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(yet another) List of incredibles!

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RM Mentock

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Oct 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/4/99
to
JmG wrote:
>
> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...

<snipo>

> 35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
> over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
> English language.

Hey, I think we can all agree that this one is bullshit.

> 36. The name of all the continents end with
> the same letter that they start with.

So, what about Europe? Why doesn't it end in
A like all the rest?


> 39. If the population of China walked past you
> in single file, the line would never end because
> of the rate of reproduction.

Didn't Ripley report it as walking past four a breast?

> 40. A snail can sleep for 3 years.
>
> 41. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by
> eliminating one olive from each salad served in
> first-class.

Yahbut they spent $400,000 figuring that out.

> 46. You share your birthday with at least
> 9 million other people in the world.

Let's see, 6000 million times 1/(4*365+1)...
nope. Apparently, leap year birthdays aren't
so shared.

> 47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
> in the English language.

Huh?

Shawn Wilson

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Oct 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/4/99
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JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net> wrote in message
news:Qk=5N916i2d1sUfPMTREuD=Wo=z...@4ax.com...

> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or
agreeing...
>
>
> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
>
> 1. The venom in a Daddy Long-Legs spider is more
> poisonous than a Black Widow's or a Brown Recluse,
> but they cannot bite humans because their jaws
> won't open wide enough.


A daddy longlegs is NOT a spider. I don't think they're venomous either.

> 7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
> to carrots.


True.


> 32. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on
> each foot.


False. I mean, c'mon, find a picture and count for yourself.


> 39. If the population of China walked past you
> in single file, the line would never end because
> of the rate of reproduction.


Let's see:

Assume zero net population growth, three feet between each person and a pace
of three miles an hour gives you 5280 people per hour, 126,720 per day,
46,284,480 per year, or 1.1 billion in about 23 years and 9 months. I don't
think 1.1 billion babies are born in China every 24 years, so false.


> 46. You share your birthday with at least
> 9 million other people in the world.


6 billion / 365 = 16,438,356

Shawn Wilson

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Oct 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/4/99
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RM Mentock <men...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:37F963E8...@mindspring.com...

> > 39. If the population of China walked past you
> > in single file, the line would never end because
> > of the rate of reproduction.
>

> Didn't Ripley report it as walking past four a breast?


Do you mean two deep?

Jim Ellwanger

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Oct 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/4/99
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In article <Qk=5N916i2d1sUfPMTREuD=Wo=z...@4ax.com>, jmgreenATbestweb.net wrote:

>50. The Eisenhower interstate system requires
>that one-mile in every five must be straight.
>These straight sections are usable as airstrips
>in times of war or other emergencies.

Not true...although this was supposedly proposed in the early days of the
system (along with locating bomb shelters underneath overpasses), it
turned out to be unworkable.

--
Jim Ellwanger <trai...@mindspring.com>
<http://trainman1.home.mindspring.com/> bucks the trends.
"I declare that I am England, you declare that I have drowned."

RM Mentock

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Oct 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/4/99
to
Shawn Wilson wrote:

> > > 39. If the population of China walked past you
> > > in single file, the line would never end because
> > > of the rate of reproduction.
> >
> > Didn't Ripley report it as walking past four a breast?
>
> Do you mean two deep?

Ha. Four deep.

Bill Baldwin

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Oct 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/4/99
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>4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

We did this awhile back. The tongue was a popular claim, but other front
runners on the net were the jaw, the gluteus maximus, the heart, and the
uterus.

>7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
>to carrots.

Not allergic, but I do remember reading that he hated them. He apparently
tried rutabagas, celery, you name it to make that biting into a carrot sound.
Nothing sounded the same. He finally gave up and used a carrot, but had a
bucket nearby to spit out the pieces immediately and a glass of something to
wash away the taste.

If he hated carrots the way I hate beets, he was truly a man dedicated to his
vision and I honor him.

>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>have sex for pleasure.

Surely there are other inter-species sexual relationships that are
pleasurable?

(This, by the way, was the more obvious version of the reply D. P. Roberts
made. If you didn't get his subtle joke on the subject, I'm here for ya.)

>16. In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state
>lines with a duck on your head.

Oops. I won't tell if you won't.

>20. Polar bears are left-handed.

On average they live nine years less than other sorts of bears.

>22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

The other lions are really jealous.

>23. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.

That's not an insect, it's an arthropod.

>27. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as
>both parties are registered blood donors.

Is, uh "self abuse" legal under similar circumstances?

>37. The word "lethologica" describes the state
>of not being able to remember the word you want.

Thanks. I'll remember that.

>39. If the population of China walked past you
>in single file, the line would never end because
>of the rate of reproduction.

Hey now. Enough of that. Keep walking, I said!

>41. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by
>eliminating one olive from each salad served in
>first-class.

Boeing saved $60,000 by eliminating one rivet from each seam in their planes.

>47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
>in the English language.

No.

>51. The average human eats 8 spiders in their
>lifetime at night.

Told you that wasn't an insect in the candy bar.

JmG

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...


Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)

1. The venom in a Daddy Long-Legs spider is more
poisonous than a Black Widow's or a Brown Recluse,
but they cannot bite humans because their jaws
won't open wide enough.

2. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

3. On average, people fear spiders more than they
do death.

4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

5. If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not
be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4950. The heads
picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.

6. Only one person in two billion will live to be
116 or older.

7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
to carrots.

8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
have sex for pleasure.

9. The pop you get when you crack your knuckles is
actually a bubble of gas bursting.

10. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only
two Disney cartoon features with both parents who are
present and don't die throughout the movie.

11. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls
froze completely solid.

12. There's no Betty Rubble in Flintstones Chewable
Vitamins.

13. It's impossible to get water out of a rimless
tire.

14. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories
an hour.

15. Did you know that you are more likely to be killed
by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider?

16. In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state
lines with a duck on your head.

17. In Indiana it is illegal to ride public
transportation for at least 30 minutes after
eating garlic.

18. Right-handed people live, on average, nine
years longer than left-handed people do.

19. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

20. Polar bears are left-handed.

21. A cockroach will live nine days without
its head before it starves to death.

22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

23. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects'
legs in it.

24. A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.

25. The shortest war in history was between
Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar
surrendered after 38 minutes.

26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
not white, but actually clear.

27. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as
both parties are registered blood donors.

28. Donald Duck comics were banned in
Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

29. More people are killed by donkeys
annually than are killed in plane crashes.

30. Stewardesses is the longest word
typed with only the left hand.

31. Shakespeare invented the word
"assassination" and "bump."

32. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on
each foot.

33. If you keep a Goldfish in the dark
room, it will eventually turn white.

34. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
English language.

36. The name of all the continents end with


the same letter that they start with.

37. The word "lethologica" describes the state


of not being able to remember the word you want.

38. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be
made using the letters on only one row of the
keyboard.

39. If the population of China walked past you
in single file, the line would never end because
of the rate of reproduction.

40. A snail can sleep for 3 years.

41. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by


eliminating one olive from each salad served in
first-class.

42. China has more English speakers than the
United States.

43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

44. Vatican City is the smallest country in the
world, with a population of 1,000 and a size
of 108.7 acres.

45. The longest town name in the world has
167 letters.

46. You share your birthday with at least
9 million other people in the world.

47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
in the English language.

48. The longest word in the English language
is 1909 letters long and it refers to a distinct
part of DNA.

49. No president of the United States was an
only child.

50. The Eisenhower interstate system requires
that one-mile in every five must be straight.
These straight sections are usable as airstrips
in times of war or other emergencies.

51. The average human eats 8 spiders in their
lifetime at night.

Max C. Webster III

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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From: JmG jmg...@bestweb.net

I can only disagree with a few of them . . . the rest, I just plain don't know!

>10. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only
>two Disney cartoon features with both parents who are
>present and don't die throughout the movie.

Mulan's parents are alive throughout the movie.

>12. There's no Betty Rubble in Flintstones Chewable
>Vitamins.

Didn't used to be . . . Betty exists as of a few years ago.

>36. The name of all the continents end with
>the same letter that they start with.

North America?

>43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

Did he work for Edison?

- Max -
========================================
Max said to them, "Come and have breakfast."
None of them ventured to question him, "Who are
you?" knowing that it was Max. -- Max 21:12

D. P. Roberts

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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>3. On average, people fear spiders more than they
>do death.

I know I do.

>4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

The tounge can cause more damage than any other part of the body.

>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>have sex for pleasure.

I once read a story in alt.sex.stories about that. . .

>11. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls
>froze completely solid.

Yes, and it caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards
for ten months.

>36. The name of all the continents end with
>the same letter that they start with.

Apparently North America and South America
did not get the memo.

>39. If the population of China walked past you
>in single file, the line would never end because
>of the rate of reproduction.

No, but it is a well-established fact that the main complaint from the
kids is, "Aw, mom! Chinese food AGAIN?"

>47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
>in the English language.

Wrong.

>49. No president of the United States was an
>only child.

Some of them we wish their parents had been barren.


Asterbark

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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>3. On average, people fear spiders more than they
>do death.
>

Give me liberty or give me spiders.


>4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

:P


>
>14. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories
>an hour.


That's a plan I can actually use!

...Right...about...now!


Astrid


Dutch Courage

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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JmG jmg...@bestweb.net writes:

>Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...
>
>
>Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
>
>1. The venom in a Daddy Long-Legs spider is more
>poisonous than a Black Widow's or a Brown Recluse,
>but they cannot bite humans because their jaws
>won't open wide enough.

I think Doug handled this one.


>7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
>to carrots.

He just hated them. Check any of several books about Termite Terrace.

>
>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>have sex for pleasure.

All species have sex for pleasure. Humans are the only ones who have it for
any other reason.

>
>9. The pop you get when you crack your knuckles is
>actually a bubble of gas bursting.

It's you breaking a vacuum seal, which is why it sounds like you pulled a
sucker dart off of a dry erase board.

>
>10. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only
>two Disney cartoon features with both parents who are
>present and don't die throughout the movie.

