HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gray@rz-berlin.mpg.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Brit. Govt. begs for DM (was Re: VNS)
Date: 9 Sep 92 11:43:02 GMT
Organization: Rechenzentrum MPG Berlin

In article <1992Sep8.104252.9209@bristol.ac.uk>,
  smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>>heavens) do I have an 
> The thing that strikes me as fun is that the Government, to get all
> this money they want (in pounds, ultimately) is borrowing half of it in
> Deutschmarks (to be used to buy pounds), and the other half in a
> mixture of marks, yen, dollars, and presumably whatever else is going
> (to be used to buy pounds).  I'm sure some economist out there
> somewhere understands it, but my intuition says that if you want
> pounds, you should borrow pounds, and that there is something seriously
> unrealistic or unnatural about an economic system where this
> cross-currency approach makes sense.
> 
> (And Lordy, will they be in trouble if they've mis-guessed which way the
> exchange rates are going to move between now and whenever it's time to
> pay up, which will need to be done in the currency which was borrowed.)

  Given political constraints within which the Tories want to work this
is actually quite clever.  They need to borrow money in order to pay
benefit to the unemployed, bribe merchant banks to underwrite dodgy
privitisations etc. but know that if they simply issue bonds the pound
will fall, mostly because nobody trusts them to avoid the temptation
to let future inflation erode the value of the loan.  Normally a small
drop in the pound wouldn't matter too much, but at present the pound is
bumping against its lower limit in the ERM and a small fall would mean
a formal devaluation or a rise in interest rates would be necessary.
Both of these options are undesirable politically, so a way had to be
found to borrow the dosh without triggering a slide in the pound.

  Borrowing in foreign currency and using it to buy pounds works like
this.  First they create an artificial demand for the pound, this boosts
it in the short term.  Then they point out that in order to avoid the
exchange-rate risk you identify they must keep the pound stable.  This
makes the currency traders think that the Government is committed to
long-term stability, reducing downward pressure on the pound a bit more.
The Government also believes that the current problems are largly the
result of a short term anti-dollar panic, and that the pound can only
rise, reducing the amount they need to pay back.

  This all has the effect of increasing the Government's reputation for
fiscal rectitude and ingenuity among the banking community, while
baffling the man-on-the-Bristol-ommnibus.  Notice that the press was
full of comment on and discussion about the clever *method* that Lamont
and his band of used-car salesmen had cooked up to borrow the money, and
next to nobody saw fit to ask *why* they needed an extra seven billion
in the first place.

Struan
From: smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: VNS: Fri  4-Sep-1992
Date: 8 Sep 92 10:42:52 GMT
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: University of Bristol

In article <1992Sep7.174049.8715@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>Yes, and the Government and the British Economy are now so short of funds and
>in such dire trouble that a bank loan of something over 7 billion is apparently
>the only option available to get out of the trouble Britain is in. Frankly I
>don't believe them, but I'm not an economist or an income-tax payer, nor (thank
>heavens) do I have any direct connection with the British Mega-Death industry.

The thing that strikes me as fun is that the Government, to get all
this money they want (in pounds, ultimately) is borrowing half of it in
Deutschmarks (to be used to buy pounds), and the other half in a
mixture of marks, yen, dollars, and presumably whatever else is going
(to be used to buy pounds).  I'm sure some economist out there
somewhere understands it, but my intuition says that if you want
pounds, you should borrow pounds, and that there is something seriously
unrealistic or unnatural about an economic system where this
cross-currency approach makes sense.

(And Lordy, will they be in trouble if they've mis-guessed which way the
exchange rates are going to move between now and whenever it's time to
pay up, which will need to be done in the currency which was borrowed.)

