HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: DPierce@world.std.com (Richard D Pierce)
Subject: Re: Lunar astronaut covers earth with thum
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 00:25:40 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.122236.26582@hemlock.cray.com> dadams@cray.com writes:
>
>|I'm always impressed with the illusion of the moon appearing larger
>|near the horizon.  Yes, it's only an illusion.  Anyone want to
>|explain the illusion?
>
>Let's see if I can get it right.  When the moon appears near the horizon
>it's light must traverse a greater amount of earths atmosphere.  The
>light rays are bent more and thus the atmosphere actually acts like
>a magnifying lense when the moon (or sun) is in this position.  (Did
>I get it right?)
>

BZZZT! No, you got it wrong.

The "moon illusion" (which also seems to work for constellations like
Orion, which always appear much bigger near the horizon than higher up) is
just that, an illusion.

There are two ways the illusion can be revealed as such. First is by
direct measurement, as several other posts have suggested. Find something
that exactly covers the moon (like an appropriately sized coin at an
appropriate distance) and use it to compare the two. You'll find they
match pretty damn closely.

The second is in the form of a gedanken (though experiment). Let's presume
the moon subtends 1/2 degree at the zenith (pretty close to reality). That
means that 720 of them must be placed side-by-side to stretch all the way
from zenith to horizon to the "anit-zenith" and back again. Let's now
assume that the moon near the horizon IS bigger, let's say by 50%. That
means that simply rotating the plane of our circle of moon from vertical
to horizontal must make some moon disappear, since they are larger,
according to the assertion. 

You still have 720 moons in your circle. The circle is still 360 degrees,
thus the diameter is not changed.

There is a real optical effect near the horizon that cause rays from
slightly below the horizon to be bent upwards, thus lengthening the day
very slightly and making the sun and moon look a little squashed. This
does not violate the gedanken above at all.


-- 
|                Dick Pierce                |
|    Loudspeaker and Software Consulting    |
| 17 Sartelle Street   Pepperell, MA  01463 |
|       (508) 433-9183 (Voice and FAX)      |
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: begley%lock.dnet@jesnic.jsc.nasa.gov
Subject: Planet X Claim
Organization: Lockheed Engineering and Sciences
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 00:21:54 GMT

   I copied a posting from this group by john for euv astrophysics.
It was an article from the 16 September 1992 San Francisco Chronicle
with the title, "PLANETLIKE OBJECT SPOTTED BEYOND PLUTO."  The article
claimed that object 1992 QB-1 was orbiting between 37 and 59 AU from 
the sun.  Observations were made by David Jewitt of the Univ. of 
Hawaii and Jane Luu of UC Berkley.

   I have yet to see any followup to this article.  Do you know if
there have been more observations refining the orbital parameters?
Obviously this is only one for the big scopes.
From: gibson@crisium.geop.ubc.ca (Brad Gibson)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Looking for Kurucz 1992 Model Atmospheres
Date: 16 Nov 1992 22:11:42 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Astronomy / Univ. of British Columbia
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: crisium.astro.ubc.ca

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

Help!  I am desperately trying to acquire the most up-to-date compilation of
the Robert Kurucz 1992 model atmospheres (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA Preprint
#3348 and the IAU Symposium #149 Proceedings "Stellar Populations of
Galaxies").  I'm specifically interested in obtaining the flux distributions 
for his models as functions of T_eff and metallicity.  

Kurucz states repeatedly in his preprints that the flux distributions are
currently available by tape, but I'll be damned if I can get in contact with
him ... so ... if there is anyone out there at CfA who could make contact with
Kurucz and find out what exactly must be done to get ahold of these models, I
would greatly appreciate it.  On the other hand, if someone out there has the
models on disk from which I could anonymously FTP them (or email), I would also
love that!

