There are Network Operations Centers, or NOCs, where your data goes and gets rerouted to its final destination. They have big screens that monitor possible choke points and outages, and people constantly on the altert for problems.

Some of them are beautiful. Some of them are ugly. But your web requests have probably been through all of them at some point.

Filed under: noc and network operations centers

Researchers were amazed to find two billion year old unaltered rocks on the ocean floor. The rocks' age was precisely confirmed due to presence of isotopes of osmium.

"I just about fell off my chair. We can't exaggerate how important these rocks are -- they're a window into that deep part of earth."

The picture is of a section of these rocks.

Filed under: earth, rocks, ancient, and two billion years