evil blogger

Here are some examples of what companies and sites did for April 1, 2009:

• Kia unveils Aero Soul APRIL System: 2010 model will harness wind energy
• Google Gmail Autopilot: automate your e-mail responses
• UK paper “The Guardian” twitters: claims it will stop printing newspapers and will only be available through 140 character news clips on twitter
• YouTube on its head: shows videos upside down
• CERN discovers what caused Big Bang
• Digg has series of overlays
• Ford and GM team up: create Android car with Google
• Research claims iPods get fractionally heavier with more music
• Expedia offers flights to Mars : starting at only $99

Check out the top 100 April Fool’s Day hoaxes of all time at the Museum of Hoaxes.

Amazon.com’s latest edition e-reader, the Kindle 2, is making noise in the publishing world… literally.  Other than sporting a slimmer body, the newest version of the reader is very similar to its predecessor (even priced the same at $359).  There is one addition that has lawmakers and (more specifically) the Authors Guild concerned: the Kindle 2’s new text-to-speech ability.
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Social network site MySpace claims to be responsible for the world’s first ever community-created feature length film. Here’s an excerpt of the article from the TimesOnline:

For Faintheart, a comedy centring on a battle reenactment club, the director and much of the music were chosen by users of the networking site MySpace.

The same online group was asked to compete in auditions for some of the smaller parts and users were even asked how elements of the plot should develop.

“It’s the world’s first publicly generated movie,” said Jamie Kantrowitz, vice-president of marketing for MySpace. “It’s about involving a potential audience for a movie in the making of the film itself.”

This really isn’t anything spectacular because if you read behind the “press release” you can see that a production company put up 1.3 million pounds (about 2.6 million dollars) and more or less went overboard with getting some community feedback. The MySpace community hardly created it themselves and were simply the beneficiaries of a stunt. Were it a collaborative effort spawned out of the blue within the community, I would be impressed, but this is nothing short of expensive marketing. Don’t expect this to catch on, especially not in Hollywood. See the rest of the article here.

The Museum of Modern Art is a pretty nifty museum. There are some pretty cool things there like this little light exhibit shown above. But for every one cool exhibit, there are 10 ridiculously overpriced products in the gift shop, and 20 other examples of “modern art” that are so absolutely not cool. Hey! Let’s take a look!

The Dummy Tummy

“Hey it’s one of those helium tanks, only smaller” you say. “But that isn’t art” you say. You’re 50% right, I say. Created by some Italian… “artist”(?) this Dummy Tummy inflates proportionally to how far along mommy is with her baby. The longer the bun in the oven, the bigger the balloon. Then when mommy has the baby you “can burst the inflated stomach with the included pin and then display the remains in a special frame”. Oh okay, because that’s what happens when you have a baby… it EXPLODES. “Hey kids, let’s gather round the frame and take a look at the popped remains of little Jimmy.”

Check out MoMA page for barely much more information.

The Fertilitoy

This one is made by the same Italian… what am I supposed to call this guy because he is missing a few meatballs in his spaghetti… if you catch my stereotypically unfunny drift. This puppy is called the Fertilitoy. It’s a toy, about fertility, for kids. It consists of “child-friendly sperm, egg, and womb dolls.”

Child-friendly sperm dolls. Let’s move on.
The MoMA page is here.

The Epidermits Interactive Pet

This doozy is too bizarre to sum up, but it’s supposed to follow in the footsteps of the Tamagachi, if, instead of the Japanese, it was the cast of the Hills Have Eyes making these things. “They are fully functioning organisms resulting from advances in tissue engineering, electronics, and fuel cell research… they require minimal maintenance and can be stored in a state of forced hibernation in a standard refrigerator.” Because everyone wants a hairy slab of skin with a handle next to the apples. The MoMA page has another picture with a kid holding one. How do you know it’s photoshopped? He’s smiling.
My Bio Cow Cup Thingy and Xenotransplant

This one is extremely simple. It’s supposed to remind you that milk comes out of cows that have udders shaped like other little cows. See also the Xenotransplant. This one isn’t suppose to give kids nightmares, it’s supposed to remind them where they can go if they ever need a heart: pigs.

The iBelieve

“Hey, I don’t have enough iPod accessories, and I praise the Lord Jesus Christ for all the iPod accessories I do have” you say. Well then the iBelieve is for you, because even Jesus likes to listen to Enya whilst pumping iron in the gym… or perhaps you’re someone who finally wants a way to reduce the stares when you blatantly listen to your iPod shuffle in church.

Check out all the craziness at the Museum of Modern Art.

Alas, the Patriots who made headlines every single week for destroying opponents and escaping others to end the regular season having gone undefeated, were expected to win it all (until the most important game of them all rolled around and then… oops). Tough luck, but the craziest thing about their shenanigans is that the Patriots organization is attempting to trademark the phrase “19-0″ and “19-0 The Perfect Season.”

Let that sink in a little: The Patriots. Are trying to trademark. Numbers. From a business stand point it would theoretically bring in trillions of dollars of royalties (just think of all the math classes, sports scores, phone numbers etc.). At least, that is, if it wasn’t an utterly RIDICULOUS idea.

They would use the phrases “19-0″ on a number of toys and whatnots, thereby forever mocking themselves for winning 18 games only to choke on the last one. Clever clever people.

Resources: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0421081pats1.html

Get the shirt… help Patriots fans really know what happened.