Anyway ... any help or information would be a big help.  Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
   Brad Gibson

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Brad K. Gibson                           INTERNET: gibson@geop.ubc.ca
  Dept. of Geophysics & Astronomy         
  #129-2219 Main Mall                      PHONE: (604)822-6722
  University of British Columbia           FAX:   (604)822-6047
  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  V6T 1Z4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: j.jahn@abbs.hanse.de (Jost Jahn)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Sunspots at 20.11.1992.
Reply-To: j.jahn@abbs.hanse.de
Date: 21 Nov 92 00:56:00 MET
Distribution: sci
Organization: ABBS AstroMail, D-W 2121 Dahlenburg / Germany
X-Version: ZerUU V6.45c

Sunspots at 20.11.1992., 0 h UT.

No.    Pos.  Cl.  Ar.  Mag. SF  F  M  X
---------------------------------------
7337 07N 40W Hsx   20   a
7340 08S 09W Bxo   10   b
7341 16S 65W Dao  250   b
7342 08S 34W Dao   60   b
7344 16S 13E Bxo   10   b
7345 24S 33E Eai  330   b    1  1
7346 08S 44E Eao  390   b    2

Explanations of spot columns:
No.  Running number of sunspot group.
Pos. Position in Latitude and Longitude.
     N - North, S- South, E - East, W- West.
Cl.  MacIntosh classification.
Ar.  Area in 10-6 of visible hemisphere.
Mag. Magnetic Classification.
     a - alpha, b - beta, bg - beta/gamma,
     g - gamma, bd - beta/delta, bg - gamma/delta
     bgd - beta/gamma/delta.
SF   Number of subflares.
F    Number of optical flares. (importance > 1).
M    Number of medium x-ray eruptions.
X    Number of strong x-ray eruptions.


Optical and x-ray flares in 19.11.92.

Date     Beg. Max. End   Posit. Xray Opt
----------------------------------------
19.11.92 2018 2029 2043 28S 38E C9.9 2B

Explanations of flare columns:
Date  Date (UTC) of the flare.
Beg.  Begin (UTC) of the flare.
Max.  Maximum (UTC) of the flare.
End   End (UTC) of the flare.
Posit Position on the sun.
Xray  Max. strength of the x-ray flare C,M and X
      (C - minor, M - medium, X - strong) each
      from 1.0-9.9.
Opt   Optical flare: strength from 0...4
      (0 - very little, 1 - little, 2 - medium,
      3 - great, 4 - very great) with a suffix
      for the magnitude (f - faint, n - normal,
      b - bright).


 
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABBS AstroMail, the first and most popular German astronomical bulletin board
------------------------- for amateur astronomers ----------------------------
    + 49 5851 7896 / V.21, V.22, V.22bis, V.32, V.42, V.42bis and MNP5
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Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Wednesday, 18 Nov 1992 11:41:09 CST
From: Wesley Bielinski <U53734@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Lunar astronaut covers earth with thum
 <1992Nov17.122236.26582@hemlock.cray.com>


My understanding was that at the horizon you have a frame of reference
(say a tre) with which you can estimate the size.  At the zentih the
tree is gone and yore eye focuses towards infintity thus making the moon
APPEAR smaller, when in reality it hasn't changed. Or something like
that, it's been a while :-)

Wesley J. Bielinski, Support RKBA  | "An out of air situation is not
U53734@uicvm.uic.edu               |    as critical in SCUBA diving
Support the 2nd Amdendment         |      as it is in skydiving!"
Xref: sparky sci.astro:12296 sci.space:16237
From: mario@cs.man.ac.uk (Mario Wolczko)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space
Subject: Re: Hubble's mirror
Date: 20 Nov 92 22:39:24 GMT
Followup-To: sci.astro
Organization: Dept Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.

In article <BxxLo9.I6H@zoo.toronto.edu>, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
> I would guess that the null-corrector tests were done with the mirror
> flat on its back; it would seem the obvious approach.  The problem with
> gravitational distortion -- I would think -- is simply that it requires
> doing the test in a vertical orientation, which considerably complicates
> the test facility (if for no other reason, because you need a vertical
> shaft of considerable height to mount everything in).

