Free Republic

Suppose Bill Gates had an identical twin brother, Walter. And suppose that Bill and Walter had identical interests, shared identical experiences. Suppose they were even identically driven. Now suppose that one day many years ago, something split the brothers. Perhaps they were waiting together at a bus stop, and a nearly-full bus pulled up. Only one brother can get on the bus, and the other must wait for the next bus. And let's suppose that this moment of separation had occurred at a key point in time, and that as a result it was Walter, instead of Bill, who went...

MELBOURNE (AFP) – Australia must boost defence spending to give its military the hardware to deal with strategic challenges presented by China's rise as a global superpower, an influential think tank has warned. China's growth meant the US, Australia's main military ally, would lose its dominant position in Asia in coming decades, creating uncertainty and a higher risk of conflict, the Lowy Institute for International Policy said.

NLONG VENG, Cambodia – He was one of the greatest mass killers of the 20th century, but that doesn't stop the hopeful from praying at Pol Pot's hillside grave for lucky lottery numbers, job promotions and beautiful brides. Nor does it stop tourists from picking clean the bones and ashes from the Khmer Rouge leader's burial ground in this remote town in northwestern Cambodia. The grave is among a slew of Khmer Rouge landmarks in Anlong Veng, where the movement's guerrillas made their last stand in 1998 just as Pol Pot lay dying. A $1 million tourism master plan is...

Driving his John Deere tractor Saturday, Richard was suddenly thumped with a pain “like a hard punch jumped up” and bit him in the heart. He bent over and grasped his sweater. Then he took it off to get a closer look. A .45-caliber bullet casing tumbled out, clattered onto the tractor and fell on the ground. He’d just been shot. It was a stray bullet, and it tore through his sweater, leaving a 1/2-inch hole, where it entered into the top center pocket of his coveralls and hit his cell phone. The bullet, coming in at a 45-degree angle,...

In Poker, Psychologists Place Bets On SkillIs it luck of the draw in poker? No, says Michael DeDonno, a doctoral student from Case Western Reserve University. (Credit: Image courtesy of Case Western Reserve University) ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2008) — Is it luck of the draw in poker? No, says Michael DeDonno, a doctoral student from Case Western Reserve University. He suggests putting your bets on skills over luck when playing the card game. DeDonno's findings from two poker-related studies with college students have implications for the gaming industry, and possibly even legal cases that challenge the theory of luck over...

NEW YORK - Doctors say they have never seen anything like it: A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again. Alcides Moreno, 37, plummeted almost 500 feet in a Dec. 7 scaffolding collapse that killed his brother. Somehow, Moreno lived, and doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center announced Thursday that his recovery has been astonishing. He has movement in all his limbs. He is breathing on his own. And on Christmas Day, he opened his mouth and spoke for the...

Not only am I feeling lucky, I'm feeling optimistic. It feels good to be alive. I am grateful to God. I don't think it's impossible for you to win the lottery. It could happen. But if you think about it, we've all already won some sort of lottery. Let me get scientific with you for a bit. Ok, so here's the deal. So we all know (a) how babies are made and (b) where babies come from... ...in case you don't know: the answers are (a) extreme heat and excessive pressure and (b) imported from China. Seriously, though, after intercourse,...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Powerball prize goes to an estimated $161 million Saturday. None of the tickets sold for Wednesday night's night drawing matched all six numbers drawn, which were: 9-16-21-30-52 and Powerball 9. The Power Play number was 2. Players matching all five numbers and the Powerball would have won or shared the $140.6 million jackpot. Click here to find out more! One ticket that matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball was sold in Pennsylvania. That ticket holder will win $200,000. Eight other similar tickets were also sold, two each were sold in North Carolina...

Luck exists. Success through luck does not exist. A coin can be tossed; money can depend on the outcome; you can bet, and it can come up your side. That is luck. If you follow that as a systematic strategy, however, probability theory states quite clearly that you can expect to end up approximately where you started. Real-world outlets that sustain themselves on their customers’ expectations of success through luck will not give you such generous odds. No lasting and permanent good comes to man through luck. It might seem at first that money could. After all, some inherit enormous...

