Just a quick question.
I had allways belived it was due to better diet.
But on another thread someone mentioned artificial lighting. I don’t understand how that would matter.
Any other known or suspected reasons?
All knowledgeable or humourous replies are acceptable.
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Tyranny,* like Hell*,* is not easily conquered*.
-Thomas Paine (fugitive slave catcher)
Works the opposite way, for Trees.
Tris
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a caveat, to start: i can’t recall a source. sorry.
i recall reading a study on the average height of chinese males. basically, it said as the chinese diet diversifies (less reliance upon rice; more protein in general) the average height is increasing.
i’ve never heard anything about artificial lighting, myself.
-ellis
Did the guy on the artificial lightening thread say, " ZZZzzzzzt?"
Never land alone. J. Winters
Jois:
Um, the posters name was Momotaro.
But I don’t know about…
Hey, are you joking with me? 
I just spent 10 minutes looking this up.
Comedy is not pretty - Steve Martin
Actually, all the measuring devices are shrinking. It’s one of them 'spiracies.
Peace,
mangeorge
Teach your kids to bungee jump.
One them might have to cross a bridge someday.
It’s a myth.
People aren’t getting taller.
If you go to the Tower of London you see small suits of armor and think “what wimps!”
The style there was to charge in jousting and you had to be small to get up to speed.
If you go to Germany, you see suits of armor for the Black Knight and Red Knight, made for men 6’5" and realize they did their fighting standing on the ground, or just liked to show off in quaint parades after armor was made obsolete by the crossbow.
At any rate, there were plenty of big guys 1,000 years ago.
The Neaderthals were no slouches, either, although most accounts only mention that they had larger heads than today.
Another myth, while we’er here is that people are living a lot longer.
Ususally this is overstated as, “In Columbus’s day a fortyish guy was considered an old geezer.”
Look up some of the famous names from Greek and Egyptian times, and you’ll find lots of guys who died in their nineties.
Why, when the life expectancy was so low?
Because it “life expectancy at birth”.
Most died of childhood diseases. Once you lived to 30, however, your life expectancy was like now.
If you lived then, people would look the same age to you as they do now, but you’d see a lot more toddlers around.
Woodrules,
Would you happen to have a cite for your claim that people who reach thirty now have roughly the same life expectancy as those in Egyptian times? I’ve seen this fact thrown around a lot on this board, and am wondering where it comes from.
Thanks.
Er… make that Woodwoodrules, or something. Sorry.
Just to clarify, I realize that there are still Egyptians in this time. I was referring to ancient Egyptian times, like around the time the pyramids were built.
woodwoodrules:
Thanx for the hijack. 
At least you are bumping me to the top.
Am I surounded by angry beavers?
You are missing some info I think.
Those ancients you refered to(you didn’t actually) lived before many of the great life-shortening diseases evolved.
There is biblical evidence as well that people once lived long lives as well.
But by the time the europeans reached this land, life expectancy was dismally low.
So, anyone heard of this Artificial Light Theory? Or of Momtaro?
Tyranny,* like Hell*,* is not easily conquered*.
-Thomas Paine (fugitive slave catcher)
as well.
Oh, I’m sorry, Momotaro, hum. I thought you were talking about lightening, not lighting. Sheds a new light on the question, not to make, well, you know.
In the 1950’s we were suppoed to be on average, 5’4" for females and 5’10" for males. Now we are on average an inch taller, not because of good lighting or rays emitted from our light bulbs but because of good food and health care.
We are probably at our genetically hoped for height. But outside of the USA, in some of the developing countries, some may exceed this average as their food, diet, health continues to improve.
And as they continue to have increased availability of artificial indoor lighting.
Never land alone. J. Winters
Jois:
AAAAARRRRGGGHH!
And do you have a cite on that 5’11" US male average?
Tyranny,* like Hell*,* is not easily conquered*.
-Thomas Paine (fugitive slave catcher)
**Originally posted by 2sense
Those ancients you refered to(you didn’t actually) lived before many of the great life-shortening diseases evolved.**
Which would those be? Plague, smallpox, cholera, measles, and influenza are all probably at least as old as the human race. The reason the Indians were so long-lived before the whites arrived (if they did) is that the Indians descended from a very small population that came from Asia. It so happened that none of them were carriers for some of these diseases, or if they were, that the diseases died out over time in the Americas.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde)
**Originally posted by 2sense
Those ancients you refered to(you didn’t actually) lived before many of the great life-shortening diseases evolved.**
Which would those be? Plague, smallpox, cholera, measles, and influenza are all probably at least as old as the human race. The reason the Indians were so long-lived before the whites arrived (if they did) is that the Indians descended from a very small population that came from Asia. It so happened that none of them were carriers for some of these diseases, or if they were, that the diseases died out over time in the Americas.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde)
My answer to the OP: better nutrition. I’ve never heard the “artificial lighting” theory.
I do know that as soon as Japan joined the post-World War II world economy, and its citizens started getting access to more protein, that the Japanese population overall started getting taller. Sorry, I don’t have a cite for it, just one of those media sound-bite factoids that stuck in the brain-velcro.
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen
I seem to remember an article from Discover Magazine several years ago, about a study of two troops of baboons in Africa (I forget exactly where).
One troop lived purely in the wild, and ate the sort of plant-heavy omnivorous diet you’d expect baboons to eat. The other troop lived in a dump, and ate junk food, leftover pizza and whatnot. Basically a high-fat, high-protein diet. (Obviously, the study wasn’t in Ethiopia. There seemed to be plenty of junk foods around.)
The dump baboons grew larger, and reached puberty earlier. However, they also had shorter life spans (if I recall correctly) and higher rates of heart disease and other diet-based ailments.
I’m doing all of this from memory, so I may have some of the details wrong, but that is my recollection of the study (or the gist of it anyway). Anybody else heard of this one?
–In France I’m considered a genius.