Hoax earthquake letter rings in April Fools’ Day

Los Angeles Times | The Guardian | BBC

No, California, the U.S. Geological Survey is not warning people that a large quake is on its way.

It’s early yet in the U.S., but by now, April Fools’ jokes are pretty much all played out in the UK. The Guardian collected the best jokes of the day, including their own, reporting that Scotland might switch to driving on the right, (which I did see on my Twitter feed this morning and remember thinking, hmmm, wonder how that’s gonna work.)

“It sends out an explicit signal: we are part of Europe,” said one of the brains behind the scheme. “The little Englanders who want out of Europe are the only ones driving on the left-hand side. We’ve been the smaller relative dominated and having to copy their ridiculous ways for too long. No more. Just think, this will be an indignity for little England – isolated in Europe and pootling along in the slow lane on the left,” he added.

They are concerned, however, that opponents of the move to the right might mobilise under the emotive slogan: “Proud to be left.” Some fear that when the plans go public, the charismatic MP George Galloway would not be prepared to stand on the sidelines but would launch his own appeal: “Stay left, hard left.”

The BBC took the day to remember their best April Fools’ prank ever — the annual spaghetti harvest.

I checked through newspaper front pages from Newseum this morning, but honestly, I’m pretty sure I’d call real news fake and fake news real and that leads no where good. For instance, is someone really returning an iceberg to Greenland using photography? If yes, this project chose a rather unfortunate time to launch and my sincere apologizes for the skepticism. If no, nice try, almost worked.

@Poynter Thanks for following. Ice Cycle is using photography to return an iceberg to Greenland. Plz RT pic.twitter.com/7KoRFFAZB1

— Robert Welkie (@Icecycleproject) April 1, 2014

If you see good stuff today, let us know. If you see bad stuff today, please let us know.

(I already tricked my editor, Andrew Beaujon, into believing that The New York Times’ web site had been hacked, so I think my obligation for the day has been met.)