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!
Happy?
Psyc 157, “Psychology and the Good Life,” was open for registration for Spring 2018 at Yale. A few days later, 300 students had signed up. Three days later it was 600. Three more days after that, 1,200. One-fourth of Yale’s undergrad student population had enrolled in Psyc 157!
Dr. Laurie Santos is attempting “to teach students how to lead a happier, more satisfying life in twice-weekly lectures,” reported The New York Times.
Said Santos:
Students want to change,
Fess!
Chinese traffic police in Dazhou, in the northeast corner of Sichuan (Szechwan) Province in southwest China, have come up with a novel punishment for minor moving violations: confession.
The scheme was launched a few months ago in one particular district and, if successful, will be implemented in other districts of Dazhou.
Those who want to avoid a fine are given the opportunity to make their mea culpas on social media. But that’s not all: their posts have to
Eyes!
A recent study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institutes of Health showed that the eyes, indeed, are “windows to the soul.”
Well, at least windows to how well your brain might be functioning.
So claimed the authors of “Retinal Signs and 20-Year Cognitive Decline in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study,” published in Neurology.
The study was done with 12,313 men and women in their late 50s who were tested for memory,
Ready!
The departure of journalists from this life is not often a loss for the nation, but it is, when the journalist in question is Pulitzer-Prize-winning commentator, Charles Krauthammer.
Noted one obituary:
He was a jewel in American conservatism, unfailingly elegant and civil, and stubbornly independent-minded.”
Sometime in 2008, I grew tired of watching CNN and decided to flip channels for a better source of news. I landed upon Fox, and was especially taken by its 5:00 pm
Cussing!
10:54 am.
Apparently, that’s when the average American puts forth their first cuss word of the day. At 10:54 am.
At least, that’s what a new study says.
FWIW, the survey was sponsored by 9Round 30 Min Kickbox Fitness.
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Disgust!
There are apparently six kinds of things in the world that disgust us, reports a study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: “The Structure and Function of Pathogen Disgust,” by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Brunel University in London.
Previous studies noted that many of the things that elicit disgust in humans have some relation to infectious diseases. Perhaps disgust originated as an emotion to
Thanks!
“Universals and Cultural Diversity in the Expression of Gratitude,” published recently in Royal Society Open Science, had some interesting things to say about thankfulness.
Here, we ask to what extent people express gratitude in different societies by focusing on episodes of everyday life where someone seeks and obtains a good, service or support from another, comparing these episodes across eight languages from five continents.”
They studied the following languages:
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. 