'1 M ' WORLD ffiMMS James O. Henry, M.A., Editor, Chairman of the Department of History, Biola College
Scientists Study Tornado Secrets Tornadoes have long eluded man’s attempt to understand their myster ious violence. No scientist can yet predict just when or where a tornado will burst from the clouds and with an unearthly roar scythe across the countryside. In its swathe of destruc tion, trees are ripped up by the roots, chickens plucked naked, s t r e ams sucked dry. The whirling wind can drive straws into fence posts. It can toss a locomotive about like a child’s toy. It can cause a house to explode into bits of kindling wood. As twisters’ fury shater meteoro logical instruments, scientists can only estimate the top speed of its spiraling winds, the National Geo graphic Society says, “Velocity may range up to 400 or possibly 600 miles an hour.” Twenty years ago, weather men knew almost nothing about tor nadoes. Today, though there are many gaps in their knowledge, they can tell when the conditions are con ducive for tornadoes to develop, and they have set up a warning system for use when a tornado has actually been sighted. They can also track the twisters with radar. Moreover, mete orologists now are cautiously opti mistic that man will one day be able to stop tornadoes in their tracks. One suggestion as a possibility of dealing with tornadoes is to seed the clouds with rain-forming chemicals, thus releasing the cloud energy be fore a death-dealing cone swings to the ground. Another is to have an air plane drag a wire through the clouds, and draw off their electrical charge. Electricity may play an important role in tornadoes. Meteorologists say that tomadic conditions develop when a cool, dry air-mass moves over warm, moist sur face air. This creates an unstable build-up of energy, because cold air weighs more than warm air. If there is a narrow band of strong winds at intermediate levels, a whirling ex change of air may result. This whirl may be likened to the vortex created when water goes down a bathtub drain. New Drug Eases Brain Pressure Science has added another weapon to its armory of life-saving tech niques. This latest tool is a urea-sugar compound that has saved the lives of many patients suffering from in creased brain pressure caused by con
cussion, fractures, and other head and brain injuries, including tumors and blood clots. The compound soon will be available for general use. The compound simply shrinks the brain, which is tightly held in the close coniines of the skull. A blow on any part of the body is accompanied by swelling, which is caused by an increased flow of body fluids, called edema. Thus, in the case of severe head injuries or brain tumors, the brain swells as the amount of the fluid in which the brain is bathed increases. The normal brain virtually fills the skull cavity, so there is no room for swelling. The brain tissue, therefore, is forced against its bone cell, bring ing on headaches, coma, dizziness, and eventually irreparable damage. In the past it was not known how to remove excess fluid from the brain without endangering life. At the same time, surgeons knew that unless the fluid was quickly removed, the delicate brain cells would be de stroyed. Even if a patient lived, dam age to the cells could result in some mental impairment. With the new aid medical author ities believe they can spare many vic tims unnecessary distress and increase the chances of saving a patient’s life. Soviet' Pressing Siberia Projects In Russia the slogan commonly used in recent history has been “ Go To Siberia, Young Man.” The fron tier is calling. Uncounted opportuni ties await the young, strong adven turer and the chance to do valuable work for his country is the jist of the slogans. With these slogans, the Soviet government and the Communist party are calling on young people and older specialists in the civilized and settled Soviet areas to move to the East. There have been past drives to en courage the settlement and develop ment of Siberia, but none so extensive and so thoroughly planned as the one now under way. One major goal is to set up in- Siberia the Soviet Union’s third im portant steel center. The first was in the Donets Basin of the Ukraine and the second in the Ural-Kuznetsk Basin region. A n i m p o r t a n t aspect of Siberian development is the region’s high electric power potential. Soviet specialists believe there will be brisk development of the Far North, based on diamond, nickel, cobalt and platinum deposits.
Red China Pushes Workers Information coming from Hong Kong indicates that 1958 has be come a year of absolute maximum production effort in communist China. The regime appears to be pushing the Chinese people harder than ever before in its determina tion to achieve the highest possible gains for the first year of the Second Five Year Plan. The “ rectification campaign” of 1957 achieved a redisciplining of the population, a correction of mis takes in administration, a trimming down of costs through wholesale reduction of government personnel and a general consolidation. This year is being called the period of the “ forward leap.” In previous years the winter sea sons have been times for some slack ing off of work on the farms. But last winter the peasants were made to labor overtime to build irrigation works, plant trees for the reforesta tion program or help construct small local industrial enterprises. The several million members of the urban bureaucracy who have been sent out to work on farms find they not only have to labor in the fields to accumulate enough wage points to support themselves, but must also organize schools, teach adult education classes and gener ally engage in lifting the cultural level of the peasantry. Together with the unrelenting hard work Peking is demanding, the government is also pushing aus terity. The extra tasks earn no extra pay, and people are encour aged to eat less, conserve clothing, save money and invest in new enterprises.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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