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!
Conformed?
The MIT Technology Review recently published an article based on a study by Jonathan Touboul, associate professor of mathematics at Brandeis University: “The Hipster Effect: When Anti-Conformists All Look the Same.”
Observed one blogger ten years ago:
Hipsters avoid labels and being labeled. However, they all dress the same and act the same and conform in their non-conformity. Doesn’t the fact that there is a hipster look go against all hipster beliefs?”
But now what
Cash!
Jackee and Ben Belnap of Holladay, Utah, had worked hard to save $1,060. To repay Ben’s parents for the cost of season tickets to the University of Utah’s football games. The cash was carefully tucked into an envelope.
But over the weekend, this precious envelop disappeared. The Belnaps searched high and low, but to no avail.
Until they happened to empty their shredder’s waste bag. And guess what? There was the cash, all sliced and diced and atomized.
Young?
Well, the results are in. Or so say researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (disclosure: your humble blogger’s alma mater for residency) and others from California, Texas, Denmark, and Australia in “Association of Accelerometer-Measured Light-Intensity Physical Activity with Brain Volume,” published recently in JAMA Network Open.
Here is the question they asked:
Is light-intensity physical activity associated with brain volume?”
The researchers studied
Assessment!
By 2020, all 1.39 billion people in China will be assessed, graded, weighed, and measured, according to “Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014-2020).”
It’s a lifelong points program that assesses individuals and gives them personal ratings. A humongous, all-encompassing evaluation system that will gauge and assess the behavior and reputations of the denizens of China, and rank them all based on their “social credit.”
The
Standard!
For close to 250 years, Le Grand K has ruled the standard, the absolute despot of “1 kilogram of mass.”
It’s a cylinder of platinum-iridium stored safe in an underground vault in Paris, at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, with copies sent to various nations. Every measure of weight is compared to that dictatorial standard.
Because, as Robert Vocke, of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), declares:
The mother ship is never wrong.”
Well,
Resigned!
An odd thing happened here in Texas, ye olde Lonestar State, last month.
Democrat William “Bill” McLeod is a judge in Harris County Civil Court at Law Number Four, the jurisdiction of which court includes ye olde city of Houston. Most, if not all, of the courts in Texas and its counties are run by elected judges. Evidently thinking of the future, McLeod—who’d only been elected to his current post last November—posted online his plans to run for the state’s
Feet!
I found this on Nordstrom.com. Made by Gucci. “Flashtrek” Sneakers.
Wrapped in eye-catching crystals, this bold Italian fashion sneaker offers up a grand splash of color and light that is sure to turn heads.”
It has a lace-up closure, is made of leather, mesh, suede and synthetic upper, has those crystal accents, and is equipped with textile lining, and a rubber sole.
Item #5667973. Made in Italy. Only $1,590.00.
(Unfortunately only size 11 (men’s) is available, in
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. 