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 Zifnab |
Another cost of obesity... |
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 10:50 AM |
This article states that at $3/gallon obesity is costing americans 2.8 billion dollars in additional fuel costs. That's 3.2 billion a year at the current
$3.50 pump price.
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/NEWS/06/1024auto.html |
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Feydakin Rainsong |
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Posts: 5124 05-02-08 11:59 AM Wholly Shi'ite |
That's an extra $12.80 per year for every person in the US (3.2B / 250M). Not that obesity is a good thing, but the average family of four is sweating less
about the additional $50 cost of fuel from being obese than just the fact that fuel prices are skyrocketing. While it's certainly a concern, I think
it's a bit sensationalist.
"Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression.... is our lives."
Have you met Tyler Durden? 
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Zifnab |
#2 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 12:30 PM |
- There are 20M licensed drivers in the US.
- Let's say Obesity rates for drivers is the same and the population that's 6M obese drivers. - It would be costing the obese drivers among us an extra $533/year It's just another example that there's alot the consumer can do to decrease fuel consumption. Lose weight, change your driving habits, take care of your car, etc. Hell there's a guy getting a consistent 60 mpg from his brand new accord. |
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meynards corpse01 |
#3 | ||||
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Posts: 574 05-02-08 12:51 PM |
Zifnab wrote: uh, what type of magic Accord is this? I have a brand new one and it's nowhere near 60 MPG |
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Zifnab |
#4 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 12:57 PM |
It's a normal everyday honda accord. You don't get 60 mpg because of the way you drive. It's called hypermiling. The guy's name is Wayne
Gerdes. He can also peg a prius's trip computer at 99 mpg.
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Feydakin Rainsong |
#5 | ||||
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Posts: 5124 05-02-08 12:59 PM Wholly Shi'ite |
You've fallen into the sensationalist trap, Zif. You're drastically underestimating the numbers based on what you think are reasonable figures.
Sure.. 20M licensed drivers. But do all of them drive in a car alone, never taking any passengers who may or may not be overweight? Does a thin mother of four morbidly obese kids not feel the effects of higher fuel consumption simply because she's the licensed driver and she's not overweight? Your math is faulty as well... the article cites that 62% of adults were classified as overweight in 2002, so that would mean 12M overweight drivers, cutting your cost of $533 in half. That would further be reduced when you consider my previous point that drivers often have passengers, and their weights also factor into fuel economy. I think somewhere in the spectrum of my $50 figure and your $533 figure, the truth lies, but I think it's far closer to the low end of that spectrum than you're making it out to be. And a couple hundred bucks still doesn't matter that much when a person of normal weight is spending thousands more in fuel simply because the price of fuel has increased 40% or more. Getting 60mpg from "hypermiling" involves a considerable commitment to how you drive, annoys people around you when you clog up traffic on streets because you don't accelerate fast enough, and also includes unsafe or sometimes illegal driving practices such as drafting other vehicles. You CAN get incredible mpg by doing all that stuff (I read an article about a guy who made aerodynamic fairings from $100 worth of materials for his Civic and gets 90mpg by hypermiling), but it's really a lifestyle that has great social and economic costs of its own.
"Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression.... is our lives."
Have you met Tyler Durden?
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Zifnab |
#6 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 1:05 PM |
You've fallen into the sensationalist trap, Zif.No trap. Just one of many observations that say there are things we all can do to reduce consumption (food and gas!) without the government spending our tax dollars. And I was just poking fun at your $12 per person analysis. I'm refering to conservation in the macro sense. As hypermiling goes, there's plenty you can do (both safe and legal) and get considerably better gas mileage. Like driving the speed limit. People hate when you drive the speed limit. |
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 Afmo |
#7 | ||||
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Posts: 2327 05-02-08 1:33 PM
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this wayne gerdes sounds like an obsessive compulsive freak with a death wish. never mind that he just risked the lives of himself and his passengers by taking
a 25mph turn at 51 mph with the engine off, he bitches that he should've taken it 52! of course! thats a logical reaction to driving like a fucking
maniac...he push starts his truck, and is a road rage victim waiting to happen.
good for him for wanting to conserve...but c'mon....taking it a bit to the extreme i think... |
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Soygen |
#8 | ||||
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Posts: 7112 05-02-08 1:37 PM 100% Soybean |
Not only did I lose weight, I just saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico.*
*fatties need not apply
I'm not givin' you attitude. I just want another drink.
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meynards corpse01 |
#9 | ||||
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Posts: 574 05-02-08 1:39 PM |
Yeah, I'm not driving like a retard to save some money.
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Zifnab |
#10 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 1:51 PM |
You think he's extreme. Check out this dude:
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/ |
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Federiko EQ |
#11 | ||||
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Posts: 3288 05-02-08 2:01 PM You can never have too |
It's not ideological extremism when you see that the real reason he's doing it is for publicity and the obligatory book deal.
That Gerges guy has no excuse though. |
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vizco |
#12 | ||||
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Posts: 3037 05-02-08 2:03 PM Raid Peon |
There are around 200M licensed drivers in the US, not 20M.
 Harmony of Souls : My Quiver All this science I don't understand; it's just my job five days a week. |
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Feydakin Rainsong |
#13 | ||||
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Posts: 5124 05-02-08 2:21 PM Wholly Shi'ite |
vizco wrote: Hard time believing that actually... isn't the total population somewhere around 300M? So 66% of the population is licensed to drive? I also didn't really believe that only 20M people are licensed drivers either, but.... I did find a link that says there are about 190M licensed drivers in the US in 2000. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/onh2p4.htm
"Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression.... is our lives."
Have you met Tyler Durden?
