Being the Horse's ass...

The U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

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. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

Bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a Specification/ Procedure/ Process and wonder "What horse's ass came up with it?" you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war
horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Here's the twist. 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 Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB's would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's 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, 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 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 2,000 years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being
a horse's ass wasn't important?

A Birthday Hope

Yesterday my dad called me to ask what time i get up in the morning. I asked back, why? He said he wanted to wish me 'happy birthday'. I told him that i'd forgotten all about 16th, but yea, i wake up by 8.30am. My inability to remember a day or wake up on time, he didnt mind any - he hung up.
At 11.50 pm, just about the time i was settling down to watch ManU take on Porto, i recieve a text from Arpita, wishing me many happy returns of 16th april. Before the players started kicking the ball, i kicked myself once for forgetting my birthday again. I mean i could forget it during the day, but 11.50 pm was like ten minutes to the day! I still forgot.
Its getting unbearably hot nowadays. So we had switched on our a/c for the first time this year yesterday. As i put my phone aside n settled for the match again - Raz walked out of the bedroom. I thought she had lost it completely, and finally lived upto her alias 'khepi'. To get out of a nice cool a/c bedroom into the sultry Calcutta weather (and she cant differentiate football from chinese checkers), where i was settled for the next 90 minutes - called either for emergency or lack of reasoning. She walked over, leaned to hug me, planted a kiss n wished me happy birthday. Shit...! I thought again.
And then Rumpa, my sis-in-law called up. For a fraction of a second i thought is it some emergency? Then reason prevailed, the battle was won, n i remembered that it was past midnight, thus technically my date of birth.
It is 16th morning today. Sms and phone calls flowing in since i switched my phone has drilled home the fact that its my birthday. I now remember it quite ok. But whats happening by the way? Alzheimer? So early?? Or is it THAT late actually? Or have the diesases nowadays started walking up to meet us halfway with extended hand? Part of their customer delight campaign...
If it is so, i thank my stars for the friends that i have. Who take time to fight my alzheimer for me. This, even though i dont remember most of their special dates. Many thanks guys; thanks for the effort. Really appreciate it. With you guys around, one would never need a walking stick :-)