A tossup between books 7-10 of the Wheel of Time series. I gave up half way through book 10 and resent the time that I wasted on the series. 20 years later I still recall the desperate hope that the next chapter/book would advance the storyline, only to be greeted with more subplots, stupid things happening because of characters inability/unwillingness to communicate, and overly verbose descriptions of every little thing.

I hear the final books, written by a different author, were much better.

About 30% in Europe/US; half that in China.

Electricity consumption drops sharply during the night - when wind power typically peaks. There are power companies that offer substantially cheaper rates at night for charging EVs for this very reason.

“Most BEVs are charged over night, where only Hydro or Geothermal makes power”

Maybe in Iceland; anywhere with wind and nuclear power, this really is not the case.

This just seems like hand-wringing for the pitiful state of the rail system in the USA. A country can have many dense population centres separated by large distances, making HSR viable and worthwhile, but still have low population density overall - just like the USA. The only real obstacle is political will/public support.

Western China has around half the population density of the USA but is already served by a 1,900km HSR line.

For most of the year, Assam (loose leaf) with a splash of milk; when it’s available, first flush Darjeeling.