Wednesday August 22, 2001
Powerball Heads to $200 Million Today
Mike Orkin, author of What Are the Odds? Chance in Everyday Life, explains the difficulty of winning the big prize this way: If you drive 10 miles to buy a Powerball ticket, you would be 16 times more likely to die in an auto accident than to pick the correct six numbers. If your salary is $50,000 a year, it would take 4,000 years to make $200 million.
Here is a lottery odds calculator.
Here is another odds calculator with a more complex Jackpot monitor.
Get winning numbers e-mailed to you from every state.
See the 1999 National Gambling Impact Study which urged restraint by states.
Lottery Addiction
This is from a 1997 Boston Globe story: “By marketing seductive products such as instant games and Keno, they foster a growing phenomenon among both men and women: lottery addiction. More and more Massachusetts gamblers are hooked on instant games and Keno, which now account for nearly three-fourths of lottery revenues. Many storekeepers and clerks who sell tickets are also addicted, often trying to use inside knowledge to beat the odds. More than ever, hard-core players, not casual buyers of Megabucks or Mass Millions, are fueling lottery expansion – and paying the price.”
Close to 800 people a year are treated for gambling addiction in Oregon.
Experts say compulsive gambling is a real illness. “The addiction to gambling is different in that it’s purely a behavior. It’s not an addiction to a chemical or substance, but it involves a similar process, in that it’s a compulsive behavior that the person has no control over,” says Maimonides Medical Center clinical psychiatrist David Yamins. Because there is no chemical or substance, gambling is an invisible addiction. There are no telltale physical signs, no track marks, no smell of alcohol. Wexler says that is what makes the compulsive gambler so elusive.”
Here is a state by state list of gambling laws.
Count of Gay Couples up 300% (data released today)
The U.S. Census Department said today that nearly 1.2 million people reported they are part of gay and lesbian couples in the United States. Though most live in metropolitan areas, nearly one in six lives in a rural community, according to 2000 Census numbers released today.
-See Washington Post story
-See map of largest gay populations in U.S.
-Check your state’s gay population numbers here
How Kid-Friendly is Your City?
The new 2001 National Kid-Friendly Cities report is out.
You can search to see how “Kid-Friendly” the “experts” claim your town is.
The Kid-Friendly Cities Report Card 2001, a comprehensive 239-city study from the environmental organization Zero Population Growth (ZPG), looks at Major, Independent and Component (suburb) cities. The report card gives its highest A+ grade to Portland, Oregon (Major), Burlington, Vermont (Independent) and Overland Park, Kansas (Component). It gives its lowest C- grade to Atlanta, Georgia (Major), San Bernardino, California (Independent) and Moreno Valley, CA (Component). The nationwide study is the eighth in a biannual series.
The report says: “Among other things, this study aims to stir discussion. How well are our children’s needs being met? More importantly, what can be done to improve our record? The Report Card is not a relocation guide. Rather, it is a tool for change, providing information that concerned citizens can use to identify conditions that need improvement in their communities. As in years past, the Report Card looks at many aspects of “kid-friendliness,” including health conditions, safety, education, and environmental cleanliness. In the past, we received many comments about the importance of “intangibles.” Is there a feeling of community in a city? Are the people friendly? How diverse is that city? What about culture? Intangibles, as one youngster said, reflect “how much fun I have!”
Trash Talking
I like the angle of this story, analyzing the trash left behind after a public event. The trash is an indication of who was there. Keep this one in mind next time there is a big concert or event in your town. Follow the cleanup crews at the stadium, arena or park.
From The Chicago Tribune: “Like an archeologist sifting through ruins of an ancient civilization, Ravinia Festival facilities director Curt Adams looks at trash spread across the lawn from the previous evening’s concert — Lyle Lovett, in this case — and puts his trained eyes to work. “That stack there most likely was from a party of investment people, maybe bankers,” Adams says, this early Wednesday morning, nodding toward a neat pile of Perrier bottles, paper plates, plastic silverware, napkins, burned-to-the-nub candles in holders, and only a few wine bottles. “All that bottled water’s the giveaway. Not many want to drink much alcohol in the middle of the week, especially when you have to get up early the next morning, go to work and deal with money.”
