The Captain’s Log

Consider This Sentence

The following sentence occurs in The Toronto Star on Apple News. “During a media conference at the Whitby-based Durham Regional Police Headquarters Thursday, Chief Peter Moreira described how the investigation dubbed ‘Project Swan,’ which was spearheaded by the Durham Police (DRPS) Financial Crimes unit spanned almost two years and involved several police services who worked in tandem with Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) investigators.”

What? Goodness me. The Star is so easy to pick on. Such low-hanging run-on fruit.

Unit should be capitalized because it is part of the name of the entity (I checked), and a comma is missing after unit to terminate the appositive phrase. There is no need to quote Project Swan.

My rewrite: “Durham Police Chief Peter Moreira held a press conference Thursday to announce the results of a two-year-long investigation into the financial activities of ‘Crypto King’ Aiden Pleterski. The Financial Crimes Unit of the Durham Regional Police Service led Project Swan, which ultimately involved several other police services and the Ontario Securities Commission.”

Centripetal Force Versus Centrifugal Force

Centripetal Force

You ride in a car in the passenger seat. The driver turns the car at speed. The front wheels deflect the forward force of the rear wheels into the direction of the center of the radius of the turn. That force toward the center is centripetal force.

Centrifugal Force

Inside the car, your momentum carries you in a straight line until you hit the door, and then the door changes your momentum by applying centripetal force to you. You continue to feel pushed into the door as the door continues to change your momentum for the duration of the turn. You perceive your momentum as centrifugal force pushing you away from the center of the turn radius. This is an illusion.

Stop saying, toomeric.

I didn’t give you permission to drop the first r in turmeric and then change the vowel quantity. I let you non-rhotic Brits off the hook. You only drop the r. The rest of you are on notice. The Captain is disappointed with you.

Fabric softener is snake oil.

No one in the history of forever has donned a freshly-laundered shirt and said, “Damn. Washing has made this thing stiff.”