HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lafollet@astro.ocis.temple.edu (Paul Lafollette)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: a word almost its own antonym
Date: 8 Nov 92 22:57:13 GMT
Organization: Temple University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Seth Breidbart (sethb@fid.morgan.com) wrote:
: There's a word, X, in the English language.  X can be an adverb.  Xly
: is an adverb.  There are two very similar sentences, one of which can
: be transformed into the other by removing X (which is an adverby in
: that sentence) and inserting Xly, which have (sort of) opposite
: meanings.
: 
: What is X?
: 
: Seth		sethb@fid.morgan.com

Well, don't have quite this word but...
I cleave to the notion  that fast can mean quick or it can mean
immovable, and I will cleave the head from the neck of those who
disagree.

I am stuck fast to the idea that cleave can mean to cut apart or
it can mean to be stuck together, and I will  be fast to praise
those who agree.

Or are these FGA's (frequently given answers)
From: dsbb@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (D. SPENCER BEECHER)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: the question is the answer ?!
Date: 9 Nov 92 15:11:18 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

Now for something REALLY off the wall, consider:

This sentence contains seven words.

or its opposite:

This sentence does not contain seven words.


how about:

This sentence contains more than seven words.
This sentence contains less than seven words.
-- 
                   _ _     _ _     _ _
  -Spence         [O.O]   )x.x(   )O.O(
                    O       O      -*-
From: RVESTERM@vma.cc.nd.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Forumula for Pi
Date: 7 Nov 92 19:47:51 GMT

pi is the limit as n-->oo of one-half of the sum of the sides of a
regular n-gon, with distance between the center and a vertex equal
to one.

you can write a program in ten lines or so to print these values out.

the number of digits you get is limited only by your computer.

bob vesterman.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles,rec.org.mensa
From: wilson@rhombus.cs.jhu.edu (Dwight Wilson)
Subject: Re: the question is the answer ?!
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University CS Department
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 14:47:01 GMT

In article <1992Nov5.213159.10826@sbcs.sunysb.edu> kthiruma@engws3.ic.sunysb.edu () writes:
>
>a question when repeated becomes its own answer.
>

This reminds me of a (probably apocryphal) story I read somewhere
long ago.  It seems a professor gave a final exam consisting of
a single question.

"Write a question that you feel would be suitable for a 
final exam and answer it."

One student thought for a few moments, then wrote the above
sentence twice.

-Dwight
From: rh@smds.com (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
Keywords: pi, Louie
Date: 11 Nov 92 06:34:44 GMT
Reply-To: rh@ishmael.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Organization: Software Maintenance & Development Systems, Inc.

In article <1992Nov10.195614.20902@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> jeffe@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Jeff Erickson) writes:
>ryoung@pollux.svale.hp.com (Roderick Young) writes:
>>If I wanted to send information to a society that will inhabit the earth
>>one billion years in the future, how would I do it?  If I engraved the
>>message on a bunch of diamonds, then buried the diamonds in a secure place,
>>would that do it?  There must be a better way.

Teaser:

This is a chestnut that is originally due to John Cambell (Astounding/Analog).
The presumption is that no artifact can be guaranteed to last that long.
Ergo, what you need is a transmission mechanism that is self-reproducing
and error correcting.  You also need the technology for the original
encoding and the read-out, which we are just getting around to.  There
was a cute story in which scientists in the relevant field discovered
that such a message had been sent and had been delivered a long time
ago; however the message transmission units were still propagating.
-- 
Richard Harter: SMDS Inc.  Net address: rh@smds.com Phone: 508-369-7398 
US Mail: SMDS Inc., PO Box 555, Concord MA 01742.    Fax: 508-369-8272
In the fields of Hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die.
From: ronnie@cisco.com (Ronnie B. Kon)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Does anybody know what a TRYPTYCH is?
Date: 9 Nov 92 23:02:23 GMT
Organization: cisco Systems, Incorporated
NNTP-Posting-Host: lager.cisco.com

|> A tryptych is a three paneled painting, usually hinged so that the two
|> panels on the left and the right fold over to cover the third inner panel.
|> The subject matter of the painting is usually boring religious dogma (sorry!),
|> and usually accents the altar.

