2008: April 1st Good News (April Fools: Google "Can See into Future", Married Troops Can Live Together In Iraq, more...)

Good Afternoon all,

Happy April Fools day. :) In honor of the day, I have a separate column with 3 April Fools articles in it. My favorite is actually the last article, which is about the wonders of Google's new ability to see 24 hours into the future. heeheehee.

Of course I have plenty of real news too, and I'd like to point out a couple that you all may find interesting. First, the Dow Jones soared today. YEA! That's great news, especially since I'm tired of hearing all this "recession" news, which I think is somewhat baloney. Second, I'd like to mention the article about Married soldiers being enabled to live together in Iraq, that's great news, as it helps with the lessening of stresses, among other things over there. Third, I'd like to mention a wacky world record that was just broken due to the odd sport extreme ironing. The Australians have succeeded in getting 72 people underwater to iron all at the same time! Intriguing.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's news. I had a lot of fun scanning real and foolish articles today, searching for the best for the blog. I hope you enjoy the reads. :) See you tomorrow!


Today's Top 5:
1. Dow Skyrockets Nearly 400 Points Amid Economic Optimism (Yahoo News)
2. Married Troops Can Live Together in Iraq (Yahoo News)
3. Tunnel Planned to Link Helsinki, Tallinn (St Petersburg Times)
4. Zero X Motorcycle: 100% Lithium-Ion Electric, 40 Mile Range, Weighs Only 140 Pounds (Environmental News Network)
5. Mom's Fish Intake May Boost Child's Brain Power (Reuters)



Honorable Mentions:
1. Cubans Rush to Buy DVD Players, Electric Bikes (Reuters)
2. Oldest Gold Artifact Unearthed (Times of India)
3. 72 Australian Scuba Divers Set World Record for Underwater Ironing (Daily Mail UK)


April Fools:
1. Mrs Sarkozy Joins Flying Penguins (CNN)
2. The Top 10 Historical Hoaxers (Times Online UK)
3. New Google Search Tool "Can See into Future" (News.com AU)




Today's Top 5:

1. Dow Skyrockets Nearly 400 Points Amid Economic Optimism
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080401/wall_street.html
Tuesday April 1, 5:09 pm ET
By Joe Bel Bruno,
AP Business Writer

