HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: canevit@utkvx3.utk.edu (Canevit, Craig Eugene)
Subject: Re: You dissapeared my Battleship!
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Tennessee Computing Center
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 02:54:00 GMT

In article <1993Jan7.171203.14006@news.cs.brandeis.edu>, st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu writes...
>Alt.folklore.ghost-stories is having the Philidelphia experiment discussion.
>they seem to have some interesting thoughts.
	According to the last time I saw it, this was NOT FAQ, so here
goes: I saw in the 2nd Straight Dope book (by Cecil Adams, of course)
that the "Philadelphia Experiment" was part of THREE 'city projects,'
including the obvious Manhattan Project. What was the THIRD project?
or is this just an UL?
Craig "wonderin' about this since 1988" Canevit

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Re: AFU person of the year?
Organization: The Ohio State University
 <joshm.726432911@crash.cts.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 02:43:40 GMT

joshm@crash.cts.com (Josh Mercer) writes:
>If you want me to be AFU person of the year, though, I would have no
>complaints.  More stupid things have happened.
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Care to name just one?

Jon "Which idiot started this stupid thread anyway?" Papai
From: schleusner@mble.philips.be
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: origin of which side of the road to drive on
Date: 11 Jan 93 16:22:38 MEWT
Organization: MBLE , Brussels, Belgium

In article <9301081534.AA05501@pserv.CFSMO.Honeywell.COM>, Otto Heuer #3 <ottoh3@cfsmo.honeywell.com> writes:
> 
> I've now heard two different explanations for why half the  world drives on
> the right side of the road and the other hald drives on  the wron...er left
> side of the road.  Just curious if anyone knows which (if either) was true.
> Or if anyone has heard a DIFFERENT reason...
> 
> An old GF was trying to tell me it traced back to the days  of the knights.
> When they approached each other on a road, they'd want to have  a weapon in
> their right  hand,  and  would shake  hands with  their left  hand, so they
> always "drove"  on  the  right  side  of  the  road.    She  didn't have an
> explanation for  why  Brits,  et.al.  drive on  the left  (unless the whole
> country is filled with southpaws).  :-)
> 
> I heard a slightly more believable explanation from Tony  Randall about ten
> years ago.    He  claimed  (and  he  has  this  way of  making things sound
> believable, even though he probably makes half of it  up on  the spot) that
> when roads were first invented (Rome, or  whenever), the  Pope decreed that
> there should  be a  standard, and  (apparently arbitrarily)  chose the left
> side of  the  road.    Later,  when  Napolean went  a-conquering, being the
> sacrilegious person he was :-) he made each  country he  invaded "drive" on
> the right side of the road.   He never  made it  to Great  Britain, so they
> still follow  the  Pope's rule.   I'd  assume people  in Canada  and the US
> picked up the French tradition rather than the British.
> 
This is what my teachers told me in school, here in Brussels.

Your GF is not so far but...
way back then, they invented hand-shaking as a peace/friendliness sign, 
each person holding the right hand of the other, so as to guarantee they
will not draw their sword while smiling/saying hello (that was an epoch
of great mutual confidence).

Try it, you will see this forces you to cross the people on your right side,
thus walking/riding on the left side. 

When the first traffic regulations became laws, they specified thus riding
on the left side of the roads.

When Napoleon Buonaparte wrote the french republican civil code, he decided
to impose riding on the right, only because the hatred English were riding
left...  Wars imposed the Napoleon code on other countries, and soon all
continental europe was riding/driving right.  

Continent/britain imposed their style to their respective areas later.

I can give you the name of the teacher, the name and address of the school,
but I'm sure I didn't keep the books (given by National Education).
That's why it's still AFU.

Daniel Schleusner
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: Net's Funniest Kitche
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 00:13:13 GMT

bml@netcom.com (Brian Leibowitz) writes:
: 
: A lab technition who had been around a long time said
: that a similar thing had happened in the 50s and that they took it to
: the football field and shot it. (he claims to have witnessed it.)
: The bullet used to detonate piceric mentioned in a previous posting
: may have been perchloric acid in ethanol.  Both chemicals are used
: for etching metallographic samples.

