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!
Evil?
Google LLC, belonging to parent company Alphabet Inc., is a multinational American enterprise specializing in internet-related services—advertising, searches, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
From the outset, Google’s unofficial slogan was …
Don’t be evil!”
Here is the full version in Google’s Code of Conduct (Wayback Machine, April 21).
“Don’t be evil.” Googlers generally apply those words to how we serve our users.
Blood!
Hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) is a condition when a woman with Rh– blood becomes pregnant with a baby with Rh+ blood. This incompatibility, though not dangerous for the first pregnancy, can be lethal for the next Rh+ baby she might have.
To prevent this, if the mother is given specific antibodies (anti-D), these would prevent her from being primed to create destructive antibodies that would be deadly for the next Rh+ baby.
But for this you need to isolate anti-D
Sweet
The other day drivers heading to Warsaw or Poznan (Poland) had an unusual (but yummy) surprise.
Both directions of the A2 autostrada (motorway), running east-west through central Poland between Warsaw and Poznan, were shut down … by 12 tons of liquid chocolate!
Not a traffic jam, but a chocolate jam!
Apparently, a tanker carrying that delicious load hit a highway barrier and overturned, spewing a vast pool of quickly-hardening chocolate all over the A2. (The driver only
Drowned?
An odd thing happened the other day.
Mateusz Fijalkowski, 23, came to the USA from Poland on an international summer job program. He began working as a pool attendant in Fairfax County in 2016.
On his third day at work, he began to act weird, arguing with guests, delivering monologues in Polish, and so on. He ripped off one girl’s wristband and prohibited her from entering the pool. At that, a lifeguard called the cops.
The police cleared the area and brought in a Polish-speaking
Race?
I think this Texas town is on to something.
Boerne, about thirty miles northwest of San Antonio is organizing a race for “fellow underachievers” on May 5. Not only does that name suitably describe the rest of us ordinary mortals, there are perks: You’ll get free beer, donuts, and coffee, provided by local businesses.
It’s called the Boerne 0.5k race.
Yes, you read it right: 0.5k. 546 yards to be exact. 1,638 feet. 0.310277 miles. About four football fields long.
Organizers
Food!
A study published last week, “Relationship Between Food Waste, Diet Quality, and Environmental Sustainability,” in PLOS One, revealed some stunning findings.
In America, between 2007 and 2014, nearly 150,000 tons (150 million kilos) of food were wasted a day, about one pound per person! Vegetables made up 39% of that, dairy 17%, and meat 14%. Salty snacks, table oils, egg dishes, candy, and soft drinks were least likely to be disposed. In other words, the good stuff
Water!
Ninety percent of global freshwater is taken over by agriculture. And we need more food (and so, more water) to feed and fuel earth’s growing population. What are we gonna do?
We may have found the beginning of some answers in “Photosystem II Subunit S Overexpression Increases the Efficiency of Water Use in a Field-Grown Crop,” published last month in Nature Communications by researchers part of a consortium appropriately called RIPE (Realizing Increased
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. 