HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: 30 Aug 92 10:52:26 GMT

In <1992Aug30.020108.22255@panix.com> eck@panix.com (Mark Eckenwiler) writes:

>Did I mention the new flavor of Alka Seltzer that tastes just like seagull? 

Does it come with wafers?
-- 
/|/-\/-\       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
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: herbert@let.ruu.nl (Herbert Ruessink)
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting (Was: You are humble and loveable)
Organization: Faculty of Arts, State university of Utrecht
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 09:21:08 GMT

dolf@echo.philips.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) writes:

>I have read the (UL ?) story that once a group of people (students ?)
>counterfeited a Dfl. 2000,= note (dutch florin, nowadays 1 US$ = 1.60 Dfl).
>Now there is no such thing as a Dfl. 2000 note so it was not really against
>the law (maybe they have changed our laws since then).
>The appearance of the note was such that it could have been a normal
>banknote in our currency system. These counterfeiters were successful in
>changing these (worthless) banknotes in Switzerland for real money. So
>much for the Swiss banks :-) Although these people were caught afterwards.

The best story about counterfeiting that I know also involves a couple
of Dutchmen.  It's not technically counterfeiting though, because the
bank notes were *real*, not fakes.  This happened in the thirties.  The
Dutch printing company "Johan Enschede en Zonen" was the best in
printing banknotes in Europe (and arguably still is, check out the Dutch
bank notes), and they printed currency (and stamps, and bonds, etc) for
several countries, including Portugal.  The counterfeiters faked a
letter ordering new bank notes, with numbers that had already been used. 
These were not intented for circulation in Portugal, but in Mozambique. 
They'd get "Mozambique" stamped accross them before shipping them from
Portugal to the colony.  They had the cooperation of someone at the
Portuguese embassy and managed to get hold of the shipment as it arrived
in Portugal.  They got caught when an attentive bank clerk found two
notes with identical numbers.  After a while others where found, and the
doubles matched a specific printing run done in Holland.  The Portuguese
asked the printing company about their security arrangements and the
whole thing came out. 

For our Dutch (comic) strip fanatics: This story provided inspiration
for the first 'Franka' album: "Het Misdaad Museum". 

ObUl: The previous series of Dutch banknotes are considered to be real
works of art, they're up in the Museum for Modern Art in New York.

--
Bytes : Herbert.Ruessink@let.ruu.nl     | Paper : Herbert Ruessink 
Voice : +31 30 53 6239                  |         OTS/STT
Fax   : +31 30 53 6000                  |         Trans 10
                                        |         NL-3512 JK Utrecht
                                        |         The Netherlands



Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg)
Subject: Re: Death by sneezing
Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail.  Playa del Rey, CA
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 03:42:33 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.192355.13314@bert.eecs.uic.edu> artn@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Ellyn Sandor) writes:
>geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Val Salva) writes:
>>In article <fwlpb8d5@csv.warwick.ac.uk> csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) 
>>writes:
>>>Well, it's called the Valsalva manoeuvre, and is sometimes used to slow the
>>>heart (in SVTs etc.). 
>>Does anyone know the origin of the name of this maneuver?  Was it invented 
>>by a Dr. Guido Valsalva or something?

>	Does anyone have a clear description of how to do this?  I have been
>trying to teach it to my wife for a while, since airplane pressure changes
>are sort of difficult for her, but I can't for the life of me figure out
>how to describe what to do.

They way I teach people to do it is 2 steps.

 1)  Blow out of your nose.

 2)  Pinch your nose closed and (attempt to) blow out your nose.

Caution:  Blowing too vigorously in step 2 can hurt your ears.
          Be gentle.
-- 
                
Rich Greenberg - N6LRT - 310-649-0238 - richg@hatch.socal.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: flournoy@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Raymond Suke Flournoy)
Subject: Re: Just One Calorie...?
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 23:11:37 GMT

In article <mcirvin.715035613@husc8> mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:
>dternes@duke.cdc.com (David Ternes) writes:
>
>of a market is there.  I think they still make New Coke too, and
>sell some.

