Fusion, Fission, Quarks and such nonsense.

Weight doesn't mean a whole lot without height. I'm 120 pounds too, but I'm over six feet tall. That means my BMI is low enough on the "underweight" part of the scale that I can loop my pinkie and my thumb around my wrist and still have an inch of air left over. I'm not exactly unhealthy, but...well.

 

THank you, Omni, for sharing all that with me.
Perhaps, though, it would be better if we went back to fusion, fission, and quarks though.
It's a bit less depressing.

I think you mean 5 and a 1/2 feet. Since we evolved into humans around 2 million years ago, we've always been 5 1/2 to 6 feet on average.
I could be a bit wrong, but we're not all dwarfs.
Also, random fact: Napoleon was 5 foot 6, him being 5 foot 2 was a myth.

 

Actually, unless the bones shrunk since I last heard, the bulk of skeletal remains were less than four feet in total length.

I may have my eons mixed up though. It could be a few thousand years longer, but the evidence I recall was clearly suggesting that Humans are getting taller and larger.

I will see what references I can find to spit out about that later. For now, what about them there space programs? (Spoken in a distinctly uncultured southern accent.)

How long 'til that there moon base is in place and ready to install a gift shop?

 

Probably 50 years or so.
I'm hoping to be the first man on Mars.

As for how tall people were, while I could be wrong, average human height hasn't increased that much.
I know in ancient Greece, I would be at least a good half a foot taller than everyone else.
I'm 6 foot 2.

This reminds me of an interesting tidbit. There was a man in Feudal Japan, in the mid 1500s called Keiji Maeda. He was an extremely talented warrior.
He died of old age. That was a rarity back then. Mind you, old age was around 65, but still.
The most interesting thing about Keiji is that while no one actually knows how tall he was, he was at least 6 foot 6 inches, and possibly as much as 7 foot 6 inches tall.
He was basically a giant. He had to have a special helmet in battle so archers wouldn't pick on him.
I think that's impressive, and it shows you how uniquely varied human height can be.
As a side note, I'm thinking of creating a topic called "Interesting Facts." which will show off my esoteric knowledge.

 

I would click "Watch" in a heartbeat. Keep the facts coming. (Here, or there. It works either way.)

 

BMI may have statistical significance, but it's hardly an indicator of how healthy you are. It's used a lot because obesity is a major problem. But a normal 'BMI' does not mean you won't have a heart attack, and an abnormal one won't necessarily cause one. Genetics, exercise, and healthy habits have a lot to say about it as well (two relatives of mine died from smoking-related illnesses). Furthermore, there are very unhealthy habits that people hardly ever point to because they have become such social norms -- I'm talking about talking on the phone while driving. According to an article in this months Scientific American Mind, laws that require the use of hands-free phones in cars have not done anything at all to reduce automobile accident rates related to phone use. Because it's not so much your hands, but your brain that is the problem.

As far as average height -- that's a more complicated question, but there's no doubt that average heights have changed. For one thing, average height varies by where in the world you are. I'm 5'10", which is pretty average for a male, but when I visited Taiwan, I was fairly tall. It's also affected by diet.. And of course we do tend to shrink as we go older. So there's no doubt that height has changed over the years. The only question is how much, and that I don't know. You really need an anthropologist or archaeologist to answer that question.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pershing_Wadlow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gul_Mohammed

Yeah. I have been unable to find any clear record of Human height in past ages. There are still people who pretend Jesus was a seven footer despite having to be pointed out to the Roman soldiers since he looked just like the disciples.

Size really means nothing. If you are bigger than average, that does not make you more or less valuable to the world. And despite the protests of many Doctors, there is no clear evidence that being larger than normal effects your health. (Obesity is not larger, it is grotesquely larger. Not like yourself David.)

 

Um, I have never heard of anyone who thinks Jesus is 7 foot.
That's news to me.
Last time I checked, he would have been average height for that area of the world, and well muscled due to being a carpenter's son.

 

I blame whoever though Jesus was 7 feet tall.
Sorry, me and Omni go off on tangents sometimes.

 

Cool! I studied engineering myself, but did graduate from Caltech, which produces a lot of physicists (including an old college buddy who has been working as a Physicist at Argonne National Labs for a good number of years now). No physics degree, but I still am fascinated by what's been happening in that world.

BTW, I was at Caltech while Richard Feynman was there. I missed by one year, taking freshman physics from him. But I did have dinner with him once (Well, he was a dinner guest in Page House). He also gave an unofficial course at the school in safe-cracking and lockpicking (Which in retrospect, I'm sorry I missed). He's definitely was one of the most colorful characters in science that there's ever been. If you want to read some really good physics books, find a copy of "The Feynman Lectures".

