caldrail

The biggest problem with throwing a spear is that your enemy can pick it up and throw it back. The pilum was designed to avoid that by bending after impact, thus making the weapon useless to the enemy. Well, even then it wouldn't of course, it could still be thrown back even with an off balance bent tip, as Caesar complained of when fighting the gauls. The original idea was to mount the tip with two pegs, one wooden, one metal. The wooden peg broke on impact so the head pivoted on the metal one. Whilst this could make the pilum useless as a throwing weapon, if embedded in a shield a healthy stomp on the shaft would force the enemy to lower his shield. This was said to be one reason for the victory against the Cimbrians. The later idea was to make a longer head with a soft length, so that the metal would bend in the same way as the earlier version would pivot. It wasn't overly successful because if need be the enemy could simply bend the head back if he had any time, and with changing tactical requirements, the pilum was replaced by spears in the late empire. The Romans even experimented with extra weights attached to improve penetration. There were heavy and light versions for use by legionaries, plus a much heavier version still for use in defending in sieges.

I would answer - Rome conquered the world in perpetual self-interest.

He's at it again. Gordon Brown is thumping the table on the world stage and trying to impress upon everyone that he's a leading player. Walking beside Obama for the worlds press. Telling the economic conferences that we must all work together. Telling the third world they can have nuclear power if they don't point it at anyone else. I simply cannot stand the man. He spent a decade being lauded as a great chancellor, renowned for his prudent handling of the economy. What? All he did was overspend to please everyone and then paid the bill with Britains credit card, leaving his lacklustre successor Alistair Darling to look uncomfortable as the red letters roll in. He passed the buck. Instead of taking responsibility for his mistakes, he foists them on someone else and moves forward looking squeaky clean. Like Tony Blair before him, and probably with his tutelage, he's diverting attention from problems at home by making speeches abroad. He is, without doubt, trying to put himself in the history books as a great politician. He is, I sincerely hope, going to be remembered as the complete fraud he always was. Quiet Evening of the Week It's all gone quiet. Not a single rumble, drone, thud, or resonant vibration. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

You make it sound like the Roman Republic prepared invasion plans and performed to schedule. That isn't so. They responded according to the situations of the time. Politics then wasn't much different from today, apart from the fact communications are much faster now. To begin with, the legions were intended as a protective force, a pair of annually elected militia armies to see off threats to the Roman interior. Later, the demands of the political situation meant that legions were required to stay in the field longer, and more troops were required. There was a sort of primitive arms race taking place, and once the Romans had reached a certain threshold, their legions were often superior in performance and number to any potential enemy on their border. The changes in the Roman legions were as much to do with military fashion and technique as any forward planning. In particular, the Marian Reforms did away with the militia and turned the legions into persistent armies (and the legions were small independent armies, not regiments) that didn't come home every winter. This was done to meet the demands of warfare at the time, not to faciltate expansion. It wasn't until the very late Republic, when ambitious and wealthy generals were seeking political careers from success in conquest, that expansion really mushroomed, and even then it was down to individual initiative, not a republican invasion plan. I would therefore suggest that the expansion of the Roman Republic was more circumstantial.

Typical of independent british youngsters really. They become inconsiderate and territorial very quickly, and the bolshier ones tend to assume they can do as they like, having been freed from the tyranny of parents and desiring above all else to have a good time. They're everywhere. The worst thing is that if you make a stand concerning their behaviour they get malicious, because they see any restriction on their activities as a personal affront. It really is selfishness. They just can't see it from anyone elses viewpoint.

As I expected, most ghostly encounters in Swindon revolve around pubs. Hmm... Not quite sure why... However, there's a lot of activity along Ermine St - unfortunately mostly Dick Turpin era or later - but there is one mention of a luminscent lemure The village and parish of Wanborough ( Town of "Durocornovium" ) a mile or so south east of urban Swindon, also has its share of haunting accounts. The top of Binlands was said to be the site of the appearance of a Roman soldier. The reporter told of a legionaire, in full colour, marching straight tioward him. Apparently he was agitated and was relunctant to return to the spot. Haunted Swindon - A census of Hauntings - Dave Wood & Nicky Sewell

Aha. Now Swindon isn't the center of the haunted world at all, but we have one or two spirits lurking in dark corners. Better yet, there's a book in the reference section dealing with this penumbral problem. Even better than that, I seem to remember something about a roman lingering on.... I am a man with a mission. More details as they come.

