# Share Your April Fool's Stories Here!



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

OK, just found this through Twitter, LOL!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/01/guardian-twitter-media-technology

Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication.

The move, described as "epochal" by media commentators, will see all Guardian content tailored to fit the format of Twitter's brief text messages, known as "tweets", which are limited to 140 characters each. Boosted by the involvement of celebrity "twitterers", such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Stephen Fry, Twitter's profile has surged in recent months, attracting more than 5m users who send, read and reply to tweets via the web or their mobile phones.

As a Twitter-only publication, the Guardian will be able to harness the unprecedented newsgathering power of the service, demonstrated recently when a passenger on a plane that crashed outside Denver was able to send real-time updates on the story as it developed, as did those witnessing an emergency landing on New York's Hudson River. It has also radically democratised news publishing, enabling anyone with an internet connection to tell the world when they are feeling sad, or thinking about having a cup of tea.

"[Celebrated Guardian editor] CP Scott would have warmly endorsed this - his well-known observation 'Comment is free but facts are sacred' is only 36 characters long," a spokesman said in a tweet that was itself only 135 characters long.

A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include "1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!"; "OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more"; and "JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?"

Sceptics have expressed concerns that 140 characters may be insufficient to capture the full breadth of meaningful human activity, but social media experts say the spread of Twitter encourages brevity, and that it ought to be possible to convey the gist of any message in a tweet.

For example, Martin Luther King's legendary 1963 speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial appears in the Guardian's Twitterised archive as "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by", eliminating the waffle and bluster of the original.

At a time of unprecedented challenge for all print media, many publications have rushed to embrace social networking technologies. Most now offer Twitter feeds of major breaking news headlines, while the Daily Mail recently pioneered an iPhone application providing users with a one-click facility for reporting suspicious behaviour by migrants or gays. "In the new media environment, readers want short and punchy coverage, while the interactive possibilities of Twitter promise to transform th," the online media guru Jeff Jarvis said in a tweet yesterday, before reaching his 140-character limit, which includes spaces. According to subsequent reports, he is thinking about going to the theatre tonight, but it is raining .

A unique collaboration between The Guardian and Twitter will also see the launch of Gutter, an experimental service designed to filter noteworthy liberal opinion from the cacophony of Twitter updates. Gutter members will be able to use the service to comment on liberal blogs around the web via a new tool, specially developed with the blogging platform WordPress, entitled GutterPress.

Currently, 17.8% of all Twitter traffic in the United Kingdom consists of status updates from Stephen Fry, whose reliably jolly tone, whether trapped in a lift or eating a scrumptious tart, has won him thousands of fans. A further 11% is made up of his 363,000 followers replying "@stephenfry LOL!", "@stephenfry EXACTLY the same thing happened to me", and "@stephenfry Meanwhile, I am making myself an omelette! Delicious!"

According to unconfirmed rumours, Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, will next month announce plans for a new system of telepathy-based social networking that is expected to render Twitter obsolete within weeks.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

From Google:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/cadie/index.html

Announcement
March 31st, 2009 11:59:59 pm
Introducing CADIE
Research group switches on world's first "artificial intelligence" tasked-array system.

For several years now a small research group has been working on some challenging problems in the areas of neural networking, natural language and autonomous problem-solving. Last fall this group achieved a significant breakthrough: a powerful new technique for solving reinforcement learning problems, resulting in the first functional global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster.

Since then progress has been rapid, and tonight we're pleased to announce that just moments ago, the world's first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE) was switched on and began performing some initial functions. It's an exciting moment that we're determined to build upon by coming to understand more fully what CADIE's emergence might mean, for Google and for our users. So although CADIE technology will be rolled out with the caution befitting any advance of this magnitude, in the months to come users can expect to notice her influence on various google.com properties. Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.

These are merely the first steps onto what will doubtless prove a long and difficult road. Considerable bugs remain in CADIE'S programming, and considerable development clearly is called for. But we can't imagine a more important journey for Google to have undertaken.

For more information about CADIE see this monograph, and follow CADIE's progress via her YouTube channel and blog.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Here's CADIE's website as mentioned in Leslie's article.  I've actually seen websites just like this...

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Zac Efron replacement for Footloose


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest, considered by many to be the number one April Fool's joke of all time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm

L


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## kim (Nov 20, 2008)

Leslie said:


> The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest, considered by many to be the number one April Fool's joke of all time.
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm
> 
> L


I love that one.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Or this one:





The British seem to do April Fools so much better than we do. Three of the four spoofs here are British...

