The international takeover of French literature
The Afghan-born Prix Goncourt winner Atiq Rahimi. Photograph: Ulf Andersen/Getty
The motives that guide the gaze of the literary world can be bothunthinkingly loyal and randomly fickle. For while there are moresacred cows grazing on the lush pastures of literature's vastcanonical steppe than there are dead ones hanging in Smithfieldmarket, it doesn't take long for last year's big thing to fall off theshelves into the ignominy of remainderdom, replaced by a glut of morebrightly coloured, aggressively marketed, bright young things.
This can happen to whole countries as well as individual authors. TakeFrance, for example. Before the award of this year's Nobel prize forliterature to the Franco-Mauritian JMB Le Clézio, the names of veryfew French authors were spoken outside specifically francophoneconfines, Michel Houellebecq and, to a much lesser extent, AmélieNothomb aside. A glance down the list of Nobel literature laureatesshows that since Sartre was offered, and refused, the prize in 1964,only Claude Simon (1984) and now Le Clézio have been French. Yet thefirst half of the century is crammed with French names, includingBergson, Gide, Sartre and Camus and even the very first prize, whichwent to the French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme.
It is interesting then, with the Nobel prize returning the world'sgaze to homegrown French literature once more, that the gaze of theFrench literary establishment seems in turn to have cast itself muchmore widely than is usual. This is surprising, because the attitude ofour neighbours to their books is probably even more protectionist thantheir attitudes to their car manufacturing and agricultural industries. But to reflect on the recent spate of awards, bundled together as usual in November, is to behold a country opening up its literary lens as rarely before.
The biggest of the prizes, the Goncourt, went to Afghan-born AtiqRahimi for his novel Syngué Sabour (Stone of Patience). Beautiful,painful, and groundbreaking in its way, the novel is nonetheless only accidentally French. Beside him on the shortlist were Michel Le Bris's fast-paced romp between New York and Africa in the roaring 20s and Jean-Marie Blas de Robles's Brazillian-set Là où les tigres sont chez eux, which also carried off a Prix Médicis.
This international turn in the Goncourt is mirrored in the award ofthe haughty Académie Française's Grand Prix du roman to the formerFrench ambassador to Sweden, Marc Bressant, for his La DernièreConférence. Set in London, the novel is a semi-fictional reconstruction ofthe 1989 conference which turned Glasnost up to full heat andorchestrated the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It is also notably un-French in style, basking in the kind of straight-talking, faction-packed tradition of reportage most highly prized by British and American readers. Elsewhere, the Prix Renaudot, which last year went to the staple of French letters Daniel Pennac, was won by the Guinean author Tierno Monénembo for Le Roi de Kahel. Today's announcement of the Prix Interralié, won in 2007 by Christophe Ono-dit-Biot for his tale of the drug and antiques trafficking in Rangoon, Birmane, may well follow the trend.
It would be a shame if France were to turn its back on its homegrown tradition of high-art literature, for it has held onto it better and for longer than most European countries. But the internationalist turn in French literature is not about dumbing down. To judge from history, the last great phase in which French writers fixed their focus so far from their borders - the long build-up to Revolution - also marked the moment when the world's eyes were most firmly fixed on French literature, science and philosophy. So if some literary purists might be worrying about the dissipation of French tradition, the politicians, at least, should be rubbing their hands at the waxing of their cultural star.
Posted by Guy Dammann Wednesday November 19 2008 12.19 GMT
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Beijing ~ Where it Sizzles!!
Beijing where it sizzles
By Constantino TejeroPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 04:13pm (Mla time) 08/04/2008
ONE IMPRESSION OF Beijing is that it’s forbidding. Its structures are gray hulking monoliths, particularly the government buildings. And its people look grim-faced and more robust than those in Taipei and Shanghai, for instance.
In China’s 5,000 years of history, since this city was made its capital some 850 years ago, one of the visions that stay longest in the foreigner’s mind is of bloodshed: the Boxer Rebellion, which laid siege to foreign legations and had to be put down by an international expeditionary force.
And then, all of a sudden, the world comes here to play. And the battle cry is “One World, One Dream”—the slogan of the 29th Olympic Games, which opens in Beijing at 8 p.m. on Aug. 8 (note the triple eight, considered a propitious number).
One might say it’s an empty slogan. We’re rather more charmed by the adages ubiquitous all over the city, such as this one writ large across an old building in a busy intersection: “History creates today, tradition creates civilization.”
Natural poetry
Such solemn maxims are taken matter-of-factly in this land of sages, along with the natural poetry of its people. As in the names of these establishments in the financial district: Everbright Bank; Dazzle Jewelry Shop.
Or these two salons near embassy row: New Feeling Styling Hair; Silk Flow Hairdressers. And this joint in the bar row: Pure Girl Bar. The poetry can be found even in the supermarket: Carefree Coffee; Golden Swallow Snack Foods.
Naturally it creeps up to the suburbs and countryside: Hundred-Fruit Orchard; Jujube Picking Garden; Sweet Hill Farmhouse. And this is not to mention those innumerable cultural and historical landmarks like the Red Sandalwood Museum and White Cloud Temple.
Peculiarly Chinese, yes, and frequently making one’s toes curl. But wait till you’ve seen how these people can turn a delicious pun, as in this ramshackle shop: Comfoot Shoes.
Shopping and dining
These are the signs of the times the visitor is likely to encounter all over the city this week, along with the emblem called Dancing Beijing, an abstracted image combining a seal, a Chinese character and the Olympic rings; and the cutesy mascots Beibei (the fish), Jingjing (the panda), Huanhuan (the Olympic flame), Nini (the swallow) and Yingying (the Tibetan antelope. See? Tibet is part of the Games).
Olympic T-shirts and toy mascots can be had quite cheap from itinerant vendors on the streets, but the official ones of top quality are better bought at Silk Street Market in the Central Business District. Here you can get anything from Mongolian handicraft and The Little Red Book to jade, silk, tea and electronics (better acquired in Beijing’s two versions of Silicon Valley).
For rock-bottom bargains, go to the numerous flea markets such as Panjiayuan. But be careful with the haggling. If you’re not buying anything, just quietly walk away. These people can make a scene so much more dramatically than the Vietnamese vendors.
Shop only for those you can’t find in Manila, such as local products, as most items here are a little pricier. In the supermarket, a canister of potato chips is 35 RMB (1 yuan or RMB to P7), three pieces of banana are 20 RMB, and a bottle of bird’s nest is 1,700 RMB.
A Szechuan dinner of five dishes with a bottle of beverage in a wayside eatery is 75 RMB. Taxi flagdown is 10 RMB plus 2 RMB per kilometer. If you know your way around, go by bus for 1-11 RMB and by subway for 2 RMB or by bicycle for 10 RMB a day.
Wining and partying
For hip entertainment, fine dining and people-watching, go to clubs, restos and bistros such as Lan, Block 8, Centro, The World of Suzie Wong, Babyface, Blu Lobster, La Baie des Anges, Whampoa, Cargo, Aria.
Some of these are reused courtyard houses, apparently heritage structures, but you’d be surprised to find that the interiors have been designed by a Philippe Starck or a Johannes Thorpe.
For all-the-way entertainment, try what locals call Bar Street. These clubs and bars along Houhai Lake have plushy velvet sofas outside, looking ready for action right there on the sidewalk.
Foodies and nightlife lovers would be enchanted to discover that among the most happening places in the city are those funky restos and wine bars in the hutong, those interconnecting alleyways of Old Beijing rowed with boxlike houses.
This is the counterpart of our tenements and squatters’ area – see how the Chinese have turned them into what would eventually become heritage sites.
Cultural landmarks
If you’re culturally inclined, you may want to watch the Peking opera at the Imperial Granary or the Chinese acrobats at the Universal Theatre. Or visit any of the museums and art galleries such as the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art and the Working People’s Culture Palace.
If you have longer hours during breaks in the Games, you must see at least five landmarks: Tian’anmen Square; the Forbidden City; the Summer Palace; the Temple of Heaven; and the Great Wall, of course. Without having seen any one of them, it’s as if you hadn’t been to Beijing.
China is now touted by Westerners as a new superpower on the rise. We can only smile, because based on just those five heritage sites, China had been a superpower ages and civilizations ago.
Most probably it is its recent ascendancy in world economy that has occasioned that irrelevant epithet. The so-called proletariat state is now in the grip of capitalism which it purportedly renounces.
Of the country’s 1.4-billion people, 15 million live in Beijing—so you can imagine if even only a third of them are entrepreneurs what that can do to the economy. And that’s not counting the foreign investors.
We’d rather call it China’s neo-imperialism. This is palpably evident in Beijing’s rapid development, and not only for the Olympics but also because of that ancient sense of imperial birthright, the sense of privilege and supremacy, we suspect.
Chinese officials have cleverly used technology and architecture to send their message across, as Hitler once did with Albert Speer.
Architectural marvels
These marvels of new technology and design have become surefire crowd-drawers even to local tourists. They come in hordes, from toddlers to doddering old folks, from far-flung provinces to see some, even on crutches and in wheelchairs.
Two of the most recognizable structures of the Summer Games venue can be found near China Agricultural University. The most popular is the National Stadium, also called the Bird’s Nest, designed by Herzog & De Mueron with Arup and the China Architecture Design & Research Group. The other is the National Aquatics Centre, or the Water Cube. Even world-weary Westerners stare and stare.
Another new marvel of architecture is the odd-shaped China Central Television building, or CCTV, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Sheeren. This has been selected among the Top 10 buildings in design by a British paper. Walking in its shadow is like something from Magritte — imagine the Rock of Gibraltar hovering above your head.
The apex of Chinese gigantism must be the new Capital International Airport, designed by Norman Foster. Touted as the biggest airport terminal in the world, it is the ultimate symbol of China’s neo-imperialism.
In this mad rush to build, Beijing’s ultramodern structures and futuristic skyscrapers seem to be nearly overtaking its sprawling historical and cultural landmarks. However, rapid development doesn’t necessarily mean one canceling the other.
In fact, we see the modern and the ancient comfortably coexisting in the palaces and temples shadowed by malls and high-rises, or in the onrushing Peugeot along a street swerving by a slow-moving camel from the Gobi Desert.
In this city of metaphors and contrasts, that about encapsulates everything under heaven.
By Constantino TejeroPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 04:13pm (Mla time) 08/04/2008
ONE IMPRESSION OF Beijing is that it’s forbidding. Its structures are gray hulking monoliths, particularly the government buildings. And its people look grim-faced and more robust than those in Taipei and Shanghai, for instance.
In China’s 5,000 years of history, since this city was made its capital some 850 years ago, one of the visions that stay longest in the foreigner’s mind is of bloodshed: the Boxer Rebellion, which laid siege to foreign legations and had to be put down by an international expeditionary force.
And then, all of a sudden, the world comes here to play. And the battle cry is “One World, One Dream”—the slogan of the 29th Olympic Games, which opens in Beijing at 8 p.m. on Aug. 8 (note the triple eight, considered a propitious number).
One might say it’s an empty slogan. We’re rather more charmed by the adages ubiquitous all over the city, such as this one writ large across an old building in a busy intersection: “History creates today, tradition creates civilization.”
Natural poetry
Such solemn maxims are taken matter-of-factly in this land of sages, along with the natural poetry of its people. As in the names of these establishments in the financial district: Everbright Bank; Dazzle Jewelry Shop.
Or these two salons near embassy row: New Feeling Styling Hair; Silk Flow Hairdressers. And this joint in the bar row: Pure Girl Bar. The poetry can be found even in the supermarket: Carefree Coffee; Golden Swallow Snack Foods.
Naturally it creeps up to the suburbs and countryside: Hundred-Fruit Orchard; Jujube Picking Garden; Sweet Hill Farmhouse. And this is not to mention those innumerable cultural and historical landmarks like the Red Sandalwood Museum and White Cloud Temple.
Peculiarly Chinese, yes, and frequently making one’s toes curl. But wait till you’ve seen how these people can turn a delicious pun, as in this ramshackle shop: Comfoot Shoes.
Shopping and dining
These are the signs of the times the visitor is likely to encounter all over the city this week, along with the emblem called Dancing Beijing, an abstracted image combining a seal, a Chinese character and the Olympic rings; and the cutesy mascots Beibei (the fish), Jingjing (the panda), Huanhuan (the Olympic flame), Nini (the swallow) and Yingying (the Tibetan antelope. See? Tibet is part of the Games).
Olympic T-shirts and toy mascots can be had quite cheap from itinerant vendors on the streets, but the official ones of top quality are better bought at Silk Street Market in the Central Business District. Here you can get anything from Mongolian handicraft and The Little Red Book to jade, silk, tea and electronics (better acquired in Beijing’s two versions of Silicon Valley).
