HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Path:
bnr-rsc!bcars267!bnrgate!corpgate!news.utdallas.edu!wupost!usc!rpi!usenet.coe.montana.edu!news.u.washington.edu!milton.u.washington.edu!bbeer
From: bbeer@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Beer)
Newsgroups: alt.tasteless
Subject: Guinea Worms
Date: 3 Jun 92 19:45:09 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

I just read part of an article on Mali in the paper this morning that had
me
numb for about 10 minutes!  It was an article about water (as Seattle is
now
on water restrictions).  In Mali there are all the common bugs in the
water,
etc., but they have one parasite in the swampy areas that, to my way of 
thinking, is one of the most tasteless.  It makes me think that possibly
God
himself is a lurker on this group...

The guinea worm is usually contracted by drinking water from swamps, and
 enters the body as tiny eggs.  These hatch in the intestine, and quickly
grow through-out the body, becoming several feet long.  They then protrude
from small holes in the legs and arms.  The only way to get rid of it is to
catch the worms head with a fork or some such object, and slowly spool it
on like spaghetti, an inch or so at a time, over the course of several
weeks.


> 
> -- 
> 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  

Think that's what really killed Craig Shergold?

***** Michael Snider ********** alas, no email, so reply by post ******

Talk of fame, honor, pleasure, wealth, all are dirt compared with
affection.
                                                   Charles Darwin          

Critics quarrel with other critics. With an artist, no sane man quarrels.  

                                                   George Santayana        

                      
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Safety Margins (was: Sinking libraries)
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:51:21 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.190044.25338@acuson.com> lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson) writes:
>
>The Brooklyn Bridge was mentioned stating that the designer was aware
>of the problem but didn't have any way to calculate the strengths
>needed.  So he intentionally overcompensated to make up for the
>unknown.

The Brooklyn Bridge is known to have been overcompensated with lotsa cables,
but the usual reason given is that sometime during the course of construction
it was found out that the cable supplier(s?) were involved in selling
substandard materials, although I never heard anything to confirm/deny whether
the actual cable stock used on the Brooklyn Bridge was known to be inferior to
spec.  The story goes further to explain that 3 times as many as necessary
were then used to make sure it would function correctly anyway.

Whether the bridge oscillation is a factor in why so many cables, or whether
*that* number was tripled to prevent overloading wimpy cables, it is a fact
that in recent years there are occasional cable breaks.  I think the last one
was in 1990.  I would think that loud noises are associated with it, but in
any case they do wind up as local news stories when there is a report of a
cable breaking.  The media plays on the hysteria of people who would think
the bridge is falling down, but the article always assures people that the
bridge is (still) safe.  Since the surface value of the article is to ensure
public confidence, the media gets off the hook for playing on fears.

In any case, the Brooklyn Bridge is closed to truck traffic and many of the
entrance ramps are narrow and windy, which discourages large heavy (and
illegal) vehicles, and perhaps tends to lower the average load by spacing
the cars, etc.

cjl (No, I don't sell the Brooklyn Bridge on street corners, but I know
where you can go; there's this guy...)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Subject: Re: Presidential UL's
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 01:00:22 GMT

What about the commander of SAC telling his generals, "if the
President tells you to fire the missiles, talk to me first," because
Nixon wasn't, uh, balanced at that point in life because of Watergate.

--
"It's a Drake's Coffee Cake....  I have another one, but I'm saving
it for _later_."
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Colour perception (was: Death by sneezing)
Date: 8 Sep 1992 19:59:09 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Distribution: world
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article fq5pbb4@csv.warwick.ac.uk, csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:
> The position of the [traffic] light in the stack, and the fact that you
> can tell which light is on or off, is all you need to use traffic
> lights.

You don't even need quite *that* much in Quebec.  The lights are
shape-coded as well; the shapes are square, square rotated 45 degrees
(sometimes called "diamond"), and circle.

Brian "And in California, we have Braille dots on the roads for blind drivers" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lbrother@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Larry Brothers)
Subject: Re: How are McNuggets made?
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro NM
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 11:07:51 GMT


They're not made, they're mined.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.skeptic
From: rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires)
Subject: Re: Bibliography of Flat, Hollow, Inverted Earth Works
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 92 02:04:16 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Sep3.164249.12441@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> michaelb@cse.fau.edu (Michael Rogero Brown) writes:
>The following is my bibliography of articles and books about alternate
>earth theories like Flat Earth, Hollow Earth, and "Inverted Earth".
>If anyone knows of any I have missed, please let me know.  I am always
>trying to expand my collection.
>

	Looks like you forgot

	_Inventing The Flat Earth, Columbus and Modern Historians_
	Jeffrey Burton Russell,
	Praeger Publishers, 1991, ISBN 0-275-93956-1

	about which I posted a long article to s.s awhile back.
	Thank you for the list, BTW, I'll hang onto it!

Roger Squires
rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: ruthc@sco.COM (the acid and the ecstasy)
Subject: Re: Mnemonics
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 23:06:55 GMT


In article <1992Aug25.195328.16847@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:
>	SOME USEFUL ACRONYMS:
>
>	snafu	situation normal, all fucked up
>	fubb	fucked up beyond all belief
>	fubar	fucked up beyond all recognition
>	fumtu	fucked up more than usual
>	tarfu	things are really fucked up
>	figmo	fuck it, got my orders
>	janfu	joint army-navy fuckup.  (When American troops get shelled
>		by their own side, in this case involving both the army and
>		the navy.)
>	gfu	general fuck-up
>	samfu	self-adjusting military fuck-up
>	sapfu	surpassing all previous fuck-ups
>	susfu	situation unchanged, still fucked-up
>	fujimo	fuck you jack i'm moving on

I heard one that was supposedly often radio'd between bombers:

k-map, yoyo   - Kiss My Ass, Prick, You're On Your Own

-r
-- 
Pistol shots / Gun shots / Pistol shots / Gun shots / Bullets from a revolver /
Bullets from a gun / Bullets through the atmosphere / here they come. / John,
I've been bad and they're / coming after me, / done someone wrong and I fear /
that it was me / Sapphire bullets / Bullets of pure love. -They Might Be Giants-
From: obrien@netcom.com (Robert O'Brien)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: What makes an urban legend work?
Summary: The chicken gun: I've seen it fired (me! in person!)
Date: 6 Sep 92 00:50:34 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

In article <2523@israel.nysernet.org> warren@nysernet.org writes:

>Just a second, lemme get a kosher frozen chicken for the cannon.

For the record, I worked at General Dynamics in Fort Worth from 8/82 to 4/89

I saw the "chicken gun" fired at F-16 canopies on several occasions.

It was determined some years before that the birds had to be fresh, freezing
destroys the muscle fibers by bursting cells.  I understood that the birds
were live shortly before the firing and were 'put to sleep' in pure nitrogen.
I had a feather and a piece of plastic sabot in my desk drawer from the
first firing for as long as I thought it was interesting.  Sabot? you may ask..
the birds are loaded into a coffee-can sized 'discarding sabot' - a term
from artillery usage. It's very much like the plastic "wadding" in shotgun
shells.  Its leading edge is split and it shatters into twenty or so pieces
immediately out of the barrel.  The muzzle is maybe only ten feet from the
canopy, but the sabot goes way wide of the cage the target is in.  No, the
cage does not contain all the gore, but it's outdoors, so it gets hosed down.

Any questions?  I have *some* of the answers, but canopy testing was never
one of my areas, so I was not _involved_ just a bystander.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Colour perception (was: Death by sneezing)
From: dogbowl@dogbox.acme.gen.nz (dogbowl)
Date: Mon, 07 Sep 92 17:42:26 Y
Organization: The Dawghaus BBS

csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:

