This is an absolutely fascinating article. It’s about the new “anthropometric historians” who measure height of populations. It’s from 2004, so maybe everyone’s already seen it. But it was new to me. There are a few things that didn’t ring right to my ear, but as I read it on my PDA I couldn’t quite take notes and I don’t have time now to look for them. One basic point, subtly dealt with in the piece, is the inherent material progressivism in it. There’s an idea lurking in there, particularly in the last graf, that socialized societies (of the social democratic variety) are better because they make humans taller. You don’t get beaten over the head with it, but it’s in there. Given our recent conversations about eugenics and the like, I think it’s really interesting.