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Google Gulp!

Think this may just be an April Fools!

Quench your thirst for knowledge.

At Google our mission is to organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to our users. But any piece of information's usefulness derives, to a depressing degree, from the cognitive ability of the user who's using it. That's why we're pleased to announce Google Gulp (BETA)™ with Auto-Drink™ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty.

More at:

http://www.google.co.uk/googlegulp/
 
Couldn't find a clear candidate for a joke story in the Guardian this morning, though it had a feature on classic April Fools.

However, browsing the Arts pages this evening, I think I have found one, though it is always hazardous to assume things seen there must be parodies. Anyway there is a linked webpage:

http://www.sextonming.co.uk/index.php

It is also dated 31st March, but daft stories are on sale year round, like raspberries these days.

Oh, a web-search makes me think this one is a conspiracy involving places like Liverpool's Walker Gallery site:

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walk ... stuckists/

:hmm:
 
There was a good car advert (saw it in the Times and Telegraph) for, I think, Mercedes.

It looked technically interesting, so I started reading it (I normally skim over car ads), and then it dawned on me that it was a spoof! It's premise was that the EU will be banning right-hand drive cars from continental Europe, so they have brought out a new car with no steering wheel that can be operated from either front seat...!

Dig out your paper if you missed it, it's worth a read! :D
 
James Whitehead said:
Couldn't find a clear candidate for a joke story in the Guardian this morning

An unusual day indeed.
 
Re: Google Gulp!

twinkletoes said:
Think this may just be an April Fools!

Quench your thirst for knowledge.

At Google our mission is to organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to our users. But any piece of information's usefulness derives, to a depressing degree, from the cognitive ability of the user who's using it. That's why we're pleased to announce Google Gulp (BETA)™ with Auto-Drink™ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty.

More at:

http://www.google.co.uk/googlegulp/

The privacy disclaimer at the bottom is particularly good:

Google Gulp and Your Privacy
From time to time, in order to improve Google Gulp's usefulness for our users, Google Gulp will send packets of data related to your usage of this product from a wireless transmitter embedded in the base of your Google Gulp bottle to the GulpPlex™, a heavily guarded, massively parallel server farm whose location is known only to Eric Schmidt, who carries its GPS coordinates on a 64-bit-encrypted smart card locked in a stainless-steel briefcase handcuffed to his right wrist. No personally identifiable information of any kind related to your consumption of Google Gulp or any other current or future Google Foods product will ever be given, sold, bartered, auctioned off, tossed into a late-night poker pot, or otherwise transferred in any way to any untrustworthy third party, ever, we swear. See our Privacy Policy.

:_pished: :wow:
 
This sounds like an April fool...

April 01, 2005

Top up your mobile with the ultimate in power dressing

From Leo Lewis in Tokyo

PEOPLE unable to tear themselves away from their iPods or mobile phones could find salvation in a Japanese invention: solar-powered clothes that will keep their favourite accessories constantly topped up.

The energy is generated by solar panels that are less than half a millimetre thick, as pliable as fabric, cheap to produce and can be dyed any colour.

Their inventor, Tsukasa Yoshida, a chemistry professor, envisages hundreds of applications, from umbrellas that can charge mobile phones to tents that can provide campers with enough power to run a laptop computer.

He claims that his invention overcomes two key pitfalls of traditional solar panels: high cost and rigidity.

“I’ve been working on solar power cells for a long time, but I always felt that we were barking up the wrong tree,” he said. “It's no use trying to make rooftop solar panels more efficient because at the moment the number of people having their homes fitted with solar power is not increasing dramatically. So I felt I had to bring solar power closer to people’s daily lives, if only to increase awareness of it as a source of energy.”

The key breakthrough was finding a way to dye the solar panels a variety of colours and thus make themattractive. Black is the most efficient colour for a panel, but Professor Yoshida, of Gifu University, decided that the quest for “solar propagation” was more important. A traditional black solar panel may have an efficiency of about 12 per cent, while a red version of his “rainbow cell” is about half as energy efficient. “Having lots of colours is less efficient but it means that the panels can literally go anywhere,” he said.

