If you buy ten or 100 tickets do your odds of winning the Powerball lottery get better? Sure they do, but let’s look at by how much. Continue reading
lottery
In the Tuesday Open Thread, BaldwinP started a conversation about a South by Southwest publicity stunt, where homeless people were hired to wear a t-shirt proclaiming “I’m a wireless hotspot!” The participants were paid $20 a day, plus they kept all monies paid by wireless hotspot users.
Predictably, Crasstalkers had opinions about this event. Although the operation seemed beneficent on the surface, some commenters opined that the setup ended up dehumanizing the homeless people who participated. Continue reading
Let’s say, just for funsies, that your favorite relative in the entire world, your old Auntie Eugenia, went to her favorite seven-come-eleven outlet and shelled out twenty smackeroos on a scratch-off ticket, then handed it to you in an envelope on Christmas Day. That’s your present.
“Thanks, Auntie,” you think to yourself, “I could have bought a Starbucks Grande Mocha Choka Latte Ya Ya drink with that cash and had money left over for a tip, or I could have shanked it on down to the bodega for a lil somethin’ from One Eyed Jimmy, if you know what I mean.” But, Auntie believes in state-sponsored gambling, and she’s not so good with the mobility these days, she’s not going to wander around the mall looking for something for you, now is she? She was there, the lottery man was so nice to her, and so this is what you’re handed. Continue reading
From Wikipedia: An entitlement is a guarantee of access to benefits based on established rights or legislation. A “right” is itself an entitlement associated with a moral or social principal such that an “entitlement” is a provision made in accordance with legal framework of a society.