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!uknet!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.tv.uk,rec.arts.drwho,alt.tv.prisoner,alt.usage.english
From: idf@cs.bham.ac.uk (Ian Fitchet)
Subject: Re: Gordon Bennett! Re: No smegma please, we're American
Organization: School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:53:09 GMT

 On 3 Sep 92, Jack wrote

> Scottish words useful primarily for Scrabble and other

I thought Scrabble used Collins as its absolute reference :-)

--
Cheers,

	Ian

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ian Fitchet     				      I.D.Fitchet@cs.bham.ac.uk
School of Computer Science
Univ. of Birmingham, UK, B15 2TT
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: mfriley@pacman.WPI.EDU (Margaret F Riley)
Subject: Re: Classic-FM (was: VNS: Mon  7-Sep-1992)
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 16:18:57 GMT

In article <laphbhINN55s@news.bbn.com> clements@bbn.com (Bob Clements) writes:
>-<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>
>- Edition : 2656               Monday  7-Sep-1992            Circulation : 7790 
>
>-     A new national radio station, Classic-FM, started broadcasting at 6am
>-     today. It is Britain's first national commercial radio station and will
>-     broadcast a mixture of classical music, chat and news. The service is
>-     said to be intended to complement rather than rivel BBC Radio 3.
>
>Too bad.  I really enjoyed the bird calls they were testing with.  They
>were the most informative transmissions I could find on the dial...

Bob, are you sure you aren't listening to WGBH Boston too much?  Gee,
do you think we could trade them for Robert Leurtsema?

--Margaret



Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: sm@cel.co.uk (salim mehta)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.tv.uk,rec.arts.drwho,alt.tv.prisoner
Subject: Re: Americanising of the UK, Now: SMEG
Date: 7 Sep 92 13:33:26 GMT
	<1992Aug28.182604.23445@enterprise.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com>
	<1992Sep01.041814.12172@admiral.uucp> <1992Sep2.061058.21842@osf.org>
	<BCR.92Sep2143519@hpl3sn02.cern.ch> <NICKH.92Sep2094143@VOILA.VENARI
Organization: Crosfield Electronics Ltd.
In-reply-to: nickh@CS.CMU.EDU's message of 2 Sep 92 14:41:43 GMT

In article <NICKH.92Sep2094143@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU> nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) wrote:
[stuff deleted]
> Smegma:
> 
> "a thick sebaceous secretion, consisting chiefly of desquamated
> epithelial cells, that collects beneath the foreskin or around the
> clitoris."

Thanks for that enlightenment.  Now, what the smeg does "desquamated
epithelial" mean? : )

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Salim Mehta                             Phone :  +44 442 230000  x3450
Crosfield Electronics Ltd               Fax   :  +44 442 232301
Hemel Hempstead  HERTS HP2 7RH  UK      Email :  sm@crosfield.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Alt email :  sm@cel.uucp     ...!{mcsun,uknet,uunet}!cel!sm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nick@cs.hw.ac.uk (Nick Taylor)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: U.S./British school grades, was Re: Why I read the Economist
Date: 7 Sep 92 12:32:37 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computing and Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <CC.92Sep4122420@arran.dcs.ed.ac.uk> cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris Cooke) writes:
 >
 >   Scottish, in my experience
 >
 >   nursery
 >   primary         (4 1/2 to 11)
 >   secondary       (11 to 16-18)
 >   college          for further education, can start here at 16
 >   university/polytechnic (although most of polys changed to
 >	     universities recently)
 >		   - 4 years, or more for medicine or architecture

Nah, I'm sure my students are over 4 years of age. No four-year-old could spell
as badly as they do - it takes years of practice.

Nick.
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: buying peerage
Date: 9 Sep 92 12:36:09 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

From: mnor1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Mark Hiro           Norman         )
>In <CC.92Sep4124007@arran.dcs.ed.ac.uk> cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris Cooke) writes:
>
>>Yes, it's quite possible.  Donating money to charity will only get you a
>>fairly minor title, though.  To get a big, important title you have to
>>donate lots of money to the Conservative Party.  Sad but true.  The whole
>>thing is corrupt beyond belief.

>Sad, but not surprising I guess. If the Conservative Party loses control
>does this situation change? I understand titles are handed out by the
>Royal Family, so I assume that no matter what the government is, the
>same people will get honours.

