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2026-04-18 22:17:07 cloudy-jc: Add Vox — Undersea Cables wiki page (W1 video companion, way2.cc/ca9)

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+	# Vox — The Hidden Network of Undersea Cables
+
+	*A companion page to [[Workshop 1 Hardware and Networks]]. Inspiration video referenced in the Workshop 1 booklet as `way2.cc/ca9`.*
+
+	When you watched a YouTube video on a Raspberry Pi during Workshop 1, the data didn't arrive by magic and didn't really arrive by Wi-Fi either. Wi-Fi got the request from the Pi to the classroom router. After that, almost every byte travelled along a real, physical cable — and most of those cables sit on the ocean floor.
+
+	Vox shows you the map. Around 99% of the world's internet traffic — every video call, every chat, every cloud save — runs through a network of submarine cables thinner than a garden hose. After this video, "the cloud" stops feeling abstract and starts feeling like a wet tangle of glass.
+
+	---
+
+	## The Video
+
+	{{Video|src=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve810FHZ1CQ}}
+
+	About 8 minutes. Vox covers the history (the very first transatlantic cable was 1858 telegraph wire), the modern build (cable ships, repeaters every ~50km, sharks biting fibre), and the geopolitics (who owns these cables, who can tap them).
+
+	---
+
+	## What to Watch For
+
+	- **The thickness of a real submarine cable** — when they show one in cross-section, notice how thin the actual fibre strands are. Most of the cable is armour and insulation against fish, anchors, and seawater.
+	- **Repeaters** — every ~50–100 km along a cable there's a small box that boosts the signal. Without them, the light pulse fades to nothing before crossing an ocean.
+	- **The world map** — pause when they show the cable map. Notice how cables cluster: through the Strait of Malacca, around the UK, between the US and Europe. These chokepoints matter for politics and security.
+	- **What happens when a cable breaks** — boats can find and lift the cable, splice it, drop it back. Wild engineering.
+	- **Why "cloud" is a funny word** — almost nothing about the internet is actually wireless once it leaves your local network. The metaphor is misleading.
+
+	---
+
+	## <i class="fas fa-lightbulb"></i> Have a Go
+
+	::: info
+	**<i class="fas fa-pencil-alt"></i> Your turn!** Grab a pen and have a crack at these.
+	:::
+
+	**<i class="fas fa-film"></i> Question** ① — In your own words, why do submarine cables need repeaters every 50–100 km?
+
+	**<i class="fas fa-globe-asia"></i> Question** ② — Look at a world map (or the one in the video). If you sent a message from Hamilton, VIC to a friend in London, list the major bodies of water it would probably cross under.
+
+	::: tip
+	⚡ **Hint:** It depends on the cable route — some go via the Pacific and the US, others via the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.
+	:::
+
+	**<i class="fas fa-shield-halved"></i> Question** ③ — Why does Vox say undersea cables matter for *politics* and *security*, not just engineering? Give one specific example from the video.
+
+	**<i class="fas fa-cloud"></i> Question** ④ — When someone says they "stored their photo in the cloud", they usually mean they saved it to a server in another country. Trace the rough physical journey of one photo from your phone to a Google data centre. (Wi-Fi → router → ISP → … → cable → … → data centre.)
+
+	---
+
+	See also: [[Workshop 1 Hardware and Networks]] · [[Tom Scott - Fetch Execute Cycle]] · [[Crash Course - Binary]]
+
+	*Last updated: April 2026.*