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    Top April Fools' Day 2011 Pranks from Around the World

    By Jeff Musall | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Fri, Apr 1, 2011
    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
    Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor

    COMMENTARY | April 1 is once again the day championed by pranksters worldwide. With global news available instantly, what were some of the top April Fools' Day Pranks pulled?

    Richard Branson announced Virgin Galactic to buy Pluto, then "bulk it up" so Pluto can be a planet again

    This one is among the best in years. It's so funny because it works on so many levels. It's on the Virgin website, feigning as a press release. Not only will astronomers laugh, but so will everyone who is ready for the economy to improve.

    "As a firm supporter of small businesses Sir Richard is hoping to set an example for struggling entrepreneurs facing setbacks by having Pluto reinstated as an official planet, after its declassification by the International Astronomical Union in 1996," the press release states.

    Speaking to how Branson plans to solve the problem of Pluto being too small to be a planet, a unique solution is offered by Virgin rocket scientist Professor Chelovek Protaprilia:

    "The vehicle has a special harness to collect asteroids and space debris, which it will drag into Pluto's gravitational field, increasing the planet's mass."

    YouTube goes back to 1911

    The folks at YouTube have taken us back in time to see the site as it first was, when it made its debut in 1911. In honor of the grand occasion, we have excerpts from the speech of President William Howard Taft.

    "I should be untrue to myself, to my promises, and to the declarations of the party platform upon which I was elected to office, if the incoming Congress is not aware of the importance of boxing cat videos and our shared human moments of folly. We should encourage this in every way feasible," Taft said about YouTube.

    YouTube has a few special videos done up as they might have looked in 1911, all worthy of a laugh.

    Google employee reveals his is an "auto completer"

    "I started originally as a spell checker," the Google employee now working as an auto completer says. He goes on and says how he types "around 34,000 words a minute," and he completes the sentences of all his family and friends.

    He goes on to describe a neural scanner that you wear on your head, think the predictions, and "zoom, it instantly displays the results."

    But there seems to be a bug, as he says he can only get it to return one thing.

    "Right now I an only get it to return Princess Leia in a metal bikini," he says with a befuddled look.

    Check these out, and have a happy April Fools' Day!

     

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