The 'Maths' Skinny
Outlay: 4 years, $8700
Returns: $13 mil
MOST of us believe winning lotto is down to the luck of the draw.
But a syndicate of university professors and tutors in Britain thought it could also be related to the principles of mathematical probability.And their theory was spectacularly vindicated this week when they matched all six numbers and scooped the $13 million lotto jackpot.
The syndicate, made up of 17 staff members at Bradford University and College, bagged the big prize by using two boxes, 49 pieces of paper and a large amount of brainpower.
But it was far from an overnight success.
Syndicate leader Barry Waterhouse, 41, who works at the design and printing section of the university, explained that the syndicate had been doing the National Lottery for eight years without conspicuous success after it started in 1994 with each member picking his or her own line.
"We just weren't winning with the numbers being picked that way, so we thought of a different method which would mean all 49 numbers would be used,' Mr Waterhouse said.
The syndicate then set up a computer program to check the numbers every week.
It took four years and a total outlay of $8700, but on Saturday, the formula succeeded.
Matching the winning numbers and the bonus ball, they hit the jackpot.
"We just thought that if all the numbers are in use, we must have a good chance of winning and it has proved so, though you never really think it will happen to you, "Mr Waterhouse said.
Fellow syndicate member David Firth, 63, said: "We have won tenners and the odd 70 quid in the past, but now this is the big one."
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The 'Arts' Skinny: Splatter Art worth $140 mil
But nobody is talking about it, except in whispers - especially not the office of entertainment mogul David Geffen, who has reportedly sold the Jackson Pollock work for about $140million.
No. 5, 1948 - as the work is called - has been owned by some of the world's richest men over the years including S.I. Newhouse Jr, the New York publishing magnate who sold it to Geffen.
The $140 million price would be the highest ever for a painting, topping the $135 million cosmetics heir Ronald S. Lauder paid in June for Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
Sotherby's auction house worldwide head of contemporary art Tobias Meyer is said to have brokered the deal.
The buyer is reportedly David Martinez, the Mexican financier who recently bought an apartment in Manhattan's new Time Warner Centre for $54.7million.
Last month Geffen sold a Jasper Johns and a Willem de Kooning work, both for more than $143 million.
