November 22

Is Astrology for You?

“WHAT type of person am I?” “What is my calling in life?” “What does the future hold for me?” Have you ever pondered over those questions? Most people have. In search for answers millions throughout history have turned to astrology. What is meant by this term?

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia defines astrology as a study that “assumes that the heavenly bodies [sun, moon, stars and planets] exert, according to their relative positions at certain times, a direct influence upon human life and destiny.”

Is there some valid basis to astrology? Can one gain supernatural knowledge by employing it? If you were to become involved in astrology, would it exercise a good influence over you?

Mounting Interest in Astrology Today

Recent years have seen an enormous upsurge of interest in astrology. Concerning this, writer Jess Stearn stated:

“Astrology, the once discredited art of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, is now going through a singular resurgence. So strong has the vogue become​—not only with gullible old ladies, but with intellectuals and the young—​that architects are designing homes especially for people born under certain signs of the zodiac [and] interior decorators and manufacturers are adapting color schemes to people with these self-same signs.”

Interest in astrology is found among people of all walks of life. Rich and poor alike read their horoscopes daily. In the United States alone some ten million individuals zealously follow astrology and about forty million more have some contact with it. Twenty years ago horoscope columns could be found in less than a hundred newspapers in this country. Today over a thousand United States newspapers carry them.

Why do people pursue astrology? Self-interest is often a motivating factor. For example, young men and women with romantic intentions often compare horoscopes to see if they are “right” for each other. Many seek by astrology to know what financial moves to make and when. In Asia marriage and burial dates are often determined by astrology. In the East both the time and precise direction of ceremonial marches are frequently determined by astrologers. Even palace walls have been torn down so that a procession could move in alignment with the planets.

Astrologers insist that what they do is really a science. One of them recently wrote: “It is the greatest body of knowledge in human history​—bar none.” However, many reference works define astrology as a “pseudoscience” (that is, “false or pretended science”). What is the truth of the matter? How do astrologers go about making their calculations? Is their method truly scientific? The answer to these questions may have a bearing on whether astrology is for you.

Is Astrology Scientific?

In ancient times the earth was thought to be the center of the universe. Because the earth makes one full rotation on its axis every twenty-four hours, to one standing upon the earth it seems that the sun, moon and stars revolve around the earth.

Ancient astrologers concluded that these heavenly movements had some special significance for man. They noted twelve particular star groups or constellations to which they gave names of persons and of animals, such as Leo (for lion), Taurus (for bull) and Aries (for ram). The assumed circular path through which these stars and planets seem to travel came to be called the zodiac, meaning “[circle] of animals (or, living creatures).” Concerning the zodiac, The World Book Encyclopedia comments: “From the earliest times, men have divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts of 30° each. These parts are called the signs of the zodiac. About 2,000 years ago, each sign received the name of the constellation that occupied its position.”

Because of the movement of the earth around the sun, from the earth it appears that the sun progresses from one constellation to the next each month, making a complete circuit in twelve months.

Astrologers claim that at the exact moment of birth a person is especially affected by the constellation in which the sun appears and also by the one rising at the time on the eastern horizon at the place of his birth. Astrologers also say that the positions of the planets with relation to the stars and to one another at certain times can affect the individual favorably or unfavorably. This is especially true, they claim, at the moment of birth. A chart, showing these positions is called a “horoscope.” Supposedly, radiations from these heavenly bodies strike the newborn infant’s cells, causing hereditary changes that determine what type of person he will be. Is this really true?

University of Arizona astronomer Dr. Bart J. Bok says, No. He stated:

Studies of the stars and planets have shown that the amounts of radiation from these bodies that are received on earth are exceedingly small and that any gravitational effects are so slight as to be negligible in comparison with those from nearby objects.

“Apart from the sun, the moon is the only celestial body that regularly produces a force in excess of the gravitational force produced by adjacent objects at the time of birth. Only under the most favorable conditions can the gravitational attraction of the planet Mars equal that produced by the doctor in charge of the delivery.”

Even if the celestial bodies could affect a person’s cells and mold his personality, would this occur at birth? Leading geneticist Amram Scheinfeld points out:

“[The astrologers’] position that cosmic forces affect an infant’s personality at the moment of birth is genetically untenable. For this theory to be valid, the influence on the genes would have to occur at the moment of the child’s conception, not at his birth. . . . All their charts are plotted nine months too late.”

Because of this difficulty, some astrologers try to calculate from the time of conception. But who can determine that moment with precision?

What About Zodiac Dates?

There is another serious difficulty too. We remember that the dates for the signs of the zodiac were calculated on the basis of the constellations that appeared in them about two thousand years ago. At that time, for example, the constellation Aries could be seen in the “Aries” section of the zodiac. The sun would appear in this constellation at the spring equinox (about March 21) and would remain there for about thirty days. Zodiac charts give the impression that this is still true, assigning the period from March 21 to April 20 to Aries. But this is incorrect. The World Book Encyclopedia explains why:

“Each year, the sun crosses the equator about 50 seconds of arc west of the points where it crossed the year before. This westward movement of the equinoctial points is called the precession of the equinoxes. . . .

“Because of precession, the signs of the zodiac no longer correspond to the constellations for which they were named. Over 2,000 years ago the sun was in the part of the sky called Aries at the spring equinox, and it is still called the first of Aries. It is now in the constellation Pisces, and is moving on toward the constellation which is called Aquarius in the zodiac.”

So dates given in zodiac charts for the sun’s appearance in the various constellations are all one section off, or, as the same encyclopedia puts it: “Today, the stars of Aries are in the sign [section] of Taurus. Those of Taurus are in the sign [section] of Gemini, those of Gemini in the sign [section] of Cancer, and so on.” Horoscopes based upon the old dates are completely incorrect. Is something so lacking in scientific basis really for you?

Origin in Religion of Ancient Babylon

If you were to look into the history of astrology, what would you learn? Where and how did it originate? Professor Morris Jastrow declares: “The history of astrology can now be traced back to ancient Babylonia, and indeed to the earliest phases of Babylonian history.” Concerning the zodiac, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia points out: “There is strong evidence that the zodiac was formed at Babylon about 2100 B.C. . . . Several of the ancient constellation figures have a remarkably Babylonian character, . . . and nearly all may be explained from Babylonian mythology.”

What purpose did astrology serve at its beginning? Professor Jastrow continues: “In Babylonia as well as in Assyria . . . astrology takes its place in the official cult as one of the two chief means at the disposal of the priests . . . for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods.” The sun, moon and planets were considered the homes of the Babylonian gods and were named after them. The priests believed that a correct interpretation of the movements of these bodies would reveal what the gods were about to do. Thus, astrology was religious from its beginning. It was a form of divination by means of omens.

Of course, devotees of astrology today do not say that the planets are dwelling places of ancient gods. But their faith in astrology amounts to the same thing. Why so? Well, has not modern astrology branched off from that ancient Babylonian superstition? Is not a branch of a tree still part of the tree? Also, what essential difference is there between believing that planetary “gods” or planetary “forces” govern human affairs?

Astrologers may avow that their practice is a science, but we have seen that evidence does not support their claim. The fact is that astrology today is nothing more than a modern offshoot of the pagan religion of ancient Babylon. Do you wish to become involved in such a superstition? If you do, what type of influence will it have upon you?

How Can Astrology Influence You?

IF ASTROLOGY is truly beneficial it should produce good results for all its adherents. But what do the facts show? British astronomer Dr. Harold Jones Spencer states: “I have had shoals of letters, many of them tragic, telling how the belief in it [astrology] has ruined homes which until one of the partners took it up were very happy ones.”

Astronomer Bart Bok points to another serious problem that can arise when people put their faith in astrology: “The danger is that if people really believe in it, it takes away their power to make their own decisions.” Do you appreciate your freedom to think for yourself and to use your own judgment in deciding matters? Would you like to forfeit that freedom by allowing lifeless, unintelligent stars and planets to dictate your every move?

But there are more serious objections to astrology than these. What could they be?

What Is God’s View of Astrology?

We have noted that astrology is a form of divination and also involves looking for omens. God’s view of such things is expressed at Deuteronomy 18:10, 12: “There should not be found in you anyone who . . . employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens . . . For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah.”

Consider what happened to the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel when “they began to bow down to all the army of the heavens,” in the days of King Hoshea. We read: “Therefore Jehovah got very incensed against Israel, so that he removed them from his sight,” causing them to go into captivity to Assyria in 740 B.C.E.​—2 Ki. 17:16, 18.

Contrast with this the course of King Josiah of Judah, who “put out of business . . . those making sacrificial smoke to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations of the zodiac.” Josiah’s action was said to be “right in Jehovah’s eyes,” and God blessed him for it. (2 Ki. 23:5; 22:2) Do you, too, desire to win the approval of Jehovah God? Could you possibly do so by engaging in a practice that would make you “detestable” to him?

God’s Word counsels: “Trust in Jehovah with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding. In all your ways take notice of him, and he himself will make your paths straight.” (Prov. 3:5, 6) Could you really put your trust in Jehovah and at the same time believe in something he condemns in his Word?

Prophecies Inspired by Whom?

It is true that astrologers have made some predictions that have come true. Does this mean that astrology is really good? that it can benefit people? God’s law to ancient Israel acknowledged that even a false prophet could make accurate predictions on occasion. (Deut. 13:1-3) What accounts for their ability to do this?

