HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jeremiah@yang.earlham.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What Pepsi Means in Chinese (Was RE:  What Co
Date: 8 Apr 92 00:06:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: yang.1992Apr7.190650.16802
Organization: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

In article <1992Apr3.193714.21840@midway.uchicago.edu>, thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:
> In article <yi6NiB3w164w@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> sasha.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu writes:
>>It is to my understanding that Pepsi's "Choice of a New Generation" 
>>slogan failed horrifically in China because the translation came out to 
>>mean somthing to the tune of "It makes your ancestors rise from the 
>>dead."                              - Sasha
> 
> I heard Mountain Dew didn't sell well in New Guinea because it meant
> "Bite the Wax Gerbil."  Reminds me of the speech President Carter gave
> in Poland where he claimed to be a jelly doughnut.
> 
> ObUL: The "Cordoba" sold very poorly in Latin America because "Cordoba"
> means "workers put small rattly pieces of metal in the door frame" in
> Latin.
> -- 
> Ted Frank

Huh...   Ted, you seem to be a little confused here...  Wow, I guess this 
is proof of how a rumor can get mixed up. You may have already seen a 
later posting on this subject, but the wax whatever UL actually pertains 
to China, and never was really that, and certainly isn't any more.
  Furthermore, wasn't it JFK, who said "Ich bin ein berliner", when he 
meant to say, "Ich bin Berliner", during a speech in Berlin, where 
"ein berliner" is a kind of pastry, and Berliner  is a Berliner...????
Hmmm...
Well, I just read the part about Cordoba, and I guess you are probably 
kidding. 
-- 
Jeremiah Wilton    "jeremiah@yang.earlham.edu"    "jeremiah@earlham.bitnet"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com ()
Subject: Re: Ask Marilyn Again
Reply-To: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com ()
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 18:31:22 GMT


In article <1992Apr09.144705.1393@rose.uucp>, david.lloyd-jones@rose.uucp (david lloyd-jones) writes:

|>Seems to me it's this way: In the opening position there are three
|>unknown doors.  The chance that you have chosen the prize is 1/3, no
|>matter which one you choose.

Correct.

|>You make a choice.  No matter which choice you make, Monty has a
|>goat-door available.  He opens it, or one of them.  He does not move the
|>prize and his fingers never leave his hands.
|>
|>You now have two unknown doors.  The one you have chosen has a 50%
|>chance of hiding the prize.  The other one has a 50% chance of hiding
|>the prize.  It does not matter whether you switch or not, but if you
|>miss the prize either way it is going to bug the hell out of you for
|>quite a while.

If the odds were initially 1/3 that you were correct and revealing the goat
reveals no new information, how could the odds jump to 1/2 that you were
correct?  Either revealing the goat reveals some information about the
other 2 doors, or the odds you guessed correctly initially remain at 1/3,
in which case the chance the prize is behind the other unopened door is 2/3
and therefore, you should switch.

-Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: mikkelson@thewav.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Falling Bullets and tuning musical instruments
Organization: Fight Dyslexia Help!
Date: 15 APR 92 08:05:30    


In article <14APR199217462047@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov>, 
  isaacman@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Subvert the Dominant Paradigm!) writes...

>OK, physics time.  In a three-dimensional medium the speed of sound is 
>equal to (fasten your seat belts) the square root of the reciprocal of 
>the product of the density and the compressibility.  That is:

>           speed = sqrt (1/(density x compressibility))


I was told we wouldn't have to do any physics in this newsgroup.

- snopes

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
|    NOTE:  This signature for adults only.  Sale to minors prohibited.
|    All characters 18 years of age or older.  For private home use only.
|    Any other use, copying, reproduction or performance in public, in 
|    whole or in part, will be prosecuted.
|
| +  David Mikkelson  Digital Equipment Corporation, Culver City, CA  USA  +
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: ag301@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Tricia Schmidt)
Subject: Re: The SHAFT of ROTTING DEATH!!! in 3-D!
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 19:50:45 GMT


On Oak Island - I heard this from our Library Director while
in college.

Some very, very foolish treasure hunters then drilled through
one of the platforms, to a chamber below it.  Of course, at 
this time it was flooded.  From the samples, they found 
scraps of paper.  Unfortunately, their actions flooded the
room.  This some possibly invaluable documents have not
er - now been lost forever.  

Never trust a treasure hunter!

Cassandra
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.science
From: sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert Sheaffer)
Subject: Re: FCC Call letters
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 17:53:11 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

In article <1992Apr8.211152.3865@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>
>Also apparently during WWII, a broadcasting service was started for FM 
>transmission, but not on the current 88-108 MHz, but rather on 44-54 MHz, which
>would also lay claim to these frequencies.  Somewhere around 1949 the switch
>was made to 88-108 where it is today.
>
According to "The Men Who Made Radio" (a book, then a TV show on PBS), it
was Armstrong (first name?) who invented FM radio, and began broadcasting
on the lower frequencies. He did this alone because he was 
unable to convince David Sarnoff of RCA (they formerly were allies) to
back him in this. When Sarnoff saw that the new FM format was a success,
he had RCA adopt it, but lobbied the FCC to change the assigned frequencies
for it, to forcibly obsolete the equipment of his competitor. (Sort of
like computer companies do today!)

-- 
  
        Robert Sheaffer - Scepticus Maximus - sheaffer@netcom.com
  
 Past Chairman, The Bay Area Skeptics - for whom I speak only when authorized!

     "In the 1970's the world will undergo famines - hundreds of millions
     of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs 
     embarked upon now ... in 1985, when it is calculated [under the most
     optimistic scenario] that the major die-back will be over, ..."
       
                       Dr. Paul Ehrlich, "The Population Bomb," 1968
From: scm@harvee.UUCP (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: I Was Told That There Was A FAQ List
Date: 17 Apr 92 08:54:54 GMT
Organization: gators 'r us
X-Version: Rodney's UUCP modules 02/11/90 V1.18

In article <22744@dog.ee.lbl.gov> twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov
(Terry Chan) writes:
> 
> Occasionally, someone will post something to the effect of: "That 
> actually happened you st*p*d, f*ck*ng, b*st*rds, Jan Harold Brunvand
> is all wet, the FAQ list is wrong, the sun rises in the West and it's
> not an urban legend."  As noted elsewhere in this list and by astute
> individuals on the net, an UL does not have to be false.  If we take

i one posted a ul saying "when i was a kid we believed that (fill in the blank)
was true, and got flamed for not providing proof that it was true.



> OFFICIAL AFU MASCOT
>   - My pet King snake, Elvis
>   - Peter's pet dalmatian dog, Pixel
>   - snopes' pet cat, snopes
>   - Joe Chew's pet gerbil, Dicky
how about my non-biological ("stuffed" to you non-pc types)gator, harvee?


--
-- little gator aka S. Mudgett     email: scm@harvee.uucp
-- friend of a gator is a friend of mine
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:11846 alt.folklore.science:1355
From: glp7584@tamuts.tamu.edu (Gordon Lee Powell Jr)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Falling Bullets
Date: 9 Apr 92 20:17:23 GMT
Organization: ~/lib/organization

In article <1992Apr8.134711.28085@sunova.ssc.gov> chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov (Chuck Adams) writes:
>In article <1992Apr6.204125.3576@fivegl.co.nz> derek@fivegl.co.nz (Derek 
>Tearne) writes:

>Much talk of Space Shuttle/speed of sound/falling objects etc. deleted
>> 2) The speed of sound in air varies depending on exactly how much 
>> air there is and is much higher at higher altitudes. Therefore Terminal
>> velocity is greater at higher altitudes.

>Reading this paragraph would indicate that you believe that Terminal 
>Velocity (tm) is somehow related to the speed of sound in air.  It is not. 
> Terminal Velocity (tm) would be higher at higher altitudes only because 
>the density of air is less.  The speed of sound at higher altitudes is 
>also higher, also due to the fact that the density of air at the higher 
>altitude is less, but the two are not directly related.


