Very cool... I'll have to forward this on to my grandfather.

A few years back I lived with him for a year in Brighton, UK and we'd spend hours discussing technology and engineering over tea or a pint. What I enjoyed the most most about our talks was learning about his life, who he was and discovering that he helped lead the teams that laid the fiber optics between the US and the UK. (im going to have to ask him about the vulnerabilities)

Previous to that he had spent quite a bit of time in Canada, vancouver i believe, working with Canadian engineers developing methods to push the effectiveness of fiber optics past 3 miles. As a parting gift he gave me a fiber optic stub from the factory he was an engineer at - A tear shaped piece of glass from which the tiny fibers are pulled.

This map just sparked so many fantastic memories of my time with him! The great talks as well as being humiliated at the pub as an 83 year old man drank me under the table!

Thanks for posting this.

I have a feeling of vulnerability when I see such a map. A bit of bad weather/vandalism/terrorism and you got countries (partly) offline. I'm actually surprised why there is not more accidents like those from this week.

Interesting facts: cables' used capacity for telephone: 1%. Bandwidth purchased: 80%. Bandwidth actually used: 29%.

BTW, three different 'accidents' with cables being cut? Right.

I smell war coming...

I think you're right:

http://www.internettrafficreport.com/asia.htm

"Internet traffic report shows that Iran has been completely disconnected from the internet..."

Looks like this is Bush/Cheney's last hurrah before they leave

The world as a circuit board.

Kind of makes it feel small, doesn't it?

"Internet users in Asia are growing by 882% per year."

Really? That seems on the high side to me (not to mention unsustainable for more than a year or two into the future).

I believe disco had a similar uptick between 1976 and 1977. The trend didn't really hold there, either.