HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gryphon@openage.openage.com (The Golden Gryphon)
Subject: The Time and Date for the Ritual is set.
Organization: Open Age, Inc.
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:41:05 GMT



The Golden Gryphon rushes back into the Place, from the meadow.

Well, Thanks to Jim We have a time for the ritual.  I would like to start at
9:44 AM EST on December 21, 1992.  I personally will be in Mississippi and
Louisianna.  I finally get a week off.  If there is any question of what to do,
or anyone else who would like to join in, please feel free to ask questions.  I
may take some time to answer, but I will, as soon as possible.  

While I'm out you can e-mail me at paulf@utoday.com



From uupsi2.uucp!whale.st.usm.edu!jmpierce Tue Dec 15 11:27:33 1992
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 09:54:01 -0600
From: Jimmy Malcolm Pierce <jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu>
Message-Id: <9212151554.AA29612@whale.st.usm.edu>
To: gryphon@openage.COM
Subject: Winter Solstice from Astronomy magazine



   Its December 21st at 9:43 AM EST. Its in their 'Sky Almanac' section,
near the middle of each issue.

  Later my friend, DJ.
-- 
The Golden Gryphon 				gryphon@openage.COM
"Mad Scientists seeks mindless brawny assistants, good pay, quiet location."
"They're not ghosts,  they're metaphysically challenged." - Me
Openage - The Premier SCO UNIX integrator in the Washington D.C. area
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Thyra)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: A leaving for good
Followup-To: alt.callahans
Date: 16 Dec 1992 16:21:45 GMT
Organization: the Polyhedron Group
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: aaa.uoregon.edu

In article <u906451.724479470@bruny>, u906451@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (Damien
Saunders) wrote:
> 
> Due to my marks this year I will not be returning to University in the 
> foreseeable future. So this is goodbye to all the friends I have here in the bar (To many to name without missing someone and offending anyone)
> 
> So I would like some letters from anyone who would be interested in hearing
> from me on an ocassional basis like a letter every other month. To contact
> either Bear, Alfvaen or kitten because they have my snail mail address.
> 
> Yes I will finish off the christmas cards I promised to send to some of the
> patrons tonight when I get home.
> 
> DM please save a copy of the upcoming filk songs and include on that disc.
> 
> 
> Mike a dragon's breath please. [ I am going to need it]
> 
> "A toast"
> 
> "To friends gone but not forgotten!"
> 
> <<CRASH!!>>
> 
> 
> Damien.

Thyra pads over and gives Damien a warm hug. "Bye Damien. We'll miss you.
Good luck out there in the RL world. Who knows? Maybe you can get a job
that will give you net access. I don't know if there are any commercial
access firms down-under, but there might be. Several of us get here on a
pay-as-you-go basis from home computers. Any suggestions gang?"

Purrs,
Thyra
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Dalek has entered the building
From: pcahn@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Date: 14 Dec 92 20:53:16 EST
Organization: Wesleyan University

Not one to miss a pizza dis action, I'd say that it's parsley our own fowl-t
that this string bean going on.  But lettuce continue.  I don't know about     
y'all, but most of my friends don't carrot all about puns.  Gotta run, I'm
going to the pool to swim.  Endive.

Rounder ;-}   
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: Quantum (and untutored Zen) and Beliefs (was Re: Absolutes)
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 20:03:21 GMT

In article <1govt3INN2cl@gap.caltech.edu> lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>I don't agree with your substitution of "true" for "valid."  I've just flipped
>a coin, and haven't checked to see which way it somes up.  Now, were I to
>believe it came up heads, and you were to believe it came up tails (rather than
>both of us doing the reasonable thing and simply admitting that we don't know),
>both beliefs would be invalid, in that there's no basis for either of them.  In
>that sense, they'd both be equally valid.  However, one of them would be true,
>while the other would not.

Hmmm.. thought some more about this, and I don't really think that beliefs
change what *is*.  Provable fact, verfied and cross-checked facts aren't
changeable by belief.  Though perceptions of an event by different people
may be different.  That's why I seperate the two.  The above is an example
of a verfieable event and shows, perfectly, why belief can't change fact. 

But belief of things which cannot be verified is may be true beliefs to 
those that believe them.  No matter how they conflict.

