Rocks of ages

More than three thousand years ago, a young shepherd boy killed a giant warrior with a rock from a slingshot. David, the shepherd boy, took some cheese sandwiches to his older brothers who were in the army fighting the Philistines. When David arrived at the camp, he learned that everyone was afraid of a giant named Goliath. So, David challenged Goliath with only his slingshot as a weapon. Goliath wore heavy armor and carried a sword, a spear, and a large shield. However, he didn’t know that David’s slingshot was really a sling.

A sling is a leather bag with two strings. David would put a rock in it and sling it around his head until the centrifugal force built up enough to propel the rock outward. Recent experiments show that a rock from a slinger can achieve almost the same velocity as a bullet, but with a much larger projectile. A skilled slinger can hit a small target from 130 yards away. Goliath was taken out by a small rock.

If we go back 66 million years, we find that a rock was responsible for the death of the dinosaurs. An asteroid slammed into the earth, creating a huge crater that caused massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Most of the plants and animals on earth died. The dinosaurs, giants who had walked on the Earth for more than 200 million years, were taken out by a big rock.

More than a century ago, The Prudential Insurance Company recognized the strength of a rock when it chose as its symbol, the Rock of Gibraltar. It is a very large rock that juts out into the Strait of Gibraltar that dates to the Jurassic period. It is the symbol of Prudential Insurance, and “everybody wants to own a piece of the rock.”

However, it doesn’t matter if you have a small rock in a slinger that can kill a giant, or a giant rock that falls from the sky and kills the dinosaurs — there is no rock that can kill a cockroach. Not even the Rock of Gibraltar. Cockroaches thrive under rocks.

Cockroaches roamed the earth with the dinosaurs. They survived the asteroid that killed all the dinosaurs and most of life on Earth. Cockroaches have been existing for more than 200 million years, which means they not only out-lived the dinosaurs, but survived the ice age, and have developed a genetic mutation that makes them resistant to every poison developed in the world.

Cockroaches are speed demons and can scurry across the floor at the blink of an eye. A typical eye blink takes 100-150 milliseconds and roaches can dart off at the astronomical speed of 8.5 milliseconds. Cockroaches have extremely strong, yet flexible exoskeletons that can withstand up to 900 times their body weight. That is why it is almost impossible to squish or stomp them. Not even the dinosaurs could stomp them out. They have flat little bodies and flatter insects can squeeze into tighter places. This enables them to hide anywhere.

Because cockroaches don’t breathe through their mouths, but through tiny holes in their bodies, they can hold their breath for 40 minutes. This comes in handy when someone tries to drown them, and they can live for a week without their head (that’s a real horror movie waiting to happen). Female cockroaches breed fast and frequently and don’t need a male to reproduce because they can breed asexually and – just so you know — the Palmetto bug is a giant cockroach with wings.

Lynda thinks cockroaches are extraterrestrial beings with magic powers. She can be reached at lyndaabegg@charter.net. Opinions expressed in this column represent those of the writer only and are not necessarily shared by the newspaper.