I don't even want to get into any discussions about Jesus. First of all, I grew up Jewish (currently am an agnostic, but I am celebrating Passover with my family). Second, it serves no one any good to start up a religious war. A cool-headed polite discussion can be fun, but on the internet, how often does that happen? Some of the best discussions I've had was staying up late at night in college with a friend who was native american discussing all sorts of religious questions. He'd tell me stories about using psychedelic mushrooms with his grandfather (for religious purposes, not recreational). Good times.

 

Okay, guys, enough about Jesus. I was curious why Omni mentioned that some people claimed he was 7 feet tall. That's it.
I had no intentions of making this topic into any reference to the Bible, Christianity, or anything like that.
None.
I would prefer it if we didn't focus on my reply to him, and instead concentrated on fusion and fission.

Or I will borrow Superman's heat vision, and make people stand a little too close to a pool of water when I flash boil it.

That said, very interesting to see how many people play this game, and also have a really high IQ.

 

I hope you know that despite its name, IQ is not an universally accepted measurement of intelligence, but rather of ability to recognize patterns. It's defininitely not a measure of knowledge. I hate it when people try to brag about their high IQ.
/endrant

But, yeah, physics.
Something I saw only recently; scientists have been able to keep anti-hydrogen in existence for up to 1000 seconds. I thought that was really cool. I'll post a link when I find it again.

edit: here's the link: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1104.4982v1.pdf

 

IQ is literally the AVERAGE intelligence quotient of a given group. And that average varies around the world. So People in country A may not actually be as intelligent as those in country B even if they have a higher IQ. (Yes, the first usage of the word IQ is a link. Click it, dumbasses. )

 

On a related subject, I believe IQ is very very misleading. Every IQ test I had was nothing to do with how fast I learned. I was asked specific questions. It was a test of knowledge, not intellect. The tests were clearly either broken from the start, or they were misapplied by idiots. (I suspect both.)

The fact that borderline retarded people graduate school should be proof that IQ is not *Actually* rising. But those giving the tests have a vested interest in the students seeming smarter every time they are tested.

 

Tirlpe psot! The Fcat taht you can raed tihs dometsrantes taht you are albe to rgconzeie ptatnres.

That is complex extrapolation. Or Fluid Intelligence. The fact that you understand what I am saying in a general sense is Crystallized Intelligence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_and_crystallized_intelligence

For myself, fluid intellect is much more common than crystalline intellect. I have lots of specific parts of knowledge, but I have massive voids on certain subjects. I do not know who even played at the last "Superbowl". Nor do I have any knowledge how that game is even played. I personally hate sports. I find cerebral challenges much more enjoyable and much more rewarding in every last case.

As such, I *Redacted*. Period. Sorry to offend anyone. I do that far too often.

Am I biased and unfair? Certainly. No doubt about that one. But am I right? I still think so. What are your thoughts?

 

Yes, Quarky, I know that. I kind of messed up there. I actually did mean intelligence, not IQ. Being really tired sucks.
Also, Einstein would like you to know that his greater than 150 IQ does mean he's better than the average person at a few things.
It does help weed out the people who will never become theoretical Physicists though. Cause you know, not everyone is cut out for that job.

 

On the subject of IQ, a score of 100 is equal to the average intelligence of everyone who the test is supposed to cover. IQ literally can't rise over time, because the average score is always going to equal 100. And scores of 200 and 300 only ever happen with terrible tests, or in hollywood.

Terrible tests, of course, being things that happen far too often.

 

Teachers have a bad situation. Parents want to hear that their kids are far smarter than all the rest. (Even, and in some cases especially if that is not true.)

People have some dumb idea that the increases in intelligence of the Human species is supposed to be measurable by living people. That is evidence of how dumb Humans in general are. It takes thousands of generations to note a significant change in intellect. Selective breeding for the purpose of greater intellect may make that into only hundreds of generations, but still. Not our lifetimes.

I do not really blame the teachers for giving the parents what they want. They are supposed to teach unruly brats and they are supposed to do it with their hands tied behind their back and never speak of certain subjects every other kid will specifically ask about. They do their best.

Intelligence IS rising. That is nature. Even apes have demonstrated tool usage. But nature does *NOT* like fast changes. Nor drastic changes. Those are things that usually come right before a species becomes extinct.

Want this thread to turn *Real* ugly? We can discuss IQ relative to populations by race, creed, gender, and location. But that is misleading information that will certainly cause only hurt feelings for all. So If I may be so bold as to suggest we not do that?

The way I see things is this. I do not care how "Smart" a test says you are. I have met people too "dumb" to speak or interact with others that could do amazingly complex things with exactly zero training whatsoever. Savants exist. They are proof that the concept of IQ is of limited usefulness at best.

You are what you are. You may not realize your genius. It may well exist even if you have looked for it and failed to see it. We are each more than the sum of our parts.