Does that make it any more clear?  "Is there a God?" is a question which
cannot be verified.  "What's the result of the next toss of the coin." is
something which can be verfied with the next toss of the coin.  Is the
difference clear?

It's the difference between asking "Are you a German national?" and "Are you
a Buddist?"  *Being* a German is verifiable, there is documentation as to
ones citizenary, usually; and it can be crosschecked by more than one
person and verifiable by more than one person.  Someone can be verified as
a German by an outside source.  Being a member of any relgion is a matter
of belief.  There might be church record, etc.; but that is no proof that
one actually believes in the tenants of that organization.   I'm recorded
as being baptized in some Baptist church, but I am no Baptist by my
beliefs.

-- 
Phyllis Rostykus    | "... and how you feel can make it real  | - _US_
aka Liralen         | Real as anything you've seen            |   Peter
"I'm no Saint!!" Li | Get a life with this dreamer's dream."  |   Gabriel
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: pel@maximo.enet.dec.com (Phillip E lujan)
Subject: Re: Introduction
Reply-To: pel@maximo.enet.dec.com (Phillip E lujan)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 16:35:05 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.144639.26131@ra.msstate.edu>, jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu (Jimmy Malcolm Pierce) writes:
|> >/*, resident C Honorary Comment, Open Purple Texan... uhm, no,
|> >resident Purple C Open-Comment and Honorary Texan (whew!), welcomes
|> >the newcomer, Starknight.
|> >
|> >"I just want to get a clarification, however.  Something in me
|> >keeps wanting to pronounce your name Stark - night, when I assume
|> >that it is Star - knight.  And I seem to be a recent expert on
|> >confusing VR names... "
|> >
|> >;)
|> >
|> >"But welcome to the Place!"
|> 
|>   "Hmm. Thats odd, I haven't been able to figure out weather ornot it was
							^^^^^^^
							Having a bad spell of
							whether, DJ?
								Starknight
|>   Star-knight or Stark-night either... Inquiring minds and all that... " DJ.
|> 
|>    Welcome to The Place !
|> 
|> -- 
|>          Jim Pierce Bach. of Sci. in Applied Computer Science USM 
|>              jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu  Disclaimer: Standard.
|>                    Video. Cher: Love and Understanding.
|> 
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: New Arrival
Reply-To: mtemplar@redunser.demon.co.uk
Distribution: world
X-Mailer: cppnews $Revision: 1.20 $
Organization: Chez MonTemplar, Redunser
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 21:58:14 +0000

In article <n1100t@ofa123.fidonet.org> Eric.Troup@ofa123.fidonet.org writes:
>The door to Callahan's opens and a large horned head sticks itself
>inside.  "Okay if I come in?" a big voice rumbles.  "I just sorta
>found this place and was wondering if I could get something to drink
>and maybe have some interesting conversations."
>
>.... Oxymoron #5: Enough memory.
>___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
>
>--- Maximus 2.00

A case of "What the dog brought in"? :-)

Welcome! I think you're the first person to step in from FidoNet-land. Reminds
me of the days when I got my first modem, and joined a local BBS with Fido
access. How'd you find us, by the way?

Mike, a drink for... um... you haven't furnished yourself with a name as yet?
Oh hell, just get a drink for our new friend Mike.

--
Alan Ralph, AKA Kimberley MonTemplar (when in alt.callahans)
aralph@cix.compulink.co.uk  OR  mtemplar@redunser.demon.co.uk
Cominatcha' c/o Demon Internet Services - Internet for a tenner+VAT a month!
Note: redunser is NOT associated with any other site of demon.co.uk
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: Humor (was prejudice)
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 17:35:12 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.201058.29153@netcom.com> henry@netcom.com (Henry Polard) writes:
>>Starknight sticks his head in through an Xwindow.  "Did I hear yet another
>>punderous punorama of punishment?"  (LOL, GD&R)
>
>Yes- so was it pain or pleasure (or something else) that
>drew your attention?
>
>Can you think of a pun that does not arouse pain on the part of the
>hearer, or humor that is based neither on pain nor humiliation?

