You probably recall this guy from the Olympics.
Painted on his chest and back were advertisements for Golden Palace, an Internet casino, which is also sponsoring the Canadian entry in the Ansari X Prize, the $10 million contest to develop a relaunchable sub-orbital space vehicle.
Golden Palace's contribution is not entirely altruistic, of course. It has the dream -- a crazy, groovy, farout, mixedup dream, sure -- of eventually establishing the first Casino In Space.
Evan Kirchhoff rides the rocket to the logical conclusion:
In the future, you will be able to pay $100,000 to be transported into orbit around the Earth, humanity's only home, a glistening blue jewel against the vast black unfeeling cosmos, and play Pai Gow Poker on a website. If they add online bill-paying and tax preparation software, I am so there.