And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee.\u2014Rev. 18:22<\/i><\/p>\n
5759<\/b> Ancient Scientists<\/b><\/p>\n
Hipparchus reckoned the solar year as 365\u00bc days minus 4 minutes and 48 seconds\u2014an error of only 6 minutes. He figured the lunar month as 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 1\/3 seconds\u2014less than one second wrong! He estimated the distance to the moon as 250,000 miles, an error of less than five percent. <\/p>\n
Eratosthenes, with only the most primitive instruments, figured the circumference of the earth at 24,662 miles and the diameter at 7850. The correct figures are 24,902 and 7926. <\/p>\n
Leucippus believed that everything was composed of atoms, infinite in number, always in motion, and between them empty space. <\/p>\n
Democritus claimed that no matter was ever destroyed but merely changed its form. He also said that there was an uncountable number of worlds in the universe, many new ones constantly being born, many old ones dying. Some had no sun or moon, some had several. And he also asserted that life developed out of the primeval slime. <\/p>\n
5760<\/b> Blondin\u2019s Feats<\/b><\/p>\n
To cross the Niagara Falls by tightrope was a feat in itself. But Charles Blondin the greatest tight-rope-walker of all times was able to:<\/p>\n
\u2014cross the Falls four different times;<\/p>\n
\u2014do a backwards somersault at the middle of the Falls;<\/p>\n
\u2014take a chair to the middle and sit on it, balancing the chair on two legs;<\/p>\n
\u2014go across it in stilts;<\/p>\n
\u2014Walk across blindfolded while pushing a woman in a wheelbarrow;<\/p>\n
\u2014stand on his head in the middle of the tightrope;<\/p>\n
\u2014take a small stove half-way, sit down, cooked himself an omelette, then eat it. <\/p>\n
Once, while in London, he played the violin midway of a rope walk. While above ground 170 feet, he did a somersault wearing stilts! No wonder there is in London a Niagara Avenue and a Blondin Avenue. He died of old age at age 73. <\/p>\n
5761<\/b> Oversized Puppet Show<\/b><\/p>\n
The famous Bunraku Puppet Theatre in Osaka, Japan, uses marionettes so large and heavy that they cannot be controlled by wires. Each doll, therefore, is manipulated by three operators who stand beside it and are almost invisible as they are dressed completely in black and work against a black curtain. While one man supports the doll and works its eyes and mouth, the other two handle the arms and legs. This requires such skill that no operator is considered proficient until he has specialized in his work for ten years. <\/p>\n
\u2014Freling Foster<\/p>\n
5762<\/b> To Know Where To Peck<\/b><\/p>\n
An intricate machine broke down, halting production in a busy factory. All the company\u2019s best machinists were called in to diagnose the trouble, but to no avail. <\/p>\n
It was suggested that a specialist, a master mechanic, be brought in. He came, looked the apparatus over, and asked for the smallest hammer on hand. He then pecked on a critical area, and said, \u201cNow, turn on the power. It ought to work.\u201d It did. <\/p>\n
Later, when he sent a bill for $100, the top brass were astounded at the exorbitant fee. They wrote, asking him to send an itemized statement, which he did, without reducing the amount. The itemized version read: <\/p>\n
$1 for pecking<\/p>\n
$99 for knowing where to peck. <\/p>\n
5763<\/b> Mr. Webster Fees<\/b><\/p>\n
The incident is told of Daniel Webster that at one time a poor man came to him for advice relative to a rather intricate case. Mr. Webster sent out for legal books which cost him considerable money, more than his client finally paid him when the case was won. Years later, Aaron Burr called to see Mr. Webster, placing before him a will case which baffled the former. Mr. Webster heard him through and in a few words, made the situation clear to his celebrated colleague. <\/p>\n
\u201cWonderful!\u201d exclaimed Mr. Burr. \u201cWonderful knowledge of law! I cannot understand it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then it was that Mr. Webster told him that years previous he had had a similar case, the one referred to above. <\/p>\n
Mr. Webster\u2019s fee from Mr. Burr for perhaps less than five minutes\u2019 advice was $500. The knowledge had been stored away in that wonderful brain all those years and was ready for instant use. <\/p>\n
\u2014C. E. World<\/p>\n
5764<\/b> On Chess Games<\/b><\/p>\n
Did you know that Dr. Alexander Alekhine of France, who became world Champion twice (1927 to 1935 and 1937 to 1948), once played 21 opponents simultaneously while blindfolded! <\/p>\n
But the most dramatic chess game in history, according to Ripley, occurred in 1403 when Prince Yusuf of Granada, ordered to be executed by his brother (Muhammad VII), was granted permission to finish a game of chess in his execution cell! <\/p>\n
The game took so long (it\u2019s not called the waiting game for nothing) that the monarch died while it was still in progress. Prince Yusuf not only won the game but also became Yusuf III, king of Granada! <\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
5765<\/b> Epigram On Skillfulness<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 The patient complained bitterly, \u201cFive dollars is a lot of money for pulling a tooth\u2014just two seconds\u2019 work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d replied the dentist consolingly, \u201cif you wish, I can pull it very slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n
See also:<\/b> Progress ; Technology. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee.\u2014Rev. 18:22 5759 Ancient Scientists Hipparchus reckoned the solar year as 365\u00bc days minus 4 minutes and 48 seconds\u2014an error … Continue reading “SKILLFULNESS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}