As an Engineer, I can only say if it works, it works! 8-)

I also have a drip coffee machine, and I like the coffee it makes. But I also have a thermos caraff, with the old style vacume bottle for insulation. Pour the remaining coffee immediatly into that and have fresh coffee anytime over the next 6 hours or so, even easier than the Kureg. But does get a bit cooler before quitting time. 8-)

For the ship, thats a word from a different language that only sounds the same.

When you use a pair of "shears" to cut the wool from a sheep, it is refered to as "shearing the sheep". The sheep usually survive! 8-)

Just because you learned differently, does not mean that what you are accustomed to is either right or universal.

If you think your nice city water is any better, then you should check the latest report from your water authority.

When I lived "up north", one of the nearby towns issued a "boil order" to the citizens. There was a big news event and much screaming about "what happened?".

The head of the local water authority came on TV and said that there was no need to worry. "The levels have been just below the limits for years, so it has not changed much." "Um... What?" 8-}

Known for 100 years, as a bad problem. Wells now days are much deeper and sealed from surface contamination.

However, you could have an important point. If the homeowner's well is leaking at the top, contamination could drain -down- into the well. Which is very dangerous, even without any fracking. If the company spills liquid on the ground, it could move with the water table to the leaking well, but so could anything else! Not good!

Usually used raw, even now. No it has not always been safe, but much better these days.

You have hit most of the points, but there is one thing. Before WWI wells were often down to the water table, like the stone wells with the bucket and crank handle. But more recently most water wells are much deeper, usually below a layer of rock, so that they are protected from surface contamination. I think the wells around here go down 500 to 1000 feet. (?)

Mineral content tasts bad and makes build-up on things, but is not usually harmful. See "Artesian Well". Bacteria, which can be harmful, is not usual that deep. And it can be harder to remove from the water, unless you boil it. I think Reverse Osmosis is to remove minerals, not bacteria. (But maybe both?)

That is true, if you go by the original meaning of "Liberal" at the time.

The mistake is in thinking that "Liberal" still means the same thing now.

Back in the late 60's, when the Russians and North Vietnamese had agents here trying to sway public opinion against the war, many people were influenced by them and the methods that were taught. When they realised that such methods, where the "end justified the means", could get them power and money, then they adopted those methods of controlling the public. I was there and watched it.

I used to consider myself a liberal, but I could not go along with that. So now I am sort of stuck in the middle...

An old saying:
"Anyone who is a republican before the age of 30 has no heart. But, anyone who is democrat after the age of 30 has no brain!"
(Probably wrongs both parties.)

Don't be silly. Just because everyone that you know lives in a big city, does not mean that everyone does, or even wants to.

Where I live, only the people in the middle of town have "city water". All else have wells and septic tanks. In other places known as "green living". 8-)
Some are pretty high-tech, too.

Of course, they don't have to pay as much to the local government. But have you seen how much repairing a septic tank costs? Ick!!
I was glad to get a house in town...

Thats quite true. However the problem was not with the "push", but rather with the idea that they must push against the whole world to get anywhere.

If the scientists of the time had just explaned it as "pushing against the exhaust", I think things would have been a lot easier! 8-)

The first rule is: Learn more than one language!

If you can do more than one, then you will know how to learn others as necessary.
If you only know one, then you can get "stuck in a corner". And vulnerable to "if all you have is a hammer, then every thing you meet looks like a nail."

And anyway, knowing something others do not can be, with a little luck, quite valuable. 8-)

The human mind codes memory by keying to the items already in memory. If your memory does not include the needed items, it will use similar ones or just "not see" them.

You are describing the "not see" problem. But the keying to similar items is even worse, sometimes. We can remember things that were never there! Or that were quite different.

Study a bit of modern physics and electronics, and then say again what is plausable.

Electricity is totally implausable, and I am an Electrical Engineer, so I know it.

It is not what you are used to. But that does not mean it is bad.
The reason people read fantasy and SF is to spend some time in a -different- world.

Um ... Anti-aircraft artillery? Or the magical equivelent. 8-)

Actually, we know several ways to bend space, they just bend it in different "dimensions". Magnetic fields, electric fields and several others bend space.

Even if the EM drive bends space, that will probably be quite different than the bend we would need for a faster-than-light drive.