HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tel@adimail.uucp (Terry Monks)
Subject: Re: Death by sneezing
Organization: Automata Design, Inc.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 13:42:01 GMT

In the midst of this colour-discrimination discussion
I happened to be reading Jack Seward's entertaining book
"Japanese in Action" for the second or third time and
found 

		  "The Japanese words for colors can be confusing.
With certain ones, it seems as if the Japanese view the
world through glasses so tinted that they see the same
outlines we see, but in different shades. For example,
the green light in a traffic signal looks very green to
me, but the Japanese (until 1968) called it aoi (blue),
even though they had a fine, upstanding word for green
(midori-iro)."

I am not sure what the reference to 1968 means.

But then, in Japanese, the green-grocers is called the
blue thing store - aomonoya.

Terry "just blue with envy" Monks

-- 
Terry Monks        Automata Design Inc    (703) 742-9400
From: smith+@cs.cmu.edu (Sean Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Attempted Snuff Court Case
Summary: guy in jail for planning commercial snuff film
Keywords: snopes? hsr4? ted frank? craig shergold?
Date: 4 Sep 92 15:22:24 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

The following news story just caught my eye.   Apparently whether this
incident was a genuine attempt to produce a snuff film for commercial profit,
or just idle (but dangerous) talk is the issue in dispute.    You legal AFUers
out there might want to look up details of this.   Perhaps we have a 
starting point for some new database searches...

So, solely in the interest of better AFU scholarship:

	RICHMOND, Va. (UPI) -- A sharply divided federal appeals court
Thursday upheld the 30-year prison sentence a Richmond man received for
plotting to kidnap, sexually assault and murder a child, videotape the
crimes and then sell the ``snuff'' film.
	The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Dean Lambey's
contention that he should have been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea
because his lawyer had underestimated the scope of his sentence.

(stuff deleted)

	Authorities arrested Lambey in August 1989, six months after a
California undercover officer posing as a bisexual pedophile initiated a
conversation on a computerized bulletin board.
	Lambey told the undercover officer of his plan to kidnap a child for
use in the pornographic film. He was arrested after he told the officer
he had spotted a likely victim, a boy about 13 years old.

(more stuff deleted)


--Sean ``Snuffy'' Smith

******************************************************************************
                         sean.smith@cs.cmu.edu
                     carnegie mellon computer science

          posting from PITTSBURGH, the center of the AFUniverse!
******************************************************************************
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:22110 rec.arts.tv:16831
From: slb3y@cc.usu.edu (Punk Rocketeer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Kimberly Dunning, or "Whatcha talking about?"
Date: 26 Aug 92 09:30:11 MDT
Organization: United Order of Non-joiners

thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:
> tierney@nevada.edu (TIM TIERNEY) writes:
>>Okay, here's the story.
>>
>> [the Dana Plato robs a video store story]
>>
>>Supposedly, she has stated that she will soon be starring in a review
>>type show at the Rio Hotel here in Vegas.
> 
> Didn't she pose nude somewhere along the way?  Or was that a different
> childhood star trying to rid herself of her wholesome image?

     In an attempt to boost her sagging career, she posed for Playboy
some years ago.  Maybe three or four.  Had to have been after about
January 88, but I never saw the actual issue.  Just the odd mention of
it in news sources.
-- 
Patrick S. Clark | "We are not in the Eighth Dimension.
Email is life!   |  We are over New Jersey.  All is not lost."
Usual disclaimer | --Unidentified red Lectroid announcer
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.skeptic
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Sinking libraries
Date: 2 Sep 92 17:36:50 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article 92Sep1201810@marcus.rpi.edu, pratta@rpi.edu (Anthony Edward Prattico) writes:
> Besides, if we listened to everything engineers and physicists said,
> nothing would ever get built.

I was talking to a co-worker the other day, and he said that until a
few years ago, many of the integral formulas (not the numeric tables,
but the indefinite integral formulas) were simply *wrong*.  This didn't
become apparent until computerized symbolic computation really got
going, and they tried using some of those books as test cases.

I said to him, "It kinda makes you wonder about all the things that
were built by engineers using those books, doesn't it?"

