HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Organisation: European Space Technology Centre (E.S.T.E.C)
Date: Wednesday, 15 Apr 1992 16:05:46 CET
From: <FNOTMAN@ESTEC.BITNET>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.beer
Subject: Re: other fun mistranslations..
 <1992Apr4.221839.11148@nmsu.edu> <1992Apr10.115358.6962@public.sub.org>
 <14APR199217043212@vax.cc.williams.edu>

 Story I heard soem years ago
 A company in 1 of teh Arab countries was launching a new type of Washing
(cloths) powder. All the supermarkets had big supplies. Come the big day the
poster adverts were uncovered, 3 pictures, 1st a machine with a pile of dirty
washing alongside, 2nd the washing going into the machine, 3rd as 1 but the
washing was now clean.
 Within hours they were inundated with phone calls from shops saying it
couldn't be sold and had to be taken back. Why did it fail .......


 They read right to left.

 How's that for a miss-translation.
 P.S. I can verify the Rolls 1, I heard that years ago
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.college
From: baker@ROBOCOP.NYU.EDU (Jonathan Baker)
Subject: Re: Boldly Not Going Where No Man Has Not Gone Before
Organization: Courant Institute, New York University
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 23:14:52 GMT


thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:

>In article <259@bbx.basis.com> russ@bbx.basis.com (Russ Kepler) writes:
>>Reminds me of a story, possibly an urban legend:
>>
>>An architect resigned a series of buildings for a university, and the
>>
>>slowly but surely paths were worn in the grass. 
>>Skinny paths where the traffic was sparse, wide, well worn paths where
>>the traffic was dense.
>>
>>After the paths were clear a landscaping company came in and paved the
>>paths, matching the concrete walks to the size of the paths worn in
>>the grass.

Princeton University does that.  When they build a new building, traffic
patterns across the grassy areas change.  Rather than worry about grass
being worn off to leave an ugly sand trail, they will pave them the next
term or summer.  Skinny paths become tar, broad paths, which are usually
preplanned, are flagstone in the middle and tar on the sides.

                         Jon Baker '87
                         baker@robocop.nyu.edu
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Ask Marilyn Again
Keywords: Marilyn
Date: 9 Apr 92 00:33:02 GMT
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations

In article <73296@netnews.upenn.edu> weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) writes:
>"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American
>people."--Churchill, or maybe Disraeli

I'm sure it was Jerry Brown who said this.
-- 
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
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Fluorescent Pens
Date: 9 Apr 92 19:48:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: dog.22611
Reply-To: twchan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Organization: Larry's Lab, Berkeley, California
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

In article <1992Apr6.232304.15956@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG 
	(Phil Gustafson) writes:
  
  +[AFU ]|[ progress report:  Terry Chan has reserved the tastefully-lit 
  +Cerenkov Room at LBL for our Shergold-day bash.  Or we just might find
  +another bar.]

Damn!  I tried to reserve it, but when I told them about AFU ]|[
and Craig's birthday and how he didn't need or want cards anymore, 
their expressions became very wooden and they gently but firmly 
shut the door in my face.


Terry "Of course, it might have been just my face" Chan
--
================================================================================
INTERNET:  twchan@lbl.gov              BITNET:  twchan@lbl.bitnet
  "I think it's stupid. We collect all these business cards, and it turns
                    out nobody wants them."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com ()
Subject: Re: TV 'buzz' when graphics are on screen (was:Re: FCC Call letters)
Reply-To: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com ()
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 18:48:17 GMT


In article <32556@darkstar.ucsc.edu>, unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (99E99) writes:
|>	WHY do TVs, even new TVs, put out an audible (irritating!) buzz 
|>when graphics are shown on screen?  I mean like "typed text", and pictures
|>and such.
|>
|>	New TVs don't seem to do it as much as old TVs, but it still happens
|>on occassion.

It's from an out-of-alignment/poorly designed audio detection circuit.  When
white is displayed on the screen the video level (which is AM, sort of) goes
to a low level suddenly, generating sideband noise that approaches the
sound carrier (which is FM)  Some of this signal gets through the FM detector
and appears in the audio as a buzz.  The FM detector should reject this,
that's one of the advantages of FM.