I hope you meant that they material detonated by the bullet was perchloric
acid.

Do they actually use picric acid to etch metal samples? How do they handle
the metallic pirates that are formed?

Bill
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.flame.spelling
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Amusing street names
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 01:33:23 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.012256.4054@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:
>In article <1993Jan5.212042.22776@nmsu.edu>,dtasman@NMSU.edu (Dan Tasman) ponders:
>>* Owing to all the Martin Luther King Boulevards throughout the Unites States,
>>is there a "Malcom X Boulevard" anywhere?
>             ^^^^^^^^
>	No.    However, there may be a "Malcomb X Boulevard".

What's the Usenet law of spelling flames?

I'm fairly sure I've seen streets that were unofficially named "Malcolm
X Boulevard," but I couldn't tell you where.
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jp@ipac.caltech.edu (John Pipkins SSE SMCC)
Subject: Re: Net's Funniest Kitchen Disasters
Reply-To: jp@poseur.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Sun Software Support (JPL/NASA)
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 22:05:44 GMT

In article <1993Jan5.160739.2198@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, dsegard@nyx.cs.du.edu (Daniel Segard) writes:
|> 
|>        I've heard that it is possible to coat sodium in gelitin so that it
|> won't react with water -- for a while at least.  The trick I had heard was
|> that you toss these into a person's gas tank and then eventually the small
|> amount of water in the gas will disolve the geletin and react with the
|> sodium -- causing the gas tank, the car and the occupants to blow up. 
|> Works better with a gas tank that isn't filled to the brim I gather, need
|> some amount of air to react with the gas.  Not a very sure fire <a hmm>
|> method of killing someone, since you can't be certain of when the geletin
|> is going to disolve, whether the person will be in the car at the time,
|> etc.  I think the source for this is "The Poor Man's James Bond" or the
|> "Anarchist's Cookbook" or something like that.
|>  
|> 

How would you get it in the geletin (which is mostly wa-wa) without
"interesting" things happening?



Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: Microwave Fun
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 22:17:54 GMT

rhuss+@EDRC.CMU.EDU (Robert Huss) writes:
: 
: 	Someone recently told me about a neat trick done in a Steven Segal
: movie. (probably the one where he's a tough, nasty, good guy, who does
: all it takes to get the bad guys... which one is that?)  
: 	He took a cup, put some steel wool in it, filled it with alcohol,
: put it in the microwave, and turned it on.  A while later, a bad guy opens
: the microwave, and BOOM! 
: 	I think this would actually work, but boy is it nasty.  The steel 
: wool would get very hot in the microwave, but it wouldn't burn if it was
: immersed in alcohol. ( no oxygen)  The alcohol would also heat up, and
: would boil out, but if you have an air-tight microwave, the pressure would
: build up inside, so all the alcohol wouldn't boil.  This way, the steel wool
: would stay immersed.  However, when the microwave was opened, the alcohol
: would flash into vapor, letting oxygen to the wool, and igniting the whole mess.
: 

1) Microwaves are not airtight.
2) You need just the right mixture of alcohol and air, before combustion
can take place.
3) The steel wool would not get overly hot - until all the alcohol was gone.

Given the above facts, the "trick" in the movie was just that - a trick.
It would not work, in real life. Not too unusual for movies or books - the
writers often have little idea of how things actually work.

Bill
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:33004 rec.puzzles:8299
From: sjsmith@cs.umd.edu (Stephen Joseph Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.puzzles
Subject: Under the Streets of D.C. [was Re: Amusing street names]
Date: 9 Jan 93 03:59:38 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Maryland at College Park

In article <56!3!1-@rpi.edu> kasprj@rpi.edu writes:
> Yep, that's the game. Foggy Bottom is just the same thing, based on the 
>Washington, DC Metro instead of the London Tube. I'd say that's a pretty
>good summary of the rules you've got.

Eh?  I saw the post but didn't see the rules.  What *are* the rules to
Foggy Bottom?

ObUL: I unsubscribed to AFU during the "who do you know that is famous?"
thread from hell.

ObPuzzle: Pick the *first* shape in the series below that does *not* appear
in the name of a D.C. Metro stop:

Circle, Triangle, Square, Pentagon, Hexagon, Septagon...

