It's nice to know that you can count on some things in life. One such thing is that Google goes all out for April Fools. Today there are a least a couple well-executed jokes on Google properties. First up is Virgle, a purported partnership between Google and Virgin to colonize Mars. Like any good April Fool's joke, it is presented with just enough veracity to lure in the unsuspecting. There's even a video of Larry Page and Sergei Brin hamming it up in a low-key way. But as you go farther into the content (someone clearly has too much time on their hands) the mask falls completely off.
Pioneering types who wish to join Larry and Sergei on the harsh planet surface are invited to fill out an application that includes questions such as this:
A multi-stage heavy lift rocket built using established solid and liquid propellant technology with solid boosters doubled for increased payload capability could start a burn for insertion into a lunar trajectory and then back toward Earth for final insertion into a modified Hohmann Transfer Orbit, increasing its final Earth-to-Mars transfer velocity through a periapsis delta-v burn performed at the closest lunar and subsequent Earth approach, with the additional delta v gained on account of the potential energy from the mass of expended propellant,
Actually, I would think fairly quickly and easily
Only with significant time and fuel expenditure
My SAT tutor said to always guess C if you aren't sure
goo goo ga ga hee hee ha ha
Then over on Google Mail there's Custom Time. Billed as a new feature of Google Mail, you can purportedly send mail that is pre-dated so it shows up in your recipient's mailbox at some time before you sent it. How far back can you go?
"You'll only be able to send email back until April 1, 2004, the day we launched Gmail. If we were to let you send an email from Gmail before Gmail existed, well, that would be like hanging out with your parents before you were born -- crazy talk."
Ya gotta love these folks. Check these out, have a good laugh, and get back to work. April Fool's comes once a year and you can bet that Google will make sure it doesn't pass unnoticed.
Update: I don't know how I missed this, since my pal and OCLC co-worker Andrew Pace is well known for his pranksterism, but you have to see his latest proposal. Get'em while they're hot, people, this is going to be big.
