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Undersea Cables Damaged By Earthquake

ColoradoAuthor writes "The horrific earthquake and the ensuing tsunami in Japan have caused widespread damage to undersea communications, according to data collected by telecom industry sources. Initially, it was thought that the damage to the cables that connect Japan and Asia to each other and other parts of the world was limited, but new data shows the extent of the problems."

91 comments

  1. Re:yeah.. by Desler · · Score: 0

    But how else are they going to download the latest episodes of their favorite moe show and stream wacky japanese eel erotica clips

  2. Re:yeah.. by camperdave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The people who care are the hundreds of thousands, nay the millions of people who are trying to contact loved ones in the quake zone.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  3. Re:yeah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, because underseas telecommunications cables are only used for the Internet. They couldn't be used for, say, telecommunications.

    Who cares if the news can get out? Who cares if family members can reach each other? Who cares about coordinating rescue and relief efforts?

  4. Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by elrous0 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Please god, say no.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please god, say no.

      Of course not. Most of it is hosted in the US to get around Japanese censorship laws.

      If anything, it's the Japanese who will have to do without tentacle porn for a while.

    2. Re:Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't know about that.
      In a couple days some of them might have tentacles of their own, so...

    3. Re:Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many were washed out to sea. They might be getting real tentacle porn for a little while.

    4. Re:Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Why Gilbert Godfrey, you little asshole, lost your cushy two-syllable Aflac job but still at it?

    5. Re:Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      Why Gilbert Godfrey, you little asshole, lost your cushy two-syllable [latimes.com] Aflac job but still at it?

      Wow....political correctness is really going pretty far these days. I mean, EVERY time there is a tragedy or crisis, these type of jokes come out.

      Anyone remember the Challenger explosion and the jokes that followed that?

      What does NASA stand for?

      Need Another Seven Astronauts

      Tasteless? Sure...but that's just human nature, gallows humor. Are we not too "PC" to allow this anymore?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    6. Re:Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      I agree with you but only two of his twelve Japan Tsunami jokes were funny

    7. Re:Does this mean the hentai is down?!?!? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Gilbert is just another comic who has seen a niche and is working aggressively to prevent anyone else from crawling into it with him. He's The Loud, Obtuse Idiot. People are actually making jokes about how Ross is The Old Comedian. Carlin recently gave up The Dirty Old Man, but it'll be a while before anyone really attempts to own that again, or maybe it'll just be some time before they can get away with it.

      Or in other words, Gilbert is never funny, and he knows it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  5. "new data show" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know how awkward it sounds, but it is plural.

    1. Re:"new data show" by sexconker · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I know how awkward it sounds, but it is plural.

      No. It's not. Data is not the plural of datum. Data is a substance.
      Much as you can't have too many rice, you can't have too many data. You can, however, have too much rice/data, and too many grains/points of rice/data.
      A datum is a single data point. Data itself is unquantifiable until you are talking about the specific points of data. When the sentence says "New data shows...", it is clear that the data in question is akin to information, knowledge, insight, measurements, etc. to every single person on the planet except the guy who took the measurements.

      Data is singular.

    2. Re:"new data show" by Infiniti2000 · · Score: 2

      Agreed with sexconker (great name btw), but specifically, data is a mass noun in addition to be plural for datum. There are specific references from the Wiki page that you can go look up, if you don't believe the Wiki page in the first place.

    3. Re:"new data show" by beschra · · Score: 1

      Data is a substance? The only physically substantive data I can think of is from TNG. And I miss him.

      --
      It is unwise to ascribe motive
    4. Re:"new data show" by _0xd0ad · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try the dictionary next time.

      http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/data

      Data leads a life of its own quite independent of datum, of which it was originally the plural. It occurs in two constructions: as a plural noun (like earnings), taking a plural verb and plural modifiers (as these, many, a few) but not cardinal numbers, and serving as a referent for plural pronouns (as they, them); and as an abstract mass noun (like information), taking a singular verb and singular modifiers (as this, much, little), and being referred to by a singular pronoun (it). Both constructions are standard.

    5. Re:"new data show" by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 1

      The photons and electrons in the cables have "substance", while a photon has no mass it has measurable properties and electrons have mass.

