HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: homeopathy (r)
Date: 27 Dec 1992 12:43:20 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Distribution: world
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <1hcr32INN6f1@grapevine.EBay.Sun.COM>, greg@antizen.EBay.Sun.COM writes:
>Eliot Gelwan writes, among other points;
>
>>Show me a credible claim of a homeopathic cure of cancer, for example.
>
>I currently am suffering from asthma, not cancer. I'm also not a 
>'born again lay-homeopath' and am not intersted in proving to anyone
>else that homeopathy works. I'm offering my own limited personal 
>experience to anyone who's interested, obviously not you.

You know, Greg, I'm an asthmatic too.  My "Western" physician advised me that
many asthma attacks are caused by stress.  In fact, he told me that stress was
one of the top three causes of asthma attacks.  He pointed out to me that, when
an asthma attack started, relaxation exercises could mitigate the attack.  He
told me that I could actually learn how to avoid asthma attacks.  And guess
what?  He said I could do it without having to ingest any quack remedies!  And
he was right!

Congratulations on your independent discovery of the placebo effect.  Good luck
in weaning yourself from what are most likely harmless herbs.

>I do accept the fact that the mysterious disappearance of my asthma
>could be totally coincidental, however since this is the time of year
>that is the most exacerbating to my asthma this seems unlikely, to me
>anyway.

Not likely coincidental.  More likely that you have, over time, learned how to
avoid things that trigger attacks.  It's a pity that you had to resort to
quackery to convince yourself that you could learn to avoid the attacks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.messianic
From: bruce@cortex.dixie.com (R. Bruce Rakes)
Subject: Re: Will the -REAL- Christians please stand up? Was: What did Judas betray?
Organization: Elekta Instruments, Inc.
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 15:25:39 GMT

eharbin@convex.com (Edward Harbin) writes:

>In <1992Dec27.235003.4413@rosevax.rosemount.com> grante@aquarius.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards) writes:

>>Thousands (if not millions) of people have been tortured and killed in
>>the service of christianity.  Even the thousand-year old conflict
>>between the celts and the anglo-saxons is now reported as a conflict
>>between protestants and catholics.

>On the other hand, in what non-Christian country would you choose to live?
>This century has tried several experiments in explicitly anti-religious
>statecraft - and the body count has been stupendous. In the enlightened regimes
>of Hitler and Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot you have exemplars of what you seek;
    ^^^^^^
>and aren't you proud? Probably not, for it's unlikely that you hold the
>non-religious to the same standards you reserve for the religious, or identify
>yourself with the fruits of that point of view.

It is my understanding that Nazi Germany was Xtian.  Can anyone else
confirm this?


-- 
R. Bruce Rakes, Software Systems Manager
Elekta Instruments, Inc.  8 Executive Park W, Suite 809, Atlanta, GA 30329
Voice:(404)315-1225 FAX:(404)315-7850 email: bruce@cortex.dixie.com
 
-- 
R. Bruce Rakes, Software Systems Manager
Elekta Instruments, Inc.  8 Executive Park W, Suite 809, Atlanta, GA 30329
Voice:(404)315-1225 FAX:(404)315-7850 email: bruce@cortex.dixie.com
 
Xref: sparky sci.skeptic:21592 sci.astro:13339 sci.space:18009 alt.alien.visitors:9344
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,sci.astro,sci.space,alt.alien.visitors
Subject: Re: STS-48 and "SDI": Oberg vs. Hoagland
Date: 21 Dec 92 20:22:06 GMT
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations

In article <1992Dec4.215702.5218@news.cs.brandeis.edu> corbisier@binah.cc.brandeis.edu writes:
>James Oberg will _of course_ have an explanation.  He is a member of
>PSICOP and works with Philip Klass, THE well-known skeptic "nothing-
>is-real" other famous member of PSICOP.  I've been seeing more and
>more things from Oberg lately, and I *never* see this connection 
>mentioned, only his NASA ties.  
>
>Robert Sheaffer may be "Skepticus Maximus", but for the rest of us
>with open minds, please consider the source.
>
>Barb

You seem to be so open-minded that you didn't address a single thing
Oberg said.  He had a remarkably good track record on the Soviet space
program.

