Watching the World

▪ “Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes,” said acting Secretary of Transportation Maria Cino. Of all U.S. traffic deaths during 2005, 39 percent involved alcohol.​—U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.

▪ “Over 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square mile of ocean today.”​—UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME.

▪ “U.S. workers spend half a billion hours per year playing [computer] games on the job, at a cost of $10 billion in lost productivity.” This does not include time “spent surfing the web at work for personal use.”​—MANAGEMENT-ISSUES WEB SITE.

Violence Against Children

“For many children violence is routine, a part of their daily reality,” notes the World Health Organization. According to a recent report by the UN secretary-general, “almost 53,000 children died worldwide in 2002 as a result of homicide.” In addition, millions of children are exploited for forced labor, prostitution, or pornography. Can such evils be avoided? The secretary-general’s report states: “Factors that are likely to be protective in the home as well as other settings include good parenting, the development of strong attachment bonds between parents and children and positive non-violent discipline.”

Good Friends, Long Life!

Having a network of good friends may well increase a person’s life span, reports the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. A study of nearly 1,500 Australians aged 70 or over examined how relationships affected longevity over a ten-year period. Individuals with a strong network of friends had a mortality rate 22 percent lower than those with few friends. Active friendships also have a positive effect among the elderly when it comes to “depression, self efficacy, self esteem, coping and morale, or a sense of personal control,” says the report.

Britons in Debt

“More than a third of adults with bank accounts are relying on their overdrafts to keep them afloat,” says The Daily Telegraph of London. An overdraft, instead of being viewed as an emergency credit, has become an “absolute necessity” for the 3.5 million Britons who are permanently overdrawn. Keith Tondeur, chief executive of the charity Credit Action, blames the “instant gratification culture that engulfs our society.” Tondeur warns: “Millions of us are permanently living beyond our means and the lack of even basic money education means most of us haven’t the faintest idea how much this is costing us.”

Night Flights and Global Warming

The condensation trails, or contrails, left in the sky by jet airliners affect atmospheric temperature, says Scientific American. During the day these contrails reflect incoming sunlight, resulting in a net cooling of the atmosphere. At night, however, they trap heat beneath them. English researchers found that “flying between 6 P.M. and 6 A.M. contributed between 60 and 80 percent of the climate warming that originated from contrails, even though these flights represent a quarter of the total air traffic,” states the report.