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EVANSTON, Ill. (CBS/WBBM) — Some angry Evanston residents have been calling City Hall to complain about the city's new snow removal program, as detailed in the community newspaper the Evanston Roundtable.
But it turned out to be an April Fool's story.
As WBBM Newsradio 780′s Mike Krauser reports, Evanston is dealing with a budget crisis, and a huge bill for the blizzard back on Feb. 2 and 3, which dumped 21.2 inches of snow on the Chicago area.
So, the Roundable reports, their solution is to charge for snow removal.
The Roundtable reports under the new plan developed by the city's Snow Czar, Pearl Le Blanc, anyone who wants snow removed in front of their homes will be required to buy a "snow removal sticker."
The plan was approved at a heated City Council meeting on April 1, the Roundtable said.
Residents who participate will rent orange traffic cones from the City of Evanston, and will affix daily snow removal stickers to the cones. The stickers will cost $2.25 per day, the Roundtable reported.
No sticker, no removal.
For an additional $2 fee, a driveway clearance sticker is available. This sticker will direct snow removal crews not to pile snow in front of your driveway while clearing the street, the Roundtable reported.
In the event of a snowfall greater taller than the 22-inch orange cones, the City of Evanston will also offer mylar balloons to stick on the cones. The balloons will have the stickers already attached, and will raise the cost of the sticker to $4, the newspaper reported.
The plan goes into effect when the first snowfall of next season comes, in late fall or early winter, the newspaper reported.
Shawn Jones is the author of the fictional story.
"I certainly thought that the snow czar, Pearl De Blanc, would clue a lot of people in early on," Jones said, "also the fact that this article came out on March 30 and referenced an April 1 city council meeting."
Blizzard continues its tradition of successful April Fools pranks in 2011.
Today, Blizzard revealed the future of StarCraft, World of Warcraft, and Diablo, except not really, because it's April Fools Day. Instead, Blizzard has once again whipped out its bag of pranks in what's become a yearly tradition.
For this go around, Blizzard created a prank for each of its major franchises. Let's start with World of Warcraft's upcoming Tomb of Immortal Darkness raid dungeon, located beneath Duskwood's Raven Hill Cemetery. Inside lies Omgsogoth, the Dark Lord of Twilight, obscured by Blizzard's new Deep Dark technology. This basically basks the dungeon in complete darkness, making players wish they'd invested in a Goblin Flashlight. Screens are below, while video, loot drops, and achievements can be found here.
Second, Blizzard unveiled a brand new direction for the StarCraft franchise. It's not only coming to the Xbox 360, but will also feature Kinect support. StarCraft: Motion Overdrive allows players to use Kinect to control their forces with nothing but the air at their fingertips in split-screen or online multiplayer. It might just get you a little too involved with the game. Check it out:
Finally, Blizzard divulged the details on Diablo's upcoming Horadric Cube mobile app. Whereas the Horadric Cube in Diablo II allowed players to combine items to create weapons, armor, runes, and one very special bovine portal, the Horadric Cube app allows users to combine their apps into new ones. For example, one might combine Fruit Ninja with Angry Birds to create Ninja Birds, or Google Maps with Foursquare to create a teleporter. A second phase in the Horadric Cube's development will introduce translocation, giving users the ability to open portals to the Burning Hells and "descend into madness as [they] slip through space and time untethered by sanity." I might skip that update. More details are available here. http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/horadrapp/
White Dwarf readers will recall Jervis Johnson's recent Standard Bearer column, in which he discussed the wonders of dice psychology. It didn't take long for online forums to start buzzing with rumours and, as ever, they were spot on - today we're revealing a product that will take your hobby to a new level.
Released today is How to Roll Citadel Dice, a 126-page full-colour guide containing everything you ever need to know about rolling dice to improve your battles. It takes you through every step you'll need to master your dice so that you'll be rolling nothing but sixes and laughing at your enemies. It is nothing short of a tabletop revolution.
