HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel K. Furr)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.startrek.misc,talk.bizarre
Subject: Re: Sex, the Final Frontier?
Date: 18 Dec 92 09:51:41 GMT
Organization: Escape from Blacksburg, VA

In article <lj05n6INNago@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> trelford@trelford.Eng.Sun.COM (Trel
ford Pinkerton) writes:
>
>Now that Terry has raised the question of lust-crazed trekkies,
>I would like to ask for further elucidation myself.
>
>First, what is the etiquette concerning the use of the holodeck?
>Would it be frowned upon if Cmdr Riker ordered the computer to
>produced the likenesses of Deanna Troi and Dr "Ball" Crusher,
>both dressed as leather-clad fetish-inducing hose monkeys?
>
>What if Wesley did this?  What if the captain did it, and ordered
>the image of Wesley to watch?
>
>I saw the Captain call up an Arabian horse on the holodeck for
>him to ride, just a few days ago.  What if he extended his "riding"
>to other mammals?  Space can be pretty lonely, and no one can
>hear you cream.

Actually, it's a little-known fact that the same people who distribute "snuff"
films throughout the entire civilized world ("snuff" films=filmed murders
viewed for sexual titillation, very common everywhere) also distribute films of
just such holodeck craziness as you describe.  That's how the ST:TNG cast
supplement their paychecks they get for acting: they stick around after the
film crew has gone home for the day and get wild and leatherish.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:31173 misc.legal:21351
From: mitch@novavax.UUCP (Mitch Silverman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,misc.legal
Subject: Re: No trespassing
Date: 14 Dec 92 23:49:12 GMT
Reply-To: mitch@novavax.nova.edu (Mitch Silverman)
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: Nova University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

In article <1992Dec1.033650.16412@eff.org> mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:

>But the law does have a cure for brevity. Try reading a deed or contract
>sometime. What it does not cure is trivial shit: "De minimus not curat lex."
>
>
>--Mike

Mike:

Isn't the phrase "De minimus no_n_ curat lex?"

As in:

There was a young fellow named Rex
With diminuitive organs of sex
     When charged with exposure
     He said with composure
"De minimus non curat lex."

-- Mitch Silverman
   Student, New College of the University of South Florida
   mitch@cfraix.cfr.usf.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg)
Subject: New(?) UL, ban religious broadcasts
Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail.  Playa del Rey, CA
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 16:00:23 GMT

This morning on CBS radio's "Osgood File", Charlie described a new
(to me) UL that may be an offshoot of the "modem tax" UL.

According to this UL, Madeline Murray O'Hare, the (in)famous
athiest is gathering signatures and has "many" thousands of
signatures already on a petition to ban religious broadcasts
on sunday.  The FCC is receiving thousands of letters daily
against this petition.  Charlie says that they answer each one
with (I assume a form) letter stating that there is no such petition,
but the UL keeps going.

This is new to me.  Anybody else heard of this one?
-- 
Rich Greenberg      Work: rmg50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com   310-417-8999
N6LRT               Play: richg@hatch.socal.com       310-649-0238
What?   Me speak for Amdahl?  Surely you jest....
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:31590 talk.politics.misc:64812
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: They used to think...
From: leb@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (BASEL, LESLIE)
Date: 18 Dec 1992 12:31 MST  
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Arizona
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

In article <1992Dec16.161922.5171@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, ashall@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Andrew S Hall) writes...
>..  And they said...
>>
>>"You know, they say early man didn't understand about sex.
>>You know, babies just came.  They didn't make the connection
>>that sex had anything to do with it, because babies came so
>>much later.  Sex was one thing, and having babies was another.
>>That's why there was a mother goddess, but no father goddess.
>>They didn't realize babies had fathers, too."
>>
>>And I realized I'd heard this one a couple times.  Sounds a
>>lot like "In Columbus' time, everyone thought the world was
>>flat."
>>
>>And besides, how are we to know what folks thought about sex,
>>back at the dawn of history?  It's not like they left sex
>>manuals behind.
>>
>>--
> 
> I know a real strong candidate for the origin of this belief.
>Check out Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear "anthropological"
>novels. In the first one, it is unmistakably represented
>that this tribe hasn't the fainted clue about the connection
>between sex and childbirth. A lot of people seem to accept these
>novels as being more than just fiction.
> 
>Andrew Hall

Yeah, but don't forget some of the abysmal 'birds and bees' info
still prevalent amongst pre-teen and jr. high students that don't get
sex education.  If misinformation about sex is prevalent in this 
'information age', then what was it like more hit or miss?

Prevalent in my youth were "you can't get pregnant the first time" and
"you can get pregnant 'holding hands'" (some young folks in rural Montana 
thought _I Wanna Hold Your Hand_ was  filthy song).

