2012 news from around the world.

The first attempts to reach the Earth's mantle actually began back in the early 1960s. Dubbed "Project Mohole" after the Croatian meteorologist Andrija Mohorovicic who first discovered the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle, a team of U.S. scientists managed to drill a few meters into the oceanic crust off Guadalupe Island in the eastern pacific. The achievement was recognized by a telegram from President John F. Kennedy but the project was closed down in 1966.

Since then, a Russian-project in the far north Kola Peninsula during the 1980s has taken over the record for the deepest borehole ever drilled, reaching 12 km into the earth's crust.

And In 2011, the oil giant Exxon Mobil recorded an even longer borehole at just over 12 km in eastern Russia. However, it wasn't drilled vertically downwards and only reached soft sedimentary rocks.

Lots of bottles survived, too. Some were shattered by flying debris, fell off shelves, or got crushed by collapsing materials, but a surprising number stayed intact.

The first tasters then passed samples to selected laboratories for further testing, and this time the contents were rated "acceptable." So here's your government's considered advice: Should you find yourself near an atomic blast and run short of potable water, you can chug a Coke or a beer, but don't expect it to taste great.

Admittdley we have always wondered about this and now we can sleep at night ~2012notes

Project Spaceship Escape is an Australian initiative to design a spacecraft which will depart earth's surface the day before the end of the world, the 20th December 2012. The spacecraft will be designed to support life indefinitely or until the spacecraft reaches an inhabitable planet. Ticket prices will be determined after we have a better understanding of numbers. The Spacecraft has been designed to house a maximum of 50,000 passengers.