From owner-nanog@merit.edu Thu Jul 8 23:42:27 2004 From: "Scot Bryhan" <dsbryhan@chartermi.net> To: <nanog@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@merit.edu Thu Jul 8 23:17:23 2004 From: "John Ferriby" <john@ferriby.com> To: <nanog@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@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.)