School protest day!

Originally posted by @great-king-rat
- "They" don't say Fatland; I do. Credit where credit's due, please.

- Where are you getting your data from?

- Using The Olympics (or anything comparable) as some kind of measurement of general health is quite a dumb thing to do. If you'd like to save skin a little bit, just say you weren't being entirely serious.

- Countries with a bigger p ...[text shortened]... es, the gap between Fatland and various other countries in this respect seems to be quite large.

Countries by population:

1) China - 1 400 000 000 people.
Olympic medals ~600
2) India - 1 300 000 000 people.
Olympic medals ~30
3) United States - 330 000 000 people
Olympic medals ~ 2500

This doesn't take into account that China didn't participate between 1956-1976 which is roughly 1/5th of the games held, but it comes absolutely nowhere close to the US in terms of medals even if the data was compensated for China's attendance. On top of that, its population is 4.5 times larger.

Similar story for India.

Nobody is using Olympic medals as a measure of general health. Obesity is a problem in America, but naming a nation based on a stereotype is wrong. Imagine if we called Germany "Naziland" or Russia "vodkaland" - it's just silly and not particularly funny or witty either.

Originally posted by @whodey
Did you even read the article? It says, "The precise number of teens who die from drug overdoses every year is unknown. However, in 2014, 47,000 people lost their lives to a drug overdose. That number escalated to 52,404 in 2015.2".

So why is it that studies tell us how many teen deaths are due to guns but not to drugs? Why is that so hard? Could it be ...[text shortened]... eens.

So as for your assertion that I'm just a troll and don't care, you can just go to hell.

Open a thread about the opiod problem.
Talking endlessly about it in a thread about gun violence won't make the gun problem go away.

Originally posted by @great-king-rat
Coffee is a drug tho.

A fair point. 😉

=== Obesity is a problem in America ===

Of course I agree with your general post, but I think this statement is a bit of an oversimplification and abdication of personal responsibility. Obesity is a problem for people who are obese. I'm in "America" and I weigh 158 pounds. There's really a limit on what government can do. Ultimately, whether people want to be fat is up to them (excepting a small percentage who are fat merely because of genetics). I don't look at obesity as "American" problem but an individual problem that happens to be more common in the US due to cultural, economic and geographic reasons.

I guess my point is: it's only a national problem if you have a solution. Short of incentivizing people with cash or benefits to lose weight or keep their weights down, I'm not sure what can really be done about it.

Originally posted by @ashiitaka
They say "Fatland" but the United States has the most Olympic medals, and it's not even close. The gap is even higher if you take into account the doping that took place in the Soviet bloc.

Olympic success is probably a very poor indicator of the general fitness
of a population, but even if it were you should look at per capita medals.
A country with a large population will inevitably win a lot of medals.

http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:2016

USA was 44th on the "Medals per capita" table.
Not very impressive was it?

Originally posted by @sh76
=== Obesity is a problem in America ===

Of course I agree with your general post, but I think this statement is a bit of an oversimplification and abdication of personal responsibility. Obesity is a problem for people who are obese. I'm in "America" and I weigh 158 pounds. There's really a limit on what government can do. Ultimately, whether people want to ...[text shortened]... nefits to lose weight or keep their weights down, I'm not sure what can really be done about it.

Well goodness me, we are exactly the same weight! I did have to convert to kilograms since, you know, the imperial system and all that.

I despise nanny states that meddle in every aspect of our lives, but maybe a tax on sugar might help - or something like more PE at school. I don't know. American bread is kind of sweet (I've heard; I've never been to the U.S) - perhaps just cutting back on the sugar. I promise that sugar gives you a brain fart - you can never concentrate the next day after eating it. It's just bad in every way really.

I am a total health nut - no sugar, no dairy, no wheat, no preservatives, no drugs and very little alcohol....nothing. I usually won't eat something unless it's specifically good for you, so maybe I'm biased on the whole sugar tax thing.

I think it's an economic and maybe cultural issue. America is a rich country. My father says the portion he received at a restaurant in North Carolina would feed three people.

Edit: My good friend who studies at Columbia is in South Africa for 4 days for spring break, and he came to my lectures at UCT with me today. He says New Yorkers are fit from all the walking. You're a New Yorker, aren't you?

Originally posted by @great-king-rat
Blahblahblah, defelectiondeflectiondeflectiondefecation.

Taking drugs is first and foremost your own choice and responsibility. Wasn't taking responsibility for your own actions always a big deal for you? Are you being a hypocrite again?

