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[Calidovi]

Yeah, people rarely get the size of it.

And then some.

Quick question: Are those sizes using the Mercator projection? If so, the sizes are going to be super screwy.

The projection appears to be mercator, but the area is taken from the km^2 value instead of the typical map view.
Case in point.

On a side note, I reviewed the Gall-Peters projection and it still really bothers me.

[scriver]

Doesn't gall-peters cause the exact same problem as mercator, but in the opposite way?

[Helgoland]

"Hey look, there's so much rainforest left - chopping down just a bit more can't be too bad."

[JoshuaFH]

I don't get nightmares very often, but when I do they share common themes. Last night it was about travelling to a place far out into the ocean, then just diving straight down into the water, and just falling into the watery blackness. I'm never sure why my dreamself keeps doing this, but it's always terrifying. Water pressure and air never seem to be issues, it's always me getting surrounded by increasingly alien and hostile creatures. Sharks, squids, octopuses, but there's always something off about them that makes them look like horrifying. Then it gets to shit I can't recognize and I start struggling extremely hard to get back to the surface, but I'm still isolated from the whole rest of the world because I basically just took a row boat out into the far deep ocean by myself.

Other than that, the only other repeating them of my dreams is car crashes.

[Orange Wizard]

The Gall-Peters projection is disgusting.

[Tawa]

The Gall-Peters projection is disgusting.

To quote xkcd:

[If your favorite map projection is Gall-Peters]
I hate you.

[Sirus]

I hate this time of year for one simple reason: produce trucks. There are literally hundreds of them on the road, and the vast majority of them are driven (and I use that term loosely) by complete dipshits.

Like the one I saw yesterday, where the driver had set up either a tablet or a small TV on the dashboard and was watching videos. While driving. On a busy freeway. At night.
Or the one today, who thought it would be a good idea to merge into the right lane of the freeway from the shoulder at maybe 10 mph while I was coming up behind him doing more than five times that speed. I couldn't get into the left lane because of cars, and I couldn't slow down in time without burning the brakes and/or tires. The only reason I avoided damage was because I managed to take a convenient exit.

[Yoink]

You can pick a really interesting region, like SE Idaho/Wyoming. Then you can visit Yellowstone and all of the old calderas and Craters of the Moon, all the other volcanoes. Hell's canyon, maybe? Still a couple days total.

Eh, I'm starting out in the southwestern corner of the country... I doubt I'll make it up that far, unfortunately.
Heck, a lot of the places I've looked up that I wanna go to are in the southwestern bits, but it's still really far from anywhere else.

Pretty much the most cost-effective way to explore is via car - for reference, I just took a ~300 mile (480 km) camping trip (this took me to the middle of my state from the northern edge) that cost a total of 300 USD, including the campsite, food, and fuel. The trip took about half a day each way. Any other option would have been more expensive, taken twice as long, or both. Even with the cost of renting a car, you'll get the most done by that method.

I myself don't have a license, and even though family members who are coming with me can drive, I'm not sure of the legalities involved with driving in the US as a foreigner. The differences in road rules seem like they'd be a pretty huge problem, anyway.

Thanks for the advice, though, guys.
Now I should probably make a start on packing...

[Calidovi]

I myself don't have a license, and even though family members who are coming with me can drive, I'm not sure of the legalities involved with driving in the US as a foreigner. The differences in road rules seem like they'd be a pretty huge problem, anyway.

Thanks for the advice, though, guys.
Now I should probably make a start on packing...

I wish you well on Southern highways, or at least Texan highways.

[Akura]

Just saw a bug that looked like a tiny scorpion, except instead of pincers it had wings.

[Spehss _]

Just saw a bug that looked like a tiny scorpion, except instead of pincers it had wings.

Clearly, they're evolving.

[acetech09]

You can pick a really interesting region, like SE Idaho/Wyoming. Then you can visit Yellowstone and all of the old calderas and Craters of the Moon, all the other volcanoes. Hell's canyon, maybe? Still a couple days total.

Eh, I'm starting out in the southwestern corner of the country... I doubt I'll make it up that far, unfortunately.
Heck, a lot of the places I've looked up that I wanna go to are in the southwestern bits, but it's still really far from anywhere else.

Pretty much the most cost-effective way to explore is via car - for reference, I just took a ~300 mile (480 km) camping trip (this took me to the middle of my state from the northern edge) that cost a total of 300 USD, including the campsite, food, and fuel. The trip took about half a day each way. Any other option would have been more expensive, taken twice as long, or both. Even with the cost of renting a car, you'll get the most done by that method.

I myself don't have a license, and even though family members who are coming with me can drive, I'm not sure of the legalities involved with driving in the US as a foreigner. The differences in road rules seem like they'd be a pretty huge problem, anyway.

Thanks for the advice, though, guys.
Now I should probably make a start on packing...

Shonus is right. We're so goddamn spread-out that it's very hard to get anywhere without a car. You can probably get by in San Francisco without driving, and L.A. if you really have patience. While it's sometimes possible to commute using public transit (I bike 2 miles to a train station, take a 20 mile train, then 2 miles to work), as a tourist it would be especially hard.

[Helgoland]

East coast cities are better with public transportation, no?

[SalmonGod]

I think even in places that have decent access to public transportation, there are very, very few where it's actually a convenient, timely method of getting around.  Most likely, you will have to travel a few miles to get to the pick-up point, and you'll be dropped off a few miles from your destination... and you'll be lucky if there are decent sidewalks on your walk to and from.  Most likely, you'll be walking along the very narrow shoulder of a busy street, worrying about shitty drivers coming dangerously close to you.  My drive to work is about 15 minutes, and I would be willing to do it by bicycle, except doing so wouldn't seem safe to me at all.

[Orange Wizard]

Then there's Christchurch where all of the transport is shit.