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Texas Jeff

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Everything posted by Texas Jeff

  1. SpaceX is scheduled to launch their 7th super heavy test flight today at 4pm Texas time. Hopefully they will be able to catch the lower stage a second time. Coverage is scheduled to start about 45 minutes prior on their website, plus others will be live streaming on YouTube. The upper stage is a new “Block 2” design. This may be the final suborbital flight test with a possible attempt to catch the upper stage on flight 8.
  2. You can see the launch here if you hunt around a bit to find it: Excellent water deluge....
  3. That thing slowly crept off the pad like a Saturn V, but instead of Walter Cronkite there was a women yelling "Oh my God!"
  4. https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-1
  5. During my freshman year in Jester, one guy ended up without a roommate. His room and three other rooms shared a thermostat. The guy pissed off another guy on our floor, so when the solo guy went to sleep, the pissed off guy had the other three rooms block off their vents, plus they put a little heater under the thermostat. The solo guy woke up to a freezing room and had no idea how to warm it up.
  6. The countdown counter is working great. Something's not right with the rocket. This is like watching a team ice a kicker with 300 timeouts in a row, and the booth is having to review each timeout.
  7. Blue Origin's New Glenn is at T-37 minutes from their first launch: https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-1 Not sure if they are going to go tonight or not, but they might...
  8. I went to Camp Longhorn (near Burnet) for four years as a camper and four as a counselor. Sent my kids there too, starting around 2010. Camp Champions is probably similar. Camp Longhorn has three camps, Inks Lake is the original, Indian Springs was the second, and they have a C3 camp on Inks with shorter terms. Inks Lake and Indian Springs offer two and three week terms. When you are young, three weeks is a long time to be away from home. But when you are older, you don't want it to end. Terms at the start of the summer are going to be cooler but the water is going to be colder. The terms towards the end of the summer can be really hot but the water is warmer. I also did a Scouting trek at Philmont when I was 15. At Philmont, you are part of a crew that hikes from camp to camp for about 10 days. I think we covered about 65 miles but I can't remember. My troop had a qualifying hike that you had to pass before you could sign up. I wasn't ready at thirteen. Two years later the qualifier was easy, and Philmont was a challenge but doable and I'm glad I waited.
  9. Among the five living presidents, Joe Biden is now the oldest living president and Donald Trump is second.
  10. will do, thanks!
  11. After two rounds, all conference champs are packing up their stuff: 1. Big 10 Champion 2. SEC Champion 3. Mountain West Champion 4. Big XII Champion 5. SEC runner-up 6. Big 10 runner-up 7. Independent 8. 4th in Big 10 9. 3rd in the SEC 10. 3rd in the Big 10 11. ACC runner-up 12. ACC Champion Only two teams remain that appeared in a conference championship game. Both of those teams are underdogs in the next round.
  12. Rest in peace Jimmy ... a live well lived and an example to us all. I remember listening to his energy speech, I was in 5th grade I think, and that speech made me want to be part of the solution by conserving energy. All the adults blew it off and we went through the 80's guzzling gas like it was an infinite resource, and I was bummed. Carter was always trying to help his fellow Americans. As a kid, I loved this SNL skit:
  13. Responding earnestly, they plan to run it up and blame the Dems.
  14. Meanwhile, just down the street, this thing is laughing at the biology building:
  15. My take on Robin Hood: It was originally intended to equalize wealth between rich and poor districts. It leveled funding for teachers but it did not level funding for facilities. Texans approved plenty of money for "stuff". When Ross Perot was trying to reform schools in the 80's, artificial turf was rare. Now it is ubiquitous. Now schools have indoor practice facilities and at least one poor district built a water park and a golf course. No one wants to see their football team get their ass kicked by the town down the road, so we fund whatever. While we were all bitching about Robin Hood, the Texas government slowly reduced funding for teachers. It used to be about equal funding, but now it's about capped funding. Austin ISD just raised taxes $180 million per year but only $17 million will make it to teachers, and Austin ISD is now capped on what they can do. Shouldn't Austin ISD have the right to raise their own taxes to what the trustees and the voters think is appropriate, to properly fund education? And should the state be prevented from taking 75% of the extra tax money raised? The state is capping what is possible AND taking local property taxes for themselves AND not even putting that part towards education. Why this is the best course of action is beyond me...
  16. I would like to point out, at this juncture, that there is exactly one team that was in the playoffs last year that is also in the playoffs this year. That team is the only team from last year that still has the same coach. That team has a mascot so big that a domed stadium cannot hold it. Texas could possibly beat the ACC champs, then the Big XII champs, then the Big Ten champs, then the SEC champs in consecutive games. No way that has ever been done.
  17. That is Longhorn Band playing a very short arrangement of the main theme from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" by Ennio Morricone, designed to fit in between plays:
  18. Seeing the words to the Aggie War Hymn on ABC was hilarious. It needed a bouncing ball so that folks could follow along.
  19. Wikipedia says 26-22-2 going back to 1915. 1915 was the 13-0 game that lead to Bevo's name. Texas neither scored nor won in College Station until 1923. Texas did not get another win in CS until 1941.
  20. No. It was really quiet ... Longhorn Band left the field to drum taps and applause. Here it is, starting after Amazing Grace. LHB played an arrangement of "taps" and marched off. The Aggie Band performed next, since they were the home team.
  21. I would be amazed that someone making $400k to $999k can't build wealth. Here's a chart showing US household income by percentage. Only the top 3% are above $400k. The bottom 97% make less. One problem with being in those higher income brackets is that you are much more likely to live close to someone making a lot more than you. If you are in the middle, everyone in your neighborhood is about the same. Folks on the right see people close to them that are making significantly more. Maybe you make a lot more than your neighbor and that person feels they are not "wealthy" because you fly first class while they are in coach, but maybe you feel you are not "wealthy" because you are in first class and they have a private jet. You are all wealthy compared to the guy riding Greyhound, but maybe you don't feel it.
  22. Lots of data out there: https://data.utsystem.edu/data-index/applied-admitted-enrolled Only about 30% of UT system students come from the top 10% of their class. UT Austin gets the press by limiting admission to top 6%/top 5%, but most system schools are not as picky. UT Austin has a 30% acceptance rate. UT Dallas is second with a 65% rate. Everyone else is above 80% and UTEP is at 100%. Top Ten percent reports for UT Austin: https://provost.utexas.edu/automatic-admission-reports/ Most UT students are from major or "central city" suburbs (50%), followed by major or "central city" urban areas (29%), with a smidge of kids from other towns or rural areas (3%). The rest come from other sources, private schools, school not reported, and other categories.
  23. Hmmm, I suspect that the "free" tuition is on top of things like Pell Grants (federal assistance). The kid fills out the FAFSA and gets some federal assistance, then UT tops that off to cover tuition. UT Austin's tuition and fees are about $14,000 per year. A federal Pell Grant might be around $5,000 per year. So they are shaving maybe another $9,000 per year off of annual expenses. The kid still has to pay for housing and food, but the kid would have had to pay for housing and food *somewhere* for four years. UT Austin estimates those "other" costs at around $20,000 per year, and around $13,000 per year if the kid is living with their parents. Students costs through work-study programs (like working for Rec Sports or at the library) and some have part-time jobs off campus. Some are doubled up on housing (two to a room) and are paying half the "normal" rent. Some have efficiency rentals that are reserved for low income students. Many get summer internships or stipends during their last few years on campus as they get farther along in their degree. The "free tuition" takes off a layer of cost to make it a little easier. Not completely paid for, but one step towards a more level playing field.
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