HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,alt.discrimination
Subject: Re: Biological Sex Differences? ("Women only" excusable ?)
From: <RIPBC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Monday, 14 Sep 1992 07:59:57 EDT
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center

-From: revpk@cellar.org (Brian 'Rev P-K' Siano)
-
-        Or, Either or Both are flawed yardsticks for mathematical
-proficiency, with different contexts and biases. (For example, taking the
-SATS requires answering straightforward questions, and offers multiple
-choices; using math skills in a classroom context requires decisions as to
-the applied math, and application of the math to potentially real-world
-issues.) Such would indicate that it would be unwise to make ANY sweeping
-generalizations regarding sex differences in mathematical ability on the
-basis of _either_ piece of evidence.
-
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Brian "Rev. P-K" Siano                                  revpk@cellar.org

Yes, but this passion for `all the evidence to be in' can itself be
miused.  If I think of the lives of Ramanujan or Zariski (both of whom
have been the subjects of recent biographies)  then it is hard for me
to believe that the typical American white female is disadvantaged compared
to them.  Ramnujan had no decent Math training.  Zariski suffered serious
problems as a Jew in Russia, Italy and the the US.  But that did not
prevent them from following their passion.  Bach used to walk a distance of
some 30 miles each way to hear Buxtehude play.   Of course women have also
achieved similar things.  E.g. Ms. Bhutto's becoming PM of Pakistan
against heavy odds,  Jean Rhys did some wonderful writing while she was an
alcoholic and led a remarkably unsettled life.  George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
even went to the extreme of writing under a male name!!  Joyce Carol
Oates seems to churn out a first class book practically every three months!

So give the enormous achievements of both sexes when they really want to
do something, we have a right to say, where are the female achievements in
Math?  There are Excellent women mathematicians amd theoretical computer
scientists, but they seem to be in a minority, for all the encouragement
from NSF and feminists and liberals and - for that matter - the undersigned.
So why not accept. as a TENTATIVE comclusion that men appear to have a
passion for Math more often but that we are duty bound to encourage any
woman who shows an interest and talent for Math?
Why can't we be rational and humane rather than political and divisive?

Rohit Parikh
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: IMPORTANT QUESTION
From: kmagnacca@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Date: 7 Sep 92 17:47:01 EDT
Organization: Wesleyan University

   Okay, I've been reading talk.origins and would like to settle something. 
Would all biologists who read this please send me an email message on whether
you support evolution or Creationism?  I'm not making any judgments so no
diatribes please; just yes or no.  I'm trying to validate some of the
statements made in discussion so this is somewhat important.

Thanks,

Karl Magnacca
kmagnacca@eagle.wesleyan.edu
From: Marc.Cormier@nautical.r-node.gts.org (Marc Cormier)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Job searching
Date: 15 Sep 92 02:25:13 GMT
Reply-To: Marc.Cormier@nautical.r-node.gts.org (Marc Cormier)
Organization: Public Access UNIX Information System
X-Posting-Software: UnixBBS 1.03 S/N 120921


  
    I am not quite sure if this conference is the appropriate one, but I
have been asked by a friend about the possibility of finding a Job in North
America in the field of Molecular Modeling. The person I am enquiring for is
a graduate of the universities of Bordeaux I and Bordeaux II in France. He
has also worked at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
for the University of Bordeaux II. His latest work has been in the
Pharmaceutical Sciences center, where he was involved in the "Differntiation
of alpha1&2 Adrenoreceptors agonists using receptor mapping techniques". He
is interested in openings in Molecular Modeling. Anyone with any leads would
be welcome to send info by E-mail. Thank you in advance for your
consideration.

