"Translate for Animals is an application for Android phones that recognises and transcribes words and phrases that are common to a species, like cats for example. To develop Translate for Animals, we worked closely with many of the world's top language synthesis teams, and with leaders in the field of animal cognitive linguistics, including senior fellows at the Bodleian Library in Oxford."
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/translateforanimals/
Now what makes me think this service will only be available for 24hrs, and will be withdrawn on Friday? :)
Oh, and if you see any suspicious looking news articles, link to 'em below before they mysteriously disappear into the ether...
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One every minute?
I too, looked at the calendar before deciding whether or not to suspend belief. It was an easy decision.
Pseudo Sycophant
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Hmmm...
Apparently The Guardian has a columnist called Olaf Priol, reporting a rather suspicious looking set of election posters...
The Independent seems to think that CERN want to build a new LHC in the Circle Line...
The Daily Wail seems to think the AA are going to start using rocket men to help stranded motorists...
The Daily Express reports research on an anti-ageing gene. This sounds slightly more plausible than those above, until you see the worm gene is DAF-16, the human equivalent FOXO, and the journal the research is published in PLoS ONE.
The Telegraph reports that broadband companies have started employing ferrets to lay cables...
The Times reports that a councillor has suggested people pay for repairs to potholes (nothing new there) - and dedicate them to deceased pets as memorials (that's the suspicious bit!).
The Sun reports that the world's hottest chilli is grown in Grantham - but a quick Google reveals its stablemate The Times tried the same prank back in 2006...
And The Mirror reports the world's first calorie-negative sweet. They didn't try very hard to hide this - "Woolworths.co.uk has worked closely with health and nutritional expert Prof. A.Prilfoolius to develop the Diet Cola Bottle."
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Atom Smashing
The Independent seems to think that CERN want to build a new LHC in the Circle Line...
That story was picked up by The New Zealand Herald, this country's largest daily newspaper.
Atom smasher plan for London's Circle Line
I must confess that when I read it earlier today, this one slipped past my crap-detector.
Perplexed Sometimes
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Not a joke...
The Anti-ageing gene news is unlikely to be a joke.
The DAF-16 adn FOXO genese were described in fall of 2007 : http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v39/n11/abs/ng.2007.1.html
PLoS ONE is well known worldwide among scientists.
- Moni
The Grauniad has form.
I'm old enough to remember the supplement they published on the Republic of Sans Serif some years ago. Now I'm retired I often don't even know what day of the week it is let alone the date. I read the Guardian article this morning over breakfast and I did wonder if it might just work for Labour whilst being slightly incredulous ... then I saw the date.
The predictable quote from rampant feminist Julie Bindel tended to help reinforce the veracity. For those of you who don't know Bindel she's virulently against MtF transexuals and claims they only change their gender to enable access to women, so don't start feeling sorry for her.
Robi
April Fools’ Roundup
Here’s a summary of this year’s April Fools’ jokes:
Did you get tricked by April Fools’ Day?
Pranks Sublime
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Moooo!!
This is almost as good as RFC 1149 and 2549 (IP over avian carriers), and it’s still up. What’s really hilarious is that most communication among animals (especially the more advanced mammals) is entirely visual: body language; posture; attitude; positions of ears, neck, tail, legs/wings, etc.; and even gestures. A significant portion of emotional communication among humans is non-verbal, too. So, what’s next? Optical Attitude Recognition? :D