HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rlm7337@tamsun.tamu.edu (Richard L. Mcmahon)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: two things
Date: 29 Sep 92 01:41:54 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station

I thought I posted this already, but perhaps it disappeared (or maybe
I just lost track of it on the net).  According to informed sources 
(i.e. Mr Wizard) Lava Lamps contain wax and kerosene.  The wax because
of it's already noted properties, and kerosene because it stays thick
even when heated.  I believe other liquids are used, but I think kerosene
is most common.

Trying to be helpful...
John Carney (Incarnadine)
Castle BBS
[I really will make a sig...sometime ;) ]
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski)
Subject: Re: schools re: Old Coots Test
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 01:16:38 GMT

rowan sez:

>I also left my (next) high school before my senior year so I
>never got to be a "senior" type in my young years and after
>that it never seemed to matter particularly.  I have never gone
>to a graduation ceremony... although I might have for my
>MLS if it hadn't conflicted with BayCon (and science fiction
>wins over library science any day)!

kitten:  "i laughed out loud at this....i did my undergrad graduation
for my parents and my mls for my (first) husband's parents (since we
graduated at the same time....)"


--
***************************************************************************
conan the librarian a.k.a. kitten           /\ /\  barbara ann 
"my life's a soap opera, isn't yours?"      {=.=}
                                              ~   trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu 
"perhaps _any_ universe becomes real in proportion 
to the number of people who believe in it and spend time there." s. robinson

Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: keulen@possum.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Mike van Keulen)
Subject: Re: schools re: Old Coots Test
Organization: Murdoch University
Date: 30 Sep 92 04:25:08 GMT

Splash puzzles about the use of an unfamiliar term: sophomore.  I've read it
before, but never worked out what one is.  Freshman (hasn't it turned to
fresh-person, or fresher (we have _them_ here), or freshie, or something less
gender-based?) is pretty obvious, and I can guess at juniors and seniors, but
what's a sophomore?  Comes from a non-American background ... reminds me how
much of the world I haven't seen ... yet  :-)

Splash!

--
***************************** Michael van Keulen *************************** 
* Snail: School of BES - Biology         e-mail: keulen@murdoch.edu.au     *
*        Murdoch University              phone:  ++ 61 (09) 360-2843 (work)*
*        Murdoch WA 6150  AUSTRALIA              ++ 61 (09) 417-3902 (home)*
*************************** "To Love is to _LIVE_!" ************************
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: dgreen@jarthur.claremont.edu (David Green)
Subject: Re: BAH! HUMBUG! (was Re: Christmas is busting out all over!)
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 15:37:14 GMT

In some article JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jay Brandt (Jason)) writes:
->Trivia questions: 
->Why are binary, octal and hexadecimal used in computers, rather than
->decimal?

Because computers rely on switches being on or off. That's a binary operation,
stored as "1" (on) or "0" (off).  Number bases have all the digits up to but
not including the number of the base itself in their "alphabet," so {0,1} is
base 2 (binary).  Three binary digits can always be put together into a single
octal digit (e.g., 101 bin = 5 oct), and four binary digits can always be
stored in a single hexadecimal digit (1101 bin = D hex).

->Why doesn't anybody bother to use base-4 (Quadral?)?

Not sure of this one, though I'd guess that it's small enough that using octal
and hexadecimal is more convenient than using 'quad.' :)

Perhaps someone could give me a more solid answer to nybble on?...
-- 
dgreen@jarthur.claremont.edu				   David "Mishael" Green
		    Have you scritched your local Furry today?
***********************Who ordered the muon? -- I. I. Rabi**********************
	    Unix and the world Unix with you; VAX and you VAX alone.
From: rmarsh@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: schools re: Old Coots Test
Date: 1 Oct 92 00:18:55 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

  "I suppose I should let fly with the New Zealand school system," says
Stumpy.
  "Over here primary school is J1 to J3, and Standard 1 to Standard 4. To
confuse things Standard 1 is the same as J3. Form 1 and Form 2 (known in
some areas as Standard 5 & 6) are Intermediate School. Then there's High
School (also known as College) which deals with Form 3 to Form 7 (only
you're not supposed to call them Forms anymore. They're now Level 3 to 
Level 7, but everyone still calls them Forms). Then there's University
which is 3 or 4 or more years for a degree depending on what discipline
you're studying and how good you are at the subject matter and at
time-tabling."
  Stumpy buys himself a drink and takes a slow swallow.
  "Is everyone thoroughly confused now?"