Rodger "Father Goddess?" Coghlan





Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: torsten@cwis.unomaha.edu (Torsten Wesley Adair)
Subject: Re: Of Mice And Burps
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 04:09:03 GMT

In Wilhelm Busch's Max und Moritz, the two scamps tie four strings together.
At the end of each string they tie a biece of bread.  A rooster and three
chickens each eat a piece, and get tied together.  They panic when they can't 
seperate, and fly up into a tree, where they hang themselves.  The farmer's 
wife finds the chickens, is distraught, and cooks the birds.  While she is in
the cellar getting some fixings for the dinner.  M&M drop a fishing line down
the chimney and hook the four fowl.  The wife comes back upstairs, finds the
birds missing, and beats the dog for eating the chicken.

A great book by a great writer/artist.  I won't tell what happens to the 
school master.

Torsten aus Omaha
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: I Live to FAQ!
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 02:38:38 GMT

In article <BzDMCE.Du3@rahul.net> phil@rahul.net (Phil Gustafson) writes:
>ObUL:  Once some guy drank some Jack Daniels and drove his pickup truck
>into a school bus.

I saw it on Beverly Hillbillies 90210, so it must be true.

Ted "okay, I guess there *is* something worse than adaptations of
     Charles Dickens stories at Christmas time" Frank
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:31714 sci.skeptic:21556
From: kjm@buc.edu.au (Kevin Moore)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Wwy is the sky blue? (was Re: Daytime Stars - Not Donahue or Oprah)
Date: 21 Dec 1992 01:24:15 GMT
Organization: Physics Department - Ballarat University College
NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.132.16.8

In article <1992Dec16.083550.11767@msc.cornell.edu> maynard@leah.msc.cornell.edu (Maynard J. Handley) writes:

>So I'm not sure quite what the above dude means by electron scattering in
>molecules not being affected by frequency. Maybe this statement refers to
>resonant scattering, whereas what we care about is non-resonant.

>Maynard

All that stuff in Jackson essentially reduces to treating air molecules as 
classical harmonic oscillators, excited by the incident light, and radiating 
as dipole radiators.

The frequency of light is well below the natural frequency of the air 
molecules. When sufficiently outside the resonant region, a harmonic 
oscillator's amplitude is approximately constant ( A = F_0/k ) for 
frequencies below resonance. For frequencies well above resonance, 
A = F_0/ m omega^2 . In the resonance region, it is a lot more complicated, 
and is certainly frequency dependent.

The Rayleigh scattering case is below resonant frequency. The amplitude of 
the oscillator is constant with frequency, so from the dipole radiation 
formula, we get the omega^4 dependence.

As far as seeing stars from the bottom of wells is concerned, I've looked up 
at the sky from the bottom of slot canyons, and it looks blue, just like a 
normal daytime sky. No stars. 

Bah, Humbug! to you all,

Kevin

******************************************************************************
The reason is that the program was written in  	*	Kevin Moore
BASIC, a sort of computer baby-talk.            *     kjm@buc.edu.au
                              Richard Dawkins	*
******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Making Urban Legends - Carjacking
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 06:21:18 GMT

In article <Bz726C.MwI@polaris.async.vt.edu> jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel Furr) writes:
>>
>>I know the truth can be changed in many ways as it becomes urban legend,
>>but a furrier transform?
>
>We transform all the time.

I thought it was all a matter of meta-syntactic variables:

furrfu
furrbar
furrfubar

And Don Knuth's

furrshlugginers

cj "potrzebies 'R us" l
From: wichers@husc4.harvard.edu (JJJJJust JJJJJohn)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Another University Exam One
Date: 15 Dec 92 03:59:37 GMT
Organization: The Harvard Lymph Node Fan Club

In article <1992Dec14.214505.23246@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> kristyp@coos.dartmouth.edu (Kristy Patterson) writes:

Hi Kristy! Long time no see...

>In 9th grade, our World History teacher told us that, for the final, we
>were responsible for ALL the information in the book.  The questions went
>something like this:
>
>1) "Who is the publisher of your textbook?"
>2) "What color is your book?"
>
>-Kristy "it was brown" Patterson

So the publisher was Little Brown, huh? What was the color?

