It was Elvis... I saw him a few weeks ago practicing diving in our local pool with a snorkle and a hacksaw...

"So it looks like the tin foil-dawning contingent will have to jump on another story to feed their conspiracy fetish. This one, it would appear, is coming up empty."

Hang on a second. I thought the whole point of the article is that you will have to wait and see what has actually happened.

Why have you decided that it is "coming up empty"? Just wait until you know some information and leave it at that!!

Jeez. The Sun reporting posing as New Scientist.

... deep, deep under the sea, cables being mysteriously cut....

I for one welcome our new deep-sea overmonster. New York is that-a-way, matey.

Yep, you're all freaks. FREAKS i tell you. Only I control the internet..

well.. i encounter - from at least 10 days - a diminshed number of spam emails... like 5 vs. 50 per day. maybe is just a coincidence, or is a light side of the conspiracy ;)

We're always been treated to Domesday scenarios of "What happens when the interweb fails/gets taken over by terrorists/whatever" but now bits of it have failed its proved to be a nuisance but not exactly the end of the world as we know it.

A bit like the famous 2K bug, really.

Hi guys, regarding the whole everyone from terrorists to grannies etc....

Yeah you're right, everyone uses the internet. But....

Knowledge is power, wars have been won and lost through information manipulation...the internet stops people from having that level of control...

So why would a terrorist group/political party etc want to cut off internet access? To control what information people have access to.

Just to fuel the whole conspiracy thingy, let me leave you with a quotes...

"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times in enemy action" - Churchill

a clumsy mistake by Nessie or Godzilla on vacation ...

"I've seen all kinds of just crazy, crazy postings on Digg," said Stephan Becket, a research director at TeleGeology. "It's completely absurd speculation on the web right now and nobody really knows anything."

Hmm. Network security research now consists of reading Digg? Maybe I ought to sign up and sway the balance a bit... pathetic. I think these Web-2.0-esque 'security' companies are just as superficial and moneygrabbing as their 'social nerdworking' companions.

In my distant memory I remember reading an Arthur C. Clarke short story about some shrimp/squid like creatures attacking an underwater installation.

Perhaps it's another one of his stories/prophecies coming true.

Too many hyphens/slashes in there.

In reality everybody thinks that the cable problems are accidents.

The blog traffic and Digg posts are products of a joint conspiracy between the CIA, Al-Qaeda, the estate of Elvis and the Lizard people operating on behalf of the Bavarian Illuminati to raise the general level of paranoia in the world.

This has been an important safety announcement brought to you by the Teapot council.

"said Stephan Becket, a research director at TeleGeology. "It's completely absurd speculation on the web right now and nobody really knows anything." ..... Then give them something that they can Know, Stephan.

Tell them what is being interrupted...... Deep Thought Quantum Communications ....AI Colossus of a CyberIntelAIgent Program with ITs Bases in Space's Spaces. Virtually Impregnable Fortesses. El CID Citadel with CyberIntelAIgent Designs 42 Share as in Gift.

I Kid U Not, Cisco.

<Ping>

"In Myanmar they managed to have it off for two weeks but they couldn't take it. "

Sounds like that could be painful

It was obviously all done by a BOFH motivated by 1) outsourcing and 2) the amount of far eastern spam.

But where did the equipment come from, you ask:

- http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/whereisit.cgi?t=knife

Indeed, if you jumped off a boat with this baby:

- http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/8b97/

you'd soon enough be at cable depth.

Please, It's clearly Marcus Brigstocke, or another Irate BT customer trying to kill off a few BT Callcentres.

Rlyeh is Rising!

The moral of the story is that most people who comment on articles are gobshites. The preceeding statement is its own proof.

No. You try and start with the most obvious solution and only start your conspiracy thing once there is a issue with that.

As ever, the problem with the Tinffil-hatters is that they assume a conspiracy until you can prove otherwise, which given that the consiracy is generally a secret, is rather hard to do............

sounds like the opening chapters of a Dirk Pitt mystery. It's all a plan by Billy Gates to take over the world. The only problem is he has his Vista team as his minions.

"In Myanmar they managed to have it off for two weeks but they couldn't take it."

If they'd kept that up they wouldn't have had to cut anything, it would have dropped off.

"So it looks like the tin foil-dawning contingent"

You mean "donning". Dawning has a long vowel, whereas donning (to put on, to wear) has a short vowel.

Any chance of a pedant icon...?

its S.P.I.T.O.

*Society for the Prevention of Information Technology Outsourcing

"I've seen all kinds of just crazy, crazy postings on Digg,"

No shit!

I too welcome our new undersea overlords

In the last 10 days I've had a dramatic increase on spam getting through my filters (spamassassin + rules du jour) about 5 a day vs. none...

Surely it must be Godzilla, although he (she) is a long way from Tokyo (homage to original nipponese films, not Hollywood). When do we have to appeal for Mothra's help to protect our Internet?

any higher bids...

just send in sharky and george...

"In Myanmar they managed to have it off for two weeks ...." is QuITe Divine and more than enough information for Processing/Enrichment. No wonder the neighbours are smiling. A Land of Smiles in Deed indeed

No, It's Dr Congo - he's sitting on his thrown atop a flat bed toyota truck, his bois just trying to black out the continent so they can throw a truelly epic party. When connection is restored the whole continent will be empty, just beer bottles, bodies, burnt down buildings and spent ammunition.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/fourth_undersea.html

"first, happenstance, a second, coincidence, a third is enemy action"... We're on to number five...

Do tinfoil-hats protect Fibre Optic cables?

Avast behind! etc., etc.

You must admit 4 in the same week is cause for conjecture, though.

In fact, you could say it's a bit fishy.

The Sou'wester, thanks matey..

Water Taxi!

Send in the underwater puppets! Better make sure their strings aren't cut though...

I never could understand how they managed to work the puppets so far under the sea. Amazing!

This image said it best...

http://strategyunit.blogsome.com/images/eurovdollar.gif

♪ Under the Sea ... ♫

Where's the cable that brings all the crap American TV shows and old Lucille Show re-runs into the UK?

Brrringg-ding-ding-ding-ding;

..just getting the old chainsaw ready

I blame the fish...

See US Patent 6771863

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6771863-description.html

"Accordingly, one of the objects of the invention is to provide an underwater fiber-optic cable which solves or alleviates the foregoing problems, and particularly a cable which is relatively light-weight but robust and flexible, and resistant to environmental attacks, such as by chewing fish and other sea life."

"Brrringg-ding-ding-ding-ding"

I don't think that the Crazy Frog will work at that depth....

SPITO?

Could I invite you to join COCOA?

(The Campaign to Outlaw Contrived and Outrageous Acroynms)

England cut transatlantic communications cables that enabled Germany to communicate with the rest of the world at the outset of the war with Germany. Germany then had to use wireless communications that were intercepted by the Allies.

At the outset of the war, the Germans had five transatlantic cables that ran through the English Channel. One went to Brest in France, another to Vigo in Spain, one to Tenerife in North Africa and two to New York via the Azores. The English cable ship Telconia cut them all in England's first offensive action in the war. This left a cable that ran between West Africa and Brazil that was largely American-owned that the Germans could use. In short order the allies ended that source of direct cable communications with the overseas world. Consequently, Germany was forced to use their powerful wireless station at Nauen, just a few miles outside Berlin. From this moment, German messages were routinely picked from the air and began pouring into the offices of British Naval Intelligence. In order to capture this flood of information, four new allied listening stations were established along the English coast with direct wires to Admiral Hall's offices. The positive result from this investment could not be overemphasized.

So 100 cuts per year : hence 1 every 3.65 days ... with the two 1st noticeable cuts on Tuesday the 29th of Jan, the fourth not being on but a power outage.

