HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jcm3r@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (John Carl Martin)
Subject: Re: Help finding NASA GIF files
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 23:50:46 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.015831.6636@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> jcm3r@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (John Carl Martin) writes:
>On Sunday night, I was FTPing to the ames.arc.nasa.gov to download
>some GIF files that I had picked out.  I expected to find these
>files in the directory /pub/SPACE/GIF but the directory was empty,
>except for the INDEX file which read:
>       total: 0

 Sorry for the false alarm.  I checked for theses GIF files this afternoon and 
they where right where they were suposed to be. But I swear they were not 
there on Sunday night.

John C. Martin
  jcm3r@virginia.edu
From: rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Issac Asimov -- Dead : (
Date: 10 Apr 92 17:26:40 GMT
Organization: Brighton Polytechnic, UK

Isaac Asimov's death is a hard thing for me to grasp; it was he (often
accompanied by Arthur Clarke) that held my hand during my first forays
into science fiction. His books continue to enchant me, as they have done
ever since my early school years.

I am annoyed at the media here in Britain: I can't remember seeing anything
on television about Mr. Asimov's death; it seems to have been obliterated
by election coverage, and I think that's very wrong. Isaac Asimov was the
man who gave birth to the robot concept and the Three Laws of Robotics;
he was the man who changed the public's attitude of science fiction from 
contemptuous to admiring.

Something should be done to honour him.

In sadness,

Richard.

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   *  The Three Laws of Robotics 
Department of Computer Science    *   ... a design for humankind.      
Brighton Polytechnic              *       
****************************************************************************
		Isaac Asimov: May you rest in peace.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
From: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Weight of Earth?
Summary: sextillion is 1e21 in the US
Date: 16 Apr 92 21:10:38 GMT
Reply-To: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones)
Organization: Kendall Square Research Corp
In-reply-to: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones)

In article <11494@ksr.com>, clj@ksr (that's me) wrote:
>								its mass is
>equivalent to 6 sextillion 588 quintillion short tons, which is 5.98e27 grams
>(if my interpretation of sextillion as 1e18 is correct).

Well, it was pointed out to me in email that sextillion is 1e21, which is what
I must have used, since the answer still appears correct. (units tells me to
multiply by 9.071847e+05 to convert from tons to grams.)

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the British seem to wait until
numbers get to 1e36 before rolling out sextillion.
--
Chris Jones    clj@ksr.com    {uunet,harvard,world}!ksr!clj
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: rbunge@access.digex.com (Robert Bunge)
Subject: Re: Where are the philanthropists [was Save Palomar]
Organization: Express Access Online Communications Service, Greenbelt, Maryland USA
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 01:52:35 GMT

In article <1405@newave.UUCP> john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) writes:
>In article <music.702327163@batman> music@moravian.edu (Steve Heller) writes:
>> It's a shame that one or more of the world's wealthiest people and
>> corporations would have the interest in building superior telescopes.
>> An expenditure of $50-75 million could establish the finest observatory
>> on Earth.
>
>Isn't this exactly what is currently happening?  Keck and Keck II were
>both privately funded to the tune of about $100-million each.
>
Yep.  And the Sloan Foundation is giving something like $10 million
for the ARC/Princeton and other Digital Survey Telescope.  That 
list of projects that I just sent out has millions and millions of
dollars of projects.  A number of them are privately funded.  Big
telescopes are big business and make for big names.

Bob Bunge
rbunge@access.digex.com
From: joe@montebello.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Joe Dellinger)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Alien fingers and toes
Date: 8 Apr 92 10:32:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Apr8.103206.1730
Reply-To: joe@montebello.soest.hawaii.edu
Organization: School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology

In article <1992Apr2.233415.2662@ucselx.sdsu.edu>, maxc0197@ucselx.sdsu.edu (Chris "I shall pass" Preston) writes:
|> Alien life forms: [...]
|> 	Four legs seems to be the norm.

	I'd be REAL careful on this one. Sure, Mammals, reptiles, amphibians,
birds on Earth ALL have four limbs. But this is mostly because their common
chordate ancestor had 4 limbs.
	Another number may be more efficient for all we know, but that
evolutionary leap was just never made on Earth, for whatever reason.

