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Kevlar Protects Cables From Sharks, Experts Look For Protection From Shark Week
Brandon Butler writes As an ode to Shark Week: Sharks have been known to show an appetite for fiber cables underwater, and last week a Google official said to prevent sharks from wreaking havoc on the company's trans-Pacific fiber lines, it wraps them in Kevlar. It's believed that the emission of electrical currents from the fiber piping is mistaken by sharks occasionally as prey. In related news, a growing number of scientists are becoming disgruntled with the Discovery network's sensationalist programs. Many shark experts are refusing to work with the channel after such programs as their Megalodon "documentary" and their latest Shark of Darkness (not to mention the mermaid special, which was sadly missing a singing crab.)
Sockatume writes The Verge has an article on Discovery's hugely successful Shark Week, discussing how the increasing sensationalist special event misrepresents science and exploits nature and local history for shock value. Scientists who appeared in and were misrepresented by the channel's programming are beginning to encourage their peers to stay away from the Discovery network, which stands by the programming 's viewing figures.
Sockatume writes The Verge has an article on Discovery's hugely successful Shark Week, discussing how the increasing sensationalist special event misrepresents science and exploits nature and local history for shock value. Scientists who appeared in and were misrepresented by the channel's programming are beginning to encourage their peers to stay away from the Discovery network, which stands by the programming 's viewing figures.
Is this just static building up along the lining, or is there actual photonic/electrical conversion going on?
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Fiber carries light from fricken' lasers
Discovery Channel is the biggest joke going on TV now. Seems like career suicide for any rreputble scientist.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
They wrap the sharks in kevlar? Now there is an exciting job. How much does it pay?
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
...for coexisting with humanity: "Don't be delicious".
In all seriousness, can't we, just for once, leave another species the fuck alone?! Yeah, they're tasty as all get out, but they won't make your dick bigger, your hair grow back, or cure cancer/ebola/aids.
Here's a hint: stay away from the Mako's, they're the assholes of the shark world. Otherwise, just appreciate that sharks were here millions of hears before us, and let them be.
-Random Jet
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
For the past 15 years, nearly all the channels such as history channel, discovery, etc have been nearly wothless, waste your time with ratings tactics, etc. Some physics series (NDT, Brian Cox) and maybe animal planet being an exception?
It's easier just to read up on the rest without the bullshit, the commercials, and the ratings grab tactics. Even on netflix, it's rare that a documentary is worth watching, because of the editing geared towards TV.
It's telling when the most worthwhile educational show the last years came out on Fox.
Discovery Channel has long since gone the way of the History Channel, and now bears only coincidental moments of truth.
All they care about are ratings, and if lying to the public means ratings, well, obviously, Discovery is all over that.
As a scientist quoted in any of the current Shark Week "dramas" (they don't even rate the "docudrama" label), I'd sue Discovery for misrepresentation and libel. They quoted out of context and stitched together several scientist's different takes (not to mention failing to inform them about the subject being talked about, rather lying to them about the nature of the interview). As a consequence, the "scientist" never said any of the things they were purported to say.
Don't watch Shark Week. Don't watch Discovery/History/TLC or anything like that any more. heck, even NatGeo is bad. It's a shame.
There are always four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth, and what really happened.
Always have. But what put me over the edge were the ads from a year or two ago. Some stupid jerk-off shouting "SHARKWEEK" at the end of it.
I couldn't avoid it or mute it fast enough (TV on in the background while I'm doing something else). Didn't matter what channel I was watching, since every channel promotes shit on every other channel.
there's always a bigger fish.
With regards to Discovery, I too have noticed a degrading of quality from them over the years. To be honest the only real show I ever watched from them in recent times was MythBusters, but I don't even watch that anymore because of how far it's fallen. Very little science to speak of, an apparent focus more on explosions and poor attempts at (scripted) humor than actually investigating a myth to its fullest, not to mention of course the lack of any real proper myths these days that aren't from movies or TV shows or anything other than pop culture, but I suppose there's a limit to how many myths there actually are and can be tested, so I'll not be too hard on them for that.