I don't know what the spacing between primary and corrector(s) was,
but I would be surprised if it was substantially less than the
primary-secondary spacing.  So maybe there was a setup in use for the
corrector tests that didn't need a huge amount of change for a
primary-secondary test.  Of course, this is all easy to say in
hindsight.   The real problem is that the existing tests should have
caused alarm bells to ring, but the bells were ignored.
As they say, you can make something foolproof, but not bloody
foolproof..
From: newberry@aquarius.as.arizona.edu (Mike Newberry)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: st6 images wanted
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:56:23 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

In article <1992Nov19.225316.24612@nrao.edu> cflatter@nrao.edu writes:
>In article 6479@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu, newberry@kepler.as.arizona.edu (Mike Newberry) writes:

I left out one sentence in my prior posting regarding the problem of
widespread use of unsigned integers in otherwise standard FITS format
images.  Wht was supposed to go before the last sentence of the second
paragraph was that we need a FITS standard keyword or a special BITPIX
value of -16 to indicate unsigned pixel data.  THAT's what I was mentioning
should be discussed at the next FITS meeting.

Mike Newberry
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: biesel@javelin.sim.es.com (Heiner Biesel)
Subject: Re: Know an adjective for black holes?
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 16:22:11 GMT

How about "attractive"?

Regards,
       H. Biesel
From: jhcooper@ocf.berkeley.edu (John Hutton Cooper)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.physics,sci.astro,sci.math,ucb.math
Subject: Advice Please: What Geometry Course?
Date: 21 Nov 1992 23:26:35 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
Distribution: ucb
NNTP-Posting-Host: avalanche.berkeley.edu

I am a sophomore majoring in physics.  I am interested in special relativity,
and might make the topic my specialty in physics.  Special relativity uses 
a lot of non-Euclidean geometry.  I am interested in taking a course dealing
with non-Euclidean geometry at UC Berkeley, and I welcome any course 
suggestions.  I will have completed the 1A/1B 50A/50B sequence at the end of
this semester.  Thanks for the advice.
-- 

My own opinions, etc.     	                      John Hutton Cooper
						      jhcooper@ocf.Berkeley.EDU
Newsgroups: sci.misc
From: newsq@Ampex.COM (Stan Busby)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: leukemia vs. EMF
Date: 21 Nov 92 01:53:01 GMT
Organization: Ampex Corporation, Redwood City CA

The newspapers have been full of conjecture resulting
from studies of leukemia rate among those who live and
work near high-voltage transmission lines in Sweden.

Were studies also done among those who lived near low-
voltage lines using similar currents?  Many high-voltage
lines are direct current.  Were these included in the
studies?

High voltages incur some loss due to direct corona 
discharge into the air.  I think this generates Ozone
and perhaps other gaseous nasties.  Could it be that
the magnetic field alone is not the whole proble
From: dt89csc@brunel.ac.uk (C S Codrington)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: halogen lamps for heating
Date: 16 Nov 92 12:10:52 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]


Does anyone out there know anything about the use of Halogen lamps for heating food. I want to use a Halogen lamp in a kettle instead heating element. 

Is this feasible?

Is it cheaper?

Any help will be appreciated.

Please can you E-mail me on dt89csc@brunel.ac.uk.
From: gtclark@festival.ed.ac.uk (G T Clark)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: leukemia vs. EMF
Date: 23 Nov 92 11:45:35 GMT


	Are there high-voltage DC lines? I didn't know this.What  are
they used for?

	G.
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: leukemia vs. EMF
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:56:00 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

> Are there high-voltage DC lines? I didn't know this. What are they used for?

In power transmission, DC is increasingly used for *really* high voltage
transmission over distances (many hundreds of miles) that make impedance
effects a significant obstacle in AC transmission.  The main technological 
obstacle to DC used to be the feasibility of high-voltage, high-power 
conversion equipment.  There are also political obstacles (apparently with
acceptable technological fixes) having to do with telephone interference 
and pipeline corrosion. DC is also used for underground/underwater 
transmission lines.  

The silver anniversary edition of IEEE Spectrum, Volume 25, Number 11, 
has a good article on the subject in the context of the Pacific Intertie.  
The Intertie is an undeservedly obscure example of engineering on a 
grand scale -- obscure, perhaps, because unlike a dam or a skyscraper,
its scope has no visual cues and its technical audacity is not obvious
to the layman.  But I digress.  Spectrum, the general-interest science
magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is
something you ought to monitor anyway if you're interested in the
alleged health effects of EMFs.

