caldrail

There's been yet another warning about contracting cancer in your lifetime. The list of various causes is growing steadily. If you smoke, sunbathe, drink beer, eat cheese, processed ham, open a fridge, or expose yourself to plastic bags you stand a risk of suffering from this malady. Personally, I think you stand a greater risk of this great disease if you see a doctor. One chap I used to know from work made a very simple choice. He wasn't interested in the various treatments available for cancer with all their requirements for close observation and undesirable side effects, Instead, he told me he wanted to live out what life he had. Spending the last few years of his existence in and out of hospital beds and a slow decline despite the attentions and privations of modern medecine didn't appeal to him. I can understand his viewpoint. Is he right to do that? Well, personally I believe he has the right to decide that for himself. Some might then draw parallels with the current trend toward legally assisted suicide, but I wouldn't go that far. There's a callousness you sometimes see in human beings and I wouldn't like to see a future where people are persuaded or cajoled into ending their lives to suit others. Philosophy of the Week The news that two hundred and four British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan is saddening. The personal loss and grief of friends and family is obvious, and a part of me dislikes the posturings of politicians who go to great lengths to praise them. We know they're risking their lives out there. These men and women though are risking their lives partly by choice, in that they volunteered for service, and partly to serve their countries interests as defined by the Government. Whether the decision to send soldiers there is right or wrong, and these things are always a matter of opinion and perspective, war is a part of human nature and the need to defend your freedom ever-present. It reminds me though of a news item some years back. An American soldier refused point blank to go to Iraq because he didn't agree with thew war. I genuinely admire that man for standing up for his beliefs. However, I also see that he swore an oath to serve his countries interests. He has therefore broken that oath and so off to jail he must go. Such is the price of self-determination within an ordered and regulated world. Martin Luther King once said that a man who is not prepared to die for something does not deserve to live. Harsh words indeed. But how right was he? In the literal sense, death is that final encounter with the Grim Reaper. Perhaps in a more philosophical sense, death is the end of that rewarding experience we casually term as 'A Life'. How many of us bend under pressure for an easy existence? In my experience, freedom is a very fragile thing and whilst we make a great deal of the ending of slavery in the civilisied world since the nineteenth century, the truth is that human beings often like to enslave others by other means. Religion, politics, working enviroment, fashion, lifestyle.... There's always someone telling you how you should live your life. To what extent should you be individualistic? It seems attractive to pursue self-expression, but how many people are prepared to live with the consequences of setting themselves apart from their peers who survive in comfortable conformity?

Sometimes at night I look up at the stars, and like everyone else, I wonder if there's anyone out there. Sentient creatures, aliens, living out their lives and who knows? - Maybe plotting galactic domination as we speak? To a rational mind that's mostly paranoia and a reflection of the Cold War values that spawned the popularity of alien invasion myth, though I dio note that stories of alien inansions are nothing new. HG Wells classic War of the Worlds postulated the events in his late victorian world of a battle against tripodal aliens whose healthcare was sadly lacking. So it seems then that alien invasions aren't entirely the idea of Hollywood moguls or Pentagon generals, but a facet of human psychology. In medieval times, people talked of 'Dog-Heads', strange intelligent creatures from an unknown place far away who lurked in shadows and got up to all sorts of machinations.... Sounds familiar doesn't it? There are those of a certain mindset who claim that an alien race reaching our planet couldn't possibly be aggressive, because the need to co-operate to achieve that level of science would mean only a peaceful society could do that (distances between star systems are enormous and difficult to comprehend, not to mention difficult to to deal with). That's an optimistic view of course, from people who want to meet aliens and discuss science, philosophy, and the arts on an equal footing with intelligent creatures not of this Earth. I have a sneaking feeling these people are also quite lonely, because the average Earthling hasn't a clue about their favourite subjects and leaves the room when to guzzle beer whenever it comes up in conversation. Would aliens be peaceful or aggressive? The truth is, we can't know that. An alien species would have behaviour described by the sort of creature they evolved from, changed by their history and circumstance. Survival of the fittest would be as true on an alien world as our own so a dominant species wouldn't dominate without some ability to do so. How would they see us? As potential friends? Spiritual brothers? Curiosities? Resources? Enemies? Fodder? Experimental subjects? Or pests? We just can't second-guess how an alien mind would regard our self-important little species. Now that the British have followed America with freedom of information legislation, the files of governmental activity have revealed the extent to which the British public has encountered UFO's. Some of it is quite incredible and some clearly the imaginings of people who aren't sure what it is they've seen and are trying to find rational explanations in ignorance. It is, in fact, a very medieval way of thinking in some cases. But then, since we are essentially a pack animal and respond to outsiders in very instinctual ways, is it no suprise that all these conspiracy theories about aliens amongst us exist in what is supposed to be an educated world? Lets face it, in my area, people who have spent twelve years of their childhood lives (or more) at school still behave like boisterous chimpanzees. Somehow I suspect that intelligent peace loving aliens wouldn't be seen dead trying to discuss intellectual matters with the average human. More to the point, I suspect those peace loving aliens are looking up at the night sky on some distant world and wondering if there's intelligent life out there, just like us. Keep looking guys, we're all too busy arguing about where to put the fence and whether you're going to invade us. Dog Heads of the Week It has become the stuff of urban legend that the American authorities have 'covered up' UFO activity and that the infamous Project Blue Book was nothing more than a feint to distract the public from the 'real' investigation. All this talk of 'Greys' and 'Men In Black' is exactly the sort Dog-Headed nonsense we were dealing with seven hundred years ago. I can safely dismiss those urban legends because I have discovered the truth. I can't tell you of course because the government will assassinate me if I divulge that. Wow, this conspiracy stuff is easy....

Because he felt like it I imagine, but also I suspect because he was bored with the established factions and wanted 'play god' with Roman society, and since he ordered the new factions to be created, it's probable they had his patronage, and since he himself drove chariots in the circus (badly, according to reports), would he really want to be associated with a team of a lesser colour than gold or purple? That's another interesting point because I don't remember any mention of which team Nero drove for.

