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Q: When refining crude oil to produce diesel fuel, I understand that compared to gasoline it takes less refining. Is the yield in gallons per barrel greater?
A: The refining energy efficiency of diesel has a slight advantage over reformulated gasoline, says Don Anair, senior analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, but the actual yield in gallons of diesel per barrel of oil is less than gasoline.
This is important when comparing the global warming emissions from diesel and gasoline vehicles, Anair said.
A diesel vehicle may get a 30 percent to 40 percent improvement in miles per gallon over a gasoline vehicle, but the reduction in greenhouse gas is closer to 15 percent when accounting for the higher energy and petroleum content of diesel fuel.
Q: What happened to Paul Harvey?
A: The 89-year-old Chicago-based radio icon is back on the air part time after recovering from pneumonia, bronchitis, cataract surgery and the death in May of his beloved wife, Lynne "Angel" Harvey, according to ABC Radio Networks. Harvey is telling us "The Rest of the Story" on a full-time basis, but has cut back on his daily news duties.
You can hear him on the midday news several times a week. There has been no announcement on when he'll return full time to his "News and Comment" show. Lynne "Angel" Harvey died in early May after a long battle with leukemia. They had been married for 68 years.
Harvey began his radio career in 1933 at KVOO-AM, Tulsa, while he was still in high school. He moved to Chicago in June 1944 and began broadcasting from the ABC affiliate WENR-AM.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Zaxby's is a fast food chain operating in the south and ohio.
Q: A Zaxby's commercial features an actor named Cody Linley. Who is he?
A: Cody Linley has appeared in feature films and on television. The 18-year-old starred as Mullet Fingers in "Hoot," a movie about a boy who causes mayhem when the owls in his home in the woods are threatened. A few of his other movies are "My Dog Skip," "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town." On TV, he has been on popular shows such as "That's So Raven" and "Hannah Montana."
Zaxby's, the Athens, Ga.-based company, was started by childhood pals Zach McLeroy and Tony Townley in 1990.
Q: I heard that Tiger Woods has three half-siblings from his father, Earl. Are they close? Why are they never mentioned?
A: Golfer Tiger Woods' three half-siblings from his father's first marriage are brothers Earl Jr., born in 1955, and Kevin, born in 1957, and sister Royce, born in 1958. Tiger, born in 1975, is the only child of Earl and his second wife, Kultida. According to published reports, the three older Woods offspring, who prefer to stay out of the spotlight, have always supported their baby brother's success and have tried to stay in touch with the megastar. But, they have said in interviews, even family has to go through Tiger's handlers. Distance is another factor, as the siblings reportedly live in Arizona and California, while Tiger and his family live in Florida.
Earl Woods died of cancer in May 2006, at 74.
Q: Where is Maggie Rodriguez of CBS News from, and where can I write to CBS News?
A: Maggie Rodriguez was born in Miami in 1969 after her parents fled Cuba, and she was raised there. She joined CBS' "The Saturday Early Show" as co-anchor in 2007 and became co-anchor of "The Early Show" in January. Now living in New York, Rodriguez is married and has a daughter. Write CBS News at 524 West 57th St., New York, NY, 10019.
Q: Is it true that Polaroid cameras and film will no longer be available at the end of 2008?
A: Polaroid is getting out of the instant film and instant camera business. According to its Web site at www.polaroid.com/ifilm/en/index.html, most film types are no longer being made. Polaroid stopped making instant cameras a year ago. Fujifilm is an option for some instant cameras as it continues to sell its brand of instant film. However, with the Fujifilm for Polaroids, the print is inside of an envelope that must be removed.
Polaroid introduced its revolutionary instant camera in 1948. It contained film packs that could develop images inside the camera. The photos emerged from the camera in less than a minute. Besides its recently introduced PoGo printers that can develop wallet-sized photos from digital cameras in 60 seconds, the Concord, Mass.-based company plans to focus on digital photography, flat-panel TVs and other products.
Q: What is the meaning of "state of the art?"
A: State of the art means the latest or the highest level of development. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, the phrase originated with technology despite the use of "art." Its first use is credited to a 1910 engineering manual by H.H. Suplee on gas turbines.
Q: What are the fire retardant chemicals they are dumping on the forest fires out in California? How effective are they?
A: The planes are dropping a commercial product called Phos-Chek. It's a dry powder that's mixed with water. About 80 percent of what comes out of the plane is water. The main ingredient in Phos-Chek is "chemical salts," which is fertilizer such as ammonium phosphate and diammonium sulfate.
A red dye is part of the mix, too. The dye helps the pilot see where the retardant already has been dropped and where to begin the next drop.
Water alone won't stop the fire for long, as it evaporates too quickly. Once the ground cover is coated with the mix, it will resist fires until the next big rain.
Q: A recent report said Chinese citizens were being urged to send text messages in case of terrorism. How do they send text messages with an "alphabet" of thousands of characters?
A: Although Chinese has thousands of individual characters, many phones have software that use English letters to represent the sounds of particular characters. Also, Motorola has developed a texting technology that is based on "finger writing" — writing on a mobile phone keypad with a finger or stylus. The system predicts the characters the writer wants. There are also handsets available with Chinese-language menus. Cellphones are very popular in China, and text messages are cheaper than phone calls.
Q: I know there's one day a year when you can balance an egg on one end. Is that the winter or summer solstice?
A: Physicists will tell you the vernal equinox in March doesn't make it easier to balance an egg. Myth sleuths trace the idea to a March 1945 Life Magazine article about the Chinese practice of balancing eggs on the first day of spring, which in China is in February. The vernal equinox, when the sun passes over the equator, marks the first day of spring here, and day and night are the same length. This led to the idea that gravity on this day somehow made egg balancing easier. But it's mostly a matter of patience, or cheating.