HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ham@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Peter R. Ham)
Newsgroups: alt.astrology,soc.culture.indian
Subject: beginner in Jyotish (Vedic or Hindu) Astrology
Date: 15 Apr 92 23:31:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: Xenon.HAM.92Apr15163141
Distribution: alt
Organization: /u/ham/.organization

Right now, I'm studying Frawley's book on this subject. I'm interested in
two things:
1) a beginning astronomy book that explain simple things like how the
Moon orbits the Earth and how the Earth orbits the Sun, the Earth's procession,
equinoxes, solstices, and eclipses
   I would like something simple with good pictures.

2) Software (hopefuly Unix and public domain) that computes and draws charts.


--
Peter Ham, ham@gain.com (415) 855-1722
Software Engineer
Gain Technology, Inc.
Palo Alto, CA
Newsgroups: alt.astrology
From: fkhan@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: RE: Wanted: Astrology Software
Organization: Clark University
Date: 7 APR 92 13:48:38 GMT

I have several shareware catalogs at home with astrology programs that I can
send you the addresses of tomorrow .. I also have several programs that I could
copy and mail to you for about $10, plus disk and mailing costs -- I haven't
looked at them in a while so I'm not sure of exactly what I have but I can get
back to you. Hope this helps. FK
From: cranmer@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: alt.astrology
Subject: Re: Sacred Geometry and Five
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:08:44 GMT


Hello,

 Maggie McPherson writes...

> The number five, so sacred to Pythagoreans, the number of
> Mercury, corresponds in astrology to the quintile (and the other
> aspects in the 5 series). 4/5 is the note we call "me" (in the
> sequence doe, ray, me, fa, so, la, tee; I think "doe" is "C"
> here). 3/5 is the note "la", 2/5 is "me" in the 2nd octave
> (which he claims is a particularly pretty note, suggesting that
> the biquintile aspect might be worth a second look), and 1/5 is
> the third octave of the note "me". 

 How interesting.  The astrological 'five-harmonic' seems to me to have
 great deal to do with magick ('real' vs. stage -- see alt.magick's FAQ).
 The connotation with Mercury brings to mind our old pal Hermes Trismegistus,
 the 'originator' (be he mythical or not) of most of the Western magical
 tradition.

 Also, the biquintile (which is 2/5 of a circle, right?) is precise angle
 that one moves around a circle to make one stroke of a pentagram.

 If I may quote from Maggie's 'Lesson Two'...

> Tompkins says, "The relationship between *mind* and the quintile series
> has long been made, which . . . sounds very Mercurial. More precisely,
> John Addey links this aspect with the idea of *imposing one's mind on
> the world*. If quintiles describe style, perhaps we can go one step
> further and say that a quintile aspect will describe how we might
> communicate or give form to our mental processes either orally, through
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> the written word or through the use of our hands. Hamblin also points
> out that the quintile series is strongly emphasised in the charts of
> people who are preoccupied with making, forming, linking and
> arranging things."

 Sounds quite a bit like magick to me!

						Just rambling...

						Steve

 PS - Maggie, any more 'lessons' in the making?  They're great for people,
      like me, who haven't done any real reading in astrology, but are 
      seriously interested in starting.  By the way, I've extracted your
      post on music and called it 'Lesson 2A' - it's a nice add-on to
      your information on aspects.
From: cnorman@weber.ucsd.edu (Cyndi Norman)
Newsgroups: alt.astrology
Subject: Wanted: Astrology Software
Date: 7 Apr 92 00:37:50 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: U.C.S.D. Department of Communication
NNTP-Posting-Host: weber.ucsd.edu

This question is probably in the FAQ, but I looked in both a.a and
news.answers and must have missed postings in both.  I am looking for a
shareware (or otherwise cheap) program for my IBM compatable (286 AT, if it
matters) that does the simple astrological calculations.  All I need is the
math done for me (though I won't turn down other perks).  I figure I can
get the interpretations from books.  It's just so tedious to compute each
and every one of your moon and planets etc (even to figure out exactly when
the sun sign changes each month of each year).

The program should be able to do the following:

Take birthdate and time of birth (after changing to GMT or whatever) and
calulate the sign and degree of the sun, moon, planets, asendent, and other
major landmarks.  That's it.  Anything else is icing on the cake.  I've
already had this done for my own chart, but I'd like a simple way to do
this for others.

