04-01-2004, 08:56 PM
From Wikipedia.com:
This is April Fool's Day. Some April Fool's hoaxes for this year:
Microsoft Corporation agrees to purchase the Wikimedia Foundation for an undisclosed sum. Wikipedia is to be merged with Encarta; an access fee of 99 cents per article retrieved will be instituted once the software upgrade to Windows NT-based servers is complete. Office Assistant is expected to be added in the immediate future, once voice actors for "it looks like you're vandalizing an article" can be found.
The Guardian newspaper reported that Peter Mandelson was frontrunner to become the BBC's new chairman.
CBBC's Newsround website claims the planets of the Solar system will be renamed after characters from The Lord of the Rings - Earth will be named Gandalf. [1]
Both The Independent and the The Today Programme claimed Brian Eno had crafted an electronic remix of the theme tune of the radio soap opera The Archers to replace the theme that had been used for over 50 years.
An advert by BMW claimed new 'SHEF technology' would allow car drivers to cook their evening meals whilst driving home.
The Sun reported that British Police were fitting hawks with speed cameras to catch lawbreaking motorists.
King Alexander I of Hanover declares the Imperial March, from the Star Wars films, as the nation's new National Anthem.*
The Daily Mail included photographs purporting to be the Queen gambling on horse racing amongst her subjects at a local Bookmaker.
Google announced to start interviewing candidates for their new lunar hosting and research center.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that it was merging with the United States Department of Justice, with Attorney General John Ashcroft taking a new job in the office supplies department. They also announced that the recently retired MPAA head Jack Valenti would be joining their board of directors.
Blizzard announced that World Of Warcraft would be adding Two-Headed Ogres as a playable race [2]. Also, they announced the addition of a new neutral hero for Warcraft III: the Goblin Tinker [3].
Freshmeat partners with Babelfish to enable (very poor) translations into over 52 languages [4]. Front page was also translated in rot13.
Things which may be April Fools: (NB: When I looked at this page half an hour ago (9:30pm Hanoverian Time) this item was in the "not April Fools" section, so clearly there is still room for flexibility!)
The Associated Press reported that Google would launch an e-mail service with 1 GB of storage for each user.
Things widely thought to be April Fools that actually weren't:
The National Archives (UK) revealed that during the Cold War, there were British plans to use chickens to regulate the temperature in a nuclear bomb.
The Guardian revealed that the 1954 World Cup winning German team may have been given performance-enhancing injections.
* Alright, I added that one myself...
This is April Fool's Day. Some April Fool's hoaxes for this year:
Microsoft Corporation agrees to purchase the Wikimedia Foundation for an undisclosed sum. Wikipedia is to be merged with Encarta; an access fee of 99 cents per article retrieved will be instituted once the software upgrade to Windows NT-based servers is complete. Office Assistant is expected to be added in the immediate future, once voice actors for "it looks like you're vandalizing an article" can be found.
The Guardian newspaper reported that Peter Mandelson was frontrunner to become the BBC's new chairman.
CBBC's Newsround website claims the planets of the Solar system will be renamed after characters from The Lord of the Rings - Earth will be named Gandalf. [1]
Both The Independent and the The Today Programme claimed Brian Eno had crafted an electronic remix of the theme tune of the radio soap opera The Archers to replace the theme that had been used for over 50 years.
An advert by BMW claimed new 'SHEF technology' would allow car drivers to cook their evening meals whilst driving home.
The Sun reported that British Police were fitting hawks with speed cameras to catch lawbreaking motorists.
King Alexander I of Hanover declares the Imperial March, from the Star Wars films, as the nation's new National Anthem.*
The Daily Mail included photographs purporting to be the Queen gambling on horse racing amongst her subjects at a local Bookmaker.
Google announced to start interviewing candidates for their new lunar hosting and research center.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that it was merging with the United States Department of Justice, with Attorney General John Ashcroft taking a new job in the office supplies department. They also announced that the recently retired MPAA head Jack Valenti would be joining their board of directors.
Blizzard announced that World Of Warcraft would be adding Two-Headed Ogres as a playable race [2]. Also, they announced the addition of a new neutral hero for Warcraft III: the Goblin Tinker [3].
Freshmeat partners with Babelfish to enable (very poor) translations into over 52 languages [4]. Front page was also translated in rot13.
Things which may be April Fools: (NB: When I looked at this page half an hour ago (9:30pm Hanoverian Time) this item was in the "not April Fools" section, so clearly there is still room for flexibility!)
The Associated Press reported that Google would launch an e-mail service with 1 GB of storage for each user.
Things widely thought to be April Fools that actually weren't:
The National Archives (UK) revealed that during the Cold War, there were British plans to use chickens to regulate the temperature in a nuclear bomb.
The Guardian revealed that the 1954 World Cup winning German team may have been given performance-enhancing injections.
* Alright, I added that one myself...