	Here's a good unanswered question: why 5 fingers? The genetic
variability for more or less is known to be there, but 5 digits has real
staying power: it goes way back into the fossil record as by far the most
common number for anything without hooves.

     /\    /\    /\/\/\/\/\/\/\.-.-.-.-.......___________
    /  \  /  \  /Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, Honolulu\/\/\.-.-....__
___/    \/    \/Joe Dellinger, Internet: joe@montebello.soest.hawaii.edu\/\.-.__
____________________________________________________
Objectivity is not an ubobtainable emptying of mind |
but a willingness to abandon a set of preferences   |----> Stephen J. Gould
when the world seems to work in a contrary way.     |
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: tholen@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu (Dave Tholen)
Subject: Re: comet approaching?
Organization: Institute for Astronomy, Hawaii
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 09:04:43 GMT

Michael J. Konopik writes:

>> Should something be done about the situation?  Well, the astronomers have
>> done their job by calculating probabilities to the best of our limited
>> knowledge.  Now it's up to politicians to decide priorities.
> 
> Yes, but what about those probabilities?  The figures I've heard cited on
> the news (KCBS radio, if I recall) claimed that the probability that a
> person alive today will die from an asteroid impact within the next 50 years
> are higher than they are that that same individual will die from a lightning
> strike in that same period of time.  If those are the actual figures that
> the astronomers are reporting, then I wouldn't hold my breath - not a lot of
> people (let alone politicians) are going to buy into it.  Chicken Little had
> better odds of finding an audience...
> 
> Wouldn't it be nice if the media reported the basis for such figures, too?
> Without that information, all those statistics and such are meaningless.

The problem with the probabilities is that we are dealing with something
that has such a small probability of occurring, but has such enormous
consequences when it does happen.  Suppose a hundred years from now, an
impact of the kind that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs occurred,
and humans became extinct shortly thereafter.  It's been 65 million years
since the last impact of that magnitude, but it might kill off something
like 6.5 billion people (a nice round number for ease of computation), for
an average annual death rate of 100 people!  But to claim that asteroid
impacts kill an average of 100 people per year would be ludicrous!  You see
how the way in which the statistics are presented can make such a difference.
Yes, the probability of death due to asteroid impact can be shown to be
statistically similar to the probability of death by lightning strike or
airliner crash, but these latter fatalities occur with much greater
regularity than asteroid impacts.  Humans just aren't accustomed to dealing
with catastrophic events that occur on timescales longer than their own
lifespans, which is one reason why we have people living in earthquake
prone areas of California, flood-prone areas of Bangladesh, volcano-prone
areas of the Big Island, tornado-prone areas of Kansas, hurricane-prone
areas of South Carolina (I mean the BIG hurricanes, like Hugo)...
per year!
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: ivanitch@cherry.udel.edu (Sandy Ivanitch)
Subject: Re: archeoastronomy
Organization: University of Delaware, Newark
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 13:20:28 GMT

In article <beddow.702956411@ux.acs.umn.edu> beddow@ux.acs.umn.edu (Jeff Beddow) writes:
>I am looking for information on american archeological sites
>that might involve primitive observatories.  I am particularly
>interested in anything in the midwest.
>Thanks,
>Jeff Beddow
>612 348 3105
>

You might try posting this to sci.archaeology.  Someone there may be 
able to suggest some sources.


-- 
 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@             Sandra Ivanitch		@            Archaeology:             @
@      ivanitch@freezer.cns.udel.edu    @  It may not have much of a future,  @
@           Anthropology Major		@   but it has one hell of a past!    @
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: holder@cse.uta.edu (Larry Holder)
Subject: Structural Databases
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, Univ. of Texas at Arlington
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 22:16:22 GMT

We are looking for databases to be used for testing an intelligent
structural data analysis tool.  The database should be structural or a
flat representation of a structural environment (e.g., coordinates of
3d entities).  The database will be converted to a graph
representation for input to the system.  Any pointers to such
databases would be appreciated.

Thank you.