The buzz is 60 Hz because the screen is updated 60 times a second.

Play with the fine tuning, it may help.  Is it a weak station?  The FM
audio stage may not be at full quieting (which means it is rejecting AM-type
noise more fully)

-Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: Rocky Mountain Oysters
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 07:03:00 GMT

In article <1992Apr16.025751.26135@PA.dec.com> anderson@surfsp.enet.dec.com (B. Anderson) writes:
>
>In article <1992Apr15.173650.17387@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, 
>  hucke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Matt Hucke) writes...
>
>>And please remember to mark your own with the "(ANAL)" heading.
>
>Oh, you've decided not to renew your trademark, then?

I was told we wouldn't have to do intellectual property law in this
newsgroup.
-- 
Ted Frank          + "Question whether attorney's filing claim for 'stud fee'
1307 E 60 St, #109 +  as countersuit to paternity action was improperly
U o' C Law Skool   +  motivated required remand."  Headnote 9, Committee on
Chi, IL 60637      +  Legal Ethics of WVa State Bar v Douglas, 370 SE2d 325.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: cannata@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu (JazzMan)
Subject: Re: Lightbulbs
Organization: Radford University
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 15:07:30 GMT

>jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) writes:
>> >The voltage has nothing to do with it anyway. The same would be possible 
>> >even if the batteries were 12 volt - it is the current that is critical.

Reminds me of a scene from "Running Scared" when Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines
are driving their unmarked police car down the el tracks. One says to the other
"Watch out for the third rail, that's 600 volts." Then the other says "Its not 
the voltage that gets you its the amps." "How many amps?"
"Enough to push a train!"
From: shirriff@sprite.berkeley.edu (Ken Shirriff)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Digits in the Driver's license number
Keywords: licence
Date: 7 Apr 92 20:23:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: agate.rt0bqINNctr
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: hijack.berkeley.edu

In article <31429@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Maiko Covington) writes:
>	One question: What is the Soundex code? I mean, what number
>is A, what is B, etc? Just curious.

The Soundex code used by Illinois, Florida, and Wisconsin is:
1. Delete h, w.
2. Assign numbers:
   b,f,p,v=1, c,g,j,k,q,s,x,z=2, d,t=3, l=4, m,n=5, r=6
3. If two adjacent letters have the same number, delete all but the first.
4. Delete the first character if still present.
5. Delete a,e,i,o,u,y
6. Use the first three digits (trailing zeros if needed) as the soundex number.
7. Use the first letter of the name as a prefix.

So Covington -> 2o1i523o5 -> 15235 -> C-152

(ObExercise: write a computer program to do this)

Again, this is from "Assigning driver's license numbers", Mathematics
Magazine, V64, no 1 Feb 1991.  I strongly recommend going to the library and
looking this article up if you have any interest in driver's licenses.

ObUL: The tobacco companies have a bunch of trademarks for marijuana
cigarettes, in case marijuana is legalized.  (False; you can't have a
trademark unless you're actively selling the product.)

Ken Shirriff				shirriff@sprite.Berkeley.EDU
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: frazee@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Joseph Frazee)
Subject: Re: Stupid 60s song: yellow polka dot bikini
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 22:52:03 GMT

gateley@rice.edu (John Gateley) writes:

>My mom has a painting of a very young girl playing on the beach
>wearing (you guessed it) a yellow polka dot bikini. It was painted by
>a relative of mine (who probably lived/s in Kansas City). According to
>my mom, this painting was the inspiration for the yellow polka dot
>bikini song. Could this be true? I am tempted to disbelieve, but
>since it is not the typical chain (foafoafoafoaf...), I wonder.

>Any ideas or help? (I'll talk to my mom and find out more details)

Yes, I believe that your mother is correct.  I remember hearing on
Solid Gold Saturday Night or some such oldies show that the inspiration
for this song was a very young girl, 5 yrs old or so.  The announcer
said that some people make a stink about this song claiming it was 
too suggestive and the artist rebutted with this story about the song's
inspiration in order to calm them.  I don't know if the artist made up
the story to quiet the whiners or if it was really true.  But I do think 
was a real little girl and not a painting though.

