> Here is a look into the corporate mind that is very interesting,
> educational, historical, completely true, and hysterical all at the
> same time:
Hysterical yes. True, no.
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 12:50:27 -0600 From: Moiner <moiner at io.com> Newsgroups: sci.classics, humanities.classics Subject: Re: Railroads
This has been banging around the net for several months now, and had a brief and inglorious career in alt.folklore.urban.
Note that this severely *unsubstantiated* (save for the railroad measurements) bit of flamebait depends on several assumptions, including:
- that Romans bred warhorses to such precision that they could predict how wide their arses would be to the nearest fraction of an inch.
- that Roman military roads were were rutted dirt roads, rather than hard stone.
- that War chariots (which after all the Britons were more famous for using than were the Romans (read your Caesar some time, it helps)) rutted these stone roads more severely than the thousands of tramping hobnailed caligae of the legionaries.
-that Roman War Chariots drove single file (with their lights on, no doubt) down these roads, rather than doubly or more, which after all would make multiple ruts and complicate matters beyond the limits of this bit of office Xerox-lore.
Don't feel too badly, though. Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's Car Talk fell for it, too.
-- Moiner
"ubbardus delendus est"