Mile mile to diverge. Owing to the importance of the surveyor's rod in deeds and surveying undertaken under Henry VIII, decreasing the length of the rod by would have amounted to a significant tax increase. Parliament instead opted to maintain the mile of 8 furlongs (which were derived from the rod) and to increase the number of feet per mile from the old Roman value. The applicable passage of the statute reads: "A Mile shall contain eight Furlongs, every Furlong forty Poles, and every Pole shall contain sixteen Foot and half." The statute mile therefore contained 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.
How to Fly a Horse describing the book's anecdotes as "rather lovely," Annand concluded, "All told, I suspect there is actually only one thing that connects history's innovative geniuses: their library shelves are entirely empty of 'Smart Thinking'." How to Fly a Horse How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery is a 2015 non-fiction book by the technology pioneer Kevin Ashton. In the book, Ashton debunks many common myths about creativity and proposes that hard work, rather than creative genius, is the true source of innovation. Ben East of "The Observer" wrote, "[Ashton's] well chosen examples reinforce the idea