Is this what they look like?

Marines: I expect a good chunk of your R&D budget for this design.

The base R&D has been done. They clearly say in the article they want something like Dragon Runner with more capability.

I know a bit about Dragon Runner. Trust me, it's seriously cool and very well engineered. If you don't believe it has the "throwable" part down, watch this movie.

The 90's

Every engineering cluster had a theme. That meant that you knew what lab the machine was in but it still kept the names interesting. It also made it easy to remember that the dolts who killed remote jobs always used the NBA team machines because their prof told them to use that lab and how to kill processes.

The best theme? Rain, Snow, Hail, Leaf, Meteor, Skylab, etc. "Things that fall from the sky."

There is a standing joke in the community. People without disabilities are "temporarily abled" since most people encounter disability at some point in their life.

This has to do with the work that's already been done for this route. There are local forces, especially around Pittsburgh, which have been doing studies and pushing high speed rail for years.

The route would really be better if it was DC/Pittsburgh/Cleveland/Detroit/Chicago/etc since it is the fastest way to bisect the east coast from the major midwest cities. It would have also given them a chance to alleviate the I-270 corridor with a stop in Frederick. The people who want to go to Philadelphia could then take the east coast corridor up (DC/Baltimore/Philadelphia/NY/Boston).

But this would leave Harrisburg, the state capital, in the cold. You know what happens when you piss off the local government... Also, they probably figured the 240 miles between Pittsburgh and DC can be done by car instead. Anyone in between would be able to drive to Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, or DC in under 2 hours.

Along these lines, has anyone else noticed that Taco has 5 instances of "Member of the 1 Digit UID Club"?

The presence of a Google Lab in Pittsburgh, right across the parking lot from Carnegie Mellon (their alma mater) didn't hurt.

Correct. I remember a project to replace military truck dashboards with LCD panels. The critical flaw was that, at least for night driving, this would light up the driver's head. Obviously, this is not a desirable situation.

For about 1 in 130 people in the US, eating gluten can lead to rapid weight loss and malabsorption of food (like Steve). If you're a vegetarian, this is a bit of a pain due to the prevalence of gluten in fake meat products.

I doubt this is what Steve has, but Celiac disease is often a suspect after mysterious weight loss. The reason I don't think he has it is because diagnosis does not usually include time off from work.

It is not uncommon for people to discover they have it late in life due to ambiguous/absent symptoms and general lack of awareness among doctors. Ironically, diagnosis is pretty straightforward. A simple blood test followed by an endoscope, if necessary. Treatment is very simple - don't eat gluten.