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BY DAVID THORPE

In his 2013 book David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell makes the case that we are all wrong about the most famous mismatch of all time. David may have been smaller, but he was more nimble, probably had better eyesight, and definitely had a sling:

It's one of the most feared weapons in the ancient world. The stone that comes from his sling has the stopping power equivalent to a bullet from a .45 caliber pistol. It's a serious weapon.
And second, there are many medical experts who believe that Goliath was suffering from acromegaly, which causes you to grow. Many giants have acromegaly, but it has a side effect which is, it causes restrictive sight. Goliath in the biblical story does, if you look closely, sound like a guy who can't see.
So here we have a big, lumbering guy weighed down with armor, who can't see much more than a few feet in front of his face, up against a kid running at him with a devastating weapon and a rock traveling with the stopping power of a .45 caliber …

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Goliath never stood a chance

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