Distant past

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 young child of nine and ten, in 1976, my Father had a Girlfriend whom he was on the verge of marrying. I became very close and connected with this woman. They had broken up shortly after my Father had lost visitation rights with me for lack of support, and I'd never saw her again. Though I didn't thoroughly understand it, I was devastated. 13 long years later, in 1989, at age 22 or 23, I was working at a Men's Shoe Salon in a Sopping Mall in Garden City Long Island. I sold a pair of Florsheims to an older Gentleman. At the Register, I was Processing his credit card information, and noticed after staring at it in disbelief, that his surname was the same surname of this Girlfriend of my Father's, years earlier. I'd asked him if there was a relation. He'd said she was his Niece. There were maybe half dozen Salesmen in the store, but I was the one who'd ended up waiting on him. He lived probably 20 miles away from this shopping mall. We had small talk for a few minutes, I said to say hello to her from me. He'd said he never really sees her. I found this all unusual, to say the least.
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Date submitted:Sun, 05 Jan 2020 15:19:38 +0000Coincidence ID:10387