(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




Who Knew That Fishermen Don't Know Old Undersea Copper Cables From Important Undersea Fiber Optic Cables?

from the shocking dept

We've talked about the high price of copper is leading to crime around the world as people are looking to steal anything copper and sell it. Due to this, the Vietnamese government thought it would make sense to allow local fisherman to grab old Vietnam War-era undersea cable lines and resell it for profit. What they didn't count on was that (would you believe it?) these local Vietnamese fishermen don't know the difference between old unused war-era undersea copper... and new, important internet- and television- connecting fiber-optic lines. Yes, it seems those fisherman are digging up whatever cables they can find and shockingly, aren't bothering to make sure that it's the copper lines they're taking, rather than the vastly more important fiber ones. 27 miles of fiber optics have gone missing, and it's going to cost many millions to replace. While the allowance to fish up copper lines has now been rescinded, did anyone actually believe that local fishermen would either know the difference or care enough to make sure they were only digging up the proper cable lines?

31 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 3:43am

    Full Metal Thievery

    by dorpus

    Yup, playgrounds in Japan have had metal slides go missing, public bathrooms have had faucets and doors disappear.

    In China, a new bullet train service was launched last month with much fanfare -- but a month later, the cars were trashed. Metal thieves stole the emergency ax, seat rivets, toilet paper holders, thermostat knobs, anything made of metal that could be pried loose.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 3:50am

    Re: Full Metal Thievery

    by dorpus_is_a_troll

    Do you have a link to backup your claims dopus?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:04am

    Re: Re: Full Metal Thievery

    by dorpus

    Techdirt often auto-censors my posts when I post links to Asian news articles.

    Chinese bullet trains trashed
    http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20070518-00000013-rcdc-cn

    Japanese playground equipment stolen throughout Japan
    http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0302/TKY200703020338.html

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:09am

    c0ck head

    by dorpus_is_not_such_a_troll_now

    hah you got pwnt.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:14am
    by dorpus

    I keep a daily tally of violent Asian news in the "Day of Asian Violence" thread here.

    http://www.mixedasians.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:25am

    AZ

    by Bobby

    Here in AZ we had a fine gentleman try to steal some copper power lines that were actively carrying current.

    Yeah he almost died.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:29am

    Re:

    by Anonymous Coward

    Because Americans really care about foreign countries...? Actually, the only time we truly do care is when we want to vacation there.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:36am

    Re: Re:

    by dorpus

    Well let's see, about 12% of us are foreign born. An indefinite number of second generation Americans spend lots of time in their "home" country, owe their alliegance to foreign countries, and spend most of their lives there. Other Americans who hate themselves move to other countries long-term. It seems we have good reasons to care.

    The government doesn't keep statistics on these, but I figure 10-25% of all American citizens on Earth live outside of the US.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:58am
    by SomeDumbGuy

    "10-25% of all American citizens on Earth"

    Interesting category.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 5:05am

    Re:

    by mkam

    People in the International Space Station or moon don't count.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 5:11am

    Re:

    by dorpus

    It's following the same trend as Europe, where the subcontinent is becoming Muslim-dominated. Europeans don't care about their own religion or traditions anymore, so Mecca is increasingly becoming the spiritual and political capital of Europe. Europe's future will see a Muslim ruling class and white savages who run around on their nude beaches and smoke pot all the time.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 5:12am

    Re: Re: Re:

    by Just Me

    Lol, so just how many Yanks don't live on Earth? Anyone hazard a guess?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 5:33am

    Re: Re: Re: Full Metal Thievery

    by Sanguine Dream

    I knew under all that trolling there was a logical person.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 5:41am

    Reply to Just Me

    by Just You

    Well, I would say

    .000000000030292821 of the world's population does NOT live on the planet.

    How did I get that number?

    World Population = 6,602,224,175 (and counting)
    American Citizens on the Space station = 2

    2 / 6,602,224,175 = 3.0292821*10^-10

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 5:43am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    by 2

    Theres always two on the space station isn't there?

    They send yanks up before the monkeys, to make sure it's safe of course.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  16. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 5:57am

    Re: Re: Full Metal Thievery

    by do you read

    it's the huge link in the middle of the article, you know "the underlined text"

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  17. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 6:47am

    Re: Re:

    by SailorRipley

    Being euro-trash, I wasn't aware this was happening in my backyard, Mohamed be praised for the heads up, it's quite remarkable that somebody on a different continent sees what's going on in my backyard while I am so totally oblivious...it must be a Mecca miracle

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  18. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 6:48am

    Re: Re: Re:

    by Anonymous Coward

    90% of statistics are made up on the spot.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  19. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 6:50am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    by Paul`

    Does the administrations own little world count as earth or not?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  20. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 7:14am

    Re: Re:

    by dorpus_is_a_troll

    Have you even been to Europe?

