HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gobbi@gdss.commerce.ubc.ca (Michael Gobbi)
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal
Subject: Re: Psychics' Predictions Fizzle For 1992
Date: 5 Jan 1993 18:44:34 GMT
Organization: The University of British Columbia
NNTP-Posting-Host: gdss.commerce.ubc.ca

Robert Sheaffer writes
> The Bay Area Skeptics is a group of people from all walks of life
> who support the critical examination of paranormal  claims,  such
> as  psychic  powers, UFOs, astrology, Bigfoot,  biorhythms,  etc.

Do they also critically study other hard-to-prove claims such as multiple  
personality disorder, antimatter, whiplash, etc., or do they only attack  
sensationalist claims?

I don't know about the BAS, but I have found other skeptics organizations  
to be rather biased in their choice of topics to attack.  In particular,  
they frequently demonstrate the falsehood of clearly absurd claims (IMHO  
anything out of National Enquirer and such papers) and assert that they  
have thus debunked parapsychology.  To wit:
>                                    Given the sheer number of  so-
> called "psychics" out there, one would expect that if even one of
> them  were  genuine,  these  things  would  have  been  correctly
> predicted;  and  since they were not, it suggests that  ALL  SUCH
> CLAIMS of "psychic powers" are without foundation.
(my capitals)
While this observation is certainly true, many skeptics groups use this  
evidence to support their claim that ANY claims of psychic powers are  
without foundation.  I see this as much like pointing at hypochondriacs to  
support the claim that there is no such thing as people with real  
illnesses.  You can find as many of the former as you like without  
affecting the existence of the latter (no matter how rare or common they  
are).

I would be much more comfortable with skeptical organization if they were  
willing to share their time & energy with those people who are honestly  
seeking evidence of the paranormal, rather than using logic and  
rationality to shoot down claimants who are not interested in rational  
analysis.  Think about it -- could all the logic in the world sway a  
fundamentalist christian or dedicated psychic from their viewpoint?  It  
seems to me that the belief that you can reason logically with people who  
choose not to use logic as a basis for their beliefs (as the skeptics seem  
to be trying to do) has been demonstrated false as frequently as any  
National Enquirer psychic prediction.

--
     __    In quest of knowledge...
    /..\      <gobbi@gdss.commerce.ubc.ca>
---mm--mm---------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal
From: sarfatti@well.sf.ca.us (Jack Sarfatti)
Subject: Dr. Tomorrow!
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 06:42:20 GMT


Dear Marshall F. Gilula, M.D
I tried to reach you by e-mail but it bounces back. Yes, it sounds great.
I want to read it.
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal
From: alan@puente.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Alan Quan)
Subject: Parapsychology Curricula
Reply-To: alan@puente.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 00:15:29 GMT

Can anyone provide a list of American universities that offer graduate
degrees in parapsychology, or in related fields (like psychology) with
an emphasis in parapsychology?  I'm also interested in any universities
that have major parapsychology curricula, even if they don't offer
degrees in this field.


Alan Quan
alan@puente.jpl.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal
From: kevin@pages.com (Kevin Sven Berg)
Subject: Re: Psychics' Predictions Fizzle For 1992
Organization: Banzai Research Institute
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 21:14:09 GMT

In article <1993Jan2.044622.25437@netcom.com> sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert  
Sheaffer) writes:
>                                 Bay Area Skeptics
>                       PSYCHICS' PREDICTIONS FIZZLE FOR 1992

[... lots-o-failed predictions deleted ...]

>         ...Given the sheer number of  so-
>         called "psychics" out there, one would expect that if even one of
>         them  were  genuine,  these  things  would  have  been  correctly
>         predicted;  and  since they were not, it suggests that  all  such
>         claims of "psychic powers" are without foundation.
> 

Robert, this is poor science. For example, to suggest that hills do not
exist because one does not observe hills in Kansas is ridiculous. Yet
the same logical error is being committed.

I really enjoyed and applaud the remaining content of your post (!!!).
However, this single sentence serves to suggest a dogmatic affixation
with reaching forgone conclusions, which is as deplorable as those
affixations you seek to negate.

Please, practice safe science.

