Thursday June 11, 2009
Paying Down Debt
Randy Alcorn answers a question about paying down debt. The question is a bit long and involved, but starts like this: "The question I have is that we are reaping consequences from bad choices. My husband and I have a young family and are still paying down $100,000 of student loans from both of us going to a private university."
Remembering...
This blogger shares a shocking, sickening story of her experience with pre-natal screening."This month marks a strange anniversary of sorts for me. It was 2 years ago this month that I was sitting in a chair looking at my unborn baby in 4D. She was precious! We had previously found out that our baby had several "markers" for down syndrome and had enlarged kidneys which may have required surgery upon birth."
Total Cost of Ownership
Here's something to think about when pondering a new cell phone. It's amazing how expensive they really are...
Mobile Phones and Shabbat
This article is simply amazing. "The issue of working on Shabbat presents a difficult dilemma for the ultra-orthodox workers and volunteers of the Magen David Adom emergency services. A recently-issued halachic ruling now permits on-call volunteers to activate their mobile phones on weekends, provided that they do so using their teeth."
Bedtime and Depression
From the "that should be pretty obvious" file: "Teens whose parents let them stay up after midnight on weeknights have a much higher chance of being depressed or suicidal than teens whose parents enforce an earlier bedtime, says research being presented today at a national sleep conference."
Deal of the Day: Thomas Watson
RHB is offering a great price a three volume set of Thomas Watson's writings: A Body of Divinity, The Ten Commandments, and The Lord's Prayer.
Randy Alcorn answers a question about paying down debt. The question is a bit long and involved, but starts like this: "The question I have is that we are reaping consequences from bad choices. My husband and I have a young family and are still paying down $100,000 of student loans from both of us going to a private university."
Remembering...
This blogger shares a shocking, sickening story of her experience with pre-natal screening."This month marks a strange anniversary of sorts for me. It was 2 years ago this month that I was sitting in a chair looking at my unborn baby in 4D. She was precious! We had previously found out that our baby had several "markers" for down syndrome and had enlarged kidneys which may have required surgery upon birth."
Total Cost of Ownership
Here's something to think about when pondering a new cell phone. It's amazing how expensive they really are...
This article is simply amazing. "The issue of working on Shabbat presents a difficult dilemma for the ultra-orthodox workers and volunteers of the Magen David Adom emergency services. A recently-issued halachic ruling now permits on-call volunteers to activate their mobile phones on weekends, provided that they do so using their teeth."
Bedtime and Depression
From the "that should be pretty obvious" file: "Teens whose parents let them stay up after midnight on weeknights have a much higher chance of being depressed or suicidal than teens whose parents enforce an earlier bedtime, says research being presented today at a national sleep conference."
Deal of the Day: Thomas Watson
RHB is offering a great price a three volume set of Thomas Watson's writings: A Body of Divinity, The Ten Commandments, and The Lord's Prayer.
Comments (8) »
1. Brad Ourada
June 11, 2009
9:02 AM
Hey Tim,
The link for the Mobile Phones and Shabbat article is broken.
Thanks,
Brad
2. ScottyZ
June 11, 2009
9:13 AM
Who knew that there was an Associated Professional Sleep Society?
I mean I know sleeping is important, but didn’t realize people were professionals in the matter. And even further more didn’t realize that there was enough professionals in the matter that they needed a conference.
If spoke at the conference, my workshop would be “Two Keys to Mastering Sleep: Take NyQuil to sleep, Take coffee to not sleep.”
3. Mary Eady
June 11, 2009
1:03 PM
Hey for everyone looking for that article on the Jewish volunteers and cell phones, I think this is the link:
http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3727872,00.html
Scotty: I giggled at the thought of your class, and envisioned the one-point-per-slide powerpoint presentation you could use. With clip art of a cup and medicine bottle! Cutting edge, man. Cutting edge. What made it extra funny is that I used to work for a neuroscience education firm and we did an entire track on sleep issues — you wouldn’t believe how NOT easy sleep is! Truly, truly fascinating field to me. And that’s saying something since I had to sit through probably 25 hours of those sleep talks all together!
4. J.P.H.
June 11, 2009
3:59 PM
Have to disagree with Alcorn on one point. If someone is so in debt that charitable giving is going to make it impossible for them to meet their obligations to earthly creditors, then they shouldn’t give charitably. That said, even most people who are heavily in debt should be able to give charitably if they’re willing to sacrifice elsewhere. Matthew 5:37 enjoins the believer to be true to his word. I don’t think God wants us to violate our commitments to other human beings in order to give to the kingdom. God may, however, want us to live extremely frugally in order to meet our earthly commitments *and* give to the kingdom.
Re: the sleep article. This is a perfect example of why every journalist should have to take a statistics class. Or maybe write “correlation does not equal causation” on a chalkboard 1000 times. From the article:
“The findings are the first to examine bedtimes’ effects on kids’ mental health — and the results are noteworthy.”
Are they noteworthy? Can we really draw a causative link between “child a) wants to routinely stay up past midnight and b) has parents who allow it” and depression? Even if we could, which is the causative factor: staying up late, or having parents who don’t set boundaries?
Or maybe kids who are depressed just have trouble sleeping?
5. Carol Blair
June 11, 2009
6:21 PM
I bought a copy of “A Body of Divinity,” used, on the internet about 3 years ago. The whole book—all 640 pages—is carefully and painstakingly underlined with a straight edge, and highlighted with pink and yellow. In the front is written “Greg Wallace, January 26, 1973.” This book was very important to Greg, and somehow he lost it (maybe in a move or something), and that’s how it ended up for sale on the internet. I would gladly send back it to him, if I knew where he was.
6. humanitas remedium
June 11, 2009
6:56 PM
Thank you for the post on Remembering.
7. Socorro Alaniz
June 11, 2009
10:47 PM
JPH
Excellent analysis on the Sleep article..!!! Way to go!!!
8. Mark W
June 12, 2009
2:04 AM
As a technologist in the sleep field I had to chime in! Scotty, believe it or not, Nyquil AND coffee will actually make you sleep worse!
Also, sleep before midnight is quite different from sleep after midnight, and of course as the article mentioned 7.5 hours is worse than 9 hours for teenagers. Lack of sleep and other sleep issues have many similar symptoms with depression.
Whatever the causative factor may be (boundaryless parents or less sleep), it may be a good idea to see if sleeping more and earlier helps before looking for other treatment options for your depressed teen.
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