Unexpected Response to a Postcard
As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.
understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was 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.
Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.
While waiting in the wee hours of the morning for Aeroflot to find us a plane in Erevan, Armenia, for a flight to Leningrad (1989) I wrote and mailed a postcard to a dear friend in America with the usual "wish you were here" line somewhere in it. About twelve hours later, after rerouting over Riga and other delays, as I was crossing the lobby of one of the largest hotels in the city I heard this woman's voice calling my name. She had just checked in to the hotel with a tourist group she was guiding. Neither of us had had any idea that we were going to be in Russia this particular summer or knew of the other's plans.
Date submitted:Mon, 04 Mar 2013 08:01:48 +0000Coincidence ID:6825