Misplaced Pages

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50-430: Subsim is the media outlet for game publishers that feature naval content, a resource for military strategists, as well as a source of editorial comment on the state of PC computer simulations and games. Subsim members have been consultants and testers for game such as Enigma: Rising Tide , Silent Hunter II , Silent Hunter III , Dangerous Waters , Sub Command , Fleet Command, Destroyer Command, among others. Shortly after

100-668: A "fool" is known by a few different names around the country, including "noodle", "gob", "gobby", or "noddy". One common prank is to carefully remove the cream from an Oreo , then replacing it with white toothpaste , and there are many similar pranks that replace an object (usually food) with another object that looks like the object but tastes different such as replacing sugar with salt or vanilla frosting with sour cream. As well as people playing pranks on one another on April Fools' Day, elaborate pranks have appeared on radio and television stations, newspapers, and websites, and have been performed by large corporations. In one famous prank in 1957,

150-514: A first-page article but not the top headline. In Poland, prima Aprilis ("First April" in Latin ) as a day of pranks is a centuries-long tradition. It is a day when many pranks are played: sometimes very sophisticated hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which often cooperate to make the "information" more credible), and even public institutions. Serious activities are usually avoided; every word said on 1 April could be untrue. The conviction for this

200-583: A genuine important order or warning is issued on April Fools' Day, there is risk that it will be misinterpreted as a joke and ignored – for example, when Google , known to play elaborate April Fools' Day hoaxes, announced the launch of Gmail with 1- gigabyte inboxes in 2004, an era when competing webmail services offered 4- megabytes or less, many dismissed it as a joke outright. On the other hand, sometimes stories intended as jokes are taken seriously. Either way, there can be adverse effects, such as confusion, misinformation, waste of resources (especially when

250-421: A hoax include: Books, films, telemovies and television episodes have used April Fools' Day as their title or inspiration. Examples include Bryce Courtenay 's novel April Fool's Day (1993), whose title refers to the day Courtenay's son died. The 1990s sitcom Roseanne featured an episode titled "April Fools' Day". This turned out to be intentionally misleading, as the episode was instead about Tax Day in

300-538: A relationship, some have expressed the belief that the origins of April Fools' Day may go back to the Genesis flood narrative . In a 1908 edition of the Harper's Weekly , cartoonist Bertha R. McDonald wrote: Some authorities gravely go back with it to the time of Noah and the ark . The London Public Advertiser of March 13, 1769, prints the following paragraph concerning this theory: "The mistake of Noah sending

350-397: A series of interviews with him appears in the game. Silent Hunter II was developed with multi-player support as a notable feature. Players were able to connect with other players, and engage in sub vs. sub combat. Furthermore, connectivity to the separate game Destroyer Command (also released by Ubisoft ) was available, which enabled sub and surface ship combat. Silent Hunter II

400-916: A subtle reference to a fish is sometimes given as a clue to the fact that it is an April Fools' prank. Boulangeries, pâtisseries and chocolatiers in France sell chocolate fishes in their shop windows on the day. In Lebanon , an April Fool prank is revealed by saying كذبة أول نيسان (which translates to "First of April Lie") to the recipient. Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and Swedes celebrate April Fools' Day ( aprilsnar in Danish; aprillipäivä in Finnish; aprilsnarr in Norwegian; aprilskämt in Swedish). Most news media outlets will publish exactly one false story on 1 April; for newspapers this will typically be

450-490: A variety of costumes and walk around the city fooling around and pranking passersby. One of the traditions on April Fools' Day is to dress up the main city monument in funny clothes. Humorina even has its own logo—a cheerful sailor in a lifebelt —whose author was the artist Arkady Tsykun. During the festival, special souvenirs bearing the logo are printed and sold. Since 2010, April Fools' Day celebrations include an International Clown Festival, and both celebrated as one. In 2019,

500-411: A very good year for subsim players. 2006 - Neal Stevens of Subsim is invited aboard the new nuclear submarine USS Texas for a media tour. The Sept. 9 commissioning ceremony drew more than 10,000 guests and visitors to Galveston , including ship sponsor First Lady Laura Bush , Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn . 2007 - Subsim publishes the 2007 Submarine Almanac, celebrating 10 years on

550-840: A wider audience than ever before. 28 December, the equivalent day in Spain and Hispanic America , is also the Christian day of celebration of the Day of the Holy Innocents . The Christian celebration is a religious holiday in its own right, but the tradition of pranks is not, though the latter is observed yearly. In some regions of Hispanic America after a prank is played, the cry is made, " Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar " ("You innocent little dove that let yourself be fooled!"; not to be confused with another meaning of palomita , which means " popcorn " in some dialects). In Argentina,