This has got to be a breeze to write, especially since all the tables exist
in books.  But I don't have any languages on my AT, nor am I a good
programmer.  The computer store I use has nothing on shareware and says
this is only available with commericial astrology programs costing hundreds
of dollars.

Is there a place I can send a check to?  Or a place in San Diego?  If
someone has their own version of such a program, I am willing to buy a
copy.  I would prefer to spend under $10, less if possible.

Thanks,
__________________________________________________________________________
"There's nothing wrong with me.  Maybe there's                Cyndi Norman
something wrong with the universe." (ST:TNG)         cnorman@ucsd (bitnet)
______________________________________________ cnorman@ucsd.edu (internet)
Xref: sparky alt.cyberpunk:2014 misc.legal:9055
From: allens@yang.earlham.edu (Allen Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Virtual Ethics
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:51:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: yang.1992Apr8.115129.16816
Organization: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

In article <64714@apple.Apple.COM>, chmilar@Apple.COM (Michael Chmilar) writes:
> Another issue derives from communal virtual reality, in which two real
> people can interact in a virtual world.  Each person is as prone to suffering
> psychological violence as they are in the real world, and so the same legal
> and moral issues exist.  (Or do they?  An example:  You and your wife are
> in a virtual world, and you zip away and have (virtual) sex with another
> woman.  Your wife is emotionally devastated.  Is this grounds for divorce?
> No "real" physical adultery took place, yet in mental and emotional terms,
> it certainly did.  Does this mean that whacking off to an X-rated movie is
> adultery?)

	If things worked properly (IMNHO (In My Non-Humble Opinion)), 
marriage would basically be a form of contract. If the original contract 
included this as a form of adultery, then it's adultery. If not, then not. 
Up until then, I don't know.
> 
	-Allen
Xref: sparky alt.cyberpunk:2045 rec.arts.sf.written:5694
From: ron@zooid.guild.org (Secret Mud)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: William Gibson's next novel....
Date: 11 Apr 92 13:23:38 GMT

From: tmaddox@milton.u.washington.edu (Tom Maddox)
>
>	You don't get it.  This is not in any sense a security program; it's 
>*art*--whether good, bad, interesting or uninteresting, is another matter, but
>art.
>
>	Oh yes, one thing I forgot to mention in a previous posting:  Gibson is
>not concerned with the virus end of the thing--that comes out of an agreement
>between the visual artist and a programmer.
>
>	The package also costs a hell of a lot, comes in a very limited edition,
>and is, Gibson thinks, already fully subscribed, i.e., sold out.  
>-- 
>				Tom Maddox
>			tmaddox@u.washington.edu
>		"Writing is reading and reading is writing."
>				A. S. Byatt

Of course it's art--it doesn't work, so it can't be technology.
From: reanor@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Jeffrey Getzin)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: sk
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:43:11 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept., University of Pittsburgh

In article <1992Apr10.012617.4620@news.iastate.edu> xcz13@isuvax.iastate.edu writes:
>from past experiance I have decerned that Steven King has I a problem with writing and making movesies that weren't a book or story ferst ie.The Dead Zone

King didn't write the screenplay for "The Dead Zone", Jeffrey Boam did.
Boam, I believe, was responsible for writing some of the Indiana Jones
series, and (also lodged in my memory, maybe inaccurate) one or more of the
Lethal Weapon series.

			=*()*()* Jeff *()*()*=

P.S.  I think that the Dead Zone was the BEST king film adaptation I've
ever seen.


--
					---
Jeffrey Getzin
saintdor@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
From: Peter A. Cohen <peterco@eff.org>
Subject: Cyberbars (was re:cyberstores)
Organization: ON Technology, Inc.
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1a2
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1992 15:51:10 GMT

In addition to your Montreal "Cyberdelic Rave" (which, coincidentally,
sounds like a tremendous amount of fun), I'm reminded of a bar in the Bay
area that has VR games and simulators?better than velcro walls and
electric bulls, that's for sure.