The university has recently struck a deal with the textile giant Gunze, most famous among Japanese consumers as a manufacturer of underwear, to produce the new spring collection of solar clothes. A satin jacket embroidered with a strip of 28 solar panels in the shape of stars, for example, could keep an iPod constantly charged throughout the day. The star panels will cost about 50p each.

Professor Yoshida admits, though, that charging a mobile phone from completely empty to completely full might take around 20 hours, even in bright sunshine. The most efficient solar cells can convert only 20 per cent of the energy they receive from the sun into electricity.

Professor Yoshida acknowledges that the technology is in its infancy and will take several years of refinement before the finished products can be made widely available.

Nonetheless, the rainbow cell has been hailed as a major industrial breakthrough because it finally frees solar power from fixed, solid pieces of expensive equipment. The technology has attracted interest from car makers, electronics companies and the building industry.

Large surfaces such as buildings can be coated in panels, a feature that has led to another deal between Gifu and Sekisui, one of Japan’s largest construction companies. A house covered in rainbow cells could potentially cut annual electricity consumption from the grid by 50 per cent.

“It would be possible to cover entire skyscrapers, bridges, government buildings, and so forth with these new solar cells without compromising on the design,” Professor Yoshida said. “Do that and you could generate huge amounts of elec- tricity.”

SOLAR PANEL

- Each star-shaped panel on Dr Yoshida’s prototype satin jacket generates around 5 milliwatts per hour

- It is estimated that the global solar industry will be worth around £20 billion by 2010

- Sharp, the world’s biggest player in the solar industry, will introduce nine different models of solar cell modules this month for use in business and government offices in Japan

- Iwasaki Electric has begun selling a solar generator for use in disaster situations that can power a temporary street lamp through the night

- Sanyo Electric’s solar panel holds the world record with an efficiency of 21.6 per cent

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.

...and this is definitely an April fool...

April 01, 2005

FA reveals plans for Super Bowl showpiece

By Nick Szczepanik

THE FA Cup Final could be replaced by a Super Bowl-style Premiership play-off final at Wembley as part of plans to revamp the top level of English football along American football lines. Highly-placed sources at the Premier League and FA have confirmed a restructuring scheme is under consideration that would also allow 12 more clubs into an expanded Premiership but remove some traditional rivalries from the fixture list.

Premiership chairmen and chief executives have long cast envious eyes at the commercial success of the NFL (National Football League) and are also considering adopting many of its commercial measures such as salary caps and revenue-sharing, but it is the plans to copy the NFL’s 32-team structure that will cause most consternation among supporters.

As well as the introduction into the Premiership of end-of-season play-offs — which will also determine European places — the proposals call for the splitting of the 32 teams into two “conferences”, as happens in the NFL, further split into four four-team divisions, with each division champions going forward into the play-offs. However, in order to accommodate 12 extra teams while ensuring that every club plays every other club at least once, teams will only be guaranteed home-and-away fixtures against opponents in their own division.

According to an early draft of a possible league structure, that could mean that Manchester United and Liverpool, for instance, would play each other only once per season, at Old Trafford and Anfield in alternate campaigns, unless they were to meet in the play-off final. Arsenal versus Chelsea would suffer the same fate according to the proposals.

It will also be impossible for teams in the same conference to meet in the final. That immediately rules out Chelsea playing Manchester United in the Wembley showpiece, although they could meet at the semi-final stage. As a result, with only the two play-off finalists guaranteed direct entry into the Champions League, the loser of the semifinal would go into the third qualifying round of the premier European competition, as the clubs finishing third and fourth in the Premiership do under the present system.

It could be worse. In the NFL, local rivals such as the New York Giants and New York Jets are in different conferences and seldom play one another. The Premiership scheme does not, as it stands, separate Arsenal and Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton or the two Manchester clubs.

Moreover, those who claim that smaller clubs cannot compete under the present system may be encouraged by the adoption of an NFL method of helping “competitive balance” by giving less successful teams an easier schedule the next season.Teams will play three extra games against the other teams in their conference who finished in the same position the previous season. The NFL realigned its structure three years ago, a move that has been generally considered a success. “Realignment kept the most significant of the old rivalries intact, while maintaining a varied schedule that allows fans to see the top teams,” an insider said. “Our schedule also helps to promote competitive balance.”

