My hubby (who loved his UL's and is quite disgruntled when I debunk them [all the more reason to so so-{BEG}]) recently received one which described the width of railroad tracks, then traced the origin of that measurement right back to Roman times when chariots were the mode of transportation. (The theory being that everything developed after Roman times had to be the proper width for the Roman roads still in use.) Then it talked about a space shuttle component that had to be made the proper size to be carried down the road and through tunnels, all of which were sized according to the ancient Roman scale. The punchline was something like, "So since Roman roads had to be large enough to accomodate two warhorses side-by side, the size of the space shuttle's fuel tanks is dependant upon the size of a horse's ass!"

It was cute and funny, but I could see some holes there in the logic, so thought I'd ask if anyone has heard of this one.

--Barn "let's not mock horses's assess" Rat

http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/railroad_gauge.html

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000218.html

Doc "of course, of course" Savage