Who cut the undersea cables?
 

The answer:
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/02...dersea-cables/

I think this shows just how connected the world has become and how important that connection is.... AND demonstrates why some governments might be interested in protecting (controlling access to or preventing interruptions of) the internet. Some "defensive" measures by the CIA, DOD, etc., are warranted. Maybe even they would be justified in tampering with operating systems (as alleged in another thread) as a way to protect this vital resource or disrupt the rest of the world's access.

Personally, I think the whales did it..... in protest of (you name the cause).

It was Aliens. Or maybe Predators. :eek:

As I understand what I've read about it (principally this in Technology Review/Infotech), there are something like 20 cable failures a year worldwide, and the problem in this instance is that there's a pinch point in cable routing -- although there are quite a few to Egypt and the Middle East, they all pass through one narrow region. The Egyptians claim that there were no ships in the region at the time of the failure, so the possibilities in my mind are these:

• An unfortunate "natural" event -- subsidence of the bottom, say.
• Aliens (there's been an increase in UFO sightings).
• A CIA or Al Qaeda submersible.
• The Egyptian "watchers" were sound asleep -- an anchor or trawler
• None of the above.

Godzilla? Oh, wasn't a Japanese cable, never mind.

It was that guy who unplugged the runway lights in "Airplane!"

Can we agree that it is unlikely the break was the result of global warming or a Republican conspiracy?

Given the other threads going on regarding global warming, I think that would be a good conclusion to draw.

It was the Cloverfield monster

you fail geography class

.
Ah, you’re all wrong! The explanation is far simpler:
The warranty time on the cable’s protective coating expired. :D
.

personally i think its a little suspect that iran has been totally disconnected, and it wouldnt surprise me if it was some cia thing. Or its what arcticstones said :D

Except that Iran hasn't been totally disconnected.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive..._undersea.html

http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?c...444028&tid=172

ah, ok then i take some of that statement back, but due to the growing hostility between america and iran, it could still be a posibility.

Can someone clarify, were the cables clean cut as in someone cut them with a underwater drone or something, or is it more likely a shark or some beastly fish?

They don't know yet -- there is a cable ship steaming down from Italy who will spend some time finding a broken end before they know.

You mean the middle east isn't in America?? ;) I just suspect that Slusho Corp's falling satellite woke the monster in the gulf and it hitched a ride on a errant iceberg that slid of a Greenland glacier!

Yeah, I mean...there's the Midwest, right, and so the Mideast should be right next to it???

Speaking of rogue states, I hear there are weapons of mass destruction, mostly nuclear, being stockpiled in that state, North K...no wait, North...oh yes, I remember...

YES! NDak has been the planet's third largest nuclear power for decades. We put them there because it is away from the population centers.... that is, not many want to live in NDak because of the frigid weather so, well, they are expendable.

The remote, frigid location provides a degree of protection against rogue whales cutting critical cables.

Rumor has it there is nothing between NDak and the North Pole but a barbed wire fence, and it runs North and South.

s/facists/Illuminati/

errr... do we interpret that as a regular expression or as a file specification? ;)

As a file specification.
Error. File not found.