At any rate, it's posts like this that make me want to disassociate
myself from my alma mater.  Sheesh.
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
Xref: sparky sci.skeptic:21760 alt.messianic:3735
From: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.messianic
Subject: Re: Will the -REAL- Christians please stand up? Was: What did Judas betray?
Date: 28 Dec 92 19:04:40 GMT
Reply-To: gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston)
Organization: Field Robotics Center, CMU

In article <eharbin.725547983@convex.convex.com> eharbin@convex.com (Edward Harbin) writes:

   >Thousands (if not millions) of people have been tortured and killed in
   >the service of christianity.  Even the thousand-year old conflict
   >between the celts and the anglo-saxons is now reported as a conflict
   >between protestants and catholics.

   On the other hand, in what non-Christian country would you choose to live?

In the US of A, you moron!  The USA is NOT a christian nation,
regardless of what scum like Pat Robertson, Ronald Reagan, etc., like
to claim.

--
Gerry Roston (gerry@cmu.edu)    | We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
Field Robotics Center,          | all men are created equal, that they are
Carnegie Mellon University      | endowed by their Creator with certain
Pittsburgh, PA, 15213           | unalienable Rights, that among these are
(412) 268-3856                  | Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
                                | That to secure these rights, Governments are
The opinions expressed are mine | instituted among Men, deriving their just
and do not reflect the official | powers from the consent of the governed.
position of CMU, FRC, RedZone,  | That whenever any Form of Government becomes
or any other organization.      | destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
                                | the People to alter or to abolish it...
                                | Thomas Jefferson
Xref: sparky sci.skeptic:21846 alt.messianic:3774
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Wednesday, 30 Dec 1992 17:17:19 CST
From: <U19807@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.messianic
Subject: Re: Will the -REAL- Christians please stand up? Was: What did Judas be
 <1992Dec27.235003.4413@rosevax.rosemount.com>
 <eharbin.725547983@convex.convex.com> <GERRY.92Dec28140440@onion.cmu.edu>
 <eharbin.725572135@convex.convex.com>

In article <eharbin.725572135@convex.convex.com>, eharbin@convex.com (Edward
Harbin) says:
>
>>   On the other hand, in what non-Christian country would you choose to live?
>
>>In the US of A, you moron!  The USA is NOT a christian nation,
>>regardless of what scum like Pat Robertson, Ronald Reagan, etc., like
>>to claim.
>
>In fact, it's a Christian society with no established religion.

Define how a "Christian" society can have no established religion. Does this
little statement of yours somehow jibe with the (tacit) correlary that 16th-
century Theocracies (such as Calvin's Geneva) were "Christian societies with
no established religions"?

>I don't want
>an established religion any more than you do, but I do want a Christian
>country and I observe most of my countrymen are Christian - a state of affairs
>I approve.

The above paragraph is a highly contradictory one,to say the least. On the one
hand,you assert that you want no established religion to become the norm,and
then you assert that a religion _has_ been established (by majority consensus
if not by law) and glowingly approve of the phenomenon.

>Even us morons may express a preference - or is that too much
>liberty for your taste?

Us non-morons who can reason more effectively than you really couldn't care
less,actually. Your "liberty" seems to be quite synonymous with empty rhetoric.

      ** Chris Krolczyk,esq.  * DISCLAIMER: My opinions are in **
      ** Maniac-at-Large      * no way endorsed by the Univer- **
      ** U19807@UICVM.BITNET  * sity of Illinois at Chicago.   **
      ** u19807@uicvm.uic.edu * So much for frivolous lawsuits.**
From: jacobson@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Eliot T. Jacobson )
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: BiosphereII
Date: 30 Dec 92 14:45:09 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Ohio University CS Dept,. Athens


Last I heard the ocean was dying, the co-2 was getting
out of hand, and their farming was a failure.

Heard on the Leno (formerly Carson) show:  "put scientists
is a glass bottle and close it... they forgot to poke holes
in the top!"

So what is the latest news?
From: James Randi --- Wizard <geller-hotline@ssr.com>
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: The latest lawsuit....
Date: 29 Dec 1992 06:50:54 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc12.ins.cwru.edu
Posted-By: xx029 (aa387 - Jim Kutz)

UG's lawyers have just announced his intention of yet another pending
action against Prometheus Books, and another against Skeptical Inquirer,
both in Wisconsin.  "Yond Cassius...."                           JR




--
From: wsadjw@rw7.urc.tue.nl (Jan Willem Nienhuys)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Mars effect research (JWN)
Date: 1 Jan 93 13:56:53 GMT
Reply-To: wsadjw@urc.tue.nl
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands


This is an answer to a post of Ertel of mid-December.
Summary of Ertel's proposal: to test whether a certain group
of athletes displayed a `Mars effect' that is very striking or
just so-so, Ertel has proposed first to shift all athletes'
birthdays by a full year. I objected to this procedure as the
resulting distributions cannnot be counted as mutually independent.

Ertel then proposed that each athlete's birthday be coupled with
the birth time of a randomly chosen (other) athlete.  This method
was used before by Gauquelin and the Comit\'e Para.

Here is my answer. 


Dear Professor Ertel,

I think that random recouplings, of the type Gauquelin used,
would randomize the data sufficiently. I do very well remember
the Para procedure.  Actually I advised Fran,coise Gauquelin to
insert the passage on page 206 of the Euroskeptics Proceedings,
because I thought it was the best evidence that Michel had 
earnestly and convincingly tried to control for diurnal and 
annual rhythms.  The procedure has only one weak point.  It would
destroy any "synergistic" effects of the combination of diurnal
and annual birth rhythms.  This point you mention as a reason to 
favor your `Ertel preferred shifts'.   But this "synergistic" 
explanation is so far fetched that the burden of proof rests 
squarely on the shoulders of those who propose it. 

I cannot comment on your argument #2, namely that additional
astronomical variations would already provide enough randomization.
I haven't seen the data, nor the computations. The fact that
the 32 year cycle seemed to have mutated into a 31-year cycle 
worries me.  Even so, I still think that your method can't 
yield more than about 10 independent pseudo random samples,
and I think I have made clear that the burden of proof that
it is 50 rather than 10 now rests on you.

And by the way, I am still curious as to the Mars percentage of the 332 "Para
champions".  I can find out for myself (from the files you sent De Jager and
Koppeschaar), if I know their names.  

Jan Willem Nienhuys 
A happy New Year
From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Hormesis/Homeopathy
Date: 27 Dec 1992 10:38:10 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Distribution: world
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <1992Dec21.160709.4842@netcom.com>, payner@netcom.com (Rich Payne) writes:
>>Hormesis is the idea that exposure to a substance at a level that is at the
>>very limit of being able to produce clinical symptoms will tend to enhance
>>the body's defense mechanisms.  However, for hormesis, you need a high enough
>>dose that it *DOES* produce clinical symptoms.
>
>Hey, wait a minute. I just recalled  reading of enviornmentalist suits 
>against major corporations for all sorts of vague ills and sicknesses 
>supposedly caused by low levels of contaminants. This was from an issue of 
>_Reason_, wonder if I still have it somewhere?

Do you know what the requirements are for filing a lawsuit in this country?
You must:
	1)  Fill out the appropriate forms;
	2)  Pay the required fee.
Do you know what the requirement for winning a lawsuit that you've filed is?
	1)  You must convince a jury of people selected on the basis of their
	    inability to understand what the lawsuit's about that you've got
	    a valid claim.
So you're citing a LAWSUIT as evidence for or against anything?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
From: ksand@apple.com (Kent Sandvik )
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Uri's Magic
Date: 3 Jan 93 05:36:50 GMT
Followup-To: sci.skeptic
Organization: (Evil Eye Creature from Mars, Inc.)