Games Developer Adam Troke (scribe of Warhammer Armies: High Elves) was the man behind this new volume, so I rolled myself down to the Studio to have chat with the master dice wrangler himself:
*
Adam: Everybody knows when it comes to the crunch, when your units are in position and your strategy is about to be put into action, that it's the dots on your dice that will win you the battle. Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the most renowned generals in history is reputed to have once stated that he would rather his generals were lucky than good.That thought process is the reasoning behind this latest publication - How to Roll Citadel Dice. At first one might think 'one dice roll is much like another', or that 'it's in the lap of the gods, how can I influence it?'. Nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps the most asked question we ever receive here in the Studio is 'How can I roll better dice?' Well, the answer lies within this phenomenal volume - the definitive treatise on getting the best from your dice. *
We've all had them, haven't we? Those battles where nothing goes right - where just a little help from the 'dice gods' would have changed the whole battle. The purpose of this book is none other than to teach you to get the scores you need from the dice that you roll.How to Roll Citadel Dice has been compiled based on thousands of hours of fastidious research and unrelenting practice, all in the pursuit of the perfect roll. Renowned specialists from throughout the Studio explain in crystal clear detail how each technique works with the express goal of improving your games.
Mark: An Olympic athlete will spend years of preparation before a race, being careful about their diet, lifestyle, but most importantly: their training regime. Any serious hobbyist should be no different. We decided to crack open the book and immediately to get to grips with the new training regimes and dice rolling techniques.
*
Nerves can induce clammy hands, which in turn affect the spin of the dice, so it's best to get used to these new techniques with this limited edition foam Safety Dice, which is great to use with the section on Training Your Dice. Dice are known to respond positively during training. Some of the more elaborate Rewards include polishing and stroking (though Dice Isolation should only be used as a last resort for punishing badly performing dice). *
So strong is the power of the human mind, that Uri Geller could bend spoons with his. Using such theories, this book suggests familiarising yourself with not only a loaded dice, but one that has a six on each side, just to be sure. With your loaded, six-on-all-sides dice, you should start to harness your mental energies, so that when you work with ordinary dice, using the power of your mind you can ensure you roll sixes each time. *
Inspired by the famous, double-jointed international cricket star, the Muralitharan was hotly disputed by Australian hobbyists for several years, but has now been given full Studio approval. It's not for the feint-hearted and you must remember to keep the arm at an angle below 15-degrees when you release the dice. We tried the doosra variation for the all-important leadership test and, as you can see in the large picture, it probably is best to keep the dice on the table. *
The Vindaloo is said to be the spiciest of the dice roll techniques, and the dice themselves can get very hot, but we decided to give one a go yesterday lunchtime. This fiery roll requires quite a long throw of the arm and a lively Bhangra-style forward-thrust of the torso (though if you're not careful, as the larger photo shows, the follow-through can catch you off guard). *
When you need to use more than 10 dice - ideally 20 - the Guy Fawkes becomes one of the most impressive rolls possible. It usually requires a steady nerve and quite some preparation, but if you pull it off you can wipe the floor with your enemies. Be warned: the larger image shows what happens when we miscast this technique. *
One-on-one standoffs are some of the tensest encounters. It's a situation that you feel you just have to win - and, if you know how bad it is to lose, then the Mexican Standoff is the solution for you. It requires quick reactions and even quicker fingers, but pretty soon after there will be just one hobbyist left in this town...
So there you have it. With How to Roll Citadel Dice there's no longer any excuse for you to lose your battles in future - you can order yours online today, or why not head down to your local Hobby Centre for more information.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/04/01 18:28:50
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
10 stories that could be April Fools pranks but aren't
April calendar The news comes with a health warning on this date
Continue reading the main story
In today's Magazine
* Still the US's most hated family?
* 7 days quiz
* The art of the perfect prank
* Caption Comp
It's the day when newspapers compete to come up with the most inventive spoof stories - but not every bizarre report on 1 April is fictitious.
Here's a round-up of some of the day's seemingly hoax reports which are, in fact, entirely true.
1. French President Nicolas Sarkozy uses a £10,000 armour-plated umbrella to protect him from attackers. Carried by the head of state's security guards, the rainproof device is coated in high-strength Kevlar so it can reduce the force of bullets and resist knife attacks.
More details (Metro)
2. The National Trust has published a list of the UK's top 10 "silly walks" to such colourfully-named locations as Scrubby Bottoms, Pembrokeshire, Booby's Bay, Cornwall and Windy Gap in Surrey. Keen ramblers can also sniff out a route to The Nostrils on the Isle of Wight.
More details (Daily Telegraph)
3. A 50-strong gang of chickens that terrorised residents in Southport has been evicted by Lancashire Police. The flock, which had been abandoned by their former owner, prowled the streets in a pack and would begin crowing at 0400 BST each morning.
More details (Daily Mail)
4. Men only think about sex once every two hours - not every seven seconds, as is commonly believed, according to a survey of 5,000 adult males. By contrast, the average man spends 177 minutes a day worrying about his job, the study suggests.
More details (Daily Mirror)
5. A couple who carved their hedge into the shape of a Buddha have been threatened with a curse by an angry neighbour. An anonymous poison pen letter was sent to Raymond and Sacha Hubbard, who own a garden centre, but the pair have resolved to keep their topiary effigy.
More details (Daily Mail)
6. Songs by pop star Shakira are banned at the ground of Real Madrid because her boyfriend Gerard Pique plays for rivals Barcelona. Her song Waka-Waka had been played regularly at the Bernabeu during pre-match build-ups and at half time but has now been dropped.
More details (The Sun)
7. A baker has been flooded with complaints after calling his shop Nice Baps. John O'Toole, who runs the business in Henlow, Beds, said: "I tried to explain to them that I do small baps and big baps and they're nice and firm."
More details (Daily Star)
8. A house made famous on social networking sites because it apparently looks like Hitler has another wartime claim - it survived the blitz. Speaking to the press for the first time, owner Clive Davies, 65, said the terraced property was left unscathed by a Luftwaffe bombing raid.
More details (The Sun)
9. Dogs have been sheared and coloured so that they resemble a bison, a court jester and a scorpion at a series of US "extreme dog grooming contests". Animal photographer Ren Netherland has captured some of the more extreme lengths to which some owners have gone, including also carving the coat of one canine into a Native American headdress.
More details (Daily Mail)
10. The real names of adult industry actors have been published on a website which styles itself as "Porn Wikileaks". The move may be alarming to stars who often perform under pseudonyms to shield friends, family and future employers from their careers.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
Lord Scythican wrote:Don't worry about it. I have been playing AFD jokes all day. Heck my friends don't believe me. :(
I probably shouldn't have posted it here, but sometimes when you are feeling bad, you just tell who you can.
Don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure Dakka will get passed it's unspoken "Shun the Blogger" ideology for a dead pet. And if they don't, well, too bad.
You did something special with that headstone.
I've never feared Death or Dying. I've only feared never Trying.
Slarg232 wrote:
Don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure Dakka will get passed it's unspoken "Shun the Blogger" ideology for a dead pet. And if they don't, well, too bad.
You did something special with that headstone.
EDIT: (You all don't need to hear that...)
BTW we we got home from the vet, that heart shaped stone was laying in our driveway. I have no idea where it came from, but I used it.
BTW, I did do some good ones today. I taped a $20.00 bill to a piece of string at school and pulled it away whenever someone tried to pick it up off of the floor.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2011/04/01 22:38:37
I showed up to my lab about seven or so minutes late and the professor was going through the procedure.
Now to add some atmosphere there was an old rolling projector in between two black topped counters with sinks in them. The whole class was in the front area of the room standing up close to the door. The professor is an older asian lady who doesn't speak english very well.
"You're late." she tells me loudly in front of the class.
"No I'm not." I tell her.
"It is 3:07 lab start at three, you are late." she responds.
"April Fools, I'm not really late." I joke.
She looks at me and makes some funny noises as she is wont to do and the class chuckles. She just continues with the lecture.
I've seen a few random sites that I'd never link 