At the moment, the two conferences are designated A and B, although consideration has been given to naming them after leading figures from the game’s history, with Sir Matt Busby and Bill Shankly among the favourites.

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
 
I found this one, but thought it was a bit obvious:

As the national debate about kids and their diets rolls on, a Welsh farmer has made an amazing discovery which could revolutionise the children's drinks market.

He has managed to make his cows produce fruit-flavoured milk - no additives, no sugar - straight from the cow.

"Cows seemed unwell"

About six months ago John Lougher noticed one of his dairy cows seemed unwell. He called the vet, who told him the cow was lacking in vitamins, particularly Vitamin C. John decided to try his own home remedy, and as oranges are so high in Vitamin C, tried feeding the cow oranges. She loved them, and was soon well again.

But after a couple of weeks, John noticed an amazing side-effect - the cow's milk tasted of oranges!

Feeding experiment

John decided to expand the experiment and started feeding some of his other cows on apples, bananas and strawberries. The result was the same - delicious, fruit-flavoured milk.

John has tried the drinks on children from the area and they all love them. He now plans to go into flavoured milk production full-time.

The National Farmers' Union - of which John is a past regional chairman - believes the discovery could revolutionise the British dairy industry.

In addition, health experts are also getting excited about the discovery, believing it could mean the end of children craving sweet, manufactured drinks.

Healthy children

A recent US study reported that children who avoid milk tend to be fatter than children who drink milk. This may be because milk is being replaced by high energy drinks such as soft drinks.

As children move into adolescence, the time they need the most calcium, they tend to drink less milk and more sugary soft drinks.

As milk is a healthier choice, it is worth encouraging children to drink flavoured milk rather than soft drinks and an all-natural, healthy flavoured milk is perfect; as the flavoured milk comes out of the cow already flavoured, it has no chemicals, additives or sugar - it is just naturally delicious.

http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=13912[/url]
 
April Fools Special Edition - SojokeMail 04.01.05

"Our collection agencies are often unable to gather intelligence on the very
things we care the most about."
- From the report by the Bush-appointed Commission on the Intelligence
Capabilities of the United States, lamenting the difficulty in finding out
useful information about the Michael Jackson trial, Survivor spoilers, and
plot secrets from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The president
"welcomed" the report, and said Dick Cheney was especially interested in
learning more about how exactly Senator Palpatine became emperor and began
construction of the Death Star.

****************************************************************************



Howard Dean gets religion - the old school kind

Hallelujaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!
Following the 2004 electoral defeat, no member of the Democratic party
showed greater openness to religious and moral values issues than newly
elected party chair Howard Dean. His previously best-known comment on
religious issues was his embarrassing pick of Job as his favorite New
Testament book, and Judas as his favorite disciple. Not only is Job not in
the New Testament, but he pronounced it with a short "o" sound, as in, "I
need a job." Despite frantic corrections by aides, including assurances that
"he meant the other Judas," the damage was done.

But during a dark night of the soul immersed in polling data, demographic
reports, No-Doz, and late-night televangelists, Dean recently experienced
what he describes as a "touch of Holy Ghost power" as he prayed for God to
grant him and his party political success. Friends speculate it may have
just been an unusually strong static shock that resulted when Dean knelt
before his 56-inch projection television and placed his hands on the screen
as instructed by TV preacher Robert Tilton.

But whether zapped by the Holy Spirit or excess electrons, Dean's already
boisterous speaking style has been imbued with a religious fervor and a
penchant for God-talk rivaling opponents on the Right, as demonstrated at a
recent press conference: "Bush's plan for social security is ill-conceived
and must be rejected. Puh-raise Gawd! Amen. Hallelujah. Next question -
thank you JEE-ah-sus-ah!"

"I'd like to believe he's sincere, but it just feels like one-upsmanship,"
muttered Rev. Jerry Falwell irritably. "I mean, he's already added two extra
syllables to his pronunciation of the Lord's name - where most of us settle
for a mere JEE-sus-ah. Who's he trying to impress?"

