Watching the World
Red China in U.N.
◆ For 20 years efforts by the United States to keep Communist China out of the United Nations were successful. However, on October 25 they failed. The United Nations voted in the People’s Republic of China and ousted the government located on Taiwan. The vote was 76 in favor, 35 opposed, and 17 abstaining. Just before that, the assembly rejected an American proposal that would have required a two-thirds vote on the issue. The final vote was far more overwhelming in favor of Red China than the American delegation had thought possible. Peking’s victory is likely to speed up a series of international political realignments.
Doctors Look at China
◆ Two internationally known doctors, E. Grey Dimond and Paul Dudley White, former physician to the late President Eisenhower, were among doctors who toured the People’s Republic of China recently. They claimed that the nation was relatively free of venereal disease, drug abuse, alcoholism and prostitution. Dr. Dimond stated: “It was absolutely fantastic how spotless the country was.” He also said: “The Chinese aren’t a bit out of date. Their best hospitals have everything ours have. I really had nothing medically to contribute to China. Their physicians know as much as I do. . . . Their equipment is as sophisticated as any equipment we have in the United States.”
Soviets Advise: ‘Learn Chinese’
◆ At a meeting of science and engineering leaders in Montreal, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences were asked which language would be the most important for scientific communications in the future. They answered: “Why, Chinese, of course!” They told startled Canadian scientists: “We have been inside Communist China recently and are similarly impressed by the speed of progress there and by the fact that they seem to be training more technical people than both you and we put together!”
Dying Oceans
◆ Swiss marine scientist Dr. Jacques Piccard predicted that at the current rate of pollution the world’s oceans would be devoid of life in 25 years. He said that the shallow Baltic Sea would be the first to die. Then it would be the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, which have no significant tides to carry away pollution. Also, French underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau said that the destruction of the oceans is already 20 to 30 percent complete. He predicted “the end of everything in 30-50 years if immediate action isn’t taken.”
Fighting Air Pollution
◆ In Paris two giant air filters have been installed to combat air pollution in the city. The towers, over 16 feet high and 5 feet wide, are basically large vacuum cleaners. The air is taken in through openings at the base, then sucked through filters, and finally released at the top. If results are satisfactory, additional units are to be installed.
No Longer Vanishing
◆ The American Indian population in the United States is growing about four times as fast as the general population. The main reason lies in dramatic drops in infant mortality. In 1950, the Census Bureau listed 343,410 Indians. In 1970 there were 792,730. This reverses the trend of a century ago.
Work Satisfaction Vital
◆ At present the maximum number of years a person lives is determined by heredity. But many other factors are involved in determining whether a person will reach that maximum limit. According to Dr. Erdman Palmore of Duke University, the strongest of these factors, especially among men, is the extent to which they enjoy their work and see it as meaningful. Another vital factor listed was having a generally positive attitude toward life.
Huge War Cost
◆ Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon stated that since 1965 the United States has spent $123,000,000,000 of the taxpayers’ money on the Vietnam war. Yet, he noted that a request from the city of Portland for $600,000 to build an important sewer line was turned down for lack of funds, while in the past six years Oregonians were taxed over $1,000,000,000 for the war.
Deeper in Debt
◆ The financial situation of American private colleges continues to deteriorate. As many as 254 are “submerged in a sea of red ink” and could be out of business within ten years, says the Association of American Colleges. It adds: “Half of them . . . are broke already. Over 100 institutions we found can go less than one year.”
Giant Snowflakes
◆ Snowflakes larger than footballs fell in Bratsk, Siberia. The largest of the flakes measured eight inches across and up to twenty inches in length. Soviet weather officials attributed this to unusually strong temperature fluctuations, which caused the flakes to swirl up and down in a cloud and roll themselves into larger and larger flakes.
Baffled Bloodhounds
◆ Can bloodhounds track only one of two identical twins? In Rome, work with bloodhounds indicates that the scents of identical twins are the same and that the bloodhounds cannot differentiate between them. However, they apparently can differentiate between unidentical twins, since their scents are different.
Popular Dogs
◆ A generation ago the most popular dog in the United States was said to be the playful cocker spaniel. Today, the most popular dog is reported to be the German shepherd, long admired for guarding people and property. This reflects increased concern about crime. However, overbreeding of the shepherd has produced thousands of unpredictable and often oversized animals, introducing an element of risk for owners. French poodles are said to hold second place in popularity, followed by dachshunds and beagles.
