After 61 years of service, the one of its kind research vessel FLoating Instrument Platform, known as FLIP, has been retired and sent to a scrapyard. I distinctly recall being absolutely fascinated by this engineering marvel when it was almost brand new. As not quite a teenager, I remember being taken by both the simplicity and wonderful weirdness of the 355-foot-long research platform with a generally ship-shaped bow and a largely cylindrical hull.
The vessel would be towed to deep water, where the ballast tanks in the stern would be filled with seawater and the craft would literally “flip” from horizontal to vertical. With 300 feet of the hull floating upright underwater, the research platform would float serenely in deep water, literally unmoved by ocean swells. (If this description doesn’t make any sense to you, check out the video below of the FLIP flipping.”
The sad saga of the 
Almost 200 years ago, 
When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, at least 100 Ukrainian Navy vessels, representing 75% of the Ukrainian naval fleet, were captured by Russian forces. In the Russian invasion of 2022, much of the remaining fleet was destroyed or scuttled to prevent capture.
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A recent study published in the journal 
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One hundred and eighty years ago last month, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s 
Sailors have always watched the sky. This August, the sky is putting on quite a show.
Have cruise ships worn out their welcome? Increasingly, port cities around the world are banning or regulating cruise ship dockings and operations in their coastal waters. Amsterdam has become only the most recent to do so.
Near midnight on Tuesday, the car carrier 
In 1863,