caldrail

Weather... Funny thing weather... We seem to have more of it than any other nation in the world and yet we seem uttely incapable of coping with it. All part of being British I supose. Over the last few days we've had fog to contend with. You would think that might cause a few problems with getting around.and you know what? You're right. It has. As for me I had a job interview to go to. The agency that put me onto it was so worried that the fog might put me off that they called me on the phone while I was on my way there. Am I going? Yes. Do I know where to go? Yes. That sorted her out. I arrived at the site and luckily for me the interview was being held in a premises I'd worked in once before. That way I knew where it was without resorting to GPS, anxious telephone calls, or simply sending up a rescue flare if all else fails. Thing is thoug, the lady on the reception desk looked perplexed when I announced myself. "You are not on list" She replied in deep Polish lilt. Really? My mobile phone says different. Obviously fog is not so thick in Poland. Anyway, I stood my ground, she lost patience with me, and went to fetch a manger. The manager didn't know what I was talking about either. So he phoned his manager, and he didn't know either. This fog really is stern stuff. It reduces memory, intelligence, amd many higher brain functions. I should know. The ability test I had to sit through comprised of fiendish maths and english questions designed to fool the illegal immigrant, thwart the dimwitted, or basically accelerate the degeneration of brain tissue that still clings on for dear life inside my aging skull. But I passed. Fog or no fog. And the sun has come out! What a nice day. Start work on Monday fella. No excuses. Not even fog.

The Old College site still looms large in our local concerns. Even now, they're still trucking huge lumps of hillside away to some infill site somewhere. The sandy soil has now gone so they're digging up dark grey clay, thick lumpy soil that forms steep sided piles. The rain hasn't helped of course. looking down onto the site it got quite messy down there for a while - they've had to lay down a level of rubble to make the surface usable. The other day I was passing the site with my shopping, noticing that the roadway they'd dug up had flooded. Quite an impressive puddle it was too, although I don't think the civil engineer I spoke to was too impressed with my sense of humour. Worse still, subsidence has reared its ugly head. There's a meeting at our local civic offices for citizens none too imopressed with cracks in the walls of their homes. Meanwhile, Back At The Job Centre My claims advisor is not impressed. This time however it isn;t me. It seems the usual protocol of queuing until spoken to has not been taught to a younger generation, who clearly have more important things to do with their time than attend the Job Centre when required. Energy Bill Of The Week Back in October I had a bit of an argument with my gas supplier. They wanted to add a standing charge to my tariff which would more than double the cost of gas over winter. It's okay though, because David Cameron says there's no cost of living crisis. So, in an event to prove our glorious leader is infallible, I basically told the gas company to close my contract. Don't want your stupid gas any more. You wouldn't believe the excuses they came out with to avoid doing that. Apparently cancelling a gas supply is illegal or something like that. Don't care. Cancel it. So they wrote to me telliing me that gas supply is the basis of all civilisation. So I wrote to them cancelling my contract officially. Good riddance. Imagine then my alarm this week, three months after I had forgotten the existence of natural gas, when I received a gas bill for using no gas whatsoever. Are they serious? Do they really believe that I'm going to pay? Guys - The contract is cancelled! It's been cancelled for three months! Deal with it!

Well, we've already hunted ours into extinction. Now the eco-brigade are hunting anyobne who so much as looks at a fur coat in envy. There was a badger cull in Wiltshire just of late but so far they haven't been recorded as attacking anyone. I nearly stepped on an Adder once. It's our only poisonous snake. It hissed at me and I got the message. Very impressed you were able to take photographs of a bear attacking you. In your place, I'd probably be pooing myself, screaming, and generally trying to run away. But then we're not allowed huntin' rifles in darkest Wiltshire.

Yes. Darkest Wiltshire. Our rural rainforest is a land of wild white woolly wolves, loud and hairy late night primates, druidic weirdoes, speed cameras, and herds of cows that inspect you closely should be so unlucky as to encounter that particular hazard. Otheer than that it raons a lot.