He said, "Why do you think engineers build things with such a large
safety factor?"

> And bumblebees wouldn't fly, because it's physically impossible.

Using the equations for *fixed-wing* flight, bees can't fly.  Luckily,
they're allowed to move their wings.

Brian "How doth the little bumblebee...?" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                               bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
        The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
          It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
From: zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Spaghetti trees
Date: 28 Aug 92 13:20:59 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre, Manchester, England, M13 9PL.

In article <1992Aug27.104927.8533@vax.oxford.ac.uk> banks@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>Linking up with the flat earth thread, do any Brits or ex-Brits remember the
>show which the newly-founded Central TV featured in the 70s.  There was a 
>big build up to it for days if not weeks in mysterious trailers.  The show
>itself was an investigative documentary into the space program, revealing the
>mysterious disappearance of certain scientists (complete with footage of
>cars standing abandonned in public car parks and people slamming doors in
>the reporter's face, saying "I don't want to talk about it"), and
>claiming that the landing craft pictures of Mars had been taken in a studio.
>Marcus Banks,




"Alternative 3"


There is a fairly complete writeup about the making of the program in the
current(ish) issue of the Fortean Times (I thing thats the name.)









-- 
Geoff. Lane.                                  Janet: zzassgl@uk.ac.mcc.uts
UTS Sys Admin, Manchester Computing Centre, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL
From: st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu (LUCIFER)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Co-ed Dorms!
Date: 25 Aug 92 15:33:13 GMT
Reply-To: st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University

I thought that the term co-ed came into use when girls started being
accepted into normal universities (as opposed to all womens schools),
and that is why it had (has?) a slightly derogotory connotation - that the
women in question were more interested in sex than in education.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Misapplied physics in advertising
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 10:20:11 GMT

housabout all these bizarre claims in the myriad types of shampoo, coupled
with the actual ingredients, some with pseudo-organic-chemistry-like names
(mixed in with some real ones, some of ingredients whose common name would
be well known, but in the jargon of chemistry maintain an air of mystery, etc.)

So, what *is* "Quaternium 90" anyway?

One claims to have some sort of "health" benefit traceable to the addition
of Niacin.  Since all ingredients are listed in order of percentage present,
it should come as no surprise that Niacin was the lowest listed ingredient,
actually below the FD&C coloring agents.  (BTW, what exactly is FD&C?)

Also, what about all these madeup words that start with bio- ?

Also, some brands have a penchant for mispelling the words in the product
name, such as honee for honey, etc.

This seems to be akin to "health-food store" mentality, where virtually
anything can be sold claiming itself as "healthy" and often containing
a truly amazing array of ingredients.

The stuff may be labeled, but are we gaining much in the process?

Also, who is "responsible" for the making up of names of recent drugs,
such as Augmentin?  Are there any guidelines for any of these things?

Or what about OTC drugs such as Midol 200, which appears to be yet another
packaged variety of Tylenol, etc., or "families" of drugs which use the
family name with a different suffix for different purposes.  (I understand
that in some cases, the "Family" is mixed in that it is part otc, and part
prescription.)

cjl
From: STella@thelema.uucp (STella)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: apples to teachers - idea why
Date: 28 Aug 92 21:47:55 GMT
Organization: Idiosyncratic Anarchic Order

In article <1992Aug19.181012.12222@avernus.com> mgfrank@avernus.com (Marc G. Frank) writes:
>Or perhaps the whole thing is just an urban legend.  Does anyone out
>there *actually know* (or even have a FOAF) of a student who gave an
>apple to a teacher or a teacher receiving an apple from a student?
>
>As far as I can tell, it survives only in the phrase "apple for the
>teacher" and, most likely, in various cartoons.

Hmph.... what IS the younger generation coming to?  I gave an apple to
my kindergarten teacher, Miss Crawford, as recently as (unless memory
fails), September of 1953.  Several of us had brought her apples so
she cut them up and used the opportunity to teach us to chew with our
mouths closed.

>Marc "I've never seen it so it mustn't be true" Frank

I've done it so it must be weird?

