HBK

I don't love the idea of the Trump administration being in charge of creating a national ID system, but this maybe the best time to make one.

If Democrats proposed a national ID database the crazy 'FEMA is coming to round us up' republicans would freak out about it. As proven with Trump sending the national guard into D.C., as long as Trump does it they don't care.

Starlink satellites are in low Earth orbit. They could still cause Kessler syndrome, but aren't as much of a concern as higher orbits.

Here are some quotes regarding this from and Aerospace America article

Regarding satellite proliferation, while there are many more satellites, the company responsible for most of them, SpaceX, places its Starlink satellites in a low orbit so they can naturally deorbit relatively soon — within five or six years, per SpaceX — if they fail.

At around 400 kilometers and into the 500-km realm — home to ISS and the SpaceX Starlink satellites among others — atmospheric drag plays a major role. Dead satellites and debris usually slow and burn up in the atmosphere in just a few years. This natural cleansing process accelerates when the sun becomes more active and solar coronal mass ejections strike Earth and cause the atmosphere to swell. “In those altitudes, we can probably do a lot and we will be forgiven,” Linares says.

TY for the link! I started scrolling through the index, but with 621 Cogs it got a bit....daunting, I wish it had a 'most popular' or 'sort by most downloaded' option, but I understand why it doesn't.

This was not an issue for this plane. They replaced the entire throttle control module in 2019 and in 2023. Quoted text below is from page 6 of the preliminary report. I have bolded the relevant sentences.

The FAA issued Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) No. NM-18-33 on December 17, 2018, regarding the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature. This SAIB was issued based on reports from operators of Model 737 airplanes that the fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged. The airworthiness concern was not considered an unsafe condition that would warrant airworthiness directive (AD) by the FAA. The fuel control switch design, including the locking feature, is similar on various Boeing airplane models including part number 4TL837-3D which is fitted in B787-8 aircraft VT-ANB. As per the information from Air India, the suggested inspections were not carried out as the SAIB was advisory and not mandatory. The scrutiny of maintenance records revealed that the throttle control module was replaced on VT-ANB in 2019 and 2023. However, the reason for the replacement was not linked to the fuel control switch. There has been no defect reported pertaining to the fuel control switch since 2023 on VT-ANB.

I can’t imagine using the only black man in Japan at the time would lend itself to being stealthy (any race but Asian, specifically of Japanese decent, would have stood out back then), but I also haven’t played the game so I don’t know if stealth is even a mechanic in this franchise anymore.

So, my buddy has played through a good chunk of the game and according to him you play as 2 characters: The first is a woman of Japanese descent who you get the classic 'stealthy' assassins creed experience. The second is Yasuke, which he has described as playing a 'bull in a china shop' where it's all about beating the shit out of enemies and causing a ruckus.

Apparently playing as Yasuke is the most fun he has had in an assassins creed game in years.