HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ross-c@scs.leeds.ac.uk (R Clement)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: using green marker on CDs
Date: 26 Sep 92 10:47:15 GMT
Organization: The University of Leeds, School of Computer Studies

In article <1992Sep25.232204.14886@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>
['Scientific' way of evaluating green marker pens deleted]

>It is easy to convince yourself that what you want to occur is happening.
>That is why rigorous double-blind experiments were invented.
>

Rubbish! I have a CD which I painted green that was a live recording with
a fair number of playing errors (wrong notes played by the musicians). Not
only did painting the CD fix all those wrong notes, but the songs that
were previously sung by Brian May (it was a Queen CD) were now sung by
Freddie Mercury.

Let's see you explain THAT as a placebo effect!

I assure you that I am being very serious, you just wouldn't believe
how serious I'm being.

Ross-c (very serious)
From: cust_ts@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Tero Sand)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: Phony SCIFI on TV and in Movies
Date: 26 Sep 92 10:20:00 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In article <25SEP199214313859@elroy.uh.edu> st17y@elroy.uh.edu (Belding, Troy C.) writes:
>In article <19tkvoINN53v@gap.caltech.edu>, carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes...
>>In article <24SEP199212172687@jane.uh.edu>, st17y@jane.uh.edu (Belding, Troy C.) writes:
>>>>WRONG! To get an illusion of a large space, yes, but there are physical
>>>>objects created there - bullets, klingons, people etc.
>>>
>>>WRONG!  An interactive electromagnetic force field, with projected wave 
>>>modulations in the field to produce sound would seem to be a person, and a 
>>>force field could be a bullet or a sword as easily as a rock or tree.
>> 
>>Er, just what's the difference between a "force field" with high enough
>>resolusion (i.e., short enough wavelength) to simulate matter, and matter
>>itself?
>
>The force field does not simulate matter, just the shape.  The colour and 
>the rest are supplied by holograms.
>

I think what Carl meant was '.. as far as energy usage is concerned'.
-- 
-Tero Sand
  EMail: cust_ts@cc.helsinki.fi     Snail mail: Auroran Sairaala os. 6-1
  (if that doesn't work, try                    Nordenskioldinkatu 20
   cust_ts@kruuna.helsinki.fi)                  00250 Helsinki 25, Finland
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
Subject: Re: oversampling (was Re: using green marker on CDs)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 16:16:59 GMT
Organization: Right Bleedin' Church of Libertine Obfuscatology

In <1992Sep29.213143.6551@rosevax.rosemount.com> grante@aquarius.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards) writes:

>Do you interpolate between the two samples read off the disk in order
>to generate the 7 "extra" samples that you are creating to allow you
>to use fewer poles in your output filters?

Yes, absolutely.

>I've been asking people about this for some time and have yet to get a
>good description of what oversampling is.

I'll do my best here.

When you take 40K samples per second, you eliminate all information in the
signal that is above 20KHz.  You have now effectively created a band
limited signal.  I say effectively because the other effect of digitizing
(sampling and quantizing) is to cause whatever spectrum lies between 0 and
20Khz to be replicated betweeen 20 and 40Khz and between 40 and 60Khz, and
so on.  To recover what you want - the signal between 0 and 20Khz, you just
need a low pass filter.  But it has to be a perfect low pass filter with an
absolute cut-off at 20Khz.  

When you "oversample", what you do is interpolate extra values between each
of the samples that you have.  This can be done because you have already
lost all information in frequency components above 20Khz - it is gone for
good. With this assumption, you can then say well what would these samples
have been, had the original signal not had any components above 20Khz and
we sampled at this (4x, 8x, ..) higher rate?

The effect of this operation (I wont do the math) is to cause the
replications of the 0-20Khz spectrum to be spread out further in the
frequency domain.  The first replication may occur at 80-100Khz, rather
than at 20-40.  Clearly, this relaxes the requirements on your low-pass
filter, and you can get better sound with even the cheapest of filters than
you would have without oversampling.

Relax - this stuff doesn't come easy.  I had a full year of communications
theory classes in order to understand it.