Friends on the Left also have concerns. "True, we wanted Howard to embrace a
moral and religious vocabulary," said one NCC operative who declined to be
named. "But now he keeps quoting this King James smack from Revelation about
beasts and crowns and cups of wrath. We wanted MLK lite - not Oral freakin'
Roberts."

While insiders debate his life expectancy as party chair, other members of
the progressive religious community are offering their perspective. Jim
Wallis' newest book, God's Politics II: Why the Right Still Gets It Wrong,
and the Left Got Too Much and Is Weirding Out Its Friends and Isn't Invited
to Parties Anymore is already a New York Times best-seller.

****************************************************************************



Bush to replace Wolfensohn with Wolfowitz at World Bank; cites
'experiences,' similar name


When challenged as to Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz's fitness to replace
James Wolfensohn as president of the World Bank, President Bush carefully
detailed a long and distinguished list of qualifications: "...[H]e's a man
of good experiences. He helped manage a large organization. The World Bank
is a large organization; the Pentagon is a large organization - he's been
involved in the management of that organization [actual quote]." Bush also
added, "His proven ability to orchestrate the destruction of a country like
Iraq and then predicate its re-development on the enrichment of U.S.
corporations is proof enough of his ability to lead an organization with a
record like the World Bank's."

When pressed further as to why other more qualified candidates were
overlooked, and whether Wolfowitz's confirmation yesterday as World Bank
president, combined with the appointment of U.N.-basher John Bolton as U.N.
ambassador, could be seen as giving the finger to the rest of the world with
both hands, Bush grinned sheepishly while answering: "Well, it was also
because their names are alike - Paul Wolfywitz and that Wolfysohn guy there.
I think names with 'Wolf' in them are cool. They're ferocious and powerful
animals, and can strike at any second. That's important - whether you're
helping poor loser countries get their act together, or making the Middle
East safe for democracy. That's why I'm also naming Wolf Blitzer of CNN as
Paul's replacement for Deputy Secretary of Defense. Otherwise I might have
picked someone from Fox News - those guys are awesome. A fox is also a
dangerous animal, but not as dangerous as a wolf, because wolfs [sic] are
bigger. They're scary, and you don't mess with 'em. If I had a son, I would
name him Wolf, or maybe Cougar."

****************************************************************************




Hummer hybrid a slightly less socially irresponsible status symbol

The new Hummer hybrid: It's earth- friendly, so you don't have to be.
With the introduction of its new gas/electric hybrid, Hummer hopes to reach
the niche market of motorists who want to appear concerned about the
environment, but for whom the popular Toyota Prius just doesn't turn enough
heads with its sedan body and measly $20,000 MSRP. The $60,000 Hummer
Laverde (a contraction of the Spanish words lava and verde, literally
meaning "green-wash") will go three times farther on a single fill-up than
previous Hummers - due mostly to a far larger gas tank - while its advanced
hybrid technology gets twice the mileage of behemoth SUV competitor Ford
Excursion at two miles per gallon highway, zero city. (Because two times
zero is still zero.)

Option packages include advanced armor plating unavailable even to U.S.
troops in Iraq. Though the armor's weight nullifies the hybrid's added fuel
economy, you're assured that in a collision your load of overpriced organic
groceries will remain unscathed - unlike the driver of the Mazda Miata you
just backed over in the Whole Foods parking lot, who will require
reconstructive surgery and lifetime of rehab.

In a limited-time offer intended to boost initial sales, your first tank of
gas will come from pristine petroleum drilled in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, and your first 100 kilowatt-hours will come from "clean
coal" power plants. "We hope the Laverde will be more popular and less of a
transparent PR stunt than our hydrogen-powered H2H model," said Elizabeth
Lowery, GM Vice President of Environment and Energy. The H2H was unavailable
for public sale but given as a gift to actor and muscle-man Arnold
Schwarzenegger - who is also governor of California - no kidding.

****************************************************************************



The Sedentary Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know when the best I can do is to stay up watching X-Files
reruns with a bucket of KFC,
a pint of Haagen Dazs, and a carton of Marlboros.


