HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: isaacman@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Subvert the Dominant Paradigm! (301) 513-7769)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Polio immunizations
Date: 16 Apr 92 13:25:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: stars.16APR199209253613
Organization: NASA/GSFC-Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1

In article <1992Apr16.093329.4063@tcom.stc.co.uk>, tim@tcom.stc.co.uk (Tim Kennedy) writes...
>In article <1992Apr10.205944.3429@anasaz> morris@anasaz (Bob Morris) writes:
>>I had a conversation yesterday wherein I repeated a "fact" I had heard,
>>but when questioned, had to admit I had no reliable source.  I told
>>the questioner I would get the truth from a.f.u, so here goes:
>>
>>I heard that the Sabin oral polio vaccine was a live virus and as such
>>was contagious.  The Sabin vaccine is the one administered on sugar
>>cubes.  If enough people in an area received the vaccine orally
>>(75-80%?), they would pass it to the others so everyone would be
>>vaccinated.
>>
>>Does anyone have adequate medical background and history (or age) to
>>verify or deny this?  Is this why we all got the vaccine at the same
>>time?
>>
> 
>The British papers recently reported a case where a man caught polio after
>changing the nappy of his recently-immunised baby nephew.
> 
>				Tim
> 
>--
>In 1988 BBC Radio One listeners voted for  | T. Kennedy <tim@tcom.stc.co.uk>
>the alltime greatest single.  Way ahead of | Dept 30730 NME, BNR Europe,
>Strawberry Fields and Stairway To Heaven,  | Oakleigh Rd South, London N11 1HB.
>at no. 1 was I Owe You Nothing by Bros.    | LUFC, Yorkshire's No. 1.


The Sabin vaccine uses a so-called "attenuated virus", which is a live 
virus in a technical sense but which is not contagious.  There are a 
very rare number of cases in which people have caught the disease after 
being given the vaccine, but stories about contagious cases (such as the
one above are almost) are almost certainly false.

Rich Isaacman
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
From: mike@ncrspks.SparksNV.NCR.COM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: origin of "mother accidently smothering baby"
Date: 6 Apr 92 19:09:38 GMT
Reply-To: mike@ncrspks.SparksNV.NCR.COM (Mike Clymer)
Organization: NCR Corporation, FESC 778, Sparks, NV

In article <1992Apr3.104151.1@watt.ccs.tuns.ca> hart@watt.ccs.tuns.ca writes:
>I saw an episode of M*A*S*H were Hawk Eye (Alda?) was telling a Phsychiatrist
>about an incident that happened to him and his dreams about it.  Apparantly
>he was on a bus at night with a bunch of refugees.  They had pulled off to
>the side of the road because the enemy was coming their way.  A babay began
>to cry and the mother smothered the baby to keep it quiet.  Whether it was 
>intentional or not I can't remember.  In his dream the baby turned into a pig.
                                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    
    Sounds alot like Louis Carroll's Through The Looking Glass.



    BTW, has anyone mentioned Quigley Down Under?



|   Michael Lee Clymer, Systems Administrator, NCR Corporation, Sparks    |
|   voice: (702)786-1832                 |          MORE POWER!           | 
|   VoicePlus: 270-1000                  | "If everything works, you have | 
|   Email: mike.clymer@SparksNV.NCR.COM  |  completed the installation."  |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Subject: Re: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 19:14:09 GMT
Organization: My Daddy, My Doggy, and Me
X-Bytes: 

In article <1992Apr16.024034.25316@PA.dec.com> mikkelson@breakr.enet.dec.com (snopes) writes:
>
>>In article <92105.134525ICLNM@ASUACAD.BITNET> 
>  <ICLNM@ASUACAD.BITNET> writes:
>
>>Domestic turkeys.  They have been bred for one quality only - food.  In the
>>process we have created an incredibly stupid, helpless creature.  
>
>This topic is one of the first few questions answered in "More of the Straight
>Dope".  According to Cecil, no turkeys, not even domesticated ones, are stupid
>enough to stand out in the rain and drown.  The domesticated ones are, however,
>indolent enough to allow their young, helpless chicks to drown rather than
>to escort them to safety.
>
In a world where we're more or less free of trichinosis because commercially
raised swine never touch the earth, what turkey farm is going to have actual 
turkey moms and dads rearing their own turklets? I agree that commercially
raised turkeys are indolent enough that were they left in charge of their  
turklets in a rainstorm, they would let them drown: commercially raised
turkeys, unlike most birds and beens, are too indolent to even need to
do "it" -- they may propogate by parthenogenesis. So, if you think you've
seen one turkey and have therefore seen them all, you may indeed be right.
-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu>
From: ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Maiko Covington)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Digits in the Driver's license number
Keywords: licence
Date: 7 Apr 92 19:31:33 GMT