Fox and the Hound?

>
>11. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls
>froze completely solid.

I heard about something like that, but I think it was in "Strangely enough" or
""the weirdest people in the world" and they printed the devil's footprints
incritically.


>31. Shakespeare invented the word
>"assassination" and "bump."


MW has Bump as being older than shakspeare's plays, and assassin comes from
Hashish.

>
>47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
>in the English language.

No.

>
>48. The longest word in the English language
>is 1909 letters long and it refers to a distinct
>part of DNA.

I don't think that's really a word.


>50. The Eisenhower interstate system requires
>that one-mile in every five must be straight.
>These straight sections are usable as airstrips
>in times of war or other emergencies.

No, we covered this.

"There is no land beyond the law, where tyrants rule with unshakable power.
It is but a dream from which the evil wake to face their fate, their
terrifying hour."
-Wesley Dodds.

rob...@bestweb.net

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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On 1999-10-05 jmgreenATbestweb.net said:

>39. If the population of China walked past you
>in single file, the line would never end because
>of the rate of reproduction.

My father said the usual comeback to this oldie was, how could they
reproduce if they kept walking in single file?

>47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
>in the English language.

"Be." An imperative has an implied subject.

Robert
Net-Tamer V 1.11 - Registered

Dan Hanson

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
>
> 1. The venom in a Daddy Long-Legs spider is more
> poisonous than a Black Widow's or a Brown Recluse,
> but they cannot bite humans because their jaws
> won't open wide enough.

A Daddy Long-Legs is not a spider.

> 2. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

Yeah, but afterwards it's still a pig.

> 3. On average, people fear spiders more than they
> do death.

Uh huh. Take anyone in the world and tell him he has to eat a spider or
you'll shoot him in the head. Guess which one he'll choose?

> 5. If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not
> be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4950. The heads
> picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.

Somewhat true. There will be a bias based on the different patterns, but
it's probably not that pronounced.


> 8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
> have sex for pleasure.

Not true. Monkeys masturbate, as do whales and many other animals.
Generally, the higher the order of animal, the more 'pleasure' becomes a
motivation for sex. Which doesn't explain why George Michael is so horny.

> 10. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only
> two Disney cartoon features with both parents who are
> present and don't die throughout the movie.

Uh, let's see... Mulan's parents both lived. Hercules had four parents, and
all four lived.

> 11. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls
> froze completely solid.

No chance.

> 14. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories
> an hour.

I'll let you know when I finish reading the list.

> 15. Did you know that you are more likely to be killed
> by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider?

Depends on who 'you' are. I doubt a lot of natives in New Guinea are
worried about the champagne cork menace.

> 16. In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state
> lines with a duck on your head.

If it's not, it should be. Damned ducks.

> 17. In Indiana it is illegal to ride public
> transportation for at least 30 minutes after
> eating garlic.

But the same isn't true of driving cab.

> 20. Polar bears are left-handed.

Polar bears don't have hands.

> 21. A cockroach will live nine days without
> its head before it starves to death.

Yeah, but it won't be a great kisser anymore.

> 22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

They published that after they interviewed the male lions. A new study
asked the female lions, and they claim it wasn't nearly that often. And
most of them said the sex wasn't that good, either.

One tragic side story - They tried to mate a lion with a pig, and the
resulting orgasm killed them both.

> 23. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects'
> legs in it.

Except for Choc-Full-O-Arachnid, which I understand has more.

> 24. A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.

And the scariest part of this is that the hair isn't the Rhino's.

> 26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
> not white, but actually clear.

Doesn't this belong in the Michael Jackson thread?

> 29. More people are killed by donkeys
> annually than are killed in plane crashes.

And in Georgia you aren't allowed to cross the state line with your Donkey
unless it has a duck on its head. Go figure.

> 30. Stewardesses is the longest word
> typed with only the left hand.

And when thinking about stewardesses, men often only have the left hand
available.

> 33. If you keep a Goldfish in the dark
> room, it will eventually turn white.

Yeah, but the moisture from the tank will play havoc with your negatives.

> 39. If the population of China walked past you
> in single file, the line would never end because
> of the rate of reproduction.

Why can't the people who keep repeating this do grade 9 math?

> 40. A snail can sleep for 3 years.

Might as well. When it wakes up, it's still a snail.

> 41. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by
> eliminating one olive from each salad served in
> first-class.

Which allowed their fleet to stay in the air about one second longer.

> 46. You share your birthday with at least
> 9 million other people in the world.

Man, I'm throwing one hell of a party this year.

> 50. The Eisenhower interstate system requires
> that one-mile in every five must be straight.
> These straight sections are usable as airstrips
> in times of war or other emergencies.

Bzzt. Thanks for playing.

> 51. The average human eats 8 spiders in their
> lifetime at night.

How many do they eat during the day? This factoid has 'random bullshit
number' written all over it.

McCaffertA

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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In article <trainman1-041...@user-38ldmeg.dialup.mindspring.com>,
trai...@mindspring.com (Jim Ellwanger) writes:

>>50. The Eisenhower interstate system requires
>>that one-mile in every five must be straight.
>>These straight sections are usable as airstrips
>>in times of war or other emergencies.
>

>Not true...although this was supposedly proposed in the early days of the
>system (along with locating bomb shelters underneath overpasses), it
>turned out to be unworkable.

Proposed where, and by whom?

jeff...@my-deja.com

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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In article <Qk=5N916i2d1sUfPMTREuD=Wo=z...@4ax.com>,
jmgreenATbestweb.net wrote:
> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or
agreeing...
>
> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
>
> 5. If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not
> be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4950. The heads
> picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.

Most likely, it will be neither 5,000 nor 4,950 heads.


> 8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
> have sex for pleasure.

That is supposed to fun? And I thought it was just to keep
my testicles from exploding!

> 13. It's impossible to get water out of a rimless
> tire.

You can't get down off a duck, either.

> 16. In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state
> lines with a duck on your head.

One can't cross a state line while in Minnesota, can one?

> 20. Polar bears are left-handed.

I'm left ovaried.


> 22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

You mipslepped "liars"

> 26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
> not white, but actually clear.

Polar bears can speak English, its just that we can't
hear them.

> 35. The sentence "the quick

> over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
> English language.

overbone:/home/janes$ echo "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
| segment 1 | sort | uniq

Well, I'll be damned, so it does.

> 39. If the population of China walked past you
> in single file, the line would never end because
> of the rate of reproduction.

Reproducing while walking past me in single file must be
an interesting experience.

> 40. A snail can sleep for 3 years.

Consecutively?

> 46. You share your birthday with at least
> 9 million other people in the world.

They may share theirs with me, but I don't share with
them. I don't play well with others, either.

> 48. The longest word in the English language
> is 1909 letters long and it refers to a distinct
> part of DNA.

How about the word with 18,123,986,714 letters that refers to
an indistict part of DNA?

> 51. The average human eats 8 spiders in their
> lifetime at night.

What was the sample size on that experiment? How abou the
standard deviation?

Jeff


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Ron Ritzman

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net>
wrote:

>2. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>have sex for pleasure.

Somehow these two statements don't jive.

--
Ron Ritzman
http://i.am/supertroll

Colin Rosenthal

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 23:07:42 -0700,
Bill Baldwin <ju...@micronet.net> wrote:

>>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>>have sex for pleasure.

>>22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
>


>The other lions are really jealous.

It's not as if they're doing it for _fun_.

--
Colin Rosenthal
Astrophysics Institute
University of Oslo

Gary S. Callison

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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jeff...@my-deja.com wrote:
: In article <Qk=5N916i2d1sUfPMTREuD=Wo=z...@4ax.com>,

: jmgreenATbestweb.net wrote:
: > Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or
: agreeing...
: > 13. It's impossible to get water out of a rimless

: > tire.
: You can't get down off a duck, either.

How do you get up on the duck in the first place?

: > 16. In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state


: > lines with a duck on your head.

So the duck has to get down off of you, but you can't get down off of the
duck?

: > 39. If the population of China walked past you


: > in single file, the line would never end because
: > of the rate of reproduction.
: Reproducing while walking past me in single file must be
: an interesting experience.

Long ago, when I was in the army and away from my wife, I think I saw that
on a video nasty once. Please don't tell her.

--
Huey


Dutch Courage

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
>> 39. If the population of China walked past you
>> in single file, the line would never end because
>> of the rate of reproduction.
>

Only if they were marching boy girl obstretricianl boy girl obstretrician, and
frankly I don't think they'd have much time for marching

Randy Poe

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
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Wow, what a list! Random comments below on one or two, not
necessarily bunking or debunking.

JmG wrote:
>
> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...
>

> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
>

> 3. On average, people fear spiders more than they
> do death.

Hmmm. Here's a spider. Here's a loaded gun pointed
at your head. Choose.

> 7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
> to carrots.

Also did every other voice on the Warner Brothers
cartoons. Amazing talent.

I once heard "The Mel Blanc Show" on a broadcast of
old radio shows. It was, sadly, pretty bad.

> 10. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only
> two Disney cartoon features with both parents who are
> present and don't die throughout the movie.

Of course, Peter and all the Lost Boys were babies
who had fallen out of their carriages and were
never missed. Also, let's not forget that Wendy's
parents left their kids in the care of a dog.

> 26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
> not white, but actually clear.

I believe the skin color factoid is true.

> 30. Stewardesses is the longest word
> typed with only the left hand.

Why is this incredible?

>
> 31. Shakespeare invented the word
> "assassination" and "bump."

I had heard that "assassin" derived from an old
Arabic word, "hashashim" (more or less) referring to
a cult of assassins who would smoke hashish before
doing their job.

>
> 32. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on
> each foot.

Recently and repeatedly debunked at alt.folklore.urban

> 35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps


> over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
> English language.

A standard typing exercise for exactly that reason.

>
> 36. The name of all the continents end with
> the same letter that they start with.

North America?

> 38. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be
> made using the letters on only one row of the
> keyboard.

