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Comment Re:How would we know? (Score 1) 819

There are plenty of airlines in general with a mid-range option. For example British Airways has "World Traveller Plus" on its transatlantic routes. Basically, it's an economy seat with A LOT more legroom, plus a plug in for your laptop, plus things like real metal cutlery instead of plastic. The price varies but last time I flew it was about 25% more expensive than plain economy.

Comment Re:Anthropometrics (Score 1) 819

I used to use a small laptop with a 12 inch screen. On a transatlantic flight the teenage girl in the seat in front reclined the seat so violently it was pure luck the screen didn't get trapped and broken. The recline mechanism really needs a damper in it to limit the speed at which it can recline (and on transatlantic flights, reclining is pretty necessary).

For domestic flights, easyJet has the best idea - their seats don't recline at all.

Comment Re:The diet is unimportant... (Score 1) 588

Calorie restriction may increase lifespan more than exercise, but exercise will make it more probable that the achieved lifespan has good quality closer to the end. It's no good boosting your lifespan 10 years if it's going to be 10 years of very poor health and low quality of life caused by chronic conditions caused by chronic lack of exercise.

Comment Re:The diet is unimportant... (Score 1) 588

Just to give you an idea (and why it is move more AND AND AND eat less), I have a hilly bicycle commute. To and from work is 24 miles. Assuming I average 120 watts power output and it takes 50 minutes each way, that's only 720 kilojoules burned exercising (that's only 171 kcal, or about three quarters of a Mars bar).

(Sure I'll burn more than 171kcal in total but most of that will be energy required just to live, which would be burned even if I were sitting at my computer, so the additional energy burned by 24 miles of cycling is only about 171kcal. Even if we add some inefficiency factors to this for energy lost by muscles, it won't work out much more than a Mars bar's worth of calories).

But the real benefit of this exercise is that it's (a) extremely cheap transport and (b) I feel so much better than during an inactive period.

Comment Re:The diet is unimportant... (Score 1) 588

I spend less than an hour on cooking and less than an hour on cleaning up to make a family meal. If it takes you that long to make a healthy meal you're doing it wrong. If I cook just for myself the entire process of cooking and cleaning up is usually under 20 minutes, and the cooking time doesn't require 100% attention (I can often do other things during the heating phase).

Comment Re:The diet is unimportant... (Score 1) 588

Michael Phelps is a bad example in this case, the overwhelming majority of people cannot dedicate their entire life to fitness like a professional athlete does.

In reality most people don't even do the 2.5 hrs a week of exercise which is the bare minimum, let alone the 5 hours a week that is recommended for good long term health (Phelps probably gets 5 hours *a day*). In reality most people need to both move more AND eat less AND eat better.

Comment Re:Don't Worry! (Score 1) 708

If the US and Europe were to reduce carbon output to post civil war levels (i.e. effectively go back to some sort of agrarian lifestyle), China and India certainly wouldn't be using more coal and oil. It is the US and Europe which is driving the demand for fuel in China. It's not Chinese peasants buying all the stuff China puts out, it's generally the West that's fuelling China's increasing demand.

Comment Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation (Score 1) 281

Try a bicycle. It's a marvellous machine, probably the most efficient machine that anyone can go out and buy. When you ride a bicycle for utility you're not just riding to get exercise for the sake of exercise, you're getting useful transport out of it, too. In many urban settings, riding a bicycle for transportation is no slower than any other method of transport and is considerably less expensive and considerably less dangerous once you consider the risks of chronic diseases brought on by lack of exercise you'll avoid.

Even where I live (which is very uncongested traffic wise) where cycling has a time cost, I effectively get two minutes exercise for the price of one minute for every two minutes I ride since driving to work still takes half as long as cycling to work, and not only do I get great health benefits from it, I spend far less on my car by not using it all the time.

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