Questioning everything 🅅

@thinksecure27

WoSo + Cyber and occasional random thoughts. Washington Spirit & USWNT supporter. Packers fan. Ally. Transplant from New Mexico. Thoughts expressed are my own. Re-posts ≠ endorsement

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Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· 23d

It’s not this simple. U.S. also allows for blood to convey citizenship if the conveying parent meets certain residency thresholds. Some European countries use a mix of jus sanguine and jus soli, too.

In general, a person born outside of the United States may acquire citizenship at birth if all of the following requirements are met at the time of the person’s birth:

The person is a child[2] of a U.S. citizen parent(s);
The U.S. citizen parent meets certain residence or physical presence requirements in the United States or an outlying possession before the person’s birth in accordance with the applicable provision;[3] and
The person meets all other applicable requirements under either INA 301 or INA 309.
Until the Act of October 10, 1978, persons who had acquired U.S. citizenship through birth outside of the United States to one U.S. citizen parent had to meet certain physical presence requirements to retain their citizenship. This legislation eliminated retention requirements for persons who were born after October 10, 1952. There may be cases where a person who was born before that date, and therefore subject to the retention requirements, may have failed to retain citizenship

France

France uses a mix of jus sanguinis and jus soli. A child born in France to at least one parent who is French or who was born in France and has acquired French citizenship by other means may obtain citizenship at birth or through a naturalization process. The practical effect is that birth in France can contribute to citizenship, but it commonly depends on parental status, residency, and lineage rather than automatic grant simply due to birth location.

Portugal

Portugal employs a birth-forward approach with important conditions. A child born in Portugal to foreign parents may be eligible for citizenship after meeting residency requirements, often including a

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· 26d

Barkeep, I’ll take another! @washingtonspirit.com

Washington Spirit eagle mascot behind a bar. The game behind her.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· 26d

Amazing photo! Those of us at Franklin Hall are cheering you and the Spirit on!

Photo of bartop featuring a Queens Classic District vs Empire towel, Spirit schedule magnet, a Go Spirit / Free DC ribbon, and a “Pausa de Hidratación” koozie.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· 27d

With the Queens Classic, the @washingtonspirit.com will have been a participant in 4 of the Top 5 most attended NWSL regular season matches (the Reign vs Thorns in June 2023 doesn't rank as it was a double header): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationa...

Screenshot of the Regular Season section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Women%27s_Soccer_League_attendance showing the Spirit as participating in 3 of the Top 4 listed most attended matches in NWSL regular season history as of March 29, 2026. The Queens Classic is nearing 40,000 tickets sold and is expected to displace the match currently ranked 3 most attended.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· 29d

Ah yes, glossing over of the history of the District of Columbia retrocession. Photo credit @lightmikey.bsky.social.

Portion of photo by @LightMikey illustrating a gladding over of the history of retrocession:

Congress returns land to Virginia.

George Washington, perhaps silencing criticism of his role in locating the seat of government so close to his vast landholdings.
insisted that no federal building be sited on the Virginia side of the District. The city of Alexandria, therefore, never benefited from the growth of the federal city. In 1846, Congress agreed to return all Virginia lands to Virginia, eliciting "great rejolcing and cannon fire."

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jul 12

Is it a true cushion when San Diego at the conclusion of tonight’s match will have played 15 matches while the Spirit just concluded their 13th match of the season tonight? 🙃

Screenshot of the NWSL standings as of 8:40pm ET on Saturday, July 11th, from https://www.nwslsoccer.com/standings showing the San Diego Wave having played 14 matches for 28 points and the Spirit having played 13 matches with 27 points. The Wave started their 15th match of the season at ~8:45pm ET on July 11th.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jul 11

That was the saving grace! It was so pretty and the hiking was great, so the dumb people were less of an annoyance. Plus our campsite was riverside where there were plenty of quiet, private spots for water play (though our kids and their cousins weren’t exactly “quiet” in the water).

Photo of a quiet river spit of rocks and pools with people in the water. The water is surrounded by tall green trees and a blue sky above).

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jul 11

We saw some absolute tomfoolery, including the car sunroof photography while the car was being driven. Also, people stopping a getting out of their car to photograph a mama bear and her cubs on the side of a winding road, blocking traffic both ways.

Photo of a grey granite mountain range with valleys and waterfalls. There is a high partial dome toward the center.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jul 9

👀

Beginning Sept. 15, all new websites signing up for Cloudflare, as well as all the customers on its free tier, will have the default settings in their bot management protocol set to block “multi-purpose crawlers” on any webpage that has ads. This means that any crawler that scrapes for both search indexing and AI training will be turned away at the door, unless the site owner decides otherwise.

