Someone involved in the movie wanted to visit there, so why not have the movie pay for it? As a bonus, you get to stomp around on your own instead of having to do what those pesky guides tell you to do.

Film crews can be pretty destructive.

This is about people wanting what is happening on the island to be transparent, like it should be.

"Are you kidding me?"

No.
" Several weeks for an impact assessment?"
Yes.
" Does that strike anyone else as a bit over the top?"
Not really. OTOH, I know what is involved in an impact assessment, where you clearly do not.
I will note that I've never been to this island. So maybe there is some geological reason you are aware of when you where surveying the island...?

He is an expert in the species, and wants to be sure their disturbance is a minimal one.

ob. Star Wars joke:
Bleep, booop beedadbee blooeeeuuup.

That really cracked them up in the droid factory.

Yes, becasue banks behave so well without regulation.

1) Contacts.

No.
As a member of ACM, and former member of Mensa, I assure you the people at ACM are far more professional and nice.

I do.
Sorry, but if you aren't checking quotes, you are probably being mislead in most conversations.

1) Looks good on a resume
2) They have actual course to learn something instead of groping around the internet looks for some code snippet to use
3) They have a ton of reading material
4) Good publication hat aren't on google.
5) Research done by professionals
6) Contacts
7) SIGs
8) Scotch? Wait let me guess..you have a beard, and you wear a trilby.

Not that you need to join just pointing out some advantages.

You can keep getting your snippets of VB code from the internet, and I'll keep reading latest research on AI and email the actual researcher with questions.

I'm not an academic, but I am a member of ACM. There is some great content there.
I get more then my money's worth.

It actually seems like it is bad thing.
IF it goes to the UN, it will the be parted to to different groups.

Going to the UN is a way to splinter the internet. So right now, the US does look like the best practical option. Unless you want different countries to dictate the rules for different parts of the internet.

As a motorcyclist, I'm deeply excited by driverless cars. It's probable they are much MUCH less likely to SMIDSY me than the typical inattentive phone using car driver.

On a point of pedantry, Concorde was fly by wire. It was the first airliner to be fly by wire (although an analogue system).

The highways (motorways) are actually the safest roads. In the UK only 4% of accidents happen on those roads and they are rarely fatal (while the absolute speeds are high, the impact speeds are often low because it's an impact between two vehicles going in the same direction, and there are safety features of the motorways themselves that try to avoid any accident resulting an a vehicle coming to a sudden stop). The same is likely true in the US.

I've lived in both the US and UK, and I can say that the reason the USA has 13.6 and the UK rate is less than half really is due to US drivers being *a lot worse* than UK drivers. Also there are other factors, such as the lenient treatment of drunk drivers in many US states, leading to people not really being deterred from driving drunk. I saw a lot of people driving obviously drunk in the 6 years I lived in the USA. In the UK, you get done for drunk driving you actually lose your license and have to retake the (very strict) driving test again, and you lose your license for a long period (e.g. 2 years) and a high probability of a prison sentence, and the ban really is a ban, no "you may still drive to your place of work", so there is a very strong deterrent against drunk driving. Second offence and you definitely go to prison as well as have an even lengthier driving ban.

Most new cars in the UK will have throttle by wire, and with direct petrol injection the butterfly valve will be gone too.

Not only that there are cars that now have steer by wire. There is a manual reversion mechanism (a clutch that is electrically held open, so it fails safe if electrical power fails, or can be engaged if the system detects a problem with the steer by wire system).