Down the Nile

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.

We went on holiday to Egypt for a cruise up the Nile (just two weeks before the revolution!), and while we were in the luggage collection point, someone waved at me. I thought he must be waving at someone behind me (I didn't have my glasses on!). But no, he did mean me, and came over - I didn't recognise him immediately, out of context, but the penny dropped - we had met him and his wife two years before on a holiday in Crete, enjoyed each other's company and had met once or twice back home. We chatted, we were both doing a Nile cruise, different boats, so we shook hands and said 'Enjoy your trip' to each other, and parted company. We got to the boat, found our cabin, unpacked, then went down to dinner. Imagine our amazement when we saw our friends coming down the stairs! They had been transferred to our boat, as it was the middle of the heavy snow in 2010, and several planes had failed to arrive, snowbound in Manchester and Gatwick, so everyone on their boat had been shuffled about.
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Date submitted:Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:24:07 +0000Coincidence ID:5932