At one point in the 18th century (I think) the English ambassador to the
French court was shown a tryptych with Christ on the cross in the center,
the King of France and the Pope on either side.  His host, knowing that
the Ambassador from a Protestant nation would not like this, made sure
to point out the symbolism of the scene.  The Ambassador's reply was "I
have always heard that our Lord was crucified between two thieves.  Until
today, I had not the honor of knowing their identities." 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronnie B. Kon           |	"You couldn't deny that, even if you used
ronnie@cisco.com        |	both hands."
(415) 688-4592          |  			-- The Red Queen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: changcs@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Carole S. Chang)
Subject: Re: Does anybody know what a TRYPTYCH is?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 20:06:17 GMT

jbarnett@nrtc.northrop.com (Jeff Barnett) writes:

>In article <3196@nlsun1.oracle.nl>, asymes@nl.oracle.com (Andy Symes) writes:
>|> Folks,
>|> 
>|> The other day I was reading a Roman Catholic directory, and one of the
>|> small ads had for sale 'tryptychs', among other things. Can anybody
>|> enlighten me on the meaning of this word? Presumably it is a piece of
>|> Church hardware, and I would like to add it to my list of unusual
>|> words (the word, that is, not the item :).
>|> 
>A tryptychs(sp?) is a sequence of folding pannels -- something like a Japanese
>bedroom screen.  It can be of various sizes including, and usually, smaller.
>If memory serves me correctly, there are typically three pannels, hence, the
>name.  The interesting thing is that tryptychs are usually used to paint on,
>i.e., they are the "canvas".  In particular, much of the artistic work of
>Bosch was done on these screens.  Bosch painted the visions of a madman
>intertwined with religious images.  (I think of him as the cartoonist from
>hell.)  I think a lot of the older church art was done on these screens.

Many altarpieces were triptychs, and they could fold, allowing the 
artist to paint on the outside as well as the inside.  Bosch's famous
painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" was the middle panel of a
triptych.  The left side was "The Garden of Eden", the right side was
something else which I can't remember, something about hell or something,
and the outside had a painting of the creation of the world.  There are
other famous triptychs, such as Jan and Hubert van Eyck's Ghent Alt
oops.  Altarpiece, which had three screens, but multiple pictures, and
the Isenheim Altarpiece, which was by Grunewald.

						-carole
From: edp@math.zk3.dec.com (Eric Postpischil)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: the question is the answer ?!
Date: 10 Nov 92 21:35:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: nntpd.1992Nov10.213507.1815
Reply-To: edp@math.zk3.dec.com (Eric Postpischil)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

In article <96980@netnews.upenn.edu>, varhus@contra.seas.upenn.edu
(Kristofor A Varhus) writes:

>What do you mean he didn't answer the question?  Yes he did!!!!
>He wrote the sentence *twice*!  Once for the question suitable for a final,
>and once for its answer.  How could you possibly think he didn't answer the
>question?!

By your exposition, as the answer to the professor's question, the
student wrote the question twice.  Thus, the answer he submitted to the
professor was two copies of the question.  But the question requested
two things:  one, a question, and, two, its answer.  The first copy of
the question is the question.  But the second copy of the question is
not the answer, since the answer is two copies of the question, not one.
Had the student written one copy of the question and then the text "The
above question and this text constitute a correct answer.", that could
have been judged to be correct.


                                -- edp (Eric Postpischil)
                                "Always mount a scratch monkey."
                                edp@rusure.enet.dec.com
From: ryoung@pollux.svale.hp.com (Roderick Young)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:42:13 GMT
Subject: Re: SNAPS
Organization: Hewlett Packard CPCD, Sunnyvale CA
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles

Snapping messages.

Well, there was an old party trick in intermediate school which sounds
like what you're describing.

Only the vowels are encoded by the snaps.
A=1 E=2 I=3 O=4 U=5

Then the first letter of each sentence is used to communicate the
consonants.