Marc Cormier

--
Marc Cormier, user of the UnixBBS System @ r-node.gts.org
E-Mail: Marc.Cormier@nautical.r-node.gts.org

R-node Public Access Unix/BBS - Free Access to the World thru Usenet
                 Data: 1-416-249-5366 (3 Lines)
     Shell Accounts Available - Contact marc@r-node.gts.org
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,alt.discrimination
From: titmas@chdasic.sps.mot.com (Eric Titmas)
Subject: Re: Biological Sex Differences? ("Women only" excusable ?)
Organization: SPS
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:07:10 GMT

In article <1992Sep9.215226.5884@access.usask.ca>, bickis@skmath3 (M. Bickis) writes:
|> appear.  Although males outperform females on the math SAT, this sex
|> difference does not carry through in university performance.  So

|> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>bickis@math.usask.ca<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
|> Mik Bickis       \,,,       .*#*.  \    University of Saskatchewan
|> Department of        \,,,  ^\\|//^  ```\   Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
|> Mathematics & Statistics \   )|(        ```\   Canada      S7N 0W0
|> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<S|A|S|K|A|T|C|H|E|W|A|N|>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

My university experience was that boys outperformed girls in all math classes
and that a lower percentage of girls remained as we progressed to higher levels.

Since the overwhelming percentage of mathematicians,  physical scientists,  and
engineers are male,  on what do you base your assertion?

-- 
Eric Titmas      Motorola ASIC       titmas@chdasic.sps.mot.com               

It is impossible to take in more money than Congress can spend.  - Thomas Sowell
From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo)
Subject: Re: Sexual Selection
Organization: TECHbooks --- Public Access UNIX --- (503) 220-0636
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 12:19:58 GMT

In article <josh.716172183@mowgli> josh@cqs.washington.edu (Josh Hayes) writes:

>And this should serve as a warning against interpreting every little thing
>as necessarily "adaptive"; we should be very cautious in telling what
>Lewontin and Gould call "adaptive fairy tales". They're fun, of course,
>but nature never promised to be fun. Why is some trait the way it is?
>Sometimes the correct answer is "why not?".

Since when did falsifiable theories become "fairy tales"?  What rubbish
rhetoric.  "Why not?" is a copout, a symptom of the fear of knowledge that 
is the subject of another rather unfortunate thread.  If sexual selection
isn't explained in terms of embryology, adaptation, or both, then it
isn't explained, and we shouldn't pretend that it is.


-- 
szabo@techbook.COM  	  Tuesday, November third  ##  Libertarian  $$  vote
Tuesday  ^^ Libertarian  --  change  **  choice && November 3rd @@Libertarian
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Preserving insects/arachnids
Date: 8 Sep 92 22:08:44 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <15123@borg.cs.unc.edu>, bell@cezanne.cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell) writes:
> I would like to take a few live insects and/or spiders and "off" them in
> such a way that they maintain natural poses, rather than curling up into
> little balls.  

Freezing works well.  Either fast (liquid nitrogen) or slowly in the household
freezer.  Or look at Knudsen's _Biological Techniques_ under "relaxing
fluids" before killing inverts.

> Now, if I can kill them in such a way that they stay in
> the natural pose, I can just pour liquid resin over them which should
> presumably preserve them rigidly until the next ice age.  

Couple of minor problems: water in the insect bodies will diffuse out
into the resin making it cloudy, and air bubbles may be trapped by 
tiny hairs, making the specimen cloudy.

You'll need to dry these critters in an alcohol series, then into a
polar organic solvent, then into solvent+resin, then into resin, OR
you'll need to air dry them thoroughly OR you'll need to freeze-dry
them OR critical-point dry them.

As to the air bubble problem, that can often be resolved by  putting
specimen + resin into fairly high vacuum, then adding the catalyst
after the vacuum has been held for a fair length of time.

Personally, as a cheapskate former high school biology teacher, now
a cheapskate university biology teacher, I recommend buying prepared
specimens from some outfit like Carolina Biological.  _Much_ fewer
headaches!  Probably cheaper in the long run, too.

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI
From: mrh@centerline.com (Mike Huben)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: cells inside of cells?
Date: 15 Sep 1992 18:56:28 GMT
Organization: CenterLine Software, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: 140.239.2.36

In article <1992Sep15.181239.5679@das.harvard.edu> love@geophysics.harvard.edu writes:
>
>Are there any cells that live inside of other cells? 
>(Not counting viruses!)

I recall reading about quite a few, but the only one that comes to mind is
algae in giant clams.

