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My PC played an april fool prank on me today - told me it was april 1st and it's only 31st march. (that's after it gained an extra hour when british summer time came in (due to a system restore probably.)
 
I think this is the right thread for this:

Labour memo: celebrate Ed Miliband's wedding with street party
Labour party members have been urged to celebrate the forthcoming wedding of Ed Miliband and Justine Thornton with street parties, trifles and bunting, according to a secret memo seen by The Daily Telegraph.
By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor 12:05AM BST 01 Apr 2011

The email, which was sent to various Labour councillors, asks party members to mark in their diaries May 27th as a "red letter day", which should be enthusiastically celebrated.

The email sent from Flora Lopi, a Labour Party official, who is understood to be one of Mr Miliband's closest advisers, said: "As you will now all be aware, Britain will be celebrating an event even more important than the Royal wedding in London on April 29, namely, the civil ceremony uniting Ed and Justine, on May 27.

"Labour members, let's make this a red letter day, when we can show to the world that we are truly the party of unity, family and fun. In the face of swingeing Con-Dem cuts, I would like all Labour councillors, PCCs and party members to organise a street party.

"I have enclosed a ten-point plan to ensure this event runs as smoothly as possible, including ideas for catering and merchandising opportunities to help raise funds for the Party.

One senior shadow cabinet member expressed her astonishment at the "sycophantic tone" of the memo, but said they had no choice but to start stocking up on bunting and learning the lyrics to The Red Flag.

A list of authorised tea towel manufacturers (made from cotton woven in Mr Miliband's Doncaster constituency) is included in the email along with a suggestion that organisers put together a "Mili band", complete with a "squeeze box, to play a lament for the squeezed middle-classes".

Tesco said it has already commissioned Ed and Justine bunting, and that it was considering stocking a range of mugs, plates and soap-on-a-ropes to cash in on the event.

Asda, too, has held talks with the Labour Party about manufacturing "Mini Mili Trifles" – an attempt to outdo Waitrose's Royal Trifle, which has been created by Heston Blumenthal, the celebrity chef. The Asda trifle is expected to contain bananas, a nod to the Miliband family's favourite fruit.

The memo has clear echoes of the instructions sent out to David Miliband supporters, when he was running for the leadership of the party. It told people that at 5.30pm they should vacuum their carpets and, “put the oven on and get the nibbles in. If there are drinks, get them chilling."

At the time that memo was widely mocked. It was considered by some Labour activists as key reason why Ed triumphed over his over his brother, though the latest revelation is likely to cause embarrassment at Labour Party headquarters.

A spokesman for Mr Miliband refused to comment on the street party email, but added: "Actually, Ed isn't that partial to trifle, though he is very fond of a gooseberry fool."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... party.html

Flora Lopi! :rofl:
 
I'm thouroughly enjoying listening to Rob Brydon pretending to be Ken Bruce on Radio 2!
 
April Fool's gags do the rounds
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... ing39.html
EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

Fri, Apr 01, 2011

There’s an April Fool's booby-trap somewhere on these pages and it’s not the piece about Justin Bieber’s hair being auctioned for charity in The Ticket.

I pushed the Bieber tale through the Google machine and it checks out. As to the real prank story, I’m sworn to secrecy.

It remains to be seen just what affect the endless slew of bad bank headlines has had on our collective credulity. Safe to say, the border between plausible and far-fetched is not where it used to be.

RTÉ’s offering this year on the Dáil bar being turned into an alcohol-free juice and smoothie emporium, published on the website this morning, was undermined somewhat by the story's url which contained the words ‘aprilfool’.

However, Ryanair’s pledge to introduce child-free flights on major routes from October convinced more than few readers in US, who wholeheartedly welcomed the plan. One disgruntled gent on the US Today website posted: "All airlines should offer child-free flights. If you have ever flown for six hours with some brat kicking the back of your seat the whole way, then you would agree.”

Perhaps, the most mysterious stunt of the day, if it can be called a stunt, was former Green Party TD Paul Gogarty’s musical debut on RTÉ’s John Murray Show.

