HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU (macphil)
Subject: Re: Pencil in Priorities
Organization: IUPUI
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 23:11:42 GMT

In article <BtrL4t.BxE@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
mjg51721@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael James Gebis) writes:
 
>IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU (macphil) writes:
>>1) Not everyone will vomit from syrup of ipecac.  I have several friends
>>   who are not vulnerable to it.
>Just out of curiosity, do you know this by hearsay or by experimentation?
 
I'm a skeptic on many things unless I'm the one conducting the
situation.  Experimentation, of course!
 
>Alternate vomit inducer:  Mustard in hot water.  Don't belive me?  Try it.
 
My favourite is warm saltwater and lemon juice.  I have some others I've
used over th years, but that's my standby.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: peterm@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Peter Mardahl)
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 04:45:40 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.215916.13905@acuson.com> lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson) writes:
>In article <1992Aug25.113121.14999@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>,
>flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal) writes:
>>A friend tells me of a rumour that there exists an organization known as The
>>Flat Earth Society, whose members "still" believe that the earth is actually
>>flat, in the ancient tradition.
>
>I once saw an ad/pamphlet/something for the society.  They have the
>motto, "Birds Fly.  Men Drink."  And a logo depicting a soused bird in
>a martini glass.
>
>-- 
>Drew Lawson                      If you're not part of the solution,
>lawson@acuson.com                you're part of the precipitate

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Summary: Ridiculousness of their logic
Expires: 9/20/92
Followup-To: 
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Keywords: 

I'll give another example of the same type of logic Flat Earthers
use to deny that the earth is round.

I don't believe that babies are born of women.  I've never SEEN a
child actually come from a woman, in person.  I know of people
who CLAIM to have seen this happen.  But, heck, why should I
believe them?  They might be trying to hoax me!  I HAVE seen
women who are fat in a peculiar way, but hey, maybe they're just
FAT!  There are plenty of those around!  Everyone is obviously
lying, or perhaps wrong, when they say babies come from women.
I think they come from storks!

I agree the logic isn't exactly similar, but it has a lot
of points in common!

No flames, please.  This post is strictly for humor value!
From: loshin@godot.think.com (David Loshin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: You are humble and loveable.  CHOMP!
Date: 26 Aug 92 15:59:28
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
	<CHOMP!> <H.FNcwov37Zhc@harvee.billerica.ma.us>
	<1992Aug25.103546.12825@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: godot.think.com
In-reply-to: me@csri.toronto.edu's message of 25 Aug 92 14:35:46 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.103546.12825@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> me@csri.toronto.edu (Daniel R. Simon) writes:
Path: think.com!rpi!utcsri!csri.toronto.edu!me
   Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
   From: me@csri.toronto.edu (Daniel R. Simon)
   Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
   References: <Re:> <You> <are> <humble> <and> <loveable.  CHOMP!@loveable.UUCP> <CHOMP!> <H.FNcwov37Zhc@harvee.billerica.ma.us>
   Date: 25 Aug 92 14:35:46 GMT
   Lines: 28

   In article <H.FNcwov37Zhc@harvee.billerica.ma.us> scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us writes:
   >In <1992Aug23.060245.2606@rigel.econ.uga.edu>, Chuck Jordan writes:
   >>In lots and lots of TV shows, movies, literature, etc, including Michael
   >>Crichton's "The Great Train Robbery" (which is what I'm reading now and is
   >>very good so far and prompted this question) and the Underdog cartoon series,
   >>people given coins bite them to check if they're real.  ("Thank you, Shoeshine
   >>Boy.  You are humble and loveable."  CHOMP!)
   >this is left over from the days when it was common to use coins made of gold.
   >gold is soft enough that chomping a pure gold, or mostly gold, coin, will dent
   >it.  if you can't dent it with your teeth it isn't really gold.

