NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3

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Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!EFF.ORG!RITA Message-ID: <199301232206.AA14028@eff.org> Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 17:06:06 EST Sender: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu> From: Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita@EFF.ORG> Subject: Net 14 Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu Lines: 663 This is long, but filled with interesting tidbits. My former boss does it to amuse himself, and it's sort of a Meta-EFFector Online of sorts. He doesn't know I forward it around, but then again, he rips all of this stuff off, too. Ha. Enjoy. From van Thu Jan 14 18:18:15 1993 Received: from [192.88.144.13] (gerard.eff.org) by eff.org with SMTP id AA11536 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4/pen-ident); Thu, 14 Jan 1993 18:17:49 -0500 Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 18:17:49 -0500 Message-Id: <199301142317.AA11536@eff.org> To: nobody From: Gerard Van der Leun <van> Subject: NET14 X-Attachments: :Way Cool Drive:120:NET14: Status: OR //// ////\ //// ////////////// ///////////////// //// \\\\ //// //// //// ______ ////_____\\\\ _ ////__ /////////____________ //// _____________ //// \\\\/// //// //// //// \\/ ///////////////////// //// 14 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// boswell@well.sf.ca.us 1/15/93 Noted on the Net -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- SILICON VALLEY CEOs MEET RON BROWN ON HIGH TECH HIGHWAYS IT'S...ROBODOG! SOON TO BE OFFERED A LEAD ROLE IN NEWTON APPLICATIONS AT APPLE PSST! WANNA BUY 5000 INTEL CHIPS THAT FELL OFF THE FEDEX TRUCK? SPEAK, MEMORY! THREADS WE DREAD SEEING STARTED NET ACCESS ITEM OF THE DAY: DEFICIT REDUCTION, UKRAINIAN STYLE JUST A GLEAM IN THE EYE OF THE MOTHERBOARD RUMORS HE'S GOING TO ATTEMPT TO WRAP TALK.BIZARRE ARE UNFOUNDED DISNEY MYSTERY SOLVED! ALTERNATIVE PHYSICS 201 THE VERY SMARTPHONE THE WAY OF KAIZEN (Continuous Improvement) THE POESY CORNER WELL WORTH THE DOWNLOAD AND DISKSPACE -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- SILICON VALLEY CEOs MEET RON BROWN ON HIGH TECH HIGHWAYS WASHINGTON, DC -- The Clinton Administration is apparently smiling on an early move to emphasize its commitment to both infrastructure improvement and a new telecom highway. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, a group of the same Silicon Valley executives who supported the recent Clinton-Gore presidential campaign have met with Secretary of Commerce designate Ron Brown to urge a focus on high-tech issues. Ron Brown, who has been criticized in some quarters for his close relations with some Asian high-tech companies for which he was a Washington lobbyist, recently met with members of the Computer Systems Policy Project, a group of high-tech executives including John Sculley of Apple Computer; John Akers, chairman of IBM; Lesis Platt of Hewlett-Packard; and Robert Allen of AT&T, all of whom participated in the recent Little Rock Economic Summit. Of prime concern to the members of the Project is the need to keep President-elect Clinton focused on the needs of US high- tech industries while other groups and world events conspire to deflect his attention. The Computer Systems Policy Project has recommended the creation the National Information Infrastructure Council which would be headed by VP-elect Gore and would spearhead a major effort to implement and expand joint government-industry research and development projects. The Information Industries Association recently submitted a position paper to the Clinton-Gore transition team in which IIA Vice President and General Council Steven J. Metalitz emphasized support for a non-monopolistic information infrastructure which would facilitate communications and data exchange but would also feature "strong safeguards" to ward off possible discrimination against competitors by network operators. The IIA believes that the government should set ground rules for the proposed information superhighway but should also discourage monopolistic control. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- IT'S...ROBODOG! PALMER, ALASKA -- When the sled drivers yell "mush!" at their dog teams this year in the Great Alaskan Sled Dog Race, the dogs will be identified by tiny computer chips about the size of a grain of rice instead of the low-tech method of dabbing them with paint. The chips are implanted under the back of the dog's neck using a syringe and a fat hollow needle. The chips are also used to identify other animals ranging in size from birds to llamas. Dr. James Leach III, this year's Iditarod chief veterinarian, says there have been no adverse reactions. Most of the drivers say they favor the permanent implant over the messy paint, which rubs off on the drivers clothes. One driver said: "The paint always seemed sort of prehistoric. I know I've had red paint put on my dogs, and people mistake it for blood." Musher Dee Dee Jonrowe says it's time Alaska joined what he called "the Robodog" club. "I have one dog that's been "chipped" for three years, and I haven't seen any bad effects." Jonrowe says he also likes the fact that "chipping" marks the dog for life. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- SOON TO BE OFFERED A LEAD ROLE IN NEWTON APPLICATIONS AT APPLE The German news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur has recently reported on Japanese inventor Kenji Kawakami's "New Idea Academy," which features his innovations and counts among his most successful products a portable washing machine that straps onto the user's leg, a traveling necktie with room for writing utensils and a calculator, padded booties for cats so they can dust the floor while walking around, and a "solar flashlight" that provides a beam of light as long as the sun is shining. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- PSST! WANNA BUY 5000 INTEL CHIPS THAT FELL OFF THE FEDEX TRUCK? SANTA CLARA, CAL. The computer and software industries are a high source of revenue for California. But they also afford a good income for the criminal elements. An undercover investigation into stolen computer parts by local and federal authorities and the FBI in Silicon Valley has resulted in 30 arrests, according to a published report. UPI reports the operation resulted in the recovery of more than $3.6 million in cash and stolen property and was the result of a 4.5-month investigation called "Operation Gray Chip." A total of $2.1 million was recovered in cash and another $1.55 million in stolen high-tech equipment, the report says. UPI quotes Santa Clara Police Sgt. Mark Kerby as saying: "The trade in stolen computer parts is one of the largest crime problems in the Silicon Valley. So I'd say we just scratched the surface. Various locations, from parking lots to restaurants, were used to stage the stings. The arrests occurred after cash changed hands. The largest transaction involved $250,000 in exchange for 5, 000 Intel computer parts. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- SPEAK, MEMORY! TOKYO, JAPAN -- A device which can translate languages in real-time between two speakers has long been the stuff of science fiction. However, Kyoto-based ATR Automatic Speech Translation Telephone Laboratory claims to have brought the concept into reality with its development of a prototype automatic speech translation telephone system. Plans call for the system to be tested in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University in the US and Siemens of Germany later this month (28 January). ATR Automatic Speech Translation Telephone Laboratory's latest system can translate human speech in both directions between languages -- Japanese to English, English to Japanese, Japanese to German and German to Japanese -- on a real time basis, its creators say. In use, the system works by translating the originating language into digital signals which are then turned in ASCII text. From there, the text is automatically translated into the destination language text, and is "read out" by the machine at the distant end of the link. The whole transaction takes around 20 seconds, so there is an appreciable delay when a "conversation" takes place. So far, the system is limited to 1,500 words in the Japanese-English and Japanese- German direction, meaning it can only really be used for very basic daily conversations. To date, ATR has spent around $130 million on the development of the system. The slightly bad news is that it is likely to take another ten years before a practical system for end users comes to market. Speech translation is a major project in Japan. ATR was created by the Japanese Ministry, Prefectural governments, NTT, KDD and other private electronics firms in 1986. About 50 researchers are studying and developing the system. (Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19930112/Press Contact: ATR Automatic Speech Translation Telephone Laboratory, +81-7749-5-1311) -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- ZEN AND THE ART OF RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT "We are not disorganized. We just have a kind of organization that transcends understanding." -Jacques Barzaghi, aide to Jerry Brown -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- THREADS WE DREAD SEEING STARTED [Those amazing minds in alt.conspiracy are at it again! Here's some excerpts from the first post on "the new world order". The poster signs himself "Newfoundland Puppy", but what is really ominous is the subtitle: "Part 1 of 87". -- b.] THE PLANNING OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER ----------------------------------- PART ONE - PRE-AMERICAN MOVES TOWARD A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT ----------------------------------------------------------- The New World Order. It has become a household catch phrase, recognizable by nearly every member of the civilized world <1>. But what is behind the New World Order? Is it as innocuous as it seems? Or is it a program for world domination? This series of articles will attempt to delve into the mysteries behind the New World Order and uncover what seems to be a mass conspiracy against all the peoples of the world. First, let us examine the rise of the concept of global governments before the rise of Ameri(k)a, and tie this into the modern concept of the New World Order. GLOBAL GOVERNMENT THEORIES IN ANCIENT CHINA Instead of the usual suspects (Greece and Rome) - we find that