Trail Mix

*Harvard University has banned a "data hungry" user from Factiva—a news and information research service—after the academically ambitious offender downloaded more than 5 million articles, almost 55,000 documents per day, the Harvard Crimson reports. The use was so excessive it jeopardized the school's contract with the company.

*The North Carolina fire that killed six University of South Carolina students and one Clemson student has prompted both schools to cancel their annual mascot-burning rituals that precede their rivalry football game, the Associated Press reports.

*A small mouse tripped a power switch and caused a large power outage that affected at least eight University of Minnesota buildings, the Minnesota Daily reports. Power was restored in most of the affected athletic buildings before practices began, but tragically, the mouse did not fare so well. "It got fried."