Watching the World
‘Atomic Millstone’
● Scientists who worked on the Manhattan project that led to the development of the atomic bomb recently met together on the 40th anniversary of the first sustained nuclear reaction. “We recognize that not everything that came out of the nuclear age is beautiful,” said Professor Robert Sachs, who organized the reception. “We’re not celebrating anything except perhaps the intellectual power that made this possible.” An even more pessimistic note was struck by scientist Robert F. Christy. “The atmosphere then was so different,” he said. “We were surrounded by a world of war. To win the war, anything you could do was justified, and there was great intensity of common effort to split the atom. Only when we exploded the first bomb did I appreciate more fully the implications.” But he added: “The atomic bomb is like a millstone around our neck.”
27,000 Tons of Words
● “Words cascading upon words,” writes Kenneth L. Adelman, the U.S. deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, speaking of all the addresses, speeches, resolutions, and so forth, that are “duly recorded, translated, printed and distributed” at the UN and “preserved for posterity.” What kind of words? “One hot resolution last month contained a host of prefatory paragraphs, one of which ran 225 words, mostly multi-syllabic, but devoid of both verbs and any discernible sense,” Mr. Adelman reports. He adds: “A U.N. official calculates 29,000 hours of meetings in 1982, equal to three and one-third years. Some 700 million pages of U.N. documents were produced in 1982, weighing around 27,000 tons.” What is the cost? “Astronomical,” says Mr. Adelman, “since the cost of a single page of a U.N. speech, estimated by this same official at more than $200, exceeds the annual per capita income of 16 U.N. member states.”
Businessmen Seeing Stars
● “What moves a growing number of businessmen to consult an astrologer before venturing into new investments?” asks the business edition of the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to the report, many businessmen and companies, often disappointed by the business forecasts of various economic institutions, are now viewing astrology as an alternative in predicting the future. It is used “when opening a new firm, making cooperative agreements with other firms, for establishing fiscal policy, when selecting workers or when dealing with personal concerns and problems,” says the paper.
Economic Woes Worldwide
● “One of the most profound upheavals of the century is shaking the world’s economy and virtually no one has been left untouched,” says an article in the Detroit Free Press. “Large numbers of people are out of jobs and entire industries are threatened with failure.” How is this affecting the various nations? “In some places, the recession has translated into coups, currency devaluations, political repression, riots or guerilla conflicts,” says the article. Some nations, like Britain, are experiencing the highest rate of unemployment in their history, while others stagger under tremendous foreign debts. “The poorer countries are still trying to get roads, running water and latrines,” said one analyst. “When the coffee crops don’t do well or whatever, it is not a question of doing without a big car or living less well. These people are dying.”
India’s Population Growth
● While China is the world’s most populous nation with over a billion people, India may well overtake it in the next century. At present, India’s growth rate, 2.5 percent a year, is almost double that of China’s. The last census, taken in 1981, showed that the population (684 million) had doubled since India gained its independence in 1947. “The stresses and strains on the social, economic, political and sheer human aspects of life are now felt to be reaching near breaking point,” said Mrs. Avabai Wadia, head of the Family Planning Association of India. Indian officials hope to stabilize the population at 1.2 billion by the year 2050.
Cheapest Travel?
● How much does it cost to travel the 3,000 miles (4,800 km) across the Australian continent by car? Only 12 pence—if you count the toll to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Quiet Achiever, the name of their solar-powered car that resembles a bathtub on wheels with a table on top, took under 20 days to make the journey. The solar cells, housed in the flat top, powered a pair of 12-volt car batteries that drove the one horsepower electric motor at speeds of up to 40 m.p.h. “We have proved solar powered vehicles are feasible,” said driver Hans Tholstrup. “Now it’s up to the motor industry to find a wider role for them.”
Sea Surface Irregular
● Satellite measurements from space show that the sea surface is not as level as most people think, but that the geography of the ocean’s surface corresponds with the floor surface deep below. “The density of the Earth is not uniform,” says Richard Rapp of the department of geodetic science and surveying at Ohio State University. “Irregularities in structure of the crust and the mantle create variations in the Earth’s gravitational field.” High gravity pulls down and results in a valley in the water’s surface, while low gravity causes a large bulge—both of which remain relatively constant, although currents and other features can change. As reported in The Globe and Mail of Toronto, more precise measurements will be made by a new satellite due to be launched in 1986, which will “provide the first comprehensive global map of currents and tides.” Besides aiding navigation, it will “also indicate areas where atomic waste can be buried at sea without danger of leakage moving into coastal areas,” the report said.
