Leonardo's parachute design consists of sealed linen cloth held open by a pyramid of wooden poles, about seven metres long. The original design was scribbled by Da Vinci in a notebook in 1483. An accompanying note read: "If a man is provided with a length of gummed linen cloth with a length of 12 yards on each side and 12 yards high, he can jump from any great height whatsoever without injury." Credit for the invention of the first practical parachute frequently goes to Sebastien Lenormand who demonstrated the parachute principle in 1783. (Some 300 years later)

Among his accomplishments, Leonardo Da Vinci also designed the horizontal water wheel, which led to the development of the water turbine.

The subject of his most famous painting - the Mona Lisa - appears to have no eyebrows! (This is quite hard to see in this small picture here - Click here to see a bigger version and see for yourself!)

And now some quotes by Leonardo Da Vinci:

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory."

"He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast."

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

"Art is never finished, only abandoned."

To conclude, unusually for the era in which he lived, Leonardo was a vegetarian, for humanitarian reasons. He apparently equated the murder of animals on a par with the murder of humans.

Cool Guy! Go Leonardo! - Read my take on Vegetarianism here

If you are interested in science of the bible then see here about downloading the TV documentary 'Ark of the Covenant: Revealed'
http://www.firstscience.com/home/firstscience.tv/ark-of-the-covenant-revealed_2.html

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