-- 
Robert 'Stumpy' Marsh | 95 Fairfield Rd | I can't reply to E-Mail, but 
rmarsh@waikato.ac.nz  | Hamilton        | don't let that stop you sending.
+64 7 855 4406        | New Zealand     |
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: sjg@terminator.cc.umich.edu (Susan Gavula)
Subject: Thanks (was Group Hug)
Organization: University of Michigan
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 15:59:28 GMT

Everyone, thanks for your support.  I won't be able to respond
to you all fully until monday or tuesday but I wanted to say
thanks.
----
Susan hugs David close and says, "Thanks, love.
Then they become part of the group hug.  After a few minutes, tho'
she glances at David, and whispers, "Could you please get me a caramel
apple?  I haven't had one in so long...  and I want to go talk with
John for a moment."

She disengages herself from the group and goes over to John.  She stops
right in front of him, and looks at him.  Wordlessly, she locks the
breaks of her chair and stands. She takes one step forward and puts her
arms around him.
---

Niccarra:  welcome back!!! have you heard form Berith??
I need an address/phone# for him

************************************************************************
Susan Gross Gavula              | Flights of Fancy:
Along the dark green woods,       Castles in the Air- A Beauty and
One can feel the magick         | the Beast e-mail fanzine now
Tales of the brave, songs of the  available.  For more information
magickal                          contact sjg@terminator.cc.umich.edu 
Music weaves spells of glory    | An' ye harm none, lest in self-
and wisdom                               defense it be, do as ye will...
For truth, and beauty and love  | Ever mind the Rule of Three
-me
					
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: gryphon@openage.openage.com (The Golden Gryphon)
Subject: Suicide (reply waiting)
Organization: Open Age, Inc.
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 12:10:26 GMT

Hi All,

Please be patient.  I am planning to reply as soon as I can, but life is hectic
right now.   

Rowan,  I'm sorry you disagree with me.  Name calling is not my style, neither
is labling.  I will attempt to make myself clearer within the next 2 days.

-- 
The Golden Gryphon 				gryphon@openage.COM
Solve a man's problem and he has 1 less.        No incumbents in 92.
Teach a man to think, and all his problems are less.
Openage - The Premier SCO UNIX integrator in the Washington D.C. area
From: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Speaker-to-Minerals)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Thyra assists Feather
Date: 27 Sep 92 16:32:22 GMT
Reply-To: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <19npcrINNs1c@gap.caltech.edu>, ajm@wag.caltech.edu (Abner J. Mintz) writes:
>>And StM, a card-carrying skeptic (really, I've got the card.  The motto of our
>>local cell, er branch, is Sum Ergo Cogito;  If you don't believe me [and why
>>should you], I can show the card to Abner, so we'll have some verification 
>
>He did, too, the last time we had dinner at Amigo's, a local restaurant.  He
>eats there most of the time, and I eat there as an occasional treat.
>
>I'm considering joining the skeptic club he mentioned.  On the one hand, I am
>skeptical of unsupported claims.  On the other hand, I'm not sure if putting
>effort into such a club would have any effect;

Join the Skeptics' Society for recreational purposes. I've already saved more
than the cost of membership through getting several books I'd been meaning to
buy at *VERY* low prices (though I will admit that even at the incredibly low
price for which I bought it, I think I paid too much for _Metamagical_Themas_).
And don't forget, there's the Skeptical Seance coming up on, I think, October
25th, from 1:00pm to 5:00pm, in Baxter Lecture Hall.

>I may be wiser to join the ACLU ...

>What do people think of the ACLU?  Just curious!

Seems like a worthwhile organization, for the most part.
From: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Speaker-to-Minerals)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: for frood re: The Form letter
Date: 26 Sep 1992 23:45:05 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Reply-To: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <920925.01530280.002627@USM.CP6>, JMPIERCE%USMCP6.bitnet@VM.TCS.Tulane.EDU (JIM PIERCE) writes:
>
>  "The one problem I have is with black holes ! Its difficult spotting them
>unless I can detect the affects or 'nothing' against a bright backdrop..."
>   Linda.

StM suggests, "Just look for unexpected tides.  Then don't go the direction you
tend to point."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This text
is included
to satisfy
the obnoxious new
software recently
installed on my
NNTP server
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: rowanf@crc.ricoh.com (Rowan Fairgrove)
Subject: Re: Suicide (Was: Friends ... forever ...)
Reply-To: rowanf@crc.ricoh.com (Rowan Fairgrove)
Organization: RICOH California Research Center
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 21:08:12 GMT

Golden Gryphon sez:
> I will miss Arty myself, but I can't help thinking that suicide is the
>cowards way out.  I have talked many of my friends out of suicide, and they
>are mostly better for it.  I don't think suicide makes your problems go
>away, I think you will be forced to deal with them in the next life, or the
>one after that.  And then there are all the people you left behind...

>I've been thinking of my own mortality lately.  Thing's aren't fantastic 
>here at Open Age Inc., and I had this day dream of having the Gov't fake my
>dead so Martha and I could go fight alien vampires.  Nice imagination huh?
>In this little day dream (Which was before I read Smokes' post) my friend
>Ben posted a message about my tragic demise on Callahans.

>To see this about Arty was just too much for me.  And I started thinking about
>how I would be remembered.  I don't like the idea of glorifying Arty's death.
>There were a thousand places he could have turned for help.  That includes us.
>I still think he took the easy way out.  Life is much harder than death. 

I don't think that we are glorifying Arty's death.  It is his LIFE that we 
are remembering.  We see his death as a tragedy.  

Calling someone a coward when the load gets too heavy for them seems
unjustified.  You have not walked in his path.  We can get hints from
the things that Smoke and Elizabeth have said but we can't know what
he was feeling and why it seemed time to pass on.  We can wish that
he was still with us, but speaking ill of the dead by calling him a 
coward when he cannot answer you is uncalled for in my opinion.

I have often contemplated suicide.  I have not wanted to hurt my
friends by seeming to leaving them purposefully when I knew 
they would be hurt by my going.  When a dear friend died of cancer 
a few years ago, I was ashamed to realize that my main emotion was
envy.  Death without guilt.  No one could blame him for going. 

Sometimes the pain of life is greater than a person can bear.  Those
who choose to put down the burden for now will, as you say, have
to deal with the problems again when they return.  But perhaps a
time of rest and refreshment before rebirth will make the load seem
lighter.

Let us, then, remember Arty as the friend he was to those who knew
him and praise those things of honor and valor which he did in his
life and wish him all the best in the hereafter.

Gypsy raises her glass and toasts "What is remembered lives" and
throws it undrunk into the fire so that it may go to Arty with the
rest of the grave goods we are preparing.

Rowan (Gypsy Woman)

Rowan Fairgrove
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: gryphon@openage.openage.com (The Golden Gryphon)
Subject: Re: colorfully descriptive phrases
Organization: Open Age, Inc.
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1992 20:04:55 GMT

feath@agora.rain.com (Feather) writes:
>"Hey you guys, how many others can come up with colorfully descriptive
>phrases like that?  Let me start off by writing that Happy Meal phrase
>here on the chalkboard..."

>She does so.

>"...and then add my own."

>And then proceeds to write:
>-  As welcome as a hyperactive puppy at a housecat convention.
>-

"How about this." Says The Golden Gryphon as he writes on the Board.

A bubble shy of plumb.

-- 
The Golden Gryphon 				gryphon@openage.COM
Solve a man's problem and he has 1 less.        No incumbents in 92.
Teach a man to think, and all his problems are less.
Openage - The Premier SCO UNIX integrator in the Washington D.C. area
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: BAH! HUMBUG! (was Re: Christmas is busting out al
From: DPERRY@eagle.wesleyan.edu (DAVID M. PERRY)
Date: 1 Oct 92 10:14:52 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Wesleyan University
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20In-Reply-To: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu's message of 29 Sep 92 16:02:45 GMTLines: 28

In <6470@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu writes:

> In article <1992Sep29.144245.4516@crc.ricoh.com> rowanf@crc.ricoh.com (Rowan Fairgrove) writes:
> >Hey, is there anyone else who would like to join us?