For rock-bottom bargains, go to the numerous flea markets such as Panjiayuan. But be careful with the haggling. If you’re not buying anything, just quietly walk away. These people can make a scene so much more dramatically than the Vietnamese vendors.
Shop only for those you can’t find in Manila, such as local products, as most items here are a little pricier. In the supermarket, a canister of potato chips is 35 RMB (1 yuan or RMB to P7), three pieces of banana are 20 RMB, and a bottle of bird’s nest is 1,700 RMB.
A Szechuan dinner of five dishes with a bottle of beverage in a wayside eatery is 75 RMB. Taxi flagdown is 10 RMB plus 2 RMB per kilometer. If you know your way around, go by bus for 1-11 RMB and by subway for 2 RMB or by bicycle for 10 RMB a day.
Wining and partying
For hip entertainment, fine dining and people-watching, go to clubs, restos and bistros such as Lan, Block 8, Centro, The World of Suzie Wong, Babyface, Blu Lobster, La Baie des Anges, Whampoa, Cargo, Aria.
Some of these are reused courtyard houses, apparently heritage structures, but you’d be surprised to find that the interiors have been designed by a Philippe Starck or a Johannes Thorpe.
For all-the-way entertainment, try what locals call Bar Street. These clubs and bars along Houhai Lake have plushy velvet sofas outside, looking ready for action right there on the sidewalk.
Foodies and nightlife lovers would be enchanted to discover that among the most happening places in the city are those funky restos and wine bars in the hutong, those interconnecting alleyways of Old Beijing rowed with boxlike houses.
This is the counterpart of our tenements and squatters’ area – see how the Chinese have turned them into what would eventually become heritage sites.
Cultural landmarks
If you’re culturally inclined, you may want to watch the Peking opera at the Imperial Granary or the Chinese acrobats at the Universal Theatre. Or visit any of the museums and art galleries such as the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art and the Working People’s Culture Palace.
If you have longer hours during breaks in the Games, you must see at least five landmarks: Tian’anmen Square; the Forbidden City; the Summer Palace; the Temple of Heaven; and the Great Wall, of course. Without having seen any one of them, it’s as if you hadn’t been to Beijing.
China is now touted by Westerners as a new superpower on the rise. We can only smile, because based on just those five heritage sites, China had been a superpower ages and civilizations ago.
Most probably it is its recent ascendancy in world economy that has occasioned that irrelevant epithet. The so-called proletariat state is now in the grip of capitalism which it purportedly renounces.
Of the country’s 1.4-billion people, 15 million live in Beijing—so you can imagine if even only a third of them are entrepreneurs what that can do to the economy. And that’s not counting the foreign investors.
We’d rather call it China’s neo-imperialism. This is palpably evident in Beijing’s rapid development, and not only for the Olympics but also because of that ancient sense of imperial birthright, the sense of privilege and supremacy, we suspect.
Chinese officials have cleverly used technology and architecture to send their message across, as Hitler once did with Albert Speer.
Architectural marvels
These marvels of new technology and design have become surefire crowd-drawers even to local tourists. They come in hordes, from toddlers to doddering old folks, from far-flung provinces to see some, even on crutches and in wheelchairs.
Two of the most recognizable structures of the Summer Games venue can be found near China Agricultural University. The most popular is the National Stadium, also called the Bird’s Nest, designed by Herzog & De Mueron with Arup and the China Architecture Design & Research Group. The other is the National Aquatics Centre, or the Water Cube. Even world-weary Westerners stare and stare.
Another new marvel of architecture is the odd-shaped China Central Television building, or CCTV, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Sheeren. This has been selected among the Top 10 buildings in design by a British paper. Walking in its shadow is like something from Magritte — imagine the Rock of Gibraltar hovering above your head.
The apex of Chinese gigantism must be the new Capital International Airport, designed by Norman Foster. Touted as the biggest airport terminal in the world, it is the ultimate symbol of China’s neo-imperialism.
In this mad rush to build, Beijing’s ultramodern structures and futuristic skyscrapers seem to be nearly overtaking its sprawling historical and cultural landmarks. However, rapid development doesn’t necessarily mean one canceling the other.
In fact, we see the modern and the ancient comfortably coexisting in the palaces and temples shadowed by malls and high-rises, or in the onrushing Peugeot along a street swerving by a slow-moving camel from the Gobi Desert.
In this city of metaphors and contrasts, that about encapsulates everything under heaven.
Thursday 10 July 2008
Monday 7 July 2008
Sunday 22 June 2008
Writing a review
How to Write a Review
by Gale Barker, Jun 21, 2008
Are you mad about movies? Do you love to read the latest books? Do you have a season ticket for concerts or the ballet?
Do your market research. Study the publications you want to write for, which reviews they include, and the style, tone, and format of the reviews.
Make sure you have all the relevant pieces of information to identify what you are reviewing. Mention them at the beginning e.g. if it is a play, you will need the name of the play, the playwright, the theatre where it is being performed, and the dates that it is on. (But sometimes some of this information is given at the foot of the review.)
If it is a television programme, you will need the title, the television channel it was shown on, and the date and time of transmission. Tailor this information to the conventions normally used by your target publication.
How to Write Your Review
Begin by mentioning what you are reviewing without making it sound like the introduction to a school presentation: “I am reviewing Coronation Street which was on ITV on Friday 29th February at 7.30 p.m.”
See what sort of techniques the usual reviewers use. Try to incorporate the information in an attention-grabbing hook.
Adopt a tone that's suited to the publication you are aiming for - serious, flippant, humorous, witty - and make your review a similar length to ones which the publication usually prints.
Make Your Review Readable
Give enough detail to give your reader a brief idea of the content, without reproducing the entire show/play/book/ exhibition.
Give the review an angle - let the reader see why you chose to review this particular thing. Is it because it was terrible, shocking, exciting, original, unforgettable or exceptionally good? Give as much of your own personal response as the publication normally allows.
Illustrate any claims you make with examples, but remember you are aiming to inform, entertain and be thought-provoking. This is not a school or university essay!
Use original, striking language, and avoid clichés. Don't “state the obvious” or you'll turn your readers off straight away.
Make sure your spelling, grammar, and presentation are immaculate.
Give it a Proper Ending
End with a sentence summarising your conclusion - was the subject of the review worth watching/visiting/buying? Did it have certain strengths, but fall short in some way? Try to end your piece with a memorable phrase.
by Gale Barker, Jun 21, 2008
Are you mad about movies? Do you love to read the latest books? Do you have a season ticket for concerts or the ballet?
Do your market research. Study the publications you want to write for, which reviews they include, and the style, tone, and format of the reviews.
Make sure you have all the relevant pieces of information to identify what you are reviewing. Mention them at the beginning e.g. if it is a play, you will need the name of the play, the playwright, the theatre where it is being performed, and the dates that it is on. (But sometimes some of this information is given at the foot of the review.)
If it is a television programme, you will need the title, the television channel it was shown on, and the date and time of transmission. Tailor this information to the conventions normally used by your target publication.
How to Write Your Review
Begin by mentioning what you are reviewing without making it sound like the introduction to a school presentation: “I am reviewing Coronation Street which was on ITV on Friday 29th February at 7.30 p.m.”
See what sort of techniques the usual reviewers use. Try to incorporate the information in an attention-grabbing hook.
Adopt a tone that's suited to the publication you are aiming for - serious, flippant, humorous, witty - and make your review a similar length to ones which the publication usually prints.
Make Your Review Readable
Give enough detail to give your reader a brief idea of the content, without reproducing the entire show/play/book/ exhibition.
Give the review an angle - let the reader see why you chose to review this particular thing. Is it because it was terrible, shocking, exciting, original, unforgettable or exceptionally good? Give as much of your own personal response as the publication normally allows.
Illustrate any claims you make with examples, but remember you are aiming to inform, entertain and be thought-provoking. This is not a school or university essay!
Use original, striking language, and avoid clichés. Don't “state the obvious” or you'll turn your readers off straight away.
Make sure your spelling, grammar, and presentation are immaculate.
Give it a Proper Ending
End with a sentence summarising your conclusion - was the subject of the review worth watching/visiting/buying? Did it have certain strengths, but fall short in some way? Try to end your piece with a memorable phrase.
Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan: I despise militant Islam
By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:16PM BST 22/06/2008
The award-winning novelist Ian McEwan has launched an outspoken attack on militant Islam, accusing it of "wanting to create a society that I detest".
Ian McEwan has been criticised by the Muslim Council of Britain
The author said he "despises Islamism" because of its views on women and homosexuality.
But predicting a backlash against his comments, which were made in an Italian newspaper, he insisted he was not a racist.
The writer of Atonement and Enduring Love condemned religious hardliners as he defended his friend, the writer Martin Amis, against charges of racism.
Article continues
Amis was accused last year of being Islamaphobic after he said that "the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order".
In an essay written the day before the fifth anniversary of the bombing of New York's Twin Towers, the novelist suggested "strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan", preventing Muslims from travelling, and further down the road, deportation.
In The Age of Horrorism, Amis argued that fundamentalists had won the battle between Islam and Islamism.
McEwan, 60, said it was "logically absurd and morally unacceptable" that writers who speak out against militant Islam are immediately branded racist.
"As soon as a writer expresses an opinion against Islamism, immediately someone on the left leaps to his feet and claims that because the majority of Muslims are dark-skinned, he who criticises it is racist," he said in an interview in Corriere della Sera.
"This is logically absurd and morally unacceptable. Martin is not a racist. And I myself despise Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest, based on religious belief, on a text, on lack of freedom for women, intolerance towards homosexuality and so on - we know it well."
McEwan recognised that similar views were held by some Christian hardliners in America.
"I find them equally absurd," he said. "I don't like these medieval visions of the world according to which God is coming to save the faithful and to damn the others. But those American Christians don't want to kill anyone in my city, that's the difference."
Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, criticised McEwan's defence of Amis.
"Mr McEwan is being rather disingenuous about his friend, Martin Amis's remarks. Of course you should be allowed to criticise the tenets of any religion. However, Amis went much further than that," he said.
"He was advocating that the Muslim community be made to suffer 'until it gets its own house in order'. And what sort of suffering did Amis have in mind? In his own words, 'Not letting them travel. Deportation - further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan ... Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children.'"
He added: "Those were clearly very bigoted remarks and the fact that McEwan prefers to whitewash them tells us much about his own views too."
Wednesday 11 June 2008
Houses ~ Falls much bigger!!
'House prices to fall until 2010': the options for buyers and sellers
Last Updated: 12:56am BST 11/06/2008
Page 1 of 2
Have your say Read comments
Homeowners are being warned to brace themselves for three years of falling house prices, writes Paul Farrow
There are signs that tens of thousands of borrowers are already being sucked into negative equity.
Ed Stansfield, at Capital Economics, said: "We had forecast price falls of 8 per cent this year and 10 per cent next year, but the 8 per cent figure is looking very conservative. It is now plausible that prices will fall by 15 per cent in 2008. When it comes to forecasting the direction of prices in 2010 it is a case of reasoning why prices won't fall further rather than the other way around. House prices falls tend to run in years not months."
Mortgage repossessions: how to hang on to your home
Ten tips to get the best price when you sell your home
Surviving negative equity
The gloomy prediction comes as the number of homeowners in danger of falling into negative equity begins to rise. More than 23,000 homeowners took out 100 per cent home loans in the past year – and it is highly likely they are already in negative territory.
Weighed down: homeowners need to be prepared for difficult times in the housing market
The number of houses changing hands has also "collapsed" to the lowest level in 30 years. The fall in sales far exceeds the depths of the last housing crash in the 1990s and is the lowest since records began in 1978. The average number of houses that estate agents sold in the past three months was 17.4 - almost a third lower than a year ago, says the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Miles Shipside at Rightmove said that those that were still looking to sell were being totally unrealistic – new asking prices were, on average still higher than a year ago. "Sellers have to drop their asking price by at least 10 per cent," he said.
Last month, Hometrack, the property research company said that property values had fallen eight months in a row, while Nationwide and Halifax, the two largest mortgage lenders, confirmed that house prices are falling year-on-year.
House sales fall is steepest since the 1970s, says RICS
House prices: News, views and data
RICS UK housing market survey, May 2008 [PDF Format]
advertisement
We have canvassed the thoughts of some other leading experts on how far they see prices falling – and what they would do if they were a buyer or a seller during these difficult times.
How far can prices fall and has your forecast changed recently given the ongoing gloom and fall in consumer confidence?
Alun Powell, senior UK economist, HSBC "The recent run of weak housing market statistics, including the very low levels of mortgage approvals for house purchase and falling house prices, has led us to downgrade our forecasts for house price inflation. We now expect that by the end of this year, prices will be 10 per cent lower than they were at the end of 2007. The bigger question is what will happen to house prices in 2009. Our view is that a weakening economy will keep the housing market subdued."
