GIANT TELESCOPE BETWEEN LONDON/NYC

[Bonus_mosher]

This is a genius invention!

but something seems a little off.

I mean, surely there isn't really a huge tunnel between London and New York.

:\

 

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope/home.php

 

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23746397-2,00.html

[Hotplay007]

wow that's just amazing. :) THANKS FOR SHARING

[Jack]

I'm going a week today to see it. Haha.

[marianatsl]

is this for real?? :thinking:

[Black Rose]

The 'tunnel' is from Victorian times.

 

Although I have a funny feeling that it's fake and there is 2 video cameras

[Jpw48]

Whats wrong with web-conferencing?!?

[Bonus_mosher]

Yeah they keep dropping little hints like, "but is there really a tunnel"?

 

I think it's satelites or something like that

or what david said

[Space Cadet]

The 'tunnel' is from Victorian times.

 

Although I have a funny feeling that it's fake and there is 2 video cameras

 

Wait, so they're actually really claiming something exists?

 

I love me some good steampunk, but really... :rolleyes::laugh3:

[chuck kottke]

Ya

 

Now, how many miles is it from New York to London?? Say, roughly 3500 miles / 5600 Kilometers. Now, the Atlantic is how deep? Hmm.. and then there's the little problem of getting fresh air all the way to the workers if ever such an undertaking were attempted, plus the danger of undersea quakes, which would let in water at the ungodly pressures of the sea above.. Let's just say it's the "something else", and the rest is more like a late April fool's joke!:laugh3: There probably are some very old trans-Atlantic cables stuck on the ocean floor from telegraph days, but I would be completely amazed if they work at all after this many years! Fiber optic cables laid recently could be providing the bandwith, or satellite links..

[Saffire]

We seriously need to start making the whole internet out of fiber optics. Everything would load so much faster and we wouldn't have to upgrade for decades because processors/compression techniques could improve to keep up with the increased need for bandwidth.

 

And imagine all the oil we'd save if more people telecommuted to work using the internet - Hi-definition videoconferencing would be simple with fiber optics.

[chuck kottke]

Hmm.. well, perhaps you're right! But what happens when the cable breaks wayy out in the middle of the ocean - fiber optic is a real pain to fix.. and it must need laser boosters / repeaters every so often, so there's more complexity to it. Perhaps laying it on the ocean floor isn't the right way.. It could be suspended by neutral buoyancy devices deep enough to be unharmed by fishing activities and high enough off the bottom to be safe from undersea quakes and volcanoes (mid-oceanic ridge). This may already be the case - I'm no expert! I do know that when it broke last, the stock market ground to a halt in Asia for oversea trading.. maybe satellites aren't quite such a bad option.. But there's no perfect anything - satellites can get hit with the tiniest of bit of matter and be incapacitated 1-2-3. Maybe a land link could be established, and when they build the bridge linking Alaska to Siberia, the cable could be suspended along the length of the bridge..

[Saffire]

Good point on the cable thing... maybe they could just make the cable sort of curve along the floor (so it has plenty of slack in the event of a quake/shift)? The repeaters that boost the signal could be above-water (connected to the fiber cable at the bottom by big towers) so they can be easily replaced, repaired. Also there'd be a backup system in case a stupid ship hits it or something.

[chuck kottke]

That sounds logical - extra 'slack' in the line, so-to-speak.;) It's the mid-oceanic ridge that's got me wondering - there it is, a volcanic split running from pole to pole - I wonder what they currently do about it, or maybe it's not volcanically active where the cable is resting in that vicinity of the ocean floor? Sounds like a problem, and something to fix in the future! I seem to recall a National Geo. special on it - hydrothermal vents gushing hot magma - even the water at that depth was the temperature of molten steel! Hmm - perhaps they placed some special apparatus at that point..

Yes, that would make sense - to have buoys with the equipment floating above the cable - although waves can be very rough out there! And everything tries to "taste" the cable, to see if it's edible - I know that's been a problem as well..

Yes, robustness makes great sense! I've often wondered why we haven't done so already - but like many things, it takes a major blackout of half the hemisphere before the investment is put into infrastructure.. makes no sense, but that's the way we do things!:laugh3: (well, maybe now after some realization of the possible consequences when things fail..)

I still like the idea of bridging Alaska and Siberia - joining the two hemispheres, and then the cable would only have a short span across open ocean, accessible under a bridge... Maybe that's not a good idea, but it does seem like a great way to boost commerce and friendly realtions.?

[Saffire]

Call me conspiratorial, but I actually think governments prefer there to be easy ways to destroy communications. It gives them options in case of a war. So it might not be in their best interest to invest in upgrades...

 

You referred to the time internet was cut from all those middle eastern countries. I highly doubt that was accidental. Someone was testing something.