I was watching a program on PBS called 'NOW'. It seems that they must have hired some art student to come up with some new screen graphics, which they place at the beginning and end of each story.
The graphics consist of two horizontal bars, one near the top and the other near the bottom of the picture. Each one is populated by a random series of colored vertical stripes.
This looks, at first glance, exactly like a digital TV signal starting to drop out. I was about ready to climb up on the roof and fix my antenna before I figured out that it was them doing it.*
- Best example of screwing with people's minds in the 'digital age' was a CD that followed its last track with the recording of a phonograph needle bumping along the end record groove and then an automatic mechanism retracting the arm.