Q: I've been watching the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing on TV. There are two astronauts frolicking on the moon. I thought there were only two astronauts on the space shuttle. Who was taking the pictures?
A: Astronaut Michael Collins joined Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11, as its command module pilot. The footage of the two astronauts was taken by a camera mounted on the outside of the lunar lander, which landed on the moon, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said. In honor of the 40th anniversary, NASA has released video from the July 20, 1969, broadcast. Visit www.nasa.gov /multimedia/hd/apollo11.html.
Q: There hasn't been any news recently about the Somali pirates. Do they still hold any hostages or ships?
A: Yes, Somali pirates continue to hold hostages, despite the resolution of the headline-making case of Capt. Richard Phillips, the American taken hostage who was freed in April after U.S. Navy SEAL snipers killed three Somali pirates.
The ICC International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre reports that there are 11 vessels with 178 crew held hostage in Somalia. The London-based organization also has found that the number of attacks increased from 114 during the first six months of 2008, to 240 attacks during the same time frame this year.
Q. Whatever happened to Cynthia McKinney (after being held in jail)?
A. The former Georgia congresswoman returned to the United States on July 7. She spent six days in an Israeli jail with about 20 members of The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights organization.
The group was taken into custody after allegedly trying to sail through a navy blockade en route to delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza, according to a previous AJC report. She and other members of her group were detained longer for failing to sign a form acknowledging their deportation and had to appear before an Israeli judge on July 5 before being released.
Q. Am I missing something here? Why does Florida have more of a right to the water from Lake Lanier than Georgia does?
A. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson's order on July 17 did not necessarily say that Florida gets more rights, said Gil Rogers, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
"I don't think one state has more of a right," he said. But Georgia, and metro Atlanta in particular, have been acting like it has more of a right than Florida or Alabama, when it doesn't, Rogers said. Georgia's need for drinking water is a real need, just as Florida's need for fresh water coming down to sustain the shellfish is a very real need, he said.The challenge is to find a way to satisfy those and other needs for the water, but Georgia is not going to get completely shut out of this, Rogers said.
Q: The news said that Congress wanted bills passed before they go on their August recess. They just got back from their July 4 recess. How many months or weeks out of the year do they actually work?
A: The 111th Congress is scheduled to meet this year from Jan. 6 to Oct. 30, the target adjournment date. Its breaks: one week in February, two weeks in April, one week in May and the week before July 4. Congress also will break from Aug. 3 to Sept. 4 for its summer district work period, according to the congressional schedule. Some sessions of Congress have lasted more than 300 days.
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