The "Royal Family" do not act as a collective. The British
government nominally acts on behalf of the Sovereign, there is
no constitutional position for his or her relatives.

Titles, like nearly everything, though nominally handed out by
the Sovereign are in fact handed out by the Prime Minister, the
sovereign just signs the forms. Although titles are supposedly
given as a reward for contributions to business or public life
or something, it has been noted that the contributions to
business and public life of those who also contribute to the
Conservative Party seem to be noticed rather more regularly
than the contributions to busines and public life of those who
do not. No-one has yet discovered a fixed tariff though.

Matthew Huntbach
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: miriam@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Miriam Jackson)
Subject: Re: What is a 2.1 equivalent to ?
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 23:59:37 GMT

In article <1992Sep11.214526.3637@unixg.ubc.ca> banarji@unixg.ubc.ca (Ajai Banarji) writes:
>		What is a 2.1 equal to?
>
>	In many advertisements for jobs in the UK, they ask for a degree
>with 2.1 or better. What would this correspond to in an US degree? Let
>me guess-perhaps a GPA of 3.0 ?
A 2.1 is supposed to imply an average of B+ in courses taken.  At least
that's the way they did it at UCL; exams were graded A,B+, B-, C or F,
and degrees were first, 2.1, 2.2 third and pass (and fail).  Most
American colleges/universities use a 4 point scale where an A is 4 points,
a B 3 points etc. so a 2.1 would be the same as a 3.3.  In practice,
standards are lower in America colleges/univs. so it's easier to get a
B+ for a class in America than in Britain. (I speak from happy experience).
I'd guess that a 2.1 is worth at least a 3.7 in the States.

>	I was told by someone that an US master's degree is considered
>equivalent to a British B.Sc/BA since master's degrees are comparatively
>rare there. Can someone clarify this point?

Because the British system has people specialising so much earlier, this is
probably a valid statement in terms of knowledge.  The big difference is that
a masters degree in the States often requires a thesis, so the masters degree
takes from two years up (my office-mate took 5 years!), whereas in Britain
the degree takes only 1 year.  I think the experience of 
researching and writing a thesis may give a U.S. masters a slight edge
over a British B.Sc./B.A. etc.
-- 
****************************************************************************
	  Miriam Jackson,    miriam@seismo.gps.caltech.edu
****************************************************************************
From: mbm@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Malcolm Mladenovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: O-levels, A-levels etc was Re: THE COMPLETE BRITISH TO AMERICAN DICT.
Date: 8 Sep 92 17:51:39 GMT
Organization: UNIX Centre, ICL, Bracknell, UK

In article <1992Sep7.085934.2491@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> mnor1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Mark Hiro           Norman         ) writes:
>In <813@dsbc.icl.co.uk> mbm@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Malcolm Mladenovic) writes:
>>I don't know about Oxford (though I would expect it to be similar) but most
>>(perhaps all) colleges in Cambridge use interviews and A-levels/S-levels
>>these days.   The CCE (Cambridge Colleges' Examination) was already beginning
>>to go out of favour when I took it (1979), though it depended a lot on the
>>individual college.
>
>How do they judge mature/graduate candidates for entry to a BA at Cambridge?
>I suppose graduates are judged on their marks in their previous degree.

Sorry, I've no idea about this.    There were very few mature students 
(only one or two in my year) at my college.

>I spoke to a sixth former who was on holiday in NZ who had applied but not
>been accepted for Cambridge; I gathered from him that the interview was one
>of the main criteria for selection (assuming your marks in exams were up to
>the mininum standard, whatever that might be).

This certainly seemed to be the case when I was interviewed.   I did not
do particularly well on the written papers but they still offered me
a place after interviews (which were mainly technical).  The subject came
up during the one non-technical one and it was admitted that the final
action might well be to offer places to the students they wanted to teach.
Not really surprising though I was somewhat surprised that they admitted it!

>Mark Norman           | My university doesn't let me send email.