Mike Huben
Newsgroups: sci.bio
From: zador-anthony@CS.YALE.EDU (Tony Zador)
Subject: Re: cells inside of cells?
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 20:16:23 GMT

In article <89053@netnews.upenn.edu> barkdoll@cattell.psych.upenn.edu (Edwin Barkdoll) writes:
>In article <1992Sep15.181239.5679@das.harvard.edu> love@geophysics.harvard.edu writes:
>Various intracellular parasites - salmonella, brucella, rickettsia,
				^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Brucella and Salmonella are facultatively intracellular, ie they can
thrive both intra- and extracellularly. 
-- 
Tony Zador
zador@cs.yale.edu
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Uv light on plants (question)
Date: 8 Sep 92 22:11:32 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Sep8.023904.22977@dragon.acadiau.ca>, 901371d@dragon.acadiau.ca (Danny Nathin DiDio) writes:
>  I'm now growing a small plant at home and I have a ultra-violet
> lamp that has two frequences.I was wondering if I could enhance
> the growth by using this device and if so how.If it depends on the type
> of plant or other details please email me and we could discuss it.
> 
Plants don't use UV light for photosynthesis.  The wavelengths they 
mainly use are in visible blue and red.  See almost any college botany
or biology text for details.

On the other hand, UV does a dandy job of dimerizing DNA bases, resulting
in mutations.  That's why skin cancer rates go up with increased UV exposure--
mutations resulting in cancer.

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,sci.misc,talk.politics.misc
From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Subject: Re: Note on Smithsonian psych. exhibit
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 16:02:58 GMT

In article <7SEP199208553539@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov> packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) writes:
>
>As for interpretation of more remote events, I'm working from
>the same data as everybody else -- the news media -- so that
>there would seem to be no reason for anybody to pay attention to
>me. I'm betting, though, that I'm correctly identifying things
>that don't "add up." As such, I'm not trying to get people to
>=believe= my interpretation any particular event so much as I'm
>trying to get them to question their own assumptions about the
>news. 

Aren't you supposed to be in Bosnia around now?

Also, you might convince more people that the events portrayed
in, say, the NYT don't "add up" if you present something more
substansive than a grainy photo you think is funny looking.
I haven't looked at Lies of Our Times (LOOT) recently, but I
recall they present their doubts through such things as European
news sources, etc.  A bit more substansive.


--
"I wish I could vote for you a hundred times"
"You can . . . just kidding."
			-- _Bob Roberts_
Xref: sparky sci.psychology:3768 sci.med:17361
From: rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu (David Rind)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,sci.med
Subject: Re: Perkadine
Date: 14 Sep 92 13:29:53 GMT
Followup-To: sci.psychology
Organization: Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston Mass., USA

In article <92258.040012IO10677@MAINE.MAINE.EDU> IO10677@MAINE.MAINE.EDU
 (Douglas M. Howell) writes:
>
>    Pardon if I've misspelled the drug's name.  I'm curious to find out
>some information reguarding this drug.  As far as I know, it is given to
>women who experience difficulty in child birth.  The drug supposedly can
>produce mild to severe depression in both the child and mother.

I suspect that the drug you are referring to is Percodan -- a combination
of a narcotic (oxycodone) and aspirin.  I would not expect it to be
used during childbirth, though, since the aspirin could lead to 
excess bleeding.  Narcotics during childbirth can cause *respiratory*
depression in the child and mother -- this has nothing to do with
psychiatric depression.
-- 
David Rind
rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu
From: hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath)
Subject: Re: Fast Anxiety Cure (was Re: Phobias, NLP, etc (was Re: Xanax)
Keywords: NLP   NeuroLinguistic Programming
Organization: The Cat Factory
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 18:52:10 GMT


If you want to do any kind of juggling, I recommed the book "Juggling for
the Complete Klutz." It worked for me.  BTW, they recommend practicing
with non-round bean bags (three come with the book) because they don't
roll away, and under things, when dropped.

Didn't do a thing for my anxiety (what little there is), but I did learn
to juggle three objects pretty well.

[Usual disclaimer ... no relation to the book or authors ... no royalties
to me ... etc. etc.]

