Glad You are Born in an Era of Scientific Advances?
Thursday- Debbie and I took the trip to New Haven, CT to celebrate Lynnea's birthday. We stayed in the New Haven Hotel. When we were leaving the house Debbie gave me three bags. Why would someone need 3 bags for a 24-hour round trip? I was perplexed with the logistics logic of her. My mind drifted to the book I have read very recently "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army".
In this concise but profound and scientifically (ethnobotanist, archealogist, paleontologist) researched book Engels talked of the immense importance of logistics in success of an army. Alexander had 65,000 personnel (soldiers, servants), 6,100 cavalry horses, baggage carrying animals (1,300) and animals carrying provisions (1,200). This is like a city on the move. If you still can't fathom it, check this out . Army needs a minimum of food grains of 130 tons per day and 100,000 gallons of water per day (you cannot get this from a well while passing through a village or from your country like the American Army did in Iraq). In an age of no motor transportation, and with the maximum distance achieved in a day with this army being 19 miles, logistics is everything. Alexander had an ambition to conquer the biggest empire, so had to plan in such a rigorous fashion using advance intelligence. The most number of days this army could move without refilling supplies is 4 days. Got the picture?
Alexander avoided women and children in his army as followers as much as possible and reduced as many baggage animals (soldiers carried at least 20 lbs of armor and amenities and marched) as possible because it consumes a lot of grain. Now tell me what would have Alexander said to Debbie for 3 huge bags for 2 people for 160 miles round trip, even though I didn't open my mouth but carried it all. :-)
After the b'day celebration we went to Yale University to meet Debbie's friend Helen and her husband Charles. Both are historians finishing up their PhDs from Yale, and got jobs as a tenure-track professors at the same school. I always love their company because of long conversations over food into various historical subjects. Ironically, Helen said that she is going to teach her first course on American Inventions. We sat and ate in a fancy restaurant named "Union League Cafe" where the first American President George Washington was once hosted (the building was a home converted to a restaurant). Eating there I thought about how hard Washington might have felt to eat the food given to him by his host as he had terrible dental problems and he had spent a fortune in dental work. You could look at the pictures above of his really rigid dental implants made of hippo bones and watch the painting, which shows how Washington's mouth is pouting. But Debbie and I enjoyed our meal and trip though because we are born in an era with great transportation and good dental advances.:-) However, Debbie left her credit card there, which stranded us in the train station-- see what happens when science advances?
In this concise but profound and scientifically (ethnobotanist, archealogist, paleontologist) researched book Engels talked of the immense importance of logistics in success of an army. Alexander had 65,000 personnel (soldiers, servants), 6,100 cavalry horses, baggage carrying animals (1,300) and animals carrying provisions (1,200). This is like a city on the move. If you still can't fathom it, check this out . Army needs a minimum of food grains of 130 tons per day and 100,000 gallons of water per day (you cannot get this from a well while passing through a village or from your country like the American Army did in Iraq). In an age of no motor transportation, and with the maximum distance achieved in a day with this army being 19 miles, logistics is everything. Alexander had an ambition to conquer the biggest empire, so had to plan in such a rigorous fashion using advance intelligence. The most number of days this army could move without refilling supplies is 4 days. Got the picture?
Alexander avoided women and children in his army as followers as much as possible and reduced as many baggage animals (soldiers carried at least 20 lbs of armor and amenities and marched) as possible because it consumes a lot of grain. Now tell me what would have Alexander said to Debbie for 3 huge bags for 2 people for 160 miles round trip, even though I didn't open my mouth but carried it all. :-)
After the b'day celebration we went to Yale University to meet Debbie's friend Helen and her husband Charles. Both are historians finishing up their PhDs from Yale, and got jobs as a tenure-track professors at the same school. I always love their company because of long conversations over food into various historical subjects. Ironically, Helen said that she is going to teach her first course on American Inventions. We sat and ate in a fancy restaurant named "Union League Cafe" where the first American President George Washington was once hosted (the building was a home converted to a restaurant). Eating there I thought about how hard Washington might have felt to eat the food given to him by his host as he had terrible dental problems and he had spent a fortune in dental work. You could look at the pictures above of his really rigid dental implants made of hippo bones and watch the painting, which shows how Washington's mouth is pouting. But Debbie and I enjoyed our meal and trip though because we are born in an era with great transportation and good dental advances.:-) However, Debbie left her credit card there, which stranded us in the train station-- see what happens when science advances?