ninme

I can’t tell you how rare it is to have two days in a row devoted to the same subject. This must be a first.

Times Online - How I cracked the Smithy code (with a little help from the judge) By Ben Hoyle of The Times ‘If you can’t solve it now, you should be sacked,’ the judge told our reporter

At no point in my job interview for The Times four years ago did the Editor mention that I would need advanced codebreaking skills.

But yesterday, like thousands of others around the world, I was frantically puzzling over the apparently random sequence of 42 letters mysteriously rendered in bold italics in the Da Vinci Code plagiarism case judgment.

This morning The Times was able to exclusively reveal the solution, secured with considerable prompting from Mr Justice Peter Smith.

It’s hilarious. Do read the whole thing.

BBC - Judge creates own Da Vinci code

The judge who presided over the failed Da Vinci Code plagiarism case at London’s High Court hid his own secret code in his written judgement.

Seemingly random italicised letters were included in the 71-page judgement given by Mr Justice Peter Smith, which apparently spell out a message.

Mr Justice Smith said he would confirm the code if someone broke it.

“I can’t discuss the judgement, but I don’t see why a judgement should not be a matter of fun,” he said.

Italicised letters in the first few pages spell out “Smithy Code”, while the following pages also contain marked out letters.

Although he would not be drawn on his code and its meaning, Mr Justice Smith said he would probably confirm it if someone cracked it, which was “not a difficult thing to do”.

Wonderful.

I actually saw this last night…

LGF - We Got Mail!

Tonight’s email message of love and peace is from Hyderabad, India. Using a Hotmail address (of course), an admirer going by the name of “Yasrab” sent the following note, about our Mohammed Cartoon Slideshow:

plz remove these cartoons. ALLAH will never forget u

Yes. Well.

When you go to the great beyond, Yasrab, Allah may want to have some words with you too.

Because according to my evil infidel tools of internet oppression, I see that you found Little Green Footballs by searching the Indian branch of Google for something you probably don’t want Allah to know about: Not even remotely work-safe. (In fact, vile and disgusting, and LGF shows up there only because of an unfortunate random combination of search words. Yecchh.)

I wonder if he’ll ever see that.

Genius. Peter just sent it to me, and it’s just genius.

4 Guys From Viewpoint - If WWII was an MMORPG

No really, it’s hilarious.

I meant this for yesterday, darnit…

CDR Salamander - I’m still grumpy

Aussie Brett McS sent me this (yesterday, actually, but today over there):

click to enlarge

When I loaded this, I just glanced at it, and just died laughing:

Arthur’s Seat - Bird flu - we’re all doomed

Just the sight of it, still, makes me laugh!

Telegraph (yesterday) - Spy

Fool’s off

There’s nothing that London’s hip young things like better than the opening of a new restaurant. So when a glowing review of Babyland - a central London eatery serving only semi-solid dishes - appeared in the Daily Telegraph’s Weekend section last Saturday, Lady Kinvara “Tuppy” Balfour was one of the first to show an interest.

“Kinvara wanted to feature the restaurant on her Daily Candy website - a guide to what’s hot and what’s not,” says a source. “So she called the number listed in the review and left a message about booking a table.

“It was only when the Telegraph called her back that she realised it had been an April Fool. Odd, really, when you consider that what greeted callers was a recording of manic, hysterical laughter.”

Hahaha

This is a four-fer, and a Peter Recommends as well, sort of, since they’re all from his blogs. And mn case any of you didn’t get this morning’s first entry, which I think I’ve let sink in long enough, they’re some other ways to enjoy the day:

Google Romance - Pin All Your Romantic Hopes on Google

Think Geek - iZilla Digital Media Monster, Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom Kit, Buzzaire - Metered Dose Caffeine Inhaler, [The USB Desktop Tanning Center](The USB Desktop Tanning Center), RFID Blocking Kit T-shirt, Wireless Extension Cords, and The Screened Sphorb™

MotoringFile - VW to buy MINI from BMW?

BMW Education: Company Facts - April Fool’s day advert - BMW SHEF technology

Mini Canada - Introducing the Mini Skini

You see, their designers actually got to spend a lot of time on those. That’s so cool. And then earlier today Slashdot was pink, and entries like OMG GOOGLE ROMANCE <3 <3 <3!!!, UNICORN T-SHIRTS!!! LOL!!!, Linux: OMG!!! OMG OMG!!! LINUS LIKES PINKDOT!!! LOL!!!, MONKEYS USE ROBOTS TO FLING POO!!! GROSS!!! :) :), Games: FORGET DRAGONS! TIME FOR PONIES!!!1!, (this one’s good:) Politics: China Buys Google, Hardware: CUTE USB SUSHI DISK DRIVES!!!, Make Your OWN OMG Ponies SIGNS!!! WITH GLITTER!!!, and the poll:

What is Cuter?
ª Poneys
• Rainbows
• iBooks
• Unicorns
• CowboyNeal

Which is freaking hilarious to regular readers. And at some point they also linked to Cute Overload, which I don’t think I’ve ever linked to before, but which, I guarantee, is a sure source of many hours of happily wasted time. And, uh, oh and Wiki also has a page up of up-to-date links to all the April Fools Jokes. Awesome.

Update!:

Hahaha

The Times - Chip ‘n’ SING, the new way to beat card fraud. By Alexi Harpor

TODAY it is “chip and PIN”. Soon it will be “chip and sing”. Britain’s banks are developing a system of credit card security that uses the voice’s tonal range. Rather than needing to recall a PIN, you will need to remember a line of a song…

Tills and cash dispensers are to have microphones. However, Mr Bastan adds, “if people struggle to recall a PIN, there is every chance they will also forget which song they are meant to sing. You might get some poor old dear belting out My Way in her local Co-op, when she is supposed to be doing The Hallelujah Chorus. That wouldn’t do at all. There has to be one universal song, for everybody.”

The search for one continues. Technicians developed the system using Parry’s Jerusalem, but dropped it to mollify Scottish and Welsh nationalists.

Update II:

On Radio London (Big L) a news item referred to a new European directive to introduce a new ‘Digital Metric Clock’. A French spokesperson was heard to announce the changes.

Update III:

Best one, absolutely:

BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme announces that the UK Theme (which has really been scheduled for scrapping) is to be replaced with a European Union Theme. Listen to it here

I can see the heads of Arthurs all over Britain exploding when they heard that.

Update IV:

Okay, here’s one for Bubblehead:

On 702 ABC Sydney in Australia, weekend presenter Simon Marnie conducted the last hour of the show from a Collins class submarine in Sydney Harbour that departed from the Australian National Maritime Museum. The submarine docked to pick up passengers including fellow presenter Tony Eastley and a lucky 702 Sydney listener. The program ended when the submarine was submerged and attacked by a sea monster.

Update V:

April Fool’s Day PSAS from NBC, probably the most expensive contributions.