HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tjw@vms.cis.pitt.edu (TJ Wood)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Sanity
Date: 25 Jul 92 06:00:15 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <BrvFrM.CJy@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:

> In article <1992Jul21.175314.14659@news.cs.brandeis.edu> st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu writes:

>>I have heard of how a couple of Psych Grad students decided to see how long
>>it would take a mental hospital to determine that they were not insane, once
>>they were committed. To this end, they fake the symptoms of schizophrenia (sp)
>>and are commited. Once in, they act perfectly normal. The institution does
>>not deem them sane. They finally get out 6 monthes later, after several
>>friends come forward to tell the hospital that it was an experiment.

>>my question is, is this true?

> Basically, yes, although my reference is long ago and far away. I read
> an article in _Evergreen Review_ or some such rag (yes, I'm old, and

Before AFU was created (of perhaps just when AFU was created) someone
published an account of such an incident.  Of course, people screamed for
documentation.  (Remember this was before Prodigy and "It could have
happened..." and "This is my grandmother we are talking about!").  So the
fellow in question actually gave a reference.  I went to the public library
and got the magazine and read the article.

I believe the article was called "Being sane in insane places".  Basically,
a doctor posed as patient and faked symptoms to get admitted.  Once there
he acted normally and took notes.  None (as in not one) of the doctors
were willing to admit that he was normal.  His note taking was used as
evidence of his illness.  Fortunately, for the pseudo-patient, the higher-ups
in the hospital were in on the experiment and were able to "spring" him
when he and they had had enough.

Sorry that I can't remember more.

Terry "a sure sign that you're crazy is when you start doing this" Wood
-- 
        INTERNET: tjw+@pitt.edu         BITNET: TJW@PITTVMS
"Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!"                        - Lord "John" Warfin
"There can be only one!"                                  - The Highlander
"There should have been only one. I want my money back!"  - Terry
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio)
Subject: Re: Man Shot In Head Survives!
Organization: Western Washington University
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 19:47:38 GMT

joltes@husc10.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes) writes:

>"tamper" on a railroad in the 1800s.  A "tamper" performed the function of
>tamping down the explosives in a hole to make sure they were in the right
>location, etc.  He used a long iron bar for this job.  At one point, this
>fellow was tamping a hole when the charge went off.  The result of this was
>that the iron bar was driven lengthwise through his head (entering just below
>the left cheekbone and exiting from somewhere near the top center).  He 
>survived, but underwent "significant personality changes" as a result.

>I wonder why...considering that "significant" numbers of synapses were either
>eliminated or rearranged by the rod...

I remember this (from school), I forgot the medical details, but he
reportedly gave himself a tamplobotomy, sort of.  His memory was intact, 
but he had lost all self control, urinating in public, feeling strange
women up like a crude monkey, etc.  He was very short tampered also.
Needless to say he lost his shot at the "tamper supervisor" position he 
had his eye on for so long.

He eventualy got himself fired, (because he frequently lost his tamper). 
even though they felt sorry for him.  I guess you could say they were 
"tamper resistant".

Jim "just pat the charge down a few times for me, will ya?" Del Vecchio
From: mikey@slic.cts.com (Mike Shirley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: How many ways to make a Whopper<r>?
Date: 22 Jul 92 15:29:08 GMT
Organization: Muth Valley Seismic Control District, San Diego, CA / Node 2

jra@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth) writes in part:

> I used to work at the BK lounge, and since I was the only one with a clue, I 
> 
> Sometimes, I feel like I've cooked every one of them...

...sometimes I feel like I've eaten everyone of them...slic post...

--
     Mike, WB6WUI   //   INET:  mikey@slic.cts.com   //   GEnie: SLIC
From: mikkelson@breakr.enet.dec.com (snopes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: that'd be in the butt, bob
Date: 23 Jul 92 15:21:31 GMT
Organization: Salivation Army


In article <1992Jul21.212142.29839@pony.Ingres.COM> 
  rogerl@Ingres.COM (Roger Leuthner) writes:

>Did Brunvand reduce it to symbols and rigorously prove that it didn't exist?
>No, I have read portions of some of these 'books', and wasn't particularly 
>impressed with his scientific method.

