Word: vapor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...show begins, a dozen drably dressed country people, simple villagers caricatured with half-masks, wander into the tent's single ring. They look timidly at the ropes and rigging, the aerialists' gear. . What if . . . Whoosh! Colored smoke floods into the ring; lights swirl. A mysterious sprite materializes from vapor: the beautiful and alarming Queen of the Night (Angela Laurier) is here, not just to call the circus into being but to transform the peasants themselves into clowns and acrobats. Instantly a fat old uncle (Michel Barette) is undressed, then recostumed as -- Help! -- the show's ringmaster...
...totaling nearly $6.5 million for alleged breaches of safety and security rules. The roster includes United ($1.26 million), Hawaiian ($1.17 million), Continental ($982,130), Eastern ($893,500), Braniff ($518,000), American ($421,250) and Northwest ($371,000). The bulk of United's penalty is for temporarily removing so-called vapor-seal covers from the wings of its Boeing 767s, allegedly increasing the chances of fire. United says it was trying to solve a vibration problem on the 767s and "expects to respond fully and to the FAA's satisfaction on the matter...
Clouds, which shade about half the earth's surface at any given time, are another important climatic factor. Says James Coakley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research: "If you heat up the atmosphere and pump more water in, clouds will change. But how? We don't know." Water vapor, for example, is yet another greenhouse gas, but the white-gray surfaces of clouds reflect solar energy. Which effect predominates? Answer: it depends on the cloud. The bright, low-level stratocumulus clouds reflect 60% of incoming solar rays. But long, thin monsoon clouds let solar heat in while preventing infrared...
...deforestation. According to Donald Windsor of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the average annual rainfall in central Panama has decreased by as much as 10% since the turn of the century. "Because of deforestation," he says, "there is less evapotranspiration." And because less water rises into the air in vapor form, less returns in the form of rainfall...
When the craft finally skids to a halt at the bottom of the humongous Eastman-Kodak screen, fog bubbles up from the floor of the theater, and olfactory stimuli (Blown circuits, melted metal, Vicks Vapor Rub) tingle the audience's orgiastically flaring nostrils. Honest: Huxley's Feelies are alive and well and playing every hour on the hour (even as you read this) in the heart of Central Florida...