   I find this explanation quite implausible.  Gold coins haven't been in 
   common circulation for a very long time (if they ever were), and the act of
   biting a coin has a distinctly plebeian flavour, if I may put it that way.
   Moreover, the colloquial phrase "don't take any wooden nickels" suggests a 
   rather less exotic alternative explanation.  Back in the days when coins
   had real value, it might well have been a common practice among counterfeiters
   to coat wooden discs of the appropriate size with some metal, stamp them with
   some approximation of the image of a coin, and try to pass them off.  The
   idea is similar to that of "silvered pennies", meant to be mistaken for dimes,
   of which I have actually seen an example in my lifetime.

Actually, in the late 1800's, the U.S. minted a nickel coin that just had a
Roman numeral "V" on it. Some hucksters in the midwest coated the nickel
coins with gold, then proceded to buy items that cost 2 or 3 cents with
them. These people never claimed that the coin had any one particular
value. Many shopkeepers assumed that since the coin was "gold," it was a
$5.00 coin, not a 5 cent coin, and would give change for $5.00. The
perpetrators could not be prosecuted because they never said that the coin
was not worth 5 cents. If you ever go to a stamp and coin show, you will
come across some examples of these nickels. 

-David
From: michaelb@cse.fau.edu (Michael Rogero Brown)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Date: 28 Aug 92 17:25:56 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

In article <1992Aug25.113121.14999@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal) writes:
>
>A friend tells me of a rumour that there exists an organization known as The
>Flat Earth Society, whose members "still" believe that the earth is actually
>flat, in the ancient tradition.
>
>I find this hard to believe.  Why would they form an organization?  Why would
>they believe that the earth is flat?  Why would they care about it so
>strongly?
>
>
>So this has all the hallmarks of an urban legend.  Anyone else heard this with
>variants?  Of course it is slightly variant-proof in that there are supposed to
>be FOUR corners.  Or even more unbelievably, does anyone have any evidence for
>the existence of The Flat Earth Society?

Oh the Flat Earth Society is Real.  Check out Ivan Stang's _High Weirdness by
Mail_ for their address.  Write them and get info from them.  They're WEIRD.

The group is sincer (sp?).  To join you have to swear that you are not joining
to discredit them.  They also ask if you are a minister or teacher, I guess
in the hopes you will spread the word.

They believe the world is flat on religious grounds, tho they claim to be
scientific.  Their position sheet it really nutso.  I might type it in if
people want.  They are associated with some fringe christian church out west.


-- 
<<                                                               >>
<< Michael R. Brown    CS Graduate Student-Florida Atlantic Univ >>
<< Internet: michaelb@sol.cse.fau.edu                            >>
<< BitNet: m_brown@fauvax                                        >>
From: st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu (LUCIFER)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: NYC phones
Date: 25 Aug 92 16:03:26 GMT
Reply-To: st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University

>If you hear a busy signal after you dial 958, then your phone is tapped.

Talking of tapped phones, if the tap is poorly done, the phone will ring for
no reason every once in a while.

(this was verified in the USSR 5 years ago - I was staying in a two room
hotel suite, and in each room there were two plastic cones on the ceiling,
connected by a wire running the legth of the  room. And the phone rang like
krazy. the Sovs didn't particularly care if you knew that they were listening
in (hell, I joked about listening devices in the suite, and talked to the 
taps a couple times. an amusing way to kill a couple minutes))
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 22:23:55 GMT

tabn3@isuvax.iastate.edu (Daniel I. Matt) writes:
: 
:    This might have been mentioned already here, but in HENRY: PORTRAIT OF
: A SERIAL KILLER, Henry and a friend killed this fat, obnoxious guy who was
: selling blackmarket video equipment and stole a camcorder from him.  Then they
: went with the camcorder and broke into some rich family's house.  Henry's friend
: used the camcorder to record Henry while he was murdering the family one by
: one.  Later on, back at Henry's apartment, he and his friend were having fun
: watching the video and making comments about it ("Boy, she sure put up a fight,
: didn't she Henry?").  Now would or would not what they taped qualify as a snuff 
: film?

Probably not. They were more than likely to have killed the people anyway. They
just made use of the opportunity presented by the camcorder to record the   
murders for their later enjoyment. In other words, they would kill anyway, the
recording just allowed them to fill their actions for later - to stretch out
their enjoyment/pleasure.