****************************************************************************


Top ten reasons you're voting for Hillary Clinton for president in 2008
10. To prove to my feminist girlfriend that I'm, like, into her issues.
9. It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes name recognition to
raise a campaign war chest.
8. Her moderate rhetoric on abortion and religious values shows she that has
the sincerity and integrity - or savvy B.S. - to connect with the American
voter. I don't care - whatever it takes to get universal health care.
7. Can't wait to see what wacky hijinks Bill gets himself into around the
White House without presidential duties to distract him.
6. Settling into a nice Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton rotation will make it much
easier for America's school children to memorize the presidents.
5. She'd challenge chauvinistic Muslim governments with a progressive
example of women's leadership - oh wait, Pakistan had a female head of state
17 years ago. And a woman became Indonesia's prime minister in 2001.
4. Afraid if I don't I'll end up like Vince Foster.
3. To demonstrate that American political dynasties aren't just patriarchal
father-son affairs, but can also pass from philandering husbands to their
embittered wives.
2. I've already ordered 10,000 "A woman's place is in the house - the White
House" bumper stickers.
1. One word: Hillary-ous.

****************************************************************************



Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon to star in The Passion II: The Messiah
Strikes Back

Boston Red Sox Outfielder Johnny Damon signed a $11.5 million contract to
play the role of Jesus Christ in the sequel to Mel Gibson's controversial
film, The Passion of the Christ. "After I broke the curse of the Bambino, it
just seemed like the next logical step," said Damon, who helped lead the Red
Sox last year to their first World Series victory since 1918. "The Sox
probably won't win this thing for another 87 years, so I think this is the
best career move for me right now."
Though many wonder why Passion I star Jim Caviezel wasn't reprising his role
as Jesus, Damon has questioned whether the slender Caviezel could be taken
seriously as the resurrected Christ. As he told ESPN's Dan Patrick,
"Caviezel was great to portray the death, but for the resurrection, you need
a beefed-out Christ on steroids." In a follow-up question, Damon denied ever
using steroids or knowing anyone else in baseball who ever has.


****************************************************************************



Rapper hurt by falling dollar

American entertainers have started feeling the effect of the U.S. dollar's
precipitous devaluation on world markets. In many European venues, for
example, platinum-selling rap artist 50 Cent has been forced to perform
under the name of 37 Cent, depending on the daily rate. Just last weekend,
after another exchange hit in England, the rapper had no choice but to begin
his tour of the British Isles as 10 Shillings, Threepence, a name that may
undermine his urban street thug persona. Fortunately, because of China's
commitment to artificially prop up American rap imports, 50 Cent is still
selling strong in Asia as 74 Yen.
****************************************************************************
 
Funny cartoon in the Times of Michael Howard standing victorious outside number 10, took me a while to realise what was going on!
 
:_omg:

I just heard on the radio that aliens are attacking Earth! Panic! Panic! Run for your lives!
 
This is odd:

It's No Joke (Actually, It Is): Three April Fools' Comics Share Same Theme

By Dave Astor

Published: April 01, 2005 updated 4:05 PM ET

NEW YORK At least three cartoonists did April Fools' Day comics containing similar content.

Today's "FoxTrot," "Get Fuzzy," and "Pearls Before Swine" strips shared a Ouija-board theme.

"It is an odd coincidence," quipped "FoxTrot" creator Bill Amend, adding that he was too close to deadline on future strips to speak more with E&P about the matter.

"Pearls Before Swine" creator Stephan Pastis declined to comment, referring E&P to a United Media spokesperson. (United syndicates Pastis and "Get Fuzzy" creator Darby Conley, while Universal Press Syndicate distributes Amend's comic.) The United spokesperson subsequently e-mailed E&P a pair of tongue-in-cheek statements from Pastis and Conley (reprinted after the next paragraph).

In the first panel of each of the three strips, a character is shown playing with a Ouija board and explaining to another character that it spells out messages from the beyond. In the second panel of each comic, the Ouija-playing character spells out an insult and threat to the other character. In the third panel of each strip, the insulted/threatened character says: "Somehow I imagined the afterlife to be a more peaceful place."