Revealing he’d just signed a record deal with Mad Dog Records, Gogarty spoke of his long-time love of music and how he used to serenade Spanish students on the green in Lucan in the 1980s, before singing and whistling his way through a song called "One Clear Day". He later confirmed on Twitter it was a prank. It's impossible to believe the bit about Lucan green wasn't true.

There was a also press release doing the rounds this morning suggesting Laois and Offaly County Councils’ had passed a motion to officially revert to their historical names of King's County and Queen’s County for the duration of Queen’s visit to Ireland in May.

Across the water in the UK, the upcoming royal wedding was the subject a several April Fool's gags.

On a half-page advertisement in the Guardian newspaper, carmaker BMW referred all queries about its special Royal Edition M3 Coupe to [email protected]..

The Guardian also ran an editorial on its website entitled “The magic of the monarchy: The royal moment has come”, heralding a change of policy on the royals and pledging its “full-throated” support for the monarchy.

The London Independent ran a story suggesting Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo had agreed to "act like a patriot" and be sold to neighbouring Spain for €160 million to help pay for his country's mounting bank debt.

© 2011 irishtimes.com
 
As it has gone lunchtime in most places around the world I can reveal that this year's april fool from the CFZ is the following:

http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2011 ... aphed.html

CFZ exclusive! Winged Cat photographed!
April 1st 2011: In a world exclusive CFZ member Mimsy Barraclough and his adoptive son Tarquin Bellows have tracked down a most singular animal in the town of Piddlehinton, Dorset. A genuine winged cat!

Barraclough, a retired classical actor who specialised in playing the back end of pantomime horses, was taking his adoptive son, discredited former spirit medium Tarquin Bellows, on tour of the great scone shops of Europe and had stopped off in Piddlehinton to purchase a Milky Way chocolate bar to tide them over until lunch time when he spotted the creature out of the corner of his eye.

“I just couldn’t believe it! I mean, one reads about these things in popular literature and indeed the fine books published by the Centre for Fortean Zoology, whose website is http://www.cfz.org.uk/ , but you don’t expect to actually get the chance to see and photograph one in the flesh!

“This is the second greatest experience of my life!” Barraclough gushed.

“The only experience I’ve had that tops this is when I was the back end of Dobbin The Bold in the 1982 production of Cinderella at the Skinning Grove Empire when I got to act with both the legendary Christopher Biggins and the late Jim Davidson who had stood in at the last minute for Charles Hawtrey who was off doing something involving brass bedsteds and Simon Sharma at the time. I received a standing ovation at the end of that run as well, actually, so I guess that knocks the winged cat into 3rd place, now I think of it. It takes a lot of effort to accurately portray the back end of a pantomime horse and it is nice to get some recognition sometimes.”

Tarquin Bellows picked up the story of the sighting:

“We had just been thrown out of the village shop after Father (adoptive) had flown into a fit of rage because they didn’t have any Milky Ways. They had offered him a Chomp bar instead but this had only angered him more as he thinks Cadbury’s is a girly make of chocolate that dries his mouth and he enquired as to whether the shop assistant knew who he was. As the shop assistant was only 16 they did not and that is when Father (adoptive) got really mad and started proclaiming at the top of his voice to all and sundry that he had nearly been in Rentaghost once and about kids today being unaware of the fact that they were born.

“When Father was outside his loud rantings were still continuing and they scared a cat down from a tree on the village green. I noticed there was something odd about this cat and so did Father who thankfully calmed down almost instantly and got out his camera. Neither of us could believe our eyes: it was a winged cat.”

According to both Barraclough and Bellows the cat didn’t actually do much and went to sleep in a flower bed, possibly dreaming of chasing a ball of wool or jumping in and out of a cardboard box.
wels%2B018.jpg
 
10 stories that could be April Fools pranks but aren't

It's the day when newspapers compete to come up with the most inventive spoof stories - but not every bizarre report on 1 April is fictitious.

