HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: "Microwave in Use"
Date: 16 Nov 1992 07:43 PST
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

I think there is some concern that a leaky microwave oven might 
cause somebody's pacemaker or other heart-related implant to 
misbehave.  We have similar signs on the accelerator buildings,
but more strident -- "PERSONS WITH PACEMAKERS DO NOT ENTER" --
the Microwave Oven from Hell being a substantial component of
most of the accelerators.

The only person I know with an implant (I think it's a defibrillator
triggered by heart rate) doesn't seem too concerned about microwave
ovens.  He did pop it off once through overenthusiastic use of his 
exercise bike, though.

The UL I'm waiting for is "Cop's radar gun scrams a speeder's 
pacemaker" (probably followed by "Ticket written anyway").

Joe "Persons with irrational fears of nucular stuff do not enter, either" Chew
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:28780 sci.skeptic:19697
From: jordan@castor (Chucka Zulu)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Idiot theories abound (AIDS).
Date: 17 Nov 92 00:01:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: athena.1992Nov17.000143.19918
Organization: University of Georgia

In article <1e6m6lINN92@gap.caltech.edu> carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>In article <1992Nov15.162710@IASTATE.EDU>, danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A
>Ashlock) writes:
>>   Goddamnit could one of the SKEPTICS please construct and AIDS-was-caused-
>>by-the-govenment theory?  Then it won't be quite so silly.
>
>OK, I'll have a go at it:
>
>AIDS was first discovered in the early 1940's in Germany [...]
>When the
>occupying forces took the camps, this discovery, along with serum samples of
>several people suffering from the disease, came to the attention of someone
>highly placed in the intelligence community [...]
>
>There.  How's that?

No, I don't think it works.  It's pretty near flawless as a conspiracy
theory, but it doesn't lay enough blame.  You have to remember that AIDS
was started by Americans (or at least the English or French) SPECIFICALLY
TO GET RID OF THE UNDESIRABLES (read: blacks and homosexuals, and I suppose
hemophiliacs were thrown in as a bonus) IN WESTERN SOCIETY.  It's all the
fault of the people so vividly described in another post as "The White
Demon."
	So, all you have to do is alter the story slightly: the occupational
intelligence didn't want to use the virus as an assassination tool.  Instead,
they saw from the Nazi's studies how well the virus worked when in their
Jewish subjects (this way you can throw in anti-Semitism too), and the Anglo
Saxon head of intelligence made the leap of faith that the disease would
spread among other undesirables, like blacks and homosexuals, too.  The
AIDS virus was tested on the Army's secret warehouse full of blacks and
homosexuals (okay, I'm new at this conspiracy business...) and over the course
of a few years, saw how well it spread.   They then decided to release it
into societies in Africa as a further test, and eventually unleashed it on
the US.
	As a UL twist to the story, you could say that the guy in charge
of the whole operation, while on leave one weekend, met a woman and spent
the night with her, then woke up to find WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF AIDS scrawled
on the bathroom mirror.

Chuck "Off-White Demon" Jordan

-- 
                  Chuck Jordan | jordan@castor.cs.uga.edu
	"'BLONDE PROSTITUTE WILL INDULGE IN ANY SEXUAL ACTIVITY' --
	  What does that mean?"
						-- Monty Python
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's Conspiracy Theory, brought to you today.
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 08:34:15 GMT

In article <15NOV199217433014@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov> dpm1960@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov (snopes) writes:
>In article <1992Nov14.095348.3563@news.columbia.edu>, 
>  lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes...
>
>>This is why periodically we have a call for the abolition of the electoral
>>process, and a call for popular vote, since each state has to give all
>>of its electorals to one candidate, the results are often quite skewed from
>>the popular vote itself.
>
>It was designed that way, and it works very well.  The electoral college
>prevents candidates who do not enjoy broad popular support from winning
>national elections, thus eliminating the possibility of a crank with a huge 
>regional following ascending to the White House.
>
> - snopes

Do you think that the election of say, JFK, represents a "fair" use of the
Electoral College where the popular vote was so close, yet the Electoral
vote is quite a different ratio?  My point is that Electoral votes will never
allow the closeness of these calls to be rightfully remembered.  Also, how
do you account for the election of Lincoln with only 39% of the popular
vote?  Was that a regional crank election?

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: rdippold@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Subject: Re: green golfballs?
Keywords: green golf balls
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 23:15:46 GMT

news@news.cecer.army.mil (Net.Noise owner) writes:
>In rec.humor I repeately read about the "green golf ball" joke.
>It seems to be something that everyone knows (wants to know)
>but that no one wants to repeat, or lost the original and it's 
>too complex to really remember, etc...

>Is this the beginning of another UL?

