Well, it was hardly alien, but the death-ray part is pretty accurate, since it killed a lot of things. Late last week, when I had just returned home from a bout of travel, I woke up to a nasty green looking sky. It was obvious that something was not right, and when I looked outside there was a very ominous looking storm heading our way. In the distance was a lot of electrical activity, but it was still a fair way from us yet. That is why what happened next surprised me so much. Leaving my house, I wandered down to the neighbouring home, only moments away. No sooner had I entered the house than our property was struck by lightning. The death ray. Only 30 metres away is our larger teaching building (this is the mission site where I live and work) with a telephone antennae on top of it. A strong, thick bolt of lightning struck this very rod. Even today, many days after the event, we are working out just how much damage it has caused. It would be safe to say that virtually anything electronic was burned, damaged, destroyed, or otherwise rendered unusable. For example, today a telephone technician came out to fix the tower and discovered that not only the signal box was blown, which is the normal part that blows in a lightning strike, but also the antennae itself and the cable connecting it. With everything now connected by telephone lines and network cables, it did not take long for the super-juiced cables to start frying everything they touched. The central telephone system, only recently purchased, was hit so hard that it melted in several places, and the phone cable entering it from the tower was charcoaled and severed by the electrical force. Other spectacular damages were also wrought in items such as a network card of one computer that literally blew up and exploded inside the computer, leaving a hole in the middle of the chip. The network hub had a lovely burned smell to it, and upon opening there were melted parts all over the place. The rest of the damages have been things that you cannot really see but it just doesn't work any more. Things such as computers that won't start any more, network cards that don't work, browning marks (signs of massive heating) on chips, and more. Only a few people survived without any damages at all. Because I had only just returned from travelling, all of my gear was safely packed away still. This has allowed me to focus my work on fixing the damaged equipment. This work will keep me busy for another week yet. So if you are wondering where are the stories, then wonder no more. I have a few ready to post, but without Internet have been unable to do so. Hopefully sometime this week we will be connected once again. But now you know what happened... an Alien Death Ray killed our Internet.