Thank you, but please realise that I'm not an expert. What I do find though however is many people have a preconception of what the Roman legions must have been like. I did too in my younger days, but my experiences of dealing with modern servicemen have made me realise that there's a human element missing from the depiction of ordered ranks marching across the map of the known world. As I see it (and you are welcome to debate the point) there are a number of issues when considering the Roman legions at the time of Cannae 1 - They were a temporary militia, not a permanent professional standing army. Legions were raised according to custom, for defence, or to meet the needs of circumstance. 2 - Training was not standardised in the modern manner. Certainly troops were drilled at first - how else could initiates perform unit manoevers? - but do we reallty expext such novices to march like they were on a parade ground? The more experienced parts of the legion would of course have a better idea. This was a time when people wielded swords as a matter of course whether they were any good at it or not. 3 - Cultural expectations - The legions at that time were organised in accordance with the expectations of Roman culture - in other words, the ever present need for status to be observed is part and parcel of the unit organisation,. The Romans were a warrior people (despite however many had since opted for peaceful occupations) and their society reflected that even during its more advanced stages. 4 - Lack of Communication - A great deal is made of Roman signalling but a lot of this belongs to a later era when the legions were permanent and therefore permanent solutions to the problems of battlefield communication could be addressed. Individual centurions, both as the dominant warrior of their manipular/cohortal 'pack', and as junior officers of the levy as a whole, were expected to show intiative and act on their own cognizance. This means that central control on the battlefield wasn't all encompassing as we meet believe. In any event, ancient armies conducted battles to a plan set before the confrontation began. Hannibal used those factors to his advantage when enveloping the Roman legions at Cannae - the Romans were acting to a poorly conceived operational plan and having to turn to face the enemy forces either sde disrupted their formation. Certainly the bulk of the Roman army had no idea what was going on even after it was too late. 5 - Order of Battle - We tend to see the Roman legions as part olf a formal state army - thats understandable and natural to us because we have an intuitive appreciation of how things are done in the modern day. We recognise parallels in the Roman methods and tend to push that analogy too far, foisting modern sensibilities on the Roman world as Adrian Goldsworthy might put it. Indeed, one member of this forum used to assume that the latin word for army (Agmen) was a unit definition in its own right, when in fact it was merely a word describing a gathering of legions and other formations under one command. A legion of the time was a levy of men (that's what the word means) intended to prosecute warfare on behalf of Roman interests, not a regiment in a state army. 6 - Leadership - Here the Romans always had difficulties. Because of their societal need to encompass status amongst the community based on military reputation, generals of the time were amateur leaders given control of the legions by political assignment - they were not career officers and many had little experience (or proven ability) of command. This was the time of the 'consular army', in which the two democratically elected senior politicians of Rome were also leaders of their levied troops. In modern terms, it was like having two Prime Ministers acting as generals of troops raised by recruiting campaigns. you just know it will all end it tears! But of course the Romans were living in an age when warfare was an unsophisticated (albeit crafty) business and one in which at this time the professional soldier as we understand it did not exist.

On a normal working day, our local high street is busy. Two lanes of cars jostling for position between parked vehicles and the intermittent movement of buses. Pedestrians bringing the whole thing to a temporary halt on crossings, shoppers carrying heaps of plastic bags, queuing at ATM's, or simply standing around at bus stops for the next smoke belching leviathan to appear. On a Sunday, the same street is empty. A few moslems walking to their local mosque but otherwise you wouldn't know the street was used. What's worse is the number of shops and businesses closed for business. I can see at least two more, whitewashed windows and 'To Let' signs proliferating. There's two trains of thought on this issue. On the one hand the governmnt keep telling us that the recovery is going to happen next year, whilst other financial experts tell us it's going be worse than we think. I don't have to think aout about - I can see how well business is doing in Swindon. On the plus side the recent announcement of the railway electrification program means that Swindons economy will receive a boost. I suppose that's a good thing, but will that provide any lasting effect? After ll, as I've discovered myself recently, shrinking incomes and rising prices mean that fewer people can afford train tickets. Unless, of course, you want to ride the 'gravy-train'. You would think that the news coverage of recent scandals would deter such fraud and deceit, but no, it gets worse, as we discover one Minister of Parliament secured a home for her daughter at public expense. I suspect though that her fortunes have just suffered a downturn too. On the Plus Side of the Week The future of Coate Water has been in doubt. It's a reservoir built to service the canals of the eighteenth century and now serves as a local beauty spot and nature reserve. Developers however anted to build a university campus next door and homes on the farmland between the lake and the M4 motorway. I viewed that prospect with dread. Coate Water has a peaceful air about it due to it's position on the edge of town, but once enveloped by housing estates you can imagine the wrack and ruin that will befall it. Thankfully the enquiry over Coate Waters future has decided that the housing development will not go ahead. Phew. There is of course Swindons much debated eastern development still to go ahead and that will get us through the dowbnturn with jobs for builders and so forth. There is something I don't get though. It's all very well claiming that building new houses will get us through the bad times (a common government mantra) but how does that benefit me? What I know about building houses can be written on the head of a six inch nail, and affording one of those new shoebox properties isn't possible. Does having hundreds of new houses automatically generate new jobs for their occiupants? Seems a bit unlikely. And when the builders have finished, what then? Do they go through a downturn too? Or shall we expect another attempt to develope the area around Coate Water at a later date?

