Watching the World
Compromise with Communists
◆ Pope Paul VI removed a protesting Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty, exiled primate of Hungary, from his post in February. This is seen by most observers as another step in Pope Paul’s wooing of Communist countries to gain concessions for the church. Now the Hungarian government allows the pope to fill vacant church posts, but retains the right to veto candidates. In his statement of refusal to resign, Mindszenty wrote: “The installation of ‘peace priests’ in important ecclesiastical offices shatters the confidence of priests and believers in the supreme leadership of the church.”
Economists’ ‘Changed World’
◆ Economic adviser to presidents Walter W. Heller recently told the American Economic Association that they “are distinctly in a period of reexamination. . . . There are too many things we really just don’t know.” Old economics, based on manipulating demand while assuming unlimited supply, do not work anymore. “Economists suspect that the world has changed in ways that they are only beginning to comprehend . . . the old economic textbooks are going to have to be thrown away,” observes the Los Angeles Times.
“Almost Incredible”
◆ Conservative bankers are not often given to overstatement. Yet the monthly Business Bulletin of the Cleveland Trust Company declares: “In terms of economic analysis and interpretation, 1973 (and probably 1974) will be remembered as one of the most baffling and frustrating periods in American History. . . . there has been an almost incredible sequence of illusions, perversities and seemingly insoluble dilemmas.” “The affairs of government and business,” it continued, are being forced “remorselessly toward a turbulent [outcome], the ultimate nature of which cannot yet be fully comprehended.”
Lutherans Divided
◆ Bitter theological disputes have caused the Lutheran Church’s Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, to experience the suspension of its president, resulting in a student boycott. Adding to Lutheran troubles are bitter racial clashes at the 2,500-student Concordia College in Minnesota. “Intramural touch football and basketball games between black and white teams ended in slugging matches,” reports Christianity Today.
Unborn “Breathing”
◆ For years it was thought that fetuses do not “breathe” in the womb. Now Medical World News reports that “the fetus has regular, and apparently essential, episodes of breathing” during pregnancy. These episodes are said to “prepare the unborn for the demands of respiration following birth.” During these periods human fetuses move tiny quantities of fluid in their windpipes from 30 to 70 times per minute. After birth, the hard-to-move fluid is replaced by air. The baby’s muscles are by then well toned for the job.
Space Discomforts
◆ “It’s a nice place to visit, but we wouldn’t want to live here all the time,” commented the commander of the Skylab space satellite. The bland food, which one astronaut said was becoming “highly detrimental to morale,” may have contributed to this feeling. The food, together with air bubbles in the water, and weightlessness, was also blamed for a hygiene problem he described. “We have to pass so much gas. I don’t want to pass over this lightly because I think passing gas about 500 times a day is not a good way to go. . . . The only redeeming feature is that everybody is passing the same amount.”
Space Junk
◆ Debris from space launchings is now returning to earth at the rate of about one per day. So far the only fatality has been a Cuban cow killed about 13 years ago by a 40-pound piece of a U.S. space probe. In 1962, a 20-pound chunk of Russia’s Sputnik IV hit the main intersection in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Usually such objects are burned up by atmospheric friction or they plunge into the ocean. Of more than 7,000 objects put in orbit, there were nearly 3,000 remaining in early January. All but 624 are classified as “debris.”
Presbyterian Decline
◆ “We Presbyterians are so affluent, so comfortable, so concerned with getting and spending that the church has slipped into the rim of our lives,” says Clinton Marsh, moderator of the 2.9-million-member American church. A three-year decline in membership and financial giving was cited as coming from spiritual malaise and internal disputes over the church’s social-action policies.
Copper for Pennies
◆ At the current price of copper, it costs the American government nearly a penny to make a penny. The U.S. Mint wants Congress to authorize aluminum pennies if the price of copper continues to go up. Thirty-six other countries already use aluminum coins. These would cost less than one tenth of a penny to make, saving the government $40 million per year. At less than a third of the weight of copper, they would not be as wearing on pockets either.
No Miles to the Gallon
◆ An automobile engine may idle away as much as a gallon of gasoline an hour while waiting in line for more. Long waits are becoming commonplace in many parts of the U.S. Every line of cars just two blocks long burns up about 15 gallons of fuel an hour—at no miles to the gallon. Thousands of these lines further aggravate the energy crisis as well as the people in the lines.
Oil Crisis Saves Locomotives
◆ India and South Africa are delaying their planned phase-out of coal-fired steam railroad locomotives. Fuel for oil-burning diesels is hard to get, whereas coal is plentiful. In India, “the Railway Board is coddling its remaining steam engines” to get another 10 years of service from them, reports Business Week magazine. South Africa’s 2,128 still-operating steam engines will not meet their frequent end as brightly polished museum pieces so rapidly either. “We won’t withdraw any more from service at present,” says a Government railway spokesman.
Shortage Benefit
◆ The ugly sight of abandoned automobiles along American roadways is beginning to disappear. Due to increased demand for melting steel, the price offered by steel companies about doubled last year. Scrap dealers are bidding up to $35 each to cities across the country for the privilege of picking up the hulks. The country’s 105 automobile shredders make quick work of getting them into a usable form. It takes them about 15 seconds to cut a 3,000-pound auto into 5,000 little pieces.
Volcanic Heating
◆ Hot lava that last year almost buried the little island town of Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, is now being used to heat homes. Scientists say there is enough heat in the lava to warm all the homes on the island for twenty years. Water pumped through coils of pipe buried in the lava was 181° F. when it reached the first home.
Fruits of Education
◆ Education, it is sometimes said, will solve mankind’s problems. But what kind of record do the world’s educational systems have? One answer comes from educator Rolf A. Weil, president of Chicago’s Roosevelt University, who says: “We see the same destructive forces of nationalistic power politics and religious and ethnic prejudices that have plagued mankind throughout history. . . . throughout history formal education has usually made man more competent and skilled, only occasionally made him wiser, but practically never made him better by ethical or religious standards.” Why? Because they have not been motivated by a genuine desire to know and to do the will of God.
Marijuana “Harmless”?
◆ It has often been argued that marijuana is merely a harmless tranquilizer, and so should be legalized. But is it really harmless? Recent medical findings indicate that it significantly reduces the body’s ability to fight disease. The ability of disease-fighting white blood cells to reproduce was 40 percent less in marijuana smokers. Products of the weed also tend to accumulate in the reproductive organs. A Columbia University researcher says: “It is therefore most urgent to find out to what extent long-term marijuana use” might adversely affect offspring.
Halibut Shortage
◆ The International Pacific Halibut Commission cut in half (to 12 million pounds) this year’s halibut catch quota for the Gulf of Alaska area. It would have been set at 10 million pounds were it not for economic hardships already facing the fishing fleets. The Commission says halibut stocks in the northeastern Pacific and Bering Sea “are at seriously low levels.” Nations other than the U.S. or Canada that fish in the area are not controlled by the Commission. They are reportedly severely depleting stocks, and cooperation is slow in coming.
Poor Nations Face Disaster
◆ A recent World Bank survey of the oil needs for 39 poorer countries reveals that higher prices are enough to more than cancel all the foreign aid scheduled for them this year. Oil-dependent fertilizer supplies are short and prices are soaring. At the same time, cost of food imports for these hungry countries will nearly quadruple during this crop year. Oil shortage in the U.S. means that “we may have to ride the bus instead of drive. . . . In Asia, Africa and Latin America, it means disaster,” says a high government official.
Subcontinent of Hunger
◆ Hunger persists in the Indian subcontinent. Both India and Bangladesh have current record harvests. Nevertheless, India is still plagued with food riots. Reports indicate that these are largely because farmers do not want to sell to the government for distribution at low subsidized prices in government “fair price shops.” The farmers sell where they can get higher prices. Bangladesh, whose rapidly growing population density is now about 1,300 persons to every square mile, compared to India’s 426, is compelled to import food. Pakistan is still suffering from last August’s massive food-destroying floods.
India’s Wealth
◆ India’s recent food problems spotlight her as a poor nation; per person income there is about $75 a year. Yet, by other standards, India is among the world’s wealthier nations. It is considered a major industrial country, having the world’s tenth-largest gross national product. Only the United States and Russia have more science graduates than India. And the country is rich in many undeveloped natural resources, richer in iron and zinc, for example, than North America.
Soldiers Overseas
◆ Among approximately 13,000 personnel in the U.S. Army’s Second Division stationed in Korea, 11,600 cases of venereal disease were reported in 1972. American authorities, reports a Seattle Times correspondent, say this “is an indictment of the desultory lives led by generally bored G.I.s on overseas assignment.”
First 1974 Babies
◆ Four newspapers in the state of Iowa ran “first born of 1974” contests. Illegitimate children were first in all four cities. Three newspapers awarded prizes to the unmarried girls, aged 15, 17 and 19. The fourth refused and awarded its prize to a legitimate child finally born 15 hours later.
“Sound” Limit
◆ The City Council of Leeds, England, has decreed a 96-decibel limit for amplified music to save its young people from hearing loss. That is four times the level of sound at which the British Department of Health recommends protective earmuffs for workers. Yet a spokesman at the University of Leeds says that almost all groups play louder.