Sunday Sermonette: Zzzzzzzzzz
Chronicles is without a doubt that most boring book in the Bible. It is actually the last book of the Tanakh, but in the protestant Old Testament it comes after Kings and that ' s the order we ' re using. It is generally thought to be the work of a single individual, presumably a Levite priest. Some believe he was also the author of Ezrah and Nehemiah, but this is disputed. Because it concludes with the ascendance of Cyrus the Great to the throne of Persia, the earliest possible date is 539 B.C., and the latest possible date is the creation of the Septuagint around 350 B.C. Chronicles selectively recapitulates the his...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 28, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Zap Away
BY KIM BELLARD
Speaking as a sometimes forgetful “senior citizen,” when I found out that non-invasively zapping brains with electricity can result in measurable improvements in memory, that’s something I’m going to remember.
I hope.
In research published in Nature Neuroscience by Grover, et. al., a team lead by Boston University cognitive neuroscientist Robert Reinhart produced improvements in both long-term and short-term (working) memory through a series of weak electric stimulation – transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). The authors modestly claim: “Together, these findings sug...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 23, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Tech Health Technology Alzheimer's Cognitive Neuroscience FDA Ines Volante Robert Reinhart Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: The fall of Judah
The last two chapters of the Book of Kings are more or less historically accurate, although the story is a bit muddled in that Judah appears to be conquered twice, first in this chapter and again in the next. It is true that Judah was for a time a vassal kingdom, then it rebelled and Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and took its leading citizens into captivity in Babylon, but the story seems to be duplicated. Maybe there ' s some historical accuracy to this, or maybe it ' s just the usual two versions of the same story phenomenon. In case you ' re wondering what happened to Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar conquered it, and also ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 21, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 22nd 2022
In conclusion, application of a multi-species bat epigenetic clock provides strong evidence that hibernation is associated with slower epigenetic ageing. The multi-species clock explains 94% of the variation in the chronological ages of both hibernating and non-hibernating big brown bats; however, the clock estimates are equal to or greater than the chronological age, suggesting big brown bats age slightly faster than a 'typical' bat, especially during the active period. (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - August 21, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Yahweh cleans up
Having " discovered " the book of the law they had just written, Josiah and his priests set out to establish worship of Yahweh according to the Torah law as the sole religious practice in Judah, and to cleanse the kingdom of all traces of worship of other gods. This involves, as usual, slaughtering a lot of people, but that ' s righteousness in Yahweh ' s world. I can ' t prove it, but I believe this was supposed to end with verse 25, with the panegyric to King Josiah.. There may have been a closing statement, which has been replaced. That would be the appropriate denouement to the entire plot, and explain why Josiah had t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 17, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Discussing the State of the TAME Clinical Trial, Metformin to Slow Aging
The TAME clinical trial, still not started, intends to assess the ability of metformin to marginally slow aging in humans. Back at the start of this initiative, it required a long process of negotiation on the part of the trial organizers with the FDA to produce an endpoint that was agreed upon to sufficiently represent aging. To my mind, the TAME trial initiative has already achieved what needs to be achieved: to get the FDA to agree that there is a way to run trials to treat aging. One doesn't actually need to run the trial, and there is in fact little point in running the trial. Metformin is almost certainly a marginal ...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 16, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Look what I found!
With chapter 22, we come to the real reason for this whole project. Josiah becomes king, he starts restoring the temple, and whaddya know! A priest finds a long-overlooked Book of the Law. That would presumably be the book we call Deuteronomy, and guess who wrote it? The same people who wrote this! They " discovered " an old book and they put it in force. As I have noted before, this was supposed to end in the middle of the next chapter with the restoration of Torah law and the expulsion of other gods. Things went wrong after Josiah ' s death, however, and that required explanation. Hence the interpolation near the en...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 14, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Reforming the Organ Donation System
David Kemp andPeter Van DorenThe Washington Postrecently reported on the logistic and technological failings of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the private non ‐profit agency with a government ‐enforced monopoly on the United States’ system of procuring organ donations and matching donated organs to the over 100,000 people waiting for them. A report from the White House US Digital Service found that UNOS has been ineffective, lacks transparency, and relies on outdated software, with frequent system failures and cybersecurity concerns. While UNOS has resisted efforts to modernize and refor...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 10, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: David Kemp, Peter Van Doren Source Type: blogs
Sleep Monitoring at Home: Interview with Ziv Peremen, CEO of X-trodes
X-trodes, a medtech startup based in Israel, created Smart Skin, a wireless monitoring and analytics technology that is suitable for at-home sleep monitoring. At present, diagnosing sleep disorders is an arduous and expensive business, requiring patients to attend a specialized sleep clinic and wear bulky and uncomfortable equipment, all while attempting to sleep in a strange environment.
Part of the problem is that many technologies used for sleep monitoring require patients to be tethered to stationary equipment with wires. This means that patients must sleep on their back and limit their movements, which can disturb ...
Source: Medgadget - August 10, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiology Diagnostics Exclusive Medicine Neurology Telemedicine sleep monitoring X-trodes Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Some serious backsliding
I suspect that much or all of Chapter 21 was a later interpolation. It ' s part of the explanation for why Judah fell to Babylon, even though Josiah (coming soon) restored Torah-based orthodoxy, which was supposed to be the original point of the whole thing. So they inserted the absolutely worst possible king, so that no matter what Josiah did, he couldn ' t make up for it. (BTW Mademoiselle Hephzibah is the name of the French skunk who was Pogo Possum ' s occasional love interest.)21 Manas ′seh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Heph′...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 10, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Lumen: World ’s First Device and App for Real-time Metabolic Feedback
Lumen is the first device and app available to anyone that provides real-time feedback on whether you’re burning carbohydrates or fats. These measurements are usually only made for athletes or patients through special testing centers, hospitals, or clinics, but with Lumen they are now available to everyone, anywhere.
Nutrition is a very individualized topic, while metabolism is just as nuanced – one size does not fit all when it comes to diet and nutrition plans – and that’s why dieticians and nutrition coaches can play an important role in health and well-being. However, a personalized diet comes with a need fo...
Source: Medgadget - August 3, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Alice Ferng Tags: Exclusive Medicine 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
Sunday Sermonette: Survivor
Chapter 18 and the following chapter tell the story of the siege of Jerusalem bySennach ′erib of Assyria. Judah is caught between great empires, andSennach ′erib, the son of Sargon who conquered Samaria, is still bent on conquest. Judah is in dire straits against a far more powerful adversary; Hezekiah relies on diplomacy to try to survive, through an alliance with Egypt. He also tries to buy off the attackers. All of this is consistent with the hist orical record. At the conclusion of the story in the following chapter, Yahweh kills the besieging Assyrian army. Other contemporary records, however, do not record an our...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 31, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Shit gets really real
Ch. 17 tells of the conquest of Israel -- the northern kingdom, aka Samaria -- by the Assyrian empire. Yes, this definitely happened. And it was indeed the practice of the Assyrians to deport at least part of the population of conquered territories. In the biblical account, essentially all of the population was removed and replaced by people from elsewhere. The deportees became known as the ten Lost Tribes of Israel. (The tribe of Dan had joined Judah earlier, so those two tribes survived) Historians dispute whether the deportation was really total, however. Nevertheless whatever Israelite population remained was diluted, ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 27, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Are things getting real?
Chapter 16 tells the story of King Ahaz of Judah. There is archaeological and historical evidence for his existence. We are getting close enough to the time the Book of Kings was written that the content likely reflects actual historical memory, not just myth. However, that doesn ' t mean the details are reliable! For example, verse 2 says he was 36 years old when he died; but in Ch. 18, we are told that his son Hezekiah succeeded him at age 25, which means Ahaz must have fathered Hezekiah when he was 11 years old. Verse 3, in this translation, says Ahaz sacrificed his son to a Canaanite God, but as the footnote admit...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 24, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