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600-623: Is funded purely by donations and will be free to all. Subsim donates $ 1000 and Subsim players eventually raise $ 10,000 for the project. Multiplayer was significantly improved with this unofficial patch . 2003 - Subsim and Sub Club members meeting in London for the first Intercontinental Meeting. 2004 - Subsim Editor Neal Stevens attends the 2004 E3 convention in Los Angeles . First looks at Sid Meier's Pirates , Akella 's PT Boats , and Ubisoft's Silent Hunter III reveal that 2005 will be

650-469: Is controversial. The mixed opinions of critics are epitomized in the reception to the 1957 BBC " spaghetti-tree hoax ", in reference to which, newspapers were split over whether it was "a great joke or a terrible hoax on the public". The positive view is that April Fools' can be good for one's health because it encourages "jokes, hoaxes ... pranks, [and] belly laughs", and brings all the benefits of laughter including stress relief and reducing strain on

700-466: Is in Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales (1392). In the " Nun's Priest's Tale ", a vain cock, Chauntecleer, is tricked by a fox "Since March began, full thirty days and two," i.e. 32 days since March began, which is 1 April. However, it is not clear that Chaucer was referencing 1 April since the text of the "Nun's Priest's Tale" also states that the story takes place on the day when

750-559: Is often known as "April fish" ( poisson d'avril in French, aprilvis in Dutch or pesce d'aprile in Italian). Possible pranks include attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. This fish feature is prominently present on many late 19th- to early 20th-century French April Fools' Day postcards . Many newspapers also spread a false story on April Fish Day, and

800-572: Is so strong that the Polish anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I , signed on 1 April 1683, was backdated to 31 March. However, for some in Poland prima April ends at noon of 1 April and prima April jokes after that hour are considered inappropriate and not classy. In many Spanish-speaking countries (and the Philippines), " Día de los Santos Inocentes " ( Holy Innocents Day ) is a festivity that

850-555: Is sometimes later revealed by shouting "April, April!" at the recipient, who becomes the "April fool". In Iran, it is called " Dorugh-e Sizdah " (lie of Thirteen) and people and media prank on 13 Farvardin ( Sizdah bedar ) that is equivalent of 1 April. It is a tradition that takes place 13 days after the Persian new year Nowruz . On this day, people go out and leave their houses and have fun outside mostly in natural parks. Pranks have reportedly been played on this holiday since 536 BC in

900-612: Is very similar to April Fools' Day, but is celebrated in late December (27, 28 or 29 depending on the location). Despite this, in Galicia April Fools' Day is also traditional, as accounted by Ramón Otero Pedrayo , as " Día dos enganos ", and the tradition is embedded in a traditional saying about this day being the day when donkeys go where they must not go . Turkey also has a custom of April Fools' pranks. Pranks and jokes are usually verbal and are revealed by shouting "Bir Nisan! / Nisan Bir!" (1 April!). April Fools' Day

950-579: Is widely celebrated in Odesa and has the special local name Humorina (in Ukrainian Гуморина, Humorina ) . This holiday arose in 1973. An April Fool prank is revealed by saying "Перше квітня — брехня всесвітня" (" Pershe kvitnya — brekhnya vsesvitnya " , translating as "First of April — worldwide lies") to the recipient. The festival includes a large parade in the city centre, free concerts, street fairs and performances. Festival participants dress up in

1000-471: The Achaemenid Empire . In Ireland, it was traditional to entrust the victim with an "important letter" to be given to a named person. That person would read the letter, then ask the victim to take it to someone else, and so on. The letter when opened contained the words "send the fool further". In Italy, France, Belgium and French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Canada, the 1 April tradition

1050-602: The BBC broadcast a film in their Panorama current affairs series purporting to show Swiss farmers picking freshly-grown spaghetti, in what they called the Swiss spaghetti harvest . The BBC was soon flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant, forcing them to declare the film a hoax on the news the next day. With the advent of the Internet and readily available global news services, April Fools' pranks can catch and embarrass

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1100-545: The misinformation about the virus, and to pre-empt any attempts to incorporate the virus into any potential pranks. For example, Google decided not to continue "its infamous April Fools’ jokes" tradition for that year. Because the pandemic was still ongoing a year later in 2021, they also decided not to do pranks that year. In Thailand , the police warned ahead of April Fools' in 2021 that posting or sharing fake news online could lead to maximum of five years imprisonment. Other examples of genuine news on 1 April mistaken as

1150-597: The "Day of the Innocent Children" or "Day of the Stupid Children". It used to be a day where parents, grandparents, and teachers would fool the children in some way. But the celebration of this day has died out in favour of April Fools' Day. Nevertheless, on the Spanish island of Menorca , Dia d'enganyar ("Fooling day") is celebrated on 1 April because Menorca was a British possession during part of

