Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510100035
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: He was in Vietnam in 1962-63 and again in 1968-69. These were his assignments: In December 1962 and January '63, he was an adviser in the Self-Defense Corps Training Center, 2nd Infantry Division; from January to November '63, senior battalion adviser (and later assistant operations adviser) in the 1st Infantry Division; from June to September '68, executive officer with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade, Americal Division; and from September '68 to July '69, assistant chief of staff (and later deputy) in the Americal Division.
Q: I read that the Unification Church owns a ``major segment'' of The Washington Times. Is that true?
A: Yes. The newspaper was founded in 1982, and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church have invested at least $800 million in it.
Q: A year or two ago, divers planned to probe the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in the Great Lakes. What was the result?
A: Several investigations have taken place since the ore-laden freighter went down in Lake Superior. The first was in 1976, when the Coast Guard used a camera-equipped robot vehicle. In 1980, colleagues of Jacques Cousteau undertook a brief manned dive, and in 1989 a private research team used another unmanned probe. In July 1994, two more manned expeditions took place using a miniature submarine. They found the mangled wreckage and took extensive video footage, but members of the expedition haven't yet been able to say conclusively why the ship went down. The two most likely theories are that it nose-dived into a monster wave in 30-foot seas and that a hidden shoal gashed its side. In any case, it happened so quickly that there was no distress signal. And there were no survivors.
Q: How can I get 1990 Census figures for the 50 states? And does the Census Bureau make mid-decade population projections?
A: The Census Bureau's reference center will send a free publication listing census statistics for all 50 states in 1990 and previous decades, as well as projections for '95. Call (404) 730- 3833.
Q: Are saw palmetto berries an aphrodisiac? Are they sold in this country?
A: Saw palmetto berries, which grow in Florida and South Georgia, are sold to Asian nations to be made into a drug that many Asians believe increases sexual powers. In the United States and Europe, it is used in the treatment of an enlarged prostate gland. It also is possible to buy the crushed-up berries as a food supplement in U.S. health food stores.
Q: Next year, 1996, is Tennessee's bicentennial. How many other states have not celebrated their 200th anniversary? Who's next?
A: After Tennessee, Ohio will celebrate its bicentennial in 2003. Tennessee was the 16th state to enter the union. That leaves 34 states that still have a bicentennial coming up. The last is Hawaii, which will celebrate its 200th year in 2159.
Q: Daniel Green, one of the men accused of killing Michael Jordan's father, had his name legally changed to Lord D.A.A.S. U'Allah. What is the meaning of his name?
A: U'Allah said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer that he was black and Muslim and wanted a name that was unique. He explained his name: ``Lord'' refers to an African prince; ``D'' stands for Dannayaal, which means ``God is my judge''; ``A'' stands for As-Saddiq, which means ``the true one''; ``A'' stands for al-Amin, meaning ``trustworthy''; ``S'' represents salaam, or ``peace''; and ``U'Allah'' means ``for or of God.'' He said he is called ``D'' for short. U'Allah, has been held in the Robeson County, N.C., jail for two years awaiting trial.
Q: How does coral reproduce?
A: Coral spawns by the simultaneous release of eggs and sperm by billions of coral polyps. A polyp is an individual coral animal, but they bind themselves together by thin tissues in the center of their cylindrical bodies. Scientists have yet to figure out why the polyps release egg bundles simultaneously, on the same night, from the Caribbean to the Flower Gardens reef bank off Texas. It occurs five to eight days after the August full moon.
Q: I read that a new postage stamp has Popeye on it. Give us a brief history of Popeye.
A: Popeye originally was a minor character in E.C. Segar's ``Thimble Theater'' strip. Originally a comic parodying movies and shows, the storylines became centered on the eccentric Oyl family. When Olive Oyl's brother Castor decided to take a sea voyage, he drafted Popeye for the difficult journey. The one-eyed spinach-chomping sailor soon stole the show, and by 1931 was the star character of the strip. When Segar grew too ill to continue drawing the strip, Tom Sims took over in 1938.
Q: In a story about ultra-thin being ultra- healthy, it referred to the ``body-mass index.'' What is that?
A: It's not enough to know your weight; you also must factor in your height to figure how many pounds you must lose to look like Olive Oyl. The body-mass index is your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters.
Here's how you calculate it: Multiply your weight in pounds by .45 to get kilograms, then convert your height to inches. Multiply this number by .0254 to get meters. Multiply that number by itself. Then divide this into your weight in kilograms. Your answer probably will be a number in the 20s or low 30s. That is your body-mass index. A study found that middle-aged women whose body-mass indexes were below 19 had the lowest risk of death.
Q: Why do you see rainbows some times and not at other times?
A: To catch a glimpse of one, you have to be standing between the sun and the rain with your back to the sun. It's commonly seen in the morning or late in the day, not when the sun is high overhead. Here's what happens: When the sun's rays hit the rain droplets, they bend rather than continuing in a straight line. The rays, bouncing at different angles, produce a band of colors.
Q: Who are the musicians playing Vivaldi's ``The 4 Seasons'' on the Weather Channel? It's one of the best versions I've ever heard.
A: Gil Shaham, a 23-year-old classical violinist from New York, plays the work, accompanied by the self-directed chamber orchestra Orpheus. Weather Channel spokeswoman Kathy Lane said the ensemble's ``The 4 Seasons,'' on the Deutsche Grammophon label, is available on compact disc or two-cassette tape versions at music stores. The Weather Channel changes its excerpts seasonally: winter (Concerto in F minor), spring (Concerto in E major), summer (Concerto in G minor) and autumn (Concerto in F major).
Q: Newspaper reports about polls usually mention a margin of error. How are such margins calculated?
A: Because a random sample cannot always reflect a larger universe with complete accuracy, statisticians calculate the range of error that could exist. It is based on a mathematical formula. The size of the margin of error is determined by the size of a sample; as the sample size grows, the chance of error decreases.
by CNB