Planet of the Apes is real - they are destroying the Internet

[Rx_]

The signs are everywhere. More people on Earth have access to a cell phone than a toilet.

Perhaps you have a true story regarding Technology or Changing times?

3 days ago - Monkeys Are Causing Internet Outages, As Our 404 Page Predicted ... You can harden fiber-optic internet cabling against heat, ice, flooding, mold ... they would have known better than to expose monkeys to such delicious data conduits. ... Popular Science, Popular Photography, SHOT Business, ATV Rider ...

You can harden fiber-optic internet cabling against heat, ice, flooding, mold, and even crushing pressures. But apparently not monkeys. The cable's freshly extruded plastic casing is too damn alluring to resist an exploratory chewing session.

The Indian government is learning this the hard way, as it installs roughly 435,000 miles of fiber-optic cable over the next few years. Their goal: accommodate another 150 to 175 million internet users while the nation's population continues to explode.

North Korea is even more paranoid.
(Reuters) - North Korea called U.S. President Barack Obama a "monkey" and blamed Washington on Saturday for Internet outages it has experienced during a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

About 35 years ago, we discovered that it wasn't only monkeys. At that time, I worked for a company that did hard-wired telemetry because cell phone connections hadn't been developed yet for the situation we were addressing. We had to erect NEMA-12 enclosures containing our equipment in various parts of the Australian Outback.

When we analyzed the requirements further, we discovered that we had to reinforce the enclosures because the 'roos were territorial. We had to be able to withstand repeated attacks by rampaging, 50 to 75 kilogram kangaroos running at several meters per second and kicking the enclosures.

So it ain't only monkeys that can give you issues in the animal kingdom.

On the other hand...

More people on Earth have access to a cell phone than a toilet.

Guess that explains the crappy nature of the things posted to the web via cell phone.

 

[Rx_]

Level 3 Posted the top 10 annoying causes of fiber-cuts
#2 Squirrel chews account for a whopping 17% of our damages so far this year! But let me add that it is down from 28% just last year and it continues to decrease since we added cable guards to our plant. Honestly, I don’t understand what the big attraction is or why they feel compelled to gnaw through cables. Our guys in the field have given this some thought and jokingly suspect the cable manufacturers of using peanut oil in the sheathing.
http://blog.level3.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Dead-Squirrelsoldiers.jpg

9. Land Sharks You never know what to expect during natural disasters. I would go up against a squirrel any day rather than encounter some of the other creatures that are unearthed during a hurricane. Alligators, snakes and sharks are all creatures you don’t ever want to encounter on a fiber cut. But sometimes it happens. For example, during the cleanup efforts after hurricane Katrina, one of our field managers was about 2 miles inland when he spotted a three foot long shark in one of the trenches beside our fiber.

 

[Rx_]

Level 3 Sharks (non-Land Sharks)
There are many, many things that can go wrong as you lay thousands of miles of fibre optic cable along the ocean's floor. Earthquakes can rip things up, as can fishing hooks. But now we know of a new threat: Shark attacks.

According to Network World, Google Product Manager Dan Belcher told folks at a Google marketing event in Boston last week that Google ensures its cable is sheathed in a Kevlar-like protective coating to keep the sharks from chomping through the line. Turns out this is standard operating procedure among undersea cable-layers, who must take a number of steps to keep aquatic life from harming (or being harmed by) data cables.