In article <1992Dec17.195948.12082@netcom.com>, sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert
Sheaffer) wrote:
> In article <bgm21+r@rpi.edu> gallas2@rpi.edu writes:
> >In article <3062@israel.nysernet.org>, warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein) writes:
> >I really hope this isn't true.  I have never been one to underestimate the
> >stupidity of a Congresscritter, but this is too much.  If one of the senators
> >on the Senate S&T Committee believes in Uri Geller, I can understand why NASA
> >has so much trouble...How can you expect to ask for more funding for your 
> >research when the Congresscritter thinks you can just call in a "psychic" to
> >solve the problem for you.  Can anybody flatly deny this article and save my
> >faith in my country?

> I don't know, but the antenna is still stuck. Bend it, Uri, bend it!

Here's a good example where a real miracle maker would announce that 
8pm 1/1/93 the antenna is no longer stuck. And behold, it happened. We all
believe in miracles and the magic of Uri...

Nope, instead we have a case where someone (UG) wants to make money
on others' misery, with a little bit of luck. Need I say more.

Kent
-------------------
Kent Sandvik (UUCP: ....!apple!ksand; INTERNET: ksand@apple.com)
DISCLAIMER: Private activities on the Net.		
"Don't just do something!  Stand there!"  -- Mystery Science Theater 3000
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
From: graham@venus.iucf.indiana.edu (JIM GRAHAM)
Subject: Re: Hoagland? What's the deal?
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   
Reply-To: graham@venus.iucf.indiana.edu
Organization: Indiana University Cyclotron Facility, Bloomington, Indiana
Distribution:  world
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 04:00:28 GMT

In article <roelle.724974838@uars_mag>, roelle@uars_mag.jhuapl.edu (Curtis Roelle) writes...
> 
>Even when the inconclusive images are released there would be
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>statements made that they had been "defocused" to hide the (Choose

>Curt Roelle

Why "inconclusive"?

Jim Graham 

        -> ->Disclaimer: I do not speak for my company. <- <-
                          Neither do they speak for me.
 ______________________________________________________________________
| Internet: graham@venus.iucf.indiana.edu                              |
|           dolmen!jgraham@moose.cs.indiana.edu                        |
| BBS:      The PORTAL DOLMEN BBS/ParaNet ALPHA-GAMMA (sm) (9:1012/13) |
|            (812) 334-0418, 24hrs.                                    |
|______________________________________________________________________|
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
From: joe@csource.oz.au (Joe Slater)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Chuck Missler and imminent Armageddon
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 12:26:02

Tuesday December 29 1992, lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu writes to All:

lcae> 2.  In Genesis 49:10, the first letter of each Hebrew word spells out
lcae> (in Hebrew) the message "I am Yeshua, the shepherd king."  (Anyone
lcae> here know enough Hebrew to verify/refute this?)

I can see why he picked that verse; it's the one from Jacob's prophecy before
his death, assigning future roles to his sons' descendents. It reads: "The
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his
feet, until Shiloh come, and to him the obedience of peoples."

It's no good taking the initial letters alone, but if you take them and
*rearrange* them you can come up with "Yeshua, Shepherd, King, MShYY". I don't
know how he gets "I am" from the last bit, and I'm being slightly dodgy in
spelling "shepherd".

My experience has been that the tricks you can play by combining letters work,
but not any better than chance would. I've seen some amazing things done by
taking letters that are 49 or 50 apart, but then I discovered that these series
(typically four letters, rarely five, almost never six) obey the laws of
probability with a high degree of accuracy.

This, as you probably know, has long been a popular pasttime. It's made easier
now with the advent of computers and digital searching. I was rather impressed
with what he'd done until I found out that you needed to rearrange the letters.
Of course, that makes the odds *enormously* better - and it still didn't work.