Hmm... usually, with the folks I pun with in RL, there's more appreciation
of the play.  I *like* seeing a good pun, and feeling how it falls into
position with it's meaning and the timing of the conversation.  Word
cleverness appreciated by the folks that catch the second meaning.  And an
applause of their cleverness in *catching* the thing to begin with.  It is
a self-perpecuating cycle of positive feedback, both cleverness in coming
up with them and in perceiving them.

In VR folks get the time to think up a responce, so the timing pretty much
can't be of; and the possibility of someone overlooking a pun aren't quite
as likely.  In fact, quite a few people here are damned punctual in their
perception of the punctilio of performing a pungent pun.  Occassionally
punctuating a young punk's bravado when they attempt a puny punch line;
though, more often, they applaud such with more encouragement than actual
pain.

I guess that I'm of the opinion that puns are clever and seen as such and
cause no real pain in me when I hear them.  For example, Starknight's puns
above have no pain in them whatsoever, they are simply a clever use of
words to get his observation across.  Your original puns, however,
especially with your signature line with 'sadist' in the line, seemed aimed
at making your point, instead of merely having fun with the play.

-- 
Phyllis Rostykus     | "... and how you feel can make it real  | - _US_
aka Liralen Li       | Real as anything you've seen            |   Peter
li@inigo.Data-IO.com | Get a life with this dreamer's dream."  |   Gabriel
From: keulen@csuvax1.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Splash!)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Greetings....
Date: 13 Dec 1992 23:51:47 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: csuvax1.csu.murdoch.edu.au

trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski) writes:

>"i'll bet you dollars to donuts we have another string of cheap puns
>coming up."  kitten NEVER puns.

"I'm not sure I'd like to take a punt on that."

Splash!

--
		Splash!		*To love is to LIVE!*
	(aka Mike van Keulen -- e-mail: keulen@murdoch.edu.au)
From: daq@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 22:44:38 GMT
Subject: Re: Hats
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: alt.callahans

In alt.callahans, rich@theophilus.msfc.nasa.gov (Rich Krum) writes:

> 
> In my surprisingly extensive collection are a variety of ballcap
> type hats, "crusher" hats for camping, at least several varieties
> of "cowboy" or "western" style hats, and a few specials--like one for
      ^^^^^^
> the desert, ala "French Foreign Legion".

Cringe.

> 
> A recent Boy Scout Campout found the entire group, Troll, Wave, and Frog
> wearing mesh "pith Helmets" in the same color.
> 
> I think we do it just to be perverse.  I do know that nowadays, tipping
> your hat to a 'lady' still gets a reaction (usually puzzlement).

Anachronistic behavior is typically viewed as vaguely boorish.
....not that this should stop you, of course.  If you move to
the west coast, you may even be able to bring it back into fashion.

doug
From: steve@crc.ricoh.COM (Stephen R. Savitzky)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Cyber (was Introduction was Eh?)
Date: 17 Dec 92 23:56:57 GMT
	<1gphh5INNcgv@gap.caltech.edu>
	<1992Dec17.143759.16638@news.columbia.edu>
Organization: RICOH California Research Center

I think it's projections of cross-sections, rather than the
cross-sections themselves, that tend to look like toroids.  You can
see this effect in the hypercube -- make four of the eight cubical
cells transparent and (assuming you picked the right ones) what's left
is a torus.  You can turn it inside-out by rotating the hypercube.
(Which four?  Consider the usual cube-in-a-cube projection, and take
out the outer cube, the inner one, and any two across the inner cube
from one another.)

OK, now distort the hypercube into a hypersphere.  I haven't figured
out exactly what the removed cubes look like -- I think what you're
actually looking at is the 4-dimensional analog of what you'd get on
the Earth if you lop off both poles somewhere around lattitude +-45.
On the sphere, this is a curved, 2-D ribbon that, if you project it
onto the plane of the equator, looks like an annulus, which is the 2-D
analog of a torus.

I'm making progress here, but I don't think I quite have it...  I
think you can find a set of points on the surface of a hypersphere
that *really is* a torus.  Anybody want to help me out with the
equation of a 3-D torus?  I have to get back to work.  You may find
that the major and minor radii have to be equal.
	
Um, the set of points (x, y, z, w) such that x^2+y^2+z^2+w^2 = R^2 is
a hypersphere, right?  Now consider the set of points on this surface
such that z^2 + w^2 = r^2...  I think I need to get back to work...

--the Mandelbear


--
\ --Steve Savitzky--  \    343 Leigh Ave   \ REAL HACKERS USE AN AXE!
 \ steve@crc.ricoh.COM \ San Jose, CA 95128 \     Free Cyberia!
  \ w: 415-496-5710     \   h:408-294-6492   \ 
   \_________________________________________________________________________
From: olson@husc8.harvard.edu (Chip Olson@somewhere.out.there)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: RIP (another... sigh)
Date: 17 Dec 92 04:32:34 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Spam-On-A-Rope Inc.

Castellan orders a God's Blessing and toes the chalkline,  He stands there
for a few minutes, looking a little haggard, gathering his thoughts.

"Some of you may have heard about the shootings Monday night at Simon's Rock
of Bard College in Great Barrington, Massachusetts... a student went out
with an automatic rifle around 2am, and began blasting away at anybody
walking by.  Several people were wounded, one critically, and a student and
a faculty member were killed. 

"The student was Galen Gibson, a friend of mine from the Unitarian youth
organization.  Shot in the chest coming out of the library.

"I hadn't seen him in a couple years, but he was one of the most unforgettable
people I've ever known.  He had one of those magnetic, charismatic personal-
ities usually found in politicians and televangelists, and coupled with that
he was simply an immensely loving, caring, giving human being.  And he was
completely nonchalant about it; the fact that lots of people thought he was 
God (or at least one of His close personal friends) didn't affect his ego in 
the least.  An utterly senseless, tragic, wasteful loss.

"Galen, wherever you may be, know that you will live forever in the hearts
and minds of those whose lives you touched.  Farewell, and be at peace."

The glass shatters, and the shards sparkle briefly in the firelight before 
coming to rest.
--
-Chip Olson. | olson@husc.harvard.edu | ceo@{gnu.ai,silver.lcs}.mit.edu 
"These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break. These days
you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face... And when you 
do you'll know how it was meant to be..." -10,000 Maniacs, "These Are Days"
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski)
Subject: Re: seduction
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 13:50:51 GMT


>>kitten has yet another topic for discussion....seduction music.

nightstalker says:

>"I worry about you kitten!  Well, I don't seduce, well not anymore.  But I
>would say the best music is generally something the other person can relax to,
>and that you can relax to as well.  I like Mozart, Enya and Clannad when my
>better half is around for a quiet evening of chatting and D&M."

>"To love, and to pleasant evenings."

><crash>

"actually, i was just expanding on a discussion that was taking place
in my vicinity....but i will agree with your toast..."  kitten tosses
her glass into the fireplace.   <crash>

--
***************************************************************************
conan the librarian a.k.a. kitten           /\ /\  barbara ann 
"my life's a soap opera, isn't yours?"      {=.=}
                                              ~   trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu 
"love is the wild card of existance"
                          rita mae brown
From: pel@maximo.enet.dec.com (Phillip E lujan)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Skydiving, a poem for Tom
Date: 15 Dec 92 19:12:35 GMT
Reply-To: pel@maximo.enet.dec.com (Phillip E lujan)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

Starknight steps to the line, a tall glass of green liquid in his hand (the
more astute among the patrons will recognize it as an Emerald Island Ice Tea).
"My RL persona has managed to complete his poem on the glories of skydiving,
and we are ready to present it."  He takes a drink, then begins to orate:

---------------------------------------
SKYDIVING

To be set free of
the heavy load of
gravity; carried into
the sky and cast out, like a
fledgling eagle from parents' nest:

Then, as leaflike you
drift earthward, for the
moment featherlight; touching
a cloud, knowing it's wetness
as you would know your lover's touch:

Seeing mother earth
rushing up at you,
yet you take time to wonder
at her beauty; emerald
and azure mingled with the browns:

The glory of flight:
Falling free, outside
the boundaries of the world
until at last, slender cords
jerk you safely back to yourself.

Sean Roberts
----------------------------------------

"Sean's never been skydiving; he sort of pieced the feelings and images in the
poem out of his impressions from airplane flights, high diving, and some very
realistic dreams.  I only have one more thing to say:"

"To Tom, who had the courage to give others their dreams..."

