Watching the World
High Unemployment Cost
◆ Being unemployed may cost more than just the loss of a salary. Curt Donig, the head of a Berlin, West Germany, clinic, says that one year of unemployment may reduce the life expectancy of a job loser by five years. He explained: “We have observed over 3000 men and women with nervous disorders. These people have been out of work for lengthy periods of time. The processed data on these people leads to the conclusion that unemployment and its attendant anxieties can reduce a person’s life expectancy by as much as five years, especially if they have been job-seeking for more than a year.” After that time, many job seekers let themselves go, succumbing to alcohol or drugs. Health deteriorates and marriages come apart. He advised a wife with an unemployed husband to encourage him steadily and to share his leisure-time interests to make him feel wanted and needed.
Pornography’s Links
◆ Law-enforcement officials in the United States declare that nearly all the major hard-core pornographic newspapers and periodicals are distributed by companies controlled by organized crime. Thus, people who buy such literature are supporting the criminal element. One publisher of pornographic literature said: “I’d deal with Hitler if I had to. I’ll deal with anyone I can do business with.”
Another Pill Warning
◆ The birth-control pill is now taken by about 10 million American women, and millions of others in various lands. It has long been known that the pill increases the risk of blood clots and strokes. Recently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that oral contraceptives have now been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks. Among women between the ages of 30 and 39, according to the FDA, the risk of a fatal heart attack was nearly three times higher for those taking the pill. For women users over 40, the number of fatal heart attacks was nearly five times as high as for nonusers.
Surface of Venus
◆ Both the United States and the Soviet Union have sent unmanned space vehicles aloft to probe the secrets of the planet Venus. The most recent venture began last June when Russia successfully launched Venera 9 and 10. From Venera 9 a module descended and made a soft landing on the planet’s surface, where the temperature reaches 900 degrees Fahrenheit During a 53-minute existence on the superhot surface of Venus, its instruments radioed a wealth of information back to earth. For instance, scientists thus received their first televised photographs transmitted from the surface of another planet. The scene was one of jagged rocks. “We thought there couldn’t be rocks on Venus,” remarked project director Boris Nepoklonov. Why not? Because “they would all be annihilated by constant wind and temperature erosion, but here they are, with edges absolutely not blunted. This picture makes us reconsider all our concepts of Venus.”
Expanding Universe
◆ For decades, scientists have debated the origin and future of our awesome universe. In recent years, the most widely accepted conclusion among scientists is that the universe expanded from an initial “big bang” in the distant past, and is continuing this expansion. Some have believed that in time gravitation would pull the universe back together again in a “crush,” and perhaps begin the “big bang” all over again. However, more research indicates that this is not likely, but that continued expansion is probable. Natural History magazine relates: “Although lingering uncertainties mean that the answer is not conclusive, this approach indicates that there probably is not enough matter in the universe to reverse the expansion.” It added: “If this should prove to be the correct interpretation of the data, the pull of gravity will never be preeminent again, and we can be sure that the universe will expand forever.”
More Women Leaving
◆ Fifteen years ago, the number of American men running away from wives, families and homes because of problems and frustrations was about 300 times the number of women who left. However, last year, says Tracers Company of America, nearly as many women left as did men. And so far this year, almost twice as many women were said to be fleeing their homes as were men. Yet the fear for their personal safety and their loneliness cause most of these women either to return home or to let themselves be found so their families can bring them back.
Catholic Churchgoing Off
◆ According to a church-sponsored study, attendance at Catholic churches in the United States dropped by one third from 1963 to 1974. Main reasons given were the Church’s restrictions on birth control and divorce, and its insistence on the authority of the pope. The study said that while many people may not be less concerned about their religious lives, they are “concerned and expressing reservations about their religious institutions.”
Language Problems
◆ Aptitude tests taken by college-bound youths show a definite drop in ability to use the English language. This trend in the United States is thought to be chiefly due to the lack of concentrating on reading and communicating in earlier school life. A chief culprit is television. A college president in New York said: “For many children [television] has to a large extent replaced reading aloud, a good deal of physical activity with other children and the conversation, communication, implicit in dealing with others, and the use of the child’s own imagination in creating its own entertainment.” Invariably, children who enjoy reading and do well with language are those who, beginning in early childhood, have been read to by parents, and where television has not been allowed to replace reading and communicating.
Lions in Danger
◆ Often called the “king of beasts,” lions have long been regarded as dangerous to man. But now the lion is the one in danger—from man. The National Wildfire Federation reports that in the past two decades the number of lions has dropped from about 400,000 to about 200,000. It is felt that at the present rate only a few thousand lions may be left by the end of the century. Most of the pressure comes from expanding human population, which pushes farms and stock raising into areas normally lion country, exterminating them to protect the farmers’ interests.
Safer to Smoke a Pipe?
◆ In a study of 54,000 men and women 18 to 69 years of age, researchers recently found that Sweden’s pipe users and cigarette chain-smokers run nearly the same risk of developing lung cancer. The danger is about seven times greater than for nonsmokers. For those using both pipes and cigarettes, the risk was up to 10.9 times. It soared to 28.8 times for pipe users who smoked 15 cigarettes or more daily. A decade ago, American Cancer Society physician E. Cuyler Hammond, M.D., said that in the United States those smoking only pipes ran just one fifth to one fourth the risk of getting lung cancer that cigarette smokers did. According to Dr. Hammond, differences in tobacco or the fact that U.S. pipe smokers do not inhale the smoke may account for diversity in the two reports. He did say, however, that U.S. lung cancer rates were equivalent for cigarette smokers and those who inhale pipe smoke.
Giant Vegetables
◆ Colin Bowcock, a gardener of Willaston, England, has rated seven entries in the Guinness Book of World Records. For what? Growing giant vegetables. He is said to feed his plants intravenously. Whatever may account for his unusual results, Bowcock has grown such giants as a 35-pound stalk of celery and a 96-pound cabbage.
Intertribal Strife
◆ Reportedly, a prohibited love affair between a girl of one tribe and a man of another recently touched off intertribal fighting in Papua New Guinea. Brandishing spears, axes and bows and arrows, over a thousand warriors of the two tribes fought, according to police, because the man and the girl had violated “intertribal taboos.” During the battle, dozens of homes were burned and five men met death.
Guard Against Lethal Fumes
◆ Recently, two women—one 55 years of age, the other 68—were killed by fumes resulting from a mixture of ammonia and household bleach. Apparently this combination, not diluted with water, gave off nitrogen trichloride fumes. It seems that one woman used the mixture to clean windows that Halloween prank players had splattered with eggs. Then the bucket was brought indoors. This emphasizes the need for caution in the use of cleaning liquids, especially if one is thinking of mixing two substances.
Cologne Cathedral Plundered
◆ The treasury of the Cologne Cathedral was looted by thieves in early November. During their midnight venture, they stole millions of dollars’ worth of gold, silver and gems. Among other things, the loot included nine bishops’ rings, jeweled crosses and a sixteenth-century plate studded with diamonds. The thieves made their entry by climbing through a ventilating shaft that leads to the treasury.