If it were autonomous, you'd be free and clear. But this "semi-autonomous" bit leads me to believe you were semi-involved.

I would love to see you fix a board with a bad QFP with only a soldering iron. A hot-air rework station is a far more appropriate tool for removing said QFP if it is in need of replacement. We are talking about fixing broken electronics after all.

We call it "graffiti" these days. And, yes, I agree it is terrible.

A soldering iron? You are using the wrong tool. We have new tools for handling surface mount components that work just as well as a soldering iron does for through-hole work. Real humans can and do fix surface mount electronics.

Take it up with my lawyers: Dewey, Cheetham and Howe.

This is "the boat payment is due" theory of medical and automotive malpractice first postulated by Click and Clack, the Tappet Bros. This was later bolstered in a recent landmark article in JAMA. The upshot is when the doctor is away and unable to schedule unneeded costly procedures, the patient is more likely to survive. The corollary is that the doctors have their best interest in mind, not the patient's.

We need the global equivalent of a police force. We no longer live in a world divided by borders. We need an elected (not appointed) global government, with global laws, and with a world police force that can go after people whose crimes cross international boundaries.

OK.. now tell me one reason why this is a really bad idea. And then tell me how you would address that specific problem.

If you can't make a drinking game out of it, it's not worth playing.

It is time to start building out the martian rover maintenance infrastructure so these guys can be towed in for repairs and upgrades.

Economics. Cocaine was available in the U.S. for a long time and never had the market share that it had until the 1980s. It wasn't until the cost of marijuana became too high to transport and purchase that the switch to cocaine happened. Hash and heroin were equally expensive. Hash also requires marijuana to produce. At the same time Fat Albert was flying, the DEA was busy spraying marijuana fields, reducing crop yields and driving up the price of hash.

I am no expert, but my sense is that people gravitate towards the cheapest drug that will "do the trick" without getting in the way of a normal life. Alcohol, the official drug of the United States, doesn't do it for all of us. LSD is fairly inexpensive, but it requires a lot more free time than many of us have.

Fat Albert was used for drug interdiction. It bears responsibility for helping turn the '80s into the "Cocaine Decade" in the U.S. because it became much more difficult to import the the heavy and bulky drug marijuana into the U.S. through Florida. Instead, those involved in boot-legging drugs into the country switched to a lighter, more compact drug -- cocaine. This quickly led to the development of crack cocaine and the rest is history. As a kid growing up in the Keys back then, the cultural change this brought with it was immensely obvious.

I remember when Fat Albert, tethered in Cudjoe Key, broke free from its mooring. Jets were scrambled and shot it down.

It is also recently responsible for a deadly general aviation accident, when a Cessna 182 hit its mooring line.

Fat Albert is also used for US propaganda directed at the Cuban population (TV Marti). It was supposed to be decommissioned last year. I don't know if it is still there. You could see it from pretty much anywhere in the lower Florida Keys.

Dell 28 Ultra HD 4K Monitor on sale for $300. I don't know about you, but that is a very reasonable price to me. It is certainly not the best. You get what you pay for. But this one has the 4Ks.

'Tis the season!