In case you missed the news, internet cables serving the Middle East have had a rough week, with anywhere up to five major cables being cut over the last week.
CrunchGear has been following the whole story, but we’ve not covered it until now because internet cables being cut isn’t as an irregular occurrence as you might think. Many of the companies behind these cables are essentially lazy, and simply drop them on the ocean floor, where ships can drop anchor and take them out at random. Five (or possibly less) cables were cut resulting in major outages in Iran (possibly the whole country, but possibly not) and other Middle Eastern countries. The cable cuts have resulted in more conspiracy theories than a Ron Paul meetup. The Economist has more on the theories.
What perked our interest was an article Wednesday from the Wall Street Journal covering the story that included the very funky image top right. Yes, that’s a Shark with laser beams on its head. There was much discussion about the Wall Street Journals editorial credibility post News Corp, and finally we are seeing the results. Personally I don’t mind the change that much, sharks with laser beams on their heads makes for a more lively and creative Wall Street Journal, but I’m betting I might be in the minority with that conclusion. What do you think?
Seems perfectly logical to me, they’ve got to compete with Digg somehow!
THE HONOR SYSTEM!
Lets work together!!
LETS MAKE ALOT OF MONEY TOGETHER!!!
ITS EASY IF YOU FOLLOW THE RULES AND MUST BE HONEST. THIS SYSTEM IS ALL ABOUT THE HONOR SYSTEM. JUST FOLLOW THE STEPS AND YOU AND I CAN MAKE A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY!!! And its all perfectly legal. This system is even supported by The Oprah show, by 20/20, and even by Pay PAL.
Follow these steps so that you and I can make some money together:
1) Send one dollar by way of pay pal (pay pal only requires and email address to be able to send money, its really quiet simple) to each of the 6 people on the list bellow.
(note: you must have a premier or business pay pal account to receive payments)
2) Now that you have done that you can put your name on the list. (Copy/Paste this entire message to word or note pad, so that you can edit this message.) Take the top name off the list and Move the other 5 names up, 2 becomes 1, 3 becomes 2, 4 becomes 3, 5 becomes 4, 6 becomes 5, and then you put your name at the bottom in the 6 spot.
3) Now copy/paste this entire message, and post it to as many blogs, news groups email address’s as possible.
Email Addresses:
1) reesef@yahoo.com.
2) artoffic@grics.net
3) Devilangel266@hotmail.com
4) wingm@shaw.ca
5) chr0mspar@yahoo.com
6) brandonlandrysemail@gmail.com
REMEMBER!!! WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!!
THIS SYSTEM IS ALL ABOUT HELPING EACH OTHER. SO YOU MUST BE HONEST AND SEND OUT A DOLLAR TO EACH PERSON ON THE LIST.
ALSO YOU MUST SEND OUT THIS MESSAGE TO AT LEAST 200 NEWS GROUPS, BLOGS AND EMAIL ADDRESS’S TO START TO NOTICE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF MONEY BEING SENT TO YOUR PAY PAL ACCOUNT.
HAVE FUN WITH IT! BE CREATIVE FIGURE OUT WAYS TO GET THIS MESSAGE TO THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF PEOPLE AT A TIME
I for one welcome our new shark overlords…
Lynx
rofl, although I’m thinking this sort of content is more Reddit than Digg
I am confused! What has this this cable cutting problem to do with this weird shark thing ? You mean to say that these sharks with laser beems came from space and landed on these wires ??? :S
lol
Ghaus
the WSJ floated the rumor, complete with graphic, it’s one of the weirder conspiracy theories floating around this story….so yes, apparently sharks with lasers cut the cables
It’s just a Shark Tale!!!!
dude, it’s just a tech blog on wsj (http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/) and there are similar funny images on previous posts as well.
are you going to expect the same high standards as, say, their editorial page?
quit killing joy – there’s too little of it around anyway
smile a little
-prash
Just Now – Google.Com lost in Indonesia
Looks like a DNS blockage – the implications are enormous.
certain (mundane) websites in Singapore are now blocked from Jakarta also.
I believe Wired did some actual reporting on this issue so I’d check out their article.
Few corrections to your article:
a) Iran was not cut off
b) there was no 5th cable it was a power outage from weeks ago.
c) very few countries were severely affected since everything was rerouted
http://blog.wir...ut-the-cab.html
prash #7
I am smiling a little, hence this post, perhaps the punch line/ survey wasn’t in good spirits enough
ur info is not that accurate either. I-ran??? huh, i thought it was India that was affected the most.
dMix #9
I didn’t say Iran was cut off, read the article again. I also didn’t say it was 5, I said anywhere up to five. Could it have not been clearer? Seriously, read the article again before trolling, eh!
Great photo! Good to see they are sprucing up the WSJ. But to answer the question, I have absolutely no faith left in the publication.
