Thursday, January 13

Glitches Caused by Animals

   1. "Curiosity killed the power: Cat in substation blamed for city outage"
      < http://www.h-ponline.com/articles/2004/10/25/news/01outage.txt >
   "The feline, of the dark tiger variety, wandered into the Cinergy substation
    north of town, darkening many city homes and most city TV sets. And then --
    after an unhealthy jolt of electricity had coursed through its body -- the
    cat wandered away"

   2. "Rat killed power supply"
      < http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/english/article189127.ece >
   "A rat the size of a small cat cut the power for 15,000 consumers in downtown
    Bodø [Norway] Thursday evening"

   3. "Rat plunges World Cup game into darkness"
      < http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1098252.html >
   "A rat has been blamed for plunging a football stadium into darkness during a
    World Cup qualifier match [in Calcutta, India]"

   4. "Bunny blamed for Bluffs blackout"  [expired link]
      < http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1636&u_sid=992260 >

   5. "Squirrel knocks out power to 13,000"
      < http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/031004/new_0310040071.shtml >
   "A single squirrel knocked out electricity to a large portion of northern
    Crow Wing County Wednesday morning"

   6. "Boa triggers blackout"
      < http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/05/20/466765-ap.html >
   "A snake triggered a 15 minute countrywide power outage when it slithered
    into the intake tunnel of a major hydroelectric plan"

   7. "Wayward whale trapped at N.S. power plant"
      < http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1093382072521_88791272 >
   "A hydroelectric plant in Nova Scotia remained shut down Tuesday after a
    wayward whale swam through the underwater gates that connect the facility
    with the Bay of Fundy"

   8. "Fish force Michigan nuke plant shut down"  [expired link]
      < http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030424_1068.html >
   "Nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan shuts down after fish swim into
    cooling system"

   9. "Beaver blamed in phone outage"
      < http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0407/04/d06w-202240.htm >
   "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"

   10. "Nesting snakes cause of faulty traffic lights"
      < http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_659888.html >
   "Austrian police ordered to check some faulty traffic lights discovered it
    was being occupied by a family of snakes"

   11. "Bear causes oil spill in N.W.T."
      < http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/07/29/562272-cp.html >
   "A curious black bear caused an oil spill near [Fort Simpson] in the North-
    west Territories, say officials"

   12. "Hamster had no inkling of printer danger"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1078560.htm >
   "A German hamster called Teddy has sparked a police rescue mission after
    getting stuck inside a computer printer because he was too fat to get back
    out"

   (a John West post)