Sherry Taylor

Photo: clipart.com

Q: A new study found that this usually predicts the future 22% of the time?

A: A fortune cookie

The website FiveThirtyEight analyzed 1,035 different fortune cookies to see what wisdom they were REALLY passing along.

They found the fortunes themselves were pretty bland and un-ambitious.  Only 22.3% of them make a prediction about the future.

And more than half just make some statement about YOU, like “You are patient and wise” or “You make everyone around you happy.”

But, oddly enough, the “lucky numbers” on the fortunes were actually SOLID.

They ran a simulation and found that if you played random lottery numbers for 1,000 entries into every Powerball in the past 10 years, you would’ve lost $2.5 million.  But if you’d played the fortune cookie numbers, you’d be up $172,000.

(FiveThirtyEight)

 

Latest Stories

2 hours ago in Entertainment, Lifestyle, Shop Simply

Charlottesville travelers can find cheaper holiday flights with Matt’s Flight Premium for $39.99

Matt scans airlines for mistake fares and sales and sends members flight deal alerts, while Charlottesville travelers can also request unlimited custom fare searches.

20 hours ago in Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music Scene, Music>General

Weekly Concert & Event Calendar: Sept 28 – Oct 4, 2026

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLERIGHTNOW) – Whether you’re looking to take in cinematic short films, indie-folk brilliance, or a string-backed Coldplay tribute,…

1 day ago in Entertainment, UVA, Virginia Assembly

New UVA Center for the Arts to expand art program offerings

The expanded center is scheduled to open in 2030.

4 days ago in Business, Charlottesville City, Entertainment, Local, Surrounding Counties, UVA

Charlottesville Pride Festival expected to be biggest to date

Cville Pride President Nick Hutchins says that the celebration of the local area was and is the primary focus of the festival to avoid it falling into some of the corporate traps the parties in bigger cities do.