Watching the World
World’s Water Woes
● “Around the world the thirst for water is growing so great that the search for it is turning into a scramble,” reports the Detroit Free Press. For example, the capacity of the Colorado River in the United States is so taxed that a court order is in force for Southern California cities to find alternate sources by 1985. In the Soviet Union, irrigation drain has shrunk the Central Asian Aral Sea, which was the world’s fourth largest lake, so much (from 25,000 sq mi to 20,000) that serious ecological and climatic changes are taking place. Africa, the Middle East, India and China are all faced with severe water-shortage problems. “World water withdrawals could double by the end of the century from their mid-1970s level,” says the report, and “the world’s water worries can only grow worse.”
Record Population Increase
● According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September, the world’s population reached 4,721,887,000 in mid-June, increasing by 82,077,000 in the past year. The increase was a record, according to an official of the Bureau, equivalent to adding all the people of Mexico and Somalia to the world, says The New York Times. The annual population increase had been declining in the early 1970’s due to the lowering birth rate. But since then the world birth rate has leveled at 1.8 percent. Because of this, the annual population increase is rising again. “And [the increase] will get larger each year unless the growth rate starts down again,” said the official.
Doctors on Boxing
● A resolution adopted by the 351-member House of Delegates of the American Medical Association suggests “the elimination of boxing from amateur scholastic, intercollegiate and governmental athletic programs.” It also urges that professional boxing be curtailed as “a public spectacle.” The resolution says that “numerous studies have established the frequency of progressive and permanent neurological deficits and death as a consequence of participation in boxing.” A related opinion adopted by the delegates says that “the professional responsibility” of ringside physicians “is to protect the health and safety of the contestants” and not to cater to “the desire of the spectators, promoters of the event or even the injured athlete.”
Lessons for Teachers
● “The majority of teachers talk three times as much during the average school day as all of their pupils combined.” That was the finding of an eight-year study involving 27,000 students, parents and teachers, conducted by John Goodlad, dean of education at the University of California at Los Angeles, and reported in the Rocky Mountain News. Unless teachers take a more imaginative approach, he added, no amount of reforms will improve American education. He suggested that teachers should use methods that emphasize greater student involvement and participation.
Cost of Justice
● As everywhere else, the cost of justice in Britain is so high these days that “only a tiny proportion of people are rich enough to finance substantial litigation out of their own pockets,” says a report in The Economist. A simple, one-day suit in the high court would cost each side at least £1,500 ($2,250, U.S.). If the case is complicated and drawn out, it could cost tens of thousands of pounds more. Last year the total cost of running the legal system in England and Wales was said to be nearly £500 million and about £220 million will be spent this year on legal aid alone.
Defining the Meter
● How long is a meter? This international standard of measurement was defined in 1790 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. With the advancement of science, a more precise definition was needed. Currently, a meter is designated as 1,650,763.73 times the wavelength of orange-red light emitted from a krypton-86 lamp. Now scientists have come up with a new way of defining the meter—the distance that light will travel in 1/299,792,458 of a second. According to physicist Karl Kessler of the National Bureau of Standards, the new definition, based on the speed of light, is ten times more accurate and will make it easier to measure interstellar distances accurately.
Reviving Ancient Hebrew
● As a source of the Hebrew language, “the Bible has only 7,238 words,” says Yigal Yannai, science secretary of the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Jerusalem. Although the Talmud, Midrash and medieval Hebrew literature provide another 13,000 words or so, “all these together aren’t enough for a modern language.” In comparison, he says, English has 500,000 words and French has 200,000. The Academy’s job is to find old forgotten words, or coin new ones that would describe things such as helicopters or surfboards. Such words are said to be produced on an unprecedented scale in Israel. “Today, Hebrew has 71,000 words,” adds Yannai, “but it’s growing fast.”
Bishop’s House
● An Episcopal diocese in Maryland, U.S.A., purchased a house. Its new bishop moved in. The parishioners broke out in protest, and a legal battle followed. What was the problem? The house turned out to be “a $295,000 waterfront home, complete with boat, car and wet bar,” reports The New York Times. The local parish priest fought the case because, he said, the parishioners are mostly farmers, already hard hit by recent drought. However the bishop replied that the purchase was legal and that other bishops before him had lived in waterfront homes. It is not necessary to live in poverty “to deal with the problem of poverty,” he added.
Sweet Slumber
● Crying babies and sleepless nights are part of every new parent’s trials. But relief may be on the way in what a hospital in Sheffield, England, is using—a special tape recording of the swishing sounds of a mother’s womb. “During a six-week experiment with 27 babies,” reports The Times of London, “the tape is more effective than patting, rocking, stroking or talking.” The senior nursing officer of the hospital said that, except when the baby is hungry, “the majority of babies go off to sleep within five minutes, but it ranges from one minute to 15.” “Even the mothers find the tape soothes them,” she added.
From Malpractice to Nonpractice
● “In Florida 25 per cent and in California 27.3 per cent of obstetricians have given up normal obstetrics,” reports Canada’s The Medical Post. Why? Malpractice lawsuits against their specialty “are twice the national average at 14 per 100 compared to 6.2 per 100 for other physicians,” says the report. This has drastically inflated their liability insurance premiums. Annual rates reportedly range from $3,297 in New Hampshire to $51,704 in New York. It appears that some doctors took the advice to transfer their assets to their wife’s name. “Not very successful advice,” quipped The Medical Post, “when some of the wives unexpectedly left home!”
Wine-Making Rules
● “A long list of wine-making do’s-and-don’ts” was accepted by the United States and members of the European Economic Community after seven years of negotiations, according to an Associated Press news dispatch from Washington. It was agreed that Europeans will “stop sending wines laced with dried blood powder to the United States, while Americans will stop using hydrogen peroxide to put bubbles in some of the champagnes they export to Europe.” But “powdered milk and charred oak chips” can still be used “to clarify or stabilize” the wines, according to the news dispatch, although producers say “most chemicals are removed before the wine is shipped to retailers.”
Vanishing Elms
● Dutch elm disease is declared “out of control” in large parts of northern England, Wales and southern Scotland, reports Britain’s The Guardian. The disease “has killed 20 million trees in Britain in the past six years—two-thirds of the total elm population.” Annual fungicide inoculation is not done extensively because it costs £100 ($150, U.S.) per tree. “The tragedy about the disease,” says a Forestry Commission spokesman, “is that it no longer exists in many parts of southern England because all the trees that were there have either been felled or been killed.”
Power of Prison
● A study involving 600 juvenile delinquents in West Germany found that “the ratio of relapses was largest among those who went to prison and smallest among those who got off with a warning,” reports The German Tribune. Why? Prison wardens interviewed pointed to “the damaging influence arising from contact with older, hardened criminals.” And Warnfried Dettling of the Family Affairs Ministry in Bonn said: “It is in prison that many a career in crime begins in earnest.” Each year about a hundred 14- to 15-year-old delinquents are sent to prison in West Germany, according to the report. “Most return to crime after their release,” it says.
Stereos Outblast Sirens
● Accidents of cars colliding with emergency vehicles are increasing in Tokyo, reports the Asahi Evening News. One survey shows that there were 86 such cases resulting in damage compensations in fiscal 1982. In most cases the drivers failed to hear the sirens “because they were listening to their car stereos at a loud volume with the windows closed,” according to the newspaper. And the problem is compounded by the increasing use of car air conditioners, but also to blame are drivers who have “become used to sirens and do not pay attention to them.”
Beer Guzzling
● According to a survey by Japan’s Kirin Brewery, last year West Germans topped the global beer-drinking list by consuming 38.2 gallons per person. Next were the Czechs, with 36.4 gallons. Then came the East Germans, 35.7 gallons; Australians, 34.8 gallons; and Danes, 34 gallons. The United States, though producing more beer than any other country (5.3 billion gallons, or a quarter of the world’s production), only placed 12th, downing 24.3 gallons per person. Worldwide, the survey shows, beer production increased 1.6 percent from last year.
Election Trivia
● In Britain’s last national election, “a total of 78 different parties—some of them just one-person strong”—contested, reports the Daily News of New York. Among the ‘also rans’ were such groups as “Freddy’s Alternative Medicine Party, the Belgrano Blood and Hunger Party, the Fancy Dress Party, the Traditional English Food Party, the Assassin’s Bullet Party, the Justice for Divorced Fathers Party and the Nobody Party.” The Loony Society, the Loony Monster Party and the Loony Monster Green Chicken Alliance all ran their candidates, says the report.