For curious gobbos: I did a deep-dive on that human height chart back in the day. As you would expect, a ton of differing opinions and theories stem from the fact that we have had very limited population and height data for vast swathes of our history. We are learning more and more with technological advances and new archeological findings. In general, human height does correlate with living standards, to a point. My home country, Finland is a good, if extreme example, where rapid industrialization and a welfare state allowed average height to explode from the 60's onwards. However, when we mix in spacial conditions, the primary way of living at the time, and cultural flukes, there are a lot of historical exceptions to that rule. The graph Ben and Tom were looking at was mainly based on limited and new-ish discoveries of hunter-gatherer humans who were quite tall even by modern standards. The main theory of the paper discussing the discoveries centered around lifestyle and temperature, suggesting that there exists a "ideal" temperature for increases in height of human populations. Once you added in agriculture and the explosion of human populations it allowed, a bunch of this "ideal location for a hunter gatherer society to thrive" discussion goes out the window. Ancient civilizations were shorther than us because humans werent meant to survive on wheat and water. Agriculture allowed an explosion of population but also made sure the "average" peak physical condition of humans was much more low, due to diet and lower environmental pressures.
It is theorized that the emperor is actually very small and gaunt and is just projecting the image that people see when they look at him, and I think that is thematically perfect for him.
For curious gobbos: I did a deep-dive on that human height chart back in the day. As you would expect, a ton of differing opinions and theories stem from the fact that we have had very limited population and height data for vast swathes of our history. We are learning more and more with technological advances and new archeological findings.
In general, human height does correlate with living standards, to a point. My home country, Finland is a good, if extreme example, where rapid industrialization and a welfare state allowed average height to explode from the 60's onwards.
However, when we mix in spacial conditions, the primary way of living at the time, and cultural flukes, there are a lot of historical exceptions to that rule. The graph Ben and Tom were looking at was mainly based on limited and new-ish discoveries of hunter-gatherer humans who were quite tall even by modern standards. The main theory of the paper discussing the discoveries centered around lifestyle and temperature, suggesting that there exists a "ideal" temperature for increases in height of human populations.
Once you added in agriculture and the explosion of human populations it allowed, a bunch of this "ideal location for a hunter gatherer society to thrive" discussion goes out the window. Ancient civilizations were shorther than us because humans werent meant to survive on wheat and water. Agriculture allowed an explosion of population but also made sure the "average" peak physical condition of humans was much more low, due to diet and lower environmental pressures.
It is theorized that the emperor is actually very small and gaunt and is just projecting the image that people see when they look at him, and I think that is thematically perfect for him.
Rest in peace kickstarter roulette. :(
@Ben, Richard Burton film :- Raid on Rommel.
My main takeaway is that the Emperor is Batman
Petition for a Yogscast War Report with blue overlay for night time.