STella@xanadu.com	1016 E. El Camino Real, #302, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dbidwa@sei.cmu.edu (Daniel Bidwa)
Subject: Why crescent moons? (was Re: You are humble and loveable. CHOMP!)
Organization: Software Engineering Institute
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 19:47:59 GMT

bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
>Indeed, but have you ever seen a person bite into a coin?  It seems to
>me that it's one of those bits of cultural luggage that long outlives
>its applicability, but still gets lugged along -- like outhouses having
>crescent moons cut into the doors.

Okay, why *do* outhouses have crescent moons cut into the doors?


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo)
Subject: Re: Spaghetti trees
Reply-To: styri@nta.no
Organization: Bohemians and Globetrotters, Unlimited
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 11:50:00 GMT

All these spagetti trees remind me of a story I was reminded of a story
about some marketing guys who discovered that the consumption of spagetti
per capita was higher in Germany than in Italy. They made an error, however.
Only sales statistics for dried spagetti was used...

---
YuNoHoo  "...guess they didn't believe in spagetti fresh from the trees"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: grimjack@milton.u.washington.edu (Leslie Basel)
Subject: Re: Eating Dogs
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 05:39:29 GMT

In article <92246.150727WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu> WCE2@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>A couple of years ago, when I was in England, I saw an item in the
>TIMES that claimed that Orientals really did eat dogs as a delicacy,
>the dogs being first tied up and hung upside down, then slowly beaten
>to death.  The principle was that the adrenalin somehow tenderized the
>muscles and made the meat unusually tender.
>
>Despite the TIMES' general respectability, I assumed that this was "one
>of ours" and gave the cutting to another folklorist who was working on
>ethnic slurs.  Anyone else heard this (or can argue for its authenticity)?
>
>Bill Ellis
>FOAFtale News

I would argue against it on the grounds that that is the worst thing you can
do for taste (ask any hunter what game meat tastes like if it was fear 
driven before being shot); the chemicals and hormones released in fear
make the meat taste TERRIBLE.

Rodger Coghlan

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:22615 rec.arts.tv:17136
From: bruce@zuhause.MN.ORG (Bruce Albrecht)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re:  Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial
Distribution: world
Date: 31 Aug 92 23:35:46 CST
Organization: Society to Stamp Out Bogus Organizations

In article <1992Aug29.220535.15355@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.145033.19684@awdprime.austin.ibm.com> craigb@ot.austin.ibm.com writes:
>>
>
>>This got me thinking about various&sundry "banned" commercials, ie, 
>>commercials which got pulled because someone got PO'ed.
>
>What about the National Lampoon commercial parody about Teddy Kennedy, if
>he had only driven a Volkswagen (which floats) with Mary Jo, etc.  Didn't the
>Kennedy family do some string-pulling to yank most of the copies of this
>off the newstands because they personally didn't like it?

"If Ted Kennedy had driven a Volkswagen, he'd be President today."
Shown with a floating VW Beetle.  National Lampoon was sued by Volkswagen,
not the Kennedy family.  If NatLamp didn't use an actual VW ad, it was
so close (with exception of the caption) that a VW got a lot of complaints
by people who didn't realize it was bogus.
--
bruce@zuhause.mn.org
Youth is wasted on the young.
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Just One Calorie...?
Date: 3 Sep 92 00:33:06 GMT
 <1992Aug28.231137.8710@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> <1992Sep1.131544.22530@bnlux1.bnl.gov>

schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder) writes:

>Y'know, at Disney, the Big Rule is "don't f**k with the mouse" (as
>paraphrased by Harlan Ellison).

Except that they've done it many times, in the sense that Coke did
the same to Coke.  1960 Mickey bore very little resemblance to
1930 Mickey.  He degenerated from an actual cartoon character into
a symbol of the concept "cartoon character."
-- 
Matt McIrvin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: adri@dutncp8.tn.tudelft.nl (A.B. van Woerkom)
Subject: Re: Cellular Frequencies
Organization: Delft University of Technology
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 17:03:24 GMT

thompson@cuug.ab.ca (Bruce Thompson 272-1800(w) or 229-3370(h)) writes:

>Under Canadian Telecommunications law, it is legal to listen in on
>_any_ frequency provided that copyrights are not infringed. I.e. you
>are permitted only to use the information for your own private,
>personal use. This applies to cellular, satellite, scrambled cable
>channels, etc. So long as you do not extract the signals from a
>transmission medium that has not been either provided to you (like
>cable), or from the _public_ airwaves, you are free to listen to
>whatever you want.

