In the News...

Compiled by Amanda Stiver

Bring on the Omega-3 Oils!
Recent research suggests that an excess of omega-6 fatty acid coupled with a lack of omega-3 fatty acid, a combination common in the typical highly-processed Western diet, could be causing significant development problems in brain structures, resulting in aggressive and violent behavior.

An American researcher, Joseph Hibbeln, has conducted experiments in the United States. Other researchers have completed similar studies at a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom in which prisoners convicted of violent crimes were administered a series of supplements, chief among them omega-3 fish oils. The result has been that assaults and violent incidents in the prison decreased by 26 percent (Felicity Lawrence, "Omega-3, Junk Food and the Link Between Violence and What We Eat," The Guardian, Oct. 17, 2006).

Hibbeln's research suggests that omega-3 oils are essential to proper brain function. The effective functioning of serotonin and dopamine seem especially critical, as they must work efficiently to avoid depression. When a person is without enough omega-3, he or she is more susceptible to violence and aggression.

Over the past century, the modern Western diet has achieved an excess of omega-6 oils (destructive to brain function) through the excessive use of soy, corn and sunflower oils in foods, and a corresponding lack of consumption of fish, fish oils and green leafy vegetables with omega-3 oils.

Trans-Fatty Acids on the Run
The average American eats 4.7 pounds of artificial trans-fatty acids a year, an unhealthy dose by any standard. The New York City Board of Health has enabled the "Big Apple" to become the first U.S. city to ban this dangerous, artery-clogging additive. The result is that fast-food giants are making massive efforts to rid their products of trans-fatty acids.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation has announced that it will stop using partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, a primary source of trans-fatty acids, in some of its menu items. Wendy's restaurant has already made the switch, but McDonald's has yet to go through with its announced plan to remove the oil (David Caruso, "New York City Trans-Fat Ban Expected to Alter KFC Recipe," The Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 30, 2006).

God created many healthful foods for human beings, but attempts in the last century to improve on what is available in the natural world are beginning to show their inherent flaws. The more processing foods go through and the further they are taken from the state in which God created them, the worse they tend to be for human consumption.

To Seek Higher Education or Not
Bill Gates' incredible wealth and success, despite his being a Harvard University dropout, has caused some in the entrepreneurial business world to wonder if getting a college degree is really necessary to achieve success.

However, an analysis of Inc. magazine's "500 list" of companies finds that 85 percent of CEOs and founders have at least a bachelor's degree and 36 percent have a postgraduate degree. This is a significant showing in favor of seeking higher education (November 2006).

Inc. magazine further encourages the young and business-minded that the college experience provides students with intellectual capital that is as important to business success as monetary capital. Also, students who attend a university will have the advantage of developing a network of future business colleagues and connections that may help them in their ventures.

Whether one is interested in entrepreneurial business or some other field of work, a higher level of education offers significant benefits.

Global Investment Doesn't Equal Global Wealth
Despite high levels of foreign investment, many of Africa's poorest nations fail to benefit from increased global business. Foreign investment rose 78 percent from the previous year, but the benefits were unevenly spread among the nations of Africa.

South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Tunisia received the majority of foreign funding, which left many of the poorest countries with a drastic decline in investment (Angela Balakrishnan, "Foreign Investment Failing Africa," The Guardian, Oct. 17, 2006).

Because of human greed and misrule, there are no easy answers for some of the world's poorest nations. It leads us to pray to God, "Your kingdom come" (Matthew 6:10).

This Just In: TV More Important Than Newspapers
TV was rated the easiest-to-use and most accurate news source, according to teens surveyed in a recent First Amendment study. TV was followed closely by the Internet as a news source, with 66 percent of respondents getting news from Web sites sponsored by search engines.

Only 21 percent of those surveyed used national newspaper Web sites for information on current events and even fewer used actual daily newspapers (Tracey Wong Briggs, "Teens Turn to TV, Internet for News," USA Today, Sept. 22, 2006).

While TV may be a popular news source, it is still a source of information tightly controlled by a small group of people. It is
an essential skill to be wisely critical of what is presented on the TV or at Internet sites. Understanding the bias of those who report the news is crucial in a world that is flooded by large quantities of information every day.

What's in a Name?
A tour of a road map of the United States yields some interesting place names. In Pennsylvania you can travel through Philadelphia, Bethlehem and Nazareth in a few hours, not to mention a few other locations with biblical names.

