The Land Sailing Chariot

"A chariot, on wheels, to be impelled by the wind, was constructed, in the last century, by Stephinus, at Scheveling, in Holland, and is celebrated by many writers.

It's velocity is said to have been so great, that it would carry eight or ten persons from Scheveling to Putten, which is distant forty-two English miles, in two hours.

The body of the carriage is driven before the wind by sails and guided by a rudder.

The wheels require to be farther asunder, and the axletrees longer, than in ordinary carriages, to prevent overturning.

Carriages of this kind are said to be frequent in China; and in any wide level country, must be sometimes both pleasant and profitable.

The great inconvenience attending the machine is, that it can only go in the direction the wind blows, and even not then, unless it blows strong; so that after you have got some way on your journey, if the wind should fail, or change, you must either proceed on foot, or stand still.

The Hollanders have small vessels, somewhat of this description, which carry one or two persons on the ice, having a sledge at bottom instead of wheels; and being made in the form of a boat, if the ice break, the passengers are secured from drowning."

Choosing a King

For sure, if I had to have a king, I would want someone very clever like this guy;

"The Tyrians having been much weakened by long wars with the Persians, their slaves rose in a body, slew their masters and their children, and then seized on their houses and wives whom they married.

The slaves having thus got possession of all, consulted about the choice of a king, and agreed that he who could first discern the sunrise should be king.

One of them, being more merciful than the rest, had, in the general massacre, spared his master Straton, and his son, whom he hid in a cave, and to his old master he now resorted for his advice as to his competition.

What was Straton's advice?

Straton advised his slave, that when others looked to the east he should look towards the west.

Accordingly, when the rebel tribe had all assembled in the fields, and every man's eyes were fixed upon the east, Straton's slave, turning his back upon the rest, looked only westward.

He was scoffed at by everyone for his absurdity, but immediately he espied the sunbeams upon the high towers and chimneys in the city, and announcing the discovery, claimed the crown as his reward.

Antediluvian Patriarchs

Only Noah lived before and after the Flood. The question is why did lifespans decrease so dramatically in the years since the flood, where humans now average only 70 years though once apparently lived +900 years?

Adam lived - 930 years
Seth - 912 years
Enos - 905 years
Canaan - 910 years
Mahalaleel - 895 years
Jared - 962 years
Enoch - 365 years
Methusalem - 969 years
Lamech - 777 years
Noah - 950 years

Timed Poison

While reading an old book, I came upon a belief that venom and poison could be 'tuned' to only become effective at a desired time after being taken. You could poison someone and nothing happens until its time is reached, then the person dies.

It reminded me of the claims of Dim Mak which is supposed to have been used to kill Bruce Lee. Also called the Death Touch, it involved sudden, rapid pressure applied to a point of the body related to the organ you wish to fail. The Chi circulates through all organs in the body over a 24 hour period, so by 'bruising' the Chi/Blood, when it reached the organ at a specified time after the application of the death touch, it caused failure.

Under the administration of Cardinal Louveis, during the reign of Louis XIV, an Italian apothecary having assisted the lover of the Marchioness of Brinvilliers, who had been sent to the Bastille, to poison the father and brother of the lady, emprisonment immediately became the topic of the day,

and a superstitious opinion was soon generated among the multitude, that druggists and philosophers can compose venoms, which operate, not at the season of administration,

but at definite remote periods; that they can draw drafts upon death payable at one, two or three usances, or even at one, two or three years after acceptance of the order; and that these drafts are unfailingly discharged at their elapse, without a protest or a day of grace.

Not only Quintilian and Theophrastes were ransacked for corroborations of this mischievous credulity; but the annals, or rather the libels, of the modern Italians, were pressed into the service of these calumniators of human nature...

The jealousies of domestic life once inflamed, women thought their innocence, and men their security concerned, in inveighing with bitterness indiscriminate against the buyers of this elixir. Every sudden, every lingering, every conspicuous, every critical diseas was ascribed to the Aqua Tofana. The chief distributors were soon rumoured to be the Italian apothecary Exiii, who administered for secret disorders...