Watching the World

Scared Sober

Judges in California are giving a “dose of reality” to teenagers who have been arrested for drunken driving, reports The New York Times. Besides being fined and put on probation as first-time offenders, they are sentenced to visit the morgue. According to the Times, judges say that the sentence is “not so much to shock young offenders as to expose them to the frailty of human life.” The reason? As one authority explains: “Teen-agers think they’re invincible,” so “they need a dose of reality.” One California judge reports that of the more than 400 youths given this sentence in Sacramento, only 6 have been arrested again. Another judge noted that the normal recidivism rate is 30 to 50 percent. The program’s success has inspired other states to institute similar sentencing programs.

Dangers for Smoking Women

Why are female smokers more likely than are female nonsmokers to develop heart disease, a condition more common in men? One reason may be that smoking is linked to hormonal changes in women, suggests a study by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Women who smoke after menopause have more of two male-type sex hormones in their blood than nonsmoking women have, the researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Our findings may provide further evidence to persuade women to stop smoking,” said physician Kay-Tee Khaw, principal author of the study.

Anglicans Allow Polygamy

Although the 70-million-member Anglican Church promotes monogamy as the Christian ideal, in August it reversed a one-hundred-year-old ban on baptizing polygamists in the church. The resolution reversing the ban was passed at a three-week Anglican conference in Canterbury, England. In the past, a polygamist had to abandon all his wives except for one in order to become a baptized Anglican. Now, according to that church, in cultures where polygamy is socially established, a man may have more than one wife and still become an approved member of the church. But, according to God’s Word, it is still adultery.​—Ephesians 5:31; 1 Timothy 3:2.

Bangladesh Flood

Floodwaters engulfed most of Bangladesh last September, leaving as many as 28 million people homeless or stranded. “It was a terrible human tragedy,” said the brigadier general in charge of feeding and housing 30,000 victims in one area of this south Asian nation. Bangladesh, with 110 million inhabitants, was hit by extreme monsoon rains that began in June and that by September had left an estimated 75 percent of the land under water. The reported death toll from all causes during the flooding stood at over 500.

Anxious Dentists

If you want to receive the best possible dental treatment, don’t show your fear of the dentist. That appears to be the message conveyed by a Hamburg survey of 342 dentists in the Federal Republic of Germany. The survey revealed that 71 percent of the dentists interviewed felt under pressure when confronted with an uneasy patient. As a result, says the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, dentists “often react with extreme caution and nervousness and have to summon up greater reserves of energy to ensure quality treatment.”