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Showing posts from 2013

$16 million lottery ticket expires in Florida

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$16 million lottery ticket expires in Florida A $16.6 million cut of a winning Powerball jackpot expired without a claim Thursday night in Florida, the 180-day deadline passing without the lucky ticket holder coming forward. The ticket was purchased at a Carrollwood Market, a convenience store in Tampa, Fla., in May. When 2, 6, 19, 21, 27 and a Powerball of 25 were drawn on May 25, the holder was entitled to a third of a $50 million jackpot. Two other winners claimed their shares in Delaware and Louisiana. In a case where a jackpot ticket is not claimed, “the funds to pay a jackpot that goes unclaimed will be returned to the lottery members in their proportion of sales for the jackpot rollover series,”  according to the site . In Florida, current law requires 80 percent of all unclaimed prizes to be transferred to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund, a fund that provides educational benefits to the state such as scholarships and school construction projects. The rest of t

Lottery jackpot: Hundreds of millions unclaimed every year

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Lottery jackpot: Hundreds of millions unclaimed every year More than a half a billion dollars went missing last year — in glove compartments, washing machines, desk drawers and sometimes even literally in the trash. That's because big lottery jackpots that go unclaimed or come close to expiring get plenty of attention, but people fail to cash out on millions in smaller prizes every year — especially casual players who only jump in when the jackpot swells as big as Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing, which was hovering around $640 million. NBC News reached out to the 43 states that participate in Mega Millions and Powerball to find out just how much money is left unclaimed at the end of the year. More than 30 states responded, and the results were staggering. In 2013, there was more than $500 million in unclaimed lottery prizes from scratch-off games, Lotto and daily games. While the number fluctuates each year, it can sometimes total more than big Mega Millions and Po

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big:

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Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Scott Adams created a multimillion dollar empire. That empire is more commonly known as”Dilbert.” I mentioned him on this blog before because he gave some of the simplest, most profound advice for getting along with people that I’ve ever heard: Be brief and say something positive. If you’ve read Dilbert, you know Adams understands a great deal about human nature. (Then again I probably relate more to Calvin and Hobbes than most of the western canon.) His new book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, has a number of useful insights about life. And what’s really fascinating is they line up with a lot of the research I’ve posted about before. Here are 5 great life lessons he gives and the research I’ve posted that backs them up: Have A System, Not A Goal This is such a powerful distinction. Losing 20lbs is a goal, eating right is a system. Which one do you think provides a better path t

Family wins 50 million in Lottery

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TORONTO - When Lynda Powell struggled to speak about her family's $50 million lottery win Monday, her husband and children joked she had lost her voice after hours of excited screaming and non-stop chatter ever since winning the July 5 Lotto Max jackpot. The Peterborough, Ont., family — made up of father John, mother Lynda and adult children Daniel, Gaylene, Michael and Sion — gathered in Toronto to receive their giant cheque from Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. Lynda Powell, who quit her job Monday as a dietary aide at a retirement home, was the first to find out about winning Friday's jackpot. "I checked the ticket on the self-scanner after grocery shopping and was shocked to see all the zeros," she said in a statement handed out to reporters on account of her laryngitis. She returned home to tell her husband, who needed to check the numbers himself. Wearing pyjamas and slippers, John Powell went to the local corner store, in disbelief over the win. News spre

The Ultimate Lucky Personal Numbers, Randomize my Family Machine !

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Although your birth date numbers are of greatest importance -- numerologically speaking -- other personal numbers can also be lucky. You can use any significant anniversary in your life, such as a wedding. Family members' birthdays are also significant to you, since your life is most certainly intertwined with theirs. Don't always end up with the same numbers ! GOTo: http://www.luckynumbers4u.com/luckynumbers_mixyourfamily.html Creative Commons Your 12 Lucky Lottery Number Calculators are here: Lucky Numbers 4U .

Is life a game ?

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Is life a game ? Saying “life is a game” seems to encourage you to take life less seriously. But it can also make you take it more seriously by getting you more invested and interested — the way any good game does. “Scoring points” of any kind has an interesting effect. What gets measured gets managed. Kids do better in school when it’s treated as a game and scored: The class and its grading procedure include a number of features modeled on the computer game World of Warcraft, complete with “quests,” “monsters,” and “guilds.” Throughout the semester, the students can compare their standing with that of their classmates and devise a plan to accumulate more experience points. Whenever they do well on their assignments or exams, they earn points rather than traditional grades. When Sheldon introduced this system, he found that his students worked harder and were also more enthusiastic in class. In addition, the new system triggered collaborative behavior among the students and re

News and Happiness ?

