HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bralick@oberon.cs.psu.edu (Will Bralick)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Northern Ireland and alledged British propaganda
Date: 12 Apr 92 02:59:47 GMT
Organization: Self-similar


I am an American with a close Irish-American (1st generation) 
friend.  We sometimes discuss the situation in Northern Ireland.  
He argues that Catholics in Northern Ireland are oppressed.  Without 
going into the merits of that claim, per se, I suggest to him that 
if that is the case then they should learn something from Gandhi, 
Martin Luther King, et al.  That is, if a large proportion (80%+) 
of the Catholics in Northern Ireland went on a general strike, what 
could the British government do?  Let them all starve?  Put them all  
in labor camps?  In today's world it seems that they would have to end 
up up on the dole.  Harsh measures would not be well received by the 
rest of the world.

I asked why the Catholics weren't already the majority in Northern 
Ireland.  He said that many Catholics leave Northern Ireland in search 
of work -- I said that that is precisely the _wrong_ idea.  If they want 
to change the situation in Northern Ireland they should go on strike en 
masse, and proceed to _scrupulously_ follow the Catholic Church's
teaching on contraception.  In fact, using Natural Family Planning (NFP), 
each Irish Catholic couple could maximize their chances of conceiving 
nearly every year.  

If the average Catholic family would have, say, 8 kids and the average 
protestant family would have, say, 3 kids then how many years would it 
take before Catholics would constitute an actual majority in Northern 
Ireland?  Why wouldn't this work except for the fact that there is no 
identifiable leader of a non-violent Catholic civil rights movement
in Northern Ireland?  It would be a popular leader that would tell their
people to go on an extended holiday at British taxpayer expense and 
while on holiday do what is necessary to be fruitful and multiply --
and all in the name of high ideals.


Regards,

--
Will                          \ Society cannot exist unless a controlling power
       bralick@cs.psu.edu      \ upon will and appetite be placed somewhere,
                                \ and the less of it there is within, the more
with disclaimer; use disclaimer; \ there must be without.   --   Edmund Burke
From: 00rdharringt@bsu-ucs.uucp
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: dweeb?
Date: 12 Apr 92 19:36:25 GMT

In article <1992Apr6.114612.7573@rz-berlin.mpg.de>, gray@rz-berlin.mpg.de writes:
> 
>     Struan
> 
> ps. Where does "dork" come from?

Dork is a slang word for dick.  I don't know where it came from but 
Gary Larson (author of the Far Side) tried to use it a comic once and
the editor balked.  Would weenie be better?

-- 
/---------------------------------------v-------------------------------------\
|  Rob Harrington                       |              Ball State University  |
|  Department of History                |               Muncie, Indiana, USA  |
|  Vax--00RDHARRINGT@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu  |       Unix--herring@bsu-cs.bsu.edu  |
>---------------------------------------^-------------------------------------<
|  "It is good fortunes for politicians that people don't think."- A. Hitler  |
|                       Aoibheann beatha an scol/aire!                        |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:5871 soc.culture.pakistan:5968
From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: World Cup Cricket: Readers' Survey ....
Date: 7 Apr 92 09:49:21 GMT

	We conducted a survey in few newsgroups including this just before
the start of the World Cup 1992. We posted the "final gradings" of all the 
participants of this survey a while ago in rec.sport.cricket. Pl. refer to 
that if you are one of the  participants (or if  you are interested).  You 
may send a note to the above address, if you want a copy of it.

Thanks,

Vicky and John,
UMass, Apr 07
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy
Date: 15 Apr 92 15:42:19 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
>Personally, I'd be pretty upset if my local Party-X candidate spent
>a lot of time finding out about local affairs, and was duly elected
>by and the othe voters in my constituency, and was then bumped out
>of Parliament to make room for some dink whose party just happened
>to get 1% of the vote throughout the nation, but never put in the work
>to get elected in any specific constituency.

In fact the Single Transferrable Vote system, which supporters
of proportional representation want to introduce to the UK,
increases the accountability of an MP to his or her
constituency. Under the current system, the majority of MPs
needn't bother much with their constituencies, since they sit
for safe Conservative or Labour seats where the people would
vote for a monkey so long as it wore the right coloured
rosette.