    6. Re:"new data show" by WhiteDragon · · Score: 2

      Try the dictionary next time.

      http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/data

      Data leads a life of its own quite independent of datum, of which it was originally the plural. It occurs in two constructions: as a plural noun (like earnings), taking a plural verb and plural modifiers (as these, many, a few) but not cardinal numbers, and serving as a referent for plural pronouns (as they, them); and as an abstract mass noun (like information), taking a singular verb and singular modifiers (as this, much, little), and being referred to by a singular pronoun (it). Both constructions are standard.

      Nice, a succinct answer to the data/datum "controversy" that seems to upset many nerds...

      --
      Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
  6. Re:yeah.. by AhabTheArab · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're mostly already dead, so not too many more stray survivors to be found. Not everybody can dig for bodies. Not everybody can save the world from nuclear disaster. Not everybody can rebuild houses. These cables are somebody's responsibility and are very important in their own right. Clearly they're not THE TOP PRIORITY, but somebody has to address it sooner or later.

  7. Godzilla by cgfsd · · Score: 1, Funny

    This is a government cover up, we all know it was actually Godzilla that caused it!

    1. Re:Godzilla by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      This is a government cover up, we all know it was actually Godzilla that caused it!

      Your post might be funny if a.) The timing didn't suck, and, b.) it contained a humorous punchline.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    2. Re:Godzilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your post is so original! not!

    3. Re:Godzilla by cobrausn · · Score: 1

      'not'? Really? We're using that again?

      --
      How does it feel to be a liar with pants constantly on fire?
    4. Re:Godzilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes! ... Not!

    5. Re:Godzilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Too Soonami?

    6. Re:Godzilla by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

      Your post might be funny if a.) The timing didn't suck

      I agree. That comma should definitely have been an ellipsis. However, it could also be argued that you simply read it badly.

    7. Re:Godzilla by Locke2005 · · Score: 2

      I'm just jealous because he posted that comment before I could! Sigh...

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    8. Re:Godzilla by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Hello! The 80's called... they want their meme back!

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    9. Re:Godzilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gee the rest of the world didn't joke about 9/11 for years, if not ever. What part of this whole affair was funny?

    10. Re:Godzilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No the timing was just fine, you're just an uptight douche.

    11. Re:Godzilla by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      No the timing was just fine, you're just an uptight douche.

      Yes, I'm an uptight douche who doesn't think godzilla jokes are funny during an on-going nuclear crisis. Sue me.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    12. Re:Godzilla by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

      When did I say it was funny? It's only funny until someone gets hurt.

    13. Re:Godzilla by lgw · · Score: 2

      Godzilla always comes in times of nuclear crisis. It's what she does. Get over yourself.

      Not to mention that the "nuclear crisis" exists only in the minds of the media. Here's a realistic assessment from an MIT prof. Some heroic Japanese workers pumped enough seawater on the overheated core to keep the problem from becoming any worse than Three Mile Island. With any luck the death toll will be the same. here's a real-time Geiger counter in Tokyo if you want to follow along.

      Meanwhile, real relief efforts are needed for areas struck by the tsunami, where thousands were killed.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    14. Re:Godzilla by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      So, we agree that the timing's bad. Cool cool.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    15. Re:Godzilla by lgw · · Score: 1

      Eh? I wasn't taking issue with your claim that Godzilla jokes aren't funny in a time of nuclear crisis (though I don't agree), but with the claim that this is a time of nuclear crises. It's not - nothing all that bad has happened, and realistic-worst-case nothing all that bad can happen. The media coverage is a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    16. Re:Godzilla by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      People are worried and it's an on-going thing. For this reason, whether or not the media is blowing it out of proportion doesn't affect my view that the timing of that joke sucks. I don't know why anybody's fixating on that part of my post for the simple reason that the quality of that joke was so poor that even Paulie Shore could have come up with something better.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    17. Re:Godzilla by lgw · · Score: 1

      Ahh, but a "fake" crisis is exactly the right time to be making jokes. The purpose of the human humor response is to deflate tension and prevent overreaction.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    18. Re:Godzilla by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Sure, but not so quickly after so many people died.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  8. Re:yeah.. by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

    Hundreds of thousands of people trying to see if their loved ones are safe, IS THE INTERNET UP, everywhere?

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  9. Re:yeah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Reading your post is amazing to me, because it only highlights how fascinating it is that America went from dehumanizing Japan to feeling much like its older brother, with a sometimes overboard sense of protectionism. Thank you, for making us remember how far we've come (well, most of us anyway...).

