HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Subject: Re: Driving tests
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 22:17:31 GMT

>In article <1992Aug13.152447.23346@specialix.co.uk> martin@specialix.co.uk (Martin) writes:
>
>>I had previously heard the story as the Egyptian driving test where you
>>have to drive 9 yards forwards and 9 yards backwards.
>>
>>Which, if either, is true?

In the great state of California, they have you back up about 50'.  I
did get to drive around a little bit, from a small street onto a big
street, and back to a small street.  A right turn on a red light where
I almost hit someone (having learned to drive in NYC, I never got into
the habit of looking in that direction when confronted by a red).
They only deducted 3 points out of 100 for that, I think.  We did have
to park on a hill (this being the Bay Area, where Real Hills are).
This was amusing: the tester said, park behind that car over there,
and I started to parallel park (being from NYC).  She said, no, no,
no, just park.  It took about a minute for it to register in my head
that "park" seems to just mean, "pull in behind that car".  Actually,
I lost 6 points doing this, since I didn't turn my wheels into the
curb (being from NYC, where all the hills have been flattened for our
convenience).  So, I guess parking on a hill is worth more than
whacking pedestrians.

(The cutoff score was around a 70, so I'm not sure what you have to do
to fail)


--
This is not a .signature
From: ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Walking on Hot Coals (Was: Re: SHOCKING STORIES)
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:42:05 GMT
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization

In article 23443@news.cs.brandeis.edu, st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu (LUCIFER) writes:
> I have read somwhere that there is a maximum distance that it is
> possible to walk on hot coals before all the moister between them and
> your feet vaporizes. I think it was 3 steps weith each foot.

UC Davis has a course on fire-walking.  The bed of coals the students walk
on at the end of the course is 10 feet long.  The Woodland (CA) Daily Demo-
crat, my local paper, had a piece on it the other day:  the course that
ended just then had had what looks like about 20-30 students enrolled; all
of the students did the walk barefoot; none of them got burned feet.  No
one soaked his/her feet before taking the walk -- the preparation seems to
have been mostly mental.


Carrie		ceb@rechenau.unify.com	x6244
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|"To every hard problem, there's a simple solution, and it's wrong." - Turski |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Penicillin Priorities
From: joltes@husc10.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes)
Date: 20 Aug 92 10:16:10 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

Joe Chew scribbles:

>{Of rubbing garlic on a musket ball in Revolutionary times to cause 
>non-dying, logistics-draining casualties}
>
>>c)  the act of rubbing the garlic onto the ball (using dirty hands, maybe
>>    including some grime & bacteria during the process) made the wound that
>>    much more septic, causing infection and producing the desired result
>
>>Incredible though it may seem to us, I wouldn't swear that people back
>then had come up with a germ theory of disease, or had even causally 
>associated grime and infection.  The classic example is doctors going 
>straight from the morgue to the delivery room without stopping to wash,
>hands, thereby causing "pupereal fever" -- one more little bit to help
>make childbirth a leading cause of premature death.
>
>Joe "I'm not a doctor...I don't even play one in historical arguments" Chew

Ah, but I wasn't suggesting that the Revs were busily rubbing their balls (...)
(yes, that was intentional) and thinking "if the garlic don't get 'em, the
germs will."  It was more of an unintentional effect:  they believed that
the garlic did it, but the germs were the real culprits.

All speculation, but, well, this *is* AFU!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick "totally sterile!" Joltes				joltes@husc.harvard.edu
Hardware & Networking Manager, Computer Services 	joltes@husc.bitnet 
Harvard University Science Center

"Mind you, not as bad as the night Archie Pettigrew ate some
sheep's testicles for a bet...God, that bloody sheep kicked him..."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Cannibaderm, anyone?
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 02:52:04 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.160028.8473@panix.com> eck@panix.com (Mark Eckenwiler) writes:
>
>ObUL: Dialing 958 at a NYC payphone generates a voice recording of the
>payphone's number.

That's maybe on a NYNEX payphone, not all these crummy private payphones with
oddball extra charges.

I understand that in some cities the payphones have no incoming identity so
it isn't possible to call them.  Just the thing when you are calling home
and have limited change and need them to call you back in a (limited)
emergency.  So, in those places, you either have to beg for money, call the
police, or try to get operator charges billed to your home.

