Watching the World
Transfused Baby Dies of AIDS
● The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, reports that a baby has died because of a blood transfusion that transmitted AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), a deadly illness that has mainly afflicted homosexuals. The epidemiology facility in Atlanta also reported several cases of AIDS among hemophilia patients who were given frequent transfusions of a blood-clotting factor. Said the report: “This and continuing reports of AIDS among persons with hemophilia A raise serious questions about the possible transmission of AIDS through blood and blood products.”
Meteorite Invades Living Room
● Scientists estimate that 200 million visible meteors, or shooting stars, occur daily in the earth’s atmosphere. Almost all of them burn up completely before reaching the ground. Thus only about 500 meteorites a year land on earth, and, of these, few are ever recovered. But one was recovered recently in Wethersfield, Connecticut, when it crashed through the roof of a house and its second- and first-floor ceilings, coming to rest in the living room. It weighs six pounds and is about the size of a grapefruit. Remarkably, this was the second time in 11 years that a meteorite smashed through the roof of a house in Wethersfield. “To have two strike the same town is, well, almost incomprehensible,” said Dr. Ursula Marvin, a geologist with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She added that the black object probably came from the asteroid belt, a “sort of celestial rock garden” between Mars and Jupiter.
Pope Visits Sicily
● When Pope John Paul II recently visited Sicily for a two-day visit, it was the first time that he had spent a night out of Rome on a pastoral tour in Italy. The pope called on Sicilians to construct a society without violence and war. Reporting on the visit, the The New York Times said: “Many people expressed surprise that the Pope, who delivered 13 homilies and addresses here to large groups of Sicilians from all regions of the island, never directly and clearly condemned the Mafia as an organization that terrorizes much of the population. Officials say that in the capital and its surroundings alone, the Mafia has been responsible for 124 murders and the disappearance and presumed death of 130 additional people since the beginning of the year [1982].”
In another comment on the pope’s visit, the New York Daily News said: “In the prepared text of his address, released before the meeting in a Palermo square, the Pope also threw his support behind the Sicilian church’s excommunication of Mafiosi. But when John Paul read the speech, that passage was left out, as was an appeal to the youths to fight omertà, the Mafia code of secrecy and revenge that keeps many Sicilians from testifying against mobsters. The Pope also omitted a passage that said Mafia violence ‘merits the full moral condemnation recently repeated by your bishops.’”
UN’s “Class War”
● U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, recently charged that the UN is engaged in a Marxist “class war” against the United States and its corporations. She accused the “new class” of UN bureaucrats of trying to achieve “global socialism.” Reporting on her accusations, the New York Post said: “Mrs. Kirkpatrick told a crowd of 300 at a Regulation magazine breakfast at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington that the world body now advances a Marxist ideology based on the assertion that all poverty is the fault of the rich. . . . Washington should understand the destructive ideology and influence inside the UN and work against that, she said.”
Printing for Inflation
● Israel released its largest denomination banknote recently—the 500-shekel note bearing a portrait of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, a symbol of wealth and generosity. The new bill was designed so that Israelis would not have to carry around wallets stuffed with banknotes, the highest of which had been only 100 shekels. The new bill was worth about $15.50 when released, but it is expected to lose half its value in a year if triple-digit inflation continues. “Our inflation causes a lot of problems for our money printers,” said a Bank of Israel spokesman. Bank officials are already planning a 1,000-shekel bill and foresee the possibility of a 2,500- or 5,000-shekel bill bearing a portrait of the late prime minister Golda Meir.
Warning on Video Games
● U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop recently warned that video games may be dangerous to the health of young people. Children are becoming addicted to the games, he said, and “they are into it body and soul.” He added: “Their body language is tremendous and everything is zap the enemy. There’s nothing constructive in the games.” He said there are educational video games, but “the kind the kids like and the kind they are addicted to are Martians coming in that have to be killed,” and so forth. Doctors are just now seeing, he said, “aberrations of childhood behavior” because of the games. Symptoms induced by the games were described as “tensions, sleeplessness in kids and dreams that have to do with the things they have been doing all day.”