Of course, some things may be simply coincidences. At other times the language of astrologers is so ambiguous that it could be applied to just about anything. But did you know that the Bible does not rule out the possibility of astrologers gaining supernatural knowledge? How could that be?

The Bible associates divination and looking for omens with spiritism. (Deut. 18:10, 11) A person who practices such things can come under the influence of “wicked spirit forces.” (Eph. 6:12) Could such demonic forces convey knowledge of future events to someone here on earth?

Interestingly, we read in the Bible of a girl who “used to furnish her masters with much gain by practicing the art of prediction.” Apparently some of the things this girl foretold came true, as is the case with some predictions of astrologers today. But what was responsible for this girl’s abilities at prediction? The Bible states that she was under the influence of “a spirit, a demon of divination.”​—Acts 16:16.

The connection between spiritism and astrology is equally clear today. “It was and still is closely related to other pseudo sciences and superstitions such as palmistry, numerology, and the use of charms and magic,” says The World Book Encyclopedia. Thus, astrologer Sybil Leek claims to be a witch. And, in addition to his abilities at astrology, Maurice Woodruff declares that he is a clairvoyant and has extrasensory perception (ESP).

So it is the influence of wicked spirits or demons, not the method of divination itself (in this case astrology), that “accounts for occasional accurate predictions by astrologers. Showing that the particular method of divination (whether by astrology, casting lots or otherwise) is not really important is the comment of Professor L. A. Waddell:

“In recording several of the ways in which divining was practised in Tibet, a mediæval Chinese observer wrote: ‘Notwithstanding the variety of their methods of divination, and their unskillfulness in their mode of examining, they are quite frequently surprisingly accurate.’ This criticism still holds good.”

But in spite of a degree of accuracy, by far the majority of astrological predictions go unfulfilled. For example: Astrologers forecast earth-wide floods for the years 1186 and 1524, but no such floods occurred. In 1939 the leading astrologers of Britain said that there would be no war and, when that prediction failed, they foretold that the war would end the following year with the defeat of Hitler. But World War II dragged on until 1945. More recently, Hindu astrologers predicted that the world would end early in February 1962. Devout Hindus sat up all night in anticipation of this. But, again, nothing happened.

A survey was taken of the predictions of the three most popular astrologers of Britain in 1941. What did it reveal? One of them was right only twelve times out of thirty; the second, nine out of thirty, and the third made only four correct predictions in thirty attempts.

Astrology cannot give reliable insight into oneself or into the future. It is not lifeless matter revolving in outer space but the “living God” Jehovah who declares “from the beginning the finale” and so can tell mankind what the future holds. This he does in his written Word the Bible. (1 Tim. 4:10; Isa. 46:10) It is also this Word of the living God, not that of soothsaying astrologers, that “is able to discern thoughts and intentions of the heart” and so can help you to understand what motivates you and what will bring you real success.​—Heb. 4:12.

What’s Happening to Prices?

IF YOU go shopping regularly, you know what is happening to prices. In just about every country in the world, the price of nearly everything keeps going up.

True, at times prices have remained steady, or have even declined a little. But before long, they have gone back up to new highs. That has been the trend for many years since World War II.

This relentless upward movement of prices is discouraging to many families with limited budgets. It distresses them to see that products cost more, services cost more and that taxes of all kinds keep increasing. And during 1973, prices in many lands rose more swiftly than at any time in several decades.

Inflation​—a Thief

The word most commonly used to describe what has been happening is INFLATION. A dictionary defines it as “a substantial rise of prices.”

Inflation means that everybody pays more for things. It also means that incomes usually go up. But​—and here is where a big problem arises—​the incomes of many people do not increase enough to keep up with inflation. As a result, their standard of living goes down, since they cannot afford to buy as much as before.

In this group are many retired and elderly people who have to live off fixed, or barely rising, incomes and pensions. Then there are many ‘middle-class’ wage earners who are unable to keep their salaries going up fast enough. But those who usually suffer most are many unskilled laborers and poorer people. They are in no position to demand the higher and higher incomes needed to keep up with rising prices.

Of course, inflation benefits some​—those whose wages or investments grow faster than the rise in prices. These people can afford a better standard of living. But often they are the very ones who were better off to begin with.

So while inflation benefits some, it is a growing disaster for others​—the many elderly, middle-class and poor persons who cannot keep up. For these people inflation is a thief, a thief that robs the most needy.

Hence, even in the midst of ‘peak prosperity,’ much of the population is left behind and ends up worse off. In the United States, the richest nation on earth, the government lists about 26,000,000 people as officially living in poverty. One out of four elderly people lives in poverty. Half of all widows over sixty-five are either at or near the poverty level. In addition, millions of other people have incomes so low that they are not far from poverty.

Since that can happen in the richest nation on earth in ‘good’ times, many wonder: What will happen in ‘bad’ times?

Inflation Worsening in the United States

Inflation has afflicted practically every nation on earth since World War II. But political and economic leaders in the Western world worry about one nation more than others​—the United States.

The United States has been the central pillar, the foundation of the Western world’s economy for more than a quarter of a century. Because it produces and sells more goods and spends more money abroad than any other country, what happens there has a profound effect on all Western nations. As one person expressed it, ‘When the United States sneezes, the rest of the Western world catches cold.’

The economic picture in the United States has caused great concern for the past several years. The persistent trend has been toward higher and higher prices. Nothing the government has done has been able to stop the march of inflation.

Commenting on this situation, U.S. News & World Report says:

“A look at the record since World War II is not very encouraging to anybody who uses American dollars to determine his way of his life​—and that means all of us. In the 28 years since the end of World War II the ‘consumer price index’​—a measure of the cost of living compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor​—has risen 144 per cent.

“That means, on the average, an item that cost a dollar in 1945 costs $2.44 in 1973. The dollar you had then is now worth 41 cents.

“Prices went up in 26 of those 28 years. When they went down, the declines were quite small.”

During the entire period of twenty-eight years since 1945, the average price increase each year was about 3 percent. But during the twelve-month period ending in mid-1973, the rise was double​—about 6 percent.

Yet in the last half of 1973, since the above news item was published, prices of many things increased even faster. Late in 1973 prices were released from the “freeze” the government had earlier clamped on them. The result was that prices of many things soared, especially food products.

In New York food prices skyrocketed 4 ¹⁄₂ percent in one week during August. In that week the price of frying-size chickens rose 24 percent, bread and cereals jumped over 10 percent and fish about 7 ¹⁄₂ percent.

During 1973 the price of many basic commodities such as wheat, corn, lard, wool and rubber more than doubled. That meant, of course, that there would eventually be further increases in the end product when those basic commodities were processed into consumer goods.

The change in the food situation of the United States has been startling. For years the government paid farmers not to plant all their land because of huge food surpluses. But now the demand for food is so great, by both Americans and people of other nations, that the government is telling farmers to plant all they can. And still, food prices go up!

This situation prompted a high official of the Cost of Living Council to say: “What we have to do is educate people​—educate them that the days of cheap food are over.”

Thus, the average American finds that it keeps taking more and more dollars to buy the same amount of things. That, of course, means that his money is worth less and less.

Dollar Takes a Beating Overseas

In addition, overseas the American dollar’s value has taken a bad beating in recent years. Its worth has decreased strikingly in relation to the money of other nations.

Especially from the spring of 1971 to the spring of 1973​—in just two years—​did its value plunge. For instance, an item that cost $100 in American money overseas in the spring of 1971 cost the following in the spring of 1973 in these sample countries:

Switzerland $164

West Germany $158

Austria $154

Japan $154

France $149

Spain $145

Of course, these comparisons vary from day to day, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. But the long-term trend in recent years has been that a dollar buys less and less in other countries, just as it buys less and less within the United States.

The Record of Other Nations

Yet inflation is not just an American problem. The money of most other countries now buys less for their citizens too.

The American Institute for Economic Research recently reported: “Great inflations are not something new in the world, but heretofore they have not been worldwide. In the past quarter century, with the aid of U.S. dollars, nearly all nations have participated [in the inflation].”

So for the first time in history, a very unique economic situation has come about​—inflation is happening all over the world at the same time! It is also noteworthy that in the past year the inflation rates of most nations have taken a sharp turn upward. The Wall Street Journal listed the following examples, comparing the percentage increase in inflation for all of 1972 with the three-month period from February to April of 1973:

Inflation Rate Inflation Rate

Country for all 1972 Feb. to April 1973

———————— ————————————— ——————————————————

Ireland 8.7 18.2

Japan 4.5 16.4

Italy 5.7 12.7

Greece 4.4 11.0

Switzerland 6.7 10.9

Finland 7.4 10.7

Spain 8.3 10.0

Thus, the grim fact was that inflation no longer rose at the rate of 4 or 5 percent in many lands, which was bad enough. At a 5-percent increase in prices each year, what takes $100 to buy today will take about $200 in fourteen years. But at a 10-percent rate of inflation, prices will double in just seven years!

The fact that inflation rates have doubled in size in many countries was considered very dangerous. Authorities worried that inflation had become a fire feeding upon itself. As the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a twenty-four-nation government group based in Paris, stated:

“There must be a serious risk that when, in [democratic] societies, the rate of inflation advances toward double figures, a progressive acceleration will set in, because anticipatory action by various economic groups becomes too strong and too widespread for effective control.”

