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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."

21 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. 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!
  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: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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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 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.
    2. 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
  8. 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.
  9. 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!
  10. citation provided. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  11. 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
  12. 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...)

  13. 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.

  14. 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.........
  15. 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

  16. 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.
  17. 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?
  18. 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.

  19. 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.