  I believe it is called Coke II, now.  My mother bought some, and I
have a couple cans with me here.


--Raymond Flournoy        
======================================================================
flournoy@cs.stanford.edu         "For reasons I cannot explain
Computer Science Dept.            There's some part of me wants to see 
Stanford University, CA           Graceland"               -- P. Simon
From: tsmaster@media.mit.edu (David LeCompte)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:56:49 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory

In article <1992Sep4.083751.1706@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> gfm@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (George Francis McBay) writes:
>In article <laco87INN5rd@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
>>OK, George, here's the WingDings mapping for the upper-case letters
>>(courtesy of Joe Morris).  I'd like for you to come up with an
>>alternate mapping, and then we can all have fun exhibiting *your*
>>hidden agenda.
>
>	Well I'm not much into font layout/design.  

The request was a mapping, not a design. Take the Skull and Crossbones,
put it somewhere, and we'll tell you what your problem is.

>The problem is that
>this sequence seems a bit too coincidental.   

not really. 2:1 against, that's about it.

>If the keymaps are like you
>posted, typing NYC would give:  Skull&CrossBones, StarOfDavid, ThumbsUp
>which is easily seen as "dead jew good", or "Only good jew is a dead jew"
>or some other anti-Semetic statement.  In a way, it seems like one of those
>things crazy people look for, like the KKK on the marlboro box that was posted.
>But when you consider NYC (New York City) is a well-known Jewish "center" in 
>the USA, it makes you wonder.
>
No, it makes YOU wonder. I don't wonder at all. I DO wonder about people
who get worked up about this. Who spent the time to figure this out?
Why? Why am I bothering to post this?

Given as much time as we've spent on this issue, any font with a skull &
crossbones in it as well as any religious symbol will get some fanatic
riled up enough to find something "coincidental" about it.

Isn't the symbol for death the cross? I remember a series of five
symbols on a cover of a GAMES magazine (male, female, life, death,
infinity) from some movie or TV show that had a "Dr." in the title.
Skull and crossbones means piracy or poison, to my knowledge.

So my translation would be: Poison Jewish Hitchhikers! (knowing that NYC
is a "center" of Jewish Hitchhikers...)


				-Dave

-- 
Your Mom!       The Carburator!         |I'm not paid to HAVE opinions.
Your Shoes!     A gardenhose!           |
You got to got to got to got to ...     |This sig can be yours; send $15 to
SCUD MISSILE!!!	-"Scud Missile", Grunge |tsmaster@athena.mit.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 01:04:27 GMT

In article <geaz3bG00Vor01f4oP@andrew.cmu.edu> "Jonathan R. Ferro" <jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>sut@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Secure Unix Team KID01) writes:
>> In article <BtKFFE.5sE@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:
>> >In article <25736@dog.ee.lbl.gov> TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes:
>> >>
>> >>Terry "How about 'posh'?" Chan
>> >
>> >It was a contemptuous term used by the staffs of British ocean liners to
>> >refer to First Class, where the passengers were rude and the tips scanty.
>> >
>> >It stood for "Portly Old Sod's Heaven".
>> 
>> What, you mean like "Port Out Starboard Home"?
>
>Didn't Monty Python once make an album with three sides?

It wasn't me!  It wasn't me!  I didn't do it!

ObULInFAQFormat: 
   F: The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typists.  
-- 
             ......................................................
             ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu | std disclaimers
             the university of chicago law skool, chicago, illinois
             it's log!  log!  log!  it's big, it's heavy, it's wood
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Subject: Obvious spying (Was Re: Counterfeiting)
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 16:24:45 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.084914.17098@echo.philips.nl> dolf@echo.philips.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) writes:
>
>Oke, let me add some more details: no one noticed until after the crooks
>were caught. The 'good' guys were only looking for very small details on
>the bank notes, so overseeing the big differences (the bad guys though they
>were save as the notes they made could not be qualified as real due to this
>obvious mistake, so they couldn't be punished for counterfeiting).
>This overlooking-of-the-obvious may also happen for example
>when you are looking at a map looking for something which you think is a
>very small city, but in fact is a large state/country, takes a lot of time
>to find it.

I think during World War II, Allied spies in Europe would send back
their reports on postcards, with the idea that no one would look
at something in the open (German counterintelligence would look inside
envelopes, though).



--
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
			-- T.S. Eliot, "The Wasteland"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: streeter@cs.unca.edu (Tom Streeter)
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 22:10:14 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.184014.21827@news.iastate.edu> glitto@iastate.edu (Scott M Klabacha) writes:
>
>All this talk of TV channels beyond 54 has gotten me wondering...
>
>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).
>

Whether they're in use or not I don't know, but here are the channel
assignments for channels 68-80 (From Benson and Whitaker "Television
Engineering Handbook" rev. ed., 1992, ISBN 0-07-004788-x).

CHANNEL 68
Birmingham, AL
Los Angeles, CA (non-commercial only)
Toccoa, GA (non-comm)
Danville, IL
Louisville, KY (non-comm)
Boston, MA
Kansas City, MO (non-comm)
Newark, NJ 
Marion, OH
Lowry, SD
Humcoa, Puerto Rico (PR)

CHANNEL 69
Hollywood, FL
Atlanta, GA
Indianapolis, IN (non-comm)
Des Moines, IA 
East Lansing, MI (non-comm)
Allentown, PA
Fredericksburg, VA 

CHANNEL 70
Utuado, PR (non-comm)

CHANNEL 74
San Juan, PR (non-comm)

CHANNEL 76
Cayey, PR   

CHANNEL 80
Arecibo, PR

Just because a city is on the list doesn't mean there's an active
station on the channel, just that there is a channel assigned to that
city.




-- 
Tom Streeter                                |   streeter@cs.unca.edu
Dept. of Mass Communication                 |   704-251-6227
University of North Carolina at Asheville   |   Opinions expressed here are
Asheville, NC 28804                         |   mine alone.
From: salantel@dssv01.crd.ge.com (E. L. Salant)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Left handed screw rule?
Date: 28 Aug 92 13:57:39 GMT
Reply-To: salantel@wsqtb9.crd.ge.com
Organization: GE Corporate R&D Center

Back when I was an undergrad trying to do vector cross products, we
were told that in Australia if one depicts the x axis running horizontally,
the y axis pointing vertically up, then the z axis would point into the page,
as opposed to the Northern Hemisphere's convention of the z axis coming
out of the
page.  This means that the left handed screw rule is used for all those vector
problems where you fingers curl in the direction of the coil, your thumb
points 
to Mecca ...

Anyway, is this true?  Is this somehow due to the fact that the Aussies
are always standing upside down?

OBul: Beer swirls out of a Fosters bottle in a direction unaffected by the
Coriolius force.

==============================================================================
Eliot (What does 1 Fig Newton equal in the British System?)  Salant
==============================================================================
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Screaming styrofoam!
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Date: 27 Aug 92 19:02:41 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Harvard University Science Center
Summary: Is polystyrene sentient?

For the record, the person who lost confidence in his demonstration
of plants' psychic abilities after replicating the results with
Styrofoam was parapsychologist Eldon Byrd, not _The Secret Life of
Plants_ co-author Christopher Bird.  Byrd's earlier work with the
plants had, however, been excitedly chronicled in TSLoP by the time
he tried Styrofoam.  He was asked about why he ruled out sentient
Styrofoam by Philip Klass of _Aviation Week_.  Byrd's response was
"Because that's ridiculous," not "But that's ridiculous" as I
reported earlier.

This useful information can be found in Martin Gardner's 
essay "Geller, Gulls, and Nitinol," reprinted in his lovely book
of skeptical polemics, _Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus_.  I take
my information from page 161.  The article is mostly about the myriad
holes in Byrd's tests of Uri Geller's psychokinetic abilities.

Since Styrofoam, according to at least some sources, is a vital
component in hydrogen bombs, we might want to scrutinize this
possibility more closely.  To my knowledge Styrofoam is not 
required to take an oath of loyalty.
-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jlysagh@hubcap.clemson.edu (james joseph lysaght)
Subject: Eating Dogs
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 15:34:20 GMT

I remember when I lived in Philadelphia back in High School.  There was
this cult group called MOVE.  They had something like 30 people living
in a small row home.  The had baracaded the house like a fort, installed
a machine gun nest on the roof, set up loud speakers and shouted
obscenities all night long at the neoghbors.  They were rumored for the
longest time to be capturing stray dogs and cats and eating them.  The
local news did an investigative piece on them and got pictures of the
people cooking and eating a dog.  Eventually the people were reported to
be hauling dirt our of the basement.  The police finally tried to evict
the people from the house and run them out of town.  This lead to a
shoot out that lasted 2 or 3 days involving something like 100 police.
The fire department brought in water canons and they tried to knock the
house down with the people still inside but the had built it up like a
fort well enough to withstand this.  They finally ahd a helicopter fly
over the house and drop a bomb on it.  It blew up and started a fire.
The firemen refuse to fight the fire until they were sure everyone
inside was killed by it for fear of their own lives.  They calculated
that from the amount of dirt hauled out of the basement of this house
the cult was diggin tunnels uner the city to come up inot peoples
basements and rob them and kill them.  They calculated that these
tunnles could stretch on for four city blocks so they let the fire bunr
everything over four city blocks around the house to assure that anyone
hiding down in the tunnels would be killed and not come up and kill the
firemen.  Then the put the fire out and rebuilt the hundreds of houses
they burned down and reimbursed all the fmailies for theit losses.
This was a poor neighborhood but the families were all given seriously
expensinve cars and fancy homes and all sorts of luxuries to replace and
compensate their losses.        

Essentially, the city moved MOVE.

anyone else out there from Philly around this time and remember all
this?
From: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Date: 3 Sep 92 01:46:21 GMT
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.


In article <mr0nb3wj@csv.warwick.ac.uk>, 
  csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes...

>> Ha ha.  Somebody would actually have to provide evidence before I could
>> ignore it.  Perhaps you'd like to break tradition and cite a reference
>> or do some research or something.

>I think you just proved it for me...

 Yep, another content-free posting from someone who has nothing to contribute,
 but is determined to argue it to death nonetheless.

 - snopes

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Trademarks and trademarked products mentioned in this posting include:  |
|     snopes, the snopes logo, and sarcasm.                                   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  David P. Mikkelson   Digital Equipment Corporation   Culver City, CA  USA  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lafollet@romulus (Paul Lafollete)
Subject: Re: Sinking libraries
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 21:38:22 GMT

In <2485@israel.nysernet.org> warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein) writes:

>Isn't that the famous three-sided library?

Wow... a three-sided library... That might be a record!
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Price gouging in Florida and Guam
Date: 2 Sep 92 19:04:59 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Reply-To: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   

> I went through Hurricane Camille in 1969 and did not encounter price gouging.

They're all different, and the differences may arguably be superimposed
on a larger pattern of societal decay.  

There are always a certain number of sleazeballs in business, and some of
them will indulge in price gouging when given the opportunity.  Making a
public example out of these creeps as soon as possible (WITHIN THE LAW,
please... okay, now ease the hammer back down... :)  is the cure, but the
word only gets around locally and is soon forgotten, so it may well have
to be repeated at the next disaster.

Probably if it's locally understood before the disaster that price gouging
will cause the authorities to hand you your own head, it is less likely.
Ditto for looting.  

