Watching the World
Credit Card Fraud
● Credit card crime is a hundred-million-dollar-a-year business in the United States and it is growing fast, reports The Toronto Star of Canada. “Many of the schemes involve well-oiled, convincing telephone pitches” offering microwave ovens, fishing boats, TVs, cruises, and so forth, at great discounts, says the report. “That’s the bait. The hook is getting the credit card number.” Then a counterfeit card is made with the number. Or criminals who pose as legitimate merchants will use the ill-gotten number on phony copies of credit card receipts, which they submit to a bank in return for cash. By the time the bank discovers the scam, the “merchant” has left town. Here is advice for card holders: Don’t give out your credit card number over the phone unless you are dealing with a reputable business. Keep the customer receipt and carbon papers from credit card triplicate forms and destroy the carbons when you get home. Finally, check your monthly credit card statements carefully for any fraudulent charges.
Cash-Copying Threat
● “Plans are in motion that will change the face of [U.S.] paper money,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Why? Because an upcoming generation of copying machines that can reproduce documents in high-quality color will make the counterfeiting of bills too easy and too tempting, say authorities. The most likely alternative, among those being considered, is reported to be the adding of a second, hard-to-reproduce color to the bills. Another alternative is to put on a bill’s margin a “security thread” that cannot be seen, and hence not copied, unless it is held up to the light. Or perhaps holograms or thin films that shift in form or color as it is viewed. The Treasury Department is expected to announce its choice this year.
Chopsticks Anyone?
● The Chinese have long been known for their habit of eating out of a common bowl with chopsticks. But recently Hu Yaobang, general secretary of the Communist Party, was quoted on Peking radio as saying, “We should prepare more knives and forks, buy more plates and sit around the table to eat Chinese food in the Western style.” Why? “By doing so we can avoid contagious diseases,” he says. According to a report in The New York Times, “figures released recently have shown frightening rates for infectious and contagious diseases, and there has been a spate of articles [in China] about changing eating habits.” But many Chinese object. Said a Chinese restaurant owner in New York, “The knife and fork just doesn’t fit Chinese food. . . . You just don’t get the right mix on a fork.” Said another: “I think the chopstick will last forever.”
Colds From Hands
● “An increasing body of scientific evidence suggests that the hundreds of viruses that cause the common cold are spread chiefly by hand contamination rather than by coughing or sneezing,” says the International Herald Tribune of Paris, France, in reporting the results of recent experiments by two medical teams. Both teams, one from the University of Virginia and the other from the University of Wisconsin, demonstrated that a new type of chemically treated facial tissue was 100 percent effective in stopping the spread of colds under experimental conditions. But, interestingly, the study in Virginia showed that, while the frequent use of regular tissue was also effective, colds could be passed on if sufferers shook hands with healthy individuals. It is believed that the hands of a cold sufferer, contaminated from touching infected nostrils, pass on viruses to the hands of healthy individuals who often get infected by touching their own eyes and nose. To avoid spreading colds, the report recommended a cheap, old-fashioned approach—“wiping one’s nose frequently with regular facial tissue and keeping one’s hands clean.”
Cancer Preventative
● “People who eat vegetables daily have a lower risk of cancer than those who don’t.” So says the New York Daily News in reporting one of the biggest long-term cancer studies ever done. Headed by Dr. Takeshi Hirayama of the National Cancer Research Institute in Tokyo, Japan, the study analyzed cancer deaths from 1965 to 1981 among some 122,000 men over 40 years of age. The highest cancer death rate—808 per 100,000 men—was among those who smoked cigarettes, drank, and ate meat but did not eat vegetables. Among those who shared the same habits but did eat vegetables daily, the death rate was 524 per 100,000. Only 324 deaths per 100,000 men occurred among those who did not smoke, drink, or eat meat but consumed vegetables daily.
Cut Cholesterol
● The average American’s cholesterol level is too high and something must be done about it. That was the conclusion of an expert panel convened by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The panel noted that a typical middle-aged American has a cholesterol reading of 220 to 260 milligrams per 100 milliliters of blood serum. Citing this level as contributing excessively to heart disease, which accounts for half of American deaths due to disease, it concluded that a desirable level should be less than 180 milligrams for people in their 20’s and less than 200 milligrams for those 30 and older. Among its recommendations for the average American are the following: Eat less red meat, substituting fish and poultry (without its skin). Eat sausage meats and bacon seldom, if at all. Cut down on hard cheese and ice cream, as well as butter, margarine, oil, and other fats. Avoid processed foods that are made with large amounts of saturated fats. Limit consumption of egg yolks to two to four a week. The New York Times called these suggestions “the most far-reaching public health recommendation yet made on cholesterol and heart disease.”
Inconclusive Study
● Alzheimer’s disease is uncurable and afflicts three million North Americans. In its final stages, victims lose their memory, speech, coordination, and control of bodily functions. But recently hopes for a helpful treatment were raised when Neurosurgery magazine published the results of a preliminary study involving four victims of Alzheimer’s disease who received injections of bethanechol chloride into their brain. The results? “Repeated reports [from family members] of decreased confusion, increased initiative, and improvement in activities of daily living” for all four patients, reported the study. A week after it was published, medical centers specializing in the disease were swamped with inquiries. But the doctors admit that the results of their study are inconclusive, perhaps coincidental. “The media have just grabbed on to this thing, and a lot of false hopes have been raised because of it,” said David Roberts, one of the doctors who conducted the study.
Typhoons Missed
● For the first time since 1941, Japan has gone through an entire year without a single typhoon. But as a result, rain-starved reservoirs have dropped well below normal levels, reports the Asahi Evening News. While the Japanese are glad that the lack of typhoons has saved lives and property, Takashi Nitta, head of the planning division for the Japan Meteorological Society, says, “I think in the long run, we’re going to find that not having typhoons is a bad thing.”
Up 15,000 Percent!
● “One of the most dramatic changes in the U.S. Catholic church since Vatican II is scarcely ever heard about,” reports the National Catholic Reporter. “Annulments in this nation are up more than 15,000 per cent in 15 years,” from 338 in 1968 to approximately 52,000 in 1983! Under church law, any Catholic who has been married in a “sacramental” marriage ceremony cannot remarry—even if he or she has a legal divorce—without being considered an adulterer. “That’s the church’s bind—that the [original, church-sanctioned] marriage is indissoluble,” says Catholic attorney Joe Zwack. But if the original marriage can be annulled, that is, declared invalid, then Catholics can remarry in good standing. The church’s increased desire to retain its members is one of the reasons why annulments are now commonly granted. If Catholics cannot get annulments, says Zwack, then “we’ve lost an awful lot of people.”
Symbolic or Not?
● Electronic candles are replacing real ones at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Greektown, Michigan. But not all the parishioners are happy about using them, reports the Detroit Free Press. “Insert donation in slot,” say the instructions located by the collection box. For one dollar, one candle stays lit for 24 hours; two dollars, 48 hours. “Pick up magic wand and place tip inside top of any unlit candle,” continue the instructions. A thin, metal wand switches the electric candles on. The candles actually flicker and look like the real thing from a distance. John Nader, who presides at the church, says, “The symbolism isn’t in the candle itself. It’s in the light that’s there.” But Rose Hartley, a 68-year-old parishioner, refuses to use them, saying, “They are not symbolic to me.”
German Protestants
● “More people than ever are seriously considering leaving the Church,” says The German Tribune in regard to German Protestants. And there is a real incentive for doing so—less taxes. In Germany, leaving the Church involves deregistering at a local registry office, and this allows exemption from paying tithes as a percentage of income tax. “Seventeen per cent of Protestants questioned said they were considering deregistration. Seven per cent said they were virtually decided or planned to do so as soon as possible,” says the report. Only 6 percent of German Protestants regularly attend church services.
Man’s Best Friend?
● Dogs are responsible for more than 70,000 cases of infection in humans each year, according to Dr. David Baxter and professor Ian Lack of Manchester University. The report, taken from the Daily Telegraph of London, says this figure includes 31,000 cases of infections from dog bites, up to 14,000 cases of acute diarrhea, and 9,000 cases of ringworm. The figure also includes 16,000 cases of toxocariasis, which can lead to blindness in humans and which particularly affects children.
Pet Funerals
● The pet funeral business is doing very well in Japan. The Asahi Evening News reports that one company earns 30 million yen ($120,000, U.S.) a year from pet funerals. The death of a large dog could cost the grieving owner more than $800, including $152 for “tape-recorded sutras of his choice played during the funeral service,” says the article. Funerals also are held for cats and birds, although dogs account for 70 percent of the business.