HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird)
Subject: Re: Accuracy in autobiography (was: GENIUS: Richard Feynman)
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 23:17:52 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.books

In article <1992Nov19.043820.6428@blaze.cs.jhu.edu> callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu (Paul Callahan) writes:
			.
			.
			.
>The Feynman books are supposed to be subjective.  This issue is not exactly 
>what happened to Feynman, but how he interpreted it.  Perhaps it would be  
>better to call it a self-portrait than an autobiography (I realize that
>others participated in the actual writing).  His portrait is refreshing in 
>many ways.  Primarily, it shows how a person can be brilliant without being 
>morose, alienated, or insane.  Quibbling about facts misses the point entirely.
			.
			.
			.
Perhaps this is the time to say a few words about

	Djerassi, Cal
	1992	The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse:
		the autobiography of Carl Djerassi.
		Basic Books, New York

It's comparable to Feynman's self-portraits, and, in fact,
the dust jacket to the copy I have includes a more stellar
line-up of testimonial-writers than I've seen for any of
the Feynman editions.

I'm not in a position to communicate a coherent review of
the book now; I'll confine myself to a few highlights.  In
comparing to the Feynman books, what is most remarkable is
its functional equivalence.  Feynman was at the pinnacle of
twentieth-century science, while Djerassi was (he's still
alive, but no longer a chemist, by his own choice) merely
first-rate, but it's the latter who better communicates
how his own work altered the course of his field.  Both:
found comfort in the company of women; embarked on artistic
careers of more or less success; engagingly recount num-
erous amusing narratives (I laughed aloud more frequently
with Feynman); consider large political questions and
their own work; drop names (Djerassi does it a bit more
effectively:  Trotsky, Eastwood, Nixon, Prigogine, Mobutu,
a King Carl, ...); and curiously neglect some of their
professional colleagues (why doesn't Herbert Budzikiewicz
rate a mention?).  Djerassi shows just a touch more need
for quality control; there are a few errors at the level
of spelling.  There's an index, which is always a Good
Thing, and it's mostly about Carli (Vienna was the home
for his formative years), which is only natural.

*The Pill ...* is inviting, it's fun, it's meaningful.
Thumbs-up.

Djerassi has also

	Djerassi, Carl
	1990	Steroids made it possible.  American
		Chemical Society, Washington, DC

which reports on his professional life in more detail.
I have yet to see a copy of this.

If I had a better feel for the culture there, I might
have cross-posted this to sci.chem.  In any case, I've
suggested follow-ups revert to r.a.b.
-- 

Cameron Laird
claird@Neosoft.com (claird%Neosoft.com@uunet.uu.net)	+1 713 267 7966
claird@litwin.com (claird%litwin.com@uunet.uu.net)  	+1 713 996 8546
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kyee@caesar.mit.edu (Kenneth Yee)
Subject: Re: Torturing Politicals
Keywords: (sick) jumor
Reply-To: kyee@mtl.mit.edu
Organization: Massachvsetts Institvte of Technology
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 20:29:18 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.161502.25891@nas.nasa.gov>  
wismith@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (William R. Smith) writes:
> Joan Shields writes:
> 	
> 	Perhaps a list of books that deal with or are full of gallows  
humor?
> 	
> A friend of mine heard about a book on a radio talk show and bought
> it.  Its about using laughter to overcome depression, and is called
> "Lighten Up".  He's just started it so I don't have a recommendation
> to share yet.
> 
> We talked about "gallow humor" and how it was common in companies
> (ok, company) we knew about that were going thru lay-offs.
> 
> William Sburgfort Smith
> Intel, SSD

University of California at Berkeley anthropology professor Alan Dundes  
published a book a few years ago called _Cracking Jokes:  A Study of Sick  
Humor Cycles_.  An older book of his written in collaboration with C.  
Banc, _First Prize:  Fifteen Years_, is a collection of political humor  
collected in Eastern Europe (several years before the fall of the Berlin  
Wall).  

