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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.

A few years ago my husband and I were due to travel to Bordeaux with my sister and brother-in-law. We were about to leave when my 23 year old son asked me to 'look out' for his old schoolfriend. We had known his friend for many years and knew that he had left the UK a few weeks earlier to seek work and accommodation in Bordeaux. I asked for his friend's address, phone number . . anything. But he had no settled address, couldn't afford a phone, was feeling rather low and couldn't speak French. There was an email address he occasionally accessed but I didn't know the name of our hotel we would be staying in as my sister had booked it and we were just about to leave. Once we were in Bordeaux I soon became aware of the number of young people living on the streets. I began looking at each forlorn young man in case it was my son's friend. On our third day in Bordeaux I was returning to our small hotel, which was situated in a quite, narrow side street about 5 minutes from the city centre. We were due to leave the next morning to travel to another town. I suddenly heard my name being called out loud from the top of a tall building next to our hotel. It was my son's friend who had moved into one of the small flats an hour earlier. He had been looking out for an acquantance of his who was bringing some of his belongings along in a car and had been amazed to see someone he recognised. Needless to say we all spent a pleasant evening talking about our surprise meeting.
Total votes: 180
Date submitted:Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:29:56 +0000Coincidence ID:5404