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!
Weight!
If you’ve been to the fabulous island of Santorini, in the Aegean Sea, in Greece, you know that steep hills and walkways (to access the picturesque sights of the ocean from on high) make going on foot not very easy. Even for the relatively young and healthy. Needless to say, it’s a tough proposition for those might be carrying extra poundage.
So, many tourists who fall into the last mentioned category—and they are numerous!—take donkeys to get around those steep
Obsession!
They named her T-1, a fearsome predator roaming the jungles near Pandharkawada (pop. 26, 567) in India. There have been a string of deaths creating panic in all those neighborhoods. Bodies have been found with missing limbs and big scratch marks.
Wildlife officials claim the tigress has developed a taste for human flesh. They say she has killed five. Locals claim the loss of at least fourteen.
India’s tiger count is at a high of 2,500, the world’s largest tiger population.
Violence!
Superheroes wield special powers to protect us from villainous knaves. And these characters idolized by young viewers send a strong message about good and evil.
But there’s a downside to this protection racket.
In “Violence Depicted in Superhero-Based Films Stratified by Protagonist/Antagonist and Gender,” a paper presented at this year’s American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference in Orlando, researchers find that, on average, the “good guys” are engaging
Gait!
A new development in China. Another surveillance tool.
Gait recognition!
Yep, now software can identify you by your body shape and how you walk. Even when your face is hidden!
Police in Beijing and Shanghai have already deployed gait recognition as part of a larger drive to develop artificial-intelligence-driven surveillance and superintendence of the population.
Said Huang Yongzhen, the CEO of Watrix, a China-based artificial intelligence company:
Our system can identify people
Trust!
In “Trust and All-Cause Mortality” published in The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health, researchers from Lund University and Stockholm University think that a decreasing level of trust may be shortening the lifespan of people! Those more trusting of others lived longer than those suspicious of others.
25,000 Americans in a survey conducted between 1978 and 2010 were the source of their findings. This was part of the U.S. General Social Survey which, among other
Candy!
Candy season is upon us!
Said one journalist:
We’ve officially entered the long season of candy-centric holidays. After we drench ourselves in sugar this Halloween, we’ll do it again on Christmas and Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, Passover, Easter, and in the weeks between these special days. The candy industry counts on us to celebrate with sugar for a huge portion of its annual sales.”
Indeed, American consumers aren’t scared to pull out all the stops their credit
Eyes!
The title of a study caught my attention last week: “Evidence That Leonardo da Vinci Had Strabismus,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Ophthalmology, by Christopher Tyler from the City University of London.
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. 