BTW, NYC has just switched the Bronx into the 718 area code, and has started
an all-business 917 area code, mostly for new business, such as beepers, etc.
The Bronx switch is being done gradually to allow people to get used to it,
but by next March you can't use 212 to get there anymore.  Thus 212 is now
only for the island called Manhattan.

cjl (in 718)
From: grimjack@milton.u.washington.edu (Leslie Basel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Ginsu Knives
Date: 20 Aug 92 02:37:22 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Aug18.204034.27683@bnlux1.bnl.gov> schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder) writes:
>In article <1992Aug17.185120.11785@acuson.com> lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson) writes:
>
>>Has anyone out there ever stabbed someone famous with a gunsu?
>
>                                                        ^^^
 I would expect them to be shot, hmmm?

Rodger Coghlan
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: NYC phones
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 07:01:56 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.150036.18920@panix.com> fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller) writes:
>
>It is true, I've used it many times.  Here's the real UL, though:
>
>If you hear a busy signal after you dial 958, then your phone is tapped.

To inject a few phone-phreaking facts:

There is (was) a method to cause the ANI equipment to be "off" by one in
giving its announcement of your number.  So, if your number is 456-1234, then
you instead get:

x45 6123

Where x is 0 if there is nothing special going on, and 3 means "service
observance".  Rumor has it that 6 means the phone is not to be billed at
all (internal telco number).

cjl (I don't do these things; just pretend I make them up :-).)
Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Friday, 14 Aug 1992 13:34:18 MST
From: <ICBAL@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Penicillin Priorities
 <1992Aug12.181943.25457@news.columbia.edu>
 <1992Aug13.124625.14698@husc3.harvard.edu>

In article <1992Aug13.124625.14698@husc3.harvard.edu>, joltes@husc8.harvard.edu
(Richard Joltes) says:
>
>One that I heard along these lines was that during the American Revolution
>the colonials (especially harriers) would often rub musket balls with garlic,
>then wound a few enemy soldiers in a column with them.  This was done when a
>unit was on the move, since (according to the story) the garlic acted as a
>muscle inhibitor, necessitating that the wounded be carried since they could
>not move on their own.  This slowed the column and allowed the Americans time
>to gather more troops and attack.
>Any comments?

From the authoritative source of old Crime Does Not Pay comic books, I
remember reading several stories about 20s gangsters who would rub their
bullets in garlic before doing battle with gangland rivals. Supposedly
the garlic on the bullets caused those wounded to "go mad from the pain".

Bruce Long
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis)
Subject: Re: Oh Yea, We'll So's Yer Old Man!
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 07:37:12 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.175442.1@vms.cis.pitt.edu> tjw+@pitt.edu writes:
>Looking for a NEW Thread???  Hey, we're heavy into recycling around here so
>allow me to take some of our old TRASH and turn it into SHEER GOLD:
                                                          ^^^^^^^^

   Sheer gold? SHERGOLD? Is it coincidence .... or ALIEN ELVIS
IMPERSONATORS EATING MY BRAIN? No, Terry's brain. You be the judge!


oburban: "I know you are, but what am I?"


-- 
email: wiml@u.washington.edu             |  Home:  Seattle, Washington   |
     (William Lewis)                     |  47 41' 15" N   122 42' 58" W | 
NeXTmail: wiml@ingalls.cs.washington.edu `-------------------------------'
        --*-- Member, Coalition to Preserve Semantic Vacuity --*--
From: lawson@acuson.com (Drew Lawson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Clockwise (was: Imponderables)
Date: 20 Aug 92 21:12:33 GMT
Reply-To: lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson)
Organization: ACUSON, Mountain View, CA

In article <Bt7tvz.90s@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:
>In article <1992Aug18.152428.28723@unislc.uucp> dw@unislc.uucp (Dan Wright) writes:
>>
>>[Incidentally, clocks run clockwise because sun-dials run clockwise
>>in the northern hemisphere]
>>
>Or, because the sun goes clockwise as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
>The sundial observation is a corollary.

It does?  It looks to me (in the northern hemisphere) to go pretty
close to straight across the sky.

Drew "Oops, I forgot to wind my sundial" Lawson
-- 
Drew Lawson                      If you're not part of the solution,
lawson@acuson.com                you're part of the precipitate
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: NYC phones
Date: 19 Aug 92 15:00:36 GMT
Organization: Right Bleedin' Church of Libertine Obfuscatology

In <1992Aug18.133000.6852@athena.mit.edu> tlouie@athena.mit.edu (Tom Louie) writes:

>In article <1992Aug17.160028.8473@panix.com> eck@panix.com (Mark Eckenwiler) writes:
>>
>>ObUL: Dialing 958 at a NYC payphone generates a voice recording of the
>>payphone's number.
>>
>It's the truth.  Dial 958 on most phones in NYC (payphone or otherwise)
>will get you this funky spliced recording informing you what phone
>number you're on right now.