Again, if this is considered incredible you're kind of
scraping the bottom of the barrel.

>
> 39. If the population of China walked past you
> in single file, the line would never end because
> of the rate of reproduction.

An oldy called "The Marching Chinese." Mentioned in
a cute sci-fi story called "The Marching Chinese"
(by Kornbluth?) in which the world has basically been
taken over by idiots who overbred, while the geniuses
under-reproduced.

> 42. China has more English speakers than the
> United States.

Meaning native English-speakers? or people fluent in English?

>
> 45. The longest town name in the world has
> 167 letters.

That would be that Welsh town whose name looks like 167
W's in a row. Maybe 2 or 3 random L's here and there.

>
> 46. You share your birthday with at least
> 9 million other people in the world.

6 billion/365 = 16 million. Why such an underestimate? Are
there big variations in the distribution of birthdates?

> 50. The Eisenhower interstate system requires
> that one-mile in every five must be straight.
> These straight sections are usable as airstrips
> in times of war or other emergencies.

Been discussed at great length quite recently, I believe
in this newsgroup.

>
> 51. The average human eats 8 spiders in their
> lifetime at night.

I can't parse that. 8 spiders every night? Or 8
over the course of a lifetime?

- Randy

Dennis Matheson

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
Randy Poe wrote in message <37F9F146...@dgsys.com>...
>>snip<<

>>
>> 39. If the population of China walked past you
>> in single file, the line would never end because
>> of the rate of reproduction.
>
>An oldy called "The Marching Chinese." Mentioned in
>a cute sci-fi story called "The Marching Chinese"
>(by Kornbluth?) in which the world has basically been
>taken over by idiots who overbred, while the geniuses
>under-reproduced.


"The Marching Morons" by Korbluth.

--
"You can't run away forever; but there's nothing wrong with getting a good
head start." --- Jim Steinman

Dennis Matheson --- den...@mountaindiver.com
Hike, Dive, Ski, Climb --- http://www.mountaindiver.com


Dennis Matheson

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
Ron Ritzman wrote in message <9aP5N15oC3F2wD...@4ax.com>...

>On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net>
>wrote:
>
>>2. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
>
>>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>>have sex for pleasure.
>
>Somehow these two statements don't jive.
>
>>22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

Three statements...

Perry Farmer

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
-> Ron Ritzman wrote in message <9aP5N15oC3F2wD...@4ax.com>...
-> >On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net>
-> >wrote:
-> >
-> >>2. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
-> >
-> >>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
-> >>have sex for pleasure.
-> >
-> >Somehow these two statements don't jive.
-> >
-> >>22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

-> Three statements...

Why don't they jive?

The frequency or deriving pleasure really have little to do with the
reason behind the act.

You may dance with your sister inlaw to be nice, however it doesn't stop
you from having a religious experience doing so.

Perry


Terry Nielsen

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
JmG wrote:

> 2. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

But they have to smoke an entire pack afterwards.



> 3. On average, people fear spiders more than they
> do death.

Which would make death by spiders about the worst wouldn't it?

> 11. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls
> froze completely solid.

Leading to the first attempt to skate over the falls in a barrel.

> 14. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories
> an hour.

And two aspirins.

> 16. In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state
> lines with a duck on your head.

Only if the duck is under age.



> 21. A cockroach will live nine days without
> its head before it starves to death.

What about left handed cockroaches?

> 22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

And I bet he never calls any of them the next day like he promised.



> 40. A snail can sleep for 3 years.

I've got a teenager that's been asleep since grade 8.

--
Terry Nielsen
Canada
ICQ 25287119

Jeff Lanam

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to

JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net> wrote in article
<Qk=5N916i2d1sUfPMTREuD=Wo=z...@4ax.com>...


> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or
agreeing...

> 17. In Indiana it is illegal to ride public
> transportation for at least 30 minutes after
> eating garlic.

Searching the Indiana Law at http://www.law.indiana.edu/codes/in/incode.html
turns up no mention of the word "garlic". That doesn't mean some
city or town hasn't forbidden it. I'd hardly call the idea that
local statutes have silly laws "incredible", though.

Dutch Courage

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
perry....@thefarm.wa.com (Perry Farmer) writes:

>-> Ron Ritzman wrote in message <9aP5N15oC3F2wD...@4ax.com>...
>-> >On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net>
>-> >wrote:
>-> >
>-> >>2. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
>-> >
>-> >>8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>-> >>have sex for pleasure.
>-> >
>-> >Somehow these two statements don't jive.
>-> >
>-> >>22. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
>
>-> Three statements...
>
>Why don't they jive?

To begin with, the word is jibe. It's just the ideas that are jive.

>
>The frequency or deriving pleasure really have little to do with the
>reason behind the act.
>
>You may dance with your sister inlaw to be nice, however it doesn't stop
>you from having a religious experience doing so.


Nonetheless, I'd say the pig's alleged 30 minute orgasm contradicts any idea
that it isn't having pleasure. Of course, pleasure is the only reason an animal
does much of anything, since animals are not known for their sense of duty.

Helge Moulding

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
Shawn Wilson wrote in message <7tbnnl$m02$1...@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net>...
>A daddy longlegs is NOT a spider. I don't think they're venomous either.

This reappears every few months. DLs are spiders, or not, depending
on which critter you call a DL. Around here, in Utah, the DL is a
spider. Eight legs and all. The venom story is also false. A search
on medline for spider venom turns up a bunch of species, but none of
the species that are commonly known as DLs.
--
Helge Moulding
mailto:hmou...@excite.com Just another guy
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1401 with a weird name


Bob Ward

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to

Randy Poe <q...@dgsys.com> wrote in message
news:37F9F146...@dgsys.com...

>
> > 30. Stewardesses is the longest word
> > typed with only the left hand.
>
> Why is this incredible?
>

That depends entirely on what the right hand is doing.

Arthur Wohlwill

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
In article <GGfK3.16341$9f.2...@news1.rdc1.ab.home.com> "Dan Hanson" <danh...@home.com> writes:
>From: "Dan Hanson" <danh...@home.com>
>Subject: Re: (yet another) List of incredibles!
>Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 05:05:42 GMT

>> 8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that

>> have sex for pleasure.

>Not true. Monkeys masturbate, as do whales and many other animals.
>Generally, the higher the order of animal, the more 'pleasure' becomes a
>motivation for sex.

How, exactly, do whales do that?

Arthur Wohlwill adwo...@UIC.EDU


Deborah

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
>>Not true. Monkeys masturbate, as do whales and many other animals.
>>Generally, the higher the order of animal, the more 'pleasure' becomes a
>>motivation for sex.
>
>How, exactly, do whales do that?
>

Um, could you guys take this one to email? We discourage the posting of
binaries in this group.

*snort*

Bests regards from Deborah

FAQ file: http://members.aol.com/SJF1959/index.html
Found in the in-box: http://in.box.listbot.com


John Price

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 02:55:29 GMT, pci...@otherworld.std.com (Paul
Ciszek) wrote:

>>35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
>>over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
>>English language.
>

>This is trivially easy to verify. Now, can you come up with a shorter one?

"Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz" is supposed to be the shortest
one; at least, it's the shortest one I've seen.

John
star...@idt.net

Matt Ackeret

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
In article <37F9F146...@dgsys.com>, Randy Poe <q...@dgsys.com> wrote:
>Wow, what a list! Random comments below on one or two, not
>necessarily bunking or debunking.
>
>JmG wrote:
>>
>> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...
>>
>> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
>> 7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
>> to carrots.
>
>Also did every other voice on the Warner Brothers
>cartoons. Amazing talent.

No he didn't. June Foray did, at the very least, the voice of Granny, who
was Tweety Bird's owner.

And picking one of the returns from www.imdb.com after searching for Bugs
Bunny in the title:

"Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" (1942)
has Sara Berner and Kent Rogers listed as voices along with Mel Blanc.

I'm not trying to lessen the importance of Mel Blanc's contribution, he
certainly did VERY VERY many voices, just not all of them.

(I sure wish I had saved the picture that ran upon his death, with the Warner
Brothers characters standing together away from the microphone.)
--
mat...@area.com

RM Mentock

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
Francis Lapeyre wrote:

>
> On Mon, 04 Oct 1999 22:35:20 -0400, RM Mentock
> <men...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> >> 35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
> >> over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
> >> English language.
> >
> >Hey, I think we can all agree that this one is bullshit.
>
> Actually, it does. Look at it again.

OK, so *one* person disagrees.

--
D.

Jim Shaffer, Jr.

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net> wrote:

>26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
>not white, but actually clear.

True. It's hollow also, and occasionally a captive polar bear in a warm climate
will turn green from algae growing inside the hair.

>33. If you keep a Goldfish in the dark
>room, it will eventually turn white.

I can believe that one. Cave fish are generally white.

>43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

The story I've always heard, as a Teslaphile, says that the concept (I don't
know about the actual device used) was invented by Thomas Edison to scare people
away from alternating current.

--
Williamsport Area Computer Club <http://www.sunlink.net/wacc>
Susquehanna Valley Amateur Astronomers <http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2999/svaa.html>
Personal Home Page <http://woodstock.csrlink.net/~jshaffer>

Jim Shaffer, Jr.

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 12:44:33 -0600, "Helge Moulding" <hmou...@excite.com>
wrote:

>Shawn Wilson wrote in message <7tbnnl$m02$1...@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net>...
>>A daddy longlegs is NOT a spider. I don't think they're venomous either.
>
>This reappears every few months. DLs are spiders, or not, depending
>on which critter you call a DL. Around here, in Utah, the DL is a
>spider. Eight legs and all. The venom story is also false. A search
>on medline for spider venom turns up a bunch of species, but none of
>the species that are commonly known as DLs.

But would they be listed in a human medical reference if they were incapable of
biting humans? Surely they use venom to kill their prey.

Jim Shaffer, Jr.