- Stephen "Glad to know Cindy Kandolf is still with us" Smith
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pynq@quads.uchicago.edu (Jeremy Mathers)
Subject: Re: Bugger it
Reply-To: pynq@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: D. J. Dougherty & Associates
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 14:58:51 GMT

In article <94B9wB2w165w@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz> system@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall) writes:
...
>A specific repeat-offending individual having his phone calls recorded is not
>evidence that all trans-atlantic phone calls are recorded.

This does show that they have the technology to do it.  Thus, any one
specific call could easily be being bugged.  Which is almost, but not
quite, what was to be proved.

Aside: I can't imagine anyone really believes that they tape everything;
Where would they store all the tapes?  Do they really have anything
approaching the manpower to scan them?  (I seriously doubt AI has
reached this level, or will anytime soon.)

>ObDefn: evidence: a statement of a witness, an object, etc which proves
>the point in question

Get serious.  Statements of witnesses, etc., can never *prove* anything
(in a mathematical sense).  Physical evidence can always be faked.

I doubt anyone maintains that that which the legal system defines as
"evidence" *proves* anything.  All it does is indicate - proof is in the
mind of the judge or jury.

************************************************************************
"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
		-- Mark Twain

	- pynq@quads.uchicago.edu, who is still costing the net
	  hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, every time he posts -
************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Extreme place names (was: Amusing street names)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 08:31:32 GMT

I was told we wouldn't have to do the Guinness Book of World Records
in this newsgroup, except in connection with Craig Shergold.

> Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysililiogogogoch is merely the
> longest place name in Europe. BTW it's not official any more ...

I suspect it was the longest single-word official name ever used for
a railway station, though.  A recent BR timetable shows it as just
Llanfairpwll.

> The longest placename in the world supposedly is Taumatawhakatangihangako-
> auotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahua in New Zealand.

Close, but the spelling the 1992 Guinness gives is Taumatawhakatangihangako-
auauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, differing
in 2 places.  They say it is the longest placename "now in use", but also
that it too is unofficial.  An older edition gives the official version as
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, formerly
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauatamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu (until 1959),
and shows a sign with the old spelling.

> Sorry for long lines.

I have elected to hyphenate.  There are no actual hyphens in the placename.

The 1992 Guinness also gives the full official name of Bangkok as
"Krungthep Mahanakhon Bovorn Ratanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokpop
Noparatratchathani Burirom Udomratchanivet mahasathan Amornpiman
Avatarnsathit Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit (167 letters), which in its
most scholarly transliteration emerges with 175 letters".  Presumably
they mean to imply that this official name is not "now in use".

There are 7 places with 1-letter names, by the way: Y, France, has been
so named since 1241; each of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden has a place
named by the letter that looks like an A with a ring over it; then
there is U, Caroline Islands; and O, Japan, also called Sosei or Aioi.
And "there was once a town called 6 in West Virginia".
-- 
Mark Brader			"Could you please continue the petty bickering?
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto		 I find it most intriguing."
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com		-- Data ("Haven", ST:TNG, Tracy Torme)

This article is in the public domain.
From: brianw@spider.co.uk (Brian Wyld)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Jesus' name (was Re: Late breaking potential UL!)
Date: 12 Jan 93 14:11:27 GMT
Organization: Spider Systems Limited, Edinburgh, UK.

In article <1993Jan8.180935.16231@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal) writes:
>OB fact: The correct way to spell the possessive of a name in English which
>ends in an "s" is to append an apostrophe-s, UNLESS the namee is allegedly a
>god, in which case you just append an apostrophe.  Names I know of in this
>category are Jesus and Zeus.  I personally would still pronounce the word
>"Jesus'" as "jesuses".

Surely some mistake? I hate to be pedantic (ok, so I lie - I _love_ to be
pedantic), but the correct spelling of a possesive is to add apostrophe-s,
unless the name ALREADY ends in s.

Notice how your examples fit. And so does:
The lemurs` tails wagged.

Mind you, do lemurs hang around in groups? And your starter for 10, what is
a group of lemurs called?

Brian "I`m British, so no arguing ok?" Wyld

-- 
<brianw@spider.co.uk : Spider Systems, Stanwell St, Edinburgh, Scotland >
<My opinions, ok?    : 031 554 9424 : Short sigs save bandwidth >
From: klg@panda.mc.duke.edu (Kim Greer -- rjj)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Sodium in gas tank ( was: Net's Funniest Kitchen Disasters)
Date: 10 Jan 93 17:39:32 GMT
Organization: Duke University, Nuclear Medicine

In article <7JAN93.21001965@isdres.er.usgs.gov> rhadden@isdres.er.usgs.gov writes:
>        I remember one story (true or not, now I can't remember), where on
>an arctic adventure, the bad guy(s) put sugar in the gasoline to prevent
>pursuit of the snowmobiles. The good guys drained the tanks, added water
>to the gasoline, and shook it up. The sugar dissolved into the water, the

  So let's see here.  We've got the Arctic (implying cold), snow (implying
cold, probably below freezing), and water.  So then just how did they keep
the sugar-water solution from freezing before it could get to the engine?

Not being from the frozen north country and being unfamiliar with snow
mobiles, I don't see how this came about.  Do snowmobiles have gas tank
warmers, or did I miss something that says water in gas stays liquid?
(Which I doubt, since even down here we can have gas lines freeze up on
cars.)

-- 
Kim L. Greer                       
Duke University Medical Center		 klg@orion.mc.duke.edu
Div. Nuclear Medicine  POB 3949		 voice: 919-681-5894
Durham, NC 27710  		         fax: 919-681-5636
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Light--but White?
Date: 8 Jan 93 15:11:40 GMT
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago

In article <6284.434.uupcb@ehbbs.gwinnett.com> curt.tucker@ehbbs.gwinnett.com (Curt Tucker)  writes:
>I seem to remember hearing something in the last few days about a
>Michael Jackson commercial (British documentary?) being produced
>(by Pepsi?) which features a young actor playing Michael as a
>child. The young actor was alleged to be white.
>
>The makers of the commercial/film/whatever responded only that
>the actor was chosen as having the best likeness to the young
>Jackson, or something like that.
>
>Can anyone comment on the accuracy, truth, or falseness of this
>account? I don't remember where I heard it.

This is a more recent event than the UL in the FAQ.  There's some
discussion on it in soc.culture.african.american, with the wire
story reposted.

Allegedly a black had already been picked for the (non-American)
commercial, but MJ vetoed it to have a white play the role.

Ted "maybe Michael believed the Eddie Murphy-Robin Williams sketch
     about blacks being inflammable" Frank
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
never shout movie in a crowded firestation
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:33193 talk.politics.medicine:542
From: bhjelle@carina.unm.edu ()
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,talk.politics.medicine
Subject: Re: Why care what percentage?  (was: Gay Likelihood)
Date: 11 Jan 1993 16:26:23 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
NNTP-Posting-Host: carina.unm.edu

In article <wLT3wB3w165w@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz> system@codewks.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall) writes:
>geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
>
>Does testing of the blood supply involve testing for the virus itself or for 
>antibodies to the virus? The reason I ask is that blood testing was introduced
>before there was a test for the virus itself. I understand that testing
>directly for the virus is still not cheap and I imagine that on the scale
>required for testing the blood supply, it could be quite expensive.

The overwhelming majority of HIV testing that goes on in blood banks
and elsewhere is antibody testing. Cost is not the only reason for
that - it is a fact of life that antibody tests, for most viruses,
are infinitely more reliable than tests for antigen or viral
nucleic acid (such as PCR). We are still a long way away from
routine PCR testing of blood donations -trust me, I have done
hundreds of PCR assays myself.

Only antibody tests are licensed for detection of HIV, HTLV,
HCV, and no one can substitute another test.

>My concern is that if someone has the virus before developing antibodies, 
>then that won't be detected if only the presence of antibodies is tested.
>
>I've asked lots of doctors, etc, and no one can give me a straight answer.
>
This is a major concern of all blood bankers. A large number of studies
have been done to try to assess the current risk of HIV in the blood
supply, and generally converge around 1 in 60,000 donations as
HIV-contaminated. A sizable fraction of false-negative tests for
HIV antibodies are due to donations made during the "window period"
between exposure and development of antibody in the donor (as
opposed to prolonged seronegativity, human error in testing, etc).

