Probably old but sure....

Canaboid

Does the expression, "We've always done it that way!" ring any bells?
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet,
8.5 inches. That is an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge
used? Because that is 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 is 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 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 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 (or by) Imperial Rome, they all
had the same wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is
derived from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war
chariot.
Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are
handed a specification and wonder what horses ass came up with it, you
may be exactly right. This is because the Imperial Roman war chariots
were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two
war-horses.
Now, the twist to the story...
There is an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and
horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad,
there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main
tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. "Thiokol" makes the SRBs
at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might 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 is about as wide as two horses'
behinds. So, a major 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.
Howard Winsett
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
661-276-2262
P.O. Box 273
Edwards, CA 93523

--Kaiser--

Hehehehe

Thats pure class!

Victor

OK the long version, there is an excessive amount of eh, 'Castrato' (yes thats what the word means) voices in the choirs of Russian tank units. This is because their tanks have an 'auto loader' that has the habit of doing *severe* injury to tank gunners. The tanks have an 'auto loader' to reduce crew size from 4 (commander, gunner, loader, driver) to 3 (commander, gunner driver).

Indeed the reason why Russian tanks have only 3 crew as opposed to NATO's 4 crew is because they are in the order of 40 tonnes as opposed to NATO's 60 tonnes. They are 40 tonnes (and hence a given size) so they can fit through railway tunnels, because Russian road transport isn't as good as their rail transport.

So the composition of choirs in Russia has altered because they don't have the best roads.

---

[cue Homer Simpson voice] Hmmm, pigeons.

[This message has been edited by Victor (edited 04-03-2001).]

richindub2

Lol, very good.

---

UP DA DUBS!!

--Kaiser--

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Victor:
OK the long version, there is an excessive amount of eh, 'Castrato' (yes thats what the word means) voices in the choirs of Russian tank units. This is because their tanks have an 'auto loader' that has the habit of doing *severe* injury to tank gunners. The tanks have an 'auto loader' to reduce crew size from 4 (commander, gunner, loader, driver) to 3 (commander, gunner driver).

Indeed the reason why Russian tanks have only 3 crew as opposed to NATO's 4 crew is because they are in the order of 40 tonnes as opposed to NATO's 60 tonnes. They are 40 tonnes (and hence a given size) so they can fit through railway tunnels, because Russian road transport isn't as good as their rail transport.

So the composition of choirs in Russia has altered because they don't have the best roads.

</font>

I am pretty sure that adults who get *sensitive*(like the ones you hinted at) injuries do not become 'squeaky' voiced, as your post implies, its not as if your larynx can shrink or anything is it?
So your post was pretty much garbage

That is all.

Shiminay

No Kaiser - it wasn't!

That's what a Castrato voice is - a guy who's had some stuff "removed" and it results in an almost Soprano like singing voice. It was very common amongst Monks centuaries ago.

---

All the best,

Dav
@B^)

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Prepare yourself - The Beefy King stirs from his slumber...</font>

Frodo@work

yes but unichs were castrated before pubertey.
hence there voices never broke through lack of testostirone.
unless the tankdrivers were about 8 then your post cant be true

--Kaiser--

There you go then.