It's certainly a fun way to bait suckers in rec.humor.  There are
several green golfball jokes, of course, but none of them is the
fabled "real" one which Internet will automatically detect and do
nasty things to if it sees it posted. 
-- 
Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Puff the Magic Dragon (was Calvin/Hobbes...)
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 12:50:53 GMT

In article <41182@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> pashley@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Montykins) writes:
>
>And, in fact, it was _written_ by Peter Yarrow (he was in Peter Paul
>and Mary; I forget which one he was).

Wasn't Peter Paul and Mary a three-sided group?

cj "I prefer Peter Paul Mounds" l
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:28649 soc.culture.african.american:11126 sci.skeptic:19614
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Subject: Re: CDs cheaper to make than cassettes?
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 16:39:24 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

In article <1992Nov20.083149.22184@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> I understand that IBM 1401's were always containing something like 16K, and
> the board came with a jumper to make it 8K.  When the field service guy left
> you reenabled the 16K you weren't paying to have maintained (you purchased
> it to have 8K, but got the 16K board with the disable jumper; the field
> service contract specified to maintain an 8K machine).

I heard that rumor, too, way back when, but I find it very hard to believe.
Core memory was *expensive* -- the cores were hand-strung.

> There was a 360/30 option to allegedly have floating point hardware, at
> extra cost, complete with a switch to "disable" it, but the switch didn't
> do anything, since all of the delivered machines actually had the FP hardware,
> even if you neither paid for it, nor paid to have it maintained.

Also dubious.  On the 360/30, floating-point ``hardware'' was simply
extra microcode on capacitive-read punched cards.  Maybe, just maybe,
there was a bit of extra memory for the registers, but I think they
were part of the scratchpad memory.  (The 360/30 had 256 bytes of local
core storage for registers, etc.  This memory was accessible only from
the microcode, not from assembly language.  Source: Bell and Newell's
``Computer Structures''.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: fielden@spot.Colorado.EDU (j. a. fielden)
Subject: Re: Gender denoting pictograms on restroom doors
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 21:09:27 GMT

In article <92318.45128.J105270@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM> J105270@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM writes:
>
>>>There is a restaurant in Toronto which had, the last time I was there
>>>at least, two euphemism rooms (water closet, rest room, bathroom,
>>>salle de bain, whatever your favourite euphemism for toilet is).  The
>>>first was marked "MEN/WOMEN" and the second "WASHROOM".
><there is one in cambridge, massachusetts(grendel's in  harvard square), which
><has two single-stall you-know whats.  one is labelled "either/or", and the
><other, "or/either".
>
>I've gotten tripped up at Madison Bear Garden, Chico, CA by the sign of a hand
>with "Men's Room" written on it posted on the womens b-room door but pointing
>to the actual men's room. Of course, the actual men's room has the sign
>pointing the other way with "Women's Room" written on it...Havn't had any women
>walk in on me, they must be smarter...
>
>MJG (no, I didn't go to school at CSUC)
>
>

 AT the Dark Horse here in Boulder it's the same way.  Some people find
it very amusing to watch seriously inibrieated(sp?) individuals either
go in the wrong one or try to decide which one they should go in.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: CDs cheaper to make than cassettes?
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 09:41:28 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.193529.1384@vicorp.com> jmethot@vicorp.com (John Methot) writes:
>In article <1e1au9INNbg0@gap.caltech.edu> heathh@cco.caltech.edu (Heath Ian Hunnicutt) writes:
>>Mike Berman <MSB101@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>>
>>>Along related lines (I know this one is true), it is cheaper to make certain
>>>computer chips with math coprocessors than to make them without (since it costs
>>> extra money to sever the line to the coprocessor).  But the ones with the
>>>coprocessor cost more.  Of course in this case, you're paying for technology...
>>
>>	Unless I miss my guess, you must be refferring to the Intel 486
>>and 486sx.  While it is true that the 486sx is merely a 486 with a "severed
>>line", there was a good reason to sever that line and charge less for
>>the chip.  Namely, most 486sxs are 486 chips that _failed_ the quality
>>check for the floating point unit.  That is, the main processor was
>>working, but there was some trouble during the fabrication that screwed
>>up only the "math coprocessor" portion of the chip.  Well, there was no
>>reason for Intel to throw away a perfectly fine half-working chip, so
>>they "officially" removed the floating point unit and called it the SX.
>
>This would be a great explanation except for the existence of one other
>major difference between the SX and DX intel processors.  The DX procs
>have 32 bit wide access to the motherboard's data bus, while the data
>path on SX's is only 16 bits wide.  Both have 32 bit *internal* data busses.
>The SX were actually made *on purpose* to be plug compatible with older
>(16 bit data bus) motherboards.

This information is moshed up.

A 486SX is a 486DX with no coproc or a severed line or whatever.  Both
do the main function with a 32-bit wide buss and are plug compatible.

