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According to Reuters, Australia plans to control the importation of high-intensity laser pointers and treat them like firearms. This comes after several incidents where people on the ground tried to blind airplane pilots.

If the same rules were to be applied in the USA, everyone would carry a laser pointer.

I’m knee deep in paper grading right now, but here’s a quick post with some April Foolishness.

Patrick Altoft has a live blog of April Fools pages and pranks here.

Planning to take over the world? Read the Evil Genius Guide to Business. I’m talking to you, Hank Scorpio!

ThinkGeek and Amazon are selling a book on silly Internet RFCs. A Request for Comments is a document that describes proposed Internet standards and technologies, and there is a long tradition of joke RFCs.

Google continues its annual tradition of gags, as reported on Cnet. This year’s crop includes Gmail Custom Time, a feature that lets Gmail users send thir email messages into the past.

There are almost a dozen Google hoaxes this year, including Google Australia’s gDay, a search engine that travels 24 hours ahead in time.

Google also announced Virgle, a joint venture with Virgin to develop an open-source expedition to Mars. Google’s co-founders describe the project in this YouTube video.

According to Reuters, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is discussing a possible expansion of his company’s facilities. Malaysia is the most likely location, as that country ranks number one in Google usage in Southeast Asia. The country is also close to Google’s existing offices in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Wired has an article about solastalgia, a condition that Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht describes as a loss or yearning for accustomed environmental cues. This web site has more information and articles about the phenomenon.

January in Honolulu means that the winds and surf get rougher while the air gets cooler. It’s not cold weather – no one is freezing to death here.

Yet the local weathercasters tell viewers to break out the blankets and jackets. During my sunrise run, I see other people wearing mismatched sweatsuits, hats, and gloves. They’re shivering and miserable, while I’m wearing my usual tank top and shorts.

Funny: Various tricks of various trades. For example, Australian butchers talk backwards, lauging because someone is an “on doog cuf ecaf”. “PEBKAC” is an old favorite of mine from my help desk days. Read the article. Thanks, Boing Boing!