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."
Maybe there is less of a disadvantage in shorter events. I saw a clip of Jones at the nationals, and the advantage he has from the block and wall is amaizing.
I'm not touching this study, but I do remember getting my butt kicked as one of the few white guys at a meet in Maputo, Mozambique in 1992.
This has been Jim's "armchair amateur philosopher minute" for Thursday, July 15, 2010.
Thanks. You and Bertie Russell would've made great pals.
Thanks. You and Bertie Russell would've made great pals.
Patrick, to be mentioned in the same sentence with the great author of The Conquest of Happiness has given me a taste of what such conquistadors of happiness must feel! Thanks to you, sir! Thanks to you!
Patrick, to be mentioned in the same sentence with the great author of The Conquest of Happiness has given me a taste of what such conquistadors of happiness must feel! Thanks to you, sir! Thanks to you!And some darn good texts on mathematics, politics, religion, etc., etc.
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.
Jimmy the Greek was ran out of town and his career from saying this decades ago.
If you really want to get run out of town, take a look at the scientific literature on sperm count differentials between the races and between different primate species (gibbons, mate for life, tiny balls and low sperm counts; chimpanzees, so incredibly promiscuous that Jane Goodall herself can't tell who the father of a baby chimp is without DNA analysis, huge testicles and sperm counts.)
For what it's worth, my own sperm count was tested (for an article on sperm banking) at 965,000,000 per solitary ejaculation--almost enough to reproduce China at one take (though it is hard for even me to believe that 965,000,000 Chinese women would have me.)
I used to take a certain cocky pride in this until I learned that it is most likely evidence of an incredibly serpentine ancestry of cuckholdry and infidelity and scoundrelhood in my genetic line.
Note to censors and monitors: this is perfectly acceptable discussion fodder for a swimming forum. If you were to look under the microscope at the Fairfax Cryobank and see what I saw, it was like the world's largest 8 and under (hours) swimming practice pandemonium you ever did done see in your whole born life!
Swim on, little swimmers! Even you two-tailed gimps that seem capable of only shilly shallying in circles.
Which, when you think about it, is pretty must what most of us do, too.
Former Member
Jimmy the Greek was ran out of town and his career from saying this decades ago.
