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It’s April 1, and the fools are certainly rushing in. Here’s just a few of the hoaxes perpetrated on innocent readers:

• The National Republican Senatorial Committee produces a 2012 campaign ad supporting Barack Obama, which is really nice of the Republicans. It shows the president bringing people together, supporting Brazilian oil imports and riding a unicorn over a rainbow.

• Sir Richard Branson announces that Virgin has bought Pluto and will attempt to have it reinstated as a planet. The company is hoping to “bulk up” Pluto by leaching it on to asteroids in order to reach the required planetary mass.

• IKEA in Sydney unveils the HUNDSTOL, a high chair for dogs, for $59. The back of the chair has a tail hole.

• Qualcomm holds a press conference on viral Internet videos that surfaced this week appearing to show incidents of savage butterfly attacks in the United States. The company responds to reports that  their own prototype of Mirasol display is responsible for triggering butterfly aggression.

• YouTube celebrates its 100th anniversary today by presenting the viral videos of 1911.

• The Huffington Post follows the New York Times’ example and sets up a pay wall – but only for employees of the New York Times and people in Winnipeg, Canada. Arianna Huffington assures all other readers “full and free access to our news, information, opinion, and the rest of our rich offerings.”

• Britain’s Daily Mail, stalking the royals again, discovers princess-to-be Kate Middleton shopping for baby clothes, smoking cigarettes, and downing pints of lager and champagne.

• The UK Sun reports that iPads were given to five gorillas in its “Planet of the Apps” exclusive. “The super-smart gorillas quickly learned to turn the screens on and off and seem fascinated by the colours and pictures.”

• Ryanair, which calls itself the world’s favorite airlines, says it will introduce “child free” flights after a Europe-wide survey of 1,000 passengers showed that half would pay higher fares to avoid other people’s children. “When it comes to children we all love our own but would clearly prefer to avoid other people’s little monsters when traveling,” said spokesman Stephen McNamara.

• A video released by Google purporting to seek applicants for “autocompleter” positions interviews autocompleter Michael Taylor :

“I started out originally as a spellchecker, so whenever you misspelled a word when using Google search, and it said, ‘Did you mean,’ and it gave you the spelling, that was me, typing it out,” Taylor says.”I’m a really good speller.”

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It is hard to believe that the zookeepers at Bronx Zoo can’t find that missing Egyptian cobra. According to the snake’s Twitter account, the cobra is having a grand time in New York. The sly snake has more than 60,000 followers.

Sample tweets:

Taking the Sex and the City Tour!!! I’m totally a SSSamantha. #snakeonthetown

Forgot DWTS is tonight! Someone DVR it for me. Want to watch Ralph Macchio go down for what he did to Cobra Kai Dojo.

It’s getting pretty cold out. I think it’s probably time to crash. Oh look, an apartment window someone left open just a crack. Perfect!

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Florida is a great place to a catch a few rays, but don’t tell Jenny Hausch that.

Hausch, sailing last Friday in a chartered boat in the Keys with her husband and three children, was on the bow taking pictures when she experienced the “scariest thing” that’s ever happened to her.

“These eagle rays, they were flying through the air,” said Kelly Klein of Two Chicks Charters told CNN. “These giant things go out of the water and slam back down.”

Hausch snapped away as one leaped into the air. But on its second jump – the boat captain said they always jump twice – the huge ray hit her squarely in the chest.

The eagle ray after body-slamming a charter boat passenger

Hausch dropped to the boat deck covered with about 300 pounds of flailing fish. In an attempt to swim away, the desperate ray kept “slamming and slamming on top of her,” Klein said.

Chaos ensued. Kids screamed, towels flew about, shoes bounced overboard.

Everyone thought Hausch was dead, but she climbed out from under the ray just as Florida Fish and Wildlife officers came aboard the boat. Amazingly, she wasn’t even scratched.

A jumping eagle ray collided with a woman on a boat in the Keys in 2008, killing her. It weighed about 75 to 80 pounds and had a 6-foot wingspan.