Luck of the Irish pays off big time Last Updated: 12:36am GMT 22/01/2007 The Big Issue seller standing outside a newsagent in a seaside celebrity hideaway was singularly unimpressed by Europe's most spectacular economic success story. His reaction to the news that the Irish were now officially among the world's richest people was unprintable. As a purveyor of the homeless magazine in affluent Dalkey, the Dublin suburb where Bono, Enya and the film-maker Neil Jordan live, he was only too aware that the Celtic Tiger has yet to bestow its largesse on him. Others have been much luckier, as the...

Brian and Terry Leblanc were once a couple of average guys, spending their days washing windows and their nights drinking beer and watching sports on TV. In the late 1980s, the brothers won about $90,000 at Toronto's Woodbine race track and decided to put that money toward more sports betting. Within a few years, the Leblancs were managing a full-time betting operation from their home in Aylmer, Que., wagering up to $300,000 a week mostly on games such as Pro-Line. Their strategy was simple: bet huge amounts on events with incredibly long odds. Naturally, they lost most of the time,...

Essay Several years ago, an obese, diabetic patient of mine insisted on knee-replacement surgery against the wishes of her doctors, who believed that it would be too dangerous. She came through with flying colors. While everyone rightly praised the efforts of her surgeon and physical therapist, another factor in her recovery was ignored: luck. Why are doctors and patients so reluctant to discuss a phenomenon that permeates medicine every day? The likeliest reason that luck — good or bad — is so often disregarded is that at first glance, it appears contrary to the scientific basis of medicine. That is,...

MILWAUKEE - A farm in Wisconsin is quickly becoming hallowed ground for American Indians with the birth of its third white buffalo, an animal considered sacred by many tribes for its potential to bring good fortune and peace. "We took one look at it and I can't repeat what I thought but I thought, 'Here we go again,'" said owner Dave Heider. Thousands of people stopped by Heider's Janesville farm after the birth of the first white buffalo, a female named Miracle who died in 2004 at the age of 10. The second was born in 1996 but died after...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2006 – Defense officials are attributing the 13th consecutive month in which every military service met or exceeded its active-duty recruiting goal to more than just good luck. Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, cited the high priority every service has placed on recruiting, including the resources to back up that commitment, with successes measured both in numbers and quality of recruits. Active-duty recruiting numbers, both for June and for the first nine months of fiscal 2006, continued to exceed 100 percent of goal across the board, Whitman told reporters today. At the...

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class “Lucky” sniffs for weapons and explosives while manning a traffic control point at the Sadr al Yusufiyah water treatment facility May 14, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Doug Pfeffer Soldiers Have ‘Luck’ On Their Side Sgt. 1st Class Lucky is a two-year-old white lab that specializes in locating weapons caches by scent. By U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Doug Pfeffer2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, June 13, 2006 — While deployed to Iraq, soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, have gained assistance in the searching of...

For love and money, Koreans turn to facial tucks By Su Hyun Lee The New York Times SUNDAY, MAY 14, 2006 SEOUL Fat is something that most people would want to remove from their cheeks. Kim Eun Young, however, had her cheekbones plumped up by a cosmetic surgeon in the hope that her husband's business would blossom. "People say that the fortunes of a husband and a wife go hand in hand," said Kim, 36, a housewife. "But I've never had plump cheeks and two fortune-tellers told me that this meant that money would slip away." In South Korea, where...

To eat or not to eat corned beef and cabbage is a question worth chewing on. It is a culinary decision facing many area Irish Roman Catholics celebrating St. Patrick's Day today who debated the issue this week, given that the holiday falls on a Lenten Friday. But, as the luck of the Irish would have it, they don't have to feel guilty. Area Catholic bishops have given their parishioners a dispensation, meaning they won't have to avoid meat today.  However, just in case people don't want to eat meat, the owners of Fitzgerald's Harp'n Bard in Clifton say the...