The good news is that, in the period since most of those studies
were done, blood bank screening tests have greatly improved in
their ability to catch early HIV infection, due primarily to
greater sensitivity to the (early) IgM antibody response.

>ObUl or fact? To save the costs of test, blood is tested in binary chops.
>Eg 100 samples are tested. If there is no response, its all accepted. If there
>is an positive reading, then two tests are performed breaking the samples into
>50 and 50, and so on. (Hmmm, would be better to start with 128 samples....).

Some schemes like this are being used in the 3rd world, not in the US.

>country for antibody tests. Is it common or widespread? I would imagine that
>it would be a productive technique in western countries where we would still
>expect no result from testing 100 people. (At this rural hospital, over 50%
>tested positive for AIDS - community based testing showed 35% positive).

This would never pass muster with FDA. Count it out.

>Wayne "O Rh- Kell- Duffey-  THE UNIVERSAL DONOR" McDougall

Keep on donating!

Brian
From: phil@rahul.net (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The shifty-eyed shifty-shaped Odo
Date: 12 Jan 93 01:59:35 GMT
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor

In article <JTCHEW-110193171246@b50-afrd5.lbl.gov> JTCHEW@lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera) writes:
>>        In the second episode Odo transforms himself into a small rat...
>
>...and infiltrates the Chihuahua battlecruiser.  
>
And we are subjected to an hour of litter-box humor starring a bulky and 
stupid cat.

Phil "Ren 'n Spock? Ro 'n Stimpy?" Gustafson

-- 
|play: phil@rahul.net
|work: (Under Construction)              | Phil Gustafson 408-286-1749      |
|         Opinions outside attributed material are mine alone.              |
|        Satirical matter is not necessarily identified as such.            |
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:32650 alt.quotations:772 alt.chinese.text:1129
From: chuahl@ocf.berkeley.edu (Chua HakLien)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.quotations,alt.chinese.text
Subject: May you live in interesting times...
Date: 6 Jan 93 07:59:06 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: tornado.berkeley.edu

Does anybody out there actually know the Chinese wording of this
alleged Chinese curse? My friends and I have never heard of such
a curse at all, and we think it might just be another American 
invention, like the fortune cookie.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Chua
+==+
[ Followups to alt.folklore.urban ]

Obquote: 
	Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.
						- John Lennon
From: rhamilt@husc10.harvard.edu (Rowan Hamilton)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Amusing street names
Date: 7 Jan 93 18:41:32 GMT

dtasman@NMSU.edu (Dan Tasman) writes:


>* Owing to all the Martin Luther King Boulevards throughout the Unites States,>is there a "Malcom X Boulevard" anywhere?  

	I don't know about a boulevard, but I used to live in south Berkeley
at the corner of MLK and Prince, two blocks up from the Malcolm X Elementary
School.


-- 
Rowan T. Hamilton                         "To dig this is to groove on
hamilton@huhepl.harvard.edu                   hella shit."
hamilton@fnald.fnal.gov                   - casey@wackenhut.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Flammable Cars (Was: Re: Mother Lifts Car Off
From: rocher@husc8.harvard.edu (Jean-Marc Rocher)
Date: 7 Jan 93 16:23:12 EST
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <1993Jan6.103243.19040@husc3.harvard.edu> joltes@husc10.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes) writes:
>
>True.  A friend who used to live in Revere, Mass(achusetts) (but he's much 
>better now, thanks) told me of the proclivities of the local constabulary in
>that esteemed town...once he saw a police car, lights and siren in full voice,
>careen into a local Dunkin Donuts shop and screech to a halt.  The two officers
>got out, walked in, and calmly bought their coffee and sugar pills.
>
>Of course, these officers were from the same force as those who broke into a
>local ATM one night about 10 years ago.
>
	ATM? I thought they broke into a CVS drugstore. Maybe they were
busier than I thought...

			...Jean-Marc Rocher, former Stoneham, MA resident