HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: pavalin@bnr.ca (Paul Valin)
Subject: Re: British passport needs re-newing in Canada
Followup-To: soc.culture.british
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 16:36:48 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.115009.4688@cas.org>, jac54@cas.org () wrote:
> 
> In article <21JAN93.01100591@sklib.usask.ca> scott@sklib.usask.ca writes:
> >I live in Canada and need to re-new my British passport.
> >Any suggestions to scott@sklib.usask.ca
> >Thanks ahead.
> 
> 
> 	Just call the British Embassy in Toronto and get them to
> 	send you the forms.  As long as you haven't lost the
> 	original it should be a piece of cake.  I renewed mine
> 	a couple of weeks ago through the embassy in D.C. and it
> 	took less than a week by mail.  The only problem was that
> 	they issued me one of those tiny EEC passports not much bigger
> 	than my photograph and a sort of nasty dried-blood red.
> 
> 	You do need someone to witness the application, the requirements
> 	are outlined in the instructions but they can be fairly flexible
> 	about them as long as it is a citizen of the country of residence
> 	and they don't use a cross or a thumbrint.
> 
> 	Alec

Well, apart from the fact that Ottawa is the capital of Canada and
not Toronto, and that we have a High Commission and not an Embassy, 
this is mostly correct.  The phone number for the passport section
is (613) 237-1303.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Valin                                     Tel: + 1 613 763 7394
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.                    Email: pavalin@bnr.ca
P.O. Box 3511, Station C
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Y 4H7               'only my opinions...'
From: mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: The Poll Tax
Date: 22 Jan 93 13:00:00 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

In article <1993Jan22.105408.11560@merlin.comlab.ox.ac.uk> library@comlab.ox.ac.uk (Gordon Riddell) writes:
>I seem to remembet that the rate/pound did reduce but this is where the
>accountability arguements came to the fore. They weren't going down far
>enough. Council tenants, for instance, saw smaller rises in their overall
>rates bills for political reasons, except in Tory council areas. Thousands
>of people notionally didn't pay rates so didn't really care what the
>rate/pound was. The Poll Tax was supposed to conquer this "problem".
>
Rating valuation is carried out independently, with rented
housing assessed on exactly the same basis as owner-occupied
housing. It is not possible for rates for council tenants to be
fixed artificially low "for political reasons".

And who are these "thousands of people who notionally didn't
pay rates"? Although rates bills were nominally sent to the
"head of household", are we really to take out there were
households all over the country with worried husbands voting
Tory to keep down the rates, and wives gaily voting Labour
without a care for the potential higher rates bill?

Matthew Huntbach
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:19551 soc.culture.usa:10212 talk.politics.guns:27189
From: tjo@its.bt.co.uk (Tim Oldham)
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Organization: BT Group Computing Services, Birmingham, UK
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 13:15:44 GMT

In article <727758965snz@rundart.demon.co.uk> gt@rundart.demon.co.uk writes:
>No.  "How do you do?", "How do you do?" is an introduction protocol
>understood by nearly everyone in the UK.  It is otherwise devoid of
>meaning.

Infinitely preferable to ``Nice to meetcha'', which I caught myself saying
a few years ago. Shoot on sight. A well-enunciated ``How do you do?'' is
the cornerstone of civilisation.

	Tim.
-- 
Tim Oldham, BT Group Computing Services.       tjo@its.bt.co.uk
``Sounds good to me''
From: rosemary@joseph.WPI.EDU (Rosemary Irene Braun)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: American humo(u)r (was Re: Studying Me
Date: 22 Jan 1993 15:14:19 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: joseph.wpi.edu

In article <1993Jan13.112544.14129@aber.ac.uk> dpl@aber.ac.uk (Dave Langstaff) writes:

>In article <1isuc6INNogn@west.West.Sun.COM> ian@sun.com writes:
>>
>>Do people in England feel a greater or lesser degree of personal
>>danger from, say random bombings in the High Street?
>>
>>Ian.
>>---
>
>I haven't got the exact figures, but the total of Joe Publics killed by the
>IRA on mainland Britain over the past twenty years or so is probably under
>30.
>
>Compare that with a bad week in Washington DC.
>
>I do remember sitting in my bath at the age of about 15 when the IRA blew
>up a big water pumping station in London which was about 3 miles away.
>Rattled the windows nicely.

