At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry. He stated, "If General Motors had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

“If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash…….. Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light

(I really love the next one!!! )

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, and for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in….. until you lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna….all at the same time!

9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off!

Haven't checked whether this is true…but still fun.

Judy Wallman, a  professional genealogy researcher in Southern California, was doing some work on her own family  tree.  She discovered that she was a distant relative of Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate.  She also learned that she and Senator Reid share a common ancestor.  Senator Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train  robbery in Montana in 1889.

Senator, Harry Reid, Majority Leader (D) U.S. Senate

The only known photograph of his great-great uncle, Remus Reid, shows him standing on the gallows in the Montana Territory.

On the back  of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this inscription:

'Remus Reid, horse  thief, sent to   Montana Territorial Prison 1885,  escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six  times.  Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in   1889.'

Judy recently e-mailed Senator Harry Reid for any other information he might have about their great-great uncle.  Harry Reid's staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research:

'Remus Reid was a  famous cowboy in the Montana Territory . His business empire grew to include  acquisition of valuable equestrian  assets and intimate dealings with the   Montana  railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a  key player in a vital  investigation run by the  renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889,  Remus Reid passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.'


NOW THAT is how it's done folks! That's real SPIN.

Railroad tracks. This is fascinating.

Be sure to read all the way to the final paragraph; your understanding of the point it drives home will depend on the earlier part of the content.

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 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'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 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 (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 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 … stop and wonder What horse's ass came up with it? You may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horse's 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 SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRB's would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the factory in Utah to the launch site in Florida. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's 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…

CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.