>Various cable companies attempted to prosecute people for
>de-scrambling pay-tv channels. The cases were thrown out due to the
>fact that the cable companies were providing the signals to the
>subscribers, so the subscribers were free to do with them what they
>please (within the bounds set for normal television, i.e. no
>re-transmission or re-broadcast without express permission).

>Satellite dishes went through the same deal, and again the courts
>ruled essentially that broadcast signals were freely available for
>reception. A cellular telephone is nothing more than a fancy
>_broadcast_ radio. Caveat Emptor. (sp?)
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is exactly what PTT Telecom, the Dutch telecom company, does.
In the Netherlands the Telecommunication Laws are the same as the
Canadian ones as described above.  When you subscribe to the car
telephone network somewhere in the contract is stated that everyone
can overhear conversations made in car phones and that the normal
telephone secret laws don't apply.
The good news for eaves-droppers is that nearly everyone forgets
about the warning soon ...
The bad news is that 99.9 % of the car phone conversations is
rather dull ( "Good evening, dear.  I'm now in the traffic jam
at Van Brienenoord bridge.  What are we having for diner?")
>	    Cheers,
>	    Bruce.
Adri.
--
A.B. van Woerkom, adri@dutncp8.tn.tudelft.nl
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Applied Physics,
Vakgroep Fysische Informatica, section Computational Physics,
Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ  DELFT, The Netherlands
________________________________________________________________________
"Unfortunately, the current generation of mail programs do not have checkers
 to see if the sender knows what he is talking about" (A.S. Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: grimjack@milton.u.washington.edu (Leslie Basel)
Subject: Re: My roses hate me (was Re: Screaming peaches...)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 04:49:31 GMT

In article <CKD.92Aug31085902@loiosh.eff.org> ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis) writes:
>YuNoHoo> == YuNoHoo  <styri@hal.nta.no> 
>
> YuNoHoo> Talking about screams, didn't Stevie Wonder write the music to
> YuNoHoo> the film that wasn't made based on that book? Should I try to
> YuNoHoo> read the book while playing the record? (The quality of the
> YuNoHoo> music seems to be as good as the book.)
>
>

Well, actually the movie was made and called _The Secret Life of Plants_.
I know because I had the misfortune of sitting through it -- it have some
funny parts though when it kept trying to end (you know how the music sets
up the endings to these things).  About the 3rd time the voice over started 
on another rant about plants in pain the audience broke out in hysterics.

NOT recommended for the intelligent, thoughtful, or even the sapient.

Rodger Coghlan

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
Subject: Re: Monty Python's 3-sided ?
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:12:07 GMT
Organization: Right Bleedin' Church of Libertine Obfuscatology

In <9224513.29258@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> rjlov@ecr.mu.oz.au (Richard J. Lovejoy) writes:

>	There _is_ a Monty Python three sided record, as well as multiple
>sided records with the calling of a horse race: ie there is a different
>result each time.


Mad magazine once released one of those cheapo square flexi plastic records
that had 7 different "shock" endings to the same song: "Super spectacular
day"

a free cheeseburger to anyone who can correctly post the lyrics to it.

a free big mac if you get all seven endings as well.

-- 
    / \      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: michaelb@cse.fau.edu (Michael Rogero Brown)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Flat Earth Society
Date: 31 Aug 92 16:40:26 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

"In Your Heart You Know Its Flat!"

I meant to get the Flat Earth Society's info sheet and type it in, but I forget
and its at home.  If your write to them they'll send you it.  Its weird!  Full
of elipses...Capitilization At Strange Places...AND ALL CAPS.  Someone could
write a thesis on it.

The Flat Earth Society does exist.  They are associated with the Covenant 
People`s Church (they have the same address).  The leaders are Charles and
Marjory Johnson.  They have a quartlely mag and flat earth maps (North Pole 
at the center, south pole the outer edge).  Many newspapers have articles on
them on certain days like Columbus Day, etc.