Melanie Bien, director Savills Private Finance "The UK mainstream market will fall 8 per cent this year and 2 per cent in 2009 assuming liquidity pressures ease by the end of the year. The worst case scenario is a 10 per cent fall in average values in 2008 and a further 15 per cent in 2009 taking values back to 2004 levels for UK residential."
Ray Boulger, analyst at John Charcol, the mortgage broker "I have changed a little. I expect prices to fall by about 9 per cent this year but to be recovering by the second half of next year."
Marc Goldberg, head of residential sales, Hamptons International "We have seen prices fall by around 10-15 per cent so far, since the peak of 2007 and it is possible we will see another 5 per cent over the next few months – which will mean a 20 per cent drop since summer 2007."
What would you do if you were a buyer?
Melanie Bien: "If I were a buyer I would find a property I liked and then seriously haggle on the asking price. It's important in a housing market downturn that you don't pay more than you need to, nor overstretch yourself on the mortgage.
"If I were a buyer without a deposit of at least 5 per cent (preferably) or 10 per cent and no likelihood of assistance I would return to old-fashioned values and save for one. Because there is a downturn you won't risk being priced off the ladder while you save and it will widen your options, give you access to a greater number of mortgages at preferential rates."
Mark Goldberg: "Analyse prices carefully. Prices are 15 per cent off the peak of last summer and some vendors have taken advice from their agent on this and adjusted prices accordingly. However, others have ignored the recent changes in the market.
"Ask the agent why the vendor is moving. There are always people moving for genuine reasons and these people are more likely to be realistic than those just looking to cash in on an investment. It is a more relaxed proposition buying in a down-turn though, as buyers can, on the whole, secure the price they want."
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Last Updated: 12:56am BST 11/06/2008
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Homeowners are being warned to brace themselves for three years of falling house prices, writes Paul Farrow
There are signs that tens of thousands of borrowers are already being sucked into negative equity.
Ed Stansfield, at Capital Economics, said: "We had forecast price falls of 8 per cent this year and 10 per cent next year, but the 8 per cent figure is looking very conservative. It is now plausible that prices will fall by 15 per cent in 2008. When it comes to forecasting the direction of prices in 2010 it is a case of reasoning why prices won't fall further rather than the other way around. House prices falls tend to run in years not months."
Mortgage repossessions: how to hang on to your home
Ten tips to get the best price when you sell your home
Surviving negative equity
The gloomy prediction comes as the number of homeowners in danger of falling into negative equity begins to rise. More than 23,000 homeowners took out 100 per cent home loans in the past year – and it is highly likely they are already in negative territory.
Weighed down: homeowners need to be prepared for difficult times in the housing market
The number of houses changing hands has also "collapsed" to the lowest level in 30 years. The fall in sales far exceeds the depths of the last housing crash in the 1990s and is the lowest since records began in 1978. The average number of houses that estate agents sold in the past three months was 17.4 - almost a third lower than a year ago, says the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Miles Shipside at Rightmove said that those that were still looking to sell were being totally unrealistic – new asking prices were, on average still higher than a year ago. "Sellers have to drop their asking price by at least 10 per cent," he said.
Last month, Hometrack, the property research company said that property values had fallen eight months in a row, while Nationwide and Halifax, the two largest mortgage lenders, confirmed that house prices are falling year-on-year.
House sales fall is steepest since the 1970s, says RICS
House prices: News, views and data
RICS UK housing market survey, May 2008 [PDF Format]
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We have canvassed the thoughts of some other leading experts on how far they see prices falling – and what they would do if they were a buyer or a seller during these difficult times.
How far can prices fall and has your forecast changed recently given the ongoing gloom and fall in consumer confidence?
Alun Powell, senior UK economist, HSBC "The recent run of weak housing market statistics, including the very low levels of mortgage approvals for house purchase and falling house prices, has led us to downgrade our forecasts for house price inflation. We now expect that by the end of this year, prices will be 10 per cent lower than they were at the end of 2007. The bigger question is what will happen to house prices in 2009. Our view is that a weakening economy will keep the housing market subdued."
Melanie Bien, director Savills Private Finance "The UK mainstream market will fall 8 per cent this year and 2 per cent in 2009 assuming liquidity pressures ease by the end of the year. The worst case scenario is a 10 per cent fall in average values in 2008 and a further 15 per cent in 2009 taking values back to 2004 levels for UK residential."
Ray Boulger, analyst at John Charcol, the mortgage broker "I have changed a little. I expect prices to fall by about 9 per cent this year but to be recovering by the second half of next year."
Marc Goldberg, head of residential sales, Hamptons International "We have seen prices fall by around 10-15 per cent so far, since the peak of 2007 and it is possible we will see another 5 per cent over the next few months – which will mean a 20 per cent drop since summer 2007."
What would you do if you were a buyer?
Melanie Bien: "If I were a buyer I would find a property I liked and then seriously haggle on the asking price. It's important in a housing market downturn that you don't pay more than you need to, nor overstretch yourself on the mortgage.
"If I were a buyer without a deposit of at least 5 per cent (preferably) or 10 per cent and no likelihood of assistance I would return to old-fashioned values and save for one. Because there is a downturn you won't risk being priced off the ladder while you save and it will widen your options, give you access to a greater number of mortgages at preferential rates."
Mark Goldberg: "Analyse prices carefully. Prices are 15 per cent off the peak of last summer and some vendors have taken advice from their agent on this and adjusted prices accordingly. However, others have ignored the recent changes in the market.
"Ask the agent why the vendor is moving. There are always people moving for genuine reasons and these people are more likely to be realistic than those just looking to cash in on an investment. It is a more relaxed proposition buying in a down-turn though, as buyers can, on the whole, secure the price they want."
Have your say
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Tuesday 10 June 2008
Dialect researchers given a 'canny load of chink' to sort 'pikeys' from 'chavs' in regional accents
By Andy McSmithFriday, 1 June 2007
If, in this age of instant nationwide communication, you think that regional dialects have died off in the UK, you must be a bit of a noggerhead (as they say in Somerset), or perhaps or a nizgul (from the Black Country), or you're a bit cakey (Staffordshire), or batchy (Essex), mazed (Devon and Somerset), niddy-noddy (Isle of Man), or just gormless (Yorkshire).
Researchers at Leeds University are sifting through a vast collection of examples of regional slang words and phrases turned up by a project run by the BBC, in which they invited the public to send in examples of English still spoken throughout the country.
So much information came back that the Arts and Humanities Research Council has awarded a team led by Sally Johnson, Professor of Linguistics and Phonetics at Leeds University, £460,000 to study it. Among thousands of items turned up by the BBC Voices project is the range of words the young use to insult one another.
How, for instance, do they describe someone who goes around dressed in a lot of cheap, trendy clothes and jewellery, someone like the singer Lily Allen, for example? The best-known insult thrown at such a person is "chav", which can be heard all across the south of England and has spread north.
But in the South-east, such a person may also be called a "pikey", a corruption of 'turnpike sailor', a derogatory name that used to be directed at gypsies.
Other regional insults, all given the same meaning, include "charva", a Romany word heard in Newcastle, "scally" on Merseyside, "ned" in southern Scotland, and "kev" - short for Kevin - around Birmingham.
One of Lily Allen's offences against sartorial standards was to be photographed in a dress and trainers - trainers as the universal word for footwear known as "pumps" in Yorkshire, "gutties" in Scotland, and "daps" if you're on the south coast. "These labels are perhaps more eloquent of the people who are using them, and their attitudes, than of the people they try to stick these labels on," Clive Upton, a member of the research team, said.
"There is a study to be done as to whether when somebody calls someone else a 'pikey' or a 'scally', the word means the same to the hearer as to the person using it. Some people might think of it as a style statement, others might hear something threatening.
"But while we are in academia studying these questions, the people who really know what is going on and the people who are really driving the language forward are the people who speak it."
Mr Upton, who is Professor of English at Leeds University, said that they were "very pleased" - and indeed, "well chuffed" - at receiving their generous grant. He could, of course, have been "bostin" if he had come from the Black Country, or if he was a Scouser he would have been well "made up" over so many spondoolicks, because as a Geordie might say, £460,000 is a "canny load of chink"
The word on the street: dialects from around Britain
Northern Ireland
Foundered: cold, chilled
Hirple: hobble or walk with a limp or unevenly
Peasewisp: untidy heap
Scrake of dawn: very early
Yam: crying sound of a cat
Glasgow
Go-carry: piggy-back
Midgie men: bin men
Oaxter: armpit
Planked: hidden
Tyneside
Canny: something or someone good
Copper wife: policewoman
Hadaway/Howay: be gone
Snotter cloot: handkerchief
Wor: our
Liverpool
Backie: riding on the back of someone's bike
Delf: cups, saucers, plates
Exey cosher: newspaper street seller
Latchlifter: having enough money to go to the pub
Spondoolicks: money
Yorkshire
Ay oop/Ey oop: hello
Baht: without
Clarty: muddy
Happen, or 'appen: perhaps
Owt: anything
Black Country
Mardy: moody
Nizgul: stupid person
Ronk: horrible
Toy: a gentleman's neck tie
London
Russell Harty: party
North and South: mouth
Pete Tong: wrong
Leo Sayer: all dayer
Tom Cruise: booze
Boracic lint: skint
Lord Mayor: swear
Southern Counties
Allus: always
Bodger: careless worker
Swimey: sick, or faint
Twitten: narrow path or lane
Edinburgh
Gie's a schifter: let me have a go/look
Mawkit: dirty
Pure: solid, really difficult
Top gadgie: great guy
Somerset
Acker: friend
Lart: wooden flooring
Noggerhead: idiot
Pixie-led: simple minded or crazed
Scollared: taught
Mid-Wales
Chimook: chimney
Glat: hole in the hedge
Her's in a cank!: she is in a bad mood
Unty tump: mole hill
Wiltshire
Fuckling: tiresome
Galley-bagger: scarecrow
Loppity: to feel weak or out of sorts
Mucker a miser: Teg sheep
Norfolk
Bishy-barney-bee: ladybird
Dodman snail: Mawkin scarecrow
By Andy McSmithFriday, 1 June 2007
If, in this age of instant nationwide communication, you think that regional dialects have died off in the UK, you must be a bit of a noggerhead (as they say in Somerset), or perhaps or a nizgul (from the Black Country), or you're a bit cakey (Staffordshire), or batchy (Essex), mazed (Devon and Somerset), niddy-noddy (Isle of Man), or just gormless (Yorkshire).
Researchers at Leeds University are sifting through a vast collection of examples of regional slang words and phrases turned up by a project run by the BBC, in which they invited the public to send in examples of English still spoken throughout the country.
So much information came back that the Arts and Humanities Research Council has awarded a team led by Sally Johnson, Professor of Linguistics and Phonetics at Leeds University, £460,000 to study it. Among thousands of items turned up by the BBC Voices project is the range of words the young use to insult one another.
How, for instance, do they describe someone who goes around dressed in a lot of cheap, trendy clothes and jewellery, someone like the singer Lily Allen, for example? The best-known insult thrown at such a person is "chav", which can be heard all across the south of England and has spread north.
But in the South-east, such a person may also be called a "pikey", a corruption of 'turnpike sailor', a derogatory name that used to be directed at gypsies.
Other regional insults, all given the same meaning, include "charva", a Romany word heard in Newcastle, "scally" on Merseyside, "ned" in southern Scotland, and "kev" - short for Kevin - around Birmingham.
One of Lily Allen's offences against sartorial standards was to be photographed in a dress and trainers - trainers as the universal word for footwear known as "pumps" in Yorkshire, "gutties" in Scotland, and "daps" if you're on the south coast. "These labels are perhaps more eloquent of the people who are using them, and their attitudes, than of the people they try to stick these labels on," Clive Upton, a member of the research team, said.
"There is a study to be done as to whether when somebody calls someone else a 'pikey' or a 'scally', the word means the same to the hearer as to the person using it. Some people might think of it as a style statement, others might hear something threatening.
"But while we are in academia studying these questions, the people who really know what is going on and the people who are really driving the language forward are the people who speak it."
