JULY 2012

VACANT CHAIR SHELLHOLE

WE DON’T FOLLOW,

WE LEAD.

THE HISTORY OF WIDTH

Railroad tracks.
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.

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.

Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (includingEngland ) 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.


Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that 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
.
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?
So, Horse's Asses control almost everything...
...Explains a whole lot of things,
doesn't it?
DID YOU KNOW????
Veteran's Day was once called Armistice Day.
The day WWI ended, peace was declared on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, 1918.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Tsar Nicholas II of
Russia and King George V of England were all first
cousins-grandchildren of Queen Victoria of England.
Claude Ryan of California, a World War One aviator
built Charles Lindburgh's "Spirit of St. Louis".
The first women to serve in the military in an
actual branch of service were World War One
yeomanettes in the US Navy. They were formally
designated yeomen(F) for female.

1st 1916 marked the end of an age of vital optimism in British life that has never been r
eThere are plenty of unexploded armaments located throughout the old battlefields of France and Belgium. These are still claiming lives almost 100 years since the war started, often by farmers working the fields. In 1955, a lightning strike set off one of the original 21 mines located at the Messines Ridge, which killed a cow. Even at the Canadian Vimy Memorial in France, visitors are not allowed to walk in certain areas because of the risk of undetonated explosives going off. Sheep are used to mow the grass in this area and sometimes they will trigger a bomb.0
During the First World War, starving wolves gathered in great numbers near Russian and German fighting forces, causing the two armies to form a temporary truce to fight off the animals. 1978 my daughter and I find a shell on the Somme Battlefield. It is now part of my collection.
/ 1988 / 2010
Piet en Willem raak betrokke in 'n fight by die skool / n Groot groep seuns vorm rondom die twee, hulle slaan die kak uit mekaar uit, skud hande en die volgende dag is hulle dik pels. / Polisie word ontbied en arresteer vir Willem en Piet. Alle selfone met videos van die fight word gekonfiskeer as bewysstukke. Albei word aangekla vir aanranding. Altwee word geskors al het Piet alles begin. Die ouers word ingeroep vir konsultasie en die ander kinders wat die fight gesien het kry trauma berading. Die video van die fight is beskikbaar op YouTube.
Willem ontstig die klas want hy wil nie stilsit en stilbly nie
/ Willem se gat word vuurwarm geslaan. Hy sit nog steeds nie stil nie want sy gat brand te veel, maar hy hou darem sy bek en maak matriek klaar en word 'n suksesvolle besigheidsman. / Willem word op Ritalin gesit want hy het een of ander hiperaktiewe neiging. Word 'n zombie. Word getoets vir ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Die juffrou sukkel haar gat af. Willem kan nie bybly nie en verlaat skool na Standerd 6.
Willem gooi 'n klip en breek 'n ruit van die buurman se huis.
/ Willem se gat brand. Hy moet vir 'n week lank in die buurman se tuin werk. / Willem se gat brand. Sy pa word gearresteer vir kindermishandeling. Willem word in pleegsorg geplaas.
Willem druip Engels op Hoërskool / Willem se gat brand. Hy moet Engels ekstra klasse loop. Hy slaag Engels goed in matriek en gaan Universiteit toe / Die Onderwyser kry die skuld. Willem is getraumatiseer. Sy saak word opgevat deur 'n plaaslike menseregte groep wat bepaal dat dit rassisties is om Engels 'n vereiste vak te maak. Dit raak 'n politieke storie en 'n saak word aanhangig gemaak teen die skool en die Onderwysdepartement. Engels word van die curriculum afgehaal. Willem slaag matriek goed, maar sny gras vir 'n lewe want hy kan geen Engels praat.
Willem vat 'n klomp klappers, maak 'n bom daarmee en blaas 'n miershoop op. / Willem se gat brand. Die miershoop is in sy moer. Duisende
miere dood. / Die Veiligheidspolisie en Dierebeskermingsgroepe word ingeroep en Willem word aangekla van stedelike terrorisme en dieremishandeling. Sy ouers word dopgehou. Jonger broers en susters word van die huis af weggevat. Hulle rekenaars word gekonfiskeer en Willem se pa word op 'n lys van terroriste geplaas en hy kan nie verder werk kry nie. Wyk uit iewers in Afrika Die familie krepeer.
Willem se Juffrou word beskuldig dat sy 'n pedofiel is en verloor haar werk. Sy kry 'n opgeskorte vonnis. Willem ondergaan terapie vir die volgende vyf jaar. Raak 'n moffie.
S / S / C / H / A / T / I / O / T / F / G / A / T
W / P / W / E / N / G / L / A / N / D / D / E / E
O / A / A / E / D / G / E / R / F / W / A / N / N
R / C / T / U / L / F / D / A / O / L / O / I / T
D / E / E / S / I / K / I / H / E / M / R / L / O
B / I / R / A / A / T / N / O / G / A / W / L
O / P / F / T / R / A / C / K / I / N / K / N / K
T / O / A / D / P / E / E / K / O / P / S / D / J
E / F / I / A / S / K / K / C / A / P / O / N / E
N / P / O / R / O / L / L / D / I / H / N / I / L
D / A / O / P / U / I / L / I / A / T / A / F / E
P / H / I / R / A / T / A / E / D / U / M / E
L / E / F / E / P / A / H / S / H / I / M / I / H
R / A / I / L / R / O / A / D / O / W / P / L / W

Jannie se ma sê vir Jannie om sy Pa te bel en te vra hoe laat hy huis toe kom van gholf af.

Jannie bel en sê agterna vir sy Ma: "Daar's 'n vrou wat sê hy kannie nou praat nie!"

Later kom Pappa by die huis en Mamma gee hom 'n moerse klap. Pappa heel verbaas: "Wat de hel was dit voor?"

Mamma sê vir Jannie: "Sê PRESIES vir jou Pa wat die vrou gesê het toe jy gebel het!"

Jannie: "THE SUBSCRIBER U HAVE DIALLED IS NOT AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER."

One day a teacher was talking about marriage in class...

Teacher : What kind of wife would you like Johnny?
Johnny : I would want a wife like the moon...
Teacher : Wow !! what a choice...do you want her to be beautiful and calm like the moon?
Johnny : No, I want her to arrive at night and disappear in the morning...

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Sad Facts About The War

The First World War was a horrible war in terms of the loss of human life, and the conditions soldiers lived in were in many ways, barbaric. Here are some facts about what many soldiers had to deal with during the First World War.

·  The shell blast concussion from a bomb could stop a man’s heart and rupture internal organs, killing soldiers with no obvious external trauma.

·  When someone was injured, it would take six hours sometimes for stretcher-bearers to carry a man from the battlefield to a wheeled ambulance.

·  If a soldier fell ill while marching, a Medical Officer would put a tag on them with a diagnosis. The man would then sit on the side of the road and wait to be picked up by a passing ambulance. Without this note, the soldier would have been considered to be a deserter.

·  Millions of rats made their home within trenches and in the space between the German and Allied lines. The rats became so large and so bold with their feeding that they would eat a wounded man if he could not defend himself from them.

·  If you were found to be drunk, a typical punishment was to have you tied to a wheel or stake for a few hours a day, or as long as 221 days. If you fell asleep while on sentry duty, you would be shot.

·  Between the summer and fall of 1914, France lost as many soldiers on the battlefield as the U.S. Army would lose over the course of the entire 20th century, including in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam.

·  Russia, which never counted the number of dead, is believed to have lost as many as six million soldiers.

·  Most estimates of the number of soldiers who died in the First World War equals 230 soldiers dying every single hour of the war over the course of four and a half years.

COMPLIED BY mth Trevor Swart and PRINTED BY mth Errol Howard