When Henry Ford wanted to get unbreakable glass for his cars, he wouldn’t see any of the experts. They knew too many reasons why it couldn’t be done. He said, “Bring me the eager young person who doesn’t know the reasons why unbreakable glass cannot be made.” He got unbreakable glass. (Joe Griffith, in Speaker’s Library of Business, p. 253) It was a company joke that had been tried on every embryonic engineer since the electric light was scarcely a gleam in ’s eye. The service engineer would be assigned the “impossible” task of frosting electric light bulbs on the inside. A new engineer at General Electric, Marvin Pipkin, was put through the usual routine. Not being aware that it was a joke, he discovered a way not only to frost bulbs on the inside, but also to etch the glass with soft, rounded pits which gave the bulbs added strength and affected a maximum diffusion of the light. Fortunately no “wise guy” told Marvin Pipkin that he had been assigned the impossible, so he went ahead and did it. (Derric Johnson, in The Wonder of America, p. 136) goats can climb up cliffs which are almost vertical. Tough pads on their hooves act as suction cups, and stop them from slipping on the steep rocks. (The Usborne Book of Facts & Lists: Omnibus Edition) Mount Erebus, the only active volcano in Antarctica, spews crystals of pure gold when it erupts. The microscopic particles are too fine and widely dispersed to harvest. (Barbara Seuling) At the Port Royal Golf Course in on , twenty-one year old Joe Flynn recorded the lowest 18 hole score ever, an 82. If you think those statistics might not be up to par, Flynn’s 18 hole mark was for throwing the ball. (Jack Kreismer, in The Bathroom Trivia Book , p. 70) When Hannibal invaded , in the third century B.C., his military engineers employed fire and vinegar to smash a path through the . The engineers heated immovable rocks with blazing logs, then poured vinegar over the rocks. The rocks split into fragments that could be pushed aside. (Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, p. 259) Is it possible that the ground in the can get as much heat from the sun during one day as the ground along the Equator? Tavern types win
small wagers with this one, too. Answer is yes -- in the summer – because of the long Arctic day. (L. M. Boyd) Meg F. Quijano relates the following incident that happened upon her return from a meeting of the National Organization for Women. Her five-year-old daughter, Lisa, greeted her with the news that when she grew up she wanted to be a nurse. There was a time when nursing was thought by many to be a “woman's job.” Quijano told Lisa she could be anything she wanted to be. “You can be a lawyer, a surgeon, a banker, President of the -- you can be anything.” Lisa looked a little dubious. “Anything? Anything at all?” She thought about it, and then her face lit up with ambition. “All right,” she said. “I'll be a horse.” (Bits & Pieces) The impossible: what nobody can do until somebody does. (Bits & Pieces) Nothing is improbable until it moves into the past tense. (George Ade, writer) The Indians of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America, near , wore no clothes to protect themselves from the sleet-filled air and icy waters. (Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts, p. 79) A man who was run over while helping two elderly women cross a road has been ticketed for jaywalking. Jim Moffett, 68, was hit by a truck when he ran to assist the two women shuffling across a busy intersection. Moffett is now in intensive care with internal injuries – and a $22 jaywalking ticket. “We understand Mr. Moffett was doing something with great intentions,” said Trooper Ryan Sullivan, “but it was still dangerous for anyone to be in the road.” (The Week magazine, March 6, 2009) Jesus crossed the “mortality barrier” where for centuries man had thought of himself as “born in sin and shaped in iniquity.” He bridged the gap between man's mortality and his potential divinity, and thus, for all time he became the “wayshower”, the “saviour”, the bridge over which all may pass in “putting on the Christ.” (A Synoptic Study of the Teachings of Unity)