RaMbLeS
Welcome to RaMbLeS, a collection of weekly musings on life and Scripture. It all began in 2005 on Google’s blogspot as the aBeLOG (a name now recycled), a semi-autobiographical devotional that attempted to keep well-wishers abreast of my activities as I relocated to Scotland for a few years. Since my return, I’ve continued my RaMbLeS, and here’s its most recent incarnation on Homiletix, as random reflections usually based on current news articles and travel experiences and whatever else takes my fancy!
Parts!
A recent health report from National Public Radio interviewed an evolutionary anatomist, Dr. Heather Smith, about the appendix. She is professor of anatomy at Midwestern University and editor-in-chief of a journal called The Anatomical Record.
Yes, the appendix has a bad rap as a useless organ that can cause you pain and require emergency surgery at the most inopportune and embarrassing moments.
The fact that humans can live quite happily and peacefully without said organ
Light?
“Like a moth to a flame,” we all say, comparing something to these insects drawn to light . But we all are all wrong, apparently.
So say researchers from Imperial College London, Florida International University, and University of Florida, in “Why Flying Insects Gather at Artificial Light,” published in Nature Communications last month.
Past theories on why many insects erratically fly around light sources have included the idea that they are drawn to heat and that
Inflation!
The annual inflation rate for the United States was 3.1% for the 12 months ending January, compared to the previous rate of 3.4%, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on last week.
If you were wondering about “inflation,” here’s the International Monetary Fund to help you out:
Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time. … Inflation represents how much more expensive the relevant set of goods and/or services has become over
Betcha!
In case you didn’t know it, Sunday is the BIG day. Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
$23,100,000,000.00. I.e., US Dollars 23.1 billion.That’s what Americans are betting on, in toto, in wages on the Super Bowl this year (up from $16 billion last year). So said an American Gaming Association (AGA) survey. A consulting service for the AGA, Morning Consult, conducted the online survey between January 30 and February 1, among a national
Lifespan?
According to an analysis from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease study, a research effort based at the University of Washington, Americans are living longer, but are living shorter in good health.
After all, medical advances are being made daily. Medical technology is improving. Medical formularies are growing. Medical research is bounding forwards. Diseases that would have killed us are being conquered.
Despite all of those positive
OD?
The US Food & Drug Administration last year approved an over-the-counter nasal spray naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, allowing the opioid overdose reversal medication to be sold directly to consumers. According to advocates, everyone should be carrying one of these.
Said Nichole Dawsey, the executive director of PreventEd:
Most of the people that we’re giving Narcan to are either—A: lacking insurance and they’re not going to go into CVS or
Cluck?
Snakes hiss. Dogs growl. Cats purr. Etc. Without giving it a moment’s thought, we can understand the voicings. Stay away! Or: Back off! Or: I love this! Etc.
What about chickens that cluck?
Turns out humans may be just as good at understanding the language of our feathered friends. Or so saith researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia, in “Humans Can Identify Reward-Related Call Types of Chickens,” published this month in Royal Society Open Science.
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Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.