HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jewell@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Larry Jewell)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.sex
Subject: How to make life easier (was Re: SEX)
Date: 29 Jul 92 17:06:13 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.british
Organization: Purdue University

In article <1992Jul29.160158.26851@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> rwd4f@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (Rob Dobson) writes:
>is there really ANY thread which should be in talk.bizarre, 
>soc.culture.british, AND alt.sex.
>
>lets learn to edit our newsgroups line, shall we....

Put talk.bizarre and misc.test into your killfile and your sound to noise
ratio will improve tremendously.  Otherwise, you will simply be playing 
their game.

Larry J
-- 
#Larry W. Jewell (ex-USN) jewell@mace.cc.purdue.edu                         # 
#"Sunday's horoscope is noteworthy because of its strange, sudden and wholly#
#unpredictable and inexplicable occurrences, affecting all phases of life." #
#--"Your Horoscope," L.A. Evening Herald Express, Saturday, Dec. 6, 1941.   #
From: cla04@seq1.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: help
Date: 29 Jul 92 16:46:20 GMT
Organization: University of Keele, England

From article <1992Jul29.145720.16317@osf.org>, by sp@mirabeau.osf.fr (Simon Patience):
>> "College" normally indicates some form of higher education, but normally
>> below University level. 
 
> Unless, of course, you went to a collegiate University (ie a University
> made up of a number of normally fairly autonomous parts, eg Oxford,
> Cambridge, London and doubtless others that I can't think of right
now).

Well Durham springs to mind. I went to Oxford which is why I used
*normally* at this point, but I think this is confusing the general issue
when looked at from the outside. My
feeling is that it's only within the University community that Oxbridge
colleges take precedent in conversation over say the phrase "Oxford
University". Comment as to whether I'm right or wrong would be intriguing.

 
>> "University" is the standard way of indicating a
>> degree-awarding institution in England and it's also the colloquial term
>> used for them.

> Unless you go to a Polytechnic where you would also get a Batchelors
> degree (not necessarily inferior and sometimes superior to Universiry
> degrees)

Point about the standard of Poly degrees, particularly in Engineering
etc taken, but I wasn't having a go at Polys (should that be Polies?) - I left that
hobby behind with
my undergraduate days. But there aren't any Polytechnics any more they've all become
Universities as far as I know, which is why I left this out. Staffs Poly down the road has certainly
become the University of Staffordshire. The only one I don't know about
is Oxford Poly which may still be a Poly - any one know what it's called
if it isn't?


Andy Fear
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: davel@ampex.com (Dave Larkins)
Subject: Re: Alleged discrimination at UK ports/airports
Organization: Ampex Corporation, Redwood City CA
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 16:16:52 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.092107.19834@bristol.ac.uk> P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>In article <1992Jul20.145853.16193@cas.org> jac54@cas.org writes:
>>
>>	This seems to depend on the airport.  At San Francisco I was dragged
>>	from the tail of the very long "other passports" line to the
>>	"US Nationals" where we processed together (the way they prefer
>>	to do it at SF).  The waving of strangely coloured passports and
>>	photo IDs and pieces of official-looking paper by us caused great
>>	consternation amongst those behind us.
>
>Interesting.  Are you married to a US national, or do you just travel
>together?  Ann and I aren't married, and while we usually do try to go
>through customs together (a good idea, since we share our luggage)
>we've never tried using the fact that we are travelling together to get
>us into the same passport control line.
>

Why not? When my family have travelled together, with myself, my wife and
the kids all carrying different nationality passports, the one that would
get us into the shortest line went on top. Bit selfish, but no-one ever
complained except one British customs officer. The US customs were usually
very pleasant about it.

davel@ampex.com
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Mellor: The establishment will again rush to protect their own
Date: 28 Jul 92 10:59:07 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

From: ams@vax.oxford.ac.uk
>Of course. On the principle that "Man bites dog" is news, while "Dog bites
>man" isn't, it ought to be obvious that "MP finds mistress" is news,
>while "Government runs out of money for election promises" isn't. Hence the
>front pages of the comics^H^H^H^H^H^Htabloids for the last few days. It
>isn't serious stuff, but it's extremely entertaining.

I would have thought that "MP find mistress" is on the level on
"Dog bites man". Which of us would not resist, with the pulling
power of being a government minister, and the opportunity of
all those late night sittings?

