HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: yozzo@watson.ibm.com (Ralph Yozzo)
Subject: Origin of Calvin & Hobbes WAS:Calvin/Hobbes diagnosed as clinical schizophrenic
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:12:50 GMT
Distribution: usa
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Does anyone know if Calvin & Hobbes was named after the historical
figures "John Calvin" and "Thomas Hobbes"?

-- 
 Ralph Yozzo (yozzo@watson.ibm.com)  
 From the beautiful and historic Mid-Hudson Valley area of NY state
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: Hotel footbridge disaster
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 02:37:15 GMT

msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>Kansas City.  The Hyatt Regency.
>> It seems that the design called for two
>> bridges hanging from the ceiling from long bars. You would have one bar
[never mind]
>>    Later in the construction somebody felt that it had to be changed

>where I read about this, the intended safety factor was more than 2
>and there was some other error as well.  Maybe they just didn't think
>the bridges would ever totally fill with people.

The official accident report I read, back when I was a structural engineering
undergrad, stated that although the redesign weakened it considerably, the
original design would NOT have met Kansas City building code requirements.
-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
"I don't have time to think it through: I've got to get this code written!"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Toilet paper: over or under?
From: derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 19:36:32 GMT
Organization: Fujitsu New Zealand

In article <1duqhvINN1ac@moe.ksu.ksu.edu> diverson@phys.ksu.edu (David Iverson) writes:
>In <BxLEtK.70J@news.cso.uiuc.edu> schneid@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mike Schneider) writes:
>
>
>>Knowing this newsgroup, this is probably a FAQ, but I'll go ahead
>>with it anyway...
>
>>What's the deal?  When you put toilet paper on the roll, is 
>>the loose end supposed to go over the top of the roll or come
>>from under the roll?
>
>This is an easy one:  Over in the Northern Hemisphere, Under in the
>Southern.  It has to do with the corriolis effect.

Well I think you must be wrong - it's definately over in my house.

Anyway for Coriolis to have any effect the toilet paper roll would have to 
be over a kilometer in diameter.

ObUL:  After the last round of coriolis posts I checked the water going 
down the plugs in three sinks and a bath.  In all of them the water went 
down clockwise!

Derek "Except for one of the sinks - which was a sampling error" Tearne


-- 
Derek Tearne.   --   derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz   --    Fujitsu New Zealand   -- 
Some of the more aware dinosaurs were worried about the environmental
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.  
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: gln@iti.org (Glen Niebur)
Subject: Re: Calvin/Hobbes diagnosed as clinical schizophrenic
Organization: Mayo Foundation, Rochester MN. Campus
Date: 19 Nov 92 19:34:52 GMT

In <1992Nov16.231943.27236@informix.com> proberts@informix.com (Paul Roberts) writes:

>In article <Bxq5Gs.C58@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> dooley@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Kevin Dooley) writes:
>>
>>No, there is no doubt that Hobbes simply is real.  He is every bit as real 
>>as the transmogrifier and the time machine.  He does the things which are
>>ascribed to him.  The fact that Calvin also is known to have an active
>>imagination is a seperate, and healthy, issue.  I think that y'all have
>>forgotten what it was to be a child and the way that a child's mind works,
>>and I am very sad for you.
>>
>>Kevin

>Does anyone else out there think that "Puff the Magic Dragon" is a very
>sad song, especially the lines "Dragons live forever, but not so little
>boys"?

Who has heard the story that "Puff" is about Marijuana?
Little Jackie *Paper*?, Puff?  The story goes that the song is about
how smoking pot is something you do when you are a kid, but then you
become a responsible adult and give it up (i imagine to move on to
the hard stuff to deal with the idiots you work with :-).

Do you think it's true?  Do Peter, Paul, or Mary read this group?


--
Glen Niebur     | Living in a world we didn't make,
Mayo Clinic     | Living in a world that's filled with hate,
Biomechanics Lab| Living in a world where grownups break the rules.
gln@mayo.edu    |            ~Janet Jackson
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: arielle@NeoSoft.com (Stephanie da Silva)
Subject: Re: Soldiers breaking step across bridge
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:02:54 GMT

> |> : A hotel (in Texas?) had some sorta christmas party and people dancing on
> |> : an overhead walkway caused it to collapse, due to resonance, not weight.
> |> 
> |> I believe the determined that it was weight - not resonance. The builder
> |> used substandard materials and construction techniques.

I thought this happened in St. Louis.
And the second poster is right -- it had a lot to do with building code
violations and stuff, so that the walkways weren't strong enough to hold
the weight of the people who were unfortunate enough to be on it at the time.
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: alt.skeptical.inquirier
Date: 16 Nov 1992 21:35 PST
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
Summary: We don't need no stinkin' alt groups!
Keywords: CSICOP
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

>Can anyone tell me if there is a newsgroup whose content is along the lines
>of the Skeptical Inquirier.  SI is a publication put out by The Committee
>for Scientific Invesitgation for Claims of the Paranormal (or something 
>close to that).  

