HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: larryh@cabezon.uucp (Larry Huntley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Flute tuning (Re: Radio UL)
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:51:56 GMT
Organization: Logic Modeling Corporation /Beaverton OR & Milpitas CA

In article <1992Apr8.224644.9294@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> comjohn@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Mr. John T Jensen) writes:
>eepee@polaris.utu.fi (Esa-Pekka P{lvim{ki) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Apr8.004651.6300@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>>>
>>>that the instrument that is often used as a tuning reference is a flute? It
>>>is because the span between notes is fixed and cannot be tampered with.
>
>>Sure you can tune a flute, just by changing the length of it slightly. 
>
	Note that you are both right.  You can tune a flute by adjusting
	the effective length at the head joint.  However, the intervals
	between notes are fixed (true of most keyed instruments, like
	flutes and saxes, etc.)  This does not assure the intonation, of
	course, since a good player (and bad ones) can vary the pitch of
	each note greatly just by adjusting the embouchure or angle of
	attack.

	The flute is typically used as a tuning standard because of the
	pure (nearly sinusoidal) tone that it produces.  It's easy to
	hear if the other instruments are not in tune with the flute be-
	cause of frequency-beat effects.  Other instruments, with richer
	harmonic personalities, are harder to tune "to."


-- 

    Larry Huntley / Logic Modeling Corporation / Beaverton  OR
    Fire and Chains and/Fire and Chains and/Fire and Chains and...
                      [Stop Continental Drift!]
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: Radio UL
Organization: Hewlett-Parkard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 00:46:51 GMT

larryh@cabezon.uucp (Larry Huntley) writes:
: >Alan J Rosenthal writes:
: >>
: >>Apparently there's a bit of a competition among the symphony orchestras of
: >> the world in which everyone tunes slightly higher than everyone else.  
: >>It's fairly passe' in the business to tune to A 440 (i.e., the `A' note
: >> above middle C has
: >>a fundamental frequency of 440 Hz); most people tune to A 442 but some
: >> famous
: >>orchestra somewhere in Europe tunes to A 447 (!!!) if I'm remembering the
: >>number correctly.  Sorry no reference because this is musician-lore, but I'm

And just what do they do with the fixed span instruments, such as flutes and
the woodwinds? The idea would work fine for the string instruments, and such
instruments as the trumpets which have a tuneable section. Why do you think
that the instrument that is often used as a tuning reference is a flute? It
is because the span between notes is fixed and cannot be tampered with.

: 	Remember too, that most instruments that span more than a couple
: 	of octaves (pianos, notoriously) are not tuned equally-tempered.
: 	They're tuned slightly sharp at the high and low ends.  Makes
: 	them sound more 'in tune' and 'brighter' to those of use with
: 	less-than-perfect pitch.  No idea how it affects people that are
: 	afflicted with perfect pitch.  Sends them screaming from the room,
: 	I suspect.

The reason for the tempering is to make the notes sound "fuller" or
"broader". The notes would sound brighter if the slightly sharp and
flat strings were damped. 

The tempering is so slight that it does not bother a person with even
perfect pitch. If the tuning was even one Hz off, then there would be
a 1 Hz beat note in the sound. That could be very disturbing - such
sounds are common with a piano that has not been tuned in a long time,
although the variance between strings is usually much greater, so the
beat note is unnoticable.

: 	I have seen a Denon CD player with a pitch control on it, but
: 	disappointingly, this was a motor speed control.  I was hoping
: 	for a "tempo control" (change a song tempo while leaving the
: 	pitch alone) and a real "pitch control" (change the pitch but
: 	leave the tempo alone.)  Not available yet, I guess, but it is
: 	conceptually simple (as pointed out by an earlier poster.)

I don't know why they would have one, except to satisfy some idiot of
a consumer. All CD players have a servo for adjusting the speed - this
is done electronically as the laser tracks the spiral out from the
center of the disc to the outside. It starts out turning at the fastest
and slows down as it plays the disc.

Bill
From: chris@sleepy.UUCP (Chris Mills)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Iron in blood setting off metal detectors
Date: 15 Apr 92 02:36:02 GMT
Organization: Pagine Corporation, San Jose, CA


Hi there.  This is my first a.f.u. post (actually, my first non-local post
since setting up news here).  Standard apoligies if this is a FAQ...

