Friday, November 28, 2008

Questions of the Day--#3

Who was the only bachelor president?

Was the Bubonic Plague caused by a virus or by a bacterium?

Is a zebra white with black stripes or black with white stripes?

What is the telephone area code for a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean?

What is the average number of tornadoes that occur in the US each year?

Someone has hurled a contumely at me. What have they done?

8 comments:

Lion of Zion said...

"Who was the only bachelor president?"

are you asking about an actual bachelor or someone who acted like he was a bachelor?

hodesh tov and shabbat shalom

ProfK said...

Lion,
If we talk about Presidents who acted like bachelors, regardless of being married, then all but one of our presidents qualifies. I mean an actual, not married, bachelor.

Anonymous said...

You do realize that I'm supposed to be cleaning for Shabbos? Thanks for giving me a reason to sit down for a few minutes.

Orthonomics said...

James Buchannan, the 15th president and the subject of my fifth grade research paper, which I typed on a IBM electric typewriter.

Anonymous said...

My impression is that nobody is sure what the Bubonic Plague was, but that would support the argument that it's bacterial, I think, because we're all immune to it so we don't know which of the zillions of bacteria in us it is. Viruses morph, so it would still be around if it was viral.

Question about the area code: so the ship has a different code when it's in port? Why would that be? Cell phones have the same code no matter where they are.

ProfK said...

Lon,
Ships that sail the oceans are assigned area codes for the oceans they are sailing. Even when the ship is in port you need to use the "cruising" area code if you are calling the ship directly, trying to get hold of a passenger or are sending a passenger a fax. If a ship is repositioned from one ocean to another, which happens from time to time, they switch area codes. If you are calling a passenger's cell phone you use the area code attached to that phone on land. Note that calling from a ship's phone lines can be really pricey; from the Caribbean a call to NYC costs $7.00 to 7.50 per minute. Keep in mind though that regular cell phones don't always get service when on the water.

ZONE PHONE/FAX AREA CODES
Atlantic/Mediterranean 871
Pacific Ocean 872
Indian Ocean 873
Caribbean 874
(If the Caribbean code doesn''t work, try the Atlantic code.)

ProfK said...

Lon,
Bubonic plague is still with us, more commonly just referred to as "the plague." It is caused by Yersinia pestis (formerly known as Pasteurella pestis), which is a bacteria. It is believed that the Black Death (Black plague)of the 1300s was probably bubonic plague, and could account for why people refer to that plague as Bubonic plague, although its "official" title is the Black Death.

miriamp said...

Zebras are black with white stripes. In utero they start all black, then the stripes develop.