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 02:55:29 GMT, pci...@otherworld.std.com (Paul Ciszek) wrote:

>>35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
>>over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
>>English language.
>

>This is trivially easy to verify. Now, can you come up with a shorter one?

"Quartz glyph job vex'd qwm finks", according to Guinness. I've seen an even
more archaic, contrived, and nonsensical one involving a crwd, a qoph, and a
zimb, possibly on this newsgroup.

>>37. The word "lethologica" describes the state
>>of not being able to remember the word you want.
>
>"Aphasia", according to Cecil.

I've never heard "lethologica", but isn't aphasia a more generic term referring
to loss of thought?

RM Mentock

unread,
Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
Dutch Courage wrote:

> >> >Hey, I think we can all agree that this one is bullshit.
> >>
> >> Actually, it does. Look at it again.
> >
> >OK, so *one* person disagrees.
>

> I don't believe a word of it, myself.
>
> How do you stand it, RM?

Same way you do, I guess. No credit anywhere. I do note
that you're answering a mfsd mpsims question here in afca under
yet another list of incredibles. Pretty funny. I'm going
to answer it in mfsd, just to beef up the traffic, and claim
the title of content provider.

> Anyway, I understand GWS or SHC are caused by one or
> more relatively mundane things, any given case of which has either a normal
> explanation, or which is sketchy enough that no definitive answer can be made,
> although certainly the normal explanation is at least implied.. I gather the
> same is true of SIDS.

It's very possible, from my point of view. However, the incidence
of SIDS has only been cut in half. I'm not in a position to *admit*
that SIDS has a relatively mundane explanation, but it certainly
seems that half of the cases used to be. On the other hand, one
of the possible "mundane" explanations is murder, and that is
fraught with all sorts of baggage. It would be a very difficult
investigation, even in a research context, if it were ever implied
that in general SIDS might be murder victims--although some were.

What are the rates of infanticide? Are they comparable to SIDS rates?

--
D.

MFSD Content Provider

mlo...@lobo.civetsystems.com

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Oct 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/5/99
to
U55...@uic.edu (Arthur Wohlwill) writes:

> In article <GGfK3.16341$9f.2...@news1.rdc1.ab.home.com> "Dan Hanson" <danh...@home.com> writes:

> > Monkeys masturbate, as do whales and many other animals.
>

> How, exactly, do whales do that?

It involves a hanky the size of a tarpaulin and a waterproof copy of
"National Geographic".

M.


Matthew W. Miller

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Shawn Wilson wrote:
>> 46. You share your birthday with at least
>> 9 million other people in the world.
>6 billion / 365 = 16,438,356

and RM Mentock wrote:

>JmG wrote:
>> 46. You share your birthday with at least
>> 9 million other people in the world.

>Let's see, 6000 million times 1/(4*365+1)...

4106776

>nope. Apparently, leap year birthdays aren't
>so shared.

All right guys! Give your reasonings. I think the reason RM Mentock's
result is about one-quarter of Shawn Wilson's is that RM considers each
day within a four-year period as a separate birthday. Or maybe this is a
cutesy way for RM to say "My birthday is 28 February; oh no I *don't*
share my birthday with 9 million others."

--
Matthew W. Miller -- ma...@infinet.com
(Is RM a masculine name or feminine?)

Matthew W. Miller

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 19:37:03 -0500, Francis Lapeyre <flap...@meow.gs.verio.net> wrote:
>Mr. Jock, TV quiz Ph. D., bags few lynx.
>The above has all 26 letters of the alphabet, each used only once.
>Now, if you can come up with a version that uses no abbreviations, you
>could retire.

Do you really think Uncle Cecil should've retired after _More of the
Straight Dope_? He printed two examples, pp. 247-248 of that book:

"Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz."
(Carved figures in a mountain hollow and on the bank of a fjord vexed an
eccentric person.)

"Junky qoph-flags vext crwd zimb."
(Junky flags with a design resembling the Hebrew letter 'qoph' exasperated
an Ethiopian fly whose customary habit was an ancient Celtic stringed
instrument (crwd).)

Spellings are kind of cheated a bit, but there are no abbreviations or
suspensions.

Matthew W. Miller

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 05:05:42 GMT, Dan Hanson <danh...@home.com> wrote:
>> 14. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories
>> an hour.
>I'll let you know when I finish reading the list.

This *may* be true. Recall that the 'calories' usually used in exercise
context are different from the 'Calories' printed on food labels -- there
are one thousand calories in a Calorie. Yes, this is stupid. Yes,
devious food companies take advantage of the confusion all the time.
Anyway, I believe a can of Diet Pepsi contains about 1/3 Calorie, so about
300 calories. If this statement is true, then you can bang your head
against a wall for two hours and you'll have worked off a Diet Pepsi.
Somehow, it doesn't seem worth the headache to me.
Hey, at least they didn't drag out the non-echoing qualities of
duck quacks once again. Maybe, <deity> help us, people are learning.

Matthew W. Miller

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 15:43:52, Arthur Wohlwill <U55...@uic.edu> wrote:
>In article <GGfK3.16341$9f.2...@news1.rdc1.ab.home.com> "Dan Hanson" <danh...@home.com> writes:
>>> 8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
>>> have sex for pleasure.
>>Not true. Monkeys masturbate, as do whales and many other animals.
>>Generally, the higher the order of animal, the more 'pleasure' becomes a
>>motivation for sex.
>How, exactly, do whales do that?

Very, very carefully.

Dutch Courage

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
The alleged RM Mentock men...@mindspring.com writes:

>Francis Lapeyre, if that is his real name, wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, 04 Oct 1999 22:35:20 -0400, RM Mentock

>> <men...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>> >> 35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
>> >> over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
>> >> English language.
>> >

>> >Hey, I think we can all agree that this one is bullshit.
>>
>> Actually, it does. Look at it again.
>
>OK, so *one* person disagrees.

I don't believe a word of it, myself.

How do you stand it, RM? Anyway, I understand GWS or SHC are caused by one or


more relatively mundane things, any given case of which has either a normal
explanation, or which is sketchy enough that no definitive answer can be made,
although certainly the normal explanation is at least implied.. I gather the
same is true of SIDS.

"There is no land beyond the law, where tyrants rule with unshakable power.

D. P. Roberts

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
>> 16. In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state
>> lines with a duck on your head.
>
>One can't cross a state line while in Minnesota, can one?


Ooooooh! You've got a point there!


D. P. Roberts

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
>>> 35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
>>> over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
>>> English language.
>>
>>Hey, I think we can all agree that this one is bullshit.
>
>Actually, it does. Look at it again. Teletype operators and typewriter
>repairmen (I have been both) have been using this sentence for years
>for just that reason.

I was always under the impression that the past tense of "jump" was
used, making the sentence not have an "s" in it.


D. P. Roberts

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
>>Why don't they jive?
>
> To begin with, the word is jibe. It's just the ideas that are jive.

Do people drivel when they type dribble?


Terry Nielsen

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
D. P. Roberts wrote:

> I was always under the impression that the past tense of "jump" was
> used, making the sentence not have an "s" in it.

Solved quite easily in the version I have always known by having more
than one dog involved. Thus the speedy fox in question "jumped over the
lazy dogs".

Perry Farmer

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
-> >> 8. Humans and Dolphins are the only species that
-> >> have sex for pleasure.

-> >Not true. Monkeys masturbate, as do whales and many other animals.
-> >Generally, the higher the order of animal, the more 'pleasure' becom
-> >motivation for sex.

-> How, exactly, do whales do that?

-> Arthur Wohlwill adwo...@UIC.EDU

That is what they do while spy hopping.

Perry


Seanhoutma

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
>From: "Shawn Wilson" shawn....@worldnet.att.net

>
>JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net> wrote in message
>news:Qk=5N916i2d1sUfPMTREuD=Wo=z...@4ax.com...


>> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or
>agreeing...
>>
>>
>> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
>>

>> 1. The venom in a Daddy Long-Legs spider is more
>> poisonous than a Black Widow's or a Brown Recluse,
>> but they cannot bite humans because their jaws
>> won't open wide enough.


>
>
>A daddy longlegs is NOT a spider. I don't think they're venomous either.
>
>

The Daddy Longlegs Spider is really a spider. Don't confuse it with the other
creature called a Daddy Longlegs or Harvester, which is not a spider, and is
not venomous.

I have heard that the Daddy Longlegs Spider's venom is the most powerful known,
the reason that we don't need to worry about it is that it's fangs are too
short and weak to penetrate human skin. Spiders don't have jaws, the poison
that they all use comes from their fangs.

Sean


Seanhoutma

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
>From: Randy Poe q...@dgsys.com
>

>>
>> 39. If the population of China walked past you
>> in single file, the line would never end because
>> of the rate of reproduction.
>
>An oldy called "The Marching Chinese." Mentioned in
>a cute sci-fi story called "The Marching Chinese"
>(by Kornbluth?) in which the world has basically been
>taken over by idiots who overbred, while the geniuses
>under-reproduced.
>

"The Marching Morons" by C. M. Kornbluth. Twas made into a movie, it was. There
was another one too, set in the same world. "The Black Bag" about a doctors
black bag.

Sean

Dan Hanson

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
They'll rub on each other. Killer whales in tanks will use whatever objects
are available. So will dolphins.

Here's a funny story for you. I worked in the dolphin center at West
Edmonton Mall. One of the employees there had just come from the Vancouver
aquarium. It seems that a couple of the trainers came up with a great gag
to pull on boss - they trained a dolphin to get an erection on command, then
grab a ring with his penis and do a tail-stand with the ring hanging from
it. The problem was that the dolphin liked it so much that he started doing
in public shows without being commanded, and they had to pull him from the
show and train out the behaviour.

Disclaimer: I never saw the act in question, so it's possible that it's
just a story. But I believed him.

Mark Brader

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
> > 26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
> > not white, but actually clear.
>
> I believe the skin color factoid is true.

The hairs may be clear, but the fur is white, or beige -- just
look at it. It's like the way white snow is made up of clear ice
crystals -- lots of surfaces to scatter the light.

> > 36. The name of all the continents end with
> > the same letter that they start with.
>
> North America?

In some countries the Americas are considered a single continent.


> > 45. The longest town name in the world has
> > 167 letters.
>
> That would be that Welsh town whose name looks like 167
> W's in a row. Maybe 2 or 3 random L's here and there.

If you mean Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch,
no, obviously that wouldn't be it. By the way, earlier this year the URL
<http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch.co.uk>
was valid, but it seems to have gone away now.

It's not Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch, but
the claim is true according to the Guinness Book of World Records (1998
edition). The actual place is Krungthep Mahanakhon Bovorn Ratanakosin
Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokpop Noparatratchathani Burirom Udomratchanivet
Mahasathan Amornpiman Avatarnsathit Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit -- more
often contracted to the first word or two, and better known to most of
us as Bangkok, Thailand. They add that in scholarly transliteration the
long name becomes 175 letters.

(I recall seeing a claim on the Net long ago to the effect that Bangkok
and Krungthep were not actually exactly the same place.)


> > 46. You share your birthday with at least
> > 9 million other people in the world.

As noted, this is wrong if "you" were born on February 29.

> 6 billion/365 = 16 million. Why such an underestimate? Are
> there big variations in the distribution of birthdates?

The obvious reason would be that this factoid has been circulating
since the time when the world's population was about 9/16 of what
it is now. Offhand, I think that'd be about 30-35 years.
--
Mark Brader \ "Warning! Drinking beer, wine or spirits during
Toronto \ pregnancy can harm your baby." (City of Toronto
msbr...@interlog.com \ notice in restaurant washrooms--men's and women's)

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Mark Brader

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
>> 11. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls
>> froze completely solid.
>
> Yes, and it caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards
> for ten months.

Heh.

While this item is bogus, Niagara Falls actually did stop flowing
for about 24 hours on March 28-29, 1848. Not because the falls
froze solid, but because a wind-driven ice jam blocked the river
at its source. Fortunately, this was before the days when the
water was used for hydroelectricity!

More commonly, ice jams form downstream of the falls, and the river
flows under them. In cold winters they can become rigid enough that
the term "ice bridge" is used. I don't imagine the public is permitted
to do so these days, but at one time it used to be common for people
to go out onto the river when such conditions occurred. In 1899 an
ice bridge persisted for months; in 1938 one of them built up to such
a height that a road bridge over the gorge was knocked off its footings
and collapsed. (That was the Honeymoon Bridge; it was replaced by the
present Rainbow Bridge, on the same site.)

Source: "Niagara: A History of the Falls" by Pierre Berton (1992,
McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 0-7710-1221-7).
--
Mark Brader, Toronto \ "*Nature*, Mr. Allnutt, is what we are put in this
msbr...@interlog.com \ world *to rise above*." -- The African Queen

Mark Brader

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
> 13. It's impossible to get water out of a rimless tire.

Use suction.

> 25. The shortest war in history was between
> Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar
> surrendered after 38 minutes.

True according to Guinness.


> 31. Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump."

Well, the oldest citations for these words in the OED1 are from
Shakespeare. This is not exactly the same as saying that he
"invented" them.


> 48. The longest word in the English language
> is 1909 letters long and it refers to a distinct
> part of DNA.

For details on the rec.puzzles archive, email the words "send index" to
archive...@questrel.com . Here is the archive's entry on this topic:


| ==> language/english/spelling/longest.p <==
| What is the longest word in the English language?
|
| ==> language/english/spelling/longest.s <==
| But then one day I learned a word
| that saved me achin' nose,
| the biggest word you ever 'eard,
| and this is 'ow it goes:
| - "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from
| Walt Disney's film _Mary Poppins_
|
| Some odd properties of words are so obvious that they inevitably will
| be abused. No property has been abused more than word length; every
| child wants to know what the longest word is. The temptation to coin a
| new record holder has proven irresistable. Few of these coined words
| make their way into dictionaries, but some do, and every few
| generations the canonical longest "word" changes.
|
| In ancient Greece, Aristophanes was fond of concocting long words to
| amuse his audiences. His longest comes from the play _Ecclesiazusae_
| and basically means "hash":
|
| lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleiosanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelito
| katakechymenokichlepikossyphopattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopel
| eiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon.
|
| In Shakespeare's school days he learned the longest Latin word, which
| the clown Costard pontificates in _Love's Labor's Lost_:
|
| honorificabilitudinitatibus.
|
| In Sir Walter Scott's youth he learned the longest word and repeated it
| to his diary (though he mangled it a bit by replacing the first n with
| a p):
|
| floccinaucinihilipilification.
|
| In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, students learned that
| the longest word was:
|
| antidisestablishmentarianism.
|
| And so on.
|
| Suppose we ignore these coined examples. Then what is the longest
| word? As technical knowledge accumulates, ever more complicated
| experimental apparatus, chemical compounds, medical conditions, etc.
| are invented or discovered. These need to be named, and these names
| tend to be quite long. Words like:
|
| anhydrohydroxyprogesterone,
| dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane,
| electroencephalographically,
| ethylenediaminetetraacetate,
| hydroxydesoxycorticosterone,
| octamethylpyrophosphoramide,
|
| and
|
| trinitrophenylmethylnitramine
|
| come into use. The longest medical-sounding word in the major
| dictionaries is the 45-letter name of a supposed lung disease:
|
| pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
|
| However, it turns out that this word is a hoax perpetrated by the
| members of the National Puzzlers' League, the country's oldest wordplay
| association. The word is unknown to medical science. The League
| President (Everett M. Smith) coined the word at the 103rd meeting of
| the League, held on February 22, 1935 in New York City. It was picked
| up by a newspaper reporter for the Herald Tribune and printed the next
| day in the headline of an article on the League meeting. Frank Scully,
| author of a series of puzzle books and later one of the early UFO
| enthusiasts, read the newspaper article and repeated the word in
| "Bedside Manna; The Third Fun in Bed Book," (Simon and Schuster, 1936,
| p. 87). On the strength of this citation, League members (with a wink
| from the editors?) got the word into both the OED Supplement and
| Webster's Third. There it remains even to this day.
|
| Suppose we ignore these technical terms. Then what is the longest
| word? Dictionaries contain many long words such as:
|
| countercountermeasures
| deinstitutionalization
| intercomprehensibility
| interdenominationalism
| overintellectualization
| postimpressionistically
| semimicrodetermination
| transubstantiationalist.
|
| However, in order to save space, dictionaries do not explicitly list
| all such words, which are called "closed compounds." In the
| explanatory sections of most dictionaries, the editors explicitly state
| that since the meanings of these words can be deduced from their
| component parts, the space they would consume can be put to better
| use. So, for example, many verbs can have "re-" added to them to form
| other verbs, and many nouns, adjectives and adverbs can likewise be
| modified by the application of prefixes and suffixes. If these
| prefixes or suffixes can be added once, why can't they be added again?
| "countercountermeasures" is a word; is "countercountercountermeasures"
| one too?
|
| And so on.
|
| Suppose we strip off the prefixes and suffixes. Then what is the
| longest word? The problem now is that it's not easy to say what is a
| prefix or a suffix, because most words were formed sometime in history
| by compounding shorter words. For example, in the word "alphabet," is
| "alpha" a prefix?
|
| So the only reasonable conclusion is that there is no longest word.
| Mathematicians have known for millennia that there is no largest
| number. They have adjusted to the disappointment. I suppose we can
| too. But if a small child (or newspaper reporter) pleads with you to
| please, please, tell what the longest word is, perhaps a 45-letter lung
| disease will be good enough for a few generations.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "...everything else in [the] list is wrong;
msbr...@interlog.com | why should [this] be correct?" -- Rob Novak

Mark Brader

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
> > 25. The shortest war in history was between
> > Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar
> > surrendered after 38 minutes.
>
> True according to Guinness.

I should have added that this is not in my newest Guinness, the 1998;
I confirmed it in the 1992 edition.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "To great evils we submit; we resent
msbr...@interlog.com little provocations." -- W. Hazlitt, 1822

Lisa

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net> wrote:

>Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...
>
>
>Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)

>43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

Actually, it was invented by Thomas Edison. He wanted to discredit
Nicola Tesla's wacky new invention of alternating current (AC). He
was very into direct current himself. So he built the electric chair
and got Sing Sing prison to kill some Death Row prisoners with it,
coining the word "electrocution" in the process (a cross between
"electric" and "execution"). The message being, "This could happen to
you if you use AC."

Had it been up to Edison, we'd all still be running off of batteries.

Lisa

Mark Brader

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
> Had it been up to Edison, we'd all still be running off of batteries.

Or rather, off separate little power stations in each neighborhood, so
that voltage drop over long transmission lines wouldn't be an issue.
--
Mark Brader The last 10% of the performance sought contributes
Toronto one-third of the cost and two-thirds of the problems.
msbr...@interlog.com -- Norm Augustine

David Samuel Barr

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Matt Ackeret wrote:
>
> In article <37F9F146...@dgsys.com>, Randy Poe <q...@dgsys.com>
> wrote:
> >Wow, what a list! Random comments below on one or two, not
> >necessarily bunking or debunking.

> >
> >JmG wrote:
> >>
> >> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or
> >> agreeing...
> >>
> >> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
> >> 7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
> >> to carrots.
> >
> >Also did every other voice on the Warner Brothers
> >cartoons. Amazing talent.
>
> No he didn't. June Foray did, at the very least, the voice of Granny,
> who was Tweety Bird's owner.
>
> And picking one of the returns from www.imdb.com after searching for
> Bugs Bunny in the title:
>
> "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" (1942)
> has Sara Berner and Kent Rogers listed as voices along with Mel Blanc.
>
> I'm not trying to lessen the importance of Mel Blanc's contribution,
> he certainly did VERY VERY many voices, just not all of them.

The myth of his doing them all was a result of being the only voice
actor who successfully fought for and got screen credit. There were a
lot of voice actors, including those mentioned above, who did the WB
cartoons along with (or instead of) Blanc.

