HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Date: 27 Aug 92 17:20:33 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article 1697@necis.UUCP, dlyons@necis.UUCP (Dave Lyons) writes:
> After the first Apollo space mission in the '60s took photos of the
> earth as a globe several Flat Earthers were interviewed and some of
> them said something to the effect of "We'll have to re-assess our views
> in light of these pictures".  [...]  I'd ask them to rebut here but
> they probably don't believe in computers either.

Maybe I'm ascribing too much intelligence to them, but my impression of
FE's when I've seen them interviewed is that their "views" are about
60% joke and 40% "don't believe everything you hear".  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.

Brian "Flat Ginger Ale Society" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.sex
From: dmandl@bilbo.shearson.com (David Mandl)
Subject: Re: Semen, NOT sailors!
Organization: Lehman Brothers
	<1992Aug19.192006.23601@bnlux1.bnl.gov>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 19:20:24 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.192006.23601@bnlux1.bnl.gov> schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder) writes:

   I'm sure
   some obsessed person must have recorded a number for the "average semen
   volume" generated per orgasm.

You're obviously not a fan of British pop music.  I thought everyone knew
where the name of the band 10CC came from...

   --Dave.

--
---------------------------------------------------------------
         Dave Mandl            |    Opinions expressed here
       New York City           | are not those of my employer,
 (dmandl@bilbo.shearson.com)   |          believe me.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: lopresti@henson.cc.wwu.edu (lopresti robert)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: sinking libraries...etc
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:07:39 GMT
Organization: Western Washington University


in regards to bad building design, when I went to Juniata College in
the seventies there was a flat asphault surface next to on eof the
main buildings, Ellis Hall, which liked like a parking lot, except that
there was no route to get cars to it.  SOmeone told me it was intended
as an ice skating area but they built it over heating pipes, so it
was the only place on campus that never froze.  Don't know if that's
true, but I nver heard a better explanation.  Eventually someone
got the idea to put up basketball hoops and gave it a purpose.
From: cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Peter? What Peter?
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:48:26 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:

> PvdL has chosen to absent himself from a.f.u for the nonce, probably because
> the high recycling rate got to him, and partly because he's writing yet
> another book.

> He did take the time to snipe at hsr4 last week, so there's still hope.

A FOAF heard a rumor that he was shooting a snuff film with hsr4 in
the starring role.

--Scott "I thought he said Peter was *snoping* at hsr4" Cromar
From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Russian dog-mines in WWII
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Date: 31 Aug 1992 19:42:33 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <1992Aug28.005700.4371@nas.nasa.gov> eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov 
(Eugene N. Miya) writes:

>B.F. Skinner also trained pigeons to direct guided bombs.  You can read about
>Operation Pigeon in his autobiography (vol. II I am recalling).


The Coast Guard experimented with a more peaceful application back in the
late Seventies.  A transparant plastic bowl was fitted to the underside
of a USCG helicopter based at CGAS Barbers Point, near Honolulu.  The
chamber was partitioned into three sections, each with a pigeon inside,
plus some kind of mechanism for detecting the movement of each pigeon's
head.  The idea was to use the birds to help spot floating objects during
search-and-rescue missions.

Although I was stationed at Barbers Point several years later and learned
of this experiment, I don't recall how successful it was.  What I do 
remember hearing about is the way the program terminated.  The helicopter
used for the test, a single-engine Sikorsky HH-52A, flamed out and had to
autorotate into Kaneohe Bay...



Geoff


-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM  + + + + + + + +     Menlo Park, California
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: rho@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Richard Ho)
Subject: Re: Spaghetti trees
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 07:59:26 GMT

In article <87098@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
>
>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.
>-- 
>Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu


This was done as an April Fools Joke by the BBC. I think it was on
"Nationwide" (if memory serves me), which was a nightly news-feature
show shown after the national news around 6pm.

I'm not old enough to have seen the original!  But I saw it repeated
on one of their anniversary shows about 8 years ago.

How those "Italian farmers" kept a straight face while "harvesting"
the spaghetti beats me ....

