Elmo, At the risk of getting in trouble - may I say that you've hit the nail on the head. I tend to agree more and more with my almost 92 year old Mom - women should run the USA, just look at some of the messes that have come to light in the past few days. This is not a slam at men - I love 'em dearly!!! But I can think of a great number of things women would fix right away. Examples: Decent medical care for ALL (not shouting - just want your attention,) drug plans the Seniors could afford, food, housing - the list could go on forever - I !!! This is it, don't want to overstep the political bounds of the Lists. Comments are always welcome. Have A Good Evening All, Marge ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elmo" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 4:36 PM Subject: [BSChat] Fw: Horse's Ass > Horse's Ass > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Lyn Dee Dobbins > To: Bob Dobbins III at home (E-mail) ; Bob Dobbins Jr. (E-mail) ; Chris (E-mail) ; Elwyn Town (E-mail) ; Frank Valone (E-mail) ; Jenna Belote (E-mail) ; Judie DeWulf (E-mail 2) ; Virginia McCall (E-mail) > Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 11:03 AM > Subject: FW: Horse's Ass > > > Interesting bit of history and information! Enjoy! > Lyn Dee > > > Subject: Horse's Ass > THE POWER OF A HORSE'S ASS > > The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 > > inches, an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's > > the way they built railroads in England, and because a lot of the original > > equipment in the US came from England, that English standard controlled the > > early US railroads. > > Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines > > were built by the people who built the pre-railroad tramways; and that's > > the gauge they used. > > Why did they use that particular gauge? Because the people who built the > > tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, > > which used the same 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 the > > old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the > > wheel ruts in the old highway granite sets. > > So, who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long > > distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads > > had been used since the Romans rolled through. > > 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 (or by) Imperial Rome, they all had the > > same wheel spacing. > > And so....the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches > > is derived from the specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot, and > > the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate > > the back ends of two war-horses. > > Now, let's cut to the present... The Space Shuttle, sitting on its launch > > pad, has two booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. > > These are solid-fuel rocket boosters, or SRBs. The company that builds SRBs > > is in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs wanted to make them a bit > > wider, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the > > launch site. The railroad line from the factory has to run through a tunnel > > in the mountains around Chattanooga, TN. The SRBs had to fit through that > > tunnel, which, is slightly wider than the railroad track which, we can see > > from above, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. > > Thus....a major design feature of the space shuttle, what is arguably the > > world's most advanced transportation system, was determined two thousand > > years ago by a horse's ass. Which is pretty much how most governments still > > function today. > > > > ==== BLACKSHEEP-CHAT Mailing List ==== > Unsubscribe from the list: > Mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe&body=unsub scribe > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >