Two Winners in Record Powerball Jackpot

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Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $587 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.


Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not announce which town until later this morning.


Arizona lottery officials said they had no information on that state's winner or winners but would announce where it was sold during a news conference later in the day.


The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29. The Powerball was 6.


The jackpot swelled to $587.5 million, according to Lottery official Sue Dooley. The two winners will split the jackpot each getting $293.75 million. The cash payout is $192.5 million each.


An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes, according to Powerball's website.


"There were 58 winners of $1 million and there were eight winners of $2 million. So a total of $74 million," said Chuck Strutt, Director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.


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This is the 27th win for Missouri, ranking it second in the nation for lottery winners after Indiana, which has 38 wins. Arizona has had 10 Powerball jackpot wins in its history.


Players bought tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute up until an hour before the deadline of 11 p.m. ET, according to lottery officials.


The jackpot had already rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.








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"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."


That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.


The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.
As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.


"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."


The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."


About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.
Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.


Lottery officials put the odds of winning this Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.


Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.


Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.


"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."


The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.


Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.


When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."


So, did he buy two tickets this time?


"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.


In case you were wondering, this Saturday's Powerball jackpot is starting at $40 million.


ABC News Radio contributed to this report.



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Infinity in the real world: Does space go on forever?

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MacGregor Campbell, consultant






It's an existential question most of us have probably pondered at some point: is space infinite? It's tricky to answer because there's not just one kind of infinity to consider. Even if the universe goes on forever, it may not be infinitely large. It could be bounded like the surface of the Earth, allowing you to travel indefinitely without ever finding an edge.








In this animation, we try to determine the size of space, and whether it could be never-ending.
Although infinity is easy to imagine mathematically, in the real world it's harder to pin down. Perhaps the universe is just really big but has a finite size. And if it has an upwards limit, what about the opposite: can it contain things that are infinitely small? Is there a smallest possible length?



If you enjoyed this video, check out our previous animations that tackle, for example, the true nature of reality, or why there's no such thing as nothing.




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Football: Scolari set to return as Brazil coach: reports

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RIO DE JANEIRO: Felipe Scolari will be named for a second spell as coach of the Brazilian national side on Thursday, press reports said on Wednesday.

"The Brazil Football Federation has already chosen its new coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari will replace Mano Menezes," the GloboEsporte website said.

An official announcement is expected on Thursday.

Scolari, who previously coached Brazil to World Cup glory in Japan in 2002, will be charged with bringing further success on home soil in 2014.

- AFP/fa



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Yahoo's Marissa Mayer continues to keep plans close to the vest

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Yahoo's Marissa Mayer.

Yahoo's Marissa Mayer.



(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)


Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer last night spoke before an invite-only crowd at Fortune's Most Powerful Women event. And although she offered up some details during her interview, she sidestepped any opportunity to fully outline her company's plans.


Not surprisingly, Mayer focused much of her discussion on mobile. The mobile market is growing rapidly, and shareholders are responding favorably to Mayer's claims that the space is integral to Yahoo's future growth. At a recent earnings call, Mayer spent an inordinate amount of time discussing mobile and why she believes Yahoo is well-positioned to capitalize. She did it again last night.


"We have a terrific set of assets on the web--all the things people want to do on their mobile phone," Mayer said, according to Fortune. "The interesting thing is when you look at what people want to do on their phone, it's mail, weather, check stock quotes and news. That's Yahoo's business. This is a huge opportunity for us because we have the content and all the information people want on their phones."



Mayer also acknowledged that there are some things that Yahoo doesn't have in the mobile space. And to address that, she plans to continue to make "acqui-hires," allowing her firm to get a mobile company's top employees, but not necessarily its technology. Late last month, Mayer acquired Stamped, a mobile app that lets users recommend everything from books to restaurants.


But don't expect Mayer to run too far from Yahoo's roots. She said that she wants to bring Yahoo back to its roots and focus its business. The result, she said, should be "a global suite of products that are truly excellent."


