Mountebank

What if OP hosts an actual picnic with his actual friends, but they dressed up like homeless people? Would that cause some sort of loophole implosion?

It would maybe place the burden on the police to verify whether or not the people are actually homeless. Maybe OP can turn it into a flash mob sort of situation.

Yeah, from what I've read when applying for graduate schools, an offer for an unfunded position is like a polite rejection. They're saying that you're good enough to get in, but there's not enough money for you. You get to say that you got accepted to School X, but they don't actually expect you to attend, and if you do, free money!

As they watched the minute-by-minute Nielsen ratings of the pilot

They can do that?

The way she phrased the title made people think she was more important than she was. They thought she was a PI (Principal Investigator) or a Research Scientist, i.e. the people with PhDs who lead labs, get funding, design experiments, and come up with new ideas. Instead, she's a research assistant whose role is to help others do their experiments (do the grunt work).

A 22-year-old PI or Research Scientist would be a prodigy, but a 22-year-old research assistant is a normal position for someone that age to have.

Last time I was in China around 2000 my mom's hometown just installed traffic lights and no one paid any attention to them. Also, for whatever reason, everyone kept blaring their horns even if there was no one nearby. I remember leaving the aquarium and getting into my mom's friend's car--the second she turned the key, she started hitting the horn even though we were the only car in the parking lot.