Air Force lieutenant Gail Halvorsen flew supplies into Berlin during the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and '49. On one run, he met a group of children near the landing strip.
Not only did Halvorsen deliver he candy, but when word of his caper leaked out, Americans sent lots more candy to be dropped over Berlin. And Halvorsen did just that. Fifty years later, he encountered one of those children on a trip to Berlin, which you'll have to go to Futility Closet to read about. Link -via Fark
You can read more about Halvorsen at Wikipedia. Link
“They could speak a little English,” he recalled later. “Their clothes were patched and they hadn’t had gum and candy for two or three years. They barely had enough to eat.”
Halvorsen gave them two sticks of gum and promised to drop more candy for them the next day from his C-54. He said he’d rock his wings so that they could distinguish him from the other planes. Then he returned to the base and spent the night tying bundles of candy to handkerchief parachutes.
Not only did Halvorsen deliver he candy, but when word of his caper leaked out, Americans sent lots more candy to be dropped over Berlin. And Halvorsen did just that. Fifty years later, he encountered one of those children on a trip to Berlin, which you'll have to go to Futility Closet to read about. Link -via Fark
You can read more about Halvorsen at Wikipedia. Link
Comments (3)
...and the man had no teeth.
http://www.wilottery.com/lottogames/apick3.asp
6-6-6
I saw it happen live on TV.
That's the thing about statistics. Statistically speaking, unlikely things should sometimes occur, but people will always impute meaning to things which are meaningless. Which isn't to say that it isn't interesting.
Lottery numbers 04-15-23-24-35-42
LOST numbers....04-08-15-16-23-42
The odds in the article about two consecutive draws being the same do seem low. In a fifty number field/six number draw the odds of picking all six is 14 million to 1. So how does the two day/same numbers odds end up at 4 million to 1? It all seems strange to me, especially the fact that 18 people picked those same six numbers for the next draw. Who picks the complete set of numbers that just won?
There's a similar problem about how many people do you have to have in a room before there's a better than even chance of two of them sharing a birthday. Turns out to be around 23, not the 180 or so you might expect. The reason is there are a lot of possible birthdays, but most people think only from their own perspective - i.e. how many people share /their/ birthday, not how many people share /any/ birthday.
There's a Wiki page which explains the maths and which can easily be extended to the lottery figures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem
Skipweasel, here's another way to think of it: Suppose there are 5 million possible number combinations in a particular lottery. No matter what combination of six numbers comes up one day, the numbers the following day have a one-in-five-million chance of being the same.
I suspect that the one mathematician's odds are off because, frankly,many if not most mathematicians know squat about probability calculations.
By the way, reports are that 3 of the same 6 numbers turned up in the NEXT drawing.
Random chance? I don't think so.
sept 6 & 10
4, 15, 23, 2*4, 3+5, 42
6 + 10 -----/---/--
/ / \
/ / |
/ / |
// |
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
sept 6 & 10
4,.15,.23,.2*4,.3+5,.42
6 + 10 -----/---/--
.........../.../...\
........../../.....|
........././.......|
........//.........|
...4,...8,...15,..16, 23, 42
sept 6 & 10
4,.15,.23,.2*4,.3+5,.42
6 + 10 --/---/--
.........../.../...\
........../../.....|
........././.......|
........//.........|
...4,..8,...15,..16, 23, 42
or it could have been the incident....