Conspiracies And Probability

guttentag writes "Sunday's New York Times Magazine is running a feature that looks at the rumored conspiracy that allegedly killed nearly a dozen bioterror and germ warfare researchers during a four month period following the U.S. anthrax scare. "What are the odds," people ask, despite the fact that a "one-in-a-million miracle" will statistically occur 280 times a day in the U.S. These strange things happen all the time, but we hype them because they provide the spice in literature and the comfort of comprehension."

Comments

You're one in a million!

[httpamphibio.us]

Which means there are about 6000 people exactly like you.

PHEW!

[papasui]

And all time time I was afraid that the FBI was monitoring my Inter-.........

well, what can i say

[Anonymous Coward]

million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of ten

Re:Conspiracy

[Anonvmous Coward]

We'd all be saying the same thing if Gore was in office.

It's kinda like arguing over which movie is better, Dante's Peak or Volcano.

Re:On my way home today....

[Anonymous Coward]

I went to Thomas Alva Edison elementary school. The license plate one of my my teacher's cars was "TAE - 072".

I just got off the phone with your elementary school teacher. He said the initials on his plate stand for Timothy Alva Edison, so it's just a coincidence. Nothing to worry about.

Re:Monkeys and typewriters...

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Yes, but take those very same monkeys, take away their typewriters. Given only 5 months, these monkeys can and will write the legislation for the USA for the given year.

And if they do a poor job, you can always vote for another monkey next November.

Or said another way, given very large numbers of N, and incredible lengths of time, Congress might actually write something worth reading....

Re:Conspiracies, nuts, and JFK

[Valar]

Everyone knows that John Dillinger shot JFK, on behalf of the JAMs.

Re:Isn't this a repost?

[NanoGator]

"Isn't this a repost?"

What are the odds of that happening on Slashdot?

Re:On my way home today....

[Tablizer]

Oh yeah, well I got marked as "troll" on two different messages at the exact same *second* today. What is the chance of that?

It must be a sign that I am "special".

Dijkstra: What are the odds?

[minesweeper]

What are the odds that the day after my classmates and I have to implement Dijkstra's shortest-path algorithm for our final CS project this semester, the venerable founding father of computer science passes on?

An interesting coincidence, no doubt, but nothing more than that.

Re:Conspiracy

[Kredal]

Don't blame me, I voted for CowboyNeal.

Re:Microsoft Promtotes 'Death to Jews'?

[nathanh]

I know this won't be a popular view, but I do felt it had to be said.

I don't know why you think this. I see far more Microsoft support on Slashdot than Microsoft bashing. Everytime there's an even remotely anti-Microsoft statement or anti-Microsoft joke there are about 50 people like yourself who jump to Microsoft's defence. Often the defence starts off with "I know I'll get moderated down for this but...". Sound familiar?

Really, it's getting tiring. You can't even write a simple Microsoft joke these days without a 1000 flames along the lines of "Linux sucks way more than Microsoft". Is this pro-Microsoft stance the trendy thing to do these days?