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Google is funny. I have wanted to write that sentence for so long in a context where funny meant "intentionally humorous." So here is an April Fools' work of art from the company that, to many minds, just might deserve righteous laughter. For here, purportedly, is the launch of Google Maps 8-bit for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

BERKELEY, CA Discovery of two new "superheavy" elements has been announced by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Element 120 and its immediate decay product, element 121, were discovered at Berkeley Lab's 88-Inch Cyclotron by bombarding targets of lead with an intense beam of high-energy krypton ions. Although both new elements almost instantly decay into other elements, the sequence of decay events is consistent with theories that have long predicted an "island of stability" for nuclei with approximately 187 protons and 199 neutrons. "We jumped over a sea of instability onto an island of stability...

Wasilla, Alaska (UIP)— Shocking news last night as former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin announced that she is following in the footsteps of the noble senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, and is switching parties to become a Democrat. This news comes just five days after Palin appeared as the keynote speaker at a Tea Party rally in Searchlight, Nev., where she appeared in her former guise as an angry white female and told the crowd of at least a dozen or so people that she was tired of government intrusion into her life and that she was going to do...

According to this email [unknown origin], a Federal judge in Florida was hearing a complaint from an atheist. The filing by the atheist stated: "Christians and Jews have their Holidays - Easter/Christmas/Passover. We atheists do not have a holiday. This is unfair." The atheist was demanding a holiday for atheists. The judge responded [in responding to the suit]: "But you have a holiday. April 1 is the Holiday for fools. For it is written in the book of Psalms [14:1] that The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. [KJV]. You have April 1 as your holiday."...

Did Japan try to develop an "ultimate weapon" in response to the August, 1998 overflight of a North Korean Taepo-Dong ballistic missile? According to a CIA document leaked to the press today, the answer is yes. The document, entitled "Theopotential Technology Development In Japan: An Intelligence Retrospective", details the clandestine effort of the Japanese military to develop a weapon of "godlike" power in response to the DPRK missile launch. The secret weapons program, named Saishu Heiki ("Ultimate Weapon Development Project", or UWDP), was initiated in May of 2000 by "elements at the highest levels of Japan's military, industrial, and intelligence...

WARNING to all Freepers - I have not seen a thread on this virus which will release on April 1st. The IT people at my wife's org have been working like mad to protect systems for 10,000 computers and servers. See the following. There has been significant media attention to the latest variant of the Conficker worm. This variant has the potential to download fresh virus code on April 1st from what security researchers have been able to glean from studying the virus files. This means that any machine that is infected may download new malicious code on April 1st...

This site is promoting a day for people to protest the president and his policies, by wearing a brown ribbon in the same fashion as the yellow ribbons that have grown in popularity these days.

“It’s now obvious that the 22nd Amendment barring third presidential terms punishes the nation more than the politician....After three years of George Bush’s flailings, who doesn’t yearn for Clinton’s steady, nuanced leadership? We would have been spared those fiscally destructive tax cuts, the environment would not have been despoiled, and America would not be an outcast among nations. With a serious and non-ideological foreign policy team which had already thwarted at least two major terrorist attacks, there’s every reason to believe that if voters could have elected Bill Clinton to a third term, September 11th would have been just a...

Let's have some fun by coming up with what sounds really, really stupid but is actually something typical from the RATS. I'll start --- For April Fools Day, Sheila Jackson Lee will tell us that American astronauts landed on Mars.

Washington will have enough forces bristling on the borders of Iraq to launch a strike as soon as the March 17 disarmament deadline it is seeking expires, but it looks likely to wait a few days longer. Analysts said that, despite soaring temperatures which would make battle uncomfortable, U.S. Central Command chief General Tommy Franks may even seek a delay until April 1 to resolve a hitch in plans for a thrust into northern Iraq and have a moonless sky for aerial bombing. Britain, supported by the United States, has proposed giving Iraq a March 17 ultimatum to cooperate fully...

Internet Spoof, Soon Denied, Hits Canadian DollarMon Apr 1,10:53 AM ETTORONTO (Reuters) - An April Fool's Day internet report that Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin would quit his job to breed Charolais cows and "handsome fawn runner ducks" sent the Canadian dollar lower on Monday, as the market grabbed at the straw of anything that might resemble news. Author Pierre Bourque, who flagged the spoof report on his political gossip Web site bourque.org, said he was baffled by the reaction. "It is April 1, after all," he told Reuters. "The ducks were the tell-tale sign." A laughing official at Martin's...

<p>Gov. Jesse Ventura pulled an April Fools' prank on the State Capitol press corps this morning.</p> <p>Spokesman John Wodele alerted reporters to a press conference on a half-hour's notice, suggesting that all reporters should show up but declining to say what the subject matter was.</p>