...Once more unto the rain, dear friends, once more... ... Those who were not here shall hold their dryness cheap... From William Shakespeare's play Henry The Absolutely Soaking Wet Fifth Britain has a problem. As much as we like to discuss our weather, we seem to have rather a lot of it right now. So much so that hordes of BBC journalist more used to comnfortable studio newsdesks are now presenting news and views live from those areas of Britain unfortunate enough to be anywhere near a large river. I can't help thinking the BBC are trying their best to convince that our license fee is value for money or that the flooding in the Somerset Levels is something we haven't already heard about. Okay, Britain is a bit under the weather right now, but come on BBC! Cameron has already said there's no limit to the amount of money he will spend drying Britain out, even if his cabinet deny blank cheques are available or that unemployed people like me are going to have to fund relief efforts on the Somerset Levels sooner or later. Sky News is more concerned with impending Scottish independence and the revelation they can't keep the English chequebook, plus a controversy at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Russia Today talks about riots in Venezuela, Ithe release of Iraqi prisoners agaijst American advice, and of course the stream of Russian victories at Sochi. But Al Jazeerah walks away with the prize for reporting Korean squabbling, Turkish squabbles, squabbles in Kenya, attempted coups in Libya, unrest in Iraq, Belgian euthenasia, the inprisonment of Al Jazeerah journalists in Egypt, and for ignoring Sochi altogether. I breathe a sigh of relief when the adverts pop up. Then I discover that Africa doesn't have enough water to go around and would I mind paying a meagre sum to supply one person with water that isn't full of urine, faeces, bugs, and little children playing. Sorry. have a television license fee to pay for. Job Interview Of The Week Applying for jobs online is easy most of the time. Choose a vacancy and click on 'Apply'. job done. Sometimes however the unthinkable happens and someone notices that pweople are applying for these jobs. That hapened to me recently which was very unexpected. Normally I get rejected or forgotten completely. The mistake I made of course was discovering the interview I'd agreed to attend was not in my home town, but miles away, out there, in the wilds of Darkest Wiltshire. So I discussed the problem with the employer and we agreed it was sensible not to proceed. Unfortunately England Expects That Every Jobseeker Shall Do His Duty, and thus the Job Centre, as soon as they found out, decided I had committed heresy. "We can stop your money if refuse an interview" My claims advisor advised me. I hadn't refused it.All I did was... it was no use. The Job Centre decided I was in the wrong and so I had to phone the employer and ask them very nicely if they wouldn't mind letting me attend the interview after all. They said yes. First the interview was postponed until the following week. Then I was asked if it was possible to come in later during the afernoon instead, because the company was having a problem with suppliers. Then finally, after my miserable bus journey and a walk through some town on the edge of civilisation, I was within a few hundred yards of the employers premises. Just a few more yards... Almost there... Oh hello. my phone is rininging.... Interview postponed until next week NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Right then. My claims Advisor owes me

Right. No-ones looking, so I can in fact reveal that today I applied for nine jobs online. It's okay. She'll never know.

It doesn't take a lot to cause traffic chaos. Many years ago I was heading home through Wootton Bassett when I encountered a driver having difficulties getting his car up the steep hill that enters the town from the southwest side. Being a genreous sort, I stopped to help. Pushing a vehicle uphill, especially one with an unwilling engine and a large female occupant who refused to step out of the vehicle, wasn't easy and no-one else volunteered to help. Within minutes traffic was backing up in both directions, traffic wardens were closing in to find what the trouble was and inflict terrible financial maulings to anyone guilty of the slightest infraction of the Highway Code. So I helped the guy reverse the car by gravity as close to the side of the road as possible and left the area sharpish. My work here is done. But it isn't always my own fault. The other day I was walking home by the Old College site. Roadworks have spread across the junction in front of it, diggers ripping out more and more mud, flourescent yellow droids with working class accents yelling incoherently at each other. Unfortunately this has restricted the the road a good deal. In one direction, a large low-loader lorry and trailer was trying to negotiate the turn into the building site, blocking the only remaining lane. In the other direction, another lorry driver decided to use the temporary access road as a short cut to the site, depite the "Give Way" and "Left Turn" signs, blatantly pulling across the wrong way in a one-way system, and blocking traffic behind him. And so chaos was brought to Swindon. I didn't do it. Data Protection Of The Week Right now I attend a support centre to assist my job-searching. Internet access, personal assistance, and free stationery. Very useful. The only downside is the constant form filling and register signing that I have to put with. Every session I need to fill out a report form detailing my activities for the day. it must be completed fully and correctly or my benefits are in question. Like being in the army except no-one shouts at you. Anyhow I did my duty for the day and dotted every eye and crossed every tee. The manageress who runs the office spotted me droppin g my form on the assigned administrators desk and immediately turned it over. "It's okay" I ventured helpfully, "I'm not ashamed of it". Sadly she lacks a certain sense of humour and merely replied "Oh it's the data protection act". I see. I post my job search details on a government website as ordered, email those details to any administrator who requests it, my bank details and statements to a national office dedicated to catching dole cheats, and to some extent, reveal my activities to the world via this blog. But no-one, repeat no-one, is allowed to see that report form. You have been warned.

