How Important is Horse’s Ass

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that there are 2 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 in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit larger, 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, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railway track. The US standard railway 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 designed the US railways.

Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railway 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 had 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 is the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England) for their legions. Those 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. In other words, bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process, and wonder, ‘What horse’s ass came up with this?’, you may be exactly right.
Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends (Ass) of two war horses.

Now, the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds (Ass).

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over 2000 years ago by the width of a horse’s ass. And you thought being a horse’s ass wasn’t important?
So, Horse’s Asses control almost everything…
…Explains a whole lot of things, doesn’t it?

Lovely Logics

1. Make peace with your past
So it doesn’t spoil your present.

2. What others think of you
Is none of your business.

3. Time heals every thing
Give the Time, some time.

4. No one is the reason of your happiness
Except you yourself.

5. Don’t compare your life with others
You have no idea what their journey is all about.

6. Stop thinking too much
It is alright not to know all the answers.

7. Smile
You don’t own all the problems in the world.

Grind the Axe

Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant, and he got it. The pay was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.
His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!” Very motivated for the boss’ words, the woodcutter try harder the next day, but he only could bring 15 trees. The third day he try even harder, but he only could bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked. “Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees.”

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the axe.” In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay sharp?

There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But God doesn’t want us to get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like taking time to pray, to read. We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow.

If we don’t take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness. So start today. Think about the ways by which you could do your job more effectively and add a lot of value to it.

Coutesy: Mohammed Usman
E-mail: usmandawahonline@yahoo.com

Advice for Men & Women

Always Speak up

Okhil Chandra Sen wrote a letter to the Sahibganj Divisional Railway Office in 1909 AD, the text of which is copied below.

This letter is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi (India). It was also reproduced under the caption “Travellers’ Tales” in the Far Eastern Economic Review.

“I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with ‘lotah’in one hand and ‘dhoti’ in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station. This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers.”

Did it happen because of it’s poor English language ?
No.
Any guesses why this letter is of historic value?
It led to the introduction of TOILETS in trains.

So please don not think any idea is stupid and discard it. Always Speak up