HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Viruses: was(Re: aids started by cia?)
Date: 21 Aug 92 00:47:04 GMT
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations

In article <83cpbpr7@csv.warwick.ac.uk> csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:
>but as anyone will tell you, herpes and diamonds have one thing in common...  

Neither can trump spades?

Ted "fizzbin!" Frank
-- 
             ......................................................
             ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu | std disclaimers
             the university of chicago law skool, chicago, illinois
             you can't throw me to the lions -- i'm charlton heston
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re: Japanese snuff! sort-of...
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge 
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 06:06:45 GMT

In article <25589@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) writes:
|> >Mind you, none of this is *real* death, but they seem to
|> >really get into seeing women get mangled and murdered in
|> >sexual scenarios.  (It also points out that they like watching
|> >women get mangled and murdered in most of their other flicks, too.)
|> 
|> We Americans have little room to talk, although our mainstream
|> movies don't usually dwell on the graphic details of the hacking
|> or whatever, and there's usually a puritanical message -- "sexuality,
|> especially female, must be punished" -- that I assume isn't in
|> the Japanese films and manga to which you refer.
 
 My guess for the underlying motivations behind the Japanese woman-slashing
themes is that they're a reaction to the upset of "traditional" Japanese 
women's behavior. For most of Japanese history, women had no power to speak
of. Now they're starting to achieve a bit more equality, and a lot of men 
are probably frightened of this (though many of them probably keep it in the
subconscious). Seeing women get killed and mutilated is a way of soothing 
those fears - it says, "see, they aren't so tough after all, they can hurt,
bleed and die". 
 
 The American variety plays to a fear of women's sexual freedom more than 
anything else, but the basic idea is the same.
 
 And no, I don't think this is a good thing - but I think it's more a 
symptom of the problem than a cause. 
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Pro-Environment. Pro-Education. Pro-Family. Pro-Choice. 
     \_| Pro-Change. Pro-America. Pro-Clinton.
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,nyc.general
From: stevens@madvlsi.columbia.edu (Andy Stevens)
Subject: Brooklyn Piers (was Re: Whither Manhattan? (was Re: Cannibaderm, anyone?))
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 07:00:36 GMT
X-Posted-From: france.madvlsi.columbia.edu
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <1992Aug19.170947.12334@ctr.columbia.edu>, stevens@madvlsi.columbia.edu (Andy Stevens) writes:
|> A good reference for this is a good ol' AAA New York City street map,
|> which shows the few blocks in the Bronx which are part of NY County,
|> but not the docks in Brooklyn.
|> 

I'm correcting myself here.  A close look at my Hagstrom map of
Manhattan shows that the Brookly piers ARE part of New York County!!

Anybody know why?

--andy
From: tlouie@athena.mit.edu (Tom Louie)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What's the right way to shave?
Date: 20 Aug 92 14:19:52 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In article <TROCH.92Aug19162643@gandalf.Rutgers.EDU> troch@gandalf.Rutgers.EDU (Rod Troch) writes:
>Didn't the armed forces teach the recruits how to shave?  There method
>was to shave *against* the grain, thus, upward on the cheeks.  
>
>It does give a much closer shave than going with the grain.  But beware
>the first time you try it you might just draw blood.  So be sure
>to have a camera ready. :-)

Wimps!  Drawing blood is the true sign of a close shave.  If you didn't
cut yourself, it's not a good shave.

Tom "Nick" Louie
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis)
Subject: Re: Imponderables
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 07:48:53 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.152428.28723@unislc.uucp> dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:
>  -- Doughnut-shop employees pick up doughnuts with tissue so their
>     hands never touch the doughnuts.  Why do they then place the
>     used tissue in with the doughnuts -- germs and all?
>
>A Dunkin' representative admitted it isn't the greatest idea.

  I kind of suspect that this is more for the employee's comfort
than yours. Especially on a hot day the converings of donuts can 
become very sticky. Using these wrappers, the clerk (?) doesn't ever
have to touch the donut, doesn't get his fingers sticky, doesn't
lick them clean and disgust other customers. Or something like that.


