67 Not Out On BBC News Coincidence - Sort Of

I guess it had to happen eventually. I turned on the television yesterday at lunchtime to catch the news. And the BBC kindly put up this blog's name on the screen i.e. 67 Not Out! I managed to snap the occasion, though it's not too clear. I must have got shaky with the excitement of the coincidence - or maybe it was just too much lunch.

As for the cricket in Melbourne, I'd rather not mention it for reasons that other English people will understand.

But here's a cricket coincidence about Melbourne and the very first Australia v England Test Match:

"What is now recognised as the first Test of all, the match between Australia and England in Melbourne in March 1877, ended in a win for the home side by 45 runs. One hundred years later, a special Centenary Test was staged in Melbourne to mark the occasion - and Australia won an exciting encounter by 45 runs." Source

Other Coincidence Stories:
He Saw His Wife Hit By A Boomerang 20 Years Before They Met
Suzie Gets Back Riding The Synchronicity Highway And Meets A Long Lost Friend
Even A Sink Plughole Can Yield A Coincidence Story

The Two Saints Coincidence Cartoon

I saw this cartoon in the Daily Mail newspaper - what a coincidence!

Hope you are having a great Christmas Day.

The Doctor And His Coincidence With JFK And Lee Harvey Oswald

I was reading that Piers Morgan discovered a coincidence while interviewing Dr Ronald Jones on his CNN late night show.

Dr Jones was one of the surgical team at the Parkland Memorial Hospital Dallas, the night President Kennedy was assassinated.  He received a message, "Dr Jones, the President has been shot, we need you right away in the emergency room."

He tells how he saw JFK's wounds and that there was no sign of life. A tracheotomy was performed and an ECG heart machine was used. The doctor remembers thinking at the time, "How did I get here? The odds of me taking care of the President must be infinitesimal." But this isn't the coincidence.

Two days later Dr Jones was called for another emergency, this time on the 'assassin' Lee Harvey Oswald, who had been shot by Jack Ruby. Oswald survived for an hour and 20 minutes in the operating room.

The doctor is therefore part of history as he was called upon to treat the assassinated as well as the assassin.

I don't watch Piers Morgan's show - not even sure if it's shown in the UK - but I read in Event magazine that on the same night Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Bobby and JFK's niece, was also interviewed.

A couple of statistics came up during the interview, which I find almost hard to believe. I won't comment on them as I live in the UK - so it's not my business to do so - but here is what was said:

"... over 1.5 million Americans have been killed by guns since they [John & Bobby Kennedy] died."

and

"There are more gun dealers in the United States than McDonald's"

Other History Themed Stories:
Synchronicity Leading To Pocahontas Saving John Smith
History Helped Defeat Hitler
Premonition Of The Death Of Admiral Nelson At Trafalgar

The Royal Birth And The Really Nice Coincidences

Source: David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Daily Star

To date I've managed to avoid mentioning the recent Royal birth - though you may nevertheless have still heard about it. George Alexander Louis, son of Prince William, clocked in on the 22nd of July, Kate had something or other to do with it as well.

Alyssa

Alyssa Williams of Kidderminster was also born on the same day - okay, not quite an amazing coincidence perhaps but there's a little bit more.

Alyssa was born at 7 pm and weighed in at 7 pounds - there's another coincidence: two 7s - but more importantly Alyssa's family have other connections with Royal birthdays. Here we go:

# Alyssa's uncle, David Williams (I had a school teacher named the same, but that's not really relevant) was born on the same day as Prince William: June 21, 1982.

# Alyssa's aunt Louisa has the same birthday as Prince Harry, 15th of September.

# Lauren - David and Louisa's daughter and therefore Alyssa's cousin - was born on Queen Elizabeth's birthday, 21st of April.

# Alyssa's dad's parents - her grandparents - celebrate their wedding anniversary on Princess Diana's birthday, 1st of July.

Erm, I think that's it. Alyssa's proud dad is quoted as saying about this, "It’s been a massive shock really but everyone said Alyssa was meant to be born on that date because of the connections with the Royals and our family."

And mum Zara agreed, "As soon as we got to the hospital the midwives were saying that we could have her on the same day (as Kate). I’m pleased that we did because of the other family members. It just makes it really nice."

So there you go - really nice coincidences.