  10. Re:yeah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    please don't breed, in fact just to be sure can you just drink 30 or 40 gallons of bleach?

  11. Re:yeah.. by Seumas · · Score: 1

    And the telcos who surely need tens of billions of dollars in government aid to repair the cables, surely!

  12. Well, yeah by asylumx · · Score: 2

    The thing shifted the entire island by 8ft, I'm not surprised our comm cables were damaged.

    1. Re:Well, yeah by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      The entire island of Honshu? [[Citation needed]]

      Seriously, if the entire island was moved 8ft, then I suspect the damage would be far greater and more widespread than it is.

    2. Re:Well, yeah by SydShamino · · Score: 3

      The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.

      From CNN.

      Japan's recent massive earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, appears to have moved the island by about eight feet (2.4 meters), the US Geological Survey said.

      From AFP.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    3. Re:Well, yeah by Local+ID10T · · Score: 2

      The entire island of Honshu? [[Citation needed]]

      Seriously, if the entire island was moved 8ft, then I suspect the damage would be far greater and more widespread than it is.

      USGS: Earthquake in Japan Moves Honshu Island 2.4 Meters

      --
      "You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
    4. Re:Well, yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...how much greater damage is really needed? It split roads open like zippers, dropped buildings like they were made of cards, caused fires and a massive rush on emergency services and disaster relief there, and that was before the tsunami (which, recall, is caused by that earthquake) came in to start the rest of the mess.

      The entire devastation there, including the reactor issues, all boils down to the earthquake and its after-effects.

    5. Re:Well, yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-12/world/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth_1_tsunami-usgs-geophysicist-quake?_s=PM:WORLD
      http://www.newser.com/story/113988/earthquake-moved-japan-8-feet.html

      of course you can google as well as me.

    6. Re:Well, yeah by ArundelCastle · · Score: 1

      British Geological Survey is reporting up to 13 ft. to the east. Revisions will probably settle down and start agreeing in a couple of weeks.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12732335
      http://www.slate.com/id/2288382/

      Remember folks, the piece of earth that moved can be larger than the country sitting on top of it. In the case of Japan it almost is. When you jog a table it doesn't break your dinner plates in half.
      http://crack.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/updates/louie/kobe/kobe-sci.html

  13. Re:yeah.. by Seumas · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That's nothing. Have you read some of the comments on "news" sites? I was reading an article on a paper's website about the US looking to provide some assistance to Japan and the comments tended to be something like "serves them right, we should let them die for WWII!".

    Fortunately, they're allowed to breed and vote the same as everyone else. Uh . . . hurrah. :/

  14. A better prime directive... by Oxford_Comma_Lover · · Score: 2

    Here's an idea this conversation reminds me of... let's not hold people responsible (either in personal retribution or for fiscal remuneration) for the sins of their progenitors unless (1) they actively glorify them, *AND* (2) they rise to the level of genocide, war crimes, or population displacement.

    There are enough living warlords and genocidal assholes that we don't need to go looking for dead ones.

    That would be a much better Federation Prime Directive than the one they came up with. Much more tied to IRL than the one they used, which is effectively about how to do fieldwork in anthropology--but not as helpful.

    --
    -- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
  15. yeah its broke... by joocemann · · Score: 1

    .. go fix it. No need to sit around and get all freaked out for one more foxnewsin' reason. Just fix it and move on.

  16. Re:yeah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think it's a generational thing. My dad used to golf with a guy who fought in WWII. One day, the golfers behind them on one of the holes were Japanese businessmen. My dad said the guy went completely nuts, yanked a nine iron out of his bag, and started chasing the poor little Japanese guys around the tee area, yelling bloody murder. It took my dad and two other guys to get him under control. The cops let it go, because apparently most of the guys in his unit were killed by Japanese soldiers and he had some, ah, "issues".

    When I went through boot camp, they tried to drill it into our heads that the Japanese were these terrible, warlike beasts who would eat our children and pillage our women if they could. They kept harping on the Bataan Death March and other atrocities. For a couple of years after I got out, I didn't like Japanese people particularly, but one year at my college I actually MET some, and they were some of the coolest people I ever knew.

