Watching the World
Marijuana Affects Brain
◆ Experiments made by biochemists Harris Rosenkrantz and Yugal Luthra revealed serious chemical changes in the brains of animals after being exposed to heavy doses of marijuana for a long period of time. There was a loss of brain protein and RNA, which are vital to the brain. Rats that were given lighter doses also showed signs of bizarre behavior. In harmony with this the chief of the psychiatry department of Cowell Memorial Hospital at University of California at Berkeley observed the following from his own experience with marijuana smokers: “After a period of prolonged use (say six months to a year) of marijuana in frequent dosages (on the order of one time daily), chronic changes occur which are similar to those seen in organic brain disease.”
Football Deaths
◆ The popular American game of football takes a yearly toll in dead and injured players. According to the Medical Tribune of October 13, 1971, in 1970 there were twenty-nine deaths directly related to football. In 1969 there were twenty-three. Most of the fatalities were due to injuries to the head, neck and spinal cord. For the past thirty-nine years deaths due to football have averaged nineteen a year. Is the game worth the annual sacrifice of young men?
Sex Without Love
◆ Sex relations outside the marriage bond are so common among young people that physicians on the campus of the University of Maryland are directing up to ten unmarried co-eds a week to abortion services in New York. A teen-age girl in San Francisco said: “You can’t tell a 16- or 17-year-old girl she can’t have intercourse. She’s going to do it anyway!” What are the results? In the past five years venereal disease has increased more than 1000 percent in the United States. One hospital in Britain reports an increase in VD patients of 25 percent this year. Some of these patients are only thirteen to fifteen years old. A professor of psychiatry at the American University of Washington said: “What they are saying when they live together and are not married is ‘I don’t want to get stuck. I am afraid that too much will be torn from me. I haven’t got enough love to be continually concerned and worried about somebody else.’” The results: frustration, disease, abortions, suicide. How much better to live by Bible standards, which promote enduring love within the marriage bond.
Shoplifting on Increase
◆ The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that shoplifting in American stores is growing at the rate of 20 percent a year. More than 50 percent of it is done by youths. In defense the stores have stepped up their security measures by installing mirrors, turnstiles and television cameras. Some have guards with dogs patrolling hallways during working hours. When one store installed TV cameras it caught 325 employees stealing merchandise in the course of one year.
Waste Products for Fuel
◆ A number of commercial companies are beginning to solve their waste-disposal problems and save money by burning their wastes for fuel. A coffee company that makes instant coffee burns its coffee grounds in a special boiler that generates a third of the steam needed to operate its plant. Previously forty truckloads of coffee grounds were hauled to a dump every day. Such wastes as coconut shells, sunflower-seed hulls, peanut shells, sawdust, the by-products of paper making and sugar refining, and even city trash, are being used by various companies as fuels, with substantial savings on fuel costs.
Sewage Can Be Useful
◆ What to do with tons of sludge left from the processing of sewage has become the headache of many large cities. The city of Chicago believes it has found an answer. This black goo that smells like tar is basically purified human manure. Chicago is shipping it by barges to an area where the land has been ruined by strip-mining. A test on 7,000 acres of such land proved the sludge to be a fine fertilizer. Corn grown on a portion that was treated with it grew eight feet tall, whereas corn grown on untreated acres grew only three feet. It has been estimated that the United States has two million acres of land ruined by strip-mining that could be reclaimed with the sludge from its many sewage-processing plants.
Photographs by Radio Waves
◆ Radio astronomy has come up with something new that has generated considerable excitement among astronomers the world over. A photograph of a distant galaxy, made by means of radio waves, is nearly as detailed as one taken by visible light. It was made by the so-called Synthesis radio telescope in the Netherlands. This telescope consists of a single mile-long row of twelve identical dish antennas. Radio impulses from the antennas were combined by a receiver and fed into a computer, and the result was a meaningful picture of the Whirlpool Nebula.
Earth’s Quasimoon
◆ A small heavenly body, only a mile or two in diameter, is now being viewed as a quasimoon. Computer calculations show that it is locked into an orbit that involves the earth and the moon. This is the first indication that the earth-moon system involves another heavenly body. This little moon is called Toro and has an orbit that brings it within 9.3 million miles of the earth as it circles the sun. The path and velocity of Toro are kept constant by the earth’s gravity.
