Digital Photo Gallery of Ted Szukalski
Fine art digital photography, photographic news, reviews, articles and resources.

Michelle Engelsman speaking out

Few days ago I watched Olympian Michelle Engelsman speak out against the Internet firewall in China. The event was organised by Amnesty International and took place over two days. There was no media present to report on the event and if you follow the news there was not a single mention of it.

I thought to myself if it has any sense since its exposure is very local and practically invisible.

Concurrently there was huge media outcry over the Internet limitations access in Beijing. Today, to my surprise, I have noticed the Chinese government went good on its promise of unrestricted Internet access. This extraordinary move was communicated to the journalist reporting on the Olympic Games by China’s president, Hu Jintao.

Cableship - Ile de Re MG_2362

Australia and many other “island” counties rely on underwater cables for their Internet connections to the world. We know these communication cables are laid and repaired when needed by special cable ships but have you ever seen one of these? No? Neither have I, so I got quite interested when I spotted one of them leaving Sydney Harbour this Sunday.

This is Ile de Re a 4500 tonne ship, which belongs to Alcatel and Lucent and it is flowing a French flag. It was built in 1983 and it is 140.12 m long, has breadth of 23.3 m and draught 7.3 m. It’s started its service as a RO/RO ferry and was converted to a cable ship by “Remontowa” shipyard in Poland in 2002.