Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic April Fools: Who's been had?

This article appeared on the front page of my parents local newspaper, and has had residents up in arms today, including my folks. Just another govt scheme to make more money off the taxpayers! And just sensible and topical enough to be bought by unsuspecting readers.

*braai means barbeque.

IN a world first in the global fight to reduce carbon emissions, South Africa may soon begin regulating domestic braai fires. Legislation that will require all urban households to obtain a permit before they light a charcoal or wood braai on their properties – and which stipulates heavy penalties for those who do not – has already been drafted. The Carbon Reduction and Atmospheric Protection Bill makes provision for braai enthusiasts to purchase an R80 permit that is valid for three months and good for an unlimited number of braai parties.

A one-off permit will also be available for R10 for those unwilling to fork out R80. However, applicants for this kind of permit will have to stipulate a specific date on which they wish to braai and the permit will not be transferable. Permits will be sold at post offices. The bill will be enforced by the department of environmental affairs and tourism’s environmental management inspectors (the Green Scorpions).

The department has warned that fines of up to R500 for braaing without a permit will be issued “without exception” once a three month grace period following enactment of the bill has expired. Commercial entities such as taverns and restaurants that braai are also targeted by the new law. The bill has been circulated for comment among environmental groups, but has not yet been published officially for public comment. A copy was leaked to the media yesterday by one of these groups, but its existence has now been confirmed by the department.

A new study conducted by NGO Earthfire indicates that braai fires account for nearly 10 per cent of the 395 million tons of carbon dioxide (continues on pg2)

The Scorpions - Directorate of Special Investigations - does exist. But Green Scorpions? Come on! (Says me assuming it's fake, but since it's the only article on the front page of the paper not to be included in the online headlines, it has to be!)

What April fool story was on your front page/news broadcast this morning? And more importantly, were you had?

If I've been had, I haven't figured it out yet. So far, there's one spoiler for a show I watch that I'm wary on (sounds a bit dull for an April Fool's joke), but did take as real when I first read it, before the date was pointed out.

I was much amused to see three very well written and very plausible front-cover articles coming off the presses last night for two different regional papers, one of which detailed the underground spring suddenly welling up in the basement of an almost completed, $79 million dollar convention complex. The article ended with local engineers mentioning various ways to correct the situation and one of them mentioned a moat but then added, "You'd have to be an april's fool to even consider that one."

The other really good one detailed a long hidden underground bunker discovered by hikers over the past weekend (complete with ground level pictures) and the mention of human remains of six men wearing WWII Japanese naval uniforms being found in one of the underground chambers-it's ALMOST plausible since we did have a couple of mini-subs wrecked on the coast here but then you opened the paper up to page 3 to read the rest of the article and a huge "APRIL FOOLS!" banner was there to greet you!

Sadly, the local paper didn't get the chance to do any leg-pulling since the lead articles concerned two local deaths over the past couple of days.

One young friend at work who had promised to "get me good" when the clock had struck 12 am last night ended up hurting his knee so badly that I had to give him a lift home at 9pm...he seemed more sad over loosing the chance to play an April Fools joke on me than he did over the sore knee! I was offered a new job in town here last week so I'd put my notice in at the current job last Friday, we've been having such fun bugging each other back and forth the past while and he says he's going to be sorry to see me go!

I did like the Daily Mirror's Flying Penguins . Must be the first time in a long, long, long while that I've found something interesting in a UK tabloid. I'm just happy I didn't have to buy the thing to get the joke.

Have to say, though, I didn't think the video was terribly convincing.

LabRat

LOL! no, it wasn't. But boy, oh boy was the thing ever hilarious to watch! I'm still laughing now.

I didn't get played for a fool on April Fool's but an article on one of Australia's news networks wrote about a prank someone played on our emergency services, by ringing 000 and saying that their baby had stopped breathing. A prank is one thing, but this is not the thing you should be doing! I mean what if there had been a genuine emergency somewhere else? How thoughtless can you get?

I got rickrolled by Youtube... does that count?

I liked Google's Virgle Pioneer recruitment campaign, which was linked from Google's home page today. The job application is particularly amusing


Wendy

I almost got had by local hosts on one radio station talking about a remake of Green Acres where two bankers move from NYC to Charlotte. Charlotte's not backwards! But then I switched stations, and another person was talking about a local paper running the story as a joke. So after that, I was keeping my eye out. My favorite might be the Bard class in World of Warcraft. I don't play the game, but the images are funny.

I played a prank myself. I replaced the company logo on an internal website with the AT&T logo. I had a few coworkers asking if we worked for AT&T now.

To me, the funniest part of the penguin story was the closer:
If that didn't tip off the reading public, I don't know what would. The Brits have such a dry and inventive sense of humor. LOL!

I didn't see anything in particular, but did just come across this .

Carol

Ooh, I LOVE the gmail hoax! But the Fox summary is wrong about the Guardian; that paper's April Fool is here . Note the byline...


Wendy

When I was checking my email yesterday I saw a story about a Bev Hills 90210 spinoff being in the works. And immediately thought there's no way in hell that can't be an April fools joke...

Turns out it's true!

Yeah, that's the problem these days. Once upon a time, April Fool jokes were easy to spot. These days, we live in such a crazy world that the dumbest things turn out to be true instead of the jokes they really should be!

LabRat

Haha wanna know something else scary that is true?

New Kids on the Block are getting back together.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20174022,00.html

Didn't they already try that with NKOTB. Give it up guys. :rolleyes:

I got had at work. We got an official company email that talked about a new cell phone that was designed like a mini transformer! Considering, the technology of today, I actually thought it might be possible, so I clicked on the link for more info. Of course it said April Fool's. lol I never get fooled on April Fool's Day, so I was a little annoyed with myself!

I played a belated April Fool's Joke on my HomeTeam (young married's church group) yesterday.

Malcolm (hubby) and I were assigned to lead our next bible study... REVELATION!! Needless to say, it's pretty difficult to understand. About 3pm yesterday, (we meet at 7) I sent an email to everyone saying we couldn't make it and we were really sorry but we'd see them all next week.

I left it at that for about an hour. Then I couldn't take it anymore and sent out the April Fool's email, and let me tell you, they were all very much relieved. I was

Ha ha. I'm so clever.