Rapid Web News

Firstly, happy April Fools’ day to you!

There have been a crazy amount of April Fools’ jokes flying across the Internet today. Here are a few of the best from some of the biggest names.

Google Animal Translate

Google have supposedly released an ever so sneaky version of Google Translate that can translate animal noises in to English! This is a mobile application, suprisingly for the Android platform and is (not) available in the Android App Store.

Take a look at the video below or visit the ‘official’ Google Animal Translate application.

Firebox Do It Yourself Carbon Freezing Kit

Firebox is heavily known for its extravagant and crazy gadgets and gizmos. However, this one is quite a kicker – take a look at Firebox’s DIY Carbon Freezing Kit.

‘The freezing process itself is simple: just remove your clothes, lie down in the chamber, set the timer and…well, the next thing you know it’ll be 2040.’

Google goes into Nuclear Power Production

As part of a green initiative by Google, they intend to start producing super efficient nuclear power plants as soon as possible via a newly acquired company. Surely you will be able to Google Search the nuclear isotopes soon enough.

‘Google has acquired a company that has created a new process for highly efficient isotope separation, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. The primary use of this technology, say experts we’ve spoken with, is uranium enrichment.

Enriched uranium is a necessary ingredient in the creation of nuclear energy, and one source we’ve spoken with at Google says that this is part of the Google Green Initiative. The company will use the new technology to enable it to design and possibly build small, mobile and highly efficient nuclear power generators. “Google has already begun building an enrichment plant,” says a high ranking IAEA source.’

Sourced from an ‘exclusive’ TechCrunch article.

ThinkGeek iCade – An Arcade Holder for the iPad

In a bit of funny move from ThinkGeek, they have released a product called the iCade, which is effectively and arcade machine shaped holder for the new Apple iPad. Over recent product releases include:

• moodINQ – A programmable electronic Tattoo system
• Tell Me Your Secrets Bear – A cuddly bear which had a microphone and camera allowing parents to spy on their children and their secrets.
• Canned Unicorn Meat – Which is… well, exactly what it says on the tin, apparently.

Plenty more…

It is still April Fools’ Day here and as such there are plenty more April Fools’ Day jokes and pranks going on worldwide on the Internet. If and when we find more hilarious pranks, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date.

• Google renames to Topeka – ‘Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.’
• Google Annotation Gallery – GAG is a open source libary for Java that allows programmers to easily express their emotions in the code… ‘The Google Annotations Gallery is an exciting new Java open source library that provides a rich set of annotations for developers to express themselves. Do you find the standard Java annotations dry and lackluster? Have you ever resorted to leaving messages to fellow developers with the @Deprecated annotation? Wouldn’t you rather leave a @LOL or @Facepalm instead? If so, then this is the gallery for you.’
• Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he’s from the future – He’s a time traveller from the future apparently, come here to stop the LHC experiments. When asked which country he came from, he answered: “Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I’m here to stop it ever happening.”

Happy April Fools’ Day!

So Ed Miliband has decided that nuclear power has had enough of a ‘rest’ and has given the go ahead for 10 new nuclear power stations to be built…

Ok, so it’s not strictly been ‘resting’ nuclear power does account for 13% of the country’s current power usage (yeah I was surprised too!) but with all this renewed vigour for nuclear power doesn’t that mean they’ll be a huge amount of toxic waste substances produced? The new power stations are planned to be built on 10 different sites, these sites are reported to be:  Braystones, Sellafield and Kirksanton, all in Cumbria, Heysham in Lancashire, Hartlepool, Co Durham, Sizewell in Suffolk, Bradwell in Essex, Hinkley Point in Somerset, Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Wylfa in Anglesey.

Mr Miliband stated: “…Change is also needed for energy security. In a world where our North Sea reserves are declining, a more diverse, low-carbon energy mix is a more secure energy mix, less vulnerable to fluctuations in the availability of any one fuel…”

This is good in a way as continually burrowing into the earth to find more coal reserves for the 18 existing coal burning power stations it seriously taking its toll, not to mention how large the average persons carbon footprint is. It maybe seems a little contradictory then to also announce that he will still continue to support the building of coal fired power stations provided they are fitted with greener technology which in turn has been met by companies refusing to invest huge sums into this greener system.

Greg Clark, the shadow energy and climate change secretary, said: “…Ed Miliband’s statement is made necessary by the Government’s admission in July that it expects power cuts in 2017 – the first time since the 1970s that a British government has had to make such a disclosure…”

“…The cause of this National Emergency has been obvious for many years. Over 12 years, 15 successive energy ministers – a new one every nine months – behaved like the ostrich and stuck their heads in the sand rather than face up to the action that was needed to address our energy black hole…”

Kate Hudson, chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: “…Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive. It is totally unacceptable for Ed Miliband to see a ‘relatively good’ safety record as sufficient – nuclear disasters have the potential to make any other kind of industrial accident look harmless in comparison, potentially affecting millions of people…”

Well with arguments raging on both sides I guess this debate is something that will go on for some years to come, burn all the fossil fuel in the world and create tons of carbon and pollution or go down the nuclear route for more efficient energy production but incredibly toxic waste products.