Watching the World
Concerned Nurses
● The medical magazine Orthopedic Nursing recently considered the subject “Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Problem with Blood.” The article observed: “Jehovah’s Witnesses deeply respect life, and for this reason they do not smoke, use addictive drugs or seek abortions. Their beliefs are based on the rules which they interpret from the Bible. . . . The surgeon who takes on the responsibility of performing surgery on a Jehovah’s Witness should be aware of and respect the patient’s religious rules. . . . Our experience with Jehovah’s Witnesses in orthopedics has been rewarding. The patients have been most cooperative. Although we may not accept their interpretation of the Bible, we feel that health care personnel should be able to provide emotional support and the best therapeutic measures available.”
Economy Route to Space?
● The first privately funded space venture got off the ground in September with the launch of Conestoga 1 from a cattle ranch in Texas. The craft, made of surplus rocket parts, was able to pitch its 1,097-pound (498-kg) mock payload to an altitude of almost 200 miles (320 km) and then splash down into the Gulf of Mexico. The command center for the launch reportedly was housed in two mobile homes and powered by a gasoline generator. When fully developed, the new enterprise hopes to compete with government space agencies in launching satellites. “We feel we can offer a service that NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] cannot,” says the Space Services company chairman. “We can give a quicker response time,” whereas the U.S. space shuttle has to respond first to military demands.
Why Higher Japanese IQ?
● Recently published figures based on assertedly “culture-free” IQ tests indicate that Japanese people have a mean IQ 11 points higher than that of most other people of the industrial nations. The compilation of IQ studies by British psychologist Richard Lynn also indicates a jump of 7 points in one generation for the Japanese. Why? Some attribute the improvement to better health and nutrition, others to the competitive atmosphere of Japanese education. But columnist Joan Beck of the Chicago Tribune suggests that it is “early learning experiences that the Japanese are giving children younger than age 6.” She notes: “Japanese families do put heavy emphasis on learning language at home and on preschool education. . . . Americans involved in early learning research have known for more than a decade that it is possible to increase the IQ of young children by as much as 20 or 30 points by enriching their environment in appropriate and loving ways.”
Macabre Best-Seller
● By September the book Suicide Mode D’Emploi (Suicide operating instructions) had been a French nonfiction best-seller for two months, with sales of over 50,000 copies. As many as 10 suicides had been linked to the book, several victims being found with it lying nearby. The manual contains some 50 recipes for deadly “cocktails” that supposedly are guaranteed to end one’s life “gently.” Publishers in other countries are vying for the rights to print the book in their own languages. Says French publisher Alain Moreau: “I feel no remorse. This is a book that . . . recognizes that the right of suicide is an inalienable right, like the right to work, the right to like certain things, the right to publish.”
Mishap on Venus
● The Soviet Union’s Venera 13 and 14 space probes to Venus functioned smoothly except for an unanticipated mishap. It seems that the spacecraft’s cameras had lens caps that were programmed to pop off during landing. Both functioned perfectly, allowing the cameras to take striking pictures of Venusian soil. However, not everything went so well. A mechanical arm on each craft had a soil-density measuring device mounted at its tip. The one on Venera 13 worked. But Venera 14’s photograph of itself, appearing in Science 82 magazine, clearly revealed that the “spring-loaded plunger, which had one chance to measure the density of Venusian soil, instead sampled the lens cap.”
Disciplining Clergy
● “Serious moral indiscretions, behavior that splits marriages, and criminal offences are just some of the temptations to which a ‘miniscule’ but growing number of Anglican clergymen are falling,” reported London’s Daily Telegraph. Retiring Church of England lawyer David M. Carey added that he has had to handle as many as 50 cases annually involving errant clergy. “There have been cases of clergy in a criminal court charged with sexual offences. There have been even more cases where clergymen have been found committing adultery.” How does the Church deal with such behavior? “A Clergyman convicted of a criminal offence is expelled from his living,” explains the report. “For lesser offences, including adultery, divorce or separation, a clergyman can be moved from his parish, temporarily suspended or given a warning.” It is enlightening to contrast the early Christian congregation’s discipline of adulterous members.—1 Corinthians 5:11-13.
Less Food Lengthens Life?
● Scientists are finding “increasingly convincing evidence that longevity can be significantly increased by ‘undernutrition’—a diet that contains all the required nutrients but about a third fewer calories than are needed to maintain ‘normal’ body weight,” reports The New York Times. “Eating less, their animal studies indicate, can add the human equivalent of 40 years to a mammal’s life.” The diseases common to aging are also said to be inhibited because the usual decline in immune responses does not occur.
University of Texas physiologist Dr. Edward J. Masoro says that cutting protein intake by 50 percent greatly lengthens the lives of laboratory animals, and reducing calorie intake by 40 percent adds even more to their life span. And University of California expert on aging Dr. Roy Walford also reports that animal studies indicate a possible 10- to 20-percent increase of life span by cutting down on food starting as late as middle age. “Long-term undernutrition is thus far the only method we know of that retards aging and extends the maximum life span of warm-blooded animals,” said Dr. Walford. “The finding is undoubtedly applicable to humans because it works in every animal species thus far studied.”
Preying on Guilt
● In Japan there is a “growing custom of conducting mizuko-kuyo—a [Buddhist] mass for unborn babies killed by abortion,” reports the Mainichi Daily News. “Incidentally, mizuko-kuyo is a good source of income for Buddhist temples today. A priest says that without holding a mass for the repose of such babies’ souls, many temples would be financially unable to stand on their own feet.” For up to about $75 (U.S.), the temples sell prayers and a stone or plastic image of Jizo, the guardian deity of children, to guilt-stricken supplicants. Hundreds of thousands of these images, “looking somewhat pathetic,” are kept at the popular Hase Temple in Kamakura, comments the newspaper.
Pasteurize Yourself!
● “A workout, with its natural rise in body temperature, may ward off infection and keep you well,” reports American Health magazine. It explains that recent medical research indicates that, just as a fever is your body’s natural defense against invading bacteria, strenuous exercise also raises body temperature and may, in effect, “pasteurize” bacteria as well. Sustained running, for example, may raise one’s body temperature to as much as 102°F (39°C). Though researchers, such as Dr. Joseph G. Cannon of the University of Michigan, do not recommend running or tennis as treatment for the flu, they do feel that such exercise may be one of the best preventative medicines.
Untouchable Polluter
● According to the French medical daily Le Quotidien du Médecin, the secretary-general of a United Nations environmental conference, Mr. Maurice Strong, brought up the problem of military polluters. “Responsible for scandalous misappropriation of human resources, both material and economic,” he declared, “the military domain has evaded all anti-pollution endeavors and has never been properly controlled, whether in the field of supersonic aircraft, or in the use of chemicals in the environment.” Governments evidently do not want this seemingly “reserved” area of activity to undergo controls. Concluded Mr. Strong: “It does not seem realistic to me to talk about everything that is going on outside the military domain, while absolutely ignoring this very sector that mobilizes the best part of our economy.”