1200-483: The 18th century. In Brazil, the " Dia da mentira " ("Day of the lie") is also celebrated on 1 April due to the Portuguese influence. In many English-speaking countries, mainly Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it is a custom to say "pinch and a punch for the first of the month" or an alternative, typically by children. The victim might respond with "a flick and a kick for being so quick", and

1250-703: The British lifeline to Malta, Operation Drumbeat, attacking in the Caribbean , attacking Arctic convoys to the Allies ultimately gaining the upper hand in the Mid-Atlantic gap , repelling the D-Day invasion and finally escaping to Buenos Aires, Argentina at the end of the war, whereupon Dönitz sends a final message. German war veteran and U-boat commander Erich Topp was one of the game's technical advisers, and

1300-575: The Subsim Fix My 688(I) Campaign begins, designed to urge EA/Sonalysts into producing a no-cheat patch for Jane's 688(I) . 2002 - Subsim works with Ubisoft producer Carl Norman to initiate a broad reaching mod that will convert Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command from the original MP engine (rTime) to Microsoft DirectPlay. The mod is deemed Projekt Messerwetzer (messerwetzer (ms-r-vt-zr-) n. [German] - A craftsman who sharpens old knives.) To avoid legal constraints, Projekt Messerwetzer

1350-472: The United States, occurring on 15 April. The 19th episode of the first season of SpongeBob SquarePants , "Fools In April", also centers around a plot that takes place on April Fools' Day. Every year on 1 April, video game developer Mojang releases an April Fool's Day snapshot (an altered version of the game) for Minecraft: Java Edition (a version of Minecraft available on computers). Over

1400-662: The attacker might reply with "a punch in the eye for being so sly". Another custom in Britain and North America is to say " rabbit rabbit " upon waking on the first day of a month, for good luck. Similar events documented by other Misplaced Pages languages also exist such as Poisson d'avril (France) and in the US the International day of the joke event which is assigned the first Sunday in May. The practice of April Fool pranks and hoaxes

1450-419: The cuckoo". The traditional prank is to ask someone to deliver a sealed message that supposedly requests help of some sort. In fact, the message reads " Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile. " The recipient, upon reading it, will explain they can only help if they first contact another person, and they send the victim to this next person with an identical message, with the same result. In England

1500-499: The dove out of the ark before the water had abated, on the first day of April, and to perpetuate the memory of this deliverance it was thought proper, whoever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to punish them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the patriarch." Source: In Armenian culture , an April Fool prank is revealed by saying ապրիլ մեկ! ( april mek ) which means 1 April. In Germany, an April Fool prank

1550-540: The festival was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Odesa Film Studio and all events were held with an emphasis on cinema. In the UK, an April Fool prank is sometimes later revealed by shouting "April fool!" at the recipient, who becomes the "April fool". A study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie , found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derived from the UK, this continues to be

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1600-551: The first reference to the celebration in France. Some historians suggest that April Fools' originated because, in the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on 25 March in most European towns, with a holiday that in some areas of France, specifically, ended on 1 April, and those who celebrated New Year's Eve on 1 January made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools' Day. The use of 1 January as New Year's Day became common in France only in

1650-499: The game was re-released on the digital distributor gog.com . Silent Hunter II received "average" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic . A Subsim review rated Silent Hunter II 80/100 in 2005 and named it "the new WWII subsim benchmark". April Fools%27 Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes . Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at

1700-445: The heart. There are many "best of" April Fools' Day lists that are compiled in order to showcase the best examples of how the day is celebrated. Various April Fools' campaigns have been praised for their innovation, creativity, writing, and general effort. The negative view describes April Fools' hoaxes as "creepy and manipulative", "rude" and "a little bit nasty", as well as based on Schadenfreude and deceit. When genuine news or

1750-472: The hoax concerns people in danger) and even legal or commercial consequences. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic , various organizations and people cancelled their April Fools' Day celebrations, or advocated against observing April Fools' Day, as a mark of respect due to the large amount of tragic deaths that COVID-19 had caused up to that point, the wish to provide truthful information to counter

1800-521: The mid-16th century, and that date was not adopted officially until 1564, by the Edict of Roussillon , as called for during the Council of Trent in 1563. However, there are issues with this theory because there is an unambiguous reference to April Fools' Day in a 1561 poem by Flemish poet Eduard de Dene of a nobleman who sent his servant on foolish errands on 1 April, predating the change. April Fools' Day

1850-596: The official support , they authorized and enabled the game's community at Subsim .com to fix the game themselves by giving them the source code . The fan community raised over $ 7000 for an unofficial patch development project called Projekt Messerwetzer which ultimately fixed the issues. Since then, unofficial expansion packs like the World War II Pacific war theatre -based total conversation "Pacific Aces" were released by community. In June 2009, after many years of commercial non-availability ,

1900-430: The only remaining Type VII U-boat and conduct dives onboard Peter Madsen's 18.2m (approx.) homebuilt submarine, UC3 Nautilus . 2010 - Subsim breaks the 50,000 member mark. The annual April Fools' Day prank causes a furor. 2016 - Swedish submarine game HMS Marulken is picked up as Subsim's first game production: Wolfpack. 2019 - Subsim and Usurpator release Wolfpack on Steam. 2022 - Subsim celebrates 25 years on

1950-544: The practice, with the custom ceasing at noon, after which time it is no longer acceptable to play pranks. Thus a person playing a prank after midday is considered the "April fool" themselves. In Scotland, April Fools' Day was originally called " Huntigowk Day ". The name is a corruption of "hunt the gowk ", gowk being Scots for a cuckoo or a foolish person; alternative terms in Gaelic would be Là na Gocaireachd , "gowking day", or Là Ruith na Cuthaige , "the day of running

2000-405: The prankster says, " ¡Que la inocencia te valga! " which roughly translates as advice to not be as gullible as the victim of the prank. In Spain, it is common to say just " ¡Inocente! " (which in Spanish can mean "innocent" or "gullible"). In Colombia, the term is used as " Pásala por Inocentes ", which roughly means: "Let it go; today it's Innocent's Day." In Belgium, this day is also known as

2050-408: The recipient. Mass media can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one's neighbour has been relatively common in the world historically. Although many theories have been proposed, the exact origin of April Fools' Day is not exactly known. A disputed association between 1 April and foolishness

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2100-454: The release of the ill-fated Silent Hunter II, Ubisoft agreed to provide Subsim with the game source code to replace the rTime multiplayer engine with DirectPlay . Subsim members raised $ 10,000 to pay a programmer to make the improvements. 1998 - Subsim gets their first industry interview: Mike Jones of Aces of the Deep answers a series of questions about his groundbreaking U-boat sim. Also,

2150-436: The sun is "in the sign of Taurus had y-rune Twenty degrees and one," which would not be 1 April. Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, " Syn March was gon ". If so, the passage would have originally meant 32 days after March, i.e. 2 May. In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d'avril (April fool, literally "April's fish"), possibly

2200-675: The war diary from the German battleship  Bismarck , the action in Tarrafal Bay , saving the German supply ship Python from HMS  Dorsetshire  (40) and attacking a task force as U-2511 as the last act of the Battle of the Atlantic. The campaign, which has the player being sent notes from Admiral Dönitz , spans 21 missions from the start of the war in 1939 to the end of

2250-606: The war in 1945, and includes attacking fleeing Polish navy destroyers during the invasion of Poland , hunting British shipping off the English coast, penetration into Scapa Flow , assisting in the invasion of Norway , Blitzkrieg and Dunkirk evacuation (" Dunkirk little ship " Sundowner appears in this mission), then battling in the North Atlantic, before passing through the Strait of Gibraltar to La Spezia , severing

2300-476: The web with a flotilla of stories, articles, and art from naval historians, subsim players, game developers, and Navy men. Foreword by Bestselling Author Joe Buff . Abraham Zeegers of Netherlands , moderator and host of the 2005 Subsim meet, is found dead in his Amsterdam apartment, less than one week after he had testified at the Willem Holleeder trial. Dutch media discovered that although Abraham

2350-729: The web. Silent Hunter II Silent Hunter II is a 2001 World War II U-boat combat simulation published by Ubi Soft for PCs with Windows 95 / 98 / ME . Silent Hunter II gives the player the command of German U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II . The game offers single-player missions and multiplayer gameplay. The single-missions include sinking HMS Laurentic and HMS Patroclus as U-99 , avoiding being sunk by HMS  Fortune as U-44 , sinking HMS  Avenger as U-155 , Operation Drumbeat against American shipping , retrieving

2400-719: Was a state witness in protective custody, he had a secret identity and was prominent in the Subsim forums. 2008 - Subsim's server is knocked offline by a transformer explosion and fire at The Planet Internet Services (ex. EV1 & Rackshack) Houston datacenter. At first, the Planet was able to restore power after two days but the datacenter's backup generator failed, and the website was down two more days. 2009 - Subsim hosts their fifth international meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark . Members shuttle to Kiel , Germany to tour U-995 ,

2450-571: Was also an established tradition in Great Britain before 1 January was established as the start of the calendar year. In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the celebration as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference. On 1 April 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed". Although no biblical scholar or historian is known to have mentioned

2500-544: Was first announced in 1999, and originally developed by Aeon Electronic Entertainment, the developers of Silent Hunter , but they had to leave the project unfinished, and Ultimation Inc. finished it. After considerable delays it was released in November 2001 after three years of work. After release, instability with the multiplayer feature was found to be commonplace, yet Ubisoft never resolved this issue by releasing another official patch . While in 2002 Ubisoft had ended

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