Oh and of course, all the irritating cross-promotional shit that appears on MythBusters connecting them to other Discovery shows that I have no interest in, but the powers that be still feel the need to plaster the screen with ads for at every occasion (including of course random Twitter messages that serve no purpose but to say "hey look how good our show is" even though you're WATCHING the fucking thing at the same time).
I've heard MythBusters has had its budget steadily decreased despite the show becoming more and more popular, so with this current focus MythBusters has on things, not to mention Shark Week and the lack of actual truth and rather a push for misrepresentation in the name of entertainment... if taking their shows down this party is hugely successful for Discovery, then people have themselves to blame.
It appears that one has to go towards an anti-intellectual stance if one wants to make profitable entertainment. I'm not against dumb entertainment at times, but fuck, there's barely anything left on commercial TV that isn't pandering to base standards and give a shit about integrity anymore.
Kevlar does not protect from wireshark!
Kevlar is what causes sharknadoes to happen.
"...exploits nature and local history for shark value."
So, are we supposed to discuss the coolness of using Kevlar to combat shark attacks, or the outrage of the Discovery network's sensationalist programming?
I am not a sig.
It's actual photonic capacitance causing the induced charge within the lining
I doubt this is anywhere near as significant as the 3000-4000VDC electricity for the repeater modules along the cable.
Please help metamoderate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_landing_point
(for example. There are also some cool youtube videos on this subject, I believe.)
Please help metamoderate.
Your logic would be fine if TV media was actually a free market. In fact when many of these channels came out they were in competing spaces, and provided a variety of material. All TV News today is the same shit, reporting stories based on information from the same source. All non-News has the same owners, doing the same shit the same way with the same sources.
When "The Discovery Channel" became a piece of shit we went to "TLC" and so did most other people I know ( In can't speak for everyone obviously, but ratings show similar trending). When TLC went to shit we went to History, and now that is shit too. Same fucking owner doing the same thing over and over.
Oh I know, it's really easy for you or I to get a license to broadcast right? Pretty cheap for a startup to get broadcast space and compete too right? No, it's a licensing nightmare which is allegedly controlled by the FCC who is lobbied by those same companies that turned things to shit that block new entrants.
You are the same type of person that blames people for voting for Obama over Romney because your shit sandwich was better than theirs right? Yeah, I thought as much. Troll.
looks like shark week has jumped the shark
"all i wanted was a pepsi..."
Every month, when "Shark Week" arrives, I'll start wearing kevlar. My connection might be wireless, but my head isn't.
How many people pay attention to or even care about "shark week"? Who gets to decide what week is what?
"discussing how the increasing sensationalist special event misrepresents science and exploits nature and local history for shock value"
That is what every news channel and "educational" channel are. You can't watch anything and believe everything they said. The show will always spin the story to get as much viewership as possible, being true no longer matters since the majority will take it as truth anyway.
Stop using insulation that tastes like chicken. Or the shark equivalent of chicken...
Instead of polluting the oceans with these huge cables, we should attach fricken lasers to sharks.
At this point you might think I am going to do another tired re run of the Dr Evil comment, but if you had the imagination that he did you would realise that by also fitting optical detectors on sharks you could have a point to point internet mesh across all sharks in the ocean. SharkNet would not have a single point of failure as like the internet is supposed to do it could find another route in the event of the loss of any shark node.
I humbly submit that Dr Evil was a visionary who was simply ahead of his time and should be canonised into the pantheon of saints alongside Saint Steve of Jobs
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Ever since 2007 where they announced that hey decided to focus on "the people behind the technology, than the technology", they have been working hard to become nothing more than yet another "reality" show channel.
When I dropped cable tv 2 years ago, their transformation seemed to be complete and they had nothng but camera whores in their shows.
At the very least the History Channel should put ironic quotes around the word "History."
It did change the name of History Channel International to H2; I have to give them that.
Who gets to decide what week is what?
Part of that is the job of Nielsen Media Research, which designates a few specific weeks per year as sweeps weeks. In particular, Shark Week is the name used by Discovery for an annual week-long programming block. And lately it has had splash-over synergy with another network's Sharknado .
66% of their poll-takers believe that mermaids are real. I have some Jesus-riding-a-dinosaur pictuires I want to sell these people.
Next think you know someone will be claiming an Earth-ending attack of the atmosphere.
Will it be called Climate Week?
When the The Learning Channel was purchased by Discovery that was the end. Series such as Connections were no more while almost anti-scientific crap became the norm. It seems to be about the same timeline as The History Channel moving from History to Aliens.
It's been found that rare earth metals like neodymium are highly effective as shark deterrents. No other fish are effected except skates, and the reaction of sharks to the metal is dramatic and instantaneous. The effect has something to do with a unique quality of shark skin, which when brought into the vicinity of neodymium produces an electric charge that sharks don't like at all.
For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The only liability to this approach is that the metals are gradually depleted and must be replaced, but depending upon how much it's costing to maintain the fiber without it, it may be well worth it.
NR
" (not to mention the mermaid special, which was sadly missing a singing crab.)"
Ah, Discovery! Putting honest singing crabs out of work...!
emission of electrical currents from the fiber piping
How do you get electrical emissions from fiber optic cabling?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
If fiber some how is capable of "leaking electrical" emissions what would a bunch of rare earth magnets do?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I used to think of the Discovery Channel as being good - I've bought a lot of their DVDs for our kids over the years. But the distortion is a real problem.
These are presented as factual, scientific documentaries but they're filled with sensational half-truths and outright lies. I have had seven different documentary companies approach me about documenting our family farm in made for TV specials or even a 13 week series. But because of the distortions I've read about (e.g., Mermaid incident and others) I don't trust them to do it right so the answer has always been no.
Besides, I have farming, homeschooling and family time to attend to. I don't even have or watch TV.
Next on Discovery, discover how this once-obscure hobbyist "computer program" now runs key parts of the Internet and even the core of that computer-in-your-pocket that you call a telephone. See the dangers as the Discovery Channel uncovers 10 year old bugs in "embedded systems" are ticking time bombs that could destroy the Internet as we know it if they go off. ....
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Keep the sharks away. Originally it was believed that rare earth magnets were necessary to produce the effect, but later it was discovered that it depended only upon the presence of the rare earth metal, which must be electro-positive. The Wikipedia article linked from my previous post gives a good explanation of the mechanism. It has nothing to do, of course, with the fiber optics. They're using fishing hooks plated with neodymium to help prevent accidental catching of sharks by fishing boats.
NR
No. PBS is still huffing along, churning out Nova, Frontline, Nature, American Experience, Wild!, Secrets of the Dead, History Detectives, Charlie Rose, This Old House, and more, like they have for decades.
America's Test Kitchen is the last great cooking show after Alton Brown hung up his apron.
Everything else is "reality" competition or straight-out food pr0n.
Not to be confused with "Shart Week" that was recently on some cable televsion network...I forgot which.
How much do we spend on armouring cables, and is this the right solution to the problem?
For the short term, we might need to armour the cables, but it seems like a better long term approach would have to follow from research that lets us better understand the electrosensory mechanisms that sharks (like skates and rays) use to sense prey.
This could help us understand why the sharks mistake cables for prey, with the goal of possibly being able to change the design of the cables and/or the signalling to reduce the likelihood of shark attack.
We have a very simple and crude understanding of the electro-sensory systems of these creatures, but the current research (as of the last last time I looked at it) is lacking in the kinds of details engineers would need to design systems.
There is so much to learn about the sensory and nervous systems of animals, and much of this research will eventually benefit humans. This seems like a great opportunity for a long term research project that will be beneficial to society and, as a bonus, a project that won't automatically have the enviro- and animal-rights fanatics up in arms ...