HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink)
Subject: Re: Conservation of Energy?
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 00:56:50 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC
Keywords: energy

In <1992Aug26.203911.13966@cbnews.cb.att.com> wrb@cbnews.cb.att.com (wallace.r.blackburn) writes:

>Oh net ones, I have a couple of questions for your collective wisdom.

>The first has to do with conservation of energy.  Energy can't be created
>or destroyed, just converted.  Right?  Let's say a bullet enters a body
>(sorry for the disgusting example).  One way it kills is by dumping energy
>into the body.  Bullets that mushroom and lose more of their energy in the
>body are deadlier than those that zip on through intact (disregarding extra
>tissue damage caused by the bigger bullet).  So, what happens to the
>bullets kinetic energy as it is dumped into the body?  What other kind of
>energy is it converted to?  Is it somehow "used" - but wouldn't that be
>destruction of the energy?  I'm confused.  The more I think about it, there
>a number of examples (car hitting a wall, etc.), so this must be pretty
>basic, I'm just missing something (my first-year physics training most
>likely).

  It's converted into heat.  You've probably noticed that if you hammer on
a nail, the nailhead becomes hot.  Same deal.  All the kinetic energy
is converted into head (which is kinetic energy itself, in the form
of vibrating molecules).

>Second question:  A method for reducing injuries from falls in martial arts
>involves hitting the ground as hard as possible just before impact.  Yes,
>the hand(s) and arm(s) may be hurt, but presumably this is better than the
>internal damage from the fall.  We are talking about being thrown here, not
>just a trip.  So the possibility of serious injury from the fall is real.
>Does this sound plausible?  I don't understand how this reduces the kinetic
>energy and force of impact.  Is the idea to slow down or stop the fall
>momentarily so that acceleration due to gravity starts over from 1" or so?

  When you hit the ground with your arms, you're transferring a bunch
of your own kinetic energy to the earth. If you hit a beachball that
hard, you'd see the kinetic energy easily - as it flew away.  The earth
being heavier than a beachball does not visibly move, although it
absorbs the energy.  Some is also transformed into heat.

>Again though, what happens to that kinetic energy upon impact in either
>case?.  It seems the body absorbs it and is thereby damaged - but where 
>does it go?

  Just like the bullet - kinetic energy from a punch, fall, or whatever
is tranformed into heat (if it isn't used up in such unaesthetic ways
as, say, breaking molecular bonds (i.e. tearing your flesh), which also
uses up energy).


>			Wally Blackburn AA8DX
>			wrb@ccsitn.att.com
-- 
==============================================================================
Carl Fink          carlf@panix.com, C.FINK4(GEnie), or CF427620I@LIUVAX.BITNET
  "Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits"  -  Mark Twain
From: baylor@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: scientific explanation for divining rods?
Date: 25 Aug 92 16:14:22 GMT
Reply-To: baylor@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Distribution: na
Organization: LMSC, Sunnyvale, California

In article <24AUG199216022582@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov>, spzkny@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (JAMES ZAKANY) writes:
>In article <1992Aug14.163733.9533@isus.UUCP>,
> hoyt@isus.UUCP (Hoyt A. Stearns jr.) writes...
>
>>The explanation that seems most likely to me is the effect psychologists
>>call "ideomotor" response, which is muscle movement caused by the
>>subconscious...
>>The rods amplify very small movements of the hand.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Yep!  I tried it and that's exactly it (in my opinion).  A REALLY GOOD 
>experiment would be to put the rods in a mechanical holder on wheels...
>For some reason, I don't think that it'd work as well...
>
>>Ideomotor movement is the same phenemon responsible for "automatic writing",
>>Oija (sp?) board movement, and other so called supernatural effects.
>
Ok, so how do you unconciously know to make very small movements with
your hands? *If* the dousing really works, and I do concede the "IF",
then this explanation is far from complete, or even useful.

