Life in the deep ocean
Ninety per cent of the planet’s living space–and biodiversity–is under water. And there are only five manned craft on Earth that can get to the bottom of it. What they find is both terrifying and alluring. J.M. Ledgard probes the weird world of the submersible … (moreintelligentlife.com)
A summer cabin for the apocolypse
Built in a decommissioned Nike missile site, the residence boasts a kitchen, four bedrooms, two baths, an exercise room, indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi, and an elevator for lowering the owner’s classic automobiles below the surface. On clear days, the doors that once exposed anti-ballistic missile for launch can be opened to let sunshine penetrate the otherwise dimly lit basement. (The Verge)
Head down the Garden Path
A garden path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that the readers’ most likely interpretation will be incorrect; they are lured into an improper parse that turns out to be a dead end. Garden path sentences are used in psycholinguistics to illustrate the fact that when they read, human beings process language one word at a time. “Garden path” refers to the saying “to be led down the garden path”, meaning “to be misled”. (Wikipedia)
How Deep is the ocean?
The average depth of the ocean is about 4,267 meters (14,000 feet). The deepest part of the ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located beneath the western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the U.S. territorial island of Guam. Challenger Deep is approximately 11,030 meters (36,200 feet) deep. It is named after the British survey ship Challenger II, which first surveyed the trench in 1951. (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration)
Robots that run on germs
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory yesterday detailed a project to design a “microrover” robot that would be able to explore planetary bodies for long periods of time without human intervention. (CNET)
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