He pretty much takes your stance, but with the attention to further detail on the objective-subjective divide and atomic structure, coming to the conclusion that each atom, when it becomes molecular, is evidence of atomic consciousness. I don't necessarily share the views of atomic conciousness - though in fairness it comes uncomfortably close to my own personal religious beliefs - and I should point out that physicisyts are concerned about the existence of 'Bolzmann Brains', sentient entities formed by fortuitous interaction of quantum particles, or if you like, the sort of energy creatures you see on Star Trek quite a lot. The moral or philosophical questions however are no different - at what point does an entity assume conciousness? Research suggests much lower down the tree of life than we realise, in some primitive way, but conciousness involves more than simple existence and unless particles are complex enough to harbour conciousness, then it's no more than quantum/chemical/physical change without recognition. is weight and mass inherently different? No. Mass is instrinsic to atomic structure and weight the multiple of mass caused by the strength of the gravity force acting upon mass. How would relativity work if they were different. The same, with different values and results.

Cold, wet, miserable. That's pretty much how Swindon is right now, and that's probably not far different from how the rest of the country feels, give or take a flood here and there. Even my local Subway aren't smiling when I arrive to spend a few more hard earned dole payments on something to eat. Hey - It's not my fault this that or the other is on special offer this week. All is not lost however. The old Thompson Insurance place on the High Street - It's been empty for years - is being refitted as a suntan emporium. In Swindon? We don't know the meaning of sunshine. I've seen the machine itself, looking like something out of Star Trek. Well, I suppose it's appropriate. What with all the saturday night klingons we've got wandering around the town. Road Manners The work on the Old College site has spilled out onto the road junction beyond the fence. The pedestrian crossings are replaced by temporary versions next them, plastic fences erected everywhere, railings uprooted, traffic islands dug up. Motorists are a bit confused by all these changes - the other day a workman shouted at one old guy "Look mate! GIVE WAY!", which of course is exactly what most druivers aren't doing, turning the junction into a motorised russian roulette. Mind you, the presence of a police car certainly made some motorists a bit more obedient. There's a dark blue Ford Mustang that I sometimes see burbling around the town. Not one of the classic versions, it's the new model, looking oddly exotic in rainy old Swindon. For my tastes it stands too tall on the road - practical but not really sporty. The thing is the driver, for reasons known only to himself, likes to rev the engine when he passes me. Sorry mate, Im not gay, no matter what that fat idiot on the gate of the Old College site says. Anyway, I was walking along the local high street and there he was again. Vrooom! Actually, the V8 sounds great,and for that matter I can't condemn him for exuberance. Heaven knows I've done my share of exuberant driving in the past. But unfortunately I wasn't the only one who heard that blip on the accelerator. The driver didn't see the police car waiting to pull out behind a parked vehicle. Ooops. Car Advert Of The Week There's a glossy television advert doing the rounds right now for the Nissan Qashqai. I suppose they have to advertise it - cars of that sort don't sell themselves - but I had to laugh. The advert features a man taling hold of a metal bar suspended on a pulley and cable, wafting down the city boulevard at night, with the voiceover claiming that all cars should drive like that. What? Hanging on for dear life, unable to stop, and unable to steer? Not my idea of driving a car, I have to say.

Can you prove all the atoms are still in existence, or are we just assuming? I haven't invented a Macroscopic Quantum Quantizer yet, nor has anyone else, so the total number of atoms is an estimate and will remain so for the forseeable future, or perhaps until Professor Cox's next Christmas lecture. However, the condition of Change within our universe does not, as I underatand it, prevent the migration of atmoic substance to other forms of existence. Such transformations are part and partcel of phycis and chemistry, without which you or I (or even socially aware ravens) are impossible. Do objects keep the same mass, or just a relative form? Mass is dependent on atomic structure and the total of atoms within that object. Please note that metric stabndard weights are very carefully kept to prevent minute changes in mass caused by decay or chemical reaction. Also please note that mass and weight are different. Mass is defined by atomic structure, given a scaler value by the efect of gravity acting upon that weight. Can a concentration of form attract like particle formations, and can they quantitatively thin over time, similar to how frost expands and contracts? Newton says yes. Einstein says it's a result of space-time deformation caused by mass. I say they knew better than I do. Since our solar system is a glaringly obvious example of mass-attraction and electro-chemical interation, I guess the answer is basically Yes. Secondly, how do we know photons move faster than us? Two or three centuries of theoretical and experimental physics. Dont we have quite a few in us? Actually we do, becauae it is now known that human beings have a very low level of bio-luminesence. Not quite enough to show up on special forces imaging systems, but we're already giving off enough heat or reflecting enough light to make thiose things work. In a relativistic universe, we gotta be going somewhere. Not necessarily, because movement is relative to the observer, not intrinsic, thus we have no way of knowing whether we're moving or the surrounding universe is moving around us unless we can compare our position to known values and locations, which are themselves of course potentially in motion. Hope my answers are of use to you.

A dazzling display of logic my friend. Sadly I'm a human being, thus afflicted with many of the faults of that species, though in fairness, I would point out I'm not the least polite member of Humanity and it was the ravens making an unholy racket and thus disturbing the peace and quiet of the Remembrance garden.

Where shall I go today? The library, so I can do more internetting? Or the Support Centre so I can do more job searching? It doesn't really matter because I'll end up doing both today as I do every day. Today I will go to the library first I think. Nothing ike variety in the working day. The road crossing outside the library also happens to be where the main entrance to the Old College building site is. The tarmac is crumbling under stress and has become a building site all of its own as repairs to the road take place. With lorries coming and going from the Old College site regularly, combined with the wet weather we've been having , the road is a shade of sandy brown with little ridges of half dry mud. The lads on the gate are often seen sweeping the mud away and occaisionally a lorry is parked nearby with a tank of water and cleaning apparatus. I've gotten used used to it I suppose. But I had to laugh earlier - I was following a pair of east european lads when one of them stopped short of the muddy entrance and refused to go any further. It's just a thin patina of mud, my friend, not quicksand. Honestly, they leave friends and family behind and travel hundreds of miles to discover that despite our wonderful benefits payments, they're just as at risk of getting their clothes dirty. Our Wonderful Benefits Payments It's a wonder I still qualify now that our glorious leader has declared war on claimants. Just the other day I received a huge form to fill in. it must be returned by the due date or payments may stop - the information must be correct or payments may stop - it must be retuirned in the correct envelope or payments may stop - Okay, okay, I get the message. I'll run around everywhere like a headless chicken collating all the information demanded. Phone the doctors surgery to get an exact date. No point phoning the Council - their phone system is designed to induce apoplexy in those attempting to pierce its defenses. I swear there are skeletons with boney fingers around a handset with a tinny voice repeating periodically "Please wait - we're trying to connect you to an advisor". Apparently I missed an interview at the Job Cente about my future as a jobseeker, which is why the form arrived through the post in the first place. It might help if I received it before the day afterward. But hey, that's how things are done in rainy old Swindon. Annoyance Of The Week Yes, it's our old friend, BFG. This morning I had the misfortune to be at the computer when she decided to sit in the next computer. If anyone else made the same running commentary of her woes concerning the library computers she'd throw a tantrum. Just ignore her. When she realises we're not paying her any attention, she'll eventually shut up.... Except she discovered the young lady on the helpdesk is a very helpful person and basically demanded that she ran errands while BFG struggled with her argumentative computer. Ding ding... Round three...