Under STV, however, candidates must obtain positive preference
votes, since they are up against competition from other
candidates of the same party. The experience of STV in the
Republic of Ireland indicates that, if anything, the system is
to be criticised for making MPs over-concerned with consituency
affairs for fear of losing preference votes to same-party
rivals, and it is therefore discriminatory against those
politicians who prefer to look beyond their own backyards.

Matthew Huntbach
From: rjc@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Richard Caley)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Farewell to Kinnock
Date: 14 Apr 92 15:30:08 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.british
Organization: Centre for Speech Technology Research

In article <13APR199223242997@zeus.tamu.edu>, Philip A. Carney.... (pac) writes:

pac> By way of an aside, does anyone remember how in the late-1980's
pac> the press tried to show how inferior Kinnock was with his degree
pac> from Cardiff Uni. when compared to Thatcher and her Oxbridge degree.
pac> Remarkably, when Johnny "Two O-Levels" took over the premiership,
pac> I seem to remember precious little in the way of any newspaper
pac> pointing out how Kinnock had a degree, passed his o-levels and A-levels.

You miss the point. The point is to be prime minister supported by The
Sun one must be a failure. Major is truely world class at that and The
Blue Witch, for all her oxbridge degree failed to do anything as a
chemist except whip air into ice cream. By this reasoning the next
conservative prime minister should be either Jeffery Archer or Chris
Patten. 

--
rjc@cogsci.ed.ac.uk			_O_
					 |<
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.celtic
From: nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines)
Subject: Re: Update on the Caraher shooting
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 21:20:51 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
	<1992Apr9.200743.8265@retix.com>
	<1992Apr10.123710.1885@e2big.mko.dec.com>
Originator: nickh@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU

In article <1992Apr10.123710.1885@e2big.mko.dec.com> holohan@mark.enet.dec.com (Mark Holohan) writes:

> In article <1992Apr9.200743.8265@retix.com>, darragh@retix.com (Darragh Stokes) writes:
>
> |>As a regular reader who finds Mark Holohan's posting usually to be
> |>based on historical inaccuracies etc., I feel that I have to commend
> |>him on a very rational article.  Give the facts ( trying to minimise
> |>the emotion ) and the facts will speak for themselves.
> 
> Darragh, if you find inaccuracies, point them out.  Making a blanket
> statement that my posts are usually based on historical inaccuracies
> serves no purpose other than to taint all of my articles.  I
> pain-stakingly quote my references in 99% of them.

Are you the same person who has denied on this group that the IRA
routinely murders innocent civilians?

Nick Haines nickh@cs.cmu.edu
From: streater@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Tim Streater)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Gas stoves
Date: 9 Apr 92 06:26:43 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Why is everyone muttering quite so much about the bread here? I find the 
whole wheat stuff to be quite good, also from some places such as Draegers 
and La Baguette (local store, obviously), do quite decent French Bread.

Tim.
From: sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller)
Subject: Re: Marmite in S.F. Bay Area?
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 01:29:56 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Distribution: usa

In article <kujt59INNol2@spim.mips.com> trevc@mips.com (Trevor Cotton) writes:
>In article <1992Apr13.173752.26498@novell.com> rbailey@wc.novell.com (Robert Bailey) writes:
>>This may be a FAQ, I don't usually read this group... 
>>
>>I have a friend who is having serious Marmite withdrawal problems. Is
>>there a place in San Francisco, or nearby, where she can get some?
>>
>>Thanks
>>Robert Bailey
>>rbailey@wc.novell.com
>>
>>
>I used to get mine at the British Market, 363 State St., Los As
>Tel (415)941 1141. They also have a branch at 100 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos
>Tel: (408)395 6686
>There is also a British store in Campbell, on Campbell Ave near Tomas Aquino Rd
>if my memory serves me correctly.
>Warn your friend though, it costs about 5 times the normal UK price!

Not if she goes to Safeway!  The British Market is terribly expensive
and not nearly the equal of The British Food Centre in Campbell.  I
buy a handful of products which aren't available in the local food
stores, and when I priced them at the BM I nearly had a heart attack.
BFC is a nicer place to shop (IMO), has a larger inventory (by far),
and doesn't charge those yuppie Los Gatos/Los Altos prices.

The British Food Centre
1800 Campbell Ave
Campbell, CA  95008
(408) 374-7770

This was an unpaid advertisement.  :-)

Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:6427 rec.arts.books:7987
From: aristea@sco.COM (Aristea Rizakos)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Date: 13 Apr 92 19:04:46 GMT
Organization: SCO Canada, Inc.

In article <92099.233442DAB16@psuvm.psu.edu> <DAB16@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>I'm not sure what this thread has to do with books, but no one seems to
>mind that it doesn't.  Since "soda pop" was mentioned as a generic U.S.
>tag, I'll testify that the midwesterners--not Pennsylvania, but Illinois
>(Chicago), Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa--use, though perhaps not exclusively,
>simply "pop" not "soda pop."  I'll modify that, as it most often occurs in
>other compounds, but without "soda": e.g., "can of pop," "pop machine,"
>"pop bottle," etc.  It means any sweet, fizzy beverage (Squirt barely
>qualifies).
>--Dennis
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>Dennis Beach                                BITNET: DAB16@PSUVM.BITNET
>Penn State University                     internet: dab16@psuvm.psu.edu


I don't know about that.  When I was 13 I stayed in Iowa for a year
(and survived!), and was resoundingly ridiculed for using the term
"pop" (as many of us do in Toronto) rather than "soda" (which Iowans
considered to be the proper term).  Then again, Iowans are like no
other Americans I've ever encountered.  Definitely a culture unto
themselves!
From: bob@castle.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Flour (Was: Re: Gas stoves)
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:01:27 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre

ewadams@netcom.Netcom.COM (Ernest Adams) writes:
>unbleached flour.  On the other hand, our wheat is grown in gigantic
>factory farms where every effort is made to increase production and
>reduce costs regardless of the effect on quality; while yours is
>probably still grown by Farmer Brown using methods that haven't
>changed significantly since the invention of the plowshare in the
>14th century.

Such innocent romantic notions.

In fact, your standard British loaf of bread is baked using
flour ground from Canadian grown grain. The type grown there
has a much higher gluten content than than grain grown in
Britain. If you try and use British grown grain, the dough
doesn't rise properly, and you end up with a much heavier
type of bread.

There are ways to use British grown grain by the addition of
various chemicals and by partialy cooking the bread with
microwaves, but these don't really fit with the wholesome
country cottage image.
	Bob.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne)
Subject: Re: dweeb?
Organization: Computer "Science" Dept, Yale University
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 09:21:09 GMT

In article <8956@scott.ed.ac.uk>, iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski) writes:
<In article <y8vj0fr.sue@netcom.com> sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller) writes:
<<In article <1992Apr12.084902.27493@cs.yale.edu> horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne) writes:
<<>In article <amvjca#.sue@netcom.com>, sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller) writes:
<<><In article <1992Apr12.002852.21905@cs.yale.edu> horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne) writes:
<
<<>Anglophilic?  You're barking up the wrong tree.  My hatred of Britannia
<<>is surpassed only by my hatred of the United $tates of Amerika.
<
<Wrong topic, Scott.  There is no connexion between your attitude
<towards the empires and your attitude towards the orthographies.

Correct.  So why did Sue accuse me of Anglophilia?  I guess she was too busy
laughing and kicking to do any thinking.

<<And you're STILL a Yankee, crybaby.  
<
<So what?  One can't choose a country to be born in.

One can, however, choose to leave a country.  As it happens, this "Yankee"
has made that choice.

					--Scott

-- 
Scott Horne                               ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu      SnailMail:  Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT   06520
203 436-1848                Residence:  Rm 1848 Silliman College, New Haven, CT
Shao2shan1 sheng1 de tai4yang2 yong3 bu2 luo4!
From: ewadams@netcom.Netcom.COM (Ernest Adams)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Gas stoves
Date: 9 Apr 92 09:51:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: netcom.EWADAMS.92Apr9015132
	<34376@ttidca.TTI.COM> <34379@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Service


It may be that British flour isn't bleached.  You might try using
unbleached flour.  On the other hand, our wheat is grown in gigantic
factory farms where every effort is made to increase production and
reduce costs regardless of the effect on quality; while yours is
probably still grown by Farmer Brown using methods that haven't
changed significantly since the invention of the plowshare in the
14th century.

