Disclaimer
First of all, we want you to know that you can believe everything you read here, even if it is April Fool’s and we might have told a fib or two elsewhere on the site. Consider the News Desk a hallowed ground. We’ll only tell you true facts here. We are indeed going to show you some of our favorite April Fool’s pranks from around DeviantArt and around the web, but we won’t try to fool you with any of these headlines. Thanks, as always, for reading.
APRIL FOOL’S WRAP-UP
Here are a few of our favorite April Fool’s pranks.
Book Club
The CRLiterature book club has “announced” their book selection for the month of April. Some may call it smut, but 50 Shades of Grey is the official selection so if you haven’t read it by now, this is the best excuse you’re going to get. April Fool’s! The real selection will be announced tomorrow.
CERN Discovers The Force
Researchers at CERN posted confirmation that they had indeed discovered The Force (yes, the one from Star Wars) as a part of a Star-Wars themed April Fool’s prank. The press release, which you can read here, went heavy on the references including allusions to Yoda, Ben Kenobi, and “Dave” Vader. Considering the breadth and scope of the research currently being done at the Large Hadron Collider, we think it’s a good sign that they know how to have a little fun.
Nature: Dragons Are Real
Another of our favorite April Fool’s pranks came out of the science world today, as Nature.com confirmed the existence of dragons. Citing some ancient texts and a correlation between global temperature patterns and references to dragons in literature, nature.com’s April Fool’s prank is one that we wish were true.
Premium Island
You may be wondering where the money from your premium memberships go, and this April Fool’s prank has the answer: that’s right, you’re looking at the DeviantArt island. Again, this is one that we really wish was true.
Amazon Redesign
Some of the best April Fool’s pranks are the ones that offer an experience rather than try to fool you. Yesterday we told you about Google Maps’s Pac Man feature, and today we are giving some major snaps to Amazon, who threw back to a super 90s version of their site in honor of this hallowed internet holiday. They also loaded the homepage with a couple of jokes, but then allow users to quickly navigate back to the real site so that they can get back to browsing prices on Lord of the Rings blu-rays with ease.
Learn To Art In A Day
seniormentors has launched a new tutorial series called Learn This and they intend to post one EVERY HOUR! The first one is about Photomanipulation and Digital Painting. By the time they’ve posted a few more, we should all be masters of art.
NEWS DESK HEADLINES
Back to your regularly-scheduled programming.
Amazon Buttons Are A Real Thing
First Amazon giveth and then Amazon taketh away, apparently. While we commend them for their April Fool’s efforts, the online megastore has also announced that it will be making branded buttons that automatically order household items that you commonly run out of. With the devices, you can put a little Tide button on your laundry machine, and when you’re running low on detergent, you press the button and in two to five business days you receive some more. The announcement was viewed as a joke by many because of its proximity to April Fool’s and also because holy cow have we really gotten to the point as a society that we are too lazy to even walk to our computers or god forbid get out our phones to place online orders when we run out of stuff? I mean they already have one-click shopping on Amazon, why do we need this? Excuse us as we bury our heads in the sand for the rest of the day.
It’s Poetry Time
Calling all aspiring poets! Today marks the beginning of NaPoWriMo is ON! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a poem every day for the entire month of April. If you’re staring at a blank page, not to worry, SingingFlames has posted some prompts to help you get started.
Hero Challenge
autodesk-sketchbook has announced the April Hero Challenge with Kevin Mellon, who has been working as a professional comic book and storyboard artist since 2007. He has a comic book called Suicide Sisters, and does storyboards for the TV show Archer. Get information on the challenge here!
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Interstellar Honest Trailer
The folks at Screen Junkies have given a pretty spectacular and not entirely undeserved sendup to Christopher Nolan’s 2014 blockbuster Interstellar. We aren’t going to lie to you, we thoroughly enjoyed that movie, but as usual Honest Trailers does a pretty great job of pointing out some of its fundamental flaws. Plus, it’s just hilarious.
What To Wear?
griffsnuff is looking for some feedback concerning her new avatar. Share your thoughts here. (We think it looks great, for what it’s worth).
Which Tablet Are You?
This tablet review by saally may prove to be helpful when deciding what tool is going to suit your needs best.
Color Contest
Knitting-and-Crochet has announced a contest celebrating Pantone's colour of the year: Marsala. Get involved here.
Hang Out On An Asteroid
How is NASA so cool all the time? Probably because they’re dedicated to exploring and understanding space. We’re mildly freaking out over this virtual tour of Vestra, the second-largest asteroid in our solar system. The tour interface is reminiscent of Google Earth, and has some snazzy features that let you explore and see all there is to see on this huge space rock. This is just so cool.
Forum Feature
Looking for constructive critiques on your digital art pieces? Check out this thread.
Birthday Patrol
It’s no April Fool’s joke, today is FelipeCagno’s birthday. Say hey and happy b-day!
