Comments by "MacAdvisor" (@MacAdvisor) on "DownieLive"
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Yes, let's imagine the cost of purchasing the right-of-way all the way from downtown Seattle to downtown Portland. We can't use the existing rails, they belong to the freight company and the HSR train needs specialized tracks to handle the stresses of the speed. So, maybe $500 billion? Then another $100 billion to build it. Thus, we now have $5,000 ticket instead of a $60 ticket. Yay! That's progress. The sad fact is the time for building HSR has passed. For long distances, jets are simply vastly faster. For shorter trips, such as this one, autonomous vehicles will do the job far more conveniently. In the 20 years or so building a HSR would take, the vast majority of cars will drive themselves. I love trains myself. I take the Capitol Corridor train frequently and used to commute to work on it. It is great, but building a replacement HSR version is simply not feasible.
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Normally, Mike, your videos leave me with a smile. Today, I was crying at the end. I miss my father so much. He's been gone five years now and I have just barely leaned to bear the loss. The happy time with your dad brought back with full force how big a hole his death left in my life. He was a train buff, with an amazing model RR in his garage (it even went across the garage door, which could still rise up and let the cars in by a special disconnect system he created), and his real life train adventures. When he visited Promontory Summit where the Golden Spike was driven in, his buddies from the train club told the managers there he was the President of California's Golden State Railroad Club. That was true, but it only had five members and they were all with him. Still, because of his "prominence," the park people let him drive the train for a bit. He favorite train was the Skunk Train in Fort Bragg, one you should consider (the steam train there reminds me of the Hogwarts Express (https://www.skunktrain.com/days-of-steam/ )). I've ridden with him four or five times and he's ridden at least 100. My favorite times were just sitting in the door of the garage in these two big, green LazyBoy recliners he had there, watch the world go by, and just talk. This is in Sacramento, so this was almost always AFTER the sun goes down. You think Texas was hot, pshaw, that's sweater weather to us Sacramentans. He'd done so many things in his life and he was a great, loving, wonderful father. Please, do enjoy all the time you can with your mom and your dad while you can. Each second is precious. Thank you for one more train ride with my dad would have felt like.
Based on the name of the local paper, The Normalite, (see: http://www.normalite.com), I believe there are called Normalites. The collective noun for a group of Normalites is Normals.
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I have made so, so many mistakes in my life, some, I well and truly regret, others were some of the best memories of my life. I close friend of mine owned a coffee, tea, and bakery store. One day she was making her lemon bars when, unbeknownst to her, two pages in her recipe binder got stuck and she went from the lemon bar recipe to another, different recipe about halfway through. She wound up with something entirely new with lemons, almonds, and a lemon crunch topping. They made her store famous. The lemon crunch bars become the signature dish. Mistakes can advance human endeavors.
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In the busy world we all live in, I rarely get the time to say thank you to the people that have made this last horror of a year bearable, if not down right fun. You are one and near the top of the list. I loved your travel videos and all the train rides before the shutdown, but your exploration of Vancouver has been one of the brightest lights of the year. Each week, you take me away to BC and to a small, little known gem. Someplace not really famous, but fun and charming. I've seen the mosaic of your childhood artwork, friendly lamas, treehouse vacations, train hotel rooms, you family and so, so much more. All of them accompanied by your cheerful, upbeat style. Even in the worst moment, such as the suicide death of your friend, you found The Light and showed it to us. I don't know where I am going now that things may be getting back to normal, but I know I will always want to have your videos along with me.
Um, how did you get to drive a SkyTrain car if they are driverless?
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What is the Canadian term for boondoggle or scam? First, hydrogen is all-but universally made not from electrolysis (the process of breaking water into its component hydrogen and oxygen with electricity, NOT combining them back together as stated in the video), but is a byproduct of oil. Hydrogen puts the hydro in hydrocarbon.Thus, in widespread use, hydrogen is a carbon fuel. It just doesn't release the carbon at the point of use, but during creation during distillation. Second, Mike, while there may be a company in Quebec that makes hydrogen through electrolysis to supply this train, it is doing so at a greater cost than the hydrogen from oil. The needed electricity is much more expensive. Taking that electricity and storing it in a battery is vastly more efficient. So, the use of hydrogen costs more money, making the train more expensive to operate. Third, hydrogen is wildly difficult to store. Moving it about, from where the hydrogen is created to storing it on the train likely involves significant loss and very expensive tech. Again, moving the electricity from the dam to the train is so, so much easier by wires, most of which already exist, than building new distribution tubes for volatile hydrogen. Again, not cost effective. Fourth, hydrogen is VERY explosive. The tiniest spark can cause big explosions. Think Hindenburg. Think of that train burning in but a few minutes thanks to the hydrogen on top. A rail accident with that train could be disaster of unimagined proportions. Think of terrorists getting ahold of that much hydrogen and fashioning bomb. So, this train uses an expensive, oil-derived fuel, that is expensive to make, inefficient and dangerous to move about, and adds unnecessary and extra layers of unneeded tech. It is a Rube Goldberg train.
Hydrogen is the fuel of the future and always will be. It is too impractical to be used. You got punked by some PR person.