> In article <Z3umqB1w165w@dogbox.acme.gen.nz> dogbowl@dogbox.acme.gen.nz (dogb
> >moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com writes:
> >
> >> ObUL:  Red traffic lights are tinged a little on the orange side, and
> >> green lights tinged on the blue to help red-green colorblind folks to
> >> distinguish them.
> >
> >I don't know about the red lights having orange in them, but the green
> >lights *do* have blue tints in them. At least they do in the area where
> >I was born, as the rate of red-green colour-blindness in males approaches
> >30%.
> >
> >(Apparently when the traffic lights were first installed 35 years ago, they
> > didn't have the tinting, and there were quite a few accidents because of it
> >
> 
> I very much doubt this. (All of it) If you can't read a traffic light, you
> have to be vertically-blind, as well as color-blind. The position of the ligh

When the lights were introduced, people had to remember which light was which.
My grandfather was one of the people who was involved in a collision for
precisely this reason.( he's r-g colourblind, as is my father )

It's similar to the high number of accidents that happened at several
intersections in the town where I live now after they were converted to
roundabouts -  new situations on the road can cause accidents - watch
rural drivers when they have to contend with multilane highways.

Older drivers tend to be worse because of ingrained driving habits which
must be overcome in new situations.
(This has been documented in private aviation -
  BASI journal, June 1992, page 12              )




dogbowl at The Dawghaus BBS  ( +64 6 357-9245 )


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: emcmanus@gr.osf.org (Eamonn McManus)
Subject: Re: Fuel misers
Organization: Open Software Foundation Research Institute, Grenoble
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 15:49:20 GMT

smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) writes:
>The real problem, though, is the chicken-and-egg problem.  I can't
>pull up to my neighborhood metallic hydride station and tank up.
>[...]  That's why methane-powered vehicles aren't used much, except
>for a few demonstration vehicles and (around here) some natural gas
>utility trucks.

I visited a friend in Italy who had a small methane-powered car.
This was in Parma, which is not a particularly big city; there were
nevertheless several stations where he could refuel, though not as
many as petrol stations.

,
Eamonn
From: tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Terry Carroll)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Sn*ff references required, please!
Date: 8 Sep 92 20:50:04 GMT
Reply-To: tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Terry Carroll)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation

In article <9225117.12092@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>, summer@mamura.ee.mu.oz.au (Mark 
Summerfield) writes:
> ] T. Search in WestLaw in 1991 showed no mention of cases on "snuff films".
> 
> Could someone please give me some information about WestLaw -- I gather
> it's some sort of database? How complete and authoratative is it? Is there
> an address for the company that runs it? If the person who did the search
> is out there, perhaps they could let me know what terms they used, and how
> complete they feel the search was?

1) WestLaw is a database of legal cases (similar to and competing with Mead 
Data Central's Lexis).

2) It reports most appelate decisions in all 50 states, US possessions, and 
the federal system, plus some cases of original jurisdiction.

3) WestLaw is a service of the West Publishing Company, 50 W. Kellogg Blvd., 
P.O.Box 64526, St. Paul, MN 55164-0526.  Their telephone number is 1-800-937-
8529 (1-800-WESTLAW).

4) I'm the person who ran the search.  I searched on a number of terms, none 
of which I remember exactly now.  "Snuff" was one, of course (I found a case 
where a judge _referred_ to snuff films, which revealed only that he believed 
they existed.  Also words like "kill", "murder", etc., conjoined with "film", 
"taping", etc.  (which was a royal pain in the butt, because it turned up 
hundreds of cases where a confession was videotaped, which I had to wade 
through).

5) I'm pretty confident in the search, but: it only means that no such cases 
were _appealed_.  Most cases of original jurisdiction (e.g., trials) are not 
in the database.

Terry Carroll - tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com - 408/992-2152
The opinions presented above are not necessarily those of a sound mind.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: GC.TLR@forsythe.stanford.edu (No Comment)
Subject: Re: Monty Python's 3-sided ?
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 02:18:44 GMT

In article <m4wpbdsq@csv.warwick.ac.uk>,
csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:
>In article <31AUG199217031756@apsicc.aps.edu> einhorn_d@apsicc.aps.edu (E. Drew Einhorn) writes:
>>In article <Btv7M2.9vD@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, hucke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Matt Hucke) writes:
>>
>>>Didn't Monty Python once make a $20 bill with three sides?
>>
>>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
>>
>>Wonder if it's a true story.  Would have required a special lathe to cut the
>>master disk.
>
>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.
>
>The Wisp. [what goes around comes around...]
>--

I had a copy of Laurie Anderson's "You're the Guy I want to share my
Money With", and it had one side of a double album set that was either
double or triple grooved.