- Peter

+---------------------+----------------------+
|   Peter A. Cohen    |  ON Technology, Inc. |
|   peterco@eff.org   |   155 Second Street  |
|   (617) 876-5122    |  Cambridge, MA 02141 |
| fax: (617) 876-0391 |    Product Support   |
+---------------------+----------------------+
|            ?I have had freedom,            |
|     and I don?t like the health plan.?     |
|               - The Fresh Prince of Bel Air|
+--------------------------------------------+
Xref: sparky alt.cyberpunk:2093 alt.sex:14572 misc.legal:9311
From: brlw_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Rebel)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,alt.sex,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Race is an undefined term...
Date: 15 Apr 92 03:04:38 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York

In <1992Apr14.003936.5085@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu> csachs@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Colin Sachs) writes:

>As to "race" and sexuality... culture is the determiner.  Nothing in the
>genes, just all that "stuff" surrounding us in terms of societal norms 
>(whatever the hell those are).  

>As to "interracial" sex... just a term meaning sex with someone whose
>skin happens to be different from yours, or who was born elsewhere (usually,
>a different country).

Not to be picky or anything....but I do believe that genes code for what
color your skin is and therefore do indirectly determine the "race" of
the people. I think what you are trying to say is that the labelling and
segregation of people into certain "racial" categories based on some
subjective opinion of skin color is purely cultural. I agree with
this...two people of different "races" as judged by society do not differ
biologically accept for skin color, making the taboo against interracial
sex silly.

Jen
--
RR    RRR    RR    RRRR    RR  RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRJennifer A. Barlow
RR  R  RR  __RR  __  RR  __RR  RRRRRRRRRUniversity of Rochester, CPU Box 276640
RR    RRR  __RR  __  RR  __RR  RRRRRRRRRRRRRRochester, NY 14627, (716) 274-3739
RR  R  RR    RR     RRR    RR     RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRbrlw_ltd@cc.rochester.edu
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
From: tmaddox@milton.u.washington.edu (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Playboy Article "Adventures in Cyberspace"
Organization: The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 23:49:50 GMT

In article <COLIN.92Apr6234007@wrangel.Cayman.COM> colin@Cayman.COM (Colin "Atilla" Steele) writes:
>
>I cannot concur more heartily.  Virtual sex is a long long long long
>long long way off.  Maybe even longer than that.
>
>OK, yes, people will always get a bit hot under the, er, collar, when
>that cute little three letter word *sex* gets mentioned, but GET REAL.
>So, if you want to talk about virtual sex, frame it in the context of
>a grasping, confused, and technically ignorant public, goaded on by
>the media.  'Cause that's all it is.  Yes.  That's all it is.

	Not virtual sex, virtual *porn*.  You keep at least one hand free, if
you see what I mean.  Interactive, high-rez porn; very compelling, by comparison
to _Playboy_, 900 numbers, MacPlaymate, etc.

-- 
				Tom Maddox
			tmaddox@u.washington.edu
		"Writing is reading and reading is writing."
				A. S. Byatt
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
From: rwyatt@niji.claremont.edu (Robert Wyatt)
Subject: Re: The Lawnmower Man
Organization: Harvey Mudd College
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 01:54:08 GMT

In article <31557@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce  
Koike) writes:
> 
> 	Peter, I don't know where you're getting your "facts."
> 
> #1.  This isn't Stephen King's movie.
> 	Fact.
> 	The company paid for his name just so the movie would sell
> good.  King was quite upset (according to an LA Times interview)
> that the movie had absolutely nothing to do with his short story,
> regardless of how old it was.
> 
> #2.  I think you're without a clue.
> 	The movie was lame.  I don't see any similarities really
> with Basic Instinct.  Oh sure, I suppose that it's possible that
> people will get a vague idea that VR is Only a Bad Thing, but I
> haven't seen it happen.
> 	The innacuracies were disappointing, though.  I could handle
> the silly game that they played, but the "Mind enhancer" made me
> wince and the virtual sex scene was even worse.  I won't ask where
> they installed the tactile sensors when the scientist was playing
> with the free fall simulation...and so on.
> 	Somewhere the writers for the movie confused VR with the
> idea of interfacing directly with the mind.  And in the meantime
> they cooked up a pitiful idea that VR will enhance our minds and a
> hokey drug to help them.  (Why, pray tell, didn't the scientist  
just
> use it on himself?)
> 
> #3.  Take it seriously?
> 	Hardly.  The movie was a joke.  But I AM amused by your smug
> attitude.  Whether or not Frankenstein could happen, it was a good
> read.  Lawnmower Man just had flashy graphics and a sex scene to
> turn on the horomone-infested teeny boppers.
> 	At best it was a poor rendition of Flowers for Algernon.
> 
> 	I do honestly think that people make too much of something
> at times, but most of the VR talk around here isn't really about
> Lawnmower Man (although it might have influenced it).  In fact,  
most
> of the reviews here didn't even go into the abuses of VR.
> 	Pity it was such a disappointing movie...