Reading this paragraph would indicate that you believe that the speed of 
sound is somehow related to the density of the air.  It is not.
The speed of sound in air is only dependant on the temperature of the 
air.  If you wanted to get technical, though, you could also take into
account that the force of gravity is less at high altitude.

Density is what concerns us here.  Nothing more, and nothing less.

Gordon L. Powell, Jr. '89            glp7584@zeus.tamu.edu (VMS on VAX 9000)
Aero Engr  Texas A&M Univ.           gordon@aero.tamu.edu (D. U. on S. C.)
From: weaver@castor.cs.uga.edu (Mike Weaver)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Cable TV cheater spotters (was Re: FCC Call letters)
Date: 16 Apr 92 16:27:32 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens

In article <1992Apr15.202454.1@vm2.cis.pitt.edu> tjw@vm2.cis.pitt.edu writes:
>In article <1992Apr14.005524.17718@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com>,  writes:
>
>> Ya'll DID know that using active jammers on Police radars is very, very 
>> illegal, didn't you. (Otherwise such devices would long since be on the
>> market, since the technology exists. I saw an article in an electronics
>> magazine about a guy who'd made some jammers anyway.)
>
>All you have to do (in any little burg or township) is pass a law and
>something becomes illegal.  Not that it's constitutional, but it's illegal.
>
>"Radar Jammers" (the ones I saw) were not being sold as "Radar Jammers".
>They were being sold as "Ham Radio Transmitters", for the police shared
>a Ham Band on a secondary allocation.  If you were a Ham (Technician class
>at least) then the use of the device was legal from the FCC's viewpoint.
>
>But, as I said, all it takes is a law and then the "accused" must defend
>against it.  In some communities, it's "illegal" to use a scanner (or have
>a scanner in your car).  It's not right, but it's the LAW.
>
>Terry "vote libertarian" Wood

Not only is jamming police radar illegal,but:

1) Doesn't work. The jammer will make the radar go nuts, sure the cop won't notice that.

2) Can kill or brain damage you or someone else. The frequency of a jammer
would cause a microwaving effect on your brain or eyes should you get at the
right angle to the jammer. (this is from my roommate, DJ and Ham dude)

The FCC fairly well controls all transmissions. You will get nailed.

Michael "But you might get them to give you a 3 letter call sign" Weaver
-- 
________________________________________________________________________________
Michael Weaver            |"Where ever you go, There will be something in your
weaver@castor.cs.uga.edu  | way." --Banzai Clutter Theorm
DoD#0529                  |
From: robin@aus.intel.com (robin rosenbaum)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The thief whose past caught up with him
Date: 8 Apr 92 00:35:47 GMT
Organization: Development Tools Operation, Intel Corp.

In article <16494@ulysses.att.com> tom@ulysses.UUCP (Tom Smith) writes:
>I heard this one...
>
>	A not-so-clever robber-wannabe hands a teller a note
>	instructing him to fork over all his money.  The threatening
>	note was written on one of his personalized deposit slips.
>	Took the cops about 20 minutes to locate this rocket scientist.
>
>Sound familiar, anyone?

In the latest Calvin & Hobbes collection
     (Calvin & Hobbes is an American--I think--comic strip about a
      6 yr old boy & his toy stuffed tiger.  Sort of a modern Dennis
      the Menace.  TM's assumed where appropriate.)
...Calvin steals a doll from the neighbor girl to hold it for ransom.  He
pastes up a ransom note with letters cut from the paper, then signs his
name.  The neighbor girl makes 25 cents on the deal...

