Meanderings, 14 September 2024

Kris and I are bundling up our suitcases for a tour with students to Turkey and Greece over the next couple weeks. Please pray for the students and us. These tours have proven to be rewarding at so many levels: education, formation, and fellowship. Ephesus is one of my favorite places in the world! We always make sure the housesitters keep things safe on the homefront. Plus, we have neighbors who keep an eye on the neighborhood.

Photo by Timur Can Şentürk on Unsplash

Neanderthal mystery solved!

When archaeologist Ludovic Slimak unearthed five teeth in a rock shelter in France’s Rhône Valley in 2015, it was immediately obvious that they belonged to a Neanderthal, the first intact remains of the ancient species to be discovered in that country since 1979.

However, the once-in-a-lifetime find, nicknamed Thorin after a character in “The Hobbit,” remained a well-kept secret for almost a decade while Slimak and his colleagues untangled the significance of the find — a fraught undertaking that pitted experts in ancient DNA against archaeologists.

“We faced a major issue,” said Slimak, a researcher at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research and Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse. “The genetics was sure the Neanderthal we called Thorin was 105,000 years old. But we knew by (the specimen’s) archaeological context that it was somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 years old.”

“What the DNA was suggesting was not in accordance with what we saw,” he added.

It took the team almost 10 years to piece together the story of the puzzling Neanderthal, adding a new chapter in the long-standing mystery of why these humans disappeared around 40,000 years ago.

Did you see this from Ryan Burge?

An expensive drink!

You've probably heard about martinis that are shaken, not stirred -- but you may not have heard about one that features 150 diamonds in 14k gold: And you can get it at one Chicago restaurant.

The "Marrow Martini," a martini served up with a diamond tennis necklace is now on the menu at Adalina, a popular Italian restaurant at 912 N. State Street in Chicago, according to a press release. The cocktail's price tag? $13,000.

According to the release, it's the "most expensive martini in the U.S."

The diamond-studded cocktail is part of a collaboration between the restaurant and Marrow Fine, the jewelry shop located just beneath it, the release said.

Michael Jimenez on Jesse Miranda’s significance:

One fun question I ask students is who is the most famous Latino you can think of? There is never really a consensus answer even among Latino students. What usually happens is a long pause and then I begin suggesting names. We almost always end up agreeing it is either Cesar Chavez or Selena. What does this exercise reveal? One, it might suggest that our social studies classes are not doing a thorough job introducing students to Latino heroes. In fact, even their knowledge of Chavez or Selena is minimal. Second, it is up to us to begin the process of introducing students to people like [Jesse] Miranda. We are often starved for heroes especially Latino heroes. For example, we might ask what kind of impression does it make for us to see Miranda on stage seated nearby President Bush or receiving a cordial note from President Clinton? We might think what is the big deal? We see Latinos in important roles all the time. Decades ago when Miranda started his work, we did not. And by all accounts, he never actively sought these spaces. Perhaps this is just the way God works―leave it to the God he had dedicated his life to simply to put him there.

Where do college students locate their identity?

What we found interesting in light of recent controversies on Christian social media was that political identities—those related to a nation or political party—were never placed in the top three except in a minority of cases (5% or less). Moreover, some of those students were either immigrants or international students, so they placed their origin/home country identity in the top three (Guatemalan, Taiwanese, Chinese). When one of my dissertation students did this exercise among a group of faith-based (n=75) and public students (n=39), he found the same low percentage of faith-based students finding their identity in political sources (3%).¹ Now, I recognize students could lack self-awareness, but I doubt any student feels significant subconscious moral pressure to keep identities such as “American” or “citizen” off their top three. 

In the absence of political identity prioritization, we found what we expected from students at Christian Study Centers or Christian colleges: These students placed their Christian identity in the top three. However, we were a bit surprised by the low percentages that did so, particularly amongst students at Christian institutions (only 60%). We wondered if some students simply took their Christian identity for granted at these institutions, assuming a shared or implicit understanding of how their Christian identity might inform other identities.

The next three top identities were not at all surprising: family member, student, and friend. General students at secular universities were most especially likely to prioritize family, friend, or student. In fact, 60% prioritized being a friend as one of their three top identities. Only 42% of students at CHEs and 27% of Christians at secular universities did.

If there is another competing identity among students beyond these identities it is not their political identity but their gender identity or sexual orientation (See Table 2). We found that 36% of the general students from secular universities placed it in their top three. Interestingly, 12 females and 5 sexual minorities prioritized these identities while not even one male did.

Although not as high, the same pattern is true of students at Christian institutions. We found that 24% of student interviewees at Christian universities placed sexual or gender identity in their top three identities with fifteen of the seventeen being women and one respondent identifying as transgender. Only the Christian students at Study Centers appeared to have some gender balance in this area. Five of the nine students who placed it in the top three were men.

Farm fresh food for food deserts:

James T. Austin rolled his cart down South Hoskins Road, walking from his house just up the street. He hangs a left at the Mr. Quick Mini Mart, where a concrete building rises up from a large gravel lot.

The nonprofit Carolina Farm Trust pop-up produce stand greets him by the loading dock. CFT opened a distribution center and pop-up market stand in the Hoskins community over the summer.

It was Austin’s first visit, and he said he liked the produce stand. He was particularly interested in the selection of mushrooms offered.

For Austin and others in Hoskins, the pop-up stand is now the closest source of fresh produce. Much of the community is considered a food desert, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food Lion is the nearest grocery store, about two miles away on Tuckaseegee Road. That’s a far trip for car-less residents in Hoskins, many of whom are older.

Regenerative ag:

Tipton’s farm is part of something bigger. A push by businesses and governments into something called “regenerative agriculture.” That’s a term used for farming practices, like cover crops, that proponents say are good for the environment and the climate.

Modern agriculture is a big driver of climate change. Powerful warming gases are released from cows and fertilized soils, and deforestation that’s driven by rising food demand.

Many food businesses now promote regenerative farming practices as a climate solution. Whether it’s the corn in PepsiCo’s Doritos or the potatoes in its Frito-Lay chips, Margaret Henry, PepsiCo’s vice president of sustainable and regenerative agriculture, says her company is encouraging its farmers to integrate these practices on 7 million acres worldwide by 2030.

The U.S. government is also encouraging many of these practices with farmers. The Biden administration’s 2022 climate legislation provided $19.5 billion to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to largely support “climate-smart agriculture.” “Climate-smart agriculture” as interpreted by the USDA includes many common regenerative agriculture practices like cover crops.

But many farming practices supported by companies and the U.S. government may not reduce as much climate pollution as they claim, says Timothy Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton University and technical director of agriculture and forestry at the World Resources Institute. He worries that the focus on certain regenerative farming practices can distract from solutions that can make faster, deeper cuts in climate pollution. “It becomes an excuse for claiming you're dealing with the climate when you're really not,” he says.