I couldn't agree more !  Hollywood is in the business of making  
bucks, not art.  Fact is irrelevent.  The Lawnmower Man was a severly  
butchered portrayal of VR, sugar-coated to be fed the masses of  
idiotic American teens who will think it is "cool".  I am not a big  
Stephen King fan, and although I personally haven't heard King's  
comments on the film, I would have to admit to losing ALL respect for  
him if he liked it.  And yes, it is almost nothing like the original  
story...

True VR enthusiasts see the Lawnmower Man for what it is - trash.   
Let the idiots enjoy it.  We don't need them anyway.
From: memo@gator.rn.com (Bill Williston)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: What is Cyberpunk?
Date: 15 Apr 92 13:31:09 GMT
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site

I would just like to know what all this is about.And figure out what exactly 
Virtural reaty means. Please explain this for me!

--
Bill Williston
The Gator
219-289-0777/317-251-7391
internet: memo@gator.rn.com
uucp: ..!uunet!trauma!memo
Newsgroups: alt.sex,alt.cyberpunk,misc.legal
From: wooledge@ces.cwru.edu (Gregory Wooledge)
Subject: Intent (was Re: Photo of minor, etc./Virtual Ethics)
Organization: Crusaders for Truth
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 16:31:48 GMT

minotaur@labyrnth.via.mind.org (The Minotaur) writes:

>Remember, most
>courts require that there be *intent* to commit an act in order for it
>to be illegal.

>The bruiser:  Is intent alone enough to convict?

Certainly.  "Attempted murder", for example, is a crime.  Someone should not
be let go just because (s)he failed in an attempt to perform a crime.  (S)he
will probably try again.
-- 
Greg Wooledge		/..\			Wizard in training.
wooledge@ces.cwru.edu	\--/ Have a day.
From: br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Term in Gibson's "Mona Lisa Overdrive"
Date: 16 Apr 92 01:42:47 GMT
Article-I.D.: usenet.1992Apr16.014247.6598
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)


It's that "something larger" that is at the crux of this discussion.
There is no reasson to conclude absolutely that the voodoo entites
are just the T/A AI's in disguise.  Something else appears to be at
work through the medium of cyberspace.  Virek's death in CZ is brought
about by something extraordinary that transcends the very elaborate and
costly virtual reality of cyberspace that Virek has maintained.  And that
something else is at work making the boxes in the deserted T/A satellite.

Maybe there's a hint o of some kind of evolution of conscien  consciousness
in all of this, but, then, that gives Gibson the way out of the entropic
dead end of a universe in a black box, a little world very cunningly made
but doomed to extinction by accumulated programming errors.

Anyway, the use of the voodoo references redeemed CZ fromm the relentlessly
technocrtic dreariness of the other two books. Well that sentence out
ought to trigger some impassioned assaults, but that's my honest 
reaction to Neuromancer and MLO.  Although Gibson's impressoins of cyberspace
may seem crude to some-- pretty much like Tron,etc.-- he may be on to 
a real ly significant concept. The depiction of what it's like to be
inside a cybernetic machine may be what V/R does best.  The difficulty 
of simulated even a miniscule fraction of the fabric and texture of 
the real world is hinted at in the novels of people like Claude Simon,
not to mention James Joyce.  Ah well, enough for now; hell, I just
read this stuff for a diversion.

J. Del Col
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
From: Peter A. Cohen <peterco@eff.org>
Subject: Re: thanks
Organization: ON Technology, Inc.
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1a2
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1992 21:54:02 GMT


Nope.  Still can't see you.  Sorry.

- Peter
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Virtual food
From: kim3@husc10.harvard.edu (Jason Kim)
Date: 11 Apr 92 23:00:59 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <1992Apr11.064134.24576@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> ahawks@isis.cs.du.edu (andy) writes:
>Another thought - it is a popular myth (maybe fact, I don't know) that if a
>person "sees" themself die in their dream, that person suffers some sort of
>heart attack or other physical trauma or something - so, I wonder what
>consequences, if any, there would be if a person saw themselves die in their
>virtual reality?  Would that induce any physical trauma?  If so, it would be
>possible for "virtual murder" to be a reality...