My conclusion: great parlor game, not much else.

jds

 * Origin: What horrors wait for me in this, the Phantom's Opera? (3:632/351)
From: revpk@cellar.org (Brian 'Rev P-K' Siano)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Biosphere II News
Date: 31 Dec 92 02:58:56 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system


	Lord knows how reliable this is, but both Buzzworm and the Whole
Earth Review are running articles about Biosphere this month. Whole Earth's
article by Kevin Kelley-- who is an advisor of some sort to the project, so
caveats up, gang-- reports that, while the Biospherians have managed to live
for a year inside the structure, it hasn't been easy. The article describes
the day-to-day actviities in the structure, with a lot of little
human-interest things like the ways they amuse themselves. Kelley reports
that the Biospherians seem to be in good health, overall, with lower levels
of body fat and cholesterol. One interesting thing he reports is that, while
nearly everyone had caught a cold when they first went in, nobody's gotten
a cold since then. Given Whole Earth's tendency to puff the place up, I'm
taking the article skeptically-- but if Kelley's account of how closely
monitored the Biosphereans' medical signs are monitored, maybe there might
be some innaresting insights coming out of the project. (Whether it's worth
$150 million, and whether the crowd around John Allen is the rightgroup to
do it, is another question entirely.)
	I should mention that Kelley's article does not address the
revelations of the Village Voice articles by Marc Cooper.

	The _Buzzworm_ article looks to be less boosterish, and I guess I'll
have to buy a copy-- I only browsed it in the bookstore. It does address the
_Voice_ series, but I'm afraid I don't remember it clearly enough.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian "Rev. P-K" Siano                                  revpk@cellar.org
Servo: "Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard."
Joel:  "Why is my life messed up? Page 74."
Servo: "When will this movie end? Page 155."
Crow:  "How much money can we get out of Tom Cruise? Page 85."
                                       "Mystery Science Theater 3000,"
                                       during a volcano scene in
                                       "Hercules and the Moon Men."
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.conspiracy,alt.paranormal
From: mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu (Robert McGrath)
Subject: Re: The Sarfatti Papers - Destiny Matrix 1
Reply-To: mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept of Computer Science
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 18:07:39 GMT

In article <Bzsn6v.5vJ@well.sf.ca.us>, sarfatti@well.sf.ca.us (Jack Sarfatti) writes in part:
|> 
|> Anyone reading this has my permission to re-post on other relevant
|> conferences e.g. ufos etc. However, all rights researved for commercial use.
|> 
|> Jack Sarfatti.
|> POB 26548
|> San Francisco, CA
|> 94126
|> 
|> 
|>  "Rights"|North American rights
|> } ) {author|Jack Sarfatti}, {date \@ "Dec"|1992}
|> 
|> {Title|DESTINY MATRIX} Part 1
|> by
|> {Author|Jack Sarfatti}

Completely derivative (without proper attribution), and, of course, boring.  
And he has the gall to reserve the rights to this stuff.  Sheesh.

-- 
  Robert E. McGrath
  Urbana Illinois
  mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.messianic
From: eharbin@convex.com (Edward Harbin)
Subject: Re: Will the -REAL- Christians please stand up? Was: What did Judas betray?
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 13:06:23 GMT
Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In <1992Dec27.235003.4413@rosevax.rosemount.com> grante@aquarius.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards) writes:

>Thousands (if not millions) of people have been tortured and killed in
>the service of christianity.  Even the thousand-year old conflict
>between the celts and the anglo-saxons is now reported as a conflict
>between protestants and catholics.

On the other hand, in what non-Christian country would you choose to live?
This century has tried several experiments in explicitly anti-religious
statecraft - and the body count has been stupendous. In the enlightened regimes
of Hitler and Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot you have exemplars of what you seek;
and aren't you proud? Probably not, for it's unlikely that you hold the
non-religious to the same standards you reserve for the religious, or identify
yourself with the fruits of that point of view.

It was in Christian societies that both modern science and 
liberal democracy evolved. This was not accidental. Nor is it accidental that
wherever you find human suffering, Christians are in the forefront with aid
aid and comfort. The Christian ethos has much of which to be proud.

We also have much of which to be humble.

That the New Jerusalem has not arrived and that Christians are sinners is
tragic. We deserve to have our feet held to the fire for our divisions,
our hypocrisies, our failures. That being said, I note that you actually
call on us not to be less Christian but more Christian (and you, as I, know
roughly what that means). It's a challenge I hope we take up, and the worth
of which I hope you come to understand from the inside.