April Fools!

I will admit it, I love Holidays like April Fools. Not tied to anything in particular, just a part of our culture. My prank today involved informing my parents/bosses that I would not make it into work due to explosive diarrhea. I managed to go into gruesome detail and basically disgust to the point of realization of the holiday.

Everyone knows a great source for useless information on the internet is Wikipedia. So in honor of April Fools Day I started reading about the history of the Holiday. Apparently the first mention of it was by Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The reference is in the story The Nun's Priest Tale, which is set on the 32nd of March.

So enough with the history, here are some pranks that have already surfaced;

Google is called Topeka.
Blizzard has announced a slew of goofy new products.
Fraxis announced "Extreme Diplomacy" in the new Civilization game.
NASA has shown more proof of Water on the Moon.

Have a fun April First, don't fall for a prank and enjoy the spring weather.

NASA Scientist Plan to Approach Woman

NASA Scientists Plan To Approach Girl By 2018 

Oh man, this is just too funny.

Galileoscope and NASA may outsource

So 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and to celebrate a non-profit built a low cost telescope called the Galileoscope. It is a lower powered telescope designed to fit onto just about any tripod. The idea behind it is to get Telescopic Star Gazing into peoples hands at a low cost and with ease of use. I am very excited that there is a project like this, I find the beauty of astronomy to be one of the most spiritual humbling experiences a person can have.

I also read an article in the Wall Street Journal today via Slashdot about NASA looking to outsource the building and development of rockets to private companies. As I read an added bonus beyond the lower cost of development and faster rate at changes is the ease on an engineer. If they can focus on building equipment to preform the science related task on a mission and the mode of transportation was being taken care of else where we could potential have a greater impact on Science.