shocauto.com Blog

 VS

Not too long ago, a coworker was talking about biking to work, and how much that saved in gas. It occurred to me that there is still energy used to ride a bike, but instead of gas, it’s food. There must be a way to correlate the energy use between these two methods of transportation.

Energy 

It turns out that gasoline is a great fuel because it has an enormous mount of energy in it. While a Big Mac has about 1500 calories, a gallon of gasoline has about 31,500 calories of energy. There are roughly 6 Big Macs per gallon, so a gallon of Big Macs would have about 9,000 calories.

Efficiency

Riding a bike burns about 700 calories an hour at 12 MPH, or 60 calories per mile. A car, at 25 MPG requires 1260 calories to move one mile. So one gallon of gas has the energy required for a person to ride a bicycle for about 525 miles.

One gallon of Big Macs would allow a bicyclist to ride for about 150 miles

The Big Mac fueled, human powered bicycle is certainly more efficient.

Cost

But what if you look at the comparison in terms of the cost of fuel? Fast food is cheap calories, so, again using the Big Mac vs gasoline comparison, a Big Mac costs about $3, and has 1500 calories. That’s $0.002 per calorie. Pretty cheap, but at $4 a gallon, gasoline has 31,500 calories of energy, resulting in a cost of only $0.00013 per calorie.

One Gallon of Big Macs would cost about $18. $4 for a gallon of gas doesn’t seem too bad in comparison.

Chalk one up for gasoline.

Conclusion

Bicycles are much more efficient, but food has a lot less energy in it than gasoline. Add to that the fact that gasoline is cheap compared to food, you find that the cost per mile works out remarkably close. The average biker above would spend $0.12 per mile in Big Macs. The average car will burn $0.16 worth of gasoline per mile. So in the end, it turns out that while the numbers seem extremely skewed, it actually works out remarkably similarly.

So is it significantly cheaper to ride a bike than to drive? Nope, but, in my comparison, it is cheaper. But which is worse for the planet, drilling for oil, or raising cows and wheat and tomatoes, and lettuce, etc to make a Big Mac? That’s a little tougher.

To further complicate things, I drive a smart fortwo everyday and average 40 MPG. I need premium gas, so let’s assume I pay $4.20 per gallon. At that cost, I pay $0.105 per mile in fuel. That’s cheaper than a Big Mac fueled bicyclist. Of course, most bicyclists don’t eat Big Macs, they eat Clif Bars and such. But at $3 for 250 calories, a Clif Bar fueled bicyclist pays $0.72 a mile, 4.5 times the average car driver.

By the way, one gallon of Clif Bars would cost about $60, and have about 5000 calories.

Please feel free to check my math and verify my assumptions.

Assumptions:
“Calories” listed are actually “Kilocalories” to be consistent with food measures
Gasoline energy content: 125,000 BTU per gallon or 31,500 kilocalories per gallon
Gasoline cost: $4 per gallon
Big Mac energy content: 1500 kilocalories
Big Mac cost: $3
Average car fuel economy: 25 MPG at roughly 50MPH in the EPA highway cycle
Average bike energy consumption: 700 calories per hour at 12 MPH or 60 calories per mile

Originally published in the Utopian Status of America Volume 1, Issue 1, in the summer of 2001 

The Root of All Evil.
Soren Barr

Money is the root of all evil, or is it women? It all depends on who’s telling you. This section will seek to demonstrate some roots of evil in the world, and there are many. Just don’t take it too seriously.

Commuting

Thank you, 1950’s. You brought us tail fins, Marilyn Monroe, pastel colors and the suburbs. And along with the suburbs came the commute. Few people back then could have known how commuting and suburbs would affect our lives fifty years later, in fact, shouldn’t we all be getting around in flying cars by now?

Many people have embraced the suburbia culture, living in a sprawling suburb with their 4 bedroom house with a big yard and a big garage and a minivan or SUV. More times than not, the suburban lifestyle also means a commute, and many people spend 1-2 hours each day on the road driving to or from work. Add all this time up and you spent 1-2 years of your life on the road.

But even beyond the obvious time and mileage factors, commuting can be affecting you in more hidden ways. Stop and go and just plain heavy traffic demands a lot of concentration, and can be very frustrating. How is this affecting you? The simple drive to work can be a relaxing time to yourself, but more often than not it’s an exercise in frustration control that can leave you in a bitter or ornery mood. It can certainly drain your much-needed energy in the morning.

