Tea Leaves and the Age Old Search

Miracle Machine Clouds, puffs of smoke, creamer swirling in coffee, tea leaves in an empty cup, a face in the flames, visions in a crystal ball. When we catch sight of serendipitous patterns we are looking into a miracle machine. How completely predictable our world is. How completely random our world is. When one defines “miracle” it is usually said to be a one in a million occurrence, the unexpected. Something that shouldn’t happen. Examples cited are usually big miracles, such as the dead come back to life. Smaller events, such as a snowflake falling in the Sahara, are every bit as miraculous. Take a quarter out of your pocket. Toss it into the air. Probability tells us that it will land on either the "heads" side or the "tails" side. If you flip the coin ten times it is supposed to land on heads five times and tails the other five times. This usually doesn't happen in a small test. But after a few hundred tosses, ...