So, when Sprint (AS1239) depeers with Cogent (AS174), unless Cogent has a TRANSIT link with ATT / Savvis / Qwest / Level3 / GX, etc, the traffic will not flow.
Yes, you'd think they would have a transit link worked out just in case an entire AS blinked out of existence, especially when you expect it could happen, but they apparently didn't. That or their BGP filters on the transit linked filtered out anything for Sprint/AS1239 because of the peering link with Sprint. *shrug* Yes it shouldn't have happened the way it did - but there's many reasons why it could have.
According to Wikipedia: "Water intoxication can be prevented if a person's intake of water and electrolytes closely matches his or her losses. The body's regulatory mechanisms provide a very generous margin of safety if the two are imbalanced, but some extreme activities (such as heavy, prolonged physical exertion), as well as disease states, can overwhelm or impair these mechanisms.""Can you hold "it" in for a long time? We're having you drink water every 15 minutes! And the last person to go to the bathroom wins the Wii!
It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.