Submarine Cable Map

Here's a 1901 version of the map: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/1901_East... And somewhat related, a wonderful book called The Victorian Internet: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0802716040/ If you ever wondered whether the Internet really is a "series of tubes", here are the tubes: http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/f... That photo is from an interesting article (by my namesake James Geary) about undersea cables: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-03/who-protects-i…

Essential reading on this subject: Neal Stephenson’s essay “Mother Earth Mother Board” (Wired, 1996). https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/ And really his whole superb novel Cryptonomicon. But that’s 1,000 pages.

Every time this pops up I wish that it was merged with the overland cable maps for a global network view. Turns out something like that exists. https://www.infrapedia.com/

Personal bugbear: Ireland has a lot of connectivity but only three cables (two from Cork, 1 from the north-west) go to a destination other than the UK. All other Irish internet/telephony traffic goes through the UK. Remember that there are many European data centres and EMEA headquarters in Dublin. Much of it goes through Bude in Cornwall, which has a GCHQ listening post perched over the submarine cable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude). Or through Southport which is also known to be monitored by…