F I D O N E W S -- Vol.12 No. 6 (06-Feb-1995)
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS |
| _ | +1-519-570-4176 |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | Small animal psychology and |
| (_| /_) | Spiritual guidance Department: |
| _`@/_ \ _ | Rev. Richard Visage 1:163/409 |
| | | \ \\ | |
| | (*) | \ )) | Editor: |
| |__U__| / \// | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
| _//|| _\ / | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 |
| (_/(_|(____/ | Tim |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| Don --
[email protected] |
| Max --
[email protected] |
| Tim Pozar --
[email protected] |
| David Deitch -- 1:133/411.411,
[email protected] |
|
| submissions=>
[email protected] |
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| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of fidonews or the internet gateway faq |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Table of Contents
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1. Editorial..................................................... 1
2. Articles...................................................... 2
Dear Reverend Visage,....................................... 2
The need for free fax services.............................. 4
False Memory Syndrome on the Backbone....................... 5
Dear Flesh,................................................. 6
3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 7
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Editorial
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FidoNews 12-06 Page: 2 06 Feb 1995
There are not very many articles in this week, but I am
pleased to see that Doc Logger is back with a missive to the
Reverand Visage. He is in fine fettle, as well, taking swipes
at all and sundry (even us), but I will get back to that.
It is interesting to note that the REG12 sysop echo has been
quite rational lately. Funny, or maybe it makes complete sense,
but the echo is almost entirely free of flames for the first
time in living memory. At issue is the granting of a node
number to the heritage front. For those that do not know, the
heritage front is a canadian neo-natzi organization that
preaches against the existance of second world war concentration
camps and the atrocities associated with them.
That is an issue almost gauranteed to inflame passion, yet
the disscussion has been as civilized as is possible. The two
main viewpoints, revulsion at having any association whatsoever
with helping to spread lies, as seen by the one side, and
revulsion at denying a nodenumber and freedom of expression,
therefore sweeping it under the carpet and ignoring it, as seen
by the other.
Perhaps having to deal with a real decision, one that is
important, has made us all a bit more reasonable. Interesting
though.
Now, Charles, back to the issue of fidogods. I will grant
you that no politician should be allowed to feed the cat without
watching to see if they snitch the cat food, but there is also a
fair amount of work running this damned organization. And that
work does get done every week. My sole point is that maybe the
people that do the work should at least be allowed a few
mistakes without getting taken apart. Besides, if we are
going to continue to suck the newcomers into doing all the
work, we have to expect a few mistakes. Maybe we can make them
so miserable that they only do it once ... is that the idea?
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Articles
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Dear Editor-beings,
Please indicate that the following article was submitted by
Charles Herriot (1:163/110) who has just returned from a
world-wide search for Chia seeds to repopulate his house
full of Chia pets. The search was unsucessful. Roll 'da
flick, Sylvia...
Swamp Swine Magazine,
Shuckmagosh, Ohio
Dear Reverend Visage,
You must excuse my tardiness. It has been several weeks
since I have written but much has happened in my absence. It
FidoNews 12-06 Page: 3 06 Feb 1995
seems that our not so beloved RC12, Rick "Weekend With
Bernie" Johnston has been inflated sufficiently to move his
appendages across the keyboard to call an election. Rick has
promised to follow the trail made by the Dodos and run again
on his record. Our prayers and our edible underwear should
go out to him in his final flameout. Tony "GMD Posterchild"
Bearman has been appointed as the Returning Officer. Tony
will be so pleased to discover that Rick "Keyboard Virtuoso"
Johnston has placed the nodelist entry as "1:21/21."
In other news, Bob "Bob" Satti has appointed an "assistant
ZC." This is heartening news since now one of them can
listen while the other presses the Speak 'N Spell buttons.
There is much promise that together they will be able to
master the subtleties of English comprehension.
Speaking of Fidogods, our Region still waits with breathless
anticipation for George Peace to render something that
passes for a decision on the matter of Stein vs. Kolin. I
shall sacrifice appropriate numbers of hamsters in gratitude
for the quick thinkers that seem to populate the Fidonet
stratosphere.
I noted that the esteemed editor-beings of this organ, or at
least one of them, opined that there is altogether too much
bad press granted to Fidogods. Perhaps I am mistaken, but
the problem with Fidogods may have something to do with the
fact that they achieve the zenith of their managerial
careers in Fidonet and run amok flexing their first grasp of
power. We should probably subsidize a research clinic in
Borneo to study the "Fidogod Disease" that seems to plague
even the lower life forms once they get elected.
Where has Dallas Hinton gone? I fully expected to see a
flood or Snooz articles from him with the kind of uplifting
messages that he so clearly desires. Hell, I even nailed a
plastic Jesus night-lite to my monitor in expectations that
his revelations would light up the southern skies. This
probably has nothing to do with the fact that it is 45
degrees C. below zero outside and the snowdrifts have
covered the house, but I am reminded of Emperor Penguins. It
seems that Emperor Penguins lay their eggs in the dead of
winter when the Antarctic sun never rises above the horizon.
The eggs are incubated by resting them on the feet of the
penguins and then dropping a flap of skin around them. If
they lose their egg, they will often substitute rocks or
lumps of snow and happily incubate the inanimate object.
This is where this theme leads back to Dallas. Is it
possible, do you suppose, that Dallas has been captured by
GIANT Emperor penguins which even now...are sitting on his
face until spring? The mind boggles.
Senator Sonny Bono. Go ahead, say that without snickering.
What with the Righteous Newt leading the charge, who says
that all the fun went out of American politics? Just think
FidoNews 12-06 Page: 4 06 Feb 1995
of the fun Nixon could have had were he ever granted a
Republican majority in the legislatures. Mercifully, we are
treated daily to a display of egalitarian justice where, for
just three or four million dollars in legal fees, you can
obtain the same measure of justice as any other person
accused of a crime. Call me a reactionary, Visage, but it
would delight me to no end if the jury returned a "not
guilty" verdict with respect to O.J., but found that all the
lawyers should be sent to Folsom Prison for the remainder of
their days.
I must go Visage, your secretary has an alarming amount of
office implements pointed at tender parts of my anatomy. Her
current distemper probably has nothing at all to do with the
fact that I spent her paycheque on Mexican Peso futures. As
a good and decent gesture, I think that we should send her
to Kobe.
Regards,
Doc Logger,
Giant Clam Rancher,
Fulaga, South Pacific
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The need for free fax services for telecommunications compliants
Andrew Freeman
Canberra ACT Australia
3:620/243
I have recently been in touch with Telstra (the major provider of
telephone services in Australia) about the need for them to have
more 1 800 (no fee) fax numbers for such things as service
difficulties, and customer complaints. I am particularly
interested in such a service in relation to service difficulties
because it gives one the opportunity to provide a screen save of
problems at no cost to the sender. I have had a less than
enthusiastic response from Telstra in relation to this idea (they
tell me they rarely get voice complaints from BBS users, and
almost never faxes). I am currently lobbying the Chairperson of
the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's (TIO) office on this
matter, together with a consumer representative on the Council of
the TIO, in an effort to get them to approach the CEO of Telstra
to encourage him to take action on this matter. I would be
interested in the approaches adopted in other countries to the
issue of free fax telephone line provision in all customer
service areas by other telecommunications providers, and any
experiences of other BBS users in lobbying such providers for
such a service.
FidoNews 12-06 Page: 5 06 Feb 1995
False Memory Syndrome on the Backbone
by David Bloomberg, 1:2430/1
FMS: The False Memory Syndrome Echo
A little while ago, I wrote here to tell everybody about the
existence of the False Memory Syndrome (FMS) echo. Shortly after
that, the FMS echo went on the backbone.
As I wrote then, a number of claims stem from recovery of
"repressed memories." These claims range from years of incest
forgotten by the victim, satanic conspiracies pervading the
country, and alien beings kidnapping people from their beds for
strange sexual experiments.
There are therapists across the country who will tell you that
they can help "recover" these memories. Numerous books on the
subject have been written, both pro and con. Some of these books
encourage people to beieve that they've been abused, even
if there is no indication that any such thing ever happened. New
books are coming out saying that these other books are full of
baloney, and that recovered memories are false memories. Yet other
books are saying that claims of false memories are the baloney, and
that recovered memories are real. So who is right?
There are other echos on FidoNet which deal with some of these
claims specifically. UFO, I_UFO, and BAMA deal with claims of alien
abductions, among others, and allow varying degrees of debate on the
subject, but they don't address all of the aspects of this phenomena.
There are numerous "survivor" echos, but none allow any form of
debate (to my knowledge), only "support" without "invalidating". In
fact, the CHILD_ABUSE echo, I have just learned, has the following
statement as part of its rules:
"[The CHILD_ABUSE echo] is NOT a forum for FMS, or anything else
that denies the existance of child abuse."
Unfortunately, the premise of this statement is simply untrue.
No rational person "denies the existence of child abuse."
Myths such as this one were one of the reasons the FMS echo was
created. Proponents of both "sides" of the debate are welcome. Only
through discussion can there be understanding. While it isn't
necessarily likely that agreement on an issue currently tearing apart
the psychological community can be reached on a FidoNet echo, at
least we can attempt to do away with the myths such as this one.
Here is the EchoList description of the FMS echo:
This echo is for the discussion of False Memory Syndrome
(FMS) and related topics, including those phenomena thought
to be caused by FMS. All viewpoints are welcome, both pro
and con, but don't be surprised if you are asked to back up
your claims with evidence. The implications of FMS, as well
as the evidence, are on-topic.
FidoNews 12-06 Page: 6 06 Feb 1995
As I said, ALL viewpoints are welcome on the echo. Please don't
assume that the echo tag of "FMS" means only the pro-FMS view is
allowed. This is a subject which needs to be critically and
rationally examined; there are already too many baseless claims
flying around.
People are being hurt by the "recovered" memories. Not only the
parents and others who are accused, but also the patients. If the
memories are untrue, their lives are being ruined. If the memories
are true, we have a veritable epidemic on our hands and we have to
do something about it.
For a copy of the rules, FReq FMS.RUL from 2430/1. You might also
want to FReq FILES for my filelist, which includes over 125 files
related to FMS, many of which have been distributed on the FMS echo.
For the entire file set, FReq FMS, but be ready for an increase in
your long distance bill!
If you'd like more information, please feel free to contact me!
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Dear Flesh,
Madam Emilia didn't know there was a flood in California until
someone told her.
IV GOT seven thin and fine volumes on the desk. One of them, the
current Bible, is smooth and green. There're the words BERTRAND
LACHANCE line line space STREET FLESH in the colour of wrappers on
sour apple flavoured candy, then haze and a rubbly city-scape then
horses grazing on a collage of grasses of different resolutions.
The collage looks like stuff done with images and computers except
it was printed in73. The writing inside is in a funny language,
made of english, and the common letter combinations are
replaced by fewer letters, so "you" is yu and "the" is th.
Easy to read. What came first, ascii compression or concrete poetry?
that question of images and computers. The December cover
of Wired was all white, sitting on the shelf beside sensually
colored Mondo, and there were dots embossed on it that looked to me
like braille. I don't know how to read braille. Around the same
time and Newsweek were covered with pictures of OJ, the same
pictures differently rendering. How does one correctly render
images? Is it fair to do so at all?
I had seen the cover of STREET FLESH a couple of years ago without
noticing that it is a collage rather than one photograph. Would
Jack Schadbolt's war reportage have been more true if he had used a
camera instead of charcoal?
i become enchanted by the words "rights activism", to the point of
forgetting that doing about what i believe is more important than
talking about it. i guess. But i'm affected by what poeple say.
FidoNews 12-06 Page: 7 06 Feb 1995
Why do written messages sound different when read in differently
laid out editors? Black and white is most stark and clear. Green
backgrounds are calming and ennervating. Primary colours on a
screen are sobering. I was very inmpressed by a book i saw for a
few minutes last week because of the way it was laid out. The title
was something about architecture.
Why do there seem to be fewer and fewer cash machines around? They
are in supermarkets but not in corner stores where they used
to be.
Sometimes official lines are well and brightly done, so that i buy
them. i even pay for them.
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Fidonews Information
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------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
Editors: Donald Tees, Sylvia Maxwell
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar
Tom Jennings
"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/23
BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS)
more addresses:
Rev. Richard Visage -- 1:163/409
Don -- 1:221/192,
[email protected]
Sylvia -- 1:221/194,
[email protected]
Tim --
[email protected]
(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews
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Canada
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Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
FidoNews 12-06 Page: 8 06 Feb 1995
Copyright 1995 Donald Tees. All rights reserved. Duplication
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"It is plausible that these observations may have been set forth
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-Jeorge Luis Borges, from "Partial Magic in the Quixote"
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