    Please stop making things up. Its quite annoying.

    As much as I enjoy the types of debates that Techdirt creates, can't they ban/edit serial trolls such as Dorpus to stop us being sidetracked in the comments?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  21. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 7:54am

    wait a second...

    by a_l_flanagan

    >> Europe's future will see a Muslim ruling class and white savages who run around on their nude beaches and smoke pot all the time.

    Dorpus, how soon will this happen? If the savages get pot and nude beaches, I'm moving to Europe.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  22. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 8:32am

    Re: wait a second...

    by dorpus

    It will happen in approximately 2 minuntes.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  23. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 8:41am

    Posts

    by billy

    Gee and I thought the posts on this blog would have something to do with the subject.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  24. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 8:47am

    Nude Beaches

    by Witty Nickname

    I have been to Europe - I have NO DESIRE to visit a nude beach full of Europeans (no offense of course).

    Wait.... how much pot?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  25. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 9:18am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    by tom

    I think one or two on the space station.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  26. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 10:53am

    Translation of Dorpus' link

    from the google translation engine:

    The flier which appears 2007 May 17th, as an eyeball of railroad acceleration plan starting travelling, 1 months, for routine inspection it returned to the railroad bureau inspection place of Kanan economical 鄭 state city. Approximately at the point where 100 technicians inspect the body, what is made cruel extent ragged was found. As for the cause of becoming ragged the having going away of the fixture by the passenger. As for damage being most the sensor type faucet of the latrine. It had become large number not to be removed. Furthermore hammer for bail out. In addition the rest room which is the closed room damage was large. Flight even the heat regulation knob of the seat and the axis of the paper holder it is removed and, simply already it is vain in the actual condition which has disappeared, when it keeps collecting, the technicians drop. But the high-speed train of the dream which it starts running with fanfare, in only 1 months becoming it returns with it is the expectation which perhaps is outside supposition in the whole body creation 痍. It probably is to be pressed for judgment whether the same bureau having and going away and in the future the fixture indicating prohibition, whether it waits for the nature improvement of the passenger. (Translation compilation WF)
    crimeny, talk about tortured english. I'm not sure which is worse off, the Chinese bullet train, or that article after being munged by the translation engine...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  27. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 11:03am

    Re: Re: Re:

    by dorpus

    Have you even been to Europe?

    Yes, I was in Germany last year. It looked exactly like San Francisco, with the vast hordes of Vietnamese and Muslim schoolkids who outnumbered white kids, the sidewalks had the same species of smelly Eucalyptus trees, all the white women made a show of going out with black men, the highways had the same Nike billboards with close-up shots of black men, the concrete-block houses were painted the same pink, yellow, and purple colors, the public transportation system was crawling with the same dirty 13-year-olds on bicycles/skateboards.

    Just like San Francisco, the majority of store clerks, restaurant workers didn't speak English and scowled when they had to. The town I was in (Heidelberg) was overly proud of their ugly castle that had been rebuilt many times with discordant architectural styles -- exactly like the fake stone mansions we see dotting California hillsides.

    p.s. I did go to the Roman/Celtic bath at Baden Baden, and (illegally) had sex with my girlfriend in one of the side pools.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  28. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 11:18am
    by James

    Most men in Iceland drop out of school to be fishermen and the women have advanced educations, most of them excell in Math.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  29. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 11:30am

    Re:

    by dorpus

    Yup, the same phenomenon happens elsewhere in rich countries. Depending on local economic conditions, blue-collar jobs may be more available and pay better than white-collar jobs. East Asian countries today have a vast oversupply of college graduates who can't get jobs. Many of them have resorted to lying about being "high school graduates" to get a job.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  30. Jun 8th, 2007 @ 4:26pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: I was in Munich

    by Nicholas

    I love germany I was there for a week and it is not even close to anything we have in the United States. These people actualy know how to DRIVE a car with a manual transmition. They actualy ride their bikes and when I say ride I mean get out of the way because minium there doing 30mph and I was almost hit 3 times when I was walking in the park. And those people keep the place clean yea some parts are dirty but have you actualy seen their air port they don't have people walking around to pick up other peoples trash. And at lest 3/4 of the country knows english and if not that then french. That was the most fun I have ever had in my life.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  31. Jun 20th, 2007 @ 8:19am

    metal thievery

    by Mickey

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie

Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It