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From: weemba@BRAHMS.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: bizarre religions
Message-ID: <8603040903.AA05292@brahms>
Date: Tue, 4-Mar-86 04:03:27 EST
Article-I.D.: brahms.8603040903.AA05292
Posted: Tue Mar  4 04:03:27 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 06:39:02 EST
References: <8603032118.AA09438@s1-b.arpa>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 30

In article <8603032118.AA09438@s1-b.arpa> you write:
>ten, twenty, maybe thirty lines would have been funny.  400 wasn't.  It
>wasn't even accurate - 400 lines x 15 per line x about 25
>years/generation is only 150k years, not 200k.  You also left out the
>"grand".  I calculate that our site probably spent five minutes
>receiving that wonderful message, at a cost of probably 25 cents.  Now
>multiply that by the THOUSANDS of sites on usenet, not all with local
>connections.  Not bad, you just made AT&T several hundred dollars.
 
Thank you for providing the most painless out possible.  Several of the
letters asked me if I knew how much it cost, and I couldn't believe it
was that expensive, but I didn't know.  I wasn't even TRYING to be funny.
Guess I succeeded.  (If you don't believe me, think about it in a year.
No newcomer will believe you when you tell him that someone posted 400
lines of great**15. NO one!)  I assumed 33 1/3 years/generation.  And I
am more embarrassed about leaving out the "grand" than having done the
posting itself!  I mean, if one (=me) is going to be asinine, do it right!

I once posted a >800 line article to net.math and net.philosophy on the
philosophy of math.  I got ONE reply, asking me to summarize.  But no one
flamed me for costing their site money!

I've also been told not to argue too seriously with REM.  Oh well.

At least REM didn't say 20000000 years.  :-)

And next time, I'll buy up AT&T stock first.  :-)
-- 

ucbvax!brahms!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720