Let's start with some good news. A group of sixteen employees at Ocean County's vehicle maintenance department hit it big on the Powerball lottery. Ocean County was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and many of the winners lived in homes that suffered damage. From Newshour, here are some outtakes from the press conference in which some of the lucky winners described the experience.

+ If you won the lottery, would you keep your job? To some people, that might seem like a silly question. But according to a recent poll, two-thirds of people say they'd keep working even if they won the lottery.

+ The Atlantic's Olga Khazan says the numbers show that more vacation doesn't always mean happier workers. I think I'd rather read this article on a beach somewhere.

"It is hard to imagine a more catastrophic outcome to the six-week stand-off that has pitted supporters of the ousted Islamist president, Muhammad Morsi, against the government installed by an army-led coup." The Economist sums up the mood after a brutal crackdown on protestors in Egypt.

+ Interim VP Mohamed ElBaradei has resigned in protest as security forces killed more than 150 protesters and returned Egypt to a state of of virtual martial law.

+ Reuters: First came the tear gas, the bulldozers and the flames. Then came the bullets and the blood.

+ InFocus: Photographs of the deadly crackdown in Egypt.

The FDA is taking a closer look at some popular sleep medications. The issue is not whether the prescriptions are good at helping people to fall asleep, but rather their impact on people once they wake up. "The effects of common prescription sleep aids like Ambien can persist well into the next day. Of particular concern is whether people who take the drugs before bed can drive safely the next morning."

You thought that the next big jump in Apple's stock would come with the release of a new iPhone. But it turns out it was powered by a Tweet from an iCahn. In a sign of the times, Carl Icahn tweeted something nice about Apple and the company's stock instantly soared.

Scientists at the University of Utah found that even moderate amounts of sugar could be toxic to the health and lifespan of mice. The mice were given the equivalent of 3 sugary sodas a day. "For the rodents on the sweetened diet, sugar accounted for 25 percent of their total calorie intake. Up to a quarter of Americans consume that proportion of sugar as part of their diets." These findings aside, if you're a lab mouse, being part of the sugar study is probably considered to be a pretty good gig.

"It's just another day at the office." So said jockey Russell Baze as he was set to complete his 50,000th horse race. Baze has raced more than 43,500 miles. He's also won more than 12,000 races. The NYT has an interactive look at the person they simply call, The Jockey.

And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar, and say "Man what are you doing here?" -- Billy Joel

The hedge fund Paulson & Company just put a lot of bread in Steinway's jar as they acquired the storied piano maker for just over $500 million.

+ That makes this as good a time as any to watch The Making of a Steinway. Too bad they couldn't make a photo-sharing site. They'd have been worth even more.

Do homeless people need better signs? A new project in Boston aims to replace handwritten signs with custom designed versions. The goal? To make you notice.

Syndicated from Kottke: For the Journal of the American Revolution, Todd Andrlik compiled a list of the ages of the key participants in the Revolutionary War as of July 4, 1776. Many of them were surprisingly young.

Slate wants to introduce you to a posture that will get you whatever you want, whenever you want it. "This simple technique has an anodyne name that belies its hypnotic, even occult powers. It is known as the Kindly Brontosaurus." No wonder I never get what I want. I've been employing the posture of the Irritated Tyrannosaurus Rex.

+ Why are we having so much trouble printing the new hundred-dollar bill?

+ The first rule of having in-flight Internet access.