Science Addiction

It seemed as though yesterday was an overactive April Fool’s day; maybe because it was a Saturday or because I was actively seeking pranks. And I found many.

Some of my favorite pranks for this year:
* There’s always *Google*- this time with the “Google Romance with contextual matching”:http://www.google.com/romance/. Don’t forget to “take the tour”:http://www.google.com/romance/tour.html.
* Since “open source proponents don’t dress well”:http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/1956211 Torvalds and the OSDL have launched a new “image initiative”:http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/03/31/1443217.
* The “Motley Fool sued the US Government”:http://www.fool.com/specials/2006/06040100ene.htm for incorrectly representing Enron before the unsuspecting citizenry.
* In one of my favorites, the “MPAA and the RIAA merged to form the MAFIAA”:http://www.mafiaa.org/.
* Google had “an alien at Area 51”:http://www.jarnot.com/mt/archives/2006/04/they_come_in_pe.php and “a dog on the whitehouse lawn”:http://studio7.org/google.html.
* The Economist talked about the biotech corporation GeneDupe that “looks to genetically engineer mythical creatures”:http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=6740040. I, for one, would like a Wookiee. Please.
* “Yahoo decides to buy *all* of Web2.0”:http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000276.html. Why buy it piece by piece?
* Then there was the “Google Browser”:http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/03/google-browser.html that suspiciously looked like Lynx…
* Making a bid for that under-represented market- female children- “we present to you the Barbie OS”:http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/barbieOS.htm.
* The “UK Government decided to shut down all GSM networks”:http://www.mobilegazette.com/uk-gsm-0604×01.htm. That will teach those “darn pesky cell phone users”:http://www.widescreenglory.com/2005/12/21/jamming-cell-phone-signals-at-the-movies/.
* The most tragic news of the day came from “OpenOffice.org, which stated that it had been purchased by Microsoft”:http://flickr.com/photos/trevi55/121545497/.
* The “Wookieepedia”:http://starwars.wikia.com had “Earth as their featured article”:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Earth.
* Geeks.com was selling a “device that did GPS, PDA, cell phone, DVD, bluetooth, WiFi, 5mp camera, 200GB storage, IR, RF, TV, stereo, with keyboard, USB, Firewire, AM, FM, MP3 and holographic displays called The Thing”:http://www.geeks.com/pix/2006/geekthing.html?sourceid=qIpSRC89UAHRAnqQSysL&cm_ven=CJ&cm_pla=0041586763.
* And finally, the one we had all been dreading- “China bought Google”:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/01/china_buys_google/.
Here is my “full list of bookmarks for April Fool’s day 2006”:http://del.icio.us/DevanJedi/aprilfool including many I did not mention here. Also, the “Wikipedia had an exhaustive list”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1,_2006 from all over the online and offline world.