Wall Street Surges on UBS and Lehman Brothers Stock News, Better-Than-Expected Economic Data
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street began the second quarter with a big rally Tuesday as investors rushed back into stocks, optimistic that the worst of the credit crisis has passed and that the economy is faring better than expected. The Dow Jones industrials surged nearly 400 points, and all the major indexes were up more than 3 percent.
Financial stocks were among the big winners after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Switzerland's UBS AG issued new shares to help bolster their balance sheets. With that upbeat news and a fresh quarter ahead of them, investors appear quite willing to make some bets that the worst of the damage from the nation's credit struggles has been felt. Moreover, the banks' moves buttressed the view that financial services companies are taking aggressive action to improve their capital bases and stave off the potential of a collapse similar to Bear Stearns Cos.
Analysts believe there must be a recovery in bank and brokerages to lead major stock indexes higher. Some of the biggest financial players had their sharpest moves of the year Tuesday -- Citigroup Inc. shot up 11 percent, JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 9 percent, and Lehman surged 18 percent.
"Investors have a difficult time making decisions about the stock market if they don't have confidence in major financial institutions, so there's been a lot of sideline cash," said Richard Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus. "The extreme conditions that we've seen here over the past few months has been missing that confidence ... but that appears to be changing, and we're seeing the response."
Meanwhile, Wall Street got another boost when the Institute for Supply Management said its March index of national manufacturing activity rose to a reading of 48.6 -- indicating a contraction, but a slower one than in February and tamer than many analysts had predicted. Government data on construction spending for February also came in better than expected.
The Dow rose 391.47, or 3.19 percent, to 12,654.47. It marked the eighth-biggest point gain ever for the Dow, and the third time in two weeks it came close to or surpassed 400 points.
Broader stock indicators also gained sharply. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 47.48, or 3.59 percent, to 1,370.18 -- the index's best start to a second quarter since 1938. And, the Nasdaq composite index rose 83.65, or 3.67 percent, to 2,362.75.
The advance was in contrast to a lackluster session on Monday, where stocks managed a moderate gain in the final session of a dismal first quarter. Major indexes ended the first three months of 2008 with massive losses, marking the worst period since the third quarter of 2002 when Wall Street was approaching the lowest point of a protracted bear market.
Renewed enthusiasm that the credit crisis might be waning was also felt in the Treasury market, where government securities fell as investors withdrew money to take bets on stocks. The 10-year Treasury note's yield, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.55 percent from 3.43 percent late Monday.
In addition to hopes about the financial sector, Wall Street was relieved to see the feeble dollar regain some strength against the euro. The euro fell to $1.5596 from $1.5785 late Monday in New York.
And there was also optimism that commodities prices, which have hit historic highs in recent months, have begun to retreat. Crude fell 60 cents to settle at $100.98 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier falling below $100. Meanwhile, gold dropped back below $900 an ounce.
"This is a nice way to begin the second quarter," said Todd Leone, managing director of equity trading at Cowen & Co. "All the financials are up big, and there's a sense that things are turning. We definitely have not seen the last of the credit crisis, but we're getting closer."
The stock rally was underpinned by the announcements from UBS and Lehman Brothers that they are boosting capital by issuing new stock. Shares of banks and brokerages hovered near multiyear lows in recent months as investors feared heavy losses from investments tied to subprime mortgages would be overwhelming.
Earlier this month, widespread concerns about Bear Stearns' financial position forced the investment bank to sell itself to JPMorgan in a deal engineered by the Federal Reserve -- and that stoked fears that other investment houses might follow.
JPMorgan rose $4.05, or 9.4 percent, to $47; while Bear Stearns was up 36 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $10.85 -- slightly above the $10 per share acquisition price.
UBS, one of Europe's biggest banks, said it will issue up to $15 billion in new stock and that its chairman, Marcel Ospel, had quit. Investors chose to look past the bank's announcement that it will take a fresh $19 billion write-down due to additional declines in the value of its mortgage assets and other credit instruments, following an $18 billion write-down last year. Its shares surged $4.21, or 14.6 percent, to $33.01 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Lehman Brothers, dogged by speculation it might reveal losses big enough to cripple the company, on Tuesday raised $4 billion of capital to stymie questions about its financial stability. Lehman rose $6.70, or 17.8 percent, to $44.34.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 22.68, or 3.30 percent, to 710.65.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 4 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a heavy 1.85 billion shares.
In overseas trade, Tokyo's Nikkei closed up 1.04 percent. There were gains in Europe too, with London's FTSE rising 2.64 percent, Frankfurt's DAX gaining 2.84 percent and Paris' CAC 40 advancing 3.38 percent.
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/



2. Married Troops can Live Together in Iraq http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_re_us/combat_marriages;_ylt=AlDEnGed1QSAx45_VCMIsSz9xg8F
By BRADLEY BROOKS and RUSS BYNUM,
Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 30 minutes ago (Current Time 4:06am CST)

