The following text is the opening to Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey :

'Behind every man alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man and woman who has ever lived, in this universe there shines a star.'

If we just accept the above as fact (I am sure there are people who may dispute it on both statistical and even religious grounds), I think that it is a most remarkable coincidence.

Does anyone else know of any other similar interesting/useless facts that are also examples of amazing coincidences? Just to give you another quick example:

Last year 659 people were diagnosed with the psyhiatric condition of Innate Idiocy , which is an interesting number because there are in fact 659 MPs in the British House of Commons.

Okay, although very believable, I did just make that one up but hopefully you've got the gist of what I'm trying to say.

I'll understand if this post does not make much sense to everyone, in which case just enjoy the quotes.

Nice one Lostboy ...

I'll stick to the heavens theme you started and tell about the moon and the sun.

They both appear to be a similar size because the sun is around 400 times larger than the moon and by coincidence it is around 400 times further away from the earth than the moon.

Nice one Copago, liked that one a lot.

I recently saw a funny bumper-sticker..

24 beers in a case. 24 hours in a day. Coincidence?

Well. I thought it was funny.

Oh. My. God. You're right, Ozzz! I wonder if they arranged the 24 hours in the day to match on purpose?