Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994 TAG: 9405240008
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: Burundi, according to Africa Watch, is teetering on the edge and ``could explode in the coming days or weeks.'' After the deaths of Presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprian Ntayamira of Burundi, allegedly shot down while flying home from a peace conference in Tanzania, a coup attempt by some in the Burundian military failed to overthrow the interim president. No shots were fired, and an uneasy peace has prevailed. The two countries have the same ethnic makeup; the conflict in both involves the rivalry between the minority Tutsis, an ancient aristocracy, and the majority Hutus. Both presidents were Hutus. The military is controlled by Hutus in Rwanda and Tutsis in Burundi.
Q: Oliver North is running for a Senate seat in Virginia. Isn't there a law saying that convicted felons can't hold that office?
A: Yes, but North's three felony convictions were thrown out by a federal appeals court.
Q: Why do all pro basketball coaches wear suits instead of more casual outfits? Is this a requirement of the National Basketball Association?
A: Coats yes, but not ties. ``They're just, you know, formal sort of guys,'' explained a spokesman for the NBA.
Q: Which animals are used most in medical experiments - dogs?
A: No. Mice, rats, birds, frogs, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits are used most often, followed by dogs, cats and primates. This conclusion comes from government and university laboratories, which say that about 70 million animals are used in research every year. Animal rights groups say that number is depressed because of nonreporting by private-sector researchers, and that at least 100 million are used.
Q: What does the `D' in D-Day stand for?
A: It's a term the military uses for the start of any operation, and nobody quite knows when it came into use or why the apparent redundancy. It has been suggested that the `D' stands for death, deployment, destruction, doom and such, but the Army Center for Military History said it simply stands for ``day.'' There also is an H-Hour, which more precisely zeros in on the start of an operation. No M-Minute that we know of. Operation Overlord was the official name of the World War II invasion of Normandy. .
Q: Now that nuclear weapons are being dismantled, does the gold that was in them go to Fort Knox, Ky.?
A: No. If you've purchased a necklace in the last year, you could be wearing a souvenir of the Cold War. Gold, as well as platinum and silver from melted-down nuclear missiles, is auctioned to the public and most certainly winds up in jewelry. Pure gold is used as an anti- corrosive, and is not radioactive when separated from radioactive elements like plutonium.
Q: Why do basketball games always seem to come down to the last shot?
A: Which leads to another question: Why not just play the last two minutes of the game? One researcher has shown that the most common margin of victory in professional basketball is two points. In another study of 24,000 professional games played before 1989, about half of all games were won by three or fewer points in regulation time. Still another researcher showed that the winning team in an average National Basketball Association game scores only 52 percent of the total points. Obviously, then, a large number of games are going to be determined by the last shot. Another reason there aren't many big blowouts when one team is much superior is because basketball is physically exhausting, with the same players on both offense and defense. If a team pulls ahead by, say, 20 points, the stars head for the bench until the lead gets in jeopardy.
Q: When will we know the U.S. voting results in the South African elections?
A: We won't, because the bags containing the votes were sealed and flown to South Africa. They were lumped in with all the other votes - absentee and resident - and counted together.
Q: During the recent eclipse, the moon was between the Earth and the sun, so the sun was shining on the far side of the moon. Is there ever a time we can see and photograph the far side of the moon?
A: Not except from a spaceship. In the late 1950s, a Soviet rocket photographed the dark side of the moon. Since then, the side unseen from Earth has been mapped extensively. The side we see has what astronomers call ``mare areas'' - the Sea of Tranquillity and the Sea of Serenity - which give the lunar surface its ``man in the moon'' face. The far side looks quite different. It is pockmarked with craters and has one significant sea. Moon globes detailing both sides are available in school supply stores.
Q: I've read that there are nearly 6 billion people on Earth. How many people will the Earth hold?
A: Although there can be no ``last straw'' estimate, the Population Information Bureau told us that scientists think the Earth will hold 10 billion comfortably - if a significant number move from cities to less densely populated areas. Another billion people are expected to be added to the Earth's population in the next 10 years.
Q: At at a recent Braves game John Smoltz was pitching. The bases were loaded with two outs. Smoltz threw a third strike to the batter, and catcher Charlie O'Brien dropped the ball. O'Brien then picked it up and threw it to first. Question: Why didn't he just step on home plate for the out?
A: O'Brien was going by the book when he threw to first. In ``The Rules of Baseball,'' an official publication of Major League Baseball, it says that a batter becomes a base runner if the third strike is not caught only if first base is unoccupied, or occupied with two outs. A Braves spokesman said that in a bases-loaded situation, the runners are not required to advance. So O'Brien was doing the safe thing by throwing to first.
Of further interest on this rule: If a batter becomes a base runner on a third strike not caught by the catcher, starts for the dugout but realizes his situation and attempts to reach first base, he is not out unless he or the base is tagged before the runner reaches the base. But if he reaches the dugout or dugout steps, he shall be called out.
Q: Is the house where John Wayne Gacy lived and buried his victims still standing?
A: The house of horrors in Norwood Park township outside Chicago was in the name of Gacy, his mother and sister and was purchased at a sheriff's sale in 1984 by a Chicago savings and loan for $30,500. The S&L tried to sell it, but, not surprisingly, there were no takers, and the S&L razed it. The lot was purchased by an individual, who built another house there.
by CNB