Let’s wrap this thing up.
“Republicans are learning that the law is a door that only swings in one direction. Democrats can do illegal and unconstitutional things — like enacting DACA, or putting noncitizens on voting rolls — but when Republicans try to undo these things, judges prevent them from doing so.” ~~ Joel Pollak
Somehow I missed this when it first happened.
Spanish transport secretary resigns over trains designed too large for tunnels
New Civil Engineer | Feb. 23. 2023 | Ella Jessel
Heh!
Two top Spanish transport officials have resigned in a storm of controversy over a £227.5M fleet of commuter trains designed too large for tunnels.
Transport secretary Isabel Pardo de Vera and Isaías Táboas, the head of rail operator Renfe, have now quit their posts, bringing the number of people who have lost their jobs over the scandal to four.
The batch of 31 new trains was intended to upgrade the ageing rolling stock in the northern regions of Asturias and Cantabria and be in action by next year.
But the trains will now be delivered two years late after the size of the existing 19th century line gauge was incorrectly defined on the specification. The rolling stock has been designed to fit the specification for new infrastructure. The mistake meant the trains would not fit through some of the network’s existing tunnels.
Yet the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Development has stressed that the mistake was spotted early and the trains had not yet been manufactured. “No public expenditure was made or incurred as a result of this situation,” it said.
The fiasco has caused a huge political storm and sent the project back to the drawing board.
… that sounds like a wee bit of ‘public expenditure made or incurred as a result of this situation,’ to me …
The head of the regional government of Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revilla, called it a “monumentally botched job”.
Renfe awarded the £227.5M contract to Spanish manufacturer CAF in June 2020, but a year later CAF realised that the dimensions it was provided for the trains were not correct and stopped building the trains.
Oh, and that … sounds like a second bit of public expenditure made or incurred as a result of this situation.
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus and former criminal defense attorney, says he would advise Oppo to contact a lawyer and avoid making any public statements, allowing legal counsel to handle questions.
Today’s:
[Redacted] allegedly [paragraph redacted] Mika [redacted] [op. cit.].
Fun, isn’t it?
On balance, everything is going swimmingly.
Results from 10/21/2026
| (1) Barbara Bach | No Preference | (2) Diana Rigg |
|---|---|---|
| 135 | 0 | 102 |
| (5) Caroline Munro | No Preference | Carmen du Sautoy |
|---|---|---|
| 217 | 2 | 16 |
New Matches for 10/28/2026
Match 1
Olga Bisera (Felicca) vs Maud Adams (Andrea Anders, Octopussy)
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| Olga Bisera | 1 – 9 – 0 | 459 – 17 – 1502 |
Felicca
Actress: Olga Bisera Nationality: Bosnian Bond Movie: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Synopsis:
Felicca worked for Aziz Fekkesh, a black market dealer who was selling the microfilms of a submarine tracking system. Fekkesh instructed Felicca to entertain Bond, should he call round, so that henchman Sandor could kill him. In their brief time together, Felicca took a liking to Bond, and when she saw Sandor about to shoot him, she spun round and took the bullet herself.
Olga Bisera
VS
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| (10) Maud Adams | 8 – 2 – 0 | 1460 – 16 – 705 |
Andrea Anders
Octopussy
Actress: Maud Adams Nationality: Swedish Bond Movie: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) Synopsis:
Miss Anders was the girlfriend of Francisco Scaramanga, the $1 million a shot assassin, the man with the golden gun. She sent a golden bullet to MI6 with 007 engraved on the side, so that it would be thought that Scaramanga had Bond on his hit list. Miss Anders was hoping that Bond would respond to the threat and kill Scaramanga, freeing her from his possession. However, Scaramanga learnt of her betrayal and shot her through the heart.
Actress: Maud Adams Nationality: Swedish Bond Movie: Octopussy (1983) Synopsis:
Octopussy ran an all-women floating island, the girls of which were acrobats for a circus that was a front for a jewellery smuggling operation. She was a partner in crime with Kamal Khan, who stole the jewellery for himself and tried to kill Octopussy. Octopussy saved Bond’s life, and Bond repaid the debt by saving hers. After killing Khan, Bond and Octopussy sail into the sunset, with the acrobat girls rowing for them.
Maud Adams
Match 2
(13) Lois Chiles (Holly Goodhead) vs (11) Britt Ekland (Mary Goodnight)
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| (13) Lois Chiles | 7 – 3 – 0 | 1254 – 16 – 682 |
Holly Goodhead
Actress: Lois Chiles Nationality: American Bond Movie: Moonraker (1979) Synopsis:
Holly Goodhead was a CIA agent working undercover as an astronaut for the Hugo Drax organization. After spending the night together with Bond, the two met up at the top of Sugarloaf mountain in Rio. On the cable car ride down, Jaws tried to kill them, and Holly’s cover was blown. Bond managed to escape, and rescued Holly after the pair were almost killed in a rocket blast chamber. They went to space together and shot down Drax’s globes that contained fatal gases meant to kill the human race on Earth.
Louis Chiles
VS
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| (11) Britt Ekland | 7 – 3 – 0 | 1437 – 16 – 761 |
Mary Goodnight
Actress: Britt Ekland Nationality: Swedish Bond Movie: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) Synopsis:
Mary Goodnight was Bond’s assistant in Hong Kong, and previously his secretary in London. She helps Bond to locate Miss Anders, the girlfriend of hitman Scaramanga. The two almost spend the night together on multiple occasions, and at one point Goodnight is embarrassingly shoved into a cupboard when Miss Anders pays Bond a surprise visit. Goodnight is eventually kidnapped by Scaramanga, but after Bond kills him, Goodnight helps Bond escape his Island.
Britt Ekland
Scientists trapped antimatter particle for months — but studying it without blowing up lab was a challenge
NY Post | 10/25/2026 | Brandon CruzA team of physicists recently trapped a single antimatter particle for months — a delicate feat where one wrong move could’ve blown up their lab, according to new research.
Antimatter, which explodes when it comes into contact with the ordinary matter, was captured by researchers at Northwestern University and stored in a cold box where they used incredibly cold temps and magnets to suspend the particle in midair, according to findings published in the Physical Review Letters…
To keep it from touching anything, the team built a contraption called a “one-positron quantum cyclotron,” which uses near zero temperatures and invisible magnetic and electric forces to keep the particle floating in a vacuum, keeping it from ever touching a single wall.
The first-of-its-kind experiment put the particle into its lowest possible energy state, letting scientists control it with pinpoint precision for months without destroying it in order to study whether antimatter behaves differently than regular matter it mirrors.
The fearless physicists at Northwestern University, under the guidance of Gerald Gabrielse, first snagged the particle as it shot out of radioactive material, then froze it to just 0.3 degrees above absolute zero — negative 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.
All I want for Christmas is a One-Positron Quantum Cyclotron.
I could drop it in my car’s engine and see what happens.