Joe "Out here the normal cost of living resembles price gouging" Chew
From: jlpicard@austin.ibm.com (Craig Becker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 25 Aug 92 17:34:37 GMT
Reply-To: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Object Technology Products
Originator: jlpicard@woofer.austin.ibm.com


STella@thelema.uucp (STella) writes:
> 
> Anybody got one for the seven deadly sins?

Gee, the Austin Chronicle's "Mr. Smartypants" column this week maintains
that each of the seven stranded castaways of _Gilligan's Island_ can be 
equated with one of the seven deadly sins. Lessee, this is from memory:

Gilligan      = Sloth
The Skipper   = Anger
The Professor = Pride
Mr. Howell    = Avarice
Mrs. Howell   = Gluttony (???)
Ginger        = Lust (surprise!)
Mary Ann      = Envy (???)

Actually, I'm pretty sure that's the mapping they gave, so I guess it
really _is_ a mnemonic of sorts.

Craig
-- 
-- "You can expect virtually      Craig Becker, Object Technology Products --
--  anything from a people who had      Internet: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com --
--  nuclear weapons in the early      IBM TR: craigb@woofer.austin.ibm.com --
--  seventeenth century."                           VNET: CRAIGB at AUSVM1 --
From: millerl@wharton.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Monty Python's 3-sided ?
Date: 1 Sep 92 04:17:00 GMT
Organization: Newt World Order

In article <31AUG199217031756@apsicc.aps.edu>, einhorn_d@apsicc.aps.edu (E. Drew Einhorn) writes:
> I heard it was a 3-sided record.  One side had a norm spiral groove with the

> Wonder if it's a true story.  Would have required a special lathe to cut the
> master disk.

It's true. I had a friend by the name of John Mumaw who used to gleefully pop
that on the turntable and perplex non-cognoscenti of MP with the record that
has two grooves on one side and one on the other. I don't remember the name of
the record, however. I don't even remember which bits were on it. At the time I
thought _that's not funny, that's sick_ (firesign theater? second city?
lampoon?) was a much funnier record, especially the whale songs and nadia
comaneci bits.

It wouldn't have required a special lathe either, simply increasing the angle
of the grooves and starting them at the right spot would be enough.

-- 
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
The more corrupt the government, the greater the number of laws -- Tacitus
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Eating dogs
Date: 31 Aug 92 20:58:13 GMT
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Aug29.050520.1@violet.ccit.arizona.edu> f67700241@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (Greg Franklin) writes:
>
>Sadly, this sort of thing seems to be going around with all sorts of ethnic
>groups.  In Phoenix, there are lots of people agitating the city on the 
>premise that new Vietnamese immigrants steal pet dogs and cats for food.
>
>The agitators were interviewed in the paper.  Tellingly, they said it
>hadn't happened to them personally, but that they heard from somebody
>else that it was true, all Vietnamese did this.


Yeah, that one's always going around, usually about the Vietnamese (or
Cambodians or Laotians).  It's compounded by the fact that they do,
of course, eat dogs and cats.  Or at least they did in Asia.  When I
lived in the Philippines, I had some pretty tastey dog stew.  (I tried
not to think about the beloved childhood pets I'd known.)  But I know
plenty of Viets (also other SE Asian refugees) here in the US, too, and
none of them steals neighbors pets for dinner.  

Well, at least if they are, they're not telling.  



-- 
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: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Left handed screw rule?
Date: 28 Aug 92 18:06:01 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article 16891@crd.ge.com, salantel@dssv01.crd.ge.com (E. L. Salant) writes:
> What does 1 Fig Newton equal in the British System?

7.23 poundal cakes.

---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: bogart@sabre.larc.nasa.gov (Ed Bogart)
Subject: Re: The Posh WC
Reply-To: bogart@sabre.larc.nasa.gov (Ed Bogart)
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA USA
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 13:33:06 GMT

As I remember this story, WC was assumed to be "Wayside Chapel" and the 
woman was English, moving to France.  BRW, I remember reading this in my
youth, no later than 1950.  I assume that it is much older though.

Ed