Watching the World
Argentina Court of Appeals Renders Its Decision
On June 16, 1977, this court gave its long-awaited decision with regard to the ban on activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Argentina. It stated that, with certain exceptions, “the measures applied to the plaintiff [Jehovah’s Witnesses] . . . are left without effect.” In other words, the decree against Jehovah’s Witnesses was overruled. However, on July 1, the Argentinian Ministry of the Interior took the case to the Supreme Court, so that, until that court reaches its decision, the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Argentina continue to be banned.
When to Start Reading?
Most parents wait for public education to teach their children to read. But a University of Minnesota professor recently told the International Reading Association convention that “a child who has been read to at home will have very little problem learning to read in school.” He says that “the child who has been read to at home learns order and intelligence and fluency,” whereas those not read to see “in the printed word a great complexity.” According to the professor, six months old is not too early to start, and, by two or three, children should be encouraged to participate by having them follow the print as you read aloud.
Tobacco Religion
“We wouldn’t be here without tobacco,” declared a member of the North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church as he argued against a resolution to convert tobacco lands to the production of useful crops. “This is a classic example of biting the hand that feeds you, of killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said. “Where do you think North Carolina Methodists get their money?” Christian Century reports that the resolution was voted down “by a margin of 2 to 1.”
Departing Spirits Take Toll
Mourners all over Japan are observing the thirty-third anniversary of the death of loved ones in World War II, and Japan’s 1.7 million Buddhist priests are hard pressed to conduct all the memorial services required. One priest “has stopped smoking to protect his overworked vocal cords,” reports Time magazine. But “the work has its secular compensations,” it remarks. “Temple offerings range from $100 to $3,000 per service.”
Mormon “Roots”
Three researchers claim to have proved that Mormon founder Joseph Smith did not translate the entire Book of Mormon, as claimed, from ancient golden tablets. Prominent handwriting experts who were not told the Mormon connection, examined photocopies of twelve original manuscript pages, along with known handwriting specimens of Solomon Spaulding, a Congregational minister and novelist who died in 1816.
All three experts are said to have independently concluded that Spaulding’s hand wrote all the documents. It is alleged that this portion of the Book of Mormon may have been lifted from an unpublished Spaulding novel about American Indian origins. Interestingly, a comparison with the King James Version of the Bible will reveal that Smith used large sections almost word for word, even using the 200-year-old, out-of-date English from that version and its errors in scholarship.
Soviet “Other Woman” Solution
“With 170 brides for every 100 bridegrooms our women must accept the role of The Other Woman instead” of marriage, declares Moscow’s leading newspaper The Gazette, as quoted in London’s Daily Mail. As in many other lands, the increasing ease for young men to have sex without marriage is said to diminish their desire to take on that responsibility. “We may not like The Other Woman solution,” says the government-sponsored Gazette, “but what can we do?” Why the official concern over so delicate a matter? “If thousands of Soviet spinsters already in their 30s do not take lovers they cannot become pregnant, and the country needs these children,” says the paper.
Safe in Her Jaws
Controversy over whether crocodiles cradle their newly hatched babies between their jaws recently was settled. A. C. Pooley of the St. Lucia Estuary Game Reserve in Zululand, South Africa, reports that they do just that. He says that when the cheeping little ones hatch, mother will dig them out of the nest and gently take one in her mouth, shaking it down into a special pouch inside. “From here on its downhill all the way,” says England’s New Scientist magazine. “The sound of the baby already in the mouth encourages the others to enter, and the crocodile merely lowers her jaws to allow the little mites in.” As many as eighteen babies may enjoy safety behind those fearsome teeth as she gently nods her head to keep them peaceful.
“Life on Mars”?
A recent article in Atlantic magazine entitled “Life on Mars” cited one Martian lander experiment as “the strongest and most unambiguous piece of evidence for Martian life.” But the Viking scientist responsible for the experiment writes: “I should like to set the facts straight.” He then shows that, though there were unexpected results from his experiment, “a dispassionate examination of all the evidence (some of it not yet published) leads to the conclusion that the results are compatible with a non-biological [non-life] explanation, but not with any reasonable biological one.” He concludes by saying that “nobody should be misled into thinking that there is substantial evidence for [life] in any of the Viking results.”
Biofeedback Challenged
The idea that one can control certain of his own involuntary body functions merely by seeing their “feedback” signal on an electronic monitoring device has been popular for some time. Experiments seemed to confirm this. However, researchers at the University of Kansas report in the Journal Experimental Psychology that their tests “revealed no value whatsoever in heart rate biofeedback.” Previous experiments that appeared to obtain positive results “lacked the [necessary] control groups,” they say.
The scientists compared biofeedback subjects with groups that were told to (1) simply change their heart rates without seeing any monitoring device, (2) sit quietly, (3) think of exciting or relaxing things, and (4) a group that received random false feedback from the monitoring devices. “When appropriate control groups were considered, all decreases in heart rate could be attributed to a simple adaptation [non-feedback] effect,” stated the researchers.
Iceberg Water to Drink?
Ninety percent of the world’s fresh water is locked in Antarctic ice. A group of thirty experts gathered recently in Paris to consider a proposal by French consultants to use this ice for drinking water in arid lands. Saudi Arabia had commissioned the study to determine whether this might be an economical way to satisfy her growing needs, in place of desalting seawater. The French scientists estimate that towing, slicing and melting icebergs from the Antarctic would be 30 to 50 percent cheaper than desalinization. New Scientist magazine notes that this would make it “economically competitive not merely in arid countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait but also in areas like Australia, Chile and even California where water scarcity is not so acute.”
“Marshmallow” Morals
The recent study of sexuality commissioned by the Catholic Theological Society of America recommends guidelines other than the Bible and Church doctrine for sexual behavior. Matters such as premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality are to be considered in the light of “creative growth toward integration,” according to the theologians. Rather than using Biblical direction, they say one can judge one’s own sexual acts by whether they are ‘self-liberating, other-enriching, honest, faithful, socially responsible, life-serving and joyous.’ Jesuit theologian Richard McCormick observes that the study—at odds with official Catholic doctrine—reflects “the marshmallow character of their moral criteria.”
Sumoist’s Fatal Fat
Japan’s famous sumo wrestlers have a fatal occupational hazard—their giant girths. Winners in sumo matches are determined by whoever forces any part of his opponent’s body to the ground or drives him out of a 15-foot (4.6-meter)-diameter circle. Hence, says Japan’s Daily Yomiuri, “it is often the fat rather than the muscles that determines a champion.” A rich diet of rice, thick meat stew, beer and rice wine fatten the sumoists to as much as 180 kilograms (400 pounds). But this weight takes its toll. Recently it was found that there are five times the normal rate of diabetics among the wrestlers, and they die in their early to mid-fifties, whereas average Japanese males live past seventy.
Greek Falling Out
When a sixty-one-year-old Greek priest fell from his fourth-floor balcony and landed on the roof of his neighbor’s car without suffering a scratch, he attributed his rescue to the “benevolence of the Virgin Mary.” However, says Athens News, “the priest did not . . . seem to be protected from the anger of the parked car’s owner, who asked for an 8,000 drs. [$224] indemnity, claiming that the priest fell purposely on his car because he strongly disliked his daughter.”
“Witching” the Prosecutors
The Navajo Indian tribal prosecutor recently had a hard time filling the job of prosecutor for one of his Arizona districts. Aside from a rather low salary, he says that applicants shy away from the job because they are sometimes “witched” by disgruntled defendants. “You can feel it when someone has witched you,” he claims. For his own peace of mind, the prosecutor “goes to medicine men about six times each year for ceremonial sings that restore him to harmony,” reports the Arizona Republic. He also recommends the procedure to other prosecutors.
Acupuncture Update
After stomach surgery, persistent hiccups are no joke. A doctor at the University Hospital Centre of Lyons, France, reports successful use of acupuncture in treating this problem. After using points in the ear and leg, Dr. Gilbert Benyamine claims that “the hiccup stopped at the moment when the needle was withdrawn.”
“Already surgeons have used acupuncture to carry out more than 500 heart operations in West Germany alone,” reports Belgium’s To the Point International, “and French doctors in Marseilles use the method to perform caesarean births without drugs.”
Total TV
The U.S. House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee recently summarized their findings from hearings on TV violence. One interesting fact was that 97 percent of American homes have at least one television set—more than have indoor plumbing.
Scottish Milestone
“A sad milestone for Scotland,” bemoans The Sunday Post. Why? “By the end of this year the Kirk’s [Church of Scotland] membership will have fallen below one million for the first time this century.” But “even this figure is an illusion,” says the Post. “Of that million, hundreds of thousands are hardly ever inside a kirk. They fork out as little as possible for the collection. They may join to get married, or to get the bairn [baby] christened—then lapse again.” More than 1,700 a month have been dropping out, on the average, over the last five years. The church also complains that two thirds of its membership contribute “spasmodically” or not at all.