I'm not sure, but I think that the statistics which NBC News gave about a week
ago stated that in the past year only 22 homicides were commited in GB. That
was far less than half the number of murders commited last year in East Palo
Alto. I know where I would feel safer.

I have to say thought that most of America is _not_ like East Palo Alto or
Washington DC. For the most part we live in peace.


*** Rosemary Braun *** speaking for myself *** rosemary@wpi.wpi.edu ***


Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: david@postman.gr.osf.org (David George)
Subject: Re: British computer companies
Keywords: british computers
Organization: OSF RI Grenoble
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 12:34:31 GMT

In article <1993Jan28.092059.7419@dcs.qmw.ac.uk>, mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) writes:
|> In article <1262@bazooka.amb.org> cbenson@bazooka.amb.org (Christopher Benson) writes:

|> ... ICL

|> Let's see were they the ones that the government sold off to
|> the Japanese, or the ones they sold off to the French?

You're getting paranoid about Govt. sell offs Matthew.  Neither ICL
not Inmos were owned by the government when they were 'sold'.  I believe
STC had a majority stake in ICL and Thorn-EMI owned Inmos.   Neither
computer companies contributed to their parents core business interests.

In the case of Inmos, Thorn got shares in SGS-Thompson, which was probably
a better deal than owning Inmos, which, like much of Britain is a testament
to unrealised potential.  Thompson, itself a French govt. company, gets 'sold
off' at least once a year.  Edith Croissant flogged it to the French nuclear
industry on the pseudo scientific pretext of uniting the atom and the electron.
Latest 'sell-off' was to French Telecom but seeing as they are all governement
owned, vive la difference !  Inmos hasn't faired too well recently, a lot of
their engineers seem to be on permernant secondment to Thompson in Grenoble.
I believe they are closing the Newport production site.

ICL, on the other hand, has done quite nicely under those nasty Japs.  If
you'd ever experienced the less than competant ICL Engrissh management you'd
be begging for a bit of Japanese leadership and direction.  ICL had a reputation
of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, to whit the closure of the
Dalkeith research centre.

The idea that a company has to be British owned and run to be of benefit to
Britain is a pretty stupid and smacks of a "little England" mentality.

David.
From: bocmunro@bnr.co.uk (Bruce Munro)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Britain and HK
Date: 22 Jan 1993 16:52:50 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe, New Southgate, London.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: bnsgs179.bnr.co.uk

In article <1jgi0kINNb0@network.ucsd.edu> fledgist@weber.ucsd.edu (Fragano Ledgister) writes:
>In article <1jerh5INN2q7@grapevine.EBay.Sun.COM> martin.baines@uk.sun.com writes:
>>
>>>* What are the UK colonies left after HK is given back to China?
>>
>>Not an exhaustive list, but those I can think of without looking
>>them up:
>>
>>Gibraltar
>>The Falkland Islands
>>Bermuda
>>British Virgin Islands
>>Caymen Islands
>
>That's Cayman Islands, please!
>
>>Anguila
>
>Two ells, please.
>
>>St Helina
>
>St. Helena.
>
>Also, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Antarctic
>Territory, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Pitcairn
>Island, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, and a couple of rocks in the
>Pacific.

You sure about Pitcairn Island? I thought it was administered by New
Zealand these days. Talking about Pitcairn, who owns Norfolk Island,
where many of the mutineers descendents ended up, these days?

-- 
Bruce Munro.  <B.O.C.Munro@bnr.co.uk> (Note new address)
BNR Europe Ltd, Oakleigh Rd South, London N11 1HB. 
Phone : +44 81 945 2174 or +44 81 945 4000 x2174
"There are no strangers, only friends we don't recognise" - Hank Wangford
From: cmp0136@sys.uea.ac.uk (P. Arnold)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: John Major Sues!
Date: 28 Jan 93 09:54:40 GMT
Organization: UEA School of Information Systems, Norwich, UK.


	So what exactly is in the article in "New Statesman & Society"
to make John Major sue for libel (Radio 4 : Today : 8:30 am)?

	Has anyone actually read the magazine and can post a summary or 
have I got to go and buy a copy for my self? 

