HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kibo@world.std.com (James "Kibo" Parry)
Subject: Re: Viruses: was(Re: aids started by cia?)
Organization: Two rooms filled with typography, in downtown Boston
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 04:59:10 GMT

In article <TS2JJJ6@taronga.com> arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) writes:
>
>ObUL:  The K in Vitamin K stands for Kibo.

Actually, it stands for "Kaboom".  However, the *circled* K which is
found on many food products, signifies that the items were taste-tested
by Kibo at the factory.

BTW, I suppressed Preparation G.
							-- K.
From: tjz20735@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Tom Zych)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Bridges
Date: 14 Sep 92 15:30:50 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

nasadk@aix.rpi.edu (Kristopher Martin Nasadowski) writes:

>ObNationalParkUL : The correct name of the Gateway Arch is "The Jefferson
>                   National Expansion Memorial" And it is illegal to fly
>                   a plane thru the arch. Federal Law!

Damn.  Guess I'd better change my flight plans for next weekend...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: Third to be bombed...
Organization: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science, Fairbanks, AK
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 13:03:45 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.202001.2472@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com writes:
>Interesting method of counting here. It's funny how we get to "third" by having
>Washington DC count as "one" but have several dozen or more missile launch


I'm posting this against all better judgement.

In the late 60's I was, for a few months (as a civilian), at a
USAF base where they *didn't* think they were the third on the
list.


Tin City, first to KNOW, first to GO!

And they believed it too.  (Remote duty, you know...  :-)

Tin City AFB was once a 125 man WACS radar site just east of
Siberia...  now it is an LRR radar site with 6 civilians who
don't think they were ever on any target list.


-- 
floyd@ims.alaska.edu    A guest of the Institute of Marine Science
Salcha, Alaska          at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks
From: Peter.Hammond@brunel.ac.uk (Peter D Hammond)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: The vanishing hitch-hiker
Date: 15 Sep 92 09:20:34 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

Hi.
The story of the vanishing hitch-hiker came up on the Arthur C Clarke
Mysterious World series last night. They had a bloke on the program who
(claimed he) saw it himself, He Was There, he did not hear it from a FOAF. Now, I know
this is an FAQ and the title of a JHB book (which I haven't been able to get,
one day I'll order it), but my point is: If they have traced at least one
person who genuinely claims it happened to him/her, then surely this makes it
a normal ghost story, not an urban legend? Surely the point of a haunting
is that it is seen by more than one person, at different times? And I always
thought that a prime characteristic of an urban legend was that when you try
to trace the person it actually happened to, the trail peters out? Or am I
missing something?

Your comments please...


-- 
BFN, Pete.

 Dept. Materials Technology | Disclaimer: SERC pay me | You sometimes have to  
 Brunel University          | to report my opinions,  |    listen to
 Uxbridge                   | not for theirs or the   | A lot of useless talk.
 Middx, UB8 3PH, UK.        | the university's.       |         N. Peart. (RUSH)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Truck Robbers Discover They're Not in the Chips
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.
Date: 15 SEP 92 09:27:07    


Associated Press: 10 September 1992

              Truck Robbers Discover They're Not in the Chips

   LAS VEGAS - The driver of a potato chip truck was beaten by two robbers who
discovered the Vegas Chips he was hauling were potato chips, not gaming chips.
   Police Lt. Carl Fruge said the driver was accosted at knifepoint and forced
to drive to a remote area, where the robbers demanded he "turn over the chips."
   Fruge said the robbers became irate when they learned the truck was carrying
potato chips.
   Dick Falk, vice president and general manager of Vegas Chips, says the
truck was clearly identified as carrying potato chips.  He said the company
logo displays a bag with both potato chips and gaming chips coming out of it.
   Someone would have to be illiterate or have "really bad eyes" not to know
Vegas Chips were snacks, Falk said Wednesday.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "In December 1942, Charlie Chaplin's testes, like those of every other man  |
|  on the planet, contained biological products in quantities sufficient to   |
|  impregnate every woman on the planet . . ."                                |
|                                      - Peter W. Huber, "Galileo's Revenge"  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  David P. Mikkelson   Digital Equipment Corporation   Culver City, CA  USA  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: harris@drvax3.msfc.nasa.gov (Mitch Harris)
Subject: Re: Sn*ff references required, please!
Organization: NASA/MSFC
Date:  7 Sep 92 16:17:32 GMT

summer@mamura.ee.mu.oz.au (Mark Summerfield) writes:

>I am preparing an essay for a course I have been doing, and as part of this
>(a small part, I might add) I wish to make mention of sn*ff movies. Now, I
>am well aware that it is impossible to sway the true believers to a more
>rational way of thinking, however for my purposes is is obviously sufficient
>that I back up *my* point of view, and not necessary that I actually change
>anybody's mind! :-)

>I know what's in the FAQ, but I need more precise references. If you have any
>of the information I ask for below, or if you can point me in the right
>direction, please e-mail. Thanks to anybody who can help...

>] T. Some psychotics have taped the murder of their victims.

>(eg "Red Dragon"/"Manhunter", "Henry, Portrait of a serial killer",
                                                                     a
Charles Ng was a case in mention, tho whether or not the films he took
of torturing/sexual assulting/killing his victims was a true snuff film
was debated as much as whether or not snuff films existed.

(stuff deleted)

        ........posted for Beverly H.





>] F. "Faces of Death" is a snuff film.
>] F. "Snuff" was a real snuff film.

>Does anybody have directors/producers/years of release for these films?
>I've checked with my local video libraries, and they don't have them
>(which shows remarkably good taste on their parts :-) What's "Snuff"
>about? I've heard about a film which tells the story of people making
>snuff movies, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't called "Snuff". 
> 
>] Paul Lanning, the FBI's chief researcher into child pornographers
>] was quoted by "The Times" of London:
>]       "In 20 years I have not seen any hard evidence that they have
>]        commercially produced sexually explicit films of murders for the
>]        gratification of other people.  Simulated snuff movies using
>]        special effects are so realistic there is no point in risking life
>]        in jail."

>A tough one, I'm sure -- but can anybody put a date to this excerpt?

>Thanks again for any assistance at all.

>Mark.
>          --------------------------------------------------------
>              Mark Summerfield,  Photonics Research Laboratory
>Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne  
>                ACSnet[AARN/Internet]: summer@ee.mu.oz[.au] 
>          --------------------------------------------------------
>   "This terminal is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone
>    to meet its maker. This is a late terminal. It's a stiff. Bereft of
>     life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it to the bench, it
>      would be pushing up the daisies. It's run down the curtain and
>            joined the choir invisible. This is an X-Terminal!"
--
Mitch Harris                           |  New Technology Inc.
(205)-544-2846                         |  700 Boulevard South, #401
drvax3!harris@freedom.msfc.nasa.gov    |  Huntsville, AL  35802

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: cel@nsscmail.att.com (clayton EDward LEIHY iii)
Subject: Resonant Frequencies (was: Re: Bridges)
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: NCR Systems Support Center - New Jersey
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:08:47 GMT

In article <kefDNTO00XQCNFbGIb@andrew.cmu.edu> rh50+@andrew.cmu.edu (Robert S. Huss) writes:

>	Most objects have a resonance frequency, at which
>they will continue a vibration, and amplify it.  I
>heard of a case where a guy with a powerful set of speakers
>found the resonance frequency of his dorm by chance, in
>the middle of some symphony recording.  By reproducing the
>sound on his snythesizer, he could make the whole building
>shake to this one note.  It didn't cause the building to
>collapse, but I can see the possibility.

In biographies of N. Tesla (the person the Coil is named after),
incidents are mentioned of how he would mount a coil/winding of
some sort on a girder in the basement of a building, and by
varying the current/voltage somehow, make a good simulation of
an earthquake.  No mention is made of buildings actually
collapsing, but the potential was there.

It is said he took many of his secrets of electricity with him
to his grave.

Eduardo
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Date: 6 Sep 92 18:25:35 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK

In article <1992Sep6.061032.631@PA.dec.com> snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes) writes:
>
[my stuff about digs...]
> On the contrary, the original article concerned both snuff films and eskimo
> words for snow.  I cited a well-researched article on the latter topic, while
> hsr4 merely offered his personal opinion on the subject.  Your choice of
> sides at which to "dig" is noticeably disingenuous.
>
> In any case, "please provide credible evidence to support your claim" is not
> the same a merely responding with "oh, yeah?" or "that's what you say",
> except to those frustrated by a lack of documentation to support their
> positions.

Yes, you did. One linguist, or somesuch meaningless title, who claims that
there are only two eskimo words for snow, because there are only two roots.
One problem: that's like saying cat, catapult, catastrophe and catch all mean
the same thing because they have the same root: cat. That's bullsh*t (I claim
the OED as my source, before you ask ;-> ).

As for your problem with my phrasing of the dig, you tell me how "please
provide credible evidence to support your claim" different from "well
that's what you say?" It's the same statement dressed up in pretty words.

One last thing. hsr4 doesn't get savaged because everyone feels a bit sorry
for him...

BTW, I don't suppose you've got the original article, have you. It's so
long ago that I can't rememeber why I started this...

The Wisp.
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Chris Williams <csuah@uk.ac.warwick.csv> aka <csuah@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
"Tony Greig in the slips, legs apart, waiting for a tickle"
                                      Brian Johnson (thanks to A. Simha 8^>)
From: cking@clepsydramuse.rockwell.com (Christopher King)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Rice versus Birdseed
Date: 8 Sep 1992 22:43:57 GMT
Reply-To: cking@clepsydramuse.rockwell.com (Christopher King)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Rockwell International


In article <1992Sep8.153749.24587@xilinx.com>, dif@xilinx.com (Diana
Foss) writes:
|>My fiance and I are planning our wedding, and my mom has asked whether
|>we want birdseed thrown at us as we depart. I said, "I thought rice
|>was the appropriate grain," but my mom replied that she had read that
|>rice "swells up and explodes in birds' stomachs." Have centuries of
|>unenlightened weddings exacted a terrible toll on our feathered friends?
|>Is there any reason at all to consider this more than an urban legend?

  Well, a number of years ago when I worked in a resturant one of the
dish washers
dumped a pan full of uncooked rice down the drain....the rice got stuck
down in the drain pipe and the water caused it to swell quite nicely. Or
at least that's 
the way that the plumbers explained it as they excavated the floor and
CUT out the
blocked section of pipe.

Rice makes good cement.
       
--

 Chris King                    | It's my opinion, they want less than nothing  
 cking@zeus.muse.rockwell.com  | to do with it.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: Bridges
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 01:46:00 GMT

pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin) writes:

>Paul "Iron Ring" Tomblin

I know it's bad form to followup to your own postings, but I just realized I
made about my 3rd reference to my Iron Ring, without defining my terms for
people who aren't lucky enough to have graduated in Engineering in Canada.

(This isn't the official history - this is my own words.  My official
history is at work)

In the early part of this century, Canada, like many other industrialized
countries, had several spectacular engineering failures - partly due to lack
of proper engineering practice and standards and laws regarding who could
practice as an engineer.

A group of engineers at the University of Toronto commissioned Rudyard
Kipling, who at the time was a reporter for the Toronto Star, to develop a
ceremony.  The purpose of this ceremony was to remind engineers of their
responsibility to themselves and to the public and to their peers.  The
result is a ceremony known as the "Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer" - a
secret ceremony that most engineers particpate in towards the end of their
education.  As part of this ceremony, engineers recieve a ring, made of
iron, which they wear on the little finger of their working hand (ie. right
hand for most people, left hand for me).  At one time, the iron for this
ring was alleged to come from the famous Quebec Bridge, which collapsed
twice because of poor engineering and corruption (politicians and building
contractors on the take).

Two parts of the ceremony which are not secret - Kiplings poem "The Sons of
Martha", and the Pledge, a framed copy of which sits on the wall of my
cubicle at work.

Although legistlation has made the ritual obsolete in terms of regulating
engineers, it still serves the purpose of reminding us what we are doing in
the profession, and the duty we owe to others and ourselves.

This ceremony has been part of engineering in Canada for many years, and
many U.S. and other Universities and Engineering Societies have approached
the Canadian organization wanting to be part of it - or they have made up
their own rituals.

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com or {uunet,revcan}!geovision!pt
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
Zen T-Shirt: Enlightenment Available - Enquire Within
 -- Paul Gillingwater (Paul.Gillingwater@actrix.gen.nz) on rec.humor.funny
From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Third to be bombed...
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Date: 9 Sep 1992 15:35:50 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <1992Sep9.135819.21252@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> mdicker@nyx.cs.du.edu
(Mike Dickerson) writes:

>(For those who don't know, NORAD stands for North American RAdar
>Defence, and is basically a huge underground command center built
>underneath Cheyene mountain near Colorado Springs, Colorado.  It is
>essentially a huge mountain on springs, with the command center under
>it.  It was designed to survive a nuclear blast, which probably means
>it has *lots* of warheads aimed at it.  


NORAD stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command (formerly North
American Air Defense Command).  It's a joint American-Canadian organization,
not a specific place.  What you describe is NORAD *headquarters,* not NORAD
itself.  And it's not a mountain on springs -- it's an underground complex
*inside* a mountain, a large cavity with heavy blast doors at the entrance
and buildings inside.  The *buildings* are on springs, not the mountain.
That'd be a hell of an engineering feat...


Geoff


-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
"As for Irish names, the een stuff drives me nuts... Doreen, Colleen, Noreen,
Flourine, Chlorine...The periodic table of the high school girls."
 
