Living proof that height is right in China

ATTENTION short people. Seek out your tall friends, embrace them firmly and wish them well, because their time left on this planet is limited. Pretty soon not just the meek, but the short, will inherit the earth.

New scientific research out of China has concluded short people - or vertically challenged as they say in America - live longer than their lanky brethren.

Exhaustive tests conducted by top Chinese scientists assert that the taller people grow, the heavier their body tends to become, placing an added burden on the heart. In that respect, shorter people tend to live a better and longer life.

Where's the evidence, you ask? Well, a survey in 1993 in China showed that the longest living man and woman were both dwarfs, and that more than half of the centenarians were only 1.5 metres or so tall, weighing about 40 kilograms.

Gong Laifa, China's longest-living man who lasted to the age of 131, was only 1.4 metres and less than 40 kg. Kong Ying, the longest living woman at 122, was 1.3 metres in height and weighed some 30 kg.

But it doesn't end there. The future of the world is at stake and tall people could muck it up. Chinese experts say the constant increase in human height will cause problems not only for human life, but for society and economic growth as well.