Site requires membership to pull up story but here is excerpt... Grandson Wants Russian Authorities to Investigate Stalin’s Death Joseph Stalin’s great-grandson has appealed to the Russian authorities with a request to investigate the circumstances of his great-grandfather’s death, news agencies reported Thursday. “When Stalin was disposed of, Khrushchev, who imagined himself to be a statesman, was able to come to power. His so called activities were nothing but a betrayal of the interests of the state that he headed,” Jacob Jugashvili said in a statement. The betrayal committed in the Kremlin should be judged in the Kremlin, too, he...

Clooney film faces censorship (But You Know The New York Slimes...) by Julia Wheeler The film which won George Clooney an Oscar may be banned in one of the countries where it was shot because of political sensitivities. Syriana was partly filmed in the United Arab Emirates. The authorities there are still deciding whether the film, which is a political thriller, will be shown.

It seems like an attack on Iran is coming soon. Place your bet as to when the attack will begin. Whoever gets closest to the date and time wins. Attack time must be specified in Month, Day, Year, Hour, and Minute For the hour, don't forget to specify what time zone you are referring to. There is no decision on a prize to be awarded yet except for bragging rights.

FORT WORTH - On a bone-chilling, miserably windy day in 1952, Capt. Fred C. Seals Jr. fell out of his airplane. Right out the side of the C-46 Commando. Four hundred feet above the snow-covered ground in the middle of the Korean War. Improbably, Seals lived to tell the tale. The story has been retold on Ripley's Believe It or Not, and to this day, old men stop him and ask if it is true. Seals lived because he fell right back into the plane. "There's many a time I've thought, 'Why in the Sam Hill am I here?' "...

Luck or Providence? (D) Terry Dashner…………………..Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013 May I share several more significant historical events that didn’t just happen by luck. I believe that the hand of Providence was behind them to serve God’s purpose. Let me start with Charles Martel the grandfather of Charlemagne. Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) defeated the Spanish Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732-733 AD. His grandson, Charlemagne would later be crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III (751-816 AD) on Christmas Day 800 AD. Thus, the Western Roman Empire, which had not...

Luck or Providence? (C) Terry Dashner…………………..Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013 One gentile ruler down and here comes another one. Just like God allowed it, no doubt. Here comes Daniel’s leopard to pounce on the world. (The leopard is one of four gentile powers to rule over Israel throughout world history as stated in the Book of Daniel.) His name was Alexander. Let me tell you a little bit about him. His father was Philip of Macedonia. He brought all of Greece under his rule just before he was assassinated in 336 BC. The great philosopher...

Assume that City slickers are dumb and their effects on markets can be reproduced, according to complexity theory. Roger Highfield reportsYou might be forgiven for wondering if the best way to invest in stock markets is to consult a chimpanzee first - it has long been suspected that City hotshots are just lucky, overpaid fools who work in an industry where chance rules. Aping it: buying and selling shares is as much a matter of luck as rational thought Now science is beginning to support the idea that randomness, not rationality, exerts surprising sway over the markets. The insights have...

Luck or Providence? (B) Terry Dashner……………….Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013 Evening services have concluded. Let me get back to what I was arguing earlier. The events of history didn’t happen by luck. They were guided along by the hand of Providence. God is bringing all things into the swallow of His Glorious Kingdom. After all, we’ve been asking God to bring forth His Kingdom on earth “…as it is in Heaven…” for 2000 years. He does hear and answer prayers you know; therefore, He’s over riding events of humankind for His Sovereign purpose and will...

Luck of Providence? Terry Dashner……………..Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013 Think of dominoes falling and not luck happening. What am I saying? Consider this. The milestones of human history are not free-standing monoliths, occurring by luck. They are, however, like dominoes—one event of time affecting another until milestones arise and provide a signature by which we identify human history. Does that make sense? Listen to this. Author Bill Yenne in his book entitled, 100 Events That Shaped World History (Bluewood Books 1993), “…the Battles of Salamis and Plataea were significant because they prevented the annihilation of...

