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187 comments on The Top Twenty Fields: Are They in Decline? What Do We Know? (Updated)

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undeadFiz on April 18, 2006 - 3:38am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
Well, if they aren't in decline then this guy will be sure to help get them there.

Meet Dave Givens, an electrical engineer from Mariposa, Calif. Five days a week he drives 186 miles one way from his home to Cisco Systems Inc. in San Jose.

That's a round-trip journey of 372 miles a day, a drive that takes a total of seven hours.

He makes the trip five days a week and has been doing so since 1989.

Givens' commute means that every year he's motoring about the same distance as driving nearly 40 times from Richmond to Los Angeles -- a distance of 2,293 miles.

Givens was crowned "the ultimate road warrior" by Midas Inc. this week, the culmination of the muffler maker's search for "America's Longest Commute."

Givens out-drove thousands of other entrants for a grand prize of $10,000 in gas money along with four Bridgestone tires with a total value of $470.

The contest was part of Midas' celebration of its 50th anniversary.

Explaining his mind-boggling commute, Givens said in a statement released by Midas: "I have a great job and my family loves the ranch where we live. So this is the only solution."

Mariposa is in the Sierra Nevada mountains, near Yosemite National Park.

More here:
http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=188674

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PhilRelig on April 18, 2006 - 9:23am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thanks for that bit of grim amusement to accompany my morning coffee!  (I think this qualifies as an example of "gallows humor," right?)
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Alaskan Pete on April 18, 2006 - 11:00am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Mariposa IS a nice place, close to Yos etc, been through there many times myself. But good lord, he works for CISCO!! If anyone should be able to telecommute 3 days a week it should be this guy...a knowledge worker for the biggest data switch/router manufacturer in the world. WTF is wrong with these people?
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TrueKaiser on April 18, 2006 - 11:12am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
yea i have to agree with you. cisco has made their routers and switchs almost completely configurable remotely. for security reasons no less.
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Consume More on April 18, 2006 - 11:21am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Cisco is reputed to be very telecommuter-friendly, both because it leads the industry in this technology, but also because of its location-- lots of its workers live a good distance from the high-priced San Jose area.

But the article says this guy is an electrical engineer (not IT engineer), so maybe he's soldering, making cables, testing components, or whatever an electrical engineer does at a company like Cisco.

Seems to me that either this guy really loves to drive a lot, or he has no choice due to the nature of his job.

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tom deplume on April 18, 2006 - 12:08pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
He would probably use less gas flying a small plane and have more time with his family. There are people who do that in California. A Cessna 172 burns 1/2 the gas at twice the speed as a large SUV.
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davebygolly on April 18, 2006 - 12:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Truth is, though, it doesn't do any real good to hammer the people who do this stuff. Not yet anyway. There's no reason not to do this stuff until you understand the reasons not to. We ALL way overconsume compared to what's really sustainable.

When we get serious, this kind of thing will either be prohibited or subject to severe disincentives. And there will have been tons of programs and propaganda explaining WHY.

I don't mean that those of us who are aware shouldn't hold ourselves to a different standard. But until the whole society is restructured, making it feasible, it's difficult --- as you all know.

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undeadFiz on April 18, 2006 - 1:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
So exposing wretched excess, and commenting on its utterly
absurd nature is no good? I think pointing out what's wrong is
the first step to change, not waiting till all hell has broken loose.

It's the fire under the arse that gets attention, not complacence.

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ericy on April 18, 2006 - 3:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I would hardly describe what this guy is doing as 'feasible'.  This is far in excess of what most people would consider doing.

They didn't say what kind of car the guy drives - not that it makes any difference in terms of how long it takes to get to work, but the guy must be spending a fortune on gas too.

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zceb90 on April 18, 2006 - 3:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
It would be interesting to hear what type of vehicle is being used for such massive commutes - a Hummer H2 would surely contribute to peaking!
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throwaway92614 on April 18, 2006 - 4:22pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
This guy probably gets almost zero time with said "wife and kids who love living on the ranch."

Methinks perhaps marital bliss is a little short in their family.

Perhaps he does the commute to GET AWAY from the wife/kids?? Just theorizing here, wildly OT. (Sorry!)

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