Yah... pronounced "psi cop."  A puckish lot, those debunkers. You're
looking for sci.skeptic, which is like AFU but with a preference for
variously raging at the fools and earnestly attempting to enlighten
them rather than leaning back and laughing at them.  Special bonus
points for confirmed sightings of Marvin Minsky, who occasionally
used to go there to hurl Herculean reasoning against beliefs, and
believers, fundamentally invulnerable to reason.  

>I thought it started with the words "The Chihuahua..."

No, that's "The Courgette" -- it's a ladies' lap dog (properly
the Welsh Courgette) and you don't EVEN want to know why its owner
was admitted to the hospital.

Joe "Exhausted sci.skeptic refugee" Chew
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:29431 rec.arts.startrek.misc:11933 alt.cascade:3336
From: ltf@ncmicro.lonestar.org (Lance Franklin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.startrek.misc,alt.cascade
Subject: Re: Question about "T." in James T. Kirk !!!!!! (As seen on TV)
Date: 23 Nov 92 15:00:48 GMT
Organization: NC Microproducts, Inc.

sysadmin@lost.cojones.com ('Bart' Prentice) writes:
}dxs@Unify.Com (Dale R. Shaver) writes:
}> In article <1992Nov14.195251.1198@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.e
}> >In article <1992Nov11.071852.26520@mr.med.ge.com> hinz@picard.med.ge.com (Da
}> >>Roy (vcsc458@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu) wrote:
}> >>: In article <1992Nov10.212428.100792@watson.ibm.com> rrogers@watson.ibm.co
}> >>: >In <1992Nov10.203818.14246@dsd.es.com> pmartz@dsd.es.com (Paul Martz) wr
}> >>: >>In article <BxIEtG.AEs@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, miles@expert.cc.purdue.ed
}> >>: >>>In article <1992Nov10.051247.26359@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uc
}> >>: >>>>In article <BxGwLn.HEo@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu> bwbrock@midway.e
}> >>: >>>>>Tiberius
}> >>: >>>>Terry
}> >>: >>>Timmy
}> >>: >>Testicular
}> >>: >Tasteless
}> >>: Transvestyte
}> >>Taliesin
}> >Three-Sided
}> Testosterone
}Tetrahydrocannabinol
Tipper


-- 
Lance T. Franklin            +----------------------------------------------+
(ltf@ncmicro.lonestar.org)   | "You want I should bop you with this here    |
NC Microproducts, Inc.       |    Lollipop?!?"                 The Fat Fury |
Richardson, Texas            +----------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Media rantings
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 23:24:47 GMT

In article <18NOV199215072900@csa3.lbl.gov> jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera) writes:
>I [...] have seen a newspaper run a picture of a thunderstorm (with
>a bolt of lightning coming out of the bottom yet) upside down.  

Lightning can strike up.  You just don't see it, because it's above
the clouds.

Ted "still working on my first hundred thousand" Frank
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: amorgan@csd-d-4.Stanford.EDU (Crunchy Frog)
Subject: Re: Origin of Calvin & Hobbes WAS:Calvin/Hobbes diagnosed as clinical schizophrenic
Originator: amorgan@csd-d-4.Stanford.EDU
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organizatoin
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 19:03:37 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.181250.99384@watson.ibm.com> 
  yozzo@watson.ibm.com (Ralph Yozzo) writes:
>Does anyone know if Calvin & Hobbes was named after the historical
>figures "John Calvin" and "Thomas Hobbes"?

Actually they were named after Calvin Klein and Churchill's pet 
courgette, Hobbes.
 
> Ralph Yozzo (yozzo@watson.ibm.com)  

C "You are correct" Frog
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: treincke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Tim Reincke)
Subject: Re: CDs cheaper to make than cassettes?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 15:55:09 GMT

>>Are there any other blatant examples of charging more for something that is
>>actually cheaper to manufacture?

Just about anything that is manufactured is sold for a price higher
than its manufacturing cost.  This is a concept economists like to
call "profit".  

As far as CDs go, it seems like a simple supply/demand matter.  The
market will bear CDs that cost $17.99 each because people are willing
to pay that much for them.  If CD companies felt that they weren't
selling enough CDs at $17.99, they would surely lower the price.  They
would be fools not to!

- Tim "no I'm not an Econ major..." Reincke
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Reincke                         | Email to: treincke@uiuc.edu
Junior, Computer Science                   |-------------------------------- 
CCSO Resource Information Consultant       |   G o  I l l i n i  B e a t 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |    T h e  S p a r t a n s
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Blow ye winds, Like the trumpet blows; But without that noise." - J. Handey
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.conspiracy,alt.politics.perot
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's Conspiracy Theory, brought to you today.
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 20:30:15 GMT

jheath@CERIS.Purdue.EDU (Jim Heath) writes:
: 
: What if some group, say the LaRouche (sp?) people, managed to get
: their people in as electoral college members in large enough
: numbers to elect LaRouche?  Would it be legal?  Would he be
: allowed to take office?  Would it matter that they had lied about
: who they were going to vote for? 

Certainly, it would be legal. I doubt if he would be able to take
office - I don't think that he would be sworn in while in prison.

No, it would not matter if they lied.

Bill
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pynq@quads.uchicago.edu (George Jetson)
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's Conspiracy Theory, brought to you today.
Reply-To: pynq@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: D. J. Dougherty & Associates
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 19:22:12 GMT

In article <17NOV199201272265@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov> dpm1960@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov (snopes) writes:
...
>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>|                            Reader's Comments                                |
>|                                                                             |
>|    Did you find this posting understandable, usable, and well-organized?    |
>|    Please make suggestions for improvement. ____________________________    |
>|    Please state for the record whether you are defending the Status Quo__   |
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>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+



************************************************************************
I've been told to back off on the diode jokes, but I still don't
like smileys ;-)

	- pynq@quads.uchicago.edu, who is still costing the net
	  hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, every time he posts -
************************************************************************
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:28718 soc.culture.african.american:11158 sci.skeptic:19666
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,soc.culture.african.american,sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: 1950's Steve.
From: derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 00:12:05 GMT
Organization: Fujitsu New Zealand

In article <1992Nov12.134253@IASTATE.EDU> danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A Ashlock) writes:
>
>   SIV, HIV are retroviruses, a TYPE of virus deiscovered well after AIDS is
>known to have been loose in the population at large.  Anyone who wants to
>spread rumors or even theorize about conspiracies should make a big wall chart
>and make sure their timing works out.  If someone dies of AIDS in 1959 they had
>to have it in 1955 or so.  Retroviruses were discovered, as a class, in the
>60's and are hard to locate, sneaky little buggers.  

Actually I believe they were discovered, as a class, in 1910.  They fell out
of favour as there were much more exciting viruses to look at.  Retroviruses
didn't appear to do anything exciting or rapid (cancer or AIDS in 40 or 10+
years time respectively was not going to enthrall the average early 20th 
century biologist).  I am still at a loss as to how someone could identify 
a retrovirus before Whatson and Crick but, hey, Scientific American never 
lies!

I was reading through back copies of the above publication at the weekend
and reading an article on the discovery of retroviruses, how they work etc.
Specifically HTLV-1 and II (AIDS is in the next months issue but seeing as I 
am pulling them randomly out of a pile it could be a while before I find it.

Anyway - HTLV-1 was also originally a monkey disease which transferred 
itself to man and was spread from Africa to Southern Japan, _Haiti_ and 
South America among other places.

How did it get to these places.  The slave trade!  Now this is _well_ 
before the CIA or WHO infecting Haitian workers.

>> That such experiments introduced HIV to the human species may not be highly
>> probable, but certainly is not a ridiculous notion. And if they experimented
>> on human subjects, those subjects would be black folks, either in Mississippi
>> or the Belgian Congo.

OK 1960's lets go and do some testing in the Belgian Congo.  Now what was 
happening in the Congo about then.  Let's see.  They kicked the Belgians 
out during a rather bloody 6 week period in 1961 (or was it 63).  Great
place to go testing diseases - most of the white people were running away!
Remember Africa in the '50's and '60's was a particularly volatile and 
exciting place - not a great place to try out new viruses.  


-- 
Derek Tearne.   --   derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz   --    Fujitsu New Zealand   -- 
Some of the more aware dinosaurs were worried about the environmental
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.  
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Urban Legends in the Popular Media
Date: 23 Nov 92 17:40:00 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

>I know three people (two female, one male) who have had earrings torn out (by
>accident: the bloke forgot to take his off before playing rugby(!))

My high-school baseball coach got the point across with typical subtlety:
"You can wear jewelry in or on any part of your body you don't mind losing."

Joe "A rugby player sober enough to notice getting his ear torn off?!? " Chew
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: vince@cadence.com (Vince Gibboni)
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's Conspiracy Theory, brought to you today.
Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 00:18:50 GMT

lerc.nasa.gov (snopes) writes:
>
> It was designed that way, and it works very well.  The electoral college
> prevents candidates who do not enjoy broad popular support from winning
> national elections, thus eliminating the possibility of a crank with a huge 
> regional following ascending to the White House.
>

    While this is true, it's more of a happy coincidence then something
    what was achieved by design.

