Watching the World
INACCURATE DATING
For decades, historians and paleontologists have often relied on radiocarbon dating to estimate the age of fossils. However, according to Time magazine, “those estimates, while valuable, are also known to be somewhat uncertain.” The magazine added that “carbon 14 levels in the air—and thus the amount ingested by organisms—are known to vary over time, and that can affect the results of carbon dating.” After comparing the results of a carbon-14 test with a uranium-thorium test, a group of geologists at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Laboratory in Palisades, New York, found that the “radiocarbon dates may be off by as much as 3,500 years—possibly enough to force a change in current thinking on such important questions as exactly when humans first reached the Americas.”
WIRE DIET
The Jerusalem Post reported on a recent trend in Israel among some people who want to lose weight. In order to cut down on their food consumption, some have been asking doctors or dentists to wire their jaws shut. The authorities took notice of this trend when “advertisements announcing the wiring began appearing in newspapers.” The practice is illegal; Israel’s Health Ministry has been able to stop about a dozen dentists from doing this type of dental wiring on patients. According to the Post, Dr. Moshe Kelman, head of the Health Ministry’s Dental Health Department, stated that his office is investigating the suicide of an 18-year-old girl whose jaws were wired shut to lose weight.
POLLUTION BLAMED
“Each generation is getting weaker as pollution builds up and wears down the immune system,” claims allergy specialist Dr. Jean Monro of Britain’s Breakspear Hospital for Allergy and Environmental Medicine. Environmental pollution, failure to breast-feed babies, the addition of chemicals to food and water supplies, and an unwise use of medicines and drugs are cited as contributing factors. Diseases ranging from asthma to cancer, and even child behavioral problems, result. As reported in The Times of London, an estimated 17 million people, some 30 percent of Britain’s population, could be suffering from environmentally induced ailments, many without realizing it.
VIOLENT TURTLES
School authorities in Australia are facing an increasing problem with violence among children. According to The New York Times, some are blaming the popular Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles craze. One expert stated that children “are learning that violence, as used by the good guys, is the answer to all problems and this is then translated into their behaviour.” Many Australian schools have banned the toy weapons, warning the students to “leave their Ninja swords, nunchakus and sticks at home.” The newspaper adds that “despite widespread concern about the Turtles’ effect on children, both the Ninja Turtle movie and the television series are scoring record ratings.”
THE SECRET OF LONGEVITY
A new world record for longevity has been set by the Japanese with the average life expectancy for women reaching 81.77 years and for men 75.91 years. The experts attribute this to “a decrease in deaths among infants and middle-aged people,” reports the Mainichi Daily News. At 112 years of age, Waka Shirahama, the oldest person in Japan, and one of the nation’s 3,298 centenarians, said that the secret of her longevity is “to live a diligent, moderate and honest life,” according to The Daily Yomiuri. In another interview she added: “Eat all kinds of foods without having likes and dislikes, get plenty of sleep, and don’t forget to keep smiling.”
CLEAN THE KLONGS
Klongs, Bangkok’s picturesque, bustling canals lined with houses on stilts, have helped to make Thailand’s capital famous. But Asiaweek magazine notes that “some of the waterways have been turned into soupy, putrescent cesspools of refuse and sewage.” Most of the homes along the klongs are not linked to Bangkok’s sewage system and cannot be reached by garbage trucks. The result: Every day 140 tons of sewage and garbage ends up in Thailand’s mighty Chao Phraya River, which sustains the klongs. Some klongs, choked with refuse and depleted of life-sustaining oxygen, give off a stench that is hard for riverside residents to bear. A campaign has thus been launched to clean the klongs. Asiaweek notes that “armies of volunteers have responded to the drive.”
BLOODY FILMS
“If you have the impression that movies today are bloodier and more brutal than ever in the past, and that their body counts are skyrocketing,” noted The New York Times, “you are absolutely right.” Modern technology and new plastic substances enable movie producers to add shocking realism to violent scenes. Some of the more popular films include hundreds of violent deaths. As an example, the newspaper mentioned the film Die Hard 2 in which over 260 people were violently put to death, including one man who was stabbed in the brain through his eye socket and another who was sucked into a jet engine. According to the same article, a good number of these films are “the sort of action-adventure movies that have come to dominate today’s market.”
SEAL SLAUGHTER?
The proposed clubbing of 30,500 seals on the west coast of South Africa has drawn so much emotional public reaction that the plan has been shelved. However, some conservationists believe that culling the seals is necessary for the marine environment. According to The Star of Johannesburg, overcrowding by 1.3 million seals around the Cape and the Namibian coast already poses a threat to the marine habitat. Says conservationist Vic Kabalin: “Years ago Seal Island . . . was noted for its Cape fur seals and its jackass penguin rookeries. Now you see only seals.” The reason for the ecological imbalance? The Star states: “The Cape seal’s major predator, the large sharks, have been greatly reduced in numbers through shark nets and fishing. So the 1,3 million or so seals . . . have little to control their numbers except man.”
UNUSUAL LANGUAGE
Visit Gomera, one of the seven Canary Islands, and you will likely hear what sounds like canaries with megaphones. As reported in The Hawke’s Bay Herald-Tribune of New Zealand, it is the silbo, or whistling language, that for centuries has been used as a second language by the island’s inhabitants. Although it takes five years to learn and requires a high degree of skill, it was widely used by peasants working the island’s mountainous interior, as it carries much farther than a spoken tongue. “You can say anything by whistling and if the weather’s good you can hear it 3 km [2 mi] away,” says one user. Because each letter of the alphabet has a corresponding whistle sound, even modern words can be whistled.
AIRLINE ACCIDENTS
A major airplane manufacturer, Boeing, has been studying the frequency and causes of airline accidents. According to The Wall Street Journal, the manufacturer has examined about 850 large-scale crashes that have occurred since the late 1950’s. Boeing claims that “mistakes by flight crews have caused more than 72% of the accidents during the past 10 years.” The report stated that if the number of airline flights continues to increase at the present rate and the number of accidents fails to decrease at a faster rate, by the middle of the next decade, the net effect “would be an average of 20 major crashes a year for all makes of airliners . . . , up from 15 now.”
MINE DEATHS
“For every ton of gold mined, a miner is killed,” reports The Star of Johannesburg, South Africa. According to statistics provided by the Chamber of Mines, an average of more than 560 fatalities have occurred annually in South African gold mines for the last seven years. Although fatalities have shown a slight decline, Mr. Reinoud Boers, liaison officer for the Chamber of Mines, says: “The fact is that mining is a hazardous occupation. Although we would prefer to have no deaths, this is the reality of mining worldwide.” Half of the deaths are caused by pressure bursts and rock falls. “South African mines,” explains Mr. Boers, “are the deepest in the world (up to 4 km [2.5 mi]) and we are therefore dealing with both heat and extreme rock pressure. We are also digging the hardest rock anywhere in the world.”