The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Monday, September 14, 2009

You can't win if you don't play, but I still have my dollar. Do you?

Just The Facts

  1. The odds of winning a Mega Millions Jackpot are 175,000,000 to one.
  2. The odds, as an American Male, of being Tom Cruise are only 150,000,000 to one.
  3. You are more likely to call heads twice, roll a six and then be struck by lightning than win a regular 6/49 lottery.

Via jwz, Lottery | Cracked.com

That (and the rest of the article) is pretty much why I don't play the lottery.

I also don't gamble. I learned the “if, at a poker table, you can't spot the sucker, it's you” lesson the hard way back in college (nothing like losing an entire paycheck in a “friendly” game).

(As a digression—growing up, I preferred Mad over Cracked, which I found to be a weak imitation of Mad. But these days, the Cracked website is lightyears better than the Mad website.)

Update on Tuesday, Debtember 5th, 2017

For some reason, John Hawthorne thinks this post is pro-lottery. I want to make it clear it's not.

Obligatory Picture

[The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades]

Obligatory Contact Info

Obligatory Feeds

Obligatory Links

Obligatory Miscellaneous

You have my permission to link freely to any entry here. Go ahead, I won't bite. I promise.

The dates are the permanent links to that day's entries (or entry, if there is only one entry). The titles are the permanent links to that entry only. The format for the links are simple: Start with the base link for this site: https://boston.conman.org/, then add the date you are interested in, say 2000/08/01, so that would make the final URL:

https://boston.conman.org/2000/08/01

You can also specify the entire month by leaving off the day portion. You can even select an arbitrary portion of time.

You may also note subtle shading of the links and that's intentional: the “closer” the link is (relative to the page) the “brighter” it appears. It's an experiment in using color shading to denote the distance a link is from here. If you don't notice it, don't worry; it's not all that important.

It is assumed that every brand name, slogan, corporate name, symbol, design element, et cetera mentioned in these pages is a protected and/or trademarked entity, the sole property of its owner(s), and acknowledgement of this status is implied.

Copyright © 1999-2024 by Sean Conner. All Rights Reserved.