By the way, how much of this is fact and how much is dramatization?

Bill
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: johana!tsw@apple.com (Tom Watson)
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 23:57:19 GMT
Organization: FBN/GRQ Ink.

In article <42537@skye.dcs.ed.ac.uk>, kgg@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Kees Goossens) writes:
> 
> In article <l9q3n1INN88p@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
> >It *is*, in
> >fact, a very interesting phenomenon that most of us think that the
> >Earth is spherical, and almost none of us have direct experience of its
> >roundness, or even know anybody who has direct experience of its
> >roundness.
> 
> I would say almost everyone has a direct experience of this.
> Have you never seen a ship coming over the horizon?
> First you see the top bits, sticking out over the horizon.
> Gradually you see more and more as less of it is hidden by the curvature
> of the earth.
> 
Sometimes this is NOT the case.  In some atmospheric conditions (which I
don't remember now) You will see the BOTTOM of the ship first.  Yes,
this has been documented and is NOT an UL!!

On the discussion of a round earth, how about the fact you can't see across
a big lake.  All it takes is one about 2 miles across and neeling down
and all you see is water!!

Other factoid:  If the earth were the size of a marble, you wouldn't
be able to tell that it had mountains 5 mi. high.  Very insignificant
in relation to the whole thing.
------
Tom Watson
johana!tsw@apple.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright)
Subject: Re: flash pictures of the sunset
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 17:52:13 GMT

Doug Landauer (landauer@morocco.Eng.Sun.COM) wrote:
: (Here's the folklore part:)   For some of those cameras, if you turn on
: the flash, the shutter will stay open a little longer.

This is probably true.

Using the typical 35mm manual camera, shutter speed should be set to
1/60 for flash pictures.  Without flash, at this slow speed, the
motion of your hand as you jerked the trigger would smear the image.
But the flash can be counted on to freeze the motion.  The slow speed
1/60 provides a large window of time for the shutter and flash to
synchronize in.

It may well be that pocket automatics use a slow shutter speed with
their flashes, for the same reason.  You would expect the shutter
speed on those little cameras to be highly variable, since they depend
on it so heavily for exposure control (I doubt the tiny "fixed-focus"
lenses have adjustable apertures).

It would be hard to find out for sure.  Owners manuals are written at
dunce level, photo experts don't waste their time studying exactly how
cheap tourist cameras work, and it would be hard to set up an
experiment to prove those cameras use the slowest shutter speed
when they decide to flash.

  -- Dan Wright
From: scott@natinst.com (Scott A. Taylor)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Spaghetti trees
Summary: ...and you all thought spaghetti grew on vines...
Keywords: spaghetti, trees, etc.
Date: 27 Aug 92 16:37:26 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: National Instruments, Austin, TX

In article <87098@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
>All this talk about parents giving us bum information (screaming peaches)
>and Chef Boy-Ar-Dee has brought back memories of my mom and dad telling us
>about spaghetti trees.
>
>Apparently, back when TV was first becoming popular, some wise-acre ran
>a "documentary" on where spaghetti comes from.  It showed all these happy
>Italian farmers, using their pitchforks to harvest spaghetti from the
>spaghetti trees.  My folks saw this; my mom believed it.  I have no idea
>what my dad thought; he's not saying.  
>
>Anybody else ever see this gem?  Or know anything about it?  Wonder if
>it's still around anywhere ...
>

I've seen it a couple of times.  It's pretty funny, mostly because it's
well done and almost believable.  One scene shows the traditional Italian
family gathering the spaghetti from their orchard; they must have used
an incredible amount of cooked spaghetti in that scene.  The "documentary"
details the whole process from harvest to drying to packaging; it ends with
the family sitting down to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Unfortunately, I don't have a tape of it (but I'd like one; if you get any
leads, would you drop me some mail?).

>
>-- 
>Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu
>
>Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.
>            -- J. Danforth Quayle  

Hawaii has always played a pivotal role in the Pacific.  It is an island
that is in the Pacific that is here. -- J. Danforth Quayle, on geography

-- 
Scott Taylor            |
(512) 795-6837          | "                              " -Marcelle Marceau
scott@natinst.com       |
         ** NI pays me to write their code, not their opinions **
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:22319 alt.folklore.computers:13271
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Flash pix
Date: 28 Aug 92 17:57:00 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article 22877@echo.philips.nl, dolf@echo.philips.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) writes:
> [...] every photographer in the room started taking his 'exclusive'
> picture. But as the technicians had forgotten to seal the EPROM's
> erasing windows the flash light cleared the EPROMs or at least erased
> them enough to be unable to continue with the demo.

I don't know how much EPROM technology has changed in the last twenty
years, but when I worked with them in the mid-80's, you had to leave
them within a few centimetres of an ultraviolet tube for twenty minutes
at a time to have them reliably erased.

If standard photo flashes emit that much UV, it explains why movie
stars and politicians always have such nice tans.

Brian "My high-school PROM" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Misapplied physics in advertising
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:18:00 GMT
Distribution: usa

In article <1992Aug26.102011.6099@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> Also, some brands have a penchant for mispelling the words in the product
> name, such as honee for honey, etc.

They do that when it doesn't contain the misspelled item, or not enough
of it.  For exame, if a jar was labeled ``cream rinse'', it would have
to contain cream.  It doesn't; hence, ``creme rinse''.  Similarly, there's
a Federal standard for things like cheese.  If it doesn't contain enough
fat, it's ``cheese food''.  Another notch down is ``cheese product''.
From there, you move on to neologisms like ``Cheeeeezzze'' or some such.

> Also, who is "responsible" for the making up of names of recent drugs,
> such as Augmentin?  Are there any guidelines for any of these things?

That's probably a brand name, as opposed to a chemical name; it's therefore
made up by marketing droids.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva)
Subject: Re: Imponderables (Yawn)
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 15:39:39 GMT

In article <BtoKGv.7qM@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, iam30974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Happershanz) writes:
> thompson@cuug.ab.ca (Bruce Thompson 272-1800(w) or 229-3370(h)) writes:
> 
> >The explanation that I heard for why yanwing is contagious came from a
> >Calgary Zoo employee when I was on a tour. 
> 
> 	The reason for why people yawn at similar times (at least, the one
> I grew up with) is supposedly linked to the basic fact that people with
> similar schedules of activity get tired at similar times of the day.  


Just *reading* about yawning makes me yawn.
I'm going to have to go put this in a kill file or something.

-- 
Stephanie da Silva                                    arielle@taronga.com
  "Isn't it romantic?  When roosters fall in love... they lose
                                     all reason...." -- Peepers the Mouse
From: jlpicard@austin.ibm.com (Craig Becker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Date: 3 Sep 92 15:44:06 GMT
Reply-To: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Object Technology Products
Originator: jlpicard@woofer.austin.ibm.com


rdale@cstp.umkc.edu writes:
...
> > Wasn't there a thread once with an infinite groove at the end? How will
> > this be done on the CD-ROM distribution?
...
> 	The infinite groove?  I think that was one of Frank Zappa's
> 	records. . .maybe it was John and Yoko's.  Someone like that.
> 	The Eagles' live album closes with the applause going into the
> 	closeout groove.  You hear applause, then it suddenly stops
> 	(or slows down and stops with cheaper turntables).  Album
> 	liner notes say something like "The closeout groove is NOT
> 	effective".

Certain Japanese pressings of Brian Eno's _Taking Tiger Mountain
(by Strategy)_ have an "infinite groove" at the end of the song
"The Great Pretender"...it's quite effective: the "crickets" just
go on and on and on and....

