"In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday. By the pigeonhole principle, the probability reaches 100% when the number of people reaches 366 (since there are 365 possible birthdays, excluding February 29th). However, 99% probability is reached with just 57 people, and 50% probability with 23 people."
...An informal demonstration of the problem can be made from the list of Prime Ministers of Australia, in which Paul Keating, the 24th Prime Minister, and Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister, share same birthday i.e. 18 January.
James K. Polk and Warren G. Harding, the 11th and 29th Presidents of the United States, were both born on November 2.
Sir John A. Macdonald and Jean Chrétien, the 1st and 20th Prime Ministers of Canada, were both born on January 11.
Of the 73 male actors to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, there are six pairs of actors who share the same birthday.[18]
Of the 67 actresses to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, there are three pairs of actresses who share the same birthday.[19]
Of the 61 directors to win the Academy Award for Best Director, there are five pairs of directors who share the same birthday.[20]
Of the 52 people to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, there are two pairs of men who share the same birthday.
Also, "in a group of just seven random people, it is more likely than not that two of them will have a birthday within a week of each other."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problemThe birthday problem has got me wondering; is there some cosmic version of this at play when we experience synchronicities. I mean I've had some really wild ones, but maybe on some level we don't grasp yet, the odds are not as far out as common sense would have us believe. In a kind of 'chaos is a higher order that we're not understanding yet' way. And not only on a personal level, but when words or numbers pop up in big events, like "Holmes" in the Batman and Sikh shootings for example.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.