I'm not real sure of the facts, but then again when did conjecture ever
stop any of the posters in this group?

joe frazee
frazee@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
From: linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Peter van der Linden)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Today's conspiracy theory
Keywords: that's an old joke, sonny.
Date: 7 Apr 92 00:10:05 GMT
Organization: The Eggo and eye
NNTP-Posting-Host: positive

Here's a re-posting from another group, from someone who generally knows
what he's talking about.  How much evidence is there for the 4 claims:
    1.  Hanford radiated more in one day than Chernobyl in 5 years
    2.  The breast cancer rate tripled with the current generation
    3.  Carnivores are three times likelier to get colon cancer
    4.  Cancer cures are likely in a few years?

Wow!  Pretty surprising stuff, if true.  But how much of this is based
in fact?  Maybe I should just "ask Marilyn"...
Maybe someone from Oregon or Washington should tackle the Hanford claim.

---------------- start of today's conspiracy theory -------------------
I believe that the two principal causes of higher cancer rates are nuclear
radiation and chemicals in the food supply.  Nuclear testing began in the
1940s and above-ground radiation releases peaked out in the 1950s and 60s.
The nuclear enrichment facility in Hanford Washington often released more
radiation in a single day than Chernobyl has since meltdown.

Despite the end of the Cold War, the US continues testing nuclear arms,
for no apparent reason.  Note that people born in the 1950s are now most
at-risk for various cancers.  This is the generation where 1 in 8 women
contracts breast cancer, versus 1 in 25 in the previous generation.

Pesticide use also began in earnest after WWII, so baby boomers were the
most chemically exposed generation in history.  It's going to be difficult
to reverse this trend, given the political clout of the chemical industry.
Studies show that daily meat eaters are 3-4 times more likely to contract
colon cancer than monthly meat eaters.  I believe this is due to pesticide
traces in fat, rather than to meat itself.

On a positive note, I believe that cancer cures will be available in the
next few years.  Biotechnology is making great strides with recombinant
DNA.  At Genentech they are using Macintoshes to design molecules that
can combine with and neutralize pathogens.  Whether a cancer cure will
make me feel OK about pesticides and nuclear radiation, I don't know.
---------------- end of today's conspiracy theory -------------------


--
----------------
Peter van der Linden     linden@eng.sun.com    (415) 336-6206  Frank Zappa:
"May God have mercy on the English, for the terrible food they must endure"
A man without two apothegms in his .sig is like a metaphor without a simile
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Using popcorn in chicken to test doneness
Date: 15 Apr 92 18:44:08 GMT
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway

In <92105.092950ICLNM@ASUACAD.BITNET> ICLNM@ASUACAD.BITNET writes:

>Not to mention exploding chicken/turkey alert

This only happens if you feed them Alka-Seltzer.
-- 
/|/-\/-\          The entire kitchen is		Jerusalem
 |__/__/_/        still full of strange hamantaschen
 |warren@         And the custodian
/ nysernet.org    is starting to get worried.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.skeptic
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: The Philadelphia Experiment (?)
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:32:00 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban

In <1992Apr11.011443.5236@nmt.edu> houle@nmt.edu (Paul Houle) writes:

>	As I told the good DOCTOR long ago,  the PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT was
>a SUCCESFUL TEST of EINSTEIN'S unified FIELD equations.

This is great stuff.  Someone should teach the Pleiadians to use
capital letters like this.

> IN TEN YEARS, this will become availible to YOU from the PHONE COMPANY
> as a service that by dialing *647351845###646412* will INSTANTLY
> transport any HARRASSING caller to your FRONT DOOR.

I hope they build this into my newsreader, too.  Gives a whole new
meaning to kill files.  And you won't just get mail from Kibo, he'll
come by to visit.

"On second thought, I'd rather be on Mt. Shasta" - Winston Churchill Fields
-- 
I'll leave you with this saying:
I brought my BOWLING BALL - and some DRUGS!!
From: unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (99E99)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Just another fish story?
Date: 10 Apr 92 17:53:29 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz; Open Access Computing


In article <1992Apr8.190743.26135@Cadence.COM> vince@cadence.com (Vince Gibboni) writes:
}    There is,
}    however, an important detail which only one source mentioned: tuna 
}    which is more than a certain number of days old may be sold as catfood
}    but not as tuna. So they weren't _really_ selling catfood as tuna they
}    were selling old tuna (which can be sold as catfood) as tuna.

	Well, I saw some of the cans on TV, and it definitely did NOT look
like tuna.. It definitely looked like cat food (really dark brown/black 
gunk).
	And there's the story (did I hear it on here?) that some people 
came back asking for more of the "new improved tuna".
-- 
/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: verbum@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Neal Whitman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Matching Tie and Handkerchief
Date: 7 Apr 92 19:27:02 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

>>Monty Python's 1973 lp "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" has 2 tracks on side 2.
>>Of course, being Python, they don't actually bother to mention this anywhere.
>>I had listened to the album a half-dozen times before I happened onto the
>>second groove.
>>
>Actually, they did.  If you look carefully at either the jacket, or the label,
>or maybe both, it lists all the routines on side A, all the routines on side B,
>*AND* all the routines on side C.
OK, that does it.  When I go home in a week or two, I'm going to dig out my
copy of this record, which I played quite enough (I should think) back in
high school to have heard at least once, that mysterious third side.  I'll
give it 10 tries and if I don't hear anything new by then I'm going to be
pissed, and you guys better have a list of exactly WHAT sketches were on
side C.

-verbum


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu (Moi)
Subject: Re: Cricket chirp rate versus temperature
Organization: CARL Systems Inc, Denver, Colo.
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 02:13:11 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.195214.12254@fwhnm02.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com>, rlatham@fwhnm02.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com (Max Headroom) claims:
-->
-->It was something like counting the number of 
-->chirps for a number of seconds, and adding
-->it to some other number, to obtain the temperature.
-->
-->Has anyone heard of this, and if so, what was
-->the 'equation' used?

Quoted from the Columbia Desk Encyclopedia:

The rate of chirping of tree crickets increases with the rising
temperaure, Oecanthius fultoni, this variation is so regular that if
the number 40 is added to the number of chirps in a 15-second
interval, the sum is a fair approximation of the number of degrees
Fahrenehit. (page 682, center column)

This may no longer be a politically correct way of measuring
temperautre, however.  The Cricket Defense Fund has organized a
protest against using crickets to approximate tempoeratures, saying
"we're demeaning the ultimate essence of crickethood by forcing them
to serve mankind."

Having said that, I 'm listenign out the window, and in the last 15
seconds I heard about 32 chirps...
From: baylock@meltdown.chi.il.us (Mike Andersen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: FCC URBAN LEGENDS
Date: 13 Apr 92 22:26:39 GMT
Organization: The Meltdown - A Team Star BBS

In article <1992Apr11.054635.30651@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>,
lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>In article <1992Apr10.171101.1@vm2.cis.pitt.edu> tjw@vm2.cis.pitt.edu writes:
>>
>>> Someone also asked if the assignment of "N" to the US has to do with the
>>> fact that aircraft numbers also begin with "N".  I doubt it.  All the
>>> aircraft call letters begin with K or W, too.  Unless I missed something
>>> in the list, "N" is restricted to amateur radio.  
>>
>>Every plane I've ever used had an "N" callsign.  "N7892W" was the call sign
>>that we used on our Piper Cherokee back in the 60s.
>>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>
All planes registered in the US begin with 'N' it is not required for you to
call this to the tower unless you are in a foreign country.  However you
should always announce plane type and call sign to the tower when entering
into its airspace.  

An example would be 'Twin commander 2696Bravo turning base' this alerts the
tower and all other VFR traffic that a twin engine aero-commander has turned
base with the runway.  The traffic then has an approximate idea as to where
the aircraft is at and can adjust their flight paths accordingly.

