Watching the World
“Vanishing Nuns”
◆ The St. Louis Post-Dispatch used the phrase “vanishing nuns” to describe their declining numbers in the United States. It noted the recent poll taken by the National Sisters’ Vocation Conference which found that the number of new nuns dropped 86 percent in the last ten years. In addition, many who were already nuns were leaving their orders. The paper commented: “In a recent national study of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was found that of 1,000 younger members entering during the last 20 years, 600 have left the order.” The national director of the conference stressed that such figures do not include loss from retirement or death.
Youths Leaving Church
◆ A study by Catholic scholar Msgr. George Kelley, professor of social science at St. John’s University in New York, shows that Catholic high school students are defecting from the Church in massive numbers. According to Kelley, in 1967 about 65 percent of the boys and 80 percent of the girls attended Mass every Sunday. But four years later, in 1971, only 30 percent of the boys and 38 percent of the girls fulfilled the obligation. Another shock to traditional belief was the finding that only one out of three seniors considered it a serious obligation to be married by a priest.
Harsh Treatment for Juveniles?
◆ The town of Churchill, in Manitoba, Canada, was having a bad problem with juvenile delinquents. They were loitering in the streets, breaking into houses and smashing things, even raiding the garbage dump. Officials of the provincial government suggested shooting the worst cases. But it was argued that this would be bad for the town’s reputation. Instead, the delinquents were loaded into planes, flown about 200 miles into a wilderness and left to fend for themselves in the subarctic area. While this may sound cruel, officials hastened to add that these delinquents were young polar bears! Each year Churchill becomes a staging place for dozens of the young bears who leave their inland dens and mark time while waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze over so they can get out on the ice to hunt seals.
‘Hot Dogs’ Not So Hot
◆ A nationwide study of frankfurters by Consumers Union concludes that hot dogs are not what they used to be. For one thing, the study of more than 32 of the most widely used brands reveals that the hot dog is puffed up with excess fat and water. In 1937 they averaged 19.6 percent protein and only 19 percent fat. The recent study shows the protein content to be only 11.7 percent, while the fat content has climbed to 28 percent. Also, insect and rodent contamination was found in 19 percent of the samples analyzed. And every brand evaluated was preserved with chemicals suspected of contributing to cancer in humans. It was recommended that frankfurters be cooked for 20 minutes on a medium to hot electric grill, or boiled for five minutes.
Is It Orange Juice?
◆ New York city’s Commissioner of Consumer Affairs has urged the federal government to adopt stricter standards for what is sold as orange juice. It was claimed that some orange drinks contained “nothing but colored water” or were “made up entirely of chemicals.” The commissioner urged that drinks with 50 to 99 percent orange juice be labeled “orange dilute,” drinks with 5 to 49 percent be labeled “orange water,” and any with less than 5 percent should not have the word orange on the label.
Saccharin Use Limited
◆ The Food and Drug Administration has ordered limits on the use of saccharin, an artificial sweetener. The order removes it from the list of food additives generally recognized as safe. Preliminary evidence showed that rats developed bladder tumors when fed high levels of the sweetener. The FDA says saccharin intake should be limited to no more than one gram per day for a 155-pound person. The regulation is intended to restrict saccharin intake until testing is completed.
Water Beds Heavy
◆ A recent innovation is the water bed. Instead of conventional stuffing, this bed is filled with water. However, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has told managers of federally assisted housing areas that they can ban the use of water beds on all but ground floors. Why? Because the agency says that poorly built floors could collapse under the weight of the water, which may be 2,000 pounds for one bed. The department cautions water-bed buyers first to make sure that their floors can take it.
Fasten Seat Belts
◆ Automobile seat belts have proved effective in reducing injuries and deaths in accidents. But it has proved difficult to change human attitudes. Surveys indicate that as many as four out of five people do not use the lap belt. As many as 19 out of 20 do not use the shoulder belt. But many of the 55,000 killed and several million injured in U.S. auto accidents each year could be spared if they used the belts, especially if using both the lap belt and the shoulder belt at the same time.
Long Lives
◆ A study by an American college professor of people in the autonomous republic of Abkhasia in the Soviet Union reveals a large number of persons living active lives although over 90 or 100 years of age. Another researcher found that in a group of Abkhasians over 90, about 40 percent of the men and 30 percent of the women would read or thread a needle without eyeglasses. Over 40 percent had reasonably good hearing. There were no reported cases of mental illness or cancer in one nine-year study of 123 people over the age of 100. In this study, the group of 100-year-olds who were observed worked a four-hour day in agriculture. It is thought that their long, useful lives were due, not only to hereditary factors, but to cultural factors as well. Mentioned were the standardization and certainty of both individual and group behavior, their agricultural and outdoor way of life, the good discipline, the fact that the old continue to be useful both in their work and in being looked to for advice by younger persons, and that in Abkhasian society increasing age brings increasing prestige.
