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Strategies & Market Trends : 50% Gains Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JSB who wrote (10637)	9/21/1999 6:37:00 PM
From: Steeliejim	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 118717

Hi Jeff, Dale, all: Mostly OT --It's been too long. Good to be back. Been workin', lurkin' and some tradin'. You've turned into quite the little day trader Dale. My daughter, Anita traded her Welch last name in for a fine Greek one. Great wedding. Spectacular even. And no, I wouln't have missed it for anything, Dale. Your comment reminded me of W. C. Fields quote (or was it Groucho Marx? Now where did I put my ginko?)--"I wouldn't belong to any club that would let me join." Still, I would like to get in on your next soiree if it is anywhere near the left coast. My mom was the belle, after Anita of course, of the ball. We had to give her a big head start for the escorted seating--otherwise we'd still be waiting for her to arrive. But she had a grin from ear to ear as she took her walker-supported baby steps on her artificial hip and knee. My RPC (returned Peace Corp) daughter Leslie showed off her Nicaraguan husband to all. Really a nice guy. He has some veery interesting tales to tell as he was a Sandinista officer during the civil war. All in all it was great get-together. I'll get back on track writing re. trading comments. I promise. Actually, it doesn't look like you need any input from me. You all have been making some pretty good trades. Nimbleness is the word in the market these days. I've been going back into day-end cash mostly and doing well on the bounces off lows--except for getting cocky after most excellent LWIN and NSIL trades today. I should have just cashed out like I usually do after good trades, but AAPL and KIDE looked beat up, and I thought they had dropped to near there ST lows for the day. Wrong. So I've turned a +7% day into a +2%--and could be worse as I am now "invested" in KIDE overnight. Since it was dropping like a stone at the end, I might have done a lot of churning for nothing today. I hope you don't mind, but I thought you all might enjoy the following that's making the rounds where I work and Lockheed, which is a customer of ours: The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 > > > feet, 8 > > > 1/2 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge > > > used? > > > > > > Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US > > > railroads > > > were built by English expatriates. Why did the English build them > > > like > > > that? > > > > > > Because the first railway lines were built by the same people who > > > built > > > the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did > > > they > > > use that gauge in England, then? > > > > > > Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and > > > tools > > > that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. > > > Okay! Why did their wagons use that odd wheel spacing? > > > > > > Because, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagon wheels > > > would > > > break on some of the old, long distance roads. > > > > > > Because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts. So who built these > > > old > > > rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe were built by > > > Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The Roman roads have > > > been > > > used ever since. And the ruts? The original ruts, which everyone else > > > had > > > to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were first made by the > > > wheels of Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or by > > > Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. > > > > > > Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States > > > standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches derives from the > > > original > > > specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Specifications > > > and > > > bureaucracies live forever. > > > > > > So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder "what > > > horse's > > > butt" came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial > > > Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the > > > back-ends of > > > two war-horses. > > > > > > Plus, there's an interesting extension of the story about railroad > > > gauge > > > and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the > > > launch > > > pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the > > > main > > > fuel tank. These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are > > > made by Thiokol at a factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the > > > SRBs > > > might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be > > > > > > shipped > > > by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad from the > > > factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit > > > through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than a railroad > > > track, > > > and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So a > > > major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced > > > transportation system was originally determined by the width of a > > > horse's > > > rear end. Jim PS: Great latest TI article Dale. Definitive and informative. A must read IMO, even if one doesn't short.