[Rhodes22-list] Happy New Year & Other Stuff

[Brad Haslett]

Happy New Year!  I'm going to celebrate a bit at the hangar this morning and
then go to the Chinese festival at the U of M later in the day.  Fan called
her parents this morning (Saturday morning ritual) to see how they were
coping with global warming (China has had the worst winter weather in six
decades the last week and the worst civil unrest since Tiananmen square).
The cost of a call to Beijing?  One point eight cents per minute ($.018).
Here's why.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2008/02/01/SeaCableHi.jpg

In other news, three, count'em, three undersea cables have been cut in the
Middle East this week.  The first one the cable company (Indian) said a ship
dropped an anchor on the cable.  The second one, uh, they dunno.  The third
one?  They quit talking.  Much of the Middle East is operating on limited
bandwidth and most of Iran is in Ethernet darkness.

Those silly spooks at the CIA, they'll do anything for a good laugh.

Brad