Watching the World
Forestalling Armageddon?
A treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States to eliminate medium- and shorter-range land-based missiles went into effect in June when Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan met in Moscow and exchanged instruments of ratification. Under the treaty, the Soviet Union will destroy 1,752 of the missiles, and the United States 859. For the first time, Western reporters were allowed to visit a Soviet rocket base to witness a demonstration of how the missiles will be dismantled. As Colonel Yevgeny A. Kozlov showed the reporters around the base, he was asked how he felt about destroying the weapons. “We never wanted Armageddon,” Colonel Kozlov said. “We never wanted war.”
Good Investment?
Many parents in Japan firmly believe that higher education will ensure better positions, higher incomes, and superior life-styles for their children. Some even go into debt, spending over 60 million yen ($480,000, U.S.) to put a child through the best private schools and universities. Do they reap the expected dividends? “In reality . . . the belief no longer holds true,” says the Mainichi Daily News. “There are not enough privileged positions to accept them,” and many have had to accept corporate positions formerly filled by high school graduates. While average lifetime earnings were higher for university graduates—206.55 million yen ($1,650,000, U.S.) as opposed to 192.93 million yen ($1,540,000, U.S.) for high school graduate office workers—“Japanese parents may realize some day that the gaps are too small to merit a serious burden on their household economy,” says the paper.
The Valuable Ostrich
Do you know the commercial value of an ostrich? One of its eggs is equal to 24 chicken eggs, and ostrich meat is quite tasty, with the added advantage of being lean and low in cholesterol. Ostrich feathers sell for up to $5 each, and the tough ostrich skin makes premium-quality leather. South Africans and Texans have already established flourishing ostrich farms, and now Australia is following suit. The Weekend Australian newspaper reports that one of the first—if not the first—ostrich farms in Australia has been set up in central New South Wales. According to the newspaper, an optimistic farmer says that ostriches are not really difficult to handle despite their large size. He grazes them in fields alongside sheep and goats. All the ostriches need for food is extra hay or barley each day to add to their grass diet.
Record Depth
In March 1988, French divers beat all previous water-diving records by working over three and a half hours at a depth of from 1,706 to 1,742 feet [520-531 m], where the pressure is over 700 pounds per square inch [50 kg/s cm]. The dive took place in the Mediterranean, off Cassis in southeast France. A week in advance six divers were placed in a hyperbaric chamber, where the pressure was gradually increased to the equivalent water pressure. French daily Le Figaro commented: “Under such pressure, they were able to leave the chamber and enter the water at 520 meters [1,706 ft] below the surface without danger.” A possible practical application is for maintenance work on the submerged parts of off-shore oil-drilling platforms.
Artificial Tears
A lack of tears due to the destruction of the lacrimal glands or the blocking of tear ducts can cause serious trouble, sometimes even blindness. To remedy this, Jean-Antoine Bernard, a Paris physician, has perfected a 14-ounce [400 g] automatic, battery-operated tear pump that the patient wears under his arm. According to the French weekly Le Figaro Magazine, the device is a “syringe . . . filled with physiological salt solution, which, traveling through a practically invisible plastic tube, regularly irrigates the eye by means of a fine silicon catheter placed under the eyelid.” The rate of flow may be regulated to accommodate a need for more liquid in windy weather and less during sleep.
No Laughing Matter
The old belief that laughter is good medicine is now being taken seriously. Some hospitals in the United States now provide “humor rooms” for ailing patients, therapists teach “smile therapy,” and an organization known as “Nurses for Laughing” is gaining popularity, states The Vancouver Sun. The report notes that researchers have found that laughter could be “an antidote to stress” and “good for the immune system”; one even calls it “internal jogging.” According to The Sun, a psychology professor claims that “laughter increases the pain threshold by releasing endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers.” And a Canadian therapist says that facial laugh muscles “instruct the brain to feel good, regardless of how you feel.”
Record Ride
German Federal Railways invited some 80 guests to share a special test run of its train “Intercity Experimental” (ICE) back in May. The passengers, sitting or standing in two ICE coaches, watched as the luminous figures on the speedometers over the doors reached the 252-miles-per-hour [406 km] mark! That meant a new world speed record on rail. According to the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, German Federal Railways recently placed an order for the construction of 41 ICE railcars that will cost more than 1,500 million German marks.
New Tomato-Plant Champion
In February 1988, a giant tomato plant grown in Tsukuba, Japan, beat the 1985 world-record holder by 3,585 tomatoes. Both the previous winner and this year’s winner were grown by hydroponic techniques. These costly techniques involve feeding the plants liquid fertilizer in a hothouse without the use of soil. The branches of the new titleholder grew out across a latticed platform made for their support. By the end of the plant’s competitive life, which amounted to a little more than a year, the champion plant had produced 16,897 tomatoes!
Good Use of Radioactivity
A novel use of radioactivity has aided in the eradication of some termites in Australia’s older historic buildings. The Canberra Times reports that a tiny amount of radioactivity is added to their food and spreads right through the termite colony, thus making it possible to determine the size of the colony as well as to trace its tracks. The radioactive substance does not kill the termites. Once they are located, conventional pesticides can be used more effectively and economically. According to the Times, the method has been so successful that countries such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Egypt have expressed interest in it in order to help eradicate their own termite problems. Since the amounts of radioactive material necessary are minute, there is said to be no danger of contamination for humans.
Exercise Addicts
Exercise in moderation has definite health benefits, but more and more Americans are working out to the point of harming themselves. “A national love affair with fitness—combined with the same psychological problems that cause the eating disorders of anorexia and bulimia—has spawned a growing health problem: obsessive, addictive exercise,” says The Wall Street Journal. “Many report the same kind of withdrawal symptoms when they don’t exercise as alcoholics and drug addicts do when they stop drinking and taking drugs: depression, nervousness and insomnia.” Although there is a fine line between healthy and obsessive exercise, doctors say a sure sign of exercise addiction is when a person exercises in spite of injuries—often taking anti-inflammatory drugs to mask the pain. “These concerned doctors know that the stress fractures or shinsplints or tendinitis commonly incurred by obsessed joggers and aerobic dancers can persist for a lifetime,” says the Journal.