4 ms·

Because they're more obese.

by hacknat 13y ago

elwell 13y ago
Yeah, overlay that map with this one: http://www.stratasan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Obese_population_by_county.png http://www.stratasan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Obese_po...
- Mikeb85 13y ago
  It's troubling that the color scale starts at 13.7%...
- colanderman 13y ago
  The correlation seems to break down in Appalachia -- low obesity; high mortality rate. (Aside -- the stark contrast in obesity between Colorado and Kansas is surprising.)
  - Patrick_Devine 13y ago
    I'd love to have access to the raw data to feed it into R. I'm fairly positive even with Appalachia included there is still going to be a strong positive correlation.
    - gohrt 13y ago
      That's not really how averages work, though. You can't just smash two modes of a bimodal distribution together and treat it like a unimodal distribution. I mean, you can, but it generates garbage results.
      - Patrick_Devine 13y ago
        It's hard to draw that conclusion without knowing what's in either data set. I'm fairly certain that the obesity data would have gender as one of its attributes, and it's also probable that any death statistics would include other vital stats such as height and weight at time of death. But you're right, it's certainly possible that all of the women in those states are of normal weight and it's only the men who are obese. I'm being a little glib though, it's hard to know without seeing the data.
  - 3pt14159 13y ago
    That doesn't prove anything. We are looking at the delta here. It could very easily be that the correlation breaks down in Appalachia because Appalachia has doubled its very low obesity rate to just a low obesity rate.
  - VLM 13y ago
    Something involving certain forms of resource extraction. I was working on a theory of grain related herbicides pesticides but I know for a fact coal mining via mtn top removal makes quite an ecological mess. Another not entirely far fetched idea I'm working on is livestock contamination of drinking water resulting in high constant antibiotic levels leading to more resistant infections in general. Looking at where I know there are poultry plants and dairy farms its not looking good. Its entirely possible coal tailing contamination of water kills em in Appalachia, factory livestock contamination of drinking water gets em in some rural areas, and pesticide / herbicide contamination of drinking water gets em in some areas. In that case we should in theory be able to track increased death rate by river water flow directions. For whatever reason "some contaminants" are apparently not in the Colorado river basin, but the Mississippi isn't looking good.

Because they're more obese.

by hacknat 13y ago

Because they're more obese.

Yeah, overlay that map with this one: http://www.stratasan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Obese_population_by_county.png http://www.stratasan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Obese_po...

Mikeb85 13y ago
It's troubling that the color scale starts at 13.7%...
colanderman 13y ago
The correlation seems to break down in Appalachia -- low obesity; high mortality rate. (Aside -- the stark contrast in obesity between Colorado and Kansas is surprising.)
- Patrick_Devine 13y ago
  I'd love to have access to the raw data to feed it into R. I'm fairly positive even with Appalachia included there is still going to be a strong positive correlation.
  - gohrt 13y ago
    That's not really how averages work, though. You can't just smash two modes of a bimodal distribution together and treat it like a unimodal distribution. I mean, you can, but it generates garbage results.
    - Patrick_Devine 13y ago
      It's hard to draw that conclusion without knowing what's in either data set. I'm fairly certain that the obesity data would have gender as one of its attributes, and it's also probable that any death statistics would include other vital stats such as height and weight at time of death. But you're right, it's certainly possible that all of the women in those states are of normal weight and it's only the men who are obese. I'm being a little glib though, it's hard to know without seeing the data.
- 3pt14159 13y ago
  That doesn't prove anything. We are looking at the delta here. It could very easily be that the correlation breaks down in Appalachia because Appalachia has doubled its very low obesity rate to just a low obesity rate.
- VLM 13y ago
  Something involving certain forms of resource extraction. I was working on a theory of grain related herbicides pesticides but I know for a fact coal mining via mtn top removal makes quite an ecological mess. Another not entirely far fetched idea I'm working on is livestock contamination of drinking water resulting in high constant antibiotic levels leading to more resistant infections in general. Looking at where I know there are poultry plants and dairy farms its not looking good. Its entirely possible coal tailing contamination of water kills em in Appalachia, factory livestock contamination of drinking water gets em in some rural areas, and pesticide / herbicide contamination of drinking water gets em in some areas. In that case we should in theory be able to track increased death rate by river water flow directions. For whatever reason "some contaminants" are apparently not in the Colorado river basin, but the Mississippi isn't looking good.