This album contained a fair amount of spoken, bellowed, and muttered
poetry by W.S. Burroughs, some other looney, and a few pieces by Anderson.
Most of it was rather difficult listening material- lots of incoherent
reiteration...in Burrough's less than silky tones.

One day, however, I was playing side 4 and heard a Laurie Anderson
piece that was kind of funky-but I knew that I had played this side
before and I didn't remember this piece. This was in 1981(?) and
Laurie Anderson had released a limited amount of material, and any-
thing new or different was cause for some small excitement.

I immediately ran into the next room, got one of my buddies and tried
to "needle drop", and managed to miss the track  with the Anderson
piece on it in successive attempts. Not aware of the multiple tracks,
I became somewhat distressed and my roommate developed a speculative
stare.....

It took a while to figure that one out....

Terrance
the Wonder Weasel
From: DSTEPHEN@cmsa.gmr.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Third to be bombed...
Date: 8 Sep 92 17:25:55 GMT
Organization: GM Research Labs

Everyone knows the Quad City area, composed of Moline, IL, Rock Island, IL,
Davenport, IA, and a hick town to be named later, is third on the list, because
the Army weapons command is located at the Rock Island Aresenal.  Everyone who
posted different cities with lists of spurious reasons is wrong.
From: 2429oconnorw@vms.csd.mu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Presidential UL's
Date: 15 Sep 1992 02:34:06 GMT
Organization: Marquette University - Computer Services
Reply-To: 2429oconnorw@vms.csd.mu.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: vmsa.csd.mu.edu

In article <1992Sep15.010022.19370@news.columbia.edu>, egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy) writes:
>What about the commander of SAC telling his generals, "if the
>President tells you to fire the missiles, talk to me first," because
>Nixon wasn't, uh, balanced at that point in life because of Watergate.

It was not the commander of SAC that said this.  It was Tricky Dick's
Sec. of Defence whos name escapes me.  Any one out there know?

Bill 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Re: Evita's body
Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards, Cal.
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:43:19 GMT

On 5 Sep 92 03:54:37 GMT, jwp@panix.com (JongWoo Park) said:

J> Accoring to a little booklet found in CD of Evita ( american version ):

J>  .... But even in death she is denied obscurity.  The moment she dies the
J>  embalmers move in to preserve her fragile body to be "displayed forever",
J>  although this never happened.  The story of escapades of the corpse of
J>  Eva Peron during the quarter-century after her death is almost as
J>  bizarre as the story of her life.

J> So, what happened to her body?

It's in a crypt in Buenos Aires.  We visited this cemetary and
wandered around, looking at all the snazzy crypts.  Our guide seemed
to think that this was a significant item on the city tour, but I
thought it was kind of morbid.  But I'm not an admirer of the Perons.

Evita's crypt is not the biggest or neatest or anything; it's just
sort of ordinary.

The sight that I thought was more interesting was the park across from
our hotel.  It has an oldish clock tower that was a gift from the
British government commemorating some significant event
(independence?) in the history of Argentina.  It also has a monument
listing all the Argentinian Air Force crews killed by the British in
the Falklands/Malvinas War.  I asked several people, but I'm still not
sure if this was irony or inadvertence.

--
Mary Shafer  DoD #0362 KotFR NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov                    Of course I don't speak for NASA
 "There's no kill like a guns kill." LCDR "Hoser" Satrapa, gunnery instructor
                       "A kill is a kill."  Anonymous
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: there's a WHAT in my head?
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:54:18 GMT

In article <1992Sep4.145758.16679@exu.ericsson.se> exuhag@exu.ericsson.se writes:
>
>IMO this sounds a lot like the old earwig bit, or maybe the choking baby,
>but could it be true?  (My question is how did the worm get from his
>digestive tract to his brain?)  Anyone hear of similar maladies?