                                        -- Elaine Richards
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
From: tsmith@skat.usc.edu (Nep Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: North Pole (was: The Flat Earth Society???)
Date: 8 Sep 1992 17:27:24 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: skat.usc.edu

In article <jyc.715995899@Leland> jyc@leo.Stanford.EDU (Jon Corelis) writes:
>   This raises an interesting question that I hadn't thought of before:
>what time is it at the North Pole?  If the Pole is in a time zone, then
>what zone is it in?  If it isn't in a time zone, then is there no way to
>tell what time it is there? 

The weenie way to avoid this question is to say that the sun only
rises and sets twice a year, so it doesn't really matter what time it
is.

Nep "Past my bedtime" Smith


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Let's build a |  < Nep Smith >   |tsmith@skat.usc.edu -or-|"You've 
campfire, sing |I'm giving my body|921W30thSt.#6,LA,Ca -or-|got the
some songs..." |to science fiction|Ph#: (213) 747-8628 *<:)|right 1...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Renewing Nickel Cadmium batteries
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.
Date: 11 SEP 92 21:59:10    


In article <BuFFKG.42n@ngc.com>, 
  harrys@ngc.com (Harry Saal) writes...

>PC Magazine (Sept. 29 1992) mentions a letter in The New Scientist  
>(April 25, 1992) from Michael Bell (of Hitchin, Hertf.) that says:
>"If you drop a 'tired' (nickel cadmium) battery about a foot onto a

>True? False? Does it work on other types of flooring? If so, from how
>many feet? How many times is "a few"? 

Well, I've found that if I take something that doesn't work at all and drop it
on the floor, it usually works at least equally as well afterwards.  Larger
objects have to be smacked on the side, though.

 - snopes

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
|    NOTE:  This signature for adults only.  Sale to minors prohibited.       |
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| +  David Mikkelson  Digital Equipment Corporation, Culver City, CA  USA  +  |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Political ULs
From: Jsr@Xyzzy.equinox.gen.nz (J S Russell)
Date: 4 Sep 92 01:50:52 +1200
Organization: AMS Ltd
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder) writes:
: 
: Dan may be able to tell a good joke and shake hands with the best of
: them (how else do you get to be a politician?), but this hardly
: qualifies him as the potential leader of the world's only remaining
: Super Power.  How much faith can you have in a man that was selected by
: Bush to offset his unappealing age and looks for the young female vote?
: Or is this an urban legend?

It has been frequently suggested that Bush choose Quayle as a running mate 
as a cunning anti-assasination ploy.

"You .. you mean that is we kill _him_ then .... then ..... [Gulp!]"

JSR
--

          +--------------------------+--------------------------+
          | jsr@xyzzy.equinox.gen.nz |     Have a nice TMA.     |
          +--------------------------+--------------------------+
From: pashley@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Montykins)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Renewing Nickel Cadmium batteries
Date: 12 Sep 92 22:48:56 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <1992Sep12.050041.21710@PA.dec.com>, snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes) writes:
>
>Well, I've found that if I take something that doesn't work at all and drop it
>on the floor, it usually works at least equally as well afterwards.

Oh yeah? What about lightbulbs?

 -Paul "Monty" Ashley
   ("How many afu newbies does it take to change a lightbulb in a
Disneyland bathroom?")
-- 
  "Didn't expect to see me again,         | pashley@sdcc13.ucsd.edu
eh, Svengali?"                            |  [Not a UCSD employee]
     -- Bugs Bunny                        |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: QWERTY
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.
Date:  5 SEP 92 22:45:35    


>Well, so what *was* the reason for the design?  I think I was told
>that it was so that common letter combinations were unlikely to cause
>the machine to jam.  To me this means that it forces you to type more
>slowly, since a jam is caused when one key is returning when another
>one is striking.

 The origins of the QWERTY keyboard are covered in an article by Stephen
Jay Gould entitled "The Panda's Thumb of Technology" (reprinted in his book
"Bully for Brontosaurus -- Reflections in Natural History").  The article is 
too long to reproduce here, but suffice it to say the reasons for the QWERTY
keyboard arrangement are somewhat more complex than has been covered in this
thread so far.  As Gould says, "This basic story has gotten around, thanks to
short takes in _Time_ and other popular magazines, but the details are
enlightening, and few people have the story straight."

>.... and don't forget:  so that salesmen of the early machines could type 
>out "typewriter" very quickly by keeping their hands on the top row, thus
>impressing potential customers.

Gould again: "As another added wrinkle (and fine illustration of history's odd
quirks), R joined the top row as a last-minute entry, and for a somewhat
capricious motive according to one common tale (perhaps apochryphal) -- for
salesmen could then impress potential buyers by smooth and rapid production of
the brand name TYPE WRITER, all on one row."

 - snopes

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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|  David P. Mikkelson   Digital Equipment Corporation   Culver City, CA  USA  |
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