-- Ernest
From: tahonen@katk.Helsinki.FI (Timo Ahonen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: The Decline of Britain (was Re: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy)
Date: 15 Apr 92 15:36:41 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki, Computing Centre

In article <1992Apr14.133600.10682@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> baker@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Baker) writes:

>Do you consider the magazine _The_Economist_ to be a "tabloid" or
>"tory propaganda"?  Do you consider its editors and writers to be "morons"
>and "bigots"?

No, The Economist can't be "tory propaganda"; after all it's editors are for 
Scotland's right of self-determination to decide its constitutional question 
by herself, whereas Tories are vehemently against such a heretical idea 
against the 'sacred' Union.

Timo Ahonen               *  "Freedom rarely wears a tie"  - Loesje *
University of Helsinki    *  "The more it stays the same,           *
Finland                   *   the less it changes..."  - Spinal Tap *
Timo.Ahonen@Helsinki.FI
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:6415 rec.arts.books:7975
From: wark@gandalf.think.com (Mark Warkentin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Date: 14 Apr 92 13:54:21
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
	<1992Apr13.162825.26556@newshost.lanl.gov>
	<kujhdnINNtd@early-bird.think.com>
	<1992Apr14.123955.5987@athena.mit.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gandalf.think.com
In-reply-to: terra@athena.mit.edu's message of Tue, 14 Apr 1992 12:39:55 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.123955.5987@athena.mit.edu> terra@athena.mit.edu (Terra Witkop) writes:

   In article <kujhdnINNtd@early-bird.think.com> wark@think.com (Mark Warkentin) writes:
   >Here in beanytown lots of the locals use the word "tonic".  Anyone heard of
   >the usage elswhere?
   >-- 

   I've been living in Metro-Boston for almost 4 years, and have *very*
   rarely heard anyone refer to soda (I grew up in Western Mass., where
   all fizzy drinks are soda) as "tonic"; maybe I heard this once or
   twice from my ex-SO's mother, who grew up in Revere.  When I went to
   UMASS-Amherst, there were a lot of students from Boston, and I had
   to get used to referring to grinders as "subs" -- now the word
   "grinder" sounds weird to me...

May be just a north shore phenomenon.  In Malden - Melrose where I've lived
for  6 years, it's all they use.
--
         #  The opinions expressed are not my own and I disavow #
         #  any responsibility for them whatsoever. Then again, #
         #  my employer isn't responsible for them, either.     #
From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: The Decline of Britain (was Re: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy)
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:34:10 GMT
Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK

In article <1992Apr14.152659.19564@osf.org> david@guadet.gr.osf.org (David George) writes:
>In article <1992Apr14.101803@axion.bt.co.uk> ravis@axion.bt.co.uk (Richard  
>Avis) writes:
>> 
>> |> Proportional representation sounds like a
>> |> good idea but it had led to very unstable governments in countries like 
>> |> .... Italy.
>
>Hmmm sounds like you've been listening to that nice Mr. Baker.
>
>Up to the recent election Italy has had 50 years of Christian Democrat  
>dominated govt. [...]

My God --- put it like that and you might convert the Tories to PR!



--
Guy Barry	Phone: +44 (0)223 334757 | University of Cambridge
		  Fax: +44 (0)223 334678 | Computer Laboratory   
	   JANET: Guy.Barry@uk.ac.cam.cl | New Museums Site, Pembroke Street
        Internet: Guy.Barry@cl.cam.ac.uk | Cambridge CB2 3QG, England, UK
From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Majorities (Was Re: Emigration after the Tory win on April 9th)
Date: 15 Apr 92 22:15:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: zola.jje6enk
Organization: sgi

In article <tahonen.2@katk.Helsinki.FI>, tahonen@katk.Helsinki.FI (Timo Ahonen) writes:
|> In article <jh6936c@zola.esd.sgi.com> livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) writes:
|> 
|> >OK, but so what?   Who was the last German Chancellor whose party
|> >got an overall majority?   I think it was Adenauer.
|> 
|> Yes, the parties of the German Chancellors haven't had overall majorities 
|> for decades now, but the *governments* of the German Chancellors have had 
|> majorities both in Parliament and in popular vote: they've all been 
|> coalition governments. So the German governments have had the support of the 
|> majority of the voters, which is something the British one-party 
|> governments haven't had.

You mean there was a line on the ballot paper that said "I vote for
minority party X to join a coalition with majority party Y"?