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My late father loved trains, model trains, real trains, train-shaped liquor bottles, whatever. He just loved trains. Sacramento, where we live, has a great train museum and he went regularly. One summer, he was traveling with his wife (my step-mom, who I adore) and his buddy from high school, Darryl. They went to Promontory Point, Utah, to Golden Spike National Historical Park. It preserves 2,735 acres of land surrounding a 15-mile stretch of the original Transcontinental Railroad (hint, hint, travel blogger). Dad was president of his local model railroaders club, the Capital City Railroad Club, which sound impressive, but was really just eight guys who got together once a month to eat snacks and play with their trains. Darryl called the press office and told them the President of the world-famous Capital City Railroad Club was coming and arranged all sort of extras. I don't know if the press office thought he was with our railroad museum or something, but they not only let Dad and crew into the cab of one of the steam locomotives they use to re-create the joining of the Transcontinental Railroad, but actually let him drive the train for a while. They gave him an engineers hat and the whole nine yards. They had a ball and Dad had the time of his life.
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Mike, are you stalking my friends?!?! Last week you showed a picture of my friend Rob's house in San Francisco and NOW you showed a picture of my friends Brian and Chuck's (at 3:32) place in Palm Springs! Had I known to let them know you were coming, they've got a fabulous guest room with its own kitchenette, front entrance, and en suite. Chuck is a great cook and would have made you some of his famous home-made pasta in their outdoor kitchen while you took a swim in their pool. Sadly, because you didn't give me a heads up, you missed out.
Also, the period in your quote on traveling goes within the quotation marks, not outside, even if they are not part of the quote. This is true for periods as well. Colons and semi-colons go outside, even if part of the quote. Exclamation marks and question marks go within if part of the quote, outside if not. Please see: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-life-hacks/writing/quotation-mark-rules
Last, the thing Albuquerque is most known for is not hot air balloons, but where Bugs Bunny should have taken that left. Please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8TUwHTfOOU
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First, I hate to sound the alarm, but I think you may need to see a doctor. There appears to be some odd growth on your upper lip. It might be a fungal infection or molting of the skin, but you should really have it checked out soon, Michael. 😜
Second, >>sigh<<, I would rather hope a member of the Commonwealth of Nations would know high tea from low tea. High tea, despite the name, is not fancy. It is a late midday meal that is more like supper. It is called "high" tea because it is generally self-service from a buffet or highboy and would typically have meat pies and full sandwiches. Low tea is the fancy tea, served by the host from a low table, like a coffee table, to the guests, often using the family silver and fine china. Low tea would have small sweets and savories, but would be a light meal. It is generally an intimate, more formal gathering. Various hotels, catering to American ignorance, have promoted "high tea" as a formal event, when that is not really the case.
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The first item you ate was an apple fritter, not a donut. A donut, by definition, is a small fried cake of sweetened dough in the shape of a torus. There also isn't such thing as vegetarian gravy. Again, but definition, gravy is a sauce made from cooked meat juices together with stock and other ingredients. Billions and billions of years ago, when I was in seventh grade, my class did an exchange with some Vancouver students. As part of the experience, I attended a Canadian Boy Scouts meeting. I was shocked when we started by singing, "God Save the Queen." Whoa, I was in a different country. At the end of the meeting, out came a plate of those Nanaimo bars. I loved them and have never since been able to find anyone who knew what I was talking about and I didn't know what they were called. I thought they were called Nana bars. Finally, at long last, thanks to you, Mike, I know what they are called and can order some. After a half a century, I will again taste my beloved Nanaimo bars. Thank you.
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I, too, don't know where you are going next, but life is about the journey, not the destination. So, wherever you go next, I want to be there with you. Thank you, again, for a wonderful video, beautiful scenery, and just a tiny smidgen of life philosophy.
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Today I did something I never, ever wanted to do and never, ever really want to do again. My best friend of 30 years had lost her battle with cancer. She barely made it, but she took her death with dignity medication and died as I held her hand. We had a Zoom meeting where her friends and family gathered to tell her how much they loved her. She then drank the cocktail and as we (me, her doula, her only child, and his wife) held her, she quickly passed into a deep sleep, then a non-responsive coma. Fifty-five minutes later, she entered immortality. I know this may seem way off topic, but eight hours have passed and I've just sat here numb. I decided to watch your video and thought of those wonderful places. Joyce would have loved them so. Thank you, Michael. You added a good thing to a not great day. I hope I never lose someone again.
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Hydrogen cars are the future and always will be. First and foremost, virtually ALL of the hydrogen available in the world, Canada included, is produced as part of fossil fuels. Hydrogen puts the "hydro" in "hydrocarbons." It is a part of the oil industry, not a clean fuel. Can it be produced by clean means, electrolysis? Yes, but it is not economically efficient to do that except in Iceland. Second, hydrogen is wildly explosive, several times more explosive than gasoline. You think the bombs terrorists make with diesel fuel and fertilizer are bad, wait till you can see what they do with hydrogen. Having hydrogen widely and generally available is not just asking, but begging, for trouble. So, a hydrogen car doesn't help with global warming AND it arms terrorists with better explosives. No thank you. The cars are a terrible idea.
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