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He'd have to be depicted by someone who is big-leggy. And drinks milk.

The showed him with his Stetson down and his neckerchief up, but the voice was someone doing an OK impression, and it was clear from the dialogue he was supposed to be the Duke (e.g. hating High Noon).
 
On Sunday I went to a psychic evening in a local pub. I won the raffle and chose a little Angel made out of glass.

I don’t know if anyone is familiar with Pinterest, but you pin pictures you like and it suggests more of the same. For ages I have been pinning pretty pictures of Angels. Then yesterday it started suggesting pins like this Angel I won which it never had before. I didn’t share a picture of my prize or take a picture of it, it’s very odd.
EE4D7F26-4DE1-480C-9193-E3E64BB258E6.png
 
T'other day for some reason I was singing 'Steal Away' to myself. The 'spiritual', which I was taught to sing at school. It starts 'Steal away, steal away to Jesus...'

Dunno why but it stayed with me all day and into yesterday morning. It came into my head again as we cycled along the canal and passed some boats, one of which was named 'Steelaway'.
(They often have contrived names.)

Made me wonder a bit!
 
Hello Hiddles.

Out of curiosity: did you talk about the stained glass angel to anyone? There's been some fair back and forth about whether phones 'listen'. Even if you believe Google or Apple saying they don't do it directly, that doesn't mean apps can't.
 
Hello Hiddles.

Out of curiosity: did you talk about the stained glass angel to anyone? There's been some fair back and forth about whether phones 'listen'. Even if you believe Google or Apple saying they don't do it directly, that doesn't mean apps can't.

Maybe when I first saw it as a prize but it was a buzy pub so Siri must have had his ear trumpet out and then gone and told Pinterest. I suppose I wouldn’t put it past them.
 
Hello Hiddles.

Out of curiosity: did you talk about the stained glass angel to anyone? There's been some fair back and forth about whether phones 'listen'. Even if you believe Google or Apple saying they don't do it directly, that doesn't mean apps can't.

Facebook lobs you ads based on your conversations. I recently mentioned Bum Butter to a fellow suffering cyclist and was immediately bombarded with helpful messages!
 
Yeah, I started looking into it after a friend gave a lift to someone who verbally discussed a Brazilian festival particular to some city. They then started getting ads served about it on their personal devices, despite never searching it. You could chalk some of it up to really successful guesswork based on device-location comparisons, but other things suggest that even if that's happening, there's also use of audio happening.
 
Yeah, I started looking into it after a friend gave a lift to someone who verbally discussed a Brazilian festival particular to some city. They then started getting ads served about it on their personal devices, despite never searching it. You could chalk some of it up to really successful guesswork based on device-location comparisons, but other things suggest that even if that's happening, there's also use of audio happening.

You mean, like a phone picking up a conversation and acting on it?
 
You can switch the recording off in Facebook's settings (on Android, at least).

On Android (Marshmallow)
  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Swipe over to “Personal”
  3. Tap “Privacy and safety”
  4. Tap “App permissions”
  5. Tap “Microphone”
  6. Find Facebook, and turn the slider to OFF.
 
Yeah, I started looking into it after a friend gave a lift to someone who verbally discussed a Brazilian festival particular to some city. They then started getting ads served about it on their personal devices, despite never searching it. You could chalk some of it up to really successful guesswork based on device-location comparisons, but other things suggest that even if that's happening, there's also use of audio happening.
That's no coincidence. I think the FB app listen even when it's "closed".

 
Yesterday I mentioned to Techy a time when I'd gone off for a shower while laughing at something silly he'd done and ended up getting shampoo in my mouth. This morning, here's what came up on my Facbook 'Memories' feed -

Yesterday morning I was laughing so hard at [Techy] for flooding hot water all over the kitchen that I got shampoo in my mouth in the shower and swallowed some. Can still taste it. That'll teach me for mocking the afflicted.

So we were talking about it seven years to the day after it happened! How weird.

Also, just as I was thinking of where to post this, a 'like' came up for a post of mine on this thread which decided it for me.
 
Can't seem to find it now, but am sure I read summat online about abandoned AI controlled avatars in an MMO game, spontaneously interracting with eachother and changing the outcome of the game, or something? (Can't for the life of me find it when I Google now). Could have been a link from here or anywhere, I forget. But let's hope our phones don't start plotting together!

