I see this daily, but then I don't have a sub-20ms ping time and a cable modem where I live. The CDN doesn't have to go down. The user's connection doesn't even have to go down. Things just have to get momentarily flaky _somewhere_.

I'm working on a project that uses google fonts and the page loads with fonts timing out multiple times per day. I get to sites where just the html loads and none of the css (or worse: just some of the css) all the time. Especially on 3G, but regularly on ADSL too. Or what if you're sharing a saturated line?

(And waiting for a timeout to kick in before you trigger a callback is just not an option. By then the user probably closed the page anyway. Rather just make it work in the first place.)