Holy trapped cable ...

My computer died today.  I fixed it (because I'm great, obviously) but it was the strangest thing.

I'd nudged the base unit with my knee after I pulled my chair under the desk and there came a little strangling noise from the PC.  I don't wish to mock the sound of an actual strangling where a person may really die, but if I had to illustrate the sound in a comic book, it would look something like this.

ZWIP-EEEE-GLUCK-EEEE-CLAK-CLAK-EEEE-VZZZZ-VZZZZ-THWUP-THWUUUUZWUP

On second thoughts, perhaps I'd hire a professional to do the sound effects.

Abruptly, the sound ceased.  I thought no more of it until a couple of minutes later when everything went black.  The PC powered down, and only then did I begin to notice the rather nasty cooking smell.

Out came the screwdriver.  I wanted to find out exactly what was burning, but almost everything was hot and it took me a few really sensible attempts at powering the machine on and letting it die several painful deaths before I noticed the CPU fan was not spinning.  Then I noticed the reason why.

Out came the camera.  The loose green cable in the picture below is looking a little mangled, but in remarkable condition considering it's fate.  It had somehow managed to wrap itself around the fins of the fan.

So how does this happen?  I have no idea.  Effectively, someone shoved a stick through the spokes on my bicycle, except the fan spins a lot faster than a bike wheel - 3600 RPM, so the PC says.  I can't even imagine trying to doing this by hand even if I wanted to.  It'd just be a painful way to trim your fingernails.