425 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
425 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Chapter 23
|
||
|
||
BAD THINGS
|
||
|
||
As you are about see, all bad things are not so bad. They
|
||
often have an interesting or amusing side. Looking at the bright
|
||
side of unfortunate situations may cause people to remember that
|
||
such bad things exist yet often people are in a position to do
|
||
something about it.
|
||
|
||
Because of our modern diet of food preservatives, undertakers
|
||
have been noticing that dead people do not deteriorate as fast as
|
||
they once did.
|
||
|
||
If a man shaves with a razor he uses more energy than if he
|
||
uses an electric shaver because of the power required to purify
|
||
and pump the water through his faucet.
|
||
|
||
Every weekday morning, the commuters of Los Angeles use
|
||
250,000 gallons of gas getting to work. They drive 5 million
|
||
miles, which would be like one car driving to the moon and back 20
|
||
times, or around the earth 192 times.
|
||
|
||
If you were to sort through a typical landfill here is what
|
||
you would find:
|
||
41 percent of your trash would be unrecycled paper. 17.9
|
||
percent of the stuff is yard clippings with which you could make a
|
||
fine mulch. 7.9 percent of the trash is uneaten food. 6.5
|
||
percent of it is plastic that almost never disintegrates. 8.7
|
||
percent is precious metal - primarily aluminum and steel. Wear
|
||
thick gloves, 8.7 percent of your trash is glass. 9.3 percent is
|
||
rubber, leather, clothing, wood and other trash.
|
||
|
||
We are destroying the world's rain forests at the rate of 100
|
||
acres per minute. An acre is a square 208 feet on a side. Forty
|
||
percent of the rain forests are already gone. Many folks don't
|
||
realize exactly why the forests are being wasted. One big reason
|
||
is hamburgers. It is profitable to raise cattle where rain forests
|
||
once were. If we could all eat less beef, there would be less
|
||
reason to remove the trees.
|
||
|
||
There is a chemical waste dump in the Soviet Union that is
|
||
twice as big as the whole state of Vermont.
|
||
|
||
Two to four million tons of oil leak into the Soviet water
|
||
table every year from the Siberian pipeline.
|
||
|
||
Americans use eight times more fuel than people anywhere else
|
||
in the world.
|
||
|
||
Of the 20,000 television commercials written each year, 7,000
|
||
are for childrens' sugary breakfast cereals. In other words, 35
|
||
percent of commercials are designed to mislead children into
|
||
desiring sugary cereal.
|
||
|
||
In the past twenty years, there has been a 39 percent
|
||
increase in the number of overweight children. One major reason is
|
||
television. Not only does this lack of activity take up more of
|
||
kids' time, but while they watch, they tend to eat the junk food
|
||
that is constantly being advertised at them.
|
||
According to many pediatricians, up to one third of all
|
||
children at age two may already be developing abnormally high
|
||
cholesterol levels.
|
||
|
||
The screaming of an upset baby can damage your hearing. Kid's
|
||
can scream at levels up to 90 decibels, and permanent damage can
|
||
be caused at 85 dB. One dB is the minimum amount of sound
|
||
detectable by the human ear.
|
||
|
||
Last year 81 million Americans got sick from food poisoning
|
||
and 9,000 of them died. The average American will get food
|
||
poisoning 100 times in a lifetime. The symptoms are headache, sick
|
||
feeling, diarrhea. Most people think this is the flu. To prevent
|
||
food poisoning, clean all kitchen items with heat, never leave
|
||
food at room temperature for more than a few minutes.
|
||
|
||
Remember when you could buy little green turtles in
|
||
department stores? These were discontinued because they passed
|
||
salmonella (food poisoning) to children. People who knew about the
|
||
turtle scam were glad. Almost all of those turtles starved to
|
||
death. It seems that a turtle can survive several months without
|
||
eating after birth. The commercial turtle food that was available
|
||
where the turtles were sold was usually nothing more than "ant
|
||
eggs." In fact, it was only ant egg SHELLS. But it does not matter
|
||
that the food was not nutritious, because the turtles wouldn't eat
|
||
it anyway. When the shells decomposed and sank to the bottom of
|
||
the water, people used to think that the turtle had eaten.
|
||
|
||
Fifty percent of all turkeys and 37 percent of all chickens
|
||
that you can buy in grocery stores are contaminated with
|
||
Campylobacter (food poisoning) according to the Food and Drug
|
||
Administration.
|
||
|
||
Many millions of chickens are raised and spend their whole
|
||
lives in coops so efficiently packed that they have no room to
|
||
fall over if they die.
|
||
|
||
66 people per day are killed by drunk drivers. This is down
|
||
from 70 per day as it was a couple of years ago.
|
||
|
||
According to the Environmental Protection Agency almost
|
||
twenty percent of Americans drink tap water that is dangerously
|
||
high in lead.
|
||
|
||
Diabetes is the third leading cause of death in America.
|
||
Diabetes is 50 percent more common than twenty-five years ago.
|
||
Presently, 10 million Americans suffer from the disease. (Perhaps
|
||
it is related to the increase in refined sugar consumption in
|
||
America.)
|
||
|
||
One million Americans wear false teeth. Approximately half
|
||
of these are radioactive. There is a tiny amount of uranium in
|
||
these teeth to make them whiter in incandescent light.
|
||
|
||
Human beings and pigs are the only animals that can get
|
||
sunburn.
|
||
|
||
Sunburn seems to heal in just a few days, but the blood
|
||
vessels under the skin do not return to their normal condition for
|
||
up to fifteen months.
|
||
|
||
Baseball players have the longest lives of all occupations.
|
||
|
||
A study of professional baseball players determined that
|
||
left-handers had significantly more medical accidents and tended
|
||
to die younger than right-handers. The southpaws also had higher
|
||
incidence of immunological problems and sleep disorders. The
|
||
hypothesis behind this phenomenon is that babies who would have
|
||
normally been right-handers become lefties if they have problems
|
||
at birth such as long labor or low birth weight.
|
||
|
||
In another study, this one of college students, the
|
||
researchers found that 44 percent of left-handers had received
|
||
medical attention for an accident within the last five years,
|
||
while only 36 percent of the right-handers had such troubles. In
|
||
this case, scientists believe, the reason might be that the
|
||
equipment of the world is designed primarily for right-handed
|
||
people.
|
||
|
||
Some gem merchants now use Geiger counters to inspect
|
||
precious stones before purchasing them. It seems that the natural
|
||
colors of some gems can be enhanced by exposure to atomic
|
||
radiation. Some unscrupulous dealers have done this.
|
||
|
||
Americans throw 694 plastic bottles into the trash every
|
||
second.
|
||
|
||
A plastic container that you throw away today may still exist
|
||
50,000 years from now.
|
||
|
||
Once every month, National Geographic publishes a stack of
|
||
magazines 52 miles tall.
|
||
|
||
The people of the world use one billion gallons of crude oil
|
||
a day.
|
||
|
||
A tankful of gas uses about the same amount of crude oil as
|
||
14 bicycle tires.
|
||
|
||
A typical car uses about 1.6 ounces of gas for every minute
|
||
the engine idles. It uses up about one-half ounce of gas to start
|
||
the engine. So, if you turn off the car anytime you are likely to
|
||
stand idling for more than twenty seconds, you will save gasoline,
|
||
and therefore save money. It costs approximately one dollar per
|
||
hour to idle your car.
|
||
|
||
If you slow a car down from 57 to 50 miles per hour, you will
|
||
get half again better gas mileage. This means that the average
|
||
American driver would save about $200 per year.
|
||
|
||
The rain in New York carries so much acid from pollution that
|
||
it has killed all the fish in 200 lakes in the Adirondack State
|
||
Park.
|
||
|
||
The world's smog is so thick that Astronomers are
|
||
complaining.
|
||
|
||
Americans throw out 1,000 bags of garbage every second.
|
||
|
||
We grow more tobacco than wheat in America.
|
||
|
||
According to the National Academy of Engineering, the deaths
|
||
of 15,000 Americans are caused by air pollution.
|
||
|
||
Fifteen thousand children starve to death every day.
|
||
|
||
In Bengladesh, only one out of two children live to see age
|
||
five.
|
||
|
||
Smoking
|
||
|
||
Every thing about smoking cigarettes is dangerous. Last year
|
||
6,000 people suffered injuries caused by ashtrays.
|
||
|
||
A cure for cigarette smoking: learn to play a flute,
|
||
recorder, trumpet. Then play a little music until the urge to
|
||
smoke subsides every time you feel the temptation. Not only will
|
||
you soothe your oral desire, but you will become involved in the
|
||
music which will make you forget the urge, and you will be calmed
|
||
by the music and the feeling of creativity.
|
||
|
||
At one time, the country of Albania honored a smoker who used
|
||
twelve packs a day on a postage stamp.
|
||
|
||
A pack-a-day smoker smokes the equivalent on one cigarette
|
||
one-half mile long per year.
|
||
|
||
Cigarette smokers catch colds 65 percent more often.
|
||
|
||
Americans smoke 1 billion cigarettes per day. If you lined up
|
||
all the cigarettes smoked in one day, then drove past them at 55
|
||
miles per hour, it would take 28 weeks (driving 40 hours per week)
|
||
to get to the end of the line.
|
||
|
||
11,000 cigarettes are lighted every second, just in America.
|
||
|
||
Every 22 seconds, a kid tries smoking for the first time.
|
||
|
||
Each year the cigarette industry spends two and a half
|
||
billion dollars in advertising to replace the 365,000 customers it
|
||
loses due to death from lung cancer.
|
||
|
||
There are three million new cigarette smokers in America each
|
||
year.
|
||
|
||
2,700 people die per day of heart disease.
|
||
|
||
When researchers gave three joints (marijuana) per day, five
|
||
days a week, to monkeys, which is less exposure than many
|
||
humans give themselves, after six months the monkeys exhibited
|
||
chronic symptoms ranging from listlessness to irritability. No
|
||
big deal. But then the monkeys were no longer given the marijuana,
|
||
and they did not return to normal. Even after eight months, their
|
||
brain wave patterns were quite abnormal. When the monkey's brains
|
||
were examined with a microscope, physical damage was obvious.
|
||
|
||
The THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] content of marijuana common
|
||
during the 1960's was typically one percent. THC is the active
|
||
ingredient. Marijuana growers worked constantly to improve the
|
||
quality of their weed and now contains up to 14 percent THC. The
|
||
monkeys received 3 percent.
|
||
|
||
Cancer
|
||
|
||
400,000 Americans die of cancer anually.
|
||
|
||
Researchers found out that women who work at home as
|
||
housewives have a 54 percent greater chance of getting cancer than
|
||
women who work at paid jobs. The hypothesis is that housewives
|
||
are affected by the carcogenic cleaning chemicals they frequently
|
||
use.
|
||
|
||
The amount of people who get cancer is increasing at the rate
|
||
of two percent per year.
|
||
|
||
According to a study done by The Harvard School of Public
|
||
Health, women who drink at least one cup of coffee per day are
|
||
more than twice as likely to get bladder cancer.
|
||
|
||
You can accidentally kill yourself by drinking over 40 cups
|
||
of coffee in one day. The amount of caffeine is sufficient to
|
||
cause respiratory failure.
|
||
|
||
70,000 New York residents get cancer every year. That's one
|
||
out of every 251 people. In Wyoming, there are less than 1,000
|
||
cancer victims per year, which is one out of every 469 people. You
|
||
are nearly twice as likely to get cancer if you live in New York.
|
||
|
||
Research has pointed out that lonely women get more breast
|
||
cancer than women who have lots of friends.
|
||
|
||
In the Duwamish River in Seattle, one out of every four fish
|
||
has liver cancer. In a river in Ohio almost every single bullhead
|
||
over three years old has cancer.
|
||
|
||
These foods have been found to be carcinogenic if eaten in
|
||
sufficient quantities: celery, parsley, parsnips, rhubarb,
|
||
mustard, mushrooms, honey, herb tea, peanut butter and grilled
|
||
meat.
|
||
|
||
Children don't have to worry about cancer because in kids it
|
||
is very rare. However, if kids are aware about how to protect
|
||
against cancer starting when they are young - through proper diet,
|
||
exercise, avoidance of air pollution, chemicals, excessive
|
||
sunlight and smoking - they are far less likely to get cancer when
|
||
they are older.
|
||
|
||
Military Matters
|
||
|
||
During World War II, 2,700,000 tons of bombs were dropped on
|
||
Germany, killing 300,000 people, and seriously injuring 780,000
|
||
more. If cars were dropped from the sky instead, by weight the
|
||
equivalent number of cars would be 1,800,000, enough cars to give
|
||
six to the families of every one who was killed by a bomb.
|
||
Altogether, Germany lost almost 12 million people.
|
||
|
||
35 countries have a total of over 50,000 atomic bombs with
|
||
which we can be blown up:
|
||
Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China,
|
||
Czechoslovakia, Denmark, East Germany, Egypt, Finland, France,
|
||
India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway,
|
||
Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South
|
||
Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom,
|
||
United States, and Yugoslavia.
|
||
|
||
It is tempting to think that with the new, improved relations
|
||
between the super-powers of Russia and America, the likelyhood of
|
||
nuclear war is diminishing. Modern times are not scary like in the
|
||
1960's, with people building nuclear fallout shelters in their
|
||
backyards and under their schools. Right? Wrong, there are now
|
||
dozens of politically unstable, or even down-right crazy suicidal
|
||
countries with nuclear capability.
|
||
|
||
Both the Soviets and the Americans are building more nuclear
|
||
missils than they promised to throw away with the INF Treaty of
|
||
1987. (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces)
|
||
|
||
Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges
|
||
because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient
|
||
to knock the bridge down.
|
||
|
||
10% of the world's total production goes to the manufacture
|
||
of arms.
|
||
|
||
Prior to the U.S. invasion of Grenada, their unemployment
|
||
rate was fourteen percent. Now it's thirty percent in that
|
||
country.
|
||
|
||
Fighting in the Confederate army at the Battle of Gettysburg,
|
||
General Henry Heth was wearing a hat that was too big. He had
|
||
folded some newspaper into the sweatband to make it fit better. He
|
||
was hit in the head by a bullet, but the newspaper deflected its
|
||
path, saving his life.
|
||
|
||
Liechtenstein used to have the world's smallest army. There
|
||
was one soldier. He served his country until his death at age 95.
|
||
Then the country no longer had an army.
|
||
|
||
When Commodore Perry's ships sailed into Japanese waters the
|
||
local warriors sailed out and tried to restrain the ships by
|
||
holding them with ropes. They knew the steam ships were huge, but
|
||
had no idea of the power of their engines. When the commodore
|
||
blew the ship's whistles, the warriors were so scared they all
|
||
fled.
|
||
|
||
In one of the most unusual military maneuvers ever, in 1911
|
||
King Richard The Lionhearted captured the fortress of Acre. The
|
||
inhabitants were barricaded inside, so King Richard had his
|
||
soldiers throw 100 beehives over the walls. The people in the
|
||
fortress surrendered immediately.
|
||
|
||
A military technique was used 1600 years ago that should
|
||
still be used occasionally today. Java and Malaya both wanted the
|
||
territory of Sumatra, so the generals each selected one buffalo.
|
||
The buffalo were pitted against each other and no people
|
||
participated in the battle.
|
||
|
||
What is the war room in the Pentagon really like? There are
|
||
no high-tech plexiglass wall maps, no high-tech computers any of
|
||
that sort of stuff. All there are is a bunch of telephones,
|
||
several chairs and some conference tables.
|
||
The famous red telephone, or "hot line" between the Kremlin
|
||
and the Pentagon does not exist. The closest thing to it is a
|
||
couple of teletype machines in another office in the building.
|
||
|
||
Flint lock muskets were used from 1550 to 1850, 300 years.
|
||
They were very crude, requiring reloading after every shot, and
|
||
frequently misfiring, jamming or even exploding. Ben Franklin once
|
||
remarked that soldiers might do better with bows and arrows
|
||
because four arrows could be shot during the time it took to shoot
|
||
a musket once.
|
||
|
||
During the Civil War Battle of Spottsylvania so many shots
|
||
were fired that a nearby oak tree ten inches in diameter was cut
|
||
in two from hundreds of random bullet hits.
|
||
|
||
After the Battle of Waterloo, all the teeth were extracted
|
||
from the soldiers that lay dead on the field. These were made into
|
||
dentures called Waterloo Teeth and worn by the elite, rich of
|
||
America who needed false teeth.
|
||
|
||
Decimation used to be a military disciplinary technique.
|
||
Started by the ancient Romans and used by some European countries
|
||
until World War I, it meant to kill one out of every ten men in a
|
||
group of soldiers who had misbehaved. Technically, to decimate
|
||
still means to destroy ten percent.
|
||
|
||
More American colonists fought on the side of the British
|
||
than those who fought for independence. Only 16 percent of the
|
||
eligible men fought in this war. The rest tended their farms as
|
||
usual.
|
||
|
||
During World War I, 33 percent of English men of military age
|
||
were killed.
|
||
|
||
General John Burgoyne had great respect and obedience from
|
||
his soldiers. His method of punishment was different. If a
|
||
soldier misbehaved, he had the man wear his coat inside out.
|
||
|
||
Of the half-million Americans who receive combat training,
|
||
half of these men will develop some permanent hearing damage due
|
||
to the loud noises made by combat weapons.
|
||
|
||
It seems that John Paul Jones, the naval hero of the American
|
||
revolution was a bit of a trouble maker. Originally he was a
|
||
professional actor, but in fact he was also a pirate. He was
|
||
accused of at least two murders and one rape. After the American
|
||
revolutionary war was over, he served in the Russian navy as
|
||
Kontradmiral Pavel Ivanovich Jones.
|
||
|
||
The United States Strategic Air Command invented an atomic
|
||
powered airplane. The only problems were that even carrying
|
||
twenty tons of lead to shield the pilot, only crews who had
|
||
already had children could be used due to the radiation exposure
|
||
and if the plane crashed, there would be no way to contain the
|
||
contamination. Fortunately, the military had the good sense not
|
||
to develop this plan fully.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|