Happy reading,
--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"
Newsgroups: sci.misc
From: kapb9@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Robin Harrison)
Subject: UNUSUAL CHEMISTRY JOBS
Organization: University of Sussex
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 14:20:57 GMT

      Through an OUTREACH programme at the University
of  Sussex,   we are trying to promote  chemistry  to
young  people by travelling to regional  schools  and
colleges to give lectures and demonstrations.  It  is
hoped  that  by  exposing students  to  the  fun  and
interesting  side of chemistry, we will  be  able  to
overcome   the   many   incorrect   stereotypes    of
scientists.  In  this way, we hope  to  increase  the
number  of  young  people taking up  chemistry  as  a
career, which will ultimately benefit the industry as
a whole.
     I am currently preparing a lecture and wonder if
any one may be able to help me with my research.
     The three main aims of my lecture are;
i) To show that the "mad scientist" stereotype is not
a fair one.
ii)  Many  jobs in chemistry do not revolve around  a
typical  lab.  I would like to get across  that  many
chemists  work  out  in the field,  often  in  rather
unusual places.
iii)  A  career in chemistry is both interesting  and
rewarding.
     Are there any chemists out there who have
interesting research jobs which might be of interest
to young students - the more unusual the better!
Alternatively, if anybody has references to books or
articles of any interesting chemistry that may be
applicable, they would also be of interest.
     On a more general level, if anybody has any nice
ideas on how to promote chemistry to kids (14 years
and up), I would also be pleased to hear them. This
may be anything from a nice chemical demonstration to
a novel lecture theme, as we are continuously trying
to find new ideas for our presentations.
     I can be contacted either by post or email if
you feel you have any relevant material.
     Thank you in advance for your help.

Robin Harrison.

School of Chemistry,
University of Sussex,
Falmer,
Brighton. BN1 9QJ.
England
Email: kapb9@sussex.central.ac.uk
From: quest@iowegia.uucp (Steve J. Quest)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Food safety - where can I get information?
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 09:48:41 CST
Distribution: world
Organization: Iowegia Public Access Usenet/UUCP, Clive IA USA.

ksthorn@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kurt Stephen Thorn) writes:

> Hello everyone.
> 	I am involved in making an electronic measuring cup for use with foods.
> 	If anyone has any information about the process involved in getting a
> piece of equipment approved for contact with food, or if anyone knows of 
> possible sources for food safe coatings for metal cylinders, please let me
> know.

Kurt,

        Simply make your device out of polyethylene and you are 
safe for contact with all foods- and even most corrosive 
chemicals!  There are epoxy coatings that are used to line metal 
wine fermentation casks- those should work for all foods as well.

sq
From: whitbeck@equinox.unr.edu (Michael Whitbeck)
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: Why Not ? (Re: Ethanol fuel
Date: 18 Nov 92 01:53:02 GMT
Organization: University of Nevada, Reno

In article <1992Nov16.193013.42100@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> ps02@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (PENELOPE E. SMITH) writes:
:(Lots of discussion on ETHANOL as fuel deleted)
:
:I want my car to run on Honey or other carbohydrates, sort of like the home
:energy fusion reactor in the car in back to the future.  This type of fuel
:cell has the advantage of not requiring distillation!
:
:-- 
: 
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:Penelope E. Smith               PS02@NS.CC.LEHIGH.EDU
:Department of Mathematics       PS02@LEHIGH.BITNET
:Lehigh University
:Bethlehem, PA

I have done this already! Works great!
The main difficulty is the indirect fuel-motion power
conversion. After that it is just a simple job of making about
6.023E+23 tiny bee harnesses.

(watch out for the animal rights groups--- they keep setting
my bees loose :-(

Mike
From: tk@ai.mit.edu (Tom Knight)
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: molecular sieves for removing water
Date: 19 Nov 92 17:29:51
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: entropy.ai.mit.edu

I've seen several references in the literature to the use of molecular
sieves (presumably some sort of zeolite) as a way of temporarily
removing water from a closed system.  In one case it was to dry a
non-aqueous liquid (fluorinert), and in another to trap moisture in a
cooled vacuum system.