BAGHDAD - When American soldiers get off duty in Iraq, the men usually return to their quarters, the women to theirs. But Staff Sgt. Marvin Frazier gets to go back to a small trailer with two pushed-together single beds that he shares with his wife.
In a historic but little-noticed change in policy, the Army is allowing scores of husband-and-wife soldiers to live and sleep together in the war zone — a move aimed at preserving marriages, boosting morale and perhaps bolstering re-enlistment rates at a time when the military is struggling to fill its ranks five years into the fighting.
"It makes a lot of things easier," said Frazier, 33, a helicopter maintenance supervisor in the 3rd Infantry Division. "It really adds a lot of stress, being separated. Now you can sit face-to-face and try to work out things and comfort each other."
Long-standing Army rules barred soldiers of the opposite sex from sharing sleeping quarters in war zones. Even married troops lived only in all-male or all-female quarters and had no private living space.
But in May 2006, Army commanders in Iraq, with little fanfare, decided that it is in the military's interest to promote wedded bliss. In other words: What God has joined together, let no manual put asunder.
"It's better for the soldiers, which means overall it's better for the Army," said Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Thornton of the 3rd Infantry.
Military analysts said this is the first war in which the Army even gave the idea any serious consideration — a reflection not only of the large number of couples sent to war this time, but also of the way the fighting has dragged on and strained marriages with repeated 12- and 15-month tours of duty.
While some couples were also sent into the 1991 Gulf War, the fighting was over before their living arrangements became an issue, said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain who studies how military policies affect women for the nonprofit Women's Research and Education Institute.
More than 10,000 couples are in the Army. Exactly how many are serving in the war zone, and how many of those are living together, are not clear. The Army said it does not keep track.
But Frazier and his wife, Staff Sgt. Keisha Frazier, are among about 40 married Army couples living together on "Couples Row" at Camp Striker, which is on the oustkirts of Baghdad and is one of more than 150 U.S. military camps in Iraq. Similarly, a Couples Row opened in October at nearby Camp Victory, though it has trailers for only seven of the many couples who have requested them.
Husbands and wives are still prohibited from public displays of affection, under the same strict regulations that govern unmarried men and women in uniform. Holding hands and kissing, whether on duty or in the chow hall, are against the rules.
"It's rough on marriages when, over the course of years, you don't see each other," Manning said. "It would make sense, certainly from a morale perspective and for the Army, to try to preserve marriages."
The only downside of married soldiers sharing sleeping quarters, she said, would be an increased risk of pregnancies.
Whether the policy applies to troops in Afghanistan is unclear. Pentagon officials said that decision is up to individual commanders, but they did not return repeated calls for comment.
John Pike, director of the military think tank Globalsecurity.org., said: "I think they are looking under the sofa cushions for anything they can do to improve retention. They spend a lot of money getting these people trained up."
After spending the first five months of their 15-month deployment on separate bases in tents with up to 15 other soldiers, all of the same sex, the Fraziers prize the small degree of privacy and intimacy they gained after moving in together in October.
Still newlyweds, Sgt. Amanda Christopher, 25, and her husband, Sgt. Matthew Christopher, 22, said the change in rules has been a blessing for their nearly year-old marriage, four months of which has been spent in Iraq.
Both work at the military hospital in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, where Amanda is a licensed practical nurse and Matthew is in patient administration, which can include mortuary duties.
"Some of the stuff I've seen, if she weren't here, I'd be a lot less cool about it," Matthew said as the pair sat inside their potpourri-scented living quarters — a mere 120 square feet, with a TV set atop two black lockboxes, an impressive collection of stuffed animals and a Chicago Bears plaque. "There was one night in particular, I saw something and I just thought, 'Oh, God.' I came in here, talked to her for a few minutes, went outside, took a deep breath and I was good to go."
Because of the prohibition on public displays of affection, the Christophers declined even to put their arms around each other for a photo.
"It's not like in the civilian world where if you see your boyfriend at work you can just go, 'Oh, hi, Babe,'" Amanda said. "We're in uniform, and we have to maintain a professional demeanor at work."
Capt. Jessica Hegenbart and her husband, Chief Warrant Officer Brian Hegenbart, had to live separately for two months when they arrived at Camp Striker because all the trailers for couples were full and were mostly allotted by rank. They finally moved in together in June.
"It's nice to come back to our trailer. I just feel bad for all those guys who don't have that to come home to every day," said Brian, a 32-year-old Black Hawk helicopter pilot.
Living together, however, doesn't stop the Hegenbarts from worrying about each other's safety. Sometimes, it can make it harder.
"Because we're so close out here, we know to the hour when our loved one's supposed to be home from a mission," Jessica said. "So if they're late, our brains starts going to that place where you start to wonder what went wrong. That happens more often than I'd like to admit."