Japan Changing
● Traditionally regarded as life-long, the bonds of matrimony are beginning to crumble in Japan. According to a recent survey, there is now one divorce for every five couples getting married—a postwar high of one divorce every 3 minutes and 11 seconds—which officials say is fast approaching West European levels. Outstanding, they say, is the marked increase of divorces among couples who have been married for 10 or 20 years. Among the reasons given by the Asahi Evening News are the “rising social standings for Japanese women in terms of education and job opportunities,” and the slowing birthrate and smaller families that “make divorce a more easily acceptable proposition for women.”
Changing also is Tokyo’s reputation for being the safest big city in the world. Recent statistics show an average of one murder per day, one case of robbery and arson each day, and some kind of theft every 2 minutes and 30 seconds in the Tokyo area.
Telephone Sex
● The drastic increase of genital herpes and the fact that there is no cure for the dread disease have led to the formation of a new business: Telephone sex. “Advocates boast it is herpes-free, guilt-free and keeps sex perverts off the streets. It is the latest fad to sweep Toronto,” says The Globe and Mail. With ads for “fantasy fulfillment over the phone,” “whatever gets you thru the night” and to “explore, experience and enjoy the erotic,” any caller with a credit card can talk as long as the caller wants for $35 a call. Operators claim they are providing society with a “valuable service” and a “legitimate, legal outlet for their urges to engage in talk about sex,” as well as “a lot of revenue and jobs for Canada.” The police “have checked into the businesses and say there is nothing illegal about them,” reports the paper.
Sight Saver
A man in Zimbabwe may owe his vision to mother’s milk. A report in the Zimbabwe Herald says the man related how a cobra had slithered into his truck, raised itself up and “spat in my eyes.” An observing bystander ‘grabbed me and pushed me over to his wife who was breast-feeding a baby and told her to put some of her milk into my eyes,’ he said. According to the report, doctors told the man that this most likely saved his sight, and that he, though he still had some blindness in one eye, would probably regain his full sight.
Moon Rocks Silent
Moon rocks, brought back to reveal some secrets of the universe, have instead raised a lot more questions. “At the time, everyone had the naive idea you were going to be able to push a button and make great discoveries,” said Dr. James R. Arnold, custodian of samples of moon rocks brought back by astronauts 10 years ago. Although scientists have been studying them for the past decade, they say there is still no concrete answer as to where they came from.
Open Door Closes
● “When China adopted the open-door policy a few years ago, foreign records, tapes and TV sets . . . flooded the Chinese market,” says the South China Morning Post. But now, concern over “bourgeois poison”—a reference to “aspects of Western culture considered unhealthy and detrimental to the socialist system”—has brought about a ban against records, prerecorded cassette and video cassette tapes. TV antennas capable of receiving Hong Kong stations had already been banned last year. “The regulations,” reports the Post, “also provide for the confiscation of any products judged to be anti-China, anti-communist, religious or pornographic in nature.”
Leprosy Control Hampered
● “Leprosy control methods developed over the last 30 years may be rendered completely ineffectual,” says a report from the World Health Organization. About 25 countries have reported that leprosy bacteria is now resistant to the drug Dapsone, which is “cheap and virtually without toxicity in the dosages used.” With the rate increasing steadily, “urgent action must be taken to prevent the further development of Dapsone resistance,” the panel said. An alternative, multidrug therapy, may have to be used, even though expensive and with possible poisonous side effects.
Friends Needed
● The importance of friends should not be underestimated, says Dr. Vivian Rakoff, head of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. “Without sustaining, supportive social structures, people perish.” In fact, says Dr. Rakoff, a lack of friends leads more often to suicide than does either poverty or unemployment. “People who are lonely and in despair are prime candidates for suicide,” says the doctor. “There is strong evidence that more people do themselves in where the money is best, the economy is strongest, unemployment is lowest.” Dr. Rakoff added that building friendships “takes an awful lot of skill, however, and not everybody succeeds.”