The 386DX is a 32 bit 386 and a 386SX is a 16 bit 386 and neither have
coprocs, and they aren't plug compatible.  Furthermore, the 386SX isn't
plug compatible with the 286, although you can buy a daughter board to
upgrade most 286 machines using the daughter board and a 386SX plugged into
said board.

There is also being marketed a CPU chip that will identify as a 486SX,
meaning it's a 486 without a coproc, and it's 16-bits and plug-compatible
with the 386SX, which apparently means it could also upgrade a 286 using
that daughter board (Kingston, etc.).

>
>The "half defective" explanation above *does* apply to processors of
>varying speed.  A 20MHz x86 is the same as a 25 or 33MHz except for the
>existence of some manufacturing defect that prevents it from passing
>functional tests at the higher speed.

Most chips are speed graded out.

>
>-- 
>John Methot            |  ACME Consulting, Inc.   | (413)586-ACME
>uunet!vicorp!jmethot   |  P O Box 597             | (413)586-8371 x352
>jmethot@vicorp.com     |  Northampton, MA 01061   |    (customer site)
>CompuServe: 70620,3555 |  USA                     |

cjl
From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: AIDS and the CIA (was Question)
Date: 16 Nov 1992 15:08:27 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Distribution: world
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <9706@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>, pmmst8+@pitt.edu (Paul M Mweene) writes:
=Your story is half true. Infact the Soviets picked this story from two French
=scientists who did studies on the virus. They showed that there was no way 
=the Simian (green monkey) virus could ever evolve into HIV. They felt that a
=more likely source was combination of the luekemia causative agent and the
=visna virus found in sheep. I happened to read this report way back in '87
=or '86.

Of course, the fact that HIV bears no resemblence to the visna virus is
irrelevent, right?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.computers
From: wag5@quads.uchicago.edu (john peter wagner)
Subject: Re: Jackpotting ATM's for $$$$
Reply-To: wag5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 04:28:58 GMT

In article <EBU.92Nov8210348@lk-hp-12.hut.fi> ebu@snakemail.hut.fi (Erik Bunn) writes:
>In article <1992Nov8.103101.166@gems.vcu.edu> hleaves@gems.vcu.edu writes:
>
>>I was reading an article in an "anarchist" magazine (I can't remember which
>>one) that was talking about ATM (teller machine) "jackpotting". "Jackpotting"
>...
>
>Don't know about this one, but the ATM coup someone allegedly made in
>Italy was pretty good =). Pick an ATM that's sunk into the wall
>and insert a false cover over it. They made it realistic - keyboard,
>motorized car slot, and a computer that first read the code number,
>then announced that the card is damaged, please contact your bank.
>The next night the false ATM would be moved and the cards and
>corresponding PINs utilized to the fullest.. 
>
>Such a simple, elegant solution, is it not?
>
>
>--
>Erik Bunn	  // 			   // full-time unrealist
>Erik.Bunn@hut.fi // ebu@niksula.cs.hut.fi // ebu@vipunen.hut.fi
>(358-0)455-1041 // (358-71)227-493       // (1-206)638-1002

		Sounds like a physical Decoy, commonly
		used method of acquiring passcodes.

			John

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: pynq@quads.uchicago.edu (George Jetson)
Subject: Re: When does FAQ get posted?
Keywords: FAQ
Reply-To: pynq@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: D. J. Dougherty & Associates
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 16:45:24 GMT

In article <1992Nov22.024302.5479@microsoft.com> leecr@microsoft.com (Lee Crocker) writes:
>I have been watching this group for what I think is over a month now,
>and although I see references to the FAQ list, I have yet to see the
>FAQ list itself.  If it is to be released in the next few days, please
>ignore this post.  Otherwise, will some kind soul please either send
>it to me or tell me when it will be posted or where I can FTP it?
>

Look in:

	deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu:/misc/fun/urban.legends

As far as I know, a current copy can always be found there.
As well as other interesting things, such as a GIF of Craig.

************************************************************************
I've been told to back off on the diode jokes, but I still don't
like smileys ;-)

	- pynq@quads.uchicago.edu, who is still costing the net
	  hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, every time he posts -
************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: rhadden@isdres.er.usgs.gov
Subject: RE: Military wit (was Re: Jackpotting ATM's for)
Organization: U.S. Geological Survey
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:49:23 GMT

Reminds me of algebra class. If we made a stupid arithmitic mistake in class,
we had to run downstairs, out into the courtyrad, and shout back to the classroom
"I LOVE MATHEMATICS!" Needless to say, everyone in the other classes learned
to love us as, well, and would ovften shout the chorus along with us. What is
the old saying "It is better to be thought a fool and be silent, athan to
open your mouth and be known as one."?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: leecr@microsoft.com (Lee Crocker)
Subject: When does FAQ get posted?
Date: 22 Nov 92 02:43:02 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp.
Keywords: FAQ

I have been watching this group for what I think is over a month now,
and although I see references to the FAQ list, I have yet to see the
FAQ list itself.  If it is to be released in the next few days, please
ignore this post.  Otherwise, will some kind soul please either send
it to me or tell me when it will be posted or where I can FTP it?
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: UL Alert:  Blue blood!!
Date: 23 Nov 92 23:55:00 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

>A quiz for the bored. There are veins in the body that do carry
>oxygenated blood. For two Shergold "blue blood" points - name them.