3. Tunnel Planned to Link Helsinki, Tallinn
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=2550
Tuesday, April 1, 2008

HELSINKI — Helsinki and Tallinn have agreed to explore the possibility of linking the two capitals with a railway tunnel, which could end up the world’s longest, Helsinki’s mayor said Friday.
“We will start by applying for European Union financing for the study of the tunnel as well as an alternative railway link using ferries,” Mayor Jussi Pajunen said in an interview.
He said the Finnish and Estonian cities, which are about 80 kilometers apart on the shores of the Baltic Sea, aim to finish the initial feasibility study by the end of 2009, but that a tunnel would take more than 15 years to be completed. Earlier projections for the Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel link, which have widely been seen as unrealistic, have proposed two alternative routes, either 67 or 83 kilometers long.
Pajunen said the railway could later be connected with a line linking Helsinki with Warsaw and Berlin.



4. Zero X Motorcycle: 100% Lithium-Ion Electric, 40 Mile Range, Weighs Only 140 Pounds
http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/33919
1 April 2008

The Zero X Motorcycle was designed from the ground up to be a 100% electric bike. What makes this new bike truly different is that it contains 168 individual high-power lithium ion cells and is expected to endure six years of hard riding. Zero Motorcycle’s power grid technology has the highest power density (power storage per weight) battery pack on the market, delivering the full current of the battery pack immediately, safely and without overheating. Riders get the enjoyment of up to 2 hours of quality riding without seeing any impact on performance. To complete the cycle and keep it green, the Zero X battery unit is 100% recyclable and landfill approved. You can see some videos of the bike in action here.
The designer, Neal Saiki, applied his aerospace engineering degree and 15 years as a leading mountain bike designer to the problem. The chassis is made out of aircraft aluminum making it one of the lightest motorcycle frames on the planet at 18 pounds. More than 300 individual parts were custom fabricated and result in a total weight of only 140 pounds. That helps the Zero X weigh in at less than half the weight of a gas powered motorcycle.
According to Saiki, people who initially wanted to buy a Zero X unit decided to do so because the motorbike is silent and emissions-free. However, customers were reportedly also impressed with its performance.
The bike was recently demonstrated in Vegas, here is a reaction:
“I rode the Zero X prototype in a demonstration motocross race in Las Vegas in 2007 and was very impressed,” said National Motocross Champion, Hall of Famer and TV commentator Jeff Emig. “I’m expecting the production version to have a huge impact in the motor sports industry.”
If you are interested, you can buy one from the company’s Web site — a standard bike costs $7,450, plus $300 for shipping across the US.





5. Mom's Fish Intake May Boost Child's Brain Power
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL16678020080401?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Tue Apr 1, 2008 2:33pm

