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!
Eyes!
Last week it was announced that surgeons in New York had performed the first-ever whole-eye transplant in a human, an accomplishment being hailed as a breakthrough.
The patient was Aaron James, a 46-year-old military veteran from Arkansas who survived a work-related high-voltage electrical accident that destroyed the left side of his face, his nose, his mouth and his left eye.
Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who headed the team at NYU Langone Health said:
The mere fact that we transplanted
Ear!
An interesting case was presented in the New England Journal of Medicine the other day: “A Spider and Its Exoskeleton in the Ear Canal,” by physicians in Tainan Municipal Hospital, Tainan City, Taiwan.
A 64-year-old woman with hypertension presented to an ENT clinic in Taiwan with a 4-day history of abnormal sounds in her left ear that caused her trouble sleeping. On the day of symptom onset, she had awoken to the feeling of a creature moving inside her left ear. Subsequent
Transfusion!
Each year, an estimated 6.8 million people in the U.S. donate blood, and 13.6 million units (almost that many pints = almost half that amount in liters) of whole blood and red blood cells are collected in the U.S. in a year.
But it may not be just blood and blood products that are passed on. Some scientists are starting to ask whether something unexpected may be transmitted at the same time as the blood transfusion.
Five years ago, for example, a study by Geneva University
Mother?
When one of her kids call, Tammy Kumin comes running, no matter what the time is, day or night. Like any good mom
Except, she isn’t the actual mother of the kids she mothers 24-7. She’s simply their “rent-a-mom””!
I’m a mom away from mom—a total support system for students.”
Ms. Kumin, now in her seventies, and the biological parent of three and grandmother of six from Boston, is the founder of Concierge Service for Students (CSS).
She does it all—emergency
Occult!
In ye olde city of Exeter, in South West England, in the late 1800s three women were hanged for apparently engaging in witchcraft—the last of such executions in England.
A short walk from where the hangings occurred, the University of Exeter is now offering a “postgraduate degree in magic and occult science,” the first of its kind at a British university. The fascination with magic and the occult has permeated digital platforms, especially among the younger, less
Water?
A 25-year-old woman from Fresno is allergic to water. Yes, you read right: to water. Allergic. And that means even from her own tears and sweat, she breaks out in welts and hives.
Tessa Hansen-Smith confessed:
I would come out of showers and have huge welts on my skin, and my scalp would be bleeding after showering.”
She’s been suffering from this condition, called aquagenic urticaria, since she was 8 years old.
Declared the National Institutes of Health’s Genetics and
Oral!
Your mouth affects your brain!
Emerging evidence suggests that what goes on in our mouth can affect what goes on in our brain—and may even potentially affect our risk for dementia.
Anita Visser, professor in geriatric dentistry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands:
People should really be aware that oral health is really important.”
Yes, really! Severe periodontal disease affects about 19 percent of people older than 15, i. e., over 1 billion people
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. 