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What does research say about news and happiness? Research has shown that TV news throws off our ability to be accurate judges of life’s risks and rewards: Psychologists have found that people who watch less TV are actually more accurate judges of life’s risks and rewards than those who subject themselves to the tales of crime, tragedy, and death that appear night after night on the ten o’clock news. That’s because these people are less likely to see sensationalized or one-sided sources of information, and thus see reality more clearly.   And studies have also concluded that the news can make depression worse: This study examines television viewing motives and psychological outcomes of television news viewing by persons in depressive moods. Subjects were measured for depression, motives for television use, and psychological outcomes of viewing TV newscasts. Results suggest that, in general, television viewing can serve as a means of escape from depressive moods, although viewi

How to be the best with 5 things

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1) Realize it’s not about natural talent. It’s about hard work.   We all know intelligence is important, creativity is important… but how much do these types of natural talent control really what you can achieve in life? In ~95% of cases, they don’t. Read more: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/01/checklist-best/#ixzz2V3MgX2Zw 2) 10,000 hours is not the whole story   As Malcolm Gladwell discussed in his bestseller, “ Outliers “, to become an expert it takes 10,000 hours (or approximately 10 years), right? Wrong. It takes 10,000 hours of  deliberate practice . That means actively working to improve. Just showing up doesn’t cut it. Most people may do something for 10,000 hours (driving a car over the course of a lifetime) but never get anywhere near expert level (Formula One). Most people plateau and some even  get worse.   3) Make your practice as close to the real thing as possible   Nothing beats really doing it   4) Commit to the long term   Merel

Ways that improve your happiness:

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Think about time One of the chapters in Happy Money  is all about buying time. So, everything you buy, think about how it’s going to affect your time. Not the product itself, but what you’re going to do with it later and that massively changes your decision-making. So, not to come back to TVs, but buying a TV, you think, “ Oh. This is going to be great. I’m going to have friends over and we’re going to watch TV and the kids will be there. We’ll have family movie night. ” It turns out, when you buy a TV, what you do is you watch it by yourself in a dark room. It’s not good for you. If you think about, “ Wait. How am I actually going to use this TV? How will it actually change my time? ” you might say, “ Maybe I don’t want to get a TV. “ Those kinds of decisions, alone, are very important to think about, not your fantasy of what it’s going to do, but “ How will this actually change the time I spend in the weeks going forward? ” and a TV commits you to thousands of hours by yourse

5 smart ways to buy happiness:

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Buy Experiences .Make It A Treat Buy Time Pay Now, Consume Later Invest In Others Creative Commons Your 12 Lucky Lottery Number Calculators are here: Lucky Numbers 4U .

Tips that can help build a happier life:

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1) Cut the small talk. Discuss what matters. 2) Make sure to have at least five friends you can discuss your problems with. 3) Don’t just cheer people up. Celebrate their good news. 4) Write down your hopes and dreams. 5) Live a month like it’s your last. 6) Know what makes everyone happy and everyone sad. 7) Join a group. 8) For a happier life, set goals. 9) Optimism can save your life. 10) Anticipating happiness will double your happiness. Creative Commons Your 12 Lucky Lottery Number Calculators are here: Lucky Numbers 4U .

Advice on Happiness

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Older people’s advice on happiness:   What I consistently heard was that you can choose to be happy on a day-to-day basis, despite external circumstances. A lot of them think of young people as believing that you can be happy if only something occurs: if only they lose weight, gain weight, find a partner, lose a partner, get new job, get a different job, etc. They argue that once you hit 70, if you can’t learn to be happy in spite of bad things happening to you, you aren’t going to be happy for those 20 or 30 years. Almost everybody learned at some point in their life, that happiness is more of a choice than it is a condition. The reason why that’s not just a cliche to these folks is that they’ve been through all the stuff, especially in their 80′s and 90′s, that keeps young people awake at night. They know what they’re talking about. Almost everybody can point to a moment, or a day, or a week where they were feeling miserable about something, and they changed their attitude ra

Money and Happiness ??

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6 ways money *can* buy happiness: 1) Spend Your Money On Many Small Pleasures Instead Of A Few Big Ones One researcher, for example, interviewed people of all income levels in the United Kingdom and found that those who frequently treated themselves to low-cost indulgences— picnics, extravagant cups of coffee, and treasured DVDs— were more satisfied with their lives. Other scientists have found that no-cost or low-cost activities can yield small boosts to happiness in the short term that cumulate, one step at a time, to produce a large impact on happiness in the long term. 2) Spend Money On Fundamental Feelings If money isn’t making us happy, it’s likely because we are spending it to keep up with the neighbors, validate our wealth, or flaunt our looks, power, and status. The problem, then, isn’t in the money but in how we use it. Perhaps the most direct and most reliable way to maximize the happiness and fulfillment that we can extract from money is through need-satisfying pursuits

How to improve your life:

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1) Get out in nature: You probably seriously underestimate how important this is. (Actually, there’s research that says you do.) Being in nature reduces stress, makes you more creative, improves your memory and may even make you a better person. 2) Exercise: We all know how important this is, but few people do it consistently. Other than health benefits too numerous to mention, exercise makes you smarter, happier, improves sleep, increases libido and makes you feel better about your body. A Harvard study that has tracked a group of men for more than 70 years identified it as one of the secrets to a good life. 3) Spend time with friends and family: Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert identified this as one of the biggest sources of happiness in our lives. Relationships are worth more than you think (approximately an extra $131,232 a year.) Not feeling socially connected can make you stupider and kill you. Loneliness can lead to heart attack, stroke and diabetes. The longest