It is true there were four chariot racing teams (whose star drivers were a close parallel to modern formula one champions). The teams were Red, White, Blue, and Green. Nero temporarily added two more, Purple and Gold. These teams were factions in their own right whose followers became very wrapped up in the fortunes of their events. Coloured pidgeons were released over the city of Rome to inform those not sat watching the race who had won it. Horse racing also existed without the chariot. One of Rome's earliest legends is the 'Rape of the Sabines', when Romulus invited his neighbouring tribe to a friendly day of horse racing and then kidnapped their wives when they were gone (our modern custom of carrying a bride across the threshold is descended from celebrations of that event) I'm not sure they offered odds as we do today. More likely it was something like someone shouting "A dozen sestercii that Ambitius will not finish!", followed by "I'll take that bet!" A custom known to have taken place at arena events was for the audience to buy 'bad luck' tokens, in order to curse the contestant they hated (and like modern trends, possibly throw the offending lead object at him!). Did that happen at races too? I hae no information about that but it wouldn't suprise me if they did. Incidentially, whilst gambling was very popular at all levels of society it was also frowned upon and attempts were made to suppress it.

An interesting point which might suggest the non-citizen ststus of auxillaries was something at least some people looked down their noses at. However, what is probably more relevant is that the auxillaries were 'allies' who worked alongside the legions as liveried mercenaries to all intents and purposes. In other words, it was the legions who were sent to prosecute a war, not the auxillaires, and the name is a clue to the deployment strategy - they were extra troops (and useful ones too) rather than a primary arm. It is true that forests were more widespread during the Roman conquest. However, iron age culture was widespread and before the arrival of Caesar continental agricultural practises were beginning to open up the countryside with more efficient practises, especially along the Thames Valley. Further, what isn't stressed are the tracks and pathways that were used by Britons at the time. There were major tracks like the Ridgeway, but also an almost rectangular network of connecting paths linking communities and farms. Some landowners had small ranches for animals, and the necessity to raise grazing animals meant that open heathland was as common as forest (though wild animals might also have had something to do with that - any eco-experts out there?) Iron age culture had been violent, and with the development of iron weapons in Britain (around the same time Rome was founded) the rise of the warrior as an important figure had given rise to the hill fort as a center of communal life, mostly for protection and status. Some wealthy farmers for instance built their own mini-hill forts - probably for show rather than defense. In order for these protective settlements to work, the populace must have been able to raise hue & cry plus reach the hill fort with all good haste. It seems then that travel about the British Islands wasn't quite as restrictive as it may seem. And we should point out how fond the Britons were of their chariots - which needed open space to operate. Cohorts were led by centurions who were encouraged to show initiative. In other words, the Roman formations were less structured than the image we have of huge battle deployments and were 'objective focused'. I have forwarded the opinion before now that the Roman legions were the development and enlargement of the original warbands that raided each other in the Tiber Valley. The cohorts were essentially that - a formal warband with a dominant warrior leader. We have to realise that although Roman practises are hauntingly familiar, they didn't quite do things the same way as we do today. It's a common conception to paint the legions as the same as a modern army - but that's a false assumption. Certainly they did similar things because their are only so many ways of ordering large numbers of men and the Roman were inverterate organisers. Nonetheless the legion was not a regiment in a state army. That said, armies did march across Britain. They did this by forming one long line of units marching from place to place hopefully with cavalry screening. The equipment of a Roman soldier would have made little difference to strategy. It might have affected tactics on the battlefield though, but the terrain influence you point at was inconsequential. 1 - Because might not know how to ride a horse 2 - Because he might not be viewed as 'acceptable' as a cavalryman 3 - Because there might not be enough horses to go around at any given time 4 - Because he might be given other duties 5 - Because he might be unavailable (injured or on leave) The availability of horses was limited to begin with, but remember that the cavalry contingent operated from the legions base, such as a camp, and that the legions were not reliant on supply lines like modern armies. For the most part, they obtained what they needed by foraging from the local area. The Romans might not have had much fodder, but there were farms nearby that did.

There was a time when music store assistants smiled when I entered their shop. That was back in the eighties of course, when money was easily had and quickly spent, and a time when we were more prosperous even if we didn't know or felt it so. Whereas once all I seemed to do was buy things, all I seem to do now is repair things, or rather pay someone else to. Last night I got the call from the music store to tell me my latest repair job was ready for collection. That particular box of tricks is getting old in terms of consumer electronics, so much so that the gentleman who repaired it for me had to get the part made to order because they don't have any left. The pleasant suprise is that the process only took a week. Perhaps in a time of economic downturn and short order books, the company tasked to recreate the broken part was only too glad to find something for an employee to do for ten minutes. Would that repair have happened so quickly in the eighties? With order books so full of large quantity runs for important clients? I too have been making some repairs. My PC is working reliably now - albeit a little slower. The parts that were causing the failures have been identified and removed. I find that repair work can be quite satisfying. There really is a genuine warm glow when the machine bursts into life after the daunting and detailed work to rebuild it has been completed successfully. I wonder if surgeons feel the same about their patients? I imagine so. There is an obvious parallel. Sometimes I think about those old cars they find in barns, held together by rust and bird droppings. Or those old World War Two aeroplanes they sometimes find in woods or muddy holes. There are people who can take those corroded piles of tangled metal and turn them back into working machines every bit as shiney and perfect as the day they left the factory gate. The patience and craftmanship of that kind of repair is simply stunning. What drives us to do that? In many cases, it isn't necessary to have those machines work again. We have better and more reliable cars now, and World War Two aeroplanes can be a little intimidating and dangerous to operate. Perhaps part of it is the history, that indefinable connection with ghosts of the previous operators? Or is it the machine themselves? Do they really have some kind of presence by virtue of the manufacture and usage they once had? When I collect my box of tricks today I shall wonder why it's so important to me. Partly familiarity I guess. I know the quirks and details of its operation. Like an old friend, it became a partner of my music creation. Ah.... Now there is the answer. It's the act of creation that is so deeply embedded in our subconcious and the reason we labour so hard sometimes to restore inanimate machinery to working order. Well thank you music store person. I'm happy my box of tricks is working again like its maker intended. It must be so satisfying to see contented customers and I can see why you smile... What?.... Oh yes.... I nearly forgot, how much do I owe you?... Really?.... Ahhhh..... Good Deal of the Week I popped into the local computer repair shop and asked the people behind the counter what the exact name of the malfunctioning part was that I held up to their discerning gaze. They recognised it instantly, gave some useful info, and told me not to bother replacing it. Those things are old technology, rare, and expensive they said. Checking on the internet I was forced to agree. Replacing the part wasn't going to be cheap. As chance would have it I found an American dealer who was quite happy to export the necessary item to our shores for a price that seemed a bargain. A little suspicious at first, I checked the manufacturer and specifications, and all seemed in order. With exchange rates the way they are, I ordered the part for around half the cost of something similar in Britain. Will the part arrive on time? Will the part arrive intact? Will I curse and sweat trying to make it fit? Will it make my PC run at full speed again? I must admit, if I manage a better repair than the qualified technicians down the road, then I really will have something to smile about.

