And then, 35 years later. . .

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.

When I was a rebellious teen living in northern Virginia during the early '70s, I ran away from home one summer. My dad, a veteran of three wars, went looking for me at a nearby hippie commune; emerging from the woods behind the commune dressed in full camo gear, armed with a military rifle, but I wasn't there. Many years later, while living in Florida, I went to lunch with a business associate, who told me a funny story she had heard from a old friend the week before. When the friend was young in the early '70s, she lived for a time in a hippie commune in northern Virginia, and one summer day, while the residents were outside relaxing, a "crazy" man came out of the woods, dressed in camo gear and carrying a rifle, and scared them all half to death. I had to tell the business associate that man had to be my dad, and we both marveled at the coincidence.
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Date submitted:Sun, 26 Apr 2020 14:32:49 +0000Coincidence ID:10438