I have just returned from my last journey travelling by plane. Part of the reason for the decision not to fly anymore is the climate and the CO2-monster. I have this immense unease about warm weather and have chosen to believe the 95% of scientists who claim fossil fuels to be the culprit (together with cement production) in this years European hell on Earth heat wave. But I was never really fond of flying anyway and am now looking forward to the unorthodox ways I have to invent to go see other places.
First of all flying is cramped, smelly, embalms my body with pressure cabin a/c and has this unpredictable commotions - like riding a rollercoaster blindfolded. But flying is also so God damn unromantic. (On that note I acknowledge @ocrdu's arguments championing the gasoline engine. The combustion engine is coarse, stinking, noisy, ineffective and inelegant, but it has this aura of manliness, freedom and roadside kills that in the end makes up for all the shortcomings.)
Planes lost all that when it became safe and cheap and commercials like these started to show up.
I know that train commercials (as far as anybody even tries to promote railways these days) use the same impotent sticky sauce IKEA globalist glamour to sell tickets, but Marlene Dietrich, and Hitchcock doesn't rub off that easily.
Furthermore you can sit in a train in suit and tie reading a book, and when you reach your destination you will immediately leave the train as a free man standing on a piss-stinking platform complete with junkies and art nouveau pillars in the centre of a European metropolis, or on a deserted, rainy intermediate station somewhere in the countryside waiting to be picked up by a deaf old man in a rusty Toyota Corolla.
When you are flying you have to be herded around for hours both before and after the actual trip in these bland modern airports made by suicidal architects, and you have to do it together with people openly wearing the Neck Pillow!
But now I went and did it anyway as I had to go to South Africa with my family to see the place due to... things that would reveal too much about my secret identity! But a necessary journey it was and now I am back I am glad it was such a good experience. Especially considering I just participated in killing the climate that suits us mammals.
I remember those days, now long gone. They tried to charge customers for taking a shit, but alas.. human rights issues got in the way.
For the air we breathe.. same thing. !CHOPS 5
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I knew a Swede when I lived in the Faroe Islands who never could manage to stay sober on the two hour flight from Copenhagen to Vágar. Once he even made such a fuzz that the police waited to pick him up at the airport.
He had a wonderful girlfriend (also a Swede) and after the incident I asked her if something was wrong with him (I had somehow gotten the idea that he had lost a family member, constantly looking down at the ground and answering with as few syllables as possible). Then she told me the story through gritted teeth and her eyes revealed that the 1 month sex embargo punishment was in effect.
No wonder he looked so sad and introvert.
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I'm always up for a little on the plane, helps me sleep. I'll need some for the Bangkok trip in November. A long one that...
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As long as you avoid the embargo all will be fine.
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Welcome back, you :) I am not fond of traveling by aeroplanes either, but it is often the only way I can travel in and out of Australia :3
Trains are much, much better, I think. MUCH BETTER.
And now you are back home, I look forward to seeing more posts from you again :D :D :D
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Yes, the long trips are almost impossible without flying. But who knows how things are working ten years from now? Maybe it will be both more environmentally clean and comfortable - I know that they are working hard on new solutions here. But for the time being I will travelling more locally. There are many things I would like to see in my neighbouring countries anyway, so Sweden, Norway, France and maybe England are on the list.
I will start making things here again soon, and I also plan to be more active on the network as such.
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See? I knew you would see reason.
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Nothing beats manliness.
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Fortunately, we are entering an ice-age.
But, unlike all those "school" text books said, it is not an era of cold.
First you have a very hot time, where lots of water gets turned into clouds (where do the glaciers come from if it is just cold).
So, the planet could use all the CO2 we can make.
But, people like Al Gore want to tax people for breathing, because they love taxes.
So, you were down in South Africa smuggling out "precious commodities" before they could be...
Well, i am glad you are alive and well.
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Yes, we are in one of the ice age interim periods and we will probably delay the next one (due 50,000 years or so from now) with all this heating.
South Africa is an industrialized nation so there's not many precious commodities to bring out. That would be more like DR Congo. After 10 years of Jacob Zuma's presidency sadly the economy looks bleak and they struggle to keep up the GDP - I talked to a lot of people and many of them were immigrants from as far of as Senegal and Ethiopia which adds to problem with unemployment. So compared to our Danish Crowns the Rand is pretty cheap.
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Hi katharsisdrill, this write-up was particularly meaty, fulfilling, wholesome, beefy and deserving of a CHOPS token. Don't Chomp on it all at once!
To view or Trade CHOPS visit steem-engine.com
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Thanks, mate! I will have to look into this new and wondrous thing.
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This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
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Hi katharsisdrill, this write-up was particularly meaty, fulfilling, wholesome, beefy and deserving of a CHOPS token. Don't Chomp on it all at once!
To view or Trade CHOPS visit steem-engine.com
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Welcome back. I do feel like a sheep when I fly as you get herded around and have to walk miles. I prefer a train any day, but they can be expensive. Flying is ridiculously cheap. I am disinclined to fly any more than absolutely necessary. Hope to see fresh work from you soon.
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It would be nice if EU could agree on making the intercapital connections for trains cheaper and more effective. The tracks are there and I have heard a lot of people who have checked out if they could go from Copenhagen to Paris or Rome by train. But sadly it is almost impossible or at least very expensive and cumbersome.
As for flying I have heard, that the cheap prices on flying is due to the airlines not paying any taxes on fuel (or at least not as much as cars do). If they did it would make a ticket remarkably more expensive.
We'll see. I have decided not to fly for all the above reasons and I kind of like the difficulties in having to change my ways. I am not sure I will never fly again. Maybe it will be necessary. But as for now I will see where this will bring me. I arranged a bicycle holiday some year ago for the whole family (around 20 people including the little legion of grandchildren my parents have collected) - it was a wonderful way of travelling through a landscape (yes, both sun and rain and windy and quiet) and I am sure cycling and walking will be included in some of the next family holidays.
I will start drawing as soon as I am done with some pressing office-work :)
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I'd like to do a cycling holiday. Will have to see if the family are up for it
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My family were sceptical and every time something went wrong or was unpleasant my sister said, it was you who had the idea! She had a great time pointing that out. She has a vicious humour. But a few month later my teenage nephew asked me where we should go on bike-holiday next year.
I have been looking at good cycle routes and am considering both Värmeland in Sweden and the Loire valley in France.
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BTW Have !BEER and !CHOPS
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I just logged in... this place always have new things you need to get your head around!
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The tokens are taking off. There's a Creative Coin that could apply to your work.
The beer one may not be working.
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I bought 25 Chops and 25 Creative coins - and I have a standing order for 1 Beer. I need to get a bit more steem to trade more.
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