**************************************************************************
*     ___    ___                      |                                  *
*    /  /   /  /              /     / | <-- That stands for Peter Arnold *
*   /__/   /__/ __  __  __   /  __ /  |                                  *
*  /      /  / /   / / /  / /  /  /   | E-mail  CMP0136@SYS.UEA.AC.UK    *
* /      /  / /   / / /__/ /  /__/    |                                  *
**************************************************************************
From: sandee@Think.COM (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Charles's DNA tested to prove not illigitimate
Date: 22 Jan 1993 18:59:26 GMT
Organization: TMC
NNTP-Posting-Host: tremor.quake.think.com

In article <1993Jan22.154824.550@nuscc.nus.sg>, hiscrp@nuscc.nus.sg (C R Pennell) writes:
|> Irrelevant, since our lad's claim to the throne is through his mother anyway.
|> Richard Pennell History NUS

Sorry, the (traditional, not codified) rules of succession of the monarchy
apply to LEGITIMATE offspring only.
In 1483, Richard III denied the title to young Edward on the grounds that
his father's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid. It wasn't disputed
who his father was. Though historians disagree on whether Richard's claim
was correct, it was clear (then as now) that the argument, if true, was
valid.

On the current issue, any child born to a married woman is assumed (in law)
to be legitimate. So in law, Charles is legitimate, never mind what people
say or think.
Finally, to wpcoyne : do you realize what you're saying ? You mean you'd
rather have Andy ? or Edward ? They would the next in line.
(Somebody is bound to put his foot in his mouth on that one, so let me
explain : if you bar Charles from the succession because of illegitimacy,
then that also applies to his children).

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation
1010 El Camino Real, Suite 310
Menlo Park, CA 94025                                  (415) 329-9300
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: London Zoo
Date: 26 Jan 93 13:08:16 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <1993Jan25.161715.2902@kub.nl>, JVDWIEL@KUBVX1.KUB.NL (Joost vd Wiel) writes:
> Hi all,
> 
> Last week I was watching a docu-programm about the London Zoo on the the 
> BBC2 television. It was about the problems that the oldest, and maybe also th
> biggest zoo in the world has. 
> 
> Why not turn the zoo into a academis-research institute? (the LARZ, stands for
> London Academic Reasearch Zoo, makes it easier for me to type :-) )

Actually it is already a research insitute, and apparently a verry good one;
the zoo is only there because it is diffficult to study animals without 
having them on the spot, as it were.

> Besides that the EC or the Brittish Government can (and propably *will*)
> subsidize the LARZ, it is (as far as I know) also a unique thing. The zoo was
> unique, but as an institute it will become even more.
> 
> Maybe this already happened in the past, and the zoo is a 'LARZ' already, but
> if so I have never heard of, and if so: why is it that it is almost 'bankrupt'
> and why is it that such a unique 'business' has to be covered up.
> 

You don't understand the ethos of the currrent government, obviously. They can
only give money to research institutes which are profitable, whatever that
means. London zoo is not profitable, ergo it has to close. Simple really:
nothing at all to do with quality o research.
-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
From: fledgist@weber.ucsd.edu (Fragano Ledgister)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Different Newspapers ...
Date: 23 Jan 1993 03:33:46 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
NNTP-Posting-Host: weber.ucsd.edu

In article <1993Jan21.090714.11670@infodev.cam.ac.uk> Bernie.Jones@cl.cam.ac.uk writes:
>
>What??? FOREIGN news - there's no such thing, old chap. Anything that
>hasn't happened _in_ or _with_ Britain obviously isn't important in the
>greater scheme of things, and hence is not worth devoting time and space
>to report!
>
>The (vocal) majority of Brits simply aren't interested in anything that's
>happened outside the country - it's been like that for years and will
>continue to be like that. A while back the BBC tried to make their news

This, alas, has been true for many years. A survey carried out by
the Colonial Office in the 1940s, in preparation for a public
education programme on the empire, revealed that three percent of
the British public believed that the US was still a colony.



-- 
Dawn over the dark sea brings on the sun;                      
She leans across the hilltop: see, the light!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
fledgist@weber.ucsd.edu
From: chem91@Elroy.UH.EDU ("Bill Harrison (713)-743-2789")
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Americanisms (was Re: Back from the UK)
Date: 22 Jan 1993 20:16:42 GMT
Organization: University of Houston
Reply-To: chem91@Elroy.UH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: elroy.uh.edu

>This brings to mind a question.  When and why did the Americans
>and the Brits part company in the pronunciation
>of the "ary" sound at the end of words?
>
[...]
>
>-- 
> Ralph Yozzo (yozzo@watson.ibm.com)  
> From the beautiful and historic New York State Mid-Hudson Valley.