Source:Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle

Other Random Royal Posts:
The Magic Of King Arthur And Tintagel Castle Cornwall - 21 Exclusive Photos
Links Of Prince William And Royal Family To Hitler And Nazis
Famous Coincidences: King Umberto I

The Fraser Chronicle Asked If This Was A Miracle Or A Coincidence

Burrum Coalfest

The Fraser Coast Chronicle from Queensland, Australia had a headline that caught my attention: Miracle or coincidence at Coalfest church service?

Burrum were holding a Coal Discovery Festival to celebrate 150 years since coal was discovered locally by the Miller Brothers. They had the usual sort of things planned: a street parade, an old time dance, kids activities, working sheep dog demonstration and so on. No doubt lots of fun for the local population.

The main events were on Saturday and on the Sunday there was a church service to be held at the Burrum District Community Centre. They expected about 50 to 80 people to attend.

A Brian Hoole did an official head count of attendees and announced it from the stage. There were exactly 150 people celebrating the 150 years since the coal was first found.

Not sure this quite warrants the word miracle but definitely in the coincidence or synchonicity category. The Church parish pastoral council's Faye Wilkes-Johnson told the Chronicle, "The reaction was a case of 'Praise the Lord' - that was more or less what everyone was saying."

As, is often said, God works in mysterious ways!

Other Coincidence Stories:
The Incredible Saudi Arabia To Houston Coincidence
The Coincidences Of The 27 Club
The Coincidences Of Twins Growing Up Separately

Coincidence Between The Osama bin Laden Compound And Israel

This post takes us back to May 2011 and Osama bin Laden - remember him? At that time he was shot and killed inside a private residential compound called Abbottabad in Pakistan. That's an aerial photo above, which is in the public domain, of Abbottabad.

The JSS News website - which calls itself a 'webzine of Israeli opinion' came up with a theory about the shape of bin Laden's compound.

The website got out their maps and discovered that there was a resemblance between the aerial photo of Abbottabad and Israel.

If we look at the main house, where bin Laden was killed and captured, this is located where Jerusalem is found on a map of Israel. The compound's gate parallels the location Tel Aviv, its dumping ground matches the location of Tiberias and another building matched the location of Haifa.

A coincidence or something more?

Here's the two comparison pictures below.

So, what do you make of this? I hadn't come across it before.

Other Coincidence or Synchronicity Stories:
The Concentration Camp Romantic Coincidence
Coincidence or Synchronicity - Example 3
The Lowestoft Picture Postcard Coincidence
Top 10 Coincidence And Synchronicity Stories

Top 10 Coincidence And Synchronicity Stories

When I started this blog the theme was mostly coincidences and synchronicity. Since then I've wandered off into other directions but it's back to basics today. The following are the Top 10 Coincidence and Synchronicity Stories over the last year - based on the number of readers (hits) each has received.

1. Photo Taken Of Father Showed His Missing Daughter
Michael Dick hadn't seen his daughter, Lisa, for over 10 years. This was since he had separated from his first wife. Determined to make contact with her again Michael travelled to Sudbury, where she was last known to be living, together with his two other daughters ... Read full story

2. The Red Balloon Coincidence
It seemed the obvious thing to do for a 10 year old. Laura Buxton was at her grandparent's golden wedding anniversary and there was a helium filled balloon going spare. So she wrote on a label ... Read full story

3. Finding A £10 Note Coincidence
I've mentioned previously about how my wife often finds money. Not usually large amounts but coins when we are out walking. However, she was a bit luckier when she found a £10 note (about $14) ... Read full story

4. 67 Years After The D-Day Landings They Meet By Coincidence
Clifford Baker and Bill Betts, were part of the D-Day Landings in World War 2. Clifford will be 98 today and Bill is a mere lad of 88. 67 years ago they were soldiers with the Essex Yeomanry and had been friends during two years of training as radio operators. They were then dispatched to Normandy in France ... Read full story

5. Famous Coindidences: King Umberto I
As royalty sometimes does, King Umberto I of Italy, back in 1900, travelled to Monza and, as he was away from his palace, decided to have an evening meal in a smallish restaurant. The date was July 28th ... Read full story

6. The Concentration Camp Romantic Coincidence
his is coincidence story which is also doubles up as a love story. It goes back to 1944. A young man, Antonin Nowak, just 14 years of age was in a concentration camp in Poland, one of the many injustices of World War II. Through the high fence he often saw a young girl ... Read full story

