Poisson d'avril

The director of our lab just sent us a mail saying our laboratory has been awarded the prestigious CNRS 'Prix Gobshite', and that every member of the lab in posession of a BNP/CNRS business card can claim a 50 000 Euro bonus by senidng their card numbers (and CVV) to an email address in Tuvalu..

Meanwhile I've been invited to a meeting on increasing the attractivity of my employers to good researchers who might want to come and work for us. One of the other invitees (some recently hired, some old hands) replied, CC everyone, asking if this was a poisson d'avril since such meetings are obiously a waste of time. Finally he was disabused of this notion, and wrote back (again CC everyone) to say that he would participate with no enthusiasm and considered the time (2 hours) as time thrown out of the window.. oh dear.