-Malcolm
From: czl30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Chris Lee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: British Slang
Date: 13 Sep 92 16:34:44 GMT
Reply-To: czl30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Chris Lee)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

In article <TORKEL.92Sep13133326@bast.sics.se> torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen) writes:

  <lots of stuff about the Sun and bonking deleted>

When I went to started at grammar school (Pinner, Middlesex) in 1959 we
used the term "on the bonk" for an erection. Now I'm really showing my
age.

We also used to say "bonkers" meaning mad.

Chris (the even older codger) Lee
From: hbonney@io.Tymnet.COM (Hugh Bonney)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: foreign born kids/UK immigration
Date: 14 Sep 92 14:03:16 GMT
Organization: BT North America (Tymnet)
Originator: hbonney@io



   >>From: hiscrp@nuscc.nus.sg
      (are foreign born kids UK citizens...)
      (wife is Chinese..)
      (entrance to UK?)

      This is surprising as it appears that the UK has the most liberal
      immigration laws of anywhere. When the government wishes to
      discourage immigration from a country, they just process 
      applications very slowly it looks like.

      I married a woman (Ren Shuying) in China who then came to the US
      as my wife only to go to quickly to Reno, Nevada with an Englishman 
      she thought was rich (though in the end it turned out he isn't).
      They applied for a fiance visa for her at the British Consulate in
      Los Angeles while the Reno 'quickie' divorce was still pending. About
      a month later the divorce was granted and the fiance visa was then
      granted IMMEDIATELY. The Consulate knew the circumstances and there 
      is reason to think the first marriage fraudulent.

      When the people went to Reno they were first connected with a
      lawyer who turned out to be disbarred for a felony conviction. I
      checked when I got a threatening letter full of what I can only
      describe as demented ferocity. This lawyer was engaged through a
      San Francisco firm specializing in such things and tried to get me
      to sign papers from something called the Reno-Sparks Indian Tribal
      Colony Court. I was finally divorced by default through the usual
      Nevada courts. Actually, the divorce paperwork has errors that 
      preclude my presenting it to the INS as evidence of being eligible 
      to remarry. A very tawdry tale. Anyway, she is now living in a
      small village in Leicestershire. 

      I now understand that she is eligible for a permanent residence
      after only one year. It is truly bizarre that UK immigration will
      buy a story like the above, but give your wife a bad time. Are you
      sure about this? The preceding paragraph is a fair representation
      of events. If anything constructive (only) is served, I could supply 
      you with copies of enough paperwork to lend entire verisimilitude 
      to the above although it's clearly not an identical story to your
      own. Good luck. Maybe you should just tell your wife to go through
      the Consulate in Los Angeles :-).


      Hugh
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 19:35:25 EDT
From: <TAS137@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: British Slang

Can someone please explain to me what 'GOBSMACKED' means?
thank you
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.canada
From: buchignani@hg.uleth.ca
Subject: Re: Are foreignborn kids of UK citizens british?
Reply-To: buchignani@hg.uleth.ca
Organization: University of Lethbridge
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 21:58:49 GMT

re: foreign born children of British citizens.

I recall hearing during my last stay in Britain of the plight
of several British E.C. bureaucrats based on the Continent who
wound up too late finding that their children born there weren't
British citizens. I think there was some move to 'do something'
about their plight, but that the rule itself was quite general.

    Norm Buchignani/University of Lethbridge/BUCHIGNANI@HG.ULETH.CA
"If we have been accustomed to deplore the spectacle...of a workman occupied
during his whole life in nothing else but the making of knife-handles or pins'
heads, we may find something quite as lamentable in the intellectual class, in
the exclusive employment of a human brain in resolving some equations, or in
classifying insects. [This] occasions a miserable indifference about the
general course of human affairs, as long as there are equations to solve and
pins to manufacture."                                      Auguste Comte
From: egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Brit. Govt. begs for DM (was Re: VNS)
Date: 10 Sep 92 15:09:52 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

Errrm, why are the guvmint suddenly deciding to wear Doc Martens. Or am I
missing something?


-- 
=======Jeremy Henderson========egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk===============
Q: How many user support people does it take to change a light bulb?
A: We have an exact copy of the light bulb here and it seems to be
   working fine.  Can you tell me what kind of system you have?  
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.tv.uk,rec.arts.movies
From: koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us (Louis Koziarz)
Subject: Re: Why are the British portrayed so falsely on TV/Film
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 02:14:04 GMT

In article <1992Sep13.001649.19051@cs.hw.ac.uk> neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) writes:
>Having watched a few video's over the weekend, one thing with them I find
>is that the British get such a false stereotypical portrayal of them. It
>makes me wonder if the writers have ever been outside their country.
>
>Most of the stuff was American BTW.

Funny, I thought the same thing occured in the UK.  One of the prime-time
movies on BBC when I was there in July was 'The Allnighter', one of the
highlights of the American cinematic experience.  Every guy was blonde and
every female was a valley girl.  I can see where the american stereotypes 
come from.

[...]

>After all, we in the UK know all Americans are crack-crazed, cop killing,
>TV channel hopping, fat burger-chomping, rap loving, Mall hanging out
>type of people. All Australian's are XXXX obsessed  Neighbours watching
>morons etc ............. :-) !!!! We believe the TV God !!

That's about right.  Some people I met in the UK thought _every_ american 
listened to Guns 'n' Roses, and every single citizen owned a gun. (Honest!)

-- 

                 ___________________________________________
                  Louis Koziarz
                  koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us
From: gray@rz-berlin.mpg.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: LIST OF WORDS IN AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH
Date: 7 Sep 92 17:09:48 +0100
Organization: Rechenzentrum MPG Berlin


joke of the week ----> joke of the weak



Struan
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: jac54@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: Gordon Bennett
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:32:16 GMT

In article <25706@castle.ed.ac.uk> adam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Adam Hamilton) writes:
>>      The Gordon(-)Bennett in question is a Gordon (not Gorgon) Bennett
>>      ........
>>      However, why did his name get adopted in Britain, but not in the
>>      U.S.?
>
>       Because it used as a euphemism for god which in Britain may be
>(mis)pronounced as gawd (or gord if you prefer) whereas in the USA it is
>more like gaahd (which you cant extend to to Gordon Bennett).


	This argument strikes me as another version of the El Greco
	Problem.  I don't think it answers the question.

	Alec.
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: VNS: Fri  4-Sep-1992
Keywords: VNS,news
Date: 9 Sep 92 12:45:05 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

From: jens@seas.gwu.edu (Jens Johansen)
>Call me clever (although if you are, you probably won't--and you'd probably
>be right) but wasn't it the case that the Government and the British economy
>was so short of funds, and in such dire trouble that the IMF thing was the
>only option available to get out of the trouble Britain was in?  Remember
>the Winter of Discontent?

The "Winter of discontent" (1978-79) refers to strike action by workers
unhappy at pay restraint imposed because of restraints imposed
by the IMF earlier. Your message suggests you have it the wrong
way round because you believe the "Winter of discontent" was
part of the problems that caused the IMF to be asked for help.
The IMF intervention came in 1976.

Britain's manufacturing industries, unemployment rate, and
balance of payments were all in a much stronger state then
than they are now. However we now have a Conservative
government which is why the press aren't spending all the time
attacking the government and going on about how bad things are,
and are instead desperately inventing "scandals" to take
people's minds off it.

Matthew Huntbach
From: esh2@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: This England
Date: 10 Sep 1992 06:01:33 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: esh2@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


There is a friendly argument that I would like help with.  There
is a poem which United Airlines is currently using in its ads
that is from a poem and I don't remember the poem or author.  It
has the phrase "this sceptered isle, this England".  I think it
was Spencer or Milton, my daughter says Churchill quoting
Shakespeare.  Anyone know for sure.

Thanks.

Evelyn
-- 

Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:12462 soc.culture.canada:6552