The ray that hit Hausch was much larger. It stretched 8 feet from wingtip to wingtip and had a 10-foot-long tail.

It was not clear if it survived the encounter.

Massive ray slams woman on boat in Florida Keys (CNN)

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The Houston Chronicle reported today on what our own Houston Texans are doing during the league-wide lockout, including working out at Rice University and playing a few rounds of golf.

The NFL contract dispute has also afforded a certain evangelical quarterback some extra free time.

Denver Bronco Tim Tebow, known for his once Bible-inscribed eye black (now wristguards), has spent more of the off-season doing ministry work and, curiously, underwear-modeling.

Tebow has made his debut as a spokesman for Jockey and appears in full-length commercials that will start to air this week, according to ESPN.

As far as whether a Christian fan base will be OK with him advertising undergarments?

“People may say it’s underwear, but everyone wears underwear — it’s not like I’m doing something risqué,” he said. Whether Jockey boxers or Jockey briefs, Tebow’s underwear choices are more sports-related than sex-related, since he’s been outspoken about his position to stay a virgin until marriage, in compliance with his evangelical beliefs.

Tebow has also been able to dedicate more time to his charity, the Tim Tebow Foundation, where he continues the work he started as a student at the University of Florida to reach out to disadvantaged children in the U.S. and across the world.

He’s been preparing for a celebrity golf tournament to benefit the foundation and the release of his book, Through My Eyes, which comes out in April.

“I am extremely excited about the opportunity to share my story of faith, family and football,” said Tebow, “and look forward to taking readers inside my life, both on and off the field. As a kid, you always dream of becoming something great. Whether that dream is to become an astronaut, a famous musician, the CEO of a large company, the President, an NFL Quarterback or anything else, you will undoubtedly face all kinds of adversity on your journey. This is my story about how I was able to fulfill my dream and I hope it can inspire people of all ages that are aspiring to fulfill their dreams.”

(H/T Sarah Pulliam Bailey)

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Madonna’s high-profile charity in Malawi has collapsed, amid allegations of lavish spending on cars, salaries and a golf course membership, and $3.8 million spent on a girls’ school that won’t be built, The New York Times reported.

Madonna with adopted Malawian son David Banda in April 19, 2007 (photo by Getty)

Signs of upheaval had marred the charity, Raising Malawi, for months. The newspaper reported that the foundation’s board was ousted last year and its executive director left in the wake of cost overruns. The NYT quoted Trevor Neilson, once a Seattle director at the Gates Foundation, and now a philanthropic adviser to the stars:

“Despite $3.8 million having been spent by the previous management team, the project has not broken ground, there was no title to the land and there was, over all, a startling lack of accountability on the part of the management team in Malawi and the management team in the United States,” he said. “We have yet to determine exactly what happened to all of that $3.8 million. We have not accounted for all the funds that were used.”

Madonna told the newspaper that she still intends to use the charity – which she founded with fellow Kabbalah devotees – to help the impoverished country.

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Is Serena Williams’ new commercial for the video game Top Spin 4 too hot for t.v.?

The folks at the game’s maker, 2k Sports, apparently think so and the ad won’t air anywhere but YouTube — even then only because it was leaked (allegedly).

Joystiq.com: “The ad was originally posted on YouTube by the actress featured in the commercial — apparently she wasn’t satisfied with 2K Sports’ decision to cancel the public release.”

But the tennis star herself chimed in on Twitter, alerting fans to the imminent official debut of the ad, which never happened.

NY Daily News: “On Monday, Williams herself told her fans to “Stay tuned for a awesomely sexy video I am tweeting later,” but, interestingly enough, she hasn’t mentioned it since then.”

“As part of the process for creating marketing campaigns to support our titles, we pursue a variety of creative avenues,” 2K Sports said in a statement. “This video is not part of the title’s final marketing campaign and its distribution was unauthorized.” (read more)