We're left with (7th of Feb) 9 days and 5 cuts 1 off because of power, take another one off because it is the starting point so altogether 3 new cuts over 9 days so 1 every 3 days ... as opposed to the average 3.65. I'm assuming that any other cut would have been reported during that laps due to the amount of paranoia involved ... but I might be wrong.

Considering that the Mediterranean sea is quite a busy place thanks to Suez and that all the cables seem to funnel thru Suez (http://www.telegeography.com/products/map_cable/images/Cable_Map_big.gif) ...

well it might be easier/likely to cut through a bunch of cables. and perhaps the cables weren't that well maintained.

Conspiracy anyway:

Assuming 5 cuts are the suppa duppa evil enemy's act chose one of the following

1) a swordfish with cemented tungsten carbide tips, created by our good enemy Bin.

2) a EU president that does not want some pictures of him and Carla to leave Egypt

3) a Geordie laid off recently

May be the answer is with the cables not being cut off in this area ... may be it's more a matter of overwhelming than blackout-ing.

COCOA ... that's kind of derogatory to Mac users ...

"The positive result from this investment could not be overemphasized.".... By Jamtits

Posted Thursday 7th February 2008 12:49 GMT ......A Master Control Web would underemphasize ITs Priceless Worth, Jamtits.

And re "It must be a new craze to drag one's anchors in the middle east". The ships of the desert have ever been so anchored in the middle east but there are Alien Fields everywhere to XXXXPlore and TendGrow. Which in Real Time would be AIMessage to such as are Royal in CyberIDEntities ...... Al Mahdi Touched.

And the Flame in homage to the lowly Pilot Light and the Sweetest of Seeds Sown. The Flame of Passion has Ever Lit the Right Way. And it is not Red for Danger for Nothing....... for there is No Known Cure .... Allahu Akbar ....Seventh Heaven with Virgin Sight is not an Affliction though, it is an Affectionate Affectation with XXXXQuisITe Promise Fulfilled. And so Good, IT should be Licensed and Duly Regarded with whatever IT Needs.

The cable was clearly cut by Ron Paul supporters who wanted to suppress news of his poor showing in Tuesday's primary.

Have you been smoking drugs son?

Paris wields the question mark this comment needs.

Demand for tin foil rises. A coincidence?

...but have you seen what PC World charge for a few metres of CAT 5?

In a few day's we'll all be laughing over this, and worried about the real problem. Going 4 days w/o a cable being cut.

"How... How did they fortify the cables in just a few days.... to make them un-cuttable! The carbon nanotube-crystaline-stranglet catalyzation of our cable sheaths by the (insert cult/alien here)."

International Rescue could sort this out double-quick sharp.

Thunderbirds capped an underwater oil spill in no time, and Jeff was on holiday too!

Stingray? Pah!

t'was capn Jack Sparraw, dueling with Davy Jones and getting careless with his cutlass....oow Bugga....

"The much bigger effect has been the fodder the unlikely number of failures have had on internet bloggers"

That's gibberish. WTF does it mean for a failure to "have fodder on" someone?

I think you probably mean that the effect on bloggers has been to supply them with fodder, but jeebus, this isn't some mere typo, it's complete nonsense. How on earth did it get past subediting?

Now I've seen figures for the number of breaks in a year, it looks a lot less remarkable. But the combination was of time _and_ space.

And no reports of earthquakes or gigantic mudslides under the Atlantic.

Watch out for sea tanks comming ashore next!

its a publicity stunt by the "Cloverfield" movie people!

No no.. he works in the local Co-op, very much alive and all.. and i doubt he would be doing diving lessons...

Hagbard thinks something affected the F.U.C.K.U.P. (First Universal Cybernetic Kynetic Ultramicro-Programmer). Or not.

Fnord

Hail Eris, so Paris

The world is not yet ready for the Tale of the Side-Cutter Shark.

CD

I think you mean songs from a distant earth. If not it is more applicable as the sea-scorpion things cut cables and the like to wear as rank badges

Someone has been smoking crack if they think that exists.

AC wrote:

' "self-healing" strand of fiber????? '

marketing speak for redundancy