Whatever floats your boat

Lone Grey Squirrel has been contemplating canals this week, so I thought I'd mention a canaly factoid that I have discovered, too.

The Grand Canal of China is 1000 miles long -- the longest canal in the world. The famous Erie Canal of the U.S. is but a muddy ditch in comparison. The GC runs from Tungchow to Hangchow. Work on it began in 540 BC (!!!) and was completed in 1320 AD. That's 1,860 years!

Of course, these fascinating details were only mentioned in a footnote of the encyclopedia entry on canals, which had almost an entire page devoted to Erie and close to that on the Suez. No wonder China has an inferiority complex!

Biohazard Idols

Hit upon a program last night about the engineering of the ancient world, circa the Hellenistic Age.

No, not the usual bridges and aqueducts. This was about some sly tricks to accentuate worship. For example, the worship of Cybele, the multi-breasted mother goddess. Some brilliant scoundrel discovered that a strategically-placed altar fire could be used via principles of air pressure, to secretly force a bowl of sacrificial milk through a hidden tube into the body of the idol, squirting out copiously at the proper moment before the ecstatic worshippers and convincing them that she was lactating for their benefit.

What if some dastardly soul had figured out the secret and slipped a drop of dye into the milk bowl? What would the reaction have been, I wonder?