Contact Lenses
◆ Interest in contact lenses has been sparked by the development of soft, flexible lenses. While they have certain advantages over the non flexible type, they have the serious disadvantage of being very susceptible to bacteriological contamination. Recently 1,300 sets of these lenses were seized in California because they contained eye-damaging bacteria. Even with the non flexible variety care needs to be exercised to avoid infection. They should never be moistened with one’s tongue and placed in the eyes, and cases should be kept clean. The soft variety must be boiled for fifteen minutes every day.
Sinking City
◆ Tokyo, the world’s largest city, is gradually sinking into the sea. This year it is one to eight inches lower than last year, some areas sinking faster than others. Parts of the city have sunk more than six feet since World War II. It appears that the major cause of the sinking is the pumping of water from wells by industry. With the industrial expansion in Japan such water is being pumped out faster than natural processes can replace it. As water pressure beneath the land decreases, the city sinks.
Cholera Is Spreading
◆ Throughout Africa, the Middle East and the Far East, cholera is spreading rapidly. There has not been such a widespread outbreak of it since 1899. The death toll is thought to be well past 20,000, but there is no problem where there are adequate medical facilities and good sanitation. The disease is spread by food and water that are contaminated by human wastes. Death is caused by a severe loss of body fluids.
Tonsils Are Needed
◆ It has been estimated that during 1971 one million pairs of tonsils will be removed from American children. The wisdom of this is questioned by Dr. Robert J. Haggerty of the University of Rochester. It is his view that no more than 2 or 3 percent of the children have tonsils in such bad condition that surgery is warranted. Tonsils have been found to be germ traps and are very important to children who are in the process of building resistance to various diseases.
Loss of Hearing from Antibiotics
◆ There are some antibiotics that, as a bad side effect, cause loss of hearing, especially when taken in combination. Among these are streptomycin, neomycin and kanamycin. According to Modern Medicine of October 4, 1971, they are “so toxic to the cochlea and kidney that it is essential to check the function of the two organ systems before and during administration of the drugs.”
Mind Aids Recovery
◆ Doctors have found that 40 percent of patients will respond just as well with a placebo as with a genuine drug. Results are even better if the doctor also thinks that the placebo is real medication. According to Dr. Bernard Grads of Canada’s McGill University, the mind is as important as medicine in helping a patient to get well. Concurring with this, Dr. Alfred J. Kantor of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine in the United States observed: “The most active drug can become relatively inactive in the hands of a physician who is not held in sufficient esteem by the patient . . . and a relatively inactive or even inert preparation may become highly potent if the patient believes in the doctor.”
Diet Change for Diabetics
◆ Recommendation has come from the American Diabetes Association that diabetics eat carbohydrate foods to the same extent as is considered normal for nondiabetics. Such foods include sugars, starches and celluloses. This change in viewpoint is due to the fact that the major killer of diabetics now is hardening of the arteries, which causes heart attacks and strokes. They have been eating more fatty foods, which is causing a problem with their arteries. The Association observed: “There no longer appears to be any need to restrict disproportionately the intake of carbohydrates in the diet of most diabetic patients.”
Unwise to Marry Young
◆ Statistical material released by the Census Bureau of the United States reveals that persons who marry young are twice as likely to get a divorce as are older persons. According to the census figures, 28 percent of the men who married before the age of twenty-two were divorced within twenty years of marriage. The figure was only 13 percent among men who married when older. The divorce figure for women who married young was 27 percent. It would be wise for young people to wait until they are mature.
Disenchantment with Heart Transplants
◆ Since 1967 doctors have performed 166 heart transplants, but the initial enthusiasm is gone. Too many patients have died—more than 85 percent thus far. There were also bad side effects. There were depression, brief periods of being psychotic, memory lapses, sleeplessness and marked changes in personality. According to Life magazine, immunologists have concluded that “the heart is a peculiar, particular organ, not only a pump, but a creature of some internal, unknown majesty.”
Dollar Unpopularity
◆ American tourists are finding that the dollar has lost much of its previous popularity in other countries since the United States decided to allow its value to float. Money changers are demanding substantial discounts when changing dollars to other currencies. Therefore travelers have been advised not to change money in hotels, restaurants, stores and on ferryboats. Banks give a better rate of exchange, but the rate may differ from one bank to another. Credit cards and traveler’s checks are recommended over cash.