I'd like some commercial sources or articles describing these uses in
more detail, if someone is aware of them.  Thanks.
Newsgroups: sci.chem
From: neubauer@netcom.com (Michael Neubauer)
Subject: Electropolishing tungsten and moly
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 06:36:18 GMT

What is the chemistry of "electropolishing"
metals such as molybdinum and tungsten
and in what technical journal might processes
for electropolishing be found.

Thank you,

Michael Neubauer
Newsgroups: sci.chem
From: rajat@sunny1.che.clarkson.edu (Rajat Kapoor,P303,2124)
Subject: Re: Oil Spills ( Ignore preceeding post)
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 15:36:06 GMT

[ OOPS, my editor screwed up the last posting... Sorry !]

> 
> Well, the method that you suggest cleaned up the vast majority of the spilled
> oil.  The coast guard and other organizations put out large booms and the oil
> was 'skimmed' off the top of the water.

 Maybe, at the initial stages of the spill. Oil can quickly spread over to
 cover large areas of water, theoretically, perhaps to monolayer
 thickness ( volatility of oil and other bulk properties may not
 applicable at this point ). This barrier of oil can axphixiate the
 aquatic life over vast areas.
 
 
 To this end I, recall the terms such as "breaking the oil" in the news...
 
 
>   1.  Some of the oil reached land, where it coated the shoreline, and any 
> animal on it.  Once on the shore, oil becomes extremely difficult to clean up.
> And even if it is cleaned up, much damage has already been done.
 
 The problem could be mutual pollution of Sand <=> Sea water. Remedy one,
the other re-pollutes...


Kapoor
Newsgroups: sci.chem
From: iwood@gauss.math.indiana.edu
Subject: hydroxybenzoic acid oxidation
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 18:42:10 GMT

I have read a reference that it is possible to oxidise o-hydroxy-
benzoic acid with persulfate, but it is in an old German patent and I have 
no clue as to the particulars. The desired product is the hydroquinone 
analogue: 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid.
 Also I wonder if this oxidation is possible with permangante. what would  
the best concentration for KMnO4 as a general oxidiser in organic r
reactions?


Ij
Newsgroups: sci.chem
From: "Gary A. Woodward" <p00140@psilink.com>
Subject: Re: Need info on rechargable NiCd batteries...
Organization: Performance Systems Int'l
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 22:50:40 GMT
X-Mailer: PSILink (3.2)

>DATE:   10 Nov 92 01:34:31 GMT
>FROM:   Matthew Harrington <ph600fcy@sdcc14.ucsd.edu>
>
>In a freshman chemistry (or was is physics? ) lecture the professor
>talked about the best way to take care of NiCd batteries.  I forget
>the specifics, but it was something like always letting the
>batteries run down before recharging and don't overcharge.
>
>Does anyone know the chemistry behind these batteries and the best
>way to charge them and keep them working well for awhile?
>
>					Matt Harrington
>



Popular Electronics has done several from the ground up articles on 
nicd battery systems and their care and feeding.

GW
Newsgroups: sci.chem
From: knapp@spot.Colorado.EDU (David Knapp)
Subject: Newsflash was (Re: Gold - future Auto Catalyst)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 15:04:40 GMT


My response to the mail I received bounced so I'll post it.

I've just been informed that due to an error in the name of the pigeons in my
example and the fact that phenylketonuria might not always be intolerable,
that my examples are now moot. Please make a note of it.



*> You might want to post a bit slower: substitute passenger pigeon for carrier
*> pigeon; then read a little history on the passenger pigeon (it was a very
*> serious pest, and there were probably as many people who wanted it extinct
*> as didn't.  This may not look very admirable today, but it's something different
*> from lack of foresight).
*> 
*> Phenylketonurics become tolerant of phenylalanine at a certain age (exact age
*> being argued over, but roughly puberty).
*> 
*> Bad examples make an argument look bad.  


Picking at nits ignores the argument.  And you think it looks has nothing to 
do with it being sound.






-- 
David Knapp                                      University of Colorado, Boulder
Perpetual Student                                   knapp@spot.colorado.edu