Watching the World

World’s Worst Killers

“On a global scale, diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, and parasites are still the leading cause of death,” states the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Because of just three diseases—AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis—“several hundred million people are newly infected each year, with almost 10 million related deaths.” The newspaper explains: “By the middle of the 20th century, even many experts were convinced that infectious diseases would soon no longer play a role. Nevertheless, as became only too clear since the outbreak of AIDS, mad cow disease, and recently foot-and-mouth disease, the menace of infectious germs to man and beast is [still] a bitter reality. . . . In different places worldwide, highly dangerous viruses and bacteria made a totally unexpected appearance.” While the nature of the microorganisms themselves is often the cause, human life-styles and behavior also promote the emergence and spread of these disease-causing agents.

Religious Looting

“Despite the tightening of legislation, the theft of and traffic in religious objects in Europe is not decreasing,” comments the French Catholic newspaper La Croix. Objects stolen include crosses, furniture, gold and silver plate, sculptures, paintings, and even altars. According to the International Council of Museums, in recent years between 30,000 and 40,000 objects have been stolen in the Czech Republic, and more than 88,000 in Italy. France, with 87 cathedrals, is also a prime target for thieves. Between 1907 and 1996, some 2,000 items considered “historic monuments” were stolen from religious institutions in France, and fewer than 10 percent of them were recovered. Such looting is hard to control, especially since churches are easily accessible and often poorly protected.

London’s Dangerous Water Level

In London, “boreholes are being sunk to pump out the water that threatens to engulf [the city] from below,” reports The Economist. The water table has now risen to 130 feet [40 m] below the ground level of Trafalgar Square. Earlier in the last century when industry extracted millions of gallons of water, the water table was estimated at 300 feet [93 m] below the square. It is rising by about 10 feet [3 m] a year and could prove disastrous for London’s underground railway system, its miles of underground wiring, and the foundations of many of its buildings. It is estimated that about 50 boreholes will have to be sunk. “The Environment Agency estimates that a total of about [50 million litres (10 million gallons)] of water a day is currently being pumped out from beneath London,” says the magazine, but that figure will have to double within ten years if the situation is to be stabilized.

“Not So Special After All”

“We have been humbled as never before,” states New Scientist. “While we congratulate ourselves on the momentous achievement of sequencing the human genome, the genome itself is telling us we are not so special after all. It turns out we have only five times as many genes as a bacterium, a third more than a worm and about twice as many as a fly.” Additionally, “around 40 per cent of our genes are similar to those in nematode worms, 60 per cent are similar to those in fruit flies and 90 per cent are similar to those in mice.” Knowledge of the human genome also alters our view of race, says the magazine. Two individuals may look alike and be of the same race, yet genetically they may be far more different than two individuals from ethnic groups that differ greatly from each other. Says Luigi Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford University: “The differences between people of the same races are so large that it’s ridiculous to think of races as different—or as even existing.”

The Business of Pornography

“Pornography is a bigger business than professional football, basketball and baseball put together. People pay more money  for pornography in America in a year than they do on movie tickets, more than they do on all the performing arts combined,” states The New York Times Magazine. “The porn business is estimated to total between $10 billion and $14 billion annually in the United States when you toss in porn networks and pay-per-view movies on cable and satellite, Internet Web sites, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, sex toys and . . . magazines.” The article adds: “At $10 billion, porn is no longer a sideshow to the mainstream like, say, the $600 million Broadway theater industry—it is the mainstream.” For example, last year Hollywood put out 400 releases, while the pornography industry churned out 11,000 “adult” videos. Yet, few Americans will confess to watching them. “There’s no business like porn business,” says the Times. “Porn is the one show that no one watches but that, miraculously, never closes.”

Vatican Reduces Its Radio Power

“Vatican Radio has agreed to cut down its output in response to fears over the possible health effects of its powerful radio transmitters.” So reports the magazine New Scientist. Medium-wave transmission time would be halved, and signal power reduced. The daily broadcasts are spread across the globe in 60 languages and in a wide range of frequencies. When built 50 years ago, the station’s 33 antennae were located in a relatively unpopulated area outside of Rome. Today, about 100,000 people live nearby, and there are fears that the high-powered transmissions are the cause of local leukemia cases. The station has no overseas relay stations to boost signals. After Italy set new radiation standards in 1998, it called on the Vatican to reduce the station’s power levels. While denying that there are any health hazards and that Italy has any authority over them as a foreign state, the Vatican decided to reduce the power as “an act of good faith,” stated New Scientist.

Bottled Water Versus Tap Water

“Bottled water is so popular that there are more than 700 brands of water produced worldwide,” reports The New York Times. Yet, “in many cases the only difference between expensive bottled water and tap water is the container.” As pointed out by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), “bottled water may be no safer or healthier than tap water in many countries while it sells for up to 1,000 times the price.” Use of tap water not only saves money but also helps the environment, as each year 1.5 million tons of plastic is used for the water bottles, and “toxic chemicals released during the manufacture and disposal of bottles can release gases that contribute to climate change.” According to Dr. Biksham Gujja, head of WWF International’s Fresh Water Program, “there are more standards regulating tap water in Europe and the United States than those applied to the bottled water industry.”

Ancient Alexandria Mapped

After five years of excavations and underwater surveys, ancient Alexandria has finally been completely mapped. The map shows where the Pharaonic palaces stood and where dockyards and temples were located. French archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team used drawings based on records given by divers as well as electronic surveys of the submerged city, and they were surprised at the results. “Soon after the first electronic surveys of the harbour, we realised that the topography of the ancient quarters of Alexandria was totally different from what had been assumed until now,” said Goddio.

“Do You Believe in Angels?”

The above question, posed to more than 500 residents of Quebec, was responded to in the affirmative by 66 percent of those polled. As reported in Canada’s Le Journal de Montréal, one researcher credits the widespread belief in the supernatural not only to Roman Catholicism but also to a strong Buddhist influence in the province. Nonetheless, sociologist Martin Geoffroy is surprised that only one third of those surveyed admitted to belief in the Devil. “What is disturbing,” he states, “is the positivism. We believe in angels but not in the devil. We dismiss the negative.”