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!
Cancer?
Reported the Department of Justice (DOJ), recently, with a San Jose byline:
Amanda Christine Riley was sentenced in federal court today to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud in connection with a scheme to solicit donations from individuals to help her pay for cancer treatments she never needed nor received, announced United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge Mark H. Pearson.
Self-Confident?
Of course, there’s something to be said for being confident, having a positive mindset, convictions, certainty, and all that.
But for one’s own health? Maybe not. For that humility, it appears, is better. So claimeth researchers from the Hertie School (ouch! that hurts!) in Berlin and University of Vienna in The Journal of Economics in Ageing: ”Health Misperception and Healthcare Utilisation among Older Europeans.”
They looked at data from over 80,000 Europeans aged
Rest?
You know what you need after coming out of two years of a pandemic? Rest.
And gyms are capitalizing on that need. Yes, gyms! Gyms are now offering … rest!
So reported The Wall Street Journal the other day. Gyms are seeing more demand for gentler classes, and they’re expanding their more mellow offerings like yoga and meditation and stuff. And rolling out “recovery” rooms with massage lounge chairs and self-massage gadgets.
Wrote Jen Murphy of WSJ:
The evening workout
Living?
What happens when we die is a question folks have been asking for millennia. Scientifically, it is a mystery. But we can conclude one thing: those “near-death experiences” are a thing!
That’s according to “Guidelines and Standards for the Study of Death and Recalled Experiences of Death—A Multidisciplinary Consensus Statement and Proposed Future Directions,” published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, by an interdisciplinary group of
Consensus!
On cold winter mornings, right around sunrise, a crescendo of calls from hundreds of noisy jackdaws can often be heard right before they take to the sky all at once. How do they all know to do that? What kind of “democratic” decision-making is happening.
“Birdocracy,” one reporter called it.
But there is something to it. Say researchers from the University of Exeter and University of Cambridge in “Vocally Mediated Consensus Decisions Govern Mass Departures from
Progeny!
In other news, here’s an item from ye olde land of India.
Sadhana and Sanjeev Prasad have had it! They are a couple living in Haridwar, a city in North India. They’ve had it. With their son and his wife.
The reason?
Said son+wife refuse to give them grandchildren. Son+wife have been married for six years, but apparently without progeny. So the Prasads are unhappy. Deeply. Grieved. And aggrieved.
Aggrieved enough to file a suit against said son+wife. Yup, they’re taking
Kinder?
Getting old, say most old folks, ain’t fun. But did y’all know, old folks (and that includes me), that we are kinder than most? It’s a proven fact.
So saith a new study, from researchers in Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, and USC, Los Angeles, CA, in “Oxytocin Release Increases With Age and Is Associated With Life Satisfaction and Prosocial Behaviors,” published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
Oxytocin is a neurochemical widely known for
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.