Here's a round-up of some of the day's seemingly hoax reports which are, in fact, entirely true.

1. French President Nicolas Sarkozy uses a £10,000 armour-plated umbrella to protect him from attackers. Carried by the head of state's security guards, the rainproof device is coated in high-strength Kevlar so it can reduce the force of bullets and resist knife attacks.

More details (Metro)

2. The National Trust has published a list of the UK's top 10 "silly walks" to such colourfully-named locations as Scrubby Bottoms, Pembrokeshire, Booby's Bay, Cornwall and Windy Gap in Surrey. Keen ramblers can also sniff out a route to The Nostrils on the Isle of Wight.

More details (Daily Telegraph)

3. A 50-strong gang of chickens that terrorised residents in Southport has been evicted by Lancashire Police. The flock, which had been abandoned by their former owner, prowled the streets in a pack and would begin crowing at 0400 BST each morning.

More details (Daily Mail)

4. Men only think about sex once every two hours - not every seven seconds, as is commonly believed, according to a survey of 5,000 adult males. By contrast, the average man spends 177 minutes a day worrying about his job, the study suggests.

More details (Daily Mirror)

5. A couple who carved their hedge into the shape of a Buddha have been threatened with a curse by an angry neighbour. An anonymous poison pen letter was sent to Raymond and Sacha Hubbard, who own a garden centre, but the pair have resolved to keep their topiary effigy.

More details (Daily Mail)

6. Songs by pop star Shakira are banned at the ground of Real Madrid because her boyfriend Gerard Pique plays for rivals Barcelona. Her song Waka-Waka had been played regularly at the Bernabeu during pre-match build-ups and at half time but has now been dropped.

More details (The Sun)

7. A baker has been flooded with complaints after calling his shop Nice Baps. John O'Toole, who runs the business in Henlow, Beds, said: "I tried to explain to them that I do small baps and big baps and they're nice and firm."

More details (Daily Star)

8. A house made famous on social networking sites because it apparently looks like Hitler has another wartime claim - it survived the blitz. Speaking to the press for the first time, owner Clive Davies, 65, said the terraced property was left unscathed by a Luftwaffe bombing raid.

More details (The Sun)

9. Dogs have been sheared and coloured so that they resemble a bison, a court jester and a scorpion at a series of US "extreme dog grooming contests". Animal photographer Ren Netherland has captured some of the more extreme lengths to which some owners have gone, including also carving the coat of one canine into a Native American headdress.

More details (Daily Mail)

10. The real names of adult industry actors have been published on a website which styles itself as "Porn Wikileaks". The move may be alarming to stars who often perform under pseudonyms to shield friends, family and future employers from their careers.

More details (The Independent)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12932108
 
1 April 2011, 11:28

Were you fooled on April 1?
High chair for dogs /Rex

The world's websites, newspapers and broadcasters have been trying to dupe their users with a host of dubious stories to mark April Fools' Day.

Perhaps the most impressive effort was from comedian Rob Brydon who presented the entire Ken Bruce Show on Radio 2 in the broadcaster's voice.

One of the more unlikely tales doing the rounds was that Ikea had launched a high chair for dog owners who didn't want their pets to miss out on family meals. The Hundstol dog highchair is apparently painted in pooch-friendly lead free paint and features in-built dog bowls for food and water.

The Independent carried a report that Portugal had sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Spain for 160m euro to relieve the country's debt crisis. The Real Madrid winger had reportedly agreed to "act like a patriot" and defect to the Spanish national team.

The Sun newspaper claimed that gorillas at Port Lympne wild animal park had been given iPads to play with. The gorillas had reportedly quickly learned to turn the screens on and off, were fascinated by the colours and pictures and hadn't broken a single one.

Mirror reporter Flora Olip - an anagram of April fool - revealed that the Government was to introduced a "gasp" bill to raise taxes from fresh air. People in rural areas would have to pay more for their cleaner air but those in polluted cities would pay less.