Sorry to butt in to the debate, but this statement doesn't sound right to me. There were no standardised training schemes within the Roman legions at this time (and even in the Principate, training wasn't entirely consistent). In fact, training was largely 'on the job'. The organisation of three ranks of hastatii, principes, and Triarii was a system used to preserve those who had gained experience. The hastatii at the front were novices who were to some extent considered expendable. The rear rank, the triarii, were veterans. As regards ability, I don't think the legions raised to tackle Hannibal in 216BC were high quality at all. They were new recruits and many wouldn't have had any experience of combat at all. The segregation of troops according to age and experience suggests training wasn't widely available. I've no doubt that commanders with any foresight ensured their men were practised before the battle, but are fencing and drills any replacement for the real thing? Certainly there weren't any formal training schemes in the modern sense. As for mercenaries, these tend to be seen in either as top notch specialists or the dregs of war. This has always been the case and the truth is that mercenaries vary in quality considerably and always have. Hannibals troops however followed him across the Alps and a lengthy campaign in Italy, so it would appear these were men who knew what war was and wanted to fight enough to tolerate the privations they endured, recruited largely from men who had sought a conflict to occupy their time. They were tough fighters to begin with, men who had learned their vocation already.

Before you get carried away, please realise that the earliest Roman clinarii/cataphtactii weren't as effective as popularly assumed. The great weight of armour and rider weighed heavily on the horses and generally they wouldn't ride at the gallop for fear of wearing the animals out too soon. There's also an account of an infantry formation parting ranks to allow the horsemen in, then pulling them from their saddles and dispatching them with ease. Also, there's some suggestion that at least some of these heavily armoured troops were largely ceremonial as opposed to battle ready units. The first such unit was created in the reign of Hadrian but the idea took some time to catch on, whatever the Sassanids did.

The plan was to head for the hills and spend the day wearing myself out on the ridges of the Marlborough Downs. On the way I took it into my head to investigate a corner of the local countryside I'd never strayed into before. The grass was incredibly thick. The blades were almost six feet long, though not standing upright, growing sideways in thick layers of the stuff. I've never seen anything like that in England before. After ten minutes of wading through that lot, I was knackered. It was like wading through syrup. Worst of all, I felt a twinge from an old injury. That had happened when I was out hiking once before. Descending a plank-reinforced stairway in a local wood, I slipped and stretched my right leg pretty badly. I'd been unable to walk for five minutes and at the time I was wondering how I was going to get out that predicament. Even today, there's an area of my leg that remains numb although the muscle works well enough. With the weight of my pack very much in mind I decided a long climb onto the Downs was asking a bit much. Discretion is the better part of valour, so it was back home. It took longer than ten minutes. Foiled Again Since the dawn of time (I love that phrase) we humans have observed astronomical phenomena and wondered at its mysterious magic. There are times when the night sky is such a seductive canvas upon which nature has prepared a masterpiee for us. I've always had an interest in cosmology and for me being able to see these things happen is something I long for. However, time and again I hear of these things after the event. Or, more usually, the weather is lousy and observation is pointless. Some years back we had a full eclipse of the sun, a very rare event in Britain, and the whole thing was masked by cloud. Last night it was the return of the Perseids, fragments of a comets tail burning up as it enters Earths atmosphere. And as expected the skies of southern England were obscured by grey clag. Foiled again.

As shocking as it is, it seems that piracy is becoming more commonplace again. Never mind the brazen Somali's and their multi-million dollar ransom demands, now we have ships boarded in the English Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and right on our own doorstep. Noticeably during the Cold War piracy wasn't an issue, what with naval vessels everywhere and so forth. The reduction of military ships since has made itself felt, and pirates now believe they are safe to conduct these operations without risk of being blown out of the water. The humourous comparisons with pirates of swashbuckling days is way off. Pirates back then were larcenous killers and many of the same personality types will be the ones in inflatable boats carrying AK47's. It isn't much different is it? Bye For Now Well it's time to log off. I'm heading for the hills with my backpack full of those essential survival items you'll never need until you don't bring them. The weather is cloudy, dry, and without the hot sun making life unbearable, it should be a good walk.

The praetorians were the amalgamated bodyguards of senior generals from the civil wars, tasked to guard the Princeps (Augustus) as the senior citizen of Rome once the wars were over. Guarding the palace wasn't their primary duty but obviously since that was where the boss spent his time, they guarded it. They weren't rusted though. Even Augustus had them in seperated barracks (though they were brought together later). Some emperors distrusted the praetorians to the extent of employing other units as personal guards, such as Caligulas Germans, or Nero's guards composed of tall men. Bear in mind that the Pratorian Prefect was an important figure in Rome and during the Principate, politically active.

