What I Like About …

Just took a little car trip to Flemington, NJ where we visited Moonstone Mystery Books and Twice Told Tales.  The selection was pretty good, and we got a few books to take off for lunch for all of us.

A little disappointing is the lack of a website, but we can deal with that, I guess.  Just can’t give them linky love.

Just got back from Flemington NJ where we stopped off at Moonstone Mystery and Twice Told Tales for books and such

Apparently the Cleveland Indians, a baseball team that plays in Ohio, has been experimenting with eco-friendly stuff for a while. Not enough to make a huge difference, but more as an example to their fans.

Cleveland Indians Put Wind Turbine on Their Stadium - picture © Corbin-Hillman Communications

Now they will get a little bit of electricity, about .4 percent of the total the stadium uses, from an innovative turbine on top of the stadium.

An innovative wind turbine reminiscent of an IKEA collapsible lamp has been installed on the roof of the Cleveland Indians baseball stadium, ready to begin churning out energy on opening day, April 5. …

The helix turbine’s ability to be retrofitted on existing structures such as farm silos and former water towers makes it a cost-effective solution for powering individual buildings in rural or urban areas during peak energy hours, power outages, and other emergencies, according to Cleveland State University.

The Indians have been one of the teams on the forefront of sustainability efforts in baseball, launching an ongoing recycling campaign in 2008 that now includes organic-waste composting and become the first American League ball club to use alternative energy with their 2007 installation of a solar-panel array.

I suppose when you go to games under .500 a team has to use other attractions to get fannies in the seats.

Not that I should talk, being a Mets fan myself.

The MegaMillions lottery is at something like $500 million or so tomorrow, and while the odds are terrible it’s still worth dropping a buck on a ticket on the off chance you might win. With the jackpot so high, the loss of a dollar pales in comparison to winning.

You’re not gonna win, though.  You’re just not.  The fun is in thinking about winning, dreaming about what you’d do with that pile of green.  But the fact is you are not going to win, and spending more than a dollar doesn’t help because the additional money doesn’t actually improve your odds of winning until you spend far more than is rational.

The odds are 1 in 175,000,000 that you can win. Most people think buying a second ticket increases your odds to 2 in 175,000,000, but they don’t.  It just gives you another 1 in 175,000,000 chance, and you’re just as unlikely to win that one as the first.  Sure, your chances are higher, but not twice as likely. Infinitesimally more, and not enough to make a difference.

Here are things that Gizmodo says are more likely than winning the MegaMillions jackpot, with one dollar or 100.

• New York Mets Win the World Series 100-to-1
• Suffocate in Bed 2,000,000-to-1
• Killed Using a Right-Handed Product (If You’re Left-Handed) 7,000,000-to-1
• Killed by the Escape of Radiation From a Nearby Nuclear Power Station 10,000,000-to-1
• Dying in a Plane Crash 11,000,000-to-1

So, seriously, spending a buck is OK because it’s fun to dream about being the winner of that much cash.  But any more is a waste, ’cause it doesn’t increase the fun of dreaming.  It just makes it more pathetic.

Man, I do love some overblown arena pop rock. And Freddy Mercury and Queen were absolutely fabulous at it.

The United States has stolen some great shows from the BBC, like The Office and Being Human (BBC Version was awesome, the SyFy Version not so much), and are close to stealing Sherlock.  But now the greatest of all, Downton Abbey, is being brought to our shores with a particularly American bent: fast food.

I give you, Downton Arby’s.

Kinda reminds me of Coming to America.

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