"Nationwide" did at least one April Fools feature every year ...
but I can't remember any others.   *shrug*

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
            |   email: rho@cs.stanford.edu        P.O. Box 6391
Richard Ho  |   Tel:   415-497 7198 (h)           Stanford University
            |          415-723 1809 (o)           CA 94309, U.S.A.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: tsmaster@media.mit.edu (David LeCompte)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 2 Sep 92 22:55:11 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory

In article <1992Aug29.173058.15215@husc3.harvard.edu> rocher@husc8.harvard.edu (Jean-Marc Rocher) writes:
>Does anyone
>have any similar stories of mistranslations in advertising (or anywhere else,
>for that matter)

Well, Coke has a few fun ones, the one that comes to mind is when Coke
was pushing "Coke adds life" in europe, and in some relatively eastern
europe-y area, sales weren't doing too well. They found out that what
the slogan really meant, as translated, was "Coke brings you back from
the grave."

All this filtered through "as I heard it" "a FOAF told me..." and all
the typical story filters.

					-Dave
-- 
Your Mom!       The Carburator!         |I'm not paid to HAVE opinions.
Your Shoes!     A gardenhose!           |
You got to got to got to got to ...     |This sig can be yours; send $15 to
SCUD MISSILE!!!	-"Scud Missile", Grunge |tsmaster@athena.mit.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 09:26:38 GMT

The ignorance of science portion of the post brings to mind a small portion
of the "health food" people who live in gross ignorance of the sciences.

There is a UL circulating that one of these self-appointed advocates of some
random life-style/herb prepation/regimen/whatever was able to "cleanse"
his body somehow in an abrupt manner that in essence claims he vomited solid
pieces of "heavy metals" weighing in at several ounces all at once.

obfactoid:  Some "health food" people stay away from meat for years and slowly
get B12 deficiency.  They have children who die soon after birth from the
complications of total B12 deficiency because unlike the parents, the infant
never had a B12 store to slowly use.  There is an ongoing debate as to whether
there is a "natural" B12 supply not derived from meat, and a "quest" for an
alleged vegetable source that is an obscure plant, etc.

cjl
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Safety Margins (was: Sinking libraries)
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:34:52 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Reply-To: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   

The instant classic "Why Buildings Stand Up" has just been joined by
"Why Buildings Fall Down," which the Book of the Month Club has yet
to send me.  If it's anywhere near as good as its predecessor, you've
GOTTA read it.

>>He said, "Why do you think engineers build things with such a large
>>safety factor?"

Partly because they're not sure of themselves, partly because they're
not sure of the contractor, inspectors, etc., partly because they're
not sure about maintenance, partly because they're not sure what users
will do, but mostly because "s. happens"!

Joe "Finite element analysis is ultimately checked by Darwin" Chew
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.computers
From: fetrow@carson.u.washington.edu (David Fetrow)
Subject: Re: Flash pix
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 02:43:01 GMT

In article <l9sq7cINNijt@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
>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.
>

 Of course; just crashing the machine with flashes isn't all that hard if
unsealed optic sensors are used here and there (e.g. end-of-tape, synch 
drives, etc.).
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
From: rocher@husc8.harvard.edu (Jean-Marc Rocher)
Date: 29 Aug 92 17:30:57 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <1992Aug28.010638.26158@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>
>Ted "what's Nova an acronym for?" Frank
>-- 

	Speaking of novas, that reminds me of a story from several years ago. It seems the marketing bigwigs at Chevy couldn't figure out why sales of the
Chevy Nova were so poor in Latin Amreica. Finally, an advertising executive who
had actually made it through high school realized that in Spanish, 'no va'
means 'doesn't go' (or perhaps just 'no go', I took French :) ). Does anyone
have any similar stories of mistranslations in advertising (or anywhere else,
for that matter)

					...Jean-Marc Rocher

"If we took the bones out it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?"

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: edd151s@nella10.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr I.P. Rayner)
Subject: Re: Monty Python's 3-sided ?
Reply-To: edd151s@nella10.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr I.P. Rayner)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 01:06:54 GMT


|>In article <m4wpbdsq@csv.warwick.ac.uk> csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:
|>>>
|>>>I heard it was a 3-sided record.  One side had a norm spiral groove with the
|>>>audio signal pressed into the vinyl.  The other side had two intertwined
|>>>grooves.  When you put the needle down you had a 50-50 chance of getting one
|>>>groove or the other.  So the second time you listened to the second side you
|>>>might hear a different second side.  Never saw or heard the album.
|>>
|>>It's definitely a true story: I've got the album. It's called "Matching Tie
|>>and Hankerchief", and if you play one side, you get one of two different
|>>tracks, depending on where you put the needle down.
|>>
|>
|>That's right. I had the 3-sided cassette.

Any truth to the rumour of a 3 sided CD release soon?