Yes in theory, but understand the Romans hadn't access to unlimited numbers of horses. Further, being a very conservative society and having found a army organisation that suited them and one that worked, they felt no need for cavalry beyond the helpful asssistance of a few allies and scouts. In the modern hindsight cavalry is a very powerful arm, one that can use shock value and mobility to dominate a battlefield. The Romans weren't using their horsemen quite like that. By way of analogy, think of it rather like aeroplanes in warfare. These days they're essential, for all sorts of advantages, but when they began using them militarily in WW1, the generals saw no useful purpose other than recconaisance. A similar attitude prevailed in Roman times, but not just that, they Romans actually stressed the mobility aspect of cavalry and to bog them down in melees like the armoured crusteceans of the medieval period was to them a ridiculous and wasteful notion. The training of Roman cavalry stressed manoevers. Approaching, wheeling, lobbing missiles, and wheeling away to regroup for another attack. In fact, the reluctance of cavalry to get stuck in is notable. Partly this was the natural hesiitation of horses to physically bash into thick formations of armoured men armed with pointy things, but to do so meant losing mobility - an important asset in Roman eyes. PS - I have forgotten one aspect - status. The riding of horses is in Roman eyes, as it is in many societies, seen as an indicator of dominance. The Roman 'middle class', or Equites, derives from the highest order of plebian voter in the republican system. Whilst there were occaisions where legionaries were taught to ride horses as an expedience, notice that with the standardisation of the Reforms of Marius, the increased access of military service to the poor was countered by a withdrawal of the cavalry contingent for nearly a century. Although auxillary cavalry was commonly used, bear in mind this was done for practical purposes and was composed of barbarians anyway, who had little status other than the skills they offered Rome.

The plumbers turned up at the door last night. "We need to check for a leak in your bathroom." One boldly announced, "'Cos we cut a hole in the downstairs ceiling and the waters coming from upstairs." I had visions of a domestic disaster looming as these people disassembled my home in the hunt for a few drops of water. Two of them bounded upstairs and proceeding to dismantle the bathroom as expected. One brought his young duaghter along. Thankfully she was well behaved and was more concerned with making silly noises with her crisp packet than help daddy destroy my home. The two men ripped open pipes, meddled with taps, threw aside a length of mottled copper tubing, and heriocally found the leak. They fitted a brand new shining stainless steel hose thingy and lo and behold, the job was done. They announced they had succeeded, beaming with pride and delight. I was happy too. Well done lads. Yeah yeah that noise funny.... Seesh.... Haven of Evil It seems Britain isn't doing enough to bring war criminals to justice leaving MP's in a very derisive mood over our governments plans to extend such actions. Part of me worries about this though. War crime is pretty much in the eye of the beholder. As much as I would prefer to see warfare conducted in a more gentlemanly or chivalrous manner, it simply isn't going to happen like that. Human beings are both crafty and nasty, and if they see an advantage one of them will take it, whatever the human cost, to achieve their objective. There are those who believe all soldiers are war criminals by definition. I'm not one of them, and I do take pride that Britains armed forces conduct their gritty business in the generally competent and professional manner that they do. But of course, inevitably there comes a point where an individuals actions cross the line from necessity to something much worse. There are those for instance who point at 'Bomber' Harris and claim his campaign to bomb Germany was a war crime. He himself declared that it was a plan others had criticised but give it a chance because it's never been tried before. He was therefore attempting to find an advantage in the war against Nazi Germany, a regime that had bombed civilian targets from the start. I don't believe for one moment he derived pleasure from that decision - it was a time when Britain faced potential extinction, so it was either that or give up. There wasn't any real or practical alternative at that time, and of course the decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan is a terrifying concept but one designed to save the countless lives of American servicemen in a lengthy invasion of the Japanese homeland. They say history is written by the victors. That's true, but it's also reviewed by hindsight. Now whilst there may well be 'war criminals' as defined by the United Nations at large in Britain, is this hullabaloo a genuine call for justice or merely a convenient cause to lambast an ailing government?

When considering the Roman cavalry it has to be understood what the Romans actually used it for. They employed light horsemen in a scouting or skirmish role. In battle, cavalry were typically used to secure the armies flanks (a very commion occurence in ancient battles) by attacking the enemies horsemen. This would be the opening move, and as an example we see this happen at Cannae. Such confrontations were highly mobile affairs and there seems to have been a marked reluctance to get stuck in with a melee. Indeed, one tactic was wear out the enemies horses. The threat to infantry from horsemen is of course as valid as it always was - but again, the preferred Roman tactic was to approach, loose off missile fire, and wheel away. Harrasement was the order of the day, and there was a ntaural tendency for the opposing infantry to halt and form a defensive posture against such attacks. The two main reasons for these methods of employing horsemen in battle were that horses were rare and expensive animals, and that the Romans had no cultural bias toward the riding of horses and thus lacked inate ability (which was why auxillary cavalry of foreign troops was so important to Rome). However, Roman allies weren't consistently capable. Caesar was not impressed by his Aedui allies in the gaulish Campaign and gave orders to have his own men trained as riders - this being in the period when cavalry were dispensed with as part of the legionary organisation (Marius had done away with the scouting contingent and these were reintroduced by Augustus). It must be understood that auxillaries were foreign mercenaries fighting for Rome. There was no Roman army until the late empire since each legion was functionally independent and lacked formal and persistent senior organisation. Legions were grouped under commanders on an ad hoc basis, not by military order of battle. A legion was a small army in itself for much of their history, either as a annual militia or the persistent standardised legion of the post-marian era. Auxillary cavalry were therefore 'attached' to legions as extra troops available for a particular campaign rather than an established unit in some non-existent Roman army. The Romans had no pyramid style army as we do today during their Republican and Pax Romana periods. The reasons were historical - since Rome, or rather the senatorial class, didn't want another tyrannical dictator after the ousting of Tarquinus the Proud, no one person in Rome would be allowed to control completely, and even the formal Dictator of Republican times was a temporary emergency post. Regarding the Partians, their style of warfare differed considerably. Since they favoured the use of fast moving mounted archers, the Romans had little to get to grips with. The Romans however had another disadvantage, and that was the generally 'safe' style of leadership. The Romans liked steady cautious characters leading legions both to offset any rash disasters and also to prevent political adventurism (Caesar was ordered to lay down his command for that reason prior to his march on Rome). This sort of leadership did in fact produce many of the disasters the Romans were hoping to avoid, and since imaginative use of cavalry requires bold thinking, there was little sparkle in Roman operations, something we see illustrated regularly. Roman cavalry was therefore used in a light role, scouting, harrasing, or pursuing, as opposed to direct confrontation. They were few in number, relatively unskilled, and easily swamped or seen off by superior horsemen - Again, Cannae provides another well known example of this.