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Origin's of April Fool's Day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day

The origin of April Fools' Day is obscure. One likely theory is that the modern holiday was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar; the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, which it replaced.[2] In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely. Another origin is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.[citation needed] In the eighteenth century the festival was often posited as going back to the times of Noah. An English newspaper article published on April 13th, 1789 said that the day had its origins when he sent the raven off too early, before the waters had receded. He did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.[3] A possible reference to April Fools' Day can be seen in the Canterbury Tales (ca 1400) in the Nun's Priest's tale, a tale of two fools: Chanticleer and the fox, which took place on March 32nd.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

http://kindlereader.blogspot.com/2009/04/jeff-bezos-announces-pay-per-view-for.html

"In a surprise announcement, on Wednesday April 1st, Jeff Bezos, Chairman and CEO of Amazon.com, personally contacted owners of the Kindle 2 e-book reader via Whispernet-o-gram, reportedly to offer them a special deal on Amazon's new Pay-Per-View service designed specifically for the newest Kindle reading device. 
"


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Yes, I got my Whisper-O-Gram.  

Loved it!

Betsy


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Now I really wish I had upgraded my K1

*crappy no Pay-Per-Viewing KOS!!*


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## Cowgirl (Nov 1, 2008)

This is sappy but...every year on April's Fool Day  my Dad would look out the window and say there was a parade coming down the street and every year I would fall for the ruse and run to the window to look for the parade that wasn't there as he would say April Fools.  It's one of those happy sad memories of my Dad.


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## kim (Nov 20, 2008)

The penguin video is great.  I would almost believe that one, it is done so well.  I love the scene where the little guys are taking off.  The iceberg is the only thing that really looks fake.  

Penguins are just the cutest things.  I wonder if they get sunburned when they spend the summer in the tropics?


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Google is almost as funny as Amazon!

http://images.google.com/imghp?gbv=2&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

JB


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## LaraAmber (Feb 24, 2009)

Don't forget gmail's newest feature, autopilot.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html

Lara Amber


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

LaraAmber said:


> Don't forget gmail's newest feature, autopilot.
> 
> http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html
> 
> Lara Amber


ohhh!!! That was hilarious!!

I need to clean Pepsi off my screen again!

"What happens if a sender and recipient both have Autopilot on?

Two Gmail accounts can happily converse with each other for up to three messages each. Beyond that, our experiments have shown a significant decline in the quality ranking of Autopilot's responses and further messages may commit you to dinner parties or baby namings in which you have no interest.
"


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

So funny. People are so creative.


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## kevindorsey (Mar 4, 2009)

My GF couldn't sleep because of me and my buddies 2 April fool's jokes on her!  She is pretty pissed of right now.


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## Mom of 4 (Oct 27, 2008)

I have to confess that my 11 year old son got me this morning with the old "rubber band around the kitchen sink sprayer" trick. 

COLD water all over me, the cabinets and floor before I turned it off.  (Hey, it was early and I hadn't had my coffee yet!)


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Mom of 4 said:


> I have to confess that my 11 year old son got me this morning with the old "rubber band around the kitchen sink sprayer" trick.
> 
> COLD water all over me, the cabinets and floor before I turned it off. (Hey, it was early and I hadn't had my coffee yet!)


Done that before....next year you better double check for this again. He may switch to clear tape just in case you check for a rubber band. lol 

I didn't get up early enough to put clear wrap over the toilet...yes cruel and messy I know. Still I never got a chance to do it.


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## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

Wow!!  some of these are great; I'm not all that April fools savvy.  The best one:  my husband got me real good a few years ago.  He got a bunch of busted glass; spread it all over my car...rolled down all 4 windows.  Removed the interior of my car; along with the tires and left the garage door open.

When I went to go to work; my reaction was oh my God...my car!!!  He had a video camera mounted to the ceiling taping my every reaction.  He doesn't know the word d-i-v-o-r-c-e!!


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## Mom of 4 (Oct 27, 2008)

Vegas_Asian (Experiment#305) said:


> I didn't get up early enough to put clear wrap over the toilet...yes cruel and messy I know. Still I never got a chance to do it.


Thought about pay back with that one, but then realized *I* would be the one cleaning it up!