	One question: What is the Soundex code? I mean, what number
is A, what is B, etc? Just curious.
		Maiko Covington  ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu
From: scm@harvee.UUCP (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: some old uls
Date: 8 Apr 92 09:34:08 GMT
Organization: gators 'r us
X-Version: Rodney's UUCP modules 02/11/90 V1.18

In article <22537@dog.ee.lbl.gov> jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov
(JOSEPH T CHEW) writes:
> 
> C'mon, guys.  If you're gonna start a UL about fresh-baked bread
> (jeez, what's next...Mom?  Apple pie?), start a GOOD one, like
> "Those bread-baking robots contain a THC sensor and a special
> modem that operates over the power line..."
but i didn't start this ul, i just wanted to know more about the
old one. sorry if i bored you.

--
-- little gator aka S. Mudgett     email: scm@harvee.uucp
-- friend of a gator is a friend of mine
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.science
From: mpevans@isis.cs.du.edu (Mark Evans)
Subject: Re: CATV monitoring, Tempest screening (was Re: FCC Call letters)
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 10:59:11 GMT

robin@lsl.co.uk (Robin Fairbairns) writes:

>In article <1992Apr3.115836.28499@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>[...] 
>> One more TV story:
>> 
>> It was rumored a few years back that cable operators, etc., would be able
>> to locate cable cheaters or MDS cheaters by driving through neighborhoods and
>> measuring the IF output of TV frequencies (typically 44 MHz) to "know" what
>> the people were watching.  So, they could look for "too much" IF energy that
>> was tracking the pay cable program as compared to subscriber population in
>> the area.  The point was made that they could find all the cheaters merely by
>> driving around with "sophisticated tracking equipment" in a van, and that
>> this would allow them to track down all the cheaters real easy.  One company

>Two points.  1: the GPO here in the UK does detect the _existence_ of 
>TVs for the purpose of enforcing the TV licensing requirements (we pay 

>2: the military (I think it's NATO-wide at least) have this thing about 
>tempest-shielding of VDUs that will hold sensitive information.  This is 

It is a lot easier to detect if a set is being operated, than to actually 
determine what is being watched.
For the latter a stationary receiver is required, anyone driving  down a
streetould have to do a "stop, start" form of driving.
Thus would be highly obvious both to hoseholders and the local cops.
From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: California Uber Alles?
Date: 11 Apr 92 01:30:03 GMT
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <1992Apr10.191610.1@acfcluster.nyu.edu> axd7104@acfcluster.nyu.edu writes:
>In article <1992Apr10.000155.1@vm2.cis.pitt.edu>, tjw@vm2.cis.pitt.edu writes:
>> In article <1992Apr8.195352.1@acfcluster.nyu.edu>, axd7104@acfcluster.nyu.edu writes:
>> 
>>> Does anyone know whether it's true that When Jerry Brown was governor of
>>> California, he almost had the CA National Guard invade the state of
>>> Nevada because they were doing some sort of envirinmentally incorrect
>>> dumping that Brown thought was 'wrong'?  If so, I think this a damn good
>>> reason to keep him out of the White House at all costs.
>> 
>> I didn't know that Bill Clinton had net access!!!!
>> 
>> Terry "Nice try, Bill" Wood
>
>Nice try yourself, asshole.  I asked the questions in all seriousness.
>Oh, BTW, A) I voted for Tsongas, B) Jerry's tactics worked really well
>here in New York, didn't they? :smirk:

You know, by this denial, we could mistake you for the Slickmeister
trying to squirm out of an uncomfortable truth :-)

