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. | | | Links
OK at April, 28 2005 | | | |
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