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Preschoolers whose mothers regularly ate low-mercury fish during pregnancy may have sharper minds than their peers, a study suggests.
Researchers found that among 341 3-year-olds, those whose mothers ate more than two servings of fish per week during pregnancy generally performed better on tests of verbal, visual and motor development.
On the other hand, tests scores were lower among preschoolers whose mothers had relatively high mercury levels in their blood during pregnancy.
And mothers who regularly ate fish during pregnancy were more likely to have such mercury levels than non-fish-eaters were, the researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The findings add to evidence that fish can be brain-food, but underscore the importance of choosing lower-mercury fish during pregnancy.
"Recommendations for fish consumption during pregnancy should take into account the nutritional benefits of fish as well as the potential harms from mercury exposure," write the researchers, led by Dr. Emily Oken of Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Oily fish such as tuna, salmon and sardines contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are important in fetal and child brain development. The problem is that fatty fish are more likely to be contaminated with mercury, a metal that is toxic to brain cells, particularly in fetuses and young children.
Because of this, pregnant women are advised to avoid certain fish altogether: shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. These fish are particularly high in mercury because they eat other fish and are long-lived, over time accumulating mercury in their fat tissue.
Less clear is how the benefits of other omega-3-containing fish stack up against the potential risks. Currently, U.S. health officials recommend that pregnant women eat no more than 12 ounces, or roughly two servings, of fish per week.
For the current study, Oken's team collected blood samples from 341 women during their second trimester and asked them how often they ate various foods, including fish. When their children were 3 years old, they took standard tests of vocabulary, visual-spatial skills and fine-motor coordination of the hands and fingers.
Overall, the researchers found, children whose mothers ate fish more than twice a week had higher test scores.
However, children whose mothers had mercury levels in the top 10 percent of the study scored more poorly than those whose mothers had lower mercury levels.
Only 2 percent of mothers who never ate fish during pregnancy had blood mercury levels that high, versus 23 percent of those who ate fish more than twice weekly.
According to Oken's team, the bottom line is that eating fish lower in mercury could "allow for stronger benefits of fish intake."
Fish that are high in omega-3 but relatively lower in mercury include canned light tuna, which has less mercury than albacore tuna, and smaller oily fish like salmon. White-meat fish such as cod and haddock tend to be low in mercury, but have less omega-3 than fattier fish.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Harvard. Some of Oken's co-researchers have received funding from the food and supplement industry.
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, April 2008.





Honorable Mentions:


1. Cubans Rush to Buy DVD Players, Electric Bikes
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0121067420080401
Tue Apr 1, 2008 3:09pm EDT
By Rosa Tania Valdes

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans crowded shops on Tuesday to buy DVD players and electric bikes that went on sale for the first time as new President Raul Castro moved to lift many restrictions in the one-party socialist state.
Stores were authorized to sell dozens of electric goods that were previously banned, including microwave ovens, flat-screen televisions and even computers.
"This should have been done long ago. They should never have been banned," said Felipe, a 53-year-old engineer, who lined up impatiently to buy his first DVD player.
The Philips and Panasonic DVD players were priced between $118 and $162, much more expensive than in other countries but lower than the going rate on Cuba's thriving black-market.
Raul Castro succeeded his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president on February 24, promising to lift "excessive prohibitions" on daily life in Cuba.
His government has since moved quickly to allow Cubans to buy cellular phones and stay at hotels previously reserved for foreigners.
The changes made so far by Cuba's first new leader in half a century are aimed at reducing pent up frustrations in the country of 11 million where the ruling Communist Party has a firm grip on power.
Cubans welcomed greater access to consumer goods that are available virtually anywhere else in the world.




2. Oldest Gold Artifact (of Americas) Unearthed
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthSci/Oldest_gold_artifact_unearthed/articleshow/2914017.cms31 Mar 2008, 1607 hrs IST,AFP

CHICAGO: Archaeologists have unearthed a nearly 4,000-year-old necklace which shows that gold was being used as a status symbol in the Americas much earlier than previously thought, according to a study released on Monday.
The necklace is the oldest gold artifact discovered in the Americas to date and was found in the remains of a burial site in the Lake Titicaca basin of southern Peru.
It shows that the complex social developments which lead to status displays were present while hunter-gatherers were just beginning to settle into permanent villages.
"This was a big surprise to us," said lead author Mark Aldenderfer of the University of Arizona, Tucson.
"Most people... tend to suggest that the only way you can have the creation and elaboration of even simple objects like this is when you've got sedentary village agriculturalists, who generate an agricultural surplus which gets used to support prestige-building activities."
But the presence of the gold necklace in the grave of a hunter-gather whose tribe lived in a village for much, but not all of the year, shows how soon status symbols come into play in settled societies.
"This is a time when social roles are changing and there are a variety of new ones as well as competition for them, so the gold reflects some of that prestige and status competition during this time of change," Aldenderfer said in a telephone interview.
"It doesn't mean that the people who owned the gold were leaders in the sense of power over, these were people who had higher status and presumably higher wealth who were actively competing to use their status and prestige to form a basis for leadership," Aldenderfer said.