  Wim "septic tank of knowledge" Lewis

-- 
email: wiml@u.washington.edu             |  Home:  Seattle, Washington   |
     (William Lewis)                     |  47 41' 15" N   122 42' 58" W | 
NeXTmail: wiml@ingalls.cs.washington.edu `-------------------------------'
        --*-- Member, Coalition to Preserve Semantic Vacuity --*--
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Subject: Re: Imponderables
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 00:44:23 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.171419.4704@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>> There's a book named "Why Clocks Run Clockwise and other Imponderables" by
>> David Feldman.  ... I've paraphrased some of the more interesting points:
>>
>>  -- What does zero degrees Fahrenheit signify?
>>
>> German physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, inventor of both the alcohol
>> and mercury thermometer, meant 0 to represent an equal ice-salt mixture
>> and 100 to represent body temperature.
>
>Though this explanation is widely quoted, I've seen in disputed in a
>history of thermometry.  (I don't remember the title or author; it was
>a library book.)
>
>The suggestion was that this was actually a hoax by Fahrenheit himself,
>intended to mislead his competitors in the thermometer-making business!
>And it's precisely because Fahrenheit made the best thermometers of his
>day that his scale came into widespread use.
>
>According to the book, the *real* fixed points on Fahrenheit's scale were
>32 and 96.  32, of course, was the freezing point of water; and 96 was,
>as Fahrenheit put it, "blood heat".  (Note that although most of us have
>learned a particular value for body temperature, and it's probably higher
>than 96 F, the exact value depends on where you measure it; there probably
>are some ways to get that reading.)
>
>Anyway, the significant thing about these particular numbers is that 32 is
>a power of 2 and 96-32 is a power of 2.  That means that once you have
>marked the two fixed points on the scale of your new thermometer, you
>need only bisect the distance repeatedly -- and carry one of the intervals
>down below the lower fixed point -- to fill in the entire scale.  Since
>bisection is easy to do accurately, this contributes to the accuracy of
>the thermometer.

All very true, but unfortunately human body temperature is not even vaguely
fixed, or constant. Your body temperature typically fluctuates by up to 1
degree farenheit in a diurnal rhythm, and in half the population also
fluctuates considerably on a lunar cycle...

Also, the normal distribution of body temperature in a typical population has
a 95% interval of about 3 degrees (96 to 99). Any way you look at it, using a
biological "fixed point" is a dumb idea...

Later,

The Wisp. [hindsight is a wonderful thing...]
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     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^>)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright)
Subject: Re: Walking on Hot Coals (Was: Re: SHOCKING STORIES)
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 23:10:27 GMT

The small amount of moisture on your feet provides only very limited
protection.  The main reason you may walk on hot coals is that coals
are poor conductors of heat.

Do you know why you can touch the loaf of bread baking in the oven but
can't touch the pan or the oven rack?  Metal is a better conductor of
heat than bread for the general reason that metal is more dense.

Coals are mostly air.  You could walk on them all night if it weren't
for the fact that they are radiating heat.  You'll eventually get
burned not from touching the surface but from being exposed to the
heat radiation.

"Walking on coals" does mean walking.  If you stand in one place the
contact points on your feet will start to burn in 2 or 3 seconds.

You may reach into the campfire and take out a coal-chunk, and juggle
it quickly between your hands for as long as you like without getting
burned.  It's fun to play catch with a glowing coal at night.  You can
see the thing some distance away dancing madly in your friend's hands,
then suddenly it comes sailing right at you looking like a meteor and
you've got to think fast and catch it very lightly without grasping it.

  -- Dan Wright
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.electronics
From: schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder)
Subject: Re: SHOCKING STORIES
Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 20:52:16 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.123702.9035@tpl68k0.tplrd.tpl.oz.au> keithh@tplrd.tpl.oz.au (Keith Harwood) writes:
>
>In article <1992Aug13.200613.23247@bnlux1.bnl.gov>, schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder) writes:
>> In article <1992Aug12.193416.25072@pony.Ingres.COM> reb@Ingres.COM (Phydeaux) writes:
>> 
>> >A housemate in college used this technique to 'drink' liquid nitrogen.
>> >He put  it  *into*  his  mouth and  as  it started down his  throat it
>> >expanded  and vapor  came  gushing out of his  nose  and mouth!  Quite
>> >an impressive trick for parties!
>> >					reb
>> 
>> Working with LN2 myself on a daily basis, I'm forced to wonder "how did
>> he avoid suffering frostbite on his tongue, etc.?"  While most of the
>> liquid will go gaseous, some must first come in contact with exposed
>> oral flesh.


>One of my lecturers had a trick with liquid air. He would have a bowl on
>the bench, slowly evapourating, so that it turned into more or less pure
>liquid oxygen. He would then light a cigarette, put a spoonful of the LOX
>onto his tongue and blow through the cigarette. This produced a six-foot
>flame. Very impressive. According to him, the ice which formed under the
>LOX insulated his tongue. The biggest danger was if the spoon (which was
>metal) ever touched his teeth.


