Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Apr 23, 2006 20:54:37 GMT -5
^ Really? Cool. But what accounts for the sudden growth spurt in the last 200 or so years? I mean, if humans had been growing at that pace since the beginning of our species then we'd be considerably taller right? I dunno. I don't know much about this stuff.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Apr 23, 2006 22:30:51 GMT -5
^ I think a lot of it is just better nutrition etc, but the effect of growth hormones in poultry is also a possible factor. I don't know much about it either, but a lot of things have changed in just recent generations, in particular the age at which girls hit puberty.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Apr 24, 2006 0:10:51 GMT -5
Apparently Swedish (or is it Dutch?) people are really tall because they put growth hormones in their cows and didn't realise that it had effects on people until it was too late.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Apr 24, 2006 1:48:22 GMT -5
Oooh, interesting. I guess that's why we get a wide variety of height among people? Because some are effected by the growth hormones somehow and some are not? And probably also genetics I would think.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Apr 24, 2006 2:02:35 GMT -5
Yeah, there's also genetics. Asian people are generally smaller than Anglo-Saxon people.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Apr 24, 2006 2:11:29 GMT -5
Why is Yao Ming so tall?
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Apr 24, 2006 2:13:39 GMT -5
I don't know? Not EVERY Asian is a midget! I'm just saying that generally, they tend to be smaller (shorter, skinnier).
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Apr 24, 2006 2:21:36 GMT -5
I apologize. I just wanted to know if he was just naturally tall or did he grow up using a certain dietary habit. *sigh* I'm so short.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Apr 24, 2006 2:23:16 GMT -5
Oh, sorry. No idea!
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Apr 24, 2006 2:34:18 GMT -5
I apologize. I just wanted to know if he was just naturally tall or did he grow up using a certain dietary habit. *sigh* I'm so short. there are many different factors - culture, genetics, diet etc... and of course, everyone is affected by these factors differently. Occasionally it's just a mystery - my sister is 5'9, which is definitely on the tall side for a female, but everyone else in my family is just average.
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Post by aln1982 on Jul 4, 2006 15:38:04 GMT -5
Haha, I thought it was kinda messed up too. I think they said there was some space between the rooms, but it must have been pretty narrow. What I couldn't understand was how it worked downstairs, since Dawn's room is upstairs. That means the secret passage has to go down two flights, which had to make it pretty long, unless the stairs were as steep as they were narrow. So just the thought of the stairs is kinda scary. That house must have been either very well or very badly planned out.quote] I thought of this book and the passage a few weeks ago when we were touring Fort Mackinaw on Mackinaw Island. We went up a stairway in the blockhouse that was built in the late 1700s, which I think was when Dawn's house was supposed to be from, and it was amazingly steep and narrow. After trying to climb that, I can almost see how the steps in the passage as described in this book could have been real.
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Post by greer on Jul 5, 2006 0:27:05 GMT -5
I think diet has a big role. Going back to the idea of Anglo-Saxon v. Asian height, after a Western diet became more commonplace in Japan height shot up by a humongous percentage. Then again, so did diet-related diseases.
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Post by supernatural babe on Jul 5, 2006 10:48:49 GMT -5
I loved this book. I giggled all the way through. I love it when the BSC act like tools and make idiots of themselves rather than them unneccesarily take the moral high ground. What was Nicky doing trespassing on neighbours property for anyway?
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Jul 5, 2006 11:09:20 GMT -5
People were always cutting through each others' backyards and stuff in this book. I can remember once when Stacey was going to sit for someone (Charlotte, maybe), she mentioned cutting through about 3 neighbors' yards because it was convenient.
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Post by lovelylemontree on Jul 5, 2006 11:47:48 GMT -5
Do these people have fences? It often seems like they don't.
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