Hindu belief of the diminishing lifespan of man

"The Sutyoog (1st age) is said to have lasted during a period of 1,728,000 years; when virtue and truth prevailed, and man lived 100,000 years. The Tritayoog (2nd age) is a period of 1,296,000 years; three parts of the creation, during that time, obeyed the word of God, and the life of man was 10,000 years. The Dwapuryoog (3rd age) is a period of 864,000 years; during which half of the creation was wicked, and man only lived 1000 years. - The Kulyoog (4th age) is a period of 432,000 years. Men, in this period, became sinful; only one quarter of the human race followed the dictates of God, and the life of man was curtailed to 100 years. According to the Hindoo account, in the present year (1015 of the Hijra), 4684 years of the Kulyoog have elapsed."
          -Mahomed Kasim Ferishta, History of the Rise of Mahomedan Power in India, Introductory Chapter on the Hindoos, p. liv

Giant Humans of the Past

"We also know that the rulers of Asia were engaged in very remote eras in executing great national works, such as tanks and canals requiring extensive excavations. In the fourteenth century of our era, (in the year 1360,) the removal of soil necessary for such under takings brought to light geological facts... The historian Ferishta, relates that fifty thousand labourers were employed in cutting through a mound... and in this mound were found the bones of elephants and men... The gigantic dimensions attributed to the human bones show them to have belonged to some of the larger pachydermata."
          -Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, Ch. II: Oriental Cosmogony, p. 8

Rebuking without Anger

Mesilath Yesharim, Ch. 11

"Even for the sake of fulfilling a mitzvah (commandment), our Sages of blessed memory have cautioned us not to get angry; even a rabbi with his student or a father with his son. Of course this does not mean that they should not rebuke them. Let them rebuke them, time and time again, but without anger, in order to guide them along the right path, and any anger they express should be only facial rather than [true] anger of the heart."

Who is a "Talmid Chacham" (Torah scholar)?

Mishnah Berurah 575:3

Only if one can ask him a halachic (legal) question in his area of study, and he can answer, then he is considered a talmid chacham.