As usual on April 1st 2010, there was a good sprinkling of spoof gismos,
which could catch-out unsuspecting shoppers. Beware similar hoaxes
around Christmas time.
Prescription Lenses for Touring Cars Windscreens
After successful trials in touring car championships, prescription
windscreens are now available for the general public. Here is a press
release from Auto Windscreens.
Constantly having to swap your glasses or remember to bring along a pair for
driving? Do away with the hassle, as Auto Windscreens, innovators in
automotive glazing, has successfully launched its first prescription
windscreen.
CrunchPad
We've been hard at work on a new gismo that lets anyone create an iPad
like device from any laptop screen. It's called the CrunchPad Kit and it's
now on sale for $49.
The key piece of technology is a transparent resizable modular touch
screen overlap material that you add to the screen after removing it from
the rest of the laptop. You then install the remaining electronics, as well
as a power supply, and the device is ready to go. Also included in each kit
is a 4G module that you can optionally activate and add to the device for
always-on connectivity.
Kodak Aromaphotography
Introducing smelly photographs. Kodak's aromaphotography will let you
smell the image you're looking at, all thanks to the latest breakthroughs in
"Neuro-Optic-Nasal-Sense Imaging."
Ferrets are being specially trained to bring broadband cables to rural
areas. Virgin Media have developed literally groundbreaking techniques
to fit microchips to ferret's jackets so they can check for damage to the
underground network.
Jon James, director of broadband for Virgin Media, said: "For hundreds of
years, ferrets have helped humans in various jobs. Our decision to use
them is due to their strong nesting instinct, their long, lean build and
inquisitive nature, and for their ability to get down holes. We
initially kept the trial low-key as we wanted to assess how well the ferrets
fitted into our operations before revealing this enterprising scheme."
[Interesting how a good hoax always has an ALMOST believable press release.]
This was probably the definitive internet hoax of 2010 April Fool season.
Just for April 1st 2010 the might Google changed its name Topeka.
It was an all American joke as only the USA saw the change, the rest of us
just saw the regular Google. Perhaps the pranksters thought that UK
readers would not know of the link between Topeka and Google.
Apparently, Google is just returning the favor to a town in Kansas named
Topeka. Topeka is the capital city of Kansas and in its latest bid to
acquire Google's nod as the test site center for Google's introductory
broadband network service, the Mayor of Topeka in Kansas Mayor Bill Bunten
purportedy changed the name of their town from Topeka to "Google".
According to 7-year-old American boy Leslie Hollenworth of Massachusetts,
nearly 70 years ago, the Soviet government, friendly with the United States
at the time, had the chance to warn the Americans about the Pearl Harbor
attack, but purposefully chose not to do so.
One day, Leslie Hollenworth was just a typical boy. On the next day,
however, he woke up remembering things that he should not have. It was kind
of weird," Hollenworth said, "it's like I did stuff before I was born."
According to Hollenworth, he remembers clips of memory that he was referred
to as Dimitri Leselidze. "One time I was taking some soup and bread for the
captain, and saw battleships, big ones, outside the window", said
Hollenworth. His father, local community college historian professor Steven
Hollenworth, initially dismissed it as a product of a boy's active
imagination. "After a couple of days of these 'dreams'," he said, "things
started to come together."
After some discussion between the two, Steven Hollenworth realized that
his son had described Russian transport ship Uritsky's journey, and the
"battleships" that the son described were in fact Japanese warships en route
to attack Pearl Harbor.
"Even at that point I tried to tell myself that it was just a crazy
coincidence, but the more I find out, the more I was convinced that Leslie
had really been there", he said to reporter from the Times, Robert Meridon.
"I don't believe in reincarnation, but there is no other way to explain
this."
"According to Leslie, a radio call was made by the ship's captain to
someone of authority, who responded with 'keep your course, if we're lucky,
they're on the way to bomb the Americans and we'll finally get them to fight
on our side!' This is just not something that my son could make up. He
doesn't even know what Pearl Harbor is."
Leslie Hollenworth was interviewed by two local historians in the morning
of 1 Apr; both them had confirmed the accuracy of the "memories".
One of the historians, Dr. Kimberly Lee of the state university, cited
Leslie's recollection of the transport's cargo. "Leslie was able to tell us
that the ship was carrying tanks, rifles, and Flash Gordon comic books; and
we know that the Uritsky was indeed carrying American Lend-Lease tanks for
the port of Vladivostok. What he 'remembers' simply agrees with some of the
facts we know today. If what he remembers about the radio transmission is
also true, then it would shed a whole new light on the Soviet role in the
Pacific War."
Meridon had asked the father whether Leslie Hollenworth had exhibited
anything out of the ordinary since these memories flooded his head. Steven
Hollenworth noted that his son had generally been the same, doing fine at
school and causing havoc at home just like any boy, but there are indeed a
few occasions where he exhibited strange behavior. "A couple of times we
found him wake up in the middle of the night, went out to the yard, and
started to tie our garden hose around a tree as if the house had just docked
at a port. Once we saw him dance the Kozachok, you know, with the squatting
and the kicking. It's almost like he sleepwalks."
"We've moved all our liquor to a cabinet he cannot reach. You know, the
whole stereotype with sailors", the elder Hollenworth added.
When asked about the most interesting thing regarding this new
experience, Leslie Hollenworth began chuckling. "Dimitri used to say dirty
words in Russian and Georgian, and I know how to say them, too."
"What else?" Meridon asked, smiling.
"Dimitri was always telling everybody 'Happy April Fool's Day!'"
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