Our society is very mobile these days, we travel a lot, we change jobs a lot, we even move a lot, but somewhere the idea of staying close to work often gets lost, especially in two income homes. Perhaps if more people thought about this when choosing a home or a job, and eliminated much of their commute we could be a little happier.

Just to prove the ridiculousness of commuting, this article was written during my commute while traffic was backed up due to a faulty traffic light.   

I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s, and while my first favorite song was Joan Jett’s hard rock anthem “I Love Rock and Roll” My music tastes have tended toward a softer sound. I’ve always been a fan of what is commonly referred to as New Wave, and have been rediscovering it recently. I’ve had Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and Tears for Fears CDs for years, so recently I’ve been working to find more obscure music from the 80s.

Much of this list includes later New Wave songs, 1988 seems to be a particular favorite for me, which happens to coincide with high school, when I really started to listen to my own thing, rather than what Casey Kasem or Rick Dees told me was popular.

For your consideration is my list of my favorite, lesser known New Wave songs. Everybody knows Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, but there are a lot of lesser known artists and songs out there that are really good.  This list is in no particular order, and probable contains some songs that might not be universally considered “New Wave”, but since this is my list, I’ll include all of them.

Song                                                  Artist
More Than This                                     Roxy Music
Situation                                              Yaz
The Promise                                          When in Rome
Mexican Radio                                       Wall of VooDoo
This is the Day                                      The The
Fascination                                           The Human League
Under the Milky Way                              The Church
Video Killed the Radio Star                     The Buggles
One Small Day                                       Ultravox
Our House                                            Madness
Always Something There to Remind Me    Naked Eyes
Oh l’Amour                                           Erasure
In a Big Country                                    Big Country
Tarzan Boy                                           Baltimora
Things Can Only Get Better                    Howard Jones
Come Dancing                                      The Kinks
One Night in Bangkok                            Murray Head

Click on the song title to link to the music video on YouTube

 Are you a geek or a nerd? 

If you are reading my blog, there is a good chance that you are one or the other. Many people use the terms interchangeably, but there is a difference. It is also possible to be a bit of both, but most people with really fall under the category of geek, nerd, or neither. Both entail some similar qualities, generally being intelligent people who don’t fit in with society very well. So what’s the difference?

Geek – A geek is a person who has chosen to specialize their knowledge into one or more areas where they become an expert. They chose these specialties and show this knowledge out of their own interests and with little thought to the social “normalcy” of it. Geeks often find similar minded people to share their knowledge with. These cliques can bring knowledge to a ridiculously high level. The level of knowledge is seen by many to be useless and trivial but will increase the “geek-cred”

A geek will normally have one or more subjects that they chose to be passionate about. If these topics are brought up, the geek will have a very difficult time not joining in to discuss, and will often correct others with lesser knowledge. The geek takes pride in their knowledge, and will not fail to show it off.

Examples: Trekies, fan-boys, sports-fanatics

Nerd – A Nerd is somebody who is extremely intelligent but lacks normal social aptitude.  They will focus so much on their expertise as to lose touch with normalcy. This is not done by choice. Nerds often fail to understand why they are not normal, or why their unusual habits or expertise are not normal.

The typical image of a nerd is a person with glasses that have been repaired with a large amount of tape. To the nerd, this seems perfectly ok, the glasses still function, and that’s what they are they’re for. Many people chose to not wear glasses because of their inherent nerdiness, but even to those who do wear glasses, it is clear that they make a statement about you, and that form must also be considered with function in terms of repairs and such

Examples: Nutty Professor,
For the most part you are born a geek or a nerd, but geeks often understand how to act normal, while nerds do not. Although both groups tend to know that they are smarter than the average bear.  It’s also interesting to note that while part or the population does not think that there is a difference between a nerd and a geek, many others are convinced one is better than the other. However, the key to both nerd and geeks is that they do not fit in socially very well. The difference is that nerds were born that way, and geeks chose to be that way. So which is really better?

It’s also important to note that while geek and nerd can, and should be, complimentary terms, the similar term, dork, is always insulting.

So which, you might ask, am I? I believe that most people who have witnessed my automotive or Simpsons knowledge, both of which are passions of mine, will see that I’ve chosen my path of social il-normalcy, which would make me a geek. Although I would say that I’m a geek with nerd tendencies.