Still, Mayer, who gave birth to her first son on September 30, made it clear that Yahoo is not necessarily her first priority: "for me, it's God, family, and Yahoo -- in that order."


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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

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Photograph courtesy Conservation India

A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.

Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.

"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.

"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")

According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.

Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.

"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."

(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")

Published November 27, 2012

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Susan Rice Made Allies, Enemies Before Benghazi

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United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, on Capitol Hill this week answering questions about her role after the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, has become yet another player in the divide between the left and right, with her possible nomination as the next Secretary of State hanging in the balance.


But who was Susan Rice before she told ABC's "This Week" and other Sunday morning shows the attack was a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam film and not a premeditated act of terror? Four Americans died in the September attack.


Unlike many in government, Rice holds a rare claim to Washington, D.C.: she's a local. She hails from a prominent family with deep ties to the Democratic Party. She was born Nov. 17, 1964 to Emmett Rice, a deputy director at the Treasury Department who served as a member of Jimmy Carter's Federal Reserve board, and Lois Dickson Rice, a former program officer at the Ford Foundation who is now a higher education expert at the Brookings Institution.








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As a high school student at the all-girl National Cathedral School in Washington, Rice was known as an overachiever; valedictorian, star athlete and class president. After graduating high school in 1982, she went on to study history at Stanford, where she graduated as a Truman scholar and junior Phi Beta Kappa. Rice also attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.


The family has roots in Maine. In an interview with the Portland Press Herald in 2008, Lois Dickson Rice said that she held the same high expectations for her children as her mother had held for her. According to the paper, Ambassador Rice's drive to achieve spanned generations. Her maternal grandmother, an immigrant from Jamaica, was named Maine State Mother of the Year in 1950. Rice's father was only the second African-American man to be chosen for the Federal Reserve board.


Two years out of Stanford, Rice joined Massachusetts Democrat Michael Dukakis as a foreign policy aide during his 1988 run for president. After his defeat, Rice tried her hand in the private sector, where she went on to work as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company. After President Clinton's election in 1992, she joined Clinton's National Security Council, eventually joining her mentor, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.


A profile of the diplomat from Stanford paints the Rices and Albrights as old family friends.


"The Rice and Albright kids went to school together and shared meals at Hamburger Hamlet," Stanford Magazine reported in 2000.




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James Gleick's The Information wins top book prize

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The-Information.jpg

Tiffany O’Callaghan, CultureLab editor


Some of the world’s most influential scientists shared a stage at the Royal Society in London last night, reading excerpts from their recent popular science books and debating whether the public understanding of science is waxing or waning.



The occasion was the 2012 Royal Society Winton book prize, created 24 years ago to recognise works written for a non-specialist audience.



Yet despite the mighty assembly of shortlisted scientist-authors, it was a self-described outsider who ran away with the honours. “I am in the category of people on the outside, with their faces pressed up against the glass,” said veteran science writer James Gleick as he accepted the award for The Information - as well as a cheque for £10,000.



The Information is a clever exploration of information theory and how the message was disentangled from the medium, starting with the long-distance drumming that Africans have used for millennia to convey vital messages, and coming up to date with our reliance on Wikipedia. What’s more, as prize judge Sam Kean put it, the book examines the notion held by some physicists that “information is more fundamental than both mass and energy - that it may be the very bedrock of reality”.







A former writer and editor for The New York Times, Gleick is the author of six books - including the 1987 work Chaos, which New Scientist readers voted one of the 10 most influential popular science books earlier this year.



Announcing the winner, society president Paul Nurse welcomed a “renaissance of science writing in the last decade”. The panel of judges had certainly been spoiled for choice: as well as Gleick’s winning work, the shortlisted titles included The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker, The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene, A Viral Storm by Nathan Wolfe, My Beautiful Genome by Lone Frank and Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer.



During the ceremony, hosted by comedian Ben Miller, each shortlisted author read a selection from their nominated works - including Nathan Wolfe, who was unable to attend the event but sent a video-recorded reading.