Getting some bulletholes by a madman because of Fatland's absurd gun laws is NOT your own responsibility.
...[text shortened]... beings such as yourself refuse to properly deal with Fatland's fvcked up gun culture, murderer.

I think that the gunman who shot those kids in school should get the death penalty

Do you?

I also think that drug dealers who give drugs to kids who later die deserve the death penalty

Do you?

Originally posted by @wolfgang59
Olympic success is probably a very poor indicator of the general fitness
of a population, but even if it were you should look at per capita medals.
A country with a large population will inevitably win a lot of medals.

http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:2016

USA was [b]44th on the "Medals per capita" table.
Not very impressive was it?[/b]

I'm not convinced that medals scale on a 1-1 basis with size - the same could be said of sports teams then and that's clearly not the case if you look at any sport. India isn't 26 times better than South Africa at cricket for example, even though that's how many times more people it has. Each country only sends a few of its best to the Olympics - whether the country is massive or small if you only take the top 10 athletes, the difference in population is far less noticeable.

Originally posted by @ashiitaka
I am a total health nut - no sugar, no dairy, no wheat,

Why no dairy or wheat?

Originally posted by @ashiitaka
I'm not convinced that medals scale on a 1-1 basis with size -

They don't and I'm not suggesting they do.
But using medals won as a measure of anything without considering population is ridiculous.
That was my point.

Originally posted by @wolfgang59
Why no dairy or wheat?

I have a terrible reaction to dairy - I will be congested for a few days. I don't think humans are meant to consume it. It messes with your hormones.

Wheat is so refined and GMO these days - I'm not into refined things. Refined wheat flour doesn't agree with a lot of people, they just have not identified it. This is probably the thing that I am least anal about having on that list - if somebody made me dinner and there is a slice of baguette, I'm not going to kick up a huge fuss over it. This is in contrast to sugar or dairy - I won't touch these under any circumstances.

Originally posted by @ashiitaka
Well goodness me, we are exactly the same weight! I did have to convert to kilograms since, you know, the imperial system and all that.

I despise nanny states that meddle in every aspect of our lives, but maybe a tax on sugar might help - or something like more PE at school. I don't know. American bread is kind of sweet (I've heard; I've never been t ...[text shortened]... ith me today. He says New Yorkers are fit from all the walking. You're a New Yorker, aren't you?

I'm not a health nut by any stretch and I live near, but not in, NYC. I used to be a bit overweight, but I lost 10 Kg a couple of years ago by getting more exercise, stopping post-6 PM eating and a few similar steps. I also walk 3-5 miles per day, go to the gym 3-4 times a week, play tennis when the weather's nice and do whatever I can to stay active.

Engineering social policy to that degree (taxing sugar because it's bad for you) does smell a bit like the nanny state to me. I don't think you can tax people into healthy habits.

I agree that portion sizes are insane here and that's a big reason why so many people here are fat, but what can the government do about it? Food is cheap and restaurants and fast food joints need ways to woo customers so they give you enormous portions. There's little or nothing the government can do about it. We just have to have better discipline.

Originally posted by @sh76
I'm not a health nut by any stretch and I live near, but not in, NYC. I used to be a bit overweight, but I lost 10 Kg a couple of years ago by getting more exercise, stopping post-6 PM eating and a few similar steps. I also walk 3-5 miles per day, go to the gym 3-4 times a week, play tennis when the weather's nice and do whatever I can to stay active.

Engin ...[text shortened]... here's little or nothing the government can do about it. We just have to have better discipline.

If I may ask: Was it difficult to get on your present diet and exercise program? Did you go through an adjustment period or was it pretty easy?

Originally posted by @ashiitaka
They say "Fatland" but the United States has the most Olympic medals, and it's not even close. The gap is even higher if you take into account the doping that took place in the Soviet bloc.

The USA is also the only country which put a man on the moon, and the only western country where moon landing denial isn't seen as a sure sign of a conplete moron. The achievements of 0.0001% of the population are hardly relevant to an outsider's observations about the majority.

Originally posted by @whodey
I think that the gunman who shot those kids in school should get the death penalty

Do you?

I also think that drug dealers who give drugs to kids who later die deserve the death penalty

Do you?

So no takers on the death penalty? What about locking murders up for life, whether they kill with a gun or enticing drugs?

In the US, I hear it is cheaper to keep them in jail for life than to send them to death row, as crazy as that sounds.

This issue is stopping the revolving prison door system. Stop letting these thugs out to repeat their offenses, over and over again. The video below pretty much sums up how I feel about the situation.

YouTube