RB
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
From: juola@bruno.cs.colorado.edu (Patrick Juola)
Subject: Re: The Other 95% of the Brain
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 17:17:19 GMT

In article <Bu0HI4.3DA@news.larc.nasa.gov> bogart@sabre.larc.nasa.gov (Ed Bogart) writes:
>
>Barry Shell posts;
>
>> Over the years, from time to time I come across the "fact" that one
>>only uses about 5% of one's brain; or the brain's potential. The 
>>idea is that if the brain was used to its full potential, telepathy,
>>telekinesis, out-of-body experiences, etc would be possible, and 
>>who knows what else.  ....
>
>Let me answer this by analogy.  Instead of looking at the brain, lets
>talk about something that most of you know more about, your computer!
>Most people never use more than a small percentage of their computer's
>capability (RAM, ROM, processing throughput, etc.)  If your computer was
>used to its full potential, writing the great American novel, proving
>Fermat's last theorum, etc. would be possible, and who knows whaqt else!
>
>If you want a FACT that you can throw out in casual conversations, use
>this; your brain is like a computer in that it has can only do one thing
>(or at best a very few) things at a time.

I don't know what you're trying to say here, but you're completely
mistaken with regard to the facts.  Human brains are *excellent*
at doing lots of things at once -- ask any machine vision expert about
the role of massive parallelism, or any linguist about simultaneous
processing of sentence data.  Or, for that matter, read anything about
(so-called) neural networks.

The "we only use X% of our brain" myth was derived from the early studies
of brain damage, where only about X% of the brain produced *massive*
behavioral change upon damage (Broca's area, Werneke's area, &c).  On
the other hand, electrode studies tend to show that memory is distributed
across the entire brain.  Similarly, if brain damage to the "specialized"
areas occurs at a young enough age, the brain can re-design itself to learn
the necessary skills.  The modern interpretation of the brain damage
studies is that the processing power of the brain is sufficiently
distributed that it can lose part of the processor without causing massive
reduction of the processing capacity.  This is *not* saying that any
large section is unused, any more than saying that trunk line can
go down in the phone network equates to saying that part of the phone
system is unused.

The human brain is little if any like a computer.  About the only thing I
can think of (as a cognitive scientist, computer programmer, and AI expert)
that the two have in common is that they weigh about the same order of
magnitude.

	Patrick Juola
Institute for Cognitive Science // Boulder, Colorado

Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science,sci.edu
Date: Thu,  3 Sep 1992 15:41:09 -0400 
From: Lili Velez <lv08+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Sartre's 3 laws 
	<1992Sep3.113101.1@ulkyvx.louisville.edu>

I seem to recall that those "3 laws" were used as lyrics in _The
Wiz_....I think it was the Scarecrow singing them, about the Wicked
Witch's sweatshop.

*********************************
Lili Fox Velez
Rhetorician in Residence            "Rhet in the Blue Linen Labcoat"
Department of Biological Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University            lv08@andrew.cmu.edu.BITNET
********************************* 

 This rhet could be _yours_.....if the Price is Right!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
From: silvers3@husc10.harvard.edu (Jolyon Silversmith)
Date: 28 Aug 92 18:24:38 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

glitto@iastate.edu (Scott M Klabacha) writes:
 
>What's the highest-numbered channel that has been used? Has any station
>ever really been Channel 83? The highest station I know of in Chicago is
>Channel 66, but somebody mentioned a 68 in Boston (or something like that).

68 is a channel in Boston - the Christian Science Church's flagship channel for
its Monitor News Channel (which is going or gone bust). Boston also has a 66
and a 64.

-- 
Jolyon A. Silversmith __________________________________________________________
silvers3@husc.harvard.edu            President             "Eternal Vigilance is
Mather House 100              ACLU of Harvard College      the Price of Liberty"
Cambridge, MA 02138 ____________________________________________________________
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: Chuck Adams <chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov>
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Organization: Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:15:31 GMT

I'm looking for mnemonics for stuff like "FUBAR" (f**ked up beyond all
recognition).  Is "SNAFU" a real word, or more of the same?  (It may stand for
screwed 'n all f**ked up, or then again it might be Strange, Nerdy
A.F.U'ers).............       ;-)


                      Chuck Adams,  WB5WRR   (The Chuckster)
                 Not an official document of DOE, SSCL, URA or EG&G
               Try Internet brand Tequila -  "A worm in every bottle"
             Internet:  chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov  (aka 143.202.130.11)
From: stirling@ozrout.uucp (Stirling Westrup)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Death by sneezing
Date: 3 Sep 92 21:50:53 GMT
Organization: Andre P. Ozrout

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes

[how to equalize inner-ear pressure deleted]

>There is another way to do it, hard to describe, you sort-of flex some
>muscles in your head's innards that seem to impart a negative presure on
>the eustachian pathway.  Holding your nostrils closed and slightly exhaling
>forcing pressure in that direction can be used separately, but the combined
>effect is the best.  The throat is part of the musculular system involved.
>
>Can anyone turn this into a better anatomical description if they also
>understand it.

I can't describe it, but I can do it too.  Is this a common ability, or is
it more along the lines of being able to wiggle your ears? (its certainly
more useful).

-- 
||    BUNGEE SIDEWAYS!                              o   )))
||                                                 /-- ///
|P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_  \\\      __ -_
||    stirling@ozrout.uucp                                 ((( (_)T(_)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,nyc.general
From: kevinc@casey.uucp (Kevin C. Castner)
Subject: Re: Whither Manhattan? (was Re: Cannibaderm, anyone?)
Organization: UPS Research & Development
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 13:59:17 GMT

obrien@netcom.com (obrien@netcom.com) writes:
: |>  Okay, so let's inject some FACTS (sorry) into this discussion. As far as I
: |> know, the Borough of Manhattan includes (besides Manhattan Island itself)
: |> a few blocks across the Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx, and possibly the docks
: |> on the Brooklyn side of the East River (I'm not 100% sure about that). 
: |>  
: 
: A good reference for this is a good ol' AAA New York City street map,
: which shows the few blocks in the Bronx which are part of NY County,
: but not the docks in Brooklyn.
: 
: Does anybody know the historical reason for those few blocks in the
: Bronx?

I'm not positive, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was eco-politically 
movitivated.  In the early part of the century there was a shipping dock and
loading station to the Putnam-Division Railroad (the tracks are still there).
in those few blocks.

I worked on a survey crew a few years ago.  Some of the buildings are still
there, and the crew chief told me that products would be taken from upstate
(Dutchess County really) by rail and loaded on ship to be taken elsewhere.


 ============================================================================

	Kevin C. Castner                                 kevinc@ups.com

 ============================================================================

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: bill.dehaan@rose.com (bill dehaan)
Subject: Cellular Frequencies
Organization: Rose Media Inc, Toronto, Ontario.
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 20:34:57 GMT
X-Gated-By: Usenet <==> RoseMail Gateway (v1.70)


Date Entered: 08-29-92 15:26
In <mcirvin.714950886@husc8> mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:

MC>In Boston, WQTV (the Monitor Channel, now dying a slow death in
MC>the midst of the Christian Science church's financial troubles)
MC>is UHF channel 68.  That's the highest I've seen.

About five  years ago,  Toronto's largest  independant station, CITY-TV,
changed to station 57 to meet the new regulations. They had been channel
79 for something like 15 years.

----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
Deus Ex Machina                   | Internet:   bill.dehaan@rose.com
Software Consulting and Gator Pit | Eradicate Hunger - Eat the homeless
----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
---
   SLMR 2.1a   I Got real close to seeing Elvis.....But my shovel broke.
   RM 2.00 : RoseNet<=>Usenet Gateway : Rose Media 416-733-2285
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:22620 aus.general:1577
From: steve@fulcrum.oz.au (Steve Taylor)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,aus.general
Subject: Re: Shergold outbreak in Melbourne Australia
Date: 1 Sep 92 07:38:51 GMT
Organization: The Fulcrum Consulting Group

In <damian.715003877@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au> damian@cs.monash.edu.au (Damian Conway) writes:

[ slightly reformatted ]
>Yes, friends, our local technical college just received the news - it seems 
>that a poor child in the UK is dying of cancer and needs millions of business
>cards to get into the Guiness Book of Records. (Sigh)

And while we're in Melbourne: a week or two ago the Truth (our local scum
quality tabloid) had an article on people collecting ring pulls to buy
dialysis machines. Up until now this was a UL I'd only heard of on a.f.u.

The article wasn't claiming that you should collect the ring pulls, it was
debunking the story (showed a picture of a sad looking person with their huge
jar of ring pulls, and included a disclaimer from the brewery which was
supposedly sponsoring the collection). 

