Date: Friday, 26 October 1984 09:23 mst From: James J. Lippard Subject: Miscellaneous Digest V3 #33 Reply-To: {mbx >udd>Multics>Lippard>misc>misc} To: {list >udd>Multics>Lippard>misc>misc} Miscellaneous Digest Volume 3 : Issue 33 Today's topics: Reason for Strategic Defense home work/lunch True Facts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Friday, 19 October 1984 12:20 mst From: Richard Lamson Subject: The REAL reason for building a strategic defense -- from GLORIA Date: 17 Oct 84 0209 EDT (Wednesday) From: Mike.Kazar@CMU-CS-A.ARPA (C410MK50) The REAL reason for building a strategic defense: "Suppose the French have a bad grape harvest, and they decide to launch a nuclear strike on the Napa Valley. We have no response to that other than obliterating France." -- Maj. Warden USAF **==> That was Hank Walker's plan file. ------------------------------ Date: Friday, 26 October 1984 07:52 mst From: Charlie Spitzer Subject: From MIT bb meeting Date: Thursday, 25 October 1984 13:16 edt From: mit-eddie!teddy-bear!mrose at MIT-EDDIE Subject: potentially *IMPORTANT* This looks pretty serious, folks. How many of *us* do work at home on terminals or PC's or whatever? We certainly don't want to see that door close; perhaps people should look up their local Congresspersons' adresses and mail a postcard or something?.... >From pp 39-40 of this October's issue of "Inc.", in the "News & Trends" section: "...Lee Bellinger, director of public affairs for the Center on National Policy, claims that unions are now also pressuring home-based businesses through, for example, local zoning laws. Last year in Chicago a husband-and-wife freelance writing team, who worked on personal computers in their den, were ordered to close up shop because local zoning laws forbid the use of machinery in the home for commercial purposes.... "...Whatever the reasons for union concern, the fact remains that the AFL-CIO has called for a ban on computer home work, and the Service Employees International Union has passed a resolution opposing computer work by their members outside of corporate offices. To halt this union drive, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act last year to legalize industrial work in the home, including the previously excluded apparel industry. "'The Hatch bill won't allow 40 workers to operate out of one home,' says Carroll. 'We realize that's a sweatshop. But home work is the wave fo the future. Still, the union can win this fight by simply blocking new legislation. With their consistent pressure, we may not be able to get [the Hatch amendment] out of committee." ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thursday, 25 October 1984 14:37 edt From: Walter Hamscher Subject: potentially *TRIVIAL* This looks pretty serious, folks. How many of *us* go to GSL to eat Dim Sum or Cold Cuts or whatever? We certainly don't want to see that door close; perhaps people should resign themselves to being as well-behaved as we all were last week... >From pp 39-40 of this October's issue of "Finc.", in the "Rumours & Trial Balloons" section: "...Bill Lellinger, director of public affairs for the Center on Lunch Policy, claims that the sanitation engineering union is now pressuring GSL through, for example, local sanitation laws. Last month the AI lab was ordered to cease and desist serving unsliced bread at noon on Fridays because Cambridge laws forbade the feeding of swine within the city limits... "...Whatever the reasons for union concern, the fact remains that the AFL-CIO has called for a ban on graduate student lunches, and the Service Employees International Union has passed a resolution opposing in principle the feeding of groups of students on carpets. To halt this union drive, State Rep. Virrie Pino (D-Somerville) introduced an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act last year to legalize lunches in playrooms and other common areas, including the previously excluded Funds Fishing industry. "'The Pino bill won't allow 40 students to eat in the playroom,' says Leadbill. 'We realize that's a sweatshop. But free lunches are the wave of the future. Still, the union can win this fight by simply not vacuuming the Playroom carpet. Without that negative pressure we may not be able to get [the crumbs] out of the carpet. ------------------------------ Date: Friday, 26 October 1984 01:32 mst From: Leigh L. Klotz Subject: 112 lines [We've trimmed off the truly enormous headers on this.] Date: Friday, 26 October 1984 01:05-EDT From: Tom Trobaugh From: Chris Schmandt From: Joseph R Goldstone Subject: [levine%vaxwrk.DEC@decwrl.ARPA: True facts] True Facts #52 When Trevor Parker plunged over a 150-foot seaside cliff in Cornwall, England, he was thrown clear of his car, which exploded in flames as it hit a rocky outcrop. Parker landed in the ocean. However, because of Britain's compulsory seat-belt law, Parker was fined eighty dollars for not wearing his seat belt, which would have killed him. United Press International True Facts #53 Would-be burglar Steven Little, thirty-two, had drunk thirty-five dollars' worth of beer before his attempt to break into a boot store in Longmont, Colorado, so it wasn't until he began trying to pry open the front door with a crowbar that he realized the shop was still open and people were staring at him from inside. Little made off empty-handed, but was later found by police asleep in his van. Rocky Mountain News True Facts #54 Britain's National Marriage Council is deleting certain diagrams of sexual positions from its sex-advice books. Some people are made to feel inadequate by the diagrams, explained a council spokesman. "They can't perform in some illustrated positions because they are too fat." Reuters True Facts #55 Scientists at Kansas State University claim they have crossed the tomato with the potato to produce a hybrid plant that produces tubers underground as well as small, yellow, seedless fruit that smells like a tomato. However, says plant physiologist James SHepard, researchers suspect the new fruit may be poisonous. UPI True Facts #56 According to "Advertising Age", many Japanese manufacturers feel that English-sounding names add prestige to products marketed inside their country. "If it has a nice foreign sound to it, they use it without looking it up in the dictionary," said a Japanese advertising executive. This has resulted in such products as a brand of jeans called Trim Pecker, lawn fertilizer called Green Piles, Cow Brand shampoo, Shot Vision television sets, Carap candy, Pocket Wetty premoistened towelettes, and a fingernail cleaner called Fingernail Remover. Two top beverages are named Calpis and Pocari Sweat, while a non-dairy coffee lightener is called Creap. Slogans, too, are sometimes printed in English, such as this on a deodorant container: "Sweet Medica - it frees you completely from the smell of your underarm sweat." Or this on a bottle of nose drops: "Nazal - for stuffed nose and snot." True Facts #57 A Jamaican living in Philadelphia, twenty-eight-year-old Isaac Reid, claimed that he shot and killed his wife because she was practicing witchcraft on him. He became convinced of her spell, he told a Common Pleas Court, when he was suddenly inspired to watch "boring" television shows like "Nova" and "Masterpiece Theater". Philadelphia Inquirer True Facts #58 According to state prison officials, two convicts at the Georgia Industrial Institute at Alto turned out eighty thousand dollars in counterfeit twenty-dollar-bills in the prison print shop. Miami Herald True Facts #59 Police bomb experts cordoned off a two-block area around the Kenmore, Ohio, home of John Call, fifty-four, while they dismantled what turned out to be a package containing paper, candle wax, wires, a battery, and a badly battered clock. Call had found what appeared to be a bomb ticking on his front porch. A police spokesman said that Call was particularly lucky that the device was not a bomb, because before calling police he had taken the package into his backyard and beat it with a bumper jack until it stopped ticking. Akron Beacon Journal True Facts #60 Blandine Piegay, fourteen, of La Talaudiere, France, claimed that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her on a Saturday afternoon in the kitchen of the home, saying, "Hello, my child, and good-bye, my child, until next Saturday." Since then, said the girl, Mary had appeared at regular intervals, at least thirty-two times. After a Paris magazine reported the visions, some four thousand people gathered at Piegay's home to witness the next scheduled appearance. The girl told the pilgrims that if they wanted to see the vision for themselves they would have to look into the sun with their eyes open. Of those who complied with Piegay's instructions, dozens suffered serious eye damage, while others reported seeing pink clouds, smoke, a golden cross, and various floating objects. National Catholic Reporter True Facts #61 The Los Angeles police commision voted to curtail the use of certain choke holds used to subdue suspects after fifteen incidents of deaths involving the holds. Eleven of the fifteen victims were black, noted the commission, which also ordered an inquiry into the police chief's remark that blacks may be more likely to die from the holds than "normal people". Associated Press True Facts #62 A twenty-year-old man from Birmingham, England, died of burns caused by a severe electric shock. The young welder, identified as Mr. Hayes, had apparently been drinking before he urinated off of a railroad bridge and onto a catenary wire carrying 25,000 volts of electricity. Officials speculate that the current traveled back up the continuous stream of urine, delivering the lethal shock to Mr. Hayes. ------------------------------ End of Miscellaneous Digest ***************************