AFP article on Taiwan cable repair effort

Tue Jan 16 17:08:37 UTC 2007

Jim Segrave wrote:
> On Sun 14 Jan 2007 (01:51 -0800), Bill Woodcock wrote:
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070112/tc_afp/asiaquakeinternet_070112170621
>>
>> A few numbers to help understand the scale of the effort being applied.
> 
> Is it just me or is this article a migraine inducing mix of metric and
> English measures?

you're lucky they also didn't use nautical miles and fathoms (1.829
meters in si units)...

> down to about 4,000 metres (2.5 miles), ...
> 
> 100 metres (yards) long ...
> 
> waiting for 30 to 40 mile-an-hour winds (48 to 64 kilometres- an-hour)
> to die down...
> 
> The winds have stirred up 10 to 12 metre waves....
> 
> Today's fibre optic cables are just 21 millimetres in diameter....
> 
> The grapnel is a metal tool about 18 by 24 inches (46 by 61
> centimetres) ...
> 
> Arrgh...
> 