Any blue blood would know this, because it is the meaning of POSH:
Pulmonary -- Oxygenated Supply to Heart.

Joe "Inside of a blood vessel it's too dark to read" Chew
From: cspot@cats.ucsc.edu (Christopher Edward Hilker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Snuff film?
Date: 19 Nov 1992 02:38:30 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu


jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera) writes:

[snuff discussion deleted]

>be done on purpose (if Spielberg had included the deaths of Vic Morrow and 
>the kid in "The Twilight Zone," that wouldn't constitute snuff) especially

Actually, John Landis was the director of 'Twilight Zone: The Movie."

C.

-- 
                       |    They have corrupted themselves,
Chris.Hilker           |    their spot is not the spot of his children:
cspot@cats.ucsc.edu    |    they are a perverse and crooked generation.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: dpm1960@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov (snopes)
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's Conspiracy Theory, brought to you today.
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Will pay money for food.
Date: 16 Nov 1992 18:55 EST  

In article <16NOV199217553521@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov>, 
  dpm1960@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov (snopes) writes...

>Partly true.  If a populist unacceptable to the upper classes manages to gather
>broad national support, there's nothing they can do about it.

I take that back.  They managed to do something about Huey Long.

 - snopes

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                             |
|               "Fascism was really the basis of the New Deal."               |
|                                                                             |
|                                               - Ronald Reagan, 1976         |
+---------------------------------------------+-------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Hotel footbridge disaster (was: Soldiers breaking step across bridge)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 09:47:50 GMT

> I saw a show on engineering mistakes which went over the cause of the
> Texas hotel skywalk collapse.

Kansas City.  The Hyatt Regency.

> It seems that the design called for two
> bridges hanging from the ceiling from long bars. You would have one bar
> running from the ceiling down to the lower bridge, and the higher bridge
> would be clamped on to the bar part-way down. Sort of like this:
> 
>                              |
>                              |
>                              |
>                         =====|====
>                              +
>                              |
>                         =====|====
                               +

I have added an important detail to the diagram.  The shaft was to be
threaded at the places marked +, and nuts screwed onto it there.  The
whole weight of the middle part of the bridge was taken by the nuts.

>    Later in the construction somebody felt that it had to be changed

The diagram had not explained how the upper nut was supposed to *get*
there.  They would have had to obtain a rod that either was threaded
over the whole distance from that position to one end, or a rod that was
fatter in that area and threaded only there (and at the bottom).
Either way, I presume it would have had to be specially manufactured
at some expense and delay.

On the other hand, rods threaded just at the ends were easily obtained.
(Either the manufacturers sell them that way or the construction people
have no trouble putting a thread onto a short length of the rod.)

> the new design broke the bar in two and hung the lower part of the bar
> from the upper skywalk, like this:

> 
>                              |
>                              |
>                              |+
>                       =======||=====
>                              +|
>                               |
>                       ========|=====
                                +

Thus using standard components -- usually good architecture/engineering!

> Not much difference, eh? Well, they didn't change the specs on the
> anchoring points. The new design loads the upper skywalk's connection to
> the upper bar twice as much as the original design did.  Now, put a bunch
> of party revelers on the bridge and that factor of two overdesign you
> thought you put into it goes away.

Right, though if I have correctly remembered Henry Petroski's excellent
book "To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design"
where I read about this, the intended safety factor was more than 2
and there was some other error as well.  Maybe they just didn't think
the bridges would ever totally fill with people.
-- 
Mark Brader		    "People tend to assume that things they don't know
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto	     about are either safe or dangerous or useless,
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com     depending on their prejudices."    -- Tim Freeman

This article is in the public domain.
From: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM (Brian Scearce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Aluminum cookware:  Recipe for disaster?
Date: 21 Nov 92 01:55:30 GMT
Reply-To: bls@sector7g.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sector7g

In article 20281@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu, rthomas@nyx.cs.du.edu (Richard Thomas) asks:
> Pewter pans? Who would be stupid enough to make them?

James M Barrie and Walt Disney, to name two.

Brian "Lost Boy" Scearce
---
Brian Scearce                                           bls@sector7g.eng.sun.com
              The above does not necessarily represent Sun policy.
                  "You can't fit the truth on a t-shirt, man."
                                 "That'd fit."