The Broomstick Vapor Trail
On my way home Monday night, a clear sky, stars visible from downtown Toronto. Away up above me a commercial jet plane makes its way from west to east, leaving a faintly visible vapor trail as it passes overhead. A lovely sight, with the plane’s lights winking and blinking as people sip their coffee at 32,000 feet, give or take.
I consider the plane’s motion, that being a jet plane, it gets its forward velocity from the reaction of the hot gases which push the plane forwards as they escape backwards. You have released an inflated balloon and observed the same principle.
The vapor trail is the visible sign of the work being done away up there. Without the burnt fuel, there’d be no reaction, and there’d be no forward motion; the plane would still be sitting on the tarmac in Vancouver.
The vapor trail represents, no, IS, the stuff that pushes the plane forwards.
And yet I think of a vapor trail as a collection of extremely small and disconnected ice particles.
It is difficult to consider that the vapor trail is pushing the plane forward, as much as would a wooden broomstick (albeit a large one!) glued to the plane’s rear-end.
Machine’s ‘mistake’ kills $43M casino win
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/604035
… said spokesperson Allison Sparkes “There was an error message,” adding that the OLG deals with public money and must protect the public’s interests.
Yeah.
Right.
Public Money.
Last time I went to watch the thousands of [sarcasm] happy, smiling, lever-pullers [/sarcasm] they were taking money out of their pockets (private pockets) and putting it into slot machines (private property).
Straight to the bottom line, to coin a phrase, Casinos are a sure-fire way of moving money from an individual to a corporate entity.
The money never was, never will be Public Money.
Oh sure, if it’s cold and wet outside I can drop in for warmth, light, and entertainment. (see “sarcasm” above), but I am there as a guest of the Casino, always as a guest on private (corporate) property.
The individual gambler, in this incident, at least is honest: “… says he and his wife have enjoyed going to the casino a few times a month for the past five or so years. In the past, he has won small jackpots – $500 once and a few $300 prizes. “But I’ve put much more money in,” he said.”
But I’ve put much more money in. How true.
For all those people who claim that you can “win big” at playing the slots, always, always, always start off by asking who is paying for the land, the land tax, the building, the electricity, the equipment, the salaries, and so on.
It’s NOT the casino!