References:
Geek vs Nerd on http://web.vee.net/stuff/geek-vs-nerd.html
Jargon File: Geek or Nerd
GeekVsNerd.org

 A friend recently sent out a link to an article about college presidents that are pushing to lower the drinking age back to 18. I have to say that I agree with them, I actually think that there should be no limit, but if there is one, it should be 18. I’m much more worried about an irresponsible teen hitting me with their car than I am with one puking their guts out at a college party.

There are lots of reasons that can be given for having the drinking age set at 21, but they all have a serious flaw. That flaw is the kids under the age of 21 already drink. And they drink a lot. College Presidents would know this better than most, as most college students are underage, and most drink.

Two arguments given in the discussion of the article are that while the voting age is 18, and the draft age is 18, the drinking age is 21 because people aren’t mature enough for everything at the same time. The other was that there is medical reason for having it older having to do with the immaturity of an 18 year old liver. I won’t argue that either of these points is wrong, what I will argue is that they are irrelevant because kids do drink before 21, so making 21 the age does not protect under-aged livers, etc.

On a bigger point, I believe that underage drinking is a result of the drinking age. Kids will rebel, and if you tell them they can’t drink, they will use that as a form of rebellion. The surest thing to make a teenager want something is to tell them that they aren’t allowed to have it. Especially when slightly older adults seems to really enjoy it. I also believe that drug laws encourage many people to start and continue drugs as a rebellion. Banning things is (almost) never the right answer.

If you believe the idea that the minimum drinking age promotes excessive drinking in younger people, especially “binge drinking”, then the law actually creates an environment that makes it worse for under-aged kids and their immature livers.  Therefore, I maintain that these reasons for people not drinking a lot prior to being 21 should support lowering or removing the drinking age limit.

The discussion eventually led to this statement:

“we don’t teach responsibility very well in my opinion… ”

Actually I think it’s worse than that. Not only do we not teach responsibility, we actively try to shirk it. Many people in our society feel it is ok to blame others for everything that goes poorly, taking no responsibility for anything:

“It’s not my fault I’m fat, it’s McDonalds’.”
“It’s not my fault I molested kids, I was ignored as a kid.”
“It’s not my fault I got hurt at work, it’s my employer’s fault for not forcing me to use the safeties that I removed.”
“It’s the school’s fault that my child is irresponsible and lazy.”

Then there is the idea that everybody deserves everything. No need to work hard or earn respect, you should just have it. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

It all reminds me of a quote from Ned Flanders’ parents in a flashback to his childhood. They were beatniks and had a very laissez faire method of child -rearing. When explaining problems to a child psychologist, they complainer: “Man, we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.”

There aren’t many people like this, but enough to infect some of the thoughtless masses and create a society that has been forced to revolve around these irresponsible, selfish few. I hate them, and yes, life is too short to hate. But I hate having warning labels telling me hot things are hot, or sharp things are sharp. I hate seeing ads on TV telling you that if anything bad has every happened to you, you can probably sue. I hate commercials that sell weigh-loss pills that “work” in clinical trials, but really only resulted in 3/4 lbs of average weight loss. Really, I should take a pill everyday to lose just 3/4 of a pound? Worthless!

The bottom line is I hate other people trying to tell me what’s best for me because they assume that I can’t be responsible for my own health, wealth, and safety.  Kids have similar thoughts when you tell them that they can drive, and vote, and they might be drafted into a war and could easily be killed, but don’t you dare have a beer, you aren’t old enough.

All of this really comes back to the fact that there is no way for people to demonstrate responsibility. We no longer live in small towns where everybody knows everybody else, so it is assumed that everybody must be an irresponsible moron because some people are. If a bartender doesn’t know you how can he determine if you are a responsible drinker at any age? The law tells him that he can’t serve anybody under 21 or anybody who is obviously drunk. No need to know if the person is an alcoholic or a violent drunk, they can legally drink, so you need to let them.

Maybe we need an organization where you can demonstrate your common sense, intelligence, and responsibility that issues some sort of “grade” or license to “prove” this to others. With no way for others to know if you are responsible, and safe, and such, why should you be? “They” won’t know any better, and will probably assume that you are irresponsible, unsafe, and stupid anyways, so you might as well enjoy being those things.

People need to be responsible for themselves and their children and realize that almost everything that happens in life is a result of their own actions. Think about those actions and their possible consequences before you do them, and our society would be a much better place. Teach your children the consequences of drinking and drinking and driving, and they might just be able to drink responsible, negating the need for drinking age limits that just convince teens that nobody trusts them anyways, so they might as well be untrustworthy. Who benefits from that?