April Fool's Day Archive, Contents:

BMW UK debuted the limited edition "Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile," aka P.R.A.M., inspired by the royal baby due in the summer. The infant carrier featured "air con, reclining seat, ambient interior lighting and paparazzi-proof hood as standard." It was available in either Royal Blue or Princess Pink.

Virgin Airlines announced that it would be adding glass-bottomed planes to its fleet, in order to ensure that "passengers can enjoy both an unparalleled flying experience, as well as a selection of stunning landscapes from the comfort of their seats."

The company promised that every passenger would enjoy "the chance of a bird's eye view with an extra special opportunity to look down on the beautiful scenery of Great Britain as they fly."

The British Library's Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Blog announced the discovery of a long-lost medieval cookbook that included a recipe for cooked unicorn. "Taketh one unicorne," the cookbook instructed, then marinade it in cloves and garlic, and finally roast it on a griddle. The compiler of this cookbook was said to be one "Geoffrey Fule," who worked in the kitchens of Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England (1328-1369).

As a way to encourage recycling, and to add flavor to its stories, the UK Metro Herald announced plans to issue the newspaper in edible form:

Pedigree pretended to sell Doggie Dentures, a product previously featured jokingly in its ad for Dentastix dog treats, on a live shopping channel (Ideal World). Anyone who called the onscreen number or went to www.doggiedentures.co.uk was told, 'dogs don't want dentures, they want Pedigree Dentastix'.

The Bristol Zoo Gardens announced it was conducting an experiment to gauge the sensory sensitivity of gorillas. They hoped to find out "whether the scent of humans in a gorilla's environment can be picked up even after the humans have gone." The humans, of course, would need to be naked in order to leave the strongest scent behind. Christoph Schwitzer, Head of Research, explained: "Tending to the plants and flowers within the many animal enclosures at the Zoo is an important and necessary job for our team of gardeners. Now we are keen to get to the bare facts of whether their presence leaves a significant scent mark within the enclosure which can be picked up by animals. We are monitoring the gorillas' behaviour following gardeners carrying out work on Gorilla Island – once fully clothed, as a control group, and again without clothes, to see if there is a significant difference. The zoo released photographs of the naked phase of the experiment. The zoo later admitted that the experiment never took place, although "it is true that gorillas have a good sense of smell and are able to detect strong odours in their environment such as human sweat or the musk of an unknowngorilla." link: Bristol Zoo

The Telegraph reported that "specially trained ferrets" were going to be used to lay cables to expand broadband service to rural areas:

Residents of Mousehole, Cornwall woke on the morning of 1 April 2010 to find their town had been overrun by mice. Knitted mice. The small, woolen rodents lined the harbor and perched atop handrails. Each mouse had a note attached, "If you like me, please feel free to keep me." A group calling itself the Graffiti Grannys soon emerged to take credit for the prank. They were a group of women, ranging in age from their mid-40s to 96, who loved to knit and loved to share their work. They explained that their motive for unleashing yarny creatures upon Mousehole was simply to make people smile.

The London Telegraph revealed a plan to generate electricity by harnessing the power of fish migrating upstream:

The article quoted Gavin Roach, "a world-leading specialist in green technologies based at the Université de Poisson d'Avril in Paris," as saying, "The Environment Agency team has made a very exciting breakthrough. Finetics clearly has the potential to create significant amounts of power by simply harnessing the power of nature."

The Guardian announced it would become "the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication," thus rendering its printing presses obsolete. It also revealed an ongoing project to rewrite its entire news archive in the form of "tweets" (Twitter's text messages that are limited to 140 characters each). Examples included:

Russian Standard Vodka ran ads in UK newspapers claiming to have created the world's first "lickvert": an ad dipped in vodka. Readers were urged to "Lick Here," though also reminded to, "Please lick responsibly."

The Sun revealed that during the World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine, fans would have to stand as the world's longest national anthem played, the six-and-a-half minute version of Oi Ukrainy. Any fans who sat down during the anthem would be ejected from Wembley stadium. The anthem would be sung by the folk star Furstov Aprylova.

Virgin Active, Sir Richard Branson's health club chain, announced it would be opening an animal-only gym later in the year, Animal Active. It would be "a haven for animals in need of exercise or lifestyle management."

The Economist magazine announced it would be building a new theme park on a former industrial estate in East London:

The Daily Mail ran a doctored photo of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith walking out of a lingerie store. The headline above it read, "Oh Jacqui, surely that can't be you?" Jacqui Smith had recently been embroiled in a scandal after her husband downloaded two pay-per-view adult films, the cost of which Smith then included as part of an MP expenses claim.