"Top 10 April Fools' work pranks"

According to CNN, here are some of the Top 10 April Fools' Work Pranks:

1. Placed a pair of pants and shoes inside the only toilet stall in a men's room to make it appear someone was using the stall. It sat there for hours until someone called security to check if the person had died.
3. All the women in office individually spoke to the president, confiding that she is pregnant. By noon, he 'knew' that all of his female workers were pregnant and he could not tell anyone because each asked for confidentially.
5. Filled the vending soda machine with cans of beer.
6. Rigged the boss' chair to drop suddenly during a staff meeting.
7. Placed a sign on the restroom door that read, "The company ran out of toilet tissue; please use your own resources."
9. Shrink-wrapped everything in a co-worker's cubicle.

Here is the entire list.

So have you pulled or been subject to one of these pranks?

Zoo Welcomes Baby Elephant

CNN reports that "A baby elephant born this month at the Maryland Zoo walks with his mom."

Surfing Kitty...

CNN reports that "Peruvian surfer Domingo Pianezzi takes his four-month-old cat Nicolasa surfing." Here is the video.

Trouble still brewing at Countrywide

In a previous post, I blogged about the recent troubles of Countrywide. Well, the company made the news again for the wrong reasons.
CNN reports that [shares] "of Countrywide Financial Corp. plummeted Tuesday after a New York Times report said the mortgage lender fabricated bankruptcy documents and a Lehman Brothers analyst said the company is unlikely to return to prior profitability levels.
Shares of Countrywide fell $1.47, or 19.2 percent, to $6.17 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session, shares bottomed out at $5.76 - their lowest since early 2000 - after speculation the company was planning to file for bankruptcy itself. Countrywide later denied the rumors.
Countrywide shares have already lost about 26 percent of their value since the beginning of the year. Since the beginning of 2007, shares of Countrywide have plummeted about 84 percent.
According to the New York Times article, Countrywide "recreated" letters claiming a borrower owed the company $4,700, even though the borrower was under bankruptcy protection.
"It is not Countrywide's policy to create or 'fabricate' any documents as evidence that they were sent if they had not been," Countrywide said in a statement sent to the Times prior to the story's publication that was e-mailed to CNNMoney.com.
Instead, Countrywide said the letters were printed with dates that listed when payment adjustments were made to the borrower's escrow account
The case is one of 300 bankruptcy cases in western Pennsylvania where Countrywide's practices are being scrutinized.
The nation's largest mortgage lender has been trying to cope with a worsening housing market and rising delinquencies and defaults, especially among subprime mortgages given to customers with poor credit history.
Countrywide posted $1.2 billion in losses in the third quarter of 2007 because of the weakening mortgage market. Countrywide set aside $934 million during that quarter to cover rising defaults among loans.
The company denied earlier speculation that it was planning to file for bankruptcy protection...
Lehman Brothers analyst Bruce Harting cut his fourth-quarter earnings estimate for Countrywide to 20 cents per share from 36 cents per share.
"While Countrywide's transition to originating mostly GSE conforming mortgages has reduced balance sheet risk caused by its non-conforming originations, the dramatic decline in Countrywide's earnings power this transition has caused has kept Countrywide's creditors nervous about the company's liquidity," Harting wrote in a research note.
Harting said Countrywide will face additional pressure because the weakness in the overall housing market has depressed total volume as well."

So how strong is Countrywide's foundation? There's an ill wind blowing from this company...

XL underwear smothers fire

According to CNN and the Associated Press, (dateline: London) "From baggy briefs to the ultimate hotpants: A British woman's underwear saved the day by doubling as an emergency fire blanket when her kitchen caught fire.
John Marsey and his cousin Darren Lines were frying bread in Jenny Marsey's kitchen in Hartlepool, northeast England, on Sunday when their meal caught fire.
Lines grabbed the nearest thing from a pile of laundry to put it out: his aunt's billowing, powder blue, size XL underpants.
He ran them under the faucet and tossed them onto the flames, successfully smothering the fire, a spokesman for the Cleveland Fire Brigade said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
Lines' swift thinking saved the kitchen -- but left his aunt's underwear slightly scorched.
"It could have been a lot worse," she said. "My family could have been in hospital but the knickers saved the day. I'm just grateful to the boys."
The fire official said the general principle of using a large, wet cloth to cover a grease fire was a sound one.
As for using underwear: "Clearly it depends on what size you are -- but I don't want to go there.""

Human Debris...

There are three types of humans that I cannot stand: women (wife) beaters, child molesters, and animal abusers.

CNN reports that "a former Ivy League professor pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter for killing his wife as she wrapped Christmas presents last year.

Rafael Robb, once a tenured economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faces a prison sentence of no more than seven years for bludgeoning his wife, Ellen, on December 22.
Robb, 57, said Monday that he got into an argument with his wife about a trip she was taking with their daughter and whether they would be returning in time for the daughter to return to school.
"We started a discussion about that. The discussion was tense," Robb said. "We were both anxious about it. We both got angry. At one point, Ellen pushed me. ... I just lost it."
Ellen Robb, 49, described as a stay-at-home mother who doted on their only child, died in the kitchen of their home in Upper Merion Township, outside Philadelphia.