                               --- Ken
                                   kyee@mtl.mit.edu
From: mechalas@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (John Mechalas)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Maddona's new book
Date: 23 Nov 92 01:54:55 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

In article <1992Nov22.230945.13674@eff.org> mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:
>I don't think the issue is what society would accept. I certainly didn't
>raise that issue. The issue I raised is whether such a book would have a
>positive, negative, or neutral effect on the author's career.
>
>It seems unlikely that a book of Andrew "Dice" Clay nudes or 2 Live Crew
>nudes would have a neutral or positive effect. That you think such a book
>of nudes would not hurt their careers says much about your estimation of
>both talents.

Again, you are misinterpreting my opinion.  I have little or no respect for
their talents.  However, despite my opinions, their performances still appeal
to a decent-sized segment of the population.  Large enough that they can
be labeled as "succesful".
  The original question was whether or not suce people could *get away* with
a book of Madonna's type.  Both of the artists mentioned above could do so,
in my humble opinion.
   As for the succesfulness of such a book, it is possible.  Remeber, a lot
of what I consider rude and lewd has been very positive for both 2 Live
Crew and Dice.  Just listen to their acts.  Now, I will admit that book
that is identicle in form to Madonna's may not be so succesful, but a book
containing material of the same level, but in a different structure, could
be.

-- 
John Mechalas                      | If you think my opinions are Purdue's, then
mechalas@mentor.cc.purdue.edu      |      you vastly overestimate my importance.
Purdue University Computing Center |             Help put a ban on censorship :)
General Consulting                 |                       #include disclaimer.h
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The Secret Agent
Date: 23 Nov 1992 18:40:58 GMT
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
NNTP-Posting-Host: oas.stanford.edu

Ron Nadel writes:

	This could make for an interesting thread on books that trasnlated 
	well to the screen.  I tend to agree with the assessment above - 
	that the better the novel, the weaker the result on screen.  The 
	exceptions I would put forth are:

		Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (PBS)
		Smiley's People
		Crime and Punishment (PBS)
		Little Dorritt
		Godfather
		Lonesome Dove

	So what do you others feel were well done translations of novels?

Ron, Ron, don't you know that you're going to start Little Markie off
on his rant about that dreadful Forster thing? In any case the thread
is threadbare and proves nothing. There are good/bad books and good/bad
films made from those books, and no-one has ever shown a correlation,
positive or negative, between the two sets. As to the Secret Agent thing,
it is a solid bore from beginning to end. Suchet never gets the direction
that he must have (as in the Poirot stuff) and puts on this dreadfully
standard caricature of a turn-of-the-century Russian Spy in London. At
least Morris' spy was real.

							Fido
From: "dale smoak" <dale.smoak@channel1.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: raymond carver
Date: 18 Nov 92 18:23:44 EST
Reply-To: "dale smoak" <dale.smoak@channel1.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Channel 1 Communications

Does anyone out there have a copy of Raymond Carver's first book of
short stories, *Furious Seasons*?

If so, can you answer a couple of questions about the stories? There
were apparently eight of them; is this right?

Some or all of these stories have been republished in later books:
*Where I'm Calling From*, *Fires* and *No Heroics, Please*.  Can you say
something about how Carver revised the stories before republishing them?
He barely could leave a story alone, sometimes to wonderful effect; but
not having seen some of the original versions I'm curious as to what and
how substantial were the changes he made.

Thank you,

Dale Smoak
---
  DeLuxe 1.26b #12237  dale.smoak#channel1.com/76350.3662@compuserve.com
--
Channel 1 (R)   Cambridge, MA

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.philosophy.meta
From: torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen)
Subject: Re: Wittgenstein, P.I.
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
	<TORKEL.92Nov21084521@bast.sics.se> <1992Nov21.151135.29992@eff.org>
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 15:33:53 GMT

In article <1992Nov21.151135.29992@eff.org> mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
 writes:

   >Where did I say he was not? The passage of mine you quote here simply
   >states what his general conclusion about philosophical problems was.

  What? Are you attributing to Wittgenstein that peculiar line about "problems
in the use of language"?