MILWAUKEE -- Call it the Tangle on the Tarmac. For 20 minutes in a slow, steady rain yesterday, George W. Bush kept John F. Kerry cooling his heels at Milwaukee's airport as the presidential motorcade wended through the city toward Air Force One. Once Kerry learned of the delay, he leapt from his black SUV and hustled back up the stairs of his parked plane to look for his Red Sox cap to wear at a City Hall rally a short while later. Waiting on Bush and remembering his Sox hat were just two new signs that, according to an...

You can bring that chicken casserole to your church's potluck dinner and eat it in peace, after all. Gov. Blagojevich on Friday signed legislation exempting potlucks, a staple of church basements and community centers, from inspection by state and local health officials. "Potluck meals are a long-standing tradition that do not warrant government intrusion," he said. The law applies to free potlucks on private property sponsored by individuals or nonprofits. Events that charge a fee or are on public property are subject to inspection. Until now, the question of how potlucks should be regulated was open to interpretation by local...

Nishinomiya, Japan, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A 20-year-old student died Sunday in Japan when a man who leaped from the top of a high-rise building landed on top of him.

Heard the one about the monkey and the typewriter? “If one puts an infinite number of monkeys in front of (strongly built) typewriters and lets them clap away, there is a certainty that one of them [will] come out with an exact version of the ‘Iliad,’” writes Nassim Nicholas Taleb in a recent book, Fooled by Randomness. The monkey typist story is an old one, and the key word is “infinite.” But Taleb takes this hoary tale a step further. “Now that we have found that hero among monkeys, would any reader invest his life’s savings on a bet...

Here is an article on the "science of luck," based on a ten-year study. It provides some very interesting reading. Apparently the author found consistent patterns of behavior between people who would be considered lucky in life and those considered unlucky. Over the years I have interviewed these volunteers, asked them to complete diaries, personality ques-tionnaires, and intelligence tests, and invited them to my laboratory to participate in experiments. The findings have revealed that luck is not a magical ability or the result of random chance. Nor are peo-ple born lucky or unlucky. Instead, although lucky and unlucky people have...

Robbery suspect didn't bank on exploding dye pack By Deanna Boyd Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - Police say it was not lady Luck's lucky day. Sharon Ann Luck, 43, was arrested by police and FBI agents Wednesday morning after she robbed a Fort Worth bank, police say, and then went to her Burleson bank to deposit the stolen money. Bad luck. A dye pack in her purse exploded. Robbery Detective Mike Baggott said that shortly after 9 a.m. a woman walked into the Bank One, 6351 Camp Bowie Blvd., and handed a teller a note demanding money. After the...

Scientists investigate 'luck' Scientists have begun an investigation into whether people really can be "born lucky". The study will match personality profiles with birth dates to see if there is a link. Generally, studies have shown that "lucky" people tend to be optimistic and willing to take chances. Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, who is leading the University of Hertfordshire team, said: "People are being asked to give us their birth date and complete a short personality questionnaire designed to find out if they are extrovert, optimistic and resilient in the face of setbacks. "We will be looking to see if...

Ohio woman has fraud, assault convictions, uses alias JANUARY 6--The Ohio woman who told police that she purchased--and then lost--the winning $162 million Mega Millions lottery ticket--has several arrests on her rap sheet, including convictions for assault and credit card fraud, The Smoking Gun has learned. In addition, Elecia Battle is using an alias and has falsely claimed to be married to the man with whom she now lives. Battle, whose real name is Elecia Dickson, apparently has borrowed the surname of boyfriend James Battle. The 40-year-old pharmacy worker remains legally married to husband Keith Dickson, though the couple is...

<p>CLEVELAND (AP) -- Someone turned in a valid ticket for the $162 million Mega Millions multistate lottery jackpot, the Ohio Lottery said Tuesday, a day after a Cleveland woman claimed she lost the winning ticket outside the convenience store where it was sold.</p>

$162 million Mega Millions lottery ticket reported lost Ohio woman files report with police over unclaimed prize By Joe Milicia Associated Press CLEVELAND - A woman has told police she picked the winning numbers for the $162 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot but lost the ticket before the drawing, according to a police report. Elecia Battle of Cleveland told police she dropped her purse as she left the Quick Shop Food Mart last week after buying the ticket. She said she realized after the drawing last Tuesday that the ticket was missing. The Ohio Lottery said that the winning ticket...