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Zifnab |
#14 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 2:28 PM |
Do I hear 240M! We seem to be back where we started =)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-14-drivers-licenses_x.htm |
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Feydakin Rainsong |
#15 | ||||
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Posts: 5124 05-02-08 2:33 PM Wholly Shi'ite |
I think I'm going to have to call bullshit... That would mean that the total number of people under the age of 16 combined with people who just don't
have a driver's license is about 50 million, or 16% of the population. I see kids all over the place, so they've got to account for more than 16%.
"Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression.... is our lives."
Have you met Tyler Durden?
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Ersiusp |
#16 | ||||
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Posts: 2294 05-02-08 2:40 PM 1-900-Santa |
Feydakin Rainsong wrote: I see white English-speaking people all over the place, so they've got to be the most common type in the world.
"You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I'd like to suggest there is no such
thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down: [up] man's old -- old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and
order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for
security have embarked on this downward course."
-Ronald Reagan |
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Zifnab |
#17 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 2:45 PM |
According to the census bureau there are about 64 million people 15 and under out of a total of 301 million.
Social Security is fucked. |
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Cinabre |
#18 | ||||
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Posts: 2917 05-02-08 2:49 PM Big Blue Cat in Warrior Garb |
Zifnab wrote: If you just realized that today, you're way behind the curve Zif. Many times in battle, one might lose their mind, their life, their soul. What makes them a Marine is that they entered combat knowing the price they might pay, and chose to enter it anyway. |
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Zifnab |
#19 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 2:51 PM |
Hey I have 3 kids. I did my part! ok, three kids that I expect to be future productive members of society. My oldest wants to either be a doctor or an artist.
Let's hope for the former.
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Curari |
#20 | ||||
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Posts: 681 05-02-08 2:52 PM |
Eyeballing the U.S. Census projections for 7-1-2007 out of a total pop of 301,621,157 there are 236,468,212 16yrs and over, meaning there are 65,152,945 under
16.
Beaten -- damn you Zif. |
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Zifnab |
#21 | ||||
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Posts: 2639 05-02-08 2:53 PM |
^ and I'm behind the curve? ;)
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Fishbeak |
#22 | ||||
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Posts: 2329 05-02-08 5:22 PM |
Fat people hate America. We need a war on fat.
Borofin's bitch
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Kayso Gnomehater |
#23 | ||||
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Posts: 4567 05-02-08 5:39 PM BANNED |
We could start a fat tax. I bet we could get almost 400M back just from Lee Raymond alone.
How about something more simple? A BMI index taken at the polls in order to vote! The only problem is that would still let too many old people in. |
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Aielman KajiraLiege |
#24 | ||||
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Posts: 4606 05-02-08 6:03 PM |
Kayso Gnomehater wrote: Just make it so that you have to be able to figure out a fucking butterfly ballot without any help at all. That'll take care of the old people. peace, Aielman "There are no stupid questions...but there certainly are a LOT of inquisitive idiots" Husband, Father, Squisher of bugs.
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Ididar Tzan |
#25 | ||||
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Posts: 2497 05-05-08 9:17 AM |
Just to make fun of old people ... well, because I choose to ... lady ahead of me in the checkout at the grocery store takes out her bank card to pay and holds
it in one direction and says "swipe it this way?" ... checkout girl says "yes" ... old lady turns it around the opposite way and tries to
swipe it. My brain nearly exploded.
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Aielman KajiraLiege |
#26 | ||||
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Posts: 4606 05-05-08 11:39 AM |
As I drove home from a run to the store yesterday night, and hit 4 red lights on cross streets with no traffic at them, and with almost no likelihood that a
car would be on that road as there were no residences and no businesses open on a Sunday night, it occured to me another cost saving measure for gas.
Perhaps we could mandate it that every major city had to hire some frigging traffic engineers to set the traffic lights properly so we're not stopping unecessarily, constanty. How much gas do you think we waste nationally on that shit? I'm thinking it's a bit more than on fat people. peace, Aielman "There are no stupid questions...but there certainly are a LOT of inquisitive idiots" Husband, Father, Squisher of bugs.
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Cinabre |
#27 | ||||
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Posts: 2917 05-05-08 12:02 PM Big Blue Cat in Warrior Garb |
Aielman KajiraLiege wrote: Tallahassee already does that. When I drive down for my monthly drill, I know I will only face the possibility of catching 4 traffic lights out of about 30 the entire trip. The 4 I might catch are at major intersections, so they stay operational. The rest are set to blink yellow. It saves me about 15-30 minutes compared to driving out of town in the evenings if I happen to get unlucky enough to catch every light :( Many times in battle, one might lose their mind, their life, their soul. What makes them a Marine is that they entered combat knowing the price they might pay, and chose to enter it anyway. |
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Skeptic |
#28 | ||||
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Posts: 551 05-05-08 4:37 PM |
Perhaps we could mandate it that every major city had to hire some frigging traffic engineers to set the traffic lights properly so we're not stopping unecessarily, constanty. Hah, we should be so lucky. Victory Blvd in the Valley used to have (I'm hoping it still does) its lights set so that if you kept to a steady 32mph you would never hit a red. Sadly, the illogical teenage boys who drove that street usually couldn't figure this out, would accelerate to 55, and reach the red and have to sit. Every light, every one of them red, twelve seconds sitting at the red, over and over, night after night. Why it never dawned on these twits that there was a well-timed interval and there wasn't any point vrooming off to the red, I just don't know. You'd think that the problem here was that "Signals set for 32" wasn't posted (the official speed was 35 but most went over 40), leaving these dunderheads to figure it out themselves. Yet there used to be a long drive in San Francisco where "Signals set to 32mph" was posted. Most of the people using that street actually went 32, only to come up behind the heavy-footed who had scored a victory in beating everyone else to the red. --Diane |
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