    For some reason, that did it, and I've liked them a lot ever since. When I hear someone talking as if Japanese people have fangs and a tail, I think back to those interesting, pacifist kids in school and I roll my eyes.

  17. Re:yeah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have seen those comments. If I had lived outside the US I would think they burn Japanese effigies on a daily basis. Fortunately I spent much time there and I know that doesn't represent the common person at all.

    Lately the 'outrage' seems to be coming from 20-somethings who had no real education and only distorted films like Pearl Harbor to guide their opinion.

  18. Nuclear alert and underground cables by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a good thing that some cables still work to allow communications. For example, I just heard about another incident at the nuclear power plant that @*^^^#$ NO CARRIER ;-)

  19. citation provided. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  20. Re:yeah.. by Nexus7 · · Score: 0

    You said: " When I went through boot camp, they tried to drill it into our heads that the Japanese were these terrible, warlike beasts who would eat our children and pillage our women if they could. They kept harping on the Bataan Death March and other atrocities."

    They still do that. Now it isn't the Japanese, but there's always someone. I think they don't think they can motivate soldiers unless there are sub-human "bad guys" that we have to save someone else from.

    For whatever reason...

  21. monday morning quarterback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maintenance loop could have fixed it.

  22. Pearl Harbor? by Chibi+Merrow · · Score: 2

    Pearl Harbor just made me hate Americans... One American, specifically... Michael Bey.

    --
    Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
    Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
    1. Re:Pearl Harbor? by overlordofmu · · Score: 1

      Don't hate Michael Bay. Hate his movies.

  23. Spam should go down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it affected china cables in any form then spam should go down

    1. Re:Spam should go down by tokul · · Score: 1

      If it affected china cables in any form then spam should go down

      If tsunami hits east coast somewhere close to Pennsylvania and rolls over west coast next to LA or Seattle, then spam will go down.

  24. Who'd have guessed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Konami code appears to be the code to disable Japan in real life.

    (I'm going to hell for this...)

  25. Underseas communications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's ridiculous. Fish don't talk so why would we care?

    1. Re:Underseas communications? by Predius · · Score: 1

      Aquaman weeps some more...

    2. Re:Underseas communications? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      he only talked AT them when he needed a favor, some friend

  26. Re:yeah.. by magarity · · Score: 2

    That's nothing. Have you read some of the comments on "news" sites? I was reading an article on a paper's website about the US looking to provide some assistance to Japan and the comments tended to be something like "serves them right, we should let them die for WWII!".

    Yes, and those comments are nothing compared to the comments on the Chinese websites. The US remembers an attack by a foreign military against a US military target, albeit a sneak attack. The Chinese remember the rape of Nanjing.

  27. Slammer worm taking some time off since the quake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I noticed on my IPS that slammer worm attacks have gone way down since the earthquake.
    Taiwanese botnets are impacted. Let's just leave it.

    Look at the graph.
    http://isc.incidents.org/port.html?port=1434

  28. last paragraph: 'earthquake science is primitive' by nido · · Score: 0

    i mean, they can make measurements & all that, but they really have no idea what causes the earth to shake, beyond their primitive understanding of 'plate techtonics'.

    ... The Japanese quake comes just weeks after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch on February 22, toppling historic buildings and killing more than 150 people. The timeframe of the two quakes have raised questions whether the two incidents are related, but experts say the distance between the two incidents makes that unlikely.

    -Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth's axis

    Said as if the whole earth isn't connected to itself, and the gravitational vectors of the whole solar system don't matter either. Big earthquakes have a tendency to happen in the months around the solstice, November -> March. All the big quakes in recent memory have been in this time frame:

    Haiti Earthquake: 12 January 2010
    2004 Indian Ocean earthquake: December 26, 2004
    2010 Chile Earthquake: February 27, 2010
    2011 Japan Earthquake: March 11, 2011

    From that wikipedia list: 12 of the largest quakes on record occurred between December and March, 4 in November, and only 8 were between May and October. So... What's so important about the winter months?

    Well, the earth's Perihelion (closest approach to the sun) is about on January 4th. In the winter months the sun is putting a little bit more of a 'tug' on the earth's crust.

    I'm on an email list of a guy that watches worldwide earthquake reports. He commented on the New Zealand quake, and gave a 'heads up' for the Ring of Fire. When this quake hit, he noted that the moon's perigee is coming up on March 19th, and that the earth would keep shaking until that influence passed.

