HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: QWERTY
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:55:31 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK

In article <1992Aug31.022151.13062@unislc.uucp> dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:
>~WISP at CU~ (csuah@warwick.ac.uk) wrote:
>: simultaneously, but only when the two keys are close together (or the two
>: slugs are close together, to be more accurate). So the reason for the
>: QWERTY arrangement was to minimize the possibility that two letters next to
>: one another would be struck in sequence
>
>Why didn't they rearrange the slugs rather than the keys?

Remember this is a manual typewriter we're talking about. You've got to have a
linkage from each key to its slug. So, if you change the keys, you have to
change the slugs, too, and vice-versa...

Later,

The Wisp. [Who can't type anyway...]
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     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^>)
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Sinking libraries
Date: 31 Aug 92 23:22:28 GMT
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario

pratta@rpi.edu (Anthony Edward Prattico) writes:
[Incredible sinking library folklore delted]

>Well, if it helps, RPI has the same problem with its library as well. Along
>with the engineering center, the student union and a few other buildings that
>are slowly sinking due to less that stable ground.

If this were true, there would be incredible cracks in the foundations,
walls, and any concrete columns.  Buildings are not built as one monolithic
structure that will sink all as one unit.  If something is sinking, there
will be parts sinking slower than others - the result is cracks, and
eventually failure.  As a guess, I'd say most buildings today couldn't sink
more than 4 inches without a catastrophic failure.

Although I'm no longer a Civil Engineer, I did graduate in Structural
Engineering at a University where we had that same story.  My foundations
prof laughed his head off when somebody asked if it was true.

Note that at Waterloo, the arts library was built in two stages - 5(?)
floors were built, and then several years later, another 6(?) floors were
added on top.  The folklore has it that it was the _addition_ where the
engineers forgot to take into account the wieght of the books.

Note that a long time ago, some building were overdesigned so that they did
act as one unit - two cases that come to mind are the tower at Pisa, and the
Transcona Grain Elevators in Winterpeg, which just fell over on their side
without breaking due to a foundation failure.  Engineers who design like
that today soon find something else to do for a living, because nobody wants
to pay for an overdesigned building.

Paul "I'm not an engineer, but I wear my Iron Ring when I post" Tomblin
-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com or {uunet,revcan}!geovision!pt
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone
  -- Henry David Thoreau.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:22288 alt.drugs:15110
From: llama@pooh.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.drugs
Subject: Re: Cannibaderm, anyone?
Date: 28 Aug 92 06:07:57 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

James Douglas Del-Vecchio (n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu) wrote:
: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:
: 
: >(James Douglas Del-Vecchio) writes:
: >To no good effect, though.  As Freewheeling Franklin sez, "Drinking beer and
: >smoking dope at the same time is like pissing into the wind."
: 
: 
: Two urban legends in one?
: I don't know where you got your information, but it is not correct.
: 
: 	1) Dope + alcohol will get the drinker/smoker more hammered 
: than either one alone.

it's best to be really careful mixing the two, though. i've known
several people who've gotten extremely sick by doing pot when they were
totally wasted on alcohol. i dunno if it's an individual thing or if
it's related to the amount of alcohol ingested before smoking.

--
sine nomine
debbie martinson
"marley was a rasta; moses was a jew; jesus was an outlaw, just like
me and you. let love be our religion 'til this life is through: the
next best thing to heaven is a sinful life with you" -- timbuk
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: So, what IS the shelf life of Twinkies?
Date: 4 Sep 92 18:09:25 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Sep4.015941.4310@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jcopelan@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James c Copeland) writes:
>OK, I have heard that Twinkies could last for 20 years?  What is the  basis
>for this claim?  What is the REAL shelf life of these things?
>(I have a steak dinner riding on this one).

Only one way to find out for sure.

