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A Fiber-Optic Cable To Inner Space
tetraconz writes "The University of Washington has been working on a vast 3000km undersea network to research the ocean floor off the West Coast. From the executive summary: (PDF) "The goal of NEPTUNE is to establish a coherent system of high-speed, submarine communication-control links using fiber-optic cables to connect remote, interactive experimental sites with land-based research laboratories and classrooms." This is an important project to explore the last unknown region of the Earth: the ocean. Check out the project homepage."
Fine. And for security we have Blowfish.
That seems like a lot of money just to find one little clown fish...
davejenkins.com |
This project is absolutely fantastic. We're finally beginning to systematically explore the ocean and the ocean floor. The implications here for technology, environmental studies, education, and research in all sorts of different arenas is staggering.
Agreed. It used to be said we knew more about outer space than the oceans, but finally this is starting to change. If you want to learn more, a good place to start is the amazing BBC documentary
Blue Planet. It contains some of the most beautiful images I have ever seen.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
This looks like an awfully expensive project.
Although I love technology, I always prefer to take a sceptical view when considering it's application. I often ask my clients, "if you didn't have a computer/network/whatever, how would you do this?" I find computer technology often blurs people's clarity of thinking, and if you say "how would you do this without a computer?" they see more clearly exactly what the issues are.
It may be that this is a very sensible project. However, it may also be that the cost of setting up this network might be better deployed focusing on the actual experiments themselves. My own view is that when it comes to the biological sciences, there's nothing quite like physically being there, so I'd prefer to see money spent on making dive trips easier/safer/less expensive.
Having said all of that, often this type of big project actually has multiple objectives. I can see lots of military uses for a big undersea network.
Oooooh we've terrorized the ocean good.. Whaling industry, fishing industry, oil spills, sewage wastes from the main land running from our rivers and streams. Yes there's plenty of things we've done to hurt the ocean environment w/out even going there.
I wouldn't be suprised if there was radioactive waste at the bottom of the sea somewhere. And this is off the top of my head w/out even looking.
Ever hear of E-waste? The electronics other nations get because they're outdated and only valuable for the minerals in their parts? Imagine all the polution thats been reported from it getting in to the water supply over there. Now realize that their water flows to the ocean eventually. More terrorization of the worlds oceans. All this probebly isn't even the tip of the ice berg so to speak.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~