The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@polymath.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp                   Turn the rascals out!
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (310) 450-9111, x2483     No incumbents in '92!
Santa Monica, CA  90405
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,sci.med
From: dlb@fanny.wash.inmet.com (David Barton)
Subject: Re: NLP  (WAS Re: Xanax
Organization: Intermetrics Inc., Washington Division, USA
	<16425@pitt.UUCP> <1992Sep10.191614.21818@ncsu.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 15:34:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep10.191614.21818@ncsu.edu> echyatt@eos.ncsu.edu
(EDWARD CRAIG HYATT) writes:

   In article <16425@pitt.UUCP> geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks) writes:
   >In article <1992Sep10.003648.19808@news.Hawaii.Edu> lady@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Lee Lady) writes:
   >OK, send me the words to cure the bee phobia.  I don't know if it
   >is an actual phobia, but someone I know (and many of you do too)
   >goes wild if a bee (or anything looking similar) starts buzzing
   >around him. We'll test it out and report back to you.
   >
   >
   Me, too.  Seriously, I'd love to try the technique as an experiment
   on myself.  I am irrationally afraid of wasps, I think because as
   a very young child I threw something at a mud dauber nest and got
   a face full of them.  In one of my classes last semester, a wasp
   was flying around the room at ceiling height, and I truly thought
   that it was "buzzing" me, specifically.  It's really weird to
   know conciously that the wasp *wasn't* flying toward just me, but
   still to be so scared.  I started sweating and just got up and
   walked out of the class.  I hope the technique works on both wasps
   and bees.

Can we step on this idea that NLP is a series of "magic words", or
even single techniques, that always work in all cases?  I don't know
where some of the posters here (this does NOT include either of the
two posters above; however, their questions reflect an attitude that
seems quite common), but in my classes it is known and acknowledged
that some procedures work better with some people than with others,
and that adjustments have to be made accordingly.

This, of course, is one reason that clinical procedures are hard to
test for efficacy in isolation.  Even peer reviewed articles (not just
on NLP, but on many therapy techniques) tend to relate case histories
rather than legitimate studies over a large population.  Eliminating
variations tends to eliminate the effectiveness of many clinical
techniques.

In any scientific discipline, individual effects are extremely
suspect.  This leads to a serious gulf between clinical practice and
support by researchers and scientific studies.

If we (the "NLP droids") keep giving the impression that running
through a procedure is all that is necessary to produce 100% relief,
it is no wonder that the result is derision from the scientificly
literate on these news groups.

This note originated in sci.psychology; I am cross-posting to sci.med
since an NLP discussion has been going there.  If you reply in one
context or another, please set your newsgroups line accordingly.

					Dave Barton
					dlb@hudson.wash.inmet.com
Xref: sparky sci.psychology:3749 sci.misc:1608 talk.politics.misc:45062
From: elg@elgamy.sccsi.com (Eric Lee Green)
Date: 11 Sep 92 20:27:54 CDT
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,sci.misc,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Note on Smithsonian psych. exhibit
Distribution: world
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home

From article <18oaa3INNc4k@smaug.West.Sun.COM>, by dab@ism.isc.com (David A. Butterfield):
> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>>   > As silly as it may seem, people DO follow authority, even when
>>   > authority is obviously silly.
>>
>>Think about what would happen if people didn't automatically obey road
>>signs without understanding why they're there.
>
> Think about what would happen if people automatically obeyed authority
> symbols without understanding why they're there.

Then you'd come up with the United States of America, land of the sheep and
home of George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Seriously -- does this need any further discussion? Aren't lemming-like
business dress and teenage fads proof enough that people semi-automatically
obey authority even in the lack of any rational reason? What about the pet
rock? Sheesh.

--
 Eric Lee Green  elg@elgamy.sccsi.com         Dodson Elementary
 (713) 437-6908  uunet!nuchat!elgamy!elg      Houston, TX
                "Kids are kids, no matter what"
From: ohumukin@spectra.com (Kawika Ohumukini)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: NLP
Keywords: NLP   NeuroLinguistic Programming
Date: 11 Sep 92 00:30:53 GMT
Organization: Spectragraphics Corporation

In article <18obgvINNc72@smaug.West.Sun.COM> dab@ism.isc.com (David A. Butterfield) writes:
>echyatt@eos.ncsu.edu (EDWARD CRAIG HYATT) writes:
>>2.  If I draw from memory, I often come up with a "schematic" representation
>>    of the object I'm drawing.  The drawing is proportional and has all the
>>    major components, but non-functional details are missing.
>
>Now this is interesting.  If you've been following my messages the last
>few days you've noted that I have very poor visual skills, and I don't
>remember things visually.  However, if I have to try to draw something,
>I am able to do what you describe above -- drawing a schematic picture.
>But I don't draw the picture from an internal picture.  The components
>I draw are the ones I found meaningful enough to remember and store
>information about.  The information feels like it's stored as objects
>with rather abstract attributes, rather than as a picture, or the sound
>of me telling myself what I'm seeing.  It's possible that I'm storing
>in a kinesthetic mode, but the attributes seem more abstract to me.
>
>For example, if I describe my bedroom, from the point of view of
>sitting on my bed, to my right and behind me is the door-object,
>with an attached handle-object.  It attaches to the wall at my
>right and swings into the room in a particular arc.  But I don't
>see a picture of the door or handle, I don't remember the sound
>of myself talking about it.  I can remember the feel of opening
>and closing the door, and I know what it feels like when it is
>open or when it's closed, but that's not what I'm doing when I'm
>describing the scene from my imagined position on the bed. I just
>"know" what objects with what attributes are positioned in various
>locations in space.

Hi,

Question.  Can you enter into a room, eyes closed, without ever being
in that room before and "feel" where things are?  In other words if
you were in a room that's organized completely differently, could you 
find the door without seeing or hearing anything in the room?

How are you at mazes?

I appreciate any information you provide.  Have a great day!

Kawika 
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,soc.culture.usa,sci.misc
From: crosmun@crosmun.rtp.dg.com (William Crosmun)
Subject: Re: Note on Smithsonian psych. exhibit
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 17:12:19 GMT
Organization: Data General Corporation, RTP, NC.

In article <5SEP199223103986@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov> packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) writes:
>At a new psychology exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington
>there is one exhibit consisting of a canopied walkway with black
>and white 12"x12" tiles in a checkerboard pattern. The walkway
>is 13 feet long and, as I recall, five feet wide. At the entrance
>large signs announce 
>
>            ATTENTION!
>  Please step only on the BLACK squares
>
>without any explanation of why they should do this.
>
>It was about Milgram's experiments, of course, the ones that
>demonstrated how people accept authority. Sure enough, people
>were obeying the signs, be they kids, college students, or
>pot-bellied men in baseball caps. Except for the kids, who got
>in a little hopscotch, everybody awkwardly stepped only on the
>black tiles, even standing that way while they waited for people
>in front of them to view the object on display, which was the
>original fake electric shock device used in his famous
>experiments. The explanatory text next to it didn't tell the
>viewer that he'd been conned into stpping only on the black
>tiles, but asked why he did it -- the authority of the museum or
>because he'd seen other people do it? I doubt whether very many
>people got the point of it all. 

There's a bond of trust between leaders and led.  The led will follow
and the leaders will only make rules that serve our interests. (If the
authorities want us to walk only on the black tiles then there must be a good
reason.)  To point out that this trust is easily violated, abused, twisted and
taken advantage of is not to tell us anything new.  Moreover - it is easily
violated by both sides.


===============================================================================

William Crosmun
crosmun@dg-rtp.dg.com

===============================================================================

"Socialism has a bad name in America, and no amount of wishful thinking on the 
part of the left is going change that in our lifetimes....The words Economic
Democracy are an adequate and effective replacement."

						   Derek Shearer - Advisor to Bill Clinton

===============================================================================

"That was the ultimate heckle."
	
		Then presidential candidate Al Gore to a heckler who suggested that he
		would make a good vice-president - 1988

===============================================================================
Newsgroups: sci.psychology