Most rocket boosters that propel satellites and space shuttles into orbit are constrained in size by the fact that they need to fit on railcars. The width of railroads comes from the carts used in mines in early industrial England, which were based on the axels available, which were for manufactured mainly for wagons at that time. The wagons' wheels were spaced exactly so that they could fit in the ruts that were characteristic of pre-pavement roads. The width of the ruts, in turn, was a leftover from the Roman days, as they were originally worn by chariots. Where did the width of the chariots come from? Obviously enough, the span of the wheel corresponded to the width of two horses at their widest point.

Rocket boosters based on two horses' asses. Now *thats* technological determinism!

A second draft of my Dialogues and Documents article is up.

I keep forgetting the Civilution's name and URL. No longer. --They are a company in Seattle who seem to be doing interesting stuff with discussion software.

A whole new page, just for ME!

Just in time for yesterday's comment about good software at no cost, Slashdot has a piece questioning whether free beer software is a good thing in the long run.