In states from California to Texas you will find plenty of names with biblical significance. America has more Bible names than anywhere else in the world except the lands where the histories of the Bible occurred (Daniel Lapin, "Cultural Impact," Louisiana Family Forum, Sept. 11, 2006).

The reason for this biblical infusion is that America was founded and traversed by individuals for whom the Bible played a strong role in daily life. For many generations the Bible was the only book owned by most people, and for their children it served as both a spiritual tool and a textbook of the English language.

While modern America may not always appreciate or abide by the Bible, its history and future are inextricably linked with the impact of that book.

Unfeeling, Unloving
Today's world has often been called a throwaway society. One German entrepreneur, Bernd Dressler, is capitalizing on this trend. His business is to deal the final blow in relationships (married or non-married), by phone or in person, and tell one partner that the other doesn't want to see him or her anymore.

Most of his clients are female and unwilling or uncomfortable with the confrontation of dissolving a relationship. Dressler is unemotional about his chosen career and feels little for the individual on whom he is unloading bad news (Stefanie Marsh, "Das Boot," The Times [London], Oct. 17, 2006).

This really is the polar opposite of what God intended for dating and marriage. Were friendship to first serve as a foundation, gradually leading to deep married love, Dressler's unfeeling dumping services would not be in demand.

Cruel and mixed-up, the dark side of human nature illustrates why God's way is so necessary to untangle the mess that has been made of human relationships.

Technology and Tradition
Older business workers are looking at new recruits, born in the early 1980s, and finding it a challenge to combine the new technology culture with the best of face-to-face and more formal business practices.

Young workers are used to text messaging, scanning and Googling, writing in incomplete sentences, dressing too casually and being overly familiar with their superiors. While older executives find that these skills are productive for multitasking, there are gaps in the education of young workers that need to be filled.

Large firms like J.P. Morgan, Chase and Goldman Sachs are instituting training and mentoring programs to introduce younger workers to the face-to-face aspects of conducting and succeeding in business.

Stan Smith, human resources executive at Deloitte, says of his newest employees: "While the Gen Y crowd has shown a wider gap than their predecessors between college life and readiness for the workforce, they do generally show a willingness to learn. A lot of them actually do want to be mentored; they respond well to smart adults" (Tom Van Riper, "Text-message Generation Entering Workplace," Forbes, Aug. 30, 2006).

Common courtesy and good manners apply, no matter the level of technology at which an individual functions. Those skills are at a premium when entering any new field of work. A wise, older person who is gifted in courtesy, good manners and common sense makes an excellent mentor for those seeking to learn.

Niceness Wins at Last
A new crop of business advice books for women is highlighting the fact that nice people can actually do better in business than traditionally aggressive ones. In particular, the concept that women in positions of power must act like men is being questioned and replaced with the idea that female leadership can be both strong and feminine.

The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World With Kindness by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval is based on their experience using a "nice" approach to running their advertising agency, the Kaplan Thaler Group.

"We completely disagree with the conventional wisdom that 'nice guys finish last' and 'no good deed goes unpunished.' Our culture has helped to propagate the myth of social Darwinism—of the survival of the fittest—that the cutthroat 'me vs. you philosophy' wins the day," say Thaler and Koval (Andrea Sachs, "Nice Girls Get Even," Time, Nov. 6, 2006).

The world's oldest, most effective self-help book has long advocated niceness, or as is commonly stated, "doing to others what you would have them do to you" (a paraphrase of Matthew 7:12). God invented nice, and when it is applied as He instructs, it can work wonders in business and life.

Royal Palace Found at Ramat Rahel?
In Israel, archaeological expeditions have unearthed a royal Judean fortress with a sophisticated water system dating to the seventh century B.C. The site is at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, south of Jerusalem.

The location, with a large palace, served as an administrative center through various historical periods. Evidence of its royal connection is seen in a large collection of seals marked "The King," "Lion" and "Yehud," all names referring to the tribe of Judah and its rulers (Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, "Dig Shows Ramat Rahel Was Royal Judean Site," The Jerusalem Post, Aug. 21, 2006).

Archaeologists, headed by Dr. Oded Lifschits of Tel Aviv University, believe it is one of the finest and most important archaeological sites found in Israel. Archaeology fills in a breadth of details that help to make the histories and characters of the Bible seem more real, even though we are separated by thousands of years of history.