Reporters Diary

Press, 12 June 1978, Page 2

Reporters Diary

Unexpected

THIS will dismay those who are running for their lives — research at a University of California school of medicine has shown that a herd of little pigs which ran the equivalent of 40km a week for a year did not reduce their risk of heart attack by doing so. Dr Colin Bloor, who led the research, said the 10 Yucatan “miniswine” ran their 40km a week on treadmills in the laboratory, while 10 matched littermates were allowed to laze about. The treadmill pigs lost up to 20 per cent of their weight/ and although their heart efficiency improved, their circulation did not, it was no better than that of the lazy pigs. In pigs and people, clogged arteries that inhibit blood circular tion can result in damage to the heart’s muscle tissue, and it has been widely believed that jogging reduces the danger of clogging. The research results disappointed the members of the research team, who are themselves dedicated long-distance runners. Another oar fish OARFISH seem to be more frequent coastal suicides than is generally believed. Mrs A. ten Hove, of Le Bons Bay, says she has a clear photograph of an oarfish washed up on the Le Bons Bay beach in April, 1963. “The fish was slightly decomposed,” she says, “but. obviously the same sort as the one in ‘The Press.’ It was about 4m long. I do not know if this fish was ever reported. At the time, I did not realise that the sighting was of any great significance.” Heir sought

A husband-of-convenience has been left $600,000 by the German woman he married in Britain 40 years ago. Now solicitors are trying to trace the man — Jack, or Robin, Anderson — who is believed to be living in Sydney. He married Valeska Gert, an actress, who fled Germany in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution. But the wedding was a mere formality, to enable her to become a British citizen. Years later, she wrote: "Next morning he returned and told me he

had spent the night elsewhere. He left me for good soon afterwards.” Valeska Gert, who starred with Greta Garbo in her first silent film, owned a popular nightclub on the nudist island of Sylt, off the north German coast. Anderson will get that, too, if he can prove his identity. He is the only known heir.

Wedding insurance ‘TIE THE knot, or face the music” is the message that has gone out to those who officiate at marriage ceremonies in Australia. In Victoria recently, a clergyman who missed the wedding was sued for $lO,OOO by the irate father of the bride. He wanted compensation for the trouble and cost of organising a wedding that did not take place. Civil marriage celebrants have now set up a litigation trust fund, to protect themselves in similar situations. At the same time they seek permission to raise their fees from $lO a wedding to $4O, and are branching into other fields. They are taking funeral services, namegiving ceremonies for babies, and wedding anniversary renewals of vows. “What was originally considered to be a legal role

now a cultural role, ’ said Mr Dally Messenger, the association’s secretary. “In many ways we are professional readers of poetry.” Bad start

A RECENTLY opened meeting of economic ministers of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris had trouble right from the start in agreeing about a joint recovery programme. This was not surprising, said the “Financial Times,” considering the main topics of discussion. These were PAP, CRAP, and ROT — Positive Adjustment Policies, Concerted Recovery Action Programme, and Realistically Optimistic Targetry. Paint warning IF YOU are retired and you have a heart condition. then you should avoid using paint removers, according to the “Journal of the American Medical Association.”

Many paint removers have methylene chloride as the main ingredient, which is rapidly metabolised by the body into carbon monoxide. Stress is placed on the cardiovascular system of healthy people when exposed to non-lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide. The result could be far more serious for a person with a heart condition. Suspicious CHILDREN were certainly getting the message at a police open day held in Christchurch recently — but what message? A bystander reports watching a small boy who was showing great interest in a table display of very unpleasant weapons, such as daggers, knuckledusters, and spiked belts, which the police had confiscated. The boy looked up at the policeman guarding the arsenal, and asked: “What do you use those for?” Insulin break-through HARVARD University research biologists say they have used a common bacterium to manufacture rat insulin, in a process which may eventually aid millions of diabetics. The biologists said it was a big step towards discovering a way to produce human insulin, and might also pave the way for mass-produc-tion of other human hormones. They first produced an artificial copy of the rat genes for insulin, and then used gene splicing techniques to induce the bacteria to produce rat insulin, a mammalian hormone vital in the metabolism of sugar in rats. At present, the insulin for diabetics, who need daily injections of it, is obtained from the pancreas glands of slaughtered cows and pigs, but a steady six per cent increase in the instance of diabetes could create a shortage of these animal-derived hormones. Too realistic

A MAN with a roaring chainsaw ran down the aisle of a movie theatre in Toronto on Saturday night, scattering about 75 people watching “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” The Toronto police said the saw had no cutting chain. Andre Harold Seward, aged 21, was charged with being a common nuisance. —Garry Arthur