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April 1, 2013December 15, 2023

April Fools’ Day 2013: Pranks High and Low

Corporate sniping takes a front row in this year’s tech-foolery…

GMAIL Blue:

From TechCrunch: The hits just keep coming for The Googs. Next stop on the April Fools Google Train? “Gmail Blue.” That should explain itself, but just in case, it took Google “six years to develop the technology” to turn Gmail blue. Google turns nine tomorrow, and it might as well just go for it.

A poke at Facebook? Who”s to say?

Bing goes Google:

From ZDNet: If you wander down over to Bing today, you’re surely in for a surprise. Microsoft is swiping a jibe at Google by changing how it looks if you search for “google” in the rival search engine. It’s still regular Bing under the surface, though. And just for extra heart-ripping measure, you can either “Search” or hit the soon-to-be infamous “I’m Feeling Confused” button instead.

d-bing-goog-425-2

More on what’s happening – check these links throughout the day for more:

Round Up: All of Google”s jokes for April Fools 2013

April Fools’ Day Pranks 2013: The Best Pranks Of The Year (UPDATES)

VIDEO: Best Internet April Fool’s Day 2013 pranks

April Fools’ 2013: The best techy pranks of the day

February 21, 2012December 15, 2023

Ben Hurt Chariot Wars

‘Ben Hurt’: Portland bike warriors smash and crash
by Nigel Duara & Terrence Petty
Newsday/AP
February 21, 2012

Portland, Ore. — Looking like punk gladiators, teams of young adults on junk bikes pulling chariots made of junk parts frenetically chased each other around a makeshift arena, slamming each other and swinging away with foam clubs.

Spectators tossed beer cans, flour and smoke grenades. Firecrackers popped and obscenities flew during the battle, called the “Ben Hurt Chariot Wars.”

And then, toward sundown, the grown-ups arrived. Seven police cars pulled up and told all 400 or so people they had to leave because they were trespassing on railroad property. They complied. But the contest was over anyway.

Victors had already emerged: Jon Penfold and his teammate Nick Schlabach. Falls, collisions and smashed wheels eliminated the other teams. Penfold’s and Schlabach’s chariot, armored with a bubble-shaped metallic cage, was the last one still able to maneuver.

“You attack, and then run. Attack, and then run,” said Penfold, 29. “It’s a war of attrition.”

Asked later on how he felt after winning, the 26-year-old Schlabach said: “I wanted to puke.”

Read the rest of this article here.

November 29, 2011December 15, 2023

Monkey Nuts Prank Caller Gets Rocks Off Live on CNN

CNN anchor interviews prank caller live
by ninemsn staff
news.ninemsn.com.au
November 29, 2011

A red-faced CNN anchor was fooled on live television by a prank caller impersonating a US student who had been arrested in Cairo.

The prankster phoned the studio on November 27 pretending to be Gregory Porter, a real 19-year-old student from Philadelphia who was arrested while participating in protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and then released.

Anchor Fredricka Whitfield appeared completely fooled by the caller, who sounded legitimate at first.

He said returning to the US was like “an early Christmas present”.

But the exchange came to a bizarre end when Ms Whitfield asked the caller what he had been doing the night he was arrested.

The man claimed he was “just down there looking” at the protest when the group was “grabbed by police”.

He then thanked his lawyer, his mother, the US embassy in Cairo, the North shore Animal League and Baba Booey’s monkey nuts. Continue reading “Monkey Nuts Prank Caller Gets Rocks Off Live on CNN”