Watching the World

MILITARY SPENDING

“Does military spending encourage or prevent economic growth?” asks the UN Chronicle. The Chronicle’s report on a study prepared by experts from 13 countries notes that “the long-term costs of high military spending are almost invariably negative.” Even where jobs and demand are initially created, military spending ends up being detrimental to a nation’s economy “because it syphons off huge amounts of investment capital from other productive areas,” such as housing construction. While welfare and social security systems have managed to stay afloat in most Western nations, the crush of military spending has been devastating to these services in developing countries. “The poorer the country, the more negative the impact of military spending on its economy, let alone its welfare,” notes the Chronicle. It adds: “Every three hours, the world spends $300 million for military purposes. With that amount every single child on the planet could be immunized against deadly diseases.”

SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY

“Well under half of the American public and only one-third of the British know that the earth revolves around the sun once a year,” reports Oxford University professor John Durant concerning surveys of over 2,000 American adults and 2,000 British adults. For example, in the American survey, conducted by Jon D. Miller of Northern Illinois University, 21 percent thought the sun revolves around the earth, and 7 percent said they did not know. Of the 72 percent who correctly replied that the earth revolves around the sun, 17 percent said it happens in one day, 2 percent said it took a month, and 9 percent did not know. The surveys, which asked about 75 questions testing basic knowledge of science, showed that “only 6% of Americans and 7% of British meet [the] standard for science literacy,” says Science magazine.

SEAT BELTS SAVE LIVES

The evidence proves that seat belts really do save lives, concludes a study of mandatory seat-belt use in the United States. The study published in the medical journal JAMA found “significant reductions in severe and fatal injuries in crashes among front-seat car occupants” who obeyed the seat-belt law. So next time you get into a car, buckle your seat belt; you may save a life​—your own!

HIGHRISE TOMBS

Although Japan is tiny in comparison with the United States, the book value of all its land was calculated last year to be the equivalent of $13.47 trillion​—more than the value of all U.S. land. Land cost, and shortage, is especially high in the Tokyo metropolitan area and, according to Tokyo newspaper Asahi Shimbun, has created a “very serious” cemetery space shortage. It is reported that space for new tombs where ashes can be placed will run out within five years. To ease the problem, Buddhist temples have taken to expanding upward. One temple built a six-story apartment-type cemetery that allows tombstones to be put up on each floor. Another built a three-story building with a two-story basement containing lines of altars where people can consign cremation ashes. Although costs for these are high, 2.6 million yen ($20,000) each, about a thousand have already been sold.

“TERRAFORMING” MARS

Mars is a dead and frozen planet. “Anyone foolish enough to stop by without a space suit would be done in by radiation, blood-boiling atmospheric pressure and poisonous air,” says The Wall Street Journal. Still, a band of scientists are seriously considering transforming it​—“terraforming,” in their words—​into a living planet suitable for human life by use of nuclear warheads, pollution, and bacteria. “We’re playing God, and it’s great,” exults astrophysicist Christopher McKay. Time calculations for transforming the planet range from a few centuries to over a hundred thousand years. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration has allotted $10,000 toward a terraforming conference this year in California. Not all scientists agree, however. Says astronomer Carl Sagan: “We’ve done such a rotten job managing our own planet, we should be very careful before trying to manage others.”

UNBEATABLE BARGAIN

For the price of an economy air ticket from Tokyo to London​—under $3,000—​a young Japanese woman received exclusive use of a Boeing 747 airplane flight that cost British Airways about $25,000 in fuel and wages. Mrs. Yamamoto, the sole passenger on the jumbo jet’s 8,000-mile [13,000 km] trip had her choice of 353 seats, six films, a gourmet menu, and the undivided attention of 15 cabin attendants. With the flight delayed for 20 hours, all other passengers had been rebooked on other carriers. Since the plane had to return to Britain to get back into schedule, the waiting Mrs. Yamamoto was offered the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “Mrs. Yamamoto will come back to earth hard if she returns to Tokyo expecting an empty commuter train,” comments Asiaweek.

IMPROVING SERVICE

“Service in China has been bad for a long time because the state has guaranteed everything to workers,” states Xiao Xingcai, general manager of the Xian department store. With employment guaranteed and firing not considered an option, the store has come up with a novel approach to improve workers’ performance: humiliation. It has publicly named the “40 Worst” of its 800 employees, even hanging a plaque complete with picture at each transgressor’s workplace. The selected 40, culled from ballots from shoppers given the opportunity to vote for the worst salespeople, were guilty of offenses that ranged from ignoring customers to actually throwing things at them. Those chosen not only lost their monthly bonuses, a substantial part of their income, but also had to write self-criticisms regarding their shortcomings.

OYSTERS OR BARNACLES

“In the past few years, the oyster population at Arcachon, [France] has been reduced by three quarters,” reports the French magazine Science et Vie. Why is this? Heavy-metal-based paints, used to prevent barnacles from fastening themselves to the hulls of ships, dissolve in the water where the ships are anchored and the oysters live. These special paints are beneficial to boat owners because barnacles cause friction, thus lowering speed and raising fuel use for engine-driven vessels. But the paints are harmful to oysters. Therefore, many European countries are now limiting the use of these paints. Researchers are hoping that a nontoxic Teflon-based coating will solve the problem, since barnacles could then be simply brushed off the hulls, and the oysters would not be harmed.

WORLDWIDE TREMORS?

What would happen if Tokyo were struck today by an earthquake on the huge scale of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake? The Tokai Bank of Japan recently released a report that addressed that question. A summary of the report in Tokyo’s Mainichi Daily News notes that besides the horrendous cost in human lives, Japan would be brought to a virtual standstill, since administrative offices are concentrated in the capital. Rebuilding the Tokyo area would cost an estimated $975 billion, which would force Japan to cut back on its investments in the United States. That could cause a drop in the U.S. stock market, force interest rates up, and step up the pressure on nations in debt. The bank further predicts that since the world’s financial markets are so close-knit, such a quake would lead to a curtailment of global economic growth over several years.

COMFORTABLE CRIMINALS

The Citizens Against Crime Association of Western Australia claims that prisoners are treated more leniently and are better off now than they were in 1965. Yet since then, serious crime in the state has increased by a staggering 1200 percent! The association’s president told the West Australian newspaper that today’s “low risk of imprisonment and relatively comfortable prison conditions” would not deter future criminals. He also says there is some truth in the claim that “prisons are only a school for crime.” He expressed concern that many offenders now seem to be evading imprisonment, for the figures show that the imprisonment rate has not kept pace with the rocketing crime rate.