Ashva-prushtam jayathe! (The law is an ass- Charles Dickens)
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*This has to be one of the funniest and most informative pieces of trivia . You really have to read it to the end to get the full extent of what it is about. The best part is that it is all true, historically accurate and very interesting.
*
The US 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 designed 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’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 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 (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. 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 of two war horses. (Two horses’ asses.)
Now, the twist to the 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 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 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, and the SRBs 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 two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass. And you thought being a horse’s ass wasn’t important? Ancient horse’s asses control almost everything…
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rajdesidime wrote:
wow excellent….
read it thru guys its amazing…
thx barood ..
there was series which used to relate historic events even 1000 yrs apart jst by tracing a particular object…forgt the name of that series…
bt uski yaad dila dii
is it Ripley’s ?
no nt ripleys…bt i think used to come on discovery/history…
Cool and interesting share
This is the most interesting info I got to know in recent times.. thanks Barood bro..
@B@R_0_0_D wrote:@rajdesidime wrote:
wow excellent….
read it thru guys its amazing…
thx barood ..
there was series which used to relate historic events even 1000 yrs apart jst by tracing a particular object…forgt the name of that series…
bt uski yaad dila dii
is it Ripley’s ?
i was talking abt this series— The link
http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/the-link/episodes.asp…
chip wrote:
This is the most interesting info I got to know in recent times.. thanks Barood bro..
+1
Thnx raj for sharing the link series. Will watch those 
Yeh Bombay Meri Jaan ……………………
A newcomer to Mumbai, in the heat of the day, had spent a whole day looking for some place to live in.
Unsuccessful, and tired in the end, he meets a Narial- Pani Wala and asks the man to cut one for him.
As the coconut was cut a genie popped out, and said to the desperate man:
‘I am genie. I can grant you any one wish you might have’.
The man said:
‘My dear, I am a stranger here, please find me a house to live in’.
The genie laughed and replied:
‘My brother, if it were that easy to find a house in Mumbai, do you think, I myself would be living in a coconut’
rajdesidime wrote:
no nt ripleys…bt i think used to come on discovery/history…
where r u mr??
@B@R_0_0_D wrote:@
h1. Yeh Bombay Meri Jaan ……………………
A newcomer to Mumbai, in the heat of the day, had spent a whole day looking for some place to live in.
Unsuccessful, and tired in the end, he meets a Narial- Pani Wala and asks the man to cut one for him.
As the coconut was cut a genie popped out, and said to the desperate man:
‘I am genie. I can grant you any one wish you might have’.
The man said:
‘My dear, I am a stranger here, please find me a house to live in’.
The genie laughed and replied:
‘My brother, if it were that easy to find a house in Mumbai, do you think, I myself would be living in a coconut’
what does thi has to d with topic – anyways good bump got to read something interesting)
^ No entry for Jews, Muslims and Sikhs 
Brains
In the hospital the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where their family member lay gravely ill.
Finally, the doctor came in looking tired and somber.
“I’m afraid I’m the bearer of bad news,” he said as he surveyed the worried faces.
“The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant.
It’s an experimental procedure, very risky but it is the only hope.
Insurance will cover the procedure, but you will have to pay for the brain yourselves."
The family members sat silently as they absorbed the news. After a great length of time, someone asked, “Well, how much does a brain cost?”
The doctor quickly responded, “£5,000 for a male brain, and£200 for a female brain…”
The moment turned awkward. Men in the room tried not to smile, avoiding eye contact with the women, but some actually smirked..
A man unable to control his curiosity, blurted out the question everyone wanted to ask,
“Why is the male brain so much more?”
The doctor smiled at the childish innocence and explained to the entire group,
“It’s just standard pricing procedure. We have to mark down the price of the female brains, because they’ve actually been used.”
Indian Brands
Some graphic designer had really a lot of time on hand I guess.
This invention needs more attention
Jindgi me waqt se jyada apna or paraya koi nahi
hota
waqt apna hota h to sab apne hote hai
or waqt paraya hota hai to
apne bhi paraye ho jate hai.
 for Rs. at ){kind=link}
wow excellent….
read it thru guys its amazing…
thx barood ..
there was series which used to relate historic events even 1000 yrs apart jst by tracing a particular object…forgt the name of that series…
bt uski yaad dila dii