HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hg798502@LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Hugh Graham)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: More British economy stuff (Re: VNS: Thu 10-Sep-92)
Summary: and nonsense
Date: 10 Sep 92 22:14:11 GMT
Organization: Colorado State U. Engineering College

>
><><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>
>
> Edition : 2659             Thursday 10-Sep-1992           Circulation :  7781 
>
>    The Cabinet meet today and will consider calls for devaluation of the
>    pound which yesterday sunk to a new low within the European monetary
>    system, caused at least in part by the weakness of the US doller.
>

(Ho hum)^2.  Well at least we know that the weakness of the pound is due
to the weakness of the dollar and not to the weakness of the British economy.
Unless that is,perchance, the other 'part cause'...:-)
I hear that other european currencies (including some such as that of 
Sweden that are tied to, but not members of, t'ERM) are weak w.r.t.
the German Mark, due to high Bundesbank interest rates.  BUT INTEREST
RATES ARE HIGH IN BRITAIN TOO!  Oops.  Watch the blood pressure.:-) 
How come the german economy is so strong so soon after reunification 
and absorption of ex-East Germany??

In conclusion, Lamont's "courageous gamble" of buying foreign currency
has failed and the pound plummets further.

What do I care?  I get paid in dollars ;-)

Hugh (not an economist)
Is this my opinion or CSU's?  Can you guess?
--
hg798502@longs.lance.colostate.edu
I am not a free man, I am a number.
From: mjfm@otter.hpl.hp.com (Miranda Mowbray)
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 16:28:50 GMT
Subject: Re: This England
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british

This is a very good example of how selective quotation can change a passage's
meaning.  Most of the time when the speech is quoted the quote stops at "this
England".  This makes the speech appear to say simply that England's Great,
which is NOT what it says.

Some people deliberately stop at the England's Great place because they think
it's unpatriotic to talk about England's faults.  Which is nonsense, you
couldn't get more patriotic than this speech.

Yes, Churchill did quote it, in a radio broadcast.  
                                                   Miranda.
~
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: plummer@cs.swarthmore.edu (David Barker-Plummer)
Subject: Re: What is a 2.1 equivalent to ?
Organization: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
	<1992Sep13.171153.13788@rdg.dec.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 19:59:39 GMT

In article <1992Sep13.171153.13788@rdg.dec.com> cockburn@edieng.enet.dec.com (Craig Cockburn) writes:

   I've never heard of GPA. I guess it stands for gross points average
   or something similar. This measurement isn't used in the UK. If you
   do well in a course, then you'll get a merit, and most people put this
   info on their CVs. 

Grade point average.  Usually 4 for an A, 3 for a B and so on.
Interpolate appropriately for decorated grades.

   There is no standard, for these numbers. e.g. if you averaged 70% in
   all your exams and coursework you might get a 2:2 in one place and a
   first in another.

I think that it is possible to find out how many of each class of
degree are awarded in a given subject at a given institution each
year.  So one could probably compute the percentiles that each class
of degree "equates to" with information gathered over the years.  My
perception is that a first in the UK is rarer than a 4.0 GPA in the
US.  I would be surprised if, in a typical year, a US college doesn't
have a few graduates with a 4.0, but I understand that often UK
departments can often go for years without awarding a first.

-- Dave
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: ckp2n@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Chris Powell)
Subject: Re: Tanstaafl (was:Americanising of the UK)
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 22:52:46 GMT

rhaller@oregon.uoregon.edu  writes:

> Speaking of economists and pithy phrases, my favorite is "In the long run,
> we are all dead". Anyone know in which of Keynes works (and where) this
> appears?
> 
> -Rich

It's from A Tract on Monetary Reform, Collected Writings, IV,
1971.

Chris

Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: hiscrp@nuscc.nus.sg (C R Pennell)
Subject: Re: Are foreignborn kids of UK citizens etc
Organization: National University of Singapore
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 00:47:55 GMT

I am British with a full passport (not one of those crummy Hongkong ones
and Falkland ISland ones for lesser breeds within the law) My wife is
Singaporean. My son was born in the USA in 1986, my daughter in Kenya in
1988. There was no problem about getting British passports for either of
the children from the British High COmmission in Nairobi. Why Nairobi
when our son was born in the USA, I hear you cry. Well the COnsulate in
Boston wouldn't issue passports, the Consulate-General in New York was
utterly incompetent, and good old FCO in London had a 9month backlog or
something at the time. ANyway you had to cue at 3am to hand the forms
in.So we did it in Nairobi in three days.

