I think the reality is that these admissions and scholarship committees were well aware these were the Lopez offspring. And I imagine they’re counting on getting more money back in future donations and from extra buzz and interest generated if these celebrities actually matriculate.

In this specific case, your phone exchanges radio signals with a cell tower, and then the cell tower transfers your data requests onto the wires.

Dreamliners had some nightmare problems with their batteries back when they first came out.

It was the first use of lithium ion chemistry on airplanes. The batteries kept catching on fire. At one point a battery fire started on a taxiway with a plane full of revenue passengers.

Boeing had to design a heavy, fireproof lock box to contain the batteries. It completely negated the weight savings from using lithium over NiCad and then some.

They also had a lot of manufacturing problems in the beginning trying to stop the carbon fiber from cracking.

It’s pretty common for natural gas electric plants to use Brayton cycle turbines, which is the same thermodynamic cycle that the turbojet engines on airplanes use. But you can optimize the designs on the ground for efficiency (and zero thrust) instead of thrust-to-weight.

It’s also common to use “combined cycle” technology which mashes the Brayton cycle engine together with an older-style steam loop for extra efficiency.

After reading the article, I think they’re just saying they installed some miniaturized natural gas plants. I don’t think they’re literally running aircraft engines on the ground.

Looking at you, China.

Near 0 federal public land. Texas has a lot of state land, and the Land Commissioner is a powerful statewide elected office.

This situation is a result of the terms of the 1845 accession when the Republic of Texas entered the Union.

That’s what a district court judge will do when they know their work is going to be heavily scrutinized on appeal. They’re mainly writing to persuade appellate judges because nobody likes getting reversed and overruled.

See, Dark Brandon would not pass up a good opportunity for ice cream.

I’ve played this game before. It’s because we haven’t colonized enough planets to start specialising districts.

I should add, now that Abrego actually has a court ruling finding vindictive prosecution, he should be eligible to collect from the $1.776 billion compensation fund.

Todd Blanche played a key role, and the defense tried to get him to testify to establish vindictiveness. And he’s still around.

In the end, though, DOJ turtled up, which meant they didn’t do much to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness. So, case dismissed for vindictive prosecution.

There was at least one “AI” company that was caught passing off the cheap overseas labor as AI.

The top secret information is held in Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities (SCIFs), within the pentagon and elsewhere. The security standards for the SCIFs are comprehensive. It is nigh impossible to accidentally end up in one.

The Pentagon itself is ginormous. It controls an upcoming defense budget of 1,500 billion dollars, far more than what can reasonably be kept secret or top secret. 24,000 people work there. And it has its own dedicated metro station. So most of it is not, in fact, classified.

Well see, they do actually have a list that says what everything costs. It’s called the Charge Master List. They just don’t want you to see that list, because they think it puts you at a negotiating disadvantage. It’s the magic invisible hand of the free market, at work to make pricing information available to all in the most efficient manner. (/s)

I saw it up, and I dropped a comment. And it was gone about 30 seconds later.

When I was a kid, MS and LA were #50 and #49 in all of these kinds of lists. It amazes me to see all these other states racing to tank their scores down to the bottom.

To be fair to the king, if this was the state opening of parliament, then he just reads what the elected government wrote for him.

It used to be that you have to pay a big fat one-time fee to renounce, as kind of a substitute for all of your future tax payments.

I think they changed the rules on that recently, though.

Edit: since GP made the same point about the exit tax, if you purport to renounce without paying the fee, then you haven’t really renounced. You and your assets can be seized for tax evasion (assuming you stop filing tax returns) if they ever touch US jurisdiction again, or any country that has a tax treaty with US, or countries with extradition to US.

Ah, you see, by “state” he really meant “unincorporated territory” where the residents have no federal voting rights, and US citizenship is at the discretion of Congress.

The reflecting pool on the National Mall is shallow pool / fountain that’s there to look neat. It’s not intended for swimming. It’s an iconic landmark that connects the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Memorial. It’s been featured in all kinds of media, films, and TV for decades. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech was there.

Trump decided that the reflecting pool needed to be painted blue like some kinds of swimming pools. He caused the government to hire “a guy he knows” without putting the contract out for normal competitive bidding.

Also, I think they’re painting directly on to granite, not concrete.

There’s also this shot of the President driving his motorcade of several multi-ton vehicles directly on top of the granite pool.