The worlds is so ass backwards today that it almost makes you wish you were dyslectic - Dennis Miller(I am dyslectic, it didn't work)
IT'S GOD'S RESPONSIBILITY TO FORGIVE BIN LADEN
IT'S OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ARRANGE THE MEETING
United States
Marine Corps
Railroad Track Widths
>> >>
>> >> Does the statement, "We've always done it that way"
>> ring any bells?
>> >> ... read to the end... it was a new one for me.
>> >>
>> >> The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the
>> rails) is 4
>> >> feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
>> Why was that gauge
>> >> used?
>> >> Because that's the way they built them in England, and
>> English
>> >> expatriates built the US Railroads.
>> >>
>> >> Why did the English build them like that? Because the
>> first rail
>> >> lines were built by the same people who built the
>> pre-railroad tramways,
>> >> and that's the gauge they used.
>> >>
>> >> Why did "they" use that gauge then?
>> >>
>> >> Because the people who built the tramways used the
>> same jigs and
>> >> tools that they used for building wagons, which used
>> that wheel spacing.
>> >>
>> >> Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd
>> wheel spacing?
>> >>
>> >> Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the
>> wagon wheels would
>> >> break on some of the old, long distance roads in
>> England, because that's
>> >> the spacing of the wheel ruts.
>> >>
>> >> So who built those old rutted roads?
>> >>
>> >> Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in
>> Europe (and
>> >> England) for their legions. The roads have been used
>> ever since.
>> >>
>> >> And the ruts in the roads?
>> >>
>> >> Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which
>> everyone else had
>> >> to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.
>> Since the chariots
>> >> were
>> >> made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the
>> matter of wheel
>> >> spacing..
>> >>
>> >> The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet,
>> 8.5 inches is
>> >> derived from the original specifications for an
>> Imperial Roman war
>> >> chariot. And bureaucracies live forever.
>> >>
>> >> So the next time you are handed a specification and
>> wonder what
>> >> horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right,
>> because the
>> >> Imperial
>> >> Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to
>> accommodate the back
>> >> ends of two war horses.
>> >>
>> >> Now the twist to the story
>> >>
>> >> When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch
>> pad, there are two
>> >> big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main
>> fuel tank. These
>> >> are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made
>> by Thiokol at
>> >> their
>> >> factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs
>> would have
>> >> preferred
>> >> to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be
>> shipped by
>> >> train from the factory to the launch site. The
>> railroad line from the
>> >> factory happens to run through a tunnel in the
>> mountains. The SRBs had
>> >> to
>> >> fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider
>> than the railroad
>> >> track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is
>> about as wide as two
>> >> horses' behinds.
>> >>
>> >> So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is
>> arguably the
>> >> world's most advanced transportation system was
>> determined over two
>> >> thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.
>> >>
>> >> ..... and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't
>> important
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