Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 9, 1994 TAG: 9410140016
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: With a death toll of more than 900, it certainly ranks as one of the worst. The deadliest peacetime catastrophe at sea occurred near the Philippines in December 1987, when a tanker collided with a badly overcrowded passenger ship and exploded, causing more than 4,300 fatalities. In the past 10 years alone, there have been a dozen major maritime disasters resulting in the deaths of 100 or more.
Q: If a president serves two consecutive terms, then takes four years or more off, can he then serve a third term?
A: No. ``No person shall be elected to the office of president more than twice,'' says the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.
Q: Is there anything to the story that a federal witness going to Pittsburgh to testify against the mob was aboard the ill-fated USAir Flight 427? If so, is anybody investigating a possible connection with the crash?
A: There was one passenger on the doomed plane who did spend the last day of his life talking to federal prosecutors about his testimony in an upcoming drug trial. But investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the FBI and bomb experts found no evidence of a bomb and said the witness' presence on the plane was coincidental. |
Q: Did Ronald Reagan ever serve in the military?
A: Reagan was in the Army. He was stationed in Hollywood, where he made training, morale and re-enlistment movies for soldiers and defense workers. One of the reasons public confusion over the former president's service record persists is that he, on any number of occasions, publicly confused his roles in wartime films with reality. For the very intrigued, Michael Rogin, in his book ``Ronald Reagan, The Movie,'' expands on this phenomenon for 366 pages.|
Q: It's been years since I've heard a sonic boom, and I can remember when they were quite common. Why don't we hear them anymore?
A: Sonic booms, which routinely occur during testing of high- performance aircraft that break the sound barrier, are still booming, probably more than ever, but there are just fewer people around to hear them. When urban and suburban areas sprung up around many of the Air Force bases where testing formerly took place, health and environmental complaints about the booms during the 1960s led the Defense Department to move the testing ranges out West to states like Idaho and Nevada. Testing also is done over the ocean.
Q: I have acquired a harmonica that is stamped ``Made in Occupied Japan.'' Could you give an explanation of this? What years was that?
A: All items exported by Japan after World War II from 1945 to 1952, when the country was under occupation, had to be so marked. And anyone growing up in the early 1950s surely remembers the cheap toys and merchandise and the jokes disparaging the quality of anything bearing that stamp.
Well, those items are not cheap or shoddy today. Tin toys, which the Japanese made out of recycled tin left by American GIs, and tacky porcelain knickknacks which cost only a few dollars back then can now fetch many hundreds. In fact, there is (of all things) an ``O.J. Club'' which puts out a newsletter six times a year for aficionados of these items. For more information, send a self- addressed stamped envelope to The OJ Club, 29 Freeborn St., Newport, R.I. 02840- 1821
Q: Do Americans have a greater chance of dying of cancer than people in any other country in the world?
A: No. From available 1992 data, this country ranked 11th in the industrial world in the percentage of cancer deaths. The Netherlands was No. 1.
Q: Was the United States the first country to give women the right to vote?
A: New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893, followed by Australia in 1901. It wasn't until 1920 that the United States followed suit.
Q: Wasn't Dr. Joyce Brothers also involved in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s?
A: Although the then student of experimental psychology at Columbia University stunned the audience of ``The $64,000 Question'' when she breezed through a 16-part answer to a final question on boxing and became the second winner of the biggest prize offered by the most popular show on television at the time, she never was branded a cheater. Three years after her win, when a grand jury investigated the rigging of TV quiz shows, Brothers was one of the few celebrated winners who did not admit to cheating, according to the Encyclopedia of Pop Culture.
In fact, Brothers answered six hours of questions about the fight game in front of the grand jury just to prove that she really knew her stuff. By the end of the 1950s, Brothers had her doctorate in psychology and was hosting a 30-minute TV advice show.
Q: If O.J. Simpson were to confess to his lawyer that he was guilty, what would Robert Shapiro's responsibility be?
A: It would be the same as if he didn't know: to give Simpson the best defense he can, to protect Simpson's constitutional rights during every step of the legal procedure, and to search for reasonable doubt concerning evidence presented by the prosecution.
Q: There was mention of a steam locomotive found buried beneath U.S. 301 in North Carolina. Can you give more information about that?
A: The engine was not a discovery, because North Carolina's transportation board knew it was there all the time. The Baldwin steam engine, circa late 1800s, was once owned by a lumber mill that went bankrupt. In the early 1930s, when construction of U.S. 301 began on an abandoned railroad track, state road builders were advised by lawyers not to remove the engine because of the bankruptcy. So they did a sensible thing: They dug a hole, put the engine in it, covered it up and built the road over it. They decided to excavate because they feared the engine would deteriorate and cause part of the road to collapse.
Q: Is it true that the new powerful laptop computers, when used on an airliner, can interfere with aviation safety?
A: An article in an issue of On Course, a newsletter for Northwest Airlines pilots, said, ``Airlines worldwide last year experienced a dramatic increase in incidents where portable electronic devices in the cabin affected flight deck systems or indications,'' and pilots have reported incidents in which suspected interference sent planes off course or skewed instruments.
Because of an increase in such anecdotal reports, most airlines have been issuing guidelines or bans on the use of certain devices. Generally, the Federal Aviation Administration leaves policies on electronic devices up to the airlines, but it is complying with a request by Congress for a technical study. In-flight use of cellular telephones or shortwave radios already is banned by the Federal Communications Commission.
by CNB