Millions chase record $425M Powerball jackpot

By JEFF McMURRAY, Associated Press

18 minutes ago

It’s the gambler’s mantra: Somebody’s gotta win, so why not me?

…

It’s true to say that you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning the Powerball. But that woefully understates the danger of lightning.

Tim Norfolk, a University of Akron mathematics professor who teaches a course on gambling, puts the odds of a lightning strike in a person’s lifetime at 1 in 5,000 (or 1 in 9 million on one particular day). The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot: 1 in 175 million – with no assurances that you won’t have to split the prize with others.

…

While it may seem counterintuitive, Barrow (Clyde Barrow, professor director of the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass-Dartmouth) says gambling activity often increases as the economy gets worse and people have less disposable income. However, his research – which focused mainly on New England – found the trend reversed in the latest downturn.

“The Great Recession has been so deep and so long, it’s suppressed any kind of discretionary spending across the board,” said Barrow, who added about the same percentage of people are playing the lottery – they’re just buying fewer tickets.

…

“For 2 bucks, it’s worth a chance,” he said. “What else am I going to do with that $2? I’ll just waste it on something else.”

8:30 pm NBC.  A more familiar kind of Throwball.

I’ve often wished these two teams would play in the Super Bowl every year since they are my favorites, but that would make it too hard to root.

Unlike most of my neighbors I’m definitely a New York market fan and have little use for the Sox or Patsies and notwithstanding Broadway Joe, Gang Green has always been flashy feckless collection of not quite good enoughs too lowly for even a Mets fan.

Woody Johnson and Tim Tebow are no improvement.

The Giants on the other hand have very, very occasionally put together a team that actually knows how to run and pass and control the clock so their usually ordinary Defense doesn’t look so bad (I remember LT with great fondness).  As one of the originals it’s a storied franchise that remembers its traditions of greatness.

They are my team of proximity.  The Packers are the team of my heart, The People’s Team.

I defy you to read their story and not get a little misty eyed about much better things could be if we had a system that rewarded its professed values of hard work and sacrifice for the collective good instead of Mammon worship in pursuit of a new feudalism.

I seldom notice Throwball until the last lingering leaf is brown on the ground.  Should, as frequently happens, the Giants not be a part of the post season at that point I sigh a little sigh and say- wait ’til next year.

If the Packers are not in the hunt I am reminded of the wisdom of Moonlight Graham.

(F)or five minutes you came within… y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they’d consider it a tragedy.

Son, if I’d only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes… now that would have been a tragedy.

6 pm Vs.– Grey Cup, Stampeders v. Argonauts.

La Coupe Grey was conceived as a Hockey Trophy and, like Lord Stanley’s Cup, has the name of each winning team enscribed on it.  It’s been broken several times and stolen twice.  The difference between the date of it’s anniversary (1909) and this year is because the Cup was not awarded during The Great War or the year after.  It’s been won by a US based team, the Baltimore Stallions, exactly once.

Canadian Football is a little different in the details from NFL and Collegiate rules but not as much as Rugby.  It’s recognizably North American Throwball and shouldn’t confuse the casual viewer.  There are 12 Players per side (Offense/Defense) and only 3 downs.

But it is a very different style of play which, like International Ice Hockey, is a function of being played in a much larger area- 110 yards (101m) long by 65 yards (59m) wide.  This extra space as well as the missing down favor wide open passing attacks (just as International Arenas favor a passing game over NHL-style checking).  Notable players who have been successful in both Leagues include Doug Flutie and Warren Moon.

This Centennial contest is being held at the home field of the Toronto Argonauts who are also the Yankees of Canadian Football with 15 Cup victories in 21 appearances (as opposed to the Stampeders who are only 6 of 12).  Still, true fans may have mixed feelings about an Argonaut win since the Cup almost melted to slag while in their care in 1947.

The year after that marked the first official Grey Cup party (also known as Canada’s “Grand National Drunk”).

It is said the two events are unrelated but you couldn’t prove it by me.

Update:

Grey Cup: Trophy survives parade from Varsity Stadium to Rogers Centre

Daniel Girard, Toronto Star

Sunday November 25, 2012

For the first time in its century of existence, hundreds of fans were able to carry the Grey Cup through the streets of Toronto.

“It was a feeling that can’t ever be replicated,” Kyle Dunn of Surrey, B.C., said moments after being one of the first fans to carry the CFL’s prized trophy as it made its way from Varsity Stadium, site of many early title games, to the Rogers Centre, site of the 100th.

“It’s like holding the most expensive thing you could,” said Dunn, 30, bedecked in Lions paraphernalia, his face painted orange. “It’s like holding the Canadian crown jewels.”

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon told hundreds of fans at Varsity Stadium he was hoping to make this inaugural parade of the trophy to the stadium on game day a regular event. But he implored those who got hold of the goblet to make that possible.

“It will only become a new tradition if you guys don’t drop it,” Cohon told the crowd. “Treat it with the respect it deserves.”

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Well, except for the Grey Cup, Packers/Giants, and anything else I forgot.

This project covers 6 pm to 6 am.

Well, last race ever on Speed.  Is this a bad thing?  We’ll see.  I certainly won’t miss News Corp., but there’s no reason to believe Comcast/GE is any better.  Constructors Champion is Red Bull, but McLaren and Scuderia Marlboro duke it out for second place today.  If Vettel finishes worse than 4th there’s a possibility Alonso could sneak by for the Drivers Championship.  This is not as far fetched as it sounds, the Renault engine, especially the alternator, has been looking less reliable the longer it runs; and, much as I hate to admit it, Alonso has shown a true talent for making bad hardware suck less than it otherwise might.

Also, it could rain.

In retrospect all the aerodynamicists agree that it’s the flexibility of the Red Bull front wing (and not the undercarriage diffuser or any of the other hareng rouge (yes, I know the correct translation is diversion) they’ve been chasing for the last 3 years, so they’re going to legislate against it.

Good luck with that.

2013 starts in March and is currently scheduled for 19 races, but subject to change.  Likewise the new Concorde.

Hards and Mediums, Maldonado 10 grid penalty for ignoring a blue inspection flag.  Schumacher says goodbye.

While the races may be boring I hope these pieces have informed you a bit about the miasma of cash and corruption that drives professional sports in general and the particular cesspool of elite international corporate perversion and degeneracy represented by the fossil fueled extinction of dead dinosaur technology that is Formula One.

Interlagos

• Interlagos
• Brazil Grand Prix
• New York Times History
• Interlagos Qualifying

Interactive Track

• Formula One
• The Guardian

Official Sites

• Formula One Official Website
• Speed Racecast

Pretty tables below.  Grey Cup this evening.

Don’t drive angry.

This project covers from 6 am to 6 pm.

Collegiate Cow Tipping-

This project covers 6 pm to 6 am.

‘Cannibal cop’ planned to kidnap, eat woman for Thanksgiving: prosecutor

By BRUCE GOLDING, The New York Post

8:48 AM, November 21, 2012

Forget white meat or dark meat – he wanted “girl meat” for Thanksgiving.

Gilberto Valle, the NYPD officer busted by the feds as an alleged cannibal wannabe, saw his alleged holiday hopes dashed yesterday when prosecutors said he’d planned to dine on human flesh tomorrow.

…

Public defender Julia Gatto argued that Valle’s online chats were only “sick, twisted” sexual fantasies he shared on the Web with like-minded fetishists.

Gatto said her own, reluctant investigation into her client’s “subculture” – which she likened to “Star Trek geeks and science-fiction movie guys who dress up and go to conventions” – had apparently uncovered the site Valle frequented.

“All over the Web site, it says: No matter how real this sounds, this is all fantasy,” she insisted.

It is well known we now have the problem relatively under control.

Man pleads not guilty to cooking wife

UPI

Published: Nov. 22, 2012 at 8:51 AM

VISTA, Calif., Nov. 22 (UPI) — A California man pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife, who police found dismembered, with body parts cooking on the stove and her head in the freezer.

…

Police found three pans of “meat” cooking on the stove and realized it was pieces of the victim, Anna Faris, 73, Deputy District Attorney Katherine Flaherty said. They found Faris’ head in a plastic bag inside the freezer and multiple pieces of freshly cut bone throughout the house.

“They also found a work area set up in the bathroom, with saws, a boning knife and other cutting instruments,” Flaherty said.

“There is no evidence of cannibalism at this time,” she added.

noon

• ABC– Michigan @ Ohio State
• ESPN– Georgia Tech @ Georgia
• ESPN2– Rutgers @ Pittsburgh
• FX– Tulsa @ Southern Methodist

2:30 pm

• NBC– Grambling State v. Southern
• Faux– Texas Tech v. Baylor

3:30 pm

• ABC– Florida @ Florida State
• CBS– Auburn @ Alabama
• ESPN– Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma
• ESPN2– Wisconsin @ Penn State
• Vs.– Air Force @ Fresno State

6:30 pm

• Faux– Stanford @ UCLA

8 pm

• ABC– Notre Dame @ USC

10:30 pm

• ESPN2– Louisiana Tech @ San Jose State

midnight

• Vs.– Grambling State v. Southern

3 am

• ESPN2– Missouri @ Texas A&M

4:30 am

• ESPN– South Carolina @ Clemson

If your alma is represented I’m sure that’s the big game to you.  The two with the most BCS significance are Stanford/UCLA @ 6:30 pm and Notre Dame/USC @ 8 pm.  Armando will be watching Florida/Florida State @ 3:30 pm.