HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.canada,soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: List of words in American and British English
Date: 3 Sep 92 00:06:25 GMT
Organization: University of B.C. Computing Services

In article <1992Sep1.095204.21964@cs.hw.ac.uk> neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) writes:
>In article <17ta91INNibo@fbi-news.Informatik.Uni-Dortmund.DE> maennig@siggi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de writes:
>>Hello, folks.
>>I'm looking for a kind of dictionary which contents a list of words having a
>>different spelling in American and British English, but the same meaning.
>Most Englisg dictionaries would have this in, though I'm not sure about come of them.
>Can of coke, tin of coke. Both are used....
>Program is a computer one (though programming describes it. A quirk),
>Programme is like a TV one.

 As I read the original posting, the request was not for a dictionary
 giving both US and UK spellings, which most indeed do, but for some
 kind of book listing the terms with alternate spellings/words
 _all_in_one_place_.
From: orpheus@reed.edu (P. Hawthorne)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Stupidity of Am. Masses
Date: 2 Sep 92 10:28:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Sep2.102809.14498
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR


  julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas) writes:
: There are movements in both Alaska and California to break away from the
: US.

  In Oregon, at least, the only group I know of that advocates sucession
from the Union is the white supremacy movement, effectively discrediting
any discussion of the subject. I would not be surprised to find out that
all sucessionist movements are run by the KKK. What was it Lincoln said?
A house divided...

 
  etxmow@garboc34.ericsson.se (Mats Winberg) writes:
: How strong are these movements? On what grounds want they to split/secede
: California? Why should any sane USian want a European situation on
: American soil?

  If you thought Europe was a nice place to have a blood bath, have you
ever really given a thought to North America without the Union?

  Theus (orpheus@reed.edu)
From: reykja@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Reykja Sigurdsson)
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 01:17:03 GMT
Subject: Re: USA - Originators of Father's Day?
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa

In soc.culture.usa, ewartd@emu.insted.unimelb.edu.au writes:

> G'day.  Needed to find out origin of Father's Day for a radio piece
> of consumerism.  Somewhere deep in the old mind comes hte notion that
> its definitely a Yankee Doodle concept created by some on-the-ball
> marketers early this century.  Anybody know for sure?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Don

          Can't say for sure. I suspect that it was created by Hallmark
or the likes. When we were no longer available to be bombarded with
religious holidays, the 'produce' half of produce-and-consume cam e
up with a holiday to honor eveyrone. 

          We are still waiting for single-mother's day and computer 
operator's day. 
 
          Ghu


!
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Aid to Floridia & Louisiana (was: Re: 1-800-682-3362 )
From: demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man)
Date: 31 Aug 92 14:59:21 EST
Followup-To: soc.culture.usa 
Distribution: world
Organization: Demonic Possesions, Inc.

In article <1992Aug29.203008.1209@squid.tram.com>, patt@squid.tram.com (Patt Bromberger) writes:
> In article <1992Aug27.163507.25497@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> lundby@comm.mot.com writes:
>>The number to provide assistance to Dade County Relief:
>>
>>    1-800-682-3362  (number reported on Night Line [ABC] last night)
>>
>>
>>Hurricane Andrew has devastated south Flordia (USA).
>>This is the largest ($$) natural disaster in US history!
>> [deleted]
> 
> President Bush inspects Homestead, Florida on Monday and no military
> aid arrives until Friday - what a guy!  I can hardly wait to get to
> the voting booth in November ** sigh **

	President Bush can not send in the Feds until the governor asks for
Federal aid.

	Let's stop the finger pointing, eh?  How much did you do before Friday?

> Now we get to see what ** friends ** President Bush has made for the
> USA - keep all that foreign aid coming in to Florida and Louisiana
> -- film at 11!  :-)

	Trying to say Bush would not help Florida because of political reasons
is silly.  It would be to his benefit to get federal supplies "courtesy of the
Prez" into Fla ASAP.

