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Watching the World

Benefits Acknowledged

“Maybe Jehovah’s Witnesses are right in refusing the use of blood products, for it is true that an important number of pathogenic agents can be transmitted by transfused blood,” says French medical daily Le Quotidien du Médecin. The article went on to emphasize that transfused blood not only transmits certain viruses, such as the cytomegalovirus (causing a dangerous and potentially fatal viral disease) and those of the herpes group, but often “awakens a clinically silent virus present in the receiver’s body.”

Adding to the testimony was an interview conducted by the Brazilian magazine ISTOÉ with Professor Vicente Amato Neto, medical expert on infectious diseases: “I often say,” observed Amato, who is supervising director of São Paulo’s Clinical Hospital, “that the best prevention for AIDS is for one to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, for the members of that religion are neither homosexuals nor bisexuals, they are loyal to their marriage​—they associate it with reproduction—​don’t use drugs, and to complete the picture, they don’t accept blood transfusions.”

Dust-Storm Disaster

Dust storms have swept through Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, West Africa, on more than 80 days a year for the past five years because of drought and desertification. The result? The country is “blowing away,” reports The Times of London. Each year desert winds carry a hundred million tons of topsoil from the country’s southern Sahel region out over the Atlantic Ocean. As the soil and vegetation disappears, Mauritania’s cattle farmers have fled to the cities. Conditions have now become so bad that one out of every three children suffers from malnutrition, and the average life expectancy is only 46 years. It is feared that the dust that remains in the atmosphere over the country is helping to prolong the drought.

“Doomsday Clock” Moves Back

The historic treaty that eliminates certain types of nuclear missiles, signed last December by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, has prompted scientists to move the hands of the “doomsday clock” back three minutes. The clock, printed in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, symbolizes the imminence of nuclear war. The last time the clock moved back was in 1972. Since then, world tensions have steadily moved the clock forward from 12 minutes to 3 minutes before midnight. How long will the clock’s hands stay at six minutes to midnight?

All-Australian Bible

As part of Australia’s bicentennial year, the Bible Society in Australia has released an “All-Australian Bible.” Basically, it is the text of Today’s English Version (Good News Bible), but spelling, distances, weights, measures, and some of the expressions have been Australianized. “Field,” for instance, appears as “paddock,” and “cistern” as “tank.” Leviticus 19:9 reads: “When you harvest your paddock, do not cut the grain at the edge of the paddock . . . ” Illustrations in the Bible also have an Australian flavor, with Jesus’ death on the torture stake depicted in Aboriginal style. Further appealing to the Australian’s love of wide, open spaces is the cover layout of a gum tree with the sunset in the background, along with a Bicentennial Authority logo.

Concrete Protection of Rights

Japan will spend 30 billion yen to protect a couple of rocks. The two rocks are about a half mile [a kilometer] apart in the Philippine Sea and are part of a three-mile-long [5 km] atoll at low tide. At high tide, however, the island disappears, and only the “two rocks​—one 5 meters [16 ft] in diameter and the other, 2 meters [7 ft] in diameter—​show 30 to 50 centimeters [12-20 in.] above water,” reports the Tokyo newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Wave-absorbing blocks of steel and concrete will be built to surround the rocks. Why all the fuss and expense? Territorial rights are decided at high tide, and this most southerly territory of Japan is disappearing. With it will go the fishing and mining rights for 200 miles [320 km] around the island​—an area larger than Japan itself.

Microwave Aircraft

Pilotless aircraft powered by microwaves, and needing no heavy fuel tanks, are now a reality. Such an aircraft took its first 20-minute flight in Canada on September 17, 1987, and has flown several times since. How does it work? Electrical energy from generators on the ground is converted into microwaves and beamed up by a dish antenna. Receptors on the aircraft change the microwaves back to electricity that powers the engine. The ultimate goal is a plane that can stay aloft for months at a time at altitudes of up to 13 miles [21 km]. Possible applications are scientific research, surveillance, and transmission of cellular-phone calls. However, there are worries about the environmental problems that large microwave-transmitting installations can create.

Universal Concert Hall

A listening room where it is possible to compare how an orchestra would sound in each of the world’s greatest concert halls has been built in Tokyo. The sound is recreated by 24 speakers linked to a computer that has been fed data on the dimensions, building materials, and absorption rates of each hall. “By calculating the concert hall’s dimensions, and the level of echo from the walls and ceilings, the room can simulate the hall’s acoustics from 800 different directions,” says the Mainichi Daily News. Besides the well-known concert halls of Tokyo and Osaka, the system is programmed for the Musikvereinsaal of Vienna, the Stadtkasino in Basel, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Boston Symphony Hall. Even the acoustics of halls no longer in existence can be reproduced. This room was developed to preview the acoustics of concert halls before building them.

Music Addiction?

“You can get high on noise,” claims the deputy director of the Institute for Hearing Research in Nottingham, England. “Very loud sound produces a sense of euphoria that can be addictive.” Particularly vulnerable to this kind of addiction are people who use the new type of headphone that fits inside the ear, close to the auditory nerve, reports The Sunday Times of London. Research indicates that an ever-increasing tolerance can build up for any type of music, and irreparable harm can be done to the cells in the inner ear if the volume of sound is not properly regulated.

Gulf-War Casualties

The war between Iran and Iraq has now gone on longer than World War II, and the two warring Islamic neighbors are still firmly locked in this seven-year-old conflict. What gives this war its “staying power”? For one thing, notes Work in Progress, the newsletter from the United Nations University, numerous countries have been eager to supply the war’s hardware​—weapons. As a result, says the newsletter, ‘the Iraqis deploy Soviet MIG fighters armed with French Exocet missiles, while the Iranians counter with American F-5 jets and British Chieftain tanks.’ Demos, a publication from the Dutch Interuniversity Demographic Institute, estimates that there have been from 330,000 to 600,000 casualties so far​—an average of 125 to 225 persons killed each day.

“Medical Passport”

“A ‘medical passport’ will be issued to the Soviet Union’s 280 million citizens [in 1988] as part of a campaign to improve the troubled national health-care system,” reports Canada’s Toronto Star. The “pocket-sized ‘passport’” will provide the person’s medical history, giving “data ranging from the individual’s blood type and blood pressure to the type of medicines required for treatment of any chronic illness.” Soviet Deputy Health Minister Alexei Moskvichev announced it as the first step toward what he called “the world’s largest disease prevention and treatment program.” He said: “Information about one’s own health will make a person give thought to his mode of life.”