Only in Alaska

Nutdotnet

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2000
7,721
3
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Ha, this type of stuff isn't out of the ordinary up here...it's Alaska for christ's sake!
 

BrownTown

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
5,314
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Squirels/cats/dogs/birds often cause outages when they get into a substation and short something out (think exploded cats). It also happens with dumbass humans who try to steal copper from substation and then get blown to pieces (literally).
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,695
31,043
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Originally posted by: BrownTown
Squirels/cats/dogs/birds often cause outages when they get into a substation and short something out (think exploded cats). It also happens with dumbass humans who try to steal copper from substation and then get blown to pieces (literally).


you forgot monekys
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,967
140
106
..may explain some of the UFO's they see up there. Gawd knows what they've been air lifting out of the dump.
 

Patt

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2000
5,288
2
81
:D ... about the best we've had here is a suicidal deer who somehow got into the substation property and fried itself.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
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Originally posted by: BrownTown
Squirels/cats/dogs/birds often cause outages when they get into a substation and short something out (think exploded cats). It also happens with dumbass humans who try to steal copper from substation and then get blown to pieces (literally).

Yup, power went out for a few hours at once place I worked assembling PCs. The boss had us set up shop outside to continue building them. A squirrel seems to have found its way into a transformer, and was burned to a crisp, which destroyed the transformer in the process.
"Ooh, this looks like a nice, cozy, warm place to live. And look at these lovely shiny coppery things. I wonder what they taste like. zzzzzzt"


Originally posted by: Patt
:D ... about the best we've had here is a suicidal deer who somehow got into the substation property and fried itself.
"Tall fences with sharp stuff on top, strange looking trees, without leaves, that are humming. Yeah, this place looks safe."
 

Rumpltzer

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2003
4,815
33
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Originally posted by: zinfamous
Originally posted by: BrownTown
Squirels/cats/dogs/birds often cause outages when they get into a substation and short something out (think exploded cats). It also happens with dumbass humans who try to steal copper from substation and then get blown to pieces (literally).
you forgot monekys
Wombats were also not listed for some reason.



I remember a squirrel taking out an entire Intel fab a few summers ago by shorting a transformer. We were making chipsets and flash memory at the time and had to scrap a buttload of product.

Pretty expensive squirrel...
 

thetxstang

Senior member
Sep 30, 2004
542
0
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I remember back in '99, when I decided it might be nice to live out in the country. My first night in my new house, I awoke at 6:30 a.m. from a loud, electrical-sounding blast outside, and the power went out instantly. I put on my clothes and went outside to investigate.

I instantly found the problem. There was a dead owl and a large snake, both burnt to a crisp, on top of the electric pole right by my house. Totally fried. Right then, a neighbor came running up. He said he had been outside on his porch, drinking his morning coffee and watching the scenery, when that owl came flying in with the snake gripped in its talons. He said he saw the owl land on the electric pole and the long snake evidently arced a couple of wires.

That was not the first time something like that happened out in the boonies. After three years, I said, "enough of country living," and moved back to the city. City life FTW.
 

RaiderJ

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2001
7,582
1
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When I was on the north slope of AK I frequently saw golden eagles trying to grab sheep lambs. They can get about a 6' wingspan, so I could see them picking up a deer head.