A Fine Day

IT HAD been a fine day. A streak of gulls drove in, dodged - - and screeched at the shore where the sea and the sand were keeping the eternal rhythm of their meeting and parting, meeting and parting..

Salman Rushdie’s Picture of Coexistence: Faith and Doubt in “The Parting of the Arabian Sea”

Graduate Textual or Investigativ

Parting layers, ash trays and Ramesside glassmaking: an experimental study

A series of glassmaking and glass colouring replication experiments was undertaken in order to test some of the current hypotheses concerning Late Bronze Age glass production at Qantir-Piramesses. These were based on the model of glassmaking developed in this volume, and aimed in particular to test the behaviour of the parting layer and the local ceramic under the proposed chemical and thermal conditions. Modern ash trays made out of Egyptian Nile silt clay were used as proxies for LBA reaction vessels and crucibles, and both raw glass and coloured glass ingots were produced in them. This experimental study, based on detailed observation and technical studies of archaeological samples from Qantir-Piramesses, not only provides material readily comparable to the archaeological finds, but brings to the forefront practical issues concerning the nature of the parting layer, its application, the melting procedures, the re-use of crucibles, and indirect evidence of primary production, such as the impact of sodium chloride, a major component of plant ashes, on the ceramic. Although this string of experiments does not fully replicate LBA glassmaking technology, much information was obtained and further areas of ambiguity identified

Do the Results of Divine Actions Have Preceding Causes?

If God brings about an event in the universe, does it have a preceding cause? For example, if the universe began with the Big Bang and if God brought it about, did the Big Bang then have a preceding cause? The standard answer is: yes, it was caused by a divine willing. I propose an alternative view: God’s actions, unlike human actions, are not initiated by willings, undertakings, or volitions, but God brings about the intended event directly. Presenting a solution to the dilemma of free will I explain what ‘bringing about directly’ means and show that the question of what an action begins with is distinct from the question whether it is a basic action

Why the Incarnation Is Incompatible With An Atemporal Concept of God

In this essay, I argue that the Incarnation of the Son of God, understood in a traditionally orthodox way, is incompatible with an atemporalist concept of God. First, I explain what I mean by atemporalism, namely the idea that God exists outside time. I also show the main corollaries of that doctrine, most notably that all of God’s life occurs eternally simultaneously. Second, based on New Testament teaching and widely accepted creeds, I spell out philosophically what I mean by the Incarnation. In short, I take it to be the doctrine that the Second Person of the Trinity at some point in time took on a human body as part of a fully human nature. I then proceed to my central argument, which derives a contradiction from the definitions of the Incarnation and of atemporalism, respectively. In the last section, I shall treat some possible objections to my argument and show that they do not solve the problem satisfactorily

Gigantism in unique biogenic magnetite at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

We report the discovery of exceptionally large biogenic magnetite crystals in clay-rich sediments spanning the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) in a borehole at Ancora, New Jersey. Aside from previously-described abundant bacterial magnetofossils, electron microscopy reveals novel spearhead-like and spindle-like magnetite up to 4 μm long and hexaoctahedral prisms up to 1.4 μm long. Similar to magnetite produced by magnetotactic bacteria, these single-crystal particles exhibit chemical composition, lattice perfection, and oxygen isotopes consistent with an aquatic origin. Electron holography indicates single-domain magnetization despite their large crystal size. We suggest that the development of a thick suboxic zone with high iron bioavailability – a product of dramatic changes in weathering and sedimentation patterns driven by severe global warming – drove diversification of magnetite-forming organisms, likely including eukaryotes

A Numerical Modelling Study on the Potential Role of Tsunamis in the Biblical Exodus

The reliability of the narrative of the Biblical Exodus has been subject of heated debate for decades. Recent archaeological studies seem to provide new insight of the exodus path, and although with a still controversial chronology, the effects of the Minoan Santorini eruption have been proposed as a likely explanation of the biblical plagues. Particularly, it has been suggested that flooding by the associated tsunamis could explain the first plague and the sea parting. Recent modelling studies have shown that Santorini’s tsunami effects were negligible in the eastern Nile Delta, but the released tectonic stress could have triggered local tsunamigenic sources in sequence. This paper is aimed to a quantitative assessment of the potential role of tsunamis in the biblical parting of the sea. Several “best case” scenarios are tested through the application of a numerical model for tsunami propagation that has been previously validated. The former paleogeographic conditions of the eastern Nile Delta have been implemented based upon recent geological studies; and several feasible local sources for tsunamis are proposed. Tsunamis triggered by submarine landslides of 10–30 km3 could have severely impacted the northern Sinai and southern Levantine coasts but with weak effects in the eastern Nile Delta coastline. The lack of noticeable flooding in this area under the most favorable conditions for tsunamis, along with the time sequence of water elevations, make difficult to accept them as a plausible and literally explanation of the first plague and of the drowning of the Egyptian army in the surroundings of the former Shi-Hor Lagoon

The geology of strata exposed in Roade railway cutting, Northamptonshire : engineering phase Priority 3 sections and overall assessment

This report describes the geology of the bedrock strata at the Roade railway cutting (a Site of Special Scientific Interest), near Northampton, exposed by engineering works between 2006 and 2010 and made available to the BGS for detailed examination. Strata exposed previously during engineering works between 2005 and 2006 (engineering phases Priority 1 & 2) are described in a companion report (Barron and Woods, 2010). The exposed strata, totalling about 8 m in thickness, belong entirely to the Blisworth Limestone Formation of the Great Oolite Group, which is of Mid Jurassic age. Neither the base nor top of the formation are exposed. The current report includes text descriptions and graphic sections of the localities examined, a plan of the cutting showing locations and the distribution of the strata with correlations, close-up photographs of the bedrock exposed, and photographic panoramas of the cutting sides. It also includes an assessment of the exposed strata in terms of their sedimentary facies and lateral variability