Welcome to the April Fool's edition of Critical Section.  And no we don't suffer fools gladly or even at all if we can help it; you won't find anything foolish here.  In fact, let's see what's really happening, shall we?

Is Robert Mugabe negotiating to leave power in Zimbabwe?  Dare we hope?  We dare.

Powerline skewers House Democrats' Incoherence.  "Today House Democrats appealed to ignorance, in their usual fashion, by summoning executives from the five biggest oil companies to berate them for high gasoline prices. This is fundamentally stupid in at least two respects...  First, these same Democrats purport to be worried about 'global warming' and committed to taking strong measures to combat it...  Second, if you really want the price of gasoline to fall, there is only one way to achieve that goal: increase supply."  One wonders if they just don't get it, or just hope that we don't...

Jason Kottke notes "a surprisingly effective idea": using the Google Maps interface for reading a magazine.  I have to admit, this is really compelling.  (I sure wish Winding Road used this!)  Now that I've seen it once, I'm sure I'm going to see it again, and again, and again...

This is pretty awesome: Dan Proops' oil painting of a dialog box, entitled "painting downloading, please wait".  [ via Boing Boing ]  René Magritte would have loved it!

Some excellent news from Ottmar Liebert: his new album is almost done.  That it, almost done as in released, it is truly done as in recorded.  I cannot wait.

Congratulations to Dave Winer on 11 years of Scripting News!  Not only blogging pretty much continuously the whole time, but great blogging.  We don't always agree but I always find what he has to say interesting and relevant, which I can't say about very many others.  Best wishes for the next 11 and beyond!