1.	Buy twinkie.
2.	Put on shelf.
3.	Wait.



-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu

I believe we are on the irreversible trend toward more freedom and
democracy -- but that could change.   -- J. Danforth Quayle  
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: chil@fraser.sfu.ca (Keith Lim)
Subject: Re: ice_cubes
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 04:03:50 GMT

rrgd50@email.sps.mot.com (Chris Terwilliger) writes:

>Here's one I remember from long ago and recently started a war at work with...
>"Ice cubes freeze faster when you use hot water..."

Or maybe that should be "...when you use *previously boiled* (and cooled)
water." Boiled-and-cooled water may freeze faster, or maybe slower, than
unboiled water at the same temperature, because it has no dissolved air
in it. Something like that.

-- 
Keith_Lim@sfu.ca   Simon Fraser University, Burnaby B.C., V5A 1S6, Canada
>Opinions above are probably my own only...too weird to be anyone else's.<

"I can't be sure where I'm headed after death/To heaven, hell, or beyond to
 that Great Vast/But if I can I would like to meet my Maker/There's one or
 two things I'd sure like to ask"      --Crash Test Dummies, "At My Funeral"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU (macphil)
Subject: Re: Pencil in Priorities
Organization: IUPUI
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 05:36:21 GMT

In article <78725@ut-emx.uucp>
llama@pooh.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine) writes:
 
>
>aieeeeeeee. are those in your experiment who were vulnerable still
>your friends?? <grin> i've had ipecac once. it made me more violently
>ill than i ever remember having been before or since. incidentally, i
>was told afterward that sometimes it doesn't work unless you drink
>water after taking it, but that sounds suspicious to me. anyone know
>for sure?
 
dear lady, you are reading too deeply into this.  this was not a
formal experiment as in a typical survey /c a control group, etc.
it was based upon some fellow emergency personnel who didn't have
susceptability to ipecac and since we worked 24-hour shifts together
@ that time, it was very easy to control how much was administered,
when it was administered, how much they'd had to eat & when, etc.
in order to avoid the opportunity of fraud.
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Just One Calorie...?
Date: 28 Aug 92 21:00:13 GMT
 <1992Aug23.060334.24647@u.washington.edu> 
 <1992Aug26.160453.22813@news.cs.brandeis.edu> <1992Aug27.140836.13166@bnlux1.bnl.gov> <46946@shamash.cdc.com>

dternes@duke.cdc.com (David Ternes) writes:

>Did Tab bite it during the days when mice mainlined saccharin?

I think you can still find it if you look hard enough.  Whether it
has the same composition it used to, I don't know.  It's odd that the
Coca-Cola company would continue producing it, but I suppose enough
of a market is there.  I think they still make New Coke too, and
sell some.

-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal)
Subject: Re: What's the right way to shave?
Date: 24 Aug 92 00:54:48 GMT

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.  

Ack!  Don't do this!  It kind of forces stuff into the holes the hair comes out
of.  Really irritate your skin this way.  A friend of mine seeing her doctor
about irritated skin on her legs was told to stop shaving them "against the
grain".  Yes it makes for a closer shave, but it's not worth it.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: jmethot@vicorp.com (John Methot)
Subject: Re: Smallest denominations of paper money (was: Counterfeiting)
Organization: V. I. Corporation, Northampton, Massachusetts
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 13:55:49 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.063601.27701@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>> > > > ObUL: The $1 bill is the smallest denomination of paper money in
>> > > >       the developed countries.
>> > > Is the U.S. a developed country?  1863-5 US 50 cent and 25 cent paper 
>> > > money exists  ...
>> > This summer I briefly had in my possession a
>> > 20-escudo bill ... worth about 15 cents.

Portugal

>I think the Portuguese would generally consider their country as "developed".
>If denominations no longer issued but still accepted are allowed, then the
>Canadian $1 bill is another counterexample; it was worth about 85 cents US
>the last time I looked.
>
>I think the question is better restricted to denominations still being
>issued.  I'm trying to remember what the smallest bill in common use was
>during my visit to Portugal this past spring; I rather think it was 500
>escudos.  They certainly have coins as large as 200 escudos.  So if my
>memory is right, Portugal doesn't qualify under this definition.  And,
>in fact, I can't think of a bill under $1 US that's still in common use
>in any country I've been to.

Having just returned from Chile and Argentina on 31 August, I can report that
1000 Austral notes are in wide circulation in Argentina - they are worth
US $0.10.  They also use 5000 Austral notes.  To be honest, I don't *think*
these notes are still being issued (Argentina seems to be switching to the
Peso - worth US $1), since all the austral notes we received were in the worst
condition of any paper money I've ever seen and all the peso notes were
relatively new.  In five days in Buenos Aires, we only received coins as
change on one occasion - paper australs are much more common.

I can't recall the smallest note we saw in Chile.  If there were 100 peso
notes, they would be worth about US $0.28.
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Flat Earth Society???
Date: 2 Sep 92 19:51:32 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK

In article <1992Aug28.235719.26789@mumbo.apple.com> johana!tsw@apple.com (Tom Watson) writes:
>In article <42537@skye.dcs.ed.ac.uk>, kgg@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Kees Goossens) writes:
>>
>> In article <l9q3n1INN88p@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
>> >It *is*, in
>> >fact, a very interesting phenomenon that most of us think that the
>> >Earth is spherical, and almost none of us have direct experience of its
>> >roundness, or even know anybody who has direct experience of its
>> >roundness.
>>
>> I would say almost everyone has a direct experience of this.
>> Have you never seen a ship coming over the horizon?
>> First you see the top bits, sticking out over the horizon.
>> Gradually you see more and more as less of it is hidden by the curvature
>> of the earth.
>>
>Sometimes this is NOT the case.  In some atmospheric conditions (which I
>don't remember now) You will see the BOTTOM of the ship first.  Yes,
>this has been documented and is NOT an UL!!
>
>On the discussion of a round earth, how about the fact you can't see across
>a big lake.  All it takes is one about 2 miles across and neeling down
>and all you see is water!!
>
>Other factoid:  If the earth were the size of a marble, you wouldn't
>be able to tell that it had mountains 5 mi. high.  Very insignificant
>in relation to the whole thing.

That factoid reminds me of a comparison I read the other day, regarding the
ecosphere...

If you take a six-foot diameter ball bearing, cold, and breathe on it, the
thickness of the condensate compared tot the sphere is the same as the ecosphere
compared to the earth...

The Wisp. [don't know if it's true or not, but it makes you think...]
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     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: dtasman@dante.nmsu.edu (Dan Tasman)
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Organization: New Mexico State University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 03:58:39 GMT

said ...

>in good ol' lancaster county, pa  (home of the pa dutch amish and
>mennonites)  we used to get (not all that clearly) a channel *69* which as i
>recall dealt with christian topics... 

>This isn't quite as good, but in the DC area there was and maybe still
>is a channel 66 catering to the same clientele.  If only the numbers
>had three digits.
 
>Albany, NY has channel 62.

There's an urban legend out there that says people actuially watch over-the-air  
Christian TV :)

--
   Dan Tasman                                       dtasman@dante.nmsu.edu
                                                     molson@rever.nmsu.edu
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   "I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree
    Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all."
                                                                Ogden Nash
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Semen, NOT sailors!
Keywords: A quart?!
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 09:25:23 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.101714.18221@nntp.nta.no> styri@nta.no writes:
>In article <1992Aug20.051706.24249@math.ucla.edu>, Bill Sherman writes:
>>
>> ObUF:
>> This quantity supposedly inspired the name of the rock/pop group 10cc
>> (whose big hit was "I'm Not in Love," appropriately enough).
>
>I think I've read on one the 10cc album covers that the band started
>out as 7.5cc, but upgraded their name when they got their fourth member.

