinois.
MR. ETO: I would call Local 1 and identify myself as the Pizza Man and ask for Vince. MR. RYAN: Would he answer generally? MR. ETO: Yes, he would. MR. RYAN: What would you talk about then? MR. ETO: The time and date of a meeting. MR. RYAN: Would you say the place of a meeting? MR. ETO: I beg your pardon? MR. RYAN: Would you describe the place of the meeting on the telephone? MR. ETO: No, I would not. MR. RYAN: Was that because the meetings were at a pre-arranged location? MR. ETO: Yes, it was. MR. RYAN: What was that location? MR. ETO: International Pancake House on Belmont near Central. That was the same IHOP Edy would take me to. It was she who decided to go there. I had no problem with it, because it was the best breakfast place nearby. Coincidence? It's possible I dodged a bullet. But I'll never know.
Google has done a good job with the maps. The navigation system in my car is Google powered and has good maps and accurate signs. Even when not using nav, the HUD shows me the speed limit of the road I am on. In most cases, if the speed limit changes, the display in the car changes within a few feet of the pole by the road.
It will someday soon when autonomous vehicles are the rule and not the exception.
A long, long time ago I read a scifi story about two kids who modify a self-driving car in the future to grossly exceed the speed limit and the subsequent crash at high speed kills someone. They question the kids to find out how they did it. Turns out one kid was responsible for hacking into the car's controller and the other kid was just along for the ride.
They give the first kid a job in the Electronics Ministry and they put they kid who was just along for the ride to death.
o a neighboring state. They lived near two very small towns, the larger bei ng around 6,000 population. One of the friends they made, turned-out to be neighbors (who they never knew) that lived directly behind them, across the alley. They had a cyclone fence and shrubs...so, even as kids we never saw inside their yard!
I'm not getting your point.
There is only 1 degree of separation. The kids knew each other ~15 years be fore they "met" at college. The parents (us) also knew each other (and the kids) way back then.
Back in the day when Ma Bell owned all the telephone equipment some promising young engineering students in the dorms built their own PBX with all the bells and whistles plus 2600 style phreaking. Rumor had they were offered jobs by Ma right after they got kicked out of school.
It will if you are following another car. It will adjust to keep the distance between. Not just get off the gas, but apply the brakes. You can follow a car doing 75 off the highway, down the ramp at 25 and accelerate again on the next road.
It can also be set to stay between the lines if you drift. It can follow a curve hands free. I think I may have posted this before
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