The Rex news agency carried a report on its home page saying that Sex Pistol John Lydon was to perform at Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding reception. Anyone clicking on the link was greeted by a picture of the singer in his punk heyday and the words 'April Fool'.

The Daily Telegraph featured a fashion article about a new perfume smelling of wet dogs - Eau de Mutt - which had apparently become an unlikely bestseller online among pet owners who wanted a reminder of their dogs when away from home.

And the Daily Express reported that a company had developed a modified Zimmer walking frame which incorporated a skateboard for pensioners who wanted something "a little more speedy".

The MSN portal carried a story that Prince Harry was planning a 24-hour 'Twitathon' during his brother's wedding to Kate Middleton. The 'warts and all' expose would include the funniest one-liners from his best-man's speech. Yahoo, meanwhile, claimed a Nessie like creature had been spotted in Sydney Harbour.

YouTube joined the fun by rolling the clock back 100 years to 1911. All of the videos on its home page had been recreated in flickering black and white, with speech captions and tinkly piano music backing. "By selecting 1911, you are travelling back in time to YouTube's earliest days, when videos were sent to us for upload via horse-drawn carriage," said the website.

Google announced a new development for its Google Mail service. Gmail Motion would apparently dispense with the need for a keyboard by interpreting the user's body movements to work out what it was they wanted to say.

And Kodak announced what sounded like a potentially useful app that would enable people to remove images of their ex-boyfriend or girlfriend from photographs. Called Relationshiffft, it "helps you remove a person who is no longer in your life from your photos and videos all with one touch simplicity".

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkie ... on_April_1
 
Spirited Mylesday gathering would make 'the brother' proud
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 50126.html
FRANK McNALLY

Sat, Apr 02, 2011

THE IRISH literary calendar acquired a new holiday yesterday when an event to honour writer Brian O’Nolan – better known as Flann O’Brien and Myles na Gopaleen – drew a capacity attendance to its main venue: the back room of a Dublin pub.

There was standing room only in the Palace bar, at least for the many who did not get in early enough to occupy the few available seats. So the inaugural “Mylesday” was deemed an instant success. In fact the organisers were quick to remind us that the first Bloomsday – the event Mylesday deliberately echoes – was attended by only five people, including O’Nolan himself.

Mylesday was the brainchild of engineer John Clarke, who had been thinking about it for years “until I went with a friend to a rugby match a month ago and we got talking about it and I woke up next day organising a festival”.

He was motivated partly by disappointment that “most people under the age of 35” seemed never to have heard of Myles, and partly by what he thinks is the excess attention given to Joyce.

Introducing the event, he noted that the original Bloomsday appeared to have been a pretext for those involved to spend the day drinking. Then, surveying the packed attendance and the pints arrayed before them, he added: “How things have changed.” Drinking apart, the afternoon comprised readings by invited guests and volunteers, including actors Val O’Donnell and Jack Lynch and writers Carol Taaffe and Ed O’Loughlin. Most chose extracts from O’Nolan’s long-running Irish Times column, Cruiskeen Lawn, although O’Donnell’s readings also included an extract from the 1943 play Faustus Kelly, which features a diatribe about Irish banks.

Non-reading guests included O’Nolan’s only surviving sibling, Micheal Ó Nualláin, who was in time to hear a piece about one of Cruiskeen Lawn’s many stock characters, “the brother”.

It was hard to say whether the subject of the celebrations was present in spirit. Even when present physically, O’Nolan is remembered as someone who always stayed on the edge of the company, speaking little and barely visible.

Brendan Behan said of him: “You had to look twice to see if he was there at all.” If he was there yesterday, being a stickler for correct usage, he will have frowned at the commemorative T-shirts worn by the chief organisers. These quoted a verse from his deliberately bad poem about the pint of plain, The Workman’s Friend . But instead of “in time of trouble and lousy strife”, they had “lonely strife”. A chastened Clarke blamed the “spell-checker”.

Mylesday commemorates O’Nolan’s death which, with tragicomic timing, occurred on April 1st, 1966. But it is only the first of a series of events that will mark this, his centenary year, culminating with conferences in UCD and Trinity College, planned to coincide with his 100th birthday in October.
 