What these experts are saying is that when inflation continues too long and gets too high, economic groups such as farmers, merchants, manufacturers, labor unions and others begin to feel that more inflation is inevitable. So they all begin demanding higher wages and prices. It gets to be a vicious cycle, growing faster and faster, like a snowball rolling downhill.

That kind of self-feeding inflation is very hard to control. The inability of the United States to stop its inflation, even with government intervention, proves the point.

As is the case in the United States, one of the largest price increases in other nations has come in food products. Regarding meat, Business Week reports:

“It may not be much consolation to the American housewife, but her lament over ever-increasing meat prices is being echoed even more loudly overseas. And with good reason. In Britain, retail meat prices rose more than 15% last year, . . . in France, where meat prices have soared as much as 40% in the past 18 months, . . . Japanese beef prices [are] up 25% over the past year.”

The Seattle Times notes that in Japan, for example, a half-pint of milk that cost 9 cents in 1968 cost 16 cents in mid-1973. A hair treatment that cost 35 cents rose to $3.50 in the same five-year period. An hour-long local telephone call that cost 3 cents jumped to 53 cents in that time. And in just one year lumber prices rose a startling 59 percent.

Because of this ominous trend everywhere, Business Week said: “In a real sense, it is not just the dollar that is in trouble. It is all the currencies in the non-Communist world.”

Governments Worried

There is obviously much dissatisfaction on the part of shoppers everywhere. That is causing governments to worry. They fear that if things continue as they are, people will get disgusted and take drastic action.

Economic problems in the past have resulted in governments being voted out of power. In some countries, they have caused the overthrow of government by violence.

Typical of the concern is the comment that the Seattle Times makes regarding Japan: “Government and business leaders, shaken by Communist and Socialist gains in the last election, have announced that they fear popular unrest and a serious challenge to Japan’s capitalist system.”

This fear of unwanted reactions was also noted in The Wall Street Journal. It said: “As Alvin Toffler’s book ‘Future Shock’ expounds, ‘Things are happening faster’ in many spheres of human activity. When change in such matters as knowledge, transport, communications, family life and economic activity accelerates so swiftly, he warns, there can be profound reactions.”

U.S. News & World Report adds the following regarding the growing dangers of inflation:

“Inflation​—steady, unrelenting advances in the prices of goods and services—​is a cancer.

“It destroys savings. It takes the security out of old-age security. It gnaws away at earning power, eventually reduces jobs.

“What lies in wait at the end of the line? Historically, social disorder, even total economic collapse, have been the progeny of continuing inflation. It has happened over and over again. When a people’s medium of exchange becomes worthless, then the whole economic system becomes unhinged.”

Thus, inflation is like a balloon. A balloon can be filled with air up to a point, depending on its size and strength. But when too much air is pumped into it, the balloon will always ‘burst.’ That is also true of constant economic inflation; it eventually leads to an economic ‘bust.’

Is there a real possibility that such an economic disaster is ‘just around the corner’? Is that where your money is heading?

The End of Money Problems

There is every reason to believe that the answer to those questions is, Yes. From the economic viewpoint alone, authorities agree that throughout history every case of rampant inflation has ended in the destruction of that nation’s money. Time and again this has happened, without exception.

Since it is apparent that the money systems of the world are built on very fragile foundations, would it not be good to have a system that could eliminate economic uncertainties? But is a stable economy and the ending of money problems just a dream? No, it is not. In fact, it is a certainty!

This is what we learn when we consult the inspired Word of God, the Holy Bible. Many of its prophecies have already been fulfilled with unerring accuracy. That gives us confidence that those prophecies dealing with our time will also come to pass without fail. And that prophetic Word of God shows clearly that we are living in the final years of this distressing system of things. (2 Tim. 3:1-5) Soon God will intervene in man’s affairs and bring to an end the economic as well as political and religious systems that have worked against the best interests of both God and man.​—Dan. 2:44; Rev. 18:21-24; 19:11-16.

When the time comes for God to demonstrate his power and to execute his judgments, world affairs will become the most severe in all history. Jesus Christ, in his great prophecy about the ‘time of the end,’ where we now live, said that then “there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” (Matt. 24:21) That enormous turmoil will mean, of course, the most intense upheavals in the economic field too.

As the Bible shows, this will pave the way for a system of government that will solve permanently all economic difficulties. That government is the one Jesus taught his followers to pray for, the heavenly kingdom of God.​—Matt. 6:10.

God’s rule will usher in an unprecedented era of justice and prosperity. Concerning the Kingdom government in the hands of Jesus Christ, who is greater than Solomon, we are promised: “Let him judge the afflicted ones of the people, let him save the sons of the poor one, and let him crush the defrauder.” At that time “there will come to be plenty of grain on the earth.” And since food will be produced and distributed under the supervision of a government founded on God’s superior wisdom and justice, never again will high prices, shortages and hunger plague mankind.​—Ps. 72:4, 16; Luke 11:31.

Because of what is certain to come in the near future, you do well not to place your trust and hope in money nor in other material things. In the coming social and economic upheavals, material things could be swept away in a moment of time. It is, instead, to the new order of God’s making that one should look for the solution to all of man’s problems, including the economic ones now troubling him so much.

[Graph on page 8]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Retail prices have risen twice as fast as industrial wages

RETAIL PRICES

AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS

Jan. Feb. Mar. April May June July

4

3

2

1

0

PERCENT RISE, U.S.A., JAN.-JULY, 1973

[Picture on page 9]

NEW YORK POST, August 15, 1973

Food Prices Soar 4 ¹⁄₂% in 1 Week

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, August 2, 1973

Rising Inflation, Especially in Food Prices, Can’t Be Prevented, Nixon Economists Say

The Seattle Times Sunday, May 6, 1973

Normal consumer loses out

Inflation is cause of discontent in Japan

Oh! Company Is Coming

BY “AWAKE!” CORRESPONDENT IN GERMANY

“MAMMA, Mamma, our company’s here!” the children cried. Little Mike ran to hide and Ruth hung onto mother’s apron, while Esther, relaxed and jolly by nature, ran ahead to greet the guests: “We are so happy you’ve come. Mamma has your room all fixed up. We children are going to sleep with mamma and daddy in their room.”

“Here is your room,” mother said. “We hope that you will feel at home here. You can put your suitcases here, and there’s a little corner where you can write; otherwise, feel free to use our living room. Just make yourselves at home. In the meantime, I’ll get something to eat. You children, leave our guests alone for a moment so they can freshen up.”

Certainly this reception was refreshing after a hard trip. It may remind a Bible reader of the hospitality that Abraham showed his guests when he said: “Let a little water be taken, please, and you must have your feet washed. Then recline under the tree. And let me get a piece of bread, and refresh your hearts.” (Gen. 18:4, 5) Just the thought of being welcome makes one feel comfortable.

Type of Visit

The above-described reception was experienced by a traveling representative of the Watch Tower Society who visits certain congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses in Europe once every six months. He stays a week in order to build up the congregation in their faith, helping them much as did the apostle Paul and other faithful servants of the early Christian church. Our visitor, however, did not come alone; his wife accompanies him and enjoys association with her Christian sisters while preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. Another type of visitor that many Europeans entertain is the paying guest who comes to take advantage of the mineral baths in the community, or the tourists who rent rooms for their vacation. Here the greeting is more formal and these guests are more concerned with rest and independence. Then there are the courtesy visits, coffee or afternoon-tea visits and the visits made on sick persons.

In some countries it is customary, when someone shows you a kindness, to visit this person early the following morning in order to express your thanks again. If this is forgotten, the person will always be remembered as being unappreciative. It is a common occurrence in West Africa when missionaries of Jehovah’s witnesses come to an out-of-the-way village as traveling ministers to visit the congregation for the chief of that village to greet them hospitably. He may send his wives with a bowl of rice and a large chicken as a welcome present. In such a case one must go the next morning to thank him for it.

Preparation

Of course, preparing for guests is work. But such work is done gladly if the guests are appreciated. However, do not overdo a good thing. It is not absolutely necessary, for example, to wash the curtains. Perhaps you have not stopped to consider that too much preparation could make your guests uncomfortable. If you consider painting the stovepipe in order to make the room look nice and clean, think of the obnoxious smell it will give off for the next few days. New hand towels look nice, but they do not absorb the water so well. And, in addition, a housewife who is all tired out from the hard work of preparing for her guests is not a happy hostess.

There is something that is thoughtful and that does not require a lot of work, however. If company is coming in the winter, the unused guest room should be heated a few days in advance in order to drive out the dampness. There is nothing more uncomfortable for a guest than having to crawl into a cold, clammy bed!

Guest’s Behavior

Naturally it depends largely upon how the guest conducts himself as to whether his visit is a joy or a burden. If the guest uses a little discernment and is tactful, his visit can be upbuilding. The words, “Make yourself at home,” are a very generous expression. However, what may be accepted as the normal thing in one family may not be allowed in another. In some families, for example, it may be taken for granted that when one is hungry he can go to the cupboard or refrigerator and get what he wants. Another housewife may not like having a guest in her kitchen. Perhaps she has an exact plan, and purchases everything according to the menu to be prepared for the next day. Then when something is missing it may ruin her planning.

If a guest takes books from a shelf, he should return them to the same place on the shelf. Later, when the host is looking for a certain book, he may get quite upset with his family if the books are out of order.

Another point is adjusting to the family’s schedule. Do you, as a guest, let the family know what your plans are during your stay? They told you to “feel at home,” and probably gave you the key to the house, but it would be wise to let them know when you expect to be coming and going. In case you have to come in late some evening, be sure to tell them beforehand, otherwise they will be worried if you do not show up at the time they expect you. If your host lives in a thin-walled apartment house, then you should be especially considerate, not causing unnecessary noise late in the evenings, as by typing.

Loving consideration of all members of the family, including the children, makes for a happy visit long to be remembered. A missionary wrote about her childhood: “Special traveling representatives of the Watch Tower Society used to come and visit our little group. They were busy people, and, I feel sure, often quite tired. But, nevertheless, they always took time to speak to me. It made me feel as if I were a part of what was going on.”

The wife, when one of the visitors, can also contribute much to making their visit a joyful one. It is not, however, always easy to fit into the family routine, especially when one is tired. While one housewife may appreciate having someone help her to do the dishes, another may prefer to do them herself, as she gets nervous when anyone else is in the kitchen. Some housewives appreciate the guests making their own beds, whereas another may prefer having the beds air out until she gets around to cleaning the room later on. If you take a dustcloth to tidy up a bit, your hostess may get the idea the room is not clean enough to suit you. All of these are small matters that a person can find out if discernment is shown. Why not just ask: “Shall I make the beds now or would you rather that I make them up later, after they air a bit?” Or say: “Please let me help you with the dishes.” In that way you can soon find out whether she really wants you to help.

Your being overly modest does not make it easy for the host. He wants you to feel at home, and so, if he offers you something, feel free to accept it instead of always saying, “No, that is not necessary.” What did the three men say to whom Abraham offered a meal? “All right. You may do just as you have spoken.” However, if something is offered that may not be good for you, then have the courage to be honest and tactfully refuse it. In the tropics you may have to refuse a well-meaning offer of refreshing water, even when the friendly host takes a drink! It probably will not hurt your host, because he has grown up with it, but there may be problems with amoebas for you.

When you are invited to dinner you can avoid an embarrassing situation if you do not sit down at once. Instead, wait until your host shows you where he wants you to sit. Jesus gave this good counsel, as recorded at Luke 14:8, 9: “When you are invited by someone to a marriage feast, do not lie down in the most prominent place. Perhaps someone more distinguished than you may at the time have been invited by him, and he that invited you and him will come and say to you, ‘Let this man have the place.’ And then you will start off with shame to occupy the lowest place.”

You, no doubt, very much appreciate kind and gracious hospitality. You can show your appreciation for it not only by words of thanks but by tactful consideration and by endeavoring to make the conversation delightful, encouraging, informative. Too often conversation is all “small talk” or inconsequential. William Gillette, the actor, once related that as a young man he lived in a boardinghouse with many people. At that time he was studying stenography and, to practice it, he would take down the complete conversations of the other boarders who were sitting in the drawing room. “Years later,” he said, “I went over my notebooks, and found that in four months of incessant conversation no one had said anything that made any difference to anybody.”

Of course, as an invited guest you are not in a boardinghouse and so you have more responsibility to contribute to meaningful conversation. Try to reward your host by conversation that is enlightening and upbuilding, at the same time giving others the opportunity to express themselves. This will help to make your visit a joy and a mutual success.

The Man Who Hunted Pandas

AS TOLD TO “AWAKE!” CORRESPONDENT IN TAIWAN

IT WAS a shivery, drizzly December day at the London Zoological Gardens. I had not realized how seasonal zoo-going is until I found myself on the bus out from Marble Arch to the zoo with only one other passenger aboard. Why had I chosen to visit the London zoo at such a time?

The answer lay before me that morning. I had walked from the ticket office of the zoo beneath the dripping trees, past huge old-fashioned iron cages containing lions and other animals. But, really, I had no time to look at all of them. I would be in London only one day and I had come to the zoo to see something special. I finally reached the right enclosure.

There before me lay a huge mound of coarse white fur with a shoulder stripe of black. It was curled into an immense ball, fast asleep. I began tapping my ring against the glass window to awaken this deep sleeper. Slowly, one little shoe-button eye was uncovered by a reluctant eyelid. We sized each other up. I was fulfilling a childhood dream. I was looking at a living panda!

A Childhood Dream

There are probably thousands of Londoners who have never seen a panda, though this one, Chi-Chi, had lived there for some fourteen years. Why was seeing a panda so important to me? There were two reasons. They happened half a world apart and were separated by more than three decades.

Some may remember that in 1936 many were thrilled at newspaper accounts of the arrival at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago of a delightful ‘new bear from China.’ It was a black-and-white panda that resembled the stuffed teddy bears that accompany millions of children to bed each night.

Those newspaper reports also interested twenty-two-year-old Quentin Young of China. It was he who had started that panda on its long journey from the bamboo forests of Szechwan to the United States. Quentin Young had been the first man known to have touched a living, unwounded panda.

As a naturalist and hunter in China’s rugged interior and western provinces, Quentin Young had given the world outside of China its first glimpse of China’s pai hsiung, meaning white bear.

I Meet the Hunter

Thirty-three years later, as a new arrival in Taiwan, I was chatting with my language instructor, or lao shr (professor), following a two-hour lesson. He had introduced the subject of the panda, speaking softly and with reticence. It was the second or third week of our acquaintance.

“Tell me,” he inquired, “have you ever heard of the panda?” The answer, of course, was a smiling and interested Yes. “I do not quite know how to tell you this without making it seem boastful,” he continued, “but I caught the first live panda.”

I enthusiastically asked (recalling what I had read in 1936): “Was that the one that went to a zoo in Chicago? Was her name Su-Lin?”

“Yes!” he responded with delight, bounding to his feet. “You even know its name!” It was named after my brother’s wife.”

You probably guessed it. My language instructor was Quentin Young, the man who hunted pandas. Quentin carefully referred to the panda as “it.” Why so? Because they had first guessed the animal to be a female, giving it the name Su-Lin (meaning “little bit of something precious”). But later they discovered that “she” was really a “he.”

Actually, it is quite difficult to determine the sex of a panda unless the animal is anesthetized and examined, as was London’s Chi-Chi years ago. Hence, the confusion about Su-Lin and of others who followed “her.”

The Panda Is Not a Bear

Just what is a panda? What is so special about it? Why was it necessary for me to visit London to see one? We will soon see.

A panda is often called a bear. In fact, when they were first noted by naturalists in 1869 they were called panda bears. But zoologists have long since recognized that this is incorrect. They now place the panda (which does not hibernate) somewhere between the raccoon and a small animal called the lesser panda. Bone structure, too, is different. It has what is called the ‘sixth claw,’ which is really a hardened bony pad that serves somewhat like an opposable thumb for grasping. There are other anatomical differences, too, that indicate the panda is not a bear.

What does a panda look like? Let me describe Chi-Chi, who had decided to open her other eye. Her tiny eyes give the appearance of being quite large. The panda’s face is white, but its eyes are set in two black patches at a peculiar angle. This gives the panda a winsome and soulful look. A shiny black nose and two perfectly round black ears rise from the surrounding white fur to complete a face that has caused many a professional hunter to swear off killing pandas.

As she began to unwind herself from her ball-like position, I was able to examine the rest of Chi-Chi’s body. I could see that Chi-Chi’s kind is definitely a white animal with black trim, not the opposite. All four legs are black. The tummy area between the hind legs is white. The black front legs are attached to a black band that encircles the body across the shoulders and around the chest. A clearer division of colors in mammals could not be found except perhaps in the zebra. The total effect of the panda is to make you want to hug it, though this would be ill advised, especially when one considers the size of the subject at maturity. A full-grown panda weighs between 200 and 250 pounds.

Chi-Chi yawned. She thereby revealed the enormous molars that caused anatomists to classify her kind among the carnivores, or meat eaters. Though Chi-Chi’s early zoo diet included chicken every other day, the panda gives refutation to “higher criticism of the Bible” that denies that all flesh first fed on vegetation. Though pandas can eat meat, they rarely do so. They prefer sinarundaria, a kind of bamboo that grows to a height of ten or fifteen feet with culms (trunks) an inch and a half in diameter. Sinarundaria is rocklike for hardness.

Thus, the kind of teeth an animal has may not depend upon whether the diet is meat or vegetable, but on what kind of vegetation the animal may have been designed to eat, how hard that vegetation is, how resistant to being sundered.

When I visited London, Chi-Chi was the only panda to be seen outside of the Communist countries. The natural range of the panda is principally concentrated in Szechwan Province in China. Some are found in Tibet and surrounding regions. Its entire range in all the world is one contiguous location with three sides that may be expressed generously as each being 500 miles long. Pandas are also limited by temperature needs to elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet, and by diet to the bamboo forests that ring the snow lines of the mountains.

Chi-Chi since died at the age of fifteen, very close to the expected seventeen-year life-span for pandas in captivity. But happily now for children of all ages outside of China, Russia and North Korea, there are new arrivals in Tokyo and two pandas can be seen in Washington, D.C. The latter’s names are Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing (pronounced Shing-Shing).

Capturing the First Live Panda

Would you like to know how the first live panda was captured? Listen to Quentin Young’s own story of that event.

“I was employed by a widowed American woman to accomplish the project in which her husband had died when attempting it. He had wanted to bring a live panda to the United States. Together, aboard boat, on foot, by wheelbarrow and sedan chair, we traversed almost 2,000 miles from coastal Shanghai to the forests beyond Chengtu.

