HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: doctor1@cbnewse.cb.att.com (patrick.b.hailey)
Subject: Re: A bird in the hand v. 10 birds in the FAQ
Organization: AT&T
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 07:10:08 GMT

>>>"Closer on the evolutionary scale to monkeys than humans"?  Monkeys are not
>>>simply "less evolved" humans.  Humans and monkeys evelved from a common
>>>ancestor... humans did not evolve from monkeys.
>>Well, you have to remember that in 1906 science of the day probably wasn't
>>advanced enough to determine that monkeys are our cousins rather than our
>>forefathers... 
>Not to mention that many people hold the same mistaken belief today.

You bet they do.  Evolution is sometimes taught that way by people who want
their kids to reject evolution.  "We know the one clear truth, the truth
taught to us by God, a truth so powerful that we're scared to death that
our kids will examin it and find out what a pitiful, dishonest, closed-minded,
hateful bunch of dorks we are."  You know the type.

  Thanks awfully,
           Patrick "my girlfriend is a Christian" Hailey
From: heathh@cco.caltech.edu (Heath Ian Hunnicutt)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Annuit Coeptis
Date: 9 Sep 92 00:01:14 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

spg@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Stephen P. Guthrie) writes:

>I need to know the significance of a symbol that appears on the reverse
>of the U.S. $1 bill. It is in the left hand circle and includes a pyramid
>with an eye at the top and the text 'Annuit Coeptis' and 'Novus Ordo Seclorum'.
>I'm sure I've seen the symbol elsewhere - I think it might be Masonic and
>perhaps used by the Rosicrucians. If so, what is it doing on U.S. currency?
>Does anyone have the story behind this, and what does the Latin mean?

	Well, I have heard that the symoblism present on our dollar
bill was borrowed from the Masonic lodge, too.  This makes sense, as
both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were Masons.  However,
the Masons are a secretive bunch, so the symbolism in question 
is probably of the well-known variety, not anything secret.

	Also, I heard the pyramid with great eye is meant to represent
the watchful eye of God over the 13 colonies.  (Note that the pyramid
contains 13 levels, one for each colony.)

	One of the Latin phrases means "from one, many."


See ya,
Heath

-- 
--
From the Home for Amnesiac Computer Scientists....
  heathh@cco.caltech.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: ahill@boi.hp.com (Andy Hill)
Subject: Re: Speeding in Iowa
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 17:01:19 GMT
Distribution: alt.folklore.urban
Reply-To: ahill@boi.hp.com
Organization: LaserJets by Bill & Dave
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

creeper@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Wolfgang Kies) writes:
> Hi, A friend of mine told me a supposed true story and I was wondering
> if any of you had heard it and know if it was true. He told me that a state
> trooper was seating on I-80 (which runs straight across Iowa) when all of
> the sudden his radar gun flashed something like 140 or 150 but when he
> looked outside he saw nothing. It was around 2 or 3 in the morning. The
> same thing happened to another cop who also saw nothing. But it happened to
> a third cop who radioed ahead and had squad cars block off the road way down
> the line. And what supposedly stopped at the roadblock was a matte black
> lotus with out it's headlights on. The driver was wearing all black and
> was using light intensification goggles to see. Supposedly he was trying
> to beat some record across Iowa. Anybody know if this is true?
> 
Donno if it's true, but this may have been drawn from one of the Cannonball
Run (the second?) movies.  The Japanese entry used this sort of system.
Can't remember when this movie came out, but I think it was before '84.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lopresti@henson.cc.wwu.edu (lopresti robert)
Subject: Shergold Mania strikes again
Organization: Western Washington University
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 16:49:36 GMT


It is happening again.  It is happening again.

This was in yesterday's mail....

