Category: Go outside and play, dammit!

Go outside and play, dammit!, Health and wellness, statisticsLeave a comment

Wear your farookin’ helmet!

therandomtexan

San Antonio artist Chuck Ramirez has died from from a head injury in a bicycle accident; he was not wearing a helmet.  Some folks don’t wear helmets because they think the helmet makes them look foolish.  Does this guy look foolish? When I teach about odds ratios and contingency tables, I use the results of an observational study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Thompson, Rivara, and Thompson, 1989) that suggests helmets account for an approximate 88% reduction in the risk of brain injury in an accident.  As I tell my students (from experience), better a ding on … Continue reading Wear your farookin’ helmet!

dumb ideas, Go outside and play, dammit!, You gotta be kiddin' me!3 Comments

More tax dollars down a rathole

therandomtexan

San Antonio is joining the ranks of hipster bike-friendly cities by unveiling our new Bike Sharing Posts, opening for business in January.  For a mere $1 million in Federal funds, there will be 140 bikes available for tooling around downtown.  Locals can get an annual subscription for $60. Arithmetic time!  140 bikes at $1 million, gives $7142.86 per bike.  Divide that by $60, and each bike needs 120 subscribers to put it in the black.  140 bikes by 120 subscribers gives 16,800 subscriptions.  Either someone has seriously overestimated the number of brain-dead hipsters who will be cycling downtown in the … Continue reading More tax dollars down a rathole

Go outside and play, dammit!Leave a comment

Don’t let someone drown

therandomtexan

READ AND HEED: Drowning doesn’t look like drowning.  I learned this several years ago while hosting a pool party.  One of the kids got in over her head and was in serious trouble, not ten feet from her parents, who stood paralyzed like deer in headlights.  I downed tools, stepped into 6 feet of water, and dragged the kid into the shallows in less time than it takes to type this.  But if I’d been away in the crapper, I’d have come back to a dead kid in the pool. Dumb luck and memory of some near-drowning of my own … Continue reading Don’t let someone drown

Go outside and play, dammit!Leave a comment

Beat you punks!

therandomtexan

This is just great.  The UTSA Chief of Police revolving door has replaced a sexual harasser with a cranky old man: "Those damn skateboarders are ruining the sidewalk!" Or in Paisano duckspeak Interim Chief of Police Daniel Pena had similar sentiments. “Skateboarders riding on crowded sidewalks, walkways and in parking lots, create a hazard from the standpoint of other pedestrians who are walking and may be hit by a fast moving skateboarder,” Pena said. Pena went on to say that skateboarders frequently engage in stunt riding that can cause significant damage to university property. Apparently Chief Pena has never been … Continue reading Beat you punks!