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!
Lifespan?
According to an analysis from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease study, a research effort based at the University of Washington, Americans are living longer, but are living shorter in good health.
After all, medical advances are being made daily. Medical technology is improving. Medical formularies are growing. Medical research is bounding forwards. Diseases that would have killed us are being conquered.
Despite all of those positive
OD?
The US Food & Drug Administration last year approved an over-the-counter nasal spray naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, allowing the opioid overdose reversal medication to be sold directly to consumers. According to advocates, everyone should be carrying one of these.
Said Nichole Dawsey, the executive director of PreventEd:
Most of the people that we’re giving Narcan to are either—A: lacking insurance and they’re not going to go into CVS or
Cluck?
Snakes hiss. Dogs growl. Cats purr. Etc. Without giving it a moment’s thought, we can understand the voicings. Stay away! Or: Back off! Or: I love this! Etc.
What about chickens that cluck?
Turns out humans may be just as good at understanding the language of our feathered friends. Or so saith researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia, in “Humans Can Identify Reward-Related Call Types of Chickens,” published this month in Royal Society Open Science.
194
Overs!
I have news for you!
Conventional wisdom calls upon us to be our best, perfect, and that that makes us productive. Well, apparently, that ain’t true. So say researchers from Georgia Tech, University of Florida, and Miami University in “Is Perfect Good? A Meta-Analysis of Perfectionism in the Workplace” published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
I’ll let them speak for themselves:
The answer to the question ‘Is perfect good?’ is that in total, perfectionism
Amputation?
Many prehistoric handprints apparently show a finger missing. Now Canadian scientists say evidence from cave art all over the world shows digits may have been ritually removed to appease deities or aid social cohesion.
In a paper presented at a recent meeting of the European Society for Human Evolution, researchers Profs. Mark Collard, Brea McCauley, and David Maxwell of Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, BC) pointed to 25,000-year-old paintings in France and Spain that
Questions?
Google, if you didn’t know it already, keeps track of things that were Googled for. And Google Trends unveils all and spills the beans on America’s top curious queries, the Whos, Whats, Whens, Whys, and Hows.
Who: “Who is Erin Carter?
As the Netflix thriller series broke records, the question points to its “must-watch” status.
Close second was “Who won the Super Bowl in 2023?” The triumphant Kansas City Chiefs, of course.
Both these
Carols!
About five decades ago, around Christmas time, Eastern Airlines’ Flight 401 was bound for Miami from New York City, crashed into the Everglades swamp, killing 98 of its 173 passengers. Apparently the ones who survived endured the traumatic wait in alligator infested waters, surrounded by wreckage and bodies, and burning fuel … by singing Christmas carols!
Carolling (or at least, group singing) is good for you. Here are a list of studies to make my case.
“Changes 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.