BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!

Subject: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 10:21 AM

A day late, but still fun to read, imo: Click Here.

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: gnu
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 02:32 PM

Thanks, kat. Great stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 02:50 PM

I feel constrained to point out that No47 , the Gaurniad control of the weather was a reworking of the Oserver's thirty odd articles the year of Charles and Diana's wedding - They had the weather control as about two column inches and a further series of items relating thereto including a 'Rainbow with one end St Pauls' for the wedding -
to achieve this , the necessary rain would be over Kilburn , an area not noted for its Monarchist sympathies !
Some of the hoaxes were well worth the read though Kat - Thanks

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: shepherdlass
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 05:03 PM

Yep, thanks kat, some classics here.

I was laughing like a drain when I saw AOL's hoax yesterday - which claimed there'd be a reality show where celebrities would try their hands at surgery ... and then it dawned on me that the way things are going this might be real. Please someone reassure me it WAS a joke!

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 05:07 PM

I'll get back to you on that Shepherdlass,can't talk just now Kerry Katona is just about to perform my Appendectomy.

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Dipsodeb
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 05:31 PM

I need say no more than Avril Betts ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 06:19 PM

My favorite (not listed) remains the Hard Drive maker who published an announcement of the WOM (Write-Only-Memory) into which you could put an unlimited amount of data in any format you wished. It was a full page ad in several Techie magazines, and elicited a "few thousand" serious requests for additional information.

One company spokesman commented that the only ones who got mad when they found out it was a joke were the ones who really wanted one.

The accompanying photo appeared to be a short piece of 2 x 4 lumber, painted black, with a serial cable nailed to one end.

Hardly anyone seemed concerned that you could not Read anything back. It appears to persist as the device invisioned by those who write all of Microsoft's backup programs and the instructions for how to use them.

ca. early 1980s IIRC.(?)

John

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 07:12 PM

Well, I got Jeri yesterday in the Help forum....

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 10:25 PM

A few years ago the Daily Mirror ran one about a large black square in the Guinness ad. was actually impregnated with Guinness and all you needed to do was re-hydrate it.

The only people fooled were some guests of Her Majesty who collected thousands of copys and got the expected result..........papier mache.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 11:04 PM

In April 1975, Martin Gardner's column in _Scientific American_ listed six "sensational discoveries of 1974", beginning with a full-page illustration of a map that required five colors, and working its way up to a motor that would run on psi power if placed on a Bible or a copy of I Ching. Thousands of readers (all, one may presume, scientifically literate) either confirmed the results or took an absurd amount of trouble to disprove them.

An exquisite *natural* April Fool trick was played on Boston in (IIRC) 1997. After an almost snowless winter, the city got about a foot and a half of snow on the night of 31 March - 1 April.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: You're never too old to do something stupid. :||

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Folkiedave
Date: 03 Apr 06 - 05:36 AM

This was circulated amongst the UK´s morris teams this year.

Just had a letter from The Morris Federation regarding advise from the Health and Safety Executive about morris sticks. Due to a number of
unfortunate accidents morris teams are advised to cover sticks with a
protective rubber coating. They recommend rubber sheathing made by
Ripofallo Ltd at 15GBP + VAT per metre. Are we interested in getting some?

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Apr 06 - 10:11 AM

sometime in the 70's a scientific institution put out a press release about a new instrument which received a lot of attention, including an enquiry some years later. The perpetrators had to really emphasise the date to the later enquirer.

the instrument? a 12" wooden ruler, suitable disguised by lots of words!

sandra

no. 60 on the list refers to the 1997 cleaning of the internet referred to here in Mudcatland & on The Annex. I'm sure it's even more messy now.

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Apr 06 - 05:08 PM

At least National Public Radio tries to keep the tradition alive.

A Perilous Encounter with the I-Bod

"Weekend Edition - Saturday, April 1, 2006 · Scott Simon gets a laugh and a little love out of the new i-Bod. The i-Bod is said to help users regulate major body functions: heart, respiration, even cholesterol. But it seems foolish to test it with rat poison."

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Bert
Date: 03 Apr 06 - 06:21 PM

There was one class when I was at school who connected the brass classroom doorknob to the 240 volt mains.

Boy did they get into trouble.

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: The Walrus
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 03:06 AM

Sandra in Sydney,

"...sometime in the 70's a scientific institution put out a press release about a new instrument which received a lot of attention, including an enquiry some years later. The perpetrators had to really emphasise the date to the later enquirer.

the instrument? a 12" wooden ruler, suitable disguised by lots of words!..."

I believe you'll find that the institution was Britain's National Physical Laboratory (or the Mechanical and Optical Metrology division thereof) and that the ruler was, in fact, plastic.

I seem to recall hearing the tale when I joined the lab in the mid 70's.
Apparently the publication was an accident - it had been written as a piece for the house mag, somehow it was passed on to the publicity section (possibly an accident, possibly as a joke) and someone there, in a hurry, assumed that it had been approved and published it.
As I heard it, it caused quite a stink at the time, there were certain po-faced members of the Admin who were not amused.

My favourite tale is that of the paper on the toxicity of 'levo-rotary ice' - but that's a tale for later (it's a little long for my present sleep-starved state).

Walrus

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 03:11 PM

Pardon the thread drift, but I hope you are all aware of the threat posed by dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO), an excess of which recently caused devastating damage in New Orleans.

This web site was *not* put up for April Fool's Day. All the information in it is absolutely true. Unfortunately, it's a bit technical, and might not be understood by those who know nothing about chemistry. If this is your situation, I recommend you discuss it with someone who is a bit more chemically "literate."

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 06:42 PM

Walrus - thanks for the full story.

It was way back in the 70's when I worked in a small Govt agency of a scientific bent & heard some really great stuff. Our Director who was Oz's rep on a UN agency once created a fake paper for a meeting as the rest of the panel were rabbiting on so much about stuff they didn't understand, & they accepted it!!

ah, the Good Old Days

I've just dusted off my old favourite "A Random Walk in Science" which has some great humour & funny stuff & jokes. (London, Institute of Physics, 1973)

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: 100 top April Fool's Day Hoaxes!
From: The Walrus
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 02:34 AM

It's amazing what one can get away with by judicious use of BS.
Another tale that did the rounds at NPL in the 70s concerned the sports & social club.

Apparently a dealer was willing to give a discount for an official government orders (not available to the sports club), so an official looking order was generated to the purchacing office and, by a little jiggery-pokery, the funds juggled to get funds added into the lab account.
In due time an official order went out for a "tunable percussive mechanical digital tone generator" - and, after a couple of weeks, the sports club got a new piano.

W