www.slate.com/.../
In a nutshell
"Anthropometric measurements of large populations show that systematic differences exist among blacks, whites and Asians. The published evidence is massive: blacks have longer limbs than whites, and because blacks have longer legs and smaller circumferences (e.g. calves and arms), their center of mass is higher than that in other individuals of the same height. Asians and whites have longer torsos, therefore their centers of mass are lower.
These structural differences, they argue, generate differences in performance. Using equations about the physics of locomotion, they analyze racing as a process of falling forward. Based on this analysis, they conclude that having a higher center of body mass in a standing position is advantageous in running but disadvantageous in swimming."
This sounds like good news for me.
Thanks to gravity and incipient obesity, my center of gravity continues to work its way downwards.
Fat, like the creep of glass, is relentlessly tugged towards the center of the earth.
I think when my center of gravity is finally slightly under the soles of my feet, I will have reached the apogee of both my swimming career and my life itself!
I mean apogee here in its metaphorical sense only, for as students of vocabulary know:
Pronunciation: \ˈa-pə-(ˌ)jē\
Function: noun
Etymology: French apogée, from New Latin apogaeum, from Greek apogaion, from neuter of apogeios, apogaios far from the earth, from apo- + gē, gaia earth
That a swimmer's apogee is when he or she is actually the closest to earth is one of life's little ironies, don't you agree?
As is the irony that the fastest runners, assuming their center of gravity continues to migrate upwards, become ever more proficient at "controlled falling forward" until they cannot help themselves but fall forward completely, unable to stop themselves...
Ah, we might take different routes, but the destination is the same for us all! Flat on our faces in the mud, conked out, awaiting a blanket of dust to tuck us in for the Eternal Dirt Nap!
Sic fugit gloria (on this note, I need to check to see if there have been any disputes of the #10 spot in TT in the 200 yard freestyle, men's 55-59 age division, to which I was hanging on yesterday by the slimmest of tendrils...)
This has been Jim's "armchair amateur philosopher minute" for Thursday, July 15, 2010.
This sounds like good news for me.
Thanks to gravity and incipient obesity, my center of gravity continues to work its way downwards.
Fat, like the creep of glass, is relentlessly tugged towards the center of the earth.
I think when my center of gravity is finally slightly under the soles of my feet, I will have reached the apogee of both my swimming career and my life itself!
I mean apogee here in its metaphorical sense only, for as students of vocabulary know:
Pronunciation: \ˈa-pə-(ˌ)jē\
Function: noun
Etymology: French apogée, from New Latin apogaeum, from Greek apogaion, from neuter of apogeios, apogaios far from the earth, from apo- + gē, gaia earth
That a swimmer's apogee is when he or she is actually the closest to earth is one of life's little ironies, don't you agree?
As is the irony that the fastest runners, assuming their center of gravity continues to migrate upwards, become ever more proficient at "controlled falling forward" until they cannot help themselves but fall forward completely, unable to stop themselves...
Ah, we might take different routes, but the destination is the same for us all! Flat on our faces in the mud, conked out, awaiting a blanket of dust to tuck us in for the Eternal Dirt Nap!
Sic fugit gloria (on this note, I need to check to see if there have been any disputes of the #10 spot in TT in the 200 yard freestyle, men's 55-59 age division, to which I was hanging on yesterday by the slimmest of tendrils...)
This has been Jim's "armchair amateur philosopher minute" for Thursday, July 15, 2010.
