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Our April Fool’s page received a flood of appreciation, and for that we thank you–especially those of you who were genuinely duped, at least for the few seconds it took a reasonably intelligent person to realize that they were being spoofed.

This year, though, we also got a whole lot of hate mail, largely from folks who were taken in by it, and they were not happy campers. We have to admit that the letters were side-splitting. Of course, some of them could be putting US on. If so, then, kudos–we fell for YOUR April Fool back! Read on, to find out if you’re among the lucky few whose reactions have been reprinted here.
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Don’t use your cellphone just to make calls?use it to attack other cellphones! The design firm Ideo has invented cellphones that discourage people from making unnecessary calls or zap other cellphone users who talk too long or too loudly in public. One design comes with two metal plates attached to it that can send an increasing electric shock to the people you?re talking to. Another phone is shaped like a musical instrument. “It looks like a snake that has swallowed a mobile phone,” says designer Graham Pullin. In order to make a call, you have to stand up and play a tune on the musical phone. “It seems inconceivable that someone would stand up and play it in the middle of a crowded restaurant so it is a good litmus test about where it is appropriate to make a call,” Pullin says. read more

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As Americans surf their TVs for war news every night, it seems as if we’re seeing more reporters than soldiers. In Iraq, reporters are putting both their safety and their jobs on the line. So far, two reporters have died, and as many as twelve Western journalists may have been captured. Meanwhile, the U.S. military has been confiscating reporters’ cellphones and kicking some of them out of Iraq, while a major network has fired a Pulitzer prize winning reporter. It sounds like journalists are fighting their own war in Iraq.
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Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay recently made brief appearances on TV, but these could have been old video tapes. This is the first glimpse of Uday since the start of the Iraqi war. Saddam also delivered a message, which was read by Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke says the world has not seen the “hide nor hair” of Saddam since the war began. “We have not seen his sons,” she says. Did Saddam survive the bombing of his bunker?
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