Before the winner was announced, the audience quizzed the authors and even managed to prompt some disagreement with the persistent question of whether public understanding of science was improving or getting worse.



When they were asked if the gap between what scientists and the general public know is widening, Lone Frank simply replied, “Yes.” Joshua Foer took a different tack, arguing that increasing specialisations within science meant that the gap between scientists themselves is getting broader.



Yet some rapid wordplay made for the most notable exchange. Earlier in the evening, Gleick had commented that “information is not knowledge, let along understanding”. So when he argued that public understanding of science had improved in recent years, saying that the spread of “scientific knowledge has never been greater than it is now”, Frank tartly reminded him of his earlier words.



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Global private equity firms eyeing Southeast Asia

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SINGAPORE : More global private equity firms have been setting up offices in Southeast Asia, and the funds raised in the region are expected to grow at an annual rate of 30 per cent over the next three years.

Private equity investors are also likely to cast the spotlight on Singapore, Indonesia and China.

Things are heating up in Singapore's private equity space.

Singapore-based venture capital and private equity firms managed a total of S$26.5 billion last year, according to a survey by the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (SVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Out of this, S$2.3 billion was invested in Singapore.

US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) opened its Singapore office in October, with plans to inject more than US$1 billion in Southeast Asia over the next five years.

Indonesian private equity firm Northstar Group has also made its first foray into the Singapore market.

It recently acquired a 50 per cent stake in Nera Telecommunications, through its newly-incorporated unitE, Asia Systems.

Northstar has invested close to US$2 billion with co-investors in the Southeast Asian region.

Experts have said Singapore's location makes it a natural platform for global investors to set up base.

Eugene Wong, chairman of the Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, said: "Singapore is becoming like the Asia equivalent of NYC and Silicon Valley, so we can play the role of a New York for private equity, the big M&A private equity players, and the Silicon Valley tech region for high-tech high-growth companies. So for players in Singapore, one advantage is that we can also invest in China, Korea, and New Zealand. "

While private equity transactions in Southeast Asia have totalled US$3.6 billion so far this year, investing in this region is not without its challenges.

Jack Wang, a partner at Lexico, said: "US private equity firms are familiar with corporate governance. And in Asia, personal relationships are the predominant factors when it comes to deal sourcing and deal execution, so a change in mindset, lots of focus on the personal element...this is particularly true in Indonesia, most of the existing companies are owned by family business, and in China as well, politics is a big factor. "

According to research by the Singapore Venture Capitalist Association, approximately US$6.4 billion worth of funds will be raised in Southeast Asia by the end of 2012. And with the rising affluence in this region, market watchers have said they expect more private equity firms from the US to invest in the telecoms, commodities and consumer sectors in Southeast Asia.

- CNA/ms



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With Wii U on store shelves, Nintendo preps Wii Mini for Dec. 7?

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Nintendo might have another new console to offer up in the coming weeks.


Best Buy Canada today is promoting on its homepage a new
Wii Mini. The company's homepage displays an image of a redesigned Wii, showing a matte black finish and red outline. A red Wii Remote sits alongside the console. Best Buy claims the console will launch on December 7.


It appears that the ad was mistakenly placed on the Best Buy site. Nintendo has not yet announced a new Wii and the "Pre-Order Now" link in the ad doesn't work. When searching the Best Buy Canada site, CNET was unable to find any Wii Mini listing. Similar searches on other retail sites, including the U.S. version of Best Buy's homepage, proved similarly fruitless.



Nintendo launched its new console, the
Wii U, earlier this month. In an interview with CNET yesterday, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that his company sold 400,000 Wii U units during its first week on store shelves. However, during that same week, the Wii was able to muster 300,000 unit sales, indicating that it might still have some gas left in the tank.


Nintendo has in the past offered up new versions of older hardware to keep customers buying. That the company is apparently considering launching a new Wii is not necessarily out of character.


CNET has contacted Nintendo for comment on the Best Buy leak. We will update this story when we have more information.


(Via Engadget)


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Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

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