--John "post to afu again? moi?" Wichers

-- 
Her eyes were cold and || John Wichers || wichers@husc4.harvard.edu
harsh, which made them || 121 Museum St #2, Somerville Ma. 02143
tough to chew. - Danno || Anarchy - It's not a law, it's just a good idea.
|| Jesus saves sinners ... and redeems them for valuable cash prizes!!! ||
From: rperkins@astro.as.arizona.edu (Rachel J. Perkins)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Amusing signs
Date: 15 Dec 92 17:07:08 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

In article <1992Dec15.034130.9845@netcom.com> obrien@netcom.com (Robert O'Brien) writes:
>Maybe I've missed a posting, but no one seems to have mentioned a type of
>sign that occurs sporadically throughout Sacramento, at least.  There are
>some locations where apparently there is no storm drain system, and the
>street surface is occasionally interrupted by drainage gutters.  Since these
>are effectively upside-down speed bumps, warning signs are posted.
>The usual yellow diamond (square rotated 45 deg.) with one word on it,
>singular or plural, as appropriate.
>
>It was a common practice, among some of my classmates, to take group
>photographs including one of the plural versions of these signs, located
>near the suburb where I grew up.
>

in the last neighborhood i lived in, there was such a sign, in the singular,
right next to someone's house. an enterprising person had added in paint
a small, black arrow pointing toward the house. 

rachel "dippety doo dah" perkins




--
		    -just give me what for,
	rachel perkins =  rperkins@astro.as.arizona.edu
      coed naked internet grep! always keep your link up!
From: v462etnn@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (David L Anderson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Traffic Light UL's
Date: 11 Dec 92 19:36:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Dec11.114627@IASTATE.EDU>, mkjensen@IASTATE.EDU (Martha K (Puester) Jensen) writes...
> 
>I used to live in San Diego, where they have the sensors on the
>traffic light poles.  While most of the sensors could not be triggered
>by flashing high beams, there was one particular one that could be.
> 
>The traffic light in question was located at the crest of a hill
>(Genesee and Torrey Pines Road, FYI), and we found that if the car's
>lights were flashed at the right point when coming up the hill, that the
>light would change.  I have no idea whether this particular sensor
>was just easier to trip than others, or if it was due to the hill causing
>the headlight beams to be higher and actually hit the sensor, but it did
>work, and I can provide witnesses...
> 
>Martha
> 

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but a nearby lighting strike could
cause the light to change (provided it didn't hit the light and
destroy it).

I'm skeptical.  What did the sensor look like?  I have a hard
time imagining that some sensor could be triggered by a flashing
light on an emergency vehicle but not by headlights.

Any help?

David Anderson
From: rxh6@po.CWRU.Edu (Randall Holt)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Date: 18 Dec 1992 17:20:54 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


From the late Prof. Gardner of the UofU chemistry dept, all the elements 
required to create a simple organism are;
'C. Hopkins Cafe - Mighty Good Food with Salt'
to give C,H,O,P,K,I,N,S,Ca,Fe,Mg,Gd,F and NaCl
I think you could also add a few others like Cu, Zn and a trace of V.

-- 
Randall W. Holt		rxh6@po.cwru.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: wisp@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Wisp)
Subject: Re: Amusing anecdotes (was re: Amusing signs)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 10:10:05 GMT

In article <Bz9oxy.Er@hpuerca.atl.hp.com> mhr@hpuerca.atl.hp.com (Mike Reaser) writes:
>In 1968 my family lived in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.
>One day we were driving around I-495, and my mother just completely
>freaked out.  She pulled up behind a van with the following hand-painted
>sign on its back door:
>
>    BLIND DRIVER -- PASS WITH CAUTION
>
>She was about ready to pull off and call the police when she realized
>that the driver could not have been sightless but instead could not
>see behind himself...

That reminds me of the aetiology of a car accident...

An elderly couple were brought in with minor injuries after their car left
the road at a bend. The man was effectively blind, due to diabetic
retinopathy. During examination of the patients, it transpired that the man
was driving the car, with the wife directing him. This had apparently been
going on for several years, since the man became visually handicapped. On this
particular occasion, a hanglider over a nearby hill had distracted his wife...

Later,

The Wisp. [no, Ossifer, I've not been drinking...]
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re: Why Not?
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge 
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 15:27:52 GMT

 I heard that, a few years back, a student at Kyoto University in Japan
came to an exam in traditional garb of the Tokugawa period and, citing 
an old but never-repealed bylaw of the university, asked for warm sake 
and a plate of sashimi to fortify his mind during the test. 
 
 The proctor, unsure of what to do, called the professor. The professor
told the proctor to comply with the student's request. While waiting 
for the food to arrive, the professor looked over the student's garb 
and realized that it was the clothing of the son of a _daimyo_. The 
professor inquired if the student was descended from the nobility, and
the student, who was from a family of commoners, realized that he had 
committed a grave social error and promptly committed ritual suicide.
 
 Has anyone else heard any college folklore?
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Sam Adams,Spaten# Life is too short #Hudson Lager,Beck's 
     \_| Pilsener Urquell#to drink cheap beer#Pete's Wicked Ale
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Gravity
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:56:44 GMT

gawne@stsci.edu in Newsgroup: sci.military  writes:

>Try dropping a hammer and a feather at the same time from the same
>hight.  If you do it on the moon (as some astronauts did once) both
>will hit the ground at the same time.  If you do it here on Earth
>you'll get a different result.
>
>-Bill Gawne,  Space Telescope Science Institute
> GySgt USMCR

	While I don't tend to doubt GySgt's of the Marines, I
don't remember astronauts taking feathers to the moon.

This does bring to mind the story that Galileo did not actually
drop stuff off the leaning tower of Pisa, but simply claimed the
results that different sized stuff would fall at the same rate,
without bothering to find out.

ObUL: Tidal forces from the moon are slowing the rotation of the
Earth, and lengthening the day by .001 sec/century.

Jon "left handed lunatics are sinister" Papai
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.startrek.misc
From: quetzal@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Quetzal)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:55:40 GMT

The trigonometry thing looks like

           |
           |
  Sine     |     All
           |
-----------+------------
           |
  Tangent  |   Cosine
           |
           |

(i.e. sine in quadrant 2 and cosine in quadrant 4, just to clear that
up)

My Year 11 Maths teacher, who was called Bruce Symons, told us this one:
"Symons Always Talks Crap"  (read book-sense, rather than clockwise)

Tim Pickett
From: mapmef@gdr.bath.ac.uk (M E Fletcher)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The pure truth on the Coriolis Farce (sic).
Keywords: Subliminally, you are a doofus
Date: 11 Dec 92 13:49:51 GMT
Organization: School of Mathematics, University of Bath, UK

>From exodus!cronkite.Central.Sun.COM!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!zodiac!tiscione Sun Sep  1 15:01:27 PDT 1991
>
>This reminds me of a letter to the editor of Science News, when there was
>a real furor over how the Coriolis force interacts with this "sensitive
>dependence on initial conditions" water drainage thing.  Some guy who was a
>tourist in Africa wrote that he was at the equator.  One of the native
>folk had a pan full of water, and some leaves floating on the top.  He would
>hold the pan in the air WITH HIS HANDS and let the water drain out the
>bottom.  When he did this twenty feet from the equator, the leaves swirled
>clockwise, and twenty feet on the other side, it swirled counterclockwise,
>much to the astonishment of the tourists.  When he stood directly on the
>equator, the leaves and water did not swirl around but just flowed radially
>into the hole.  Someone who responded to this letter made the calculation
>that unless the guy held it to within one millionth of an arc second to the
>horizontal, the Coriolis force could not possibly be responsible for the
>direction of the drainage.  He speculated that he just imperceptibly
>twisted the pan one way or the other, and let the water do the rest.
>(Anything for the tourists.)
>-- 
>*                      THIS SPACE FOR RENT!!!                       *
>*       Imagine YOUR ad reaching THOUSANDS of USENET readers!       *
>*  For details contact Jason Tiscione, tiscione@zodiac.rutgers.edu  *

Coincidentally on the BBC at the moment is a programme called "Pole to
Pole" where Michael Palin travels from the North Pole to the South Pole
along a particular line of longitude (more or less).

A few weeks ago he came to the equator in Africa (I forget which country).
One of the tourist attractions was a man who solemnly illustrated the
fact that water spirals out clockwise/anticlockwise in the southern/northern
hemisphere. He did this by doing a demonstration a few metres either side
of the equator. Palin just mentioned this in passing, the camera crew
recorded it, and it was just accepted casually as fact. So another 
20 million Britons are now firmly brainwashed into believing this "fact".
Since I became aware of the spurious nature of this claim I have 
become a keen observer of water spiralling down my bath, or sink etc.
Depressingly it does always go anticlockwise!

Matt
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pedmonds@cs.toronto.edu ("Philip G. Edmonds")
Subject: Re: Traffic Light UL's
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Date: 11 Dec 92 23:11:40 GMT

In Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, there is an intersection with railroad
tracks diagonally through the center.  A slow-moving train (of 5 cars)
crosses the intersection twice a day.  The train actually stops and waits for
the intersection to clear.  The neat thing is that a strobe light
mounted above the whole intersection flashes while all the traffic
lights turn red (to stop cars in all directions).  I always thought the
strobe light was just an additional warning to motorists--maybe not.

Phil.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Re: Amusing signs
Organization: The Ohio State University
 <1992Dec16.232859.13924@watson.ibm.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:33:35 GMT

On the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, a
nothbound one-way dead ends into another street. This street is
one way in each direction away from the intersection.  Mounted on
a single post are the following two signs.  This tends to confuse
the hell out of those who actually read the signs and are already
geographically impaired.

       -----------------|\
      |                    \
      |      One Way        *
      |                    /
       -----------------|/

     /|-----------------
    /                   |
   *        One Way     |
    \                   |
     \|-----------------


Jon "You can only go that way, or that other way." Papai
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:30928 rec.arts.startrek.misc:12545