Category Archives: Coincidences

November 9, 1989

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The fall of the Berlin Wall – did it simply collapse or was it pushed?! I recall I was in Atlanta, Georgia, recovering after a tequila hangover from my birthday party a couple of days before. As I was in the US of course the nice thing was the news hardly registered, just a faint glimmer of information as me and my friend Mike Edgson got ready for a motorcycle trip of a lifetime. Yes, after selling Xmas trees and buying our bikes, we only got as far as Mexico. Though I kind of made it to South America (well Brazil, Argentia, and Paraguay) in a round-about-way.

How a Child Becomes a Scientist

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Just reading the intriguing book ‘When We Were Kids; How a Child Becomes a Scientist’ by John Brockman which has inspired to think off any clues in my own childhood to such later (albeit amateur) pursuits. I can’t really think of any though since historian David Cannadine once said I had a ‘profound mind’, maybe I should sleep on it before my ego gets the better of me? (My abiding memory of him is sitting there in tutorials while he paced around the room rolling his eyes as he thought deep thoughts). Perhaps my interest in the science of coincidence is a legacy from childhood, though it’s far from unique? Certainly I recall playing with fire engines outside our home in Danbury, Essex, while firefighters were attending to an oven fire inside, and making a note of the coincidence. But one of the features of coincidences is how they stick in our mind, so nothing there either! So I guess this means (1) I’m not a scientist (2) Profound mind? On the available evidence it appears David Cannadine was talking about himself as I can’t see no Wikipedia entry for myself! So I guess the next best thing is my Christ’s College matriculation pic from 1984 (see Photos for the full blown version):