5.0697 Qs: (Various) (6/113)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 18 Feb 1992 20:58:00 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0697. Tuesday, 18 Feb 1992.


(1) Date: Mon, 03 Feb 92 13:12:26 EST (15 lines)
From: Anthony Arnove <ST403389@BROWNVM>
Subject: Teachers for Democratic Culture

(2) Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 14:17:59 -0600 (13 lines)
From: Alan D Corre <corre@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>
Subject: Scooter

(3) Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 15:04:43 +0100 (35 lines)
From: neabo01@convex.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de (H. Borchers)
Subject: Exchange request

(4) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 01:04 MET (21 lines)
From: Ronald de Rooy <DEROOY@ALF.LET.UVA.NL>
Subject: preference model

(5) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 10:20 CST (19 lines)
From: Michael Hancher <MH@UMNACVX.BITNET>
Subject: query re monkeys at typewriters

(6) Date: Sat, 08 Feb 92 15:18:56 EST (10 lines)
From: "GILES R. HOYT" <IPIF100@INDYCMS>
Subject: Query

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 92 13:12:26 EST
From: Anthony Arnove <ST403389@BROWNVM>
Subject: Teachers for Democratic Culture

[...]

A group of graduate students and teaching assistants at Brown University
is interested in starting a branch of Teachers for Democratic Culture.
Can anyone tell me who to contact? Thanks.

Anthony Arnove

ST403389@brownvm.brown.edu
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 14:17:59 -0600
From: Alan D Corre <corre@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>
Subject: Scooter

When I was a child in England, there was a popular toy, often home-made from
boxwood, called "scooter." The child stood on a narrow footboard and steered
with an upright. Propulsion was achieved with one foot. It is not
especially popular in the U.S.
In Israel such toys are called "korkinet". What is the origin of this word? Is
it a corruption of the French "trottinette"? The word is given in Alkalay
as the translation of "scooter", but does not occur in the Hebrew-English
volume, and is unnoticed by Even-Shoshan. Have korkinet and trottinette
been borrowed by other languages?
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------50----
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 92 15:04:43 +0100
From: neabo01@convex.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de (H. Borchers)
Subject: Exchange request

A colleague of mine without access to email has asked me to
announce this on the Humanist network. He is a professor of
cultural anthropology at the University of Tuebingen, and he is
looking for an exchange partner for his 16-year-old daughter
ANNEGRET KORFF, who is a highschool student here in Tuebingen.
The Korffs are searching for a compatible family with a daughter
of Annegret's age who would like to spend some time in Germany.
Annegret's mother is a teacher of English at a Tuebingen
highschool. The family also includes Annegret's brother who is 14
years old. As for the place, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Tuebingen's
twin city in the U.S., would be ideal, but other locations, pre-
ferably in the Eastern part of the U.S., would also be welcome.

The Korffs are proposing that Annegret spends a three-month
period, from September through November/December of 1992, with
her American host family. They would be willing to host
Annegret's exchange partner either during or else before or after
this period. The goal would be to expose the exchangees to
highschool and family life in the United States and in Germany,
respectively.





Professor Hans Borchers
University of Tuebingen
Department of American Studies
Wilhelmstrasse 50 Voice: +7071-29-2910/4833
7400 Tuebingen Fax: +7071-29-4282
Germany Email: neabo01@convex.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------27----
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 01:04 MET
From: Ronald de Rooy <DEROOY@ALF.LET.UVA.NL>
Subject: preference model

Could someone please indicate to me studies or
articles dealing with the application of Ray
Jackendoff's "preference rule system" in the field
of literary studies? A while ago I became
interested in this subject after reading a
stimulating book by a theoretical linguist, Ellen
Schauber, and a literary theorist, Ellen Spolsky,
entitled "The Bounds of Interpretation. Linguistic
Theory and Literary Text" (Stanford UP 1986). In
this study a preference model is used to describe a
reader's competence to interpret literary texts. I
would like to know if there have been any further
developments.

You can respond directly to me. Many thanks,
Ronald de Rooy [DEROOY@ALF.LET.UVA.NL]

(5) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 10:20 CST
From: Michael Hancher <MH@UMNACVX.BITNET>
Subject: query re monkeys at typewriters


"If I let my fingers wander idly over the keys of a typewriter it
_might_ happen that my screed made an intelligible sentence. If
an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they _might_
write all the books in the British Museum." A. S. Eddington
called this "a rather classical illustration" when he introduced
it into his discussion of entropy in _The Nature of the Physical
World_, Gifford Lectures 1927 (New York: Macmillan; Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1931), 72. The general concept of
generating a text by randomly scattering letters is as old as
Cicero (_De Natura Deorum_ 2.37). But was the monkeys-at-
typewriters example a "classical" one by 1927? Or did Eddington
invent it?

Michael Hancher / English / University of Minnesota
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------15----
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 92 15:18:56 EST
From: "GILES R. HOYT" <IPIF100@INDYCMS>
Subject: Query

For posting on HUMANIST:
Does anyone know of a late medieval doctor who was executed (burnt
at the stake) for alleviating the pain of a woman in childbirth.
Location of said event was presumably Central Europe. The event was
referred to by Dr. Kavorkian (sp?), the suicide specialist, during
a TV interview. I would appreciate any reference.