My world for mod points here.

Fully agree.

The aspirational model is part and parcel of the Jobs myth. I am an Apple person I guess but that guy was a dick in many ways. The success he achieved is due to his ability to captivate users and consumers alike with notions of technological grandiosity. Often the peoe behind him could deliver on these whack ads promises. With the likes of people like Woz behind you, how could you fail?

When the guy at the top is ousted and no one has any goddamn clue what people want before they know they want it. That was Jobs' key insight

That said Apple tech has its problems. I like the walled garden for the same reasons I hate it. I often miss my PC days sometimes when I could mod hardware and software at will, damn the consequences and figure it out later if something fucked up. Apple doesn't let you do that anymore, if it ever did.

What you got instead was the same kung fu in a tighter package. If my skills were beyond advanced user level I might be more adventurous with Apple shit today, but for now I'm content to just take what I can get and not worry too much about it.

Long story short? Guy was obviously a master salesman. His engineering ability is not why people were mesmerized by him. He was simply able to put forth a usable, desirable tech vision for your everyday life, and made a convincing case for why this was so.

Goddamn autocorrect wessles to weasles

"The west coast ports for North America. are maxed out and need modernization to accommodate larger shipping vessals."

Don't you mean weasels?

The hipsters will love it.

...for politicians?

Jimmy Carter.

Flan.

Off-topic speculative answer: the old runways might help to retain or channel any moisture, more so than the surrounding area, giving more vegetation a chance to grow for a longer period of time.