Who cut the cheese? I mean the transoceanic 'net cables?
Four undersea communications network cables have been cut this past week -- they're part of the network that handles most of the world's voice and internet traffic. WTF's going on?
Most telecommunications experts and cable operators say that sabotage seems unlikely, but no one knows what damaged the cables or whether the incidents were related.Link.One theory - that a wayward ship traveling off course because of bad weather was responsible for cutting the first two cables last week - was dismissed by the Egyptian government over the weekend.
No ships passed the area in the Mediterranean where the cables were located, the country's Ministry of Communications said Sunday.
UPDATE: The majority of BB readers who've commented on the story say, in summary, "my money's on monsters."
the latest
latest episodes
well it's either the prelude to world war III or some shifting of the sea bed. Have there been any underwater earthquakes?
To clarify, the fourth cable (that went down today) was not cut or damaged, it was shut down due to power problems.
It was Cloverfield
Israel has subs. The NSA wants to monitor everything. The Russians could have done it. Even the Chinese have the capability. Never trusted the English.
I think it was for installation of interception equipment and a big switch. If anyone uses high atmospheres nukes (even one little one) the EMP will take out all surface communications and many satellites.
Just messing with it unnerves those affected.Maybe just psyops.
Clearly we have a giant monster on our hands.
Dex's theory is the most plausible at this point.
"USS Jimmy Carter was christened on June 5, 2004, and sponsored by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
Carter is roughly 100 feet (30 m) longer than the other two ships of her class. This is due to the insertion of a section known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), which allows launch and recovery of ROVs and Navy SEAL forces. The plug features a fairing over a wasp-waist shaped passageway allowing crew to pass between the fore and aft sections of the hull while providing a space to store ROVs and special equipment that may need to launch and recover from the submarine. The MMP may also be used as an underwater splicing chamber for tapping of undersea fiber optic cables. This role was formerly filled by the decommissioned USS Parche (SSN-683)."
Follow the Slusho trail....
I came in here to say what dex said. it's obvious that the monster heard about its huge second week drop-off at the box office and wants to make sure piracy is not the cause. silly monster; the tubes don't kill movies, marketing kills movies.
A report here claims 5 are down:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2008/February/theuae_February155.xml§ion=theuae
As techdirt speculated, perhaps the warranties ran out.
agreed, kraken.
I STILL say it's some Egyptian guy who didn't want his girlfriend to communicate with her new love!
Monsters? Come on. The only monster here is the ugly green monster of jealous rage!
When you consider that the line breaks make the amount of traffic in and out of Iran zero ... accident looks unlikely.
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/asia.htm
It has looked like that for several days.
I think that being suspicious is probably a realistic reaction.
Godzilla.
i heard about this yesterday - so far the mainstream media hasn't covered it
i wouldn't worry about it though
it's probably nothing
keep snickering
anyone read Cryptonomicon? when they were building a massive data crypt that could work as a sort of digital currency, the governments of the world started retaliating by clipping underwater cables first
is something digitally Awesome happening in the UAE?
This widdle piddy went to markets, this widdle piddy stayed home, this widdle piddy had woast beef, and this little pitty had.......whadaya know, wan outa piddies!
I read Crytonomicon 3 times and all I remember is the Phillipines is really hot and Yamamoto died while screaming across the sky with his ceremonial sword in his hand and ramming into a tree.
Even so, what a great book!
George Bush, you hideous undersea monster, you!
OMGWTFBBQ! Somebody gave Bush some Gilly Weed and now he's grown fins and gills?
What a nightmare!
Anywhere know where the USS Jimmy Carter is? Oh right..the Pershing Gulf.
Check out all the cool "daa center" crago bays they have for "fiber optic service"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter
Sounds like a listening session gone awry.
theres no such thing as the "Pershing Gulf" and the world is going to blow itself up. cause nobody's ever going to know who did it.
I'm telling you nobody's seen Elvis lately . . . .
If we are fighting in the Pershing Gulf, does that mean we've gone back in time 100 years or so?
Nothing on Google under "Black Jack Gulf" either.
/It's sad that you have to go about 10 links before you get to Gen. Pershing on Google. :(
the US cut off iran from the world and has already "made it rain", so to speak...
I concur with the spook theory here, although not necessarily due to an error. A known break in the cable may be the cover to install tap in the cable elsewhere (assuming that tapping an optical cable interrupts it if it is operating).
That's how they did it before. This kind of thing is pretty minor. I mean, look at the scope of the Glomar Explorer scam. If they could pull that off a bit of cable tapping is trivial.
My money is on any of the following:
Anguirus
BabyGodzilla
Baragon
Battra
Biollante
Destroyah
Ebirah
Fairy Mothra
Fire Rodan
Gabara
Gigan
Gigantic Flying Rock/UFO
Godzilla Junior
Godzillasaurus
Gojira
Gorosaurus
Hedorah
Kamacuras
King Caesar
King Ghidorah
Kumonga
LittleGodzilla
Manda
MechaGodzilla
MechaKingGhidorah
Megaguirus
Megalon
Meganula
Meganulon
Minya (Minilla)
Moguera
Monster X
Monster X II
Mothra
Oodako
Orgo
Rodan
SpaceGodzilla
Super MechaGodzilla (MechaGodzilla + Garuda)
Titanosaurus
Varan
I hope I didn't leave any of them out.
You KNOW how they get...
Maybe it's whatever caused the Bloop.
@28
you are in SO much trouble
http://members.fortunecity.com/cartman101/mecha3.jpg
Hmmn Does no one suspect his squidly faced godness, the mighty, mighty Cthulhu?
I can't help but think his slumber may have been disturbed by all the dull chatter flittering through these undersea inter-tubes.
I'd be cranky too.
ever notice how Cthulhu and the FSM are never seen together?
Are black ops kind of like monsters?
Big Japanese monsters would have been recorded on sonar by now.
Obviously, these are the Deep Ones! Hail Lord Dagon!
My money's on Jot.
But it was an accident. And later, during a typical hallucionogenic watercolor nightmare he prayed to God and was forgiven.
Nothing to see here. Please move along.
And for those of you unfamiliar with the awesome psychedelic genius that was Jot, here's the gadget episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMurvA2aiIc
I was thinking that someone tried to do a tribute to Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues and goofed up traveling from the Red Sea to the Med via the submarine channel Nemo charted. But who would be such a mean hearted bastard? Blaming Enoch Root works for me though ...
Where was it..korea or so..not sure ^^ Few months ago guys STOLE a underwater cable ; P THAT was awesome xD
This is just the beginning of the Yrr war.
Seriously: Have you read "The swarm" by Eschenbach ? If white crabs start to flood the coasts, im so outta this planet ^^
damn me..i meant the book by Frank Schaetzing..i really need a coffee right now xD
@38: Exactly what I thought, didnt know if the book was translated to english though ... great book btw
I'm curious when the first ships and oil-platforms will start to disappear ...
Well, clearly The Others have cut the cables. Ben ordered them to after Charlie blew up the underwater station.
The Kraken Wakes, John Wyndam, 1953
effects
https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/IEPM/Effects+of+Fibre+Outage+through+Mediterranean
t's nclr t m tht w rlly knw mch f nythng bt ths. r w trstng th gyptn Gv't tht n bts ct ths? t sms n thr ntrst t ply cy. Th crss srch n ths ss brngs p sm ntrstng rslts: http://mngdq.cm/srch.php?q=ntrnt+ct+gypt
Bigtime SF reader here and though I read Cryptonomicon too, and all that-
And I am also no conspiracy theorist-
I think I should mention a reality based book called "Blind Man's Bluff" by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew. I highly recommend it for anyone and everyone interested in our submarine service and what it can and does do ... and has done. (Also, for anyone looking for a non-fiction "page-turner!" ... It is thrilling.)
I'm not saying this is a hiccup result of their work or anything of the sort. I just believe they are capable of such a thing. And I'm reasonably sure, based on locations, that the incidents weren't carried out on behalf of the RIAA.
Unless the RIAA bought a sub or two. I wouldn't put it past them!
many ups to # 28...
however,
I think it was obamas' preemptive move on his race for the white house and securing american jobs...
Yep, it's a monster.
Step one: cut the cords
Step two: eat ppl
I highly recommend this terrific (and long) article
on the topic by Neal Stephenson:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html
maybe the goal was to force iran to use less secure communications media, i bet it's easier to snoop on satellite traffic than undersea cables.
(another compulsive re-reader of crytonomicon here, apparently with a better memory, shaftoe, subs, hidden gold, enoch root, randy waterhouse, tunnels, filipino women the most beautiful, the church steps, haikus everywhere, okay, i'll stop)
I think the Jimmy Carter would have found it pretty tough sailing from Alexandria to the UAE in *two days*; perhaps she's a land submarine?
Meanwhile, why assume the captain of $ship told the Egyptians the truth?
Echoing people above my first thought when I heard that multiple cables had been knocked out of action was Cryptonomicon.
Though Neal Stephenson sites his data haven for reasons of the narrative in the novel on a fictional island state of Kinakuta that is geographically close to the Philippines I think the most likely real world equivalent would be Bahrain or as chaostheantihero said above one of the UAE.
I'm more inclined to believe it was due to some kind of Leviathan than sabotage though.
A Big Daddy did it.
Gnomes
Uhhh...Smurfs?
Deep sea suicide bombers?
Tina B, (Re: #13) I think that's just one specific router, not all of Iran. Who knows, maybe they only have one router into Iran. But I doubt it.
It's about crippling the Euro-based Iranian Oil Bourse. Once oil trading in Euros gets underway the dollar will suffer even more.
I'm with Takuan #42, here. So, own up, Earth governments: who annoyed the xenobaths?
I don't think anyone's mentioned the James Bond Villians. My money is on Ernst.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Stavro_Blofeld
I suspect the ispods have finally started their attack on the feeble surface dwellers.
A tsunami warning device in the Sunda Strait has also gone missing, amid claims that it was "deliberately" removed.
http://news.my.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1218801
What's going on down there?
You're all way off the mark. This is obviously the work of the Atlantean hit squads, finally fighting back for us dumping cables all over their landscape.
Just you wait and see, there will be a message in a bottle soon outlining their demands for rent on sea bed use.
Gotta be a kaiju.
The Kraken wakes..
This was a plot device in The Swarm...
Mynocks
Hmm.... Don't forget Karel Čapek's Newts!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_with_the_Newts
Hmm, perhaps the earth's diameter is expanding -- and cables are stretching to their limits. And you thought the continents were simply drifting away on a sphere of fixed size. huh? =)
We all know 4chan is responsible.
#42 The Kraken Awakes -> that book was creepy, the harvesting scenes in particular
54 posted by ZippySpincycle , February 6, 2008 5:48 AM
Uhhh...Smurfs?
No effing way...it's those rotten SNORKS.
Sea devils?
Maybe Silurians as well?
Methinks the reign of the "Ape primitives" is at an end....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/entertainment_doctor_who_monsters/html/7.stm
I think it's John Locke. He really doesn't want the Losties to get off the island.
Global warming?
Splice & tap?
Wiretapping is getting UGLY!
I am surprised that nobody has yet mentioned Azorian Blue Hades as a possibility (cf. Stross.)