Ancient Roman Concrete

[Hitcher]

No, grammar is changing along with the language and the rules set out by your teacher don't all apply.

Really? Name one.

[mashman]

why, pray tell, is it the fault of the English?

Wasn't India pwned by the English once upon a time? At least the Romans gave us something in return for occupation.

[oneofsix]

Really? Name one.

what's the point? You will just harp back to your "rules" whislt teh rest of the world quitely changes the way it uses; apostrophes, commas, pluralisation, colons, and who now days even knows how to use semi-colons.

[Brian d marge]

Really? Name one.

c U L8R

Stephen

[Big Dave]

Really? Name one.

The law of practicality and the minuscule keypad.

[scissorhands]

wtf?

[BoristheBiter]

Wasn't India pwned by the English once upon a time? At least the Romans gave us something in return for occupation.

But the sewage system has been around since the pharaoh's.

[MSTRS:Me]

what's the point? You will just harp back to your "rules" whislt teh rest of the world quitely changes the way it uses; apostrophes, commas, pluralisation, colons, and who now days even knows how to use semi-colons.

... or spelling. Or ?

[oneofsix]

... or spelling. Or ?

wat? witchcraft you say? and don't forget typing, always a good excuse especially when they put 3 or more letters on the same key

[Big Dave]

The point of diminishing carriage return.

[oneofsix]

The point of diminishing carriage return.

What's a carriage return? Actually what is a carriage, apart from a horse drawn vehicle, and why should it be returned? Where do you want it returned to? Also how come its return is getting smaller? how does that work?

The Romans didn't invent this carriage thing did they?

[MSTRS:Me]

The Romans didn't invent this carriage thing did they?

IMPERIAL Rome may have...

[oneofsix]

IMPERIAL Rome may have...

thought they would have been too busy playing with their Golfballs

[Smifffy]

Candles!!

Blinds!!

Antix!!

[Akzle]

No - swords were being made in europe that were equally as good as the Japanese swords... Reinvention of the knightly arts by the victorians (and others) and confusion caused by ceremonial 'bearing swords' is partly to blame....

http://www.swordforum.com/forums/sho...an-Sword-Myths

sorry to disapoint, but after skim reading that page: it's full of shit.

i didn't start out by saying that english swords were crap. as that "artilce" leans heavily on.
(scottish braod swords, howe'er, WERE crap)

katana had a very fine manufacturing process, often involving 10, 20, 30 thousands folds. the average enlgish sword was made with 4000, if you were a king, and probably about 50 for the regular army. (exaggerate, but take my point)
the difference in metallurgy and tempering process also comes in: japs had different steel, fired with different coal, in ovens made with different refractory content. DIFFERENT, not better.

what they did make use of, how e'er was tempering, which the engrish neglected somewhat, enlgish tempering involved chucking the thing in the in the furnace till it were hot, then chucking it in water, then griding it on a stone wheel.
anyone who knows anyhing about tempering metal will see the problems of this, if you don't, you now have homework.

the back of a katana blade was wrapped in clay before quenching. this gives the mune (remember they are reflexively curved) awesome springyness, and also awesome flexibility, while the front edge was cooled to be a very hard steel, obviously good for cutting shit.

those two things alone make them better knives. add a blood groove and a very specific and and quite lethal weilding style, and yeah. the katana will fuck your shit up.