Internet: Lights go out on two fiber backbones

A reminder on how dependent we already are on global communication networks and how quickly these can fall apart has again been provided yesterday afternoon.

Close to the Egyptian harbor of Alexandria, ships that could not enter the harbor due to weather conditions have stripped apart underwater fiber network cables for Internet and telephone communications with their anchors. The damaged cables are part of the “SEA-ME-WE 4″ fiber backbones reaching from Europe to Asia and into Africa. As a result from these damages Internet connectivity in Egypt has dropped to about 30% of the normal bandwidth and also Arabian countries as well as India have reported substantial impairments within data traffic to and from these countries…

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Data visualization: Leading surveillance societies around the world

Since 1997 two NGOs - the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International - have surveyed and assessed the state of surveillance and privacy protection in 47 countries. The annual Privacy & Human Rights Report compiled from their findings has by now become one of the most comprehensive surveys of global privacy and citizen rights.

Their “most recent report” published a few days ago has been created with the help of more than 200 experts from around the world and has grown to 1,100 pages. It shows trends of

“…an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world, reflecting an increase in surveillance and a declining performance of privacy safeguards…“, and

“…an increasing trend amongst governments to archive data on the geographic, communications and financial records of all their citizens and residents. This trend leads to the conclusion that all citizens, regardless of legal status, are under suspicion…

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Data visualization: Supercities of the 21st century

Have a look at the 19.20.21 (19 cities in the world with 20 million people in the 21st century) web site.

It introduces a study on key aspects of the phenomenon of supercities. The project is managed by Richard Wurman who is also the author of one of the most stylish fact-books called “Understanding USA“. Already included are a few pages on the development of the world’s largest cities from 1000 to 2005…

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Data Visualization: Doctors of the World

The image below was created as a poster for Dutch doctors to hangs on the wall of their waiting rooms. With 170 inhabitants per doctor Cuba is still the world leader on that chart. Not unsurprising other (former) communist countries follow on the next positions (in some of those countries the numbers have already started to deteriorate).
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Virtual Worlds: 3D Berlin in Google Earth

Since this week Germany’s capital Berlin is available as a 3D model within Google Earth. In difference to other 3D worlds already available in Google Earth the buildings within the virtual Berlin have detailed architectural representations including their photorealistic facades. Some buildings can even be visited or entered virtually. So far the present model covers about 10% of the area of Berlin - only a small sample of the official three-dimensional city model of Berlin. The model consists of some 44,000 buildings in the centre of Berlin shown in…

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Quote of the day: The World and Experts

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.

Peter Ustinov

Land Rover get’s your Chelsea tractor carbon-neutral

Land Rover has today announced the first projects in its CO2 Offset Program to reduce greenhouse gases with projects in Tajikistan and China. The first projects include a hydro-electric power plant in Tajikistan and a wind farm in China. Together these projects will offset 150,000 tons of CO2 a year. Further projects in Uganda, India, Turkey and the Dominican Republic are currently evaluated. Customers of all new Land Rover vehicles sold in the UK from this year on will pay…

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Image: Honi soit qui mal y pense

An image from a NASA site is getting very popular around the Internet today. One could think of a few comments for that picture and some have started to photoshop it, but below you find the explanation for this phenomenon…

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Travel: Around the world in (more than) 80 days

In our societies where spending time on things you enjoy has become the ultimate luxury a couple from the UK has gone on a year long journey to do exactly this. Ed Gillespie and his girlfriend Fiona King have just begun a year-long travel around the world. On their trip they will visit 20 countries and cover around 40,000 miles, but will at no point travel by plane. Mr Gillespie, 34, and Miss King, 28, have mapped a route using 19 trains, seven ferries, five buses, three container ships and a banana boat. Mr Gillespie, who worked as environmental manager for…

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BBC: Horizon - most of our universe is missing

Another great documentary from the “BBC science series”. This 50 minutes movie is explaining the fundamentals of gravity, astrophysics, galaxies, dark matter, and dark energy. It is also the story of a controversy in science based on observation supporting a theory that has yet to be experimentally or conclusively proven…

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