They did other songs suggestive of hyperdermic quantities such as the
Hospital Song (nobody sends me birthday cards, nobody sends me flowers;
I'm just here for operations; I've been {knocked} out for hours.

I get off on what you give me darling, etc., referring to the shot from the
duty nurse.)

And let's not forget Dreadlock Holiday or the original biggie Rubber Bullets
(we all got balls n' brains, but some's got balls n' chains, at the local
hop at the local county jail.

Also, the original version of the Captain & Tennille's big hit written by
Neal Sedaka: Love Will Keep Us Together (Sedaka's Back!) was originally
recorded by none other than 10 CC *featuring* Neal Sedaka.  (I guess on that
recording session they should have been called 12.5 CC :-).)

cjl (Oh Donna, you make me stand up, you make me sit down Donna, sit down
Donna, sit down, you make me stand up, Donna I'll stand on my head for you)
(Dynamic Tension, make a man out of you (he kicked sand in my face))
(Church bells, three swells, the dean, his daughter and me)
From: thayes@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What's the right way to shave?
Date: 23 Aug 92 18:21:16 GMT
 <1992Aug20.141952.29365@athena.mit.edu> <1992Aug21.110237.3606@darwin.ntu.edu.au> <4791@news.duke.edu>
Organization: Wright State University



In article <4791@news.duke.edu>, 
klg@panda.mc.duke.edu (Kim Greer -- rjj) writes:
> 6 or 7 years ago, I read an article in our local paper that shaving takes
> about 3 months over an "average" lifetime, which assumed you would live to
> be 65 or 70.  Or something like that.  Statistics were from some airline
> rep, I think.  Is this vague enough for AFU?

I had heard the original business about "how to shave" from a flight
attendant on the '70s version of "what's my line." That is, part of her job
was to instruct men on how to shave correctly while in flight. ?.

So why is it that the airlines are in this business?  And if they are, why does 
the chairman of American Air Lines wear a mustache?


-----ted hayes
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: Sinking libraries
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: 30 Aug 92 10:49:47 GMT

In <1992Aug27.132339.9018@bsu-ucs.uucp> 00tdspence@bsu-ucs.uucp writes:

    A co-worker of mine says he heard from "a friend who knows somebody" in
    the Architecture College that when our library was being designed,
    the architects did not figure in the weight of the books and therefore
    the building is slowly sinking into the ground.

Isn't that the famous three-sided library?
-- 
/|/-\/-\       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: cri@acsu.buffalo.edu (Whoopee Buttlord)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Highest Channel
Date: 28 Aug 92 19:25:42 GMT
Organization: UB

glitto@iastate.edu (Scott M Klabacha) writes:

>What's the highest-numbered channel that has been used? Has any station
>ever really been Channel 83? The highest station I know of in Chicago is
>Channel 66, but somebody mentioned a 68 in Boston (or something like that).

	I know for a fact that there is a channel 68 in the nyc area.
Used to be a very far-out viseo station (the only place I have ever seen a 
Frank Zappa video or a Samhain video), and now it's the home shopping network.
oh well.
Mr. PlEaSanT

"Lie down on the floor and stay calm."
		-J.Dillinger
cri@acsu.buffalo.edu 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Subject: Re: Monty Python's 3-sided ?
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 12:12:43 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.222437.12144@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> spg@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Stephen P. Guthrie) writes:
>In article <m4wpbdsq@csv.warwick.ac.uk> csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:
>>>
>>>I heard it was a 3-sided record.  One side had a norm spiral groove with the
>>>audio signal pressed into the vinyl.  The other side had two intertwined
>>>grooves.  When you put the needle down you had a 50-50 chance of getting one
>>>groove or the other.  So the second time you listened to the second side you
>>>might hear a different second side.  Never saw or heard the album.
>>
>>It's definitely a true story: I've got the album. It's called "Matching Tie
>>and Hankerchief", and if you play one side, you get one of two different
>>tracks, depending on where you put the needle down.
>>
>
>That's right. I had the 3-sided cassette.