Robin "Mama of a 6.5 yr old boy" Hilp
From: braverman@mtechca.uucp
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The wacky, flakey State
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:36:17 PST
Organization: MAINTECH, A division of Volt Delta Resources, Inc. Orange, CA

In article <1992Apr5.060755.3774@willamette.edu>, vbollen@willamette.edu (Victoria Bollen) writes:
> I have just read the article about the Diablo nuclear plant and have another
> example of stupid things built near faults.  About 10 miles upriver from my home 
> is the bicentenial dam on the Santa Ana River.(I don't know the real name, we
> call it this because there is a huge red, white and blue 1776-1976 emblazoned
> across it.)  My dad says this dam is built a few miles from the junction of 3
> minor faults in the San Andreas system.  I believe these are the Elsinore,
> Corona and ? faults. Perhaps a local geology student can fill me in.  Anyway
> the scary thing about this is that nearly all of north Orange County is in the
> Santa Ana River flood plain.  So if there was ever a year when we got a ton of
> rain (yes this does happen about once every 50 years- 1992 for example) and
> then there was a big earthquake the same year my house could be under water. :(
> 
> Of course this is all speculation and I don't know where my Dad picked up this
> information.
> 
>                                              Vicki
>                             
> 
> 
-- 
Vicki, your dad speaks the truth!  Its called the Prado Dam, and was built by
the Army Corps of Engineers (not sure when) to control the flow of the Santa
Ana river through northern Orange County, both for flood control and water
reclamation purposes.  Most of north Orange County is a flood basin, and home-
owners in certain areas are required to carry flood insurance (as I did when I
lived in Huntington Beach, near the mouth of the river).    As to the 
location of the dam, I don't doubt the accuracy of your statements about the 
locations of the faults, but the canyon location of the dam is rather unique,
so where else could they build it?  Anyway, the risk of major flooding without
the dam (e.g. with the heavy rains this year) far outweighs the risk of destruc-
tion of the dam by an earthquake.  Even with the dam, there is still the threat
of a "100-year" flood that would exceed its capacity.  At any rate, if the dam
wasn't there, your house would probably be under water every time we have a
decent rainfall, like this year -- you wouldn't need to wait for the Big One!!




+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
+ Joel Braverman                               e-mail: braverman@maintech.com +
+ Technical Assistance Center                                                 +
+ MAINTECH, Inc.                                                              +
+ a division of Volt Delta Resources, Inc.           voice:  (714) 921 7649   +
+ 2401 North Glassell Street                           fax:  (714) 921 7510   +
+ Orange, CA  92665-2705                                                      +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
From: sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert Sheaffer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The (waterlogged) SHAFT of ROTTING DEATH!!! in 3-D!
Date: 10 Apr 92 00:06:26 GMT
Article-I.D.: netcom.fhsjlkg.sheaffer
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <1992Apr9.195045.15023@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> ag301@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Tricia Schmidt) writes:
>
>Some very, very foolish treasure hunters then drilled through
>one of the platforms, to a chamber below it.  Of course, at 
>this time it was flooded.  From the samples, they found 
>scraps of paper.  Unfortunately, their actions flooded the
>room.  This some possibly invaluable documents have not
>er - now been lost forever.  

If something ABOVE you has been flooded, you yourself got flooded
long ago. No way could some 17-th century pirates (or whoever)
build a perfectly waterproof chamber, far underground, and have
it *stay* dry for centuries. Not when everything in the general
vicinity is getting flooded all the time. (Hell, mining engineers have a
devil of a time keeping water out of their holes long enough
for miners to bring up gold or diamonds or whatever. Leave a mine alone
for a few centuries, and if there's any water nearby, that's where
it will end up.) 

I hope Francis Bacon wrote those lost Shakespearean plays of his on
waterproof parchment, using indelible ink! If not, they were
destroyed almost as soon as they were buried!
-- 
  
        Robert Sheaffer - Scepticus Maximus - sheaffer@netcom.com
  
 Past Chairman, The Bay Area Skeptics - for whom I speak only when authorized!

     "In the 1970's the world will undergo famines - hundreds of millions
     of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs 
     embarked upon now ... in 1985, when it is calculated [under the most
     optimistic scenario] that the major die-back will be over, ..."
       
                       Dr. Paul Ehrlich, "The Population Bomb," 1968
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: djohnson@gamma.is.tcu.edu (Darryl (The Other Brother) Johnson)
Subject: Re: Dolphins: Nature's dunces?
Summary: adv. Like or resembling summer.
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas Christian University
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 1992 22:28:00 GMT

In article <1992Apr04.211918.13969@ecst.csuchico.edu>, warlock@ecst.csuchico.edu (John Kennedy) writes...
>  I'm no expert on dolphins, but I think the expert was full of it.
>Humans are prone to examining strange noises, too.
> 
Although countless slasher movies have conclusively proven that
this is NOT survival behavior.  You would think that by movie#5
or #6, natural selection would result in a massive apathy toward
strange noises.

+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
>   Darryl K. Johnson      I  "Man can believe the        <
>   Texas Christian        I   impossible, but can never  <
>   University             I   believe the improbable."   <
>   Fort Worth, Texas      I      -- Oscar Wilde          <
\-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/
/ DJOHNSON@tcucvms.bitnet      DJOHNSON@gamma.is.tcu.edu  \
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
From: morris@anasaz (Bob Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: other fun mistranslations..
Date: 6 Apr 92 19:04:00 GMT
Organization: Anasazi, Inc.  Phoenix, Az

In article <1992Apr5.123053.1@vm2.cis.pitt.edu> tjw@vm2.cis.pitt.edu writes:
>In article <1992Apr4.221149.9100@nmsu.edu>, jslatten@kirk.NMSU.Edu (J Slatten) writes:
>
>easy way to insult (and probably get killed by) a lowrider is to give him a  
>                                                  ^^^^^^^^
>
>What's a "lowrider"?  Also, does anyone else have any interesting adjectives
>like this one?  (Ones that are unusual.  "Pinhead" I already know!).
>
A lowrider is (sorry) not an adjective, but a noun.  It's a person who
rides low.  OK, more detail.  When I was a kid near Los Angeles in the
1960s, it was a popular passtime (mostly among Mexican-Americans) to change
the suspension on their cars so that they would ride low.  The word
lowrider can refer either to the car or to its driver.  The modifications
can get quite sophisticated, to the point of a control on the dashboard
to lower and raise the car on command.  This is useful for going *real*
low on flat roads, and raising the car to go over bumps and other
imperfections in the road.  This is also fun to make the car jump up and
down.  There is a word for this, but it escapes me right now.

The allusion to lowrider in the referenced message is to the driver, not
the car.  It's also a racist slur.

ObUl:  There are at least as many racist slurs directed toward Mexican-
Americans as there toward Black Americans.

Bob "grew up east of East L.A." Morris
aka morris@anasazi.com  (new address)
anasaz!morris@asuvax.eas.asu.edu (old address still works)
My opinions only, of course...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: Wanted: Favorite College/Dorm Practical Jokes
Organization: Hewlett-Parkard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 19:25:09 GMT

manley@optilink.UUCP (Dave Manley) writes:
: I once had a locksmith try to get into the trunk of my car (don't ask
: me how I locked my keys in the trunk).  He attempted to make a new key
: by inserting a blank key into the lock, twisting it, noticing where
: the blank was scratched or dented by the twisting against the lock
: mechanism, filing those sections down and then repeating the process.
: After a half-hour of his trying this, and not getting anywhere, I decided to 
: bust one of the car stereos speakers and get into the trunk that way.
: Borrowing a telescoping tool with a magnet on the end, I managed to
: snare the keys and get them out.
: 
: When I looked at the blank he was using it was obvious to me why it
: didn't work - I didn't tell him though.  The blank was for a 'valet'
: key - the tip was missing the necessary metal to allow it to open
: either the trunk or the glove box.  He could have filed at it for the
: rest of his life and it never would have opened the trunk!  What a
: maroon! 

Maroon is right. Making a key by impression is about the last thing you
want to attempt. If you can make a key by impressioning, then you can
probably pick the lock.

More than likely, you could have saved your speaker. If you had removed
the rear seat, you probably would have found severl holes already in the
bulkhead that you could have used to fish out your keys.

Bill