Posted on 01/29/2014 2:51:30 PM PST by thackney
We may worry about hackers taking down the electrical grid, says Eugene K. Chow at The Week, just like we worry about, for example, bikers hitting frail old ladies crossing the street. But both threats are overblown. Like biker-on-old-lady violence, cyberattacks are so rare that they’re notable — we fear them and talk about them precisely because they don’t happen very often. But the true threat lies elsewhere, with more common villains. On the street, of course, it’s cars. In the nation’s electricity infrastructure, it’s squirrels.
Chow explains:
Even squirrels are proving to be, well, a squirrelly problem. No one really knows how much damage the rodents do, but it’s certainly more than hackers manage. A cursory analysis in The New York Times found that over a four month span last year, squirrels caused at least 50 power outages across the country — and those were just the ones that made the news. And while no one knows how many people are affected by squirrel-related outages each year, in just two days last June, four squirrel-related incidents left more than 18,000 homes in four different states in the dark. How do squirrels manage such mayhem? They simply chew through wires or scamper over fragile electrical equipment.
Of course, it’s possible that the hackers have hacked the squirrels and are controlling their sharp little teeth from Romania. In this day and age, you can never be sure.
That’s what we get for not having a deal with them.
I was in “N” tunnel at the Nevada Test Site preparing for a nuke test back in the day. A ground squirrel got into a transformer. A mile and a half in it gets real dark... real fast.
Squirrel got under the pickup truck about a year ago and snacked on the wires ..... retribution was exacted.
Normal size or fifty-foot radioactive squirrel?
Squirrels are tree rats with good press.
Shooting them is more fun and you can make money with the flies you make out of their tails.
Well said. That is the plan we follow in my house too. All critters are welcome in my yard. However, if they misbehave they seem to often end up in my crockpot. My wife is very good at cooking critter.
The only good thing about a squirrel is a dead squirrel. Glorified rats is all they are.
Normal, all the big ones hang out on Frenchman’s Flat.
That ain’t no squirrel........
No red's?
Well, mebbe...but I know electricians who keep a fried squirrel in a baggie to place at the scene of an outage they’ve caused themselves. Yup. Drop squirrels.
Dat be true!!
That sounds good but in actuality is not a solution.
You can’t shoot enough squirrels to reduce the population . Yoy are powerless to prevent them from running along the wires and resting on an uninsulated transformer connection.
We experienced at least one outage a month from squirrels. The power co transformers were designed in such a manner that they were especially vulnerable. Providing a rubber sleeve ended the problem.
All at the power company were cnvinced they had a squirrel problem. They did not
kinda off topic...but red squirrels were always tougher than greys...just and observation...
If your daughter takes an unusual interest in your will, don’t be surprised.
I blame it on rap music. The North American Grey Squirrels, as a group, love rap music. They wear their little Walksquirrel radios when they are outside. The radios aren’t very large, so the squirrels tie on aluminum foil to try and get better reception. There they are, up on the wires, running around and you yell at them to warn them about their aluminum foil antennas and they can’t hear you because they’re tuned in to a rap station and they have the volume up too loud.
“Boom de boom boom de ZAP!!! Sizzle sizzle.”
And out go the lights. There’d be twice as many squirrels if they would tune to a nice soft rock station and listen to MUSKRAT LOVE.
Tree squirrels roasting on an open fire,
Hot sauce dripping from their toes,
Chubby squirrels fresh fileted by the sire,
He poked hot skewers up their nose.Everybody knows some pepper and a garlic clove
Help to make them seasoned just right.
Tiny rats with a crisp golden coat
Will really hit the spot tonight.And now when father's off to start his day,
He'll have some home-made squirrel jerky on his way.
And every hungry child is gonna' try
To snatch a tasty little drumstick as they fry.And so I'm brushing on some honey glaze
To keep them crisp and juicy too.
I know they'll get served many times, many ways...
Tasty tree rats..... good food.And now I'm offering some recipes
From squirrel pie to tasty tree squirrel stew.
I'm not really sad that it ended this way
Furry squirrels..... they're good food.
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