Zeno's Paradox

1st Event:

I've been an avid reader of xkcd.com for a good few years now, and eagerly await the next installment - as well as the new 'What If?' section.
Comic #1153 made reference to Zeno's Paradoxes. Something I hadn't heard of, and if I'm honest the Wikipedia entry wasn't as clear as the XKCD reference. Perhaps that could be the next section of the comic: Making Wikipedia easier to understand.

2nd Event:

I've been reading a book called Red Mars, it's longer than I thought and at times I lose interest but I'm perservering and I'm glad I am.
Last night, I was reading before bed and I'm up to the section where the Space Elevator is almost complete when up pops a reference to Zeno's Paradoxes.

So, having never heard of Zeno or his paradoxes before I am introduced to them through 2 unrelated sources within the space of a week.

Coincidence?

G

Mini

It's been a while since the last coincidence made me take notice and write about it. The one's that did happen I could easily explain away, or where extremely minor. Until tonight.

When I passed my driving test, I was lucky enough to find a cheap classic mini for sale which I was able to buy. Sadly, it passed away on the motorway due to a cracked sump plug which meant the oil was able to drain away causing the engine to sieze. The cost of a new engine was triple what I paid for the car itself so I left it at a service station on the A3 towards London.

9 years later, and I've just received confirmation that I can stay in Australia for another 4 years and I decided to look into getting a car. Whilst I don't need one for work, and living around a 15 minute walk from the center of the city and a short bus ride from the beaches I don't need one to get around town. But having one to get out of Sydney would be great.
I'd seen a green Mini at the end of the road I used to live down and always walked past it with envious eyes, and the few times I've had to drive to Parramatta for work I've gone past a car dealer with a green mini parked outside. But have been unable to find it listed on their website.

So tonight I thought I'd do a search and see if I could find a 2nd hand classic mini for sale in Sydney. Unfortunately they seem to be few and far between so whilst I've not given up hope I'm afraid I might have to concede defeat. Around 2 hours later, I had just finished watching X-Men: First Class and had put the TV back on and the first thing I see is an advert featuring a classic mini. It was for a car insurance firm, and the family were explaining how they insured their classic mini as well as their 'new' mini.

Coincidence?

Dungeness

I've been reading a book called Stiff, about dead bodies and their use in medicine.
Towards the end it discusses burial and cremation alongside other forms of body disposal such as composting.
At the end of that chapter the author talks to a man who says that using Dungeness crabs would be the best way to return a body to nature.
I finished the book a few minutes later and went on twitter to check the latest England news ahead of the football and I saw the following post by a band called Turin Brakes:

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I'm on the list

I was in the basement at work picking up some equipment from our store and as I was walking back to the lift I saw a piece of paper on the floor. Now I normally don't pick up paper on the floor, incase someone has dropped it and retraces their steps looking for it. But this time, I picked it up. It had been folded in half, and then in half again and the side that was facing up when it was on the floor was blank but the other side had a list of names with what looked like shirt sizes.
At the end of the list was a gap of about 2/3 lines and then a single name: Gareth.
I've got a photo somewhere that I'll put up of it.

G

Doves and chestnuts

I was lying in bed the other night reading and gave myself till 10pm so I wasn't up all night.
I had a quick glance at the clock and saw I had about 5 minutes to go.
When I finished the chapter and put my kindle down, I picked up my phone and saw that it was 10.03. Nothing strange there, until I saw my Spotify widget showing the last song I listened to was 10.03 by Doves.
Weird.
Whilst I started thinking about this being another coincidence I heard a noise from the kitchen like seeing had fallen off of a shelf.
I got out of bed and went to look and found a case of chestnuts had warped enough to pop open and spill the nuts onto the worktop.
The case had been in the kitchen for around 2 weeks now but popped open at the same time as a coincidence had occurred...

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It starts...

Recently I've become a bit obsessed with noting any coincidental events and occurrences that happen, as it seems to me that our happens a lot - unless I'm just looking out for them? So I've decided to document them in this blog to help me make some sense of them.

G