As shamelessly taken from this month’s Shift magazine…

- The Beijing Evening News reprints an article from the satirical online paper The Onion, mistaking the latter for a true news source. They claim that US Congress threatens to leave Washington unless they are built a new Capitol building with a retractable dome. Fair enough. But then Michigan police commits the same mistake. The Battle Creek sheriff’s office issues a press release stating that the Al-Qaeda are involved in a malicious telemarketing campaign, “making phone solicitations for vacation home rentals, long distance telephone services, magazine subscriptions and other products.”

- A German second-hand clothing store installs a live webcam in one of its change rooms. Police shut it down, despite the owners’ protestations that there was a warning sign in the shop.

- According to the New York Times, NASA engineers are scouring eBay to find replacements for outdated chips on the Space Shuttles.

- British Telecommunications PLC claim they own the patent on hyperlinking. ISPs should pay them licensing fees for using links. Needless to say, they’re laughed out of court.