That served a useful purpose- it let you objectively identify how gullible everyone you know is.

Small clue here too, maybe more subtle:

> explained school director, Rosalina Pfirsich, looking up from her storybook

Pfirsich in German means Peach, as in Princess Peach :D

Also the hat and mustache of the kart driver.

Man I fell for it until I saw your post. In fact, I was just about to post what the man's name means in Italian.

I was even going to point out how ironic it is that the mans first name and last name fit together so well.

In my defense I only got as far as idraulico and missed the "Mamma mia, they're super!"

Someone was saying "can we just not with April fools" this year because everything is so grim and dire in the world... but I think this is such a perfect level we need. I could go for more whimsy like this.

I read the title and thought CERN + Mario Kart and am giggling.

ah! got me too!

For me it was easier. While I forgot it was first april, the image was too outrageous. Looked like AI-generated slop.

They may have had more success with another image. AI slop made us lazy.

Exactly

Gérard Hommelibre?

Bonjour, and bienvenue to the Black Mesa - pardon, la Mesa Noire - Établissement de Recherche. Please keep your hands inside le tramway at all times, and do try not to provoquer une cascade de résonance. Merci.

How about for a real life Rainbow Road made by the Quantum Mushroom startup? I think that might be the aerospace applications reference in the article:

> CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group has begun discussions with European startup company Quantum Mushroom to explore aerospace applications and powering for next-generation anti-gravity vehicles.

As Alumni, the tables outside R1 are prime for getting ideas, with some help from fermented barley, especially after work during Summertime.

I always look forward to CERN's April fools jokes!

I can't believe people are still doing this

When they later actually sold the t-shirt they had previously presented as an April Fools joke? That was pretty cool.

I still had a Timmy the Monkey sticker on the lid of my kitchen bin up until a couple of years ago.

[dead]

They do some good tours. They are first come/first serve, so show up in the morning for the best chance to get a place.

Since I didn't get the name reference either, here is a link for those who want a hint: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idraulico

Each bigger one has in fact solved more of physics, after being built precisely because there was a good theoretical case for a higher energy collider being helpful.

No of course not, they have Mario guys running around in karts doing maintenance of hyper complex system with wrenches. No physics can resist Mario's wrench, thats how we move humanity forward

CTRL+F "safety and health"

They got the intern to write a funny post. Probably took them an hour and it drums up a bit of good press for the Hi-Lumi LHC.

Money well spent if you ask me.

As a tax payer in one of the member states, I approve of this joke.

The Web is a side project of CERN, they should have gotten a comped top-level domain by rights.

This page cost taxpayers like 100 Euros maybe. How much money do you think scientists actually make? How much money and effort do you think it takes to post a blog article with a couple paragraphs of text and an image?