For example, if you wanted to pass "STEVE," you might say,

"Sending a message to you."
"Think hard."
<snap snap>
"Very good."
<snap snap>

If done smoothly, this will perplex a surprising number of people
indefinitely.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: johnson@sleipnir.mnesouth.corp.mot.com (Mark Johnson)
Subject: Re: the question is the answer ?!
Reply-To: johnson@sleipnir.mnesouth.corp.mot.com
Organization: Motorola Wireless Enterprises, Schaumburg, IL
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 15:24:31 GMT

In article <97075@netnews.upenn.edu>, varhus@jig.seas.upenn.edu (Kristofor A Varhus) writes:
=)I was wondering how many people would respond to my obviously stupid and
=)faked post.  I was somewhat surprised at the four or five people who got
=)sucked into my very funny shenanigan.  8^)
=)
Cute, but not as good as the "balls in the urn" stunt.  :-)
-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Johnson"                              |Just because you're paranoid doesn't|
| johnson@sleipnir.mnesouth.corp.mot.com |   mean they're not out to get you. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Let's face it; if our lawyers knew what went on here, they'd shut us down.  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr)
Subject: Re: the question is the answer ?!
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 21:30:44 GMT

In article <96980@netnews.upenn.edu> varhus@contra.seas.upenn.edu (Kristofor A Varhus) writes:
>What do you mean he didn't answer the question?  Yes he did!!!!
>He wrote the sentence *twice*!  Once for the question suitable for a final,
>and once for its answer.  How could you possibly think he didn't answer the
>question?!
>
>Explain that!

You just showed why this "answer" has to include at least two copies
of the sentence.  But the answer must consist of the question AND its
answer, ergo 1 copy of the sentence for the question, and at least 2
copies for the answer, ergo at least 3 copies of the sentence must be
in the answer that the student writes.  But the student wrote only 2
copies, and so is wrong.

If the student had written the sentence 3 times to answer the above
objection, I would show that at least 4 copies were required.  In fact,
if the student tries to answer the question correctly in this fashion,
and if there is a positive lower bound on the amount of time taken to
copy the sentence once (to avoid another "balls in urn" fiasco), then
the student will never finish writing the answer.

-- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)


Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Date: Fri,  6 Nov 1992 17:30:12 -0500 
From: "Jonathan R. Ferro" <jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Amino acids (was: Re: Nucleotids)
	<2af80ee8wnr070@ark.abg.sub.org>

ralf@ark.abg.sub.org (Ralf Stephan) writes:
> macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty) writes:
> > > phe leu ile met val ser pro thr ala tyr
> > > his gln asn lys asp glu cys trp arg gly
> > serval?  nah...
> In German, this is a lynx-like animal, I think.  What's the English word?

The SERVAL, Felis SERVAL, of the cat family, Felidae, is a slender,
long-legged cat with a long neck, a small head, and large, erect ears.
The male may be more than 1 m (about 40 in) long, with a 30-cm (12-in)
tail. The SERVAL weighs more than 11 kg (30 lb) and stands about 58 cm
(23 in) tall at the shoulder.  Its flat coat, yellow to reddish brown,
is white on the underside, with large or small spots and stripes. Some
servals are all black.  Found in Africa south of the Sahara, servals are
solitary night hunters.  They eat young antelopes, birds, and rodents.

-- Jon Ferro               Einsprachigkeit ist heilbar
From: clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Balls in urn (SPOILER)
Date: 10 Nov 92 19:24:03 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <BxI7x2.772@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, Dave Seaman writes:

> I suppose this would be the wrong time to bring up the Monty Hall puzzle,  
> then.

You know, I consider the Monty Hall puzzle to be the *best* puzzle
ever invented, and I believe the majority of rec.puzzles veterans
would agree.
-- 
Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618
From: ryoung@pollux.svale.hp.com (Roderick Young)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:29:56 GMT
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
Organization: Hewlett Packard CPCD, Sunnyvale CA
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles

(Gus Gassmann)
> Try sending messages to a society that will inhabit the earth 10,000 years 
> from now. Some UN agency is really worried about this (with regard to
> toxic waste deposits). The main problem is that people in the future
> probably will not understand the language the message is written in,
> even if you got the problem of the medium solved...

10,000 years is a much easier problem.  The only thing making that problem
difficult is cost.  For instance, you could mark the site with a ring of
1000-foot pyramids, but boy, would that be expensive.

