"it appears a beaver picked it up and chewed it in half"

Fri Jul 9 05:48:46 UTC 2004

> From owner-nanog at merit.edu  Thu Jul  8 23:42:27 2004
> From: "Scot Bryhan" <dsbryhan at chartermi.net>
> To: <nanog at merit.edu>
> Subject: "it appears a beaver picked it up and chewed it in half"
> Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 00:38:50 -0400
>
>
> > Scot,
> >
> >   Here's what we received from the Assocaited Press.
> >
> >
> > -- 
> > Kendall P. Stanley
> > Managing editor
> > Petoskey News-Review
> > (231) 439-9349
> > (231) 881-4349 (cell)
> >
> >
> > By JOHN FLESHER
> > Associated Press Writer
> >     TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.  _ Northeastern Michigan had a problem to chew
> on:
> > Long-distance phone service was interrupted for more than six hours after
> a
> > beaver apparently gnawed through a fiber optic cable.
> >
> > "In my 33 years with the company I've never heard of this happening," said
> > John VanWyck, spokesman for Verizon Communications. "I've heard of
> squirrels
> > chewing aerial cable, but not this."

John apparently leads a rather sheltered life.  <grin>

Northwestern University, in Evanston, IL, has a substantial squirrel population
on/near the campus.  One which apparently does _not_ 'learn from experience',
I might add.  All the campus utilities are underground, including the (dual,
redundant, diversely routed) main feeds from the local electric utility.
At about 2 year intervals, the livestock manages to find a way into one or
the other of the electric feed tunnels.  'whatever it is' that the cable
manufacturers use to insulate high-voltage high-ampacity wiring with, the
local squirrel population finds it to be irresistable.  "Pretty soon there
was a 'squirrel boom'", and all the 'non-critical' stuff on half the campus 
goes dark.

Note: the 'squirrel boom' is rather impressive -- sounds like the big 
brother of an M-80 firecracker/simulated morter round.  The fault does
tend to be self-clearing -- the only physical evidence of the perpetrator 
is a grease stain for several feet surrounding. plus a distinctive stink.

> From owner-nanog at merit.edu  Thu Jul  8 23:17:23 2004
> From: "John Ferriby" <john at ferriby.com>
> To: <nanog at merit.edu>
> Subject: RE: concern over public peering points [WAS: Peering point speed publicly available?]
> Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 00:14:39 -0400
>
>
> On Wednesday 07 July 2004 02:43 am, Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> > Which almost begs the question - what's the oddest "WTF??" anybody's
> > willing to admit finding under a raised floor, or up in a ceiling or cable
> > chase or similar location? (Feel free to change names to protect the
> guilty
> > if need be....:)
>
> Raccoons.  Came in late one night and heard noises that I didn't
> really expect.   Turns out the facility had diverse entrances and
> multiple conduits - and one of them had been exposed outside due
> to some erosion and had been damaged.  We found little surprises
> for quite awhile after that.
>
> Undergarments and shoes.  His and hers, but no other clothing.

Not 'raised-floor', but qualifies for retelling due to the manner in
which the situation was dealt with --

    When:  50+ years ago.

  Locale:  An urban newspaper, the office of the (personally quite
           conservative, but not moralizing) editor-in-chief.

   Found:  A brassiere, under the cushions of the couch in his office.

  Result:  Memo to _all_ staff, announcing the 'find', and requesting that
	   the 'rightful owner thereof' please reclaim their property.

	   Follow-up memo, a couple of days later, when there had been no 
	   results from the first one --   again requesting the owner to
	   claim their property, and an announcement that if _not_ claimed,
	   the boss was considering 'holding fittings', to ensure that the
	   lost property WOULD be returned to its rightful owner.

           [And that is where the story ends -- except to note that "fittings"
	    were _not_ held; there was never any identifiable 'fallout' from
	    the event, in any way.)