Cheers,

Kevin

-- 
Kevin Sven Berg               /    /    /    /  P /  a /  g /  e /  s
kevin@pages.com              /    /    /    /    /    /    /    / 
Pages Software Inc.         /    /    /    /    /    /    /    /   
San Diego, CA.               `    `    `    `    `    `    `    `
From: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Argus)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Re: Cyberpunk Stories
Date: 5 Jan 93 16:23:53 GMT
Followup-To: alt.cyberspace
Organization: the Polyhedron Group
NNTP-Posting-Host: aaa.uoregon.edu

In article <726233741.F00001@ocitor.fidonet>,
Chris.Young@f78.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Chris Young) wrote:
> 
> Has anyone out there got any good text files about hacker's/phreaker types 
>having run ins with the law? the one that I had I upload to this board in 
>section 28, but I was wondering if there were any intreseting stories out 
>there???  I've got a lot of time on my hands at work and stories like that are 
>a real intrest to me.

Hi Chris,

Have you read Bruce Sterling's new print book "The Hacker Crackdown"? Yeah,
its print rather than text files, and you have to pay for it, but if
stories about hackers and phreaks interest you, especially as related to
their run-in's with the law, this books just what you want. The whole
thing's about the Feds crackdows on hacker/Phreaker activities in 1990 and
1991. It includes info on Operation Sundevil, Steve Jackson Games, Knight
Lightning, Phrack, and other hot topics. It also has a lot of good info on
the history of phone phreaking and hacking.

There's ads for it in Mondo 2000, where you can mail-order it. If you can't
find a lead for it, drop me an e-mail and I'll check where my wife ordered
my copy and will forward the info to you. It wasn't all that expensive,
even in hardcover. It's a damned good book. It's really -worth- paying for.

Argus
From: peterme@ocf.berkeley.edu (Peter Merholz)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Re: Definition of Cyberspace
Date: 8 Jan 1993 00:36:54 GMT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: headcrash.berkeley.edu

Bruce Sterling provides a good definition of cyberspace in "The Hacker
Crackdown":

	Cyberspace is the "place" where a telephone conversation appears to
	occur... _The place between_ the phones. The indefinite place
	_out there_, where the two of you, two human beings, actually meet
	and communicate.

A very good article further explaining cyberspace is written by John Perry
Barlow (founder of the Electronic Frontier Organization) and can be found
in the journal _Communications of the ACM_, March 1991, pgs 19-21. He defines
it, and discusses the concept of the pioneers "settling" this region.

In other articles I have seen cyberspace equated with virtual reality...
BAD! Virtual reality is one of the many features of cyberspace...

--Peter M.

-- 
*****************************************************************************
Peter Merholz			*   MY GOD  * "Good thing we were wearing our
Research Assistant/		*    WHAT   *  extra thick socks."
  Undergraduate F*ck-up		*   HAVE I  *  -Dangermouse, after falling 
UC Berkeley			*   DONE?!  *   off a cliff.
*****************************************************************************
From: tcamp@acpub.duke.edu (Ted A. Campbell)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Re: Benedikt's Cyberspace
Date: 8 Jan 93 11:31:37 GMT
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

In article <1993Jan8.052534.1484@usl.edu> pjm9806@ucs.usl.edu (Mejia Pablo J) writes:
>
>
>    I've started reading a book I find absolutely fascinating.  It is called
>  "Cyberspace" on the cover, and "Cyberspace: First Steps" on the inside 
>  cover.  It is a collection of articles edited by Micheal Benedikt, and it
>  is the most serious discussion of cyberspace that I have ever seen.
>  (William Gibson even admits that he came up with the word first, then
>  the concept followed).  
>
>    It has the ISBN 0-262-02327-X.
>
>    Any comments from someone who has finished the book??
>
>
>
>                                      Allen

Close (to finished).  I found the book helpful, especially the per-
spective of an architect (Benedikt himself) on the notion of cyberspace.
Those in alt.cyberspace considering definitions would do well to 
check this volume.  