The question I pose does not have cost restrictions; it only asks about
best method given current technology.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: mk452a@oktext.sbc.com (Mark Kamphaus)
Subject: Batter Up
Reply-To: mk452a@oktext.UUCP (Mark Kamphaus)
Organization: Southwestern Bell
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 21:06:51 GMT


Two Batters - A & B - were comparing their seasons and
settling bets.  A had a higher batting average than B
during the first  half of the season and receieved
$5 from B.  A also had a higher batting average during the
second half and received another $5.  The bet for best
overall batting average was for $20.  After they settled,
A had a net gain/loss of one of the amounts below.  Which
one and why.

a) -$10
b) +$10
c) -$30
d) +$25
e) A could not end up with any of the above.


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: grue@cs.uq.oz.au (Pauli Dale)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Word sequence
Date: 12 Nov 92 02:11:54 GMT
Reply-To: grue@cs.uq.oz.au

Barry.John.Good@brunel.ac.uk (Barry John Good) writes:

>I hope this isn't an FAQ, but what's the longest sequence of 4-letter words 
>that you can find such that the last three letters of each word are the
>first three letters of the next in the sequence?

I assume that you don't want words repeated in the sequence (if you allow them
to be repeated I've got a neat sequence: anan nana repeated forever).



The longest I've found for four letter words have length 26.
There are many sequences with this length.  Starting from any of these
twenty one words: amok, atok, bane, cane, chok, dane, fane, gane, gybe,
	jane, jybe, kane, lane, mane, nane, pane, rane, sane, tane, vane, wane;
and ending at either of these two: idol or ions; will give you a sequence
of length 26.

e.g. from cane to idol is (sorry about things being backward):

	IDOL lido olid doli odol dodo adod dado adad rada arad tara star asta
	east deas edea rede ered were ewer hewe thew ethe neth anet CANE

and from gybe to ions is:

	IONS lion olio doli odol dodo adod dado adad rada arad tara star asta
	east deas edea rede ered were ewer hewe thew ethe beth ybet GYBE


Extending the puzzle a little to other length sequences...


Length 2 & 3 are pretty dull.  Length 3 has lots of sequences of length 10.


For length 5 the sequences I get are:
from araba to loins and
from grege to erned or ernes and
from nabak to anded and
from either dacha, kacha, pacha to either meeds or meers.

If full form (backwards still):
	LOINS eloin teloi atelo batel abate rabat ARABA
	ERNED terne stern ester geste egest reges GREGE
	ANDED lande aland kalan akala bakal abaka NABAK
	MEEDS ameed ramee arame haram chara achar DACHA
	MEERS ameer ramee arame haram chara achar KACHA






        						Pauli

Paul Dale                       | grue@cs.uq.oz.au
Department of Computer Science  | +61 7 365 2445
University of Queensland        |
Australia, 4072                 | Did you know that there are 41 two letter
                                |     words containing the letter 'a'?
--
From: tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Great turtle race
Date: 13 Nov 92 02:21:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: hellgate.1992Nov12.192101.13105
Organization: University of Utah, CompSci Dept

It was the day for the great turtle races, and Alfred, Bob, Carl, Dave,
Ed and Frank shuffled up to the starting line.  There would be two
races, and all of them were very excited (as excited as turtles can be!)
They would average each turtles place to find their overall rank..

In the first race:
   Alfred came in before Bob or Carl did
   Dave came in two places before Frank
   Three turtles ran times in between Carl and Ed

In the second race:
   Alfred came in before Bob or Carl did, and ran better this race than before
   Dave came in two places before Frank
   Three turtles ran times in between Carl and Ed

Quite peculiar!  Yet no turtle placed the same in both races.  Happily,
after they computed their overall rank for the day every turtle got
a medal.. gold, silver or bronze for 1,2 or 3rd.

  What were the placings for each turtle in both races?  Who got the gold?
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles,rec.org.mensa
From: gmark@cbnewse.cb.att.com (gilbert.m.stewart)
Subject: Re: the question is the answer ?!
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 19:47:35 GMT

In article <90TMS.92Nov9140045@tw212.eng.cam.ac.uk> 90tms@eng.cam.ac.uk (T.M. Speight) writes:

>`Yields a falsehood when appended to its own quotation'
>Yields a falsehood when appended to its own quotation.
>
>Anyone know who wrote this?

Ha!  That's an easy one!  T. M. Speight did!  The name's right there on
the post!

GM("Sherlock")S
From: Barry.John.Good@brunel.ac.uk (Barry John Good)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Word sequence
Date: 9 Nov 92 15:35:06 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, West London, UK

I hope this isn't an FAQ, but what's the longest sequence of 4-letter words 
that you can find such that the last three letters of each word are the
first three letters of the next in the sequence?

e.g., ECHO CHOP HOPE OPEN PEND ENDS
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: aph016@cch.coventry.ac.uk (ozzy)
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
Organization: Coventry University, Coventry, UK.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:35:46 GMT

In article <1992Nov10.114703.26890@ugle.unit.no> gg@iok.unit.no (Gus Gassmann) writes:
>In article <10920011@pollux.svale.hp.com>, ryoung@pollux.svale.hp.com (Roderick Young) writes:
>|> If I wanted to send information to a society that will inhabit the earth
>|> one billion years in the future, how would I do it?  If I engraved the
>|> message on a bunch of diamonds, then buried the diamonds in a secure place,
>|> would that do it?  There must be a better way.

If my understanding of carbon chemistry is correct, if you used diamonds as
your 'carrier of information', in a billion years time the diamonds would
turn to coal or graphite. Apparentlyall diamonds undergo this reaction, its
just that it take such a long time for the reaction to occur.

>Try sending messages to a society that will inhabit the earth 10,000 years 
>from now. Some UN agency is really worried about this (with regard to
>toxic waste deposits). The main problem is that people in the future
>probably will not understand the language the message is written in,
>even if you got the problem of the medium solved...

Perhaps a better way would be to have a satellite with the information
stored on board that is in a very low decay orbit around the planet, if at
all. That way, when the next civilisation rises to the state that we currently
have , it should have the understanding to decipher the meaning.
 

in humour
ozzy

Xref: sparky rec.puzzles:7107 sci.math:14571
From: clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles,sci.math
Subject: Re: gays and condoms (PARTIAL SPOILER)
Date: 7 Nov 92 18:49:53 GMT
Followup-To: rec.puzzles
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <SUOPANKI.92Nov5001903@zombie.oulu.fi>, Heikki Suopanki writes:

> There are 6 gay men and they want to have safe sex.
> How many condoms they need if everybody wants to have anal sex with
> everybody, i.e. everybody wants to insert penis in all anuses (sp?)
> (except their own :). Of course all of them have to be the receiving end
> as many times.

I haven't done 6 yet, but I've been able to show that the minimum
number for 2, 3, 4, 5 is 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively and that with
N men no more than N-1 are required.  My guess is for 6 the answer
is 5, and here's one way to do it:

P_1 puts on 1, puts 2 over it and has sex with P_2; takes 2 off puts
3 on and has sex with P_3; takes 3 off puts 4 on and has sex with P_4;
takes 4 off puts 5 on and has sex with P_5.  Condoms 1-5 now have one
used side, and for condom i this side was used by P_i, and it's easy
to see that the P_i's, i<6, may now have mutual sex among themselves
without changing the status of condoms 1-5.  When done, each P_i, i<6,
may have mutual sex with P_6 using condom i.

This clearly extends to N people, showing that no more than N-1 condoms
are required, but I don't know if this is the minimum.  Proof, anyone?
Counterexample?
-- 
Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618
From: keithv@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Vetter)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Alternate letter sounds
Date: 13 Nov 92 02:21:46 GMT
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley

[I didn't see this in the FAQ, excuse me if I missed it]

Does anyone have a complete list of alternate ways of getting various letter
sounds.  For example,  
   'gh' == 'f'  in enough
   'o'  == 'i'  in women
   'ti' == 'sh' in nation

hence 'ghoti' == 'fish'

I remember seeing such a list in a dictionary, does anyone have
it on line?

Thanks
Keith