 
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
--More--From:   IN%"PCSUPT-L@YALEVM.BITNET"  "Forum for the discussion of PC
user suppor   t issues"  9-SEP-1992 16:43:56.99
Subj:   Please forward this around to your lists.....
Date: 09 Sep 1992 16:35:00 -0500 (EST)
From: "D.E. 'Dave' Bloomberg" <BLOOMBER@FAUVAX.BITNET>
Subject: Please forward this around to your lists.....
 <PCSUPT-L@YALEVM.BITNET>
Subj:   CHILDREN'S MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION
 
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 15:37 EST
From: Ken Jessell <JESSELL@ACC.FAU.EDU>
Subject: CHILDREN'S MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION
To: fau-l@ACC.FAU.EDU
 
I received the following letter from a friend at the John Harland
Company:
 
Craig Shergold is a seven year old suffering from terminal cancer.
It is his ambition to be included in the Guiness Book of Records for
the largest number of business cards ever collected by one person.
Craig would be grateful if you could send one of your business cards
to the address below.
        Craig Shergold
        c/o Children's Make a Wish Foundation
        32 Perimeter Center East
        Altanta, GA  30346
henso
From: hwt@bcarh11a.BNR.CA (Henry Troup)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Canadian Tire Money UL (was Re: Smallest denominations )
Date: 14 Sep 92 17:51:45 GMT
Reply-To: Henry.Troup@BNR.CA
Distribution: world
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd., Ottawa, Canada

In article <1992Sep3.063601.27701@sq.sq.com>, msb@sq.sq.com (Mark
Brader) writes:
|>were 25-cent bills in Canada too, long ago, but I don't know if they're
|>still legal tender.

I've heard that Canadian Tire Corporation discount coupons have been
passed on unsuspecting U.S. stores and banks.  Can anyone provide
evidence or really good stories? 

For the non-Canadians, Canadian Tire is a automobile and hardware
franchise that for many years has given 4% or 5% rebate on cash
purchases in 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 cent and $1 "bills".  These are printed
on currency paper, by a currency printer (British American Bank Note
Corporation).  There are dozens of designs.
                                  
  Henry Troup - HWT@BNR.CA (Canada) - BNR owns but does not share my opinions
    "If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong" - R.L.S.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: bill.dehaan@rose.com (bill dehaan)
Subject: Faces of death
Organization: Rose Media Inc, Toronto, Ontario.
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 03:58:03 GMT
X-Gated-By: Usenet <==> RoseMail Gateway (v1.70)


Date Entered: 09-08-92 22:54
In message <yq5pbq4b@csv.warwick.ac.uk>, csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP atCU~)
writes:

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

Well, actually, no. From what I remember (tm) from my days up north, the
Inuit language is polysynthetic, unlike  English. To put it simpler,  in
English, cat/apult/astrophe, etc. may  share the same common  root tone,
but that doesn't necessitate that  they share the same root  meaning. In
Inuit (damn, I have a dictionary  here somewhere), it's a lot closer  to
German. Words are made  up by taking a  root phrase and gluing  prefixes
and suffixes to it.  In a sense, that's  where the "200 words  for snow"
argument  comes  from.  It's  true  if  you consider things such as "wet
snow", "frozen snow", "power snow", etc. all to be separate words rather
than variations on the word "snow" with modifiers.

----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
Deus Ex Machina                   | Internet:   bill.dehaan@rose.com
Software Consulting and Gator Pit | Eradicate Hunger - Eat the homeless
----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
---
   SLMR 2.1a   Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
   RM 2.00 : RoseNet<=>Usenet Gateway : Rose Media 416-733-2285
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: Bridges
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 01:10:54 GMT

phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:

>In article <1992Sep11.200543.16837@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:
>>	I heard alot of rumors about the celebration of the 50th
>>anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Appearently (sp?), the
>>there.   Something like 500,000 people (hey its a UL, I don't
>>know the actual number) on the bridge and the center bending 16
>>feet below normal.  Some bridge designer says they were lucky it
>>didn't collapse.  I guess they're lucky they didn't start singing
>>
>On the bridge's 50th birthday, in 1987, it was closed to vehicles and
>opened to pedestrians.  Lots of pedestrians.  Contemporary photographs
>show a clear scary deformation in the structure's classic curve.

Well, the Veranzo(sp?) Narrows bridge in New York gets wall to wall people
every year at the start of the New York City Marathon.  And they are
running, which puts a nice high loading on the bridge.

You'd get the maximum deflection if all the people were in the centre
span, and nobody on the end spans.  I doubt that they cleared everybody
off the end spans.