As for the election promises, it's only three months since they
were elected on those promises. If they did not know then that
there was the possibility of the economy dropping into a deeper
mess, they're stupid, if they did they're liars. Mellor lying
to his wife is one man lying to one woman. The Conservatives
getting elected on a platform of lies is 600 men (and a few
women) lying to forty million electors. The latter is more
newsworthy, but much less palatable to the Tory press. No doubt
there are a few more mistresses waiting to be discovered next
time there's some bad news which they'd rather we didn't pay
too much attention to.

Matthew Huntbach
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: david@postman.gr.osf.org (David George)
Subject: Re: Why only ONE british olympic team
Organization: OSF RI Grenoble
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 07:36:52 GMT

In article <CAH.92Jul27160138@peter.bham.ac.uk>, cah@cs.bham.ac.uk (Ceri Hopkins) writes:

|> I can foresee a change to this in the future -- as far as football
|> goes anyway -- with the emerging countries of eastern Europe.
|> Particularly vulnerable is the Welsh team 

Come on, South Wales may resemble Silesia but it's hardly emerging from the yoke of communist control.

David.
From: dj@ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Voltage converter
Date: 28 Jul 92 21:15:12 GMT
Organization: :noitazinagrO

In article <1992Jul28.180616.24176@Princeton.EDU> gibson@silvertone.Princeton.EDU (John Gibson) writes:
>In article <1992Jul28.140353.28467@pixel.kodak.com>
>dj@ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones) writes:
>>
>>If you wish to take anything that uses the US grounded plug, then you
>>are an extreme masochist and are unlikely to succeed.
>
>But what about for my computer? Are you saying that it's rare to
>find an outlet that will provide an earth ground for the middle pin?
>Surely British Macs have a 3-prong AC cord.
>
>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>John Gibson                          Princeton Univ. Dept. of Music
>gibson@silvertone.Princeton.EDU

Perhaps I exaggerate.  Certainly you will find that EVERY outlet in
the UK is a standard 3-pin with the arrangement I described before.
The only known exceptions are some hotels, college dorms and other places
where they wish to discourage people from plugging in high-wattage
appliances like electric kettles.  Time was (up to the early 60s) when
you had a variety of plugs and sockets to serve different purposes and
different wattage levels, from two-pin to small and large 3-pin.  Since
then it's been the large 3-pin all the way, and a damn nuisance it can
be for small stuff where the plug is one of the most bulky things in the
kit.  However you may feel about US electrical standards, the plugs are
darn convenient.

However I'm not sure you'll find an adaptor to take the US 3-pin and
convert it to a UK 3-pin, much less a voltage converter that will
do it.  If you're going to take a Mac over, consider buying a cable
there - the Mac end should be the same, and the other end will either
be the UK 3-pin or a couple of bare wires.  It was, in my time, quite
rare to get a plug with your appliance when you bought it.  This has
probably changed, but just in case, be prepared to learn how to fit
a UK plug to a cable.  They have a color-code, courtesy of Europe, which
is absolutely non-intuitive: brown for live (used to be Red), blue for
neutral (used to be black) and green/yellow for ground (earth in
Britspeak).  OTOH blue for neutral is less confusing for Americans, who
are used to black for live.......


-- 
||))) If you build it                          )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))|
||))) They will cancel it   - Field of Dweebs. )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))|
||))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))|
||Dave Jones (dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com) | Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY   |
From: yoshiko@rp.ricoh.co.jp (Yoshiko ***)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: The theme song
Date: 23 Jul 92 08:24:57 GMT
Organization: I/O Products Division, Ricoh Co.,Ltd., Tokyo, Japan


I am looking for one theme song of one TV drama.

I was staying from February to March in 1990 in Bournemouth.  Then a TV drama was very popular.  It was on air in every
evening.  I slightly wonder if its namee of the drama was "Neighbours".???

If anyone knows the theme song and its singer, please let me know.
Also, when you find any error in my sentence, please correct it, thank you.


My E-mail address is as follows,
	yoshiko@iod.ricoh.co.jp

Yoshiko Iidaka 22 years old Japanese female
From: nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: WANTED: how much does a bicycle cost in Cambridge, England?
Date: 21 Jul 92 17:13:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: VOILA.NICKH.92Jul21121346
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Originator: nickh@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU

In article <21780598@otter.hpl.hp.com> tgg@otter.hpl.hp.com (Tom Gardner) writes:

   Of course you need gears in Cambridge:
	   - for Castle Hill

Maybe. I usually managed to struggle up it in a 75" gear, though.