“We’ve been clear about what we want,” said Cloudflare chief strategy officer Stephanie Cohen. “We want a technical solution that allows you to be discoverable without having to give your content away for free.”

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jul 8

I think you’re right. thespun.com/soccer/every...

Everyone seems to be pointing at one thing – the high cost to play soccer in the U.S.

In places like Europe and South America, soccer players are recruited at a very young age to start playing at various academies and teams, in which they’re potentially even being paid.
But, in the U.S., parents are forced to shell out thousands of dollars per year, so their 7 and 8-year-olds can play soccer.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jul 4

“In a very real sense, Trinity Rodman is Greenland.”

Post by Jonathan Liew
@jonathanllew.bsky.soclal reposting and quoting The Athletic’s post:

“this is *exactly* how a fading superpower behaves. decline, hubris, overstretch. it's the suez crisis. it's pogba for €100m. it's be here now. it's megalopolis. it's rudebox. in a very real sense, trinity rodman is greenland”

A The Athletic •
@theathletic.com • 6d
BREAKING: Trinity Rodman is staying with the Washington Spirit through 2028 after her previous four-year extension lapsed on Dec. 31, the team announced on Thursday.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 30

Some perspective I have found helpful. The further the USMNT advance, the more they earn, and the more the USWNT players get paid.

The two unions and the USSF achieved equality in terms of economics. The World Cup bonuses, long a sticking point in the equal-pay fight, will now be split evenly between the two teams after the USSF takes its cut. The teams will pool together their World Cup prize money and receive 90% for the 2022 and 2023 World Cup bonuses and 80% of the 2026 and 2027 payouts.

Equality was achieved in other areas as well, with the men and women now receiving identical payments for per-game bonuses. For matches the USSF controls, players will receive $18,000 for a win, $12,000 for a draw and $8,000 for a loss if the opponent is ranked in a the top 25 of FIFA's rankings. For all other opponents, the amounts are $13,000 for a win, $10,000 for a draw and $8,000 for a defeat.

2026 FIFA World Cup Full Prize Money Breakdown
Group stage elimination: (places 33rd-48th: 16 teams): $9 million each
Round of 32 elimination: (places 17th-32nd: 16 teams): $11 million each
Round of 16 elimination: (places 9th-16th: 8 teams): $15 million each
Quarterfinal elimination: (places 5th-
8th: 4 teams): $19 million each
Fourth place: $27 million
Third place: $29 million
Runner-up: $33 million
Winner: $50 million

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 21

Handmade white sign with black letters that reads, “Shut up, Alexi”

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 21

☠️🪦

In contrast to the gormless agreeability and exhausting talkiness that reign on American TV, Henry is a wonderfully unimpressed on-screen presence, all raised eyebrows, frozen double takes, lip quivers and ashen shrugs. But he’s more than just an assembly of rehearsed gestures; he also has a lively mind and a sharp sense of humor. Whenever Titi’s sleek dome pops up on screen, you instantly know what you’re going to get: astute in-game observations, learned references to tactical history and a memorable facial expression or two. Lalas, to use a bit of managerial jargon for players of less refined talents, “offers something different”. Grating contrarianism, relentless jingoism, and a boorish insistence on America as the sport’s future constitute the core of his offering.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 21

I took advantage of the opportunity (and my kids did, too, getting all the free snacks CVS was giving away).

Autograph of Washington Spirit player Tara Rudd on her jersey (#9).

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 21

Photo of Washington Spirit player Tara Rudd with a stuffed animal coyote.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 21

The 2022 CBA signed by the USMNT & USWNT equalizes WC prize money paid to players. If the USMNT make it through the 2026 Men’s WC Round of 16, they’ll collect $19M for the pooled earnings. The TOTAL prize money for the 2019 Women’s WC was $30M. The USWNT took home $4M for winning in 2019.

The two CBAs, which run through 2028, achieve equal pay through identical economic terms. These economic terms include identical compensation for all competitions, including the FIFA World Cup, and the introduction of the same commercial revenue sharing mechanism for both teams. The agreements will ensure that U.S. Soccer’s Senior National Team players remain among the highest paid in the world.

Under these agreements, U.S. Soccer becomes the first Federation in the world to equalize FIFA World Cup prize money awarded to the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) and the U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) for participation in their respective World Cups.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 21

It helps there were only 13 teams from 3 continents and advancing past the group stage automatically qualified a team for the semifinals. Across the competition, 70 goals (3.89 per match) were scored. The U.S. advance out of group to the semis against Argentina and lost 6-1.

Screenshot from Wikipedia from the 1930 World Cup showing participation teams from the continents:

Asia (0)

Japan (withdrew)
Siam (withdrew)

Africa (0)

Egypt (missed ship)

North America (2)

Mexico
United States

South America (7)

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay (hosts)

Europe (4)

Belgium
France
Romania
Yugoslavia

Group 4 details showing the U.S. at the top with 2 games played, 2 wins, and 6 goals for for a total of 6 points.

The first World Cup was the only one without qualification. Every country affiliated with FIFA was invited to compete and given a deadline of 28 February 1930 to accept. The competition was originally planned as a 16-team knockout tournament with a potential second division if enough teams entered; however, the number of teams failed to reach 16, so there were no qualifications. Plenty of interest was shown by nations in the Americas; Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and the United States all entered. A total of seven South American teams participated, more than in any subsequent World Cup Finals. However, because of the long, costly trip by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and the length of absence required for players, very few European teams were inclined to take part as the effects of the Great Depression set in across the continent.[9] Some refused to countenance travel to South America in any circumstances,[10] and no European entries were received before the February deadline. In an

Two months before the start of the tournament, no team from Europe had officially entered.[14] FIFA president Rimet intervened and four European teams eventually made the trip by sea: Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia. The Romanians, managed by Constantin Rădulescu and coached by their captain Rudolf Wetzer and Octav Luchide, entered the competition following the intervention of the newly crowned King Carol II. He selected the squad personally and negotiated with employers to ensure that the players would still have jobs upon their return.[15] The French entered at the personal intervention of Rimet, but neither France's star defender Manuel Anatol nor the team's regular coach Gaston Barreau could be persuaded to make the trip.[16] The Belgians participated at the instigation of German-Belgian FIFA vice-president Rodolphe Seeldrayers.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 21

“A cancer researcher named Rachael Sirianni recently told NPR that the odds of securing funding for her promising drug combination for children with brain tumors was almost zero.”

A slow, heavy desert lizard called the Gila monster can go months between meals. In the early 1990s, a physician-scientist named John Eng grew curious about how it keeps its blood sugar steady across those long fasts. Working with modest funds at a Veterans Affairs hospital, he and a colleague studied the lizard’s venom and isolated a molecule that behaved like a human gut hormone, except that it lasted for hours instead of minutes.

Years later, a synthetic version of that molecule became the first of the GLP-1 drugs, the class of drugs the world now knows through Ozempic and Wegovy. They are reshaping how we treat diabetes and obesity and show promise for heart disease and other conditions. They are expected to save tens of thousands of lives a year, if not more. Dr. Eng’s discovery cost almost nothing.

The system that turned that lizard into a medicine is now being dismantled. In 2025, the Trump administration froze or canceled billions of dollars in research grants. Courts have forced the release of much of the frozen money, and Congress rejected proposed cuts to the agencies, but neither controls the checkbook. Over the past year and a half, the agencies have funded fewer grants nearly each month compared with previous years.

As Congress takes up next year’s budget, the Trump administration is pushing for even deeper cuts. Last month, the administration proposed a rule that would require federal grants to be approved by political appointees and to “demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities.” Under that rule, grant making may slow down even more.

$You cannot schedule the lizard’s gift, and you cannot rush the leukemia campaign. What we spend on such efforts is trivial compared with the rest of the federal budget. A single Tomahawk cruise missile runs about $3.6 million, roughly what it takes to fund one scientist’s multiyear grant. The entire National Science Foundation budget is less than what we spent in the first week of the war with Iran. The National Institutes of Health, the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, accounts for a fraction of 1 percent of all federal spending. The United States ranks 13th in the amount it spends on academic research as a portion of its overall economy among nations that report spending data to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The next era of security will be biological as much as military, and every major power knows it. China made biotechnology a national priority 20 years ago. Last year a bipartisan commission created by Congress warned that the United States has only a narrow window to avoid depending on Chinese laboratories for the next generation of medicines. Starving the basic research that feeds our biotechnology, while a rival sprints ahead, is an odd way to defend a country.$

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 14

FIFA has gone to great lengths to install grass playing surfaces at 8 of the 2026 men’s World Cup venues that have turf, including installing grow lights at indoor stadiums. None of the 2015 women’s World Cup matches were played at indoor stadiums, and 4 of the 6 venues had artificial turf.

The sod was grown on plastic, encouraging roots to spread sideways so the grass could be rolled up, transported, and installed like a living carpet.