Really? Gee, how did they manage that...
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     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,rec.arts.tv
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Kimberly Dunning, or "Whatcha talking about?"
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 09:15:55 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.195848.12212@cci632.cci.com> adw@cci632.cci.com (Allen Williams (co-op)) writes:
>
>
> What was this actresses name? What possesed her to hold up a convenience
>store?

Danny Bonaduce?

cjl
From: jlpicard@austin.ibm.com (Craig Becker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Screaming Peaches and Terrified Eggs
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:02:52 GMT
Reply-To: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com
Distribution: alt
Organization: IBM Object Technology Products
Originator: jlpicard@woofer.austin.ibm.com


geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) writes:
 
> When I was a kid, my mom told me about an experiment performed at 
> Columbia University in which the agonized "scream" of a peach was 
> detected somehow with sensitive instruments as someody bit into it.
> Even as a kid, I thought the very idea was absurd to the point of being 
> hilarious, but my mother insisted that she'd either heard or read about 
> it somewhere.  Looking back on it, it's rather interesting that a
> specific location for the research (Columbia) was specified.

I read an interview with Robert Moog in _Rolling Stone_ circa 1970
wherein he talks about attending an event wherein several of his
synthesizers were "controlled" by plants, and the attending people
were supposed to think good thoughts and bad thoughts at the plants
and thus produce "music". Moog said it was pretty bogus.

Craig
-- 
-- "You can expect virtually      Craig Becker, Object Technology Products --
--  anything from a people who had      Internet: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com --
--  nuclear weapons in the early      IBM TR: craigb@woofer.austin.ibm.com --
--  seventeenth century."                           VNET: CRAIGB at AUSVM1 --
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Subject: Re: Cellular Frequencies
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:31:23 GMT

sasbmt@jjoyce.unx.sas.com (Bruce Tindall) writes:
>In article <rdippold.714754071@cancun>, rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes:
>>Occasionally it [law against monitoring cellular phone conversations]
>>gets used as a political tool, as in the case in Minnesota (?) where a
>>candidate for governor is in trouble for possessing a recording of

>Virginia.  Governor Wilder vs. Senator Robb.
>Or is there a similar case in Minn. too?

Ah, here we go, found the article:


From: bruce@zuhause.MN.ORG (Bruce Albrecht)

|Here in Minnesota, there's been a political scandal over the
|dissemination of a tape recording of a cellular telephone
|conversation.  The person who was recorded was someone (I believe a
|lawyer or lobbiest) who was hoping to get a job from the state
|administration, the person recording it was a state department of
|transportation (DOT) employee (who recorded it at home), and it was
|passed around the DOT.  Eventually, it got into the hands of the man
|who had been the Republican candidate for Governor, Jon Grundseth, who
|stepped down during the middle of the race due to allegations of
|affairs, possible molestation of minors, and other indications of
|moral turpitude.  Grundseth is still rather upset with the current
|Governor, Arne Carlson, who became the Republican candidate when
|Grundseth resigned (mostly because he claims Carlson torpedoed his
|campaign by spreading some of the aforementioned allegations), and
|sent copies of this taped conversation to the news media.
|
|Unfortunately for Grundseth, the major repercussion seem to have
|fallen upon him and the man who taped the conversation in the first
|place.  There was a major witchhunt for a couple of days to determine
|if the DOT had been monitoring conversations because several people
|from the DOT had been trying to give copies of it away to the media
|and some politicians.  That died down when they found out that it was
|done by a DOT technician at home.  There's been some thought to
|prosecuting Grundseth for sending copies all over the place, but I
|don't think there have been any formal charges yet.
-- 
Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation.  Darkness stirs and wakes
imagination.  Silently the senses abandon their defenses.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban