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From: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student)
Newsgroups: news.misc,misc.legal,alt.flame
Subject: The Cincinnatus Society of Pinheads
Message-ID: <15638@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 18 Oct 88 07:52:45 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student)
Followup-To: news.misc
Organization: Brahms Gang Posting Central
Lines: 71

[I'm directing followups to news.misc.  I don't know if it's the best
 choice, but it'll do.  This isn't a flame against anyone on USENET.]

Last January, I posted an article to sci.{astro,physics}.  I thought it
was a rather nice article, answering (perhaps) someone's questions about
what Stephen Hawking was saying about black holes and quantum mechanics
and God in some news article.

Recently, a friend on Usenet informed me that this very article was pub-
lished in THE CINCINNATUS SOCIETY JOURNAL #2 (Feb-Apr 88), and he mailed
me a photocopy of this issue.  I got it this afternoon, and I was totally
flabbergasted.

This journal is the official rantzine for the Cincinnatus Society, "a
group of individuals choosing to communicate amicably with one another
about topics of interest to persons who have achieved the level of in-
telligence of at least the top one-tenth of one percent of the general
United States population."

AAARGH!  I *HATE* these Hi-IQ societies, starting with MENSA and work-
ing your way down (or "up", as the members would say).  And there I am,
with a Macintosh picture of Einstein and a giant quotation to help the
reader along, sandwiched between Cincinnatus Society Pinhead #1 babbling
about IQ and intelligence and Cincinnatus Society Pinhead #2, babbling
about IQ and women, with *ABSOLUTELY* *NO* *INDICATION* that this article
and its author have *ABSOLUTELY* *NO* *CONNECTION* with their Pinhead
Society of Mutual Admiration, other than someone downloaded the article
to their BBS.  (The number is (818) 985-4123, "courtesy of Mr Richard
A Weatherwax" in case someone wants to check these high-IQ morons out.)

So my questions are: what can or might I do?  The very idea that I would
be associated with one of these societies, especially one whose members
"choose to communicate amicably", is so goddam fucking repulsive that I
cannot find any words to truly express my disgust.  Nor do I have any
idea of what control I might hold over my articles once I've posted them.

For all I know, Pinheads #1,2's articles might also have been stolen; I
notice though that I was the only contributor without a street address.
It did mention "Berkeley CA": this is precisely what they could figure
out from my signature.

To give an example of how pinheaded this society is, let me quote a
few excerpts from the "Society News" column:

	When we have a somewhat more conventional organization,
	we can think about higher things, such as, for example,
	the unification of the various High-IQ groups...

	In any event, the Cincinnatus Society will have a key
	leadership role in reforming the various Hi-IQ Societies'
	Constitutions and in demonstrating a higher standard of
	editing and appearance in their publications.  To that
	end, I've donated a letter-quality daisy wheel printer
	to Mr Patrick Hill, Editor of Prometheus, ...

BARF!  And guess what book was reviewed this issue (in the space of
two short paragraphs)?  THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF WORLD MASTERPIECES.
Pretty goddam intellectual, aren't they?  And they've got a list of
*vocabulary* words--56 this issue out of nearly a thousand that they
threaten to cover.  Gol-lee.  Obscure stuff like "farcical, laity,
sloe-eyed, vitiate, debauch, aggregate, digress, libretto, twit,
disconcert".  We're talking pinhead-profound.

All quotations are Copyright (C) 1987 by the Cincinnatus Society, and
are reprinted without any permission.  Up their collective arses.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE.  THESE PINHEADS REALLY EXIST, AND REALLY PUBLISHED
MY ARTICLE WITH NO INDICATION THAT THEY JUST PICKED IT SOMEWHERE OUT
OF THE AETHER, AND I AM READY TO VOMIT.

ucbvax!garnet!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720