The CD version doesn't do this, tho... :-(

Craig
-- 
-- "You can expect virtually      Craig Becker, Object Technology Products --
--  anything from a people who had      Internet: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com --
--  nuclear weapons in the early      IBM TR: craigb@woofer.austin.ibm.com --
--  seventeenth century."                           VNET: CRAIGB at AUSVM1 --
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Date: 29 Aug 92 20:22:01 GMT

joanne@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Joanne Petersen) writes:

>One of my favorites is the one coined by Robert Heinlein, "tanstaafl" --
>"there ain't no such thing as a free lunch".  He also published "tanj"
>("there ain't no justice").  (At least I believe these were created by
>Heinlein -- if someone else made them up first and Heinlein merely used
>them in his books, don't tell me. :-)

I read "tanstaafl" in Heinlein (_The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_?) but
I think "tanj" is Larry Niven's, used as an expletive in some Known
Space books, unless he got it from Heinlein.  I didn't know Heinlein
used it anywhere.  Can I tell you that?
 
-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: iam30974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (uncertain_future)
Subject: Re: Moscow phones (was Re: NYC phones)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 06:17:11 GMT

serge@ippi.msk.su (Serge Volkoff) writes:
>A Soviet UL:  Americans staying in an Intourist hotel in Moscow messing
>with these things on the ceiling [now guess what happened...] the room
>flooded with water from the sprinkler (sp?) system.

(variation:  couple spends an evening at the Watergate hotel, husband
thinks, "hey, maybe it's still being bugged" -checks everywhere, finally
under the carpet, a disk with four screws.  Unscrews it, puts it away.

next day the manager walks in somewhat worried, asking "mr. and mrs. [xx],
how did you like the accommodations?  how do you like the service, the
room, everything; tell me, how do you like this hotel?"
They reply that they love it-- best service, but "why do you ask?"
Manager replies, "oh, the couple below you complained; a chandelier fell on
them."
	[actually a Henny Youngman joke, but I had to stick it in
	 here nonetheless]

ObUL:  Hotel gift-shops have highest shoplifting rate-- thus hotel
	employs sec.guards to pose as fellow tourist shoppers to spy
	on you... pesty kid-guards-to-be are paid to do this too!

  U.  every hotel has a 'Club-13', which secretly sells reasonably priced
      food to those lucky enough to get in...

--
-ivan		forward all fires to iam30974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
From: jfreter@triton.unm.edu (The Myth)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Date: 28 Aug 92 02:48:12 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Aug28.003552.3483@nas.nasa.gov> eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) writes:
>
>The thing is that our education on matters for things like this is so bad,
>it is incredibly sorry.  I have taken to asking knowledgeable people if
>you know the latitude of the North Pole [P.S. My JHS was named after
>Robert Peary].  I have seen more than one published wrong answer by experts
>in their respective vocational and avocational fields: 0 deg. 100, deg. etc.
>Even PhDs here at NASA ("You mean it ISN'T 0 degrees?" "Ahhhhh, Suz!").
>This bodes ill for systems like Global Positioning when used on certain scales.
>

You know, it is easy to think that the latitude of the North Pole is 0 degrees
if you work routinely with spherical coordinates and rarely work with map
coordinates.  In spherical geometry (for those of you that don't know), the
positive z-axis (if superimposed) would have a zero degree term for the
third co-ordinate.  The x-y plane would be 90 degrees, and the negative
z-axis (South Pole, in this case) would be 180 degrees.  So it's simple
to make that mistake especially if rarely deal with maps.

But then again, doesn't NASA use declination and right ascension for
orbital positions?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: schumach@convex.com (Richard A. Schumacher)
Subject: Re: Gold coins (Was: Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!)
Organization: CONVEX Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx., USA
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 23:40:42 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In <k1jnn_+@lynx.unm.edu> jfreter@triton.unm.edu (The Myth) writes:
>Well, as far as I remember, those coins that you claim were minted by the
>US Mint were actually minted by the Marshall Islands, a US Protectorate.  

No no no! Do not confuse Challenger Astronaut, Moon Landing etc. commemoratives
from the Marshall Islands that you saw in ads on late-night cable TV with
United States commemoratives. The Olympic, US Constitution, and Columbian
Quincentennial commeratives were all minted by the US Mint. I have their
ordering info and even some of the coins.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban