HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cburke@nexus.yorku.ca (Carolyn Burke)
Subject: Chomsky's current work
Organization: York University
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 23:40:20 GMT

Has anyone heard anything about the work Noam Chomsky is currently
engaged in?  Is he planning to publish another book in the near future?
If so, do you have an idea about any specific concerns he might be
discussing?

Thanks in advance.

Carolyn.

-- 
........................................................................
...... C L Burke ... cburke@nexus.yorku.ca ... (416) 604 2235   ........
........................................................................
Newsgroups: sci.lang,soc.culture.turkish
From: deniz@mandolin.ctr.columbia.edu (Deniz Akkus)
Subject: Re: Need help with Mongolian (Urdu)
Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 01:54:56 GMT
X-Posted-From: mandolin.ctr.columbia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <1992Dec30.212324.3001@leland.Stanford.EDU> alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson) writes:
>In article <Dec.27.22.14.52.1992.1477@pilot.njin.net>, hubey@pilot (Hubey) writes:
>>Mogul is a variant of Mongol but in this case it's one of mistaken
>>identity. Moguls were Turkic not Mongol.
>
>Were they?  I was under the impression that they were Persian.
>

They were Turkic.  Of the numerous Muslim dynasties of India, most were
Turkic.  Some, like the Ghaznavids considered the Iranian culture to be
superior and used Persian as the court language.  I believe Mahmud
Ghaznavid was the first Turkic ruler to capture and rule Delhi.  The
Shahs of Kharezm also captured parts of the territory when Jalal-ad-din
was attacked by Jenghiz Khan.  He found refuge with the Sultan of Delhi,
Iltutmish.  The region was later attacked by the by-then-Turkicized
Khanate of Jagatai, and Kebek Khan laid waste to Punjab.  Then comes
Tamerlane, also Turkic of the Barlas clan, although he claimed kinship
by way of marriage to the Jenghiz dynasty.  It is the Timurid line that
Baber is descended from.  The Timurid line had a Turko-Persian cultural
revival.  Baber first ruled over the Iranicized Samarkand before ruling
India, and first collaborated with the Iranian Shahs but it was in
Jagatai Turkic that he wrote his memoirs.  

regards,
Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Subject: Re: labio-velars to labials, but reverse?
Originator: alderson@leland.Stanford.EDU
Reply-To: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Organization: Stanford University Academic Information Resources
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 23:10:56 GMT

In article <robrtsnj-311292101210@peirce.byu.edu>, robrtsnj@yvax (John S. Robertson) writes:
>The passing of labio-velar to labials is a well established fact (e.g. I.E.
>*kw to Greek p before back vowels, or I.E. *gw to Greek b/Latin v), but has
>anyone ever heard of a p or b becoming a kw or gw? Just curious. Any
>examples of either direction of change would be appreciated.

The environment for the Attic/Ionic Greek change is more complex than "before
back vowels":  In the environment of a *u, the labial element was lost and a
plain velar resulted.  (In some Aeolic dialects, *k<w> > p even before front
vowels.)

And there were other things going on in Attic and Ionic, as well:  The word for
"horse," *ekwos (*k + *w), develops to /hippos/ in Attic (and some other
dialects), but the form /hikkos/ is usual (constant?) in Herodotos.

The changes from labial to labiovelar with which I am familiar are analogical:

	Latin	quinque		< PIE *penk<w>e "5"
	Old Ir.	coic

Germanic shows a small number of labiovelar > labial items, for example

	Gothic fidwor		< PIE *k<w>etwor "4"
	Gothic fimf		< PIE *penk<w>e

And of course Romanian shows labials for Proto-Romance labiovelars and
velar+*w clusters, cf. Latin lingua, Rom. limba.

Let's see.  In Oscan and Umbrian, *k<w> > p, as it does in British Celtic
(Welsh, Cornish, Breton).

I don't have the book handy, so I can't say exactly which correspondence set it
is, but in Haas's _Prehistory of Language_ (Mouton), she reconstructs a
labiovelar fricative for a set which contrasts with velars and labials.  The
reconstructed etymon is *ix<w>aNi/u- "squirrel" which for some reason has stuck
with me for 20 years (since I first read the book).