Interestingly, they mentioned a similar story which supposedly did the rounds
some years ago, where you were supposed to collect the foil liners of
cigarette packets to buy a heart-lung machine. Is this version common
in the US?


							
							Steve Taylor
							steve@fulcrum.oz.au
yale.edu!jvnc.net!netnews.upenn.edu!ben.dev.upenn.edu!crawford
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: there's a WHAT in my head?
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Date: 4 Sep 92 18:20:27 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Sep4.145758.16679@exu.ericsson.se> exuhag@exu.ericsson.se writes:
>
>Supposedly, this guy was having severe headaches and his doctor couldn't
>figure out why.  Eventually the doctor used some kind of fancy scanning
>and got to the bottom of it:  the patient has a worm living in his brain,
>slowly munching away.  He claimed to have eaten raw bear meat on a hunting
>trip some time earlier, which is being blamed for this catastrophe.
>
>IMO this sounds a lot like the old earwig bit, or maybe the choking baby,
>but could it be true?  (My question is how did the worm get from his
>digestive tract to his brain?)  Anyone hear of similar maladies?


Oooh, gross one.  

Well, when I lived in Africa and Asia, I knew of worms that crawled out
of children's noses when they had high fevers.  Apparently the worms
were hanging out in the body somewhere -- the intestinal tract? -- and
decided things were just too darn hot for comfort so they made for the
open air.  Why they went through the nose, I don't know.  A book we
were given in Peace Corps, called "Where There Is No Doctor", describes
the phenomenon.  I'll have to check it out again.

Also, I know that amoebic dysentary, left unchecked, eventually can 
climb into the brain (as well as the lungs), as can certain types
of malaria.  It makes sense that worms, like other parasites, could
migrate up there, too.  

This is going to be a great thread, I can tell.  Think I'll go eat
lunch now.

 


-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu

I believe we are on the irreversible trend toward more freedom and
democracy -- but that could change.   -- J. Danforth Quayle
From: abw@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Andy Wardley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Bathroom Embarrassment UL
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:58:09 GMT
Organization: International Computers Limited


I heard this story so it MUST be true.  Infact, two different FOAFs
told me about it  - only problem was that they described different
people, different places and different times.  Oh well, give it a 'U'.

This couple had been seeing each other for a while and he wanted her
to meet his parents, so they arranged to go round to his parents' place
one evening.  He came from a very well off family and had a huge house 
and she was quite nervous about not betraying her more humble background.

All seemed to be going well and eventually the time came for them to 
leave.  Wanting to answer the call of nature before the long car journey 
home, she asked his mother for directions to the bathroom.  His mother,
taking her quite literally, directed her to a bathroom which she was
horrified to find did not contain a toilet (in the UK a bathroom implies
a bath, not necessarily a toilet).

Not wishing to appear foolish by leaving and asking for directions
to a toilet, she decided to relieve herself in the sink, and then just
pretend on leaving that she had been fixing her make-up or something.

So she hoiked herself up onto the sink which promptly came away from the
wall, propelling her onto the bath upon which she hit her head and knocked
herself out.  Upon hearing the commotion, the family ran upstairs and 
eventually had to knock the door down to find her flat on the floor in 
a state of various undress with a sink no longer attached to the wall.

She never saw the boyfriend again.


Andy "At least run the water" Wardley
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: we taste like chicken
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 21:45:43 GMT


A short exerpt from _The Japan Times Weekly International
Edition_, Aug. 24-30,1992, p. 21, which is translated from
a Japanese language review in _Aera_, Aug. 18,1992.

	'...
	In the new documentary movie "Battleship-Musashi",
	Suburo Nukui of Tokyo relates how starving
	Japanese soldiers, who were looking for human
	flesh to eat, were far more frightening than
	attacks by Filipino Guerrillas.
	.... [some deleted]
	... Nukui spoke of a similar experience.  Sitting
	by a river, he suddenly heard a voice exclaim,
	"Human flesh is delicious.  It is like chicken."
	Nukui pointed his gun at the soldier and he
	disappeared into the jungle.	'


I guess we must also taste like turtle, if we taste like chicken.