Work at the Old College site proceeds apace. I know this because firstly there's a huge jungle of steel girders blocking the view from my back window, and secondly, because they've starting demolition of the brickwork in one corner of the site in order to create the entrance to a new car park. Every time the digger brings down the bucket to smash the bricks the whole terrace of houses in which I live vibrates. Really, the house has been shaking intermittently for the last few days. I'm actually bouncing on my seat. Little Monkeys Monkeys can be entertaining to watch. Like other people I've marvelled at the graceful slow motion of Orangu-tangs, the lightning quick bursts of gymnastics from gibbons, or laughed at the parodies of human activity from chimpanzees. Actually, come to think of it, the closeness of human and primate behaviour can be a bit embarrassing sometimes. Like that male chimpanzee sat on top of a climbing frame in Auckland Zoo. As soon as he saw me watching him, he gave a big monkey grin, stood up, and enjpyed a very full on wee. Yes yes yes, I see you. They share 99% of our DNA you see. What do monkeys eat? I suspect the obvious answer for most of us is bananas. Finally, after millennia of keeping animals in captivity, one zoo has realised that monkeys are happier eating green vegetables. They behave better, and I suspect, enjoy fewer visits from the veterinarian and his pesky blowdarts. Here's the thing. Primates that eat bananas have too much sugar in their diet and it drives them... well... bananas. Which I suspect is largely the cause of Attention Deficit Disorder in young human beings. Not because of bananas I have to say, but because there's so much sugar in our diet overall. So give your kids less Sunny Delight, Cocopops, Halibo sweeties and maybe the local policeman with his pesky blowdarts won't be dragging the kids home every evening with acres of unreadable grafitti left in their wake. After all, why wouldn't the same thing work for our little monkeys, assuming you can ween them off stuff that tastes nice? There you go. Helpful dietary advice from Dr Caldrail. You know what? I fancy some chocolate right now... Ahh yeah... Yeah.. Oh that's good... Wow. Ah'm feelin' bad... Pretty Woman of the Week You have to be a bit wary of tabloid news stories, especially those connected with celebrities, but I couldn't help noticing recently that Cameron Diaz has been quoted as saying that we shouldn't refer to women as pretty because it forces the female of the species to strive toward a visiual ideal they may not be able to attain, and to suffer the mental torment of failing to achieve it. Cameron my love, you are such a silly girl. Quite apart from the fact that the female of the species causes the male no end of grief regarding their appearance, behaviour, commitment, and domestic capability, is your career based entirely based on your talent as an actress? Face it, if you were a frump, where would you be? You're a very pretty woman Cameron. So please stick to the script. It is, after all, your lifestyle choice.

Animals weren't slain to feed the poor - they were put into the arena either to be hunted ritually (or more to the point, for entertainment), as bestial galdiators, or as a means demonstrating justice to those unfortunate comdemned individuals tied to a post in front of it. The arena at Pompeii was a popular venue -0 it was after all a purpose built amphitheatre which survives to this day (albeit after being buried), and was once the scene of crowd violence as Pompeians fought audience members from a nearby town, prompting Nero to ban Pompeii from holding fixtures there for ten years. The extent of poverty isn't really the issue either because the act of goiving meat would be a matter of securing votes (the Romans were absolutely shameless in their political graft) thus anyone in the audience could rasonably expect to partake of what was available, with the proviso that they would suffer negative reaction if they were known to be able to afford food without worry. Bear in mind there was no fee or ticket price for watching the games - it was all civic largesse. Also bear in mind that the Romans often expected the wealthy to pay for their entertainment and welfare - that's one reason why Romans rushed to visit their patron of a morning, and in an unrelated incident, Tiberius once had to order troops into a town because the ciorpse of a dead centurion was being held for ransom until the family paid for a munera to celebrate his death. There are reasons to debate the issue of poverty in Pompeii -one tlelevision archaeologist has pointed at the obvious prosperity (allowing for the natural disasters that afflicted the place between 69 and 79ad). Nonetheless, the poor were allowed a grain dole if they had an adress to live at - a subsistemnce ration to prevent them from starving, and we know that urban populations were not absolutely secure regarding provisions - food riots were not unknown in ROman times. Pompeii has a geographical adavntage and clearly prospered from the availability of produce, both of land and sea, yet there must have been those whose incomes or career prospects made a gift of slaughtered meat very welcome (it would have have been a treat anyway), and of course the Roman public had come to expect such generosity. In terms of numbers of animals slain the total would have been nothing like the city of Rome, but occaisionally a big cat or two, an elphant, or something similar to delight a rural town audience with something they wouldn't ordinarily see, both to be impressed with displays of aggression, speed, grace, or simply because the animal was exotic, and also the display Roman mastery of nature.

2014. At last. All those god awful christmas songs have been put back on the shelf for another eleven months and life returns to normal. Apart from floods in Britain and blizzards in the US, or the usual woes of war and famine elsewhere. There's also been a distinct lack of a Rapture - that's when Jesus returns and magically transports his believers into paradise leaving behind their worldly goods, which lets face it, would be a charter for looters here in Blighty. You have to admire End Timers for sheer stubborness in the face of reality. Ever since the Great Disappointment of 1844 they've been waiting for Jesus to get his act together - Still hasn't happened. Oh but it will, they tell us, and those of us not whisked away will suffer drunkeness, looting, and party political broadcasts. What kind of year has it been for me? Well, I've been Lord Caldrail for four years now and suprisingly it seems to be gaining some acceptance in the hallowed halls of the local Job Centre. Who would have thought the last bastion of working class socialism in Britain would find it in their hearts to recognise that dole claimants aren't all the same? So I look forward to another year of progress and who knows? Perhaps there really is gold at the end of a rainbow, a car that really is what the adverts describe, a lost city of Atlantis waiting to be discovered, or a government that will get it right. A Dog Is For Christmas Pets seem to be perrennial gifts and sadly, as we know, many get discarded one way or another. A mate of mine has had a different experience. His erstwhile girlfriend decided the dog was too cute to be left behind and departed with the animal. From what he tells me it was turning into a strange sort of 'tug-of-love' contest, but not only is the confused animal now back with its original owner, my friend has inherited a another puppy to keep it company. Of course putting two dogs together causes a slight problem in that they had to negotiate social status, rights, and pecking order, resulting in growls, chases, bitten fingers, much shouting and the usual chaos of animal interaction. However, all is well, as the next day he came downstair in the morning to discover that a treaty had been signed and both dogs were curled up asleep together. Awwww... Cute.... Well it was Christmas after all. Job Interview Of The Week A few days previously I'd applied for a job over the internet. The recruitment agency tried to get in touch, I tried to get in touch with them, but between the vagaries of my mobile phone and the hussle and bussle of recruitment, somehow contact was as easy as contacting space aliens on Planet Zarg. However, in the evening I received a phone call from a lady who wasn't my contact at the agency, but who was following up the application nonetheless. At least something's happening. She asked what I normally applied for then enquired why did I want this job? Well, it has something to do with being unemployed, needing to pay my bills, and satisfying a government hell bent on forcing me into the gutter. It isn't difficult to understand. Actually, it turned out she didn't understand. Not only was she unable to grasp why I applied for the job, she went into a minor tantrum and tried to give me the benefit of her opinions. Hmmm... Think I'll hang up and leave her to it. Clearly a woman without a dog this year.

It is believed that meat from animals slain in the arena were distributed to the poor as part of the civic largesse ( also to avoid the need for huge burials and secure votes for the games editor).

The simple exostence of modern superstition is two-fold - firstly that it is natural to human beings and that we pass those superstitions to the next generation as part of our culture, and secondly, the explanations for the state of existence that inspires superstitious belief is more diffcult to understand due to the nature and complexity of scientific principles as opposed to the much less complicated statements of religion As for today being the most superstitious age - ridiculous. Since when did the Joint Chiefs Of Staff sacrifice aniomals to discern whetjher the Godsapproved of Operation Desert Storm? Really? So the fact that the Romans existed as a human culture, that they achieved an extraordinary influence over our own, and that we're both using a website devoted largely to discussing their history, is of no possible relevance? I would steer clear of such pseudo-intellectual waffle if I were you.

It most certainly does not. Or are we to imagine that the shape of someone's nose dictates whether it is acceptable to gas them? Or that the Earth is flat? Or that Atlantean spaceships are on their way to rescue the chosen before the an uncoming apocalypse? Or that the End Is Nigh and the Rapture is happening any time soon? Concepts are merely ideas, nothing more. Facts are established by evidence, not ideas. They most certainly did not. The greeks got there befopre them, and arguably, there were much earlir tales that might loosely be described in that genre from civilisations that predated the Romans by a considerable margin. However I would point out that whilst elements of that literary genre might be present, the genre itself requires sicnece as a popular basis for story-telling which requires a certain education from its readers, or else the story is no more than mere fairy tales (a fault I level at the modern Dr Who series). Since sicence was a very limited subject in ancient times to say the least, any such basis for popular literature has to have been largely coincidental.

