Buried . . . well, something; No way!

• Considering the height restrictions zoned into London's super-prime real estate, the only practical way for some owners to expand is to go underground (as deep as five stories' worth of "basement"), which requires heavy digging machines.

However, by the time the excavation is finished, the machines are mired at the bottom of a huge pit with no easy way to bring the behemoths up. Consequently, on some jobs, reported the New Statesman in June, property owners have elected merely to leave the machines buried under what would be their sub-basement. [New Statesman, 6-5-2014]

• (1) The tornado that ripped through Kingsport, Tennessee, on July 27 damaged Jerrod Christian's house, leaving furniture and tools strewn about his lawn. Unfortunately, according to police who filed four charges against him the next day, some of the items (an air compressor, a welder, a ratchet, an air hose, a weed trimmer) belonged to his neighbors, who had long suspected (without proof) that Christian had burglarized their homes. (2) Russian researchers launched several critters into space on July 19, including a male and four female geckos (to follow their mating capabilities), but by July 25 reported that they had lost contact with the satellite, drawing comical concern (most notably, from TV's Stephen Colbert). Although the communication link was restored several days later, with the geckos reportedly still copulating, ultimately only the mission's fruit flies survived the satellite's return to Earth. [ABC News, 7-30-2014] [New York Times, 9-2-2014]

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