I quit years ago because I was going to school for aerospace engineering and knew I’d need a security clearance at some point

Years of bottled up dreams rising to the surface all at once was WILD

Yup some Daoist secs historically believed semen contains life force. Via “retention of the semen”, a man could maintain his vital life force and slow aging. However, having sex would generate life force. So you could extend your life by having sex as much as possible while controlling how often you ejaculate.

That’s absolutely false. I have personally tested a range of different steep times and the difference in taste is obvious. If you can’t taste the difference your taste buds must be fried or something.

Pressing down on the piston does not provide a meaningful amount of pressure; this has been proven by people instrumenting aeropresses which provide more back pressure than an espresso. Extraction is objectively time dependent, it has been extensively discussed and really isn’t up for debate at all.

You are supposed to wait a few minutes before plunging and decanting French press though. If you are just pressing it and serving your French press coffee must be absolutely terrible.

A decent drip maker with a timer will make better coffee than you are making and also be less work on top of it. Wake up to fresh hot coffee, done

Okay? How is that relevant?

Basically nobody in the current era is suggesting ethanol as an alternative to any of the things you are mentioning, and realistically ethanol is not being used as a primary fuel source. Most cars can’t even take E85 without modifications. It’s used as a fuel additive, for which is has significant public health benefits, and for industrial uses like a perfumery ingredient or a solvent

It’s valuable for reducing smog and makes great fuel for performance cars

He certainly has tenure:

Also, it’s engineers who land robots on other planets, not scientists

Yup. I regularly have to travel flagstaff to Denver, and it would take me over two days to make the trip.

I have another thread in here talking about cost, but just the mileage fees for a trip on a car you own can be a significant percentage of the cost of chartering a plane. If you rent the car it can cost significantly more.

Owning a private rail car is a bit like owning a superyacht; it’s not a particularly fast or practical form of travel but it can be luxurious and fun so people with money do it anyways.

It’s FAR more expensive than vans. For comparison, a fully renovated carriage could cost in the neighborhood of $1M, and Amtrak mileage fees are in the neighborhood of $5/mil. Renting a private car is around $15k per day per car, including mileage fees.

For comparison San Diego to San Francisco is a one day trip by train and about 600 miles. So, you’d be paying in the neighborhood of $2500 for those miles if you own the car, and $15k for charter. You could charter a private turboprop airplane to go that same distance for around $7000. Add in that some private car owners will string multiple cars together, and it can easily exceed the cost of just going by private plane even if you own the cars and charter the plane.

At the end of the day, it’s like having a superyacht—it’s rarely the most affordable or practical route but it is fun and luxurious so rich people do it anyway.

Man you seem to be very negative about this.

I guarantee you that most tourists don’t even leave the rim of the grand canyon at all. They walk around the visitors center for an hour and go home. Go more than 1000’ down from the rim and it’s not particularly crowded at all.

I can’t comment on Europe, like the previous poster—America has far more wide open wilderness than Europe does in general—but if in the USA there are still countless places where you can backpack for days without seeing a single person. There are also plenty of easier hikes with beautiful views that only see a few visitors a day. Just need to put in the footwork to find them. You won’t find them by staying at home and complaining about other hikers.