Largest Hydroelectric Dam
● Spanning nearly five miles (8 km) across the Paraná River, which separates Brazil and Paraguay, is Itaipu, the world’s largest hydroelectric dam. Jointly dedicated recently by Brazil’s president and his Paraguayan counterpart, the dam is 604 feet (184 m) high. So much cement went into its construction that it is said to be enough to build eight cities of medium size. Seven years have already been spent in building Itaipu, but not until 1989 will it be producing at full capacity. Its potential power of 12,600 megawatts is about six times the output of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam.
Too Big for Cradle
● Antonio and Luzinete Mondini of Guarulhos, SP, Brazil, recently became the parents of a baby boy weighing 6 kilograms 880 grams (15 lb) and measuring 57 centimeters (1 ft 10 in.) in length at birth. The baby, named Rafael, had the appearance of a child of four to six months. This was the mother’s first cesarean birth, although her other four boys weighed an average of 5 kilograms (11 lb) at birth. Rafael was born with serious health problems, due in part to the fact that his mother is diabetic. He is now being treated with a view to normalizing his metabolism. One of the mother’s problems was that none of the clothes or shoes prepared for her baby fit him. Even the wicker basket, all nicely decorated for the new arrival, was of no use. Rafael just did not fit into it!
Lack of Faith in Finland
● Reports indicate that the clergy of the Lutheran Church of Finland are suffering from lack of faith. Juhani Simojoki, director of the Lutheran congregations in Helsinki, recently said that the Church has taken the view that the Bible is more human than holy. He also said humans constitute “a part of animal world, an evolutionary result, but not necessarily the final result. God’s image is a cousin of an ape. . . . Nor do we consider it a fact that the Flood once destroyed practically all life.” As for the end of this system of things, he said “there is no reason to await it anymore.” Furthermore, he indicated that some theologians are probably quite ready “to deny certain doctrines,” but “delicacy usually prevents them from talking about their views and insulting the faith of others.” Of similar religious leaders, Jesus Christ pointedly said: “Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”—Matthew 15:14.
They’re Not Teddy Bears!
● Each year horror stories come out of the wilds of North America’s national parks telling of those seriously injured or killed because of viewing bears as being rather tame. An article by a doctor in The Medical Post of Toronto, Canada, gives some current examples: “In Jasper a mother smeared her child’s hand with honey to get a picture of a bear eating out of her palm, and was outraged when the bear walked away with most of the child’s fingers in its mouth. A Banff ranger told me of a man he found trying to encourage a bear to climb into the front seat of his car so he could take a photo of it sitting beside his wife.” Most of the bear-related tragedies could have been avoided if people heeded the signs warning them that bears are wild animals.
When Flying With a Baby
● When a mother travels by air with a baby she does well to bring along a bottle to help prevent the infant’s ears from hurting. This advice was given in a letter written by Dr. Hans H. Neumann of the Health Department of New Haven, Connecticut, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Air travelers know that during a plane’s descent, infants on board howl pitifully,” wrote the doctor. “Physicians should urge mothers to bottle-feed their infants with whatever liquid the baby likes best, both when the plane is rising and particularly during its descent.” Since the problem is changing air pressure, he explained that “the frequent swallowing will make it easier to equalize the pressure on both sides of the eardrum.” The ears of infant air travelers hurt more, noted the doctor, because their Eustachian tubes are narrower and their noses are often clogged.
How to Catch and Stop a Cold
● One way to catch a cold is by shaking hands with someone who has one, according to Family Circle magazine. In addition, any contact with objects previously touched by a cold sufferer could infect you. Why? Because studies indicate that dried surfaces contaminated by cold-causing viruses are potent for infection-spreading up to three hours. For prevention of cold: regularly wash your hands. If you do happen to come down with a cold that causes congestion or a cough, Family Circle suggests a concoction of the juice of one lemon mixed with honey and four ounces of water for relief. Cold lemon juice for a cough; hot for congestion.
● Rhinotherm is the name of a device that can cure a cold by hot-air blasts, claims Science Features From Israel. Professor Aharon Yerushalmi and his colleagues of the Weizmann Institute of Science developed this instrument on the principle that viruses cannot live in high temperatures. The Rhinotherm bombards the nasal passages with jets of 107° F. (42° C.) moist air, weakening the cold viruses to the extent that they do not multiply and the symptoms disappear. According to the report, “seventy-two percent of the sufferers treated were free of cold miseries when tested one day after treatment.” Of the 900 patients involved, some found permanent relief with just one 30-minute application. Rhinotherm has shown evidence of halting symptoms of allergies too.