Wednesday Bible Study: Misery
In psalms 38 and 39, the singer -- purportedly David -- is suffering from some very unpleasant disease. Of course, back then they believed that diseases were punishments by God, and so the psalmist believes. Although the attribution of these psalms to David is fictitious, it would not be surprising if he had some sort of sexually transmitted disease, assuming he actually existed and 1/10th of the stories about him are true. Anyway . . . The reference in the introduction to psalm 39, "To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun " is to 1 Chronicles 16, in which David establishes the tradition of musical performance bef...
Source: Stayin' Alive - January 3, 2024 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: The Just World Fallacy
The " just world fallacy " or illusion is a cognitive bias that assumes the consequences of actions are morally determined -- that people ultimately get what they deserve based on the rightness of their actions. Psalms 36 and 37 are among many that express this fallacy as fact. Indeed, the just world fallacy is central to most religions -- God rewards the righteous and faithful, and punishes the wicked and impious. Of course this is not true. Note verse 11 of Psalm 37, which the RSV translates as " The meek shall possess the land. " KJV translates this as " The meek shall inherit the earth, " and I suspect that ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 31, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: I am your retribution
Psalm 35 is one of many in which the petitioner calls on God to harm or destroy his enemies.SAB has provided a helpful list:Ask the angel of the Lord to persecute them by making their paths dark and slippery.
Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD
persecute them. ... Let destruction come upon him at unawares.Psalm 35:6-8
Ask God to kill them and send them quickly to hell.Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell.Psalm 55:15
Ask him to break their teeth (in their mouths) and then cut them in pieces.Break their teeth, O God...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 27, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Job finally shuts up
Yep. He spends the next three chapters saying, endlessly, the following:I used to be riding high, fortunate and admired, benevolent and generous.Now I ' m in the pits.If I ' d done anything wrong I could understand it. And then, thank God, " The words of Job are ended. " It ' s long past time for this guy to STFU.29 And Job again took up his discourse, and said:2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;3 when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;4 as I was in my a...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 18, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
How to Stay Positive: 19 Smart Habits
“Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can’t be done.”
Bo Bennett
“To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.”
Peter McWilliams
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
Anais Nin
One of the very first things I started to work on consciously with my own personal development was to improve my outlook on life.
It was over 15 years ago that I started to delve into this topic and to step by step – and while sometimes tumbling backwards – build a more optimistic outlook.
An attitude that...
Source: Practical Happiness and Awesomeness Advice That Works | The Positivity Blog - May 17, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Henrik Edberg Tags: Habits Happiness Personal Development Success Source Type: blogs
The Macro View – Health, Economics, and Politics and the Big Picture. What I Am Watching Here And Abroad.
August 04, 2022 Edition-----The war seems to grind on sadly and Pres. Biden is having a second round with COVID as unprecedented weather happens all over the US. It all feels rather like ‘the end of days’!In the UK we see an increasing chance of a third female PM being elected as the country seems to be struggling. We do need to remember however the UK remains a significant power with nuclear weapons and home-grown nuclear submarines!In OZ we have had last week working out how to progress the First Nations ‘Voice’ as we wrap up the 1st session of Parliament for the new Government. Comments welcome on how you think ...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - August 4, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Plagiarism
It ' s a bit puzzling, but 2 kings 19 and Isaiah 37 are essentially identical. Isaiah is a bit player here, but he gets a whole book later on, and this chapter is in it. I ' m not into the weeds of biblical scholarship, but as I understand it the Book of Isaiah is cobbled together, apparently by three different authors, and one of them lifted this. As I said last time, there is no historical record of an outright defeat of Sennacherib in his Levantine campaign, but there is some indication that sickness in his camp may have discouraged him from actually entering Jerusalem. Just a reminder that until the last few chapters, ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 3, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The Macro View – Health, Economics, and Politics and the Big Picture. What I Am Watching Here And Abroad.