The sun was getting quite warm as I walked home yesterday afternoon. I wasn't in any particular hurry and made my way through Old Town. Yellow paintwork caught my attention. As an automatic reaction I glanced up like anyone else, and since bright paintwork is a rarity in the sombre decade we live in, it might not suprise you to learn the car was a Lamborghini Gallardo with its roof down. The driver was looking straight at me behind his shades. Don't know why, he just was. Then of course he noticed that I'd spotted the Lambo, and predictably he floored the accelerator, shooting off down the high street in a mad desperate bid to look superior. The engine noise was a disappointment. Sure, it sounded raucous and loud, like you'd expect, but somehow it had no class to it. He roared off sounding exactly like a souped up hatchback, and if I were brutally honest, behaving like one too. Now I've enjoyed an accelerator pedal or two in my time, so perhaps I can't claim moral superiority, but then, I press the accelerator for the sheer joy of it. He pressed it to announce he was the alpha male. By lucky coincidence his sudden burst of speed meant he was somewhere else a lot faster. Bye. Neighbours of the Week Around three o'clock this morning I became dimly aware that things were a little noisier than you'd expect. My neighbours, having returned from a nightclub and clearly wanting to carry on dancing the night away, pumped up the volume with their mates. Reggae bass lines resonated through the brick wall. I might be wrong, but I think its those idiots who spread snow on the path after I cleared it recently. Worse still, they had disconnected their doorbell. The police, naturally, weren't interested. So far, neither are the local council who deal with noise issues. We'll see.

The sun had got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray. It isn't that everythings going my way (I wish) but rather that Spring is making an appearance. The weather has that cool post-winter sunshine thats such a breath of fresh air in Britain. It affects the mood. You wake up, spot the brightness through the curtains, and just know its going to be a good day. Even a black cat senses the mood. Walking down to my parents place for a sunday dinner it strolled across the road unconcerned about the black Porsche Kayman bearing down on it. Not that the cat needed to worry. The unhurried pace of the porsche driver slowed to a crawl as he patiently let the cat wander across the road unruffled. So I won't let the sniffles get me down. I've noticed a cold getting the better of me over the last couple of days. Typical Britain. You suffer freezing cold temperatures, snow, ice, and ignorant neighbours, and finally when the sun comes out so do the germs. Don't care. Today is a good day. Question of the Week My parents were looking out the back. They enjoy watching the comings and goings of wildlife in the garden. My father commented on the sign of dampness on the paving stones and asked "Has it been raining?" Pardon? Take a look outside. The sunshine is glorious. If you've had rainfall here, it's the only place in southern England that has. No, the culprit are the birds, small bluetits and goldfinches and starlings and such, taking advantage of the pond and bathing themselves. Even they sense the mood of the early Spring sunshine. Or more likely, have they noticed next doors cat is sunning himself rather than hiding in the nearby bush?

Yes, I have heard that americans throw cars away readily. Perhaps it's like New Zealand? Whilst I was there, I learned to recognise the houses of Maori's. They were always the ones with two rusting cars on the drive.

No, I just wouldn't be able to keep a straight face. Actually, I don't have the 'professional demeanour' they're looking for. Its all image really.

Yes, thats a bad habit of mine. Not to worry, at least it helped!

A lesson in life? Assuming he still has it after wrapping himself around a lampost, and I know what I was like as a driver at his age. Actually, I think watching him speed by enjoying the car would be too much for me to bear. Besides, I like the numberplate and it doesn't cost me anything to retain it if I SORN the vehicle. (SORN = Satutory Off Road Notification, a legal requirement to register cars that aren't licensed for use on the road)

The doorbell rang last night. Wow, thats a forgotten pleasure. Most people announce their presence by shouting in the street. So I drop my dry sandwich and rush downstairs in a fit of uncool eagerness. A hopeful adolescent stood in the hallway, looking a bit uncertain at my raffish squalor. "Is that your Mazda out back?" He asked. Oh no... Don't tell me it's been vandalised again.... Yes it is, I responded. "You thinking of selling it?" He enquired nervously. I stared for a second with raised eyebrows. Full marks for chutzpah, but a hot sportscar (albeit a castrated one) at his age? I realise how much he'll suffer. Putting the car back together will cost him far more than he realises, the car is far more demanding to drive than he realises, and the police will be demanding him to stop every five yards. No, I answered with considerable finality. He left, disconsolate, his dreams of impressing his mates and pulling the girls broken. Poor lad. Never mind, he'll find a cheap hatchback somewhere and find his freedom. Just like I did at his age. Sandwich of the Week Returning upstairs, I grit my teeth to consume the dry sandwich. Bread isn't too expensive I suppose, but so often it's been stored in freezers before sale and it dries out when thawed. Worse still is the cheese. The packaged slices I used to buy have doubled in price since the recent supermarket inflation, so I've no choice but buy these new 'singles' packs. At 50p for ten, you can't argue. Or so I thought. When you finally extricate them from their clever cancerous plastic wrapper, you get a quivering plastic cheese substitute that doesn't taste of anything at all. I demand cheap cheese! Real dairy produce, stuff that smells of cheese, tastes like cheese, and doesn't vibrate on its own accord. All I need now is a dog called Grommet.

With regard to job descriptions, its all about assumed prestige. By making the job seem incredibly difficult or technical (by using lots of obscure words in novel combinations) you attract people of the required mindset, or at least so the theory goes. Personally, I think people who write job descriptions like that are petty officious individuals whose own importance revolves around the use of a dictionary in their desk. With regard to chocolate, I sympathise. So to the lady I once upset and who specified Terry's Gold as suitable recompense, I must apologise unchocolatedly.

Your choice of topic revolves around how much detail you put into it. The more specific the title, the deeper you'll need to go. Strictly speaking, at the beginning. We like to classify and put labels on things, so we define periods and trends and so forth, but the reality is a changing society that went a collection of hill farms to a successful conquest state and eventually to fragment and wither. Slavery is part of the story, though in my view you should place it in perspective. Slavery was a fact of life for human beings everywhere in the ancient world. Patricians evolved from those connected with the priesthoods of earliest times, and as inter-settlement raids were linked to these martial cults, the rise of militaristic families shouldn't be too suprising. It must be stated though that the difference in wealth between the patrician and plebian classes wasn't always so marked. Many plebs became financially successful one way or another. Despite the status that wealth bought in Roman society even from the beginning, their lower social status remained in place. The increase in wealth went hand in hand with increasing military success but then many Romans were becoming extremely wealthy on the back of property deals made possible by larger populations. After major conquests. The prisoners of war became commodities and were sold off wholesale. During the republic, the slave markets of Delos were said to taken in and sold ten thousand slaves in one day. Delos went out od business before the Principate, so evidently they were benefitting from military success and couldn't sustain their hold of the market when demand for slaves plummetted afterward. Try a search. I 'm sure you'll find some useful stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Rome http://www.moyak.com/researcher/resume/pap...an_slavery.html

Somewhere, out there, in the wilderness of the Swindon job market, is an El Dorado of a career just waiting for me. The Lost Warehouse. I'm still searching the rainforests of Darkest Wiltshire for it, machete in hand, coiled whip hanging from my belt. Occaisionally though I come across strange tribes and alien cultures in this urban jungle, and the following job description has come to me attention... Large Utility Company looking for a Technical Architect with a strong background in Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. Responsibilities will include - Application Landscape definition and maintenance. Application Roadmaps (for sustainability and strategic direction). Product evaluation and selection. Assurance of projects and programmes against the Architecture and any appropriate Patterns or Solutions. Providing recommendations based on evaluation at various levels of the organisation up to Board level The Technical Architect will be required to resolve or oversee the resolution of very highly complex, high business impact, technological, commercial and social problems. Identify the business impact of architecture implementation including the anticipated business benefits and costs and the risks and consequences of failure. Take account of the organisations business plans and IS Strategy and Policy in developing and implementing Standards and Patterns to ensure compliance. Identify Infrastructure and Security Implications in projects. Pursue up-to-date knowledge of business relevant emerging technology trends and developments in the areas of Application Architecture, through direct supplier contacts and attendance at conferences and seminars as well as reading relevant research and get involved in the investigation of specific technologies, products, methods and techniques as required to assess their potential benefit to the business and their role in the evolution of the IS Applications Strategy Experience needed The Technical Architect will need extensive experience of Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence. Experience of Applications, Connectivity, and Data Architecture across a broad range of platforms and products. Experience of development methodologies and large programmes or portfolios of development initiatives. Can you imagine the boss of a company like that? "Ahh, Mr Caldrail, finally made it work this morning? What was it this time, the rope bridge over the river went down?" No no. I have implemented amorphous time selection in the work place with a view to targeted arrivals and business sensitive initiation of labour assignments, with constructive initiation and resolution of working patterns that take adavantage of working time regulations and company policy that comply with management forecasts, leading to succesful resolution of current strategies and production schedules. "I'm wet." Doctor of the Week Doctors have been getting into the papers recently. There was one guy who said the risk of falling off a horse was worse than dying in a car accident. He got pilloried for that wisdom of course, but now there's another attention seeking doctor who says that there should be a chocolate tax to dissuade us from expanding our waistlines. Oh great. Now apologies to women are going to cost more. Sheesh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_glass

I remember a tv program that showed an archaeologist pulling glass out of the mud and showing the blue colour, telling the presenter it was typical of roman glass. Whereas I don't doubt 'clear' glass was possible, that wouldn't mean it was cheap or commonly available. I got the impression from the program, right or wrong, that blue glass was used for windows - which implies a wealthier inhabitant able to afford glass to begin with.

