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!
Fiction?
Akihiko Kondo, 38, is married to a fictional character, Hastsune Miku, a blue-haired, computer-created pop singer who has toured with Lady Gaga and starred in video games.
Otherwise, the guy is normal: pleasant, has friends, a steady job, wears a suit and tie to work, etc.
He ain’t the only one. Kondo is one of thousands of Japanese who have entered into unofficial marriages to fictional characters (from anime, manga, and video games) in recent decades.
Mr. Kondo has long
Longevity!
It was Bobby McFerrin who put out “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” in 1988, the first a cappella song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Turns out, McFerrin may have been on to something.
Researchers seem to think so. Two sets of them. In the last four months. From either side of the R. Charles in ye olde city of Boston. One dealing with women, the other with men. “Optimism, Lifestyle, and Longevity in a Racially Diverse Cohort of Women,” in the Journal
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
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. 