...about the Poofness newsletter...
       
Hi, Folks -

A newsletter from Office of Poofness _is_ expected this evening. When it arrives, I'll post it. If there's any change to that, I'll let you know.
       
Blessings.
       
--hobie

How to Win the Lottery (Happily)
(or How to Enjoy the RV (Happily)

Originally posted 06/25/2014

NYTIMES:  
MAY 26, 2014  
By JOHN TIERNEY

If you have won the lottery, or if you plan to do so, please keep reading this column. The information is vital not just to your happiness but also to the progress of social science.

You have a chance to dispel the notion of the curse of the lottery, which is blamed whenever a big winner ends up divorced, depressed, destitute or dead. Journalists like to explain that the curse is no mere legend — the futility of winning the jackpot has been demonstrated by actual scientists with jobs at accredited universities.

The evidence comes from an influential paper in 1978 reporting that lottery winners were not any happier than their neighbors or more optimistic about the future. In fact, they weren’t any more optimistic about their future happiness than a group of people who had been in accidents that left them paralyzed.

It was one of the first studies testing the theory that we’re all stuck on a “hedonic treadmill,” a term coined by the paper’s lead author, Philip Brickman, for the idea that good or bad events don’t permanently affect our levels of happiness.

The theory remains popular with many psychologists, and the lottery study is still one of the prime pieces of supporting evidence.

But the study involved only 22 lottery winners, and it didn’t reveal whether their happiness changed. It measured their feelings at just one point in time, typically within a year of hitting the jackpot, and it compared them at that point with neighbors whose names were chosen from a phone book.

Dr. Brickman and his co-authors noted the limitations and urged more rigorous research tracking winners’ feelings over time. (He died in 1982.)

It has taken a few decades, but that research has finally been done. The findings are good news for those who hit the jackpot — and for the rest of us who want to get off that hedonic treadmill.

The feelings of hundreds of lottery winners were tracked in two separate studies, both drawing on a British national survey of adults who were extensively interviewed annually about their states of mind and about events in their lives.

One of the studies, by Bénédicte Apouey and Andrew E. Clark of the Paris School of Economics, found that people tended to drink and smoke a little more after winning the prize, but that their overall physical health remained the same.

Their levels of stress declined over two years while their positive feelings increased, so that their general psychological well-being was significantly higher two years after winning than it had been beforehand.

The other study, by Jonathan Gardner and Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England, found that winners’ psychological well-being dipped slightly the year they won the prize, but more than rebounded the next two years.

The winners ended up much better off psychologically, and also better off than both the general population and a sample of lottery players who hadn’t won a significant prize.

The curse of the lottery was further debunked in a survey of more than 400 Swedish lottery winners by Anna Hedenus, a sociologist at the University of Gothenburg. She found that most winners refrained from splurging, preferring to save or invest the prize money, and that most reported being quite content.

“The story about the unhappy, squandering winner primarily functions as a cautionary tale,” Dr. Hedenus says. “But this is not the common reaction to the lottery windfall.”

Still, it does take a little time to adjust. Dr. Oswald, a behavioral economist, notes that the initial stress reported by the British winners in his study jibes with other evidence.

“No researcher has ever found that people are happier in the first year after winning the lottery,” he says. “My own hunch is that they have to talk themselves into believing they deserved it.

It may also be that neighbors and relatives have to be dealt with in the first year, if only subconsciously, and that that is another reason the quest for immediate happiness is thwarted.”

Those adjustment problems could well last longer for the really big winners in American lotteries. The maximum jackpots in the European studies were the equivalent of about $250,000 in Britain and $1 million in Sweden — nothing like the hundreds of millions of dollars awarded in the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries. Those jackpots can inspire a lifelong attitude among friends and relatives: You can’t possibly spend all that money yourself. Let me help you.

“Big jackpot winners say everyone they ever met comes out of the woodwork and asks for money, especially their family,” says Michael I. Norton, a social psychologist at Harvard Business School.

In the book“Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending,” Dr. Norton, a co-author, reports that giving away money is one of the surest ways to increase your happiness, but he doesn’t see much joy in a jackpot winner being hounded the rest of his life by people looking for charity.

“The problem with a big lottery win,” Dr. Norton says, “is that it adds a group of people to your life that you don’t want to be in contact with, and it disrupts the relationships with the people you do want to be in contact with.”

That does sound like a curse, but Dr. Norton hypothesizes that there’s an antidote:

Keep your jackpot secret.

Tell no one but your spouse; make no extravagant purchases or gifts at first, but slowly increase your spending and your giving so no one will suspect your newfound wealth.

Dr. Oswald, the British researcher, endorses anonymity as a good long-term strategy, but he suspects there will still be problems at first.

“If I won the lottery, I would keep the fact to myself,” he says. “But my research in this area makes me think that even then I would not immediately be happier. Especially if people win big, I reckon that in the middle of the night they cannot shake off, deep inside the mind, the nagging feeling of not deserving the money. You can keep the win anonymous to everyone except yourself.”

Last year, a $400 million Powerball jackpot was collected anonymously in South Carolina, which does not require public disclosure of the winner. Most other states do, but just because lotteries crave publicity doesn’t mean you have to provide it.

Robert Pagliarini, a financial adviser in California specializing in “sudden wealth” clients, says :

it’s often possible to keep your identity secret (which he definitely advises) by setting up a trust or a company to receive the prize money.

Would anonymity prevent the curse even for huge jackpots? Dr. Norton and several other psychologists would like to join me in testing that hypothesis. But before the researchers can ask any questions, we have to find a sample of subjects.


We know you secret winners are out there. You have the power to disprove the curse of the lottery once and for all by writing me (or having your lawyer do it).

We promise to protect your anonymity. And we swear we won’t ask you to share the money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/science/how-to-win-the-lottery-happily.html?_r=0

News, Intel, Rumors and Opinions - August 31, 2014

Iraqi Dinar Revaluation and Global Currency Reset News | Dinar Chronicles

http://www.dinarchronicles.com/intel

---

SteveI:

I have a few contacts over there that have indicated that some of the big companies that left Iraq and put their projects on hold due to lack of payments, are now coming back and ready to resume their work. What they are share with me is that they have been ensured payment in coming weeks or days now and they are ready to start up again. To me this is huge as they know the budget will get done and in a very speedy fashion.

>>>>>>>>

Stryker:

We are seeing a major change in Iraq and it is all developing right in front of our eyes. From Iraqi forces breaking through the ISIS lines and regaining a town to the Iraqi politicians working around the clock in formation of a NEW Iraqi Government changes are here. Quote: "this week will see the announcement the government formation after the arrival of the talks between the National Alliance and the Kurdish blocs to advanced stages."   September 11th is the formation deadline itself according to the Iraqi constitution but if they can announce it this week they will have one more week to vote confidence in Abadi and all his cabinet members.

>>>>>>>>

tman23:

This time around there are several reports of people celebrating in the streets in many different areas as ISIL is being extracted...Reports that Maliki and his son have moved cars, furniture and generators through the back gate as they vacate the green zone...Reports the Kurds have submitted their list of ministers...Reports the GOI will be introduced Tuesday to Parliament...Reports the Budget is to be voted on... In other words, all the news is positively overwhelming!

>>>>>>>>

BGG:

I'm not sure they could hold the value down long enough to do them any good. For instance - if they started out at a dime... (purely hypothetical) - there would be a mad rush initially. 

Then the value would start to rise once investors figured out what was going on...this rise has been predicted by some well respected economists...it may take as little as 30 days. I don't think they would get much off the street that quickly.  It would take a while just to get to a bank, get verified, get exchanged - etc, etc, etc... a true float would wind up at a "reality rate" so quickly I don't know they would get enough off the street to risk the down side later.

>>>>>>>>

Kaperoni:

Article:
"Calls for the central ministries to work the new system of payments"

Great news for sure as the CBI activates the electronic banking system throughout Iraq. 

When you look at the bigger picture, this is sooo important. The CBI wants to get the country banking system up to par with the world. Electronic banking/settlements etc is significant to investor confidence and will go a long way towards inviting investment capital into Iraq. As soon as they decide to go to Article VIII and a new Exchange Regime Iraq should really take off. No doubt in my mind and as a result the currency should as well.

>>>>>>>>

Adam Montana:

[just what IS the HCL?]
HCL is...the "Hydro Carbon Law".  

It is the key to letting Iraq work as a functioning business, and until it is passed there will continue to be struggles with the monies that come in and out of Iraq. 

Basically, once the HCL is in place... game on!

>>>>

[We know the Iraqi dinar is under a managed float regime In a float The official exchange rate changes with the Buying and selling of the dinar by the central bank which I turn establishes and maintains the exchange rate.  Do ya see a way for them to drive up the market rate by setting the dinars rate higher at the banks in Iraq before the official exchange rate is changed?]
it sounds like you are describing a way for the CBI to "manipulate" the rate... in which case I have to emphatically say YES - they definitely have the ability to do so!  

And in my opinion, they WILL do so...to their benefit and also ours.

>>>>>>>>

Millionday:

THE BUDGET IS NOW JUST WAITING ON THE VOTE WHEN THEY MEET  I BELIEVE IT SEPT 2ND.  

[do you feel they vote on the pm and the government Tuesday?]
ABADI IS STATING HE WILL HAVE ALL THE NAMES EARLIER THAN THE 9TH FORMATION DATE BUT I DONT KNOW IF IT IS TUESDAY.  

I KNOW THEY HAVE STATED ALOT IS GOING ON TUESDAY AND...AND HAVE ALOT OF PRESSURE TO FORM NOW. 

GOV BEING FORMED - BUDGET READY FOR VOTE -- AND US ASKING THEM TO HURRY AND FORM...VERY ENCOURAGING.

Stage3Alpha:

wilbur grodan
August 31, 2014 at 5:05pm

TUESDAY 0600 GMT/UTC/Z

Shabibi may have mentioned 'three day weekend' per numerous online mentions

Gives advanced global access to markets as ours are closed MONDAY

TOKYO is back from lunch and LONDON premarket is open (more advance access)

Markets are dialed in to perfection for this to be THE final weekend

The last report on IRAQI political process may have merit...It appears the sides have reconciled (inclusiveness)

NOBODY is more motivated than IRAQ to see this monetary reform

Markets supporting this as the pivotal time

omegaman
August 31, 2014 at 7:02pm

from three separate sources we hear that the day for the trigger to be pulled is Monday/tues. that is when funds are released for the Historic Bond funding; shortly thereafter, i would not dare say when, but less than a week from thence, shall we see PBX. note: as always, take as rumor until proven otherwise...hope this stays where it is and doesn't take a lil trip across cyberspace...

a mitchell
August 31, 2014

Im even more excited. I got a message from another dinar holder in nyc that saw a private exchange happening w a briefcase full of dinar. They quizzed the banker when the transaction was completed. He would not discuss details but confirmed they have a machine to verify dinar and he would most likely be helping them by the middle of the next week.

Vinman: 
(RE: Picture Clues) For those who missed it here is a summary to now: Algorithms for reset implemented. Cannot be stopped. Numbers are changing on screens.

LaGarde has accomplished her mission. Rates projected to show live on Forex- we will be in banks in 24-48 hrs. Notifications sent to banks- confirmed.

TRNs are live and can now be seen. Trillions moving and flowing worldwide starting today....confirmed! We are sitting on pins and needles.

Get ready for gold and silver to plunge before they sky rocket. We are finally at the finish line. What a marathon it has been.

>>>>

EXOGEN
August 31, 2014 at 7:17pm

INTERESTING HOW THE IMPORTANT NEWS DOES NOT GET READ AND IS SKIPPED OVER

EXOGEN:
She Hilali told the "eye Iraq News" that "the meeting will witness the consensus in with before the House of Representatives to end the file of the general budget,"

EXOGEN: 
revealed an MP for the coalition of state law Ibtisam al-Hilali, Saturday, that the next session of Parliament will be decisive and final adoption of the budget to the public in 2014.

James > EXOGEN:
What's a Budget ?? Ans : A shopping list with a  RATE !!

As a famous group of musicians once said ..."Let It Be"

>>>>

BREAKING NEWS: Law: The next meeting will witness the end the dilemma of the general budget: BR

Posted by BaNDiTo.RoX on August 30, 2014 at 7:00pm

BAGHDAD / ... revealed an MP for the coalition of state law Ibtisam al-Hilali, Saturday, that the next session of Parliament will be decisive and final adoption of the budget to the public in 2014.

She Hilali told the "eye Iraq News" that "the meeting will witness the consensus in with before the House of Representatives to end the file of the general budget," indicating that "the budget greatly affect the economic reality of the country and that the stall in assent serves as a drift of the country toward the abyss."

She added that "the previous sessions saw the learning of the file public budget," asserting that "the House of Representatives agreed on a unified position within the parliament to deliver the budget bill once and for all and pay attention to the security problems facing the country in the days to the present."


The file format node biggest budget during the previous parliamentary sessions allowing the responsibility of the House of Representatives to speed up the agreement to resolve this issue because it led to the aggravation of the economic crisis in the country during the months Alhalah.onthy / 6

http://aynaliraqnews.com/index.php?aa=news&id22=19145

Post Brought From Currency Chatter

Jeff19:  
Law: The next meeting will witness the end the dilemma of the general budget

08/30/2014  BAGHDAD / ... revealed an MP for the coalition of state law Ibtisam al-Hilali, Saturday, that the next session of Parliament will be decisive and final adoption of the budget to the public in 2014.