-- 
Larry Holder (holder@cse.uta.edu)

University of Texas at Arlington, Department of Computer Science Engineering
Box 19015, Arlington, TX 76019-0015, Phone: 817-273-2596, FAX: 817-273-2548
Xref: sparky sci.astro:4994 sci.geo.geology:1060
From: cain@geomag.gly.fsu.edu (Joe Cain)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.geo.geology
Subject: Evolution of Uranian System
Summary: Why did the moons end up in equatorial plane?
Keywords: Laplacian plane accretion
Date: 14 Apr 92 14:31:26 GMT
Organization: Florida State University Geology Dept.


	After reading the vague discussions of the reasons for the
high obliquity of the Uranian system I am puzzled about the sequence
of events that lead to all the moons being in the present equatorial
plane. Is there a reference as to how this might have evolved?
That is a LOT of angular momentum to move around. Is the idea that a
collision took place after the planet was formed and before moons
begun to come together? If the obliquity of the planets rotation and
the inclination of the moons were intially close to that of the other
planets one would think that the moons would have not changed their
orbital planes following a collision of another body with Uranus.
Joseph Cain		cain@geomag.gly.fsu.edu
cain@fsu.bitnet		scri::cain
From: mjm@hercules.as.arizona.edu (Mark McCaughrean)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: MMT Mirror Cast!
Date: 11 Apr 92 02:36:11 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

In article <TOM.92Apr8071927@amber.ssd.csd.harris.com> tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) writes:
>>>>>> Regarding MMT Mirror Cast!; willner@cfa.harvard.edu (Steve Willner) adds:
>
>willner> A time-lapse video was made during the melting.  Supposedly CNN will
>willner> show it sometime this week.  It is supposed to be worth watching, so
>willner> please post the schedule if you have it.
>
>I have no facts, but this sounds like something which would probably show
>up Saturday morning on the Science & Technology week feature (I forget the
>exact time it comes on, but it is probably listed in your TV schedule).

The latest word from the UA Public Information Office (about 2pm MST
Friday 10th April) was that CNN will probably NOT be running a story 
this Saturday, but more likely next Saturday, the 18th. We provided
CNN with a whole bunch of material including an early version of the
melt `animation' (a whole sequence of still CCD images taken at roughly
3 minute intervals over about a day), which was completed by 5.30pm
last Friday, after 33 hours of non-stop work. However, this version
did not show the very interesting phase at peak temperature, where 
the melted glass drops down between the honeycomb cores, leaving just
enough on top to form the 1.6 inch thick faceplate. And I mean just
enough: that precipitous drop was quite a nerve-wracking thing to
experience in real time.

Anyway, this past week, I've finished the complete video sequence
for both main cameras, one showing a wide field view, the other a
close up, the latter including some great stuff showing bubbles rising 
to the surface and bursting. This will be sent to CNN next week,
hopefully in time for their piece.

I know I'm biased, having made the videos, but this stuff really is
interesting; the first time such a time-lapse movie has been made,
and on a 6.5m to boot! Look out for it.

Finally, sometime next week I'll probably post some selected images
from the sequences to alt.binaries.pictures.misc. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark McCaughrean    | University of Arizona | Phone: US + (602) 621 8347
Steward Observatory | Tucson, AZ 85721, USA | E-mail: mjm@as.arizona.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: fsrsg@acad3.alaska.edu (Richard S. Guse)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Isaac Asimov, Science fact and fiction writer
Date: 7 Apr 92 22:00:39 GMT
Organization: Psi INc.

In article <1992Apr7.172847.27466@cbfsb.cb.att.com>, wa2ise@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (robert.f.casey) writes:
> I suppose an asteroid could be named after him, in his honor.
I was thinking of the next manned interplanetary ship(when we get to it!)
this man's writings gave me my philosophy!  that's no small deed!


-- 
     .         .      .       .   ______-==-______. ______-==-______        .
.      .    .       .   __-------=----------------==----------------=-------___
 ________________  _  _-  -------=________________==________________=-------  .
(______________(_||_)/_______/  .    .  ----              ---- .          .
   /_____/_____           _-               .        .    .           .
 .         .   \________ -    .  "Number 1, set a course to the main() routine,
  Capt. Mycroft Holmes III   .    recursive warp factor 6."      .        .
  CO, USS Beelzebub     .            .        .    .                    .
. Recursive Class Starship . NCC+=666++   .          .       .     .         .
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: ronnie@cisco.com (Ronnie B. Kon)
Subject: sci.astro.urgent
Organization: cisco Systems, Incorporated
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 02:11:31 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.204921.18608@sq.sq.com>, msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
|> 
|> If moderation-delay is a problem, then perhaps more than one person could
|> volunteer to moderate -- whichever moderator gets to it first sends
|> it out.  Multiple moderation has been successful in other groups such as
|> rec.arts.sf.reviews, but I don't know how the moderators there avoid
|> sending the same message out more than once.

Big events don't happen all that often.  If we end up with multiple 
announcements, we can all live with that.  The worst would be:

	1.  Betelgeuse goes supernova
	2.  Betelgeuse goes supernova
	3.  Betelgeuse goes supernova
	4.  Betelgeuse goes supernova

I'd rather see this four times than not at all.  (Well, actually, I think
I'd rather not see this at all, but for other reasons. :-) )

 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronnie B. Kon           |  "If you vote Republican, does that make you
ronnie@cisco.com        |   an accomplice to their crimes?"
(415) 688-4592          |                  -- Bongo, Life in Hell
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: GAS@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: 4th mag fireball seen from Santa Cruz, CA
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:12:44 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

At 10:30PM Pacific time on 14-Apr-1992, I saw a fireball in the
northern sky from Santa Cruz.  It travelled rapidly from NE to N,
roughly parallel to the horizon.  It was pale orange, and at first I
thought it was a low pressure sodium street light reflecting off of
my glasses.  The skies were not dark, only the brightest stars were visable,
so I'd put it at 4th or maybe even third magnitude.  It was really bright
and lasted a long time, subjectively speaking.

Did anyone else observe this?
                                                  -Glenn Horton-Smith
* Not the opinions of (etc. etc.)...
Xref: sparky sci.astro:4901 rec.photo:6923
From: koolish@BBN.COM (Richard M. Koolish)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,rec.photo
Subject: TI Light-Frequency Chip
Date: 9 Apr 1992 15:22:38 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Distribution: world
Reply-To: koolish@BBN.COM (Richard M. Koolish)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com


I've gotten a sample of the TI TSL220 Light to frequency converter chip,
if anybody is interested.  I've got it hooked up to a microcontroller
chip and can measure the output.  So far I've just tried it in my office
and don't quite know its sensitivity range.
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: tim@nijinsky.ipac.caltech.edu (Tim Conrow)
Subject: Re: Alien fingers and toes
Organization: California Institute of Technology
	<1992Apr8.103206.1730@news.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 19:30:21 GMT

In article <1992Apr8.103206.1730@news.Hawaii.Edu> joe@montebello.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Joe Dellinger) writes:


	   Here's a good unanswered question: why 5 fingers? The genetic
   variability for more or less is known to be there, but 5 digits has real
   staying power: it goes way back into the fossil record as by far the most
   common number for anything without hooves.

   Joe Dellinger, Internet: joe@montebello.soest.hawaii.edu

I'd say it's the same answer you gave to "why 4 legs"; because it's
the first way that worked. Natural selection has to work with the
materials at hand (pun intended).  When you say "The genetic
variability for more or less is known to be there...", what do you
mean?  There's certainly nothing magic about 5; we have and use 5
fingers and toes, but plenty of other critters get along fine USING
fewer (e.g. all hooved and pawed animals) but the structures for 5 are
always there.

Even hooved animals have all the structure of 5 toes but either
diplaced or degenerate. The 5 finger model is so powerful that one
animal, the Panda, had to use an arm bone (sessamoid something or
other?) to make a 6th finger for stripping leaves off bamboo shoots.
(See S. J. Gould's book "The Panda's Thumb" for more).

For all you asking yourselves "This is astronomy?": There ought to be
a sci.origins group where this neat stuff could be discussed w/o all
the flames found in talk.origins, but there ain't.

-- Tim Conrow         tim@ipac.caltech.edu
From: David.Galea@p3.f530.n635.z3.fx.cec.edu.au (David Galea)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Isaac Asimov, Science fact and fiction writer
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 00:39:00 +1000

In a msg of <07 Apr 92>, robert.f.casey writes to (xpost: 1) All:


 rfc> I suppose an asteroid could be named after him, in his honor.

I think it would prove appropriate.


 * Origin:  ----> Long Live Asimov <---- (3:635/530.3)
From: pbd@runyon.cim.cdc.com (Paul Dokas)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Large black hole discovered ?
Date: 15 Apr 92 17:29:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: shamash.41071
Reply-To: pbd@runyon.cim.cdc.com (Paul Dokas)
Organization: ICEM Systems, Inc

In article <1992Apr15.080713.1@acad3.alaska.edu>, fsrsg@acad3.alaska.edu (Richard S. Guse) writes:
|> In article <1992Apr15.171505.4707@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>, wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz (Bill Taylor) writes:
|> > I read in the local paper here, that NASA has recently discovered an
|> > alleged enormous (10^6 solar masses) black hole at the centre of M32.
|> > 
|> > Is this new ?  Is it a reliable "discovery"?  What's it all about ?
|> > 
|> > Can anyone enlighten us ?
|> 
|> from how you worded that, it sounds like they're awfully positive about this
|> black hole, and it's size!  one can extrapolate to the idea that there are
|> black holes in the center of galaxies...I'm guessing M32 is such...altho
|> that one has skipped me.  I'd be curious as to how they know.  there could
|> be many different signatures for a black hole, most of them can mean other
|> things!  anyone have the estimated size of the gravitational object at the
|> center of this galaxy?

This discovery was posted here on sci.astro (or was it sci.space???) a week or
so ago.  The message was forwarded from some other source (JPL??).

They used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the velocities of stars and the
density of star distribution at the center of M32.  The conclusion was that
only a BH of some HUGE size could result in the measured values.  Note that
they only made observation of phenomena that would result from the presence
of a BH.  They did not directly observe a BH (kind of hard to do...)

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet about whether this BH really exists or
not.  The results sounded pretty preliminary and haven't been published yet
(or have they?  I really don't know)

-- 
+--------------------------+----------------------------+-------------------+
| Paul Dokas               |     Put your favorite      |                   |
| pbd@runyon.cim.cdc.com   |      disclaimer here.      |       Fnord       |
| pbd@power1.cim.cdc.com   |                            |                   |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+-------------------+
| "The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing." -Blaise Pascal |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: ppvvpp@mixcom.com (Gary C. Sutcliffe)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: sun spot data needed
Keywords: sunspot
Date: 13 Apr 92 19:43:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: mixcom.1992Apr13.194351.12956
Distribution: na
Organization: Milwaukee Internet Xchange BBS, Milwaukee, WI U.S.A.

I'm looking for monthly sunspot numbers back to the early 1600's (or
whenever they started keeping them).  I'm especially interested in
the 70 year period of no sunspots starting around 1640.  Ideally this
would be in machine readable format.  Any one have any suggestions?

Thanks - Gary

ppvvpp@mixcom.com
From: cease@carina.unm.edu (Cecilia De Blasi)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Clyde Tombaugh
Date: 15 Apr 92 22:45:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: lynx.qdzjsnc
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <92106.143349IP25086@portland.caps.maine.edu> IP25086@portland.caps.maine.edu writes:
>Could somebody tell me if Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto is
>still alive?  I was just curious.
>
>Thank you      Edward G....Physics Department *student* USM

Yes, he lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and is still associated with
the university there.  He is about 85 now, and only rarely gives talks
anymore...

-- 
| courtesy of Cease of the Not Well Defined at This Time |
|        cease@unmb.bitnet    cease@carina.unm.edu       |
|    We're only immortal for a limited time.  - Rush     |
**********************************************************
Organization: University of Maine System
Date: Wednesday, 15 Apr 1992 14:33:49 EDT
From: <IP25086@portland.caps.maine.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Clyde Tombaugh

Could somebody tell me if Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto is
still alive?  I was just curious.

Thank you      Edward G....Physics Department *student* USM
Newsgroups: sci.astro