This week’s entry comes from the U.K. where two British tourists were arrested for jokingly tweeting that they were going to “destroy America” and “dig up Marilyn Monroe” according to the Daily Mail.

Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting were handcuffed and kept under armed guard for 12 hours after being arrested in Los Angeles upon their landing.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged Van Bryan as a potential threat after tweeting about his upcoming trip to Hollywood: “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America.”

Despite the obvious knowledge that the term “destroy” is British slang for “party,” the officers weren’t buying their explanation for the offending tweet.

Absurdly enough, Van Bryan was also questioned about a previous tweet that said he was going to dig up Marilyn Monroe. The tweet was apparently quoting Family Guy.

It’s reported that the officers looked through Bryan’s suitcase looking for spades and shovels convinced that Bunting was his “look out” while he raided the dead star’s tomb.

They were held for 12 hours overnight in separate cells. It’s reported that Mexican drug criminals kept them company throughout the evening.

The next morning, the friends were driven to the airport and put on a plane home via Paris.

Bunting was quoted as saying that they were not allowed in the country because of Bryan’s tweet. She apparently burst out laughing when she was accused of being the “look out” while Bryan raided Monroe’s tomb.

The most humorous part of all of this is Leigh’s charge sheet where federal officials said that Bryan had posted his intention to commit crimes on his “Tweeter Web site account.” The federal government arrests somebody for using social media and can’t even get the name right.

The friends were told that they must apply for visas from the U.S. embassy in London before traveling to the U.S. again.

It’s not surprising that Bryan’s twitter account is now locked down to only confirmed followers.

Take this a lesson, friends. The feds don’t appreciate you taking to your “Tweeter” to announce the upcoming party you are going to have in the U.S. They apparently don’t watch Family Guy either so they’re not going to get your joke.

Seth Godin At eBay Live

Godin likes the ethereal, it would seem, and likes to blog about vibes and what not. But his knack for catch phrases and abstracts is what inspires (and sells) a half-dozen of his books, where he tells readers how to be remarkable, when to quit, and about ideaviruses.

How else would you live up to the job title "agent of change"?

At the conference, Godin parlayed the ideavirus (for those of us that care little for neologisms, think "meme" – Greek doesn’t go over well in the mass market) into an interesting discussion about generating buzz for your site or product.

"One person decides someone is a superstar, and the word spreads," he said. The key to getting more site traffic, then, is promoting yourself, an activity that helps create the superstar image.

"People are attracted to superstars and they will buy into your product or site just because everyone else is."

While that’s somewhat Aristotelian (right now I’m lowering my glasses down the bridge of my nose to look extra-professorish), this is more in line with Aristippus of Cyrene‘s supposed love of passionate pursuits (I’m pursing my lips just so after that, for emphasis).

It is this memetic, sorry, ideaviral tendency in humans to accept passion from one and give it to another that seems to be the basis of Godin’s philosophy. 

"You have to love what you are talking about, or the people won’t love it," he said. So, "sell something worth talking about."

He used the example of LittleMissMatched.com, a website that sells mismatched socks for the symmetrically agnostic and impaired. The scourge of lonesome footwear must be stopped, as it were.

Godin notes that this company’s "business is booming." A company that sells mismatched socks is worth talking about – it becomes a story to tell, to hear, to add to the collective myth.

At the end of the day, whether creating superstars or (excitedly) spreading the word about a product or service, marketers are storytellers.

Fancy Feast Cat Food, for example, is a carefully crafted myth that cats have a sense of class and general Aristotelian viewpoints. This is not so. Cats most love garbage and butts. People with money are the aristocrats, and like the idea of having aristocratic cats.

Even if that’s really, really silly. The ideavirus – the meme – is airborne, regardless of recent pet food developments and all sense of sense.

Godin’s bottom line is more of a "revolving circle," as opposed to other redundant repetitiveness:

1.    Be remarkable (at it’s base, "remarkable" means "something to mention")
2.     Tell a story that makes people feel good
3.    When they feel good, they’ll spread the word about why (remarking about it)
4.     And then they’ll give you permission to market to them 

The Ovation iX fuel dispenser, designed by Dresser Wayne, features:

• A 10.4″ color screen with speaker that can show advertisements
• A printer, which can print out coupons
• Buy items from the convenience store without leaving the pump
• Download MP3s to your digital audio player
• Check traffic reports

Naturally, it also includes far more advanced diagnostics and fuel level meters than most pumps, providing advantages to the gas station operator. Dresser’s website gives no indication how much it might cost, but I’m going to have to get one. Why? I’ll find a reason.

Techweb jokes:

Unfortunately, the next-generation pump is unlikely to do anything about the rising prices of gas.

(via Bink)

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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The last two years, Google has done some pretty big things for April Fools Day. Problem is, only half of them were jokes. On April 1, 2004, they released Gmail, which was such a radical idea (a gig? But MSN only has 2 MB!) that most people thought it was a hoax to make Hotmail and Yahoo look bad. They also announced the opening of the Google Copernicus Center, a Google research center on the moon.

On April 1, 2005, Google doubled Gmail to 2 gigs. It was more believable, the idea of infinitely increasing storage, but it still gave many people pause. The real joke: Google Gulp, a Google branded brain drink. Previous years saw PigeonRank, the technology that powers Google using a bunch of pigeons tapping on keyboards, and MentalPlex, which guessed what you were going to search for before you did. Just remember to remove your glasses and hat

So, what’s happening this year? Likely, the only real product announcement will be Gmail related, since 4/1 seems to be Gmail day, so I’m predicting something random: Gmail Public Storage, letting you store large files on Google’s servers for others to download, and so you can link to them in your emails. Basically, Google’s version of RapidShare, but without all the annoying advertising. Some people will use it for podcast files.

Yeah, it’ll probably be something else entirely, but I had to guess something. What do you guys think the real announcement will be, and what will the joke be? Should be an entertaining day, as always.

Google Operating System tries to guess the jokes. I like the idea of Google pretending to delete everyone’s Gmail inbox, although its so extreme it might be too risky. Nicholas is predicting the real release will be the Google Calendar, a very good guess.

Philipp has an open thread with guesses, including Godzilla in Google Maps, Gmail leaving beta, Big Mommy and Big Baby data centers, and Google Cavity Search.

You know what would be the greatest prank of all time? Adding “A Yahoo Company” to every Google service logo.

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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