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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Nov 26, 2012
November 26, 2012
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Guilty Pleasures:
No winner in Saturday night's drawing for the Powerball Lottery. That means Wednesday night's drawing is valued at $425 million ($278.3 million cash value). There were nine tickets which had all five numbers --but not the Powerball-- and won a million bucks each. Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington, DC and the U-S Virgin Islands. Chances of winning the grand prize (all five numbers plus the powerball) are 1 in 175.2 million.
FYI: This will set a record for the biggest Powerball jackpot ever --the only other lottery jackpot to beat it in America was the Mega Millions jackpot of $474 million back in March, split among three tickets.Those Odds:
You're more likely to get stuck on a tarmac for two hours or more than to win the Powerball lottery. Try 1 in 964.
At least that's according to a report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Other odds for comparison:
--Winning Powerball: 1 in 175.2 million
--Dying in an amusement park accident: 1 in 72 million
--Struck by lightning: 1 in 700-thousand
--Being audited by the IRS: 1 in 175
--o--
From the Motley Fool (who sez --"don't buy a Lottery Ticket"):
--Getting pregnant from a one-night stand: 1 in 20
--Getting struck by lightning: 1 in 10,000
--Dying in an airplane crash: 1 in 355,318
--Being dealt a royal flush in a given hand of poker: 1 in 655,750
--Dying from a flesh-eating bacteria: 1 in 1 million.O-J Update:
Did you catch the story of a guy who --his brother claims-- was the killer of NICOLE BROWN-SIMPSON and RON GOLDMAN? It was on Investigation Discovery last Wednesday night (and Sunday morning).
GLEN ROGERS is a convicted serial killer and --according to his brother, CLAY-- was a painter who worked at Nicole's home in 1994. Clay and family members say that Glen told them, "She was rich and he was going to take her down."
Glen and his brother robbed 101 houses in 90 days when they were younger; then Glen went to prison. Then he turned to other crimes after he got out. According to the documentary, Glen told a criminal profiler that O.J. had hired him to steal back a pair of expensive earrings from Brown. The Juice then allegedly told him "you have to kill the [expletive]."
Glen was captured in Kentucky in November 1995 after his brother told the the police where he was hiding. That was a month after O.J.'s murder trial ended. At the time Glen was captured, he claimed he killed over 70 people, but was charged with killing five women in several states. He's received death sentences in California and Florida and is currently awaiting execution on Florida's death row.Grace notes from Vinny Marino:
THE ROLLING STONES did the first of five 50th anniversary concerts last night at the O2 Arena in London. They opened with a BEATLES song! JOHN LENNON and PAUL McCARTNEY gave "I Wanna Be Your Man" to the Stones back in 1963 to record as the then struggling band's second single. The Stones version came out a few weeks before the Fab Four's take on it with RINGO STARR singing lead appeared on the Beatles' second UK album, "With The Beatles."
The rest of the Stones' two-and-a-half hour set was full of all the classics you'd expect. There were also guest appearances from orignal bassist BILL WYMAN, who left the band at the end of 1992, and guitarist MICK TAYLOR who replaced BRIAN JONES in 1969, and split in 1975. JEFF BECK and MARY J. BLIGE also joined the Stones on stage. The cheapest ticket sold for 150-dollars, while a VIP seat up front went for more than $15-hundred dollars. Naturally, the scaplers got way more than that. Here is the set list:
--'I Wanna Be Your Man'
--'Get Off My Cloud'
--'It's All Over Now'
--'Paint It Black'
--'Gimme Shelter' (with Mary J. Blige)
--'Wild Horses'
--'All Down The Line'
--'I'm Going Down' (with Jeff Beck)
--'Out Of Control'
--'One More Shot' (new song)
--'Doom and Gloom'(new song)
--'It's Only Rock and Roll' (with Bill Wyman)
--'Honky Tonk Woman' (with Bill Wyman)
--'Before They Make You Run'
--'Happy'
--'Midnight Rambler' (with Mick Taylor)
--'Miss You'
--'Start Me Up'
--'Tumbling Dice'
--'Brown Sugar'
--'Sympathy For The Devil'
--'You Can't Always Get What You Want' (with choir)
--'Jumping Jack Flash'
--'Satisfaction' (Marino)Off the beaten path:
A guy in North Carolina plans to float across the Atlantic in a house powered by helium-filled balloons.
The Daily Mail says 38-year-old JONATHAN TRAPPE got the idea from watching the 2009 Pixar film "Up." Trappe debuted his floating house creation at the Leon International Balloon festival in Mexico. He shot video of himself floating high above the Earth (here). But, that was just a test run. His 25-hundred mile transatlantic balloon flight is scheduled for next summer. (Still)Health and Medical Briefs:
The annual flu vaccine may become a thing of the past if researchers are successful with their work on a universal flu vaccine, one that would offer lifelong protection from the flu.
According to a study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers have created a flu vaccine made of messenger RNA (mRNA), the genetic material that controls the production of proteins. Unlike all the other flu vaccines, this one may work for life and may be possible to manufacture quickly enough to stop a pandemic.
Researches hope that one day, a vaccine that works against all flu strains will be given once during childhood like vaccines for other diseases. Researchers are also working on an mRNA vaccine for rabies. (Page)Use it or lose it:
You may remember DICKIE GOODMAN, who did all those classic novelty songs like "The Flying Saucer" and "Mr Jaws" with cuts from popular tunes inserted in the song as responses from the interviewer.
Now his son, JON, has put together an album of the novelty songs his dad created called "Long Live The King," with 27 different cuts beginning with 1956's "The Flying Saucer" and rolling thru "Election 84."
To get a preview, head HERE; for an interview about his dad, you can drop Jon a line yourself at jgpi@comcast.net. -
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