Speaking of Efficiency

I read today, in an article about heat illness in runners, that human muscles are actually shockingly inefficient. Evidently, 75% of the energy used by your muscles goes to producing heat, leaving only 25% for accomplishing whatever task you are supposed to be working on (mixing concrete by hand for deck footings, say, or riding your bike to a foreign land like Michigan.) Maybe I am stupid after all, advocating for human powered transport. Oh well, I've done lots of things more stupid than that.

5% Seems Like a Pretty Good Deal

I just found another really cool statistic about cars. 95% of the energy an automobile uses goes toward moving the vehicle itself. Only 5% goes toward moving the passengers or other cargo. That doesn't seem very efficient to me. Again, I'm no economist or mathematician or anything but, you know, it seems like we could do better.