Brett                                                      
_______________________________________________________________________________
Proconsul Computer Consulting                                        CHA-CHING!
Better, Cheaper, Faster					       (Pick any two :)
Disclaimer:								   NOT!
Xref: sparky soc.culture.usa:7072 soc.culture.canada:6242 soc.culture.british:12094 alt.usage.english:7129
From: segr@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Read)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.canada,soc.culture.british,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: List of words in American and British English
Date: 2 Sep 92 13:52:46 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre

In article <1992Sep1.095204.21964@cs.hw.ac.uk>, 
neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) writes:

>In article <17ta91INNibo@fbi-news.Informatik.Uni-Dortmund.DE> maennig@siggi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de writes:
>>Hello, folks.
>>I'm looking for a kind of dictionary which contents a list of words having a
>>different spelling in American and British English, but the same meaning.
>>Examples of this would be can - tin, color - colour, program - programme and
>>so on.
>
> Most Englisg dictionaries would have this in, though
> I'm not sure about come of them.

Dictionaries tend to have them under each word. So if the
usage is different it will have both uses and qualify one
as American (over here anyway). There are some books with
only the words which are different in them, but they're
rather specialised (and therefore comparatively expensive).

> Can of coke, tin of coke. Both are used...

Does anyone seriously use a tin of coke? A can or a tin
of beans, yes. But I would never use a tin of a drink,
tins don't have ring-pulls.

Simon Read
-----------
Simon.Read@umist.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas)
Subject: Re: Stupidity of Am. Masses
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 15:08:04 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.150859.3899@desire.wright.edu> demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
>In article <SUOPANKI.92Sep2213040@zombie.oulu.fi>, suopanki@zombie.oulu.fi (Heikki Suopanki) writes:
>>>>>>> On 1 Sep 92 16:47:11 EST, demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) said:
>> 
>>> 	When buying something, I usually give enough pennies along with my
>>> bills to get non-penny change back.  This confuses the heck out of cashiers,
>>> who seem unable to grasp the concept of $2.37 price, $5.02 received and the
>>> change is...I've gotten everything from $3.75 to $2.25.
>> 
>> Here in Finland we have cash registers which tell how much change you get
>> back. The cashier enters the sum of money you give and the cash
>> register tells the change. Aren't such cash registers common in the US? 
>> Or are you still using abacuses? :)
>
>	Not using the registers is part of the problem.  They use it to take
>the order, but are busy doing something else by the time it comes to pay. 
>(They've wiped it from the register.)  This is most common in places where one
>register takes the order and you pay somewhere else (like drive-throughs).
>
>	Even with the register, it still confuses a lot of them.  They look at
>it for a while like they are wondering "why did he give me change?".

If you really want to confuse them go to the bank and get a bunch of
Susan B. Anthony dollars and half-dollars.  Pay your bill with these
coins and have fun :)

 Julie
#include "std_disclaimer.h"
#include "witty_sig.h"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: rhorlick@mtholyoke.edu (Rick Horlick)
Subject: Bill Clinton on the Highway
Organization: Mount Holyoke College
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 20:34:07 GMT


Xref: sparky soc.culture.usa:6985 rec.travel:12606
From: bc2r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Bill Chan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,rec.travel
Subject: Re: Loud irritating obtrusive American tourists.
Date: 30 Aug 92 05:39:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.8ecAyK200iQ5M4g1U2
	<Btr46F.LIn@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA



In article <1992Aug29.081247.28321@samba.oit.unc.edu>
Nigel.Allen@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Nigel Allen) writes:
>Canadians travelling outside North America are usually advised to display
>a Canadian flag prominently on their clothing or backpack so that they
>won't be mistaken for "loud irritating obtrusive American tourists".

I've met lots of Canadians proudly displaying that maple leaf thingy on
their packs......strangely enough, most had Americain passports. heh 8^)

So what's the penalty for impersonating a Canuck...eh?

--ChanBillR600F2
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: gerard@caliban.soest.hawaii.edu (Gerard Fryer)
Subject: Secession (was: Stupidity of Am. Masses)
Organization: Scum Of the Earth and Senile Tenured
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 03:35:24 GMT

|> julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas) writes:
|> 
|> There are movements in both Alaska and California to break away from the 
|> US. 

There is also a movement afoot to reestablish the Hawaiian
monarchy.  I wish them luck.
-- 
Gerard Fryer  (g.fryer@soest.hawaii.edu)
School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: silva@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Holly Silva)
Subject: Re: Hurricane Andrew
Organization: Stanford Univ. Earth Sciences
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 00:23:43 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.221836.3585@PA.dec.com> klee@wsl.dec.com writes:
>|> I have about 40 family members in the greater New Orleans area and may
>|> not be able to communicate with them for a few hours or even days after
>|> the storm passes through there. Thank you for any suggestions.
>
>If you're interested in news, the newspapers and TV stations will have good
>info. 
	
	I wish this were true. I have had significant difficult get news
in California that was _of any real value_ in assessing conditions during 
the hurricanes which have threatened the Gulf coast since I've been 
living out here (6 years and about the same number of significant storms).
	Est'd. time of storm center landfall, maximum _sustained_ wind-
speeds, and the estimated maximum 'storm surge' are three of the more
important tidbits of information which the news out here rarely troubles
to mention. The safety and well-being of the people immediately in the
storm's path depend on the amount of wind and water they must contend
with. It's common for newscasts, and even wireline reports in Bay Area
papers, to give maximum gust numbers, without designating them as such,
rather that the lower and more important _sustained_ windspeed numbers.
The higher wind gust numbers are sexier to report of course, but the
first few times I heard them reported as, "windspeeds up to blah, blah,
blah" I was significantly alarmed, without cause. It's standard practice
in the southeast to report both maximum sustained windspeed and gusting
wind speeds; it is the former which define the difference between a
'tropical depression' a 'tropical storm' and a full-blown 'hurricane'.


--
======================================================================
|| Holly Silva			I have nothing terribly clever to say||
|| Applied Earth Sciences	today.  You're in luck.		     ||
|| Stanford University						     ||
From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Metric! 100km/h $4.00/kg $0.62/Litre!
Date: 29 Aug 92 00:13:23 GMT
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam

In article <1992Aug28.205315.4382@athena.mit.edu> raustein@athena.mit.edu (Yngve Koehler Raustein) writes:
 > The primary reason for the invention of the metric system was that different
 > units were used all over the place -- e.g. a gallon in the UK wasn't the 
 > same as a gallon in the US.  Besides, the units in any given system
 > were seldom defined in terms of other units in the same system.  In the
 > metric system, one litre of water weighs one kilogram, to take one example.
 > 
But of course, one litre is about 1.000028 cubic decimetres, so it is not
totally consistent (you forgot the temperature of the water: it is water
at its temperature of greatest density).

So, in a sense part of (at least UK) measures are already metric, because
they are based on the metric system.  The following equations are exact
by the UK 'Weights and Measures Act' of 1963:
1 inch = 2.54 centimetre
1 lb = 0.45359237 kilogramme.
(That last figure was deliberately chosen as a number divisible by seven,
Anglo-Saxon weights freaks will know why; it is approximately equal to the
mean of the Imperial Standard Pound of 1878 and the pound used in the US.)

Before that time in the UK by 'Weights and Measures Act's of 1855 and 1878
the pound was defined as the mass of a certain platinum weight of given
dimensions.  So pound was defined in terms of inch.

This all courtesy H.G.Jerrard and D.B.McNeil, A Dictionary of Scientific Units,
London, 1966.

But of course, US and Imperial Gallons are very different.  You could take
the approximate mean and arrive at four litre :-).
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland
dik@cwi.nl
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas)
Subject: Re: Stupidity of Am. Masses
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 15:01:48 GMT

In article <etxmow.715422742@garboc34> etxmow@garboc34.ericsson.se (Mats Winberg) writes:
>julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas) writes:
>
>>There are movements in both Alaska and California to break away from the 
>>US.  Alaska's movement is stronger as the movement to break California
>>into two states is more immediate than the California seccessionist
>>movement right now.  (Personally I'm against CA leaving--if we have
>>to keep our current state government that is!)
>
>    How strong are these movements? On what grounds want they to
>    split/secede California? Why should any sane USian want a European
>    situation on American soil?

