A horses' ass

It starts with Railroad Tracks.
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet 8.5 inches, which is an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in Scotland, and Scottish expatriates designed the US railroads.

Why did the Scottish build them like that? Brcause 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 had used for building wagons....which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing?
Well if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old long distance roads in Scotland, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the fdirst long distance roads in Europe (including Scotland) for their legions. These roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everone 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.
Therefore the United States Railroad gauge of 4ft 8.5 inches is derived from the original specification of the Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.......

Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accomodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses asses).

Now there is a twist to this 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 SRB's.
The SRB's are made by Thiocol at their factory in Utah.

The engineers who designed these boosters would have liked to make them a bit fatter, but they had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.
The Railroad line from the factory happens to run into a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's had to fit through that tunnel.
The tunnel is slightly wider than the Railroad track, and the railroad track as you know is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what isarguably the world's most advanced transportation system, was actually determined over 2000 years ago by the width of two horses asses!

And you thought that being a horses's ass wasn't important?

Ancient horses' asses control almost everything.

I wish I knew how it is going to be.

Things seem so easy when you start out

Things seem so simple when you start out

But they are never easy, are they?

I wish I knew how it is going to be

in the end.

Half way through things you look back

hoping you should have quit

wishing you had the sense to go back

but no, its too late to think about it

I wish I knew how it is going to be

in the end.

At the end of it all you restrain yourself

because its never finished is it?

You need to do many more things

and life goes on..

I wish I knew how it is going to be

in the end.

A small break from everything - I

A friend of mine introduced me to this piece. I dont know what to say but its going to remain with me forever.

The sadness , the loneliness are beautiful aspects of life. Miss out on any one and you just loose the "feel". Now, many people would start arguing about what they "feel" and how others "feel". I am not here to introduce you to what your feelings are or even helping you get in touch with them.

I know what I felt and thats all that matters. I also know that the few people I relate to at all levels will truly understand.

Here's the link to the piece.

http://bit.ly/4zcMU2

It has not been made by me and neither do I take any credit for it.

Why am I sharing this with you ? Stupid question.

Thank you.

Dear Mr. Aftermath - I

Dear Mr. Aftermath - I

Its never a question of when a lightning strikes its always about the aftermath.One who thinks he can deal with the aftermath, whatever be the situation , I commend him and I hate him.I commend him because he can do something that I cannot and I hate him because he can do something I cannot.

How does a person learn from failures? In my case , the debris left after the collapse is just too much for me to handle and on top of that being lazy does not help. Any person who thinks that its going to be OK in the end better watch out! You are going to Fall ... hard. One prepares for a situation.Does a person prepare for the good?? No he always prepares for the worst. If thats the case the end result never affects him.

How does a person learn from success? He doesn't.

I am fine with what happens..Never have given a damn about what the aftermath is. I live in the moment , for the moment .. in other words I am too lazy to think about the future .. I am just too lazy!! So .. Mr. Aftermath ... you really make no difference in my life ... not one single bit.

Music weaves its own magic

Listenin' to Bonnie Raitt

a coffee cup in hand

makes me remember times gone by...

A new ray of sunshine at the end of tunnel ,

I can see

My lifes goin in the right direction,

I believe.

Ohh the magic continues

the angel's singing angel from Montgomery

I can picture myself in a carousel

feeling so oh .. so merry.

really its not about the sorrows in life

it just defines it so

but its these moments that one treasures

or atleast I think so

the songs finished and my coffee's gone

here, I shall call it a day

here I lay to rest

coz I have nothing more to say.

First Try

Ohk ! umm ! I finally gave in .. I got myself a Facebook account. and to tell you truthfully its been kinda fun.

Though I am still against technology setting the rules and creating an environment for me to sit and talk to old friends but what the heck I loved every second of it. I caught up to my old friends. Clicked on d 'Like' button and also managed to put in some words about myself.

It seems technology does win in the end!

Dear Mr. Aftermath - I

Its never a question of when a lightning strikes its always about the aftermath.One who thinks he can deal with the aftermath, whatever be the situation , I commend him and I hate him.I commend him because he can do something that I cannot and I hate him because he can do something I cannot.

How does a person learn from failures? In my case , the debris left after the collapse is just too much for me to handle and on top of that being lazy does not help. Any person who thinks that its going to be OK in the end better watch out! You are going to Fall ... hard. One prepares for a situation.Does a person prepare for the good?? No he always prepares for the worst. If thats the case the end result never affects him.

How does a person learn from success? He doesn't.

I am fine with what happens..Never have given a damn about what the aftermath is. I live in the moment , for the moment .. in other words I am too lazy to think about the future .. I am just too lazy!! So .. Mr. Aftermath ... you really make no difference in my life ... not one single bit.