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!
Drink?
An Airline Water Study was released recently by the Center for Food as Medicine and Longevity (CFM&L). The news ain’t good.
The study ranked 10 major and 11 regional airlines for their water quality on flights, as gauged during the last three years. Each airline was given a Water Safety Score (from 0, lowest, to 5, highest). Five criteria were assessed: violations per aircraft, violations for E. coli bacteria, public notices per 100 aircraft, indicator-positive
Gray?
Those gray hairs we don’t like? That we like to dye and color black (or something else)? Well, they may be doing us good.
You (and I) have hair follicles—hair factories. And stem cells in those hair follicles are the factory workers responsible for initiating and maintaining hair growth. They keep on dividing and multiplying, almost permanently, unlike mature cells that are doomed to die. Among these stem cells are the melanocyte stem cells—painters!—that can, in
Living!
Your last words. Very important.
But perhaps even more important are the last words others say about you. Your obituary. Its words give a glimpse of how we will be remembered by others.
The average person lives about 4,000 weeks. When they die, that entire existence is usually compressed an obituary. Chosen by loved ones, those words become the final public record of a life, capturing what mattered most and what made that life worth living.
So researchers decided to take
Theft!
Calvin Johnson, 36, stole a BMW a few weeks ago. The 2018 convertible was filched while the car’s owner was walking his dog at Ormond Beach’s Centennial Park (in Florida). Johnson, cops say, rummaged through the unlocked BMW and found the keys in a cupholder.
The burglar then, driving over 100 mph, crashed the car in what was, thankfully, a single-vehicle accident, not involving other modes of transportation or other humans. It was totaled. Passing motorists extricated
Boiling!
Lassen Volcanic National Park is located in northeastern California, about 175 miles north of Sacramento. Hot water is a major feature of the Park, that has hydrothermal areas featuring steam and volcanic gas vents, mud pots and boiling pools. One would have thought nothing could live in the insalubrious conditions of those vents, pots, and pools. But then, one would be wrong.
Living within the hot water, scientists (from Syracuse University, University of California at
Empathy!
Never, we said. Nope. AI is well and good, but doctors will always be necessary, we said. Not particularly for their diagnostic acumen—surely given the right inputs, machines can come up with even more accurate diagnoses. But never would AI be able to substitute for the human touch, we said. Healthcare personnel would always be needed, we said. For empathy.
“We”—whoever that is—may be wrong.
Someone actually did a study on this: researchers from the Universities
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. 