Watching the World
China’s “Flying Knife” Surgery
◆ How essential are blood transfusions to the work of a good surgeon? A report by John Roper, Health Services correspondent for the London Times, offers a revealing insight. After visiting the People’s Republic of China, he writes: “Surgeons in our group were impressed by the ‘flying knife’ technique of the Chinese doctors: the speed and neatness of the operation and, particularly in the case of the patient with a stomach ulcer, how little bleeding there was.
“This appears to be true of much of Chinese surgery. Although blood for transfusion is available, there are no blood banks or blood donor services as we know them, as apparently the demand for blood is small.”
Message to New Pope
◆ The periodical Il Mondo, described as “Italy’s leading economic weekly,” recently published an open letter to the new pope, John Paul I, appealing for “order and morality” in the Church’s financial dealings. “Believe us, Your Holiness,” wrote the weekly’s editor, Paolo Panerai, “we understand well the [need] of the Vatican to have financial autonomy to sustain its apparatus, to spread the faith, in addition to pious works. . . . But don’t you think, Your Holiness, that to achieve those objectives there are ways other than the most unscrupulous channels that capitalism offers?”
With the letter Il Mondo published a report that asserted that the Vatican bank (Institute for Religious Works) has an estimated $2 billion (U.S.) in deposits, held in part by “some of the biggest Italian industrialists and businessmen.” The editor asked: “Is it right that [the Vatican] has a bank whose acts help Italians transfer capital [abroad] and evade taxes?”
French Titles Dropped
◆ On orders, said to have come from President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, aristocratic titles before the names of about 5,000 Frenchmen have been dropped from the telephone book. The move is to save space, according to the post office, which also controls France’s telephones. The post office carried the idea a step farther, and “to prove its democracy,” says Parade magazine, “has also dropped such titles as ‘Dr.’ and ‘Rev.’”
Atom Bomb Consciences
◆ How does it feel to participate in the simultaneous deaths of over 80,000 people? George Caron was tail gunner of the bomber that released an atomic bomb on Hiroshima 33 years ago. He recently recalled: “I felt great that I was in something like this. I was hoping it would work and we’d get away from it.” Since then he has had “no bad dreams, no remorse: it had to be done.” Belgium’s To the Point International magazine notes that “Caron’s clear conscience contrasts strongly with that of Claude Eatherly’s who died a few weeks ago. He experienced years of anguish and remorse having been the spotter pilot who guided the [bomber] to its target.” (See Awake! September 22, 1978, p. 29.)
Reuse Uncanceled Stamps?
◆ Some people, as an economy measure, peel off all uncanceled stamps from their mail and use them again. An American senator’s secretary was doing this to the tune of $5 to $10 a day, much to the delight of the senator, who claimed to be saving the taxpayers’ money. However, the U.S. Postal Service says that such reuse is illegal.
Aristotle’s Limitations
◆ The Athens Daily Post reports that, in August in Thessalonica, Greece, an international congress was held marking 2,300 years since the death of Aristotle. The famous Greek was described by Professor John N. Theodorakopoulos of Athens University as “the first important systematic philosopher.” However, he was limited by human wisdom, as were his philosophical predecessors, Anaximander, Anaxagoras and Empedocles. Thus, he also fell into evolutionary thinking. Aristotle wrote: “Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of demarcation.”
Monks Hoard Texts
◆ It was recently revealed that two years ago Greek Orthodox monks on Mt. Sinai found thousands of early Christian textual fragments. The parchment and papyrus remnants included eight missing pages from the valuable Codex Sinaiticus, a fourth-century Greek Bible manuscript held in the British Museum. “The monks have kept the lid on their find,” reports Christianity Today, “allowing relatively few remnants to be microfilmed.” Why? “Rivalries among scholars, church factions, and governments are part of the reason for the foot-dragging,” says the magazine.
World’s Noisiest City
◆ The average noise level in Hong Kong from 6 a.m. to midnight is said to be comparable to that of a jetliner flying a few hundred feet overhead, according to a researcher from the University of Hong Kong. “As a whole city, Hong Kong is the noisiest in the world,” he said. A recently completed survey revealed that the overall average mean noise level in the city’s built-up areas is 76 decibels (db). The corresponding sound level in New York city is 66 db, only reaching 75 db in downtown Manhattan. Comparable overall averages in London are 62 db; Düsseldorf, 63 db; and Tokyo, 57 db. An increase of three decibels means a doubling of the amount of noise.
Diamond Deception
◆ Since most South African diamonds are shaded slightly yellow, deeper yellow stones and brilliant blue-whites are much more costly. However, fraudulent operators have learned that bombarding common diamonds with neutrons and then heating them creates the valuable deep-yellow color—for a possible 400 percent profit! To expose the fraud, according to Britain’s New Scientist, gemologists have relied on a side effect of the neutron bombardment that makes the altered gems highly absorbent to a certain wavelength of light. But now it has been learned that heating the diamonds even more destroys this property—so it’s back to the laboratory for the fraud hunters.
“Acupuncture Cures Smoking”?
◆ Soviet Life magazine reports that “Scientists of the Central Research Institute of Reflex Therapy have evolved new methods of diagnosis and treatment by acupuncture.” Among their experimental findings, claims the journal, is the discovery that acupuncture needles at certain points in the ear cause “revulsion to smoking in the patient.” Assertedly, “about 90 per cent of the [experimental] participants gave up this harmful habit.”
Rhine Renewal
◆ After 30 years of absence, salmon were recently caught in Germany’s famous Rhine River. The first unbelieving fisherman was convinced that his was not a unique catch when another fisherman caught one the next day. The river had acquired a reputation as ‘Europe’s largest sewer.’ However, the salmon catches, as well as some trout sightings, indicate that efforts to curb the disgorgement of untreated sewage by cities along the Rhine are paying off.
London Dwindles
◆ The population of London is now lower than it has been for 70 years—under seven million—according to the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Before World War II, the metropolis was over eight and a half million, and at one time London was the world’s largest city.
Biggest Bank Embezzlers
◆ According to banking and insurance sources, the amount of embezzlement losses at American banks has tripled in the past six years. The increase is due “almost exclusively to the fact that senior bank managers have been putting their hands in the till at an unprecedented rate,” said the New York Post. Embezzlement by bank tellers is small compared to the money stolen by bank officials, since tellers do not have access to such large amounts. Embezzlement by bank executives has created multimillion-dollar losses that have threatened the very existence of some banks. F. Le Munyon, an insurance official, cited inflation as one reason for the upsurge, stating: “People need more money today to continue to live in the style to which they are accustomed, and a bank officer has a unique opportunity to get ahold of that money.”
Huge Abortion Toll
◆ A recent estimate by Contemporary Review of London puts the worldwide toll of abortions each year at about 45 million, equal to the entire population of Turkey, or the Philippines. Since many abortions are performed illegally, injury or death to the woman often results. The death toll among these women is estimated to be about 150,000 annually. In addition, a study of 65,000 women in New York and Hawaii found that those who have had an abortion have, in later pregnancies, a 35-percent-higher rate of miscarriages than normal. Other pregnancy problems, such as low birth weight and premature birth, were about 25 to 50 percent higher for women who previously had abortions.
Living Lawn Mowers
◆ Officials of a town in Ohio were concerned that workers might be injured mowing the grass at a hilly sewer-plant site. So they obtained six sheep to do the job. They did well, but tended to avoid the steeper slopes. The village administrator then obtained two goats, which took care of the steeper hilly areas with ease. It is reported that “the grass is neater than ever.”
Careful with That Hammer
◆ In one year, more than 30,000 individuals in the United States were treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with hammers. The most frequent cause of injury was striking the thumb or fingers while hammering, resulting in cuts, bruises and broken bones. Injuries also resulted from hammerheads flying off the handles and metal chipping off hammerheads. Safety experts suggest using the right hammer for the job, with the hammer face always larger than the head of the object the hammer is striking. For example, if a person is striking a metal chisel that is one half inch (1.3 centimeters) in diameter, the hammer face should be at least one inch (2.5 centimeters) in diameter.
Joggers, Beware!
◆ Dr. Roger H. Michael of the American College of Sports Medicine reports that when knee, leg, ankle and foot problems are considered, more injuries are caused by jogging than by any other sport. Citing what he considers to be the cause, Dr. Michael states that “often the uninitiated . . . will get a bad pair of tennis shoes and start running on hard surfaces.” This, he says, can result in “very incapacitating” problems “and can lead to long-term difficulties if not treated properly.”
Rat “Explosion”
◆ Rats are on the increase, particularly in underdeveloped countries. In parts of Asia and Africa rats outnumber humans by 10 to one. India has an estimated rat population of five to six billion, almost 10 for every Indian. Some village homes have up to 18 rats each. These armies of rodents eat more than three million tons of food grains a year in that land, damaging much more. United Nations experts say that Burma loses some 10 percent of its annual rice crop to rats. Authorities blame the upsurge on the lack of coordinated effort, insufficient funds and not enough public education on the subject.
Alcoholism’s Problems Mount
◆ The number of Americans who admit that liquor is causing them trouble has doubled in recent years. In 1974 about 12 percent of all persons acknowledged that an alcohol-related problem was adversely affecting his or her life. Now one person in four (24 percent) says it is. The increase has come in all regions of the nation, and among nearly all social and economic groups. Among those separated or divorced, one third say liquor was a cause of trouble. And authorities estimate that each year now, as many as 6,000 babies will be born mentally retarded because their mothers drank too much alcohol during pregnancy.