	The split-CA-in-two movement has been around as long as
CA has been a state.  Every few years in gets more active, the
media gets excited, then it dies down again.  The main reason
nothing ever happens is that what would be Northern CA doesn't
want San Francisco but San Franciscans would rather die than
be part of Southern CA :)
	I don't know how long the CA secessionest movement has
been going on.  It's been gaining ground as CA's economy slides
deeper into a black hole.  Some people think that it would
get better if CA left (CA does have the 7th (?) largest economy 
in the world).
	It's a similiar story with Alaska.  They have lots of oil
and think they could do better on their own.  Plus, they are not
part of the contiguous states.

	Why would any sane USian want this?  Beats me.  


Julie
#inlcude "std_disclaimer.h"
#include "witty_sig.h"
From: vaps0de@prism.gatech.EDU (Dustin Emhart)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Metric! 100km/h $4.00/kg $0.62/Litre!
Date: 29 Aug 92 07:25:04 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In <1992Aug27.012132.11193@citec.oz.au> sgccpgs@citec.oz.au (Paul Salanitri) writes:

>Did you know that only two countries in the world still use imperial,
>U.S.A. and Liberia.

Canada still does, on the football fields. (I wonder if the rulebook
specification for the chains is in metric though....)

>I'm not old enough to have been a imperial person myself, but I find it
>much easier to say:  [E.G. when taking a picture] "Move a foot to the left"
>(small children look at their feet and move about about 10cm though)
>And if something is smallish but not to smallish - an inch is a good unit
>to specify. 

I usually use the imperial system exclusively, but I was trying to estimate
a measurement the other day, and the only thing I had to measure with was my
fingernail...which is about 1 cm wide. I gave the estimate in centimeters.
I also occasionally give my word processor a distance in cm...if I'm measuring
off a ruler, it's a lot easier to count millimeters (10/cm) than figure out if
the little lines mean 1/32" or 1/16".

Oh, and my grandparents have a car with the digital speedometer that switches
between imperial and metric...every once in a while when I'm driving and they
doze off, I'll switch it over to metric to see what they say when they look
over and see I'm doing a little over 100. :)
-- 
Dustin Emhart                       |  CS Majors: We do more after 11 pm than
Georgia Institute of Technology     |  most people do all day.
Internet: vaps0de@prism.gatech.edu  |        -- me
From: shimkevi@buchmf.bu.edu (Sergey Shimkevich)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: How evil are the Republicans?
Date: 27 Aug 92 23:45:02 GMT
Organization: Boston University Chemistry Department

In article <1992Aug21.151625.1661@gacvx2.gac.edu> marx@flash.gac.edu (Timothy
Johnson) writes:

>Gosh, I think that yo are right.  i have had the same thought sfor a long  
>time now.  The attitures and beliefs exemplified at the GOP concention  
>made me wonder whether the Nazis would show up.

>The one point that convinced me, was in Buchanan's speech when he said  
>that "WE" must take back our country and culture (or somethin to that  
>effect).  

Somewhat simplified more-to-the-right-than usual rhethoric. However, Buchanan
is a publicist, not a politician and he balances his left-wing reflections
which are far more prominent in the mass media.

>This is facism if ever I have sen it.

I agree, it is facism. Definitely not fascism, though.

:-) :-) :-)

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Ryan: What is it to you, demon?       //// Sergei Shimkevich             //
// Lune: It is Sir, Demon to you, worm!  //// shimkevi@buchmf.bu.edu        //
// -Phantasy Star III                    ////                               // 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Re: Stupidity of Am. Masses
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 22:27:33 GMT

So the SJ Merc article came out here eh?
That's a "posted by request article."