Benedikt himself has a lengthy article that is the centerpiece of the
book, an article in which he tries to lay out his case for the 
development of cyberspace architecture.  Perhaps the most contro-
versial point he makes -- and one on which I think the notion of
cyberspace depends -- is his claim that "motion" between data
nodes out to "cost" the user something in terms of time.  I.e.,
why not just move directly from one data node to another without
the intervening "space" metaphor.  When I ftp from our system
at Duke to ftp.cica.indiana.edu, I am unaware of the "space" inter-
vening.  Cyberspace (by Benedikt's rules) would seem to impose
the necessity of my careening through a spatial context to wander
from my node in NC to cica in IN.  I don't really see why I should
do that if I just want to bring down a few files.  

But (Benedikt is right on this point) the case for a widespread 
network of cyberspace depends on just this sort of interposition.
I suspect that it's an unnecessary interposition, and that 
machines will (and presently can) connect almost instantaneously
throughout the world. If this is true, though, then cyberspace
falls more in the area of art (nothing wrong with that) than
technology. 

>
>    PPS:  Legal question:
>          If I develop a workable cyberspace system, can W. Gibson sue me
>          for a piece of it????

I doubt it.  The word seems to be in common use, and I don't believe
that one can claim copyright to a term.  A footnote would do some
justice. 

Ted A. Campbell
Duke Divinity School
tcamp@acpub.duke.edu
From: Taz@f729.n153.z1.ship.wimsey.bc.ca (Taz)
Sender: UUCP@ship.wimsey.bc.ca
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Benedikt's Cyberspace
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 13:23:27 -0800

MJ>     PPS:  Legal question:
MJ>           If I develop a workable cyberspace system, can W. Gibson sue
MJ> me
MJ>           for a piece of it????

I, too, have read the book of which you speak.  I was impressed with the depth
of the arguments and the obvious extent of the research involved. Anyways, as
to your question, `Cyberspace' has been in the media so long, and has already
undergone developments by many separate groups, that it is in essence a
`public domain' concept... Gibson owns no patent on the idea of a
computer-generated information-exchange virtual interface.  He merely
possesses copyright of the text of his novels.  Sony can't sue you for making
a CD player, unless you make one with the same name as yours.  Mac, IBM,
Amiga, Microsoft, NeXT and Sun can't sue each other for having a WIMP
(windows,icons,mouse,pointer) graphical interface, even if they all look
similiar, but they can if they try to use the same name (NeXT would be sued if
they made an OS called `WindowsNT' but why would they want to?
You would, however, have to obtain permission to name your artificial
intelligence project `Wintermute', but I doubt Gibson would object, as there
is currently a virtual-reality development company in Britain called
Ono-Sendai. (after the fictional manufacturers of the top of the line
Cyberspace decks in his novels.)

Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Cyberpunk Stories
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1993 02:40:54

Has anyone out there got any good text files about hacker's/phreaker types having run ins with the law? the one that I had I upload to this board in section 28, but I was wondering if there were any intreseting stories out there???  I've got a lot of time on my hands at work and stories like that are a real intrest to me.  I have read the books Cyberpunk and the Coocoo's Egg, are there and books in print that someone can suggest?  Also I have been looking for a Book called "The Inner Circle" it was publish

ed in 1986 I believe, about the time I graduated High School.  I read the book the and now I can't seem to find a copy anywhere, none of the book stores have it and I keep checking the used book stores, but nothing yet.  I would appreicate it you anyone could lead me to a copy of this book.  I would be willing to pay for the book and the shipping of it to me or I could meet you some place locally in Fort Worth, what ever but please keep you eye out for a copy of this book for me.  On the cover if a picture

 of a teenage boys face with a black bar covering his eyes like on a Pink Floyd album (the black bar) and the book is about this kidd and several of his friends, and the trouble that they get into with there computers, that's all i can remember about the book.  If you have any interesting text files please upload them.  thanx

                                Later Days,

                                        Chris


 * Origin: This Message Leached from CyberVille... (1:130/78)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
From: pjm9806@ucs.usl.edu (Mejia Pablo J)
Subject: Benedikt's Cyberspace
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern La., Lafayette
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 05:25:34 GMT



    I've started reading a book I find absolutely fascinating.  It is called
  "Cyberspace" on the cover, and "Cyberspace: First Steps" on the inside 
  cover.  It is a collection of articles edited by Micheal Benedikt, and it
  is the most serious discussion of cyberspace that I have ever seen.
  (William Gibson even admits that he came up with the word first, then
  the concept followed).  

