parents January 18, 2006
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentHow many parents (of children under 18) are there in the USA? And if you can, how many parents are there with kids who are between 5 and 14?
Do you have kids, AP?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: AP can’t find these figures in standard sources. Since this seems the sort of thing of interest to marketers, I recommend that you contact the fine folks at the Ford Library of the Fuqua School of Business. For a ballpark idea (no age breakdown), according to Table A-7 of the Census Bureau report “Examining American Household Composition: 1990 and 2000″ — http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/censr-24.pdf — in 2000 there were 32,967,528 “partner households” with “children in household.” (This is further divided between spouse and unmarried partners.) I guess multiply that by 2 to get the total number of persons in a partnership, or 65,935,056. Then, there were 12,178,781 “nonpartner households” with “children in household.” That sounds like single-parent families. The sum is 78,113,837, although some of these children might well be 40 years old! Still, I’m guessing this might be an approximation of the “children under 18″ category.
Everyone who asks a question or makes a comment is like one of AP’s children.
stone mountain January 18, 2006
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentdid they want to put a fourth guy on stone mountain originally? Who was it and why did he get excluded?
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ga/dekalb/postcards/mmodel.jpg
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Several sources state that the second sculptor to tackle the project, Augustus Lukeman, planned four figures, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, “Stonewall” Jackson, and an unnamed color-bearer. Perhaps this last figure was supposed to symbolize the average draftee. In any case, by the time the monument was completed in 1970 (dedicated by Vice President Spiro Agnew), they were pretty sick of the project dragging on for so long. Eliminating the fourth guy was one of several shortcuts taken.
alcohol January 18, 2006
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentWhy do they put alcohol in cough medicine and the like? Does it do something no other substance can resonably do that makes it worth using alcohol, which many people would rather not injest (like kids)?
thanks
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: There seem to be homeopathic cough syrups, such as made by Boericke & Tafel (B&T), that don’t contain alcohol. I’m guessing that as a central nervous system depressent, alcohol helps kill feeling and reduce coughing, but AP is no medical researcher so can’t tell you what works and what doesn’t work for your cough. It may be because cold medicines have a goal of helping you sleep. It may be because the main ingredients are more soluble in alcohol than in just water or in an oil-based substance.
colbert report January 18, 2006
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentWhy does Stephen Colbert now say out of 434 when he discusses his American congressional district interviews on the show the Colbert Report? Aren’t there 435?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: On show 122 (i.e., #22), which aired in November 2005, it came out that “Better Know a District” is no longer a 435 part series due to the fact that Colbert has banished the California 50th district from the show. He was devastated by the bribery scandal that had just caused its Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham to resign.
swimming pools January 10, 2006
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commenthow many swimming pools are there in texas? I’m mostly interested in privately owned ones, but if there is a texas-wide number, I’ll take it.
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: AP can’t find any compiled figures on this, and I think you might have to contact every single municipality and county in the state. The local propery taxing authorities would be the ones most interested. However, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s “2002 Economic Census: Construction: Geographic Area Series” for Texas, the value of *new* construction of outdoor swimming pools for only 2002 was $657,627,000. That’s 2/3 of a billion dollars annually in new swimming pools. If you fly into the Dallas or Houston airports, you’ll believe it.
Medical center expansion January 9, 2006
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe Durham Morning Herald recently carried a story describing a major expansion of the Duke Hospital — a $73.2M project that will include new operating rooms, an 8 story office building, and a roof-top helicopter pad. For a project of this size and scope, there has been remarkably little opportunity for public comment or review of the plans. Do you know of a source where I could learn a little more about the project with perhaps some site drawings or plans? There does not seem to be anything about this project on the Duke website — isn’t this a little surprising? Thanks for your help.
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: No, it’s not too surprising. Duke is private and doesn’t need to have all those public comments and so forth that they might need at a public institution. (Actually, I think projects at public universities can get railroaded through the same way!)
Being in Durham, buildings would have to conform to local zoning and environmental regulations (although there might be some leniency for an institution employing 20,000+ persons). There’s a “University and Collge” zone withing the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) that might apply, although for the Medical Center some other regulations might apply. The UDO is managed by a Durham City/County Planning Department at http://www.ci.durham.nc.us/departments/planning/udo/ . You also might want to look at this Durham city web page: http://www.ci.durham.nc.us/departments/clerk/boards.cfm There’s a Durham Planning Commission and a Durham City-County Appearance Commission (!) that might be able to shed light on building projects. One of these departments or commissions should have public hearings if a variance to the UDO is requested, you’d think.
There’s an article now in “Inside” (the Medical Center and Health Center newsletter) that is about the same as what’s in the Herald-Sun. It mentions that state approval for the new building is pending. They promise an update in the upcoming January “Inside.” AP doesn’t know for sure, but the state agency that approves this might be the Division of Facility Services of the Dept. of Health and Human Services: http://facility-services.state.nc.us/
The Duke University Architect Capital Projects web page http://www.architect.duke.edu/capitalprojects/ doesn’t yet seem to have information on this project.