Conley's statement about today's "Get Fuzzy" strip: "I can tell you that I wrote it. Some months ago, Stephan Pastis had run a very bad idea, which did involve an Ouija board, by me to see if it was funny. It was not. During that conversation, however, I gave him a brilliant joke to use for this idea, but he said that he wasn't going to use it. Having written it myself, I decided to go ahead and use it in my strip. And you can ask Bill Amend about it, because I mentioned the whole thing to him that day, and he'd tell you what I just did."

Pastis' statement about today's "Pearls Before Swine" strip: "All I know is that I wrote what I thought was a pretty decent strip and then ran it by Darby to see if he thought it was funny or not. Apparently, he liked it too much. I had no idea that he was so desperate for material. I know he's close to deadline, but that's not an excuse. In the future, I'll keep my ideas to myself. How it ended up in 'FoxTrot' I have no idea."

Source
 
I nearly posted this in Weird Sex before spotting the doctor's name:

Penises bigger than thought

Friday, April 01, 2005

The average erect male penis size is much larger than previously thought - with 20 cm-long penises being standard for most men, researchers have found.

The study, involving more than 15 000 British men, is the first large-scale study to measure adult erect penis size. This latest research debunks the common belief that average male penises range in size from 14 to 16 cm - a theory that has never been scientifically proven. Until now, research has been based largely on either anecdotal evidence or samples that were not statistically significant.

Researchers from the University of Manchester analysed data from more than 15 000 men between the ages of 18 and 35 who were being treated at various hospitals in the Manchester district for medical conditions involving the male genitals.

Surprising results

"We were surprised to find that most erect penises were between 18 and 22 cm long," said Dr Alan Prepuce of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Manchester.

"However, it's important to note that penis size has no direct relationship to either the ability to reproduce or give sexual satisfaction," Prepuce said in an accompanying editorial.

The results were published in the 1 April issue of Male Reproduction.

Source
 
Surely the average male member is much longer than that?

Or is it just me! ;)
 
Dunno. I usually go for a guestimate about how far over the end of my foot long ruler it hangs :p

---------------
I assume this is also a AF's joke:

Who Closes a Sex Festival for Lack of Interest?

Fri Apr 1, 2005 12:10 PM ET


LONDON (Reuters) - Organizers of a major erotic festival are closing for business in Manchester due to a lack of interest, which they blame on recalcitrant northern English men.

Erotica Manchester opened on Friday, selling a range of sex aids, clothing and footwear, but ticket sales have been poor and organizers say they will not be coming back.

"We've tried to warm this city up for more than two years but northerners just haven't responded in sufficient numbers," said event director Savvas Christodoulou.

"They are happy enough to come to our London event in the autumn but they seem embarrassed about being seen at Erotica Manchester."

Organizers said their research shows northern women wanted to attend the three-day adult show but were "under the thumb of their other halves."

"We thought Manchester was an open minded city but maybe we were wrong," a spokesman for the event told Reuters. "People flock to our show in London but it seems that up here, the traditional northern male still calls the shots."

Source

If there is any doubt about the prowess of we Northerners see:
www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12578
 
:eek:

This was not an April Fools Day prank, but, umm, was this really the best day for this preparedness drill? There's a mixed message in there somewhere, though to be honest i'm not quite sure what. :?

STATEWIDE TSUNAMI WARNING EXERCISE SCHEDULED FOR APRIL 1

April is Tsunami Awareness Month in Hawaii

The NOAA National Weather Service and Hawaii's civil defense agencies will conduct a statewide tsunami warning and response exercise on April 1, kicking off Hawaii's Tsunami Awareness Month. Since the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami tragedy, world attention has been increasingly focused on efforts to improve tsunami detection and warnings and the efforts to educate the public about potential tsunami threats. A tsunami warning system has been in place in Hawaii since 1949. To stay tsunami prepared, Hawaii holds annual drills and public awareness activities, such as Tsunami Awareness Month. "An established warning system and statewide exercises like this help make Hawaii arguably the most tsunami ready state in the nation. These drills are the key to future safety," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2413.htm
 
Hubbles's colleague left his phone on his desk overnight on the 1st. This is what happened. He's on call tonight and still hasn't got it back! And yes, the people in the photos are random strangers and the office is in London, so nobody's sure where the beach comes into this!
 