No, I don't think so.  I think what happened is that minority
party X lost the election because not enough people voted for it,
and party Y go more votes but not a simple majority.   Then the 
leader of party Y invited the leader of party X to join a coalition.  
The leader of party X agreed to do so, without a further election.

In other words, the coalition was put together in a backroom deal
between party leaders.

jon.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: cockburn@majors.enet.dec.com (Craig Cockburn)
Subject: The Vogon News Service: 03-Apr-92
Organisation: Digital Equipment Co. Ltd., Newbury, England
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 17:05:13 GMT



 ------- Forwarded mail received on 3-Apr-1992 at 10:21:54 -------

From:	DEMO2::52391::CASEE::VNS "The VOGON News Service  03-Apr-1992 1042" 
To:	VNS-Distribution
Subj:	VNS #2549  Fri  3-Apr-1992

<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>

 Edition : 2549               Friday  3-Apr-1992            Circulation :  8154 

        VNS MAIN NEWS .....................................   52 Lines


VNS MAIN NEWS:                                     [Tom Povey, VNS UK News Desk]
==============                                     [Reading, England           ]

    Here is the News at 08:00 BST on Thursday 3-April-1992
    ------------------------------------------------------

    UK News
    -------
    FT-SE = 2403.4
    Exchange Rate for UK pound = $ 1.7370  = Dm 2.8425

    Today's election focus is on the economy with the two main parties
    debating whose policies can lead the country out of the recession.

    Yesterday, Mr Kinnock said that if Labour were to form the next
    government, he would open up the Labour committee studying possible
    electoral reform to members of other parties. This is seen to be an
    opening to consideration of Proportional Representation, a cornerstone
    of the LibDem campaign. Mr Major has said he will not enter into
    consideration of PR.

    The Director-general of the CBI has said that Labour tax plans could
    "kill-off" any economic recovery.

    A letter signed by over 900 academics has been published. It criticises
    many of the government education policies while still praising some of
    their achievements.

    Britain's first holiday village, Trustville on the east coast near
    Skegness, has been put up for sale by the family that has owned it since
    it opened in 1924.

    European News
    -------------

    The new PM of France is Pierre Beregovoy. He has announced a small
    cabinet with little change. 20% are women.

    World News
    ----------

    The UN has demanded that Libya safeguard foreign embasseys following the
    destruction of the Venezualian embassey in Tripoli by demonstrators
    yesterday.

    In New York, the mafia don John Gotti has been convicted and will be
    sentenced in June. He is to appeal claiming an unfair trial.

    {News courtesy of the BBC}


    Local Weather
    -------------

    Cloudy with rain clearing later. High 8C/46F.

<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2549      Friday  3-Apr-1992   <><><><><><><><>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Craig Cockburn, Digital Equipment Co. Ltd, Newbury, England.  
  ARPAnet: cockburn@majors.enet.dec.com                            Saor
  UUCP:..!decwrl!majors.enet.dec.com!cockburn                      Alba!

  Views here are my own, and are not necessarily those of Digital
From: mrw@cl.cam.ac.uk (Michael Warner)
Newsgroups: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Simple message
Date: 10 Apr 92 10:15:11 GMT
Reply-To: mrw@cl.cam.ac.uk (Michael Warner)
Organization: U of Cambridge Comp Lab, UK

In article <1992Apr9.075013.15123@rtf.bt.co.uk> traub@rtf.bt.co.uk (Michael Traub) writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.181241.7526@maths.nott.ac.uk> anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker) writes:
>>In article <1992Apr8.080132.8373@rtf.bt.co.uk> traub@rtf.bt.co.uk(Michael Traub) writes:
>>>From your own examples I can see no mention of A spending thity times
>>>as much as B on VAT rated goods. Wanna try again?
>>
>>	Computers, restaurant meals, payments to travel agents aren't
>>VAT rated?  I'm unfamiliar with the details of the "tax" on wine and
>>on cars, but I'm certain that there are such costs, whether of not
>>they are called VAT.
>>
>He has *thirty* times as many computers? *Thirty* times as many cars?
>I admit he may have thirty times as many meals in a restaurant. However
>in case your maths is that poor, there is a lot more VAT revenue made on
>a computer or a car than on a meal in a restaurant.

Thirty times in value does NOT mean thirty times the quantity.   One
new Rolls Royce is equal to a good 50 or so used Ford Fiesta's !!!