    It has the ISBN 0-262-02327-X.

    Any comments from someone who has finished the book??



                                      Allen


    PS:  this book has made me re-think my major studies.  I had always 
         considered cyberspace a fictional concept, but this book showed
         me that serious comp sci people are taking cyberspace VERY
         seriuously.  I am going to re-adjust my studies towards cyberspace
         and try to get CACS (Center For Advanced Computer Studies)
         here at USL to take cyberspace seriously and admit me in an
         advanced degree program studying cyberspace.

         Good news is that I have access to a Cray YMP-16 that I can
         bribe them with (also a Cray YMP-8, and a XMP-4).  I guess 
         that it pays off to have a father who has been a US Navy computer
         scientist since '62.

    PPS:  Legal question:
          If I develop a workable cyberspace system, can W. Gibson sue me
          for a piece of it????
From: charles.kramer@factory.com (Charles Kramer) 
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Definition of Cyberspace
Date: 11 Jan 93 20:32:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis
Reply-To: charles.kramer@factory.com (Charles Kramer) 

AC> Has anyone here ever tried to formulate a definition of Cyberspace?

There's always the various formulations by William Gibson, who
is credited with coining the word.  Among other things, Gibson
characterized cyberspace in his 1984 landmark science fiction
book,_Neuromancer_ as the collective term for the entire
interconnected online world,

     "[a] graphic representation of data abstracted from
     the banks of every computer....  Lines of light ranged
     in the nonspace of the mind... like city lights,
     receding...."

Gibson takes the idea that cyberspace is a place that can be
visualized, and makes it jump through hoops: 

     "the paneled room folded itself through a dozen impos-
     sible angles, tumbling away into cyberspace like an
     origami crane."

John Perry Barlow, the Wyoming ex-rancher, Greatful Dead song
lyricist, and founder (along with Mitchell Kapor) of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, is credited with popularizing the term
"cyberspace".  He has also used many handsome metaphors of his own to
explain what cyberspace is.  JPB has written that cyberspace is "the
place we go when we talk on the telephone", and points out cyberspace
is "where your money is" -- at least until the bank that holds the
ephemeral bits of binary code that are your money changes them back
into dollar bills or other paper.  But Barlow is perhaps most lyrical
when he compares cyberspace to the wilderness of the American West:

     "There are thousands of [BBS] nodes in the United
     States, ranging from PC-clone hamlets of a few users
     to mainframe metros like CompuServe....  Whether by
     one telephonic tendril or millions, they are all
     connected to one another....  Cyberspace, in its
     present condition, has a lot in common with the 19th
     Century West. It is vast, unmapped, culturally and
     legally ambiguous, verbally terse (unless you happen
     to be a court stenographer), hard to get around in,
     and up for grabs."

 - Charles
---
 . SPEED 1.10 #1091 . Charles B. Kramer, Atty   CIS:72600,2026   212.254.5093
From: david.brooks@cutting.hou.tx.us (David Brooks) 
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Re: What new innovation,
Date: 7 Jan 93  2:51:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Cutting Edge - Houston, TX - 713-466-1525
Reply-To: david.brooks@cutting.hou.tx.us (David Brooks) 

TO: sehari@iastate.edu (Babak Sehari)

BS> P.S.  This message is being automatically posted to all unix wide bbs'.
BS> This post does not mean that I approve or disapprove this newsgroup.

   How about a product that prevents anyone from cross posting to
inappropriate newsgroups thus wasting massive amounts of bandwidth on the
net?

   David Brooks

 * Q-Blue v0.7 [NR] *           
----
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Cutting Edge BBS (cutting.hou.tx.us)    A PCBoard 14.5a system  |
| Houston, Texas, USA    +1 713 466 1525          running uuPCB       |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
From: arthurc@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Arthur Chandler)
Subject: Definition of Cyberspace
Organization: California State University, Sacramento
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 23:25:37 GMT

   Has anyone here ever tried to formulate a definition of Cyberspace?
Please post it if you have one.  I'm willing to try to cook one up for
general discussion.  But I need a hand. Tell me:
  1) Do you/we consider telephones part of Cyberspace?
  2) Radios and television?
  3) Is a disk full of information a part of cyberspace even if it
sitting on the shelf, unconnected to a computer?
  4) Is there a cyberspace equivalent of gravity?