Warning on Turtles
◆ Dr. Steven Lamm of the U.S. Public Health Service claims that pet turtles annually cause 20 to 30 percent of the 2,000,000 cases of salmonellosis, a disease usually associated with food poisoning. He also found that 85 percent of those who got salmonellosis from turtles were under the age of five. Those who had to be hospitalized were laid up for an average of eleven days. Up to now physicians thought that turtles transmitted only 1 percent or less of the disease.
Toy-Safety Program
◆ More than 150 kinds of toys have been banned as unsafe by the United States, under the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. Most are dolls, plastic squeeze toys and others that represent mechanical hazards to children. This program has forced manufacturers to recall hundreds of thousands of individual toys. The government also is getting the cooperation of a growing number of hospitals who are reporting injuries resulting from accidents with toys.
Preschool Education
◆ According to a statement published in Printing News, “studies have indicated that by age five, today’s children have watched some 4,000 hours of television.” But what are the youngsters learning from that “baby-sitter”? Violence and crime make up a substantial portion of what they see. Is that the kind of life for which you are training your children?
Television Crime Up
◆ As in real life, there has been an “explosion” of crime depicted on television. Increases are in all categories, from rape to involuntary homicide. Twice as many murders were depicted on the three major American networks in September, as compared to all of 1971 through August.
Children Going Astray
◆ Crimes by children, and against children, are rising much faster than those committed by other age-groups. Not only the number, but the seriousness of offenses by children is rising. In one year in Baltimore alone, children 10 years of age and under committed the following number of crimes: arson, 12; assault, 9; auto theft, 6; burglary, 169; larceny, 104; robbery, 22. Children ages 11 and 12 committed more than twice as many. To what do authorities attribute this? Most often cited is “a general breakdown” in family discipline.
Imitating the Parents
◆ Studies of 28,000 teen-agers in Canada and the United States disclose that drug use is highest among youths whose parents are “regular and intensive” users of drugs such as tranquilizers and stimulants. It was lowest among youths whose parents avoided drugs.
“A Screaming Emergency”
◆ The sad effects of abandoning the Bible’s standard of morality are becoming more obvious as venereal disease spreads at epidemic rates. Toronto, Canada, reports that, next to the common cold, venereal disease is the most prevalent communicable disease in the province of Ontario. A doctor there labeled the situation “a screaming emergency.” The province reported a 32-percent increase in reported cases over the previous year. Yet, most cases go unreported. In the Soviet Union, authorities have begun a campaign against venereal disease, apparently due to a growing incidence of it.
Psychologists Confused
◆ For some years scientists and scholars have expressed doubts as to the direction their professions were taking them regarding the world’s problems. Now psychologists are feeling the same. Science magazine reports that the psychology profession as a whole “seems to be suffering acutely from frustration, lack of direction, and feelings of ineffectuality when it comes to applying their expertise to the problems of society.” The past president of the American Psychological Association declared: “What they’re doing isn’t working.”
Large Abortion Toll
◆ At a meeting of lawyers in Washington, D.C., it was estimated that 35 million abortions take place world wide each year. In France, where abortion is illegal, it was estimated that 1,200,000 are performed annually, compared to about 800,000 live births. In Belgium abortions were thought to equal births, about 200,000 each. In the United States, where abortion on demand is legal only in a few places, the estimate was between one million and three million.
Abortions Bring Nightmares
◆ Abortions are causing anger, apprehension and confusion among many nurses. Surgeon Barbara Rockett told a forum of professional nurses in Boston that some nurses had recurring nightmares because of handling so many “perfectly formed dead fetuses” each day in operating rooms.
Antibiotics No Curb
◆ The incidence of infections in wounds caused by injury or operations has not decreased despite the use of antibiotics for more than twenty-five years, declared bacteriologist and surgeon Dr. William Altemeier to a meeting of the American College of Surgeons. His study revealed that antibiotics may actually have increased the number and complexity of problems related to infections.
Poisonous Drain Cleaners
◆ Being powerful enough to clean a clogged pipe, drain cleaners can wreak havoc when swallowed by a small child. Those in liquid form are especially dangerous because they can be so easily swallowed. Approximately 5,000 children swallow some form of lye, which is the usual ingredient of drain cleaners, every year. A general antidote is milk or water followed by olive or mineral oil. Keep drain cleaners out of the reach of young children.