1 |
The
Swiss Spaghetti Harvest |
2 |
Sidd Finch |
3 |
Instant Color TV - In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast
in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson,
appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed
technology, all viewers could now quickly and easily convert their
existing sets to display colour reception. All they had to do was
pull a nylon stocking over their TV screen, and they would begin to
see their favourite shows in colour. Stensson then proceeded to demonstrate
the process. Reportedly, hundreds of thousands of people, out of the
population of seven million, were taken in. Actual colour TV transmission
only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970. |
4 |
The
Taco Liberty Bell |
5 |
San
Serriffe |
6 |
Nixon
for President - In 1992 National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced
that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President
again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't
do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying
this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy
speech. Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding
the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the
second half of the show did the host John Hockenberry reveal that
the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated
by comedian Rich Little. |
7 |
Alabama
Changes the Value of Pi - The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason
newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature
had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from
3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. Before long the article had
made its way onto the internet, and then
it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their
e-mail. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when
the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people
protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended
as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of
evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough. |
8 |
The
Left-Handed Whopper - In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today
announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed
Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans.
According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same
ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty,
etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit
of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued
a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper
was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request
the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release,
"many others requested their own 'right handed' version." |
9 |
Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers |
10 |
Planetary
Alignment Decreases Gravity - In 1976 the British astronomer
Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime
astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience
in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter,
temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract
and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that
if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary
alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation.
When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls
from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even
reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs
and floated around the room. |
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Links
OK at April, 28 2005 |
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