<p>SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio (AP) -- A Cleveland woman has told police she picked the winning numbers for the $162 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot but lost the ticket before the drawing, according to a police report.</p> <p>Elecia Battle told police she dropped her purse as she left the Quick Shop Food Mart last week after buying the ticket. She said she realized after the drawing last Tuesday that the ticket was missing.</p>

<p>TAMPA, Fla. In the days leading up to the new year, Lina Pardo can't keep canary-colored underwear in stock at her lingerie business.</p> <p>Even though the Colombian-born vendor ordered an extra shipment of yellow panties and bras, boxers and briefs, she's already sold out.</p>

Nancy Siesel/The New York Times John Martin's grave at Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn. The Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn is the final resting place of several long-dead luminaries, among them a few Medal of Honor winners and a Fiji cannibal chief named Vendovi, who was said to have eaten up to a dozen American sailors before his capture. But undoubtedly the cemetery's oddest historical attraction can be found off by himself, at grave No. 8865, in a section few people visit anymore, where squirrels leap from headstone to headstone. Here lies John Martin, arguably the most fascinating...

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- A Sudanese airliner crashed early Tuesday shortly after taking off from Port Sudan airport, killing 105 passenger and 11 crew. Only a child survived, Sudan News Agency reported. MORE...

Luck and Leadership By George F. Will Sunday, February 2, 2003; Page B07 Regarding Iraq, the president, a baseball man, has been lucky. But as baseball's Branch Rickey said, luck is the residue of design. In two eventful weeks, the president's policy of regime change has been advanced, in part inadvertently, by the uncoordinated activities of three unlikely parties -- France, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Secretary of State Colin Powell. The consequence is that many critics of the president's policy have been intellectually disarmed.

It seems like an attack on Iraq is coming soon.Place your bet as to when the attack will begin. Whoever gets closest to the date and time wins.Attack time must be specified in Month, Day, Year, Hour, and MinuteFor the hour, don't forget to specify what time zone you are referring to.There is no decision on a prize to be awarded yet except for bragging rights.

'You really do make your own luck' says scientist New research suggests people are not born lucky but create and improve their own good fortune as they go through life. Psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman spent 10 years looking for the elusive "luck factor" and trying to understand the psychology behind good fortune. Dr Wiseman, who heads a research unit at the University of Hertfordshire, studied the lives of 400 of the luckiest and unluckiest people. He found that those with charmed lives are, without realising it, using four basic principles to create good fortune for themselves. The first principle of...

In Minnesota, we used to call him "Lucky Fritz.'' As a Republican political staffer in the land of 14,000 lakes (far more than the 10,000 earlier counted), I never saw his equal. Walter Mondale never got elected to any office first--he was appointed first, then elected. The incumbency greased the election and re-election. Except once. Let me explain. Fritz was a junior lawyer and active volunteer in the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in the 1950s when state Attorney General Miles Lord resigned to take a state judgeship. Mondale was appointed attorney general by Gov. Orville L. Freeman. Not only that: When...

Don't Call Me Lucky Just another rant- by Debbie (email author)Déjà vu: 1) An impression of having seen or experienced something before 2) A dull familiarity: monotonyI have had the same verbal exchange so many times now that I can almost script it. It's like being in a predictable Twilight Zone episode. I know every line and what the out-come will be yet I am doomed to sit and endure every moment up to it's inevitable conclusion.It always starts and ends the same:"...but other people are not as lucky as you and I are. ""Define 'lucky': what do you mean...

<p>For 45 horrifying minutes, Christine McMichael teetered inches from doom inside her SUV snagged on an overpass guardrail on Interstate 4.</p> <p>McMichael, 28, was apparently driving home to New Smyrna Beach when her green 1999 Ford Explorer careened into the guardrail about 5 p.m. Wednesday as she passed over State Road 46 near Seminole Towne Center mall.</p> <p>The only thing that kept the Explorer from falling to the roadway below was a tiny wishbone-shaped bolt near the vehicle's right front tire that caught on the guardrail.</p>