>>KRASH!<<

----------------------------------------
Permission is hereby given for any of the patrons of Callahan's to keep a copy
of this poem for their own personal enjoyment; also, to post to any other
newsgroups they might think appropriate.  Please don't send it out in Real
Life, as I may someday wish to publish...  Thanx.  Sean, aka Starknight
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: yho@bmerh806.bnr.ca (Yue-shun Ho)
Subject: Re: Unbe Awakens
Reply-To: yho@utcs.utoronto.ca
Organization: Somewhere around Toronto, Ontario
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 16:27:54 GMT

In article <1gomf5INN2cl@gap.caltech.edu> lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>religion would dwindle, not necessarily disappear.  Since the invention of
>science, there's been quite a bit of stuff that was formerly in the domain of
>religion that's moved to the domain of science (e.g., planetary motions,
>evolution [though the creationists are doing their best to keep this in the
>realm of religion]).  I can't think of anything that was ever in the domain of
>science that religion has reappropriated.

Well, these days, there are people who call themselves "scientific
  creationists".  They claim that the religionist view of creation has its
  scientific foundations.  Not surprisingly, they try their best to disqualify
  the theory of evolution.  I have read some of the things they argue, but
  for now, I think I'll refrain from commenting them.  But I do like to point
  out that many of these "scientists" carry fake credentials (such as PhD's)
  next to their names.

That's not to say all of them carry fake credentials.  Recently there was
  a Dr Walter Brown who gave a talk on creationism at BNR, Ottawa.  (BNR is
  a sister company of the company I work at.  Don't know why creationism
  has anything to do with BNR's business.)  Reportedly, he has a PhD from
  MIT, and is the director of "Center for Scientific Creation" based in
  Phoenix, Arizona.  I'm still trying to find out what he has to say.
  Maybe he can give scientific creationists a better image, since their
  theories are mostly considered as pseudo science.  Or maybe he can't.

yue-shun, toronto, ontario


Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: mss2@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Michael S. Schiffer)
Subject: Re: prejudice
Reply-To: mss2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 07:16:28 GMT

In article <1992Dec19.062104.16046@ucc.su.OZ.AU> mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar) writes:
>>>>Abner smiles.  "Prescribe?  As in, 'Take two Callahanians and call me in the
>>>>morning!'?"
>>
>>>Danger Mouse looks at Abner. "Something like that, yes. The question is:
>>>which two would you take?"

>>Abner considers for a minute, then decides not to decide.  "Wouldn't be
>>politic anyway," he mutters.

>"True," Danger Mouse agrees, "if you took ones like kitten and Didi.
>They almost never make political comments. If you took Michael and
>Mentor, however..."

>"You could simply take them for a ride. Take your time, take in the
>sights. With two patrons, it would have to be a double-take, though."

	"Well, if I'm going to be taken, I'd like to take the
opportunity to choose a destination.  Though if it's a matter of
politics and takings, that's clearly a Constitutional issue here in
the States, so we'd have to take a plane to DC, which might take a
while.  And going before the Supreme Court is taking a chance, since
they might not even take the case.  Not to mention the fact that I'd
be taking you in, since I haven't even taken the bar exam yet.  Might
even get taken to prison-- unless one of the cops is on the take.

	"But enough of this-- I have a take-home exam which I'm in the
middle of taking."

>>>"I think I've figured out why your machine is named 'wag', Abner...."

>>"Why?"  (I'm sure your reason has got to be better than the real one ...)

>"Well, in Australian colloquial speech, a 'wag' is someone who likes to
>joke around, a practical joker, a clown for all occasions. Let's see if
>you can work out why that might be appropriate...." <grin>

	"I've encountered the term before, but it's definitely not in
current American colloquial speech, at least in the areas I'm familiar
with.  Either it's obsolete here, or I've only read it in British
books, or both."

Michael
-- 
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS	"Indeed I tremble for my country
mss2@midway.uchicago.edu	 when I reflect that God is just."
mike.schiffer@um.cc.umich.edu	 -- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on
mschiffer@aal.itd.umich.edu	    Virginia (1784)