Couple Finds Winning $1000 Lotto Ticket in Trash
FRANKFORT, Ind. -- A couple picking up trash along a roadside found a winning scratch-off lottery ticket that led them to a $1,000 jackpot. Ronnie and Tina Abbott said they found a lottery ticket worth $15 Sunday while picking up garbage along a Clinton County road near Frankfort, about 55 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
The next day, they cashed in that ticket at a local store and bought one that turned out to be a $1,000 winner.
"It does pay to pick up trash," Tina Abbott said.
She and her husband haven't decided how they'll spend their winnings.
During their trash collection excursion, the couple also found three unopened cans of Billy Beer, a failed brand endorsed by former President Jimmy Carter's late brother, Billy Carter.
Man Gets 5,000 Calls After Posting YouTube Video
Ryan Fitzgerald is unemployed, lives with his father and has a little bit of time on his hands.
So, he decided to offer his ear, to anyone who wants to call. After posting a video with his cell phone number on YouTube on Friday, the 20-year-old told The Boston Globe he has received more than 5,000 calls and text messages.
Fitzgerald said he wanted to "be there," for anyone who needed to talk. "I never met you, but I do care," a spiky-haired Fitzgerald said into the camera on his YouTube posting.
He planned to take and return as many calls he could, but on Monday at 5 a.m., his T-Mobile cell phone payment will begin charging him for his generosity when he is no longer eligible for free weekend minutes.
Robbery Aborted When Employees Get Giggles
Police are searching for two would-be bandits after Postal Annex employees got the giggles and foiled an attempted armed robbery, reported television station KPTV in Portland, Ore.
Portland police said two men wearing red bandanas walked into the Postal Annex on Southwest Beaverton Hillsdale Highway around 9:30 a.m. Friday and told the workers to empty the register.One of the men had a fold-up knife and was having problems opening it. The employees, thinking the attempted robbery was a hoax, laughed at the would-be robbers, KPTV reported.
The assistant manager, playing along with what she assumed was a joke, picked up the phone and threatened to call 911. As soon as she said the three numbers, the two would-be robbers were gone, the employees said.
Clerk's Mistake Makes Man $200,000 Richer
CONOVER, North Carolina (AP) -- A store clerk's slip-up at the cash register has paid off big time.
Wadburn Allen on Tuesday accidentally rang up two duplicate Powerball tickets for a customer in this western North Carolina town. At the end of the day, after she was unable to sell the second ticket, Allen paid for it herself.
The next day, Allen returned to the store and found the ticket matched all five numbers -- earning her a $200,000 jackpot.
When Allen went to Raleigh to claim her prize, she met the customer who purchased the original ticket. The customer also will receive a $200,000 jackpot.
Oops - Rookie Plumber Makes A $12 Million Mistake
A 17-YEAR -old rookie plumber has burned down a £5 million ($12 million) waterside mansion in southwest England, after a soldering task during his first day on the job went horribly wrong.
The historic mansion in Kingswear, Devon, was undergoing a £2 million renovation when a fire ripped through the eight-bedroom house overnight.
In just minutes it burned it down to the ground.
It is thought the fire started after polystyrene insulation caught alight from the flame of a blow torch.
The plumber was working for a firm of sub-contractors.
John Howes, of the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, said the plumber was "very upset", according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
Kids In Maine Pay $3,400 To Liberate Lobsters
PORTLAND, Maine -- Freedom has a price. In this case, the price is nearly $3,400 for 300 lobsters.
Pete McAleney said 10 young people showed up at his New Meadows Lobster Pound in Maine and bought all of his one-clawed lobsters. He said the lobster lovers called the crustaceans "God's creatures" and vowed to free them.
McAleney said he told the group the lobsters would probably just be caught again. He said the young people said at least the lobsters would get a second chance.
McAleney said he did not know the identity of the lobster liberators.
[Via -TheDenverChannel.Com]
Colorado Inmates Sue Over Mosquitoes
The inmates at Walsenburg and Limon prisons sued, saying they were at risk of contacting West Nile virus or other diseases after they were bitten repeatedly by mosquitoes and suffered "the emotional and mental distress of whether or not each mosquito's bite would result in death or serious bodily injury."
Stephen Glover, Alan Smith and Michael Freeman said the bites caused high fever, headache, neck stiffness and muscle weakness.
But the Colorado Court of Appeals swat down their case and upheld a lower court's decision to throw their case out.
US Servers Consume As Much Electricity As 4 Million Houselolds
The findings of the study, commissioned by AMD, were presented in a keynote address at the LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit in New York, by Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division of the chipmaker.
The study, authored by Professor Jonathan Koomey, staff scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and consulting professor, Stanford University, found that in 2006, in the US alone, data centers and their associated infrastructure consumed five million kW of energy, the equivalent of five 1,000 MW power plants.
The cost of US data centers is a large 37.5% chunk of the US$7.2 billion annual spend on global data centers.
Scientists Discover That Scientists Shouldn't Marry
Several years ago, Satoshi Kanazawa, then a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, analyzed a biographical database of 280 great scientists--mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and biologists. When he calculated the age of each scientist at the peak of his career--the sample was predominantly male--Kanazawa noted an interesting trend.
After a crest during the third decade of life, scientific productivity--as evidenced by major discoveries and publications--fell off dramatically with age. When he looked at the marital history of the sample, he found that the decline in productivity was less severe among men who had never been married. As a group, unmarried scientists continued to achieve well into their late 50s, and their rates of decline were slower.
Man In Ohio Is Giving Away A Free House. Wanna Know What The Catch Is?
There's a man in Ohio who wants to give away his house. But there is one big catch.
It's in Bellevue, about 45 miles southeast of Toledo, and whoever takes it will have to get it out of there.
Mike Bassett's house is a big one. It's 3,600 square feet, with a fireplace, built-in cabinets, a bay window, two full bathrooms and walk-in closets. He estimates it's worth between $125,000 and $150,000, not including the land on which it sits.
One woman offered to buy it for $200,000, if Bassett would leave it in its place. But he said no. And, if he doesn't find a taker by July 1, he said he will raze the structure.
