A college student recently turned on his new flat-screen TV, only to find — a few hours later — a squad of local police, air patrol, and search-and-rescue personnel show up at his door. Apparently the TV was emitting an international distress signal, which was picked up by US satellites. As the kid told CNN:

“They’d never seen signal come that strong from a home appliance,” said van Rossmann. “They were quite surprised. I think we all were.”

I had known that plasma TVs can produce unusual humming noises at certain altitudes, but I’ve never known one to actually cry for help.

(Thanks to George Murray for this one!)