7. Married Couple In The Same Photo As Children
Young newly weds Alex and Donna Voutsinas were looking through some of Donna's old photos from when she was a child and came across one of her at Disney World. Nothing too unusual about this, you may say ... Read full story

8. JK Rowling And Harry Potter Birthday Coincidence
JK Rowling, the Harry Potter creator, has recently been tracing her ancestry and in particular on her maternal side. Her mother died just prior to Jo starting to write the first Harry Potter book so she never knew of the phenomenon that was to follow. Jo discovered that her maternal grandfather ... Read full story

9. Money Folded Into Four Coincidence
As you know, Mike, I was away for a holiday in France and ventured across the English Channel by ferry with my car and, oh yes, my boyfriend, I nearly forgot! We had parked our car at the docks and I got out to have ... Read full story

10. The Murder Coincidences As History Repeats Itself
This is a remarkable coincidence story that I haven't mentioned before. It features the murder of two 20 year old girls - but the killings were 157 years apart. Is this a case of history repeating itself or maybe even ... Read full story

Other 10 Posts:
10 Ghost Story Posts
10 UFO And Alien Stories
10 Stories About Reincarnation
10 Story Posts Featuring Dreams
10 Mystery Posts About Cornwall
10 White Feather Story Posts As Examples Of Messages From The Dead

Coincidence Of The Stabbing From 21 Years Ago

In 1991 David Jolly, now 41, received a jail sentence for stabbing Christopher Harrington.

In December 2010, by a bizarre coincidence, Jolly moved into a flat (apartment) above where Harrington lived in Folkestone, England. Neither lived in the area when the original assault occurred.

Folkestone Magistrates Court were told how, after Jolly had moved in ... "The two were talking out of the window of their flat and one said he had grown up in Ealing and the other said he had as well. They exchanged names and Mr Harrington realised who his new neighbour was and felt nervous when the defendant said: 'Hold on, I'm coming up'."

"But Jolly apologised telling Mr Harrington that he was young and stupid, and they had a drink together."

The two men became friends, but this isn't the end of the story.

The This Is Kent website reports that the friendship only lasted until April of this year when, "Jolly began a campaign against Mr Harrington and in a torrent of text messages told him 'I should have finished you off in 1991', and made a series of threats making it clear he wanted to kill Mr Harrington."

This was the reason why Jolly was in the Magistrates Court.

Jolly faces five charges: threatening to kill Christopher Harrington between September 4 and September 11 in more than 30 text messages, harassment over the same period of Mr Harrington, two charges of sending false messages on e-mail with intent to cause anxiety and conveying a message to Kent Police for the purpose of causing annoyance or needless anxiety. It is alleged that he sent a message to police that he was planning to carry out a worse attack than Britain's three most notorious gun massacres.

It's strange how Jolly and Harrington were drawn together again by 'coincidence' following their first problem of 21 years ago. Perhaps the two have something to overcome going back to previous incarnations. Some links aren't easily broken.

Other 67 Not Out Posts:
Google Street View Photo May Solve A Crime
Bizarre Coincidence Of Newspaper Photos Gets Man Arrested
Coincidences And The Portuguese Rooster of Barcelos

Get Born On March 23 To Be a Great Olympian Or Sports Person

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen ... "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
I've never believed those horoscopes that you read in newspapers and magazines - unless they forecast something good! But in saying that I have noticed how some people born under certain sun signs do have similar traits.

What made me think of this again was a small newspaper cutting I clipped recently following the Olympic Games. This is what was said - but I'd better add that this was in a UK paper and therefore biased to us Brits.

"I'm not a great believer in star-signs but wonder what to make of the fact that Roger Banister (the first man to run a four-minute mile), Olympians Steve Redgrave, Chris Hoy and Mo Farrah, as well as British speed record breaker Donald Campbell all share the same Aries birthday of March 23."

I wondered, therefore, if March 23rd is a good day to be born if you want to be a sports star. So I went to Wikipedia to see some famous births for that date.  There are 73 listed births from 1960 onwards and 41 of these are famous worldwide sports people - 56%!

Okay, Wikipedia is far from perfect for many reasons but it's an impressive statistic. Okay - again - it's nothing scientific and many will say is therefore meaningless.

But, whatever, when we observe people there does seem to be varying categories. How often have we said that so-and-so looks like someone else. If this is down purely to star signs is debatable but sometimes, even though I have minimum knowledge of the subject, I will pick out someone as a typical Leo, Aries and so on.

