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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."
I don't know about that.
In a couple days some of them might have tentacles of their own, so...
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.
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.
The Konami code appears to be the code to disable Japan in real life.
(I'm going to hell for this...)