ObUL: Filipino and Philippines don't both begin with F because of
a Snafu at the state department during the Spanish-American War.


J.P. "watashi wa hiyoku no aji desu." Papai
----------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Papai             papai@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu
----------------------------------------------------------
"You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." - George Dewey
From: johana!tsw@apple.com (Tom Watson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 27 Aug 92 01:20:14 GMT
Organization: FBN/GRQ Ink.

In article <1992Aug25.181531.25673@sunova.ssc.gov>, chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov (Chuck Adams) writes:
> 
> I'm looking for mnemonics for stuff like "FUBAR" (f**ked up beyond all
> recognition).  Is "SNAFU" a real word, or more of the same?  (It may stand for
> screwed 'n all f**ked up, or then again it might be Strange, Nerdy
> A.F.U'ers).............       ;-)
> 
The dictionary is helpful here.  Webster's Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary (ISBN 0-87779-509-6) says:
sna.fu n [Situation Normal All Fucked Up (Fouled Up)] (ca. 1940):
CONFUSION, MUDDLE
snafu adj (1943): snarled or stalled in confusion: AWRY
snafu vt (1944): to bring into a state of confusion

Typing/transcription errors mine, or limited by fonts/character sets.
Read it for yourself, kids, its there!! (page 1114).
--------
Tom Watson
johana!tsw@apple.com
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Death by sneezing
Date: 1 Sep 92 17:54:59 GMT
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <1992Aug28.232329.5288@lmt.mn.org> ChazL@county.lmt.mn.org (Chaz Larson) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.213933.17710@bert.eecs.uic.edu>, artn@bert.eecs.uic.edu 
>(Ellyn Sandor) writes:
>> 	Tried that description.  Her cheeks puff out.  Though I'll try the
>> part about "as you would to blow your nose," but I think I tried explaining
>> it that way once.  The problem seems to be describing how to get pneumatic
>> leverage by pressing the back of the tongue against the soft palate.
>
>
>How about this.
>
>1. Close mouth
>2. Blow through nose.
>3. With fingers, slowly pinch nose; increase blowing pressure to compensate

There is another way to do it, hard to describe, you sort-of flex some
muscles in your head's innards that seem to impart a negative presure on
the eustachian pathway.  Holding your nostrils closed and slightly exhaling
forcing pressure in that direction can be used separately, but the combined
effect is the best.  The throat is part of the musculular system involved.

Can anyone turn this into a better anatomical description if they also
understand it.

Another imponderable: describing precisely what a color means to us as
we perceive it.

Obul: we all don't see colors just the same way at all, but since we can't
describe it we are all assuming that we see it the same way.  In fact this
is a "natural conspiracy" because unbeknownst to us, we all have quite
different color vision, which is part of why some people like garrish
color combinations unliked grossly by others.  Not an intrinsic part of
personal taste per se, but rather that it's the way the colors are seen by
those that like it; presumably a detractor would like it that way as well if
they could see it precisely the same way.
cjl (is my red your green?)
From: cromar@math.rutgers.edu (Scott Cromar)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: The Toroidal Earth Society (was Flat Earth Society)
Date: 3 Sep 92 19:16:18 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce) writes:
> (b) Even if the experiment were performed, this would still be
>     consistent with a toroidal world.  How do you feel about that as an
>     alternate hypothesis to the "spherical" Earth?

As someone else pointed out, a sphere is not topologically equivalent
to a plane or a torus.  If someone wants to find a smooth
transformation that is bijective and smooth in both directions
(aka homeomorphism) between any of the above, they're going to be
hunting for an awfully long time.

Of course, a punctured sphere IS topologically equivalent to a plane,
so if you remove the south pole, you can project the sphere onto a
plane.  Or if you attach a handle, the sphere would be equivalent to a
torus.  As anyone who has been to Arches National Monument in Utah can
attest, the Earth's surface is actually topologically equivalent to a
multi-hole torus.  Take THAT, you spherical-earth theorists.

Hence, in the spirit of topological accuracy, I propose a
multi-handled coffee cup as a more accurate model of the Earth's
surface. 

--Scott "You think you've got problems--I can't tell the difference
between a coffee cup and a phonograph record" Cromar