 
-- 
    / \      Reverend fnord                 | "King Kong died for your sins!"
   /   \     fnord@panix.com                | 
  / <0> \                                   | "Don't just eat a hamburger, 
 /_______\   Church of Obfuscatology, Inc.  |  eat the HELL out of it!"
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: using green marker on CDs
Date: 28 Sep 92 23:41:56 GMT
Organization: Where the wolf has slept by the silver stream

In article <1992Sep28.073257.6763@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>
>Monster cables are good quality extra-large diameter copper cables.  Various
>claims have been made about these cables that are pure bullshit, because they
>are barely measureable effects and are orders of magnitude beyond any 
>reasonable need to care.  ...

I believe that, deep down inside, most people who buy monster speaker cables.
do so because they (the cables) look so studly.

This is OK: stereo is furniture, and furniture should look good.

But I won't deal with them, because their claims about their interconnects
are palpable lies.

Phil
-- 
|play: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG; {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil                |
|work: (Under Construction)              | Phil Gustafson                   |
|              I'm the cultural elite.  And I vote.                         |
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.science:3548 alt.folklore.urban:24365
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: using green marker on CDs
Date: 28 Sep 92 08:42:05 GMT
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <yRqNRB2w165w@dogbox.acme.gen.nz> dogbowl@dogbox.acme.gen.nz (dogbowl) writes:

>
>IMHO the whole idea of the pens is fishier than 'directional' connecting
>     cables ( yet another scam from pseudo-scientific salespeople who
>     don't know what the f*** they're talking about )
>
>And yes, I do take _great_ pleasure in taking salespeople down a notch
>or two when they try to bullshit me, especially snooty bastards in high
>end audio shops who don't think I can afford to buy the goods.

Yes, the whole high-end audio industry is filled with various forms of
manipulation, both subtle and gross.

I was once interested in purchasing a fairly expensive pre-amp, which really
was a better item through mostly engineering, not really in the "mainstream"
of this "high-end" snobbery.  (As proof, in a few short years, the snobs
didn't take notice of it any more.)  Yet, when I was forced to go to my
nearest dealer, it turned out to be one of the types mentioned.  They actually
had the nerve to look down and my and tell me that I wasn't "allowed" to buy
the unit because in their short-sighted and hurried opinion of me, I wasn't
able to afford to buy the equipment in that "category".  In other words, I
wasn't allowed to spend $1500 because I wouldn't have the $25,000 needed to
be the kind of customer they wanted me to be.

This is elitist snobbery being applied by people who are little more than
functionary employees at a store that caters to more than a few rich people
who buy equipment that makes the owner a profit if he sells enough stuff to
overcome his expenses.  Said employees aren't really in the same "strata"
as the customers they have ego-tripped their way into fantasizing that they
have become.  It really offends me that a $10/hour store clerk can be in
a position of snobbery.  I complained to the company that gave out the
franchise about these tactics, although I never found out if the jerk was
ever reprimanded about it.

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
From: rf@cl.cam.ac.uk (Robin Fairbairns)
Subject: Re: Metal Foil and Fillings
Reply-To: rf@cl.cam.ac.uk (Robin Fairbairns)
Organization: U of Cambridge, England
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 14:45:03 GMT


In article <1992Sep25.234642.16350@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com>,
billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
|> cad28526@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Chuck Douglas) writes:
|> : 
|> : >I think it's to do with the fact that the foil & filling are made from
|> : >different metals (aluminium & mercury ?) and when they come in contact,
|> : 			       ^^^^^^^
|> : I don't know what the metal is for sure but mercury it definately is NOT.
|> : Other than the fact that mercury is liquid at room temp, it is also toxic.
|> : You aren't even supposed to touch it becasue it will absorb into the skin
|> : and do nasty things.
|> 
|> Ever hear of the term "amalgam filling"? They are still commonly used. They
|> are a mixture of mercury and some other metal. Most of the mercury is
|> removed from the mixture before the filling material is put in the tooth.
|> Most of the rest is removed when the dentist does the packing of the
filling.