Detectives believed the scene had been staged to look like a burglary. The murder weapon, which Robb described as an exercise bar, was not found.
The couple married in 1990 but had long been estranged, keeping separate bedrooms.
Rafael Robb apologized to his daughter and family in court Monday.
"I know she liked her mother. ... And now she doesn't have a mother," he said, stifling tears."

So Rafy, you had an argument with your wife and you beat her to death. Ooh... You're such a "big man." Well, here's hoping there's something special waiting for you in prison. And all you can say is that your daughter "liked her mother." You freak'in moron! And now the poor girl has no mother or father (and from the sound of things, she is better off w/out your sorry self). I would have loved to had been your arresting officer. I wouldn't have ducked your head under the squad car's roof when I pushed you into the car. And then you stuck a deal w/the DA to plead to Manslaughter with just 5 to 10 years in jail. Thanks to FoxNews, I know you "...admitted to bashing [your] wife Ellen repeatedly in the head and face with a chin-up bar, then staging a break-in and hiding the evidence so [you] could blame the whole thing on a burglar...[Your poor wife] "Ellen was bludgeoned so badly investigators initially thought she'd been blasted at close range with a shotgun or rifle." "So, after almost a year of denials, [you] came clean." Clean my a$$! You probably will only serve less than 5 years. And I hope those five years are the worst of your miserable life. What a piece of human debris...

Beauty pageant gets dirty...

CNN reports from San Juan, Puerto Rico, that "beauty pageant organizers were investigating Sunday who doused a contestant's evening gowns with pepper spray and spiked her makeup, causing her to break out in hives.

Beauty queen Ingrid Marie Rivera beat 29 rivals to become the island's 2008 Miss Universe contestant, despite applying makeup and wearing evening gowns that had been coated with pepper spray, pageant spokesman Harold Rosario said.
Rivera was composed while appearing before cameras and judges throughout the competition. But once backstage, she had to strip off her clothes and apply ice bags to her face and body, which swelled and broke out in hives twice.
"We thought at first it was an allergic reaction, or maybe nerves," Rosario said. "But the second time, we knew it couldn't have been a coincidence."
Rivera's clothing and makeup later tested positive for pepper spray.

Someone also stole Rivera's bag containing her gowns, makeup and credit cards. And a bomb threat forced pageant officials to postpone the last day of competition on Thursday, said Magali Febles, director of the Miss Puerto Rico Universe pageant.
Pageant organizers said the hoped to catch and expose whoever was responsible for the pranks. They said, however, they were handling the investigation themselves and police are not involved.
Beauty competitions in the U.S. Caribbean territory -- which boasts five Miss Universe titles, second only to the U.S. -- are fierce, drawing boisterous audiences and accusations of rigged results.
But the pranks under investigation this year are a first, Rosario said.
Rivera, who won Miss World Caribbean in 2005, had been a target of controversy from the start of competition, as rivals complained she was too experienced and should be disqualified.
Local media touted her as the likely winner, stoking jealousy among contestants, Rosario said.
When Rivera won, rivals accused her of buying the crown, Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported.
A tearful Rivera recounted her ordeal at a news conference Sunday, acknowledging she had wavered about staying in the contest.
"At one point I said, 'Am I a masochist?"' she recalled, her voice breaking. "But I said, 'I am with God and this is my goal, regardless of the results."'"

It sounds like they needed Sandra Bullock in this pageant to keep people honest...

I think we already knew this...

From our experiences on the roads these days, it's no surpirse to see this story from CNN.
"36 million drivers would flunk drivers tests

...if a test administered by GMAC Insurance is any indication, one in six people cruising our highways and byways -- roughly 36 million licensed drivers -- would flunk their driver's test if they had to take it today. Not only that, but based on the 2007 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test data the state with the most road-going dummies is New York, while the most knowledgeable ones are out West to Idaho.
"The results were pretty eye-opening to us," says Gary Kusumi, president and CEO of GMAC Insurance Personal Lines. "Not only did they indicate that there are wide differences in terms of state scores, but there were significant trends that demonstrated the general public might have forgotten must-know items from when they first took their driver's test."
"Two questions consistently sent respondents skidding into the weeds," Kusumi notes. The first has to do with the correct action to take when approaching a steady yellow traffic light (Answer: Stop if it is safe to do so.). A whopping 84 percent of respondents spun their wheels on that one. The next biggest puzzler after that question had to do with the proper following distance from a car in front of you (Answer: Two seconds).
Also of interest from the GMAC Insurance test:
• Drivers 35 and older were more likely to pass
• Illinois, Georgia, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were the least knowledgeable states overall, with average scores under 75 percent
• Fifty-five percent of the respondents didn't know how many feet before making a left or right turn to activate their turn signals
• The national average score was 77.1 percent
...According to GMAC Insurance, 18 percent of respondents failed its National Driving Test in 2007, compared with 9 percent in 2006. The test can be taken online at www.gmacinsurance.com."
Here are the top 5 states: Idaho, Alaska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas
You can see the state rankings here.
You can take the test for yourself here.