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

from the shocking dept

Fri, Jun 8th 2007 3:14am — Mike Masnick

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 While the allowance to fish up copper lines has now been rescinded, did anyone actually believe that local fishermen would either know the difference or care enough to make sure they were only digging up the proper cable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?

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31 Comments

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dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 3:43am

Full Metal Thievery
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.
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- dorpus_is_a_troll, 8 Jun 2007 @ 3:50am
  
  Re: Full Metal Thievery
  Do you have a link to backup your claims dopus?
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  - dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:04am
    
    Re: Re: Full Metal Thievery
    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
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    - Sanguine Dream, 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:33am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Full Metal Thievery
      I knew under all that trolling there was a logical person.
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  - do you read, 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:57am
    
    Re: Re: Full Metal Thievery
    it's the huge link in the middle of the article, you know "the underlined text"
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dorpus_is_not_such_a_troll_now, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:09am

c0ck head
hah you got pwnt.
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dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:14am

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
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:29am
  
  Re:
  Because Americans really care about foreign countries...? Actually, the only time we truly do care is when we want to vacation there.
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  - dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:36am
    
    Re: Re:
    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.
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    - Just Me, 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:12am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Lol, so just how many Yanks don't live on Earth? Anyone hazard a guess?
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      - 2, 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:43am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        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.
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      - Paul`, 8 Jun 2007 @ 6:50am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Does the administrations own little world count as earth or not?
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      - tom, 8 Jun 2007 @ 9:18am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        I think one or two on the space station.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2007 @ 6:48am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      90% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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Bobby, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:25am

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

Yeah he almost died.
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SomeDumbGuy, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:58am

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

Interesting category.
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- mkam, 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:05am
  
  Re:
  People in the International Space Station or moon don't count.
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- dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:11am
  
  Re:
  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.
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  - SailorRipley, 8 Jun 2007 @ 6:47am
    
    Re: Re:
    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
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  - dorpus_is_a_troll, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:14am
    
    Re: Re:
    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?
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    - dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 11:03am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      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.
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      - Nicholas, 8 Jun 2007 @ 4:26pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: I was in Munich
        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.
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Just You (profile), 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:41am

Reply to Just Me
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
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a_l_flanagan, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:54am

wait a second...
>> 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.
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- dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:32am
  
  Re: wait a second...
  It will happen in approximately 2 minuntes.
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billy, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:41am

Posts
Gee and I thought the posts on this blog would have something to do with the subject.
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Witty Nickname, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:47am

Nude Beaches
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?
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Garlynn, 8 Jun 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...
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James, 8 Jun 2007 @ 11:18am

Most men in Iceland drop out of school to be fishermen and the women have advanced educations, most of them excell in Math.
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- dorpus, 8 Jun 2007 @ 11:30am
  
  Re:
  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.
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Mickey, 20 Jun 2007 @ 8:19am

metal thievery
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