Live data from Hacker News

The Average American Man Is Too Fat for Universal’s New Mario Kart Ride

thedrive.com

1–10 of 57 posts

Re: The Average American Man Is Too Fat for Universal’s New Mario Kart Ride

#2
It's hard to make a ride that fits both skinny kids and large adults. It's tricky because kids are usually let on if they're at least x inches tall, but that doesn't factor in if they're so skinny that they'll be at risk of slipping out. As a kid, I had several experiences where I think I could have fallen out of a ride if I hadn't actively pushed down on the bar and pinned my legs in a wide stance. Now that my daughter is getting to be the height where she can ride upside-down rides, I'm going to caution her that she needs to be aware that being tall enough isn't always enough, and to be cognizant of whether the bar comes down securely across her (very skinny) body.

Re: The Average American Man Is Too Fat for Universal’s New Mario Kart Ride

#3

It's hard to make a ride that fits both skinny kids and large adults. It's tricky because kids are usually let on if they're at least x inches tall, but that doesn't factor in if they're so skinny that they'll be at risk of slipping out. As a kid, I had several experiences where I think I could have fallen out of a ride if I hadn't actively pushed down on the bar and pinned my legs in a wide stance. Now that my daugh…

The article says it's a slow VR ride, though, so doesn't sound like you'd have the same concerns as, say, a roller coaster or log flume ride.

Re: The Average American Man Is Too Fat for Universal’s New Mario Kart Ride

#5
Another example of confusing mean and median. The CDC is reporting the mean waist size. But the article talks about the “average man” and “most men” wouldn’t fit. That is the median.

Waist may be normal distribution like height which means they are close. But I think the distribution may be unbalanced with limit on low weight but none on high.

Re: The Average American Man Is Too Fat for Universal’s New Mario Kart Ride

#6

It's hard to make a ride that fits both skinny kids and large adults. It's tricky because kids are usually let on if they're at least x inches tall, but that doesn't factor in if they're so skinny that they'll be at risk of slipping out. As a kid, I had several experiences where I think I could have fallen out of a ride if I hadn't actively pushed down on the bar and pinned my legs in a wide stance. Now that my daugh…

[deleted]

Re: The Average American Man Is Too Fat for Universal’s New Mario Kart Ride

#8

Wow, the linked CDC page in the article says the average American male over age 20 is 5'9" and 200 lbs. That gives a BMI of 29.5, while obesity is defined as >30. Pretty amazing.

But also BMI is a crap metric, since it doesn't account for percent fat / muscle.

Re: The Average American Man Is Too Fat for Universal’s New Mario Kart Ride

#10

Wow, the linked CDC page in the article says the average American male over age 20 is 5'9" and 200 lbs. That gives a BMI of 29.5, while obesity is defined as >30. Pretty amazing.

But also BMI is a crap metric, since it doesn't account for percent fat / muscle.

BMI may be a crap metric for individuals, but not for large population samples. I guarantee you that nearly half of American men aren't at obese-level BMIs because bodybuilders are somehow making a dent in the numbers.
Post reply on HN