Watching the World
Who Is Trustworthy?
◆ A pair of American psychologists recently conducted a study of the public’s attitude toward certain major occupations. Politicians were regarded as among the least trustworthy. The researchers feel that it is ominous when the public shows such poor regard for government officials. They stated: “If you want someone to trust you, you have to tell them the truth.”
Cost of Employee Dishonesty
◆ For the past ten years employee dishonesty has cost American business an estimated $10 billion annually. The $16 billion peak last year represented a 182-percent increase since 1962. An executive of a leading insurance company said that employee dishonesty is responsible for 30 percent of all business failures in the United States each year.
Death Penalty Banned
◆ The death penalty in the United States was banned by a vote of five to four in a recent Supreme Court decision. Sections of federal law as well as laws in forty states will be affected by the ruling. Most, though not all, of the 600 convicted persons who had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment were pleased. However, one said: “It’s just a slow death.” Another added: “I’d rather die than spend my life in prison.”
Suburban Burglaries Rise
◆ Suburbs in the United States enjoyed relative freedom from crime not too many years ago. But today these homes are targets of burglars. Daytime residential burglaries have shot up 337 percent in the last decade. Law enforcement officials are not agreed on the cause for this rise. Generally, however, young drug addicts who steal to support their costly habit are considered responsible. A Massachusetts police chief said: “We’ve tried everything but there’s no way of stopping it completely.”
Toward ‘Bloodless’ Surgery
◆ The Worcester, Massachusetts, Evening Gazette carried an article entitled “Trend Is Toward ‘Bloodless’ Surgery.” It said: “It used to be that blood transfusion was a standard part of surgery. No longer. In recent years physicians have developed new methods of operating to minimize, if not totally eliminate blood transfusions. They claim the new methods are better for the patients, too.” The article noted that much greater blood loss can be tolerated by a person than previously thought. Some of the new techniques include the building up of the blood with nutrients before and after an operation, the lowering of blood pressure to reduce blood loss, and the replacement of lost blood by nutrient solutions. Leading heart surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley of the Texas Heart Institute said: “The fact is evident now that most major surgery can be done without transfusion.” The article also stated: “The need to develop surgical techniques which did not require blood transfusions was stimulated in part by limitations on usual forms of surgery imposed by the faith of Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose religion opposes transfusion of donor blood.”
Homosexuality and VD
◆ British specialist, Dr. R. D. Catterall, reports that gonorrhea, syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases run high in homosexual men. In large cities such as London, Paris, New York and Copenhagen male homosexuals, many quite young, make up more than half of the syphilis cases in hospital clinics. Auckland Hospital in New Zealand reports that 12 percent of its venereal-disease cases are homosexuals. But homosexuals are said to form only 5 percent of the community’s population.
Fathers Are Important
◆ How important a father is to his children’s healthy development is indicated by Henry Biller, a researcher on fatherhood psychology at the University of Rhode Island. He says a father’s influence starts before his child is born as he keeps his expectant wife in a good frame of mind. After the baby’s birth, his presence helps balance the emotional relationship between mother and child. His good example aids the child in getting along with others. Fathers are perhaps more crucial than mothers for healthy sexual development, helping both boys and girls to feel good about being the sex they are. Biller observed that children who fail to get proper fathering during the first two years of their lives often have trouble later on.
Parents and Drugs
◆ A survey in Sydney, Australia, reveals that 30 percent of housewives regularly use barbiturates or other legal drugs that induce dependence. Some start taking drugs as early as six in the morning. A number of social workers resigned their jobs, sickened at having to go to many suburban homes to see if the children were neglected while mothers were “high” on drugs. A major Canadian study found that parents’ drug habits are reflected in those of teen-agers. Youthful drug addiction seems to be “learned behavior,” children acquiring it from parents, though the young folks usually turn to more dangerous drugs. Parents who smoke and drink heavily are “far more likely” to have youngsters that turn to stronger drugs.
Rise in Young Suicides
◆ By official count, about 25,000 Americans commit suicide each year. Some believe the actual figure is twice as high. But, most significant, there has been a huge increase in the number of young people ending their lives. For instance, in Los Angeles the suicide rate for women under 20 years of age was twenty times as high in 1970 as in 1960. For men under 20 the rate more than tripled in the same period.
Long-haired Factory Workers Beware!
◆ The National Safety Council of the United States has issued a warning for long-haired factory workers. Spinning machinery can catch long hair and tear it from the scalp, leaving permanent scars. Long-haired workers who wear protective respiratory equipment cannot fully seal out dangerous contaminants. Beards and sideburns entangled in machinery can result in severe damage to one’s face, eyes, teeth and bone structure. A spark in a welder’s beard near an oxygen tank can bring sudden death; nets do not fully protect against this possibility.
Afro Hairstyle Damaging
◆ Hair worn “Afro” style may be lost prematurely, warned Dr. Algie C. Brown, an Emory University dermatologist. Harsh chemicals, petroleum-based dressings, hot styling combs and special combs called Afro picks, used to make the hair stand out, can be damaging. Resultant hair breakage and scarring of the scalp may bring on permanent baldness. Over a two-year period, the doctor and his colleagues encountered twenty-five men prematurely bald due to wearing this hairstyle. He suggested that hair be worn the way it grows, in its natural style.
Priests Under Severe Stress
◆ In a nationwide survey it was found that more than 40 percent of American Roman Catholic priests 45 years of age or younger said they have considered quitting the priesthood. The reason? Because of being under severe stress. This stress, they say, is induced by the lack of leadership from those in authority in the church, disappointment in the church’s stand on social and moral issues, work frustration and a lack of support from other clergymen.
“Desperate Shortage of Clergy”
◆ South African churches are suffering a desperate shortage of clergy, reports the Daily News of Durban. Because of the empty pulpits, laymen often have to read printed lessons so that there will be some form of church service on Sundays.
First Woman Rabbi
◆ Recently some of Christendom’s churches have been ordaining women to be ministers. Now the first woman rabbi has been ordained in the United States. Her work at a synagogue in New York will consist of such duties as preaching, teaching and officiating at funerals and weddings.
Lasers and Watchmaking
◆ The watchmaking industry has now found use for the laser as a drill. It would take a drilling machine from nine to twelve minutes to make one hole in a ruby. A special laser device does the job noiselessly in just one second. A town near Leningrad, Soviet Union, has replaced 250 mechanical drills with three automatic laser devices.
Bad Effects of Noise
◆ It has long been suspected that millions of workers may have poor hearing because of excessive noise. This has resulted in balance disturbances, circulatory problems and heart disorders. Noise is also believed to act as a source of psychological distress contributing to mood changes, general anxiety, headaches, nausea, instability, argumentativeness and sexual impotency. Weavers in a noisy jute mill were found to have become partially but permanently deaf after working ten or more years on the job.
Dog Silencer
◆ How can a person trying to get some sleep quiet a barking dog? A Maryland patent lawyer is reported to have made an instrument solving this problem. By mimicry, this instrument barks back at the noisome canine in a frequency that humans cannot hear. Barking dogs in his neighborhood were silenced without their owners being aware of what was happening. While this may solve the problem of the person trying to sleep, what happens when burglars are about?
Insects’ Smelling Ability
◆ Recent studies in West Germany reveal that insects possess extraordinary smelling ability. Experiments show that there are 50,000 sensors on each gypsy moth odor receptor antenna. Each sensor is receptive to one kind of molecule although others may be “tuned” to that molecule also. In the male gypsy moth, half of his sensors are responsive to the odor of the female, which he can detect a mile or more away. Scientists hope to confuse the smelling ability of insects they consider harmful and thereby control them.
Cancerous Fish
◆ The Fox River, west of Chicago, Illinois, is so polluted that 16 percent of the fish in it, investigators say, have solid tumors growing on them. Samples of the river’s water showed unusually high proportions of fecal matter as well as phosphates, gasoline, ether, herbicides, insecticides and unsafe amounts of lead, mercury and cadmium. Swimming in polluted waters or eating fish inhabiting them are potentially dangerous. A doctor advises: “Don’t fish in waters you know are polluted.”
Electrical “Love Song”
◆ Science appears to have made the first discovery of sexual use of electricity by fish. The male Sternopygus macrurus, a fish inhabiting rivers of Guyana, serenades the female by an electrical “love song.” His small single-frequency discharge of one or two volts can be detected with amplification, a behavioral scientist learned recently. Related species recognize their own kind by a different kind of electrical discharge. Though the male uses the same frequency as the female, his signal is different. The scientist imitated the female’s signal through wires suspended in the water and the male replied with his electronic serenade.
Smallpox Vaccinations Ended
◆ With the disease of smallpox now confined to Africa and parts of Asia, health officials in the United States felt that it was safe to discontinue routine smallpox vaccinations of children. There has not been a case of smallpox in the United States since 1949. So there are greater chances of a fatal reaction to the vaccine than to the disease itself. Travelers are still vaccinated if they are going to areas where there may be cases of smallpox.