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The QWERTY keyboard was invented in 1874 and yet it is still used today, largely unchanged. What’s more, the keyboard doesn’t come close to the speed and effectiveness of a simple technology used on ships over a centry ago… morse code. Today, April 1st, Google is introducing a new input method designed by the great-great grandson of Samuel F. B. Morse: Gmail Tap for Android and iOS. Gmail Tap takes the keyboard from 26 keys to just two. Every letter of the alphabet is represented by a simple pattern of dots and dashes, and once you know them you can...

Google has a gift for you on April Fool's Day. The site's map page has an 8 bit quest on its site, that will bring you back to the days of the NES. Nintendo fans will remember how important the maps were in 8 bit games. Now you can trek across the 8 bit world and even fight monsters. On the main page of Google Maps, in the upper right corner is the 8 bit graphic. Click on "Quest" and venture out into the country. The maps pay homage to the classic game "Dragon Warrior."

I'm a REAL CONSERVATIVE. I took a test once, and it showed I was 92 percent nuts! I'm such a conservative that I kept coming back to FR and spamming the state boards and freepmail until I was blocked from doing such. Now all I can do is sign up and make posts that will never see the light of day as the moderators just discard them. It isn't FAIR! I have a RIGHT to be an IDIOT on FR! It's in the CONSTITUTION! I have been neutered, gelded! My life no longer has any meaning! Everyone one here is...

Note from the Curator: I created the first version of this list in the late 1990s. Back then, there was hardly any information collected about April Fool's Day pranks, so I had to do a lot of research in newspaper archives to put this together. Luckily I was in grad school, so I had a lot of spare time on my hands ;-). Over the years I've tweaked the list, rearranging it slightly and adding new entries based on reader feedback and ongoing research, but my top choices have remained pretty much the same. This list is easily the most...

Jefferson Smith loves a good political joke. Early last year, the then-freshman Oregon House member from Portland was getting ready for bed when he and his wife, Katy, began bantering back and forth about what might be the ultimate political prank, something that could lighten the increasingly divisive political mood among his colleagues. As Smith recalls, the idea came almost instantly. "What if we were to Rick Roll the legislature without anybody noticing?" he wondered. And that was the seed for what may ultimately prove to be one of the most elaborate political jokes of all time: A nearly two-minute...

The U.S. Border Patrol Agency has been ordered to “give up its guns”, starting this summer. In a surprise directive issued this morning, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), parent agency of the Border Patrol, announced that up to one-half of U.S. Border Patrol Agents will be required to turn in their firearms, starting August 1, 2011. The current issue sidearm of the Border Patrol is the HK P2000 LEM in .40 SW, but Agents many also carry rifles and shotguns. Duty Weapons will be replaced by non-lethal dye markers, similar to paintball guns. Agents to Be Disarmed in Border...

They're not all "practical" jokes, some of these are just ways to mess with them. ---------- Every April 1st send a birthday card to the Democratic Party. Tell some really hunky member of PETA that he's a beefcake (you might have better luck hunting unicorn). Accuse a liberal of plagiarizing Biden every time they burp. Go the the Sierra Club office/treehouse and hang a sign outside the bathroom reminding the tree huggers of the Golden Rule, therefore toilet paper is hereby banned from use. Attend a speech given by Rahm Emanuel, make that beeping censor noise every time he...

Mark Sanford for President By John F. Di Leo, Illinois Review, April 1, 2011 A.D. The time has come for Americans to choose a presidential nominee for 2012, and we cannot wait another year. The primary system is untrustworthy, having selected the wrong candidates more often than not; it’s time to make our choice known NOW. And that choice must be… former Governor Mark Sanford. A solid conservative and experienced manager, Sanford has the requisite two terms as governor on his resume (well, almost), demonstrating both his ability to get elected and his ability to serve in an executive capacity....

Stetson hat to be new Army standard headgear In a tip-of-the-brim nod to its American frontier history, the Army is likely to change hats again - returning to the days of the wild west and adopting a dark blue Stetson as the official head cover... Read More

Trump just announced on FOX news that he is offering $5million for Obama's long form. his sister in Kenya said she will Fedex it tomorrow, she said she could use the money since Obama only sends her $20 on her birthday.

Rush Limbaugh confirmed today the rumor that he and his wife Catherine have been meeting with Mormon missionaries for the past few months and are seriously considering committing to the Utah based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Obamas are planning to be full-time farmers b/c Michelle sick of state dinners, and having to dress in designer gowns and wear flippy wigs. She wants the simple farming life. Obama has asked friends to find a working farm in in Cook County. Michelle's WH garden has given her a new appreciation of the simple life. She has decided she has been missing out on the serenity and stress free life of a farmer. Obama's constant WH Apology Tour was getting on her nerves. Then she was in Latin America, she forget to wear her wig. The humiliation at...