In the 70s someone gave me Linda Goodman's Sun Signs. I still have the book and flitted through the Aries section, applicable to someone born on March 23rd. I read:

"... his Mars horns are hard, and tough to crack ... His metal is iron and its unbeatable strength gives him nine times as many lives to live as others; nine times as many chances of winning the battle."

And those are surely the requirements of an Olympian or top sports person - and, being able to believe in 'impossible things before breakfast' of course.

Other Sports Stories And Posts:
The Inspiration Of The Paralympics And 7/7
Golf Hole In One Coincidences

Philippine Metro Manila Floods Coincidence

As we know coincidences occurring in a meaningful manner is often described as synchronicity.

Trying to decipher any meaning behind coincidences can sometimes bring about some strange conclusions. Take for instance the recent severe Metro Manila floods in the Philippines.

The storms that caused the heavy rainfall weren't expected by PAGASA - the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration whose job it is to warn of such possible happenings.

The floods happened on the 7th of August 2012, which, in the Philippines, they would abbreviate to 8-7-12.

"So where is the coincidence?" you may well ask.

The answer is in the Bible. It was noted by many that Genesis 8:7-12 describes how Noah - following the Biblical floods - sent a dove to investigate the extent of the great deluge. The dove returned to the ark, signifying that the flood waters have not yet receded.

The website for the Filipino Global Community were quick to seize on this. They told their readers to:

"Open and read the Bible or your history books and you will see that God always intervenes when it is necessary or worse, when God is already fed up with the evil that has captured the hearts of the people. You know too well the story of Sodom and Gomorrah or the Battle of Lepanto and yes, who could forget the Great Flood, where the people ridiculed Noah for building the Ark. To us who see things with the eyes of faith who fought against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, God has shown his displeasure with a flood."

So the website knows how God is thinking and the floods are all down to God no approving the RH bill.

This is what Wikipedia writes about this RH bill:

"a ...key proposal is that the Philippine government and the private sector will fund and undertake widespread distribution of family planning devices such as condoms, birth control pills (BCPs) and IUDs."

Quoting the Filipino Global Community website again:

"Of course, to the eyes of the unbeliever, all this is a simple matter of coincidence. But for those who see things from the eyes of faith it is the wrath of God."

There we have it an interpretation of the coincidence between the date of the floods and the Bible verses quoted. QED? I don't think so personally.

It's up to us how we interpret coincidences and synchronicity in our lives - but sometimes it takes a bit of fathoming out before we get the right answer. I don't feel we should match synchronicity with what we want to hear.

As for the Philippine RH bill that is for them to decide.

Other Coincidence and Synchronicity Stories:
The Red Balloon Coincidence
67 Years After The D-Day Landings They Meet By Coincidence
Laughing Uncontrollably Coincidence Story

There are also over 150 coincidence and synchronicity stories on Coincidence and Synchronicity blog.

Evander Holyfield Not Recognised By Olympic TV Team

I hadn't heard of this story here in England, but this happened following the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

The New York Daily News reported on the NBC London based coverage:

"As part of its Olympic coverage, the Today Show stopped random people in front of Buckingham Palace to ask about Queen Elizabeth’s performance with Daniel Craig during the opening ceremony. Among them was a man in a white baseball cap and blue T-shirt who called the Queen 'wonderful'."

What none of the NBC team noticed was that, by coincidence, the man they had asked at random, wearing the white baseball cap, was none other than heavyweight boxing legend Evander Holyfield.

Holyfield Tweeted:

"Look, the @todayshow did a good job. It was hard to recognize me with the baseball cap. This could happen to any reporter. LOL!!"

He followed this with another Tweet:

"Hopefully when I get on the @todayshow they will remember who I am! I won't be wearing my white baseball cap! LOL."

Evander Holyfield won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Other Sports Posts:
The Inspiration Of The Paralympics And 7/7
Golf Hole In One Coincidences
Fox Hunting And Boxing Day

Understanding Uncertainty With Coincidences And Synchronicity

The Understanding Uncertainty website is collecting coincidences.  Professor David Spiegelhalter, of the website's team, hopes that what he receives will help him calculate the odds of such peculiar events occuring.

Understanding Uncertainty has a different motive to most of the coincidence and synchronicity sites I read but, nevertheless, has lots of coincidences to read. Their "aim is to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining! However they also acknowledge that uncertainty is not just a matter of working out numerical chances, and aim for an appropriate balance between qualitative and quantitative insights."

