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!
Mars?
We all know it: Astrology has no scientific foundation. Planets and moons may move and sway but your life and mine do not, at least not because of the aforementioned entities moving and swaying.
But, switching for a moment to the domain of astronomy and astrophysics, planets do influence other bodies in space. By ye olde Newton’s laws, the larger the planet, the greater their gravitational influence.
It appears, now, that Mars may “literally be stirring tides within
Hands!
They say the human hand is a marvel of nature. No other creature on earth, not even our closest primate relatives, has hands structured quite like ours, capable of such precise grasping and manipulation.
But there’s not a whole lot of precise grasping and manipulation going on with our hands these days. It’s all mostly tapping screens, swiping phones, thumbing alphabets, and pushing buttons. And, said The New York Times the other day, some experts believe our
Voice?
Recently the British tabloid, The Sun, ran a report on voice clones created by artificial intelligence (AI).
Say you have audio uploaded on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Or YouTube. (Oh, dear, my sermons!) Well, it’s no difficult matter for AI tools to rip off your voice and clone it.
(The one doing this devious deed need have hardly any technical prowess. It is simply and automatically accomplished by advanced tools easily available.)
What
PBJ!
One of my good friends (and a former student) commented to me recently:
Most, if not all of your RaMbLeS, deal with legit scientific journals and studies. Can you find something legit to write about PB&J sandwiches? I’d like to see you make a Biblical connection there.”
Well, seeing that both he and I were avid fans of aforementioned food item, I agreed.
In fact, while living in Scotland almost two decades ago, the very first day I landed there, I went hunting for
Staircase!
The European Society of Cardiology’s Preventive Cardiology Conference, a scientific congress of the organization, is currently under way in Athens, Greece. Among the presentations was this: “Evaluating the Cardiovascular Benefits of Stair Climbing: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” by Dr. Sophie Paddock, from Norfolk, U.K.
Cardiovascular disease is largely preventable through actions like exercise. However, more than one in four adults worldwide do not meet
Residence?
Tax time deadline was midnight, last Monday, April 15, 2024. And when it comes to taxes, for the wealthy, and where you are each minute matters.
According to Bloomberg, at New Jersey’s Teterboro and Long Island’s Islip airports, dozens of private jets destined for Florida took off at times such as 23:42 or 23:54, shortly before midnight. Tax attorneys tell stories of clients idling in their luxury SUVs near the New Jersey entrance to the George Washington Bridge shortly
Warning!
Way back in the 1940s, to gauge the incidence and prevalence of polio, scientists checked sewage in different parts of the country to see there was any polio virus being excreted.
But now, building off from those attempts to see if certain diseases are on the verge of becoming epidemics or pandemics, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston (your faithful blogger’s alma mater) have been analyzing public wastewater. They showed they could detect over 450 disease-causing
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. 