This is a bit late surfacing:

'Gender-neutral' Army hoax misfires... because so many troops believe it
By Christopher Leake
Last updated at 10:29 PM on 23rd April 2011

It began as an April Fool’s joke. An article in the Army’s official magazine claimed that ancient ranks and titles were to be replaced with ‘gender-neutral’ alternatives to comply with EU equality laws.

Guardsmen would be called ‘protector’, ‘sentinel’ or ‘escort’. Craftsmen would be known as ‘artificers’ or ‘tradespersons’, it said. There was a even a clue to the bogus nature of the story in the name of the officer said to be leading the ‘diversity drive’ – a Lt Col Avril Bridgeman. Avril is the French word for April and no such person exists.

But the prank backfired when scores of troops took it at face-value and complained on Armed Forces internet blogs and messaging boards.
One furious posting read: ‘Maybe the next step will be to change our surnames if they are likely to offend others. Lt Col Avril Bridgeman, the officer leading the equality and diversion drive, should be renamed Lt Col Avril Bridgeperson.’

A contributor to another site added sarcastically: ‘It’s good to see the MoD can find money to fund this important initiative.’

The article in Soldier magazine, headlined ‘Gingerbread Clause Prompts Changing Of The Guard’, explained the supposed effects of the Equality Act 2010.
It said: ‘One solution being mooted is simply taking the "man" out of each title and inserting "person" in its place, which would comply with European law.’

It added: ‘Many of the old rank titles are not relevant to modern society and the MoD is keen to acknowledge the increasingly important role women play within our Armed Forces.
There will obviously be traditionalists out there who will strongly object to any rebranding, but so far those in favour of gender-neutral names outnumber the dissenting voices.’

The report said officers would not be affected as titles such Captain, Colonel and General were applicable to both men and women, so did not cross the ‘sexist threshold’.

It added: ‘Senior officers within each arm of the service are preparing a number of options to prevent potential litigation cases from personnel who feel discriminated against.’

The article was given further credence by quoting what purported to be an official Ministry of Defence spokesman as saying the changes would be subjected to consultation before being introduced next year.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1KRtE46PT
 
Sadly this one won't bite.

Ice Age Ankle Biters
by Sid Perkins on 1 April 2012, 1:12 PM | 4 Comments
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Fearsome fangs. Artist's reconstruction of Lemmus scimitardontti, the saber-toothed lemming, which-along with mammoths, mastodons, and other megafauna-died out at the end of the last ice age.

Credit: Adapted from Wikipedia and AMNH/Creative Commons
A serendipitous hike along a remote Norwegian fjord has yielded innumerable fossils of one of the most unusual creatures to have died out at the end of the last ice age: the saber-toothed lemming.

Paleontologists have dubbed the species Lemmus scimitardontii, naming the tiny, enigmatic mammal for its most prominent feature: the sharp, stout fangs that measure about twice the length of its skull. The creatures' remains—a bone-studded, furry mat that if fully excavated would probably cover an area equal to three soccer fields—are entombed in a 20-centimeter-thick layer of fine-grained sediment about 30 meters high on the south face of the fjord, says D. Avril Poisson, a vertebrate paleontologist at the High-Arctic Institute of the Museum of Montreal (HI-MOM). When the ice sheet that smothered northern Europe melted at the end of the last ice age, removing an immense weight from Earth's crust, the glacial sediments that had accumulated on the floor of the fjord—and the bizarre fossils contained within—rose to their current level.

Radiocarbon dating suggests that all of the lemmings died in a single event, probably stampeding over a cliff along the fjord in a torrent of fur and fang, just as their modern kin are wont to do. The large concentration of Arctic mango pollen trapped in the creatures' fur indicates that the lemmings took their ill-fated plunge on an exceptionally warm spring afternoon—most likely on a Tuesday, Poisson speculates.

