Interesting Facts

According to a study by the British Heart Foundation, Brits have very ambitious To Do lists.  Unfortunately the top item on most people's list is to win the lottery! (That's not an ambition, it's a wish! So here are the other 9 top items:- Win the lottery (not an ambition) Travel the world See the Northern Lights Experience a once-in-a lifetime challenge See world famous landmarks such as the Taj Mahal or the Egyptian Pyramids Swim with dolphins or sharks Live and work abroad Build your own house Go on an African Safari Start up a dream business and run it What would be on your top 10 things to do? Please don't say "Win the lottery".)

Camelot, the company that runs The National Lottery in the UK, has reduced the odds of winning the jackpot by 320%. (They have added an extra 10 numbers, which means people will have to choose 6 numbers out of 59 not 49. The odds of matching six numbers from 49 balls was 14 million to one - with 59 numbers those odds jump to a whopping 45 million to one. And there will be no more maximum number for rollovers - which means that jackpots could keep rolling and get bigger and bigger, and people will get greedier and greedier. Another change means that people will get something for matching 2 numbers - a free Lucky Dip ticket for a future draw. Wow!)

Since the National Lottery was launched in the UK in 1994 90% of jackpot winners blew the lot within five years. (It reminds me of an old Russian saying that money is like a homing pigeon and will always fly back to its roost in the rafters of the rich.)

There is no chance of winning the top prize on a £2 scratch-card on sale in the UK. (Why can't you win?  Well because all the top £100,000 prizes have already been won. So you would think that they would be removed from sale, but according to Camelot, who run the lottery in the UK, the Gambling Commission says that retailers can continue to sell the stock they have activated for sale. About 12 million of the cards were printed with the odds of scooping the jackpot standing at almost 2.5 million-to-one, and now those odds are a big fat 0.)

Today, 23rd September 2011, a huge, 6 ton satellite (the size of a bus), may crash into earth at 18,000 mph. (The satellite was launched in 1991 by the space shuttle Discovery, it was decommissioned 2005.  Nasa has warned there could be a 500-mile trail of debris, and, according to the Guardian, calculations put the British Isles within the impact path.  The odds of being hit by a piece of flying debris are 3,201 against, but this means you are 4,000 times more likely to be hit by space debris, than to win the National Lottery in the UK.  Cheerful thought.) Update - it crashed into the ocean off the US coast, so anyone who clicked on "scary", you can relax now - until the next time.  :)