Oh, certainly worth the risk!



-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Schroeder	                |  Warning: prolonged exposure to this
schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov         |  .sig may cause retinal damage and 
Brookhaven National Laboratory  |  blistering skin rashes. 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: snopes-busters and the ghosts of the lyric
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: 14 Aug 92 08:14:18 GMT

tf = thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
jf = FURRJK@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu (Joel Furr) writes:

jf: to say nothing of the recursive three-sided record thread.
tf: How can a record have three sides?

Furrthermore, how can a record be recursive?
-- 
/|/-\/-\       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: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Political ULs
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.
Date: 17 AUG 92 21:20:55    


In article <1992Aug15.135353.23142@midway.uchicago.edu>, 
  thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes...

>I have a friend who used to be on Dan Quayle's staff

 What happened?  Did he finally get his GED?

 - snopes

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                             |
|"Asserting a statement an infinity of times does not in itself make it true."|
|                                                                             |
|                                                           - Abel J. Jones   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  David P. Mikkelson   Digital Equipment Corporation   Culver City, CA  USA  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,talk.bizarre
From: zowie@daedalus.stanford.edu (Craig "Powderkeg" DeForest)
Subject: Re: Useful quips
Followup-To: talk.bizarre
Organization: Stanford Center for Space Science and Astrophysics
	<weU6tnK00Von81iHkp@andrew.cmu.edu>
	<1992Aug06.131404.25320@bmerh85.bnr.ca>
Date: 12 Aug 92 09:31:08

eiscoop3@bmerh52.bnr.ca (Robert McAulay) writes:
>In article <weU6tnK00Von81iHkp@andrew.cmu.edu> "Jonathan R. Ferro" 
>>   Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes West
>>   l      r  e     r  e    r     l   i       r    h
>>   a      o  d     a  l    e     u   o       e    i
>>   c      w  	   n  l	   e     e   l       y    t
>>   k      n        g  o	   n         e	          e
>>       		   e  w		     t

Yow!  Did someone use tabs in his whitespace? Or is it later than I thought? 
--
Craig DeForest:  zowie@banneker.stanford.edu  *or*  craig@reed.bitnet

"So, if you guys make a living looking at the SUN, why do you spend so much
        time at the SYNCHROTRON, working UNDERGROUND at NIGHT?"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: 15 Aug 92 21:24:20 GMT

m = MJFORRES@SUVM.SYR.EDU (maurice)
d = jvmg9796@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (doc)

d: You can take all the cheap shots and flames at me you want
m: May I suggest another afu motto?

I think we already have this in the netiquette section of the AFU.
-- 
/|/-\/-\       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
From: ahill@boi.hp.com (Andy Hill)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Penicillin Priorities
Date: 13 Aug 92 18:27:39 GMT
Reply-To: ahill@boi.hp.com
Organization: LaserJets by Bill & Dave
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

joltes@husc8.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes) writes:
> ...(according to the story) the garlic acted as a
> muscle inhibitor, necessitating that the wounded be carried since they could
> not move on their own.
> ...
> Any comments?
> 
Well, this is a bit of a stretch, but I remember a warning that fresh garlic
tends to harbor quite a few botulism bacteria (this in the context of soaking
garlic cloves in olive oil - the anaerobic environment allows the bacteria to
grow quite handily).  Perhaps their garlic was a bit more infected than usual?
Would botulism bacteria and/or toxins injected into the bloodstream cause
the above effects?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Subject: Re: Viruses: was(Re: aids started by cia?)
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Distribution: world,local
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 22:50:26 GMT

In article <19!n27n@lynx.unm.edu> jfreter@triton.unm.edu (The Myth) writes:
>In article <951@cybaswan.UUCP> eeopensh@cybaswan.UUCP (j p openshaw) writes:
>>accidental by-product of cancer research. He said that there were some
>>scientists that knew this, and a cure for AIDS wouldnt become available
>>until they were included in the research. Haven't heard anything about
>>it recently though, perhaps he was bored and wanted to get on the News.
>>
>This brings up a question that I've never found an answer to:
>Has a virial infection ever been *CURED*?  We have immunization programs
>for several different viriuses, but I don't think that there is an antibiotic
>that kills off the viriuses.  Are there any people out there that know about
>medicine who read this group?

