This & That
Interesting stuff comes up all the time at Logos Bible Study.
Here’s where you can post interesting stuff you find, comment on what other people post, and carry on a conversation about any number of cool topics!
Offline
Russ--I get that coming and going! Our colleague in Turkey, Ferit Kayrak, has a little trouble in English with his "R"s: He calls me "Dr. Crazy." You can imagine what I was called in 3rd grade! I need a cool nickname. In the Marine Corps I was "Slick." Ah, those were the days!
Here's how the name came about. In high school and my Marine Corps days I was heavily into body building and martial arts, a budding warrior. At 18 years old I worked out at the Golden Triangle YMCA in downtown Pittsburgh. The old professional wrestler, Bruno Sammartino, worked out there, too. It was "leg day," and I did a hard 2-hour leg workout. When I finished, my legs felt like jello, all wobbly. I headed for the stairs to go down to the locker room and take a shower. Took one step down. My legs didn't work. And I tumbled head over tin cups down the metal stairs to the floor below. A group of guys ran down the stairs to see what happened. When I looked up, there was Bruno Sammartino with his big mug, gnarled nose and cauliflower ears looking down at me, a grin on his face. He said, "Smooth move, Slick." The name stuck. Haven't thought of that in years!
Now, I'm just "Dr. Bill."
Probably Dr. Bill for public consumption, but between you and me, "Slick" was pretty cool!
I came across a remarkable article in the journal Science, June 13, 2008.
During the 1963-1965 excavations at Masada, the fortress built by King Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.), archaeologists discovered ancients seeds beneath a pile of rubble near the Northern Palace. We’ve visited this site many times during our teaching tours to Israel.
The seeds are those of a date palm, botanically classified as Phoenix dactylifera. The seeds were stored at room temperature for four decades, and in 2005 scientists took several samples to study them. Radiocarbon dating placed the seeds between 102 B.C. to A.D. 51. Three of the seeds were planted, and eight weeks later one of them germinated!
Here’s a link to the article, which includes pictures of the seeds and the sprouting tree:
Germination, Genetics, and Growth of an Ancient Date Seed
Of course, scientists named the little tree—Methuselah!
