Dog-gone

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.

In 1991 I attended an Open University residential course in Durham, having travelled from Glasgow. In my tutorial group was another woman who lived locally to Durham but was Scottish. We talked during breaks and she said she was still mourning the recent loss of her elderly, much-loved, Great Dane. At this time I also had a Great Dane, younger than hers, which we'd adopted following the untimely death of our previous dog, also a Great Dane. As the week went on we probably became quite boring as we shared so many "doggy" incidents, and because she lived locally she brought in some photos of her dog and the new Great Dane puppy she'd recently acquired. Eventually towards the end of the week she said "I'll never forget driving up the road to Moffat to collect my first puppy ". Something clicked for me and I then quoted the date of birth and pedigree of the dog she'd lost - it came from the same litter of pups as the one I'd had that had died young. Soon after this I was actually scheduled to go on holiday to the area near where she lived and we spent a lovely afternoon with our Great Danes and our young children playing together in her garden. Sadly I never heard from her again.
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Date submitted:Wed, 04 Aug 2021 09:52:29 +0000Coincidence ID:11501