	   - for Mill Rd railway bridge (but many people get off and push their
	     bike over)

You _what_?!?! Anyone with a reasonable amount of oomph will be over
the bridge before they've even noticed it. Unless of course they get
stuck behind some moron in a granny gear....

	   - when you are fighting the winds from the Urals

OK, this may be the real point. Still, I rarely got out of that 75"
gear in Cambridge.

Once you get out of Cambridge, of course, there's Chapel Hill in
Barrington (a 50" gear) or the Gog Magogs (again, about 50"). But
there still aren't any real hills, not for miles. In fact it's
possible to cycle 200 miles north from Cambridge, through York,
without encountering any real hills (except a few small lumps around
Lincoln).

Nick Haines nickh@cs.cmu.edu
From: bob@castle.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Metric System (was: New banknotes)
Date: 27 Jul 92 17:22:27 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk (Matthew Farwell) writes:
>In article <BrvyJ6.1sD@brunel.ac.uk> Christopher.Carne@brunel.ac.uk (Christopher J Carne) writes:
>>how long does it take five men to dig five holes?
>You can't have half a man, or half a hole for that matter.

Of course you can, he just doesn't dig any holes.
	Bob.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: gerard@caliban.soest.hawaii.edu (Gerard Fryer)
Subject: Re: Metric System (was: New banknotes)
Organization: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 21:48:39 GMT

Way back in the days of the Arab oil embargo, when petrol (sorry,
gasoline) prices in Hawaii first nudged above $1.00/gallon, there were
no pumps which could handle the price.  For a while they sold petrol by
the half-gallon ("just multiply by two") but that was too tough for the
average innumerate, so everyone switched to litres.  People got used to
it in about a week (but, of course, then we then had to deal with the
weird measure miles/litre).  Then, alas, the new pumps with the extra
digit were installed and it was back to gallons.  The exercise did
prove how easy a switch to the metric system would be.

Fortunately, the two most important industries in the U.S., the
production of hard spirits and the manufacture of windsurfing
equipment, went completely metric years ago.
-- 
Gerard Fryer  (g.fryer@soest.hawaii.edu)
School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: BBC TV world service
Date: 26 Jul 92 12:47:40 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster

In article <1992Jul24.133900.17412@pixel.kodak.com>, dj@ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones) writes:
> In article <1992Jul23.222522.1446@Arco.COM> lowry@arco.com (Phil Lowry) writes:
>>Is it possible to pick up the BBC World Service TV Broadcast in the US?
>>
>>If so does anyone know what satelitte and bands it is on?
>>                                                                             
> I'm not aware of it being on any satellites.  I can get it at various
> points around the short-wave area of the spectrum.  I found the
...
> Anyway, get a reasonable SW radio, such as Radio Shack's $100 model,
Bzzzt!! The original poster wanted World Service Television. The answer to his
original question is "no": World Service Television only exists (as yet) in the
Indian subcontinent. I think there may be plans to make it worldwide in the
future, but I know nothing definite.

-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   Remember what happened to the dinosaurs!
wilcox@maths.oxford.ac.uk  |    I did---and look what happened to me.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,uk.misc
From: jac54@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: Americanising of the UK
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 10:28:32 GMT

In article <24306@castle.ed.ac.uk> egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson) writes:
>In article <1992Jul29.142639.7707@cas.org> jac54@cas.org writes:
>=>In article <3655@keele.keele.ac.uk> cla04@seq1.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear) writes:
>=>>From article <6497@pharaoh.cyborg.bt.co.uk>, by ian@pharaoh.cyborg.bt.co.uk (Speed Freak):
>=>>> fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes) writes:
>=>>> Isn't it sad that many British people worship the Americans.  Just look at
>=>>> all the filthy scum who wear New York Yankee baseball caps for instance.
>=>>>
>=>>
>=>>Especially those who wear them backwards - this bizarre dress code
>=>>really gets up my nose.
>=>>
>=>>Andy,
>=>
>=>     When you're detasselling corn and the sun is at your back it's
>=>     eminently sensible.
>
>That's nice, but detasselling corn isn't a very common occupation for
>unemployed layabouts in British high streets.
>
>       Well it bloody well ought to be!  Gainful employment, fresh air,
>       excercise, would do them a world of good.  We should probably
	follow up to alt.sex because this involves involuntary removal
	of male reproductive organs.

	Alec
From: ams@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: WANTED: how much does a bicycle cost in Cambridge, England?
Date: 24 Jul 92 14:03:41 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster

In article <1992Jul24.135637.7800@vax.oxford.ac.uk>, wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
> In article <1992Jul23.143925.3669@rdg.dec.com>, evansg@uproar.enet.dec.com (Gwyn Evans @ IME) writes:
>> 
>> In article <24091@castle.ed.ac.uk>, egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson) writes:
>>>A wrecked bike is locked to my front garen railings and I would
>>>like to ge rid of it. I am thinking of trying using a sledgehammer
>>>to smash the "lock" bit, but I don't want to look a fool by
>>>failing to do this in a public place!!
>> 
>>  I believe that the use of a small hydraulic bottle jack is one of the 
>> favoured methods, if you've got the room to fit it where it can apply
>> some force.
>> 
>> Gwyn
> Alternatively, obtain a small bottle of liquid nitrogen from your local
> Chemistry Laboratory. Apparently you can get these locks cold enough that they
> shatter when hit.

Of course, it depends what is attaching the bike to the railings. Bolt cutters
will deal with anything less robust than a Kryptonite lock. No need for
nitrogen.

Has anybody ever tried one of those diddy little flamethrower things that
electronics shops sell? They look as if they ought to be able to cut through a
chain after a while, but I haven't tried it. (If it works, buy shares in 
Kryptonite.)


Michael.
From: cla04@seq1.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Dum dee dum...
Date: 29 Jul 92 08:43:29 GMT
Organization: University of Keele, England

From article <1992Jul28.130453.7860@vax.oxford.ac.uk>, by wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk:
> Last I heard, not a great deal. Eddy's been made to look a fool by accusing
> Clarrie of having an affair with Jean-Paul. Preparations for the fete are
> floundering. Did anyone hear the omnibus?

The Grundy fall-out is still going on - Clarrie is sulking and Eddie
can't charm :- her out of it.
The fete is still on the rocks.
Nigel Pargeter's mother was confronted by Elizabeth on the 'phone, though
it's not clear what was said and is now coming back on the day of Lower
Locksley's launch into the commercial world.
I'm not sure I can handle all this activity.

Andy
From: ross@informix.com (Ross Hagglund)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Scotland?
Date: 29 Jul 92 23:36:48 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.
Originator: ross@godzilla

I attended a recent Scottish Highland Games with some friends, one of who
knew the words to "Scotland the Brave". He mentioned in passing that he was
sorry that he couldn't remember the words for the parody "Scotland Depraved",
as is was extremely funny.

Would anyone know the words? (willing to share?)


Ross Hagglund,		
ross@informix.com	
				
Informix Software	
921 SW Washington Suite 670,
Portland, OR 97205
From: cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris Cooke)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: New banknotes
Date: 22 Jul 92 15:15:40 GMT
	<1992Jul20.030701.16432@rata.vuw.ac.nz> <5377@mccuts.uts.mcc.ac.uk>
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
In-reply-to: zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk's message of 21 Jul 92 11:32:49 GMT

In article <5377@mccuts.uts.mcc.ac.uk> zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane) writes:

   So now all British bank notes have an explicit copyright notice printed on
   them. 

Have all the Scottish, Northern Irish, Manx etc. notes got copyright notices
on as well now then?
--
	-- Chris. 	cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk   (on Janet, cc@uk.ac.ed.dcs)
From: jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick)
Subject: Re: Why only ONE british olympic team
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 19:02:02 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

ramscar@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Ramscar) writes
> Big yin Ally Grant writes
>
> 	Of course, to a real Englishman, 'country' refers to the area hunted by
> 	a single pack of hounds.
>
> and this after his recent 'Ahm nae Scot, ahm far moor English than
> yoose yah bazza' argument with wee Frankie Muir. It is just this
> tendency, for those migrating between the two Kingdoms in the Union to
> turn themselves into sad caricatures of the natives, that gives many
> Englishmen and Scots a good reason to consider themselves distinct
> from one another. 

Erm, bollocks.  Alasdair "AG109" Grant is from the land of kangaroos.
He's migrated a sight further than across Hadrian's garden fence.

Jonathan "JH120" H.
From: gledbet@heartland.bradley.edu (Gene Ledbetter)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Americanising of the UK
Date: 27 Jul 1992 23:45:15 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: gledbet@heartland.bradley.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu



Neil Postlethwaite (neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk) complains:

> Does anyone think that the all pervading Amercanisation
> of the world had really gotten out of hand.

I most certainly do.  The crisis came some 15 years ago, 
when I heard "der fluegende schokolade Something-or-Other" 
(the German-language version of "The Flying Purple People-
Eater") played over Radio Cologne.  Since then the matter 
has, of course, become impossible.

> Too much dross US TV, ... [dreary canticle of cultural
> carcinogens mercifully omitted].

In the States we have commercial radio and television.  
Ideally, these stations play nothing but commercials, and, 
ideally again, these are the most idiotic imaginable.  We 
have our traditions, nous aussi.

We, too, have been invaded by an alien culture, however.  
There is a fourth network (a fifth column) that operates 
National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting 
[television] System.  It is funded by our socialist 
government and operated by members of the Communist Party.  
"The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin" destroyed my faith in 
humanity and capitalism.  "Fawlty Towers" made me a bigot.  
"Monty Python's Flying Circus" drove me mad.  I can no 
longer speak my native Chesapeake Bay dialect, and my own 
mother doesn't know me because I sound like Alistair Cooke.

L e d b e t t e r
From: nick@spider.co.uk (Nick Felisiak)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,uk.misc
Subject: Re: Americanising of the UK
Date: 30 Jul 92 09:55:10 GMT
Organization: Spider Systems Ltd

In article <1992Jul29.173838.876@Princeton.EDU> kjcarey@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kevin J. Carey) writes:
>As someone already suggested, the "Britishi(s/z)ation" of the US is an
>equally serious problem. Every housing development I see these days has
>a name like "Nottingham Oakes", "Windsor Run" or something equally crass
>and inappropriate. Speaking of "Oakes", the practice of adding extra
>"e"s to everything is also endemic - I have seen more "Ye Olde Englishe
>Shoppe" signs than I care to remember. My roommate from Michigan tells

Only one word comes to mind:

	POTATOE

or, as I saw in another group a few days ago,

 '... you mean Dan Quayl - he donated his 'e' to the potatoe'

Nick

-- 
Nick Felisiak 						nick@spider.co.uk
Spider Systems Limited					+44 31 555 5166
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phillip M. Hallam-Baker)
Subject: Re: Why only ONE british olympic team
Reply-To: hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: DESY ZEUS Central Data Acquisition
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 19:43:51 GMT

In article <KILLER.92Jul29174245@robocop.hut.fi>, killer@niksula.hut.fi
(Kalle Kivimaa) writes:

|> On the other hand, my
|>Random House dictionary says that country == nation, so your point
|>is somewhat moot.

Random House certainly seems to live up to it's name.

I though that Jewish culture was in the habbit of making something of a
distinction too, at least up to 1948.


Phill
From: streater@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Tim Streater)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Metric System (was: New banknotes)
Date: 21 Jul 92 05:46:19 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

In article <1992Jul21.044151.17048@athena.cs.uga.edu> mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes:
>
>   No, but we're often told that if we simply metricized, we would
>   magically have standard-sized everythings.
>
>   Britain, in fact, still makes plumbing fittings in exactly the same
>   sizes as before, but now measures them (inaccurately) in mm instead
>   of inches.
>

I was under the impression (may be incorrect here) that this is because these
sizes are a *standard*, and that you will find the same sizes in use in
continental Europe. Certainly in my appt in Geneva, the plughole was clearly
marked as being 2" in diameter.

The point here is that you do not slavishly convert everything in existance to
metric sizes, if the existing sizes are in any case what everyone else is
using. Half inch tape drives on computers being a case in point. Sure, go to
4mm or 8mm as the *next* standard, but no one would seriously suggest changing
existing kit. In the computer world, stuff becomes obsolete and you have a
chance to change it. Clearly not the case with plumbing.

Tim.