Another classic is the long "u" sound:  only (certain) Americans will 
say "It's Toosday, and I've finished tootering and put away the test toobs. 
Let's go out for a tooner sandwich...  etc."  It sounds ***terrible*** to me.

Also, the "an" sound:  "You cayn't wear paynts on the raynch" is about as 
close as I can "translate".

Bill 

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\               /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
| Bill Harrison,            \             /       "Be as radical as... |
| University of Houston, TX  >-----------<         reality itself"     |
| CHEM91@JETSON.BITNET      /             \                V. I. Lenin |
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/               \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: JLINTHI1@ua1vm.ua.edu
Subject: Re: Americanisms (was Re: Back from the UK)
Organization: The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 20:02:44 GMT

Talk to a linguist, I'm sure they can tell where and usually when
the strange dialectal shifts happened. (Since I'm currently taking
a similar course in linguistical anthropology, I can definitely
attest to that.)
 
Yours,
Julia E. Linthicum
jlinthi1@ ua1vm.ua.edu
 
"There are even places where English completely disappears
In America, they haven't used it for years." Lerner & Loewe
_My Fair Lady_
From: rogerc@discovery.uk.sun.com (Roger Collier)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re:  Succession Order
Date: 22 Jan 1993 09:49:13 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems (UK) Ltd
Distribution: world
Reply-To: rogerc@discovery.uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: discovery.uk.sun.com

In article 1jk99dINNe5v@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu,  esh2@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse) writes:
>
>It is:
>
>Queen Elizabeth II
>Prince Charles
>Prince William
>Prince Henry
>Prince Andrew


You missed me off the list.
Maybe the original posting was truncated at line 27 million :-)

Roger.Collier@Uk.Sun.COM
From: fbowles@gssec.bt.co.uk (Frank K Bowles)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: seperate hot and cold water taps in the UK
Date: 27 Jan 93 16:34:00 GMT
Organization: BT

In article <C19yuJ.30t@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>, nmsmith@sunflower.bio.indiana.edu (Nadine Smith) writes:
|> 
|> 	Could someone please tell a confused American (no jokes, please!)
|> 	why the hot and cold water taps are seperate in the UK?
|> 	And why if there is only one faucet is the hot and cold
|> 	water kept seperate until it comes out of the tap? 
|> 				Thanks,
|> 					Nadine Smith
|> 					nmsmith@bio.indiana.edu


Could someone please tell me WHY Americans are so fascinated with
plumbing and why so much of the bandwidth on this newsgroup has been
discussing bathrooms?

rec.waterworks or alt.sewage anyone?

Frank

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank K Bowles, BT Glasgow Systems & Software Engineering Centre,
West TEC, 7 Caledon Street, Glasgow G12 9BY, Scotland. 
Tel: +44 41 220 5338     Email: fbowles@gssec.bt.co.uk
Fax: +44 41 220 2438     [GM4KAV]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.usage.english
From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Date: 21 Jan 93 20:26:29 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Windows/DOS Users Ed Group

In article <1993Jan18.160930.5807@news.columbia.edu> gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes:
[deletion]
>
>Hm.  In the US, it is almost invariably the case that the toilet, sink,
>and bath/shower are in one room.  In fact, I'd venture to say that it is
>quite rare to find otherwise.  Thus "bathroom" always refers to a room
>with a toilet in it.  In fact, it is quite common to refer to a room that
>has *only* a toilet and sink a bathroom, even if it has no bath.
>

We also have "half-baths" and "three-quarter baths", both usages
universally employed by the real-estate industry, such as it is, to
denote in the first case a room with a sink (lavabo, to employ a
charming archaism) and a toilet, but no bath tub or shower stall, and
in the second case a room with a sink, a toilet, and a tub or a shower,
but not both, I believe. Thus we find houses advertised as having 2 1/2
baths.

It is only in the more expensive homes that I have ever encountered
even an enclosed stall for the toilet. It is, to add to this theme,
only in the ads for the most expensive lines of bathroom fixtures that
I have seen bidets.

-- 
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
	"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: pault@ossi.com (Paul Taylor)
Subject: Happy Birthday Dave
Organization: Fujitsu America, Inc.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 02:48:56 GMT

Dave Shariff Yadallee (B. Sc. (Econ/Math) (U of Alberta 1990) )
Birthdate: 29 Jan 1969, Redhill, Surrey, England, UK
May I propose a birthday email card, to which we each add our best wishes.