3. 72 Australian Scuba Divers Set World Record for Underwater Ironing
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=552848&in_page_id=1811&ito=1490
Last updated at 13:35pm
1 April 2008

A group of 72 Australian scuba divers today flattened the world record for ironing under water.
The so-called "extreme ironing" fans took the plunge off a Melbourne pier with ironing boards and irons, and their linen ainming to beat the previous record of 70 submerged participants.
"It was cold and I think they were bloody crazy," local councillor Tom O'Connor, who with police helped authenticate the new record, said today.
Event organiser Debbie Azzopardi said the group eclipsed a 2005 record set in a swimming pool at nearby Geelong, which in turn beat a world mark set in New Zealand.
The irons all had their electrical cords removed for the attempt, which took place in chilly pre-winter seas on Saturday.
"I was having a chardonnay a few years ago with a girlfriend and I thought I'm going to beat that. We had a few fish going by and a sting ray. It was great," Azzopardi said.
The Web site extremeironing.com espouses it as being the "latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt".


April Fools:

1. Mrs Sarkozy Joins Flying Penguins
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/01/fools.day/index.html?eref=edition
April 1, 2008

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been appointed by Gordon Brown to inject more style and glamour into British life -- if you believe a report in the UK's Guardian newspaper.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has charmed Gordon Brown into giving her a job, according to an April Fool's day report.
She is set to join British Prime Minister Brown's "government of all talents" and move to London for three months to take advantage of the "Carlamania" that is gripping the country.
You've probably as much chance of that happening as pigs flying, except because it's April Fool's day it's penguins not pigs (the BBC has footage compiled by former Monty Python Terry Jones).
The world's media have gleefully jumped on the April Fool's day bandwagon.
The Sun, a UK tabloid, trumpeted a stretching operation for Mrs Sarkozy's husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"Doctors reckon they will be able to add an amazing five inches [12.7cm] to his height in just over a year," The Sun said.
"When surgery is completed he will be an inch taller than his stunning ex-model wife Carla Bruni [Sarkozy]."
In the animal kingdom, National Geographic's latest cover features Paris Hilton as part of a "wild animal" theme. Inside, a photo of a lion is made up of dozens of images of women's bare chests, AP reported.
The Harvard Lampoon, with some help from National Geographic, are behind the prank which will be distributed with the real April edition.
Elsewhere, dogs are in for a shock after BMW declares "war on Rover," London's Metro newspaper reports. Watch previous April Fool's hoaxes. »
"A pet who relieves itself over the new model's wheels will get quite a buzz out of it -- as an unpleasant 200 volts shoots through its body."
Dr Hans Zoff tells the newspaper that BMW owners find "dog fouling a constant irritant."
Meanwhile, Australians find celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's foul language so annoying that his latest venture downunder has been declined an operating license on grounds of decency.
The UK's Independent newspaper says it has prompted Ramsay to ban foul language in his restaurants. Staff who violate the decree will face one-on-one "exercise" sessions with the chef, and diners will be fined $10 for turning the air blue.
Australia's media reported further tectonic shifts in society's fabric. Radio station 2UE said that the Pope would conduct a special mass for homosexuals during his first visit in July and that the Catholic church was set to enter a float in next year's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Melbourne's Herald-Sun tabloid reported a plan to ferry cars down the city's Yarra river to ease congestion and the Sydney Morning Herald revealed a controversial new Japanese restaurant planned to offer a 10-course whale tasting menu.
And for those wanting to flee the April Fool's day hilarity there is always a flight on Richard Branson's Virgin Blue, his southern hemisphere carrier, which advertised "no chair fares" in Australian newspapers for passengers willing to stand for the duration of a domestic flight, AFP reported.
Branson also combined with Google to announce the birth of "Virgle" -- a joint venture to establish human colonies on Mars.
"In the years to come, we'll be sending up a series of spaceships carrying (along with the supplies and tools needed to build the new colony) what eventually will be hundreds of Mars colonists, or Virgle Pioneers -- myself among them," Branson said on Google's website.
April Fool's day is marked by hoaxes and practical jokes in a number of countries. The aim is to trick the gullible. In some countries the jokes only last till midday and if you play a trick after then you are the fool.
The day's origin is unclear. Some believe it is a relic of the festivities once held to celebrate the arrival of spring. They traditionally began on March 25 and finished on April 2.
However, it was not until the beginning of the 18th century that the custom became common.




2. The Top 10 Historical Hoaxers
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3631839.ece
31 March 2008
Michael Moran

If the pranksters among you need some inspiration for April Fools' day, look no further than this list of the most successful hoaxers from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

1: Horace De Vere Cole:
Horace De Vere Cole was a man devoted to, one might almost say obsessed by, practical jokes. His most memorable prank was probably giving carefully selected free theatre tickets to bald men so that when their gleaming pates were seen from the Upper Circle a rather rude word could clearly be seen. Whether impersonating foreign dignitaries to the consternation of senior naval officals or shocking Edwardian society by performing astoundingly vulgar tricks with a cow's udder in public thoroughfares his was a life devoted to, and ultimately squandered on, the pursuit of japery.

2: Henry de la Poer Beresford
The wildly unpredictable third marquess of Waterford was never conclusively linked with the mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack, the demonic apparition who terrorised the women of South London in the 1830s, but 'the Mad Marquis' certainly had the athleticism and the temperament to be at the root of Battersea's own Urban Legend.

3: Charles Dawson
Although he could conceivably been the hapless victim of the Piltdown man hoax, it's perhaps kinder to think of Charles Dawson as the perpetrator of that celebrated piece of archaeological fakery. Hailed at the time as ‘by far the most important ever made in England, and of equal, if not of greater consequence than any other discovery yet made, either at home or abroad’, the Piltdown Man skull later proved to be the combination of two quite disparate hominids. From its 'discovery' in 1912 to the exposure of the fraud in the 1950s, Eoanthropus dawsoni was considered as the 'missing link' between ape and man.

4: Elizabeth Parsons
Perhaps the most successful fake haunting in history is the Cock Lane Ghost.. The site of the haunting, in Cock Lane in the City of London, attracted many curious observers. The Duke of York and Samuel Johnson were just two dignitaries who were drawn to witness the celebrated phenomena. They were, of course, entirely fraudulent – the work of an eleven-year-old girl called Elizabeth Parsons who convinced witnesses by means of assorted scratchings, feats of ventriloquism and bumps in the night that the house was inhabited by the shade of girl murdered by a former lodger. Her father ended up standing trial for the imposture, and was sentenced to the pillory, but remained comparatively untouched by a sympathetic London mob.

5: Mary Willcocks
On Good Friday 1817, a young woman wearing a black turban and speaking an unknown language was found wandering in Almondsbury, north-east of Bristol. Convincing the locals that she was the exotic Princess Caraboo, she was the centre of much excitement, involving dancing, swimming, and the cooking of chicken curries. It was only in the June of that year that the princess was exposed as Mary Willcocks, a former nursemaid from Witheridge. She continued to trade on the Princess Caraboo name even after exposure, finally dying in a houseful of cats at the turn of the last Century.

6: Frances Griffiths
Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright were the teenage cousins behind the still-famous Cottingley Fairies photographs. Although the pictures did not initially fool the family members to which the girls showed them, in 1920 they came to the attention of celebrated author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had become obsessed with the supernatural after the loss of his son in the Great War. He made a cause célèbre of the photos, which made it almost impossible for the girls to admit their deception. They maintained the veracity of the images for over sixty-five years, only confessing that the 'fairies' were in fact paper cut-outs in 1983.

