HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hougen@focus.csl.uiuc.edu (Darrell Roy Hougen)
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
Subject: Re: GPA/grades
Date: 8 Jan 1993 17:03:22 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NNTP-Posting-Host: focus.csl.uiuc.edu

etaylor@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Euan R. Taylor) writes:

< What I want to know is what % of students get 4.5, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5,
< GPA's

Most universities in the USA opperate on a 4 point schedule so that no
one can get 4.5.  Some, such as the University of Illinois, opperate
on a 5 point scale.  Others opperate on the 3 point scale (I've
heard).  So, you'll have to take this into account when making
comparisons.

Also, grades vary from university to university and the meaning of the
grades varies with the quality of the university and the quality of
individual colleges and departments within each university.

It might make more sense to compare, say, Cambridge with MIT, rather
than trying to compare all US universities with all those in the UK.

Darrell R. Hougen

Xref: sparky sci.research:1397 sci.research.careers:1713
From: rgep@emu.pmms.cam.ac.uk (Richard Pinch)
Newsgroups: sci.research,sci.research.careers
Subject: Re: grades/GPA
Date: 8 Jan 93 11:38:16 GMT
Organization: Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Cambridge

In article <C0IB22.J5D@ccu.umanitoba.ca> 
etaylor@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Euan R. Taylor) writes:
>What I want to know is what % of students ...
>... get a first, upper second, lower second, third
>in the british system.

The classes are supposed to be based on standards rather than percentages
so the numbers can vary from year to year, across subject and across
universities.

>Second question, of the people who apply to Oxford/Cambridge in the UK,
>what proportion get in, and how does this compare to other Universities?

It depends on subject but for undergraduate places Oxford and Cambridge
average about 2.5 applicants per place.

Richard Pinch
Newsgroups: sci.research
From: rsherme@diamond.nswc.navy.mil (Russel Shermer (R43))
Subject: FYI #3:  Russia Will Collaborate With US on the SSC
Keywords: science, russian collaboration, ssc.
Organization: NAVSWC DD White Oak Det.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:55:31 GMT

Posted for:
Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
Contact:  Audrey T. Leath
Phone: (202) 332-9662
Email: fyi@aip.org



Russia Will Collaborate With US on the SSC

FYI No. 3, January 8, 1993

On January 6, the Department of Energy and the Russian Federation
Ministry of Atomic Energy signed an agreement to collaborate on the
Superconducting Super Collider.  According to Secretary of Energy
Admiral James Watkins, the Russians will help with the "design,
engineering and production of two of the project's booster
accelerators."

Under the agreement, six Russian labs have signed
laboratory-to-laboratory pacts with the SSC Lab in Waxahachie,
Texas.  The Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk
will design, engineer and build conventional magnets for the SSC's
Low Energy Booster.  The Radiotechnical Institute in Moscow will
build quadrupole, or focusing, magnets for the Medium Energy
Booster.  A DOE press release on the collaboration says that "these
agreements represent a potential total savings to the US of more
than $100 million as an offset to the project's baseline cost."

Other Russian labs will collaborate with the SSC Lab on
experimental detectors, including the Institute for High Energy
Physics in Protvino, the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, the
Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna, and the Institute of
Theoretical and Experimental Physics in Moscow.

To pacify critics of the $8.3 billion megaproject, DOE has promised
that a significant fraction of SSC funding will come from foreign
sources.  Both India and China have already joined collaborations.
India is working on the design and fabrication of beam-line
transfer magnets, correction magnets and radio-frequency equipment.
The Institute for High Energy Physics in Beijing has agreed to
build the cavity-coupled Linac, part of the SSC's linear
accelerator.  While DOE has been actively wooing Japan for several
years, no agreements have yet been announced.

The SSC went through some troubled times this summer when, to prove
its budget-cutting ability, the House voted 232-181 to terminate
it.  However, the Senate and House-Senate conferees both approved
the project, and the House finally agreed to fiscal year 1993
funding of $517 million.

What is in store for the SSC for fiscal 1994 is not clear.  While
President-elect Clinton has said he supports the collider, Vice
President-elect Gore voted against it in the fiscal 1992 budget
(Gore did not vote on it this year.)

It will probably be mid-March until the Clinton Administration
provides the details of its plans for the SSC in its fiscal 1994
budget submission to Congress. While the White House is supposed to
submit a budget in February, Clinton is expected to ask for an
extension.