The Professor was recently interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and gave some examples of some of the coincidences he has heard. One was from the BBC radio presenter James Naughtie.

James was in New York to produce a programme about the 9/11 terror attacks. The production team wanted to see what had been recorded and the length of the recording. He explains:

"We pressed the button to see how long it was and it was nine minutes 11 seconds. Woooo! 9/11. There it was - it came up."

Other coincidence examples include such things as a car driver noticing the mileage on his car was 8,888 on August 8, 1988; how a woman talking in a queue about the actor Derek Jacobi, found that the actor was standing in front of her; a man who had two unrelated godsons - both were called Edward, both were born on October 8th and both had fathers called Graham.

To read other coincidences and to submit your own go to Understanding Uncertainty.

Also click here to see coincidence and synchronicity posts on 67 Not Out plus there are coincidences on my new blog Coincidence and Synchronicity. You will also find lots of synchronicity posts on synchrosecrets.

Watership Down Development Coincidence

There are often coincidences in literature. Many authors rely on them to spice up or make a story work. But here's a real life coincidence about the Watership Down classic novel.

Watership Down's author Richard Adams writes, in the first chapter, of how the rabbits encounter a new sign or hoarding that says: "This ideally situated estate, comprising six acres of excellent building land, is to be developed with high class modern residences by Sutch and Martin, Limited, of Newbury, Berkshire."

The track of land that was to be developed by the ficticious Sutch and Martin was at Sandleford Warren. The book Watership Down was first published in 1972.

Now author Richard Adams writes, "In a truly nasty coincidence, that self same stretch of land, at Sandleford Park, just outside Newbury, has, in real life, been earmarked for residential development by West Berkshire Council."

The area is one of natural beauty and open countryside on the edge of Newbury, England.

In Richard's opinion, "The whole of Sandleford comprises part of the beautiful area of open country that is adjacent to the south side of Newbury. To use planning jargon, it constitutes a 'green lung' for the borough of Newbury, and it is vital, in the public interest, that it should remain in its present unspoilt state, protected by Town and Country planning law."

In parts of England we have some beautiful countryside but bit by bit it is being taken over for various types of development. We can't let this continue, especially while there are many brownfield sites that could be developed instead.

The planners and profit makers will only listen if we raise our voices loud enough to be heard.

The Dirty Picture Race Coincidence

I have to admit that I had never heard of Silk Smitha the Bollywood actress before I came across this coincidence story. She was born on December 2, 1960 and died mysteriously on September 23, 1996, the popular opinion appears to be that she committed suicide. According to Wikipedia Silk made 450 films in her seventeen years as an actress.

She became famous for her extremely sexy dance numbers and was sometimes referred to as the 'bold dancer'.

A film has recently been made of Silk Smitha's life titled Dirty Picture. To promote the movie the director Milan Luthrie along, with the actor Vidya Balan, attended the Mahalaxmi racetrack to watch a horse race sponsored by the Dirty Picture's backers.  The race was appropriately called The Dirty Picture Trophy.

In the movie there is a scene set at a race course where a rank outsider horse - owned by Silk Smitha - caused a massive upset by winning the race against all the odds.

Now here comes the coincidence:  The winner of the The Dirty Picture Trophy was also a rank outsider, which didn't appear to have any chance of winning.  Oh and the name of the horse? Bold Dancer!

The Inspiration Of The Paralympics And 7/7

Martine Wright believes in fate and that some events in life are destined to happen. Her reason for this way of thinking began on July 6th, 2005.

Martine, along with many other British people, celebrated the news that London had been awarded the Olympic Games for 2012. Her enthusiasm must have been excessive as the next morning, 7/7, she overslept. This meant she had to get a later train to work.

A terrorist bomb exploded on the train and this tragically caused her to lose both legs.

She now talks, however, of coincidences and is hopeful that she may be chosen to represent Great Britain in the 2012 Paralympics, in the Sitting Volleyball event.

Martine told the Daily Mail: "There are so many coincidences. Take the two places I train at in London, for example. Roehampton University is across the road from Queen Mary's Hospital where I spent eight months learning to walk.

The other place is on Commercial Road in East London which is behind the Royal London hospital (where she had physio).

My first international (at Sitting Volleyball) was last year at the World Championships and we flew out on July 7. I chose the No 7 jersey."

She believes that her path may have been mapped out for her to do something similar to what she is now doing. In her own words: "If I get to London 2012 as a competitor I will feel as if I've gone full cycle. All I remember thinking when London won the bid was, 'how am I going to get tickets, I need to get tickets!'. Now, in a weird twist of fate I might be taking part."

Martine has a full life, she trains for 25 hours a week and is married with a two year son. As to why she chose Sitting Volleyball as 'her' Paralympic sport she said, "Sitting volleyball is one of the most inclusive sports you can play. You don't need a wheelchair, just a bum, a net and a ball."

Martine will have to wait until next year to find out if she is chosen for the Paralympics - fingers crossed for her.

The Textual Frustration Coincidence

This is a coincidence story I saw on our local television news last night. It's very short but it shows how life can change because of one random action.

Tina from Yeovil was bored and textually frustrated. She wasn't sure what to do so she took out her trusty mobile phone and entered the message: "Feel like talking?"

Ah, but who should she send the message to? "I know," she thought, "I'll make up a number and see what happens." Well, probably words something like that.

She 'dialled' a random number and a man called Andrew Baldwin answered. He was at work but must have felt in need of some textual attention himself, so he replied with one word, "Yes."

And that's the story, other than to say that Andrew and Tina are now married and have two small children. Tina found the perfect number.

P.S. Suppose I'd better write a "Elf & Safety" warning, as it appears there is one for absolutely everything we want to do or try nowadays: '67 Not Out blog does not encourage or recommend unprotected, random textual contact.' There, that should keep the interfering busy bodies happy.

Similar Posts:
Dreaming Of A Phone Number Led To Romance
The Bizarre Fantasy That Came True
It Was Written In The Stars That They Would Meet

The Amy Winehouse Biography Coincidence

The British author Andy (Andrew) Morris was just putting the final touches to a biography of Amy Winehouse when the singer tragically died on July 23rd. This appeared to him to be a coincidence, a chance happening, but then a further coincidence came to light.

Amy's body was found by her bodyguard when he went to check on her, as she hadn't appeared from her bedroom. This was in the late afternoon of the 23rd. He immediately called the emergency services as Amy was 'unresponsive'.

The news was flashed around the world that Amy had died but the bodyguard's name wasn't shown.

Andy explained what happened next to this is Staffordshire:

"My girlfriend cried out that she had found something unbelievable on the Internet and that I should come and see for myself.

The story had just broken that Amy's personal bodyguard was called Andrew Morris. I was absolutely astounded at the coincidence. Of all the millions of possibilities, for us to have the same name is incredible."

Perhaps 'incredible', but coincidences like this seem to happen over and over when someone well known dies. Amy was only 27 and the Synchrosecrets blog reminded us that she had joined 'the ranks of Kurt Corbain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones – musicians who all also died at the age of 27'.

As for Andy Morris' book it is now available on Amazon USA: Open Book: The Life and Death of Amy Winehouse and also on Amazon UK: Open Book: The Life and Death of Amy Winehouse

Is Afghanistan History Repeating Itself?

Royal Horse Artillery escaping from an Afghan attack
I don't really want to get into the world of politics with this blog but I came across something today which is one of those coincidences where history repeats itself - or at least it could.

I'll say first that I was against the invasion of Iraq and I'm none too happy either with the situation in Afghanistan today. And it's Afghanistan that this post is about.

Being British I can only talk about 'our' involvement and the horror of seeing mostly young soldiers being killed almost daily.

We British have, however, seen all of this previously back in the mid 1800s. This was at the time of the first Anglo-Afghan War. It was a bloody, savage war and an Army Chaplain, the Rev GR Greig, wrote in his memoirs of the humiliation felt when Britain finally pulled out. This is what he said:

"A war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange mixture of rashness and timidity, brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government, which directed, or the great body of troops, which wagered it.

Not one benefit, political or military, has Britain acquired with this war. Our eventual evacuation of the country resembled the retreat of an army defeated."

Much of what the Reverend wrote in 1843 could be applicable today. Most of us aren't too sure of the purpose of troops being in Afghanistan, despite what the politicians tell us. And it does seem to be a possibility that there will eventually have to be a withdrawal, without much being achieved. The Taliban will once more gain control.

So have we learned anything from history? Probably not.

One recent article I read via the BBC News website does make me wonder about Afghanistan. What is this report about? Afghanistan may have more than a trillion dollars worth of untapped mineral deposits, a spokesman for the ministry of mines has suggested.

So Iran has oil, Afghanistan has minerals. But the wars were about Weapons of Mass Destruction (which weren't there) and, er, making the word a safer place - or something like that. All a big coincidence, of course.

Coincidences Which Solved The Mystery Of The WW2 Giant

During the second world war the fighting that Corporal Bob Roberts, of the Canadian North Shore New Brunswick Regiment, experienced was fierce in Calais, France. Allied troops were trying to stop the Germans shelling Dover, England from five gun emplacements.

Eventually the Germans' surrendered and gradually they laid down their weapons. Mr Roberts remembers the action and also how he and his comrades captured Jacob Nacken, who was the tallest man in the German army at 7ft 6in.

Bob Roberts was given the job of frisking Nacken and this brought a lighter moment at the end of such fierce fighting - Bob is only 5ft 3" and even the captured Germans' sniggered and laughed as he frisked the 7ft 6in man.

Bob Roberts, who now lives in Bournemouth, England, is 87 years old - he married an English girl - and often wondered whatever happened to the giant soldier. He never even new his name.

Moving forward 65 years and amateur historian, Rob Smith, sets out to try and trace his mother's Canadian wartime sweetheart. In doing so he comes across the bizarre photo of the diminutive soldier frisking an extremely tall German in some obscure archive.

By coincidence the man he was trying to trace was in the same Canadian regiment as Corporal Bob Roberts. He then found out, by a further coincidence, that Bob lived just a mile away from his mother in England.

Bob was contacted and sent a copy of the photo. The mystery of the 7ft 6in soldier he met in the war was solved. He said, "I couldn't believe it when I received the photo after all these years. It took me back to a moment of light heartedness so soon after I had been a blink of an eye from death."

He added, "I never knew his name, only that he was a lance corporal. He spoke very good English ... it's quite incredible that after all these years I have found out who this guy was."

As for Jakob Nacken he died at 80. After the war he went to New York and was signed up as the World's Biggest Father Christmas. He moved on to work in the circus business as The Giant Uranus. The highlight of his career was in 1959 when he appeared in Ripley's Believe It Or Not on Broadway. He was often billed as The Tallest Man In The World. Photo: BNPS

Further Reading:
General Montgomery's Double In WW2

Sally Whittaker And LIfe Imitating Art

Sometimes it's not so nice when real life imitates what we see on our television screens - and this was the case for actress Sally Whittaker.

Sally is well known in the UK for her role as Sally Webster in the popular peak time soap Coronation Street. She was pleased - if that is the right word - when she found out that she had a strong and important storyline coming up. Her character was to have breast cancer.

Sally had played out her first scenes for Coronation Street, where her character learned that she was suffering from the disease. In real life her own consultant then told her that she too had breast cancer.

She fainted in shock and afterwards asked the consultant to repeat the diagnosis. She thought that maybe he was getting her character in the soap muddled up with her.

Her life was imitating art and, at first, she, "... found the coincidence almost too much too bear."

This all happened back in October of last year and Sally is sure that if she hadn't have been researching breast cancer, for her role, she would have ignored her own sign that something may be wrong. She recalls, "It was so close to my chest bone I thought, no, it’s absolutely nothing. The idea it might be cancer left my head as soon as it entered it."

After seeing her Coronation Street scripts, however, she remembered her her own 'lump'. She said, "I reached for this little thing by my chest bone. It didn’t feel like I had imagined a lump to feel. It felt like a flat disc about one centimetre long and was not on the fleshy part of the breast."

Coincidentally when she eventually went to see a hospital consultant it happened to be the same one who was advising the Coronation Street's scriptwriting team about Sally's on screen illness.

The real life Sally had to have a lumpectomy and chemotherapy and she shaved her head prior to the treatment.

The good news is that Sally Whittaker, plus wig, is now back filming her part as the other Sally for Coronation Street. These scenes will be shown in July.

In an interview with GMTV today she confirmed, "I'm doing really well - I'm really, really well. I've got through it all, it's been six months but I'm through it and I'm really well. And I'm back to work and I'm raring to go - I can't tell you. Nobody can keep me down!"

Sally also offered some advice: "Any woman, who's got anything that you are slightly worried about, go and get it checked out - because I never thought this would happen to me."