A friend of mine says he read somewhere that there are people that accumulate
iron in their bodies to the extent that they set off metal detectors in
airports.  Anyone hear this?  Is it an U.L.?  Is it true???


					Chris
					...mips!sonyusa!sleepy!chris

NonObNonUL:     We don't have mail set up right here yet, so you should send to
		the path above instead of replying, probably, if you were
		thinking of mailing to me, that is, which I don't particularly
		recommend (although I don't really mind).

Trivia: One of the tabloids I saw today at the 7-11 was declaring that they
	had found a solution to all the "mysteries" (Big Foot, UFO's,
	Loch Ness monster, etc.).  I guess they won't have much to write
	about anymore...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Subject: Re: Cow Tippin'
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 15:38:28 GMT
Organization: Kolin Itelly's Brick Yard
X-Bytes: 

In article <14877@optima.cs.arizona.edu> curtis@optima.UUCP (Curtis E. Dyreson) writes:
>From article <4APR199223260066@gamma.is.tcu.edu>, by djohnson@gamma.is.tcu.edu (Darryl Johnson):
>> In article <1992Apr4.014649.5088@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>, 21329KAD@MSU (Kim Dyer) writes...
>>>An angry cow isn't something you want to deal with (especially if it
>>>hasn't been "dehorned" ).  I don't want almost half a ton of beef upset
>> I didn't grow up on a diary farm, but I thought bulls had horns,
>> and cows didn't.
>
>I guess that explains why it was so angry about being milked.  Anyways, 
>it seems that there does exist some equipment for uprighting cows, but not 
>if they are healthy.  So we'll mark the legend as F.
>
Horns on cattle are a breed characteristic. Not a sexual one. Sheesh.

-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu> 
You may think you know what you're dealing with here,
but believe me you don't.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld)
Subject: More tuna (was Re: FAQ diffs or The Secret Life of Lemurs, You Decide)
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 18:46:38 GMT

In article <1992Apr16.174645.13838@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <22743@dog.ee.lbl.gov> twchan@lbl.gov (Head Lemur) writes:
>>550c542
>>> T. Someone prepares tuna sandwich. Removes tuna can label to find "Cat Food".
>
>I thought that the story was that the cat food was placed in tuna cans, not
>that cat food cans were relabeled.  Would it not be more accurate to say:
>
>F. Someone prepares tuna sandwich. Removes tuna can label to find "Cat Food".
>T. Cat food was sold in tuna cans in Canada before the authorities caught up
>   with them. 
>
   Nope. The company was Star Kist of Canada Limited. They were selling
tuna fish for human consumption. In 1985 (yes, seven years ago) a batch
of fish was rejected for human consumption by federal inspectors, who
claimed that it had gone rancid. Then fisheries minister John Fraser
overrode the inspectors and declared the fish safe for human consumption.
   Shortly afterward the CBC television show "The Fifth Estate" broke the
story of Fraser and his fish. Star Kist of Canada went bust in the mayhem
that followed, and Fraser was forced to give up his ministry position
(and became, curiously enough, the speaker of the House of Commons in
Canada, a prestigious position).
   The tuna fish which had been canned by Star Kist was sold to american
distributors on the condition that the fish never find its way back into
Canada, and that it not be sold for human consumption. Canadian border
officials have turned back loads of this fish more than once, as some
enterprising groups tried to sell it back to us.
   Those same seven year old cans of rancid tuna were repackaged as cat
food and have been sold as such in the United States. Somehow, somebody
repackaged some of this cat food as tuna for humans, and started selling
it. I presume this was not an accident, but an attempt to cash in on the
lower cost of cat food to make a big profit. Of course, this is illegal.

>Ted Frank


-- 
 Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student  | alien: n. a being who
 neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca    Ad astra  | travels great distances
 cneufeld@terranet.cts.com                       | to molest our cattle
 "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" | and trample our grain
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: klefstad@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Sue Klefstad)
Subject: Re: Digits in the Driver's license number
Summary: Do they mean anything?
Keywords: licence
Organization: Illinois Natural History Survey
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 18:44:46 GMT

In article <1992Apr3.192521.5569@henson.cc.wwu.edu> n8742883@henson.cc.wwu.edu (Perry Pederson) writes:

>       Do the three digits in an american driver's liscence mean
>anything?  I have the digits 327, while my fiance has the digits 312.
>Do they indicate a regional licensing district, or some other more
>arcane knowledge?

In Illinois the driver's license numbers encode the following:
   A999-9999-9999
    (1)  (2)  (3)

1.) First letter of last name followed by three digits of "family".
Supposedly the members of your family will have the same three digits
but I don't know how they know what to assign.  (Did I really fill
out a family tree when I got my license?)

2.)  Three random digits (so identical twins have different numbers)
followed by the decade of the year of your birth.

3.) Ones column from year of birth.  (I mean that the current year
would start in group 2 and end in group 3 as 9-2) followed by a three-
digit number that encodes your sex and birth day.  I think the birth
day is the number of the day in the year (Jan 1st would be 1, Jan 2nd
would be 2...) added to an offset and the offset is different for each sex.

-- Sue
=====================================================================
Sue Klefstad   s-klefstad@uiuc.edu    Illinois Natural History Survey
From: tjw@vm2.cis.pitt.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Craig Shergold
Date: 8 Apr 92 23:09:08 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <66876.29DFBF19@psycho.fidonet.org>, Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth) writes:

>  > DO NOT SEND POSTCARDS TO CRAIG....

>  >Professor Gene Spafford
>  >Dept. of Computer Sciences
>  >Purdue University
>  >W. Lafayette IN 47907-1398
>  >spaf@cs.purdue.edu

Yea, like we're going to take the word a nobody like Gene Spafford over a
well known dying personality like CRAIG SHERGOLD. :-P

Terry "Keep those cards and letters coming  NOT!" Wood
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: kempga@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Greg Kemp)
Subject: Re: A grim death
Reply-To: kempga@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 19:40:41 GMT

Another gruesome-way-to-die-at-the-steel-mill legend:

A long time ago (probably 20-30 years) some fool was taking a nap in an  
ingot mold.  Someone noticed him just as the molten steel was about to be  
poured in.  Enough time to shout "look out!" and wake him up but not  
enough time for him to get out of the way.

--
Greg Kemp ("Mr. Distortion")		| "What would happen in a
kempga@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu		| normal person's brain, then?   
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology	| It would explode." - MFM
Terre Haute, IN				| 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: PC Hazard
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 17:23:00 EDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/160 - Hacker's Haven, Clearwater FL

In a message of <Wednesday April 15 1992>, John Whitmore wrote to All:

 >> I've always wondered why most hard drives use cases of alloys which
 >> are useless for magnetic shielding purposes.

 JW>         Hard disks have self-clocked data streams (MFM or RLL clocking
 JW> schemes are typical) that go roughly 10 Mbits/sec.  The useful data
 JW> is in the frequency range of 1 to 10 MHz, and lower frequencies are
 JW> blocked by the preamplifier filter.

Yes, but RFI doesn't erase HD platters...

 JW>         At this frequency range, cast aluminum is a pretty good
 JW> shield.  Lower frequencies require inconveniently thick conductive
 JW> metal, so are usually shielded with magnetic materials; there is
 JW> no need for such shielding in a hard disk drive.

Yup, low freq RFI is best shielded by a Faraday Cage, or equivalent.

But we're not talking about RFI.  We're talking about magnetic flux.

Cheers,
-- jra

--  
Internet: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG
UUCP: ...!uunet!myrddin!tct!psycho!160!Jay.Ashworth
Note:psycho is a free gateway between Usenet & Fidonet. For info write to
     root@psycho.fidonet.org.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: axd7104@acfcluster.nyu.edu
Subject: California Uber Alles?
Organization: New York University
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 00:53:52 GMT

Does anyone know whether it's true that When Jerry Brown was governor of
California, he almost had the CA National Guard invade the state of
Nevada because they were doing some sort of envirinmentally incorrect
dumping that Brown thought was 'wrong'?  If so, I think this a damn good
reason to keep him out of the White House at all costs.

-- 
Aaron Dickey                      Bitnet: axd7104@nyuacf
New York University             Internet: axd7104@ACFcluster.nyu.edu

Al Roker Is God.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Re: Because it's there
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 20:58:07 GMT

In article <1992Mar30.090659.3986@fivegl.co.nz> hugh@fivegl.co.nz
(Hugh Grierson) writes:
>In article <1992Mar30.013654.21584@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:
>>Mallory departed his base camp at about 28,000
>>feet back in 1924 and was never seen again.  Did he make it?  Who knows.
>
>My recollection of the story is sketchy, so I can add little of substance.
>Instead I will add something with little substance...
>The only plausible sentence in which you could use the words "base camp"
>and "28,000 feet" together is: "28,000 feet is a very very long way above
>base camp."

Sorry don't read this group usually.  Just taking data.

Mallory disappeared at 28K feet (approx).  Base camp on that side is 16K ft.
Mallory's high camp was just above 26K ft.  Gee wonder what started this
thread...

He has far better quotes.

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
  Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
  {uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
This is the Usenet: do you expect anything other than gross generalizations?
Ref: Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, vol. 1, G. Polya
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: w3wes@edison.gsfc.nasa.gov (William E. Smith)
Subject: Re: Hoover Dam (was The wacky, flakey State)
Organization: General Sciences Corporation
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 17:25:37 GMT

In article <1992Apr6.212039.20631@anasaz>, morris@anasaz (Bob Morris) writes:
> > >
> >Dam UL:  Boulder (aka Hoover) dam has survived a 5.4 earthquake and has
> >been struck by a light plant who couldn't pull up in time.  Although it
> 
    I seem to recall an UL about some of the construction workers, who died
while building the dam, being entombed in the massive structure.

*******************************************************************************
        ___      _      ___      ___________      ___
       / _ \    | |    / _ \    / __________|    / _ \     Bill Smith 
      | | \ \   | |   / / \ \  | <_________     / / \ \    Code 910.4
      | |  \ \  | |  / /   \ \  \_________ \   / /   \ \   Goddard Space Center
      | |   \ \_| | / /     \ \___________> | / /     \ \  Greenbelt, MD 20771
      |_|    \___/ /_/       \_____________/ /_/       \_\ 
Reunite Pangaea!!!                                  w3wes@edison.gsfc.nasa.gov
*******************************************************************************

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Subject: Re: Captain Crunch and th
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 14:35:34 GMT

david.lloyd-jones@rose.uucp (david lloyd-jones) writes:
>Date Entered: 04-11-92 07:56
>U(>Subject: Re: Captain Crunch and the Phone Phreaks

>U(>        The 2600 Hz tone (every self respecting geek knows that.. JUST KIDDI
>U(>would allow calls _anywhere_.  Wozniak & Jobs sold Blue Boxes to UC Berkeley
>U(>students before starting Apple. [Either they, or someone else, was caught by
>U(>the police, and the excuse was that it was a "device to play music" or
>U(>somesuch.  The cops said something like "someone beat you to it last week."
>U(>Sounds like folklore, but it is told in the _first person_ by Wozniak or one
>U(>the other phreakers].


>"It isn't 2600 Hz., it's a couple of different tones at once..." Blah
>blah blah.

>Genuine urban legend: Bell has sent somebody around to all the
>University libraries and cut out the article from that issue of the Bell
>Technical Journal.
*----
First, once upon a time, long distance switching was done by in-band
signalling using pulsed 2600 HZ tones.  So the stories about Joe
Engressia, who could "whistle" long distance numbers, and Cap'n
Crunch whistles, are true.  Esquire Magazine and other popular
sources got a lot of details wrong when the glamorized Phone
Phreaking, and intimated that Engressia could whistle multifrequency
tones.

As for the Bell System Technical Journal article, the Journal went
out intact to most subscribers.  Bell later "red-tagged" the journal
and asked for them to be returned.  I know of at least one major
midwestern university that still has it on their shelves.

I can't comment on urban legends concerning Jobs and Wozniak.  The
phone phreaks with morals didn't sell boxes; we just used them for
recreation.  Selling was criminal.

I have seen somebody on the network using the real name of the person
that was the notorious Cap'n Crunch, an early phone phreak.  It may
well be him.  Personally, I found him to be a bit overbearing, and
something of a redneck, at least over the phone.  People don't always
live up to their status as legends.  Last time I talked to Joe
Engressia (a l-o-n-g time ago) he was working FOR the phone
company, almost a lifelong dream for him.
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Subject: The Mem Shows (was: Stupid 60s song: yellow polka dot bikini
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 15:08:04 GMT
Organization: My Daddy, My Doggy, and Me
X-Bytes: 

Mike Berger writes:
  John Gateley writes:
>>My mom has a painting of a very young girl playing on the beach
>>wearing (you guessed it) a yellow polka dot bikini. It was painted by
>>a relative of mine (who probably lived/s in Kansas City). According to
>>my mom, this painting was the inspiration for the yellow polka dot
>>bikini song. Could this be true? I am tempted to disbelieve, but
>>since it is not the typical chain (foafoafoafoaf...), I wonder.
>*----
>The song isn't about a very young girl, so it's hard to see how
>that would be the inspiration.
>--
There's no reference to the age of the girl...just that it's the first
time she tried on her suit. It would be cuter...I can't believe I'm
writing this...if the girl were younger. And it's Holy Week. Mea culpa.
Mea maxima culpa.

ObPointlessDigression: There's not only a French version of this song,
                       there's a French video of it. As Brian Hyland
                       joins Mickey Rourke and Jerry Lewis in the pantheon...
-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu>  
You know, there's many a damned fool woulda swallered that.
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What Pepsi Means in C
Date: 10 Apr 92 07:35:47 GMT
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway

In <1992Apr09.144658.1332@rose.uucp> david.lloyd-jones@rose.uucp (david lloyd-jones) writes:

    I've been instructed by the Usenet Moderators' Committee to tell you our
    usage.   When you post messages like this you are supposed to use a
    .... symbol.  This is called a "smiley."

A smiley in AFU?  Sheesh!  There's a two-fifty fine for that.

Warren "my C compiler doesn't implement Pepsi" Burstein
-- 
/|/-\/-\          The entire kitchen is		Jerusalem
 |__/__/_/        still full of strange hamantaschen
 |warren@         And the custodian
/ nysernet.org    is starting to get worried.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The thief whose past caught up with him
From: derek@fivegl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 21:27:28 GMT
Reply-To: derek@fivegl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Organization: Task Management Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand

In article <3APR199204333324@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu>, ae313406@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu (Vance
Kochenderfer) says:
>
>Here's a new(?) one told by a FOABT (Friend of a Bank Teller):
>        A man holds up a bank and gets away with some large sum
>of money.  He is never caught.  Years later, in another city in
>another state, the burglar goes to a bank to get a loan.  The
>loan officer turns out to be the same teller he robbed.
>
This story happened in Cameroun and was related to us by several people 
including the priest who ran the campsite and a couple who were at the 
campsite at the same time.

A dutch couple ( who had been warned not to go of the site at night ) were 
beaten up and robbed of their American Express travellers cheques and some 
money.  They contact American Express and get new cheques sent to them - which 
takes a couple of days. When they arrive they go to the bank to cash some
money and the guy in front in the queue is cashing her stolen cheques!
So she goes and finds a policeman...

ObUL: Justice is swift and true in Cameroun. So the criminal probably 
slipped the policeman some of the proceeds and walked away!

Derek Tearne 
-- 
Derek Tearne      derek@fivegl.co.nz | If yo
  rek      l   .nz                   | yo
New Zea
and while he wasn't looking the .sig eaters were busy at work
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pfalstad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul Falstad)
Subject: Re: Ask Marilyn Again
Originator: news@ernie.Princeton.EDU
Organization: League For Fighting Chartered Accountancy
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 02:42:53 GMT

wjeuerle@athena.mit.edu (William J Euerle) wrote on Fri, 10 Apr 1992 00:39:58 GMT:
>Well, look at the situation.  You now have 2 doors.  One of which has the car
>behind it.  (you explicitly stated that you have no information to distinguish
>the 2 doors)
>What is the probility that door A has a car behind it?  It is 1/2. 

Why?  The car is not randomly distributed between the two doors.  It was
randomly distributed between the _original_ three doors.

Here's yet another way to look at it:

A: "I'm thinking of a number from 1 to 1,000,000,000.  Guess what it is."
B: "Ok, I'll guess 3."
A: "I'll give you a hint.  The number is either 546,497,234 or 3.  Guess
    which one."
B: "Well, let's see.  There are two numbers involved here, and I don't know
    which one is the correct number; I have no information to distinguish the
    two numbers.  Therefore, there must be a fifty-fifty chance that either
    one is correct.  So I have no advantage in switching numbers.  I'll stick
    with my original guess, 3."

Think that makes sense?  I hope not.

-- 
Paul Falstad, pfalstad@phoenix.princeton.edu | 10 PRINT "PRINCETON CS"
[Your blood pressure just went up.]          | 20 GOTO 10