Ivan
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Abandoned/Booby Trapped Aircraft hangars
From: joltes@husc9.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes)
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:28:08 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

Joe Chew sez:

>People find corroded WW II garbage 
>in the darnedest places, some of it still live.  Even WW I stuff 
>turns up occasionally, though much more rarely (aerial bombing
>greatly increased the problem).

I may have posted this story before, but what the hey...

Cousteau was once asked to check out a point off Toulon where fishing boats
were snagging nets.  The fishermen had marked off the area with buoys, and a
sunken boat of some sort was clearly visible (around 80 ft down) from the
surface.  When he and his men went down, they found a German barge loaded 
with shiny aluminum cylinders with wires hanging off them.  They poked at the
stuff a bit while trying to find markings of some sort.

Then one of his men signalled to surface.  Once there, the guy said "I think
I know what they are.  They're German mines designed to detonate by pressure
or movement, and they're live!"  They vacated the area, checked his theory
against some captured publications, and found he was right.  There was no way
to disarm the mines safely, and no way to tow the barge out without incurring
explosive consequences.  Cousteau and his men were pretty shaky, remembering
how they'd been wiping debris off the mines while looking for markings.  They
estimated that there were around twenty tons of explosives on the barge, and
if they went off most of the dock area would disappear and every window in
town would shatter.  So they marked off a wide danger zone around the barges
and waited until seawater corroded the mechanisms.  The barge may still be
there.

--Derived from _The Silent World_, by Cousteau.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick "boulliabaise, anyone?" Joltes			joltes@husc.harvard.edu
Hardware & Networking Manager, Computer Services 	joltes@husc.bitnet 
Harvard University Science Center

"Mind you, not as bad as the night Archie Pettigrew ate some
sheep's testicles for a bet...God, that bloody sheep kicked him..."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jdahl@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Jared Dahl)
Subject: That'd be in the ICBM, Bob!
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 21:46:13 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Rochester

     Here's a good one from my childhood.

     If (North Dakota/Nebraska/Kansas) were to withdraw from
the United States and become their own nation, they would be
the third largest nuclear power on earth.

     Is this true?  And if so, do you think it still applies 
after the collapse in the USSR?

Jared "Nodak born and Nodak bred,
       if the bombs go off I'll be Nodak dead"  Dahl
-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
| Jared Dahl             | "My heart is human, my blood is boiling, | 
| Systems Programmer     |  my brain IBM"                           |
| IBM - Rochester, MN    |              -- STYX,  "Mr. Roboto"      |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Opinions expressed are mine, not IBM's.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jcopelan@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James c Copeland)
Subject: So, what IS the shelf life of Twinkies?
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 01:59:41 GMT

OK, I have heard that Twinkies could last for 20 years?  What is the  basis
for this claim?  What is the REAL shelf life of these things?
(I have a steak dinner riding on this one).

jc

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Jim Copeland                                            COPELAND.5@OSU.EDU |
|	If Atheism is a religion, then health is a disease.		     |
|					- Clark Adams			     |
From: schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Screaming Peaches and Terrified Eggs
Date: 25 Aug 92 15:38:53 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973

In article <mcirvin.714690726@husc8> mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:
>joltes@husc10.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes) writes:

>I remember reading in a Martin Gardner article that one of the
>telepathic-plant experimenters (it might have been Christopher Bird; 
>I don't think it was Peter Tompkins) retracted some of his claims 
>after repeating his results with pieces of Styrofoam in place of 
>the plants.  When asked why he excluded the possibility of
>conscious Styrofoam, he said "Because that's ridiculous."


I've always had my suspicions that Styrofoam was sentient, but I could
never prove it.  Could you please provide the details of the experiment
so that I could try to reproduce them and verify my theory?


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Schroeder	                |  Warning: prolonged exposure to this
schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov         |  .sig may cause retinal damage and 
Brookhaven National Laboratory  |  blistering skin rashes.
From: carlos@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Carlos Borges)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Driving tests
Date: 23 Aug 92 11:29:47 GMT
Organization: CS Dept., Memorial University of Newfoundland

amlsmith@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Andrew Smith) writes:
>At any rate, I have been tod of one test where the driver, who lives
>"aroud the bay" (Anywhere away from the <ahm. industrial centres).
>S/He drove up to the cop shop. The tester got in and told the new
>driver to go to the other end of town and stop. (1/2 mile...maybe 1)
>If the tester wanted to be mean, the new driver would be asked to
>turn around and drive back.

When people can't pass the test "in town" (The "urban" area of the
Province), they often take their second or third test "around the
bay".

I heard that a FOAF failed his motorcylcle test in St. John's, and
was advised to try the "bay" test.  He drove his bike to Harbour
Grace, where the driving evaluator (tester?) just said:

"Well, if you can drive to Harbour Grace from St. John's without
an accident, then you deserve a drivers licence - here" and the
FOAF was given a passing grade.

Miguel "Where the hell is Harbour Grace, Anyway?" Borges
-- 
   ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
  // C. Miguel Borges               A.K.A.                Carlos M. Borges //
 // an630@cleveland.freenet.edu                 carlos@garfield.cs.mun.ca //
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Subject: Re: Infertility!
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 12:48:41 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.134550.426@ecc.tased.edu.au> ecc_jim@ecc.tased.edu.au writes:
>Heard this from my teacher many years ago:
>
>A couple were infertile for many years. Doctors couldn't find a reason and just
>put it down to bad luck.
>
>The couple decide to see a different doctor, and while he is examining her he
>notices some dried semen in her belly button.
>
>I think we'd all agree this is *possible*, but did it happen?
>

Never heard of that particular variant, but I have attended a similar case
where the recipient orifice was the woman's urethra, rather than vagina...

Later,

The Wisp.
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Chris Williams <csuah@uk.ac.warwick.csv> aka <csuah@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
"Tony Greig in the slips, legs apart, waiting for a tickle"
                                      Brian Johnson (thanks to A. Simha 8^>)
From: dlyons@necis.UUCP (Dave Lyons)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Date: 26 Aug 92 19:52:42 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: NEC Information Systems, Acton, MA

In article <1992Aug25.113121.14999@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>, flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal) wrote:
> 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.
. . . 
> be FOUR corners.  Or even more unbelievably, does anyone have any evidence for
> the existence of The Flat Earth Society?

The Flat Earth Society does (or did as late as the '60s) exist.
They're precept is as you mention, that the world is indeed flat and
that if you go too far in any one direction, you'll fall off.
Supposedly, the governments of the world have foisted this 500 year
old "myth" of a round earth for their own nefarious purposes.  After
the first Apollo space mission in the '60s took photos of the earth as
a globe several Flat Earthers were interviewed and some of them said
something to the effect of "We'll have to re-assess our views in light
of these pictures".  Of course most said it was trick (or doctored)
photography (don't remember which) and that it proved nothing.  I was
pretty young then but I remember having a real giggle over the
explainations they gave.  I'd ask them to rebut here but they probably
don't believe in computers either.
                                            -- Dave --
-- 
***************************************************************************
DaveJ Lyons       DoD #0633         dlyons@necis.nec.com  (603)878-2567 BBS
Opinions expressed are mine. My company doesn't even know I'm here (Shhhh!)
***************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 06:18:51 GMT

In article <1992Aug30.054256.6400@midway.uchicago.edu>
thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
I wrote:
>>I am planning a Bay Area ACM/SIGGRAPH meeting on this topic in the near
>>future.  It will be an outgrowth of color copier technology (we'll
>>probably hold it at Xerox PARC).  I also plan to invite the Secret Service,
>>a company which I know which makes money recognizer machines (they have
>>plates), and a few other people.
>>
>>Watch for it in comp.graphics or ba.seminars.  Probable date: January.
>
>How much will it cost?  Can you pay cash?  Can you wait until after the
>seminar to pay?

We in the Bay Area ACM/SIGGRAPH have tried to pride ourselves in having
free meetings. 8^)  (excepting those once yearly meetings which we cater)
Just like the old Homebrew Computer Club which also held its meetings
at SLAC [before we started having heavy A-V requirements].
But if you wish to donate cash (small unmarked bills with no sequence
numbering, plain brown paper bag), the SIG will take it.

To the other post who noted the Nova, this topic has been under our
consideration for four years (based on the Urban Legend of color Xerography),
but we thought the computer erotica/porn topic was a more important topic.
We have even far more interesting topics planned in the next two years.
I'm Program Chair.  Meetings WILL be Good.  They will be awesome (mostly).

>Ted "hoping for free samples" Frank

We'd like to have "samples," too.  But for slightly different purposes.

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
  Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
  {uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
Second Favorite email message: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 3 days
A Ref: Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, vol. 1, G. Polya