I don't know whether any of this is of interest or use to you.
-- 
Rich Alderson   'I wish life was not so short,' he thought.  'Languages take
                such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
                                                        --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@leland.stanford.edu                              _The Lost Road_
From: aeb@cwi.nl (Andries Brouwer)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Finnish-Hungarian correspondences (was: Re: Om spr}kenas uppkomst)
Date: 31 Dec 92 20:57:29 GMT

alderson@cisco.com (Rich Alderson) writes
[following up on my post giving the correspondences below]:

::I hardly know anything about Finnish-Ugrian comparative linguistics, but
::let us see:
::
::What about Hu. v'er / Fi. veri (blood)?
::
::Hu. sz'az / Fi. sata (hundred)  [borrowed? cf. satem]
::Hu. h'az / Fi. kota (house)  [borrowed? cf. Haus]
::
::Hu. h'arom / Fi. kolme (three)
::Hu. hat / Fi. kuusi (six)
::Hu. hal / Fi. kala (fish) and Hu. h'al'o / Fi. kalin (net)
::Hu. (meg)hal / Fi. kuole- (to die)
::
::Hu. k'ez / Fi. k:asi (hand)
::Hu. k"o / Fi. kivi (stone)
::
::So, one might guess a correspondence h-k before a,o,u; k-k elsewhere.
::
::Hu. v'iz / Fi. vesi (water)
::
::Hu. tud / Fi. tunte- (to know)
::Hu. l'ud / Fi. lintu (goose)
::Hu. ad / Fi. anta- (to give)
::
::It seems to me that it would be very difficult to explain such correspondences
::away as coincidences.

:If those were the only correspondences, positing a relationship would be highly
:questionable.  However, there are a large number of good correspondences,
:outlined for example in the works of Bjorn Collinder, which demonstrate the
:relationship conclusively.

Yes, so we all agree that Finnish and Hungarian are related.
But now that I found the above correspondences, I am curious:
can anyone who knows this stuff or has access to the works of
Bjorn Collinder or Finnish/Estonian/Hungarian etymological dictionaries
confirm or reject the above correspondences?
I am especially interested in the status of Fi. sata and Hu. h'az.
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: labio-velars to labials, but reverse?
From: robrtsnj@yvax.byu.edu (John S. Robertson)
Date: 31 Dec 92 10:08:31 -0700
Followup-To: sci.lang
Distribution: world
Organization: Brigham Young University

The passing of labio-velar to labials is a well established fact (e.g. I.E.
*kw to Greek p before back vowels, or I.E. *gw to Greek b/Latin v), but has
anyone ever heard of a p or b becoming a kw or gw? Just curious. Any
examples of either direction of change would be appreciated.

John S. Robertson
Professor of Linguistics/BYU
e-mail: robrtsnj@yvax.byu.edu
From: minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: norway starts hunting min
Date: 24 Dec 92 05:08:01 GMT
Distribution: sci
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory

In article <92Dec23.174104.27846@acs.ucalgary.ca> edstrom@hsc.ucalgary.ca (John Edstrom) writes:
>In article <1992Dec16.4259.6389@dosgate> "andrew comello" <andrew.comello@canrem.com> writes:
>>Newsgroup: sci.bio
>>Subject: Norway starts hunting minke whales

>>In my own opinion, I feel that if you placed all of the animals and
>>organisms of the earth on an IQ scale, the cetaceans would run a close
>>second to man... Since they have the greatest IQ besides man, It would
>>be MORALLY unjust to kill them....
...
>Really?  This sounds contentious.  I would have nominated the
>chimpanzee as the runner up.  I'm not an expert but my impression is
>that the chimp's intelligence has been underestimated and research
>keeps revealing unsuspected abilities and complexities.

I have the impression that elephants are very smart -- never mind
"IQ".  Does anyone know how they compare to whales and chimps?
From: robison1@husc10.harvard.edu (Keith Robison)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: primer walking
Date: 29 Dec 92 04:58:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc.robison1.725605086

Oky.

First, the Brookhaven group did NOT invent primer walking -- just
a new twist on it (see one of the most recent Science's for details).

The idea of primer walking is that you will sequence a gene in steps --
much like using stepping stones to cross a stream you can't jump.