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today, in the first of a series of stunning announcements, that its television subsidiary the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) will be replacing the defunct Bill Moyers Journal with a new weekly program, Ann Coulter's Far Out Journey. The Coulter show is one of several dramatic changes to the public broadcasting network composed of PBS and its corporate sibling National Public Radio (NPR). The changes are the result of major upheavals in the wake of the firing of NPR commentator Juan Williams and covert 60 Minutes-style videos from journalist James O'Keefe showing NPR executives...

The Supreme Court's landmark 2008 ruling, DC v. Heller, either confirmed or created the individual right to bear arms from the text of the Second Amendment, of which two versions were ratified by various states: 1.A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 2.A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. There had long been debate as to whether "People" referred to...

Manny Marco, unemployed vagabond, tenderly loaded the last of 30 9-millimeter bullets into the spring-action, extended clip for his new Mac-10--a semiautomatic assault weapon capable of throwing rounds as fast as Marco can blink. "That's very good, Manny," coaxed Arm the Homeless firearms instructor Pete Whippit. "Now, insert the clip and rack that lever there." Marco did so, producing the wicked, unmistakable chik-chik of a freshly loaded weapon. "Okay, Manny," Whippit continued, pointing to a switch. "Now, all you need to do is flick this thing here from 'Safe' to 'Fire,' and you are cocked, locked and ready to rock."...

The Pentagon is about to pull its attack planes out of the international air campaign in Libya, hoping NATO partners can take up the slack. The announcement Thursday drew incredulous reactions from some in Congress who wondered aloud why the Obama administration would bow out of a key element of the strategy for protecting Libyan civilians and crippling Moammar Gadhafi's army. "Odd," ''troubling" and "unnerving" were among critical comments by senators pressing for an explanation of the announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that American combat missions will end Saturday. "Your timing is...

Pissant has just agreed to come back to Free Republic and spearhead what has been characterized as a massive fundraising effort, just in time for Sarah's planned announcement of her run for the Presidency.

Rush Limbaugh confirmed today the rumor that he and his wife Catherine have been meeting with Mormon missionaries for the past few months and are seriously considering committing to the Utah based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Limbaugh was quite forthcoming in how his fascination with Mormonism began. “Over the years there have been a number of things about the Mormons that have really caught my attention.” Limbaugh stated. “Mormons are the most conservative religious group in the United States, their support for President Bush, traditional marriage, the tea party, really earned them my respect.” Rush said....

My co-worker has a pretty good idea for April Fool's day next week. Every Friday the dozen employees at our office take turns bringing in donuts or something for breakfast for everyone. Next Friday, April 1, is his turn. He is from Thailand, so his idea is to bring in some nasty dish and tell everyone it is some traditional Thai food that his mother cooked up for everyone that morning. We've been trying to come up with ideas of what this treat could be. Any ideas?

A Jordanian newspaper's April Fool's Day report chronicling a late-night visit by 10-foot-tall aliens in flying saucers sparked public panic and almost led to the town's emergency evacuation, officials said Monday... Jafr's mayor, Mohammed Mleihan, got caught up in the paper's prank and said he sent security authorities in search of the aliens. "Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents," Mleihan told the Associated Press. "People were scared that aliens would attack them."

A would-be saboteur arrested today at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland made the bizarre claim that he was from the future. Eloi Cole, a strangely dressed young man, said that he had travelled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world. The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this week, a milestone Mr Cole was attempting to disrupt by stopping supplies of Mountain Dew to the experiment's vending machines. He also claimed responsibility for the infamous baguette sabotage in November last year. Mr Cole was seized by Swiss police after CERN security guards spotted...

+I’ll say it again, Chris, President Obama really does deserve a big wet kiss for this health care bill — from all 40 million Americans who are uninsured right now and stand to gain from this historic legislation.” Host Chris Matthews: “Well, I’d go a lot further than that, Ed, but a sloppy wet kiss is a good start.”

By now you may have heard of a recent episode involving Congressman Hank Johnson, who represents the Fourth District of Georgia in the House, one of the most Democratic Congressional districts in the US. Johnson has received a certain amount of ridicule for expressing his concern about what one might call the geographic stability of Guam. However, I would like to offer a spirited defense of the unjustly-maligned Representative Johnson. First of all, although this is a little-known fact, he and Admiral Willard, the man he is questioning in the video, are old friends. They met in 1986 on the...

(March 31, 2010) Washington DC - In a move guaranteed to generate both support and opposition, President Obama today ordered the replacement of all pistols carried in the line of duty by U.S. Military personnel and Federal law enforcement officers. The White House says new firearms are a “giant leap forward in technology,” but admits they are manufactured overseas. The move is seen as a bow to the new “all-welcoming” military, a set of forces where gays are now accepted in the barracks and foxholes if not the showers. But because the weapons will be made overseas, Connecticut Interdigitation Commissioner...

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...

Earlier this week, Fox News host Sean Hannity broadcast his eponymous show Hannity from the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Towards the end of the show, Hannity made a rather startling claim that conservatives won the debate regarding health care. Perhaps more startling, or more to the point, unsettling, was his facetious labeling of his fans as “Tim McVeigh wannabes.” Hannity’s full quote can be viewed in the video below, but he says “I think we won the debate… When you think of the vast majorities that they have in Congress and they had to bribe, backroom deals, corruption....

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh will be announcing his run for President of the United States when he returns to hosting his popular broadcast following the Easter Weekend. An anonymous source close to Limbaugh has revealed that he has been rapidly gearing up for the GOP nomination race while he as been away from the show this past week. His website only says that he is in a 'super secret location', jokingly suggesting he may be looking for health care alternatives. The source elaborated that Limbaugh's feelings about running for office have been slowly changing over the past year...

Google will close its Australian operations, effectively blacklisting the country in response to the Federal Government's "evil" plan to filter the internet. ZDNet.com.au has confirmed that the search engine giant will close its doors on Australia for good, effective immediately, marking the end of four years of its operation here and a long-running battle with the government over its plan to filter the internet. Known for changing its famous logo to commemorate special occasions, Google's Australian site this morning featured a somewhat blunt statement on how the company viewed its place in the local market (see screenshot). "We've already left...

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what to believe when you read it on the web. The recent “Unknown Lifeform” in North Carolina? Turns out, not a hoax, but also not a monster. But all those rumors about Jeff Goldblum falling to his death in New Zealand? Well, those were a hoax, and a rather tasteless one at that. For hundreds of years, humans have been playing elaborate tricks on each other, but the advent of social tools — from Usenet and email right on up to YouTube () and Twitter () — means that hoaxes are much more easily spread,...

Q: Has a "smoking gun" been found to prove Obama was not born a U.S. citizen? Did he attend Occidental College on a scholarship for foreign students? I recently received this and wanted to know if it is accurate, and what the implications are. Thanks OBAMA - SMOKING GUN FINALLY FOUND? April 1, 2009 AP- WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the...

# This got some run on KNBR, but it really shouldn't have, considering there's no such thing as the Denver Examiner. A nicely mocked-up Web site bearing that name reported that the Broncos and 49ers had a deal in place to swap Jay Cutler for Alex Smith, Mark Roman and three draft picks. If the lunacy of that deal wasn't a giveaway to Fitz and Brooks, a later item in the column — Trent Edwards and T.O. got in a fight during an Ultimate Frisbee game — should have been. And if that didn't work, the line at the bottom...

April 1: We have to admit, we were surprised when the headline "Obama Orders Chevrolet and Dodge Out of Nascar" turned out to be an April Fools' joke. How can it be a joke when today's reality is far more extreme?Car and Driver has nothing on the federal government. If you think we're exaggerating, just look at some of the recent days' events, each at least as outrageous as the April Fools' joke of Obama ordering Chevy and Dodge to leave Nascar, and maybe more so. They include: • The government's stimulus efforts, as toted up by Bloomberg.com, so far...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama seems to be more interested in propping up Wall Street than saving the car companies and the auto workers in Detroit. He displayed his "get tough" side when he laid down the law to General Motors and Chrysler, whose restructuring plans had displeased the White House auto task force. The president gave the car makers a choice of coming up with tougher plans or face bankruptcy. GM was given 60 days to produce a plan for Obama, who has never ran a company, and Chrysler was given 30 days, with a threat to end its...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- President Obama has told Hachette Filipacchi Media to cease operations of Car and Driver magazine if the company wants to receive any governmental aid for its other publications, according to a statement released by the White House. Yes, this is an April Fools' joke. But many likely wish it were true after the prank the magazine played Wednesday, which was in poor taste and downright tacky under the current economic climate.

Who should be the LAST person in the world to post a warning about phony April Fool's news stories on the web? None other than our own Pied Piper Pitt, the perpetrator of one of the biggest journalistic hoaxes of the 21st century. It's like Colonel Sanders warning against killing chickens. Yet the Pittster has done just that in his DUmmie THREAD, "DU Public Service Announcement." Are you really that lacking in any sense of self-awareness that you didn't realize the DUmmie FUnnies would immediately seize upon your warnings about phony stories in less than 24 business hours? Anyway...

In a bold and surprising move, the Holy See today announced that His Excellency Bernard Fellay, General Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, has been named as the new Archbishop of Saint Louis. This appointment was accompanied by a decree from the Congregation for Bishops that provides immediate temporary jurisdiction for SSPX priests and bishops worldwide. This temporary jurisdiction involves the elevation of the SSPX to a personal prelature, but this structure is only granted for 2 years, subject to review. (The link to the Holy See's announcement is down, I guess due to traffic, but I...

In an unprecedented move Wednesday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rescinded the Peace Prize it awarded in 2007 to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, amid overwhelming evidence that global warming is an elaborate hoax cooked up by Mr. Gore. A press release from the committee quotes a chagrined Rajendra Pachauri, the UN climate panel’s chair, who claims that he was the victim of a “cunning deception spanning decades”: “I am deeply ashamed for having unwittingly perpetuated such a massive fraud on the governments of the world,” said Mr. Pachauri.

Also Announce That They Will Officially Become Republicans, Will Introduce Additional, Bipartisan, Pro-U.S. Legislation. BY TODD Q. JONES WASHINGTON, Apr. 1 -- U.S. Sens. John McCain (D-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have introduced legislation that would authorize all funds necessary and sufficient to complete the construction of fences on the southern border with Mexico, their offices announced today. The bill, S.65, or the American Immigration Act of 2009, would also authorize additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security to train and deploy thousands of new customs and border agents at key border crossings within six to twelve months. The...

With their racing budgets deemed “unnecessary expenditures,” GM and Chrysler are ordered to cease racing operations at the end of the season.

In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government.

In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government. Companies around the globe—Honda and Audi, to name two—have drawn down racing operations, and NASCAR itself has already felt the pinch in the form of reduced team spending. A complete withdrawal from America’s premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere.

I was thinking this morning when I woke up...What I wouldn't give for someone to say APRIL FOOL's..Obama's not really the President..Nancy Pelosi isn't Speaker of the House. AH...well a guy can dream can't he...... OBAMA promises..."To serve Man"....in "The Twilight Zone" Happy April Fool's Day Freepers!!

The good news is, on the very first day, we had a single donor fork over the entire $80,000 to keep FR running for another three months. WHOO-HOO! The bad news is, the donor is some guy from Chicago. He showed up on my doorstep with a box of cannoli, along with some lowlifes I assumed to be either be muscle or Congressmen. Made me an offer I couldn't refuse while mumbling something about the Fairness Doctrine. Paid me in cash out of a suitcase with TARP stenciled on the side. He took the cannoli. As a result, some wiseguy...

Are you enjoying the Your right of self-defense just a little bit TOO much? Do you actually like the idea of taking responsibility for you and your family's security needs instead of relying the wonderful government services only minutes or hours away? Do you enjoy whiling away an afternoon at the range, firing off a few (or more), boxes of ammo a little too much?Do find yourself enjoying the scent of fired off ammo as you practice your God given right of self-defense?Do you like the sweet sound of expended brass clinking to the ground as you shred the center...

Microsoft requested on Tuesday some $20 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, claiming that as the company controlling an overwhelming share of the OS market, it is too big to fail. The company said low adoption rates for Windows Vista, the ensuing ad campaign trying to convince people that they really do like Vista, and the increased need for development resources to rush Windows 7 to market to make people forget about Vista have necessitated the bailout. "We want to make it absolutely clear that this is not a crisis of mismanagement," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in...

In 1912 scientists thought they'd discovered the elusive missing link between human and ape. Found in a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, a set of intriguing skull and jaw fragments were later reconstructed by the British Museum into a human-like head with an ape-like jaw. In 1953 it turned out the find wasn't proof of anything—other than the skill of the still anonymous forger. The skull was a medieval human's. The jaw was an orangutan's. And the teeth were a chimp's.

The Justice Department, in the wake of its humiliating decision to drop the corruption conviction of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), has agreed to throw out the results of the 2008 Senate race, in which Stevens was narrowly defeated by Democrat Mark Begich. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, was thought to be favored to win re-election last year against Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, until the 85-year-old Stevens was indicted for lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about renovations done to his home by a contractor friend. He was later convicted of seven felony counts. But the decision...

How about a thread to list the various April Fools jokes we've found/will find today?