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!
Pollution!
The average brain, it appears contains the weight of a plastic spoon in microplastics (diameter: 0.001–5 mm) and nanoplastics (less than 0.001mm). But now they find an assortment of goods in our gray and white matter: silica, metals, soot, etc. A collaboration of scientists from University of Chicago, Rush University, Boston University, University of Washington, and University of Rochester, reported on this in “Nose-to-Brain Translocation of Inhaled Ultrafine Elongated
Memory!
Recently, The Washington Post published an intriguing essay by Ariana Cha.
We retain only a fraction of what we encounter. Details disappear. Recollections blur. Memories can change as we revisit them.”
Arms!
One of the mysteries of Tyrannosaurus rex is its relatively small arms.
T. rex was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced at the other end with a long, heavy tail … and short arms. This beast was about 40 feet long, 12 feet tall, and weighed about 8 tons! But its arms? A mere 3 feet long! Apex predator alright, but with … short arms, less than a third of the length of the dinosaur’s legs and looked noticeably disproportionate in a huge body.
This oddity
Future?
There is, apparently, a problem with people—especially kids—who are constantly getting high on TikTok clips, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts flooding social media feeds. Here is the issue succinctly expressed in the title of the paper published: “No Future Vision, No Present Perseverance.” From several universities in the Guangzhou region in China. Published in Computers in Human Behavior.
Altering their perception of time! Instant gratification from short video
Voice!
Your voice. And dementia. They are connected. Saith researchers from Drexel in “Voice Disorders as Early Biomarkers of Cognitive Decline,” published recently in the Journal of Voice.
833,000 adults over 50 were studied. People who had been diagnosed with both voice and hearing issues had about double the risk of developing cognitive impairment or dementia, compared with a control group of people with neither diagnosis. Coming in second for risk were those with a voice
Joy!
If you are one of those patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), then you should laugh, they say, for your own health. “They,” meaning, researchers at Hacettepe University and Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Turkey. Or so they claimed in “Effect of Pursed-Lip Breathing and Laughter Therapy … in Individuals With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease,” that was presented recently at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Barcelona.
Hotdog!
The other day, The Wall Street Journal ran an essay by columnist Adam Chandler: “The Rise of the $100 Hot Dog.”
Egad!
The hot dog, says Chandler, “has been dogged” (!) by a lowbrow reputation: zero nutrition, hardly any quality, not at all unaffordable. But the edible canine is growing and glowing. Premium toppings, extravagant presentations and supersize varieties are pushing hot dogs into the realm of fine-dining, haute cuisine. (With prices to match.)
Chandler
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.