However, not all was wonderful at the Nairobi High Commission. SOetime
in 1987 the Brits cahnged the right of entry laws, effectively meaning
taht my wife could only live in Britain if she accompanied me once I had
show I could "Support her" and could only get rsidence permission  after
living there for a few years (3 I think). When I checked this out at the
HC they referred me to the Home Office Representative, a large grim
woman with arms folded in front of her chest situated behind a plate
glass screen. When I asked her if the rules meant taht if I died BEFORE
returning to live in the motherland permanently and getting my wife
residence status she would be not entitled to enter the country to live
with her British children. She confirmed that this was so. I made some
remark along the lines taht this new change of rules was a bad thing.
SHe answered, with a self-satisfied little smile: You should have
thought about that BEFORE you married a foreigner.

CONCLUSION: Beware HO representatives in countries of immigration (we
know that anyway) More important: think of a way round this outrageous
situation where a mother cannot legally accompany her children. My
betting is that it is fundamentally racist - were my wife white ther'd
be no problem. She's Chinese, which is noy quite as badly seen by the
official racists (I hope). But were she Indian/Bangladeshi, no chance.
Comments anyone?

Richard Pennell
History
NUS
From: mlemmerm@nl.oracle.com (Mick Lemmerman Publisher)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Classic-FM (was: VNS: Mon  7-Sep-1992)
Date: 15 Sep 92 12:01:38 GMT
Reply-To: mlemmerm@oracle.nl (Mick Lemmerman Publisher)
Organization: Oracle Europe

In article <laphbhINN55s@news.bbn.com> clements@bbn.com (Bob Clements) writes:
>-     A new national radio station, Classic-FM, started broadcasting at 6am
>-     today. It is Britain's first national commercial radio station and will
>-     broadcast a mixture of classical music, chat and news. The service is
>-     said to be intended to complement rather than rivel BBC Radio 3.
>
>Too bad.  I really enjoyed the bird calls they were testing with.  They
>were the most informative transmissions I could find on the dial...
>
	Is that what it was? I was driving through Kent a couple
	of months ago, and I was looking for something on the radio, when 
	suddenly the car was filled with the sounds of birdsong. At
	the time, I thought that it was some sort of station that you
	only tune in for relaxational purposes (like Ambient TV), 
	probably aimed at Londoners who don't get to hear too many
	birds these days. I also thought it was not a bad idea (although
	a very expensive waste of radio bandwidth). Oops.
From: pad@galaxy.nsc.com (Paul Denny x8349)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: VNS: Fri  4-Sep-1992
Date: 8 Sep 92 19:29:15 GMT
Organization: National Semiconductor, Santa Clara

In article <1992Sep8.104252.9209@bristol.ac.uk>, smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
> In article <1992Sep7.174049.8715@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
> >Yes, and the Government and the British Economy are now so short of funds and
> >in such dire trouble that a bank loan of something over 7 billion is apparently
> >the only option available to get out of the trouble Britain is in.
>[deleted...] 
> The thing that strikes me as fun is that the Government, to get all
> this money they want (in pounds, ultimately) is borrowing half of it in
> Deutschmarks... 
> 
> (And Lordy, will they be in trouble if they've mis-guessed which way the
> exchange rates are going to move between now and whenever it's time to
> pay up, which will need to be done in the currency which was borrowed.)
>...
 
I can`t imagine anyone who seriously believes that the pound is going to
rise against any hard currency in the forseeable future. On second thoughts
a lot of voters thought that an "early recovery" was just around the corner...

My investment tip - buy gilts.
From: nick@cs.hw.ac.uk (Nick Taylor)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Gordon Bennett! Re: No smegma please, we're American
Date: 9 Sep 92 08:40:09 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computing and Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <1992Sep8.170840.22969@gateway.novell.com> terry@thisbe.Eng.Sandy.Novell.COM (Terry Lambert) writes:
>In article <1992Sep3.215537.29274@macc.wisc.edu> husted@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Jack) writes:
>>In what other dictionary of its size and relative low cost can
>>you find the proper term of address for the married daughter
>>of a marquess/marquis? (ref. 1965 edition)
>
>All right.  Give.  What is the proper term of address?