    The crust of the earth is sorta like a fragile eggshell - all it takes to crack is the right combination of spin axis/wobble and gravitational vectors in the solar system (gotta watch out for when Jupiter aligns with Mars, you know? :).

    --
    Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
    www.teslabox.com
  29. Re:yeah.. by mcneely.mike · · Score: 0

    and don't call me shirley.

    I said, don't call me SHIRLEY!!!

    --
    soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
  30. Disaster by rawler · · Score: 1

    It's both a natural AND a virtual disaster.

  31. Leaking packets... by blueforce · · Score: 1

    The sea is being polluted with leaking packets. Rumor has it they're going to utilize the massive amount of internet porn to try a junk shot to stop it....

    --
    If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
    1. Re:Leaking packets... by snspdaarf · · Score: 1

      porn to try a junk shot to stop it....

      I see what you did there.

      --
      Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  32. Re:last paragraph: 'earthquake science is primitiv by jeffmeden · · Score: 3, Informative

    You know there are two solstices each year, right? And that the quake hit two weeks ahead of the middle of the two? Stick with the perihelion theory, it works better in this case.

    #badscience

  33. Re:yeah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can understand soldiers in combat not getting over it. What's your excuse?

    FWIW, my father was in the Pacific theatre, but was not in combat. The closest he came was being in Ulithe harbor when a nearby ship got torpedoed by a midget sub. That was towards the end of the war. Later, he was stationed near Japan. He never said much about them one way or another. He always bought American cars. The last car he bought before he died was a Toyota--he'd finally gotten disgusted with the US product.

  34. confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I cant understand why they just simply didnt just add some extra cable to pick up the slack.

  35. Re:last paragraph: 'earthquake science is primitiv by LateArthurDent · · Score: 4, Informative

    From that wikipedia list: 12 of the largest quakes on record occurred between December and March, 4 in November, and only 8 were between May and October. So... What's so important about the winter months?

    Nothing. You've offered a 4 month window out of 12 months, and showed us 12 of the largest quakes out of the top 24 landed in that period. You'd expect the mean to be eight, if quakes are completely random. I ran a t-test separating the quakes listed on your wikipedia page by 4-month groups, making your december-march one group, may-july another, and august-november the third one. Assuming the null hypothesis that quakes are completely random, the two-tailed P value for that sample was 0.5242. ie, Not statistically significant at all.

  36. Re:last paragraph: 'earthquake science is primitiv by internettoughguy · · Score: 2

    I'm on an email list of a guy that watches worldwide earthquake reports. He commented on the New Zealand quake, and gave a 'heads up' for the Ring of Fire.

    Ken Ring is just a crank.

  37. Just Look at All the Redundant Paths by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    No worries, in the cable map of Japan there are all manner of redundant paths out of the country. Really, compared to the misery of hundreds of thousands in the NE, the IT situation is of no import.

    1. Re:Just Look at All the Redundant Paths by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      No worries, in the cable map of Japan there are all manner of redundant paths out of the country.

      Really, compared to the misery of hundreds of thousands in the NE, the IT situation is of no import.

      Even if the drop in data transmission was due ENTIRELY to damage to the cables (which it almost certainly isn't), I'd have to say that being operational at 85-90% of former levels is pretty damn good given the situation. I'd dare say there is a VERY long list of things that needs to be fixed more than those cables.

      This is not to say that data flow is not important -- for one thing, it keeps people who have nowhere to go from getting cabin fever -- but when your house is on fire, you don't worry about the fact that the paint is peeling.

      I was actually surprised and impressed that in those early hours after the earthquake, the communications infrastructure of Japan (at least central Japan) seemed to be largely functional. When the phones stopped working it was because everyone wanted to use the system at the same time. This is understandable, but not something for which capacity was provisioned. If only data connections could deliver food!

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    2. Re:Just Look at All the Redundant Paths by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah. The damage is probably minimal.. but if the Big ISP's and cable laying companies can make it out to be major damage, I'm sure they are looking at a very profitable quarter.. heck, maybe they can get the insurance companies AND 3 or 4 nations to help pay for all the "repairs".

  38. Sympahty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We must show sympathy for this tragedy.

    Regards,
    ovgadget