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

I'm going to kill my daughter. She just got me good. She called and was very upset. I thought someone was sick or something. She says I have bad news to tell you and my heart sunk. My husband is in her area for business and is visiting tonight. All I could think of was one the children or DH was hurt. I wait on pins and needles waiting for her to tell me what happened. She says Dillon, my oldest grandson who is almost 17 and his girlfriend are having a baby. Well she said Dillon got his girlfriend pregnant. I'm having a heart attack and hyperventilating and she goes "April Fools". Good thing she is in Houston and I'm in Florida, I would have strangled her.


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## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

Worse:  my son's girl just pulled the same one on him; "I'm pregnant"  NOW...the darn joke is on me:  He punched a wall in frustration falling for her joke; and now his thumb is swollen to 3 times the size...I may be taking him to the emergency room.  I hate April fools...darn!!!


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## Neversleepsawink;) (Dec 16, 2008)

Okay, I'm a virtual/homeschool teacher.  I told my son age 6, my nephews age 8 and 9, and niece age 5, that they had to take a HS alegebra test.  I started to read the questions out to them, they started to look confused.  I said okay here is a couple of words that will help explain the problem better.  I spelled out April Fools slowly to them.  They wrote it down.  Finally they started laughing.  I know it was mean, but they all thought it was funny!  They were happy to know the algerbra questions were just a joke


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

sjc said:


> Worse: my son's girl just pulled the same one on him; "I'm pregnant" NOW...the darn joke is on me: He punched a wall in frustration falling for her joke; and now his thumb is swollen to 3 times the size...I may be taking him to the emergency room. I hate April fools...darn!!!


Make her pay for it. That is just not funny. What makes it every scarier is the fact that they think it could be true.


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

I don't think this would go well
Me: "...Daddy...I think I just one-clicked a 6,000 dollar book in the KindleStore with your card. On a positive note, the hard copy costs 1500 dollar more than the digital copy."


or...
"My tutition is doubling next semester" (which may really happen)


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## egh34 (Jan 11, 2009)

I am an elementary school teacher, so I get a lot of "Hey, you're shoe's untied."


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

egh34 said:


> I am an elementary school teacher, so I get a lot of "Hey, you're shoe's untied."


You just can't improve on the classics.


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## kim (Nov 20, 2008)

sjc said:


> Wow!! some of these are great; I'm not all that April fools savvy. The best one: my husband got me real good a few years ago. He got a bunch of busted glass; spread it all over my car...rolled down all 4 windows. Removed the interior of my car; along with the tires and left the garage door open.
> 
> When I went to go to work; my reaction was oh my God...my car!!! He had a video camera mounted to the ceiling taping my every reaction. He doesn't know the word d-i-v-o-r-c-e!!


Are you serious? He removed the interior and tires and installed a camera? That's a great one, but it might be more work than it's worth, after all he has to re-assemble the car.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Vegas_Asian (Experiment#305) said:


> I don't think this would go well
> Me: "...Daddy...I think I just one-clicked a 6,000 dollar book in the KindleStore with your card. On a positive note, the hard copy costs 1500 dollar more than the digital copy."


I like that one, VA.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

kim said:


> Are you serious? He removed the interior and tires and installed a camera? That's a great one, but it might be more work than it's worth, after all he has to re-assemble the car.


She got a new car in the deal. That's why she can laugh about it.

L


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## Kind (Jan 28, 2009)

A few years ago, I got a person who accidentally called the wrong number (my cell). It happened to be on April 1st and right before that phone call, people around me were talking about April Fool's jokes, so I took advantage of this call.


Spoiler



I said the person they are looking for passed away last night. But right after, I said it was a April Fool's joke and he had the wrong number. He called me an A hole and hung up


.   I'll never do that again.


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## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

> Are you serious? He removed the interior and tires and installed a camera? That's a great one, but it might be more work than it's worth, after all he has to re-assemble the car.


Yep...the boob played the footage last night (again), laughing like a jackal, at his handiwork. Someday, I'm going to get him so good,...someday; payback is sweet.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I must admit that I am kinda anti-April Fool's day.  Mostly because, in my experience growing up, the jokes were not particularly good natured.  Sometimes cruel and mean and at the least designed to make a person look like an idiot so they could laugh AT them and not with them.  I've also known of people who did the "I'm pregnant" or "somebody died" thing and then found out shortly after that what they'd joked about was true. . . .

I do, however, enjoy the fairly elaborate fake stories that show up in the news. . .because it's April 1 you read very critically looking for the clue that it's all a big joke.  The best ones are the ones you're not really sure of until the very end.  But when you figure it out quick you do feel clever yourself!

(Plus, I'm always busy on April 1. . .see, it's April 3 before I even got to look at this thread!!  )

Ann


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