World's largest diamond mine [Image: The Mirny diamond mine; photographer unknown].



This



[Images: Mirny diamond mine; photographers unknown].



Look for the tiny red arrow in the following photograph; it's pointing to a 220-ton rock-hauling truck more than 20' tall.



[Image: The Mirny diamond mine; photographer unknown].



Thanks to



Meanwhile, something altogether different and Jules Vernian is about to occur thanks to some Japanese scientists hoping to



Then, in an oddly Borgesian—or perhaps MC Escherian—moment of nomenclatural mise-en-abîme, "The 57,500-tonne drill ship Chikyu (Japanese for Earth) is being prepared in the southern port of Nagasaki. Two-thirds the length of the Titanic, it is fitted with technology borrowed from the oil industry that will allow it to bore through 7,000 metres of crust below the seabed while floating in 2,500 metres of water—requiring a drill pipe 25 times the height of the Empire State building."



Let's repeat the: the drill-ship is called Earth and it is drilling down into the Earth... The attack of the simulacra begins.



[See also: Mirny Mine, pt. 2 and Bingham Pit, Utah]. This diamond mine in eastern Siberia (Mirny, to be exact) is so deep that the surrounding "air zone... is closed for helicopters" after "a few accidents when they were 'sucked in' by downward air flow..."Look for the tiny red arrow in the following photograph; it's pointing to a 220-ton rock-hauling truck more than 20' tall.Thanks to Javier Arbona for both the link and photos.Meanwhile, something altogether different and Jules Vernian is about to occur thanks to some Japanese scientists hoping to drill down into the earth's mantle : "Using a giant drill ship launched [in July 2005], the researchers aim to be the first to punch a hole through the rocky crust that covers our planet and to reach the mantle below."Then, in an oddly Borgesian—or perhaps MC Escherian—moment of nomenclatural mise-en-abîme, "The 57,500-tonne drill ship(Japanese for) is being prepared in the southern port of Nagasaki. Two-thirds the length of the Titanic, it is fitted with technology borrowed from the oil industry that will allow it to bore through 7,000 metres of crust below the seabed while floating in 2,500 metres of water—requiring a drill pipe 25 times the height of the Empire State building."Let's repeat the: the drill-ship is calledand it is drilling down into the Earth... The attack of the simulacra begins.

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