Apart from the obvious - "Your smegmaness" - my money's on "Mrs".
Come on Jack, the suspense is killing us ...

Nick.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:12204 rec.arts.tv.uk:5269 rec.arts.drwho:5836 alt.tv.prisoner:1305
From: ewm6965@venus.tamu.edu (The Guardian)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.tv.uk,rec.arts.drwho,alt.tv.prisoner
Subject: Re: Americanising of the UK, Now: British TV in North America
Date: 6 Sep 1992 05:36:00 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Sep01.041814.12172@admiral.uucp>, dave@admiral.uucp (Dave
Litchman) writes...
>In article <1992Aug28.182604.23445@enterprise.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com>
baylor@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com writes:
>>In article <FLD7PB1w164w@kryton.UUCP>, ace@kryton.UUCP (Catherine Beckstead)
writes:
>>>perl@dwrsun4.UUCP (Robert Perlberg) writes:
>>>> Don't tell me they're going to allow the word "smeg" on NBC.
>>Hey, I'm a moderately well educated American, and I don't know 
>>what the smeg "SMEG" means. (Seems to be used as a synonym to
>>"figurative excrement".) I bet it would pass the censors.
>The first time I saw Red Dwarf, I had no idea what 'smeg' meant, I thought it
>was just an amusing exclamatory made up for the show (similar to Battlestar
>Galactica's ubiquitous 'felgercarb'). Now, I hear it in more places, mostly
>other British TV, but I STILL don't know what it means! I agree, I bet it 
>would pass the censors.

A few years ago, some definitely American teenagers used "smegma" to mean just 
what baylor (whoever he/she/it is) thought, so I assume "smeg" is a shortened 
version of that.
From: Robert.Hartill@cm.cf.ac.uk (virtual user)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Nigel Mansell
Date: 15 Sep 92 12:30:58 GMT
Organization: Computing Maths (COMMA), UWCC, Wales, UK

Neil Postlethwaite wrote...
-|
-|I see from the Grand Prix on TV at the weekend, Nigel Mansell has taken
-|a tantrum and 'quit' again 'cos Williams won't give him excessive amounts
-|of money.
-|
-|Good riddance to the toss-pot. Roll on Senna and Prost for Williams
-|next year.
-|

Why move this discussion from rec.autos.sport Neil ?

Looks like you're just after a flame war.

-|Also, did anyone believe Mansell when he was interviewed by Jonathon
-|Palmer and said he was going to let Patrese win anyway. I didn't.
-|

I did. The pictures I saw (BBC coverage) seemed to support this claim.

Like him or not, Sunday afternoon GPs (or is that GsP :-) ) won't
be the same.

--
    ____Robert Hartill, Dept Of Computing Mathematics, UWCC, Cardiff, UK.____
    \______e-mail : rhl@cm.cf.ac.uk _________ Fax : +44 (0)222 666182_______/
		 Men can be analysed, women ... merely adored.
				 -Oscar Wilde.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: reese@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: The LSE
Date: 4 Sep 92 13:12:23 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620



One current issue I feel strongly about is the future of the old
County Hall on the South Bank.  It is a wonderful and beautiful
Edwardian building that used to house the Greater London Council.
With the demise of that body, its former premises are now for sale
and currently two bids for it are on the table:
1)  Luxury Japanese hotel development
2)  A new site for the London School of Economics.

So, what is the problem? Well it seems like it will be sold to
the Japanese for redevelopment as a hotel.
  
The LSE needs a new building to expand into from its old cramped
quarters near the Aldwych.  It needs the extra injection of prestige
such a prime site offers.  It offers to use the extra space to run
a business school training new managers specifically for the
challenge of European integration.  It offers to expand its student
numbers to meet government higher-education targets, and produce
high quality graduates to run (hopefully) British industry and the City.
Why can't the government look beyond its nose and see that an expansion 
of one of the best colleges in London University is a unique opportunity 
to enhance the reputation of London as a good place to study.  London 
needs a new hotel about as much as a hole in the head (especially in 
the middle of a recession).

