TRENDS TO TALK ABOUT

Wine Coolers Aren't Soft Drinks. One 12-ounce (.35 liter) wine cooler contains the same amount of alcohol as a 12-ounce beer, a glass of wine or a shot of hard liquor.

Space Tomatoes. NASA is asking students to plant tomato seeds from space to see how they grow. The seeds were floating around in a satellite for five and half years. They don't think it will be another Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but "Obviously, if a teacher... says they've got a 25-pound [11 kilogram] purple tomato, you bet we'll go look at it," a scientist told USA Today.

Because It's, Well, There. Can't get away to Yosemite to rock climb this afternoon? Why not try an indoor climbing wall? They're sprouting up all over the United States, and a Youth 90 reporter even found one in the highlands of Scotland. These rock climbing gyms often feature fiberglass walls made to feel like the real thing.

Elvis in Your Garden? A Cincinnati, Ohio, toy company makes a mold that you can put on vegetables while they're growing. After a few weeks your favorite veggies will have one of several faces, including Elvis Presley (not licensed yet) or a "pickle puss" for cucumbers that will be pickled. You can even have a mold of your own face--for $2,500.

Taken from Youth 90 magazine

Wanna Bet?

Gambling is big business. In the United States, legal and illegal gambling add up to about $240 billion each year-- $1,000 for each person!

Illegal gambling is widespread, such as bets on football games. Lottery tickets are sold in corner stores, reducting the stigma against gambling.

Why do people gamble? Most people say they play for fun. But it wouldn't be fun if they didn't also hope to strike it rich.

But almost no one does. The chances of winning a lottery jackpot are one out of several million. The more you play, the more you will probably lose. Lotteries are designed to make money for the administrators, not the players. The players, on average, get back only half of their money.

Instant wealth is the hope of gamblers. It often leads to the poor house.

Advertisements for lotteries and racetracks often suggest that wealth comes easily. The hope of quick riches has a strong appeal, especially to the poor. Poor people gamble more often than the rich do, and therefore lose a larger percentage of their money.

"The message of lottery advertising is a slightly subversive one, that success is just waiting for you to pick the right number," write Charles Clotfelter and Philip Cook, Duke University economists. They suggest that lottery advertising may reduce people's willingness "to work, save, and self-invest in education and training."

- By Michael Morrison

Taken from Youth 90 magazine

Trading Rain Forests for Deserts

Fourteen-year old Jacinto Garcia and his family are settlers in the Amazon jungle town of Jaru, in Western Brazil.

Typical of many who can't afford to live in the city, the Garcias moved to the jungle to try to make a living. Clearing away the rain forests is their hope for the future. It means fuel for cooking and land for crops and livestock.

The rain forests around the world are being cleared at a rate of 27 million acres (11 million hectares) a year.

At this pace, most of the rain forests could be gone in 20 years. Without them, many scientists claim, the whole world could be affected.

Trees and plants in the rain forest soak up poisonous gases (such as carbon dioxide) that add to global warming or what is often called the Greenhouse Effect. The less plants, the less carbon dioxide is soaked up and the hotter the earth.

Scientists are also worried about the deserts created in the forests' place. Shortly after the land is cleared, it becomes nearly useless. Most of the soil is too poor to support agriculture and it bakes as hard as brick under the hot sun of the Equator.

The loss of thousands of species of plants and animals also has scientists concerned. The tropical forests are home to more than half of all life forms on our planet. As the forests are destroyed, so are the plants and animals dependent on them.

Who has final say on what happens to the tropical rain forests? This question has become a big controversy.

Some Brazilians claim other countries want to prevent them from tapping the jungle's wealth, perhaps so they can obtain the riches foe themselves. American scientists say it is not a local issue, but a global one. What happens to the Amazon forest may affect the whole world.

No simple solution is in sight. One thing's for sure, until a solution is found, the threat to the rain forests will continue.

-By Becky Sweat

Taken from Youth 90 magazine

Soviet Stars Go West

Imagine winning $100,000 and only being able to spend $50 a day. That's what happened in 1988 when a Soviet doubles tennis team won at Wimbledon. Under the Soviet system, they were only allowed to spend about $50 a day in England.

This may soon change. We may soon see many Soviet stars in several fields allowed to market their talents in the West.

A new venture, called Moscovy Management International, will soon be negotiating on behalf of Soviet scientists, artists, actors, performers, fashion models and sports stars. The venture aims to help the stars retain more of their money and market their talents freely.

Gary Kasparov, world chess champion, will almost certainly be one of the stars involved in this venture. He is a key figure in the move to bring Soviet talent to the West, and was one of the first to gain more control over his own career.

Canadians will be especially interested in luring the best ice-hockey stars to their teams. And basketball teams in America will be taking a closer look at the Soviet Olympic basketball teams.

The Soviet Union is the only country ever to have beaten the United States at basketball in the Olympics, in 1972 and again in 1988.

More Soviet sports stars in the West will add to the growing internationalization of sports.

- By Tim Finlay


Taken from Youth 90 magazine

The Wagon Train Out of Jail

If you had the choice of traveling around the United States by a wagon train, sailing on a 130-foot schooner, camping in the wilderness or serving time in a detention center, which would you choose?

As unusual as this may sound, some offending American teenagers are given this choice.

Authorities who work with young offenders say many young people involved in vandalism, stealing, shoplifting and similar offenses have often just made bad decisions without thinking about how their actions affect others.

With this is mind, alternatives to juvenile detention have become popular among some law enforcement officials.

Some teens in trouble now have alternatives to jail terms.

One example is VisionQuest. Those involved must make a one-year commitment, abstain from involvement with sex, drugs, alcohol and tobacco during their stay and complete three VisionQuest programs, some of which are listed below.

Quests. Quests may be cross-country horseback or bicycle expeditions or a several week guided trek through forest land.

Wagon Trains. Participants travel across the United States with a group of 10 to 12 mule-drawn wagons.

OceanQuest. Young people learn navigation, water safety and sailing techniques aboard one of two schooners.

Through these programs teens develop positive relationships with others. The many lessons they learn include cooperation, self-discipline, teamwork, respect for authority, responsibility and the work ethic.

Each of these programs includes four hours of school classes a day, five days a week.

Similar programs are growing in popularity. Some authorities believe teens can turn their lives around better through counseling and working with others than by sitting in a jail cell.

-By Larry Johnson

Taken from Youth 90 magazine