Their basic idea, gleaned from their info sheet is that they are scientific,
but that science is a religion.  But the ultimate basis for their science is 
the Bible.

The following is from Ivan Stang's _High Weirdness By Mail_, Fireside Books, 
pg 27.

The International Flat Earth Society. Box 2533 Lancaster, CA 93539.

  The unutterable stupidity and vanity of those who STILL MAINTAIN against 
all common sense that the world is "round" will soon learn the hard way, when
they fall off the edge.  Well, that's and exaggeration.  There is no edge;
the flat world just stretches on and on into infinity.  I mean, these folks
aren't _kooks_ or anything!  In fact, they're obviously almost the last sane
humans left...just ask them!  If the world were "round", they reason, then
Australians would hang by their feet!  They don't, so all this occult gibberish
called "science" is disproven.  Yet NO ONE WILL LISTEN.  Look at the ocean--
it is FLAT.  It is a LAW of GOD that water lays flat.  So where's the CURVE??
"Airplanes allfly Level on the Plane Earth." This is "...the oldest continuous
Society existing on the world today.  It began with the Creation of the Creation
...We are...the Elite, the Elect, who use Logic Reason are Rational.  Summed up,
we are Sane and/or have Common Sense are contrasted to the 'herd' who is
unthinking and uncaring...The Fact the Earth is Flat is not my opinion...it is
a Proved Fact.  Aslo demonstrated the Sun and Moon are about 3,000 miles away...
.  The Planets are 'tiny.'  Sun and Moon DO Move, earth does NOT move, whirl,
spin and gyrate...  Only the illogical, unreasoning "Herd" prefers the way-out
occult theology of the old Greek superstition earth a spinning ball!"
[Punctuation his.]
   $6 for Flat Earth Map, $10/year for newsletter; beg and plead for their info.
Anybody who's this cantankerous must be _pretty OLD_, so write soon before this
World Class Ranter goes to his Reward in Heaven (which is _up_).  Say you
BELIEVE!!  Send 'em a big SASE.

-- 
<<                                                               >>
<< Michael R. Brown    CS Graduate Student-Florida Atlantic Univ >>
<< Internet: michaelb@sol.cse.fau.edu                            >>
<< BitNet: m_brown@fauvax                                        >>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: iam30974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Happershanz)
Subject: Re: Imponderables (Yawn)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 06:24:29 GMT

thompson@cuug.ab.ca (Bruce Thompson 272-1800(w) or 229-3370(h)) writes:

>The explanation that I heard for why yanwing is contagious came from a
>Calgary Zoo employee when I was on a tour. We had just passed a
>display with a troup of primates (I cannot remember which specific
>primates) and the dominant male raced out and yawned at us (no, I'm
>not kidding) a large number of us yawned back automatically, and
>Leslie Anne explained that among primates yawning is, among other
>things, an indication of dominance or aggreesion.

Pardon if this is well-worn ground:
	The reason for why people yawn at similar times (at least, the one
I grew up with) is supposedly linked to the basic fact that people with
similar schedules of activity get tired at similar times of the day.  One
yawn could just remind your system that it too is needing an extra boost
of O2.  So yawning at a boring football game may have more to do with the
long lines, and all the time spent driving, standing, and ..eating..

	Along similar lines, this self-same program mentioned that yawning
is a sign of alertness-in-bloom.  That is, the body takes in more O2 in
anticipation of the need to have more energy.  However, this rarely consoles
a lecturer when the yawns start spreading across the classroom..  I guess the
moral of the story was to see this as a positive sign.
	This would complement the yawn-as-indication of dominance and/or
aggression in primates... as (perhaps) dominant primates demonstrate
their readiness and courage -and capacity to increase energy output at a
moments notice...in battle...  I guess...

I saw this all on PBS-- probably meant to educate innocent children like
myself, so it must be true?
--
-ivan		forward all fires to iam30974@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
From: ssouth@hpldsla.sid.hp.com (Steve South)
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 15:41:14 GMT
Subject: Re: Driving tests
Organization: HP Scientific Instruments Division - Palo Alto, CA