Watching the World
Do Prisons Reform?
● How effective are prisons as a “correctional” institution? Judging by reports from Britain’s Home Office, the situation is dismal. The reports show that 75 percent of male prisoners under 21 years of age are reconvicted of serious crimes within two years of release from prison. The corresponding figure for adult males is 50 percent and for females, 40 percent. Meanwhile, prison population in Britain is reaching crisis proportions—45,500 last July. “The conditions in our prisons are such that those who work there—let alone those in custody—cannot be expected to tolerate them,” said Home Secretary Whitelaw. And the Daily Telegraph adds: “It would be hypocrisy to pretend that constructive standards of custodial or even human decency could be maintained under such pressures.”
Human Sacrifice Still?
● A grisly report about haunted fields and missing small boys has come from a remote village in India. In Khubala, population 800, a landowner and a self-styled sorcerer were arrested for murdering a four-year-old boy in a ritual to purge the landowner’s fields of a violent spirit that supposedly had been causing workers to fall ill. The sorcerer admitted to abducting and strangling the boy, cutting off his hands and feet, collecting his blood in an earthen vessel, and sprinkling it all over the field. The police feared that the same thing might have happened to four other boys reported missing in the area.
Cheating in Marriage
● “Take any public opinion poll and 95 per cent of the people say extramarital relationships are always wrong,” says Seton Hall University sociologist Lynn Atwater. But, she continues, “at least 50 per cent of them are doing it.” Her study, based on interviews of hundreds of women throughout the U.S., shows that extramarital affairs are increasing the fastest among young wives under age 24. According to the researcher, chief among reasons given for such immoral affairs is “opportunity for communication, intimacy and getting to know the other person.” However, the study also shows that none of the women who cheat on their husbands want to terminate their marriage. “It’s much easier to construct a new short-term relationship than it is to try to change long-standing marriage patterns,” she explains.
U.N.’s Newest Member
● By a 144-to-1 vote, Belize, formerly British Honduras, was admitted as the 156th member of the United Nations after it became independent last September. The one opposing vote was cast by the new nation’s next-door neighbor, Guatemala, which claims rights to the tiny territory. Although there is said to be no immediate threat of invasion, Belize has requested the British to leave behind 1,600 troops.
Flourishing Plant Research
● Genetic engineers in new laboratories mushrooming across the U.S. are hard at work to develop new breeds of crops in hopes of filling the gap in food production for the world’s booming population. Ideas being worked on include crops that make their own fertilizers and pesticides, and plants that grow in salty soil or with scanty water supply. So far, scientists have come up with tomatoes that grow in seawater, maize that thrives in the desert, and rice with about 10 percent higher protein content. Business forecasters visualize a $100-billion yearly market. And large corporations, hoping to reap a share of the cash, are now investing their funds in this latest venture, plant research.
Dangerous Dumps
● The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a $1.3-billion program to clean up the nation’s 400 worst toxic or poisonous chemical dump sites. So far the agency has listed 114 sites that are considered highly dangerous to public health to be given “the highest priority.” Typical among them is one where chemical leakage is so serious that the city’s underground drinking-water supply is contaminated. Other potential dangers include one site with 17,000 rusting barrels of toxic wastes and another with 30,000 gallons of a dangerous chemical simply spilled along roadsides. Most of those listed are commercial or privately owned sites. But it is estimated that $5.5 million of taxpayers’ money will be spent to clean up each dump.
Bibles for China
● One million Chinese-language Bibles were recently smuggled into the People’s Republic of China. The religious cloak-and-dagger operation, called Project Pearl, was sponsored by an Evangelical group named Open Door, with headquarters in the Netherlands, and financed with $6 million raised in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. According to Time magazine, the project was “to bring badly needed copies of the Scriptures to 5 million Chinese Protestants, who worship . . . in an estimated 50,000 ‘house churches’” that were formed after the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s closed regular church buildings. However, official Chinese church leaders condemned the operation, saying that smuggling “arouses minds to opium and drugs,” and that “it discredits religion.” Bishop K. H. Tang, president of the China Christian Council, said that getting Bibles into China legally is not a problem, and added: “We are printing our own Bibles in an attempt to make Christians.”
A Dog’s Life
● In these days when many people are having difficulty making ends meet, a dog’s life seems to be better than ever, according to the Toronto Star. They eat well—sale of high-priced gourmet and health pet food rose 10 percent last year, while sale of the more economical cans dropped 10 percent. They are pampered—their grooming aids include mouthwash, cologne, toenail polish, shampoo and spot cleaner. They dress well—in trench coats, pile snowsuits, velvet, leather and even mink coats. And they end up well—with coffins and tombstones in special cemeteries. In all of this it seems that price is no object, and store shelves are not stocked fast enough. “I think people are panicking. They think if they don’t buy it right now it will be gone,” said the owner of a specialty store. Evidently inflation has not yet gone to the dogs.
Feline Navigation
● Last year the Briscoe family in Australia were on vacation when all of a sudden their cat Timmy jumped from an open auto window and disappeared in the thick bush. Family members searched for hours but failed to find their pet, so upon returning home they bought a new cat. But then, seven months later, Timmy the cat arrived home, his paws a little sore after walking 264 miles (425 km). How cats navigate is not entirely clear.
Hot-Water Victims
● More people get burned by contact with hot liquids than by any other cause, according to a report in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Each year, in the U.S., 112,000 people are admitted to hospital emergency wards for scald burns, and 2,600 of them are burned by plain hot tap water. The study finds children and older folks most frequent among victims of hot-water burns and such burns are usually “more extensive and more severe” than other types of scalding. “Almost all of these injuries could have been prevented by lowering the temperature of the household water heater to below 54.4° C (130° F.) and preferably between 48.9 and 51.7° C (120 to 125° F.),” says the report. No household chores really need water any hotter.
Golden Gate’s Tarnish
● The beautiful and world-renowned Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has a more sinister side to its fame. The bridge, 220 feet (67 m) high, appears to be a favorite spot for suicides. Highway Patrol records show that since its opening in 1937 a total of 708 persons have jumped from the bridge, 720 others were stopped just before they could get over the fence, and there were 285 other cases in which only notes and abandoned vehicles were found. Among those who jumped, only 12 survived the 75 miles per hour (120 km/h) impact. In 1971 a proposal to erect a higher fence was turned down for aesthetic reasons. Hence, it is left to highway patrol officers to be on the lookout for persons who linger too long and do not appear to be admiring the scenery.
Eat Your Porridge
● What the British call porridge and Americans call oatmeal doctors now call “miracle.” At Kentucky University’s College of Medicine, Dr. James Anderson has found that oats contain a gummy material, a complex carbohydrate, which can lower the level of blood sugar and fats and reduce blood cholesterol by a third—just what patients with diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure need. “This is the first time anyone has demonstrated that a particular food can lower blood cholesterol,” says the doctor. Anderson’s experiments indicate that beans also contain similar carbohydrates, but oats work better. After 10 years of research on diabetics, the doctor recommends a diet high in starchy carbohydrates but low in sugar (soluble carbohydrates).
Polar Temperature Rising
● Scientists at Columbia University said they have found evidence that earth’s polar surface temperature is rising. By comparing recent satellite photographs of the South Pole with old atlases and whaling-ship records, they concluded that the average area of the summer ice pack has decreased 35 percent from 1973 to 1980, according to the New York Times. Studies of surface temperature at the North Pole also revealed a 0.9 degree centigrade (1.6° F.) rise over previous peaks. The theory is that this is due to the greenhouse effect of accumulated carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. This effect would be most pronounced at the poles where it is relatively free from other types of pollution. The trend, if continued, could lead to flooding worldwide, said the scientists, because more of the polar ice would melt each summer.
Radiation to Preserve Food?
● The high cost of energy has led food processors to look to radiation as a means for preserving food instead of by freezing and canning. Actually the idea has been tossed about since the 1950’s. It is claimed that a dose of gamma rays far below that necessary to produce any radioactivity in the food can kill all the bacteria in it with a minimum change in flavor or texture. This reportedly can be done at 20 to 30 percent the cost of canning. An added advantage is that irradiated food can be stored in foil pouches at room temperature, thus eliminating the high cost of refrigeration in shipping and exporting foods. Japan and some European countries have already approved the method and it is expected that irradiated food will appear on the U.S. market within a few years, if the government approves.