Downplay Society

The black blocks with white dots fall one by one, knocking one another down to the patio table’s surface. It’s an average Thursday morning in the suburbs of New York. Max Falston is setting up his dominos one by one trying to make the biggest domino effect possible. Max spent two hours already playing outside with his domino set, and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He puts the last piece in place and tips the top of it with his finger to start the sequence. This sequence may turn out to be the biggest domino effect he could ever imagine.

The dominos tumble one by one, crashing into the next domino in line. The track completes at the end of the hard wood table, with three dominos stacked upon each other. Racing with speed the wave effect hits the last domino causing it to fall of the table. Max doesn’t notice but the domino, coincidentally, lands on worm that is minding its own business trying to find some shade. The worm takes a turn towards the tall oak tree, and in a few moments begins to crawl the tree.

The worm crawls up the tree through the dirt-ridden bark. It just so happens a cocoon sits parched in the path of the worm. The worm shows no sign of letting this butterfly distract it from climbing its path. The worm seems to be a little disheveled after getting smashed by Max’s domino. Clipping through a portion of the cocoon the worm makes its way free. The cocoon on the other hand drops to the ground, damaging its natural growth process.

Meanwhile Max is still playing dominos and is setting up an even bigger and better domino sequence. Max really wants to impress his Mom, as she is already having a bad day. Max starts piecing together a domino track that winds all around the table, through the saltshakers, over a few plates and into a grand finale of three more stacked dominos. Max is really going to impress mommy today.

Back on the ground Mother Nature’s cocoon is at the stage where the cocoon is hindering the growth of the butterfly inside of it. The butterfly needs to be let out if it wants to survive. The butterfly cracks open the cocoon, several hours before it was ready, but is welcomed to the world on this cool Thursday after noon in New York.

Max runs inside to get his Mother after setting up the last domino. The butterfly takes its first attempt in flying. Max calls out “Mommy Mommy! I did it I made the bestest dominos in the world! Come see, come see!” The butterfly lifts off the ground and heads over towards the table where the dominos sit, flying cockeyed due to premature birth and a 3-foot fall to the ground. The butterfly swoops down and lands on one of the dominos, causing the sequence to start. The blocks tumble down racing around the saltshakers, over the plates and into the grand finale. It was the greatest dominos Max ever built, but Max and Mommy missed all of the action

Mommy and Max ran outside, to their surprise the dominos had already fallen. Max is in an uproar and starts crying and screaming. His dream of impressing Mommy was crushed. The mother, already suffering a headache, tries to calm Max. Max keeps on screaming and crying. Mom pats Max and lets him know she believes him that it was the “bestest dominos ever,” and she walks inside to take an Advil and call her husband.

Mr. Falston works hard at making money, as many big time stock brokers do too. Mrs. Falston calls to let him know she is not doing well and wants for Mr. Falston to come home early today. Mr. Falston agrees to her request, just as long as he can sell some extra stocks and make some more commission. Mr. Falston has a surprise of his own. He has been saving up for a bigger home and is planning on telling her soon. He decides today is the perfect day.

Mr. Falston knows he shouldn’t push certain stocks but he does anyways to make some extra commission. Investors trust Mr. Falston and buy up plenty of his stock suggestions. Mr. Falston is making this Thursday into the best day of sales he has seen in his life. The investors start jumping on board, investing hundreds of thousands, and even up into the millions!

Things were looking good for the Falston family, but Mr. Falstons effects seem to spark more than what he was asking for. It just so happens an hour later, that stock he pushed goes bankrupt and investors lose all of their money in the stock. Mr. Falston bails out from the office to avoid the quagmire. The investors have nobody to turn to after losing all their cash, so some call and complain to Alan Greenspan himself, said to be the most influential man in all of investing.

Alan receives over 100 calls in an hour from angry investors and decides he needs to address the issue. Alan makes a call to CNN to let them know he would like to get on air as soon as possible. CNN jumps on the idea and lets Alan go through directly to a live telephone conference on public television. Alan, frustrated, starts to announce that the stock market will close early today to stop potential loss. Investors go crazy, they don’t believe the market will close early just because of one single stocks huge loss. The markets go down, many companies decide to sell all of their stocks and turn them back into cash. If only they could get out when they had the opportunity.

The chain reaction happens so quick that the whole backbone of the stock market begins to unravel. The worlds largest securities start to un-invest billions, and within moments Alan realizes the market is on its way to a complete catastrophe. Sure enough the stock market falls apart completely, just as it did to trigger the Great Depression in 1929.

It was the worst time for this to happen to the United States, terrorism is high, elections are taking place, and the country is just not ready for such a disaster. Russia sees the opportunity to gain power, as does China. They see that America could be destroyed if they could attack at the right time. They have wanted to take America out in the back of their minds and both decide this is the time.

The officials in China decide to invade via fighter jets and nuclear bombs. Russia starts detonating their massive artillery of nuclear missiles. France and Germany try to stop them and defend the United States; more missiles are launched. This Thursday marks to start of World War III. The nukes are airborne, the US launches all of their missiles, and the world is headed towards disaster.

Who is responsible for this awful sequence of events? Was it Max? Could it have been the Domino? Or was it the butterfly? How can such an innocent Thursday morning turn into the largest nuclear firefight in world history? All butterflies were destroyed in the carnage, and no dominos were left standing. So who is responsible?

The cause of this whole sequence is both the domino and the butterfly effect, not the physical domino, nor the butterfly.. The domino and butterfly effect have lead us into the chair reaction that destroyed the world. If Max hadn’t played dominos nothing would have happened. If the domino didn’t fall on the butterfly then the butterfly wouldn’t have ruined the Max’s dominos. If Mrs. Falton did call her husband and if Mr. Falston hadn’t gotten greedy, he wouldn’t have upset the investors. If Alan hadn’t called CNN… If China and Russia hadn’t attacked, we would not be having a world war. Causes as small as a simple domino game in the middle of New York, can affect the world whether we see it or not.

Why worry about bottles and cans, when you can drink straight draught beer directly from a keg? A carefully built kegerater is a great commodity for any college student. Kegeraters are popular in all bars, but can be easily built in a home or apartment with the proper supplies and instruction. A kegerater is a system that not only keeps a beer keg cold, but also properly dispenses the correct mix of beer and Co2 through its faucet. There are six important pieces to a kegerater and seven important steps in building a kegerater.

The first and foremost important piece of a kegerater system, besides the keg itself, is the refrigerator, or fridge. Depending on what fridge is available to use and what fridge will hold the desired keg size, selecting the right fridge is most important. There are three rules in selecting a fridge. One, the fridge must be big enough to hold the keg. Some fridges must be altered to fit a full barrel keg. A full size keg is roughly 33” tall and 19” in diameter; where as half kegs are 27” by 19”. Secondly, the fridge must be able to be consistent temperature and must have a way of controlling the temperature. Third and most importantly, the fridge must be able to be drilled. Don’t use your parents kitchen fridge that they value, unless they value keg beer also. Fridges are the most expensive part of the system, and can cost anywhere from $150 used to $1800 brand new. Refrigeration keeps that cold beer flavor most beer connoisseur enjoy, so pick the right fridge.

As for the mechanical parts involved in a kegerater system, there are three important parts, and important hoses and clamps to connect them. At this point there should be two holes drilled in the fridge, both 7/8” in diameter. Make sure not to hit any wires or tubes while drilling this hole, it will mess up the fridge, and that is not a good thing.

First important part of this is the Co2 tank. Co2 is used to put pressure in the keg, therefore, pushing the beer out of the keg and eventually into a cup. It is recommended to get either a tank that supports either 5 lbs or 10 lbs of Co2 pressure. Co2 tanks cost roughly $100.
Next, connected to the Co2 Tank, is a regulator. Although in terms of building a kegerater, it is called a keg-ulator. The kegulator measures and controls the amount of Co2 pressure that flows into the keg. It is suggested to allow between 8 and 10 lbs of Co2 pressure pass through the kegulator.

Now, there should be a hose, called a Co2 hose, connected to the kegulator passing through one drilled hole in the fridge. This hose leads to another piece called a coupler. The coupler sits on top of the keg (inside the fridge now), and opens up the keg to push beer out. Couplers cost about $40. Note: Do not puncture keg until you have completed the whole system or beer will start spraying everywhere and you will lose beer, this is also not a good thing.

On the other end of the coupler there is to be a hose flowing back out of the fridge, and to the area that the beer should be poured from. This hose is called a beer hose. There are several ways to display the final piece, which is where the beer pours. This piece is called either a faucet, shank, or tower. The tower can be mounted to the top of the fridge or drilled onto a counter-top.

The biggest thing one must watch out for while building is to make sure all connections are tightly fastened. The biggest problem with kegeraters is loosely fitted clamps and hoses. The total system costs somewhere around $400 depending mostly on the type of fridge. With the proper building care and following the instructions, a kegerater can be a fun and easy system to build. By following the seven steps and securing the six essential parts, anyone who wants to drink draught beer at home can do so. Just remember to only serve those over the age of 21, or those with a decent looking fake ID.