Monday 23 July 2012

Resolving the impossible lottery

In a previous post, I have posed a question which seems to admit of two contradictory explanations. Go read that post before this one or this post won't make a whole lot of sense!

Sunday 22 July 2012

Apologies for my absence!

I must apologise to my reader (singular intentional) for being absent from blogging for so long. And of course I've left a puzzle hanging, with my explanation of the impossible lottery puzzle.

I've been distracted by the acquisition of an iPad, a birthday, a trip abroad and various computer games (especially Supreme Commander 2 which I have recently discovered I quite like). The Steam Summer Sale has also been reminding me how much I love games.

I'm not sure my enthusiasm for this blog will ever quite get back to the levels it had before this hiatus, but I do intend to write at least a few more posts. Let's see how it goes!

Sunday 1 July 2012

Coincidences surprising and inevitable

Kitler photographed by Amy Halligan

Why is it that we might have no problem suspending our disbelief when watching a movie about an alien invasion, but we would find it ridiculous if the writers of a realistic soap opera suddenly started a storyline involving aliens?

This is actually a question that has interested me for some time, even if I seldom gave it much thought.

I will be getting back to the lottery paradox I posed in my last post, but first I have some things to say about the nature of coincidences and improbable events, and this is one of the questions I will attempt to answer.