Which would be fine, except the DC FRZ (flight restriction zone) is a 30-mile circle around the Capital within which it is illegal to fly ANY remote control device of any kind. Includes "drones" as well as those toy RC helicopters at the mall kiosks, and the sort of RC planes that people have been flying around for many decades. Some tourist flying a quad in DC is in for a very rude awakening, as has already happened.

Wouldn't matter. Do you understand how small the White House grounds are, and how fast even a modest quad can fly when it means business? I've got one that can do over 40mph. That would cover the distance from the sidewalk in front of the White House to the middle of the typical speech-giving area of the Rose Garden in well under 8 seconds. A drone flying waypoints - with no need for a human controller nearby or watching - could be moving that fast well before it gets to the White House fence, and be coming in 200' overhead, be above a high-profile press event in seconds, cut power and drop like a stone spewing a mist of cesium or a nice cloud of serin or laden with a nice little brick of C4, and it would be on the ground in the middle of that speech/ceremony so fast you'd have no ability to do something about it. Except maybe light it up with some sort of automated buckshot gatling gun, right in the middle of a busy urban area.

This is going to result in a lot more events being held indoors.

We went to the moon because we were in a (cold) war with the Soviet Union at the time.

We started to the moon because JFK needed a spectacular - but once the cost estimates started coming in, he started seriously considering backing off. We went to the moon because JFK took a bullet to the head allowing LBJ to push it (and the associated pork) as a monument to JFK.
 

Once the Soviets cancelled their moon missions, so did we

Apollo was essentially cancelled in the budget battles of '65-'67. The Soviets didn't get serious about their lunar programs until around '66-'67. (And most of them weren't cancelled until '72 or so.)

As great as Apollo was for tangible technology spin offs

Other than NASA press releases and articles written based on them - I have yet to see any actual evidence this is true.

That is true, I am wasting my time, since you don't even understand what you are saying, you think there is a consensus, but you don't know what that consensus is.

If you understood what there is consensus on, then you would be more interesting to talk to. Instead you're just ignorant to talk to.

If you have a CS degree from a decent university, you're competing with entry-level grads who just barely took an eight-week-course in programming from some coding bootcamp.

Somehow those guys manage to find jobs, and a CS degree is already more skilled than them.

The consensus isn't what you think it is. That is, if you ask scientists, "should we do everything possible to stop global warming now" or "will global warming cause millions of deaths in the next century," you will not get anywhere near 97%.

If a product ships broken but has an "unbreak" checkbox, it still ships broken.

Is a switch from a "feature phone" to a smartphone counted as a switch or a first time?

Hence the walled garden and "ecosystem" approach by apple. There are many people that don't want to figure out which phone/tablet/laptop is good and bad. They know if they buy an Apple product it will be good. They don't sell junk. Sure it's overpriced if you compare specs to Android phone/tablet or Windows laptop but you also don't need to do hours of research to see if the product you are looking to get sucks.

This. It's not about being l33t or a hipster or any of the other patronizing bull so often tossed about here on Slashdot.

I bought my first iPhone because (at the time) the app that finally caused me to pull the trigger and move up to a smart phone was only available on the iPhone. I've replaced it every two years since (buying one version back on sale when the new version comes out) and plan on continuing to do so for the forseeable future. Why? Because it Just Bloody Works. I come home, plug my new phone into my (Windows) computer, open iTunes, and with a few clicks my new phone is identical to my old phone. In, out, and done.

My experience in buying my Android tablet just confirmed that this was the way to keep going. Didn't want an iPad, because they were too expensive for modest needs... and trawling through dozens of models and hundreds of reviews trying to discern the truth ended up being a massive PITA.

Each house of Congress also has to act every two years in order to set its rules. The requirement of a periodic formality to prevent copyrights from expiring does not change the practical outcome, just as the requirement of a periodic formality to readopt House and Senate rules every two years does not keep the House and Senate from having rules.

And the Gershwin estate. And the leadership of the Motion Picture Assocation of America (to find sources, search the web for the phrase "forever less one day"). And Dr. Seuss Enterprises, whose argument in its Eldred amicus was that an author and his heirs deserve royalties from adaptations of the author's work to media invented decades after the work's first publication.

I thought the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed indentured servitude. And even if these programs are structured not to qualify constitutionally as indentured servitude, how do they handle a graduate who faces structural unemployment in positions related to his degree?

How many streaming music and video services does your preferred media player support? And how can a new streaming music or video service arrange to be supported in your preferred media player? Finally, how should a browser-based video game play its music and sound effects? Or is the concept of a "browser-based video game" itself abhorrent to you?