I doubt if it would be any different than watching your little Mario go kaput
on the television screen. That is, unless your brain was hooked up to the
computer in such a way that you felt the pain of being killed (by a gun, knife,
whatever), in which case you might go into shock. But I doubt you'd die.

I've always wondered where that idea came from in the first place. Why should
a person die in real life just because they have a bad dream? I think if it
were the other way around--e.g., the pain of having a heart attack during
sleep induces a dream about death--then I could understand. But whatever. There
is little chance of ever proving it either way.

=============================================================================
Jason Y. Kim                    |        "To see others suffer does one good,
                                |           to make others suffer even more."
kim3@husc9.harvard.edu          |                        --Friedrich Nietzche
From: jessec@yang.earlham.edu
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Photo of minor, etc./Virtual Ethics
Date: 10 Apr 92 20:34:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: yang.1992Apr10.153409.16862
 <jim.702589290@piggy> <1992Apr7.113728.1236@wkuvx1.bitnet>
Organization: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

In article <1992Apr7.113728.1236@wkuvx1.bitnet>, kinnema@wkuvx1.bitnet (Mark Kinney, Attorney at Chaos) writes:
> In article <jim.702589290@piggy>, jim@ferkel.ucsb.edu (Jim Lick) writes:
>> In <1992Apr4.133839.16737@yang.earlham.edu> jessec@yang.earlham.edu writes:
>>>Hmm.  I think that you have to take into account the type of "simulated 
>>>violence" and the spirit it's done in.  It would be hard to imagine an 
>>>innocent, playful, fun simulation of sexual assault, for instance.
>> 
>> It would be hard to imagine an innocent, playful, fun Terminator movie.
>> 
> The difference is that with a movie, your role is purely passive: you're just
> watching. VR adds the possibility of *participation* in such acts.

   In a way, I disagree with both of you.  I don't think that people 
watching movies (or, in different way and degree, TV) are completely, 
utterly passive.  There is a sort of interaction of one sort or another, 
even though in scientific terms the flow of information is one-way.  Have 
you ever seen the movie "Cinema Paradiso"? If you have, you get some idea 
what I'm saying.  If you haven't, my god, you should!  And anyone who's 
gone to the Rocky Horror Picture Show has *got* to know how participatory 
film can get! --Side point.
   When I went with my friends to see "Terminator 2", we went with the 
attitude that we were going to see something sort of ludicrous and unreal, 
with some nifty ooh-ahh special effects and lots of people that fall over 
neatly when they're shot, and that it wasn't like *fer real*, you know? 
Sure, later on over egg rolls and Vietnamese ice coffee we could bullshit 
about this or that message being in the movie, but basically, we went 
there to laugh *at* the thing as much as to sit there and be brainless for 
a couple hours.  The way I see it, we did actively participate in creating 
the experience-- which was, as a result, light, fluffy, fun, and (much 
like the planet Earth) "mostly harmless".
   Now, I don't think it's possible to do that with the contents of every 
movie or whatever.  I still stick to my point cited above.  But don't be 
thinking that I subscribe to any kind of simplistic code concerning these 
things.  You're still free to call me puritanical if you like, but at 
least give me complex. :-)


   --Jesse.
From: peterco@eff.org (Peter A. Cohen)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: The Lawnmower Man
Date: 24 Mar 92 18:00:03 GMT
Organization: ON Technology, Inc.
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1a2

In article  Captain Caveman!!, lemon@unssun.nevada.edu writes:

>Oh come on guys!  All over the net i've been hearing about how much this
>movie sucked and how blatantly misrepresentative it may or may have not

I agree!  It's a science fiction movie, with an emphasis on the word
fiction!  Shit!  It's sad that people that know better take this stuff as
seriously as they do.  The cyber-dorks and SF nuts that decry "The
Lawnmower Man" as inaccurate have something in common with the gay
activists who slam "Basic Instinct" and the fundamental Christians who
slammed "The Last Tempation of Christ."  All of them are People Without A
Clue.

Stephen King wasn't trying to make a statement on technology or V.R. with
"The Lawnmower Man."  He was trying to tell a goddamn story- an old story
at that.  "The Lawnmower Man" is a modernized variation of the old
Frakenstein tale.  C'mon, V.R. freaks- don't read into it any more than
that.  You'll look as foolish as necrophiliacs that watch "Frakenstein"
and say "That couldn't happen!"

- Peter
Xref: sparky alt.sex:14285 alt.cyberpunk:2063 misc.legal:9206