> (I sure wish I had saved the picture that ran upon his death, with the
> Warner Brothers characters standing together away from the
> microphone.)

"Speechless". This ran as the centre spread in most of the
entertainment trade magazines after Blanc's death; notably, the
ubiquitous WB copyright notice did not appear on it, probably the first
and only time that ever occurred. Most people who had the opportunity
pried up the magazine staples and carefully removed the insert. Those
who missed out flooded WB with requests for reprints, as a result of
which WBCP produced a lithograph which is available through the Warner
Bros. Studio Store (but with the copyright notice). You can see it at:
http://www.wbstore.com/store/wbss.product.large.asp?sku=9269&pfid=140572&mscssid=CAN3MX4HFTSH2KR200A3HFGGM3FX3B99
(If you can't get that into your browser, just go to
http://www.wbstore.com/store/wbss.asp and use the search feature to
find "Speechless" [without quotation marks] in the Looney Tunes
gallery.)

Perry Farmer

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
-> On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net> wrote:

-> >Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agr
-> >
-> >
-> >Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)

-> >43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

-> Actually, it was invented by Thomas Edison. He wanted to discredit
-> Nicola Tesla's wacky new invention of alternating current (AC). He
-> was very into direct current himself. So he built the electric chair
-> and got Sing Sing prison to kill some Death Row prisoners with it,
-> coining the word "electrocution" in the process (a cross between
-> "electric" and "execution"). The message being, "This could happen to
-> you if you use AC."

-> Had it been up to Edison, we'd all still be running off of batteries.

-> Lisa

Or course his biggest fight came when Westinghouse purchased the patent
rights and demonstrated an alternating current system at the Chicago
World's Fair.

Perry

Carl Fink

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
On 06 Oct 1999 01:22:20 GMT Matthew W. Miller <ma...@infinet.com> wrote:
>
>and RM Mentock wrote:
>
>>JmG wrote:
>>> 46. You share your birthday with at least
>>> 9 million other people in the world.
>>Let's see, 6000 million times 1/(4*365+1)...
>
>4106776
>
>>nope. Apparently, leap year birthdays aren't
>>so shared.
>
>All right guys! Give your reasonings. I think the reason RM Mentock's
>result is about one-quarter of Shawn Wilson's is that RM considers each
>day within a four-year period as a separate birthday. Or maybe this is a
>cutesy way for RM to say "My birthday is 28 February; oh no I *don't*
>share my birthday with 9 million others."

You didn't see the words "leap year"? Someone born on February *29*,
1996 only has a birthday every fourth year.

(Yes, I know, actually it's a bit less because of the century exception.
Don't make a big deal out of it.)
--
Carl Fink ca...@dm.net
"This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy."
-Martin Luther on Copernicus' theory that the Earth orbits the sun

Carl Fink

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
On 5 Oct 1999 21:47:10 -0500 Jim Shaffer, Jr. <jsha...@mail.csrlink.net> wrote:
>>
>>"Aphasia", according to Cecil.
>
>I've never heard "lethologica", but isn't aphasia a more generic term referring
>to loss of thought?

In neurology "aphasia" means the loss of language ability of some
kind due to brain damage (as opposed to, for instance, loss of speech
because of damage to the throat).

Amy Elizabeth Gleason

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to

Jeff Lanam wrote:

> Searching the Indiana Law at http://www.law.indiana.edu/codes/in/incode.html
> turns up no mention of the word "garlic". That doesn't mean some
> city or town hasn't forbidden it. I'd hardly call the idea that
> local statutes have silly laws "incredible", though.

Well, if we take the traditional meaning of "incredible" as in "in" =
not "credible" = believeable, I would say this is an accurate title...

l&k,
Amy

ra...@westnet.poe.com

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Francis Lapeyre <flap...@meow.gs.verio.net> wrote:
>>> 35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
>>> over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
>>> English language.
>>Hey, I think we can all agree that this one is bullshit.

> Actually, it does. Look at it again. Teletype operators and typewriter
> repairmen (I have been both) have been using this sentence for years
> for just that reason.

Nope, it left out all the Caps.

> And, so does the following (albeit contrived) sentence:

> Mr. Jock, TV quiz Ph. D., bags few lynx.

Not a single capital A in the whole thing.

:)

John
--
Remove the dead poet to e-mail, tho CC'd posts are unwelcome.
Ask me about joining the NRA.

RM Mentock

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Mark Brader wrote:
>
> > Had it been up to Edison, we'd all still be running off of batteries.
>
> Or rather, off separate little power stations in each neighborhood, so
> that voltage drop over long transmission lines wouldn't be an issue.

And your point is that this may be what we're coming to now, right?

I read a blurb about this, that one of the leaders in these programs
is McDonalds. When the city power grid goes off, they want to be
that bright warm golden glowing arches beacon off in the distant dark.
The vision strikes me as apocalyptic.

Helge Moulding

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Jim Shaffer, Jr. wrote in message ...
>On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 12:44:33 -0600, "Helge Moulding" <hmou...@excite.com>
wrote:
>>Shawn Wilson wrote in message <7tbnnl$m02$1...@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net>...

>>>A daddy longlegs is NOT a spider. I don't think they're venomous either.
>>[...] A search
>>on medline for spider venom turns up a bunch of species, but none of
>>the species that are commonly known as DLs.
>But would they be listed in a human medical reference if they were
incapable of
>biting humans? Surely they use venom to kill their prey.

Surely they do. Toxicology claims, however, should be based on toxicology
studies, which I would expect to find listed in medline.

Back in college I attended a guest lecture on "folk biology," where the
professor pointed out that the critter known locally as a DL had plenty
long enough fangs. The notion of "jaws" that don't "open wide enough"
just shows that whoever wrote that didn't really know how a spider's
fangs look or work.
--
Helge "Attercop!" Moulding
mailto:hmou...@excite.com Just another guy
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1401 with a weird name


Dana Carpender

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to

RM Mentock wrote:

Anyone know why home cogeneration has never caught on? Certainly in my life
my furnace has gone off fewer times than my electric service has gone out.
Heard oh, 7-8 years ago that small cogeneration units were hitting the
market; anyone know anything about this?
--
Dana W. Carpender
Author, _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_
Hold the Toast Press
http://www.holdthetoast.com

Helge Moulding

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Mark Brader wrote in message <7tesfn$t...@shell1.interlog.com>...

>> > 26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
>> > not white, but actually clear.
>> I believe the skin color factoid is true.
>The hairs may be clear, but the fur is white, or beige -- just
>look at it. It's like the way white snow is made up of clear ice
>crystals -- lots of surfaces to scatter the light.

Polar bear skin isn't black. Polar bears appear black in UV. How this
observation became the popular myth that the skin is black, I won't
attempt to guess, except that reading comprehension might not be a
requirement among science reporters.

The fur isn't clear, either. It was initially suggested that the UV
absorption might be explained by fur that acted like optical fibers,
but that also didn't pan out. Keratin is simply very UV absorbent,
and polar bear fur probably has a particularly absorbant kind of
keratin.
--
Helge "A bear of a myth." Moulding

Helge Moulding

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Lisa wrote in message <37fb013b...@news.netvision.net.il>...

>Nicola Tesla's wacky new invention of alternating current (AC).

Tesla does get credit for discovering AC current, but
Westinghouse is the guy who hired him and put him to work on
something useful.

Edison even tried to make the word "westinghouse" as synonymous
to "electrocution." "The condemned criminal was westinghoused
early this morning at 12:05 am. Witnesses described several
seconds of jerks and contortions of the restrained body,
attesting to the horrible pain that westinghousing always causes."
--
Helge Moulding

ra...@westnet.poe.com

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Dana Carpender <dcar...@kiva.net> wrote:
> Anyone know why home cogeneration has never caught on? Certainly in my life
> my furnace has gone off fewer times than my electric service has gone out.
> Heard oh, 7-8 years ago that small cogeneration units were hitting the
> market; anyone know anything about this?

Untill not too long ago, the reverse was true: home equipment was far more
failure prone and the electric company was very good at providing
uniterupted power. The fact that this has been reversing itself is just
one more thing driving the trend. Also, for a small plant, you will find
that the efficiency is lower then for a large plant; scaling effects.
And, a more complicated integrated system will fail more often despite
being made with the same quality.

RM Mentock

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Carl Fink wrote:
>
> On 06 Oct 1999 01:22:20 GMT Matthew W. Miller <ma...@infinet.com> wrote:

> >All right guys! Give your reasonings. I think the reason RM Mentock's
> >result is about one-quarter of Shawn Wilson's is that RM considers each
> >day within a four-year period as a separate birthday. Or maybe this is a
> >cutesy way for RM to say "My birthday is 28 February; oh no I *don't*
> >share my birthday with 9 million others."
>
> You didn't see the words "leap year"? Someone born on February *29*,
> 1996 only has a birthday every fourth year.

Thanks for picking this one up for me, Carl. I didn't see it on
my news feed <--bang--bang--what the hell's wrong with this thing?>

You're right, I was doing the swag calculation for Feb. 29 birthdays.
Those folks do have a birthday every year, in that they grow a year
older, but they probably celebrate it with March 1 (why not? you
know I've never known anyone with a Feb. 29 birthday. What are the
odds? Do you think hospitals just mark Mar. 1 on the birth certificate,
and the parents just play along? Kinda like no "13th" floor?)

--
D.

RM is for Richard Micheal

Mark Brader

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
> > > Had it been up to Edison, we'd all still be running off of batteries.
> >
> > Or rather, off separate little power stations in each neighborhood, so
> > that voltage drop over long transmission lines wouldn't be an issue.
>
> And your point is that this may be what we're coming to now, right?

No, my point is that Edison didn't envision us "running off of batteries".
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "Truth speak from any chair."
msbr...@interlog.com -- Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum

Perry Farmer

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
-> RM Mentock wrote:

-> > Mark Brader wrote:
-> > >
-> > > > Had it been up to Edison, we'd all still be running off of batt
-> > >
-> > > Or rather, off separate little power stations in each neighborhoo
-> > > that voltage drop over long transmission lines wouldn't be an issue.
-> >
-> > And your point is that this may be what we're coming to now, right?
-> >
-> > I read a blurb about this, that one of the leaders in these programs
-> > is McDonalds. When the city power grid goes off, they want to be
-> > that bright warm golden glowing arches beacon off in the distant dark.
-> > The vision strikes me as apocalyptic.

-> Anyone know why home cogeneration has never caught on? Certainly in
-> my furnace has gone off fewer times than my electric service has gone
-> Heard oh, 7-8 years ago that small cogeneration units were hitting the
-> market; anyone know anything about this?
-> --
-> Dana W. Carpender

Simply the economics of scale prevents them at the current time. Except
in isolated areas, home cogen units make little sense from an economic
viewpoint.

Take a newer power plant of around 1000 mw costing about 1 billion.
Sounds like a lot of money, but how much would your share of that cost
you using current technology for home units.

I believe Italy does have some small units in apartment houses where it
is used for heating water using the exhaust and engine cooling cycles
while generating electricity during peak. But once the base loading
exceeds that of a new plant, it usually makes sense to build the plant.

Perry

deepstblu

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
In article <7tfv7r$l91$1...@mail.pl.unisys.com>, "Helge Moulding"

<hmou...@excite.com> wrote:
> Lisa wrote in message <37fb013b...@news.netvision.net.il>...
> >Nicola Tesla's wacky new invention of alternating current (AC).
> Tesla does get credit for discovering AC current, but
> Westinghouse is the guy who hired him and put him to work on
> something useful.
Here's an incredible for you: Remarq turns that mention of Westinghouse
into a link to a UK White-Westinghouse appliance
distributor's page. Here we were talking about Tesla and executions,
but what we really wanted was an RSW26 American Style Large
Fridge-Freezer!

> Edison even tried to make the word "westinghouse" as synonymous
> to "electrocution."
Lower case doen't seem to trip it. Let's see what bait it takes:
Sony Corvette Yellow Cab Microsoft Woolworth Rolls-Royce Sub Pop
Hershey Nabisco Marlboro Ralph Lauren UPS Texaco Disney NBC
Burger King Newsweek Kennedy Studebaker Packard Hewlett Olds
Harvard Giant Imperial Acme Apex Western Smith Jones Brown Green

Rick "play with your net" B.


* Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet's Discussion Network *
The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet - Free!


Perry Farmer

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Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
-> Lisa wrote in message <37fb013b...@news.netvision.net.il>...
-> >Nicola Tesla's wacky new invention of alternating current (AC).

-> Tesla does get credit for discovering AC current, but
-> Westinghouse is the guy who hired him and put him to work on
-> something useful.

After doing some research on this, I am not sure that Tesla really
discovered alternating current, however did formulate the idea of the
rotating field, which is very important in large industrial uses when it
comes to generation, namely the brushless exciters.

In industrial size generators, the field is induced from the rotating
element, not the stationary one. The importance of this comes into play
in the form of avoiding the use of brushes on the load side of the
generator.

Westinghouse purchase the patents from Tesla and put this and other
concepts to work in the form of workable distribution systems.

-> Edison even tried to make the word "westinghouse" as synonymous
-> to "electrocution." "The condemned criminal was westinghoused
-> early this morning at 12:05 am. Witnesses described several
-> seconds of jerks and contortions of the restrained body,
-> attesting to the horrible pain that westinghousing always causes."

But wasn't D.C. used in these cases?

Perry

deepstblu

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Jim Shaffer, Jr. wrote:

>
> On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 02:55:29 GMT, pci...@otherworld.std.com (Paul Ciszek) wrote:
>
> >>35. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps
> >>over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the
> >>English language.
> >
> >This is trivially easy to verify. Now, can you come up with a shorter one?
>
> "Quartz glyph job vex'd qwm finks", according to Guinness. I've seen an even
> more archaic, contrived, and nonsensical one involving a crwd, a qoph, and a
> zimb, possibly on this newsgroup.
"Junky qoph-flags vext crwd zimb." Cece trotted that out at one point.
A cousin of the first one is "Cwm fjord-glyphs vext quiz."
Before people started pushing the limits, the old Guinness listing was
"Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz." (Those jackdaws!)

Rick B.

deepstblu

unread,
Oct 6, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/6/99
to
Matt Ackeret wrote:
>
> In article <37F9F146...@dgsys.com>, Randy Poe <q...@dgsys.com> wrote:
> >Wow, what a list! Random comments below on one or two, not
> >necessarily bunking or debunking.
> >
> >JmG wrote:
> >>
> >> Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...

> >>
> >> Things you didn't need to know...(or did you?)
> >> 7. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic
> >> to carrots.
> >
> >Also did every other voice on the Warner Brothers
> >cartoons. Amazing talent.
>
> No he didn't. June Foray did, at the very least, the voice of Granny, who
> was Tweety Bird's owner.

Arthur Q. Bryan did Elmer Fudd for most of Elmer's career.

Rick B.

"Wound here we stay up vewwy vewwy, vewwy vewwy wate..."
--Elmer sings Counting Crows

Rilchiam

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Oct 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/7/99
to
> How do you stand it, RM? Anyway, I understand GWS or SHC are caused by one
>or
>more relatively mundane things, any given case of which has either a normal
>explanation, or which is sketchy enough that no definitive answer can be
>made,
>although certainly the normal explanation is at least implied.. I gather the
>same is true of SIDS.
>
>

I know what SIDS and SHC are, but what's GWS?
(Didn't see the original post.)

Remember, I'm pulling for you; we're all in this together. ---Red Green


deepstblu

unread,
Oct 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/7/99
to
In article <9392...@thefarm.wa.com>, perry....@thefarm.wa.com

(Perry Farmer) wrote:
> -> Lisa wrote in message
> <37fb013b...@news.netvision.net.il>...

> -> Edison even tried to make the word "westinghouse" as synonymous


> -> to "electrocution." "The condemned criminal was westinghoused
> -> early this morning at 12:05 am. Witnesses described several
> -> seconds of jerks and contortions of the restrained body,
> -> attesting to the horrible pain that westinghousing always
> causes."
> But wasn't D.C. used in these cases?
> Perry

No. Edison set up the first electric chair to use AC--going so far as to
have subordinates use assumed names to buy Westinghouse
equipment (they wouldn't sell directly to him). The idea was to show
how incredibly lethal AC was: it turned out to be not quite what Edison
had hoped. The executioners had to zap their first customer until an
electrode attached to his leg began to smoke. Westinghouse's droll
comment on the affair: "I could have done better with an axe."

See Richard Zacks' An Underground Education for more particulars.

Rick "you shocked me all night long" B.

Matt Ackeret

unread,
Oct 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/7/99
to
In article <37fb013b...@news.netvision.net.il>,
Lisa <lisaNOb...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>Had it been up to Edison, we'd all still be running off of batteries.

But we'd likely have very GOOD batteries, and have had good electric cars
by now.
--
mat...@area.com

Pentalarc #1 @503

unread,
Oct 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/7/99
to
RE: Re: (yet another) List of incredibles!
BY: RM Mentock <men...@mindspring.com>

ŻThose folks do have a birthday every year, in that they grow a year
Żolder, but they probably celebrate it with March 1 (why not? you
Żknow I've never known anyone with a Feb. 29 birthday. What are the
Żodds? Do you think hospitals just mark Mar. 1 on the birth certificate,
Żand the parents just play along? Kinda like no "13th" floor?)

The odds:

1 in 1461 (approximately, actually slightly rarer, maybe by about .005 or so.)

And no, they would never just put Mar. 1 on the birth certificate, because it
would mess up the billing.

Pentalarc
A Crowd Of People Stood And Stared / They'd Seen His Face Before / Nobody Was
Really Sure If He Was From The House Of Lords

Origin: Nuclear Wasteland * 504-394-0509

Bill Baldwin

unread,
Oct 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/7/99
to
StarChaser wrote:
>The electric chair was invented by Edison to demonstrate how dangerous
>competitor Westinghouse's alternating current was, as compared to his
>direct current.

Several others have said this, and I don't doubt it. But ... what's so
difficult about electrocuting someone with DC?

StarChaser <Anti spam feature in address.>

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:08:43 GMT, JmG <jmg...@bestweb.net> wrote:

>Here's another list of incredibility that begs some debunking or agreeing...

>13. It's impossible to get water out of a rimless
>tire.

Inflate tire. Puncture tire at bottom. Patch hole after water escapes.

>43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

The electric chair was invented by Edison to demonstrate how dangerous
competitor Westinghouse's alternating current was, as compared to his
direct current.

>47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
>in the English language.

'Who said that?' "Me." <or "I."> Either way, wrong.

--

Visit the Furry Artist InFURmation Page! Contact information,
and information on which artists do and do not want their
work posted!
http://home.icubed.net/starchsr/table.htm

Address munged for the inconvienence of spammers:
My address is starchsr <at> icubed dot net

StarChaser <Anti spam feature in address.>

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Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
On Tue, 05 Oct 1999 08:38:30 -0400, Randy Poe <q...@dgsys.com> wrote:

>
>> 3. On average, people fear spiders more than they
>> do death.
>
>Hmmm. Here's a spider. Here's a loaded gun pointed
>at your head. Choose.

Throw spider at mook with gun, hope it's violently poisonous, or that
the other guy is as scared of spiders...<grin>

>> 26. A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is
>> not white, but actually clear.
>
>I believe the skin color factoid is true.

Same with bluejays, their feathers are transparent except for the
brown-pigmented stripes, the color comes from the same effect that
causes a blue sky.
>> 38. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be
>> made using the letters on only one row of the
>> keyboard.
>
>Again, if this is considered incredible you're kind of
>scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Especially since it was done like that on purpose, at the request of
typewriter salesmen so they could quickly type the word to impress
customers...

