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!
Fall?
Falling out of love, you say? And you think it is all happening rather unpredictably? Betrayal, fight, drift, distancing, breakup?
You may be wrong, assert social scientists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz the University of Bern in “Terminal Decline of Satisfaction in Romantic Relationships: Evidence from Four Longitudinal Studies,” published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology recently.
Researchers analyzed data from four major longitudinal
Fresh!
Fruits are perishable. They turn soft. They turn brown. They become moldy. Yup, fruits are perishable. Especially bananas.
But no more, said Gilad Gershon, chief executive of Tropic, a Norwich (UK)-based biotech company, thanks to whom we might be getting bananas that stay fresh for several hours post-peeling. Declared Gershon triumphantly:
No more slimy, brown bananas!”
Enzymic browning is the main culprit behind those “slimy, brown bananas.” Fresh fruit and vegetables
Happiness!
The right to happiness is hardwired in us (and enshrined in the US constitution as an “unalienable right” of humans “endowed by their Creator”). It is an obsession stoked by promises from the gurus of bliss, the influencers of Instagram, and the campaigns of corporations, all seeking to empty our bank accounts as we go all out to be happy.
Not a good idea, declare researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the University of Sydney Business School in
Sure?
Nope, we are not. But we trust in … AI.
Or so proclaimeth a study recently published in Scientific Reports: “Overtrust in AI Recommendations About Whether or Not to Kill: Evidence from Two Human-Robot Interaction Studies” by researchers from University of California, Merced, and from The Pennsylvania State University.
To create a sense of gravity around their simulated decisions, researchers first showed participants images of innocent civilians, including children,
Fat!
You grow old, you decline. It’s a fact of life. “Senior moments” increase in frequency, and serious memory issues and thinking problems abound.
Well, there might now be an unexpected solution. OK, maybe not a solution, but at least a better understanding of how we might conceive of trying to attempt to endeavor to struggle to slow it all down.
The unexpected “solution”? Belly fat.
Thus saith “Adipose Chemokine Ligand CX3CL1 Contributes to Maintaining the Hippocampal
Souls?
Dr. Stuart Hameroff, anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona, recently discussed a study that captured the brain activity of clinically dead patients. Researchers placed small sensors on the brains of seven chronically ill patients (two females and five males, ranging in age from 34 to 74) minutes before they were taken off life support, allowing them to capture activity after each patient’s blood pressure and heartrate dropped to zero.
After the
Incomplete!
Are you sure? Really? That the guy speeding in the other lane is a maniac and doesn’t know how to drive and has no regard for others’ safety? Or that the reptilian-paced driver is an idiot and also doesn’t know how to drive and has no respect for others behind? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ve all done that: we’ve come to conclusions, we’re absolutely sure of them, and we’re unwilling to think otherwise.
Well, we may have to. Say scientists from Johns Hopkins University,
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.