>-- 
>Aaron Dickey                      Bitnet: axd7104@nyuacf
>New York University             Internet: axd7104@ACFcluster.nyu.edu
>
>Al Roker Is God.
 ^^^^^^^^

Al Roker?  What about Lloyd!  :-)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Using popcorn in chicken to test doneness (LAME!)
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 01:55:33 GMT

In article <92104.184239DWHITMA@auvm.american.edu> DWHITMA@auvm.american.edu (Douglass Glen Whitman) writes:
>I had never heard of using popcorn to tell when a turkey/chicken is done, but I
> do remember a Thanksgiving about 12 years ago when Mom found a recipe that sai
>d you could put popcorn in the turkey stuffing and it would pop inside, yieldin
>g a really cool turkey-stuffing.  Well, it didn't work, and the hard kernels in
> the stuffing were really hard on the teeth.  Dad complained for a long time.

I was told we didn't have to do any home economics in this group.

-- Ted "at least I didn't say Churchill" Frank
-- 
Ted Frank          + "He wanted to be the car rather than the thimble or the
1307 E 60 St, #109 +  hat."  -- District attorney explaining Marc Cienkowski's
U o' C Law Skool   +  murder with bow and arrow of Michael Klucznik in
Chi, IL 60637      +  Doylestown Borough, PA over a game of Monopoly.
From: unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (99E99)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: other fun mistranslations..
Date: 10 Apr 92 17:54:56 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz; Open Access Computing


In article <ku6r0tINN58e@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> stecz@hotwheel.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
}Because.
}That is a serious answer, they don't need a reason, they just want to. The same
}reason some people jack their pickups six feet in the air, give their cars 
}monochrome paint jobs, or put custom wheels on them, they simply WANT to.  It 
}doesn't have to accomplish anything practical, they just like the way it looks.

	Sounds EXACTLY like the reason people vote for Bush/Quayle!
-- 
/unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu GS SIMM mem card & trackball WANTED  Apple II Forever!\
\Mail me:Get INFOCOM GAMES RERELEASED,ULT VI GS done,for UNIX GS&CHEAP CD info/
From: eepee@polaris.utu.fi (Esa-Pekka P{lvim{ki)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Alka-Seltzer ad in Saudi-Arabia
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:15:36 GMT
Organization: University of Turku, Finland

A professor told this story at a lecture, I might not remember all the details
right. Anyway,

Alka-Seltzer used to advertise their soluble painkiller with a little 3-picture
cartoon where, in the first picture, a head figure was looking miserable, in
the second he was drinking Alka-Seltzer, and in the third he was smiling.
They ran the same campaign in Saudi-Arabia, with no success: They forgot that
the Arabians read from right to left.

--
Esa-Pekka P{lvim{ki    eepee@utu.fi, p117273@cc.tut.fi      
University of Turku,   Finland
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Baby swimming UL (was Re: De-ionized water mishap)
Date: 9 Apr 92 08:25:20 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK

In article <1992Apr6.211428.20299@anasaz> morris@anasaz (Bob Morris) writes:
>A commonly believed UL about teaching babies to swim at a tender young
>age is that there is a reflex action that causes them to close their
>mouths when they are immersed so they don't swallow or inhale any water.
>This reflex, the story goes, goes away after a few years, making it
>harder to teach babies to swim.

This is basically true...


>Conversly, I heard from a nurse that there is no such reflex and the
>babies swallow enormous (for a baby) amounts of water during these lessons.
>This can be fatal, as posters for the deionized water thread have stated.

and this is bullsh*t!

Later,

The Wisp [beating about the bush as always...]
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Chris Williams <csuah@uk.ac.warwick.csv> aka <csuah@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
"Tony Greig in the slips, legs apart, waiting for a tickle"
                                      Brian Johnson (thanks to A. Simha 8^>)
From: kevin_mcentee@taligent.com (Kevin McEntee)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Jamaican Thieves Legend
Date: 16 Apr 92 20:46:16 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Taligent

Hey, I recently heard an outrageous story that sounds rather like an urban
legend to me, so let me know if you have heard it.