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com
(This is not an official opinion/statement of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
Anybody who doesn't wear a helmet when biking probably _will_ have their head
examined - by a coroner
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: stirling@ozrout.uucp (Stirling Westrup)
Subject: 24 hour shopping was(Re: Viruses)
Organization: Andre P. Ozrout
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 07:06:23 GMT

friedman@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Noah Friedman) writes
>   During the past two weeks I spent looking for a new place to live, one
>of the major factors in deciding which apartment I chose was how far away
>it was from a convenience store that was really open 24 hours a day.  Some
>of them, like Christy's, say "always open" but they're not.  Most of them
>seem to close at midnight, as kibo can attest to.  Buzzy's is ok, but it's
>a long walk. 
>
>   The second consideration was how far away the apt. was from the subway.

I'm quite please that I managed to find a place to stay that is less that
two blocks from:

1) 24 hour restaurant.
2) 24 hour convenience store
3) 24 hour video rental place

Unfortunately, I'm about 45 minutes by bus from the subway, but you have to
compromise somewhere, no?

-- 
||    BUNGEE SIDEWAYS!                              o   )))
||                                                 /-- ///
|P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_  \\\      __ -_
||    stirling@ozrout.uucp                                 ((( (_)T(_)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Re: A bird in the hand v. 10 birds in the FAQ
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 17:03:56 GMT

in Message-ID: <1992Sep8.104713.20537@nntp.nta.no> styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
>
>The FAQ says:
>> F. Birds won't sit on their nests if you touch one of their eggs.
>
>Talking about the thread leading to this entry one of my friends told
>me the following "fact":
>
>	Birds count "one", "two" and "many".
>
>Thus, if there are many (ie. more than two) and you add some more, or take
>a few - leaving more than two eggs in the nest - the bird will not notice.
>
>Well, how 'bout this theory?
>
>---
>YuNoHoo  "Guess the bird would notice if I added 200 eggs"

	I have heard that some "stone age tribes" have this same
counting system.  1,2,many.  These kind of stories seem to be
most popular about New Guinea, or the Amazon basin.  Any truth to
these stories.

J.P. "1,2,3,4,5,6,bleen,7..." Papai

ObFACT : In 1906, a Pygmy was sold to the Bronx Zoo to sweeten a
deal for a chimpanzee.  They believed the Congolese man, named
Ota Benga, to be closer on the evolutionary scale to monkeys than
to humans.  Clergymen raised a fuss, and he was removed from
display after ten days and placed in an orphanage for black kids.
_Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo_, P.Bradford, H.Blume, St. Martins
Press, $22.95


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: serdar@fawlty8.eng.monash.edu.au (Serdar Boztas)
Subject: Re: Thomas Crapper and Spread Spectrum
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 03:02:59 GMT

simon@ewd.dsto.gov.au (Simon Rockliff) writes:

>try IEEE Transactions on Communications, January 1983 (I think), a 
>followup to the May 1982 Spread Sprectrum special edition, which has further 
>information on the origins of Spread Spectrum including a description 
>of Hedy Lamarr and George Anthiells' patent filed during WW2.

Or you can read the first chapter of the first volume of the book
'Spread Spectrum Communications' by Simon, Omura, Scholtz and Levitt,
Computer Science Press, 1985.

Serdar

-- 
Inhabited by absurd fears,  they only discuss  the puerilities with which 
every fool is familiar, and dare not, by turning a bold hand to the human 
heart, offer its gigantic idiosyncrasies to our views.     Sade, 'Justine'
Serdar Boztas \\ serdar@fawlty1.eng.monash.edu.au \\ +(61)3-565-5722 
From: Tony.Sander@f840.n800.z3.fidonet.org (Tony Sander)
Sender: acsnet@csource.oz.au
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Shergold Outbreak In Melbourne Australia
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1992 17:51:52 +1000

ST>  quality tabloid) had an article on people collecting ring pulls to buy
ST>  dialysis machines. Up until now this was a UL I'd only heard of

In South Australia there is a woman who is collecting those little plastic bread
tag thingos so she can recycle them and raise money for multiple sclerosis
(sp?).  There's been a bit of publicity about her in both the local print and
electronic media.

Apparently, she has around 450kg of bread tags, or around 1.3 million.


--
No .sig required.


 * Origin: Oblivion. Masquerade Beta/Support. (08) 2871938 V.32 (3:800/840)
From: lindam@tardigrade.Eng.Sun.COM (Linda McAllister)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Third to be bombed...
Date: 12 Sep 1992 00:07:52 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: tardigrade

In article <0xrn2mn.jmoody@netcom.com> jmoody@netcom.com (Jim Moody) writes:
>The question about the significance of "third" is interesting.
>For further discussion and no conclusionis see Alan Dundes
>"The Magic Number Three in folklore"  (that isn't the exact
>title but it's something like that and I am pretty sure that
>the first reference is in the Journal of American Folklore"
>


My theory (totally unpolluted by facts): Everybody knew the godless commies 
had no imagination, so of course they'd bomb Washington and NYC first and 
second for show.  Then it's time to start on the really important places,
like <insert your town here>.  It gives a smaller place some civic pride to
think it's important enough to be the first "real" target.


linda mcallister
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 09:24:32 EDT
From: <WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Ann Landers stops an urban myth!

Someone from the Library of Congress should tell the National Military Park
guides at Gettysburg that the story about the horses hooves is a myth:  I
heard it only last year there.  BTW, it does seem to fit the generals at
Gettysburg; any chance that this was deliberate for this battlefield, which
seems to have been carefully planned out at the time as a memorial?

Bill Ellis
FOAFtale News
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Speeding in Iowa
From: moselecw@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (C.W. Moseley)
Date: 12 Sep 92 00:22:00 +1200
Distribution: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: Electrical Engineering, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

In article <BuAtq6.GGu@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, creeper@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Wolfgang Kies) writes:
> 	Hi, A friend of mine told me a supposed true story and I was wondering
> if any of you had heard it and know if it was true. He told me that a state
> trooper was seating on I-80 (which runs straight across Iowa) when all of
> the sudden his radar gun flashed something like 140 or 150 but when he
> looked outside he saw nothing. It was around 2 or 3 in the morning. The
> same thing happened to another cop who also saw nothing. But it happened to
> a third cop who radioed ahead and had squad cars block off the road way down
> the line. And what supposedly stopped at the roadblock was a matte black
> lotus with out it's headlights on. The driver was wearing all black and
> was using light intensification goggles to see. Supposedly he was trying
> to beat some record across Iowa. Anybody know if this is true?

given the cruddy frequency response of commercial night vision equipment
I hate to think of the guys life expectancy. Unless he had a couple of
IR spots he wouldn't see a lot (unless it was desert, early evening).

The goggles i have played with have been nothing to write home about,
in that turning your head suddenly caused a loss of intensification for
about 1/10th sec while the system re-established itself. Hence, sudden bends
or obstacles on the road could vanish into the front of the car without notice.
oops.

MOZ
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna Watson)
Subject: Re: The Wildebeast
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 17:18:42 GMT

In article <dignan.716521330@husc10> dignan@husc10.harvard.edu (Thomas Dignan) writes:
>
>	Does anyone know what it really is? Is it just a british word for 
>yak, or is it something totally seperate. I don't really care but this guy
>here is bugging me about it. 

I'm a g-nu, I'm a g-nu.
I'm the g-nicest work of nature in the zoo. 
I'm a g-nu, how do you do?
You really ought to k-now w-ho's w-ho.
I'm a g-nu, spelled g,n,u.
I'm not a camel or a kangaroo 
So let me introduce, I'm neither man nor moose
Oh g-no, g-no, g-no, I'm a g-nu.

I'm a g-nu, a g-nother g-nu.
Oh, I wish I could g-nash my teeth at you.
I'm a g-nu, I'm g-nu,
You really ought to k-now w-ho's w-ho
I'm a g-nu, I'm a g-nu
Call me an okapi and I'll sue.
Nor am I in the least like that dreadful hartebeest*
Oh g-no, g-no, g-no, I'm a g-nu.

* he probably feels the same way about being called a yak!

(This is from a song by Flanders & Swan, used without permission.) 
-- 
Seanna Watson   Bell-Northern Research, 
(seanna@bnr.ca) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Opinions, what opinions?  Oh *these* opinions. | It's hard to seize the
No, they're not BNR's, they're mine.           | day when you must first
I knew I'd left them somewhere.                | grapple with the morning.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pjswan@engin.umich.edu (Peter Swanson)
Subject: Re: Marching Band ULs needed
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 92 16:53:52 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

How's this:

The Stanford University marching band has been banned from commercial
air flight because of this stunt:

While flying somewhere on a partially empty commercial airliner, the
band (200+) moved one person at a time to the left side of the aircraft.
As they moved, the pilot adjusted the trim to compensate for the 
unevenly-distributed weight.  At a signal, the entire band ran to right
hand side of the plane.  Legend has it that the plane lost several thousand
feet in altitude before the pilot regained control.

(I don't believe it)

The Stanford band also once mooned the crowd in a "Salute to
Pornography" halftime show.

(I think this is true)

The University of Wisconsin marching band has been prohibited from
hotels because:

The band rented out an entire floor of a hotel while at an away game.
Being party animals, they needed a large room for a party and 
removed all of the non-load-bearing walls on the entire floor with fire axes
and a chainsaw. 

(I don't believe it)

A certain University of Minnesota drum major, while on a tour in London,
did several backflips before landing on his large, furry hat, which forced
it all the way down to his shoulders.  A trip to the hospital was necessary
to remove it.

(At least partially true)

I suppose you want words to marching band songs, too?

Pete "I tried the plane stunt by myself, but it didn't work" Swanson
-- 
| Peter J. Swanson           |  pjswan@caen.engin.umich.edu                  |
| Graduate Student           |  controls specialist                          |
| Electrical Engineering     |                                               |
| University of Michigan     |  Look! We have guests!                        |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: obrien@netcom.com (Robert O'Brien)
Subject: Let's all go get bombed
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 08:33:10 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

Sorry, just couldn't resist after getting tired of the "Third to be bombed"
thread.

	Bob

ObUl will be in another posting, sorry again!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: andrew@venus.resntl.bhp.com.au
Subject: Spaghetti trees, again (was Re: Mailing Coconuts)
Organization: BHP Research, Newcastle Laboratories
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 02:36:01 GMT

In article <Bu7tIq.CH9@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>, neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld) writes:
> 
>    Next people will be saying that spaghetti trees don't actually produce
> bundles of thirty centimetre stalks, but that they have to be cut to
> size, and bleached to give them the right colour.
> 
Of course it has to be bleached! It's green when picked - vermicelli verdi. ;-)

Andrew
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: barth@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (barth.richards)
Subject: Re: Counterfeiting
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 19:52:33 GMT


In article <BuKrJy.7HG@news.cso.uiuc.edu> berger@atropa (Mike Berger) writes:

>And now it's time for an urban legend:
>I heard that the federal government first tried to lock up all of
>xerox'x color copier production when they first came out.  Unable
>to do that, they insisted that the company adjust the machines so
>they didn't duplicate some colors religiously, so as to make it
>difficult to copy money accurately.  Naturally I heard this from
>a friend's mother (her company had one of the very first color copiers).

The first part may be true, but the second is not.  The Treasury Department
is so concerned about the new color copier's ability to make high-quality
counterfeits that they formed a task force to come up with a method of
defeating would-be color copier counterfeiters.  The task force suggested
that a complet design change was the first step, but the big muckety-mucks
at the D of the T shot that idea down.  The plan they eventually came up
with incorporates two new features into the design of Federal Reserve Notes:

  1. A line of tiny, near-microscopic text runs around the border of the
     portrait.  It is large enough to be read with a strong magnifying
     glass, but small enough that copiers can't reproduce it, and on any
     copier counterfeits, the text would come out as a broken line.

  2. A polyester strip, with lettering printed on it, is embedded in the
     paper.  The strip, and the lettering, is visible when the note is held
     up to the light.  (Actually, it looks almost exatly like a watermark.)
     Of course, this is impossible to duplicate on a copier.

These new features are currently being used on new $50 and $100 bills, and
will eventually be used on $20s and possibly lower denominations.

Other countries have also been introducing new note designs intended to
foil color copiers.  These designs usually incorporate odd color
combinations that color copiers can't handle well.  When you adjust the
color reprodoction to get one color right, it throws off another color.
Some countries have also been using more radical devices, such as plastic
notes with little clear windows that have designs or even holograms
embedded in them.

(All of this from the NOVA program "Making A Dishonest Buck," rerun within
the last four or five months.)

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban