elsewhere, it's still April Fools' Day

A good distraction from world and personal worries.
10 stories that could be pranks - but aren't
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4400535.stm
April the first is when jokers set out to fool and the rest of us are on our guard. Here is our annual round-up of some of the day's seemingly spoof news stories which are actually true
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April Fools, 2006 roundup at Making Light
nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007386.html#007386

Richard Branson: Malzberg to Fly Virgin Galactic Free
www.locusmag.com/2006/Features/0401_Malzberg_Flies_Free.html

London, April 1, 2006 —Billionaire Richard Branson, whose space-tourist venture Virgin Galactic is inching closer to takeoff every month, announced today that he would be offering a limited number of free rides to various deserving individuals ... We intend to recognize the ground-breaking accomplishments of these pioneers by granting them a celebratory flight into the final frontier.

"And the first person to whom we owe such a debt is science fiction writer Barry N. Malzberg ... In a very real sense, Barry Malzberg is among the founding fathers of twenty-first-century space travel."

Although Branson was not yet at liberty to confirm further speculations, rumor has it that the second candidate for the program would be British author J. G. Ballard, whose flight would depart from the Martian-sand-swamped ruins of Cape Canaveral.

And in Australia, it's the first day after our Commonwealth-Games-extended Daylight Saving ended. An hour extra in the day; paid back from missing one in October. Something of a gift we try not to squander, or at least enjoy as we do it.