 If you're expecting it to be "rigorously proved" that something of this
 nature *doesn't* exist, I'm not too impressed with your grasp of the matter
 at hand.

 No one is demanding "rigorous proof".  There are plenty of reasons to doubt
 this story: every tells it with slightly different details, it's unlikely in
 the extreme that such a thing would have slipped past the censors, no one
 connected with the show claims to know anything about it, nor has anyone come
 up with an actual tape.

 On the other hand, there isn't any evidence to indicate that such an incident
 was aired on "normal" TV other than the first-hand word of some people who
 claim to have seen it, evidence which has been shown over and over to be
 extremely unreliable.  It isn't hard to give this claim some validity: one
 need only produce a tape of the incident, a contemporary newspaper or magazine
 account of the show, a letter from someone connected with the show who
 witnessed the alleged event, or even some details about the couple supposedly
 involved.  None of these things is absolute "proof", but any one of them is
 infinitely more evidence than that which exists now: none.

 - snopes

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
|                                |                                            |
| David P. Mikkelson             |  Just when my ant farm started showing a   |
| Digital Equipment Corporation  |  profit, an ant bank foreclosed on it.     |
| Culver City, CA  USA           |                                            |
|                                |                                            |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
From: hsr4@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Man Shot In Head Survives!
Date: 30 Jul 92 18:17:06 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster

In article <Bs5tHo.6u7@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, berger@atropa (Mike Berger) writes:
> styri@hal.nta.no (YuNoHoo) writes:
>>My dad, the retired surgeon, still tells the story about a guy who shot
>>himself in the head and survived. The result was a diy lobotomy and the
>>lucky fellow lost the urge to do himself away for some time. The story
>>continues, however, and he made a second attempt some years later. This
>>time the bullet deflected from the metal plate used to fix the first hole
>>and all he got was a severe headache.
> 
>>---
> Years ago, the Chicago Daily News had a report about a man that tried
> to commit suicide with his power drill.  Apparently after the first
> couple of holes he just kept going by instinct, and was on the
> seventh hole by the time he was discovered.

Some years ago I recall reading a CID handbook on methods of murder and suicide.
A number of items were illustrated with post mortem photos (advance publicity
shots for the movie ?), a few of which were interesting.

Like the guy who decided to axe himself to death.  He just sat in a chair,
whacking himself with the axe on the top of his head.  Eventually he was
successful, but not until he'd hit himself at least a dozen times or more.  The
photo showed the mess he'd made of the skin on his skull...

A better method, but possibly rarer, is to use dynamite.  One guy did that.  All
you can see in the photo is several pounds of minced meat and an ear.

Peter "Better to go out with a bang! than a whimper ?" Brooks
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Subject: Re: Anyone heard this one? New UL?
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 21:16:21 GMT

In article <1992Jul25.232144.22282@zip.eecs.umich.edu> stame@emunix.emich.edu (Stewart Tame) writes:
>In article <1992Jul23.150725.18948@panix.com> fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller) writes:
>>In <1992Jul22.233225.10021@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>>
>>[ full quoted original article (not even 1 day old) deleted ]
>>
>>>The bit about the ambulance attendants dropping the stretcher
>>>and injuring the patient is also classic UL. It appears in
>>>many forms in many stories.
>>
>>>bill "Don't snake up on my or I will pit my viper on you" Nelson
>>
>>What about the bit about the dip-shit usenet user who quotes 100 lines of
>>included text only to stick a three line reply after it?
>>
>>I see that one everywhere.
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>    / \      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!"
>
>Don't you just hate it when people do that?