"I'm amazed at how much information we've gleaned from these fossils," she notes. "Our reconstruction of the fascinating lifestyle of these mysterious creatures is just beginning."

L. scimitardontii was about the size of a guinea pig, substantially larger than today's lemmings but a far cry from majestic Ice Age megafauna such as mammoths, mastodons, and giant ground sloths. In all respects other than its unusual size and its saberlike teeth, the previously unknown species is just like its modern-day kin—and, indeed, like many other mostly herbivorous rodents.

"Fangs like this aren't unknown in the animal kingdom, but they certainly appear out of place on such a tiny vegetarian," says I.D. Goode, longtime scientific consultant to the Kansas State Board of Education. "How could such teeth have evolved? What purpose could they have served? This doesn't seem like a very smart design," he notes.

One purpose the fangs could serve, Poisson counters, is to help members of the species recognize one another. Also, she notes, male saber-toothed lemmings could have used their teeth in combat when competing for food, territory, or mates.

More intriguingly, the fangs may have been an oddity of evolution that didn't provide any benefits to individual lemmings yet still may have been useful to the species, says Poisson. Any predators that gobbled one of these lemmings would have likely suffered massive internal bleeding as the saber-toothed carcass made its way through the digestive system, she notes. And if death from such hemorrhaging didn't occur within hours, the pain and near-certainty of long-term infection would likely serve as not-so-subtle warnings to other predators, she adds.

"Lest we forget, in past eras as well as today, evolution has produced a myriad of wonderful creatures," says Poisson.


http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2 ... tml?ref=hp
 
The Sunday Mirror had an article with David Walliams and Simon Cowell enjoyin a picnic in the sun, which looked photoshopped. Next to it was an article about the EU complaining about Rice Krispie Squares, because they're not square. I wonder whether that one will keep doing the rounds?

And Photobox just sent me one of their promotional emails advertising a gizmo that will put your photo onto your toast.


Sadly - the Jerry cans and engineered fuel panic aren't April Fool's Jokes.
 
Edmund Chatoye, victim of Panchromatic Film

"He searched for work unsuccessfully in the years to follow, but a new panchromatic Hollywood had little use for the orthochromatic stars of a few years earlier.

"Had he hung on into the early 1930s, the successful three-strip Technicolor process could have given his blue eyes a new shot at fame, perhaps as Daddy Warbucks in a Little Orphan Annie film. But on November 19, 1926, a weary Chatoye aimed those once-world-famous baby blues one last time at the town of his rise and fall, and returned to his family's bank in Pittsburgh. He would live only 37 more years as vice-president and later chairman of the board before dying at the Newport yacht races in the company of his 22-year-old mistress . . . a poignant end to the career of the original "ol' blue eyes." :(
 
Land's End to be renamed Land's Start
5:00am Monday 1st April 2013 in News .

The world famous Land’s End in Cornwall today announced plans to change its name to ‘Land’s Start,’ in a bid to appeal to a new generation of visitors who have showed a clear preference for beginnings over endings.

Land’s End Landmark claim that research has shown that the cultural associations of the word start make the destination much more appealing to a younger demographic.

David Bryans, general manager of Land’s End, said: “Research has shown us that over 70 per cent of those 25 and under prefer the word ‘Start’ to the word ‘End’ – young people simply don’t want to take a risk on an attraction that might not make them feel good.

Land’s End is a place full of new beginnings – the Olympic Torch relay began here and for thousands of people it marks the beginning of their ‘End to End’ challenge – so ‘Start’ is a much more appropriate description.”

Matt Spence, CEO of Natural Retreats who are currently renovating the iconic John O'Groats Hotel, added: "We've agreed with Land's Start that the famous 'End to End' will be re-named 'Start to Finish'. We're happy with this on the basis that the word 'finish' includes the possibility of achievement and satisfaction".

The landmark is first recorded as being referred to as Land’s End in the 1602 Survey of Cornwall, conducted by Richard Carew – prior to this the roman name for Land’s End was Bolerium.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10 ... rt/?ref=ec
 
Sadly, the only item on Think Geek's front page that I don't want is actually real.

Still, a good collection as usual. I'm guessing the Trench Toss will become a real product, and maybe the Chestburster in a Can, but I really want the Play Doh 3-D Printer...
 
The Evening News can exclusively reveal that efforts to save costs in building the Queensferry Crossing, the new bridge between Edinburgh and Fife that is taking shape over the Forth, have resulted in a critical flaw.

Engineers examining pre-fabricated steel beams imported from China have discovered that the combined length of the metal shipped to Scotland is insufficient, meaning workers will fall agonisingly short of completing the bridge from shore to shore.

Under the terms of the contract signed with its Chinese supplier, Transport Scotland cannot order additional materials without activating a penalty clause that could add millions to the cost of the project.

Scottish Government transport chiefs have therefore reluctantly decided to leave a 14-inch gap at the centre of the bridge, which they insist will be “completely safe”. ...

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...nder-leaves-gap-in-new-forth-bridge-1-3734874
 
Against April Fools’ in Science Journalism

My lowest point as a science journalist came before I even knew what a science journalist was. I was a young punk in an eighth-grade science class at Northwood Middle School in Greenville, South Carolina. For homework, our teacher told us to summarize an article about a recent scientific discovery. I knew instantly what I’d write about: a piece inDiscover magazine by the journalist Tim Folger describing the discovery of the “bigon.”

The bigon was supposedly a fundamental particle the size of a bowling ball. The article explained that the Parisian physicist Albert Manqué had discovered it by accident, while tinkering with electrical equipment and vacuum tubes. Manqué had set up a video camera to record his tinkering, and a single frame from the recorded video revealed the split-second when a bigon burst out of a nearby computer monitor, summoned from the void by some errant spark. The article helpfully included the video image, which showed a black, bowling-ball-sized object swelling from a shattered screen.

I devoured the story with glee. The idea of spontaneously generating a fundamental particle so big you could actually see it filled me with wonder. I breathlessly wrote up the story for my homework. I got an A, and the teacher had me read my piece aloud to the class.

When I brought up the bigon the next year, in my freshman high school science class, the teacher told me he’d never heard of it, and that regardless it was simply impossible for a particle to be so large. I brought the magazine up to his desk the next day to prove him wrong. He pointed out a few telltale giveaways, and noted the month on the magazine cover. It was the April issue, he explained. April Fools’! ...

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...01/against-april-fools-in-science-journalism/
 
Zoology: Here be dragons
doi:10.1038/520042a

01 April 2015
Emerging evidence indicates that dragons can no longer be dismissed as creatures of legend and fantasy, and that anthropogenic effects on the world's climate may inadvertently be paving the way for the resurgence of these beasts.

At a glance
[paste:font size="4"]View all figures

Figure 1

  • Figure 2
right
Long considered to be the stuff of legend, dragons cross cultures and continents. Until recently, however, scant attention had been paid to the fact that the commonality in cultural representations of such creatures indicates something more sinister. From depictions in Ancient Greek literature and Slavic myth, to the dragons of the East or allusions in Zoroastrian scripture, the descriptions resonate. What if these legends were rooted in truth? The differences in appearance — some lack wings, some have multiple heads and some seem not to breathe fire — once thought to reflect local traditions, can also readily be explained by speciation.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/520042a.html
 
According to some Star Wars sites, George Lucas will direct Episode IX !!!
 
The Force - the mysterious energy field used by the Jedi in Star Wars - has been discovered by researchers at the Cern laboratory.

The European research centre announced its spoof discovery with pictures showing its scientists using The Force in everyday life.

It was one of many April Fools jokes seen on websites around the world.

Others included a selfie shoe, driverless pizza delivery and thought-powered web search.

"The Force is what gives a particle physicist his powers," said Cern scientist Ben Kenobi of the University of Mos Eisley, Tatooine in a press release.

Many scientists at the centre were already using The Force, said the release, to communicate over long distances, influence minds and for "lifting heavy things out of swamps". ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32145885
 
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