Tupac not dead?

Is this for real?




http://67.18.222.146/cnn.htm






(CNN) -- Rap star Tupac Shakur appeared yesterday in Beverly Hills and casually strolled through the streets as if the rest of the world had forgotten his "murder" nearly nine years ago.

Almost out of thin air, famed rapper Tupac Shakur showed up yesterday afternoon at a shopping mall in Beverly Hills. Escorted by an entourage of some ten indivduals including ex-producer Suge Knight and fellow rapper Andre Young (aka Dr. Dre), Shakur began visiting the many high-end stores he once frequented during the peak of his fame in the mid-90s. He looked as if all was well while onlookers stared in disbelief at the "ghost" before them.

In a private conference held late last night, close friends of Shakur and a small handful of reporters were privy to information about his life since the 1996 incident. He will be working with a new artis The Game TI Pimpin P from the online show throwbackbitch.com and Jizzle of chronicgirls.com fame as well as others.

When asked why he chose to islead the world into thinking he was dead Shakur reflected for several seconds. "I never meant to hurt my fans or anyone else," Shakur said. "There were men out there that wanted my blood and the blood of those closest to me. I did this for them. It wasn't an easy decision for me, but it was a step I knew I had to take."

Pity it's not Andy Kaufman....
 
Re: Tupac not dead?

chewlip said:
Is this for real?

Check the date across the top of the screen.

Its not even a clever URL spoof like the zombie outbreak one - its just an IP and then cnn.htm which should be a dead give away.
 
Meta-fooling:

#73: The Origin of April Fool's Day
In 1983 the Associated Press reported that the mystery of the origin of April Fool's Day had finally been solved. Joseph Boskin, a History professor at Boston University, had discovered that the celebration had begun during the Roman empire when a court jester had boasted to Emperor Constantine that the fools and jesters of the court could rule the kingdom better than the Emperor could. In response, Constantine had decreed that the court fools would be given a chance to prove this boast, and he set aside one day of the year upon which a fool would rule the kingdom. The first year Constantine appointed a jester named Kugel as ruler, and Kugel immediately decreed that only the absurd would be allowed in the kingdom on that day. Therefore the tradition of April Fools was born. News media throughout the country reprinted the Associated Press story. But what the AP reporter who had interviewed Professor Boskin for the story hadn't realized was that Boskin was lying. Not a word of the story was true, which Boskin admitted a few weeks later. Boston University issued a statement apologizing for the joke, and many papers published corrections.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P70/
 
Thanks for posting that top 100, Yith. I was cheering on the Brits and our excellent showing - until I remembered what we were measuring!

:err:
 
Here be dragons

Biotechnology

Here be dragons

Mar 30th 2006 | SAN MELITO
From The Economist print edition


With luck, you may soon be able to buy a mythological pet

PAOLO FRIL, chairman and chief scientific officer of GeneDupe, based in San Melito, California, is a man with a dream. That dream is a dragon in every home.

GeneDupe's business is biotech pets. Not for Dr Fril, though, the mundane cloning of dead moggies and pooches. He plans a range of entirely new animals—or, rather, of really quite old animals, with the twist that even when they did exist, it was only in the imagination.

Making a mythical creature real is not easy. But GeneDupe's team of biologists and computer scientists reckon they are equal to the task. Their secret is a new field, which they call “virtual cell biology”.

Biology and computing have a lot in common, since both are about processing information—in one case electronic; in the other, biochemical. Virtual cell biology aspires to make a software model of a cell that is accurate in every biochemical detail. That is possible because all animal cells use the same parts list—mitochondria for energy processing, the endoplasmic reticulum for making proteins, Golgi body for protein assembly, and so on.

Armed with their virtual cell, GeneDupe's scientists can customise the result so that it belongs to a particular species, by loading it with a virtual copy of that animal's genome. Then, if the cell is also loaded with the right virtual molecules, it will behave like a fertilised egg, and start dividing and developing—first into an embryo, and ultimately into an adult.

Because this “growth” is going on in a computer, it happens fast. Passing from egg to adult in one of GeneDupe's enormous Mythmaker computers takes less than a minute. And it is here that Charles Darwin gets a look in. With such a short generation time, GeneDupe's scientists can add a little evolution to their products.

Allstar


Generation 1.0

Each computer starts with a search image (dragon, unicorn, gryphon, etc), and the genome of the real animal most closely resembling it (a lizard for the dragon, a horse for the unicorn and, most taxingly, the spliced genomes of a lion and an eagle for the gryphon). The virtual genomes of these real animals are then tweaked by random electronic mutations. When they have matured, the virtual adults most closely resembling the targets are picked and cross-bred, while the others are culled.

Using this rapid evolutionary process, GeneDupe's scientists have arrived at genomes for a range of mythological creatures—in a computer, at least. The next stage, on which they are just embarking, is to do it for real.

This involves synthesising, with actual DNA, the genetic material that the computer models predict will produce the mythical creatures. The synthetic DNA is then inserted into a cell that has had its natural nucleus removed. The result, Dr Fril and his commercial backers hope, will be a real live dragon, unicorn or what have you.

Readers with long memories may recall GeneDupe's previous attempt to break into the pet market, the Real Goldfish (see article). This animal was genetically engineered to deposit gold in its skin cells, for that truly million-dollar look. Unfortunately Dr Fril, a biologist, neglected to think about the physics involved. The fish, weighed down by one of the heaviest metals in existence, sank like a stone, as did the project. He is more confident about his new idea, though. Indeed, if he can get the dragons' respiration correct, he thinks they will set the world on fire.

http://www.economist.com/science/displa ... id=6740040
 
Sphaghetti Hoax

Just this evening, March 31, 2006, the NBC nightly television news broadcast about 30 seconds' worth of Richard Dimbleby's April 1, 1957, BBC "Great Swiss Sphaghetti Harvest" report, accolading it as one of the greatest hoaxes of all time.

I've certainly read about this one enough times over the years but never expected to see any of the actual broadcast.

Richard Dimbleby was described for the American audience as "the British Walter Cronkheit."

Me, I still think Sefton Delmer was the best-ever.
 
Re: Sphaghetti Hoax

OldTimeRadio said:
Richard Dimbleby was described for the American audience as "the British Walter Cronkheit."
Yep, that was what made it so convincing. Dimbleby was the ultimate gravitas-laden, voice of the BBC: he's the one who would have been wheeled out to make the broadcast had the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse been imminent, basically :).

OT, it's a dynastic thing - his sons are both BBC chaps too, doing gravitas-laden things (though David, the elder one, did once appear in The Goodies, which didn't involve quite so much gravitas. This is perfectly true, BTW - not an April Fool.)
 
This story from the BBC News site smells a bit fishy. And it's also making fun of foreign food:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4867024.stm

Airlines ban 'foul' Swedish fish
By Lars Bevanger
BBC News. Saturday, 1 April 2006


Sweden's national dish is an acquired taste, to say the least.

Some say surstromming, a fermented herring, smells like rubbish left out in the sun for days.

But now the fish has been banned from several major airlines, classified along with dangerous weapons like shoe bombs and firearms.

The Baltic herring is fermented in barrels for months before being put in tin cans, where the fermentation process continues.

The decision has made many Swedes very angry indeed.

Surstromming is as Swedish as Volvo and Ikea.

Some say it is simply rotten fish, which smells like rotten fish. Others argue it is the finest of delicacies.

National symbol

But now major airlines like British Airways and Air France argue the cans are pressurised goods, and must be classified as potentially explosive.

The dish is no longer allowed on their flights, and the sale of the delicacy from Stockholm's international airport has been stopped.

That has made producers of the surstromming choke on their fermented fish, calling the airlines' decision "culturally illiterate".

It is a myth, they say, that the tinned fish can explode.

They admit, however, that a punctured tin would emit a foul smell, and that the content might spill quite forcefully, like a punctured can of beer.

But that is not enough to stop the export of a potent national symbol, the herring supporters argue.

The leader of the Swedish Surstromming Academy, an organisation promoting the dish nationally and internationally, said any airline worried about explosives and foul smells should first ban bottles of champagne and French cheese before attacking the pride of the Swedish cuisine.
 
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