Our new cheiroballista...

[Nerva]

Folks, I want to apologize. I'm usually pretty easy going, but I think some hot buttons were pushed, and I let my temper get the best of me.

Nerva, I'm sure you are a fine individual, and I think we should just "agree to disagree." I am sometimes wrong, I am sometimes right, particularly based on actual hands on work and study.

That is all for me. Dane

Salve Dane!

Fair play to you but, as we say here in Ireland, there were two of us in it :wink: I too am normally easy going, but I too must apologise. From my point of view, Alan Wilkins is a totally unassuming man. He has invested his life in this research and is always the first to admit his weaknesses. Right or wrong you have to admire that mans approach, he goes back to first principles and anybody who knows the man will tell you how humble he is.

I have no problem with people questioning Alan's research, but rightly or wrongly I detected a certain malice in some of the comments posted here. In any case I take my hat off to you Dane, at least one of us has common sense :wink: You say lets agree to differ and that's fair but I think you may have interpreted me wrongly. As I've said before, I'm neutral on the historical debate, all I ask is that any arguments are backed up by robust evidence which I admit I am not in any position to provide.

As to Magnus, I always remember my fathers words...There's a world of difference between a good education and intelligence

Angle, I think I have already explained my motivation, critisise Alan all you want but be professional about it. As for what I do, well I'm a drug dealer :lol: Actually my doctorate was in an obscure field of particle physics but I'm working as process control engineer working in the biopharmaceutical industry (are you suitably impressed? my wife is not :roll: ). I also lecture in particle physics at a local university so I have access to JMRES etc. which is probably why I'm so anal about proof and evidence.

I have seen some recent interpetations of the classical texts which amaze me in their accuracy but, you will have to wait until Alan publishes his next work to see. You are dead right about an engineer being able to make a good assessment of it but, and here's the kernel of it, unless you are working from an accurate base line your are wasting your time. I guess what I'm trying to say is that sure, you or I could have a fair crack at building a machine if we had a good set of drawings etc. But in this case the plans are in a foreign language, so first we need an accurate translation, and unless the translation is correct we're wasting our time.

Anyway, I've said enough, time to go back to bed and snuggle up to my ballista catapulta thingy wingy yoke...love you dear...

Anyway, fair play to Dane.