  Thanks for the help.  Hope this proves a thoughtful exercise!
 
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Cyberpunk Stories
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1993 21:55:30 -0800

In a message dated 05-Jan-93, JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Argus) wrote:

 A> There's ads for it in Mondo 2000, where you can mail-order it. If you
can't
 A> find a lead for it, drop me an e-mail and I'll check where my wife
ordered
 A> my copy and will forward the info to you. It wasn't all that expensive,
 A> even in hardcover. It's a damned good book. It's really -worth- paying
for.

Agreed, it's a great book, I picked mine up at a local book store for about
$28 cnd and I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to find.  Any large bookstore
would do (it wasn't even a computer specific store I found my copy in.)

+------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| Peter Lake aka Shadowfax     | Edge of Perception BBS  +1 604 327-7590    
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|                              | offbeat text files and messages.            |
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From: redline@spiff.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Bullet in the Head)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: Re: Definition of Cyberspace
Date: 8 Jan 93 03:20:56 GMT
Organization: The Works - The World's Largest Inside Joke

In article <1993Jan7.232537.4673@csus.edu> arthurc@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Arthur Chandler) writes:

>      Has anyone here ever tried to formulate a definition of Cyberspace?
>   Please post it if you have one.  I'm willing to try to cook one up for
>   general discussion.  But I need a hand. Tell me:
>     1) Do you/we consider telephones part of Cyberspace?

Sure, a "blind man's" cyberspace.  They could almost be considered the
skeleton of cyberspace: molecules holding together a world that
doesn't exist.

>     2) Radios and television?

I don't think so.  There's no interraction: they merely spew out data
blindly.  There's no assimilation or correlation of it, no way to
break it down or manipulate that information in realtime.  True, they
contribute to cyberspace in the form of data, but they aren't part of
c-space itself.

>     3) Is a disk full of information a part of cyberspace even if it
>   sitting on the shelf, unconnected to a computer?

Once again, I don't believe so.  It's all 1's and 0's until you do
something with it.  A disk full of information is just that: a bunch
of information.  Cyberspace involves *live* information, stuff you can
shuffle and alter at will.

>     4) Is there a cyberspace equivalent of gravity?

Entropy.  Info-glut.  So much data being bounced around that things
start to lose efficiency and become no better than the paper-shuffling
we see every day in bureaucracies.


--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
redline@gnu.ai.mit.edu     "I am the terror that flaps in the night!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
From: ah185@yfn.ysu.edu (Christopher L. Tumber)
Subject: Cyberspace Gravity
Organization: Youngstown State University/Youngstown Free-Net
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 17:43:49 GMT


I think the Cyberspace equivalent to gravity is a kind of 'data osmosis'.
The tendency for data to spread itself accross the net, from site to site,
mailbox to mailbox, archive to archive, hard-drive to hard-drive. The rate
of this diffusion tends to be determined by the value/importance/demand
for/of this information (or the persistance of the source..ie junk mail,
crosspostings..). This is kind-of a corollory to 'Information wants to
be free'. A good example being how quickly every BBS in the world had
3D Catle Wolf (Back when it came out). Less important info will
diffuse far more slowly, and may never diffuse completely. But given
infinite time, I would expect all information in Cyberspace to eventually
pass through all points.

I suppose you could formulate a similar theory with respect to users.
That a user of/influence on the net tends to increase as well (as
new telnet sites are explored, new archives are examined, mailing lists
are joined, new usenet groups are read).

And nobody's mentioned that Cyberspace is constantly expanding, perhaps
even faster than the 'real' universe.


DATA is a virus.

(Have you ever had Archive do a search for you to reveal NUMEROUS sites
with the file you're looking for? Why? With everything interconnected
what good is this duplication? Seriously inefficient use of space I'd
say...unless there's a (natural) reason for it...)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace