Cookies, Data Mining or Six Degrees of Separation

There was an a news item about data mining and algorithms on NPR recently.  I know this stuff happens.  Advertisements about cars show up on facebook after you have been to a car site or look up the price of a used car.

What if you listen to a music video a few times.  Is it just a coincidence that the movie related to the music video would show up on a cable movie channel?  Am I that big an opinion maker for the Internet?

Diane Lane was the human star of "Secretariat".  I've watched the movie many times since it has hit cable TV.  Sort of like "Easy Rider" in the 1970's.  Then I remember a much younger Diane Lane in a very forgettable except for the music movie "Streets of Fire".  I watched the music videos from the movie a couple of times and mysteriously a few weeks later the movie shows up on a cable movie channel.

I think this is pretty weird, but there is something about big numbers.  If I'm doing it probably a lot of other people are doing the same thing.  Or is it just that I watch too much TV and see patterns where there are none.

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