Baylock

Life is like Ice Cream & Bacon
* Think Alternatives / Question Authority *
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: loosemore-sandra@CS.YALE.EDU (Sandra Loosemore)
Subject: Re: "Cute" animals vs. Food animals was Re: Cat food marketed as Tuna Fish
Organization: Yale Haskell project
	<ktsq7lINN9h5@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
	<1992Apr7.004053.18229@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 09:03:25 GMT

phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:

   The stories of Amundsen's, Nansen's, and Sverdrup's polar expeditions
   sound pretty gory to folks who buy their flesh at Cosentino's.  Essentially,
   when they were confronted with new and exotic forms of wildlife, they shot
   them and ate them.  [...]

   The contemporary British explorers eschewed seal (or overcooked it to
   clobber the vitamin C), ate proper canned goods, and died of starvation
   and scurvy.

Oh, but you omitted the part that *really* grossed out the British.
Amundsen started out for the South Pole with something like 60 sled
dogs, but returned with only 12.  The rest were killed for food along
the way!  Amunden's journal contains some passages about how it was
fitting that these noble beasts that had served the expedition so well
could continue to serve it even in death.

Scott, in particular, was ridiculously sentimental about dogs,
thinking that it was inhumane even to use them to pull sleds.
Strangely enough, earlier British explorers (Dampier and Cook, for
example) were considerably more open-minded about eating dog meat
where it was the local custom.  They also had fewer problems with
scurvy.

-Sandra
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Walla walla bing bang (was Re: Worm song?)
Date: 7 Apr 92 22:20:00 GMT
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <1992Apr06.193141.2232978@locus.com> judy@locus.com (Judy Leedom Tyrer) writes:
>Probably.  ANd you left out my personal favorite - 
>"He wore tan shoes, pink shoelaces, a polkadat vest and man-oh-man
>He wore tan shoes, pink shoelaces, a big panama and a purple hat band."
>> 
Dody Stevens' Tan shoes with pink shoelaces, a polkadot vest and man-oh-man he
wore tan shoes with pink shoelaces and a big panama with a purple hat band.

(A pananma hat contains a hat band; shoes contain shoelaces :-))

cjl (From Ahab the Arab: she had rings on her fingers and bells on her toes and
a bone in her nose, ho-ho! :-))
From: de@moscom.UUCP (David Esan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: MIT's "Infinite Corridor"
Date: 10 Apr 92 15:20:00 GMT
Reply-To: de@moscom.UUCP (David Esan)
Organization: Moscom Corp., Pittsford, NY

In article <1992Apr9.005351.8093@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>Damn, IBM has wherehouses?!?  I thought the things were immortal!  I hope
>they have some sort of health procedure to keep people from getting
>venerable diseases.

They do, but the manual is 300 pages long, with at least 100 pages stating
"This page intentional left blank", and the rest filled with gibberish
that only hardened IBM'ers can understand.


-- 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 -->     David Esan      de@moscom.com  
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: joltes@husc4.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Origins of Syphilis
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:00:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Apr9.130050.10881
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

morris@anasaz (Bob Morris) writes:

>It's pretty common for a virulent disease to become milder.  They sort of
>"shoot themselves in the foot" by killing their hosts (people) then die
>for lack of hosts.  The milder ones that let their hosts live longer
>have a chance to be transmitted to someone else before the host is gone.
>
>Or so I've heard...
>
>Bob "never had it" Morris

From what I've read (can't recall sources, sorry...) some diseases, like lupus
and leprosy, have become steadily less virulent over the centuries.  A good 
part of this comes from the hosts becoming genetically more resistant to the
disease (Darwin at work -- if there's a nasty disease floating around, the part
of the population that's not resistant to it will naturally select itself out
of existance).

Also, look at examples like the opening of the Americas by the Europeans.  The
diseases that they swapped through contact (smallpox, measles, etc from the
European side and at least one "social disease" from the American side) were
*extremely* virulent against the populations that had no natural resistance to
them.  Whole populations of "Indians" were wiped out by smallpox, which was 
more of a nuisance in Europe at the time than a major killer...

And just think of the joys that Europeans endured from the STDs they picked up
from the natives...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick "stop scratching..." 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..."
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:11746 misc.kids:12522