Who doesn’t want to win the lottery? Wherever people are faced with situations involving a huge role of luck, they tend to lean in into superstitions. From hair, certain precious stones, astrology, numerology, and much more, there is no dearth of ‘lucky’ things and practices adopted by people to improve their luck. One of the most recent and remarkable incidents involving a lottery is the winning streak of a man from Maryland who has won the lottery twice in his life. And according to him, it’s because of his hair!

Good Luck Charm

While most people would chalk up the wins to pure luck, this gentleman, William Daniels Jr., credits his long grown hair. That’s right, his hair. Daniels claims that when he won the lottery for the first time in 2015, he had long hair, and this year when he won, he had grown it back out again. A resident of Middle River, Maryland, USA, the 31-year-old believes that his long hair helped him win the lottery of $100,000 in November 2015 through a Baltimore Ravens scratch-off and then again $50,000 on a Maryland Lottery Gold X50 scratch-off ticket this year. As for the future, he jokingly mentioned to the Lottery officials that he intends on sticking with his long hair when playing scratch-offs.

Winning Streak

When he won in 2015, he used his winnings to buy a house, and as for his recent prize money, those funds are “going towards paying for my wedding,” he said. An aircraft assembly worker, Daniels had purchased the recent Gold X50 ticket at a nearby 7-Eleven in Nottingham and has declared to the Maryland Lottery Officials that he will make an attempt to continue his winning streak by buying tickets when he has enough funds with him from at different points in time.

3 Captivating Illustrations From the Soviet Space Exploration Era

By Kirby Dean –

At the beginning of the Russian Revolution, Soviet leaders decided to lean on science magazines to publicize the nation’s many accomplishments, educate the masses, and excite people about the future of the Soviet Union as a pioneer in technology, science, and pretty much everything else. Their plan was working, as there were magazines specifically published for men, women, and children.

The Soviet Union in the Space Age

Things continued long after the 1920s, and in October 1957, the Soviet Union set the start of the Space Age by successfully launching Sputnik 1 — the first artificial satellite. This was the first of many space exploration missions that science publications would cover in detail time and again. The following illustrations beautifully capture a time of wonder and optimism when space was left more to the imagination than to scientific discovery.

1. Technology for the Youth, Issue 8, 1958

An illustration of the launch of Sputnik 3 — 3 Captivating Illustrations From the Soviet Space Exploration Era

The illustration is called ‘Machines-Astronauts,’ and it was created by N. Kolchitsky. In it, he recreates an imaginary scene from the launch of Sputnik 3 with its individual components and cartoonish characters.

2. Technology for the Youth, Issue 2, 1959

An illustration showing an imaginary scene from a space station on the Moon — 3 Captivating Illustrations From the Soviet Space Exploration Era

Created by B. Dashkov, this illustration was published in the second issue of the Soviet Technology for the Youth magazine in 1959. The illustration was part of an article describing how a space station on the Moon might look.

3. Outlook, Issue 4, 1976

An illustration of Yuri Gagarin waving from space — 3 Captivating Illustrations From the Soviet Space Exploration Era

The name of this illustration is ‘Yuri Gagarin: Let’s Go!’ Its author is S. Alimov, and it accompanied the magazine in one of its most memorable issues. It came with a flexi disc record that contained a song made by Gagarin himself. It was the first one on the list, called “Planet Earth Is Beautiful.” Gagarin was not only the first man from the Soviet Union to orbit Earth, but he was also the first man in the whole world to do it on April 12th, 1961.