Monday morning... Usually the Monday Blues are associated with dragging yourself out of bed to go to work, but since I'm unemployed, you'd think that wouldn't apply to me. Oh but it does. For today is my Signing On Day, my fortnightly ritual aimed at convincing the authorities that I've something toward getting a job thus entitling me to receive my meagre handout from the government. Typically for a Monday the good weather has vanished with the weekend. It's damp and grey out there. What a miserable day. Oh well, never mind, time to haul my begging bowl down the road. Having gotten out of bed and made it to the office on time, the lady behind the desk asked me which job I was interested in, showing me a list of potential vacancies on her swivelling monitor screen. There were two jobs on offer. The first was in another town. To be honest, a four hour walk to walk every morning isn't really what I had in mind as a rewarding career opportunity. So.... Lets think about this.... Which job offer should I consider? How about the other one? It was one of those office jobs you see advertised that ask for people with extensive in some obscure part of Microsoft Office. No doubt they're looking for people with that mature, professional outlook you see in television adverts, and want to exclude non-droids like me. "Do you have that experience?" The lady behind the desk asked me. Err... No.... But what the hey, a vacancy is a job I haven't done yet. At least I think that was the saying... Yep, I'll apply for that. "What's the point of applying?" She asked, somewhat confused by my strange prediliction for not making excuses for not finding work, "You don't have the experience they're asking for. There's no point applying for a job you're not qualified for." Well you see, it doesn't matter. If by some miracle I get the job, brilliant. If not, I include a letter and CV asking them if they do have a job I'm qualified for. She then started printing off bits of paper. We chatted about 'long term job search goals' and so forth before she asked me if I wanted to apply for that job she'd pointed out. I sort of shrugged. Oh go on then. "I thought you wanted to apply for that job?" She asked as if emotionally hurt by my lack of enthusiasm. Well you've put me off now! Gripe of the Week The disappointing news for British foreign policy is that the war in Afghanistan might take another forty years to win, according to one senior officer. I have a similar problem with my plumbing. Tradesmen are a different species. They have their own language, their own rules and regulations, and have absolutely no sense of time whatsoever. You might have guessed why by now. I had a text message on my mobile this morning, sent very early this morning, from a tradesman who wants to get into my home to check for water leaks again. I phoned him back and the cheerful character arranged to be let in this afternoon. I'm still waitining... ...No I'm not. I've given up. It's evening now and so I'll pop down to the library to finish off my daily doings before they close for the night. It's only a five minute walk there, up the stairs, check for a free computer and log on. A quick cracking of the knuckles, and lets begin typing.... Oh hang on, somebody's ringing my phone...

The news last night had a breaking story of a mid air collision between a light aeroplane and a helicopter over the Hudson River, resulting in the tragic deaths of nine people. How? With the entire sky to fly through, how is it that two aircraft can collide like that? The truth is that it's all too easy. In the earliest days of commercial flying, just after the First World War, a new regulation to pass on the right was brought in to prevent head on collisions when following linear features like railway lines. Even today, with extensive navigation aids and radar services available even to the common private pilot should he request it, people still bump into each other and the skies are not a forgiving enviroment. One way to look at this problem is to see the need for human beings to travel in certain directions when going from place to place in an aeroplane, machines that can't realistically take off and land anywhere thus always move from airport to airport, plus the human need to follow landmarks to find their way around. There is some truth to that. However, the answer is much simpler and much more basic.... You're on a Collision Course! I was flying east on my way home to Thruxton airfield. The approach, as was my usual practice, was to fly at fifteen hundred feet both for convenience and to comply with airspace restrictions. Cloud cover was total and it obscured the blue sky above me at something like three thousand feet - a fairly ordinary occurence for British skies. I'd already contacted the airfield so they knew I was inbound. Then they made an urgent call to me... "Charlie Uniform, Boscombe Radar tell us there's an aeroplane ahead of you and on a converging course. Do you have visual?" No, I didn't. Aircraft are tiny little specks at a distance and looking over the instrument panel I could see nothing out there. I acknowledged the warning, and turned five degrees to the right as a precaution. A few moments there he was, a small single seater about a quarter of a mile away down on my left. It must have looked very different to the radar operator at Boscombe. Have You Seen This? Back in the days when I was learning to fly I was heading north after a visit to Shoreham on the south coast. My flying instructor, who was a veteran of World War Two (He'd flown with Bomber Command throughout the war), calmly asked me if I'd seen this? Hmm? What? With a rush of engine and propellor noise a civilian owned Bulldog trainer pulled up sharply to my right. No, I hadn't seen it. I suspect my instructor hadn't either, but it was me at the controls. Lesson learned. Where Did He Come From? Part of the pleasure I derived from flying aeroplanes was taking friends and workmates along for the ride. Most had never flown in light aircraft before. Time and again they were suprised by the experience, and most genuinely enjoyed it. On one particular flight I decided to demonstrate a few things along the way. It made things interesting for them but also for me too, allowing me to practise skills that would otherwise wither. Okay, I said, now I'm going to stall the aeroplane. "What?" Asked my passenger with some concern, "You're going to stop the engine?" No not the engine... I'm going to stop the aeroplane from flying. He stared at me in disbelief. After a reassuring chuckle I looked around for any aircraft in the area and satisfied the sky was empty, I throttled back, lifted the nose a little, and waited for the aeroplane to slow down. The controls were getting lighter... The noise of flying had all but vanished.... There's the stall warner, warbling in a hesitant shrill tone..... And there we go! The aeroplanes nose fell forward (assisted by me it must be said - safety first) and the little Cessna began to start flying again. Then I saw the Piper Arrow travelling away to my right. Ye gods that was close! Where did he come from? Strictly speaking I'd had the right of way, so to pass that close to me was poor airmanship, but then it occured to me that for whatever reason, he hadn't seen me any more than I'd noticed him.