Nine people a day in Great Britain die from road accidents. Thats a startling statistic, but one thats being used by all sorts of people to persecute car drivers. The man behind the wheel is the villain. He (or she) knocks down pedestrians, fills our roads with stationary queues, and threatens the climate. The emotive interviews with grieving parents of those killed on the road are understandable but to some extent it's exploitive journalism. Life after all isn't safe, despite the cossetting nature of modern society. You cannot legislate accidents out of existence because so many incidents are the result of poor decision making and observation. We have accidents, therefore, because we're human beings and that means we're not perfect. That doesn't excuse willful decisions to drive in a manner liable to cause accidnts, but then, the legislation to deal with that already exists. Here's something that might put it all in perspective. Nine people a day might die on British roads, but more than that die from falling over. Think I'd better stop telling jokes, I could be made responsible for a mass atrocity. Hypocrisy of the Week Not so long ago, Swindon Council got praise from some quarters for abandoning the speed camera. Sorry, I should have called it a safety camera shouldn't I? Well, I 've written before about the ridiculous notion that cameras stop accidents. They don't. In fact, the whole point of Swindon Council removing their support for the camera schemes was because these cameras were a means to use drivers as cash cows. So what do they do? They double parking charges in car parks and street schemes. Having discovered their revenue from speeding fines has dwindled, they seek to restore their profits by targeting law-abiding motorists instead.

Come to mention it, I don't know anything about these sybilline revelations at all. Anyone care to enlighten? Are any of them still in existence?

Yep, it's that day of the fortnight. Time to sign on. As it's my number one social engagement this week I thought I'd be fashionably late, and as expected, there was a crowd of bored dole seekers waiting in long queues. Eventually I got called forward, and waited in the secondary queue inside the office. I just love this system of theirs. One queue after another. In fact, the woman who dealt with my claim wasted no time. "Have you managed to apply for any jobs?" She asked me quizzically. Cheeky woman, of course I have. Satisfied I had the nerve to brazen it out (though I have actually applied for the jobs!) she had me sign the docket and that was it. I was in and out of the desk in less than five minutes. On the way out I saw one attractive young lady, looking slightly exotic, downbeat, but not tarty. To be fair, everyone else noticed her too, and I heard the attentive security guard ask where she came from. Brazil. Brazil? She's come all the way from South America to sign on the dole in rainy Swindon? She breezed past me without a second look. Hey, am I losing my charismatic celebrity aura? Or is it because the security guards get all the chicks in the dole office? Actually, I think its more to do with being too poor. Just my suspicion there. Queue of the Week It seems Wacko Jacko is back. Michael Jackson has left his chimp at home in fairyland and has come to London with a spotted hanky over his shoulder full of merchandising to play his last ever comeback. Am I missing the point? What sort of comeback is it if you only mean to play a few gigs in London and hang up the white glove afterward? Well it seems an astute move as all his old fans are coming out of the cupboard and queuing for tickets. I hope they see a good thriller. No really, us idiots get a bad press and its about time he got out more.

Wow... Aberwystywth joins the 21st century... Hey guys, guess what? Thatcher got voted out. Thought you might like to catch up current events.

Just now I saw a headline that a drag queen has been sentenced for sending a hoax bomb threat to a warehouse I used to work at. Quite right, but it did amuse me. Some years back the warehouse manager, DG, left her briefcase in the foyer and as an unattended suspicious package, the premises were evacuated and the army bomb disposal called in. Well, she eventually got the boot. She also presided over another large operation that went bust later. I knew I was right about her. Am I allowed to be smug? The problem of course is that ordinary people have suffered because of her failures. Then again, aren't they the same people who made my life difficult? Gloating over peoples misfortune isn't really admirable I suppose but since they gloated over mine, and still do, I'll sit back, arms folded, and smile annoyingly. Splat of the Week A British politician, Lord Mandleson, got a faceful of green gunge courtesy of airport protestors. This was merely a publicity stunt by a group of like-minded people who don't want airports, airliners, or any form of aerial tranportation to interfere or impose itself on their chosen lifestyles. I can understand to some extent. The plans to expand Heathrow are deeply problematic and disturbing for those pushed off their land by bulldozers. Thing is though, most of these people throwing gunge and sitting on runways aren't threatened by these expanion plans are they? Like nuclear disarmers, globally warm protestors, animal righters, and whatever other group is fighting the good fight, they just want a cause to fight for. Something to give their lives meaning. Years ago after a performance in Bristol, a member of the audience approached me and asked how to join the animal rights movement. I hadn't any idea and told him so, but the impression I got was that he wasn't a caring animal loving type person. More like someone who wanted to cause some trouble and needed a good cause as an excuse, to make it right. Somehow, I kinda think gunge in someones face isn't really going to change the need for more runways, is it?

No, he's not brutally honest, he's just blunt. All businessmen talk out of their rear to a greater or lesser degree - business is a controlled con-market after all.