>
>God Save the Queen, God Bless us All! Remember! Jesus Saves!!
>
Jesus may save, but Kevin Keegan scores on the rebound.
Couldn't resist.. :-)



-- 
  Paul Taylor pault@ossi.com
"Broadcasting from the mess tent at Much Binding in the Marsh"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: Malcolm Binns			
Subject: re: British Sitcoms, etc.
Reply-To: mdb1@eng.cam.ac.uk
Organization: Cambridge University
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 13:48:19 GMT

In article <C19nt8.Isx@unx.sas.com> sasmym@angelou.unx.sas.com (Marilyn Miller) writes:
>
>I have become "hooked" on some of the British sitcoms which are shown on
>our local PBS affiliate.  The two we see right now are "Good Neighbors"
>and "Are You Being Served?"  The cast members of these programs are so 
>delightful and I am curious to know if any of them still appear on British
>TV--my favorites are Penelope Keith, Paul Eddington, Felicity Kendall,
>Richard Briers, John Inman, and Molly Sugden.  You would be surprised how
>popular these programs are here--as a matter of fact our local PBS station
>offers "Are You Being Served?" t-shirts and coffee mugs.  I am constantly
>surprised at the number of people I meet who watch them--even the younger
>people consider it the "in" thing to do.  So, if there is a TV Trivia
>person out there who can enlighten me.  .  
>
>
Is "Good Neighbours" what we in the UK know as "The Good Life"?

Felicity Kendall was known as the thinking mans crumpet at the time
the Good Life was being shown ..... I Think therefore I am.

Glad you enjoy BBC TV so much
Rule Britannia

Malcolm Binns.
From: martin.baines@uk.sun.com (Martin Baines - Sun UK - SE Manager Cambridge)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Date: 26 Jan 1993 15:57:47 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Ltd
Distribution: world
Reply-To: martin.baines@uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: bottomdog.uk.sun.com

In article <rdavis.728007193@connie.de.convex.com> rdavis@convex.com (Ray Davis) writes:
>
>   b) Doesn't anyone consider it important to wash their hands before using
>   the toilet?

Depends on whether I have been cooking with chillis or not...

---
"You might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment"

Martin Baines, Sales Support Manager,
Sun Microsystems Ltd, 306 Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 4WG, UK
Phone: +44 223 420421                 Fax: +44 223 420257
JANET:     Martin.Baines@uk.co.sun    Other UK:  Martin.Baines@sun.co.uk
Internet:  Martin.Baines@UK.sun.com
X.400:     g=martin s=baines prmd=sunir admd=mci c=us
From: Dave.Alderson@newcastle.ac.uk (D. Alderson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: French Cars
Date: 26 Jan 93 13:32:24 GMT
Distribution: eunet
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU


: The answer to this is of course - Buy British. After all this is
>                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^
>My Peugeot 309 was built in Coventry, apparently

: UK.misc. It cost me about 45 pounds for a headlight for my Nova.
: Having said this, the Nova is built in Spain and GM are an American
: company .....

Dave.
From: mike@fionn.lbl.gov (Michael Helm)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Americanisms (was Re: Back from the UK)
Date: 22 Jan 1993 03:54:39 GMT
Organization: N.I.C.E.
Reply-To: mike@fionn.lbl.gov (Michael Helm)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.128.60

briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM writes:
>It's fun to listen to US folks try to pronounce Spanish. You see, Spanish

Maybe so, but nothing tops the BBC pronunciation of Nicaragua:
"Knicker-ague-ah".
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: drizzt@spock.uucp (Neela Jacques)
Subject: Finding the e-mail address of someone who goes to Cambridge University.
Organization: Choate Rosemary Hall
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 00:22:38 GMT

I woluld like to get the e-mail address of someone who goes to Cambridge 
University in England.
Her name is Bella Saer. Is there a standard way of giving e-mail addresses at
Cambridge? (i.e. 1'st leetter of firstname,first four letters of last name....)
If not is there someone who goes to cambridge who could find out her address or
who can give me the address to the sys admin there.

  Thanks.

-- 
*******************************************************************************
* Neela Jacques****drizzt@choate.edu*******************************************
***********Caitanyam Atma*******"the self is consciousness"********************
*******************************************************************************