The weekend is here and the rain has gone away. It's official. The weatherman ruefully told us to look forward to a good one and he was was correct. He so loves those amber triangles on the screen with "Weather Warning" emblazoned upon it. I think it really makes his day. The Hybrid Is Here Quite a few years ago, on another site, the discussion on the forums got around to the merits of the hybrid car and its ecological impact. At the time, I was wholly dismissive. This was of course the era of the Sinclair C5, electric travel for the masses, albeit it was only a open cockpit for one, powered by a motor from a washing machine. How I chortled... Of course, one day someone in Swindon actually bought one. He used to drive to work in it and hold up rush hour traffic at 5-10 mph. How I snarled and hooted my horn.... These days we have the Gee-Wizz, a cartoon mockery of a car that has become the butt of considerable humour, and how I chortled... Thing is though, with the advent of the Toyota Prius and everyone waffling on about it, I did say that I would sit up and take notice once Ferrari made a hybrid. That day is soon to dawn. Next year they plan to bring it out. Electric mode for safe, responsible day to day motoring, and an 'Insane Mode' for those moments when you want to forget about speed cameras on country roads. How about that? You'll be able to drive faster for less money than lesser mortals in their economical diesel hatchbacks. There is justice after all. Parrots Of course I could start quoting Monty Python sketches, the temptation is enormous, but I'll try not to. Parrots are after all, along with ravens, magpies, and crows, among the most intelligent of birds. We all know they can imitate human speech but studies have shown that the African Grey Parrot can form simple sentences of its own! This is to be expected. They've been around longer than us and originate from the Late Cretaceous period. Probably why then that the five year old female parrot named "Strawberry" won a share dealing contest in South Korea then. It seems we human beings are only emulating the financial ability of our feathered friends. Must be why our ailing human bankers find wonderful plumage so important. Doh! Car the Week Not only are Ferrari planning to build a hybrid ultracar for responsible speeding, but they also have a 4x4 on the drawing boards. How green is that? Wrong colour really, isn't it?

Today the sun has made a hesitant reappearance. The thuinderstorms and prolonged heavy rain we got yesterday has moved north, and hopefully I won't get drenched again today. Mornings like this are to be savoured in Britains new globally warmed (and definitely wetter) climate. So in a relaxed happy frame of mind I sat down at the library computer. As it happened, I was answering a question made by someone else about Roman legions. It deserved a fuller answer than a few sentences, so I got typing furiously bearing in mind you only get a limited time on these computers each day. "Cannot write to memory" came up on the screen in one of Windows message boxes that tells you something hasn't worked they Microsoft would like you to believe it should. Disaster. It means the various web pages and programs will freeze-up, rendering everything I've done useless. Quickly I used a text editor and saved as much of my work as I could. The librarians were very sympathetic of course, but none of them are IT experts and apparently I'm not the only one suffering these kinds of breakdowns. Well, as you can see, I'm back up and working after faffing around and trying to explain the situation to the computer-illerate. It's that sense of helplessness that's so stressful. You lose your work and can't do anything to restore the situation. Computers are such insidious machines. Great when they work, but... It Happened Again Another breakdown. Memory can't be referenced. I even had the IT man out to stare helplessly at the screen like they do when put on the spot. Needless to say it's been hugely frustrating. As it happens, the IT man is going to flag this library PC as 'down' when I'm finished, even though this problem has ocurred on other PC's. I broke the computer Back From The Dead My recent personal disaster with my own computer at home has been addressed up to a point. After a rebuild I got the thing working (I've already posted on that subject) but having sifted through the wreckage that is my hard drive I've discovered how much has been lost. By good fortune not too much. My reference files are intact and I can access a lot of data I was working on. Sadly however some files are gone, vanished into the electronic ether, and unrecoverable. What can you do? Start over, replace what has been lost, and build toward the objective you wanted. Thankfully most of the lost data isn't vital - so I shall count myself lucky.