“Why a boat? The Yangtze is the answer. China’s great languid river was our route to Chungking. It is a lazy river, though always bustling with traffic. People, dogs and chickens can be heard chattering, barking, cackling and crowing along its banks​—up to Hankow! But then its personality changes. Cliffs rise to almost 2,000 feet. These are the famous Yangtze Gorges. Yet, so vital a link in traffic is this river that gangs of laboring coolies lean against hard bamboo ropes from as high as a hundred feet up the cliff walls to drag small boats (called junks) up against the thundering downstream current.

“Why by foot, sedan chair, wheelbarrow? Our going ashore at Chungking left us with many miles between us and pai hsiung, the panda. By the time you are in Chungking the topography of the earth is beginning to swell upward toward the great mountain mass of the Himalayas.

“When shouting, would-be vendors and just curious people were not milling about us, dust swirled up to engulf us. Bandits harassed us. Coolies and porters lugging our supplies disappeared as wages satisfied their need for opium. We fought the whipping branches of trees as roads dropped out of existence. When it rained, dust became mud. We threaded our way through the magnificent rhododendron forests of Szechwan. As the elevation increased, the temperature dropped.

“After the complications of our expedition, the actual finding of the panda was amazingly simple. We had given orders that pandas were not to be shot until a live one had been captured. Traps had been set.

“Mrs. Harkness and I set out to check the traps. Suddenly shots shattered the silence! Shouting ahead of us indicated that hunters, excited at the sight of a panda, had defied the order. Men raced forward responding to the cry pai hsiung! pai hsiung! We too ran, but did not follow the others as they pursued the possibly wounded animal.

“The forest quieted around us as their cries diminished in the distance. We emerged from dense bamboo into an area of large trees. Then I heard something. It was a small, babylike sound, coming from a hollow tree.

“I put my hands into the hollow and drew them out cuddling Su-Lin. ‘She’ (as we then thought) was just two handfuls in size. I thought, ‘What is this little thing? It is a toy.’ I gave it to Mrs. Harkness with the feeling of ‘Well, you take it back and play with it. I will get on with the business of hunting for real pandas​—adults.’ But without telling me she had made up her mind weeks before that what she really wanted was a baby panda. With great practicality she had decided that a young panda would be more portable. What none of us counted on was that this small squirming object would touch some common chord of emotion all over the world.”

Twice, then, this same man had interested me in pandas. But we had still another thing in common. It is related to the reason I now live in Taiwan. I am a missionary of Jehovah’s witnesses. Quentin and I had talked many times about the Bible, for which he has great respect. His wife was studying with Jehovah’s witnesses. He thought that he, too, might study someday. At times we talked about preaching among the Chinese, but, most of all, we spoke of his own personal relationship with man’s Creator, Jehovah. And so one day I was privileged to become his lao shr, teaching him the Bible.

The happy result was that Quentin Young, who once hunted pandas, now searches out Jehovah’s sheeplike ones.

The Lifetime of Mammals

MAN can live to be about seventy or eighty years, but few other mammals can live as long as that. If we base the lifetime of a mammal, not on the years of existence, but on the number of heartbeats, it is easy to calculate whether man truly lives longer than some of his mammalian cohabitants of the earth. The average mouse lives about 3.3 years, but its heartbeat rate is about 550 beats per minute. In one year there are approximately 526,000 minutes, so if we multiply the number of minutes per year by the number of heartbeats per minute and then multiply that by the life expectancy of the mouse, we have some 950,000,000 heartbeats for the average mouse.

The same type of calculation can be done for other mammals such as the dog, horse, cow, and elephant. For example, the elephant with a heartbeat of 20 per minute, over a 70-year life-span, has a total of about 736,300,000 heartbeats, much less than the mouse. It seems that mammals, in general, are allotted about 1,000,000,000 or less heartbeats in a lifetime. However, if the same calculation is done for man, assuming 72 heartbeats per minute and a life expectancy of 70 years, the number of heartbeats given to man is some 2,600,000,000​—more than twice that of other mammals.

Concludes Isaac Asimov in his book The Human Body: “Considering that trees have no hearts and that tortoises (and cold-blooded creatures generally) have only very slowly beating ones, it is safe to say that the human heart outperforms all others. Certainly it outperforms other mammalian hearts by a ratio of 2 ¹⁄₂ or even 3 ¹⁄₂ to 1. . . . The human body, therefore, in all modesty, and from a completely objective viewpoint, is the most marvelous structure we know of.” This is because the human body was designed by its Creator to live forever.

Are You Acquainted with the Black Gram?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Malaysia

THE black gram is a small bean with a black skin and creamy white flesh. It is grown from Pakistan to Indonesia, and in many countries in between. It is a common food among Asian peoples.

The plant is suited to areas with no more than thirty-five inches of rainfall per year. It is broadcast or is sown in rows, and takes about 120 days to grow from seed to harvest.

An important characteristic of the plant is that it plays host to a special type of bacteria that has the ability to change free atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates. These bacteria reside in the root nodules, and feed on the carbohydrates manufactured by the plant, and the plant, in turn, feeds on the nitrates formed by the bacteria. When the roots of the plant slough off, or decay, the surrounding soil is enriched with organic nitrates.

So the plant is a natural fertilizer. Farmers who realize this make good use of it. After the beans are harvested, they plow under the plants and leave them to enrich the soil.

Besides serving as a fertilizer, the plant is also used as a cover crop. That is, it is planted in between rows of corn, as in the Philippines, to keep the soil-depleting weeds out, and to maintain the fertility of the soil for the main crop. It is also grown extensively as food for livestock.

The black gram makes nutritious bean sprouts. After washing, the beans are soaked in well water for about seven hours; this expands them. The beans are then placed on banana leaves in wooden crates, and a dripping-wet gunnysack is placed on top of the beans. The crates are then kept in a shady spot and watered every four hours.

Well water is used rather than tap water because it produces sprouts that are more robust and plump, and have more selling weight. If the beans are soaked on a Saturday noon, the sprouts will grow to the top of the crates by Thursday morning, and will be ready for market.

The leaves and gunnysacks keep the beans damp and dark during germination. The same principles can be adapted for home sprouting. Any container that drains well, say a scrubbed flowerpot, would do. Clean damp cloths can be substituted for the leaves and gunnysacks. However, bean sprouts are sold so cheaply and plentifully at the local markets that Asians do not care to sprout them at home.

Bean-sprout stems are round and spongy, about two to three inches long, with half-inch roots. The heads of the sprouts are yellowish, about twice the size of the dried bean. Before cooking the sprouts, the roots are first broken off. The best way to preserve the high vitamin C content of the sprouts is to short cook them the way the Chinese do.

A Chinese housewife might sauté crushed garlic in one and a quarter cups of hot oil for half a minute, then add about three cups of washed sprouts, and stir for two minutes. She adds salt and chopped spring onions, and stirs for another minute. After that, she adds half a cup of water and cooks for two more minutes. With that, the sprouts are ready.

Sprouts grown from the black gram are an extremely versatile vegetable. They make a fine dish by themselves. Or mixed with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and so forth, “they form a delicious mixed vegetable dish. Also, they combine readily with pork, ham, chicken and beef to make tasty courses.

The black gram’s high protein content particularly makes it a valuable contribution to the diet. However, the bean’s protein is not entirely assimilated by the body due to the bean’s deficiency in certain amino acids. But if the beans are eaten with other foods high in those amino acids in which the beans are deficient, the bean proteins are more useful to the body. One authority says that the “inclusion of a small amount of animal protein, e.g. milk or fish protein, makes a diet based on cereals and legumes [such as black gram] fully satisfactory.”

Daily, millions of Indians eat the black gram for breakfast in the form of dosai, a pancake made from the fermented batter of rice and black gram. This meal is as popular as bacon, eggs and toast is to many North Americans.

Riding on Air​—by Hovercraft

By “Awake!” correspondent in the British Isles

ON April 30, 1966, two small hovercraft, each capable of carrying thirty-eight people, established a new link between England and the continent of Europe. The vessels neither sailed across the Strait of Dover (part of the English Channel) like ships nor flew high above the water like aircraft. Instead, each skimmed across the twenty-eight miles on a cushion of air.

Today, on many round trips a day during the busy season, the latest hovercraft carries two hundred and eighty-two passengers and thirty-eight cars over the same route at a cruising speed of 60 m.p.h.

Experiment with Coffee Cans

About twenty years ago an electronics engineer made a rough experimental model with the aid of two empty coffee cans, one slightly smaller than the other, and a small industrial blower rather like a home hair dryer. The engineer, Christopher Cockrell, took the larger can and drilled a hole in its base just large enough to take the nozzle of the industrial blower. Next, he fixed the smaller can inside the larger can so that a gap was left between the two walls. Now, with the can bases facing each other, any air blown from the nozzle must be diverted down through the gap between the sides of the cans to emerge as a ring-shaped curtain of air, only a fraction of an inch thick.

The contraption was fixed to a stand so that the pressurized curtain of air could be directed down onto the weighing pan of a pair of domestic kitchen scales. Cockrell now had a crude method of measuring the pressure of the air leaving the cans. As he expected, the air pressure leaving the industrial blower nozzle had more than tripled during its passage through the gap. From this, Cockrell concluded that a curtain of air so produced, if directed onto a solid base, would not only support the weight of the producing unit but also carry an additional load. Further, if some method of propulsion could be added, the unit, plus a load, would move quite safely on a controlled cushion of air in any direction. This marked the birth of the air-cushion vehicle (ACV), from which the hovercraft and many other devices originated.

Development

In 1959 the National Research and Development Corporation (NRDC), a body sponsored by the British government to bring any promising invention to manufacturing stage, showed interest in the ACV principle. Soon NRDC launched a company to control the project and a manufacturing contract was awarded, which resulted in the construction of the world’s first hovercraft. This craft was launched at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. It weighed three and a half tons and had a 435-horsepower engine, which provided not only the air cushion but also the means of propulsion by auxiliary jets located along the vessel’s sides.

The hovercraft was initially tried out on land, but within a month sea trials also took place, and passengers on the Solent Ferry plying between Southampton and the Isle of Wight were amazed one day to see a strange-looking craft passing them at a surprising speed of 25 m.p.h.

Modifications had to be made, as the original craft proved to be unstable over obstacles (waves and ground irregularities) more than eighteen inches high. Eventually, a flexible segmented skirt was fitted around the bottom of the craft to delay the escape of air from the jet. This not only increased the efficiency of the air seal but gave the extra lift necessary to clear greater obstacles. In fact, the skirt came to be one of the most important factors in hovercraft development, transforming it from little more than an elaborate toy into a useful workhorse capable of transporting great loads.

Other Uses

The air-cushion-vehicle principle has developed in many directions since its discovery. For instance, the hover load-remover has made it possible to load great weights onto an air-cushion platform, hitch it to a conventional towing vehicle and transfer the load to another location. In July 1967 two giant storage tanks at a depot near Manchester, England, each seventy tons in weight and fifty feet in diameter, were moved two hundred yards to a new site by this method. Air, pumped into an air-cushion load-remover until it reached a pressure of sixty pounds per square foot, raised each tank seven inches off the ground. The transfer went smoothly despite having to negotiate a zigzag path.

Today, transformers weighing two hundred tons are moved by the same method along public roads without the bridges over which they pass having to be reinforced. On a smaller scale, hover-pallets are regularly used for moving heavy loads in factories and warehouses.

The medical profession has adapted the ACV principle to its own specialized use. In June 1967 an article in the British medical journal The Lancet told of two seriously burned patients who were treated successfully on a hoverbed, which can be best described as an upside-down hovercraft.

The hoverbed has a rigid framework with a nylon-coated bag suspended inside. The top of the bag has two rows of fingerlike pockets similar to the segmented skirt of a hovercraft. Warm sterile air, which is pumped into the bag at a pressure of one quarter to one third of a pound per square inch, inflates the “fingers,” which form a seal by meeting down the middle of the top side.

When the patient is lowered onto the bed his body passes through the ends of the inflated fingers. He is then supported solely on the cushion of air underneath, and the fingers form a seal by automatically following the contours of his body.

One of the two patients was severely burned over one third of his body, and the other on his right side only. When laid on the hoverbed the first one was kept there for fifteen hours, and the second for six hours. Each had extensive weeping areas on his body, but in both cases the burns dried rapidly. The hoverbed has been responsible for the alleviation of a great deal of suffering since its first appearance.

Welcome Aboard

Many people have made use of hovercraft passenger service. Have you? Why not join us for a trip? A helpful stewardess is on hand to give personal attention, guiding us to our seats, explaining life-jacket procedures and showing us how and where to stow our hand luggage. The time has now arrived for the actual flight.

The first indication of movement comes immediately after the engines have warmed up. We detect an almost imperceptible lift as the vessel raises itself on its cushion of air. The hovercraft is no longer in contact with the surface and will remain in suspension until the destination is reached. Now the vessel is moving forward so smoothly that only a lively spume of spray rushing from its sides indicates that it has traveled from land to sea.

As the sea is calm today, the hovercraft will take the direct route from Pegwell Bay to Calais, France. This involves crossing the Goodwin Sands, which lie roughly north to south along the Strait of Dover. Treacherous to conventional surface craft, especially when submerged just below the water, they present no problem to an amphibious ACV. In bad weather the hovercraft changes course slightly by hugging the calmer coastal waters for as long as possible and then making a straight run across the sea at the shortest distance between the two coasts.

In the forty minutes it takes to cross the Strait of Dover there is time to think. What if the engines fail? Will the hovercraft sink? Will it collide at high speed with other shipping in these the world’s busiest sea-lanes? A glance at a booklet describing the flight is reassuring. In the unlikely event of all engines failing simultaneously the vessel is designed to float on its buoyancy tank. Even with just one engine functioning it can proceed at reduced speed to land. But what about all the other ships traveling across the hovercraft’s path? The captain is provided with constant information on the craft’s position while the second officer operates two marine radars, which reveal the position of all other shipping in the vicinity, even in thick fog.

On arrival at Calais, on the French coast, the hovercraft leaves the water and glides onto the landing platform. No bumps, no squeal of brakes, just a contented sigh, like settling into a comfortable armchair, as the cushion of air is dispersed.

The flight in the world’s newest form of transport is over. Land and sea have been crossed by riding on a cushion of air.

The Emptiness of Matter

Most objects with which we are familiar are really empty space. The atoms and molecules that make up the everyday objects that we see, such as bricks, wood, glass, and so forth, are largely empty space, even though the objects themselves seem so durable and solid.

An atom consists of a very dense central core that is called the nucleus and a cloud of electrons that surround the nucleus. Depending upon the type of atom being considered, the electron cloud has a radius about 10,000 times as great as the nucleus. If the nucleus were the size of a Ping-Pong ball, the electron cloud would extend over two tenths of a mile in diameter. Most of this distance would be emptiness.

The nucleus, even though it is a very small part of the atom in size, makes up most of the weight of the atom. The fact that most of the empty space comprising objects is due to the electronic cloud is what makes them as light as they are. If you had a cup full of nuclei stripped of their electron clouds so that the nuclei could be tightly packed into the cup, that cup of nuclear matter would weigh about 50,000,000,000 tons.

Is It Always Wise to Give to Charity?

HOW would you feel about giving to a charity if only 1 to 5 percent of what you contributed went to needy ones, whereas all the rest was used to pay for the expenses of collecting the charity funds? How would you feel about giving to a charity if you knew that the president of the charitable organization received $75,000 annually in salary and expenses? You would hardly be pleased or happy about it, would you? And yet such things do happen, and that time and again!

The amount of money annually given to charity in the United States alone is more than twenty billion dollars ($20,000,000,000). Of this amount, about 41 percent is given for religious purposes, 16 percent each for health and education, 7 percent for welfare and the rest for cultural and other purposes.

Many are the charitable organizations that make appeals for funds; some internationally known, others known only locally. And likewise many are the reasons why people give. Some give because they believe it is good business or because gifts are tax deductible. Others give because of feelings of guilt, as though by charity they would atone for their sins. And others give for religious or humanitarian reasons, because of feelings of compassion, empathy or pity.

There is no denying that a blessing can result from giving, even as Jesus, the Son of God, emphasized, saying: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” (Acts 20:35) But he also showed that giving with the wrong motive can prove empty, bringing no favor from God.​—Read Matthew 6:1-4.

True, there is a blessing in giving out of right motives, but a person would reasonably want assurance that he is giving to deserving causes. To what extent are the billions that are given to charitable organizations used to help people, and to what extent are these supposedly philanthropic organizations operated by or exploited by men for commercial gain?

In the Name of Religion

On this matter of giving and the methods used, a California newspaper featured an article entitled “Too Much Going for Overhead, Professionals Blamed for High Collection Cost.” It quoted the chairman of the local city’s “Board of Charity Appeals” as saying that the “lousiest rackets in charity” are those run “in the name of God.” In regard to these professional charity drives so sponsored, he went on to say: “Religious groups and those who collect in the name of the Lord are the worst offenders.”

Lending some weight to that charge was an article that appeared in Ramparts, a Roman Catholic lay magazine, a few years back. It charged one of America’s leading Roman Catholic bishops with perpetrating “a charity hoax” on American Catholics with his fund-raising organization known as “The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.” The author, who had interviewed thirty-five bishops in various underdeveloped parts of the earth, stated: “The congregation collects millions of dollars every year, ostensibly to help the world’s poor . . . and it is probably one of the great charity frauds of all time.” When these charges were brought to the attention of the bishop he refused interviews to discuss them and his office stated that he “had nothing to say.”

Serving Without Interest in Personal Gain?

It is generally thought that those serving with charitable organizations are altruistically motivated, but is that necessarily so? For example, for many years a charitable organization was making appeals for money to help feed Oriental orphans, which it claimed to be able to do at $12 a month per orphan. But was the president of that organization primarily interested in those orphans? He received the very same salary of $20,000 that he received when he was executive director of the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce.

Another example was furnished by the late Basil O’Connor, who was cofounder with President Roosevelt of the National Foundation​—March of Dimes, and who was the Foundation’s president from its founding in 1938 until his death in 1972. Though initially receiving only his expenses, during the last thirteen years he received an annual salary of $54,000 and expense money to the extent of $21,405. How many people that contributed to the March of Dimes were aware of the fact that its president was being paid $75,000 annually? Would you feel the same about giving, knowing this? Might you not feel you could do more good by giving directly and personally to those you know to be in need?

High Collection Costs

Prestigious, nationally known charitable organizations, such as the Red Cross, consider a collection cost of 10 to 15 percent as reasonable and just. Thus, of every dollar contributed, 85 to 90 cents should go for charity. But many charitable organizations come far short in this regard. Thus the American Kidney Fund raised over $779,000 during its first year (1971-72). But only 5 percent, or $39,000, went for patient care; the rest was used for “administrative expenses,” according to the New York Post, June 8, 1973.

Exposing this weakness of charity drives, a Seattle, Washington, newspaper carried a banner headline on its front page reading: “Ridiculous High Cost of Charity Drives.” It told of a case where charity received only $25,000 of the $500,000 ostensibly collected for it, or a mere 5 percent. Among the many other examples it listed was one in which the professional promoters got $131,288.92, the social group giving its name as sponsor got $7,893, and the charities, “Heart Association” and “Community and Youth Activities,” just $1,000; so less than 1 percent went to the needy or deserving ones!

Under the title “The Charity Pirates: The gullible are their prey,” a Canadian newspaper not long ago described how certain professionals operate charity drives. First, they induce some religious or fraternal organization to sponsor the drive, promising it a share of the contributions received. To begin with, experienced men are hired to solicit contributions by telephone. These get 25 cents of every dollar that they are instrumental in obtaining. Then a collector, usually a woman, calls to collect what has been promised over the telephone, and she gets 15 cents of every dollar she collects. The promoter gets 40 cents out of every dollar, leaving 20 cents for the charity and the organization sponsoring the campaign.

Recognizing the danger of selfish exploitation in charity drives, the president of the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel, Inc., advised: “No one, under any circumstances, should contribute to any charity as the result of a phone call from a stranger.” In passing, however, it might be observed that a “con” man who was in this racket complained that money is paid for those making phone calls and those making the collection simply because the religious or fraternal or political organizations that sponsor such campaigns are not willing to put forth any effort themselves. If they were willing to do the “footwork” they could realize 85 or 90 cents out of every dollar collected.

Give to the Individual Beggar?

Begging in many of the large cities throughout the world has become a profitable way of making a living. Prominent among those resorting thereto are hippie youths. No longer does the beggar need to plead blindness, lameness or poverty. Seemingly any alibi will do. Thus there is the San Francisco beggar who boasts of collecting as high as $400 a week from tourists visiting that city’s hippie shrine.

Doing even better is the New York violinist who frequents the theater district. By reason of his playing quite well, and especially his sign, which reads, “Violinist Needs Money for Further Studies,” he really is able to tug at the heartstrings of passersby. As a result, he averages $35 an hour. Moreover, he has received checks, savings bonds, cameras, watches, and even invitations to dinner and to Caribbean cruises.

True, there may be times when the one begging is in genuine need, being willing to work but being either physically limited or unable to find employment. In times of natural disaster, famine, or severe economic collapse needy persons abound. Then it is a question of doing what one can with what one has to aid others in their need.

Too, there may be times when prudence indicates giving. Thus an elderly person early on a Saturday morning in New York was approached by a man who said to him: “Say, Professor, I just got out of jail yesterday, give me a dollar.” Obviously that was a veiled threat, and the beggar was very persistent. Especially if it was a bad neighborhood, one might feel that the circumstances called for acceding to the demand. Each one must judge for himself in such situations.

A Balanced View

No question about it, as Jesus said, “You always have the poor with you.” (Matt. 26:11) And he also said, there is happiness in giving, in being unselfish, in being helpful. But to be gullible is to reward the greedy ones or those too lazy to work. Since there are deserving persons and deserving causes, one should practice discrimination. So the time-worn saying, “Let the buyer beware,” might well be rephrased, “Let the giver beware.”

And, of course, those who are Christian ministers are in position to give something far better than silver and gold. And what is that? The truth of God’s Word, which brings comfort, hope, peace of mind and which can even result in life eternal. Having received free, they also want to give free. (Matt. 10:8; compare Acts 3:1-8.) And, in fact, it is in regard to this kind of giving, of spiritual things, that the apostle Paul quoted Jesus’ words about the greater happiness that comes from giving.​—Acts 20:35.

What Is the Bible’s View?

Pornography​—Is It Really Harmful?

IN RECENT years major cities throughout the earth have been hit by an avalanche of books, pictures, films, plays and shows that portray sexual relations as a form of entertainment. This is called “pornography” and has become a multimillion-dollar business in the United States alone.

Some argue that pornography is harmful but others claim that it does no harm. In fact, the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, appointed by the president of the United States, expressed the view that American adults should “be allowed to read or see any sexual materials they wish.”

What is the truth of the matter? Is pornography really harmful? To answer that question correctly we must go to someone who has full authority to speak on the subject. That is why the Bible’s view is so important, for the Holy Scriptures contain “God’s word,” not that of imperfect men.​—Eph. 6:17.

The Bible shows that Jehovah God created the reproductive organs to be used in honorable marriage. It is, therefore, quite normal for individuals to want to know about their proper function. But a person must exercise caution as to where he obtains information about sex. Much that is written about it is inaccurate and goes contrary to God’s Word. Pornography is an example.

But does the Bible speak of pornography? It repeatedly warns against por·neiʹa, and that is a Greek word related to pornography. Greek lexicographers tell us that por·neiʹa refers to illicit sexual intercourse in general, without more precise definition. It is broad in meaning and includes “‘unnatural vice,’ . . . sodomy.” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament) Because of this, Bible translators render this word variously as “fornication,” “gross immorality,” “sexual immorality,” “sexual sins,” or by similar expressions.

The Bible has much to say on this subject. At Ephesians 5:5, we read: “No fornicator [porʹnos] or unclean person or greedy person​—which means being an idolater—​has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and of God.”

Someone may object that there is a difference between reading or viewing pornography and actually committing sexual sins. But is the difference really that great? Jesus stated that “out of the heart come . . . fornications” and that one could even commit adultery “in his heart.” (Matt. 15:19; 5:28) This is because desire originates in the heart. If one indulges one’s desire for something that God prohibits, by reading about it or dwelling upon it mentally, that desire can become overpowering. It can get to the point where one actually commits the sin “in his heart.” How so? Because he has voluntarily enticed himself to the point where he becomes fully motivated to do what he has been thinking about and he will do so if he can find the opportunity.​—Jas. 1:13-15.

With good reason the Bible gives similar counsel at Colossians 3:5: “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are upon the earth as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” How can one succeed in this? Ephesians 5:3 directs: “Let fornication and uncleanness of every sort or greediness not even be mentioned among you.” This would include all ‘mention’ of such things, whether in conversation, in films, on stage or in print with a view to deriving sensual pleasure therefrom. So the Bible does not simply prohibit outright acts of sexual immorality. It also cautions against the steps leading up to such acts.

Now, what about pornography? Can anyone deny that pornography contains mention of “fornication and uncleanness of every sort”? This, in itself, makes it harmful. But the harm does not stop there. In an interview a convicted sex offender admitted: “You want to practice what you’ve been reading.” Another said of erotic movies: “I would go to one, then go out and attack some woman.”

Of course, not all individuals are so readily influenced to commit perversion. Nevertheless, Professor Ernest van den Haag of New York University cautioned: “Too many grownups are far from the self-restrained healthy types envisaged by much libertarian theory. They may easily be given a last (or first) push by obscene literature.”

Author Gladys Denny Shultz mentions a further harmful effect of pornography: “It gives a false, lying impression of sex and the way normal, civilized men and women behave. The unavoidable fact is that pornography sets up sexually sick people as models of behavior, and emphasizes bestiality, perversion, cruelty​—as if that were the norm.” Yet, at Ephesians 4:25, God’s Word instructs: “Now that you have put away falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor.”

The Bible encourages its readers: “Above all things, have intense love for one another.” (1 Pet. 4:8) Pornography works directly against such admonition. In what way? Psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham stated: “By and large, the trend in pornographic literature is toward sadism, toward brutality. . . . There have been cases of sadistic murder where it was proved in the courtroom that the murderer used sadistic pornography as a textbook.” Do you wish to saturate your mind with material that has had such a damaging effect upon others?

Pornography can even make one guilty of the sin of idolatry. How can that be? Because it promotes a form of covetousness, “which is idolatry.” (Col. 3:5) The Interpreter’s Bible explains the meaning of the Greek word for “covetousness” (ple·o·ne·xiʹa) as follows: “‘sensual self-indulgence,’ which gratifies self at whatever cost to others.” Ple·o·ne·xiʹa is “concerned with nothing but the satisfaction of its own impulses.”

Pornography promotes this type of selfishness. Author Irving Kristol, writing in the New York Times Magazine, explains: “The sexual pleasure one gets from pornography and obscenity is autoerotic [self-generated and directed to oneself] . . .; put bluntly, it is a masturbatory exercise of the imagination, when it is not masturbation pure and simple.” Thus pornography can cause a person to make an object of worship out of his own fleshly appetite. In effect, he makes an idol out of himself.

Pornography is indeed harmful. It gives a lying impression of God’s gift of sex and its proper use in honorable marriage; it leads to sexual sins committed either “in [the] heart” or out in the open (Matt. 5:28); it promotes sadism and brutality and can even cause one to become a worshiper of oneself. How loving of Jehovah God to warn us against it and to provide in his Word things ‘true, of serious concern, righteous, chaste, virtuous and praiseworthy’!​—Phil. 4:8.2

Watching the World

Inflation Rates

◆ U.S. families feel staggered by a 5.7-percent overall increase in consumer prices during the past year. However, this is modest compared to many countries. According to figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Yugoslavia’s rate of inflation was a giant 19.7 percent. Greece had 13.1 percent; Finland and Spain, 12.1 percent; Japan, 11.9 percent; Italy, 11.8 percent; Britain, 9.4 percent; Australia, 8.2 percent; France, 7.4 percent; and Germany, 7.2 percent.

The Gap Widens

◆ Is personal wealth becoming more evenly distributed as the years go by? “In 1949, one percent of the people owned 21 percent of the total personal wealth. In 1969, one percent owned 40 percent of the wealth,” answers an article in the New York Post. This increasing gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ in the U.S. is paralleled by a widening disparity of personal income between “developed” and “developing” countries in the world.

“Go Ahead and Jump”

◆ These were the words from the crowd below a young woman who was threatening suicide 110 feet above them. The police chief of Dania, Florida, was shocked by this scene when he responded to a call. When two firemen started to bring her down, “the rock and bottle “throwing started,” he said. “That girl​—she could have fallen to her death at any moment. And that’s what the crowd wanted! What is wrong? You tell me.”

Prefer Serving for a Fee

◆ Episcopal Priest David Crump of California began full-time family counseling for money two years ago, doubling his income. Declaring that his fee is $25 an hour, he said: “What a difference between this relationship and when they used to sit around the parish office knowing that you had to counsel them!” Some clergymen counsel for a fee on a part-time basis. A San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Cronicle article notes that “the field of counseling [for money] . . . may even radically transform those denominations which are presently maintaining a paid, full-time parochial ministry (in contrast to such rapidly growing denominations as . . . Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not).”

Priest Too Expensive

◆ After two years of paying excessively for weddings, baptisms and funerals, 2,000 irate parishioners in Villa Latina, Italy, decided to do something about it. The crowd “bundled the costly cleric into a car and drove him out of town,” says the New York Times report.

Promiscuity’s Penalty

◆ Failure to adhere to Christian principles often brings a punishment of its own, as with smoking and cancer. Now the New Zealand Cancer News reports: “A study carried out over seven years among 21,000 girls and women in Bradford [England] showed the promiscuous to have four times the incidence of cervical cancer compared with females living what is customarily regarded as a more normal existence.” Another survey coming from London also shows four to ten times the cancer risk among girls who admit ‘they spread their favors generously.’

Fad’s Price

◆ Painful injuries and deformities abound among those determined to wear the faddish high platform shoes. Most patients are young women, but at one New York hospital more sprains are seen in men. Their lack of experience with high heels accentuates the problem. “Besides the acute damage that can occur to bones and ligaments,” Medical World News reports, “the high heels cause the toes to draw up into a claw position,” which can develop into “a hammertoe with claw toe deformities” if one persists in wearing the shoes. “The prevention is clear but the lure of a fad is strong,” concludes the article.

Ocean Pollution Apathy

◆ “We are killing the great oceans of this planet, and unless we stop this madness, mankind itself may perish from the face of the earth,” warns U.S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings. Referring to the oceans as the “ultimate sewer,” a Wall Street Journal article points out that “if the oceans​—source of most oxygen—​are poisoned, life on earth as we know it cannot go on.” The unique problem of ocean pollution is that international cooperation is required to cope with it. However, “everybody wants to share in the riches of the ocean, leaving protection of ocean resources off in a corner,” says an expert on the Senate Commerce Committee staff.

“Unusual” Quake Motion

◆ A report from the Mexican town of Tehuacán, Puebla, notes that residents are saying that the August 28 earthquake, which caused so much damage, was different from previous tremors. They say the latter had a “swaying motion” that did not prove so damaging to the buildings. However, the August quake had an “up-and-down motion,” which they believe caused more damage. Unusually wet weather hampered rebuilding work; the adobe bricks from which most homes are made need to dry in the sun.

Erotic “Art”

◆ The Naples National Museum brings out of hiding for the first time this year 250 sex artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The museum’s director says: “There has been such an ambitious display of erotica in magazines and movies that there was no longer any reason to conceal these works from the public. Most people might even find these pieces tame after what they’ve seen elsewhere. . . . Many of these objects had a religious meaning for the ancients. They were linked up to the mysteries of the origins of life and fertility.” This collection “is reportedly rivaled only by the Vatican collection of erotic art,” notes the New York Times.

College Morality

◆ Seventy percent of 315 U.S. colleges had some form of coeducational dormitories by 1971, reports Indiana University’s Residence Life office. Boys moving in with girl friends and their roommates is “probably the biggest problem we’ve got to deal with,” says a counselor at Brandeis University. When this causes disputes between roommates, “the morality is such that it’s on the side of the roommate who wants her boyfriend to stay with her,” complains a former female student. At a Harvard dormitory pool, those wanting to wear bathing suits must swim during scheduled hours to avoid the nude co-ed swimmers.

Manhattan Rooftop “Farm”

◆ The high cost of eating fresh foods can be combated even by city dwellers. The roof of one 16-story Manhattan apartment building boasts a unique “farm.” On about 4,000 square feet, a Park Avenue resident is successfully growing “over 50 different vegetables, some 26 kinds of berries, tree fruits and nuts, plus a list of assorted herbs, cacti, flowers and shrubs,” reports Organic Gardening magazine.

“Bad Blood”

◆ Hong Kong, China, as well as the United States, is campaigning to stem the flow of “dirty blood” into hospitals. China Mail reports that “several dingy clinics through Hongkong buy blood from drug addicts and others desperate for money, without making any checks . . . As blood sellers make about $50 a unit, one can imagine how vast the profits are.” The wisdom of the Bible’s command to ‘abstain from blood’ is punctuated by a Hong Kong Red Cross spokesman who said: “The blood sold by a drug addict may well have hepatitis . . . and can be fatal to a sick person.”

‘Experimental Camp’ Backfires

◆ “The principle was to let the children organize themselves according to their capabilities and sense of initiative,” said one of seven teachers supervising a Protestant-sponsored Alpine “experimental summer camp.” The result? “Tables and chairs were overturned. Children of 5 and 6 were smoking. The whole place stunk to high heaven. The dishes were unwashed or broken.” Accepting the Bible’s counsel to ‘train up a boy in the way he should go’ could have saved them the ‘experiment.’

Church Gambling Grows

◆ The famed U.S. gambling town, Las Vegas, is being rivaled by Catholic churches and Jewish synagogues. They have begun holding “Las Vegas Nights.” An advertisement in the Meriden, Connecticut, Morning Record invites: “Drinks served by our ‘Bunnies’ Full Licensed Cash Bar opens at 7 P.M. featuring ‘Club Prices’ . . . BE A WINNER! COME TO ST. MARY’S.” Another held on Staten Island, New York, prompted a Sunday News reporter to say: “Not since the money changers . . . in the temple has God been served in so supercharged an atmosphere.” He says this is “strictly illegal,” but quotes a Staten Island prosecutor as remarking, “Arresting monsignors is not in the public interest.”

“Retired” from Life

◆ Two and a half years of life is all the average American male has left after he retires, according to American Medical Association experts. The “Executive Fitness Newsletter” also notes that upon retirement his suicide rate and medical problems increase drastically. With no other purpose in life, the lack of occupational mental activity leaves the mind “too often filled with worry over self.”

Aged Hippo

◆ Maren, the world’s oldest known hippopotamus, is 50 this year. She weighs two tons and has had 18 children, who are found in zoos around the world. She and her 22-year-old second husband, Rasmus II, live in Copenhagen’s zoo.

Mass Weddings

◆ In Hong Kong, where the bridegroom customarily foots the bill, fifty couples shared a mass wedding celebration “aimed at making it cheaper for young people to get married,” reports the Hong Kong Sunday Post-Herald. “The new trend towards mass weddings is sweeping Asia.” Parents of the couples are not as pleased. There is room for very little traditional wedding size and splendor. One groom says: “I certainly am not going to allow old fashioned ideas to force me to start my married life in debt.”

Birth Control​—East and West

◆ Ten million Chinese women use birth-control pills, says Madame Li Hsiu-chen, representing China’s delegation at a world population conference in Pakistan. Other measures include encouraging young people to marry at least five years after the legal age, which is 20 for males and 18 for females. However, large families are encouraged along the Russian border and in other areas where population is sparse. In the West, an authoritative study recently showed that one third of United States couples practicing birth control had a pregnancy within five years anyway.

Sun Puzzles Scientists

◆ The giant solar flares witnessed by Skylab 2 astronauts are said to be a major puzzle. Solar activity usually occurs in eleven-year cycles, the last of which was in 1969. Rather than the sun’s becoming quiet as expected, NASA observers say “more activity has been observed than would be expected even during an average week of nominally high solar activity.”

Bicycles Make News

◆ A new world bicycle speed record of 138.674 miles per hour was set recently by a California doctor. The previous record, over 127 miles per hour, was set in France in 1962. A car equipped with a rear windscreen travels in front of the cyclist, reducing air drag to facilitate attainment of such high speeds. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that bicycles are the most hazardous product on the American market. Some 372,000 injuries require emergency-room treatment each year. Primarily among children, mechanical failures, losing control or getting caught in the spokes and chains cause the injuries.

Too Many People?

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