Yes and no... (BTW I'm an EX-medic). There are anti-viral drugs - antibiotics
seems to be reserved for antibacterial drugs only - such as acyclovir(tm), an
acyclothymidine type thingy that screws up replication of herpes viruses
(details available on receipt of *large* sums of money. It's much too
boring otherwise  ;->  ). It stops acute attacks of genital or other
herpes, but as anyone will tell you, herpes and diamonds have one thing in
common...  The problem with the herpes viruses is that they lie dormant in
apparently perfectly normal cells, then flare up, so there's no way
(currently, at least) to eradicate it, just to stop it when it flares up. Long
term treatment has prevented attacks for many years, but this isn't really
a cure, any more than anti-convulsant drugs 'cure' epilepsy.

There are other anit-virals, some of them quite old, that target RNA
viruses like influenza, but they have very little success...

So, the answer to your question is basically no: some viral infections can be
supressed, but not entirely cured...

Later,

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^>)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pw@panix.com (Paul Wallich)
Subject: RV cruise control in FAQ?
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 15:53:13 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Trivializers R Us
Keywords: I'll just walk back and get a beer


I know, it was just a few months ago this one went by, but somehow
I forgot to archive it. Does anyone have the story or the source
handy? 

paul

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Carp (Re: urban folklore?)
Date: 19 Aug 92 05:53:21 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor

In article <1992Aug18.185746.14143@acuson.com> lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson) writes:
>Goldfish, at least pond goldfish, _are_ carp.  Their size depends on
>the amount of space they have.  The bigger the pond (up to a point),
>the bigger the fish.
>
And as we all know, the Japanese have crossbred their pond carp into
large, brightly-colored, slow creatures that can cost thousands of
dollars.

Silicon valley nouveau-riche types have been buying these koi, to the
delight of the local great blue herons and snowy egrets.

Phil "Reminds me of the sailor and the tulip bulb.." Gustafson 
-- 
|play: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG; {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil                |
|work: (Under Construction)              | Phil Gustafson                   |
|         "Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile."                     |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.electronics
From: schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder)
Subject: Re: SHOCKING STORIES
Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 19:23:04 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.161749.28332@desktalk.desktalk.com> jeg@sangabriel.desktalk.com (John E. Greene) writes:

>******tons of LN2 and molten metal stuff deleted********
>
>Could we please change the subject line when posting about this stuff?  

Why?  I find the subject of people "drinking" LN2 and hands in molten
metal to be highly shocking stories.


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Schroeder	                |  Warning: prolonged exposure to this
schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov         |  .sig may cause retinal damage and 
Brookhaven National Laboratory  |  blistering skin rashes. 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: bogart@sabre.larc.nasa.gov (Ed Bogart)
Subject: organlegging/stolen organs
Reply-To: bogart@sabre.larc.nasa.gov (Ed Bogart)
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA USA
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 12:17:45 GMT

 Yikes!  Here I posted something about stolen organs yesterday after
not seeing anything on this thread for months and today I find that
Scott Cromar posted on the same subject!!!  How's that for 
synchronisity?

ObUL;  This guy that a friend of mine knows sais that he calculated the 
probability of things like this, and he sais that is one in a milion.


Ed "you can't argue with statistics" Bogart
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mercury bike
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:54:53 GMT
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations

In article <1992Aug21.110308.25298@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> ecmtwhk@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Thomas Koenig) writes:
>Here's a story I heard a few years ago.
>
>One of the workers found a way of stealing some of the mercury. He
>filled the tubes of his bike with it. Because the mercury is so dense,
>he could not ride the bike; he pushed it. Unfortunately, at the factory
>gates, the bike fell down. One of the security guards wanted to be
>helpful and tried to lift it up...

He should've tried to mail home the bike piece by piece.

Ted "should've got more sleep last night" Frank
-- 
             ......................................................
             ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu | std disclaimers
             the university of chicago law skool, chicago, illinois
             you can't throw me to the lions -- i'm charlton heston
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall)
Subject: Re: Eskimo words for snow (was: Re: Faces of death)
Originator: sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 17:33:26 GMT
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.


In article <H.WMC5_zlnljY@harvee.billerica.ma.us>, scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us (S. Mudgett aka little gator) writes:
>i heard somewhere that there is some language originating in a warm country
>where there is only one word for ice/snow, which in that lannguage includes
>sleet. hail, snow, and all kinds of ice.

No, you're thinking of the U.S.A., where there is only one word for
the concept "truth," "logic," "rationality," etc., -- a word, moreover,
which is never used because the concept never comes up -- but hundreds of
words (such as "Elvis," "UFO," "Bigfoot," "Sewer-goldfish," "Jim
Garrison," etc.) for the concept of "bullshit that everyone believes."

-- 
Bruce Tindall, Core Testing Manager, SAS Institute Inc., Cary NC 27513