>> 45. The longest town name in the world has
>> 167 letters.
>
>That would be that Welsh town whose name looks like 167
>W's in a row. Maybe 2 or 3 random L's here and there.

Welsh is the only language in the world with a 250 letter alphabet,
and all but three of them are silent. And THOSE are C, R, and W.

StarChaser <Anti spam feature in address.>

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Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
On 6 Oct 1999 03:07:35 -0400, msbr...@interlog.com (Mark Brader)
wrote:

> The actual place is Krungthep Mahanakhon Bovorn Ratanakosin
>Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokpop Noparatratchathani Burirom Udomratchanivet
>Mahasathan Amornpiman Avatarnsathit Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit -- more
>often contracted to the first word or two, and better known to most of
>us as Bangkok, Thailand. They add that in scholarly transliteration the
>long name becomes 175 letters.

So what does it mean?

Perry Farmer

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
-> StarChaser wrote:
-> >The electric chair was invented by Edison to demonstrate how dangerous
-> >competitor Westinghouse's alternating current was, as compared to his
-> >direct current.

-> Several others have said this, and I don't doubt it. But ... what's so
-> difficult about electrocuting someone with DC?

Goes in one ear and out the other.

Perry

Helge Moulding

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
Bill Baldwin wrote in message <7tk3ae$u...@news2.newsguy.com>...
>what's so difficult about electrocuting someone with DC?

You don't really need a lot of voltage to make AC deadly, as long
as the AC frequency is high enough. Tazers work off a couple of
batteries and can knock you out. You can handle the batteries
themselves without any danger.

I don't think that DC is safe even at high voltage, but the point
was that at any useful voltage DC was safer than AC.

I think defibrillators use AC, but I'm not sure.

Which makes me ask, why do the movies (and TV) show paramedics
rubbing the defib paddles against each other? I've always
thought that they might be spreading conductive paste on the
paddles, but I never noticed them putting the paste on in the
first place. Is that an oversight? Or are they rubbing the
paddles together for some other reason?

rob...@bestweb.net

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
On 1999-10-08 at said:

>>47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
>>in the English language.
>'Who said that?' "Me." <or "I."> Either way, wrong.
>--

"Me." and "I." are not complete sentences. "Be." and "Go." are.

Net-Tamer V 1.11 - Registered

Perry Farmer

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
-> perry....@thefarm.wa.com (Perry Farmer) wrote:

-> >These are actual electrocution pictures currently being used for an
-> >appeal in Florida.

-> Shit.

-> J

I did warn you.

If you shorten up the url you can get the story behind them.

Perry

Ty

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
[(I sure wish I had saved the picture that ran upon his death, with the Warner
Brothers characters standing together away from the microphone.)]
mat...@area.com

I'll see if I can scan it for you. I used to be the research archivist for the
auction company that handled the Mel Blanc estate, and we put the original up
for auction (along with some WAY cool cels, etc.). Seems to me we ran it on the
verso catalog cover, so it should scan pretty well....


StoryTyler
And then there's Mel Blanc, Jr. (who should not be allowed to keep his father's
name)....

StarChaser <Anti spam feature in address.>

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Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
On Thu, 7 Oct 1999 22:51:22 -0700, "Bill Baldwin" <ju...@micronet.net>
wrote:

>StarChaser wrote:
>>The electric chair was invented by Edison to demonstrate how dangerous

>>competitor Westinghouse's alternating current was, as compared to his

>>direct current.
>
>Several others have said this, and I don't doubt it. But ... what's so


>difficult about electrocuting someone with DC?
>

Nothing that I know of, but Edison was a Big Name and trying to
promote his system, at the expense of Westinghouse...Off the top of my
head and with no other support whatsoever, I'd say that alternating
current would tend to disrupt muscular rhythms <heart and lungs> more
than DC would...

StarChaser <Anti spam feature in address.>

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
On Fri, 08 Oct 1999 16:09:23 GMT, rob...@bestweb.net wrote:

>On 1999-10-08 at said:
>
> >>47. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence
> >>in the English language.
> >'Who said that?' "Me." <or "I."> Either way, wrong.
> >--
>"Me." and "I." are not complete sentences. "Be." and "Go." are.

Not according to Unca Cece...
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/980529.html

Seanette Blaylock

unread,
Oct 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/8/99
to
On Fri, 08 Oct 1999 00:35:06 -0400, "StarChaser <Anti spam feature in
address.>" <starch...@my.sig> wrote:

>>43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.


>The electric chair was invented by Edison to demonstrate how dangerous
>competitor Westinghouse's alternating current was, as compared to his
>direct current.

[snicker] Don't modern electric chairs use DC?
--

Seanette Blaylock
Reply to sean...@spammers.drop.dead.impulse.net
[make obvious correction]

LTControls

unread,
Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to
>Off the top of my
>head and with no other support whatsoever, I'd say that alternating
>current would tend to disrupt muscular rhythms <heart and lungs> more
>than DC would...

I don't know about that,but I can tell you from personal experience that a 110
volt DC shock is considerably more unpleasant than a comparable shock at 110v
AC.

Barbara

Jim Shaffer, Jr.

unread,
Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to
On Fri, 08 Oct 1999 20:12:43 -0700, Seanette Blaylock
<seanette.spam...@impulse.net> wrote:

>>The electric chair was invented by Edison to demonstrate how dangerous
>>competitor Westinghouse's alternating current was, as compared to his
>>direct current.
>
>[snicker] Don't modern electric chairs use DC?

Edison wasn't interested in truth, he was interested in protecting his DC power
monopoly, which he had worked all his life for, from Westinghouse's superior AC
system, which he had bought the design for from a young Serbian immigrant who
just thought it all up out of thin air one afternoon.

--
Williamsport Area Computer Club <http://www.sunlink.net/wacc>
Susquehanna Valley Amateur Astronomers <http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2999/svaa.html>
Personal Home Page <http://woodstock.csrlink.net/~jshaffer>

Perry Farmer

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Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to
-> >Off the top of my
-> >head and with no other support whatsoever, I'd say that alternating
-> >current would tend to disrupt muscular rhythms <heart and lungs> more
-> >than DC would...

-> I don't know about that,but I can tell you from personal experience t
-> volt DC shock is considerably more unpleasant than a comparable shock
-> AC.

-> Barbara

According to the electrocution studies at the time, you needed a much
higher voltage to kill the test animal (a Newfoundland dog) using D.C.
The dog could handle about 1000 v d.c. but only about 330 v a.c.

Human electrocutions use about 2640 v a.c. (recommended) to start with
based on the average weight and voltage drop. One article mentioned
about 1500 volts to disrupt brain activity which takes place in the
first 1/240 of a second. Usually a minimum of 2 pulses separated by a
period of time to allow chemicals to dissipate to insure heart stoppage.

I think Georgia does something like 2000 volts for 4 seconds, followed
by 1000 (maybe for a minute?) then 208 for 2 minutes.


Perry

Perry Farmer

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Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to
-> rob...@bestweb.net wrote:

-> >What evidence have you for this? My understanding is that public ex
-> >used to be very popular. - RG

-> Then why don't we have them anymore?

-> I once asked the State of CT if I could witness their next execution
-> (some chief sheriff or something or other in Hartford) told me I was
-> on drugs. He was wrong, but I was curious. After all, if the state is
-> slaughtering someone in MY name I figure I should at least have a goo
-> the show.

-> So, why don't we do it anymore?

-> J

It has to do with some guy blinking and some woman screaming.

Perry

David Lentz

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Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to

LTControls wrote:
>
> >Off the top of my

> >head and with no other support whatsoever, I'd say that alternating

> >current would tend to disrupt muscular rhythms <heart and lungs> more

> >than DC would...
>
> I don't know about that,but I can tell you from personal experience that a 110
> volt DC shock is considerably more unpleasant than a comparable shock at 110v
> AC.
>
> Barbara

So that is why your hair is so curly.

Unless you were running a controlled experiment, I would not put
too much faith in the relative experience of two electrical
shocks. There are several variables to how much shock you
receive besides the mere RMS (1) value of the voltage. What were
the paths. How well grounded were you. Etc.

The only conclusion you can draw, to be careful around electrical
circuits. Getting zapped hurts. I know.

David

1. Root Means Squared.

JmG

unread,
Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to
perry....@thefarm.wa.com (Perry Farmer) wrote:

>I think Georgia does something like 2000 volts for 4 seconds, followed
>by 1000 (maybe for a minute?) then 208 for 2 minutes.

Jeez, I can think of a whole bunch of ways to kill a man that takes less than 3
minutes.

J (and I can do it without flames!)

JmG

unread,
Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to
perry....@thefarm.wa.com (Perry Farmer) wrote:

>-> So, why don't we do it anymore?
>

>It has to do with some guy blinking and some woman screaming.

I don't get it. But I must say that the chief executioner I spoke to did say
(off the record, of course) that the reason it is done behind closed doors is
that the public was getting squeamish about it and the state was afraid we'd
stop it all together.

*I* still say that if it is being done in my name I want to watch.

J

LTControls

unread,
Oct 9, 1999, 3:00:00 AM10/9/99
to
>> I don't know about that,but I can tell you from personal experience that a
>110
>> volt DC shock is considerably more unpleasant than a comparable shock at
>110v
>> AC.
>>
>> Barbara
>
>So that is why your hair is so curly.
>
>Unless you were running a controlled experiment, I would not put
>too much faith in the relative experience of two electrical
>shocks. There are several variables to how much shock you
>receive besides the mere RMS (1) value of the voltage. What were
>the paths. How well grounded were you. Etc.
>
>The only conclusion you can draw, to be careful around electrical
>circuits. Getting zapped hurts. I know.

When I refered to "comparable" shocks I was not, I admit, in a controlled
experiment. However, the path and grounding situations were relatively equal
and the voltage of the DC shock was actually lower (90v) that the 110v AC
shock.

That's as far as I will take this, as I do not intend to volunteer for any
controlled experiments involving electricity :).

Barbara

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