Mediterranean Undersea Cables Cut, Again 329
miller60 writes "Three undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea have failed within minutes of each other in an incident that is eerily similar to a series of cable cuts in the region in early 2008. The cable cuts are already causing serious service problems in the Middle East and Asia. See coverage at the Internet Storm Center, Data Center Knowledge and Bloomberg. The February 2008 cable cuts triggered rampant speculation about sabotage, but were later attributed to ships that dropped anchor in the wrong place."
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:5, Funny)
dropped anchor in the wrong place.
As it turns out, that is a pretty serious offense ... the last time I dropped anchor in the wrong place, I ended up in the drunk tank at the county jail with both indecent exposure and drunk in public charges.
Soooo (Score:5, Funny)
Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)
All that hassle to cause commotion and outages by putting it there in the first place, and less than a year later they gotta get it back. Many years from now we will find its remains scattered across the ocean floor.
Don't drop anchor where? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Looks like anchor drag to me. (Score:5, Funny)
The article's timing of the outages (SeaMeWe 3&4 within minutes, FLAG half an hour later) and the relative proximity of the cable courses suggests either anchor drag or someone who cares enough to make it look that way.
Or Godzilla
New conspiracy theory (Score:5, Funny)
"dropped anchor" is the new "weather balloon"
Re:Now hold on (Score:5, Funny)
Just don't jump to conclusions.
I just bought my new mat though....
The pr0n names of the cables... (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds like two girls one cup. I suspect radical feminist sabotage this time.
Re:Hmm. (Score:4, Funny)
I understand that the Somalis have recently started going legit with some of their most recent acquisitions...
I imagine that the price would be something in the area of one tanker full of crude oil with Saudi registration... repainted to look like a Jewish fishing trawler of course.
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:5, Funny)
We dont have them.
As far as you know.
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:5, Funny)
You know too much. Go quietly with the men in black who will shortly be knocking on your door..... now.
Nice map they've got (Score:3, Funny)
Did anyone notice on their map of the Med that Sicily is mislabeled as Malta?
Malta is a much smaller island that lies roughly south by southeast of the southeastern corner of Sicily, about 1/4 of the way between Sicily and Libya.
With maps like this, I think we can attribute the cuts to a backhoe operator digging where the map said to ;)
Re:As the old saying goes... (Score:3, Funny)
"Once is an accident, twice is coincidence..."
Need I remind everyone what a third incidence would point to?
Fool me-- you can't get fooled again?
Cthulhu (Score:4, Funny)
Cthulhu needed something to floss his teeth with.
So THIS is what the RIAA meant! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:As the old saying goes... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So THIS is what the RIAA meant! (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Looks like anchor drag to me. (Score:5, Funny)
Or Godzilla
Godzilla? Do you have no faith in science at all? ...noting the location it is far more likely to be a kraken.
Effects on Spam? (Score:3, Funny)
Might explain the *DRASTIC* reduction in spam the last couple of days?
Sorry! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:As the old saying goes... (Score:5, Funny)
"Once is an accident, twice is coincidence..."
Need I remind everyone what a third incidence would point to?
A trincidence?
Re:The pr0n names of the cables... (Score:3, Funny)
Don't laugh, or you'll get your cable cut too.
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Looks like anchor drag to me. (Score:4, Funny)
I need my daily conspiracy fix, damn it!
It was Gov Blagojevich sent by PE Obama to
extort money from mid East governments to fund an invasion of Finland.
"Nice cable you got here, how much is it worth to you?"
Either that or Col Mustard in the library with the candle stick.
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:1, Funny)
You know too much. Go quietly with the men in black who will shortly be knocking on your door..... now.
The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.
Re:As the old saying goes... (Score:3, Funny)
A bad statistical model for predicting cable outages?
Not that conspiracy theories aren't a whole lot of fun and all, but as I'm yet to see a terribly credible motive*, "people are too optimistic about how good their tech works" is a pretty reasonable explanation.
(*: Remember, for a motive to be credible, it has to not merely "explain" the actions, but explain why the perpetrator thinks this is the best thing they could do with their time, or at least credibly close to the "best thing". Nothing I've seen even comes close to that standard.)
Re:Looks like anchor drag to me. (Score:1, Funny)
Hey! Your lips.... They.... moved.... but... I herd.... nothing....
Re:Sorry! (Score:4, Funny)
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:5, Funny)
I bet the coastline where the cable comes out of the water and onto land is shallower than that!
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:3, Funny)
Umm... just how deep do you think the Mediterranean Sea is?
Apparently 20,000 leagues.
Get AT&T (Score:1, Funny)
Hello, Basils phone here.
Basils phone has no coverage in this Mediterranean dump. So when Basils boss called to warn him about not dropping anchor, Basil didn't get it.
Now Basil gets to explain to his family why their packets are being dropped. Then shrug in futility as they reply about their packets already being at the market.
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:3, Funny)
I suggest you read "Blind Man's Bluff", which explains how we used such a sub to tap a russian undersea cable to great effect.
Of course, when the russians finally discovered the breach and dug up the cable, they were somewhat amused to see the giant plaque on the side of the bug proclaiming it to be "Property of the United States of America."
Considering how old that technology now is, I'm sure that by now they have even more advanced toys to play with.
Al qaeda underwater scuba warriors! (Score:2, Funny)
Nuff said.
Summary (Score:4, Funny)
Shit happens.
Re:Now hold on (Score:5, Funny)
And let me tell ya', Sammy don't like cable.
I can sympathize with the poor bastard, he's probably a Time Warner customer too.
that's not the only remaining explanation (Score:3, Funny)
There's a more credible explanation [ufl.edu].
Re:Cables or tubes? (Score:3, Funny)
The terms "Internet" and "Web" are interchangable.
Internet 1.0 (Web 1.0) runs through tubes.
Internet 2.0 (Web 2.0) runs through cables.
Get it? We did them a favor. They don't have to deal with loads of Ajax-laden brochure-ware sites for a while. I wouldn't mind if someone cut OUR cables!
"Conspiracy Theories" anyone? (Score:3, Funny)
The first time it happened, it was "fishy" but it was fixed and we moved on. Now it is the second time in a relatively short time. The WORLD needs to investigate this and expose the perpetrators to the light of public media. If it was the U.S., I would like to know and why. If it was someone else, I would like to know who and why. This is stupid as hell and we shouldn't tolerate it!
...oh look at that on TV, another news story... what was I talking about again?
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:5, Funny)
From your description, I'm guessing it's a washing machine.
Re:Oh god, not this again... (Score:1, Funny)
http://www.iscpc.org/publications/About_Cables_in_PDF_Format.pdf [iscpc.org]
URL approved by the Department of Redundancy Department...
- T
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:5, Funny)
It's hardly a big secret. There have been the USS Parche [wikipedia.org] and the USS Jimmy Carter [wikipedia.org] to name just two.
Why the data-snooping sub wasn't named the Nixon, I'll never know!
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:2, Funny)
1000m is doable with current public nuclear missile submarines.
What, you mean the general public is allowed to buy nuclear missile submarines, awesome!
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Dropping Anchor (Score:3, Funny)
I'm more worried because it raises the prospect of private nuclear missile subs. As though ones running Windows weren't bad enough.