Whilst I appreciate that even today we tend to be superstitious (Heck, I still my horoscope even though I know it's bunkum), the extent to which superstition drives our lives is different to that experienced by the ancient world. Although you discount education, I would argue that you have learned that a thunderstorm is the result of physical interactions within our enviroment rather than any act of God. There's still the irrational component of our brain that tells us we ought to not step under a ladder, but then, isn't that the result of learned response from our peers and parents, and thus an educative argument rather than a rationally considered option for improved safety?

There are plenty of climatologists who have similar views. Check out newspapers from the twenties. In the US, you will find stories about massive floods with hundreds of deaths that are now forgotten. Human beings have short memories and short lives. So we tend to see the world in a shorter time scale and ignore evidence that experts have been recording for a long time. Whilst average global temperatures have risen a small degree in the last century (I can't deny that), they rose much more more since the "Litlle Ice Age" of the 18th century, or haven't reached the peak of the "Medieval Warm Period". These things aren't just human intgervention - whilst we aren't helping things by our sheer impact duie to numbers - there are a great many people seeking to profit from fears concerning global warmiong. Anway, it doesn't matter. Humanity is foolish to believe they can control the Earth or that the Earth will remain exactly as it was forever. Climate changes all the time and we've been very lucky over the last ten thousand years. Sooner or later that luck will run out and we either cope or enter the fossil record. That's how it is. Bleating on about eco-this that or the other won't help one jot, nor the taxes we pay to fund it.

Rationality and logic have little to do with this. The facts are that ancient peoples were usually very superstitious, the Romans particularly so, and for them crossing a river wasn't just a physical act - it was trespassing on the domain of a local god who might take offence at their presence and sweep them away to their deaths. Whilst you or I might shake our heads at their reticence, bear in mind that we have a different worldview and better education that they did. For them, things happened because of divine intervention. Romans saw thunderstorms as evidence of a gods anger (note how dispirited troops were in Germania ad9 when the storms broke overnight. It wasn't just that they were wet and windblown, they were at a low ebb of morale. Note how Romans would buy lead pellets inscribed with the name of the gladiator they wished to curse, or that next to a temple you would find a vebndor selling the various paraphenalia a worshipper needed to properly appease or pray to a god, or that Romans would voluntarily bury or deposit in water artifacts as offerings for divine favour)

Slingers operated in loose formation as any other skirmisher type, but for that matter, taking cover wasn't necessarily the done thing. If there's any cavalry nearby, you're in serious trouble if you don't tough it out togetjher. Historically there are many examples of units standing under fire - I concede that sometimes they had little choice - Carrhae, Adrianople, et al - but you find that taking cover was sometimes viewed as a cowardly way of behaving on the battlefield.

Slingers from the Baleric isles would represent a cadre of skilled men rather than the islanders as a whole, who fund useful employment of those same skills on the battlefield as mercenaries. The availability of skill with slings might also might have been a local cultural emphasis too.

It isn't emntirely a myth. The Romans were very averse to crossing rivers without appeasing the local gods in some way, an aspect of everyday ancient life that isn't usually considered. Auguries were taken before a battle as another instance, including an ancestor of Augustus who called for chickens to be tested before a naval battle. He didn't like the result and had the birds thrown overboard, for which the gods denied him victory. Also we have other instances such as the mutiny in Pannonia which was settled due to Drusus taking adantage of a lunar eclipse, or the refusal of Caligulas three legions to embark for Britain, or Claudius's freedman persuading superstitious legionaries to embark for Britain, and so on. The fact that the world is dark and mysterious, or perceived as such in common belief, does not mitigate against the minority who either aren't afraid of such things or are under the impression that their actions are properly patronised by their own gods. Necessity is npt only the mother of all invention, it's a major motivation against the unknown too, amnd for that matter, since our own world can be explored from our armchair these days, the concept of a dark unexplored world map is something we've largely come to forget these days. The ancients saw things a little differently to us.

I'd never heard of him. His significance apparently derives from involvement in the AWI on the American side rather than French politics, which is understandable I guess, but here in Blighty he's pretty much forgotten.