July 28, 2022 Edition-----Sadly the war drags on, Biden seems to be pretty impotent on most policy fronts and the US seems to be heading into a recession. Not good,In the UK the choosing the next PM is off and running as the country and Europe are cooling down after a heatwave (for them) of biblical proportions!In OZ Parliament is meeting which is when the rubber will really hit the road as a new virus wave runs out of control still! We need to do more to control it as we realise just how bad long COVID is!-----Major Issues.-----https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/how-a-nobel-laureate-got-australian-economists-offside-...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - July 28, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Let the complications begin
I believe I said previously that there are many twists and turns to the whole Absalom story. I believe it will be helpful to summarize the plot of Ch. 14. For unexplained reasons, Joab decides that he wants David to recall Absalom from exile for killing Amnon. Note that it isn ' t clear why Absalom is in exile in the first place since the previous chapter says that David isn ' t really holding it against him.Anyway, Joab hatches an elaborate plot to get David to agree that he should forgive a man for killing his brother, and then spring it on him that ergo, he should forgive Absalom. David figures out that this...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 6, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Dan James Has Been Working on His Masterpiece for Years
Through two long weeks I wandered, stumbling through the nights guided only by the stars and hiding during the days behind some protruding rock or among the occasional hills I traversed.
Without sound we lay there, the beast exerting every effort to reach me with those awful fangs, and I straining to maintain my grip and choke the life from it as I kept it from my throat. Slowly my arms gave to the unequal struggle, and inch by inch the burning eyes and gleaming tusks of my antagonist crept toward me, until, as the hairy face touched mine again.
‘How queer it seems,’ Alice said to herself, ‘to ...
Source: The Orthopedic Logbook - January 9, 2022 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Remo Aguilar Tags: News Business Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Sing that Thing
Deuteronomy 32 is the song we were promised in the previous chapter. It isn ' t clear if he actually sings it or if this is more a poetry slam performance. Anyway it once again summarizes the basic theological points: Yahweh chose Israel, he is specifically the God of Israel, not the God of humanity; he will reward the Israelites if they worship him properly and obey his laws, including by helping them massacre other people; when (not if, it ' s a prediction) they cease to obey him, he will torture them horribly and see to it they are murdered en masse in turn. That ' s the essential message of the Torah. I ' ve inserted a...
Source: Stayin' Alive - March 7, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: More redundancy and repetitiveness
Deuteronomy 11 is just more of the same: recapitulation of events of Exodus and Numbers and exhortation to obey Yahweh, or else. So I ' ll just repeat myself as well. I think the function of these sermons by Moses was exactly that: they were read aloud to congregations in some form of regular observance. Other than the various prescribed sacrifices, the regular observances such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we don ' t really get any information about how the law and lore were transmitted to the illiterate masses. So I suspect there was some sort of regular gathering at which these sermons of Moses were read, and that ' ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 23, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Mo rambles on
Deuteronomy 8 doesn ' t say a whole lot that ' s new -- it ' s just more of the endless exhortation to worship YHWH and not to stray, and more recapitulation of events of Exodus and Numbers. The book generally is very turgid and this chapter is pretty much filler. There are a couple of items worth noting, however.8 “All the commandment which I command you this day you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which theLord swore to give to your fathers.2 And you shall remember all the way which theLord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 13, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
21st century outbreaks
Which diseases have generated the highest number of cases from outbreaks during the first two decades of the 21st century? In this blog, we can use GIDEON’s data to find out.
‘Disease outbreak’ is a scary term for many, but every year we suffer dozens, if not hundreds, of localized and international disease outbreaks across the world. While these outbreaks are always significant to those affected, they rarely generate headlines, and can sometimes go unnoticed outside of the Healthcare Industry.
An “outbreak” is often defined as an increase in case numbers for a particular disease in a defined place and...
Source: GIDEON blog - December 3, 2020 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: Epidemiology News Outbreaks Source Type: blogs
Top 10 most prominent diseases of the 21st Century
Which diseases have generated the highest number of cases from outbreaks during the first two decades of the 21st century? In this blog, we can use GIDEON’s data to find out.
‘Disease outbreak’ is a scary term for many, but every year we suffer dozens, if not hundreds, of localized and international disease outbreaks across the world. While these outbreaks are always significant to those affected, they rarely generate headlines, and can sometimes go unnoticed outside of the Healthcare Industry.
An “outbreak” is often defined as an increase in case numbers for a particular disease in a defined place and time. ...
Source: GIDEON blog - December 1, 2020 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: Epidemiology News Outbreaks Source Type: blogs
