August, 2006
Commentary
** Roads **
What should we do if all the roads on this global should disappear today, leaving the surface just as it was before the roads were made?
There would be the same number of houses, the same quantity of flour, corn, meat, and clothing as now.But there would be too great a supply of provision in one place, and too great a supply of clothing in another; and a large part of the present wealth of the world would be of no use, because it could not be distributed. All exchange of commodities would be cease.
If the road could not be reopened, or new ones made, ships would no longer cross the ocean; cities would be without inhabitants;schools would be forgotten; all who did not perish with cold and hunger would have to toil for their daily bread. There would be no nobles, no learned men, no rich men. The whole earth would become a wilderness, inhabited only by wondering tribes of barbarians.
Roads are essential to human civilization as air is to human life.
The great Roman roads might be counted among the wonders of the world. The cities of empire were connected with each other, and with the capital, by a system of roads such as never existed in any other quarter of the globe.
The Roman did not consider any country completely subdued till roads had been constructed to its most distant boundaries. These highways were made of several layers of sand, gravel, and cement, and were paved with large stones - sometimes with granite.So solid was their construction that parts of them have withstood the wear and tear of fifteen centuries.
Puzzles
What two words can you make out of the following letters: EEEEMMMRRB?
(Check the answer next month)
The answer of Challenging Number in July
Challenging Number is 119