It is true, I've used it many times.  Here's the real UL, though:

If you hear a busy signal after you dial 958, then your phone is tapped.
-- 
    / \      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!"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder)
Subject: Re: Ginsu Knives
Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 19:58:06 GMT

In article <89C402Bl1dzE01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Terry Carroll) writes:
>In article <1992Aug11.045722.6315@mv.mv.com>, mem@mv.mv.com (Mark E. Mallett) 
>writes:
>> In article <1992Aug10.202643.4286@bnlux1.bnl.gov> schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov 
>(gary 
>> l. schroeder) writes:
>> >>In article <1992Aug7.050843.14419@mv.mv.com>, 
>> >>  mem@mv.mv.com (Mark E. Mallett) writes...
>> >>
>> >>>> I've found that an effective technique is to write to the company and 
>> >>>> threaten to stab someone if they don't replace the knives.  It usually 
>> >>>> merits a prompt response.
>> 
>> I did not write the above.  Gary Schroeder must have gone out of his
>> way or his mind to make it look like I did.  I did not.  I merely
>> commented on it.

>So stab him.


No, hey....aaauuuuggghhhHHHHH!!!



-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Schroeder	                |  Warning: prolonged exposure to this
schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov         |  .sig may cause retinal damage and 
Brookhaven National Laboratory  |  blistering skin rashes.
From: henryc@panix.com (Henry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Japanese snuff! sort-of...
Date: 19 Aug 92 16:00:06 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

In article <8181.20276@stratus.SWDC.Stratus.COM> jane@soave.swdc.stratus.com (Jane Beckman) writes:
>I was just reading a fascinating book called "Pink Samurai,
>Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan."  Apparently,
>the Japanese have a taste for snuff films!  A major appetite.
>Mind you, none of this is *real* death, but they seem to
>really get into seeing women get mangled and murdered in
>sexual scenarios.  (It also points out that they like watching
>women get mangled and murdered in most of their other flicks,
>too.)

Japan is still a male dominated society that hasn't adjusted to women's rights.
Japanese wives were traditionally seen as the Atypical obedient oriental wife
who walks six paces behind the husband(I heard that after the war, the women
walked six paces in front; to check for land mines).  The traditional wife
either didn't work or quit her job upon marriage to provide a home and kids for
her husband.  The growing numbers of women working and some choosing to retain
their jobs after marriage has encroached on a traditionally all male domain; 
the man being the sole provider.

S&M comic books depicting women bound and strung up resembling packages of 
sausage at the local butcher is quite popular in Japan.  I read that 1 in 10
Japanese male harbor such fantasy.  


>lCombine it with a popular comic called "Rape Man" (mild-mannered
>salaryman by day, half-clothed sexual superman when the need

Not too long ago, there was a public outcry against a Japanese Diet member who
said something to the extend that considering the level of morality among Japan'
s young women everynow and then it would be a good thing to rape them as to put
them in their right placce.  Many Japanese women rights group became excited
upon hearing of the statement.  I found out about this from watching a local
Japanese news broadcast which presented it as a human interest story.

-- 
My friends, we can and we will, never, never, surrender to what is right.
--Dan Qualye speaking to Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:21265 sci.electronics:14286
From: eeopensh@cybaswan.UUCP (j p openshaw)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: SHOCKING STORIES
Date: 12 Aug 92 16:42:29 GMT
Reply-To: eeopensh@cybaswan.UUCP (j p openshaw)

In article <7S8IOYI@taronga.com> arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) writes:
>In article <1992Aug11.130839.7907@nntp.nta.no>, styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo) writes:
>> In article <1992Aug9.114705.5110@news.iastate.edu>, Anthony Clifton writes:
>> >
>> >Essentially, it works this way:  when you have a liquid in contact with ahot
>> >surface (above a certain temperature) the layer of liquid closest to the 
>> >surface will vaporize.  This vapor-layer is a very poor conductor of heat
>> >so the liquid farther away from the surface doesn't heat up as much.
>> 
> (Stuff deleted...)
>
>I read an article in an issue of Scientific American a few years
>back about an innovative physics teacher (don't remember his name,
>sorry) who took this demonstration to more of an extreme.  He would
>dip his entire hand in some sort of hot melted metal substance.  Very
>quickly, of course, and after he had thoroughly soaked his hand
>in water first.

This is known as the Leidenfrost effect, which you can see when
you drop bits of water on a hot-plate, and they shoot off in a very
animated fashion instead of turning into steam.

If you look at the blobs of water, they have steam underneath and 
(relatively) cool water on the top. This wouldnt stop molten metal 
sticking to this guys skin, and turning him into something out of Terminator.
Sounds like he used luke warm mercury... is he still alive now?

John (I'd like a phase-plasma rifle in the 40 Watt range) Openshaw
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Openshaw: eeopensh@pyr.swan.ac.uk | Tall ship, and a star to sail her by?
                                       | Sharp knife, and a cogent alibi...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tms@cs.umd.edu (Tom Swiss (not Swift, not Suiss, Swiss!))
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Do the Hokey-Pokey
Date: 13 Aug 92 22:49:36 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: The Reality Liberation Front (pixels to the people!)

scooter@hirgon.hw.stratus.com (Scott Jeffrey) writes:
>
>ObUL:  A karate chop to the neck/shoulder will render an attacker immobile.

     As a student of that fine martial art, let me comment as follows:

     Yes, a hard blow to the neck can indeed induce motionlessness.
That's because said blow may cause unconsciousness or death, both
highly non-mobile conditions.

     A hard blow to the shoulder can break the collarbone; the pain
may leave your opponent rather immobile...

     Also, hard blows to certain points on the muscles of the arms and
legs can leave one's extremities numb and rather useless for a short
time.

===============================================================================
Tom Swiss/tms@flubber.cs.umd.edu| "Born to die" | Keep your laws off my brain!
     "What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?" - Nick Lowe 
          This is a .signature antibody. Vaccinate your .sig!
     "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and
      democracy - but that could change."
                -- Vice President Dan Quayle
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov (gary l. schroeder)
Subject: Re: Ginsu Knives
Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 20:40:34 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.185120.11785@acuson.com> lawson@aldia.UUCP (Drew Lawson) writes:

>Has anyone out there ever stabbed someone famous with a gunsu?


Yeah!  Once I sta...oh, wait.  Does it have to be someone famous?




-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Schroeder	                |  Warning: prolonged exposure to this
schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov         |  .sig may cause retinal damage and 
Brookhaven National Laboratory  |  blistering skin rashes. 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: snopes%club33@stlth.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Organization: Just put everything on the floor; I can find it.
Date: 17 AUG 92 22:01:55    


hsr4@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:

> it doesn't matter what the experienced grass roots say, if senior bureaucrats 
> and computerised legal judgements don't yield a positive result, some AFUers
> take that to be the final verdict (and assume that their text retrieval 
> skills are beyond question).

 Yet another technique of those who lack any evidence or facts to support their
 claims: slough off responsibility to the other side by stating that they 
 can't prove there *isn't* any evidence.  As soon as HSR4's vaunted "text
 retrieval skills" manage to produce a reputable reference to snuff films,
 that'll make a total of one.

 - snopes

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                             |
|"Asserting a statement an infinity of times does not in itself make it true."|
|                                                                             |
|                                                           - Abel J. Jones   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  David P. Mikkelson   Digital Equipment Corporation   Culver City, CA  USA  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Faces of death
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Date: 14 Aug 1992 00:12:04 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <1992Aug13.232829.157@henson.cc.wwu.edu> 
n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio) writes:

>>Q:  What's the difference between Bud Dwyer and Bud Light?
>>A:  Bud Light has a head.

>	Funny as hell, but one nit, I would expect him still to have
>one, assuming his head was larger than GI-Joe size to start out with.
>I would imagine him to still look like the same old Bud, with a head, 
>but with powder burns on it and a roughly pencil-diameter entry hole 
>and maybe a thumb diameter exit hole both added to his orfice collection.


Actually, he did; he pointed the pistol upward and slightly back, firing it 
through the roof of his mouth.  In the film, you can see blood and bits 
of brain matter explode upward from the top of his freshly-ventilated
noggin and splatter onto the curtains behind the lectern.  I thought
it made a rather artful juxtaposition with the Pennsylvania state seal.

Then he collapsed onto the floor, leaning up against some kind of 
cabinet or partition off to one side of the rostrum.  Blood flowed
out of his mouth and nose immediately, and then after a brief pause,
there was a voluminous eruption of gore from the top of his head, which
poured down over his left temple and cheek. 

Meanwhile everybody was freaking out, and the governor was standing up, 
yelling for everyone to please leave and to try to "maintain some kind
of decorum."  Meanwhile, there sat Bud right behind him, in plain view.

Oops, gotta go.  It's getting late, and I still have to stop at the
store and pick up the pasta and marinara sauce.



Geoff


-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
      "Wendy glanced up at the ceiling where the mound of
      lasagna loomed like a mottled mountain range.  Within
      seconds, she was crowned with ricotta ringlets and a
      tomato sauce tiara.  Bits of beef formed meaty moles
      on her forehead.  After the second thud, her culinary
      coronation was complete."
 
                                        -- from an ANSI C reference manual
                                           (chapter on character strings)
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-