Tragic Robot Suicide Stuns Small Town  A Roomba in the Austrian
village of Hinterstoder has, according to its owner, woken up
from being powered down and hurled itself upon a working
stovetop, incinerating the device and leaving naught but a pile
of ashes behind.  Helmut Kniewasser, one of the firefighters
attending the blaze, has the story (courtesy of the Daily Mail).
The home-owner had put the small robot on the work surface to
clean up some spilled cereal. Once the robot had done its job it
was switched off but left on the kitchen sideboard.  The
44-year-old house owner, together with his wife and son, then
left the house and were not home when the robot set off.
Somehow it seems to have reactivated itself and made its way
along the work surface where it pushed a cooking pot out of the
way and basically that was the end of it.  It pretty quickly
started to melt underneath and then stuck to the kitchen
hotplate. It then caught fire. By the time we arrived, it was
just a pile of ash.  It's kind of funny,