My eldest is a developer working on some pretty cutting edge apps and he is paranoid about technologies like Sirri and Alexa - and he even uses some sort of encrypted service thing I don't understand, for messaging... Now I'm beginning to wonder if he has a point? He's long put googly eye stickers over the web cams on his machines.
 
My eldest is a developer working on some pretty cutting edge apps and he is paranoid about technologies like Sirri and Alexa - and he even uses some sort of encrypted service thing I don't understand, for messaging... Now I'm beginning to wonder if he has a point? He's long put googly eye stickers over the web cams on his machines.
He has the right idea.
 
Can't seem to find it now, but am sure I read summat online about abandoned AI controlled avatars in an MMO game, spontaneously interracting with eachother and changing the outcome of the game, or something? (Can't for the life of me find it when I Google now). Could have been a link from here or anywhere, I forget. But let's hope our phones don't start plotting together!

My eldest is a developer working on some pretty cutting edge apps and he is paranoid about technologies like Sirri and Alexa - and he even uses some sort of encrypted service thing I don't understand, for messaging... Now I'm beginning to wonder if he has a point? He's long put googly eye stickers over the web cams on his machines.

There's a scam going round at the moment where people of my acquaintance are getting emails telling them that someone somewhere has hacked their laptop and has film of them doing...'things' in front of porn movies, and that on payment of a few thousand quid, the film won't be sent to everyone in their address book.

Tape over the camera would stop this one at source.
 
Well I had an odd one today. Last day of my leave before I’m back to work tomorrow, I decide to go up to London. I don’t have my eye on any particular train as we’ve a steady supply to London from our station. I go to the platform there’s a train waiting, I get on and I’m just heading for a seat when someone calls my name. It’s my mate and her daughter. Now we to talk often but neither of us knew the other was going to London. She’s got a closer station on a different line, but the trains where playing up there, so used my station instead. Like I said the trains are frequent, to end up on the same one in the same carriage. What are the probabilities?
 
Well I had an odd one today. Last day of my leave before I’m back to work tomorrow, I decide to go up to London. I don’t have my eye on any particular train as we’ve a steady supply to London from our station. I go to the platform there’s a train waiting, I get on and I’m just heading for a seat when someone calls my name. It’s my mate and her daughter. Now we to talk often but neither of us knew the other was going to London. She’s got a closer station on a different line, but the trains where playing up there, so used my station instead. Like I said the trains are frequent, to end up on the same one in the same carriage. What are the probabilities?
I've bumped into people I know, just like that (on a train in London).
Wait around long enough and the entire world will pass through.
 
In recent months I seem to have had more and more coincidences occurring. My girlfriend and I seem to report them to eachother on a near daily basis now. They are mostly in the realm of "hearing a new fact or word and then seeing that everywhere", but I find even that rather a fascinating thing.

Few examples:
The singer from The Cranberries dies the day after my girlfriend and I talked about her band's big song and looked into what she is up to now. We are not fans and have never spared a thought for her before.

On New Years' Day I found a pack of cards on the living room table. I decided I'd cut the cards and see if i got the ace of spades. Amazingly I did. I shuffled and tried again. It worked again. The third time it did not. Still, I was rather shocked it worked twice in a row.

I bought a belt from a second hand shop that had a faded image on the buckle, but didn't pay too much attention. A week later I was sent some artwork I had commissioned and the first draft struck me as familiar. Later that day I had a thought and looked at my belt buckle, the image was VERY similar (a pair of cowboy boots). The commission was for a music project and had no input from me at all.

I came up with a detailed idea for a musical theatre show. I am not involved in that world, in fact I find it funny and my idea was somewhat mocking. However I told it to my friend and we expanded on it finding it very funny. 2 weeks later we saw a bus advert for a brand new musical with a very similar theme. On looking into it the basic theme is very similar.

Reading an article where a celebrity says she loves Borders' Biscuits, "an British classic." As a fan of biscuits I was surprised as I did not know these and had not eaten them before. 10 minutes later at my girlfriend's Nan's house she offers us a biscuit and whips out a packet of Borders.

Booked a van and driver for a job. Looked him up on Facebook to check he didn't look dodgy. That evening I went for a drink and he walked past me at the bus stop.

I like listening to audiobooks. Two that I listened to in a row had a character named Tuppence, but were by different authors.

Saw the word 'flaneur' used then explained twice in one day.

So, nothing hugely strange in any of them, but just enough to catch my attention and feel like a mounting of small coincidences.
 
There's a scam going round at the moment where people of my acquaintance are getting emails telling them that someone somewhere has hacked their laptop and has film of them doing...'things' in front of porn movies, and that on payment of a few thousand quid, the film won't be sent to everyone in their address book.

Tape over the camera would stop this one at source.

I worked in fraud management/investigation in the insurance industry for several years and I took a wider interest in the subject. Versions of this scam are quite common. The accepted wisdom is simply to ignore them because the scammers would gain no advantage by circulating the footage to all your friends, even if it existed. Indeed, it would increase the risk of detection.

Internet scams depend on sending out thousands of emails, and focussing attention on the small number of gullible people who respond. There should be no need even to tape up the camera lens as the scam works with gullible people without the need to actually have the film. If they had it, they would almost certainly include a clip in their first email to add weight to their first approach.

On the wider subject of bizarre coincidences, if I can be allowed a plug, this is one of the threads in my recent novel, Bridge of Otherwhere. Each coincidence may be easy to explain away, but when there are so many coincidences, does it mean that something strange is happening, or does it just mean that you have developed a heightened awareness of coincidences?

In real life, as with alleged precognitive dreams, I think the answer is that you simply don't notice the overwhelming majority of times there is no coincidence, or no apparent precognition. Also, how far are we as individuals able to stretch the circumstances to fit our preconceptions without realising that we are doing so? Do we think we are seeing "matches" when in reality we are constructing them with hindsight?

Example: "I was only listening to BB King the day before he died." As I listen to BB King about once a month, the odds are around 1/15 that I would be listening to him either on the day of his death or the day before he died. I conveniently ignore the dozen or more times a year for 20 years that I listened to BB King and he didn't die, or the fact that I also listened to 20 other artists a month who didn't die.
 
I worked in fraud management/investigation in the insurance industry for several years and I took a wider interest in the subject. Versions of this scam are quite common. The accepted wisdom is simply to ignore them because the scammers would gain no advantage by circulating the footage to all your friends, even if it existed. Indeed, it would increase the risk of detection.

Internet scams depend on sending out thousands of emails, and focussing attention on the small number of gullible people who respond. There should be no need even to tape up the camera lens as the scam works with gullible people without the need to actually have the film. If they had it, they would almost certainly include a clip in their first email to add weight to their first approach.

On the wider subject of bizarre coincidences, if I can be allowed a plug, this is one of the threads in my recent novel, Bridge of Otherwhere. Each coincidence may be easy to explain away, but when there are so many coincidences, does it mean that something strange is happening, or does it just mean that you have developed a heightened awareness of coincidences?

In real life, as with alleged precognitive dreams, I think the answer is that you simply don't notice the overwhelming majority of times there is no coincidence, or no apparent precognition. Also, how far are we as individuals able to stretch the circumstances to fit our preconceptions without realising that we are doing so? Do we think we are seeing "matches" when in reality we are constructing them with hindsight?

Example: "I was only listening to BB King the day before he died." As I listen to BB King about once a month, the odds are around 1/15 that I would be listening to him either on the day of his death or the day before he died. I conveniently ignore the dozen or more times a year for 20 years that I listened to BB King and he didn't die, or the fact that I also listened to 20 other artists a month who didn't die.

I think you're right, Mike, we provide our own confirmation bias on these things. I have irritated people in the past when they've come and told me some story (because they know about my Fortean leanings) about how they were thinking about their friend and the phone rang - and it was the very friend they are thinking of! And then I ask how many times they think of that friend, and the phone doesn't ring, and then they get all huffy.
 
I think you're right, Mike, we provide our own confirmation bias on these things. I have irritated people in the past when they've come and told me some story (because they know about my Fortean leanings) about how they were thinking about their friend and the phone rang - and it was the very friend they are thinking of! And then I ask how many times they think of that friend, and the phone doesn't ring, and then they get all huffy.
Haha. My dad always says, "I had a feeling you might come round this morning."

When I visit him, it's always on a Sunday morning and is typically at 4 or 5 week intervals, but he's always astounded by his prescience.
 
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