Dean Koontz's The Eyes of Darkness is a 1981 thriller that mentions germ warfare lab in Wuhan that develops a virus called Wuhan-400, which is then accidentally leaked.
It's an interesting coincidence, but as Hong Kong crime author Chan Ho-kei, that's all it is. He told The South China Morning Post "that this kind of 'fiction-prophecy' is not uncommon.:
“If you look really hard, I bet you can spot prophecies for almost all events. It makes me think about the ‘infinite monkey’ theorem,” he says, referring to the theory that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text.
“The probability is low, but not impossible.”
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In 2011, a Mr. Ye and Ms. Xue met in Chengdu, China, fell in love, and married. Going through family photos earlier this month, Mr. Ye spotted a shot of his wife at a landmark in the city of Qingdao. Then he spotted himself in the background. The photo was snapped in 2000 when they were both teenagers.
“When I saw the photo, I was taken by surprised and I got goosebumps all over my body… that was my pose for taking photos,” said Mr. Ye. “I also took a photo, it was the same posture (as captured in Ms Xue’s photo), just from a different angle.”
From Petapixel:
Ms. Xue had visited Qingdao to help her mother relax after undergoing an operation a few months earlier. Mr. Ye had been visiting May Fourth Square in Qingdao because his mother had taken ill after booking herself the trip and asked her son to go in her place.
Qingdao and Chengdu, cities of 9 and 14 million people (respectively), are separated by over 1,100 miles and it takes over 20 hours to drive between the two cities.
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Think Progress reports that billionaire Carl Icahn, one of Trump's BFFs, sold 1 million shares of Manitowoc Company Inc. right before Trump announced his tariffs on foreign steel. After the announcement, shares in shares in Manitowoc dropped 6 percent.
From NY Mag:
Icahn, who lasted around 8 months as Trump’s special adviser for regulatory affairs, has previously been accused of profiting off of his relationship with the President. In November, it was reported that federal investigators are probing Icahn’s role advising Trump and regulatory changes he attempted to push through in order to benefit his energy company.
Credit: Carl Icahn, behind Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, attends Donald Trump victory celebration at Trump Tower on 5th Avenue Shutterstock.com Read the rest
What, um, "perfect" timing.
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J.D. Salinger published very little, considering his literary legend. His place in classic American literature of the 20th century is secured mostly by his single novel The Catcher in the Rye, his collection of short fiction Nine Stories, and his series of short stories and novellas known collectively as the Glass Family saga. His idiosyncratic prose and dialogue, as well as his oddball characters, tend to elicit strong reactions from readers, either positive or negative. Read the rest