Improving Work Quality
◆ One company in the electronics field is experimenting with reversing the mass production assembly-line technique. On an assembly line, each worker adds the same few parts to a product over and over again. That does little to encourage the worker to improve quality or attitude. But on one of its products, a pocket-sized radio receiver, the company trained employees to complete the entire job of assembling, testing and packaging the radio for shipment. The result was higher quality because the workers became more interested in the end product, enjoyed their work and took a great deal of pride in their craftsmanship. While the new procedure is slower than the assembly line, officials say that the drawback is more than made up for by improvement in employee absenteeism, morale and better product control.
Rehabilitating ‘Lost’ Women
◆ Last year the Detroit City Council set aside funds for rehabilitating prostitutes by giving them job training and counseling. The program recently ended in failure and was abandoned. Why? Parade reports: “The Council failed to find a single prostitute desiring rehabilitation.”
Expensive Cities
◆ London’s Financial Times issued a table listing the most expensive of the world’s large cities, based on costs to the visitor. New York city was listed as the most expensive, followed by Caracas, then Mexico City, Paris and Brussels. The least expensive large city was said to be Moscow.
Shoplifters Mostly Amateurs
◆ Shoplifting, stealing from stores, is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States. It has nearly tripled in ten years. Of the $3 thousand million a year (about $8 million a day) stolen, industry sources estimate that the majority is taken by nonprofessionals who become tempted due to social, economic or other pressures. This includes many housewives, young people and also drug addicts.
‘Crib Death’ Unsolved
◆ A mysterious disease that kills seemingly healthy babies while they sleep is still unsolved. ‘Crib death’ claims at least 10,000 lives a year in the United States. The Senate Subcommittee on Children and Youth was told by medical witnesses that there was little optimism that a solution would be found soon. Many factors were said to be involved, such as infection and instability of the nervous system. Progress in research on the cause has been slowed because few scientists are interested and theories are difficult to prove.
‘Cruel and Uncivilized’
◆ A Toronto (Canada) physician says that any country that accepts abortion has descended into an abyss of cruelty and should not call itself civilized. Dr. Heather Morris, of Women’s College Hospital, said: “A society that weighs human life so cheaply . . . is not a civilized society. A civilized society is judged on how it takes care of those who can’t take care of themselves.”
Schoolgirl Abortions Soar
◆ Britain’s Registrar-General reports a startling increase in the number of abortions in Britain. A recent report shows that one in every six pregnancies is now being legally terminated. But the true ratio is higher because the number of illegal abortions is not known. Abortions for girls 15 years old and under are 60 percent higher than in the previous year.
Spread of Aggressive Bees
◆ In 1956 a small group of fierce African honeybees was imported into São Paulo, Brazil. It was hoped that they could be crossed with a gentle local strain to produce more honey. However, in 1957 twenty-six of the African queen bees escaped and began to interbreed with local bees. In time, the aggressive African variety overwhelmed the local strain. Today it is reported that the vigorous African bees have almost completely replaced the domestic bees in Brazil. They are well established also in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and parts of Peru and are spreading rapidly to the north at about 200 miles a year. They are blamed for having killed thousands of animals, and some humans.
Drugs and Strokes
◆ Strokes are circulation stoppages in the brain. They can cause paralysis and death. The elderly are most often the victims. However, for five years doctors at the University of Southern California Medical Center have noticed that a growing number of young people are becoming stroke victims. A research team has disclosed evidence that a widely used drug, methamphetamine (“speed”), can cause deterioration of the small blood vessels of the brain. Tests taken on drug users showed that most of them suffered blockage of the small arteries in the brain. In tests with animals, all those given the drug had irreversible brain damage in the areas around the small blood vessels. This was similar to the damage found in humans who died from strokes.
“Massive Excavation Project”
◆ The book Ecocide in Indochina claims: “The bombing of Indochina has amounted to perhaps the most massive excavation project in mankind’s history, ten times the excavation of the Suez and Panama Canals combined. The total cratered area in Indochina exceeds the area of the state of Connecticut, 5,000 square miles.”