   >What I said was that
   >"Wittgenstein, p.i." did not include metaphysics as part of his modus
   >operandi. It is illogical to take this as a statement of his concerns;
   >it is merely a statement of his methods.

  But metaphysics is not a "modus operandi" but a field of thought.
From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Lightbulbs, et al.  [was: The Truth According to Mickie Medved]
Date: 18 Nov 92 23:25:38 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

How many right-wing politicians does it take to change a light bulb?

There is nothing wrong with the light bulb. All the preconditions for
illumination are in place. An increase in the rate at which it is not
getting darker is expected any moment. Before taking any drastic
action we ask you to consider very carefully who is most trustworthy
in the management of the nation's lighting.
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
From: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (The Napoleon of Crime)
Subject: BTAS: Tomorrow's Riddler episode
Reply-To: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (The Napoleon of Crime)
Organization: The Institute for Criminal Science, Gizmonics Control
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 04:24:11 GMT

Looks like a lighter episode -- which is just about right for The Riddler.
Nice change after the two-parter...

                           "Wine gives me a headache.  I'll have a double
                            kamikaze."
---
                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET:     moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP:  {uunet, uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO:        You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
                 **>> Keep circulating the tapes <<**
From: msr@kepler.unh.edu (Reno no BAKA)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Subject: Re: Saban's Little Mermaid movie
Date: 15 Nov 1992 05:26:15 GMT
Organization: None what-so-ever
NNTP-Posting-Host: kepler.unh.edu

>> From: collins_w@cubldr.colorado.edu
>>    I came across a video cassette, "The Little Mermaid" from Starmaker.
>> The mermaid's name is Maria (which is almost Marina). It also has
>> Fritz the Dolphin, and Duke the Whale. So now I am wondering if Saban
>> even did a Little Mermaid movie. Has anyone actually seen such a movie
>> from Saban?

How long is this version of the tale? I remember seeing a version about 8-10
years ago that had (I believe) a live action intro that showed Denmark and
the little mermaid statue and talked about Anderson's (or is Andersen?) work.
Then the rest was animated. I believe it was close to feature length (it was
shown in a two hour movie slot, but with commercials who knows?). I also think
it was Japanese or maybe Korean. But the animation was excellent and the story
was true to the original (she died at the end, well turning to foam is close 
enough to death). The Disney version did not have the same impact on me as this
one, maybe because I am older. If anyone has seen this version and knows where
I can get it (if it is not the one from the original post) please tell me.
Thanks a lot...
--Matt


-- 
NNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII???????
And I thought I was going to graduate on time......
Matt Reno, a miserable excuse for a cs major!
msr@kepler.unh.edu
or the one I never use MSR_CS611@unhh.unh.edu
or the new one M_RENO@unhh.unh.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
From: conty@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (E. Kontei)
Subject: Re: BTAS  11/16: Heart of Steel
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 02:04:06 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.215119.13850@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>, mae@aplpy.jhuapl.edu (Mary Anne Espenshade) writes:
> The one I want to mention that nobody has pointed out yet was the
> appearance of the one type of the robot skeleton, the one that first
> appeared as the trash can following Barbara.  It's a design out of
> a Fleisher Superman cartoon, more recently used repeatedly by
> Miyazaki in a Lupin episode and in Laputa.

As I already commented to Ryan Gavigan over in rec.arts.anime, I don't
think so.  I've seen the Fleischer short ("THE MECHANICAL MONSTERS")
and LAPUTA several times (I have them on laserdisc), and saw the LUPIN
robot in a photograph.  Although you can see the SUPERMAN->LUPIN->LAPUTA  
robotic evolution, none of them looks like the TrashcanBot.  This fellow
would have looked right at home in a pulp magazine cover.
-- 
			    E n r i q u e  C o n t y
			The Incredible Man-with-no-Life
			      jester@ihlpm.att.com
		    Disclaimer: You're not dealing with AT&T
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
From: isupstud@bnr.ca (Todd Strilchuk)
Subject:  .. Chicken-Hawk (Bugs Bunny ???)
Reply-To: isupstud@bnr.ca
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 21:12:31 GMT


Quick question: Does any one know the name of the chicken hawk that is
constantly trying to capture Foghorn Leghorn?


"I'm a chicken hawk...  and you're a chicken!"

Todd Strilchuk
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation,rec.arts.disney
From: dvandom@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (David VanDomelen)
Subject: Re: Alladin for the first time
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 14:08:10 GMT

You can't wait for the figures?  Well, you don't *need* to!  They're already 
out there!  The Genie has a head that can be pulled out and rotated, as well as
flipped from happy to angry face.  I didn't look closely at the Aladdin figure,
so can't recall what his gimmick is.
     Dave Van Domelen, "Moichandizing!"
From: lgb2@po.CWRU.Edu (Linda G. Brashear)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Subject: Belle
Date: 24 Nov 1992 05:04:15 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc5.ins.cwru.edu


-- 
"And the Glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will
see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."------Isaiah 40:5
"Come on down, stop on by, hop a carpet and fly to another Arabian Night"
					-----"Arabian Nights", Aladdin
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
From: avril@chopin.udel.edu (April Christi Clark)
Subject: Scooby Doo etc.
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:49:57 GMT

Warning: since I am a child of the seventies, this post may include very cheesy
cartoon shows offensive to some sophisticates.)
Are there any Scooby Doo experts who read this group? I am interested in findingout the history of Scooby Doo, up to the introduction of Scrappy (who, I 
believe, marked the beginning of the end.) Also, I've seen a lot of Shmoobashingaround here. I _liked_ the Shmoo (though maybe because I was a kindergartener
at the time.) Am I the only one? I also watched the Littles and the short lived
Dungeons and Dragons (yes, with the dumb unicorn) later on. Who did the 
Littles?

Finally, I think I win the prize for remembering the most obscure and dumb
Sat morning cartoon: Rubik, The Amazing Cube, circa 1984. :)
-April Clark, U. of Delaware










Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
From: wilsont@rahul.net (Timothy Wilson)
Subject: hey... pandemonium was cool!
Organization: a2i network
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 05:51:00 GMT

Hey! take pandemonium off the dumbest toon list. 

That show had sorta a 'mystic' plot line i liked. 
I liked the one panda who was sorta like jackie gleason.
a real smart ass.


to take pandemoniums place... i offer: the one with the dogs and the 
garbage truck... _that_ was stupid. 

i don't know why i watched it....


-- 
Timothy Wilson <wilsont@rahul.net>
From: jordan@castor (Ground Chuck)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Subject: Re: BTAS:  HEART OF STEEL, pt. 2
Date: 18 Nov 92 22:46:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: athena.1992Nov18.224641.19522
Organization: University of Georgia

In article <1992Nov18.052733.7787@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> conty@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (E. Kontei) writes:
>Much better.  Much better!  The pacing was a bit too rushed towards the
>end, but otherwise it was a great episode.
>
>Nice imagery in several places:
>- The Bullock-bot falling towards the bat-signal in the background.

It seemed to me that the writers/animators/whoever finally had the chance
to show some real out-and-out violence in a children's cartoon, but it was
okay because they were smashing up robots instead of real people.  We got
a lot of neat scenes like Bullock smashing into a light and getting fried,
and Batman generally punching and beating up Commissioner Gordon et al. 

	I really enjoyed this two-parter, and not because of the gratuitous
violence, either.  I thought having the robots people move as spiders or
whatnot, twisting their heads all the way around and such, was a neat effect.
I'm also glad that they didn't immediately make Barbara become Batgirl; they
let her character develop some.  I hope they string it out.

Chuck

-- 
                  Chuck Jordan | jordan@castor.cs.uga.edu
         "Is that gravy?  I thought the dog had gotten sick ..."
	           -- Mystery Science Theater 3000
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
From: rschwabe@ravel.udel.edu (Robert Josep Schwabe)
Subject: Re: The DUMBEST saturday cartoon ever
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 05:31:51 GMT

I cannot believe that nobody mentioned the most abysmal saturday morning cartoonever----> Gilligan's Planet.  Yes,those castaways weren't able to build a boat
but they were able to build a rocket ship.  boy did Bob Denver need some money
at the time.  This was utter crap


Rob

Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
From: tara@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Lady Johanna Constantine)
Subject: Re: In BMTAS
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:09:40 GMT

jpenney@delta.mathlab.sunysb.edu (Janet Penney) writes:

>(and just to make it relevant to the group, does anyone remember the star wars
>series of cartoons, the ewoks and c-3po/r2d2 ?)

>Janet (Jpenney@ccmail.sunysb.edu)

Yep.  I loved 'Droids.  It had a great theme song.
Does anyone out there rememebr the one shot from the early 80's
with the wookies and Boba-fett?

I think it was shown with the first network broadcast of Star Wars,
when I was about 6 or so, so that woudl make it circa 1980-81 
but I'm not certain.


LJC
-- 
Lady Johanna Constantine | "When you remove the pin, Mr Hand
tara@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu    |  Grenade is no longer your friend"
Founder of the Church of Our Lady of the Perpetually Clueless
Disclaimer: The U of I doesn't give a damn or blast WHAT I do
Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 13:31:24 EST
From: <CARLOSLI@auvm.american.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Subject: BTAS: Barbara Gordon's voice?

I noticed Barbara Gordon's voice in the credits yesterday was Melissa Gilbert-
Brinkman (or something like that). Is this the same Melissa Gilbert that played
Laura Ingalls in Little House on the f*ck*ng Prairie?

Carlos.
From: aa664@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Alan Scott Tuskes)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Subject: Re: ANIMATION: anybody here actually animate?
Date: 21 Nov 1992 05:50:41 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: aa664@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Alan Scott Tuskes)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


>
>Using filters isn't a good idea for solving the problem you describe.
>If you look at Disney's movies, you'll see great care exercised in the
>choice of colors for the characters and the backgrounds.  The two are
>considered together.  As a rule of thumb (for Disney) bright, primary
>colors for the characters, pastels for the background. It sounds as if
>it's not only a problem of color choices, but also maybe a problem
>of lighting.  Try this:  okay, imagine a clock face where your
>characters are in the center and you are at 6 o'clock.  Put your
>two brightest lights at 10 and at 2, shining on your characters.,
>now put a dimmer light at the camera, 6 o'clock.  This should give
>you a nice, bright halo of light around your characters and pull
>them out of the background, while allowing you to see detail in the
>their faces as well.  Expose for the dimmer light and light the
>2 backlights go hot.  You'll probably have to pay your little
>brother a buck to hold up a black card shielding the lens from
>flare from the 10 and 2 lights. If he gives you any crap, kick his butt
>like you've been doing all his life.
>>
I think this may also be a problem with his color temperature and film
stock... if he is trying to light his stuff with standard incandescent
lights, the film will register the colors wayyyy off. If I recall correctly
Kodachrome will be registering everything in a nice orange-amber haze.
At the very least, get some photo-floods in your reflectors to get the
color temperature up. Negative part, photo floods have a short life,
and slowly change color temp as they die. If you feel flush, get some
quartz instruments, the bulbs last longer and maintain color temp
throughout their life.
>>Also, if anybody else is using a Bolex or similar 16mm camera... what
>>size of lense are you using?
>
>26mm Macro Switar.  Lets you get a shot of your little fingernail
>that fills the screen, but also does all the work of a normal lens.
>Occasionally a 50mm.
>
I agree

Alan Tuskes
Alternative Realities Ltd

p.s. - While we are at it, what film stock and lights are you 
using. Might as well find out if that IS the problem.
-- 
========>>> Big Al T ---- Sysop From Hell ---- aa664 <<<=========
******************The three great lies:**************************
1) I'll still respect   2)The check is in   3)I'm from the IRS &
you in the morning.     the mail.           I'm here to help you.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation