Sunday, January 4, 2009

Elephant vs Mouse (PG)

.

We Have a Problem

Sign found at the Crystal Pier Hotel in San Diego CA.
.

Man Wins $10M for His Widow

DANBURY, Conn. — On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.
Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.
On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.
"I'm numb," Charlotte Peters, 78, said at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.
Donald Peters usually bought the tickets for 10 weeks at a stretch, so the winning ticket he bought Nov. 1 for the Dec. 2 drawing was among several that Charlotte Peters put aside as she, their three children and two grandchildren coped with his sudden death.
"I was in the grocery store and I had it checked and they told me I was a winner," she said. "I had no idea how much it was."
She said she thought she had won $6 million but was surprised to learn from lottery officials she'd won $10 million.
Charlotte Peters has 60 days to decide whether to take a $6 million pre-tax lump sum payment or stretch the winnings into 21 yearly payments of almost $477,300 each.
She does not yet know what she will do with the money.
"I've always wanted a Corvette, but I don't think I'll buy one. I'll stick to a small car. I might go to Mohegan Sun," she said, referring to the casino in Connecticut. "I'm going to go home and sit and think."
The Peters children think their father would have appreciated the irony.
"He'd be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money," said Brian Peters, one of the couple's three children. "He'd say, 'Figures!'"
.

Flying Doctor needs bigger planes for obese Australians

Increasing obesity has prompted an Australian state to seek larger planes for the country's famous "Flying Doctor" service, ambulance and government have said.
New South Wales state has just put out a tender to assess the cost of obtaining two larger new planes for its air ambulance fleet, which is flown under contract by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to service remote and rural areas.Recent global surveys have repeatedly highlighted Australians as among the most obese people in the world, despite the country's association with an active, healthy lifestyle and love of sport.
The two new planes would be able to carry patients up to 260 kg (573 lb), nearly twice the current limit of 140 kg (308 lb), a spokeswoman for the state's health ministry said. "The ambulance service has obviously seen a need," the spokeswoman said.
A New South Wales ambulance service spokeswoman said it followed similar moves by other parts of the service, including ground ambulances and helicopters, to accommodate larger patients.Asked if the move was prompted by increasing levels of obesity, she said: "Essentially, yes."
.