###############
Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
Contact:  Audrey T. Leath
(202) 332-9662
##END##########


Newsgroups: sci.research
From: etaylor@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Euan R. Taylor)
Subject: grades/GPA
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 23:10:49 GMT

Dear all I am looking for stats on the north american GPA system and the
british grading system, for university degrees.
What I want to know is what % of students get 4.5, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5,
GPA's and similarly what % get a first, upper second, lower second, third
in the british system.
I know there is an "official" conversion system but from the little I know
about the percentages I suspect the simple official system is really not
that meaningful, qnd I would like to find out what the percentages are so
I can judge for myself.
Second question, of the people who apply to Oxford/Cambridge in the UK,
what proportin get in, and how does this compare to other Universities?

Any info appreciated.

etaylor@ccu.umanitoba.ca
From: mbock@bach.udel.edu (Michael Bock)
Subject: current meters
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 19:59:31 GMT

I have been using thermistor flow meters for some time now with moderate
success.  The problems with thermisors are not insurmountable but I am
looking into other alternatives.  The alternatives should be applicable
to either field or lab use and measure velocities on a small scale for a
long period of time (minute to hours) in unsteady flows.  Acoustic and
laser doppler meters and eletromagnetic current meters seems to be viable
solutions but I have had trouble getting specific information such as
suppliers and prices.  If you have information that could help me in my
quest I would appreciate an email message, please don't post to the net as
I am terrible about reading news with any regularity.
			Thank You
			Michael Bock
			mbock@brahms.udel.edu 
PS. micro propeller meters could be another
alternative

Newsgroups: sci.research
From: rsherme@diamond.nswc.navy.mil (Russel Shermer (R43))
Subject: A few notes concerning the FYI's.
Organization: NAVSWC DD White Oak Det.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:41:20 GMT


	Hello,

I've been at the Dynamics Days conference in Tempe over the last week
so the FYI postings have been delayed.  Also, please note that the 
numbering has been reset to "1".

For those who are unfamiliar with FYI, it is produced by Dick Jones
and Audrey Leath of the American Institute of Physics.  Please send
any questions, comments and requests directly to them at fyi@aip.org.

	---Russ
Newsgroups: sci.research
From: mica@world.std.com (mitchell swartz)
Subject: cold fusion seminar
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Distribution: ne
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 19:39:10 GMT




                        COLD FUSION  

 A Massachusetts Institute of Technology IAP Lecture Program
       January 16, 1993   Saturday 9AM-4PM   Room  6-120 

   Cold fusion is the production of excess power from
 electrochemical cells, typically involving heavy water with
 palladium, or light water with nickel. From these systems and
 from metals in gases, nuclear products and radiation have
 also been reported, such as tritium, neutrons, helium-4, and
 charged particles.  As the literature of cold fusion expands,
 the startling phenomena are of continuing interest to
 experimentalists, theoreticians, inventors, and
 entrepreneurs.  In this day of lectures, discussions, and
 videos, we will focus on the history, science, technology,
 and business of cold fusion.

9:00    Registration             - Background Videos
9:30    Introduction, Overview   - Dr. Mitchell Swartz
9:45    A Brief History of Cold Fusion

                   Theory and Experiment
                                 - Dr. Eugene Mallove
10:45      Survey of Palladium and Nickel Systems
 Isotope Loading  - Dr. Mitchell Swartz
 Theories         - Professor Peter Hagelstein (MIT)
 Calorimetry      - Professor Vesco Noninski (Fitchburg State)
 Input Power      - Isidor Straus
 Panel discussions: findings, measurement and definitions of
                   potentials, input and excess power.

12:30                   *****LUNCH *****
         Video Tapes of Boiling Cold Fusion Cells
                 - Drs. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons

       Looking Ahead: Technology, Politics and Beyond
1:30 Implications for Space Exploration - Dr. Eugene Mallove
     Commercialization of Cold Fusion  
                               - Hal Fox, Fusion Info. Center
     Patent Perspective        - Attorney Robert Rines
     Enterprise and Innovation - Richard Shyduroff
     Panel Discussion          - All
4:00    Open Discussions, Planning for the 1st "Heat Off"
        Contest, Summary
_____________________________________________________________
Information on pre-registration for the meeting:  contact 
  Dr. Mitchell Swartz, 617-239-8383 [mica@world.std.com]

    * IAP is the Independent Activities period at MIT
 $3 registration, refreshment fee ($5 non-MIT Community)
From: gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: Limits of Science
Distribution: world
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 07:55:17 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents

No problem, Mr Tobis. Just testing.

After all these years I still find it astonishing just how thoroughly
and rapidly a discussion deteriorates into chattering gibberish once
it is taken far enough beyond certain limits of acceptibility.

It is beyond that point, as I had warned you, that the edge of the
world is encountered. Otherwise known as your territorial boundaries.
The behaviour you now exhibit is no different at all from that of a
chimpanzee or any other primate taken suddenly from its home range.

I suggest again, fellow, dragons be there. I can take you to face
them at your leisure. Just send your cheque, and I shall alert our
people to prepare something. How frightening, or how simply absurd
it will finally get just depends on you.

Prof. McCarthy was far more witty and clever about it.

Gil

Newsgroups: sci.environment
From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
Subject: Re: Education and the Environment by Gregory A. Smith
Organization: Johns Hopkins University CS Dept.
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 01:29:01 GMT

In article <726385648snx@tillage.DIALix.oz.au> gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick) writes:
>Marvellous, wonderful. You see, guys, a flame war is not necessary at
>all; there are some real scholars out there just aching for a chance
>to strut their stuff to our mutual edification.
>Let's see what sort of momentum can now be maintained . . .

Except you forgot something.

What about the argument that you bolstered with the bad etymology?  Do you
now admit your position is weaker than you had thought, since one of the
pieces of evidence for it is bogus?
--
"On the first day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Leftover Turkey!
On the second day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Turkey Casserole
    that she made from Leftover Turkey.
[days 3-4 deleted] ...  Flaming Turkey Wings! ...
   -- Pizza Hut commercial (and M*tlu/A*gic bait)

Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu, arromdee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu)
From: yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: Re: plutonium arrives in Japan
Date: 8 Jan 93 16:17:50 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In article <82940@ncratl.AtlantaGA.NCR.COM> mwilson@ncratl.AtlantaGA.NCR.COM (Mark Wilson) writes:
>In <1993Jan7.203118.17716@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> jgacker@news.gsfc.nasa.gov (James G. Acker) writes:
>
>|Mark Wilson (mwilson@ncratl.AtlantaGA.NCR.COM) wrote:
>
>|: For the umpteenth time.  The plutonium in question is not suitable for
>|: making bombs.
>|: Mark.Wilson@AtlantaGA.NCR.com
>
>|	I think the other countries believe Japan possesses the
>|technological capability to reprocess the large amounts they are importing
>|into weapons-grade plutonium.
>
>If that's what they are afraid of then they are even dumber than I thought.

Why should we give credence to your claims, when specific references
from the scientific literature have been posted to show otherwise?



From: dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: Re: plutonium arrives in Japan
Date: 7 Jan 93 19:46:05 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester

In article <82351@ncratl.AtlantaGA.NCR.COM> mwilson@ncratl.AtlantaGA.NCR.COM (Mark Wilson) writes:

>| more complicated.   For example, other countries in Asia have
>| expressed suspiciion about Japanese intentions about nuclear weapons.
	
> For the umpteenth time.  The plutonium in question is not suitable for
> making bombs.


This is simply wrong.  The material is not as good as weapons grade,
but it can be used to make weapons.  From H. A. Feiveson,
"Proliferation Resistant Nuclear Fuel Cycles", in Ann. Rev. Energy,
1979, pages 357-394:




-- 


yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu

Newsgroups: sci.environment
From: constant@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Tino)
Subject: Reactor Embrittlement (was: Nuclear Power and Climate Change
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 93 06:08:14 GMT

In article <1993Jan7.025029.20758@nuchat.sccsi.com> kevin@nuchat.sccsi.com (Kevin Brown) writes:
>>
>>This would not affect the projected lifespan of current reactors, and
>>might not provide an accurate indication of how weld points or different
>>topologies  or larger chunks of metal will behave in situ.
>
>What's the current state of university research into nuclear power?  It
>seems to me that a university with a nuclear reactor would be a perfect
>candidate to perform a number of the required experiments needed to get
>the answers to these questions.

The problem with performing experiments like this is that you have to 
duplicate the neutron flux and the time frame.  University reactors aren't 
able to replicate the flux, the thermal cycling, and the time frame needed
to get accurate results. You'd have to go to INEL and try a test reactor.

Tino
-- 
     "Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders..." - J.D.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Purdue University School of Nuclear Engineering
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.environment
From: drela@athena.mit.edu (Mark Drela)
Subject: Re: ELECTRIC VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING AND DESIGN COMP.
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 00:24:19 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.081331.9435@news.ysu.edu>, ah995@yfn.ysu.edu (T. Turner) writes:
|> 
|>     ELECTRIC VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING AND DESIGN COMPETITION
|>        .
|>        .
|>     According to Baker, the electric vehicle presents an exciting new
|>     technology that will create jobs and improve the environment. "We
|>     have the technology to make a dependable, practical, environmentally
|>     sound electric vehicle," he said. "The challenge now is to prepare
|>     our infrastructure to support it."

Is the "environmentally sound" claim for real?  Anyone know of any reputable
studies which seriously compare the total environmental impact of the electric 
versus gasoline car?

It seems that if the electric car is recharged from a fossil-fuel electric power 
station, it will create MORE pollution, not less.  You have to generate more 
electrical energy to overcome the additional battery charge/discharge and electric 
motor losses.  On the other hand, the power station can perhaps be made cleaner
than the car engine.  Better yet, it can be far away and hence be someone else's 
pollution problem :-)

Mark Drela   MIT Aero & Astro
Newsgroups: sci.environment,sci.econ
From: samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu (S. A. Modena)
Subject: Re: Entropy (was Prey and predator biomass)
Organization: Crop Science Dept., NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 07:05:37 GMT

In article <1992Dec30.190812.11305@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> tobis@skool.ssec.wisc.edu (Michael Tobis) writes:
>
>While energy conservation is a purely thermodynamic principle, entropy
>(as Claude Shannon's work showed) is actually a broader concept in information
>theory, and the thermodynamic application is really only a special case.
>........
>
>Does anyone know of any more sophisticated efforts by real statisticians to 
>apply the information theory concept of entropy to economics or ecology?
>
>mt
>

Maximum Entropy in Action
Oxford: Clarion Press 1991
Q370 .M382  1991
      A series of essays celebrating significant progress in certain
	applied areas (physics and others...) due to Jayne's Maximum
	Entropy Principle, an extension of Claude Shannon informational
	theoretic entropy.


Entropy Optimization Principle with Applications
Kapur, Jagat
Boston: Academic Press 1992
Q370 .K37
    This one covers the appropriateness of Shannon's Entropy measure,
	shows how Jayne's Maximum Entropy extension allows independent
	derivation of virtually all statistical distributions in
	use in physics, and goes beyond....included applied problems
	in areas like urban planning and monetary affairs (stock market
	prediction).

Both books are are readable, but don't hesitate to assume that you are
a mathematician.

Steve
---
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     In person:  Steve Modena     AB4EL                           |
|     On phone:   (919) 515-5328                                   |
|     At e-mail:  nmodena@unity.ncsu.edu                           | 
|                 samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu                |
|                 [ either email address is read each day ]        |
|     By snail:   Crop Sci Dept, Box 7620, NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
         Lighten UP!  It's just a computer doing that to you.    (c)
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
From: gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: "Sub-Species" (was: Mt. Graham: UPitt Protest)
Distribution: world
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 00:42:20 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents


In article <Ligon-110193075515@3.1.100.11> Ligon@macgw1.ge.com writes:

 > Yep.  There are lots of good reasons to recognize and preserve "sub
 > species". There are also lots of good reasons for  environmental activists
 > to stop dealing in half-truths in order to garner enhanced public support.
 > It is high time we stopped calling tiny little clans "endanged species" and
 > started admitting that they are only "sub-species".  There are literally
 > thousands of issues that need to be addressed if we are going to preserve
 > the earth as a nice place for humans to live. How can we even begin to make
 > realistic priorities if we can't even get the facts straight. 

What is going on here, I think, is a sincere effort to conceptualise
and vocalise extremely complex environmental situations. Perhaps the
real problem lies in the language and pedagogy we have available to
us, yes?

Do I grate against the idea of a single objective environment, or the
limitations of one single language within the confines of one specific
scientific tradition for small reason? Not.

How about thinking a little more on developing more complex discursive
structures which will do some justice to the reality being referred to
here? There are not only "winning" points to be made, but ambiguities,
uncertainties and contradictions to be negotiated . . .

Gil
From: yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: Re: Sheep in Organizations
Date: 4 Jan 93 06:02:31 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In article <725951283snx@tillage.DIALix.oz.au> gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick) writes:
>There is no "ideological committment" as you suggest; merely a report
>on the facts of the matter as they pertain out there in the real world

Your theory of land ownership is, like any other theory of land ownership,
quite far from a "fact". The fact here is that under US law the government
"owns" much of Alaska. 

>in response to your petty and wholly uninformed nit-picking against a
>plea for land justice arising in Alaska. There is plenty of scope for
>a sound and workable compromise, were you willing to pursue it.

The US wilderness has been compromised pretty much out of existence. 
Currently, large parts of Alaska remain off limits to development. This
leaves an immensity of acreage in private hands and under the ownership
of native corporations in Alaska itself, not to mention the rest of the
United states. There is no advantage to the general public if we allow
the destruction of what little wilderness is left, and we there are
intangible benefits for most of us otherwise, even if we never visit
our lands up north.  The plea for auctions or giveaways of public
land is a plea for public charity. I'm all for a good social welfare system,
but, I don't believe that it should be implemented by tossing away our
precious remaining wild places.


-- 


yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu