Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502040007
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: Hospitals don't charge patients for blood. ``The Red Cross blood system is based on the community responsibility concept, which is that the blood supply is voluntarily donated so that it will be available to anyone who needs it, regardless of whether they donate,'' said American Red Cross spokesman Doug Verdier.
Because the blood is a gift from healthy donors to patients, it's free. ``We do operate on a cost-recovery basis, which means that we have to recoup our expenses for recruiting donors, collecting and testing the blood, making it into components and distributing it to the hospitals,'' he said. ``We pass those costs on to the hospitals when we send them the blood, and the hospitals in turn put that on a patient's bill. In most cases, those costs are paid by third-party insurers.''
The Red Cross has a reason for not offering money or other incentive to donors. ``We're very concerned with ensuring the safety of the blood supply,'' Verdier said. ``We don't want to entice someone to donate blood who shouldn't do so in order to get some kind of premium. The only thing donors get is the knowledge that they'll be able to help someone to live, and the good feeling they get from doing that.''
Q: Has any country ever helped the United States after a disaster?
A: Yes indeed, the United States has been on the receiving end of relief efforts - and from places that might surprise you.
``One example is Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries on the face of the Earth,'' said Jay Byrne, spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington. ``During the floods in the U.S. Midwest in the summer of 1993, Bangladesh sent us $100,000 in flood equipment. They have a great deal of expertise. They deal with floods on a frequent basis.'' Israel, another U.S. aid recipient, also assisted during the floods, he said, and Japan sent $3.1 million during the Midwest floods, Hurricane Andrew and the earthquake in Northridge, Calif.
Q: A recent newspaper story about the Holocaust refers to the ``systematic murder of 11 million people, 6 million of them Jews.'' Who were the other 5 million? I rarely see mentions of any victims other than Jews.
A: The World Book Encyclopedia confirms the estimate by historians of a total of 11 million victims in the Holocaust. But no one knows the exact number of civilians killed by the Nazis, who were reponsible for the mass murders. One of the aims of Germany's dictator, Adolf Hitler, was the extermination of European Jews; by the end of World War II in 1945, two-thirds of Europe's Jewish men, women and children had been killed. The other victims included members of various other ethnic groups, especially Gypsies, Poles and Slavs; as many as 2,500 Roman Catholic priests; homosexuals, many of whom were forced to wear pink triangles as identification; and people who were mentally and physically handicapped.
Q: The downing of Francis Gary Powers' U-2 plane over Russia sparked an international uproar in the '60s. How was the supersecret aircraft shot down? What became of the pilot?
A: Two reliable sources describe the incident. Put the two accounts together and the only logical conclusion is that Soviet ground-to-air missiles were used.
``Chronicle of the 20th Century'' describes the downing as ``an action of Soviet ground forces.'' The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft says the U-2 was ``shot down by missile.'' The rockets are believed to have been fired from a base high in the Ural Mountains.
The incident occurred May 1, 1960. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced on May 5 that the reconnaisance (read, spy) plane had been shot down, with the subsequent uproar driving East-West relations into a tailspin, threatening to break up the Big Four summit; jeopardizing a disarmament conference in Geneva; and provoking dangerously ugly charges at the United Nations. At the Security Council May 26, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko charged that the United States could push the world to the ``brink of war'' by continuing its policy of ``military espionage and sabotage against the Soviet Union.''
At first the U.S. State Department denied that Powers was on a spy mission, but then conceded that he was, finally saying that the mission - photographing Soviet military installations - was justified.
Powers pleaded guilty to spy charges in a Soviet court and received a 10-year prison term. But on Feb. 10, 1962, he was released in exchange for the freedom of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who was convicted in 1957 for espionage against the United States. Powers died Aug. 1, 1977, in a helicopter crash in California. .
Q: I teach at a Catholic church school. My students are working on a project dealing with heroes of the '90s, which include Mother Teresa. We believe she is destined for sainthood during the students' lifetimes. They have made cards thanking her for her works and wishing her good health. Where can we send them?
A: The address is: Mother Teresa, Missionary of Charity, Mother House, 54A AJC Bose Road, Calcutta, India 73016.
Q: When does something go from ``patent pending'' to actually having a patent?
A: A patent is designed to protect one person's invention from being copied or stolen by someone else. Once an item is patented, the invention legally belongs only to the inventor.
``As soon as you apply, it becomes a patent pending,'' said Jim Bradley, spokesman for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ``It takes several months for the application to be processed. We have to research and make sure no one else has a patent on the same thing or something very, very close to it, and we have to research to make sure that it looks like something legitimate. Once all that's done, then the patent is granted and it becomes a patent without the `pending,' or the application may be rejected.''
The patent and trademark office gets almost 200,000 applications in a typical year, he said, with little more than 100,000 of them getting patents. ``There's a whole procedure in applying,'' Bradley said. ``A lot of people hire patent attorneys to make sure they fill out the forms right and follow the procedure properly.''
For more information, call (703) 557-4636; a Touch-Tone phone helps follow the winding path of voice prompts on the automated line.
by CNB