In article <1992Sep1.164711.3850@desire.wright.edu>
demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
>	Innumeracy is a bigger problem than illiteracy.
>	A number of causes.  "New math" back in the 70s.  Rubber-stamp passage
>from grade to grade.  De-emphasis on math in other subjects.
>	Amazingly enough, it is possible to graduate from high school having
>taken no math beyond algebra.
>	However, as long as groups like the NEA measure their success by the
>*volume* of graduates, we're in deep do-do.

Well, I won't quite use the word stupid, but we clearly have some serious
education problems in the US.  The fact that it is more than one problem
and NOT a single problem is a problem.  We like our problems simple and
solvabe with little cost.  BTW, To the one poster who noted Japan, Japan
grew considerably following the WWII.

Several interesting tests have come out with questions about all kinds of
knowledge, a favorite is describing the path of a falling object which
falls out of a plane (two vectors).

Try this:
What's the latitude of the North Pole?
If you don't know, don't worry, you are in good company.  I have asked this
after various observations.  Even a few NASA PhDs could not answer
correctly.  One of America's best climbers couldn't answer it, and one
of America's best sky divers, both of whom WENT to the N Pole could not answer
it.  Consider the answer for yourself.  Send mail if you fear embarassment.
This is the third news group I have posed this question.

--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
Second Favorite email message: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 3 days
A Ref: Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, vol. 1, G. Polya
Lines: 31
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 17:15:04 MDT
From: gritton@colorado.et.byu.edu (Jamie Gritton)
Organization: Brigham Young University, Provo UT USA
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Please, Jyrki! (was: Political terminology in USA)
Reply-To: gritton@byu.edu

jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:

> A repost from talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.theory:

> From: atfurman@cup.portal.com (A T Furman)
> Subject: Re: Political Parties in the U.S. (was Re: Is this a socialist
> Message-ID: <64942@cup.portal.com>
> Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 00:32:46 PDT
> Organization: The Portal System (TM)

   What is your motive in polluting this group with this constant
stream of reposts? You're doing your part to destroy any chance
soc.culture.usa has of becoming a culture group.
   I'm guessing that you don't like the lack of a USA-specific
politics group. Well now that the vote to create one failed, perhaps
you should face the fact that there isn't one. In particular, this
isn't it. The poster should have the right to decide which groups his
articles appear in.
   I made a vow yesterday to fight fire with fire, and repost all
these non sequiters to soc.culture.nordic, which is no less
appropriate than posting them to soc.culture.usa. That vow turned out
to be rather short lived as I cooled down and realized what a jackass
I was being, but the point behind it remains: if people are into
politics, they'll read a politics group. It's very impolite to shove
someone else's articles in the face of those who aren't interested.
   Please, how about some consideration for both the original authors
and the readers? If you feel the need to put politics in
soc.culture.usa, do so; but please at least make it your own work, not
someone else's.
--
James Gritton - gritton@byu.edu - I disclaim
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,rec.travel
From: henry@ADS.COM (Henry Mensch)
Subject: Re: Loud irritating obtrusive American tourists.
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems; a div of Booz, Allen & Hamilton
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 08:19:44 GMT

bc2r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Bill Chan) wrote: 
->So what's the penalty for impersonating a Canuck...eh?

being mistaken for one  

8-]

--
# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <henry@ads.com>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Things Buchanan has said...
From: demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man)
Date: 26 Aug 92 13:41:03 EST
Followup-To: talk.politics.misc
Organization: Demonic Possesions, Inc.

In article <1992Aug26.134005.3756@desire.wright.edu>, demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
 	As has been pointed out many times, Buchanan's saying that Hitler was
 brave, or a great soldier, or anything else along those lines should not be
 construed as anti-semetic or even pro-nazi.
 
 	Commenting on a person's military abilities in no way shows support (or
 lack thereof) for their political agenda(s).
 
 	Now, if you want to bash Buchanan, stick to things that really are
 incriminating.  There are plenty of those.
 
 	Followups to talk.politics.misc
 
Brett                                                      
_______________________________________________________________________________
Proconsul Computer Consulting                                        CHA-CHING!
Better, Cheaper, Faster					       (Pick any two :)
Disclaimer:								   NOT!