No.  Amalgams are _alloys_ (i.e., chemical compounds) of mercury and
the other metal involved.  The dentist has the components in sealed
containers, where they're held apart.  Once the partition is broken,
the jolly old dentist with all his tools of torture has a short time
to stuff the amalgam into his nice newly-created hole in your agony
before it `sets'.  The setting process does _not_ (as Carl Lydick
suggests in aanother article) involve evaporation of excess Hg - and a
jolly good thing too, if you ask me (I don't want my teeth falling out
as a result of a visit to the dentist).
--
Robin (dump Brian Kay) Fairbairns                    rf@cl.cam.ac.uk
U of Cambridge Computer Lab, Pembroke St, Cambridge  CB2 3QG, UK
From: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: "Normal" body temperature
Keywords: Great 98.6 it's good to have you back again, Keith
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 09:48:28 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.120956.25976@odin.diku.dk>, klaus@diku.dk (Klaus Ole Kristiansen) writes:
|> 
|> Here 37.0C is considered normal. All temperatures are assumed to be messured
|> in the rectum. Oral messurement is used, 0.5 degrees are always added to
|> such messurements to make them comparable.

Ahem, er, I think this is enough facts for a day at the a.f.u - how bout
this story:

Actors will usually have up to 2 degrees Celcius higher than normal temp
just before they enter the stage. This sounds reasonable in Norwegian
because we call `stage fright' something like "limelight fever".

---
YuNoHoo  "I'm not an actor, I just play one on stage"
From: ecc_jim@ecc.tased.edu.au
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: Speed of gravity
Date: 30 Sep 92 12:03:31 +1000

In article <1992Sep29.113212.1802@eng.cam.ac.uk>, pjh@vernon.noname (Philippa Hogben) writes:
> In article C4D@news.cso.uiuc.edu, jdg41088@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Pickaxe) writes:
>>Here's something that I've been thinking about. What is the speed of gravity?

[stuff deleted]

> 
> From what I have read, you are correct - the effects of gravity travel at the
> speed of light. This means that if the sun were to disappear it would take exactly
> the same lenght of time (~8 mins) for us to see that it has gone (i.e. for the
> last photons to reach us) and for the sun's gravity to stop affecting the earth
> (i.e. for the last gravitons to reach us)
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Philippa
> 
Tom Van Flandern posted a VERY interesting paper in sci.physics a while back
which indicated that gravity travels *instantaneously*. He showed that if it
didn't, the gravitational centre of the sun would pull the earth out of orbit.

Jim Palfreyman

jim@r140.tased.edu.au
From: hod@amazon.chem.columbia.edu (Hod Greeley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: Speed of gravity
Date: 1 Oct 92 03:51:50 GMT
	<1992Sep30.120331.430@ecc.tased.edu.au>
Organization: Center for Biomolecular Simulation, Department of Chemistry,
	Columbia University

In article <1992Sep30.120331.430@ecc.tased.edu.au> ecc_jim@ecc.tased.edu.au writes:
   Tom Van Flandern posted a VERY interesting paper in sci.physics a while back
   which indicated that gravity travels *instantaneously*. He showed that if it
   didn't, the gravitational centre of the sun would pull the earth out of orbit.

   Jim Palfreyman

   jim@r140.tased.edu.au

Pardon my skepticism.  You wouldn't happen to have a copy of that
availible, would you?

As for the "speed of gravity" my GR is a bit rusty, but here goes. In
it's complete form, general relativity is a non-linear theory, which
means that it's really difficult to find non-static solutions except
in special cases.  You can, however, linearize the theory.  If I
recall correctly, you get the linearized version by looking at the
equations with no sources (i.e. masses).  You may have to assume other
things are small (perhaps the curvature of the field that the wave
propagates in?).  This linearized theory has a wave solution, meaning
a solution where distortions of the local space-time metric propagate
in the usual wave-like way.  The speed of propagation of those waves
is the speed of light.  These waves are generated any time a mass is
accelerated.  (Yes, my typing is making little gravity waves that are
whizzing off into space).  Since gravity is such a weak force in the
first place, it takes the acceleration of a pretty hefty mass to make
one detectable by our current technology (maybe at all.  Even the
experiments looking for large disturbances run into quantum
uncertainty problems).

I don't mean to sound harsh, or just state the establishment rhetoric,
but it really isn't tough to show that having something travel faster
than light voids causality.  That comes from special relativity, which
has been tested into the ground, so I'd take any claim to the contrary
with a large dose of salt.

One cool thing I heard from Kip Thorne was that, in the event of a
nova, the gravitational wave front caused by it would arrive
approximately 1 day before the light it produced.  Apparently, when a
star goes nova, the light generated at the interior is contained by an
outer shell of matter, until the shell is pushed away.  Since gravity
waves don't interact as strongly, they mostly pass through, to arrive
as the first heralds of the stars destruction.

Eww, that sounds so melodramatic.  :)

Hod
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science,alt.folklore.urban
From: ingles@engin.umich.edu (Ray Ingles)
Subject: Re: Metrication and "normal usage"
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 92 11:14:53 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <1992Oct6.145735.29424@sctc.com> boebert@sctc.com (Earl Boebert) writes:
>Back in the 1970's the midwestern author/humorist/radio personality
>Garrison Keillor (of later "Prairie Home Companion" fame) was the
>morning DJ on the Minneapolis public radio station.  On one show he
>explained that he refused to give the temperatures in Celsius because
>the scale was illogical. Farenheit makes sense: When it is zero
>degrees then it's cold.  When it's below zero it's really cold.  When
>it's above zero it's not so cold.  Even a batchelor Norwegian farmer
>can understand that :-)
>
>Earl

 As Dave Barry (a syndicated columnist from the Miami Herald) writes, "The
metric system has never really caught on in the U.S., unless you count the
increasing popularity of the nine-milimeter bullet."


Sincerely,

Ray Ingles                  || The above opinions are probably
                            || not those of the University of
ingles@engin.umich.edu      || Michigan. Yet.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: noise cancellation (was Re: using green marker on CDs)SCDOWN
From: sjan1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Simon Lee           Jansen         )
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 22:40:25 GMT
 <BvG0D1.66J@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> <1992Oct6.222201.1@lure.latrobe.edu.au>
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

In <1992Oct6.222201.1@lure.latrobe.edu.au> musjjh@lure.latrobe.edu.au writes:

>Several companies in the US and Australia are developing systems like this to
>deal with noise in cars and industrial noise on factory floors. They mostly
>work quite well, but I understand that the reason why you haven't heard
							   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>much of them is that they are all quite expensive as no one has set up for
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>real mass production yet.

Well they are noise cancellers, aren't they?  Not too surprising you haven't
heard much of them, then, is it? ;-)

--KW 8-)

-- 
/* ==Usenet/Internet==  Keith_Wansbrough@kcbbs.gen.nz  +=============+ *\
 *   ==Fidonet==  3:772/90                             | Forty-Two!! | *
 *     ==Real-life==  Keith Wansbrough +64 9 579 2572  +=============+ *
\* for (p=malloc(-1L);*p=1;p+=4096);  (kids: don't try this at home!)  */
From: ross-c@scs.leeds.ac.uk (R Clement)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: noise cancellation (was Re: using green marker on CDs)
Date: 1 Oct 92 14:17:30 GMT
Organization: The University of Leeds, School of Computer Studies
Originator: ross-c@csparc12

In article <BvG0D1.66J@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (David Morning) writes:
>
>There was a sytem used in some cars wich used a microphone to pick up the
>noise, phase reverse it and put it out again thus reducing noise by phase
>cancelling.
>
>Haven't heard much of it recently though so I'd guess it didn't work too
>well.
>

I've just been assured that this system was developed by Lotus. I've also
been told that there's another system which can cancel the engine note of
your car and replace it with another one. E.g. while you're driving your
microcompact or whatever, your engine noise is replaced by that of a 
Ferrari.

It could have been invented, so it MUST have happened.

Cheers,

Ross-c
From: jlpicard@austin.ibm.com (Craig Becker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: noise cancellation (was Re: using green marker on CDs)
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:53:54 GMT
Reply-To: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Object Technology Products
Originator: jlpicard@woofer.austin.ibm.com


george@beta.ee.ufl.edu (George L) writes:
> 
> On a similar note, and hopefully a new and different thread, has there been 
> any success at environmental noise cancellation? Not noise masking, where a 
> relaxing noise source (bubbling water, etc...) is used to drown out other 
> unwanted noise. Instead, something that would listen to the environment, and 
> generate another signal which would actually reduce the magnitude of the 
> unwanted noise. Kind of like using odor-eaters in your tennis shoes as opposed 
> to just dumping some cologne in them.

Hmmm...a couple of years ago or so I recall reading about some company
working on making "active mufflers" for automobiles that worked this
way. Anyone remember more?

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.science
From: bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson)
Subject: Re: Phony SCIFI on TV and in Movies
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 19:42:29 GMT

In article <28SEP199209221679@rover.uchicago.edu> frank@rover.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <KETIL.92Sep27215358@svale.ii.uib.no>, ketil@ii.uib.no writes...
>>Oh, that could be interesting...what if you want to just fire a
>>warning shot?  "Ooops, I was aiming above your head, but the automagic
>>targeting system corrected my aim.." not to mention that while *you*
>>want to hit the zorg, your gun may prefer targeting the coffe-machine
>	Or the reverse, as in the classic scene in Dr Strangelove where
>	Kenan Wynn wants to blow up the coke machine to get money so he
>	can dial in and say stop the atom bombers, you want to blow the
>	lock off the box containing the goodies, but the laser vaporises
>	the strongbox and the jewels/money.

The _Coca-Cola_ company will hear about this. 
>
>   Frank R. Borger - Physicist    __       Internet:  Frank@rover.uchicago.edu
>Michael Reese - Univ. of Chicago |___      Phone : 312-791-8075 fax : 567-7455
>  Center for Radiation Therapy   | |_) _   America is a large, friendly dog in
>                                   | \|_)  a very small room. Every time it wags
>    "Birthplace of Softball"          |_)  its tail, it knocs over a chair.
>					   Arnold Toynbee


--
Bruce Watson  wats@nyx.cs.du.edu  Toy Cows, Toy Cows in Africa, Toy Cows
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
From: gfowler@javelin.sim.es.com (Gary Fowler)
Subject: Re: jokes?
Keywords: jokes, math, science
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 05:35:34 GMT

jhl28500@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jae Hyung Lim) writes:


>Hi,

>I'm looking for math and science jokes people might have on hand.  It's both
>for my own enjoyment and for the purpose of annoying friends =).

>So if you've got 'em either mail them to me or post them here (I'd prefer email
>rather than post though.)

>Oh yes if you have puns which are science/math related or if the jokes are 
>heavily dependent on puns they would be more than welcome.  Just send them to
>me, I'll make a good home for them.

>thanks

>J

>jhl28500@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

I heard this one from a math professor at BYU.  It's a good pun on the
Pythagorean Theorem.

An Indian chief had three daughters who you coming of age to be married.
He told them that they could have the skin of any animal they wanted as a
wedding gift.  When the oldest daughter got married, she asked for a buffalo
skin.  The chief hunted and skinned a buffalo for her and gave her the skin
on her wedding day.  She later had one son.  When the middle daughter got
married, she asked for a bear skin.  This was a little more difficult, but
the chief hunted and skinned a bear and gave her the skin on her wedding day.
She also had one son.  When the youngest daughter got married, she asked for
a hippopotamus skin.  Well this was very difficult, but he managed to hunt
and skin a hippo for her and gave her the skin on her wedding day.  She had
two sons.  One day, all three daughters were sitting on their animal skins when
the old chief thought to himself, "The squaw on the hide of the hippopotamus
is equal to the sons of the squaws on the other two hides."

********************************************************************************
*     Gary Fowler                     *     The storm starts when the drops    *
*     gfowler@esunix.sim.es.com       *     start dropping.  When the drops    *
*     Evans & Sutherland              *     stop dropping then the storm       *
*     600 Komas Drive                 *     starts stopping.                   *
*     Salt Lake City, UT              *     -Dr. Seuss                         *
********************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science