I can't believe that the Japanese offer is even being considered when
the LSE is offering (potentially, depending on the sale of its old
site) more money, and the chance to expand and enhance the London
academic community, and its reputation.

Is Britain run by accountants, for accountants?  Let's do something
for the prestige for a change, not just for the short-term financial
gain. Let's do something to benefit London and Londoners.

Jason

P.S.  I wasn't a student at the LSE, but I know of its reputation.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: miriam@legs.gps.caltech.edu (Miriam Jackson)
Subject: Re: What is a 2.1 equivalent to ?
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 05:11:41 GMT

In article <1992Sep12.235914.18962@cs.hw.ac.uk> neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) writes:
>In article <1992Sep11.235937.8839@cco.caltech.edu> miriam@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Miriam Jackson) writes:
>>         stuff deleted
>>a masters degree in the States often requires a thesis, so the masters degree
>>takes from two years up (my office-mate took 5 years!), whereas in Britain
>>the degree takes only 1 year.  I think the experience of 
>>researching and writing a thesis may give a U.S. masters a slight edge
>>over a British B.Sc./B.A. etc.
>
>Eh ???
>Everybody who does an honours degree in their final year, be it 3rd in England
>or 4th in Scotland (4 year course - better !!) does a dissertation. This 
>being a short (in time length - equiv to maybe 3 months full time work)
>research project in a subject usually of your chosen supervisors interest
>or research field.
>
>MSc's (Master of Science) are pretty common over here. It is in between
>BSc hons and a PhD. Normally a 1 year full-time course with a 5-6 month
>research level dissertation included.
>Neil (on a MSc course !)
>

Eh???  I did an honours degree at UCL and didn't have to do a
dissertation.  I studied maths and astronomy, and although I did
have the option of doing an astronomy project, as the astronomy
people did, there wasn't a choice like that in maths.  This was
8 years ago, so things could have changed since then.

Also, I think the idea behind masters degrees is different in
the States and Britain.  A masters degree is for specialisation,
so a person who did a degree in physics may go on to a masters in
medical physics and a masters in hydrogeology may follow a 
degree in geology.  In the States, a physicist would probably
do a masters in physics and a geologist would probably do a masters
in geology.  The masters in the States is often a stepping stone
to a PhD; not many people go straight from a bachelors to a
PhD, whereas in Britain it seems not many people do both a masters
and a PhD.

This is all based on my own experience and I am sure there are
exceptions, but from talking to friends in Britain, and American
students here I think the above is a fair (if simplified) summary (MHO).
From: cla04@seq1.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: What is a 2.1 equivalent to ?
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:51:25 GMT
Organization: Keele University, England

From article <92259.164322EE117@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK>, by EE117@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK:
> Gabor writes...
> 
>>Well, I have a honours degree from Cambridge in mathematics and I never
>>wrote a dissertation.

I have one from Oxford I never wrote one either...
>
> that's nothing I knew a Cambridge graduate who was awarded an MA/MPhil
> without every doing a stroke of work for it - the only criteria for getting
> it was remaining part of the alumni and forking out the membership fee
>
At Oxford this is how you get your MA:-

You have to have been matriculated x number of terms (21 I think), you
have to make sure you don't owe your college anything, you hand over a
trivial sum of money (15 quid?). Then, hey presto, after being hit on the
head with a bible you become MA (Oxon) - funny old world

Andy
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:12235 rec.arts.tv.uk:5297 rec.arts.drwho:5903 alt.tv.prisoner:1321
From: roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.tv.uk,rec.arts.drwho,alt.tv.prisoner
Subject: Re: Americanising of the UK, Now: British TV in North America
Date: Mon, 07 Sep 92 17:40:21 CDT
Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN

danaf@vccsouth28.its.rpi.edu (Frank R. Dana Jr.) writes:

> In article <H12oqB1w165w@cybrspc.UUCP>, roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silver
> |> 
> |> I can't absolutely attribute it, but the first time I saw 'tanstaafl'
> |> was in Heinlein's _The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress_.
> 
> Wonderful novel. I recommend it unreservedly. and, yes, I do remember him
> using tanstaafl, as well as some other undocumented phrases, written to enhan
> the feeling of this being a moon colony, sometime in the future. However, I d
> not remember Heinlein actually DEFINING "tanstaafl", so it may be that he
> assumed his readers would already know what it meant from some other source
> (like Niven?).

I'd like to give an exact citation, but I don't have a copy of the book
handy.  However, I'm sure it was defined in there.  I seem to recall
Wyoming Knott using it first, and expanding the acronym.

I've since seen the form 'tinstaafl', from "there _is_ no...".
--
Roy M. Silvernail --  roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu - OR-  cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu
  perl -e '$x = 1/20; print "Just my \$$x! (adjusted for inflation)\n"'
          "Does that not fit in with your plans?"
                      -- Mr Wiggen, of Ironside and Malone (Monty Python)
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Classic-FM (was: VNS: Mon  7-Sep-1992)
Date: 9 Sep 92 11:38:45 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <CC.92Sep8183457@arran.dcs.ed.ac.uk>, cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris Cooke) writes:
> In article <laphbhINN55s@news.bbn.com> clements@bbn.com (Bob Clements) writes:
> 
>    Perhaps someone could post a review of the new service in a while?
>    I can't hear it over here in the colonies.
> 
[you've already read chris's review]

Feeling bored? Just turn the dial to Classic FM and Name That Tune! 
You'll be surprised how easy it is! Alternatively 

Laugh! at the ludicrous Radio adverts! 
Cringe! at Henry Kelly's appalling pronunciation!
Smirk! whenever Susanna Simons says something you know is wrong!

But don't forget---you've got to turn off as soon as you hear the tell-tale
*click* *whirr* of a CD being put in the player. Don't worry! You won't be
listening long!
-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   Remember what happened to the dinosaurs!
wilcox@maths.oxford.ac.uk  |    I did---and look what happened to me.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phillip M. Hallam-Baker)
Subject: Re: buying peerage
Reply-To: hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: DESY ZEUS Central Data Acquisition
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 22:06:34 GMT

In article <1992Sep11.134603.17178@sei.cmu.edu>, firth@sei.cmu.edu
(Robert Firth) writes:

|>In article <1992Sep10.223106.19223@dscomsf.desy.de>
|>Hallam@zeus02.desy.de writes:
|>
|>>You show remarkable courage in bringing up that precedent! I would
|>have brought
|>>it up myself to show just how unrepresentative such systems can be.
|>Here we have
|>>an elected government dismissed by an unelected official, namely the
|>govenor
|>>general.
|>
|>The Governor General was doing his constitutional duty.  In Australia
|>as
|>in the United Kingdom, a government that cannot obtain supply must
|>resign.
|>The crisis was caused by Prime Minister Whitlam's attempt to violate
|>the
|>constitution, and it is precisely against such demagogues that those
|>constitutional safeguards were erected.

Whitlam was perfectly within his rights, there was at the time no
precedent for such a situation, he had majority support in the main
house and there was no immediate need for the government to resign.
From: egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Looking for recording of TATOO
Date: 15 Sep 92 12:31:28 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <tbrunner.716467598@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE> tbrunner@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Thomas J Brunner) writes:
=>Hello,

Hello to you,

=>last week I've seen a report of the military TATOO in Edinbourgh (Sorry for maybe writing it wrong. I know it's definetly has nothing do to with painting picture on human bodies).
=>
=>My question is:
=>Does exist a recording on CD,MC.... of this event (It need not be recorded from
=>the 1992 event).

No, but an excellent impression can be gained by strangling a mongoose and
banging your head on a dustbin lid at the same time.


-- 
=======Jeremy Henderson========egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk===============
Q: How many user support people does it take to change a light bulb?
A: We have an exact copy of the light bulb here and it seems to be
   working fine.  Can you tell me what kind of system you have?
From: bf455@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bonita Kale)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Tanstaafl (was: Americanising of the UK
Date: 11 Sep 1992 15:55:18 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc4.ins.cwru.edu




In a previous article, fletcher@rtf.bt.co.uk (Catherine Fletcher) says:

>
>What exactly does tansnaafl stand for?
>There are no such things as a free lunch?



A question I can answer!  Thank you!

Tanstaafl stands for, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

(And, as someone said, Heinlein didn't originate the phrase, but I think he
did originate the acronym.)



Bonita Kale

Newsgroups: soc.culture.british