    The reason we select the president by electoral college rather than
    through a direct vote is the same reason that we have a congress to 
    vote on laws rather than having them voted on directly by the people
    (the republic vs. democracy thing): because it was felt that the
    general populace should not be entrusted with this sort of decision
    directly. Remember, "democracy" was high-tech back then and they
    weren't all that sure how it would work, and, when it came right
    down to it, they weren't really sure that the common people could be 
    entrusted with self-government. Of course to us this seems silly,
    two hundred years later, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see
    without question that the general populace should never be entrusted
    with anything more complicated than buying a vowel. But, of course,
    the founder fathers had no way of knowing that (most of them didn't
    even have cable). Anyway, that's why we have an electoral college, 
    as a an intermediate body standing between the masses and actual power, 
    prepared, should the masses get out of line, to snatch the cup of 
    liberty from there lips and bludgeon them with it repeatedly. 

    Or something like that.
    

--
                                                         vince@gda.cadence.com

         Go play in the blender.
             - Garfield
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson)
Subject: Craig Shergold makes the local news. Film at 11.
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 18:45:39 GMT

Craig made the Denver channel 9 late news yesterday Tuesday, Nov 17, '92.
His message was "Enough, please!" and has started his own chain letter.
Craig, who is now 12 [and looks a little like Ryan White] had his
operation in March 1991. 90% of his brain tumor was removed and the
rest is considered benign. Atlanta, GA post office processes 10,000
pieces of mail a day sent to him.

--
Bruce Watson  wats@nyx.cs.du.edu  Toy Cows, Toy Cows in Africa, Toy Cows
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: wisp@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Wisp)
Subject: Re: of human or divine genius  re: AIDS
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 11:37:20 GMT

In article <9809@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> pmmst8+@pitt.edu (Paul M Mweene) writes:
>In article <1992Nov16.024738.14404@nezsdc.icl.co.nz> derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne) writes:
>>
>>One wonders if it is possible to _inject_ HIV into a 30 year old non
>>living sample and expect it to insert itself into the genetic material
>>on cue.  If HIV can get into dead material who knows what it will do next..
>>Derek "Plastic eating viruses" Tearne
>
>
>There are two questions to be anwered here , if AIDS was always there then did the having of "AIDS" like symptoms comfirm AIDS?
>[drivel deleted...]
>The example above is therefor irrelevant.
>
This is a complete non-seq. You're rebutting something completely different
from the point you quoted. Get your ilio-caecal cephalosis treated, please...

>Now supposing some one had created the virus and the heat was on them, what
>would they do? They could shift the blame to some one else. But that would
>'mean admitting that the disease was lab made. If not they could claim that
>the disease was always there. The question of bringing up evidence to support
>this would be the least of their problems.
>

This is absolutely true, but...

>If some one created the virus in secret, then he had a lot of time to take
>precautions against any eventuality. The would try and cover their tracks.
>In this case it is a relatively easy matter for some one to come up with
>a doctored sample as proof of their case. No one here can say that the ser
>um that has been produced had the virus in its DNA. The most common tesrt
>for AIDS test for antibodies not the virus. So if some one injects both
>antibodies and the virus in an old sample then they would have all the
>evidence they needed.

You haven't read the articles, have you? Just created your own silly little
conspiracy theory. I don't know about the samples found in the US, but the
analysis of the old samples from the merchant seaman who died in the UK in
1959 included analysis of genetic material (from the white blood cells in
whole blood samples), and it was by this procedure that HIV was identified in
the samples...

[more sad drivel deleted...]

The Wisp. [beam me up, Scottie...]
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dpm1960@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov (snopes)
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's Conspiracy Theory, brought to you today.
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Will pay money for food.
Date: 18 Nov 1992 20:06 EST  

In article <1992Nov18.133516.26440@news.columbia.edu>, 
  lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes...

>I agree about Bush; my point is that Clinton doesn't have one, as a slew of
>alternate candidates would have gotten about the same results. 

Absolutely unverifiable.  No other candidates went through all the primaries
and national campaigning, so there's no way anyone could possibly know how
other candidates would have fared.

>This indicates anti-Bush, not pro-Clinton, thus no mandate *for* Clinton, 
>other than to not become another Bush-clone. 

Since the premise is flawed, the conclusion is irrelevant.

 - snopes

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                             |
|        "Watch my vice-presidential decision.  That will tell all."          |
|                                                                             |
|                                            - George Bush, 1988              |
+---------------------------------------------+-------------------------------+
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:28953 alt.folklore.computers:16381