TV Calls Air Force for Help
CORVALLIS, OR-October 18, 2004 — It's the case of the TV that was calling for help.
An Air Force search and rescue alert was trigged by Chris van Rossman's flatscreen Toshiba TV. It has a built-in VCR, DVD and CD player. And an undocumented feature that has authorities scratching their heads.
Some sort of electric glitch was causing van Rossman's TV to transmit on the international distress frequency. The signal was picked up by a satellite and relayed to the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center in Virginia.
Van Rossman had no idea until airmen, deputies and Corvallis, Oregon, police were knocking on the door of his apartment. The errant signal was traced to his TV set.
Van Rossman was warned to keep the TV off or face a $10,000 fine for sending a false distress signal.
A spokeswoman for Toshiba says they've never heard of this sort of problem before. But the company is promising to give van Rossman a new TV.
I am once again spraying the computer with DP, LOL!!!
Golly, that's weird.
I've waited to post this until I got the go ahead from a friend who is a highway patrolman here in Rapid City. It is annecdotal and no, there is no link.
10 days ago, the patrolman, stopped a car for speeding on Interstate 90, near Ellsworth Air Force Base. In the car were five middle-easterners, four men and one woman. They had no luggage. According to their story they were travelling from Seattle to Chicago. Patrolman contacted authorities and gave their I.D.'s. There was a "hit" on three of the five. They were on the F.B.I "terror watch list".
Patrolman was advised to issue just a warning and let them go. (At this point of his story I was a bit appalled!)
However, F.B.I. agents started following them about 150 miles east of here. Rather than arrest them locally, they wanted to see where they would go and who they could lead them to. Still don't know the outcome, and probably never will, but I thought it was a bit interesting.
Point is.....this stuff is happening everywhere, not just in the big cities. And the F.B.I. is acting. We just don't always know about it.
I wanted to tell you guys about this sooner, but was advised to hold off until way after they reached their destination.
My friend is a 20 year veteran of the SDHP, former military, and I trust him not to "BS" me.
Oh Goody, I love stories like this......
Time to put on the tin foil hat, the one made with a whole roll of Reynolds.
Let's go back to the first gulf war. I saw a special on the discovery channel, a couple years ago, that claimed the U.S. had installed microchips into computer printers that allowed our cruise missles to find these printers when a satellite signal was sent out to activate the chip. Of course, the show goes on to tell us, these printers were sold to Iraqi government agencies.
Tin Foil hat adjusted
My Tin Foil Theory.........Japan makes T.V.'s (Toshiba) for U.S. markets and contracts a Chinese company to provide chips for their televisions. The PLA smelling a prime opportunity sends Toshiba microchips that will send a signal that Chinese satellites can pick up, enabling Chinese missiles to be guided in on a pre-identified target.
(Some unsuspecting airmen, soldier or sailor that has one of these in his on-base housing, PLA notes with great joy that they have a positive target to which to guide their missile, thereby insuring a more accurate strike)
Leave the rest up to your own Tin Foil imagination.
What is the down side to this theory? If it's true, we have bought a LOT of chinese electronics over the last few years here in the U.S.
Bon Appetite!
of course there are only about 1000 holes in this theory, but hey, if there weren't we'd be trading our tin foil hats in for a nice 1950's bomb shelter.