7: Theodore Hook
Theodore Hook anticipated and eclipsed the modern 'unrequited takeaway pizza prank' by orchestrating in 1809 a day-long series of deliveries and official visits to the home of one Mrs.Tottenham, who had previously slighted the mercurial writer.

8: Elizabeth Crofts
In 1554, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a crowd of as many as 17,000 was attracted to Aldersgate steet in London to hear the anti-Catholic pronouncements uttered apparently by an invisible spirit who became known as 'The Bird in the Wall'. After several days, the wall from which the voice appeared to emanate was torn down to reveal a serving maid, Elizabeth Crofts, who had apparently been persuaded by one or more Protestant nobles to perpetrate the fraud. Despite the harsh penalties for treason and religious non-conformism prevalent at that time, Crofts seemed to suffer little punishment for her actions and was never heard of again after the incident.

9: Archibald Belaney
Hastings-born Archibald Belaney had a lifelong interest in American tribes of the Old West and it was no surprise when he emigrated to Canada in 1906 to live as a trapper. It was rather surprising though that, after achieving success as an author under the name Grey Owl he gave his biography to Canadian Who's Who as: ‘Born encampment, State of Sonora, Mexico, son of George, a native of Scotland, and Kathrine (Cochise) Belaney; a half-breed Apache Indian … adopted as blood-brother by Ojibway tribe, 1920 … speaks Ojibway but has forgotten Apache.’ On 10 December 1937, on his second British lecture tour, Grey Owl, the modern Hiawatha, gave a command performance at Buckingham Palace attended by Queen Mary, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the two princesses. It wasn't until after his death that his true identity was exposed, with Archie having deceived readers across the English-speaking world.

10: Mary Toft
Mary Toft, born in 1703, and described as illiterate, was of small stature, with a healthy, strong constitution, and a sullen temper. Despite her humble origins she was able to fool several eminent London physicians including King George I's doctor, Sir Richard Manningham, into believing that she had given birth to a large litter of rabbits. Only when threatened with dissection by a group of Royal physicians was she persuaded to recant her story. Toft's case echoed that of Agnes Bowker from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, who was said to have given birth to a cat. Unlike Toft, Bowker never confessed to a hoax, and although deceit was suspected by the then bishop of London, she may, indeed, have been the cat's mother. Click here for more
Research taken from The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography





3. New Google Search Tool "Can See into Future"
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23460961-5014239,00.html
1 April 2008

A NEW Google program powered by artificial intelligence allows internet users to search web pages 24 hours before they're created, the company said today. Google Australia said the new beta search technology which drives the gDay search feature can accurately predict future internet content – and even future events.
The gDay technology – developed in the company's Sydney engineering centre – uses machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques from a system called MATE, or Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation.
The feature then creates a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from a given point by using the company's index of historic, cached web content and a combination of recurrence plots and "fuzzy measure" analysis.
By accessing web pages before they're actually created, users can view information from the future – including news events, share price movements and sporting results.
"Google's Australian engineers have a history of major technological innovations, from Google Maps to Mapplets to Traffic for Google Maps," said Alan Noble, head of engineering for Google Australia & New Zealand.
"Giving humankind the ability to see 24 hours into the future is just a natural progression – of sorts," he said.
To rank future web pages in order of relevance, gDay uses a statistical extrapolation of a page’s PageRank, called SageRank.
NEWS.com.au editor David Higgins said gDay would have a major impact on news gathering and news delivery.
"This is a fantastic new resource for reporters, who will now be able to find information about events before they happen," Higgins said.
"Our sports coverage and analysis will be one area where we’ll see major gains by knowing which team won before anyone’s pulled on a boot."
Mr Noble said gDay would also be a handy tool for gamblers.
"Users – particularly those who like a flutter – will really benefit from this feature," he said.
"Maybe you want to see tomorrow's rugby scores. Maybe you want to see tomorrow’s lotto numbers. Maybe this is the greatest freakin' product ever."