TWO Hunter Special Olympics athletes have recently returned from Berlin after representing Australia in the 2023 World Games.
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Michael Wheatley, 36, flew the home flag in the 10-pin bowling and won a gold medal in the men's pairs, as well as a bronze medal in the mixed fours. He also competed in Men's Singles where he finished sixth. Michael has been a member of the Special Olympics team for 18 years and also plays basketball and bocce.
Sam Milton, 23, brought home bronze in the men's basketball. He has been a member of the Special Olympics team for 10 years and is also an accomplished equestrian.
Special Olympics Australia sent a team of 64 athletes representing nine sports to Berlin. The competitors were selected after competing in the Australian Championships in Launceston in 2022.
The team returned home with 59 medals, spokesperson Greg Milton said.
Winning feeling
A WESTON mother has won $50,000 after her daughter gifted her a winning scratchie last week, The Lott has confirmed. The local winner said her daughter had purchased the ticket from the Weston Discount Pharmacy after making some smaller winnings, and was overwhelmed when they discovered the amount of their winnings.
"We initially thought we won $1000. So, it was definitely a surprise," she said. "This is definitely the most I've ever won in my entire life." The Hunter resident said she planned to spend her jackpot on home renovations, after travelling by bus, train and taxi to The Lott's head office to confirm the surprise windfall.
In 2022, there were 141 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott's jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $15.16 million in top prizes.
Swifty fever
AS Taylor Swift's Eras tour set new records for ticket sales in Australia last week, sending fans into a feverish race to secure a spot at one of only a handful of Australian shows, the Australian Reptile Park joined in on the hype naming two new Easter Grey kangaroo joeys TayTay and Swifty.
The adorable pair are part of the park's Eastern Grey family and, over the coming weeks, are expected to gain confidence and find their feet outside the pouch where they can interact with visitors. But for now, they can be spotted close to mum on the park's lawn.
"There's nothing cuter than the first wobbly hops of roo joeys," park director Tim Faulkner said. "There's a few big pouches out there so it won't be too long before we start seeing more heads and feet popping out of mum's pouch." Eastern Grey kangaroos are native to the eastern regions of Australia and are known for their distinctive grey fur, powerful hind legs, and adorable faces.
Clear as math
JUNE'S math challenge (Topics, 30/6) had some intriguing results. While the majority of the hundred or so of us who took a swing at the problem 8 divided 2(2+2)on Facebook late last week rightly set out to deal with the brackets first, answers varied on whether to divide or multiply in the next instance. The equally weighted priority of multiplication and division in the order of operations was the clincher, though; if you multiplied first you were likely to land on one answer, but dividing first could lead to another. Stephen Watson wrote to Topics on Friday morning with this compellingly logical solution:
8/2(2+2) = 8/2(4) = 8/8 = 1
Another suggestion, perhaps unconventional but nonetheless logical, was to solve the brackets and then (as you would any other statement) work left-to-right, which would suggest solving the division first to get 16.
8/2(2+2) = 8 divided by 2x4 = 4x4 = 16.
Personally, I like to expand the brackets following the implied multiplication, which - following Stephen's earlier logic - seems to make the statement less ambiguous: 8/2(2+2) = 8/((2x2)+(2x2)) = 8/(4+4) = 8/8 = 1 ... Clear as mud.