Underneath, sand-based layers, drainage, ventilation, irrigation, and vacuum systems help control moisture and firmness.
The scale of the project is huge. All 11 U.S. host venues are NFL stadiums, and artificial-turf sites like Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, and Seattle needed major conversions. Vancouver's BC Place also required a temporary grass solution.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 13

Meanwhile….

davidgatepoet post on social media:

Is Alexi Lalas likeable in any way? No. But is he also an insightful pundit? No. But did he have a storied and successful soccer career? Also no.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 13

At the top, a photo from left to right of former players and now sportscasters Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Alexi Lalas

At the bottom, a cartoon of a three-headed, yellow dragon from left to right where the first two heads are intimidating and the third is goofy.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 12

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 12

@theathletic.com gets it right.

NYTimes The Atlantic notification alert on phone that reads, “From The Athletic
Canada, hosting a men's World Cup match for the first time, begins its campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Follow live.”

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 12

With the jaw retracted, I agree. But otherwise…

the most bizarre animal,” Jamieson, a co-author of the paper, said. “They have this incredible mouth that kind of protrudes down from the head, and does a kind of slingshot feeding thing.

“Everyone knows the goblin shark from its strange mouth. But when it’s alive, the mouth is actually completely retracted inside its head, so it’s just got a really pointy head.”

Goblin sharks are “arguably the ugliest shark on the planet”, said Prof Culum Brown, an expert in fish at Macquarie University.

“They are ridiculously horrendous to look at,” Brown said. “Not even their mother would love their faces.”

He said “they have these really weird long noses” and “bizarre protrudable jaws, so when they detect prey with their long snout, their jaws can shoot forward and grab on to it”.

“It’s like something out of a horror movie.”

The common name “goblin” is derived from a Japanese name, he said, which is based on a legendary creature with a long nose and red shiny cheeks.

They were an ancient species that have remained relatively unchanged for about 125m years, Brown said.

Goblin sharks have a long flabby body that can reach up to seven metres in length, and small fins.

Photo of a dead goblin shark with an oddly shaped, protruding mouth with haggle teeth above its long hornlike probidcus

Swishing through the deep sea, a goblin shark notices a small, yummy-looking squid. The animal inches toward its prey. But as the fish closes in, the snack starts to dart away. So the shark thrusts its jaw three inches out of its mouth! (The jaw is connected to three-inch-long flaps of skin that can unfold from its snout.) The predator then grabs the squid in its teeth. After scarfing down the meal, the shark fits its jaw back into its mouth and swims off.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 10

The 10 yellow cards and two red cards aren’t even the whole story. There were (I believe) 4 red cards issues to Brazil’s coaching staff in two instances, plus Kerolin got a red card after the final whistle. Oh, & Ary Borges was the only Brazilian player who went over & shook the refs’ hands.

Image showing 5 yellow cars and 2 red cards for Brazil, and 5 yellow cards for the United States. Screenshot from June 9th USAWNT vs Brazil WNT “friendly” match.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 8

@alyia4alx.bsky.social, what are the terms of the city’s parking enforcement contract? How are the contract workers incentivized? I just had to dispute a parking ticket that was improperly issued when I had an active ParkMobile session & another car was improperly ticketed at the same time.

Screenshot of Park Mobile session showing active session today from 4:56pm-6:01pm for a Toyota Highlander.

Screenshot of ParkMobile session at 6:00pm, showing active session about to end at 6:01pm for a Toyota Highlander.

Photo of parking ticket with some detailed redacted.

TICKET #4003877XXXX
ISSUED:
06/08/26
17:00 (5:00pm)
LIC # : XXXXXXX
Mon
LIC STATE: XXXXXX
VIRGINIA
LOCATION:
N WASHINGTON ST
Block #:
100
VEH MAKE:
TOYOTA
VEH TYPE: 4 DOOR AUTO VEH COL:
GRAY
VIOLATION:
10-4-23-Parking meter/pay station: parking overtime
FINE: $40
NOTES:
2 HOUR PAY PARKING
9AM- 9PM MON-SAT. NO METER RECEIPT DISPLAYED, PARK MOBILE, EXPIRED PAY
TO PARK RECEIPT

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 8

I have observed this bisexual lighting from New Zealand, Virginia, and New Mexico. @malwarejake.bsky.social, who will save the cows from this lighting?

A pink and yellow sunset reflected against clouds. In the foreground, several cows.

A bright pink and purple sunset. In the foreground, an artificially lit soccer field.

A deep magenta pink sunset against a dark, silhouetted foreground, which includes a prominent, far off volcanic neck (also known as a volcanic plug) feature.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 7

I was looking at over time. France’s 2025 score is full democracy, but it’s been more spotty in past years, with more years (just barely) in the Flawed Democracy ranking.

Screenshot from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index, which shows France was just below the full democracy threshold score of 8.0 in 4 of the past 8 years.

Questioning everything 🅅@thinksecure27· Jun 4

Taps sign (screenshot to show data courtesy of @xowngoals.com and comment from @jasondcsoccer.bsky.social )