Here’s a long but extremely interesting article about the history of undersea cables:
Decades ago, I was driving south on I-95 through Baltimore and from the car, I could see a ship labeled AT&T Long Lines that evidently was used for laying undersea cables. It had a huge spool on the back deck.
I know Porthcurno in Cornwall (where one end of the first transatlantic cable was) pretty well. Other interesting things about Porthcurno:
- You can still see quite a bit of the original transatlantic cable establishment.
- I saw a seal swimming just off the beach (which I thought was more exciting than the cable stuff).
- The Minack open air theatre is there, built into the rocks overlooking the sea. Mrs T and Trep jr went to see a show there. There is also a village pub, which is where I spent the evening while they got hypothermia watching an amateur production of The Sound Of Music. This is not a decision I regret.
j
This is fascinating. A few observations:
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There is no direct connection between North America and Africa.
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All the direct lines from North America to South America go to either Sao Paulo or (squints) Buenos Aires except for one: San Diego – Concepcion.
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Guam appears to be a rather large hub.
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North Korea appears to have a connection.
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So do the Galapagos Islands
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So does St. Helena.
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So do the Keeling islands (population 600, no military bases, no significant exports, economy consists of a lackluster tourist trade and help from Australia.)
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There’s a cable in the Suez Canal (!!!)
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There’s a direct link between Galveston and Pensacola (squints… I think)
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But there is no connection to Antarctica.
I’m going to try to find a map, I’m sure some of the above is inaccurate. But it’s still fascinating.
The Wikipedia page has a lot of interesting detail, and includes a 2007 cable map.
The page for which links to this map, evidently from a year later.
It has been widely reported that “winds aloft,” the jet stream, was discovered during WWII when airplane began flying higher and higher. That does not seem to be true.
“A Japanese scientist named Wasaburo Ooishi had actually discovered the jet stream in the 1920s in a series of groundbreaking experiments. But Ooishi happened to be devoted to the artificially constructed language called Esperanto, which was briefly in vogue in that era and only published his finding in Esparanto, which meant of course that almost no one read them.”
–The Bomber Mafia
Malcomb Gladwell
You can get a great deal on land for your San Francisco dream home when the seller is under water.
$8,500 per speculative plot of land, 24 plots of land per rectangle, a minimum of 24 rectangles on one of the maps I saw, a minimum $5 million with which to lobby to lobby the California state government to privatize Candlestick Point State Recreation Area so you can raze it for development and if you succeed, well, you’re now looking at $250,000x24x24=$144,000,000 and if you fail, well, it wasn’t your $5 million you spent to lobby California in the first place.
ISWYDT.
At one point it was believed that tuberculosis (“consumption”) striking several members of a family in succession was caused by vampirism, the deceased returning to drain the life energy of their family members.
Apple Air Tags can be used for efficient stalking
The Big Texan restaurant has a famous 72 oz steak challenge. In addition to the steak, there’s a shrimp cocktail, baked potato, roll, and salad that all must be consumed in one hour to win the free meal.
The record was set by Molly Schuyler, who consumed it all in 4 minutes 58 seconds. She has also consumed three complete dinners in 20 minutes. 3 x 72 = 216 oz, that’s 13.5 lbs of steak.
At a different restaurant, she ate a 72 oz steak in under three minutes. According to this article she only weighs 120 lbs.
More achievements etc. here:
Wikipedia entry
“What’s happening to me? There’s still food but I don’t want to eat it!”
On Mars, presumably the style will be called “Earth style fried chicken”
Dollar Tree, one of the few remaining “true” dollar stores, is no longer going to sell items for $1. They’ve hikes prices to $1.25.
Inflation raises its balloon-like head.
Why not just keep calling it “Dollar Tree”?
The Big Ten inflated its membership but kept the old name.
I remember when all the Days Inn signs had a big “8” in front (as a kid I thought the name of the place was “8 Days Inn”) - because they were $8 a night. I think the price changed considerably before they got rid of the 8s on the signs.
Motel 6 never changed their name.
A couple of interesting related facts about James Boswell, rightly regarded as a truly great biographer.
For much of his life he was pro-slavery. From Wikipedia:
Boswell was present at the meeting of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in May 1787 set up to persuade William Wilberforce to lead the abolition movement in Parliament. However, the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson records that by 1788 Boswell “after having supported the cause … became inimical to it”.[20] Boswell’s most prominent display of support for slavery was his 1791 poem “No Abolition of Slavery; or the Universal Empire of Love”, which lampooned Clarkson, Wilberforce and Pitt. The poem also supports the common suggestion of the pro-slavery movement, that the slaves actually enjoyed their lot: “The cheerful gang! – the negroes see / Perform the task of industry.”
I’m currently reading The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell, wherein I found the following remarkable passage. It further shows how much of a prick Boswell was, but it’s the timing that I was impressed with.
I said, I believed mankind were happier in the ancient feudal state of subordination, than they are in the modern state of independency…I mentioned the happiness of the French in their subordination, by the reciprocal benevolence and attachment between the great and those in lower rank.
Way to go, James. The Journal was published in 1785*; the French Revolution kicked off in 1789.
j
* - OK, the events described in The Journal took place a decade and change earlier; but Boswell had the opportunity to edit out this malicious piece of anti-prescience in 1785.