THE KING’S BUSINESS
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J omcs O. Henry, M . A., EditorAs ociote prof, of History, Biola Bible College
clocks,” this one does not use elec tronic circuits and thus is not limited by their shortcomings. It uses the radio-frequency oscillation directly from the ammonia molecules, and hence is “ considerably more accur ate.” Cleaning Up Com ics Effective p rog re ss in removing lewdness, filth and glorification of crime from so-called comic books seems to be proving that a trouble some situation can be remedied by voluntary action rather than by forced censorship. Charles F. Murphy, chosen by the Comics Magazine A ssociation of America to keep member-producers from dropping into low levels, told what his- staff had done in two months on the job. They looked at 2,640 stories, and rejected 126 com pletely. They also cut out 5,656 draw ings, and called for changes in others. Of those banned, one-quarter por trayed women too lushly. They also ordered out a few advertisements, including one for bull whips and others for switch knives. Murphy’s office reviews three-fourths of the comic books of which 60,000,000 cop ies a month go on sales counters. Out side the organization are three big publishers and they have announced they will keep their product up to a good standard. Reform is on the way, according to the word from Murphy’s office. It is moreover, a nation-wide reform, accomplished in a central office in stead of being patchily done by di vers groups-all over the country. Iran Curbs Commun ism Iranian students abroad reported by Iranian embassies as having Com munist sympathies will be deprived of foreign exchange facilities by the Iranian government, according to a report from Teheran in the London Times. The same report quotes a state ment issued by the military govern or, General Bachtiar, as saying that the youth organization of the anti-
London to Build Buddh ist T em p le
govemment Tudeh Movement has been shattered by the arrest of the members of its central committee. The declared aim of the organiza tion according to the report was to foster the spirit of “ internationalism” in the minds of Iranian youths. But it is said to have organized subver sive student-movements in c lu d in g demonstrations resulting in the death of three university students last year when relations with Britain were re sumed. O ldest Town Found in Iraq What is believed to be the oldest town in the world was found in Iraq by a University of Chicago expedi tion conducted by Dr. Robert J. Braidwood of the Oriental Institute. N’lefaat is in the northeastern part of the country, and is believed to date back to before 5,000 B.C. The arche ologists found a small group of pits there, believed to have been covered by tents or sod when they were in use. B iife r en t in Bu ssia Critics of “ The Exisiting Order” used to be fond of a witticism, “ Oh, I’m an erg in the profit system.” It is now clear that the three-letter word for a unit of work has a dif ferent application under “ The glori ous new order” of Soviet Russia et al. There, the individual becomes an erg in the non-profit system. M o r e A b ou t A H oa x Dr. J. S. Weiner of Oxford Uni versity and Dr. K. P. Oakley of the British Museum report to the Ameri can Association of Physical Anthro pologists that whoever “ planted” the skull of the Piltdown Man made the mistake of doctoring a canine tooth so that it appeared to be worn. Under the microscope the “wear” showed up as fine up-and-down scratches that could not be produced in normal chewing. Worse still, X-ray exam ination showed that the tooth had cut its way through the gums either incompletely or recently, so that it could not have worn away.
A campaign will be launched by the London Buddhist Vihara [tem ple] Society to build a Buddhist tem ple in London. It is stated that Ceylon, Burma and Thailand would each contribute one- fourth of the total cost of 100,000 pounds and the balance will be con tributed by the Buddhists of England and other countries. A proposal for building the temple will go before the World Buddhist Fellowship. M o s t A e eu rn te C lock In v en ted A new clock that will vary no more than one second in 300 years has been invented by a research group at Columbia University, New York City, according to the New York Times. Described as the most accurate timepiece so far made, the invention is based on a new principle usable for electronic amplifiers in commu nications equipment and for naviga tion. Dr. Charles H. Townes, professor of physics and executive officer of Columbia’s physics department, head ed the research group. He said that the new device had heen named Maser —a coined word formed from the initials of the phrase describing the device: “Microwave amplification by stimulating emission of radiation.-’ Maser works as follows: A stream of ammonia molecules is fed into an electrostatic focusing field. Voltage separates the ammonia molecules of low energy content from the stream and discards them. High-energy am monia molecules are focused by the field and concentrated in a cavity. Here the high-energy ammonia molecules vibrate at a constant rate in a small space. They generate a microwave at a frequency of 24 bil lion cycles a second directly from the radiation of ammonia molecules. This generated microwave being, with the power of one billionth to ten billionths of a watt, does not vary more than a few cycles in a second. Unlike other so-called “ automatic
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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