the earliest concept of a world government evolved in mainland China c. 1300 BC (in the Ch'ing Dynasty). In a sort of backwater village, a simple peasant named K'chan Peng Che <2> rose in power in his hamlet to the level of town mayor. After a decade of rule, K'chan proclaimed himself to be emperor of the known universe. He named his wife representative of the peoples of the earth, his two daughters representatives of the sun and the moon respectively, and gave his son Leng-se charge over the stars over the sky <3>. After five years of global rule, the Che family's authority was disputed by Li Sheng, a farmer who had dabbled in political theory earlier, writing the renowned text, 'Representation In Asian Political Systems', while studying in modern-day Beijing <4>. He argued that K'chan had abrogated his authority by not representing flora and fauna. The townpeople revolted, and the political situation in the town reverted to a town council form. After this failed experiment in global government, the next peoples to take up the idea were indeed the Greeks. (See next post - The Greco- Roman Novus Ordo Seculorum). --------------------- NOTES: <1> In fact - recent studies show that 89% of first-graders in Ameri(k)a when presented with the words "New World Order" on a flash card will stand up and perform a "seig heil" salute. <2> Some texts dispute the name of this forefather of global governing. However, who really cares? <3> Although Leng-se was appointed representative of the stars in the universe, he was only six months old at the time, so K'chan assumed his responsibilites for the time being. <4> This text was destroyed in the early 5th Century BC by a craftsman who used its pages for sanding a teakwood table. This teakwood table now rests in Lyndon LaRouche's study. Coincidence? [We think not. --b] -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- NET ACCESS ITEM OF THE DAY: CYLINDER The International Society for the Philosophy of Tools & Space We are an interdisciplinary organization, small but growing, dedicated to thoughtful discussion about and research into issues concerning tools and space. Currently, we maintain a membership list and circulate a short newsletter. Our future plans call for expansion - a regular journal and a number of conferences are possible in the coming year. Our membership list includes philosophers, artists, computer programmers, scientists, graphic designers, architects, teachers - as well as those whose professions are still unnamed. Our society is bound by an implicit faith in the silent potency of tools, space, meaning and metaphor, in a wide range of seemingly unrelated fields. Within the scope of our talks to date, members have raised diverse and fascinating issues for consideration: - A phenomenology of humor, tools and toys - Space and the banality of cause and effect - Rhetoric and metaphor: language as tool/toy - The iconology of computers - Speed and annihilation - Victimless crimes and crimes of trespass - The mechanics of the dreamwork in psycho-analysis - Architectural theory and practice - Political theories of reterritorialization - Viruses: information systems and genetic engineering - Media theory - Virtual Reality: the emergence of simulacra in social space - Transit technology and urban planning - Infrastructure catastrophes The thematic study of tools and space forces us to reconsider and sharpen the boundaries separating the various specialties of our members. Many of us are involved in concrete and ongoing projects which undo customary lines of inquiry and uncover fruitful new questions in what was formerly considered "obvious" and explained. We seek to move beyond conventional genres without abandoning meaning and beauty for the sake of novelty. For more information about Cylinder, including membership materials, please write us with your name and address. CYLINDER c/o Graham Harman, Secretary Philosophy Dept., DePaul University Chicago, IL 60614 USA email: cylinder@uiowa.edu -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- DEFICIT REDUCTION, UKRAINIAN STYLE The government of Ukraine is sponsoring a competition, closing Dec. 31, to determine the best way to seal off the destroyed nuclear reactor that caused the disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. The government seeks a solution that will guarantee safety from radiation for 100 years, and it is willing to pay whoever designs such a system the equivalent of $20,000. The real cost of ensuring such safety, according to U.S. officials, is closer to $250 million. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- JUST A GLEAM IN THE EYE OF THE MOTHERBOARD BOULDER, CO. -- The University of Colorado unveiled its $300,000 general purpose optical computer yesterday in what could be a preview of the future in computing. The research team, which consists of both faculty and students at the university's optoelectronic computing systems center, says the device is presently at about the same state of development as the vacuum tube computers of the 1950s were compared to today's personal computers. But they think that will change. An optical computer uses the basic unit of light, called a photon, instead of electrons. Photons move at 10 times the speed of electrons, can travel side by side, and can pass through each other. Instead of being stored in memory, photons are constantly on the move, traveling through optical fiber. That allows computing at a much higher speed. According to CU Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Vincent Heuring, optics will become more prevalent in computing. "Ultimately, computers will be all optical, and they will be very fast and very inexpensive." Heuring told Newsbytes that laser beams are used to encode the computer's instructions and data into hundreds of thousands of tiny light pulses that are stored in about three miles of spooled glass fiber that serve as the machine's "memory." Each 12-foot-long pulse, which represents a single bit of information, completes a loop through the memory spool every 20-millionth of a second. The system currently operates at about 50MHz but Heuring says palm-sized models are expected to reach 20 gigahertz, or 400 times faster. The team says its next task is to reduce the physical size of the present unit, which occupies four levels and is about the size of an executive office desk, to palm size. As the size of the machine, and the loop, decreases, the operating speed will increase. Heuring, who stressed that the current model is a proof-of-principle machine, rather than a prototype, says one practical use for optical computing is in the fields of computer graphics and virtual reality. They could also be used for telecommunications, routing information over fiber-optic channels for telephone, data communications, and cable television use. The school says such a processor could probably be built within three to five years with sufficient funding. CU's machine is an outgrowth of an optical processor developed by AT&T's Bell Laboratories two years ago. That system used light to perform simple calculations, but relied on electronic controls. The school's center was formed six years ago, and is supported by an annual grant from the National Science Foundation as well as funds from the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute, the Colorado Commission for Higher Education, the university, and Colorado State University. It's the only center focusing on optical computing, and has an annual budget between $5-6 million, according to Heuring. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- RUMORS HE'S GOING TO ATTEMPT TO WRAP TALK.BIZARRE ARE UNFOUNDED BERLIN -- The Bulgarian-American artist Christo said Wednesday he is 90 percent sure of obtaining approval from German authorities to drape Berlin's Reichstag in silver nylon. "The chance for realization of the project was never as good as it is today,'' Christo, 57, told a news conference in Berlin. Christo has sought approval without success since 1972 to ``pack'' -- Christo's term -- the Reichstag, Germany's 100-year-old parliament building. Time now is running out because the Reichstag is scheduled to be gutted and renovated in preparation for moving Germany's seat of government from Bonn to Berlin at the end of the century. Christo said he had no interest in ``packing'' a renovated Reichstag. But with the support of Rita Suessmuth, Germany's parliamentary president, Christo said he believes he is near to gaining approval from the German parliament and Chancellor Helmut Kohl for the project. If approval is granted, the Reichstag will be covered in 1.1 million square feet of silver-colored nylon for 14 days in August and September. The ``packing'' of the Reichstag by 200 mountain climbers would take three days and cost between $6 million and $7 million, to be paid by Christo. An exhibition documenting the ``packing'' of the Reichstag opened Wednesday and lasts through Jan. 31 in the Marstall -- the former imperial stables -- in Berlin's historic center. Christo was born in 1935 in Bulgaria as Christo Javatschev and now lives in the United States. His most famous projects of packing objects in material include a cliff in Australia, Chicago's Museuem of Contemporary Art, and Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- DISNEY MYSTERY SOLVED! One of the great mysteries in Disneyanna involves two of the Fab Five, Pluto and Goofy, as examined in the movie "Stand By Me" when one kid asks another, ``If Pluto is a dog, then what's Goofy?'' Good question. Is Goofy a dog, an android, an alien or what? David Smith, head of Walt Disney Studio's Archives,has the answer: ``When Goofy made his first appearance in 1932 his name was 'Dippy Dawg' and later 'Dippy the Goof.' Unlike Pluto, Goofy spoke. Through the years he has developed more human characteristics until finally he became a goofy-looking human with dogs' features.'' For those who love trivia, Pinto Colvic was originally the voice of Goofy. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- ALTERNATIVE PHYSICS 201 By trygve lode Ted Holden, of talk.origins fame, has often claimed that future generations of scientists will look upon him and his beliefs as well as Velikovsky's with the same sort of reverent appreciation that we now reserve only for those who have contributed the most to our science and culture--Madonna, for example. As you might imagine, this has certainly set me to wondering, "just what will future universities be saying about physics in years to come?" With this in mind, and with the benefit of reading several of Jack Sarfatti's articles on sci.skeptic that show a quantum mechanical basis for precognition, I decided to attempt to channel just such a university physics course of the future. "Ohm...ohm...ohm...ohm...." (Well, what else would you chant?) #trance(ON) #trancemode(FUTURE | PHYSICS | HOLDEN_LIKE) "Good morning, class, and welcome to the 2826 school year's first session of 'Alternative Physics 201.' "Science, above all else, is based on evidence; it cares nothing for what you personally like and don't like and, no matter what your personal preferences are for how the universe ought to work, in the end, the theory that best explains the evidence wins. We can do experiments in the present, but this is necessarily a limited exercise, since experiments performed today can only tell us what the laws of physics are like today. Mainstream scientists tend to ignore this fundamental fact and, thus, are hopelessly hamstrung by uniformitarian assumptions when trying to explain events in the past, many of which simply don't fit with our current physical theories. Much better, then, would be if we could somehow find out what the laws of physics really were in the past, and then use those to explain past events. "Of course we can't just travel back in time and perform our experiments back then--and, unfortunately, records from even a few centuries ago are sparse and incomplete. Back in the early twenty-first century, all existing records were digitized and stored within the capacious memory banks of the most powerful computer of all time, the MegaloMainframe. High-speed data links fed every remote computer in the world, eliminating the need for local storage devices which soon vanished from use. Libraries became unnecessary with everything being instantly available through the world-wide computer network that the MegaloMainframe serviced; books became useful only as collectors' items. "Unfortunately, one day a careless user accidentally reformatted the MegaloMainframe's main storage--and the Sysadmin mounted the backups and entered the wrong command-line option to the backup program, erasing all of the world's knowledge with a mistaken keystroke. Few records survived the ensuing chaos, and most of what we know of civilization before 2050 comes from facts that the users of the MegaloMainframe thought were so important that they printed them out and attached them to the walls of their places of work--so great was the rioting and destruction that only a few sturdy, fire-resistant office buildings remained and even these were ransacked by looters who left little but those few bits of information that the people of that era valued enough that they attached them reverently to the walls around them. "What can we learn from these past records? Perhaps most exciting is the knowledge that even the basic forces of nature were completely different back then. Gravity, for example, was far weaker than it is now, and on smaller celestial bodies like the moon, it was so weak that pencils would simply float away if released. Yet, at the time, there was another force, probably electromagnetic in nature, that held the planets together and kept their inhabitants from flying off; lunar explorers used devices known as "heavy boots" to hold themselves to the moon without need for gravity. "It appears that nuclear forces were also quite different in those days, allowing the formation of many stable elements that are no longer possible under our current physical laws. While we may never know much about many of these now-impossible elements and their properties, we know from the surviving documents that one of the most important and widely used of these was an element they called Administratium; another was a material called Thiotimoline, of which we know nothing at all save that, when resublimated, it developed endochronic properties. "There remain many other mysteries that the ancients have left for us to explain--what was the popular and powerful technique of chemical analysis that nothing remains of but the name--the Roble Hall Purity Test? What physical laws were there that allowed them to measure physical beauty (in a unit called millihelens) by the action of boats? Did the interaction of gravity and the strange electromagnetic forces of their time permit humans and animals to communicate directly, as they are shown doing in the few fragments we have found of their most prestigious scientific journal, the "Far Side"? "Perhaps the one tidbit that most tantalizes us today is the knowledge that the ancients understood the seemingly bizarre laws of physics they lived under so well that the most famous scientist of their age, a man we know only as "Murphy" was able to codify them all in a single grand unified law that bears his name. Alas, no records of what "Murphy's Law" was have yet been discovered, so we can only speculate upon whether this pinnacle of twenty-first century knowledge would still apply to our world today...." Unfortunately, my trance ended abruptly with an eerie, authoritarian voice demanding that I insert two Trigannic Pu's for another three minutes; then there was a click, and I was back in my ordinary, twentieth-century bedroom. There you have it, though; Ted Holden's and Velikovsky's theories seem to be still going strong towards the end of the next millennium, so perhaps Ted is right after all. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- THE VERY SMARTPHONE According to the {Houston Chronicle}, Suzanne Handerson offhandedly answered a ringing pay phone at a Waco, Texas shopping mall. A voice asked, "Hello. Mrs. Henderson?" Henderson looked around to see if she was on Candid Camera, or a program of that sort. On the phone was the man who tends her yard, calling with a question about the garden. It turned out that the mall pay phone had almost the same number as her home phone. Said Henderson, "It was a question of dialing the wrong number and getting the right person. I was speechless." -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- THE WAY OF KAIZEN (Continuous Improvement) by Michael.Willett@OFFICE.Wang.com Many of us in the West focus our attention mainly on quality assurance through measurement, inspection, testing and management practices. In Japan, however, more attention is now being paid to a philosophy--or perhaps better, an attitude--they call kaizen. Literally, it means gradual, continuous improvement, mainly in small matters, in all aspects of working life. This practice is explained in a book called Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success, by Masaaki Imai. The English version is published by McGraw-Hill, New York. MOST IMPORTANT "Kaizen is the single most important concept in Japanese management," Imai claims. "It is the key to Japanese competitive success. It means ongoing improvement involving everyone-top management, managers, and workers." Kaizen begins with the recognition that any corporation can have problems. Kaizen solves problems by establishing a corporate culture in which everyone can freely admit to these problems. "Kaizen movements are going on all the time in most Japanese companies," Imai states, "and most of them contend that management should devote at least 50 percent of its attention to kaizen," He says that Japanese managers are always looking for ways to improve systems and procedures. This quest extends even into labor relations, marketing and supplier relations. "Engineers in Japanese plants are often warned. There will be no progress if you keep on doing things exactly the same way all the time." WEAK IN WEST Imai adds that after studying Western business practices for many years, he concludes that the kaizen concept is non-existent, or at least very weak, in most Western companies. "This lack of kaizen helps explain why an American or European factory can remain exactly the same for a quarter of a century." Imai points out that at the same time, some Western companies are enamored of innovation. He characterizes this as rapid, radical change, usually in large matters. Kaizen, on the other hand, consists of many small, ongoing improvements in the status quo, as a result of continuous efforts. In Japan, he reports, employees are involved in kaizen through suggestion systems, quality circles, and TQM or TQC programs. An important point is that once an employee's suggestion is adopted, the standard for the activity is changed. Thus kaizen involves flexible, changing standards, not a lack of them. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- THE POESY CORNER The Call of the Politically Correct Shepherd to his Nymph (with apologies to Christopher Marlowe, who is a Dead White European Male and therefore unworthy of study) Come live with me and we shall be politically correct We'll walk among the spotted owls and every rare insect We'll not cheer for sporting teams whose names mock our forebearers Or consort with other than the original fur-wearers No toxic fission No fossil fuels No polyester No grades in schools Come live with me within the old-growth forest near the seas Where the dolphins all are safe and swim through nets with ease Where the union label grows in our greenhouse-gas-free dome And the rain forest stretches out beyond our race-normed home No fatty oils No silicone No ever-present Cellular phones We'll be perfectly tolerant of all (as if we cared!) And we'll hope that we won't be procreationally impaired And when we have politically correct young girls and boys They'll play in their cloth diapers with our recycled toys They'll get their truths from Old bitter men And never think nor learn Less they offend. Kevin M. Loney 1992. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- WELL WORTH THE DOWNLOAD AND DISKSPACE The Fall '92 Special Supplement on Usenet News is now available via anonymous FTP at the Amateur Computerist FTP site. You can obtain a copy by ftping to wuarchive.wustl.edu. Log in as "anonymous" and type your email address for the password. Then "cd /doc/misc/acn" and "get acn4-5.txt". If anyone has problems retrieving this issue, please send me email. For the Amateur Computerist, -Michael Hauben PS: Or send me email if you want me to send it to you, or read alt.amateur-comp to perhaps see if your site still contains the posting if the issue. ====================================================================== =======rec.talk.bionet.bit.news.gnu.k12.misc.alt.comp.soc.sci.======== ====================================================================== NET is a journal of items of interest to the Information Society