Suppose your DNA of interest looks like:

0)  kkkkkkk????????????????????????????????????????????????????

where a "k" represents a block of known sequence, and ???? the unknown
sequence you wish to acquire.  You synthesize a short (~20nt) piece
of DNA which will hybridize within k and provide a free 5' OH group pointing
towards the unknown region, and acquire sequence using dideoxy sequencing:

        p--------------->
1)  kkkkkkk????????????????????????????????????????????????????

You have now extended the known region, and so you can repeat the
process until you have "walked" as far as you wish.

So what are the problems?  Since you can't make the 2nd primer until
the results are in from the first round (2 days minimum to get data
plus 1 day synth time), you must have many such walking points to get
anywhere quickly. Worse, if one reaction fails you are delayed an extra
round, since that deprives you of the new knowledge (If your stepping
stone falls into an unseen deep spot, you have to find another one and
try again).

The Brookhaven group claims to eliminate the delay from the synthesis 
by using 3 6nt sequences lined up end-to-end instead of a custom-synthesized
primer.  The advantage is that someone can synthesize all the possible 6nt
sub-primers and you can draw them from a stock, eliminating the extra day's
wait for the synthesis.  IT DOES NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE!  So, failures
still cost you dearly.

Another variant on primer walking can be found in:

Ohara, O., RL Dorit, W Gilbert.  1989.  PNAS 86:6883-6887.
	Direct genomic sequencing of bacterial DNA: The pyruvate kinase I gene 
	of Escherichia coli.

This method is actually being used to completely sequence the genome
of a small bacterium.


Keith Robison
Harvard University
Department of Cellular & Developmental Biology
Department of Genetics / HHMI

robison@biosun.harvard.edu
From: wcalvin@stein.u.washington.edu (William Calvin)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Evolution of the human brain's cognitive capacity
Date: 25 Dec 92 01:19:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Dec25.011901.22049
Organization: University of Washington

minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

>I think this theory (nicely explained here) is mainly due to William
>Calvin <wcalvin@milton.u.washington.edu>, an occasional contributor
>here.  See his book, The Cerebral Symphony.

Thanks.  Actually, it is the book after that, THE ASCENT OF MIND: Ice Age
Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence (Bantam 1990).
    William H. Calvin   WCalvin@U.Washington.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
From: hcp@csx.cciw.ca (H.C. Pulley)
Subject: Re: Attempt to sink a Norwegian whale boat
Organization: Canada Centre for Inland Waters
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 13:24:51 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.092242.27862@alf.uib.no> sigurd@kildin.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Sigurd Tjelmeland) writes:
>Recently there was an attempt to sink the Norwegian
>whale boat "Nybrenna" at quay. The organization
>"Sea Shepherd" (Paul Watson) claimed responsibility.
>
>What is the subscribers opinion of such actions?

I think that this is going too far.

I was a member of GreenPeace a few years ago.  I was not a member who went out
and physically intervened myself, I was only a support canvasser.

I believe that intervention as a method of stopping whaling is OK, but an 
attempt to destroy property or harm/kill people is going much too far.

Environmental terrorism is not the answer.

Harry
-- 
         hcp@csx.cciw.ca          |This message released|It takes all kinds,
   hcpiv@grumpy.cis.uoguelph.ca   |to the PUBLIC DOMAIN.|and to each his own.
----------------------------------+---------------------|This thought in mind,
Stay away from the DOS side, Luke!|Un*x don't play that.|I walk alone.
From: mlevin@husc8.harvard.edu (Michael Levin)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: how do you look for downstream genes (Homeobox example)
Date: 23 Dec 92 15:03:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Dec23.100325.18799
Distribution: usa
Organization: Harvard University Science Center


   We were studying the role of homeobox genes in the chick limb (in a
class on developmental biology). It appears that different hox genes
get turned on in different parts of the limb, forming a position-code.
I am interested in how, once these genes turn on (read the positional
information), they then cause the proper morphological development of
the limb. So, does anyone know anything about the down-stream effects
of Hox genes? If so, are there references? How would one go about
studying this? In general, how does one look for downstream effects of
genes? Please reply to mlevin@husc8.harvard.edu.


Mike Levin
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: gene design
From: news@cine88.cineca.it
Date: 28 Dec 92 22:23:04 +0100

Please, I'm looking for programs for gene design.
Can you help me?
Answer to lunazzi@boifcc.cineca.it.
Thank you
Mauro

Newsgroups: sci.bio
From: edstrom@hsc.ucalgary.ca (John Edstrom)
Subject: Re: norway starts hunting min
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 17:41:04 GMT
Distribution: sci
Organization: Neuroscience Division, U of Calgary School of Medicine, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In article <1992Dec16.4259.6389@dosgate> "andrew comello" <andrew.comello@canrem.com> writes:
>Newsgroup: sci.bio
>Subject: Norway starts hunting minke whales
>
>
>ST>I am curious about how people think about the issue
>ST>of whale hunting. There is obviously a lot of emotion.
>
>Lots of emotion involved here....
>
>ST>  Do anyone believe that whales have a greater right
>ST>  to live than other hunted animals (reindeer etc.)?
>
>In my own opinion, I feel that if you placed all of the animals and
>organisms of the earth on an IQ scale, the cetaceans would run a close
>second to man... Since they have the greatest IQ besides man, It would
>be MORALLY unjust to kill them....


Really?  This sounds contentious.  I would have nominated the
chimpanzee as the runner up.  I'm not an expert but my impression is
that the chimp's intelligence has been underestimated and research
keeps revealing unsuspected abilities and complexities.

Besides their complex vocal behaviors and the relative ease of
training some species to perform some arbitrary tasks what evidence is
there that they have high IQs?  I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm
curious about their abilities.  I've read Jane Goodall's books and
know a little about chimps but haven't seen a comparable book about
whales & dolphins.

Secondly, if its wrong to kill whales, why isn't there a comparable
outcry against killing chimps & gorillas?


>


JE
--
 RM 2104, HSc Building,  Div. Neuroscience
 U. Calgary School of Medicine,  3330 Hospital Drive NW
 Calgary, Alberta       T2N 3Y4
 (403) 220 4493  (wk)
From: gaiaf@peg.pegasus.oz.au
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Date: 04 Jan 93 15:38 EST
Subject: Interested in Gaia Theory?
Nf-ID: #N:peg:245000004:000:551
Nf-From: peg.UUCP!gaiaf    Jan  4 15:38:00 1993


I am interested in participating in a discussion about Gaia Theory.
The Chapman Conference in San Diego in 1988 began some excellent
work, but does anyone know if there is anything happening elsewhere.

There has been a posting recently to sci.astro on the coupling between
plate tectonics and the biosphere, particularly to the effect that
Ozone has played in the retention of planetary water, and the effect
that surface water has upon geology and lowering melting points of
mantle rocks.  Is anyone interested?

For Gaia and her peoples
John Croft

Newsgroups: sci.bio
From: arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling)
Subject: Re: WINOGRADSKY COLUMN
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 04:58:27 GMT
Organization: ddsw1.MCS.COM Contributor, Chicago, IL

Funny thing happened over the weekend.  I took it of the window sill and
set it on the diningroom table and there was lots of purple stuf and black
stuff.  Seems the side toward the sun was doing its thing but the side 
facing the room was not.  I would have thought I had enough sense to
turn it occasionally.  It also might have just been the lighting.  It's hard
to see with the backlighting of a bright window.

Anyway its seems to be working but not as dramatic as I had hoped and absolutely
nothing is happening in the bottom gypsum layer.  It is still white as
snow.

js
From: sigurd@kildin.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Sigurd Tjelmeland)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Attempt to sink a Norwegian whale boat
Date: 31 Dec 92 09:22:42 GMT
Organization: University of Bergen, Norway

Recently there was an attempt to sink the Norwegian
whale boat "Nybrenna" at quay. The organization
"Sea Shepherd" (Paul Watson) claimed responsibility.

What is the subscribers opinion of such actions?

Sigurd Tjelmeland
Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway.

e-mail: sigurd@imr.no
From: senguptas@woods.ulowell.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Looking for Donald Waller
Date: 3 Jan 93 18:40:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: woods.1993Jan3.134015.1
Organization: University of Lowell


Sorry to post to this news group, but I thought I would have better luck with
more biologists reading it....

I would like to get back in touch with my old friend Donald Waller-
He got his Ph.D. in biology from Princeton, in the late 1970s. I think he was
from Indianapolis.
I knew him while we were both students, but have lost touch since..
If anybody knows of his whereabouts, please send me an e-mail message.

Thanks,

Sandip

Sandip Sengupta
senguptas@woods.ulowell.edu
From: w.p.coyne@newcastle.ac.uk
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Evolution of the human brain's cognitive capacity
Date: 25 Dec 92 13:45:25 GMT
Reply-To: w.p.coyne@newcastle.ac.uk
Organization: Chemical & Process Engineering Dept, University of Newcastle, UK.

wcalvin@stein.u.washington.edu (William Calvin) writes:

>minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

>>I think this theory (nicely explained here) is mainly due to William
>>Calvin <wcalvin@milton.u.washington.edu>, an occasional contributor
>>here.  See his book, The Cerebral Symphony.

>Thanks.  Actually, it is the book after that, THE ASCENT OF MIND: Ice Age
>Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence (Bantam 1990).
>    William H. Calvin   WCalvin@U.Washington.edu

  Had you publicised the theory before 1990 in articles, talks or the 
media?   Or was yours an expansion of an existing well publicised
theory of the effects of climate on human evolution..  
 
   I ask because "Children of the Ice" by John and Mary Gribbin
was also published in 1990.  I think sometime in the late 80's John
Gribbin did a radio series for the BBC of 10 minute episodes where
he explained this theory of the importance of climatic interaction with
humans.  
   
    HIs discussion of the settlement of Greenland by the Vikings
during a warm period 
lasting a few centuries, and then its destruction caused by the colder
weather of the 15th century was memorable.   The phrase "adapt or die"
was very appropriate because the settlers could have survived if they
had discarded their European lifestyle and agriculture and adopted the
eskimo way of life (maybe some of them did).
From: wcalvin@stein.u.washington.edu (William Calvin)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Evolution of the human brain's cognitive capacity
Date: 29 Dec 92 16:54:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: shelley.1hpvrpINNsam
Organization: University of Washington
NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu

m23364@mwunix (James Meritt) writes:

>Bad example.  Catching a branch after a free-fall requires the
>"unconscious" solution of a DE.  Catching a ball is a complicated
>set of equations.  Now, being able to express it AS equations is recent,
>but the ability to solve them isn't....

All animals seem to have the ability to make at least one particular kind
of trajectory calculation, also involved in catching a ball:  that of
judging whether an approaching object will hit their head.  It produces
the blink replex, and cognitive-level abilities need not be invoked (it's
a brainstem-level reflex, based on looming).

Now throwing a projectile, and estimating its trajectory in advance during
"get set", is indeed a good candidate for a cognitive mechanism.  All of
the ballistic movements (kicking, clubbing, throwing, hammering -- even
spitting) require lots of advance planning; feedback arrives too late to
do any good, so "get set" must create a complete movement command
sequence, start to finish.  In the case of throwing to a target (as
opposed to threat throws, where accuracy is not important), precision
timing becomes very important: hitting a rabbit-sized target from the
length of a car requires getting the projectile release within a 5
millisecond launch window.

I've discussed this at some length, as a candidate for the sequencing
abilities that separate humans from apes, in various of my books, most
recently in chapters 7 and 8 of THE ASCENT OF MIND (Bantam 1990).
    William H. Calvin   WCalvin@U.Washington.edu
    University of Washington  NJ-15
    Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
    Seattle, Washington 98195 FAX:1-206-720-1989
Newsgroups: sci.bio
From: darice@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Fred Rice)
Subject: Evolution of the human brain's cognitive capacity
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 02:55:48 GMT

I was wondering, is there an evolutionary explanation for the great
capacities humans have to think?  I'm thinking about things like our
ability to do advanced mathematics, for instance.  There is no
evolutionary survival advantage in being able to solve differential
equations, for instance.  If this is the case, then *why*, in
evolutionary terms, can we do such things?

Curious,

 Fred Rice
 darice@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au