HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: twcaps@dante.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,ba.politics,ca.politics,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: They used to think...
Date: 16 Dec 1992 05:56:30 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.13.76

jane@soave.swdc.stratus.com (Jane Beckman) writes:

  +I just thought of a new "retroactive UL" over the weekend.  I
  +was discussing archeology with someone.  And they said...
  +
  +"You know, they say early man didn't understand about sex.
  +You know, babies just came.  They didn't make the connection
  +that sex had anything to do with it, because babies came so
  +much later.  Sex was one thing, and having babies was another.
  +That's why there was a mother goddess, but no father goddess.
  +They didn't realize babies had fathers, too."

Perhaps I don't know enough to understand this (a good possibility)
but isn't a "father goddess" an oxymoron? Does this mean that 
there weren't "male" gods so to speak early on?

There is a mother goddess because there are babies (which don't
have anything to do with sex).  Now, babies come 8-9 months later,
but there sure are signs before then....This is confusing.

  +And I realized I'd heard this one a couple times.  Sounds a
  +lot like "In Columbus' time, everyone thought the world was
  +flat."  

So it does.
  
  +And besides, how are we to know what folks thought about sex,
  +back at the dawn of history?  It's not like they left sex
  +manuals behind.  

Passed on by oral instruction huh?


Terry "sex and religion don't mix" Chan
--
Energy and Environment Division   | Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory      | 
Berkeley, California  USA  94720  | Carpe Per Diem
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Snopes.  Where are you?
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 07:48:18 GMT

From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)

>Ah yeessirreee, this is so old, it's even in the FAQ list.
>Variations include it being overheard on an airplane or
>in line at some shop.
>
>Whaddaya say?  10.5 Shergolds?  Where is snopes where you need 'im?

	Yeah.  Where is SNOPES? Haven't heard from him in a while.
	Do you suppose he's joined C. Kandolf in the great beyond?

-J.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.startrek.misc
From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov
Subject: Re: Sex, the Final Frontier?
Originator: kjenks@gothamcity
Keywords: I've seen one
Organization: NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 06:47:27 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.021905.541@midway.uchicago.edu> gr2a@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>
>In article <28014@dog.ee.lbl.gov> TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes:
>>One day, my friend's friend noticed one of her sister's stories,
>>and was curious about her sister's writing style.  When she
>>read the story, she was shocked because it was pornographic.

In 1979, a red-headed, female Trekkie friend (Sue Thompson, who is now
a nurse, and may no longer be a Thomspon) loaned me her copy of a
poorly-bound, type-written-then-mimeographed book.  It had a
black-and-white line drawing on the cover showing Spock, and the
subject was a sexually explicit story about what exactly happened when
Spock got the fabled Vulcan seven-year itch.

Warning: sexually explicit material follows.

It seems that Spock has not one, but two penises: one for
fertilization, and one for urination, but the urinary penis does double
duty as an anal stimulator during intercourse in the missionary
position.  (At least, that applies to human women.  We didn't find
out how it works with Vulcan women.  Sequel?)

So I can unequivocably say that this "X-ST:TOS" genre is no mere
rumor.  There is fact behind the legend.  But the story I read did not
deal with homosexuality, just inter-species intercourse.

I guess this doesn't qualify for a spot in the a.f.u. FAQ.

T.  Sexually explicit underground Start Trek TOS literature exists.

-- Ken "One's enough for me" Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
      kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov  (713) 483-4368

     "Posting to Usenet is like blabbering in the town square."
        -- Steve Yelvington, steve@thelake.mn.org, in alt.culture.usenet
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: cldavies@nyx.cs.du.edu (cindy davies)
Subject: Re: Amusing signs
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:08:54 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.035239.17648@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>
>My favorite combination of signs is in or near Custer State Park, South
>Dakota, USA.  Two yellow diamond hazard signs, one over the other:
>
>
>		FALLING ROCK
>
>
>		 SOUND HORN
>
>
>This must be where they're developing those smart rocks for SDI...
>
>(Actually, of course, the two signs are unrelated except that they both
>relate to hazards of mountain driving -- the second of these being a
>short tunnel and a sharp curve.)
>
Gee, my favorite sign is also in South Dakota.

            Pennington County Complex Parking 

Gee, it doesn't look all that complex...
--

TNSTAAFD -- There's No Such Thing As A Free Dog.

cldavies@silver.sdsmt.edu        cldavies@nyx.cs.du.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: FAQ list
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 08:07:40 GMT

In <1992Dec11.143338.1@icrf.icnet.uk> r_pearce@icrf.icnet.uk writes:

>          How do they ever prove a case? (Have they ever?)

A special investigator force specializes in this.  Members of the
force undergo special training for this demanding job.