That's a possibility, but the image of organised relentless troops distorts our view of Rome's effectiveness in military terms. Rome had a track history of poor performance on campaign to begin with, and significantly it was usually a change of leadership and a more determined approach that saw Rome through to the end it sought. In studying the Roman legions we tend to examine it in such a way as to find some tactical and strategic truth in the manner they organised their troops on the ground. We admire their level of orgainising and see Roman administration as hauntingly familiar. In a sense, we should do, because as people we're not really different at all, apart from a different set of rules. In other words, human beings always tend to do business the same way - it's our behavioural patterns as a species. The point is that we often see what we want to in this sort of close examination. As to what extent Roman military organisation worked to its advantage is that the manipular system replaced the greek phalanx as a mode of battle. The Romans had realised that the sturdy pike formations had significant disadvantages and wanted a more flexible approach to warfare. Or did they? Such ideas didn't occur to all them simultaneously. As always with far reaching changes, it would have been the idea of one especially insightful person who had the good fortune to be in a position where he could influence others. Military people are often quite unimaginative and tend to do things as they've always been done, for good reason it must be said, but the Roman failure to adapt quickly to clever opponents is a notable aspect of Roman military history. The manipular system worked to Rome's advantage, that can't be denied. It was flexible and allowed tacticlal diversity against the fixed and almost 'linear' thinking involved in phalanxes of the earlier times. But that alone wouldn't secure victory. Much depended on the quality of the troops, and as study shows, the image of Roman military perfection is a gross exaggeration. All too often, their troops were lazy, indifferent, rebellious, and unwilling - all the same character flaws as their opponents. When you consider the Romans before the much standardised (but never completely unanimous) training and discipline in the post marian era, it becomes clear that Rome fought it's wars with a what was effectively a militia. These men weren't professional soldiers at all, but citizens doing their bit (either willingly or because they had little choice - individual motives would have varied). Before we assume that organisation was the key to Roman success, we should remind ouselves that Rome was an intrinsincally militaristic society. They had evolved from warrior tribes raiding each other and in later times the military ethic was highly valued. Politicians based their careers ion their service record for instance. The battlefield is however a confrontation between large groups of men. Without effective leadership, the mass of opinion prevails and all too often, armies fail to achieve what was possible because their leader had failed to inspire them. This happened to Roman legions too at times. In fact, there are mentions of actions in which one suspects that with the lack of inspired leadership the Roman organisation wasn't advantageous at all, but rather just there, in the background, a means by which the men were ordered and one that had failed to maintain such order in that circumstance. The important point to realise is that Roman battles were not fought by central control as we see in later eras. There was a high degree of local autonomy amongst the maniples, and indeed, the centurion as a leader of men is a direct descendant of the warrior leader. Roman armies were given their strategy for the coming battle before it began, just as other armies did in their day. The success of brilliant generals wasn't so much that they 'played better chess', but that they had a better idea of what they wanted to achieve on the battle field. Troops were informed beforehand - whenever possible - of what they were expected to do. That is of course the reason that ambushes were so effective in the ancient world and the preferred means of dealing with the enemy if you gained the strategic advantage. So, was the manipular system a major reason for Rome's success? Yes, up to a point, until the enemy had learned to adapt to it or until their leader had a craftier idea of how to conduct his campaign against them. But remember that military technique evolves and eventually even the manipular system wasn't good enough to take on the enemies of Rome.

Sooner or later they infiltrate your home. No matter how secure you believe your privacy to be, they find ways to intrude upon your premises. Even when you discover their presence, there's a good chance they will find a way to escape you, and worse still, no matter how hard you try to push them out, they will find a way back against all adversary. Yes, the spider is at large in my home. I know he's up there, I've seen him, scurrying across the no-mans land of the carpet in a mad dash to find cover under the furniture. The hunt is on. Already I've scoured the shops for catchers and bug sprays, hardware vital in the fight for territory. Sooner or later, spider, you will face the wrath of the homeowner.... Species of the Week Everyone knows that spiders are carnivores. Sort of. They don't actually 'eat' their prey, just inject enzymes into it and suck out the nourishing goo. They can't handle solid food. There is however a vegetarian species of spider, first observed last year. So later today I'll be checking out the spider in my home. Is it wearing a woolly hat and waving a Greenpeace pamphlet? It will avail you nothing spider...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...va&aid=6672 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable

Public entertainment seems to be the in thing. Our labour government has been doing that fpr some time now and we're due to have the London Olympics foisted on us. Bread and circuses huh? At least in Roman times politicians had the decency to pay for it themselves.

I am by nature a creature that likes his food, and feeling a little peckish, I ventured into my diminutive pantry to determine what wonderful and exotic ingredients I had lurking in there. Ooh heck, this looks a bit sparse.... Uhhh... Any pot noodles left? Nope. Looks like another trip to the supermarket is in order. The weather of course was damp and miserable. There was a time when we used to get scorching summers, but now the green brigade have banned noxious gases and nearly everything that causes them, it stays cloudy and wet. I turned the corner into the square where Isambard Kingdom Brunels statue stands proud. Before he turned up Swindon was an isolated market town on the hilll. It's fair to say then that he foisted Swindon upon the world. Not his greatest achievement then. "Hello!" Called a voice in front of me. It was Miss R, a young lady I met some years ago during those heady days when I still had a job. Occaisionally I bump into her and we always have a little chat. Today was no exception. She was going to chat to me and that was that. In fact, there was only one occaision she ever went silent. It transpired that at the time she was living round the corner from me, and when her car was in for servicing, asked if I could give her a lift. No problem. This was in the era when I drove Bessy, my trusty Toyota MR2 (The Ferrari-esque one of course) and whilst I wasn't deliberately showing off, the look on the her face as she realised I wasn't slowing down for that tight left hander was something I shall treasure forever. The big suprise is that Miss R is now engaged to be married. Coming from a woman who describes herself as a dedicated 'Commitment-phobe', this was a shock equivalent to learning that Rambo's bandana was made of silk. Well congratulations R, hope it all works for you. Like women often do she enquired as to my marital status. Don't think I have one of those. Don't you need a license or something? We shared a few jokes about being chained up. As R left to go about her business (even she has to breathe in sometimes) she departed with a cryptic comment and a knowing smile. I wish women wouldn't do that. You walk away wondering if they know something. Dating Services I've noticed just recently that there's been a big increase in adverts for dating services. Television adverts proclaiming there's a shortage of 'hot new men' followed an advert advising us that there's lots of 'hot new men'. Yeah, well, personally I'd prefer lots of 'hot new women' but given my age and financial circumstances, it wouldn't make any difference if they were laying siege to my castle. Might be fun letting them try though. I'm reminded of those late night adverts for phone networking with... yes, you've guessed it, 'Hot New Women'. You get a thirty second glimpse of two young blondes making seductive glances at the camera whilst studying their mobile phone. I can't help feeling it's a tad dishonest because those two girls on screen aren't likely to be the women you talk you on the phone. Not that I've tried it you understand. Mobile phone charges are expensive enough without this sort of semi-*or* fantasy. Now along comes another service that proclaims they don't match people by any such means, but make careful comparisons of personality and mindset to produce the perfect match. Along with images of happy contented couples of course. I would be curious to know how many people of the hopefuls paying out money for these services actually do meet the partner of their dreams, or are they simply being sold false hopes? There's a part of me that thinks these customers are being sold an alternative to learning new confidence and social skills. It looks good on the wrapper, but there's really nothing in the box.