Date specific news?

This didn't carry an April 1 dateline but it seems so "out there" that it could have (should have?). This is a direct copy of the first few paragraphs of the story from Scotsman.com

Fly me to the moon - by catapult (by Russell Jackson)
IT MAY read like a far-flung plotline from a science-fiction comic, but Scots scientists have unveiled plans to develop a giant slingshot to catapult material from the earth to the moon. The project - by the University of Glasgow - will explore whether it is theoretically possible to create massive cables then use the power of the earth's orbit to catapult raw materials for mining, food, water and aerospace equipment into space.
Dr Gianmarco Radice and Prof Matthew Cartmell believe such a system could replace rockets and prove far cheaper. The cables could be up to 250,000km long and made of extra strong materials such as Kevlar, tungsten, graphite or carbon nano- fibres.
The Glasgow team beat 50 other applicants to win 10,000 from the European Space Agency for the three-month study, which aims to examine the maths behind such a system, rather than make a physical model of the slingshot.

There's more on their site, but that gives you the flavour. (But if the moon is less that 400,000 km away, the concept of a catapult is probably a bit of over-engineering. How would you load it. And what about the backlash once the payload is released? Oh no - what happens if it's more like a towel-flick?)