A broken bit raises a hard question An international team drilling the boat-shaped Durupınar formation near Mount Ararat says a core-drilling bit broke after striking a layer harder than limestone. The failure occurred about 4 to 5 meters below the surface in a hole inside the area that would represent the vessel’s hull. The team says petrified or highly mineralized wood is one possibility and plans to send samples for third-party laboratory testing. Petrified wood is typically harder than limestone, but the broken bit is not a laboratory result. For now, it proves one thing with complete certainty: the bit broke. https://twitter.com/LaurenWitzkeDE/status/2099681197139841163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw What the drilling has found Noah’s Ark Scans says the permitted program is the first deep, dry core-drilling effort in the site’s recorded history. The group is working with Sivas Cumhuriyet University and collecting cores from inside and outside the formation for compositional, organic, and stratigraphic analysis. Researchers say they have recovered rich organic material that could be decayed remains, while several cavities have also been found, including one filled with mud and water. The team says no bedrock or solid limestone has yet been identified in the holes drilled inside the formation, a finding it argues challenges…

Photos Put Two Searches Side by Side The Oversight Project says it forced the release of photos showing FBI agents handling classified materials at the Penn Biden Center and Joe Biden’s Wilmington home. The group says the images show materials organized, contained, and handled with gloves. It contrasts those scenes with the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search, when photos of documents spread across a floor were leaked and quickly published. That contrast is the group’s central argument: Biden received careful treatment while Donald Trump was publicly framed as guilty before charges were filed. The pictures show different handling, but the broader two-tiered-system claim remains the Oversight Project’s conclusion. https://twitter.com/ItsYourGov/status/2102121667501941172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw A Mudroom Became a Storage Site One set of released images is described as showing national security materials stored in bins in a mudroom, near a garbage can. The Oversight Project says there was no lock and no cover sheet over the materials. The article also says the Justice Department did not charge Biden over the storage. A classified document in a mudroom is not exactly the picture conjured by secure records management. The system may have policy manuals by the shelf, but the images described here raise questions about whether the practical…