I certainly do!
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     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: larryh@cabezon.uucp (Larry Huntley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: CD Storage Density (was: Re: NetNews/CD - USENET News Available)
Keywords: liquor locker locksmith door
Date: 24 Jul 92 20:41:04 GMT
Organization: Logic Modelling Inc of Beaverton Oregon

In article <BrvEqH.C2F@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:
>The CD size was chosen, according to reliable UL, to play long enough to
>hold a reasonable performance of Beethoven's Ninth.  A two-sided one
>could hold most Italian operas, leaving only Wagner fans to change
>disks in the middle of a performance.
>
    A news report last night stated that Sony had developed a new laser that would
    enable them to make CDs with three times the storage of current disks (70 x 3 =
    210 minutes/3.5 hrs.)  The did not elaborate - I don't know if the laser will
    be used for playback or to make the masters or just what.  Playback will still
    be single-sided, presumably because the silk screen area on top has proven to be
    so nifty for logos and pretty pictures.

>
>The reasons for CD's having one side are, as I said, mostly marketing
>reasons.

    See above.
>
>Anyway, the cost of making new CD's is now less than the cost of making
>new records.  I haven't seen many CD's in the $1.99 cutout bins, though.
>
    Here in Portland OR there is a music store on the eastside called
    'Bird Suite' that has a $2.00 CD bin.  Used, promos, and some cutouts.

>phil
>
    Larry Huntley
-- 
         (larryh@lmc.com)
  Logic Modeling Corporation      |    In seeking the unattainable, simplicity
        Beaverton,  OR            |            only gets in the way.
    Stop Continental Drift!       |          (ACM SIGPLAN, Sept 1982)
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: College Pranks (Was Re: Vacation Time!)
Keywords: Ditch Day, vanishing room
Date: 27 Jul 92 21:45:26 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK

In article <2327@israel.nysernet.org> warren@nysernet.org writes:
>In <4098@news.duke.edu> klg@panda.mc.duke.edu (Kim Greer -- rjj) writes:
>
>  - Americans (around the time of WWII, for some reason) proudly show off
>	their very small drill bit as example of fine craftsmanship
>  - send aforementioned drill bit to German engineers
>  - Germans send drill bit back with a hole drilled through long axis of bit
>
>The way I heard it, they sent back a whole case of small bits,
>marked to say LARGE.

This is another version of the story about the Russians asking the Americans
(at the end of WW II) for 12 inch condoms. The Yanks sent some cases over,
marked 'medium'...

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^>)
From: anson@netcom.com (Anson Kennedy)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: that'd be in the butt, bob
Date: 23 Jul 92 14:45:04 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

mikkelson@breakr.enet.dec.com (snopes) writes:


>In article <1992Jul21.212142.29839@pony.Ingres.COM>, 
>  rogerl@Ingres.COM (Roger Leuthner) writes...

>>> It's the "I saw it, so it happened" argument that's insufficient.  It's up
>>> to someone to demonstrate that it happened, not for us to demonstrate that
>>> it didn't.

>>Tell this to a courtroom where there is a witness to a murder.

>Flawed analogy.  This is akin to a witness testifying to have witnessed a 
>murder, without a dead body or any other evidence that a murder even took
>place.

>>That someone has written in a book that it didn't happen is fine for you,
>>but not first hand accounts written in a news group?

>Yeah, never mind the coroner's report, 'cuz millions of people have seen Elvis.

Where do you get the "millions of people have seen Elvis [I assume you meanu
after his death :-) ]" figure?  There are certianly claims of sightings, but
millions?

And what do sightings of Elvis have to do with the Newlywed Game?
-- 

Anson Kennedy                                                   anson@netcom.com
Secretary of the Georgia Skeptics (but don't even THINK I speak for them!)

"If you don't watch the violence,    \           "If I had been the Virgin Mary,
you'll never get desensitized to it."  \                I would have said 'No.'"
-Bart Simpson                            \  -Margaret "Stevie" Smith (1902-1971)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: buzz@apple.com (Steve Bollinger)
Subject: Re: CD Storage Density (was: Re: NetNews/CD - USENET News Available)
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 17:07:57 GMT
Organization: Myself, Inc.
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban

In article <0095E36F.68835440@cemmva.cem.msu.edu>,
mayers@cemmva.cem.msu.edu wrote:
> 
> Of course CD's are etched. It would take a million-dollar CD player to read a
> CD that had been etched concentrically.  Also, if it were concentric, the term
> TRACKING would not be used, since the CD player would jump tracks about 10x a
> second.
> -Anson "Besides, since each track is a little longer than the last one, how  
> would your CD player know when to skip to the next track?" Mayers

Yes, CDs are etched spirally. It was a stupid idea. Concentric would have
been
a much better idea, and it would probably only have added $5 (at most) to
the
code of a player. Where you get multi-millions I don't know, floppy and
hard
drives play concentric tracks, so do LaserDisc players and Sony's new
MiniDisc,
and they don't cost very much.
A shaft encoder (expensive), or a "sector 0" hole, or markings at the end
of the track (like LaserDiscs) would take care of the "next track"
function.

Also, the Compact Cassette was invented by Philips, but CDs were a joint
venture between Sony and Philips, so that Beethoven's 9th at New Years
stuff
could be true.

-Steve "If I don't put something between my names, does the news server
reject
        my post?" Bollinger

=================================================================
This is just me talking, not Apple.
=================================================================
From: stirling@ozrout.uucp (Stirling Westrup)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Mis-applied physics in advertising
Date: 27 Jul 92 08:46:34 GMT
Organization: Andre P. Ozrout

stame@emunix.emich.edu (Stewart Tame) writes
>>ssnyder@sunai.er.usgs.gov (Steve Snyder) writes:
>>
>>>Which reminds me of the ads that say "4 out of 5 doctors recommend 
>>>Brand X..." I've always wondered about that 5th doctor. Why is s/he 
>>>different?
>>
>I seem to recall this one from Cecil Adams with regards to Trident gum.
>According to Cecil the fifth dentist "usually recommends no gum at all."
>Obviously Trident doesn't want to publicize this statistic . . . 

This reminds me of an episode of the Goodies seen many years ago.  As I
recall the discussion went something like:

Tim Brooke-Taylor : It says here in your advert that 4 out of 5 doctors
                    surveyed claim that unless you use our product you 
                    will be trampled by elephants!  Is this true?

Graeme Garden     : Oh yes, its quite true.  Of course it took some
                    searching to find those 4 doctors.

Bill Oddie        : And the elephants.


-- 
||    BUNGEE SIDEWAYS!                              o   )))
||                                                 /-- ///
|P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_  \\\      __ -_
||    stirling@ozrout.uucp                                 ((( (_)T(_)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Subject: Faith Daniels stories? Mary Hartman stories? (was Faith healer 
Keywords: At the sound of the tone, you will send me money. *BING*
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 15:50:53 GMT
Organization: Loose Affiliation of Millionaires and Billionaires and Baby

Larry M Headlund writes:
>	I must of been unclear.
>	What I'm looking for is not newspaper accounts (or facts for that
>matter) but legends and friend of a friend stories about faith healing.
>Something like the Vanishing Hitchhiker story but related to faith healing.

I had a good friend give up the medication she used to control her 
epilepsy after becoming a Born Again Christian. Since epilepsy is
a sometime thing, I don't know if that qualifies as a cure, although
she in fact did NOT have any further seizures while I was still
in contact with her. A trivial example? Perhaps, but she also sold
me her Beatles records due to the same conversion.
-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu> Repeat after me:
From: brian@zooid.guild.org (Brian Misiaszek)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Red Heads
Date: 26 Jul 92 23:03:12 GMT


  I was wondering if anybody knows of trivia, facts and fancies surrounding
persons with red hair.
 
  I know that in medieval Holland to see someone with red hair was a sign of
bad luck.  Levi in his "Satanic Bible" says that red-heads make the best
witches.  Common perception has it that people with red-hair are
tempermental and passionate.  But what other stories and mythology surrounds
people with red hair?

::Brian::
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu (LUCIFER)
Subject: Sanity
Reply-To: st890270@pip.cc.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:53:14 GMT

I have heard of how a couple of Psych Grad students decided to see how long
it would take a mental hospital to determine that they were not insane, once
they were committed. To this end, they fake the symptoms of schizophrenia (sp)
and are commited. Once in, they act perfectly normal. The institution does
not deem them sane. They finally get out 6 monthes later, after several
friends come forward to tell the hospital that it was an experiment.

my question is, is this true?
From: csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: ME-163 Komet
Date: 29 Jul 92 11:04:27 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK

In article <1992Jul28.211829.3947@cbfsb.cb.att.com> rcnixon@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (russell.nixon) writes:
>Well, after lurking for over two years, I'm finally posting a message.
>The ME-163 Komet was a rocket propelled tailless delta.  The motor was a
>Walther bi-propellent rocket engine.  I believe that the two magic ingredients
>were red fuming nitric acid as the oxidizer and aniline as the fuel.  Either
>alone is pretty nasty and together the are positivly hypergolic!  The Komet had
>a skid for landing gear and would often rupture the pure aluminium oxidizer
>tank.  The red fuming would then make short work of the low-lying parts of
>the late pilot.


All fine, except for the designation. All the history programmes I saw, and
books I read said that the Komet was a Heinkel, not a Messerschmidt(sp?),
so it was He 163. ME (i'm not going to try THAT spelling again! ;-> )
certainly made the ME-262, that twin-engined jet thingy that Hitler held up
for ages because he wanted it to be a bomber, then a fighter, then both (or
something like that), but it was Heinkel that made the firework...

Not too sure about the fuel, either: I thought the oxidiser was bog-boring
H2O2?

Or am I hallucinating?

Later,

The Wisp. [Who's lost the relevant history books, and wants to know...]
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     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: tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Terry Carroll)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: offensive phrases ("Rule of Thumb")
Date: 27 Jul 92 09:15:21 GMT
Reply-To: tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Terry Carroll)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation

In article <7dgm6vr.mcvey@netcom.com>, mcvey@netcom.com (John McVey) writes:
>
> lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund) writes:
> >>holding one thumb extended to gain an idea of relative size and
> >>proportion.
> 
> >	I always assumed that the "rule of thumb" derived from the length 
> >of your thumb to the first joint being approximately one inch.
> 
> 
> I always thought it was from the right-hand rule that tells you which
> way to turn a screw or orient a 3-d coordinate system.  But I got
> that by hearsay (from my math teacher long ago) so it's not a
> definitive answer.

I don't hold this out as an authoritative source, but my catalog from "For 
Counsel: The Catalog For Lawyers" has on page 2, the following item for sale:

"NEW! WIFE-BEATING LEGAL PRECEDENT.  This famous English print commemorates 
Judge Buller's 1782 decision that it was legal for a husband to cane his 
wife, provided the stick was no thicker than a man's thumb.  This precedent 
exonerated and even encouraged wife-beaters.  The lampoon shows that people, 
even in 1782, thought Buller's attitude weird.  7" x 9-1/2".  Printed on 
quality paper.  Hand colored in England.  Framed or unframed.  Framed 
includes grey bevel-cut mat, contrast grey (gun metal) anodized metal frame, 
plexiglas, and all accessories for hanging.

Judge Thumb, unframed, item #1335, $35.
Framed, item #1335F, $65."

For those of you who absolutely need this, For Counsel's address is 17688 
Upper Cherry Lane, Lake Oswego, OR 97034; 1-800-637-0098.

Terry Carroll - tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com - 408/992-2152
The opinions presented above are not necessarily those of a sound mind.
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Left - Right
Date: 24 Jul 92 02:43:37 GMT
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor

In article <sw8f43o@Unify.Com> ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan) writes:
>
>boucephalicly 
>
This has to be the word of the week.  Thanks, Caroline.

phil
-- 
|play: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG; {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil                |
|work: phil@gsi; sgi!gsi!phil            | Phil Gustafson                   |
| "Don't believe in ads.  Don't believe in government.  Watch yourself --   |
|  everybody is trying to screw you!"  Bill Gaines, 1922-1992               |
From: mort@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Jeff Mortensen)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 10:57:11 GMT
Subject: Re: Bear eats child's face
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA