Kamekaze Kumazemi
Wage CyberWar On Osaka
Apart from filling the air with an earsplitting 94 decibel drone, the cicada known as the kumazemi is tearing up Japan's fiber optic internet system. Two to thee inches long, the black
cicada (Cryptotympana facialis), endemic in the warmer parts of Japan apparently mistakes fiber optic cables for dead branches suitable for egg laying, and uses its hypodermic-sized ovipositor to riddle them with millimeter holes. Trying to bug a conventional phone line this way can result in insect electrocution, but the cicadas find optical cables perfectly benign.
Once hatched , their larvae quickly wriggle into the optical junctions and etalon spaces, crashing the local net. Nippon Telephone and
Telegraph West Corporation has responded to over 1000 such attacks in the Osaka area by adding protective layers and redesigning cables without the bark-like grooves cicadas mistake for prime real estate.
Comment: The news media have recently announce that scientists have descovered why the honey bees were gone.
Question: What did happen to the honey bee and why haven't the media told the whole story?
Enlighten me, please.
RESPONSE
The whole story of the Australian honeybee virus responsible was reported in lead stories in last weeks Nature, The Economist and the NYTimes .
Might the problem as much reside in your choice of media as the dearth of science editors in publications much given to railing about the rejection of upbeat news in the MSM they refuse to read?
Posted by: Michele | September 13, 2007 at 12:39 PM