>          What are the penalties?

A GIF of the perpetrators is posted to alt.binaries.pictures.erotica
-- 
/|/-\/-\       In real life, the Vice President chastises Murphey Brown
 |__/__/_/     for her morals.  Bill Clinton plays the sax on "Arsenio
 |warren@      Hall."  Though "Batman Returns" is fiction, it's not too
/ nysernet.org much stranger than truth - Caryn James, The New York Times
From: dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (David Morning)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Alzheimer's and Aluminum pots and pans
Date: 15 Dec 92 10:06:12 GMT
Organization: Glasgow University Computing Science Dept.

sietsma@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jocelyn Sietsma Penington) writes:

>In article <1992Dec13.192814.7644@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> peterm@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Peter Mardahl) writes:
>>From the Saturday, December 12, 1992 San Francisco Examiner, page D-1:
>>
>>"Pots, pans cleared of Alzheimer's blame

[...]

>However aluminium cooking utensils probably are in the clear, as I've heard
>of no studies showing a higher incidence of Alzheimer's among people who use
>them (unlike the drinking water).

Tea. Little old ladies in the UK drink lots of it. Lots of little old ladies
get Alzheimer's. Tea has a high concentration of naturally occuring aluminium.
Water in the UK is regularly dosed with high levels of alum.

Tea + UK water = Bauxite soup

Dave

-- 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: vince@cadence.com (Vince Gibboni)
Subject: Re: Red Wine Contains Viricide?
Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 23:48:26 GMT

Tom.Rettie@p828.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Tom Rettie) writes:
>
> Here in Washington, D.C., G. Gordon Liddy (of Watergate fame) has a call-in
> radio show, and today stated that red wine was known to contain a "viricide,"
> and if you drank red wine regularly, it would kill "all the viruses in your
> body."  
>
    Alright, my memory is _real_ fuzzy on this one, but I remember reading
    that in one of several studies currently underway to attempt to determine 
    the reason for the apparently healthful effects of red wine, the 
    researchers are focussing on a residue left on the grape skins, a small 
    amount of which eventually finds its way into the wine. This residue was 
    either something sprayed on the grapes to prevent fungus or something left
    on the grapes by fungus or something put on the grapes in tribute to
    great French fungus god or something like that. There was fungus in there
    somewhere. I definitely remember something about fungus. Oh yeah, 
    my point was that the article refered to this substance as a "viricide"
    (or something like that). It is, perhaps, something that kills certain
    viriuses on the surface of grapes, or possibly even on the surface of
    G. Gordon Liddy, but that's about it.
    

> Is there some grain of truth behind this statement?  Or am I getting the 
> quality of statements to be expected from a man who cooked and ate a rat, 
> and tied himself to a tree during a lightening storm?
>

    Let's not forget the other fun things Liddy's done - like holding his
    hand in a candle flame and, for some perfectly logical, well-thought-out
    reason, not dissimilar to the methodical, clear-minded thought process
    that led Linden Larauch to conclude that Queen Elizabeth II (the monarch, 
    not the ocean liner - yes, this _does_ need to be pointed out) is, in 
    fact, the world's largest drug-lord, intentionally drinking his own urine.
    As Dave Letterman said when interviewing Liddy, "Yummmm, that must go
    great with rat".


--
                                                         vince@gda.cadence.com

    Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe
        - John Lennon
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall)
Subject: Re: WAY stupid things to do with guns (was self-i
Originator: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 17:16:08 GMT
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.


In article <1992Dec19.072903.15141@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:
>ObUL Baseball was not invented by a civil war general.

I thought that the man who didn't invent baseball was a lieutenant,
or maybe a captain, but not a general (Abner Doubleday).  I also think
he was one of the two men killed in the siege of Fort Sumter (when the 
cannon firing the final salute to the Federal colors exploded).  
(ObStupidThingToDoWithGuns)

Bruce "seems they loaded it with too big a chicken" Tindall
-- 
Bruce Tindall, Core Testing Mgr., SAS Institute Inc., Cary, N.C. 27513
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Re: Gay Likelihood
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 06:30:51 GMT

twcaps@dante.lbl.gov (Terry Chan) queries:

>For some reason, Jane Beckman's recent post reminds me of a
>story I recently heard.  A friend of mine recalls seeing in
>_The Daily Cal_ (student newspaper of the Univ. of Cal.,
>Berkeley) in the 1960s, a story that "10% of the student
>population" was gay.
.....
>"10% of all people are gay."  Then he recalled seeing it written
>up in other papers.
>
>He has since heard this statistic quoted by various acquaintances
>over the years, but ran into more people in the last year or so
>who mentioned this.
>
>Has anyone heard any similar stories?  Can anyone shed any light
>on the veracity of the stat?

	yes and yes.

	Oh. Something more complete?  I always assumed these were
from Masters and Johnson, and that their methodology was
inadequate.  Recent reports indicated the number is probably half
or a little less than half of "10 %".

ObUL: The newspaper said, Monday, that 9 percent of male North Amer.
professional figure skaters have the aids virus, and half are
gay.

Jon "I have only hockey skates" Papai
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.skeptic
From: dif@xilinx.com (Diana Foss)
Subject: Re: Wwy is the sky blue? (was Re: Daytime Stars - Not Donahue or Oprah)
Organization: Xilinx Inc.
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 17:01:43 GMT

In article <BzBDIE.6Gn@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dnash@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Dave Nash) writes:

[my huge overestimate of air molecule size deleted]

>Not quite.  Typical molecules in air (N2, O2, CO2, Ar, etc.) are a good 
>deal smaller than this (more like 2 to 5 angstroms).  
>If air molecules were about the size of light wavelengths then
>any molecule appreciably larger than an air molecule would be easily visible
>with a light microscope (think diffraction for a moment and this should
>be clear).
>
>The frequency dependence of the scattering, at least for things like air
>molecules, doesn't depend much (if at all) on the size of the molecule doing 
>the scattering. Scattering's caused by the electrons in the molecule and the 
>frequency dependence falls out of the equations relating the interaction of the
>e- with the light wave.  
>
>David Nash                  | Gradual Student, Chemistry
>                            | University of Illinois (Urbana)
>(dnash@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu)    | This .sig is made of 100% recycled electrons.
>(nash@aries.scs.uiuc.edu)   | No binary trees were killed to make it.


Duh. If someone had asked me how big the Bohr radius was, I would have said
"One Angstrom." But what's a factor of 10^3 among friends?


						Diana Foss
-- 
Any opinions here expressed are mine, not my employer's. No, really!
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Snopes.  Where are you?
Date: 19 Dec 1992 21:54:09 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:
  +
  +	Yeah.  Where is SNOPES? Haven't heard from him in a while.
  +	Do you suppose he's joined C. Kandolf in the great beyond?

I've spoken to his representatives and he's "resting comfortably"
now.  I expect we'll hear from him when he's able^H^H^H^H less
busy.


Terry "Star Search 92" Chan
--
Energy and Environment Division   | Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory      | 
Berkeley, California  USA  94720  | Carpe Per Diem
From: csa09@seq1.keele.ac.uk (Paul Singleton)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Amusing signs
Date: 14 Dec 92 15:45:29 GMT
Organization: Keele University, England

From article <j!h2m9p@rpi.edu>, by kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak):
>...  
>  I've got a picture from Mount Rainier National park, of a yellow 
> diamond sign which reads "Rocks". It's sitting right next to - you
> guessed it - a pile of rocks. I guess a lot of people had been asking
> what they were.

I saw a Tunisian road sign in the Sahara desert which said "Sable" (French
for "sand": French being the popular, albeit unofficial, language there)
(Arabic is the official language, I believe).  But I didn't get a picture.
----
  __   __    Paul Singleton (Mr)           JANET: paul@uk.ac.keele.cs
 |__) (__    Computer Science Dept.        other: paul@cs.keele.ac.uk
 |  .  __).  Keele University, Newcastle,    tel: +44 (0)782 621111 x7355
             Staffs ST5 5BG, ENGLAND         fax: +44 (0)782 713082
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: markm@bigfoot.sps.mot.com (Mark Monninger)
Subject: Full moon and tides
Reply-To: rapw20@email.sps.mot.com
Organization: SPS
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:32:24 GMT

Over the weekend, I heard a network news commentator say that high winds  
and a full moon caused (or made worse) the higher-than-usual tide that  
caused so much damage along the northeast coast. What does a full moon  
have to do with it? I find it hard to believe that a full moon has any  
effect on the tides. The mass of the moon, and hence its gravitational  
pull on the ocean doesn't change, nor does its distance from the earth (at  
least not because the moon is full). The only thing that really changes is  
that we on earth can see more of the moon. Is this an urban legend or  
what?

Mark
From: JTCHEW@lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Gay Likelihood
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Date: 18 Dec 1992 15:56:37 GMT
Organization: Honest Ernie's Used Ions
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.252.152

> Has anyone heard any similar stories?  Can anyone shed any light
> on the veracity of the stat?

I've always heard it as common knowledge that "10% of the population
is gay."  It may not be true, and I don't know what the origin of the
belief might be (probably some combination of the Kinsey and Masters 
and Johnson research and the derivatives thereof), but I'd say it is 
very widely held in the US.

I've known a number of homosexuals of the various persuasions, but
either 10% is 'way high or a *lot* of gays/lesbians/bis are still in the
closet.
Perhaps the number convolutes casual homoerotic experience with actual
homo or bi identity.

A recent survey of the British and French has gotten wide publicity -- 
I think the original paper just came out in an issue of Science that 
I haven't seen yet.  The authors apparently say that 12% of London 
men have had some homosexual contact at some point, which,
plainly, is a lot different from Being Gay (tm) or even bi.

I'd rather try to get reliable survey data on people's salaries or drug
usage or relationship with their mothers -- they're more likely to 
level with you!  Good sex research might be the hardest thing in the
social sciences.  

Joe "Then again, maybe 10% just sounded like a nice round number" Chew
From: jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel K. Furr)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Red Wine Contains Viricide?
Date: 19 Dec 92 22:53:39 GMT
Organization: Escape from Blacksburg, VA

In article <1992Dec18.234826.29033@Cadence.COM> vince@cadence.com (Vince Gibboni) writes:
>Tom.Rettie@p828.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Tom Rettie) writes:
>> Is there some grain of truth behind this statement?  Or am I getting the 
>> quality of statements to be expected from a man who cooked and ate a rat, 
>> and tied himself to a tree during a lightening storm?
>>
>    Let's not forget the other fun things Liddy's done - like holding his
>    hand in a candle flame and, for some perfectly logical, well-thought-out
>    reason, not dissimilar to the methodical, clear-minded thought process
>    that led Linden Larauch

That's "Lyndon LaRouche" to you, Bub.  As the only one of the Presidential
candidates this past time around who dwells in Virginia (as a convicted
felon, but hey, who's keeping track), LaRouche is revered and loved by
almost as many people who think Chuck Robb's prime Presidential fodder. 

>    to conclude that Queen Elizabeth II (the monarch, 
>    not the ocean liner - yes, this _does_ need to be pointed out) is, in 
>    fact, the world's largest drug-lord, intentionally drinking his own urine.
>    As Dave Letterman said when interviewing Liddy, "Yummmm, that must go
>    great with rat".

Joel "Personally, my money's on Patricia Kluge for President in 1996" Furr
jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: mtpins@icaen.uiowa.edu (Michael T Pins)
Subject: Re: FBI list...
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 22:12:51 GMT
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.4.19

n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio) writes:

>...
>"I just plucked this from rec.pyrotechnics.  Does this scream UL or what?
>I'm sure the FBI doesn't have better things to be doing with their time...

>"What is this Anarchist's Cookbook?  It sounds VERY interesting.  Can

>"I remember a few years ago that's not what people said. They said if you 
>ordered it from a bookstore then you were put on a list, and they'd send the
>list to FBI for them to check you out.  If you passed, you got the book. :)

>	What I heard that it was an IQ test, and you only get the
>book if you fail it.
>The only "list" you might get on is a mailing list for more 
>worthless books.

_The_Anarchist's_Cookbook_ is this wonderful book explaining to how do all kinds
of neat things, including do-it-yourself explosives.  The problem is, roughly
1/3 the recipies are good, 1/3 are questionable, and 1/3 are all but  
guaranteed to blow up in your face if you are foolish enough to try to use
them.  My favorite story concerning it is the one that explains that it was
actually written by one of our lovable 3-letter agencies for the sole purpose
of getting undesirables to fry themselves trying to follow the recipies.
And yes, I've seen a number of places that you can walk in and buy a copy of
it.


-- 
*****************************************************************************
* Michael Pins                |   Internet: amigapd@isca.uiowa.edu          *
* ISCA's Amiga Librarian      |         #include <std.disclaimer>           *
*****************************************************************************
From: sngoetze@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Sebastian Goetze)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:39:45 GMT
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen
NNTP-Posting-Host: faui00a.informatik.uni-erlangen.de

In <1992Dec8.123950.1@cc.uvcc.edu> brownea@cc.uvcc.edu writes:

>> Does anyone know any interesting mnemonics for remembering things
>> (as opposed to the other kinds of mnemonics)?

>	"Mother Very Easily Made a Jam Sandwich Using No Peanuts, Mayonaise or
>Glue" - 
>	Mercury
>	Venus
>	Earth
>	Mars
>	Jupiter
>	Saturn
>	Uranus
>	Neptune
>	Pluto
>(in some universes)
>	Mickey
>	Goofy

BTW the german equivalent is:
"Mein Vater erklaert mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten"
"My daddy explains me every sunday our nine planets" (bad but literal
translation)

This is very fitting and easy to remember, cause that's probably what
daddy said every sunday...

Perhaps somebody finds a way to twist it into an english version...

Sebastian
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban