Watching the World
Why More Bombs?
◆ People often wonder why, if a nation has enough weapons to kill the world’s population many times over, its leaders continue to urge production of even more and better weapons. Recently McGeorge Bundy, national security adviser to U.S. presidents Kennedy and Johnson, shed some light on the matter in a speech to London’s International Institute of Strategic Studies. He said that U.S. administration policy was never really based on the idea of “usable superiority,” or just having more and better weapons than the other side, but, rather, on the threat of retaliation. “But he conceded that officials did not talk that way in public,” reports the New York Times. He said that, though publicly asserting weapons superiority, “what we did not say so loud was that the principal use of this numerical superiority was in its value as reassurance to the American public.” But will the millions among the “American public” who are struggling to pay this winter’s fuel bills be ‘reassured’ to know this?
Building Better Bombs
◆ Scientific research and development now employs about three million scientists and engineers around the world, according to Washington, D.C.’s, Worldwatch Institute, and costs about $150 billion each year. What is the world getting for its money? Well, about one fourth of the money ($35 billion) and half a million scientists are busily designing better weapons. Three times as much is spent for ‘destruction’ research as for developing sorely needed energy technology in a fuel-short world.
Lowering the Standard
◆ Following the trend of general moral decline, the Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, William H. Webster, indicated recently that the bureau is going to put less emphasis on private life-styles of its agents. For example, agents who engage in sex outside of marriage no longer will be subject to automatic dismissal. Though homosexuals are still banned from serving as F.B.I. agents, the director indicated he will study scientific literature on homosexuality and may be agreeable to consider relaxing the rule some time in the future.
“Child Power”
◆ The International Year of the Child has spawned some radical attempts to define the “rights” of children. From Germany the Frankfurter Rundschau reports that a spokesman for one group of self-ordained defenders of children said that children “should be free to decide their own affairs and not educated towards goals set by adults.” He continued: “The schools of the future should be an institution where learning is offered on a voluntary basis, open from early morning until late evening, where teaching is offered at all times without attendance being compulsory. Those who do not wish to learn could occupy themselves in the schools’ recreation areas, which would be attended by social workers. Teachers would no longer be instructors but learning assistants, . . . leaving it to the children to decide whether or not they want to avail themselves of what is going. After all, children know best what they need.” But do they?
To Spank or Not to Spank?
◆ Child psychologists have long spoken out strongly against punishing children by spanking. But now a number of them are changing their viewpoints, at least to some extent. For example, psychologist Fitzhugh Dodson says: “It’s impossible to raise a child and not whack him a few times.” When a child is ‘demanding and obnoxious, a couple of whacks will clear the air.’ And Louise Bates Ames of the Gesell Institute of Child Development in New Haven, Connecticut, recently declared: “Spanking doesn’t tell a child anything but that you are angry. Of course, that’s not a bad thing for him to know occasionally.” Man’s Creator makes it clear that even physical correction, discreetly administered, can be beneficial for children, since all have inherited sin and imperfection.—Prov. 19:18; 22:15; 23:13, 14; 29:15.
Nazi “Saint”?
◆ Archbishop Franjo Kuharic of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, recently urged Pope John Paul II to consider beatification of his predecessor, Alojzije Cardinal Stepinac, as a Roman Catholic “Saint.” Stepinac’s jaded past apparently does not deter Kuharic and other supporters. The New York Times reports that after the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, “a puppet regime was established in an independent state of Croatia. Archbishop Stepinac announced the founding of the state from the pulpit of the cathedral in Zagreb, became a member of the Council of State and accepted the post of Supreme Apostolic Vicar to the [Nazi puppet] troops.” After the war, the Yugoslavs convicted him of Nazi collaboration and sentenced him to 16 years in prison. “Pope Pius XII made the Archbishop a Cardinal during his imprisonment and all those associated with his prosecution were excommunicated,” reports the Times. “In Yugoslavia, except for Croatia, his name became synonymous with fascist excesses.”
Oldest Channel Swimmer
◆ When Jim (Doc) Counsilman recently swam across the English Channel at the age of 58, he became the oldest person ever to make that swim. He also became the 214th person to complete the crossing. It took 13 hours and seven minutes. The wind blew him off his course, requiring an additional five miles (8 km) of swimming. When asked why he made the crossing, the Indiana swimming coach said: “I think we have greatly underestimated the physical potential of older people. Who says people my age are over the hill? . . . we’ve got to realize how many productive years we have left after 50.”
Swedes Drop Church
◆ The greatest number of membership cancellations in history struck Sweden’s state church (Lutheran) last year. Over 30,000 Swedes decided to take the step, according to the church information center.
Youngest Bank Robber
◆ With the record-setting rash of bank robberies in New York, it was perhaps inevitable that some youngsters would try their hand at it. Recently two youths walked into a bank on Long Island and a 12-year-old with a BB gun told the teller: “Put the money in the bag or you will be dead.” The teller laughed so heartily that it embarrassed the youths and they fled empty-handed. Later police arrested the BB-gun-packing youth and his 16-year-old accomplice. They explained that from television they learned about all the successful bank robberies, and so they watched the bank for several days, then stayed away from school to pull the robbery.
Potent Protection from Pests
◆ Scientists looking for substances to combat agricultural pests have taken keen interest in the East Indian neem tree. Dr. Martin Jacobson, a chemist at the U.S. Federal Department of Agriculture, has isolated substances from this tree that protect crops from insect invasion. One of these extracts, called “azadirachtin,” is said to be so effective that insects will not even touch a plant protected by it. For example, the Japanese beetle would rather go hungry than dine on plants treated with this substance from the subtropical tree. “Insect deterrents from plants,” said Dr. Jacobson, “are ecologically sound alternatives to chemical pesticides.”
Quick on the Draw
◆ How fast can a cow be milked by hand? At the seventh annual hand-milking competition in Madrid, Spain, a Spanish farm worker “coaxed a record 15 litres [4 gallons] out of his favourite cow in 10 minutes,” reports To The Point International magazine. His efforts exceeded the nearest competitor by six L (1.6 gals.).
“Barbaric Methods” of “Christians”
◆ During Lebanon’s civil war of 1975-76, Palestinians and leftist Moslems fought against two other groups—followers of the country’s former president and their allies the “Christian” Phalangists. Both of the latter groups are Maronite Catholics. But after the war, feuding developed between the two Maronite factions who had been allies. The former president’s eldest son and 30 others were killed in a Phalangist raid. In retaliation, over 100 Phalangists and family members were kidnapped. Then a group believed to be made up of Phalangist gunmen took hostages too, and killed five more relatives of the former president. As a result, the Lebanese government recently announced it was putting into effect special security measures in the northern region to prevent a return to chaos. Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss deplored what he described as “these barbaric methods” employed by the so-called “Christian” factions.
Relief from the Common Cold
◆ Doctors in Israel report having good success in eliminating cold symptoms by nasal hyperthermia. A device, equipped with two nozzles, vaporizes distilled water, with a hot airstream entering a patient’s nostrils at 43° C (109° F.); but the patient does not come into direct contact with the unit. Said Dr. Dov Ophir at Kaplan Hospital: “This is sufficient to dispel all symptoms of the cold in most cases.” The idea for this therapy was spawned by research done by the 1965 Nobel Prize winner André Lwoff at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He showed that even small increases in temperature decreased multiplication of viruses. Dr. Avraham Yerushalmi of the Weitzmann Institute reported that 85 percent of patients treated with nasal hyperthermia felt relief. Even headaches and malaise vanished.
The Abacus Rebounds
◆ With the advent of the electronic calculator, many wondered if the abacus would fade out of the picture in Japan. “‘There was a time when all the publications were asking whether it’s time to say sayonara to the abacus, but that talk is over,’ says Tsutomu Morita, a director of an organization of 8,500 abacus teachers.” After some years of decreasing sales, abacus production is up. The Ono abacus makers’ cooperative reported last year’s production at 2,100,000, up about 3 percent from 1977. Most shop owners continue to use the abacus. A skilled user of an abacus can perform many mathematical calculations almost as rapidly and accurately as an electronic calculator. Teachers prefer that students use the abacus since it obliges them to learn the fundamental mathematical concepts. “Much of the operation of the abacus is in the mind,” observed a government official. “Japanese are well-versed in mathematics, and the abacus serves as a concrete model of what’s going on in their heads.” Further advantages of the abacus are that it “isn’t powered by batteries and wooden beads don’t burn out.”
Antibiotics Overused
◆ The New England Journal of Medicine recently reported on a survey of 5,288 patients in 20 hospitals in Pennsylvania. Researchers found that American hospitals could reduce the dosage of antibiotics by about 20 to 25 percent, which, in turn, would save some $100,000,000 a year. They believe that the use of antibiotics to prevent any postoperative infections should be limited to the first day or two following surgery, rather than throughout the entire hospital stay.
Roller-skating Injuries Up
◆ Due to increased popularity of roller-skating in the U.S., the number of injuries from accidents has risen sharply. In 1974 there were 52,000 roller-skating injuries reported; in 1978 they had jumped to 92,836. Of the various types of injuries, facial ones rose the sharpest—17 times the number in 1974. According to the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, skaters could prevent many injuries by wearing proper safeguards, such as kneepads, elbow guards, gloves and helmets.