She Hilali told the "eye Iraq News" that "the meeting will witness the consensus in with before the House of Representatives to end the file of the general budget," indicating that "the budget greatly affect the economic reality of the country and that the stall in assent serves as a drift of the country toward the abyss."

She added that "the previous sessions saw the learning of the file public budget," asserting that "the House of Representatives agreed on a unified position within the parliament to deliver the budget bill once and for all and pay attention to the security problems facing the country in the days to the present."

The file format node biggest budget during the previous parliamentary sessions allowing the responsibility of the House of Representatives to speed up the agreement to resolve this issue because it led to the aggravation of the economic crisis in the country during the months Alhalah.

http://aynaliraqnews.com/index.php?aa=news&id22=19145

Investor1:  
[millionday] SO THE BUDGET IS NOW JUST WAITING ON THE VOTE WHEN THEY MEET

[millionday] I BELIEVE IT SEPT 2ND

[millionday] I COULD HAVE JUST PUT THE LAST LINE BUT IT SURE DOES SEEM AS THOUGH THE PROBLEM IN GETTING IT DONE IS SOME HUGE CHANGES I LIKES IT ALL

AlBundy: 
This looks absolutely fantastic. Hope the Documents to put all the agreements in place are signed, sealed, and delivered soon!

Schiz:   
I think the problem getting it done is the fact that there are no ministries yet to give the budget monies too, imo budget comes after the new goi is sworn in....I sure as heck can't see them voting it off before and having those monies go to M's corrupt cronies he has in all the current positions.

Tlar:      
Schiz, they dismissed Maliki's ministers to weeks ago and these minisistries are without certain Maliki Ministers,  but are being run by their second or third in command until the new ministers come in.  The house cleaning has mostly been done.  Tlar

Tlar: 
- Article: “Law: The next meeting will witness the end the dilemma of the general budget“ [imo budget comes after the new goi is sworn in....I sure as heck can't see them voting it off before and having those monies go to M's corrupt cronies he has in all the current positions.]


KJWayne: 
It makes no sence to have a new budget without the new COM in place to disperse those monies where they do the most good.

Mike: 
I agree, KJWayne, we won't see a budget until the GOI is formed.   This is the same song the SoL have been singing since March, they really want this budget passed.

Stage3Alpha:

wilbur grodan
August 31, 2014 at 12:59pm

MONDAY night activation after 0600Z makes sense as never before
Markets are lined up for it
NO FEAR AS IT WILL BE A CAKE WALK

Coffeeone > wilbur grodan:
O600Z what is that eastern time?

wilbur grodan > Coffeeone:
0200EST

Vinman:
this is "0"600 so it is in the morning.  Zulu time is GMT which is in London.  London is 4 hours ahead of EDT right now due to daylight savings.

TNT:

Already Blessed:
I THINK WE ARE IN A 48-72 HOUR WINDOW FOR THE BEST LIFE EVER

>>>>

Rrrr: 
Bank Exchange essentials.

1.Open up a deposit and transfer account for each currency. Sweep initial deposit accounts into transfer accounts. This will keep your wealth off public domain.

2- make sure you account contain a POD(paid on death) so your money will not be tied up in probate if you drop dead from the excitement.

3- Flag all accounts as ACCESS RESTRICTED to NON ESSENTIAL BANK PERSONNEL. No internet access.

4- Have bank provide you with “Clean and Clear Certificates”.

>>>>

White: 
Swiss banks pull out of U.S. tax program

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/31/us-swiss-banks-tax-idUSKBN0GV09X20140831

Several Swiss banks pull out of U.S. tax program: paper

ZURICH Sun Aug 31, 2014 5:37am EDT

(Reuters) - At least 10 Swiss banks have withdrawn from a U.S. program aimed at settling a tax dispute between them and the United States, Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag said on Sunday, quoting unnamed sources.

Around 100 Swiss banks came forward at the end of last year to work with U.S. authorities in a program brokered by the Swiss government to help the banks make amends for aiding tax evasion.

"At least 10 banks that had decided at the end of 2013 to pay a fine have withdrawn their decision," NZZ am Sonntag said, quoting unnamed lawyers and auditors. It did not name the banks concerned.

The newspaper said the banks were convinced they had not systematically broken U.S. law and lawyers of the U.S. Department of Justice had actually been surprised to see them take part in the program and did not object to the banks leaving the program.

Liechtenstein-based VP Bank came forward last week to say it had concluded that it no longer needed to take part in the program.


About a dozen Swiss banks face a U.S. criminal investigation as part of the tax probe.

Credit Suisse has already settled by agreeing to plead guilty and pay a fine of $2.6 billion earlier this year.

(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz)