Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg might be getting excited about the metaverse, but the idea is nothing new.

It ended up nothing like Ever Given.

The Suez Canal was briefly blocked again after a tanker, Affinity V, ran aground very close to where Ever Given was stuck for nearly a week last year. The blockage of the Suez Canal made global headlines in March of 2021 when one of the largest containers ever built, Ever Given, ran aground. It took authorities six days to get the giant ship afloat again, but the incident had stalled marine cargo traffic on the shortest route between Europe and Asia.

Following the incident, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) accelerated the construction of a second channel in the canal, allowing ships to pass in both directions.

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Did you know that the Suez Canal actually has a riveting history? The ancient Egyptians were interested in connecting the Nile to the Red Sea at one point and, after thousands of years, Napoleon Bonaparte actually made plans to make that connection a reality.

face_with_colon_three circa 2020.

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A new study finds diamonds can actually form at room temperature, under the right pressure.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Diamonds are highly coveted the world over, forming naturally in the Earth’s mantle under extreme temperature and pressure over billions of years. Now, a team of scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University have reported a means of making the gemstones at room temperature within a matter of minutes.

In an unfinished part of his basement, 95-year-old Richard Soller zips around a makeshift track encircling boxes full of medals he’s won for track and field and long-distance running.

Without a hint of breathlessness, he says: “I can put in miles down here.”

Steps away is an expensive leather recliner he bought when he retired from Procter & Gamble with visions of relaxing into old age. He proudly proclaims he’s never used it; he’s been too busy training for competitions, such as the National Senior Games.

Analysts find five cookie-stuffing extensions, including one that’s Netflix-themed, that track victim browsing and insert rogue IDs into e-commerce sites to rack up fake affiliate payments.

Astrobiologists wonder if we’re not the first advanced civilization on Earth. It might seem like pure speculation, but it’s an important thought experiment.

Researchers have combined a mechanical oscillator with a superconducting resonator to create a system that vibrates at GHz frequencies.

Researchers claim to have deciphered Linear Elamite, a mysterious ancient writing system used between 2,300 B.C. and 1,800 B.C. The study alleges success in decoding Linear Elamite, despite the fact that only about 40 known examples of the script remain today, according to a paper published in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie.

Over 300 Linear Elamite signs represent different sounds, such as a crescent-shaped sign that sounds like “pa,” the research team wrote in the paper.

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ZA publishes articles and reviews in all areas of Assyriology, including Near Eastern archaeology and art history. The main geographical areas covered are Mesopotamia, Northern Syria, Anatolia, Ancient Armenia, and Elam from the fourth to first millennia BC. All articles are peer-reviewed.