Some American tourists were staying in a nice Jamaican hotel.  One day they were
out of their room and the room was burglarized.  The thieves took everything
except the camera and the personal bathroom items.  The Americans stayed and
finished their vacation, still making use of whatever the thieves left behind,
including the toothbrushes.  When they got home and got the film developed there
was a picture of a large Jamaican man, with no pants on, bent over with a
toothbrush sticking out his....  Well lets just say that you would be pretty
darn sorry if that was your toothbrush!

This really smacked of a legend to me.  Why didn't the thieves take the camera? 
Why would they photograph themselves?  Anyway, has anyone heard this or a
variation of it?  I would love to tell the person who told it to me, who
supposedly heard it second hand, that his friends were pulling his leg.

Thanks
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Perfume and whale vomit
Date: 11 Apr 92 14:58:11 GMT

In article <luden.8@vax1.cc.lehigh.edu>, luden@vax1.cc.lehigh.edu (Dean E. Nelson) writes:
> When I was a lad in school, one of my science teachers told the class that 
> whale vomit was used in perfumes to make the scent linger longer.

True!  Look up the word ``ambergris'' in any decent dictionary.
From: ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Why is calculus so feared?
Date: 6 Apr 92 19:32:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: Unify.xuijvwu
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization

In article <-bkj54#@lynx.unm.edu> pjohnso@triton.unm.edu (Paddy Johnson CIRT) writes:
>My daughter who is in the 8th grade in Albuquerque, New Mexico is in an
>honor's math track that will lead her to taking Calculus in 11th grade and
>advanced calculus as a senior (12th grade).  The normal college prep track
>can get calculus in the 12th grade.  This system is supposed to be the rule
>rather than the exception in New Mexico.  At least one of the local private
>schools expects Calculus to start in the 10th grade.
>
>When I grew up in California many years ago, Calculus was regarded as to
>frightening a subject for ordinary, gifted students.  Only a year long 
>course in trigonometry was offered to gifted students, everyone else was
>expected to take geometry and algebra II.... [neat stuff deleted]

Anyone know how Jaime Escalante ("Stand and Deliver") teaches calculus?


Carrie		ceb@dbrus.unify.com	x6244
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   "Age and treachery will always conquer youth and skill."  - Anon.        |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Radium poisoning
Date: 6 Apr 92 11:50:35 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK

In article <5APR199201191595@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu> ae313406@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu (Vance Kochenderfer) writes:
>ICLNM@ASUACAD.BITNET (Loyd Means) writes:
>>This reminds me of a story I heard in a grade school science class in the
>>early 50's.  People were hired to paint the numbers on those luminous dials
>>on watches.  The substance that made the paint luminous was radium.  The
>>painters, to keep the tip of the brush neat, would lick it now and then.
>>One day, several were in a rest room when the lights went out in the building.
>>To their amazement they could see their skeletons outlined in the mirrors,
>>they were so radioactive.  All eventually died of radioactive poisoning or
>>leukemia.  I would have believed about anything Mr. Berry told me; I was in
>>the 8th grade.  But now, I wonder.
>
>I saw a documentary entitled "Radium City" about this.  It was set in
>the city of Ontario, California(?), and showed some pretty startling
>stuff.  After over twenty years, the site where the Radium Dial factory
>was located still showed elevated levels of radioactivity, and many
>of the workers cleaning up at the site were wearing only dust masks
>as protection!  Of course, the supervisors were wearing respirators,
>and government environmental workers measuring radioactivity at the
>site wouldn't go near the place without wearing an environment suit...
>
>As for the workers glowing, I don't think this is possible, but
>then again I'm just an engineer, not a physicist...
>
>Anyone seeking more info can probably look it up under the "Radium
>Dial Co." or perhaps Ontario, CA.

I'm not a physicist or an engineer, but...

That documentary was shown on TV in the UK, as well, about a year ago.
Mkaes you think, doesn't it? I wonder which of the things we're doing now will
be considered suicidal in thirty or forty years time... (maybe it would be
better to ask which of them WON'T?).

As for the glowing workers, NO. They'd have died long before they got that
radioactive, of physiological upset rather than anything else.

Later,

The Wisp.
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Chris Williams <csuah@uk.ac.warwick.csv> aka <csuah@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
"Tony Greig in the slips, legs apart, waiting for a tickle"
                                      Brian Johnson (thanks to A. Simha 8^>)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Falling bullets on Marilyn's Parade
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 23:22:54 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.203115.8511@sunova.ssc.gov> chuck_adams@qmail.ssc.gov (Chuck Adams) writes:
>In article <mnfjmjn@Unify.Com> ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan) 
>writes:
>> In article <3447@moscom.UUCP> de@moscom.UUCP (David Esan) writes:
>> >In article <14795@optima.cs.arizona.edu> tzf@cs.arizona.edu (Theron 
>Friedman) writes:
>> >>[Personally I believe MvS is really a pseudonym Isaac Asimov, who 
>> >Well MvS did marry Dr. Jarvik of the famed "Jarvik" heart.  
>> One or two years ago a correspondent asked her how she got her appropriate
>> surname.  She said that it was actually her husband's, that he was a Dutch
>> businessman.
>
>I didn't know that Dr. Jarvik was a Dutch business man.

Well, people do get married twice.
-- 
Ted Frank          + "A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it
1307 E 60 St, #109 +  is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in
U o' C Law Skool   +  color and content according to the circumstances and
Chi, IL 60637      +  the time in which it is used."  --  Holmes
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: djb6@quads.uchicago.edu (dennis joseph brennan)
Subject: Re: Whacky Flakey License plates
Keywords: licence
Reply-To: djb6@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 01:50:05 GMT

>>California license plates have "evolved" over the years...Prior to about
>> 1958, the plates were ... black on yellow.  Around 1958... 
>> the plates went to ... yellow on black (basically a color inversion).
>
>And don't forget that sometime even earlier than that, the plates were
>yellow on black background.  They underwent an inversion twice.

Moving right along...
New Hampshire licence plates say "Live Free or Die".  Great state motto.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: mikkelson@breakr.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Organization: Still waiting for the snuff films . . .
Date: 15 APR 92 19:37:04    


>In article <92105.134525ICLNM@ASUACAD.BITNET> 
  <ICLNM@ASUACAD.BITNET> writes:

>Domestic turkeys.  They have been bred for one quality only - food.  In the
>process we have created an incredibly stupid, helpless creature.  

This topic is one of the first few questions answered in "More of the Straight
Dope".  According to Cecil, no turkeys, not even domesticated ones, are stupid
enough to stand out in the rain and drown.  The domesticated ones are, however,
indolent enough to allow their young, helpless chicks to drown rather than
to escort them to safety.

- snopes

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
|                                |                                            |
| David P. Mikkelson             |  According to a recent study, sex has now  |
| Digital Equipment Corporation  |  replaced smoking as the leading cause of  |
| Culver City, CA  USA           |  statistics.                               |
|                                |                                            |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
From: weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Such a deal! (was: Ask Marilyn?
Date: 6 Apr 92 15:56:39 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: tom@ulysses.att.com (Tom Smith)

In article <16493@ulysses.att.com>, tom@ulysses (Tom Smith) writes:
>I hate to get into this on a.f.u, but the right answer was to switch
>doors (as Marilyn claimed).  However, her attempts at explaining this
>counterintuitive result were terrible...

Considering how difficult it is to explain to *some* people, I'd say
that all explanations are "terrible".
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu)
From: ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Maiko Covington)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Taboo loot (was Re: VDB pennies (was Re: Initials on the Subway Token))
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:12:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: sdcc12.31378

Actually, while I hardly ever see $2 bills here in the USA, in Japan
they are quite plentiful. Whenever I changed money to buy some
dollars, I would get some $2 bills. I guess people here didn't like
them for one reason or another, and so they got sent overseas.
	Why is American paper money all the same size and color,
anyway? Japanese money is a different size for each bill, and also
has braille dots for the blind (although to me, they seem *awfully*
hard to detect). Also in the 80's (83 or 84 I think) we switched
from having a 500 yen bill to a 500 yen coin. 500 yen coins are
neat. Nice and large.
	Final question: Does anyone out there know how they get the
sukashi (the watermark) into the Japanese and Korean money? That's
the drawing that when you hold the bill up to the light you can see
a portrait on the bill that is not visible otherwise.

		Maiko Covington