Runner's Heights: When the World Goes Flat

It would be great if Thomas Freidman's "world is flat" theories were literally true in terms of physical geography. As in, start running from Los Angeles, and traverse the entire planet without having strained over a single hill, not even a mound. But hill training is important for cardiovascular endurance. Every good running book will stress it and it isn't until you run the first hill that you realize how important that this component of endurance training. Hill training is crucial for for strengthening the quads and the the calves and is a great calorie-burner. Next up for me sometime in the future: running hills bare feet.

Every year, at SIGGRAPH, the international conference of computer graphics programmers and artists, some doomsayer goes blathering on about how the interest in the conference is whittling down and on and on about how it was better in the not-so-distant past. However, I think that SIGGRAPH is always evolving just as the community that supports SIGGRAPH is always evolving. In the past, the demographics at SIGGRAPH was primarily male Caucasians in their late 30's. Today the cross-section of SIGGRAPH is significantly diverse with a large chunk of the participation coming from the up-and-coming talent from Asia. This is bound to change SIGGRAPH for the better because a conference is about exchange of ideas and approaches. It is SIGGRAPH gone flat as in a flat world that Thomas Freidman describes in his book, The World is Flat. SIGGRAPH has come a long way from the crowds that milled around renders of Jim Blinn's teapot. They expect more variety every year and that's what is unraveling at the conference with each year.

Book recommendation of the month:

The World is Flat
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/worldisflat.htm

Razr Pics: Receipt printout from a gas station in Central California or is it the Ten Commandments?