Math tutorials January 30, 2008
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Duke, Study , add a commentThe website you made was fun. Because the homework site you made was great because it made me learn more about math. It made me learn about times tables.
I suspect you’re talking about the tutorials for 4th and 5th grade math put together by Duke University Program in Education. We’re glad that you found them useful.
President’s groceries January 28, 2008
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Food, Government , 4commentsDear Answer Person,Does the president ever do his own grocery shopping? And if he did, how much would it cost for him to go to the grocery store with his security detail?Thanks!
Nope, they don’t do anything so mundane. Except for publicity tours or when campaigning. Probably more likely for a photo op when they’re at their vacation houses rather than a regular Saturday trip to a Safeway in central Washington. The security detail gets paid a salary wherever he goes, so this or that meaningless publicity stop doesn’t matter. Politicians are always being asked what a gallon of milk costs, but I think I’d rather have them looking at things in a little more macro way.
Vista login January 27, 2008
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Computers , 5commentsWhen I use the hibernate feature on my windows vista laptop, I have to go through an additional step to turn my computer back on. It first goes to a screen and I have to click on my user name. I don’t have to enter a password or anything. How do I turn that feature off? Thanks.
Searching from a Microsoft site leads to a link with these instructions. It involves running the command netplwiz at the command prompt. This looks more like a procedure to set up a default user, so I’m not sure how it’ll work if you’re the only user and never set a password to begin with. Also, I don’t know how Vista treats logging in initially versus coming out of hibernation. I know I’m pretty grumpy when I come out of hibernation. There are also some links to sites that hint that there may be a way to change the settings w/o going to a command line command. Answer Person certainly isn’t going to test any of this on the AP computer and risk a lot of smoke and flames. And anyway, the library hasn’t provided me with Vista yet.
To skin a cat January 22, 2008
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Medicine, Science , 2commentsDescribe adaptations related to the integumentary system the cat has that differs from humans
There are entire books about this (or at least chapters, such as ch. 2 in the Atlas of Feline Anatomy for Veterinarians at the Medical Center Library), which I won’t repeat here. But for starters, they have a fur coat and most humans don’t.
Duke seal January 15, 2008
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Duke , add a commentWhat is the image of the seal used on a Duke flag located on top of McClendon Tower and in front of Richard White Lecture Hall? It seems the text is all in Latin and this image is not commonly used as an insignia for Duke.
It’s the Duke “seal,” which isn’t used much anymore compared to the official “shield.” Details can be found on the University Archives web site: http://library.duke.edu/uarchives/history/histnotes/insignia.html
Absentee ballots January 14, 2008
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Government , add a commentDo American Boards of Elections always count absentee ballots? Or are there circumstances where they would decide they did not need to count the absentee ballots that year?
Yes, they always get counted. Answer Person could find no evidence of a state or county that doesn’t. Sort of the same reason why they don’t just stop counting votes when someone gets to a total of 51% of the registered voters and thus becomes mathematically impossible to beat (unless, of course, you’re talking about the US Electoral College system for presidential elections …).
Photo booth January 9, 2008
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Duke , add a commentDear Answer Person,Whatever happened to the classic photo booth that was in the Bryan Center by the post office? I thought it was a fantastic idea, and it was duly featured in Duke Magazine in 2005. The booth seems to have vanished mysteriously since then. Where did it go?
It’s certainly there now (although there was an out-of-order sign on it in late January). What may have confused you is that it was moved from near the top of the stairs that go to the lower level, on the way to the auditoriums, to over near the post office and soda vending machines, on the side of the staircase that goes to the higher level.