Muhahaha.
“You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?”
I bet Austin Powers is investigating! dr. evil wants to disable the internet, we can’t let this happen.
“Viewed this way, it’s two incidents in a week, which is higher than average but not unusual – last year their were 50 damaged cables in the Atlantic alone.”
One would hope that the WSJ’s editorial staff know the difference between “there” and “their”, especially when they are quoting someone!!
Does anyone else find the new WSJ home page more difficult to read? That’s saying a lot, too, since the old one wasn’t very good.
Hey, heres a link to a real shark (a big one too) with lasers:
http://www.yout...head_with_a.php
Funny stuff. Dr. Evil was ahead of his time…
>resulted in more conspiracy theories than a Ron Paul meetup
Duncan I just have this to say:
LEAVE RON PAUL ALOOONE!
To be fair, that image of the shark was posted on a WSJ writer’s blog there. Yes, it’s part of WSJ, buit they’re not quite at the point where they’re putting that on the front of their paper. And if you actually read it, it’s very clear that Ben (the author) is being snarky. So, it’s not quite the end of the world for WSJ yet…
That is cool
http://www.jhat...lerHomePage.htm
(The Light Browser)
Could have been a Sea Bass…
Sure, why not, if they can take the elitist WSJ and turn it into a dismissable shill tabloid, I’m all for it.
Glad they didn’t have lasers when we went great white shark diving down in Isla Guadalupe.
WSJ becoming the MSJ…
wont be long before the entire background of the page is filled with a tiling of sharks with lasers on their head… maybe even animated ones! oohoohooh.. and a music player… when is the music player going to hit the WSJ??
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!
Duncan,
Are you serious in asking this question? That somehow the purchase of the WSJ by News Corp means that the tongue-in-cheek graphic of the shark represents an attack on the serious journalistic integrity of the WSJ? You’re not one of those Moveon wackos who thinks anyone and anyone associated with Fox News is a member of the sinister and insidious right-wing conspiracy are you?
Of course, when everyone’s out to get you, being paranoid just makes good sense.
Clearly the WSJ has jumped the shark.
It sure was the U.S. military. We have been doing stuff like this for a long time and I expect this was done to route Middle East internet traffic to Europe, through the United States for ease dropping purposes (since the NSA set up their little rooms at the bib fiber optic cable access points on the coasts).
http://www.glob...-uss-carter.htm
Duncan — come on, that’s a blog entry, not part of the Journal (it certainly wasn’t in the print edition).
YOU FORGOT TEH WIRELESS CUT
How about this ???..which happenned in Feb 5 just 1 week after 1st 2 cables cut and 5th cable cut day.
http://www.bbsp...ying-plane.html
The shark have flying wings also ???!!!
Btw I am from Egypt…
Exactly where does a shark’s head begin and where does it end?
Haha Alex (#30) great link.
Signs with “OMGWTF??” > sharks with lasers
I think it’s too early to take this image of the shark and the laser beam meaning that the WSJ is becoming like the New York Post. It was a blog posting. Big deal.
Hey, WSJ stole that idea from Austin Powers.
Duncan Riley
February 8th, 2008 at 5:25 am
dMix #9
I didn’t say Iran was cut off, read the article again. I also didn’t say it was 5, I said anywhere up to five. Could it have not been clearer? Seriously, read the article again before trolling, eh!
your words:
“Five (or possibly less) cables were cut resulting in major outages in Iran (possibly the whole country, but possibly not) and other Middle Eastern countries.”
how about you read your own article before you call constructive critic a troll?
The shark have flying wings also ?
lol@ron paul.
http://edition....tage/index.html
That’s actually to the left and right of the dorsal fin, not the head, which I happen to know is entirely plausible and probably true.
Sharks do cut submarine cables, and whales too, and currents and sharp rock edges. So when people lay cables they usually double them so they can back-up the traffic if one cable breaks. And there are repair ships idle around the world to go and pick up the cable and fix it. But it is a very delicate operation, it can take a week.
But even if a submarine is damaged twice a year, it still has an up-time far better than that of a land cable. Land cables are easier to repair but they get cut all the time – when there’s road side work or anything. That’s why there are submarine cables following most major coasts.
When the sea ground isn’t too deep, say up to 1500 meters deep or so, the cables are usually buried with a large plough, something like 2-3 meters below sea ground. It makes cuts less frequent, unless sharks can dig of course;-) I thought that was a common practice, but maybe there are lazy people trying to cut costs when laying the cables. And then if the ocean is too deep there’s nothing you can do but just drop the cable and let it sink…
The WSJ Editorial page has always been a complete joke, don’t confuse them with the solid high-quality reporting of the WSJ proper. It’s the reporting that people worried about after the News Corp acquisition not the Editorials.