Errors-To: owner-ecto@athos.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@athos.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@athos.rutgers.edu From: ecto@athos.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@athos.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@athos.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #167 ecto, Number 167 Wednesday, 19 February 1992 Today's Topics: *-----------------* misk cut off again Re: Stats Random notes Change of address (but not quite yet!) Allerlei Chazerai ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 17 Feb 92 16:06:12 CST From: vishal@ra.csc.ti.com (Vishal Markandey) Subject: misk Merow!! writes: > it is..ok? VIsh..keep quiet!! ok??? i alrady spilled a little to him!! Alright! Alright!! Vickie writes (about the Winter Olympics): > Ice Dancing long program tonight!!! Oh joy, oh bliss!!! Love it!! I do wish they would pick more interesting music though!! Can't you just see the Doushenays (sp ?) dancing to "Under Ice", or "Waking the Witch"!!! - Vish ======================================================================== Subject: cut off again Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 11:24:14 N From: Klaus Kluge Hi everybody ! Just a quick note from the office to tell you that Xenox, the machine where Inphobos is connected to, has been down for 3 days now. They were going to install a new version of UNIX, and I guess something went wrong. So, if you've send any messages to Claudia or me in the last days, and are waiting for a response: we are not ignoring you, we haven't even received them. I don't think they will get lost, just pop up later when the system is running again. Claudia arrived safely and on time on sunday morning, and asked me to say "Hello" to all of you! More later ... ... Klaus. _____________________________________________________________________________ ...but mama, that's where the fun is! | Klaus Kluge, klaus@inphobos.w.open.de ======================================================================== From: katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie) Subject: Re: misk Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 6:06:45 CST Vishal writes: > Vickie writes (about the Winter Olympics): > > > Ice Dancing long program tonight!!! Oh joy, oh bliss!!! > > Love it!! I do wish they would pick more interesting music though!! > Can't you just see the Doushenays (sp ?) dancing to "Under Ice", or > "Waking the Witch"!!! I would *love* to see that! I want to be the music director for the World Skating Federation!! :-) A couple from Hungary did skate to the first song on Peter Gabriel's Passion during the competition...it was fantastic! The competition worked out the way I thought (and hoped) it would. Klimova & Ponomorenko deserved the Gold. They were stunning. Did any UKphiles tape the BBC coverage of the Ice Dancing competition? I desperately want to hear/see Christopher Dean's coverage of the event. Kiri, you're *so* lucky you can get CBC! Vickie ======================================================================== From: lubkin@apollo.hp.com (David Lubkin) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 11:48:00 EST Subject: Re: Stats c) number of birthdays per month J 4 xxxx F 3 xxx M 7 xxxxxxx A 7 xxxxxxx M 6 xxxxxx J 4 xxxx J 11 xxxxxxxxxxx A 5 xxxxx S 3 xxx O 4 xxxx N 5 xxxxx D 3 xxx I don't know what the theoretical distribution is, but it's presumably not quite equal over the months. But, although those 11 (!) birthdays in July look pretty conspicious, there is no statistically detectable deviation from pure randomness. Sorry! I have a theory, which I only share with people born in summer or winter. If you were not born in summer or winter, please skip the next paragraph. I don't want to hurt your feelings. The theory: Statistically, people born in summer and winter are more emotionally secure than people born in spring or fall. The idea is that there are a lot of people born in the fall (true) because of all those cold winter nights (true). There are a lot of people born in the spring (true) because of all those June weddings and (these days) Hunks and Hot Babes wearing very little on the beach. What this says to me (speculation) is that kids born in spring or fall are more likely to have been accidents, and kids born in summer or winter are more likely to have been planned. Planned-for kids are (on the average) more secure than kids who were not planned-for (true). I like this theory in part because I was born in June. July is just because that was the month Kate was born in. (I was supposed to be born in July, but I was so eager to see her that I came out two weeks early so I'd be all used to this world stuff by the time she was born a few weeks later.) -- David. ------- ======================================================================== Date: 18-FEB-1992 13:41:05.55 From: MTARR@eagle.wesleyan.edu Subject: Random notes Hi! The CBS Olympic coverage SUCKS. That said, I can go on to matters of less importance. :) Alan, was it you who was going nuts over _Two Faces_? If/when you ever get hold of the previous two, be warned that they're VERY different- the only thing the same is the presence of Katharina Franck- otherwise they're different musicians, and different sounds. But I think all three are awesome, so give them a try. :) Vickie, you saw The Moon Seven Times. ENVYENVYENVYENVYENVYENVYENVY I'm sure there are lots of other things I wanted to reply to, but as usual I can't recall any of them. Um, Happy Content....uh....I still love "Poetic Justice"! :) *---------------------------------------------* | Meredith Tarr | | *** | | "Living in the gap between past and future" | | *** | | mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu | *---------------------------------------------* ======================================================================== Subject: Change of address (but not quite yet!) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 18:59:54 EST From: jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.edu Welp, lucky for him, leWhoosh's owner has gotten a job which means that leWhoosh will be disappearing from the net. The job will probably start on March 9th, with leWhoosh disappearing within a few days of that. Lucky for me, the aforementioned owner and/or one of my best friends has been able to swing me another account, which has already been set up. In order to not have any delayed stuff get sent to leWhoosh after it disappears, I plan on making my move next Monday. This should assure that any usenet postings and such that I make will have replies sent to the right machine. My new net.address will be jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu This will go into effect on Monday, 2/24. As of that date, I'd prefer that all mail 'n such go to that address, as I do no really have time to be constantly checking both machines. This message will be repeated... Thanks! Jeff |Jeffrey C. Burka | "Show what you are / Be strong, be true | |jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.edu | Time for you to / Be who you are." | |jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu as of 2/24/92| --Happy Rhodes | ======================================================================== Date: 18 February 1992 14:14:31 CST From: Subject: Allerlei Chazerai Despite having posted nothing on or for Valentine's Day, it doesn't mean I don't love you :-). I took Friday off from trying to think of witty things to write in these pages to watch Jana Novotna defeat Amy Frazier in straight sets in the Virginia Slims semifinals--the last match she won before going down against Martina Navratilova, at which time the latter took over the status of the winningest tennis player extant. I also saw part of last year's semis, in which Frazier also went down, that time against Helen Kelesi (who went down in the subsequent round herself). Somehow, I felt motivated, after initially not feeling motivated to bother with it at all, to participate in the tournament's send-a-valentine-to-your-favorite-player program, in which the results report- edly would be tabulated, and the frequency distribution made public (sounds lik e something we could have done for them, given the fine job done of it in the other day's postings, of which more later on). I initially didn't feel up to it because I wasn't sure who my favorite player was, if any. Subsequently I sat in the fence between Frazier and Gigi Fernandez, whom I felt subjectively was the prettiest player in the opening doubles match--a match in which one of the players, interestingly, was an endomorph amid all the mesomorphs--chalk one up for the side of the endomorphs. I finally settled on Frazier, on the stren- gth of her having just been blown out of the water for the second year in a row--something I can sort of identify with from a variety of life experiences. The bottom line: while I too have been watching, and enjoying, the Olympics in general and the Olympic skating in particular, it's not the only worthwhile thing going on in the sports world these days :-). Belated mention of a few ued anniversaries: A week ago sunb last Sunday was the 28th anniversary of the Beatles' landmark appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Last Thursday was the 30th anniversary of when Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd first brought Bossa Nova music to these shores. NPR had a feature on it, in which it was noted that one of the more notable of their records in this genre was recorded in a church; I have forgotten the names of both the church a nd the record; I do recall that the church was in Washington, D.C. The whole thing, somehow, reminded me of the Cowboy Junkies' _Trinity Sessions_ album, wh ich also was recorded in a church. Stuart Rosenberg's show on WBEZ Sunday in- cluded a track from their new album (the Cowboy Junkies, not Getz & Byrd), whic h sounded pretty good to me. Then there is the anniversary we should attach th e most significance to, which Steve F. has already mentioned. This is Friday's anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's call for the rubbing-out of Salman Rushdie. It is the ultimate epitome, within recent memory, of the idea that "words weren 't made for cowards." Back to sports-related themes for a while: Steve V.'s debunking of the New York marathon makes me wonder how realistic television is sometimes. On TV, they always make much of the disabled runners--some of them in wheelchairs- -in the NYCM. As far as Steve's query on characteristics of the Chicago Mara- thon's course, my best advice is to contact the Chicago Area Runners Associatio n at 459 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago IL don't know the zip, (312) 666-9836. The y aren't the sponsors of the marathon, but should be knowlegeable about it, and other races here, and possibly in other cities with chair divisions (or be able to refer to the right people). At the extreme, over the weekend NPR mentioned the running of the first Ho Chi Minh City Marathon, at which a number of disab- led American veterans were in attendance (the report was silent on whether they were competitors. Something for the wish list of exotic race locales, maybe? As I was reading my ecto incoming today, I was listening to Christine Lavi n's _Beau Woes_ album, on which the last track on Side 1 is "Ballad of a Ball- game," in which she recounts being sort of the Eddie the Eagle of pickup soft- ball. At the end of yesterday's show, _Fresh Air_ on NPR announced that later in the week they would interview Nancy Lieberman on her experiences playing pro basketball. Apparently they're not doing it today. With this, _mirabile dictu _, I finally exhause my store of sports-related items. On to more sedentary pursuits. Beth wrote Friday, "I'd be sure of the gold in women's arm wrestling." If she ever wants to go with that thought seriously, I'd be glad to pass on the email address of a women's arm wrestling enthusiast (not himself a competitor) with whom I have communicated recently. I also liked _La Femme Nikita_, and am of two minds whether Bridget Fonda can be as effective in the lead of the remake as Anne Parillaud was in the original (nahh :-) ). I agree with Doug's musings on fuzzy blue, or maybe purple, valentines. My first thought on reading this was about our earlier colloquies about _MTA_. Presumably, I reasoned, Charlie was not riding the (fuzzy) Blue Line. It then occurred to me that the Government Center station--formerly Scollay Square, the point at which Charlie is finally extricated from the system--is on exactly tha t line. I am clearly fallible in my reasoning processes :-). One of these fin e days, we will have to post the lyrics to this--it's a fine song in its own right, no matter where one stands in relation to transit and its dysfunctions. _In re_ Claudia's analysis of the actual and expected birthday distributio ns: 1 is indeed, on a proportional basis, many times more than .006; but may I remind you all of what the lecturer in one of my advenced stat courses once sai d--in effect, that statistical significance can far outlast empirical signific- ance. For some reason, this thought, in turn, reminded me of the initial draft of my M.A. paper, nearly 17 years ago, in which I reported that a first-order crosstab--in which the correlations at successive values of the control variab le were .03, .04, and .03 respectively--revealed a curvilinear relationship. The need to revise the paper held up the formal awarding of the degree for a quarter. Be all this as it may, the histograms reveal that the distributions are fairly even, though not strictly normal. The July and Tuesday frequencies are indeed outliers; but the distributions are not especially skewed, though th e kurtosis of the days of the week is somewhat platykurtic. I can see what Claudia considers notable about April 10; the only other thing I can think of that is noteworthy about that date is that it often falls within the range of scheduled dates for either or both of the annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, and/or the annual Spring Institute sponsor ed by the Society for Social Research, the graduate student organization of the University of Chicago Department of Sociology. I nonetheless take solace in the distribution of months; however I come across in these pages, at least I am modal in one respect. :-) Meredith observes, "It's interesting to see someone's brain twisting befor e one's very eyes." Perhaps we should think about appealing to funding agencie s in the neurosciences for support for the expanding ecto empire :-). By an interesting coincidence, she implied in one of her latest posts that her own "Gedanken Sind Gebraten." (This after she had spoken highly of my neologism, shortly after I coined it.) All this reminds me of the satires of the anti-dru g ads; in the instant case, the operative punchline would probably be, "This is Die Gedanken with a side of bacon and toast." (Is this the true, subliminal meaning of "Food for Thought?" :-) ) Ironic, innit, that I should be thinking of this only a week after the Chicago papers reported that the re-legalization of undercooked eggs in New Jersey was on the verge of formally going into effec t. (Chalk one up for the home state of the FUBLU MALI.) Yesterday's _Chicago Tribune_ carried favorable reviews of the recent Chic ago appearances of Michael Nesmith, My Bloody Valentine, and Robyn Hitchcock and Matthew Sweet. Which reminds me that Rachel Sweet, who recorded "B-A-B-Y" back in 1979, is now appearing in Chicago in the new play "Theda Bara and the [something or other] Rabbi." (Title approximate) This may be my last major posting for a few days, as I need to spend time on the long-procrastinated task of transferring archive files from an account about to turn into a pumpkin, to another where they'll be safe. Hopefully, by the time I'm back at it you'll have been able to fully decipher this one. :-) Mitch Pravatiner ________________ "Uncorrected personality traits that may seem whimsical in a child may prove to be ugly in a fully-grown adult." --Robyn Hitchcock ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is a README file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me (or leave in the incoming directory, just let me know) things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@athos.rutgers.edu)