Today's word is a great arms-related word from waaaaaay back. We associate it with Greece, but it actually predates Greek use of the term. Only the Greeks could take a fairly straightforward concept like armed men in several rows of tightly bunched soldiers and work both a 'ph' and an 'x' into the word for it:
phalanx. In the ancient days of combat, somebody recognized that an organized cluster of men providing mutually for the greater defense would work better than a melee of people trying to kill those from the other clan. The premise is that every man uses a large shield and locks it with his neighbors' shields, and then uses long spears to keep the enemy at bay until the bad guys were worn down to the point where a devastating charge could be mustered. Again, it wasn't the Greeks who originated the idea, but they are known for being the first to truly master it. And why not? Their
hoplites were militiamen, free citizens, including philosophers, poets, and other non-military day-job types. I imagine that if ancient Greece had male figure skaters, they, too, would be hoplites. Faaaaab-uuuuu-lous hoplites, at that. Anyway, these were volunteers, not the driven subjects of some tyrant king. Recall also that the Greek culture brought us the philosophy of stoicism, which one has to buy into whole hog if you're going to rely on the man next to you to protect 1/2 of your body from the bad guys. Anyway, this organization of highly motivated individuals was earth shattering, or "paradigm shifting" as the corporate weenies would now say. Alas, while the phalanx was overwhelmingly powerful, it was inflexible, and its demise was best illustrated by defeats at the hands of equally motivated, but well trained Roman legions. Although, if all the real Greeks looked like King Leonidas from the movie '300', those Romans wouldn't have stood a chance.
As I've said before, Americans don't come up with a lot of earth shattering ideas, but we are hard to beat at applying the ideas of others with ruthless efficiency. An impenetrable static shield to keep the enemy at bay? A word with both 'ph' and 'x'? How about a radar-directed gatling gun that we mount on ships to shoot down supersonic and/or sea-skimming missiles... that's named the
Phalanx Close In Weapon System. While 3,000+ rounds per minute of 20mm fury is dorktastic, not many of our ships are forced to use this fine weapon. However, I found a video at
this location of an adaptation of the Phalanx described at
www.warisboring.com. The Phalanx system is being used right now to save the lives of U.S. and British soldiers as a land-based defense against mortar attacks in Iraq. The night footage of the testing at the video link above shows the serious rounds this thing can crank out. Saving lives of our troops is something to be glad for.
Today's word is a great arms-related word from waaaaaay back. We associate it with Greece, but it actually predates Greek use of the term. Only the Greeks could take a fairly straightforward concept like armed men in several rows of tightly bunched soldiers and work both a 'ph' and an 'x' into the word for it: phalanx. In the ancient days of combat, somebody recognized that an organized cluster of men providing mutually for the greater defense would work better than a melee of people trying to kill those from the other clan. The premise is that every man uses a large shield and locks it with his neighbors' shields, and then uses long spears to keep the enemy at bay until the bad guys were worn down to the point where a devastating charge could be mustered. Again, it wasn't the Greeks who originated the idea, but they are known for being the first to truly master it. And why not? Their hoplites were militiamen, free citizens, including philosophers, poets, and other non-military day-job types. I imagine that if ancient Greece had male figure skaters, they, too, would be hoplites. Faaaaab-uuuuu-lous hoplites, at that. Anyway, these were volunteers, not the driven subjects of some tyrant king. Recall also that the Greek culture brought us the philosophy of stoicism, which one has to buy into whole hog if you're going to rely on the man next to you to protect 1/2 of your body from the bad guys. Anyway, this organization of highly motivated individuals was earth shattering, or "paradigm shifting" as the corporate weenies would now say. Alas, while the phalanx was overwhelmingly powerful, it was inflexible, and its demise was best illustrated by defeats at the hands of equally motivated, but well trained Roman legions. Although, if all the real Greeks looked like King Leonidas from the movie '300', those Romans wouldn't have stood a chance. 
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