Random

~ 10 habits of highly successful brains from Alvaro Fernandez -- good practical stuff -- not the same old "do more crossword puzzles..." line -- Link

~ Toyota is trying to develop a car for senior citizens. "Ultimately, we hope to develop cars that stimulate brain activity, so that driving itself becomes a form of brain training," according to Japanese neuroscientist Dr Ryuta Kawashima, who is working with the car maker. -- Link

~ Now that the fall semester is over I can start planning the spring. I'll be teaching Introduction to Bible Study Methods on the Guam campus and will be traveling to our teaching facilities in Chuuk and Palau to teach the world religions class (hybrid of intensive classroom and online interaction).

~ The weakened dollar is affecting overseas missionaries in a big way. -- Link

This problem is not really affecting us directly because Guam and Micronesia deal in US dollars.

~ Bill & Melinda Gates are going to receive honorary doctorates from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm -- Link

~ Ben Witherington: "Luke does not say there was no room in the inn. Luke has a different Greek word for inn (pandeion), which he trots out in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The word he uses here (kataluma) is the very word he uses to describe the room in which Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples -- the guest room of a house." -- Link

The TNIV follows this line of interpretation with their translation of Luke 2:7 -- "She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them."

The NLT creatively wiggles through it -- "She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them."