Yes, ants in the head, presumably arriving by ear canal and setting up house
in the head innards, feeding on blood.

cjl
From: 01sybok@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: The Brady Bunch
Date: 10 Sep 92 21:15:42 GMT
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

In article <1992Sep10.184743.29474@colorado.edu>, fielden@spot.Colorado.EDU (j.a. fielden) writes:

> And word is there is going to be a Brady Bunch movie(recast with new people)

God in heaven, it's _The Brady Bunch: The Next Generation_. NOW I've seen
everything.

Mike "Stop the planet, please. It's time I left."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Smallest denominations of paper money (was: Counterfeiting)
From: pietro@deis35.cineca.it (Pietro Caselli)
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 21:51:55 GMT
 <mcirvin.715558394@husc8> <1992Sep4.075633.25129@news.columbia.edu> <bakc.127.715933126@giraffe.ru.ac.za>
Organization: DEIS ... le news

bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za (MR KR COMAN) writes:

>>Subject: Re: Smallest denominations of paper money (was: Counterfeiting)

>I was in Italy back in 1977 and got a 50 lira note amongst some change -- 
>was worth bugger-all then......and today???

He he.  Those weren't real aboveboard "papermoney" (it wasn't the
Italian government which minted them), just a supposedly temporary
workaround by enterprising banks for a lack of coins... which continued
for years, as "temporary" problems are apt to do here in Italy...
anyway, technically they were cashier's checks rather than money.
(BTW, 50 liras is almost 5 whole cents at today's exchange rate, don't
sneer at it...:-).
-- 
Pietro Caselli				|
Internet: pietro@deis35.cineca.it	|    IF YOU MEET THE BUDDHA
	  zaphod@petruz.sublink.org	|     ON THE ROAD,KILL HIM.
From: 00mlschmalz@bsu-ucs.uucp
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Marching Band ULs needed
Date: 9 Sep 92 05:56:31 GMT


I'm looking for urban legends concerning Band, Drum and Bugle Corp, etc.
A friend of mine told me a "rifle twirler dies during routine" story
and I wanted to know if it was an urban legend or not while collecting
others for him.  Thanks.....

-- 
   Marc Schmalz, a.k.a. Sparky!!, a.k.a. Campus Activist         
   marc@bsu-cs.bsu.edu   00mlschmalz@virgo.bsuvc.bsu.edu  
   "These are my personal opinions.  Period."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dooley@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Kevin Dooley)
Subject: Re: Business Reply Cards & Junk Mail...
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 02:49:00 GMT

I once got a piece of junk mail from the Financial Post in which they
had clearly taken my name from a magazine subscription.  The name they
had was "Mr. and Mrs. Dooley".  Then their clever software parsed this
and decided that 'Mr.' was my title and that my first name was 'and Mrs.',
so that is how the 'personal' letter inside referred to me.  I circled
the mistake and wrote a nice note saying that, while I did not require
their services, they clearly required a good programmer, and that I was
available.... never did hear back from them, though.

K
From: jlpicard@austin.ibm.com (Craig Becker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Colour perception (was: Death by sneezing)
Date: 8 Sep 92 20:44:26 GMT
Reply-To: craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Object Technology Products
Originator: jlpicard@woofer.austin.ibm.com


csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:
> In article <Z3umqB1w165w@dogbox.acme.gen.nz> dogbowl@dogbox.acme.gen.nz (dogbowl) writes:
> >moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com writes:
> >
> >> ObUL:  Red traffic lights are tinged a little on the orange side, and
> >> green lights tinged on the blue to help red-green colorblind folks to
> >> distinguish them.
...
> >(Apparently when the traffic lights were first installed 35 years ago, they
> > didn't have the tinting, and there were quite a few accidents because of it)
> >
> 
> I very much doubt this. (All of it) If you can't read a traffic light, you
> have to be vertically-blind, as well as color-blind. The position of the light
> in the stack, and the fact that you can tell which light is on or off, is all
> you need to use traffic lights.

True. Currently, in the US, vertical (and horizontal) traffic lights
all have a standard ordering for red, yellow, and green. However, this
was not always so...

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,alt.religion.kibology