> 	The Sea Wasp gags and runs for the Danger Room. 
> 	From within, even despite the soundproofing, come cataclysmic
> sounds, doomsday noises of entire Realities being created and destroyed.
> 
> 	Finally he emerges.
> 
> 	"I can't STAND it! I almost screamed when I saw the TV ad for
> the Shuttlecraft ornament... in September! AUUUGGGGHHH!
> 	"Two weeks! THAT is all the preparation for ANY holiday that
> should be allowed! I don't want to hear about Halloween before a week
> or two into October, then Thanksgiving about the same part of November,
> and the same time of December for Christmas. The holly-jolly carols
> make me homicidal after that. (I do my shopping three days before
> Christmas -- wastes less time that way)...."

"You know," says Jack Crow, "I always feel the same way about elections.  Give
them a month for primary's, and another for the final process.  SAve on money,
time, asprin (for my headaches), gas, confusion, etc..."


One of Jack's Crows.
From: dgil@ipsaint.ipsa.reuter.com (Gillett, David)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Holding on to the light
Date: 30 Sep 92 09:07:51 GMT
Reply-To: dgil@ipsaint.ipsa.reuter.com (Gillett, David)
Organization: Reuters APL Software Division


     "Drooling at Grant -- it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it."

     On second thought, giving Susan a group hug sounds a bit more urgent, just
at the moment....
                                      Mentor the Sage

-----------Message forwarded from IPSA Mailbox-------------
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: dgreen@jarthur.claremont.edu (David Green)
Subject: Re: A test of the national broadcasting system.
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 07:54:50 GMT

In article <1992Oct4.065710.19189@tamsun.tamu.edu> rlm7337@tamsun.tamu.edu (Richard L. Mcmahon) writes:
->Ah...well, actually, no.  I'm not on a mac.  I'm on a vt220 terminal, logged
->on to a Sun using Unix.  We must just have a funny program.  We do have a
->pref. list tho, and if i manage to decipher it (it's all one letter codes)
->I'll turn the sucker off...until then, i'll just keep hitting "y"

Actually, I get the same message too, on a Sequent Symmetry S81 running Dynix.
I think it's pretty much a scare tactic.  Though it does give me a chance to
change my mind without having to deal with that pesky 'dead.article.' :)
-- 
dgreen@jarthur.claremont.edu				   David "Mishael" Green
		    Have you scritched your local Furry today?
***********************Who ordered the muon? -- I. I. Rabi**********************
	    Unix and the world Unix with you; VAX and you VAX alone.
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: >Song of sixpence
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 20:15:50 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.141908.5076@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> cevans@nyx.cs.du.edu (The Doctor) writes:
>
>     The TARDIS materializes outside the door to The Place. The Doctor
>emerges, swearing prodigiously. He bears a large bundle under his arm and
>heads in to look for Liralen. "Liralen," he sighs "terribly sorry for not
>making the bday party. However, by way of making up for my not being here,
>please accept this: a robe made from the finest Gallifreyan silk. It's a
>small gift, I know, but I had to do SOMEthing."

Liralen touches the robe and whispers to herself, "*Small* gift???"  The
silk is the finest in the universe, and the hand of it is like being able
to touch the cool smoothness of a waterfall.  She sighs and smiles and
shakes her head as the wonders never cease.

"Thank you, Doctor." she says, "The party's still going on, if you want to
come join us... it seems to have blown into a full-out party in celebration
of the Fall, far more than my own birthday."

---
Liralen Li
li@inigo.Data-IO.com
From: glaubman@chern.msri.org (David Glaubman)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Hoop Grug
Date: 1 Oct 92 04:12:41
Organization: Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.188.52


David walks into the bar. 
He spends a few moments listening.
At first he thinks:
 Don't anybody wanna read or talk about Zion's Friction?
Finally, he realizes he's stuck in third person
... singular.

...

I step up to the bar.

"Mike?"
"Yeh, waddya wan't?"

Was this the Calllahan's I thought I knew?

"Mike."
"Yes. Thanx for dropping the question mark."

"Folks are hurting, ... here....outside...
 seems like everywhere."
He grins. "And you can help?"

I gulp, and round up what courage I have.
"Well, maybe. But first, a beaker of fayalin."
Mike shakes his massive head, then reaches
into a refrigerated compartment.
"Yer no zwilnik, are ye?", he asks, sternly.
"No, sir", I stammer. "But I do carry greetings
 from beyond the laws of man or Bush."
"Well, that'll be fifty cents."

I leave a US dollar, and stand in front of the fireplace,
unwilling to admit that I don't really know
how to ingest a beaker of fayalin.
Still, the price is right.

I take a sip, and speak.

"Three days ago, I heard a man...."
"Cut to the the chase", the piano player tells me.
(He always hated ellipses, I am told.)

"Okay. After he spoke I asked him this:
  What do you do when your fellow warriors  
  give in to bitterness, despair and hate?"

  He looked at me, as he was signing books,
  and thought, and said,
    There's only love, and you must go all the way down
    to reach it.
    ...
    When my son died, I thought:
    if this is all, how can I live?
    Underneath is love, and life, and I LIVE.

 (He didn't really say this, but he is a great writer
  and I wasn't taking notes.)

 I drained the beaker, and hurled it into the fire.
From: s903040@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Christopher Francis Anderson)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: I'm still here (I think)
Date: 6 Oct 92 01:39:45 GMT
Organization: RMIT Computer Centre
NNTP-Posting-Host: minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au

<<Thunderchild walks to the bar, deposits the required dollar on the bar, and
gets a much needed drink from Mike>>

Well, peoples, I think I'm still here - as far as I can tell, my posts have
only a one in three chance of making it through to the bar. It really is
annoying. Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon.

BTW, Wolf, are you having any troubles posting? If you know a way around this
temperamental new news server they've put in, please let me know.

Anyway, I hope that this problem will soon go away, so that I will not be 
consigned to lurkerdom by annoying software (I can still read the posts, I
just can't send any with any guarantee of success).

Sorry about the big whinge, the odds are you won't get this post, anyway!

<<Thunderchild fades into the background, to continue his bouts of software
wrangling>>


-- 
Thunderchild (a.k.a. Chris Anderson)          My honor is my life. 
s903040@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au              - Oath of the Solamnic Knights
From: daq@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom)
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 22:34:41 GMT
Subject: Re: Callahan's is for everyone
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: alt.callahans

In alt.callahans, gardner@hale.ifa.hawaii.edu (Jonathan Gardner) writes:
> mourning his death, and learning from his pain. The highest good that
> could come from our remembrance is that someone in here, either
> participating or lurking, will realize that they have people -- good
> wonderful friends -- to whom they can turn in their time of need. It is
> too late for Arty; oh, perhaps he has found what he wanted, but he
> would have found that eventually anyway, for none of us can escape our
> deaths. I can hope that if he had turned to us we could have helped
> him. I do hope that if someone else turns to us that we can help them.

But, we also need to remember that callahans can be exactly the
WRONG sort of environment for people with certain emotional disorders.

Electronic communication give an illusion of commitment and support
that is not equal to the same thing from real life friends.
It ia also a lot easier to get caught up with it in obsessive
and detrimental ways.  I think it is quite irresponsible for
us to believe that this sort of environment is a panacea merely
because the people here are polite.  Certain kinds of problems
require MORE than politeness and more than friendship.  Some
disorders are chemical, and can only be treated by psychologists.

My point is that for some types of problems, callahans is not
only useless, but it is counterproductive, as it can tend to lead
to obsessive behavior and avoidance of solutions that might really
help.

People, keep your perspective, and admit to yourselves that callahans
is not qualified to be a hospital for emotionally disordered 
people.


doug
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: brumby@nella12.cc.monash.edu.au (Stephen McNamara)
Subject: Re: Autumn ... and Other Returning Entities!
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 17:53:22 GMT

   The brumby blinks blearily, having come to the conclusion that code that
he has written at 3am is *not* going to work without his finding the sort
of bug which is totally invisible at this time of night and painfully
obvious the following morning.

JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jay Brandt (Jason)) writes:

>But playing with shoelaces, or better yet long, thick bootlaces, is the
>favorite game of my two housecats, George and Harry. They love to chase
>"snakes".

   "Just you wait until you get picked up by the shoelaces by a horse!
Horses like to chew on things that dangle and if you startle them while
they have a good grip on your shoelaces...."

   The brumby gets a mischeivious look. This could be a way of keeping some
people here under control.


-- 
     The Silver Brumby of          brumby@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au
      the Silicon Plains

      The grass is always greener on the other side of the network.
Newsgroups: alt.callahans