Mr Upton, who is Professor of English at Leeds University, said that they were "very pleased" - and indeed, "well chuffed" - at receiving their generous grant. He could, of course, have been "bostin" if he had come from the Black Country, or if he was a Scouser he would have been well "made up" over so many spondoolicks, because as a Geordie might say, £460,000 is a "canny load of chink"
The word on the street: dialects from around Britain
Northern Ireland
Foundered: cold, chilled
Hirple: hobble or walk with a limp or unevenly
Peasewisp: untidy heap
Scrake of dawn: very early
Yam: crying sound of a cat
Glasgow
Go-carry: piggy-back
Midgie men: bin men
Oaxter: armpit
Planked: hidden
Tyneside
Canny: something or someone good
Copper wife: policewoman
Hadaway/Howay: be gone
Snotter cloot: handkerchief
Wor: our
Liverpool
Backie: riding on the back of someone's bike
Delf: cups, saucers, plates
Exey cosher: newspaper street seller
Latchlifter: having enough money to go to the pub
Spondoolicks: money
Yorkshire
Ay oop/Ey oop: hello
Baht: without
Clarty: muddy
Happen, or 'appen: perhaps
Owt: anything
Black Country
Mardy: moody
Nizgul: stupid person
Ronk: horrible
Toy: a gentleman's neck tie
London
Russell Harty: party
North and South: mouth
Pete Tong: wrong
Leo Sayer: all dayer
Tom Cruise: booze
Boracic lint: skint
Lord Mayor: swear
Southern Counties
Allus: always
Bodger: careless worker
Swimey: sick, or faint
Twitten: narrow path or lane
Edinburgh
Gie's a schifter: let me have a go/look
Mawkit: dirty
Pure: solid, really difficult
Top gadgie: great guy
Somerset
Acker: friend
Lart: wooden flooring
Noggerhead: idiot
Pixie-led: simple minded or crazed
Scollared: taught
Mid-Wales
Chimook: chimney
Glat: hole in the hedge
Her's in a cank!: she is in a bad mood
Unty tump: mole hill
Wiltshire
Fuckling: tiresome
Galley-bagger: scarecrow
Loppity: to feel weak or out of sorts
Mucker a miser: Teg sheep
Norfolk
Bishy-barney-bee: ladybird
Dodman snail: Mawkin scarecrow
Another Pikey joke.......
Did you hear about the pikey who won the lottery?Apparently they're going to pay him with Travellers Cheques...
Sunday 8 June 2008
Gordon Brown ~ Good news and Bad news for Porridge
The good news, according to the Politics Home website, is that Brown’s unpopularity has finally “bottomed out”.
The bad news is that his approval ratings have flatlined, with 77% thinking he is doing a bad job.
At prime minister’s questions, he looked more miserable and lonely than ever. The talk among Labour MPs is doom-laden.
Could he have gone by Xmas?
The bad news is that his approval ratings have flatlined, with 77% thinking he is doing a bad job.
At prime minister’s questions, he looked more miserable and lonely than ever. The talk among Labour MPs is doom-laden.
Could he have gone by Xmas?
Gordon Porridge ~ record breaker
Gordon Brown is breaking all the wrong kind of records.
Only John Major has hit a lower poll rating in office than Brown today. A recovery from here would make history.
With the first anniversary of his premiership still not upon us, Gordon Brown has set an unenviable record. He leads the most unpopular Labour government in polling history.
Jim Callaghan, in the Seventies, never fell below 30 per cent in the Gallup polls of his day. Harold Wilson's nadir was 28 per cent in 1968. Mr Brown's government is supported by just 26 per cent.
Only John Major, who slipped below 20 per cent, stands between Mr Brown and the wooden spoon for most unpopular government. It is hardly a comforting thought.
Only John Major has hit a lower poll rating in office than Brown today. A recovery from here would make history.
With the first anniversary of his premiership still not upon us, Gordon Brown has set an unenviable record. He leads the most unpopular Labour government in polling history.
Jim Callaghan, in the Seventies, never fell below 30 per cent in the Gallup polls of his day. Harold Wilson's nadir was 28 per cent in 1968. Mr Brown's government is supported by just 26 per cent.
Only John Major, who slipped below 20 per cent, stands between Mr Brown and the wooden spoon for most unpopular government. It is hardly a comforting thought.
Gordon Porridge is full of oats
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party reached a record low in popularity ratings, a poll found, although the same survey showed public backing for his counter-terror proposals, a key government policy that faces a vote in Parliament this week.
An ICM Ltd. poll for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper published today gave the main opposition Conservative party a popularity ranking of 42 percent, while Labour scored 26 percent -- the lowest recorded rating for the party by the polling company. ICM interviewed 1,023 adults on June 4 and 5 and no margin of error was given.
An ICM Ltd. poll for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper published today gave the main opposition Conservative party a popularity ranking of 42 percent, while Labour scored 26 percent -- the lowest recorded rating for the party by the polling company. ICM interviewed 1,023 adults on June 4 and 5 and no margin of error was given.
Irish to vote NO NO NO NO YES
No camp 'gains' in Irish EU vote
Irish No campaigners seem to have gained ground
Irish and EU officials say they are confident the EU reform treaty will pass an Irish referendum despite a poll suggesting the No vote is surging.
A survey published by the Irish Times on Friday suggested 35% of people would vote No - more than twice the figure polled two weeks ago - against 30% Yes.
It is the first poll to put the Nos in the lead, ahead of Thursday's vote.
Ireland is the only country holding a referendum on the treaty. A No vote would throw the process into chaos.
Irish No campaigners seem to have gained ground
Irish and EU officials say they are confident the EU reform treaty will pass an Irish referendum despite a poll suggesting the No vote is surging.
A survey published by the Irish Times on Friday suggested 35% of people would vote No - more than twice the figure polled two weeks ago - against 30% Yes.
It is the first poll to put the Nos in the lead, ahead of Thursday's vote.
Ireland is the only country holding a referendum on the treaty. A No vote would throw the process into chaos.
Tuesday 3 June 2008
Tories surge ahead in polls
The Conservative Party enjoys a 14-point lead over Labour, enough to give David Cameron an overall majority of 102, according to the latest poll by ComRes for The Independent.
It puts the Tories on 44 per cent, their highest rating since the company began polling for this newspaper in October 2006.
Labour is on 30 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 16 per cent.
Although Tory support has risen four points since our last ComRes survey five weeks ago, their lead over Labour remains the same because Labour is also up four points. Other parties appear to have been squeezed. The Liberal Democrats have dropped four points, and the smaller parties have fallen back by the same amount.
It puts the Tories on 44 per cent, their highest rating since the company began polling for this newspaper in October 2006.
Labour is on 30 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 16 per cent.
Although Tory support has risen four points since our last ComRes survey five weeks ago, their lead over Labour remains the same because Labour is also up four points. Other parties appear to have been squeezed. The Liberal Democrats have dropped four points, and the smaller parties have fallen back by the same amount.
Monday 2 June 2008
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Xmas is coming
Homeowners will lose £20,000 by next Christmas as house prices drop 10%
By SEAN POULTER
Last updated at 23:14 31 December 2007
Glimpse of the future: A slump in the housing market is indicated after ten years during which prices have doubled
An average of £20,000 will be wiped off the value of every home by next Christmas, it is claimed today.
This will be the effect of a 10 per cent fall in property prices compared with their peak in August, say analysts.
In total, this equates to a staggering £400billion fall in the bricks and mortar wealth of the nation.
The figures come from accountants at Grant Thornton, who warn the reverse is likely to deliver a huge blow to consumer confidence and, potentially, the wider economy.
House prices have more than doubled in the last ten years, creating a feeling of economic well-being and security that generated a consumer spending boom.
This boom, built on credit, kept high-street stores busy, promoted manufacturing orders and ensured the UK avoided recession.
Grant Thornton warns that a fall in house prices could have exactly the opposite effect. Homeowners will feel poorer, leading them to tighten their belts and limit their spending which could starve stores of income, threatening closures and job losses.
Senior tax partner at Grant Thornton, Maurice Fitzpatrick, said: "It appears that house prices hit their peak in August. We can expect a fall of 3 per cent by the end of 2007, followed by a further fall of 7 per cent in 2008.
"This would wipe £400billion off the value of UK residential property or an average of £20,000 per household.
"A 'burn off' of this degree of personal wealth would tend to make people more cautious about borrowing. That would damage any feelgood factor and, potentially, economic growth."
He added: "The value of a person's home is crucial in terms of the psychology of personal and financial well-being. Just as rising property prices promoted a feelgood factor and spending, so falls could have a powerful opposite effect."
Mr Fitzpatrick said his projections represent an analysis of the figures based on the "best available hard evidence".
The Bank of England's decision to cut the base rate by a quarter point in December to 5.5 per cent was intended to head off the worst effects of the credit crunch. However, City analysts believe that this falls well short of having any meaningful effect.
Many banks and building societies have refused to pass on the cut to borrowers. At the same time, they have slashed the number of mortgages they are offering, leading to a fall in the number of property sales and prices.
Experts at Capital Economics revised their forecasts to suggest price falls over the next two years will be greater than it originally anticipated.
They believe prices will fall by an average of 5 per cent in 2008 and 8 per cent in 2009, wiping out all the increases of the last 18 months.
Previously, it had forecast a fall of 3 per cent in each of these two years.
However, price falls could turn out to be good news for firsttime buyers. Chief economist at the Halifax, Martin Ellis, said: "A more subdued housing market over the next few years is a positive step for potential new entrants."
Business leaders also warned that the property market could suffer a "sharp reversal" in 2008.
Confederation of British Industry director-general Richard Lambert warned that "a sharp reversal" in house prices would have serious consequences but added that there was a risk excessively gloomy talk could fuel a deeper downturn than need take place.
By SEAN POULTER
Last updated at 23:14 31 December 2007
Glimpse of the future: A slump in the housing market is indicated after ten years during which prices have doubled
An average of £20,000 will be wiped off the value of every home by next Christmas, it is claimed today.
This will be the effect of a 10 per cent fall in property prices compared with their peak in August, say analysts.
In total, this equates to a staggering £400billion fall in the bricks and mortar wealth of the nation.
The figures come from accountants at Grant Thornton, who warn the reverse is likely to deliver a huge blow to consumer confidence and, potentially, the wider economy.
House prices have more than doubled in the last ten years, creating a feeling of economic well-being and security that generated a consumer spending boom.
This boom, built on credit, kept high-street stores busy, promoted manufacturing orders and ensured the UK avoided recession.
Grant Thornton warns that a fall in house prices could have exactly the opposite effect. Homeowners will feel poorer, leading them to tighten their belts and limit their spending which could starve stores of income, threatening closures and job losses.
Senior tax partner at Grant Thornton, Maurice Fitzpatrick, said: "It appears that house prices hit their peak in August. We can expect a fall of 3 per cent by the end of 2007, followed by a further fall of 7 per cent in 2008.
"This would wipe £400billion off the value of UK residential property or an average of £20,000 per household.
"A 'burn off' of this degree of personal wealth would tend to make people more cautious about borrowing. That would damage any feelgood factor and, potentially, economic growth."
He added: "The value of a person's home is crucial in terms of the psychology of personal and financial well-being. Just as rising property prices promoted a feelgood factor and spending, so falls could have a powerful opposite effect."
Mr Fitzpatrick said his projections represent an analysis of the figures based on the "best available hard evidence".
The Bank of England's decision to cut the base rate by a quarter point in December to 5.5 per cent was intended to head off the worst effects of the credit crunch. However, City analysts believe that this falls well short of having any meaningful effect.
Many banks and building societies have refused to pass on the cut to borrowers. At the same time, they have slashed the number of mortgages they are offering, leading to a fall in the number of property sales and prices.
Experts at Capital Economics revised their forecasts to suggest price falls over the next two years will be greater than it originally anticipated.
They believe prices will fall by an average of 5 per cent in 2008 and 8 per cent in 2009, wiping out all the increases of the last 18 months.
Previously, it had forecast a fall of 3 per cent in each of these two years.
However, price falls could turn out to be good news for firsttime buyers. Chief economist at the Halifax, Martin Ellis, said: "A more subdued housing market over the next few years is a positive step for potential new entrants."
Business leaders also warned that the property market could suffer a "sharp reversal" in 2008.
Confederation of British Industry director-general Richard Lambert warned that "a sharp reversal" in house prices would have serious consequences but added that there was a risk excessively gloomy talk could fuel a deeper downturn than need take place.
CML distorts info on the housing market!!
The Council of Mortgage Lender (CML) revised their forecast for UK House prices for 2008 from an anticipated rise of 1% as of Oct 07 to now project a fall in prices of 7%. The CML, inline with its member institutions has a vested interest in talking up the housing market as evidenced by the inaccuracy of their housing market forecasts during periods of falling house prices.
As a reminder to readers, the Market Oracle forecast for UK house prices made ahead of the actual peak in the housing market in August 2007 is for a 15% drop over 2 years from August 2007 to August 2009, therefore forecasting a 7% to 7.5% drop for the year 2008.
UK house prices (as measured by the Halifax NSA data) have fallen by 2.2% so far during 2008. Therefore it appears that the CML having proved inept at providing an accurate house price forecast and now appear to have taken the safe route of extrapolating and rounding the price trend this year to the end of 2008 i.e. 2.2% X3 = 6.6% rounded up to 7%. Similarly the Royal Institute of Surveyors (RICS) have revised their forecast lower for 2008 from unchanged to now project a 5% fall.
The article Media Lessons from 1989! presented headlines from the last housing bear market of how forecasts issued by the institutions with a vested interest in the mortgage market, that were lapped up by the mainstream media tended to be grossly inaccurate against the actual outcome. Which is why even as recently as March of this year, many of the chief economist's of the big mortgage providers were still talking up the prospects for the UK housing market suggesting house prices would not fall this year i.e. Britains biggest mortgage bank, the Halifax gave a positive spin on UK House prices in March 08, - "strong underlying fundamentals will continue to support the market throughout 2008". "Over the past year, the average price of a home in the UK has increased by £4,390 to £196,649," he commented. "Whilst the housing market has slowed over the past six months, it is supported by sound economic fundamentals. Interest rate cuts by the Bank of England are also helping to underpin house prices,".
The UK Housing market remains closely on track to fulfil the 2 year forecast for a 15% real terms decline. Beyond August 2009, preliminary analysis suggests that the housing market will continue to be weak with no prospects of real-term gains.
House Prices and Crude Oil Fuelled Stagflation
Crude oil hitting $135 shows signs of the stagflationary environment that the world is entering. Despite the short-term overbought state, crude oil looks set to continue its inexorable trend towards $200 and then beyond, doubling every few years as unrelenting emerging markets demand chases Peak Oil capped supply. The analysis posted just 2 days ago ( Oil Crisis Stagflation Spiral Special ) explained why crude oil fuelled stagflation is going to be with us for many years and warned of a possible imminent price spike from the then $127 to beyond $140, with crude now at above $134 the price spike is well under way.
The consequences of stagflation for the UK housing market is for a rise in even the flawed official CPI inflation measure. The real rate of inflation for the UK is probably at RPI +1% and therefore 5.2%. Under such an increasingly inflationary environment it is difficult for nominal house prices to fall much beyond the forecast 15%, as each year house prices are losing an additional inflation adjusted value of 5% therefore over a 3 year period that may see UK house prices fall by say 18% in nominal-terms, when adjusted for 5% inflation this would imply a real-terms fall of in-excess of 33%.
Therefore the rate of real inflation will be a key factor in the construction of the housing market forecast for the period post August 2009 as inflation will erode the value of house prices for many more years, even if there is little change in house prices in nominal terms.
More Analysis of the UK Housing Market:
08 May 2008 - UK House Prices Tumbling- Interest Rate Conundrum
21 Apr 2008 - Bank of England Throws £50 billion of Tax Payers Money at the Banks
17 Apr 2008 - Credit Crisis SCOOP- LIBOR Is Now Irrelevant to Derivatives Pricing
08 Apr 2008 - UK House Prices Plunge Over the Cliff
01 Apr 2008 - How to Fix the Credit Markets
11 Mar 2008 - RICS Data Confirms UK Housing Market Heading for 1990's Style Crash
03 Mar 2008 - Credit Crisis Morphs Into Stagflation- Protect Your Wealth!
26 Feb 2008 - UK House Prices Fall for 5 Months in a Row- Housing Market Will Go Negative April 08
07 Feb 2008 - UK Interest Rates Cut to 5.25% - Will Not Help the Housing Market
21 Dec 2007 - UK Commercial Properties Crash Looms as Property Investment Fund Frozen
07 Dec 2007 - Analysis of Interbank and Base Interest Rate Spread
05 Dec 2007 - UK Home Owners Unable to Refinance Mortgages As Fixed Rates Expire During 2008
02 Dec 2007 - UK Housing Slump Gains Momentum as Properties Fail to Sell at Auction
10th Nov 2007 - Crash in UK House Prices Forecast for April 2008 As Buy to Let Investors Sell on Capital Gains Tax Change
28th Oct 07 - UK House Prices - Primary Reasons For a Sharp Fall
25th Sep 07 - UK Housing Market on Brink of Price Crash - Media Lessons from 1989!
22nd Aug 07 - UK Housing Market Crash of 2007 - 2008 and Steps to Protect Your Wealth
1st May 07 - UK Housing Market Heading for a Property Crash
By Nadeem Walayat
Copyright © 2005-08 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.
As a reminder to readers, the Market Oracle forecast for UK house prices made ahead of the actual peak in the housing market in August 2007 is for a 15% drop over 2 years from August 2007 to August 2009, therefore forecasting a 7% to 7.5% drop for the year 2008.
UK house prices (as measured by the Halifax NSA data) have fallen by 2.2% so far during 2008. Therefore it appears that the CML having proved inept at providing an accurate house price forecast and now appear to have taken the safe route of extrapolating and rounding the price trend this year to the end of 2008 i.e. 2.2% X3 = 6.6% rounded up to 7%. Similarly the Royal Institute of Surveyors (RICS) have revised their forecast lower for 2008 from unchanged to now project a 5% fall.
The article Media Lessons from 1989! presented headlines from the last housing bear market of how forecasts issued by the institutions with a vested interest in the mortgage market, that were lapped up by the mainstream media tended to be grossly inaccurate against the actual outcome. Which is why even as recently as March of this year, many of the chief economist's of the big mortgage providers were still talking up the prospects for the UK housing market suggesting house prices would not fall this year i.e. Britains biggest mortgage bank, the Halifax gave a positive spin on UK House prices in March 08, - "strong underlying fundamentals will continue to support the market throughout 2008". "Over the past year, the average price of a home in the UK has increased by £4,390 to £196,649," he commented. "Whilst the housing market has slowed over the past six months, it is supported by sound economic fundamentals. Interest rate cuts by the Bank of England are also helping to underpin house prices,".
The UK Housing market remains closely on track to fulfil the 2 year forecast for a 15% real terms decline. Beyond August 2009, preliminary analysis suggests that the housing market will continue to be weak with no prospects of real-term gains.
House Prices and Crude Oil Fuelled Stagflation
Crude oil hitting $135 shows signs of the stagflationary environment that the world is entering. Despite the short-term overbought state, crude oil looks set to continue its inexorable trend towards $200 and then beyond, doubling every few years as unrelenting emerging markets demand chases Peak Oil capped supply. The analysis posted just 2 days ago ( Oil Crisis Stagflation Spiral Special ) explained why crude oil fuelled stagflation is going to be with us for many years and warned of a possible imminent price spike from the then $127 to beyond $140, with crude now at above $134 the price spike is well under way.
The consequences of stagflation for the UK housing market is for a rise in even the flawed official CPI inflation measure. The real rate of inflation for the UK is probably at RPI +1% and therefore 5.2%. Under such an increasingly inflationary environment it is difficult for nominal house prices to fall much beyond the forecast 15%, as each year house prices are losing an additional inflation adjusted value of 5% therefore over a 3 year period that may see UK house prices fall by say 18% in nominal-terms, when adjusted for 5% inflation this would imply a real-terms fall of in-excess of 33%.
Therefore the rate of real inflation will be a key factor in the construction of the housing market forecast for the period post August 2009 as inflation will erode the value of house prices for many more years, even if there is little change in house prices in nominal terms.
More Analysis of the UK Housing Market:
08 May 2008 - UK House Prices Tumbling- Interest Rate Conundrum
21 Apr 2008 - Bank of England Throws £50 billion of Tax Payers Money at the Banks
17 Apr 2008 - Credit Crisis SCOOP- LIBOR Is Now Irrelevant to Derivatives Pricing
08 Apr 2008 - UK House Prices Plunge Over the Cliff
01 Apr 2008 - How to Fix the Credit Markets
11 Mar 2008 - RICS Data Confirms UK Housing Market Heading for 1990's Style Crash
03 Mar 2008 - Credit Crisis Morphs Into Stagflation- Protect Your Wealth!
26 Feb 2008 - UK House Prices Fall for 5 Months in a Row- Housing Market Will Go Negative April 08
07 Feb 2008 - UK Interest Rates Cut to 5.25% - Will Not Help the Housing Market
21 Dec 2007 - UK Commercial Properties Crash Looms as Property Investment Fund Frozen
07 Dec 2007 - Analysis of Interbank and Base Interest Rate Spread
05 Dec 2007 - UK Home Owners Unable to Refinance Mortgages As Fixed Rates Expire During 2008
02 Dec 2007 - UK Housing Slump Gains Momentum as Properties Fail to Sell at Auction
10th Nov 2007 - Crash in UK House Prices Forecast for April 2008 As Buy to Let Investors Sell on Capital Gains Tax Change
28th Oct 07 - UK House Prices - Primary Reasons For a Sharp Fall
25th Sep 07 - UK Housing Market on Brink of Price Crash - Media Lessons from 1989!
22nd Aug 07 - UK Housing Market Crash of 2007 - 2008 and Steps to Protect Your Wealth
1st May 07 - UK Housing Market Heading for a Property Crash
By Nadeem Walayat
Copyright © 2005-08 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.
Thursday 17 April 2008
Gordon Porridge ~ PM of UK
PM is like porridge - Labour peer
Mr Brown's leadership style was likened to porridge
A Labour peer has launched an attack on Gordon Brown's premiership saying it was like "porridge" compared with predecessor Tony Blair's "champagne".
Lord Desai said Mr Brown must "change his style" to be "more presentable".
He told the BBC recent opinion polls did not look good for Labour, ahead of local elections next month, but said it could "overcome these things."
Lord Desai, a leading economist, is not known to have spoken out against the party leadership before.
'Not exciting'
He told BBC News 24: "A lot of this is about perception. He [Mr Brown] doesn't seem to be able to tell people he's on their side and he can solve their problems.
"I really think somebody has to change his style and make him more presentable."
Gordon Brown was put on earth to remind people how good Tony Blair was
Lord Desai
Lord Desai added: "He is a tremendous person in terms of thinking, policymaking, his seriousness, the question is going to convey to people that he feels their pain and that he is on their side?"
He said that as a Labour member for 37 years, his main concern was the party won the next election, but he believed voters were losing patience with Mr Brown's style of government.
"Blair was like champagne and caviar, Brown is more like porridge or Haggis. He is very solid, very nourishing but not exciting," he said.
'Weak'
The backbench peer denied he was stabbing the prime minister in the back, while he was out of the country on a tour of the US.
"I am not stabbing him at all, but if it was it would be in the front. I have said something openly, frankly," he told BBC News 24.
"Tony Blair had a style of communication and that's why, when you see Gordon Brown, you say 'Oh my God, how good Tony Blair was'," he added.
Earlier, he told the Evening Standard newspaper that the prime minister had appeared "indecisive" and "weak" and was "a worrier".
He said: "Gordon Brown was put on earth to remind people how good Tony Blair was."
Lord Desai, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics, is not known to have spoken out against the Labour leadership before
'Miscalculation'
In his interview, he criticised Mr Brown's decision, while chancellor, to abolish the 10p starting rate of income tax - which opponents say will hit low-earners - calling it a "miscalculation".
Lord Desai said the 1 May elections for councils in England and Wales and the London Assembly and mayoralty were "going to be bad" for Labour.
He added: "If Labour loses in London there will be a real climate of fear... it would be absolutely traumatic for the party. At that point, backbenchers would look at the situation and say, 'How is all this going to work out for me?'. There would be real panic stations."
Lord Desai said Foreign Secretary David Miliband would be the best choice as next Labour leader and called Schools Secretary Ed Balls, a close ally of Mr Brown, a "repetition" of the prime minister.
On Wednesday, Chancellor Alistair Darling said the government had to "sharpen ourselves up" and deliver a "clear message of what we are about".
But Health Secretary Alan Johnson called Mr Brown "a serious man for serious times".
Wednesday 16 April 2008
Zimbabwe puts DJ before election results
Zimbabwe: DJ Features Poetry On Radio
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Email This Page Print This Page Comment on this article
The Herald (Harare)
31 March 2008Posted to the web 31 March 2008
Harare
POWER FM's Munyaradzi Mlimo is on a mission to bring poetry on the mainstream through his radio programme where he features a diverse line-up of Zimbabwean poets.
The programme -- a first of its kind -- has caught the attention of the station's youthful listeners every Tuesday between 1pm and 1:30pm when Mlimo popularly known as Dj Munya goes out in search of untapped talent.
GA_googleFillSlot("AllAfrica_Story_Inset");
Of course, there is a thin line between hip-hop and poetry but on the programme, listeners get to sample poetry in its raw form.
And Dj Munya believes poetry, like hip-hop, is a powerful medium of expression but one, which needs exposure.
"Hip-hop, some call it street poetry or the art of spoken word but unlike any other music genre it lacks exposure.
"So we are trying to put it on the limelight and if we get sponsorship that would be great because that way we should be able to promote poetry throughout the continent.
"Once you get sponsorship it is easy to run the project but right now it is just a platform for untapped talent.
"The talent is there although at first I had my own reservations but I am glad Black Heat, an artist (Nancy Mukondyo) indicated to me that it was something new and exciting," he said.
Dj Munya said through his programme, he hoped to provide a platform for a wider crossover audiences.
"We try and provide a platform for poets from different parts of the country so that they get the exposure and if possible link them with other international poets.
"Initially, it was Black Heat who used to come on the programme every Tuesday but then we realised there was so much enthusiasm from listeners and that's when we decided to have different poets coming on the programme," Dj Munya said.
Later, he said, we incorporated music instruments such as mbira and guitars to create a variation of sounds.
"The format of the programme is simple other poets prefer to recite their poems with music playing in the background and others like to present it without any music," he said.
He said it was encouraging that local poets were as good as international poets.
"I have a lot of faith in our poets because they have depth and are well versed with many issues.
"Some listeners email their poets and it not just reef rough it something that makes you think and appreciate," Dj Munya said.
So far, he has featured poets who include 40-50th, Kadizha Mutekateka and Albert Nyathi is expected to take part.
Besides poetry, Dj Munya has also included book and movie reviews on the programme.
"I have another programme called Unsigned Hype where I feature hip-hop artistes as well as inviting mix-tapes from either club Djs or those who are into music production to sample their stuff.
"I play whatever mix-tape I have and have an interview with the Dj of that mix-tape for about 20 minutes. As for the book reviews I usually get emails from listeners who want a particular book to be reviewed or I pick any book that I feel readers would be interested in.
"The book can be fiction, comedy or anything and possibly tell readers where to find the books," he said.
This, he said, had never been done before on radio but was a deliberate attempt to feature it on the station.
"The same goes for movie reviews where at least we feature the latest movies and see if it's a remake or new film. We get to tell listeners whether it is up to scratch or not," he said.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa Arts, Culture and Entertainment Zimbabwe
He said there was special emphasis on hip-hop since it was one of the hardest hit genres in term of sales. He said with exposure, hip-hop artistes could eke out a living from their works.
"Artistes should be able to put food on their tables from whatever they do. And my wish is to see local hip-hop artistes breaking through the world market so that they too, can eat.
"I know there are hip-hop pioneers in the United States but we have our own here as there many in other countries," he said.
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Email This Page Print This Page Comment on this article
The Herald (Harare)
31 March 2008Posted to the web 31 March 2008
Harare
POWER FM's Munyaradzi Mlimo is on a mission to bring poetry on the mainstream through his radio programme where he features a diverse line-up of Zimbabwean poets.
The programme -- a first of its kind -- has caught the attention of the station's youthful listeners every Tuesday between 1pm and 1:30pm when Mlimo popularly known as Dj Munya goes out in search of untapped talent.
GA_googleFillSlot("AllAfrica_Story_Inset");
Of course, there is a thin line between hip-hop and poetry but on the programme, listeners get to sample poetry in its raw form.
And Dj Munya believes poetry, like hip-hop, is a powerful medium of expression but one, which needs exposure.
"Hip-hop, some call it street poetry or the art of spoken word but unlike any other music genre it lacks exposure.
"So we are trying to put it on the limelight and if we get sponsorship that would be great because that way we should be able to promote poetry throughout the continent.
"Once you get sponsorship it is easy to run the project but right now it is just a platform for untapped talent.
"The talent is there although at first I had my own reservations but I am glad Black Heat, an artist (Nancy Mukondyo) indicated to me that it was something new and exciting," he said.
Dj Munya said through his programme, he hoped to provide a platform for a wider crossover audiences.
"We try and provide a platform for poets from different parts of the country so that they get the exposure and if possible link them with other international poets.
"Initially, it was Black Heat who used to come on the programme every Tuesday but then we realised there was so much enthusiasm from listeners and that's when we decided to have different poets coming on the programme," Dj Munya said.
Later, he said, we incorporated music instruments such as mbira and guitars to create a variation of sounds.
"The format of the programme is simple other poets prefer to recite their poems with music playing in the background and others like to present it without any music," he said.
He said it was encouraging that local poets were as good as international poets.
"I have a lot of faith in our poets because they have depth and are well versed with many issues.
"Some listeners email their poets and it not just reef rough it something that makes you think and appreciate," Dj Munya said.
So far, he has featured poets who include 40-50th, Kadizha Mutekateka and Albert Nyathi is expected to take part.
Besides poetry, Dj Munya has also included book and movie reviews on the programme.
"I have another programme called Unsigned Hype where I feature hip-hop artistes as well as inviting mix-tapes from either club Djs or those who are into music production to sample their stuff.
"I play whatever mix-tape I have and have an interview with the Dj of that mix-tape for about 20 minutes. As for the book reviews I usually get emails from listeners who want a particular book to be reviewed or I pick any book that I feel readers would be interested in.
"The book can be fiction, comedy or anything and possibly tell readers where to find the books," he said.
This, he said, had never been done before on radio but was a deliberate attempt to feature it on the station.
"The same goes for movie reviews where at least we feature the latest movies and see if it's a remake or new film. We get to tell listeners whether it is up to scratch or not," he said.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa Arts, Culture and Entertainment Zimbabwe
He said there was special emphasis on hip-hop since it was one of the hardest hit genres in term of sales. He said with exposure, hip-hop artistes could eke out a living from their works.
"Artistes should be able to put food on their tables from whatever they do. And my wish is to see local hip-hop artistes breaking through the world market so that they too, can eat.
"I know there are hip-hop pioneers in the United States but we have our own here as there many in other countries," he said.
Arab Success
Arab literature steals show at London Book Fair
5 hours ago
LONDON (AFP) — Arabic writers were thrust into the spotlight at the London Book Fair this week, as the British capital's annual festival showcased the literary talents of the Arab World.
In its 37th edition the publishing professionals' fair invited 22 countries and territories where Arabic is the official language to present their own particular forms of literature.
Organisers at the fair, which drew to a close Wednesday, insisted that the fact that the Paris Book Fair honoured Israeli writers last month was purely a coincidence.
"The real purpose is to sell the rights for the Arab authors in English or other languages," said exhibition manager Emma House.
There have been recent literary successes originating from the Arab world -- notably, Egyptian author Alaa al-Aswani's "The Yacoubian Building", which was translated into 21 languages including English.
But Arab authors who have attracted the eye of British editors remain few and far between.
Publishing house Penguin, for one, is hoping young Saudi author Rajaa Al-San'a's "The Girls of Riyadh", due out in paperback in June, will capture readers' imaginations.
The novel tells the story of four 20-something Saudi women and has been a hit in Arab countries.
Climbing the best-seller list in Britain remains tough, however, for translated novels -- just four percent of fiction books published here are translations, from all languages combined.
For its part, the London Book Fair organised 20 seminars and invited authors and major publishers from the Arab world to help them promote their literature amongst Western professionals.
Sarah Ewans, the British Council's regional director for the Near East and North Africa, said British publishers have told her that they face several obstacles when it comes to Arab literature.
In particular they have trouble identifying good books, lack Arabic-literate staff to read them, and do not have the necessary distribution networks.
Despite that, the British cultural organisation had seen "a real increase of the interest for Arabic literature" in the past two to three years, said Ewans.
Several countries, including Lebanon, Oman and Saudi Arabia, even set up their own stands at the fair to help promote their country's writers.
"The market is potentially very large" for Arab authors, said Margaret Obank, founder of the Banipal publishing house which sells English translations of Arabic books.
"After 9/11 people thought, my god we ignored that (part of the world)," she said.
"They now realise there is literature out there."
Despite all that, having to translate books remains a major barrier holding back greater literary exchanges between the West and the Arab world.
A 2003 report from the United Nations Development Programme estimated that just 50 Arabic-language books a year were translated into another language.
Samuel Shimon, the author of "An Iraqi in Paris", which has just been published in French by Actes Sud, hopes that the success of his novel in France will help him promote it in Britain.
"Everyone has been asking me about who holds the rights to my book -- it has sparked real interest," the author said.
5 hours ago
LONDON (AFP) — Arabic writers were thrust into the spotlight at the London Book Fair this week, as the British capital's annual festival showcased the literary talents of the Arab World.
In its 37th edition the publishing professionals' fair invited 22 countries and territories where Arabic is the official language to present their own particular forms of literature.
Organisers at the fair, which drew to a close Wednesday, insisted that the fact that the Paris Book Fair honoured Israeli writers last month was purely a coincidence.
"The real purpose is to sell the rights for the Arab authors in English or other languages," said exhibition manager Emma House.
There have been recent literary successes originating from the Arab world -- notably, Egyptian author Alaa al-Aswani's "The Yacoubian Building", which was translated into 21 languages including English.
But Arab authors who have attracted the eye of British editors remain few and far between.
Publishing house Penguin, for one, is hoping young Saudi author Rajaa Al-San'a's "The Girls of Riyadh", due out in paperback in June, will capture readers' imaginations.
The novel tells the story of four 20-something Saudi women and has been a hit in Arab countries.
Climbing the best-seller list in Britain remains tough, however, for translated novels -- just four percent of fiction books published here are translations, from all languages combined.
For its part, the London Book Fair organised 20 seminars and invited authors and major publishers from the Arab world to help them promote their literature amongst Western professionals.
Sarah Ewans, the British Council's regional director for the Near East and North Africa, said British publishers have told her that they face several obstacles when it comes to Arab literature.
In particular they have trouble identifying good books, lack Arabic-literate staff to read them, and do not have the necessary distribution networks.
Despite that, the British cultural organisation had seen "a real increase of the interest for Arabic literature" in the past two to three years, said Ewans.
Several countries, including Lebanon, Oman and Saudi Arabia, even set up their own stands at the fair to help promote their country's writers.
"The market is potentially very large" for Arab authors, said Margaret Obank, founder of the Banipal publishing house which sells English translations of Arabic books.
"After 9/11 people thought, my god we ignored that (part of the world)," she said.
"They now realise there is literature out there."
Despite all that, having to translate books remains a major barrier holding back greater literary exchanges between the West and the Arab world.
A 2003 report from the United Nations Development Programme estimated that just 50 Arabic-language books a year were translated into another language.
Samuel Shimon, the author of "An Iraqi in Paris", which has just been published in French by Actes Sud, hopes that the success of his novel in France will help him promote it in Britain.
"Everyone has been asking me about who holds the rights to my book -- it has sparked real interest," the author said.
Thursday 3 April 2008
Tuesday 1 April 2008
1st April in Zimbabwe & Mugabe plays everyone for a fool!
Mugabe creates April Fools out of the Opposition.
Reports emanating from Zimbanwe suggest that Robert Mugabe is to step down from power. These unsubstantiated comments from a variety of news sources seem optimistic about the outcome of ongoing talks brokered by South African politicians and aimed at a peaceful handing over of power to the opposition.
It's obvious that Mugabe has lost the election both at Presidential and Parliamentary level but will he lose in the talks to determine the outcome. I doubt it. I'm cynical about what is taking place behind closed doors.
Reports emanating from Zimbanwe suggest that Robert Mugabe is to step down from power. These unsubstantiated comments from a variety of news sources seem optimistic about the outcome of ongoing talks brokered by South African politicians and aimed at a peaceful handing over of power to the opposition.
It's obvious that Mugabe has lost the election both at Presidential and Parliamentary level but will he lose in the talks to determine the outcome. I doubt it. I'm cynical about what is taking place behind closed doors.
- If he's lost the election why can't the Authorities declare this and get on with creating the next Government?
- Where is the army ~ loyal to Mugabe for decades ~ in these talks. What do they want out of the situation?
- Can Mugabe for once in his life recognise the reality of what he has created? Again, if previous behaviour is taken into account, he will fight to stay as President.
So we have Mugabe again hanging on to power. How long will it be before talks break down and the army is on the street hounding the opposition?
Days? Hours?
April Fool's day...
April Fools' Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"April Fools Day" and "April Fool's Day" redirect here. For other uses, see April Fool's Day (disambiguation).
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.
Wikipedia's Main Page on April 1, 2007. The featured article write-up purposely confuses President George Washington with an inventor of the same name.
Contents[hide]
1 Origin
2 Well-known pranks
2.1 By radio stations
2.2 By television stations
2.3 By magazines, newspapers, and books
2.4 By game shows
2.5 By websites
3 Lists of April Fool hoaxes
4 Real News on April Fools' Day
5 Other prank days in the world
6 April Fools' Day in media
7 Quotes about April Fools' Day
8 See also
9 References
10 Notes
11 External links
//
Origin
The origins of this custom are complex and a matter of much debate. It is likely a relic of the once common festivities held on the vernal equinox, which began on the 25th of March, old New Year's Day, and ended on the 2nd of April.
Though the 1st of April appears to have been observed as a general festival in Great Britain in antiquity, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being a term of contempt, as it is in many countries.
One of the earliest connections of the day with fools is Chaucer's story the Nun's Priest's Tale (c.1400), which concerns two fools and takes place "thritty dayes and two" from the beginning of March, which is April 1. The significance of this is difficult to determine.
Europe may have derived its April-fooling from the French.[1] French and Dutch references from 1508 and 1539 respectively describe April Fools' Day jokes and the custom of making them on the first of April. France was one of the first nations to make January 1 officially New Year's Day (which was already celebrated by many), by decree of Charles IX. This was in 1564, even before the 1582 adoption of the Gregorian calendar (See Julian start of the year). Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked or did not hear about the change were fair game for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April. In France the person fooled is known as poisson d'avril (April fish). This has been explained as arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. The French traditionally celebrated this holiday by placing dead fish on the backs of friends. Today, real fish have been replaced with sticky, fish-shaped paper cut-outs that children try to sneak onto the back of their friends' shirts. Candy shops and bakeries also offer fish-shaped sweets for the holiday.
Some Dutch also celebrate the 1st of April for other reasons. In 1572, the Netherlands were ruled by Spain's King Philip II. Roaming the region were Dutch rebels who called themselves Geuzen, after the French "gueux," meaning beggars. On April 1, 1572, the Geuzen seized the small coastal town of Den Briel. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in the Netherlands. The Duke of Alba, commander of the Spanish army could not prevent the uprising. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on April 1, 1572, "Alba lost his glasses." The Dutch commemorate this with humor on the first of April.[citation needed]
Well-known pranks
Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article written by physicist Mark Boslough claiming that the Alabama Legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the "Biblical value" of 3.0. This claim originally appeared as a news story in the 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.[2]
Spaghetti trees: The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. They had claimed that the despised pest the spaghetti weevil had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees. It was in fact filmed in St Albans.[3]
Left Handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side.[4] Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger.[5]
Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell." When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.[6]
San Serriffe: The Guardian printed a supplement in 1977 praising this fictional resort, its two main islands (Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse), its capital (Bodoni), and its leader (General Pica). Intrigued readers were later disappointed to learn that San Serriffe (sans serif) did not exist except as references to typeface terminology. (This comes from a Jorge Luis Borges story.)[7]
Metric time: Repeated several times in various countries, this hoax involves claiming that the time system will be changed to one in which units of time are based on powers of 10.[8]
Smell-o-vision: In 1965, the BBC purported to conduct a trial of a new technology allowing the transmission of odor over the airwaves to all viewers. Many viewers reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success. This hoax was also conducted by the Seven Network in Australia in 2005.[9] In 2007, the BBC website repeated an online version of the hoax.[10]
'Movie Guru's Gotcha" Starting in 1992 movie companies began to hold back all movies that came out on April Fool's day. Due to the fact that April Fool's in not always on Tuesday this has only occurred twice.[citation needed]
Tower of Pisa: The Dutch television news reported once in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over. Many shocked people contacted the station.[11]
Write Only Memory: Signetics advertised Write Only Memory IC databooks in 1972 through the late 1970s.[12]
The Canadian news site bourque.org announced in 2002 that Finance Minister Paul Martin had resigned "in order to breed prize Charolais cattle and handsome Fawn Runner ducks."[13]
Annual BMW Innovations see a new "cutting-edge invention" by BMW advertised across British newspapers every year, examples including:
Warning against counterfeit BMWs: the blue and white parts of the logo were reversed
The "Toot and Calm Horn" (after Tutankhamun), which calms rather than aggravates other drivers, so reducing the risk of road rage,
MINI cars being used in upcoming space missions to Mars,
IDS ("Insect Deflector Screen") Technology - using elastic solutions to bounce insects off the windscreen as you drive,
SHEF ("Satellite Hypersensitive Electromagnetic Foodration") Technology, which sees the car's GPS systems synchronise with home appliances to perfectly cook a meal for the instant you return home,
Marque-Wiper - mini-wipers for each exterior "BMW" logo coming as standard on all future models,
"Uninventing the wheel" to counter the "EU ban" on right-hand drive cars,
Zoom Impression Pixels ("ZIP") to counter new "Slow Cameras" and,
"BMW Instant Messaging" - using Reactive User Sound Electronic (RUSE) particles to display the driver's words to the car in front on the windscreen.
A compact disc available to all BMW owners, which when played over the audio system performed minor service and diagnostic checks; when flipped over it played soothing classical music (Australia).
Sheng Long - Electronic Gaming Monthly's infamous hoax of a secret character in Street Fighter II.
There have been several other EGM pranks that readers have fallen into. Among them: claiming that some Street Fighter II characters possessed unlisted special moves, including Chun-Li hurling her bracelets at an opponent, Sega mascots Sonic and Tails appearing as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the release of a graphically-remade The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker as a preorder bonus. All such pranks have been met with praise and equal hatred from its readers, as can be seen in the "April Fools" letters section in the May issue.
EGM repeated the Sheng Long hoax again with "Street Fighter III."
By radio stations
In 1982, Dutch radio broadcaster TROS seemed to experience problems during its TROS Top 50 apparent signal interference from a new, English language satellite radio station from Switzerland. Hundreds of people called in, only to learn later that it was all a hoax to introduce a new DJ, Kas van Iersel.
BBC Radio 2 (2004): The Jeremy Vine Show reported that Germany had dropped the Euro but, as the German Mark was no longer in existence, they were in negotiations to adopt the British pound. Outraged listeners called by the hundreds to say that such a move would be an assault on British sovereignty.[citation needed]
BBC Radio 4 (2005): The Today Programme announced in the news that the long-running serial The Archers had changed their theme tune to an upbeat disco style.[14]
Kiss FM: In the early 1990s the London radio station announced the moon would come crashing to earth. Various experts refuted this along with with many callers.
Death of a mayor: In 1998, local WAAF shock jocks Opie and Anthony reported that Boston mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. Menino happened to be on a flight at the time, lending credence to the prank as he could not be reached. The rumor spread quickly across the city, eventually causing news stations to issue alerts denying the hoax. The pair were fired shortly thereafter.[citation needed]
Free concert: Radio station 98.1 KISS in Chattanooga, Tennessee falsely announced in 2003 that rapper Eminem would be doing a free show in a discount store parking lot. Several police were needed to deal with traffic gridlock and enraged listeners who threatened to harm the DJs responsible. Both DJs were later jailed for creating a public nuisance. Also, radio station WAAF 107.3 in Boston announced that Pearl Jam was having a free concert in a fictitious city in New Hampshire. A gas station in New Hampshire reported that several streams of car drivers stopped in asking for directions to the fictional town.
New format: Radio station KFOG in San Francisco, claiming new corporate ownership, switched to a new format - the best 15 seconds of every song. All morning they mixed in false calls from perky listeners calling with compliments. This hoax can also be considered a parody of late 1990s media consolidations.
Phone call: In 1998, UK presenter Nic Tuff of West Midlands radio station Kix 96 pretended to be the British Prime Minister Tony Blair when he called the then South African President Nelson Mandela for a chat. It was only at the end of the call when Nic asked Nelson what he was doing for April Fool's Day that the line went dead.[15]
New format: in 1998, radio station KITS in San Francisco played gay-themed songs and changed its call letters to "KGAY" for an hour.
Sydney Olympics (1): Australian radio station Triple J breakfast show co-host Adam Spencer announced in 1999 that he had a journalist on the line at the site of a secret IOC meeting and that Sydney had lost the 2000 Summer Olympics. New South Wales Premier Bob Carr was also in on the joke. Mainstream media (including Channel 9's Today Show) picked up the story.
Sydney Olympics (2): Australian radio station Triple M breakfast show The Cage announced in 2002 that Athens had lost the 2004 Summer Olympics because they couldn't be ready in time and that Sydney would have to host it again.
Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect: In 1976, British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners of BBC Radio 2 that unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience "a strange floating sensation." Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked.
Shuttle landing: In 1993, a San Diego radio station fooled many listeners into believing that the space shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was about to make an emergency landing at a small local airport.
Cancellation of the Howard Stern Show: The April 1st, 2004 show started off with an announcement by the station manager stating that due to increased pressure from the FCC, Viacom had cancelled The Howard Stern Show. The station played pop songs until 7:00 am, when Stern came back on.
Change of drinking age: On the Gold Coast, Australia's biggest tourist destination (particularly amongst schoolies), radio station Sea FM announced the drinking age would be changed from 18 to 21. This left a huge number of under-21s angry and frustrated, and incited protests. It was later announced at the Sea FM dance party that it was a hoax.
Second Audio Program (SAP): In 2005, Micky Dolenz told listeners WCBS-FM was broadcasting in foreign languages, and they could make use of the SAP Language control. Callers to the radio station were told that if you didn't have an SAP button, then twist the antenna a bit.
Tsunami warning and intense storm: In 2005, Estonian Radio's station, Vikerraadio, perpetrated a hoax during a broadcast of their morning program Vikerhommik, right after the 9 o'clock news. Station said that Finland had been put under a tsunami warning and that the waves were expected to be more than 5 meters high. They also said that Estonia was expecting heavy storms and that Finland might be subjected to hurricane force winds. Hosts also said that they were looking at real satellite imagery, and that it showed intense cyclones in Northern Europe. It was immediately proven to be hoax after a quick look at the weather maps.
Theft of a Locomotive: In 2006, a Cheyenne, Wyoming radio station reported to listeners that during the previous night, a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" steam locomotive was stolen from Holliday Park. Although the locomotive weighed more than 550 tons (500 tonnes) and had no tracks connecting it to any nearby railroad, thus making its theft near-impossible, several listeners fell for the joke and went to investigate. The road that overlooks the park was jammed for hours as people realized that it was a hoax, and the locomotive was still on display in the park.
"The Great Iceberg" On April 1, 1978 a barge appeared in Sydney Harbour towing a giant iceberg. Sydneysiders were expecting it. Dick Smith, a local adventurer and millionaire businessman, had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. Now he had apparently succeeded. He said that he was going to carve the berg into small ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each. These well-traveled cubes, fresh from the pure waters of Antarctica, were promised to improve the flavor of any drink they cooled. Slowly the iceberg made its way into the harbor. Local radio stations provided excited blow-by-blow coverage of the scene. Only when the berg was well into the harbor was its secret revealed. It started to rain, and the firefighting foam and shaving cream that the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.
"National Public Radio" Every year National Public Radio in the United States does an extensive news story on April 1st. These usually start off more or less reasonably, and get more and more unusual. A recent example is the story on the "iBod" a portable body control device. It also runs false sponsor mentions, such as "Support for NPR comes from the Soylent Corporation, manufacturing protein-rich food products in a variety of colors. Soylent Green is People.”
"Michael Jackson moves to Birmingham" In 2007, West Midlands radio station 100.7 Heart FM reported that newspapers were claiming that Michael Jackson had moved to the region. A station employee posed as a caller into the radio station, claiming he'd seen Jackson walking through Birmingham, and filmed it. Presenters Ed James and Hellon Wheels directed listeners to the website to watch the video, only for it to show James doing a caricature-like impersonation of the singer. Meanwhile, angry listeners telephoned the station to register their disapproval of such a controversial figure moving to the Midlands.
95.5 WBRU FM Becomes "Buddy FM": On March 31, 2006, WBRU claimed to be sold for two million dollars to Initech (a reference to the 1999 film Office Space) and changed the format of the station from alternative rock to "Buddy FM" - mainstream popular music. It was later found out to be an April fools joke, and, as of noon on April 1, 2006, WBRU had "regained" control of their radio station and began playing their normal playlist once again. Later that day, they confirmed that they were back to being WBRU, and that Buddy FM was no longer functioning.
"97.3FM" in Brisbane, Australia reported the polluted Brisbane River to be a shining blue on April 1st, 2005. This was said to have been caused by a rare movement of the moon, causing high tides and the sea water to run upstream to the river to give it clean blue water. Multiple personalities were in on the joke and interviewed through the morning, and calls were screened so that those living by the river didn't ruin the joke. Some listeners even called in reporting how beautiful it was to see the river unpolluted and clear!
By television stations
After 50 years, the 1957 BBC report of the purported bumper annual spaghetti harvest (see Spaghetti trees above) remains one of the most successful TV hoaxes of all time.
In April 2006, the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" staged a fight between Tom Arnold and Michael Strahan. On Friday March 31st the show went off the air as Tom Arnold was wrestling NY Giant's defensive end Michael Strahan to the ground over comments Tom made in a tell-all book. Strahan pretended to be very hurt by screaming and clutching his shoulder as the cameras cut to black. It fooled cast members Rodney Peete and Rob Dibble enough to have them intervene in the fight. Rodney Peete went so far as to give Tom rabbit punches while he broke up what he thought was a real fight. It also worked enough to fool the popular internet site "deadspin.com" into reporting it as a real event.
In 2005, TV 3 Estonia broadcasted a news story, where the station claimed that thanks to a new technology, they knew exactly how much they are being viewed at the moment. They also asked viewers to put a coin against their TV screens if they liked the running broadcast.
Swiss network TSR (Télévision Suisse Romande), broadcast a totally ridiculous report every year, usually at the end of the 19.30 news. For example, in 2005, they reported that instead of being helicoptered out when a person is injured while skiing, they are parachuted down the mountain. In 2006, it was that the town of Fribourg was planning to make people release their handbrakes in designated areas, so that if parking spaces were too tight, all people would have to do was to call for the police and they would push the car.
The night-time channel Adult Swim has had several pranks over the years.
There was no prank in 2005 because it fell on a Friday, but in 2004, mustaches were drawn on characters during the shows.
In 2006, the channel significantly changed its programming. InuYasha was replaced by the 1980s cartoon Karate Kommandos starring Chuck Norris, while Neon Genesis Evangelion was replaced by Boo Boo Runs Wild and Cowboy Bebop was replaced by Mister T. Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG had their episodes edited so characters farted throughout the show, although they showed an unedited version of the Ghost in the Shell episode later in the night.
In 2007, which also fell on a Sunday, Adult Swim once again had a revised schedule. The station played only Perfect Hair Forever starting at midnight. The first episode shown was actually the premiere of the show's second season. After that, season 1 was rebroadcast in modified form, made to resemble old VHS fansubs,in one episode the subs oddly turned into a script from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.. Throughout the night the station also had short clips entitled "Fan Service Moments" in which they showed short shots of scantily clad anime girls. Adult Swim also ran commercials saying that Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters would air 10 PM on April 1st, almost two weeks before its scheduled theatrical release date. They actually did, in fact, play the movie, however it was in a box in the bottom-left corner of the screen during the channel's regular programming. The box the movie was played in was too small to be viewed and the sound was that of the regular show. However, the channel did play the opening scene of the movie on the full screen with sound.
In 2008, sneak previews of upcoming shows A Young Person's Guide to History, Delocated, Superjail and Fat Guy Stuck in Internet aired, along with new episodes of Metalocalypse, Venture Bros, Moral Orel, and Robot Chicken.
On April Fools' Day, 1997, Cartoon Network ran the 1944 Screwy Squirrel cartoon Happy-Go-Nutty repeatedly from 6 AM to 6 PM, suggesting that the cartoon character had taken over the network.
In 2002, Toonami showed 4 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series featuring The Joker, suggesting that the villain had taken over the block by using his Joker virus to infect the computer system on board the Absolution.
In 1989, Seattle area TV program Almost Live! set up a phony broadcast room and dressed up actors as TV anchors to pull an April Fools' joke explaining that the Space Needle had collapsed in a windstorm.
The BBC's Saturday lunchtime show Football Focus broadcast a piece centred on the upcoming change of the size of goals. Using West Ham United manager, Harry Redknapp, the report claimed that the size of the goals would increase by two feet in height and four feet in length. Redknapp was being 'interviewed' on the training ground where his goalkeepers were getting to grips with bigger goals. They told the truth on the following week's show, where outtakes of Redknapp messing up his lines were also shown. The BBC's Grandstand sports magazine programme once featured a dispute between two production staff that turned into a fight, while the presenter continued oblivious to the scuffle behind him.
In 1998, the Channel 4 morning show The Big Breakfast got into trouble with various authorities[citation needed] for pulling an April Fools stunt showing video footage of the Millennium Dome on fire.
In 2004, MTV's Total Request Live reported that the band Simple Plan was breaking up. Lead Singer Pierre Bouvier even called in and claimed that constant fighting had led to the break-up. "Things have been said and lines have been crossed. It's hard to forget things. For the moment now I just really can't stand being around those guys. I just need some time to relax," he told viewers. Throughout the show, VJs Damien Fahey and Quddus took calls from distraught fans about the band's break-up. However, at the end of the show, Bouvier called back to confess that it was all just an elaborate April Fool's Day prank. "So you're not breaking up?" asked Fahey. "Are you kidding me? No, man. How the hell could we break up? We couldn't do that. I love those guys," Bouvier replied. TRL carried out a similar prank on April Fool's Day of 2002 when Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys was a guest host. He opened the show by saying that the group had decided to go their separate ways, at which point many of the girls in the audience began to cry. "Before we get started, though, I want to take a minute to clear up some things. There's been a lot of rumors going around about Backstreet and our future and what's going on. Since I'm hosting today, the rest of the guys thought it would be a good idea while I was on here that I cleared up all those rumours and allegations. Uhm, as of today, the fellas and I will no longer be performing together," Richardson said. "I'm joining a punk rock band and Nick's doing a solo album and, uh, we'll get into that a bit later," he went on to say before revealing it was just an April Fool's joke.
The 1977 British documentary Alternative 3 was originally intended as an April Fools' Day hoax and the date of April 1, 1977 is specifically given in the program's credits. This documentary detailed the discovery of a major cover-up involving the American and Soviet Space Agencies, who had been collaborating on plans to make the moon and Mars habitable in the event of a terminal environmental catastrophe on Earth. The program gave birth to a large number of conspiracy theories.
In 1979 the BBC programme That's Life!, which often featured talented pets, fooled many viewers with its story about an Old English sheepdog that could drive a car.
In 1991, during the time block of the student comedy show Coo-Coo, the Bulgarian National Television airs breaking news that “...the situation in the nuclear power plant of Kolzoduj is fully under control.” This brings back memories of the communist censorship during the reporting of the Chernobyl disaster half a decade earlier. 90% of the viewers are convinced that reactor No.4 in Kozloduj has exploded. The authors of the comedy show are later accused of manipulating the public in order to destabilize the Bulgarian government.
NESN, a New England sports network, announced that Tom Brady, the quarterback for the New England Patriots, had resigned, and that he would become a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.
South Park: April 1st, 1998 was advertised as being the premiere of the show's second season — and also the resolution of a cliffhanger where Eric Cartman was about to discover the identity of his father. Fans spent weeks speculating on the father's identity, but when they tuned in to watch it they were instead treated to Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus, a half-hour of Terrance and Phillip fart jokes. The true resolution to the cliffhanger aired several weeks later. The show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone claim during the DVD introduction to this episode that they received death threats over pulling the prank.
The Trouble with Tracy: In 2003, The Comedy Network in Canada announced that it would produce and air a remake of the 1970s Canadian sitcom The Trouble with Tracy. The original series is widely considered to be one of the worst sitcoms ever produced. Several media outlets fell for the hoax.[16]
When the movie Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones, came out, a TV station prepared scenes from the movie to run as if they were an actual news broadcast. At the end of the report stating that a volcano had erupted in the middle of Los Angeles and that the city was completely engulfed in flames, the announcer added that it was all an April Fools' prank.
Going Live!: In the 90's, Phillip Schofield did a section on a new type of music player that had every top 40 single loaded into it, that could play a song just by speaking the name of the song into it. He said it would be available to buy soon. He invited viewers to ring in and request a song, Then he would ask the machine to play it. The studio was of course inundated with calls, and Phillip revealed later that it was a prank and the machine didn't exist.
By magazines, newspapers, and books
George Plimpton wrote a 1985 article in Sports Illustrated about a New York Mets prospect named Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph (270 km/h) fastball with pinpoint accuracy. This kid, known as "Barefoot" Sidd[hartha] Finch, reportedly learned to pitch in a Buddhist monastery. The first letter of each line in the opening paragraph spelled out the fact of its being an April Fool joke.[17]
In April 1990, the British magazine Classic CD announced the discovery of the first recording ever made : Frederic Chopin himself interpreting his minute waltz. This event followed the discovery of 3 glass cylinders and a letter discovered buried in a garden next to Chopin’s house in Montfort l’Amaury (France). In that letter, an inventor wrote he had built a recording device in the year 1849 (several years before the phonograph was invented). The sound was inscribed into tracks by a stylus and a vibrating membrane on a lamp-blackened glass cylinder. He asked his neighbour Frederic Chopin to record some music for him. But since he could not play back the sound, he buried it in his garden and died anonymously. The magazine Classic CD offered a CD on which one could hear a dim and muffled music, dominated by a repeating grinding noise that sounded like Chopin playing. The next month the readers learned that the music was played in a room next to the recorder. The tempo was modified so that it would last just one minute, and the hypnotic grinding noise was made by scratching the microphone with a fingernail.
In 2005, the Maryville Daily Forum newspaper in Maryville, Mo., published an entirely fake front page on April 1. Stories detailed a plan to drain a local lake to find the city manager's lucky golf ball; the city's efforts to annex the entire town from Missouri into Iowa; and the arrest of the newspaper's publisher for smoking a cigar in a restaurant (only a few months after a city-wide no-smoking ban was put into effect). Page 2 of that day's newspaper proclaimed "APRIL FOOLS!" across the top of the page, followed by that day's real news stories. The newspaper received hundreds of phone calls that day from readers who thought the stories were real, and Maryville City Hall also received dozens of phone calls from citizens outraged that the city would drain a lake or annex into Iowa.
Lies to Get You Out of the House: In 1985, the L.A. Weekly printed an entire page of fake things to do on April Fools day, by which hundreds of people were fooled.[18]
Comic strip switcheroo: Cartoonists of popularly syndicated comic strips draw each others' strips. In some cases, the artist draws characters in the other strip's milieu, while in others, the artist draws in characters from other visiting characters from his own. Cartoonists have done this sort of "switcheroo" for several years. The 1997 switch was particularly widespread.[19]
Coldplay to back the Tories - On April 1 2006 the UK Guardian journalist "Olaf Priol" claimed that Chris Martin of rock band Coldplay had decided to publicly support the UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron due to his disillusionment with previous Labour Party prime minister Tony Blair,[20] even going so far as to produce a fake song, "Talk to David", that could be downloaded via the Guardian website.[21] Despite being an obvious hoax, the Labour Party's Media Monitoring Unit were concerned enough to circulate the story throughout "most of the government".[22]
Discover Magazine frequently runs one fake article in their April edition as an April Fool's joke. The articles are often so outrageous that they are hard to miss, yet the next month's issue frequently has angry letters from readers who feel misled or quote bad science. Examples have included the discovery of the "Bigon"[4] (a subatomic particle the size of a bowling ball) and of the "Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer" (an Antarctic predator resembling a Naked Mole Rat that burrows through ice).
By game shows
As part of an April Fools' joke on April 1, 1997, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting duties. Pat hosted Jeopardy! that day and Alex hosted Wheel of Fortune where Sajak and Vanna White played as contestants. Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert did double duties that day.[23]
The Price is Right notoriously gave away April Fools' day themed showcases in the 1980s featuring assortments of gag prizes (such as trips to made up locations) or by staging the entire showcase to fall apart. However, once the deception was revealed, the real showcase the contestant was to bid on usually consisted of extravagant prizes, such as two new cars.[24]
In 2003, Hollywood Squares producers played an April Fools joke on host Tom Bergeron and the stars by booking two of the most difficult contestants ever. The contestants were in fact actors.[2]
In a famous edition of the British version of The Weakest Link transmitted on April Fools' Day 2006 Anne Robinson surprised the contestants by being initially very pleasant to them. However, after a period she reverted to her usual haranguing self stating that "I can't be bothered with this anymore".
By websites
Kremvax: In 1984, in one of the earliest on-line hoaxes, a message was circulated that Usenet had been opened to users in the Soviet Union.[25]
April Fools' Day RFC
Google's hoaxes
Dead fairy hoax: In 2007, an illusion designer for magicians posted on his website some images illustrating the corpse of an unknown eight-inch creation, which was claimed to be the mummified remains of a fairy. He later sold the fairy on eBay for £280.[26]
RISKS Digest publishes a special April 1st issue.
Slashdot unveiled a new pink "OMG PONIES" theme in 2006. [3]
NationStates runs an annual hoax on April 1st. In 2004, the hoax was that there was a population bug and all nations' populations would be reset to 5 million people. In 2005, there was a message (supposedly from the Department of Homeworld Security) that NationStates was illegal by US law. In 2006, 'NationDates' was created. It used a quiz similar to the one taken at the sign-up page, and matched that nation with a random country in the same region. In 2007, many users received "Regional moderator" icons with the promise that they would be able to "wield their awesome power" over other users.
Neopets has performed numerous April Fools' jokes, including releasing 50 new pets, abolishing Neopoints completely, and charging Neopoints to use the site.
Water on Mars: In 2005 a news story was posted on the official NASA website purporting to have pictures of water on Mars. The picture actually was just a picture of a glass of water on a Mars Candy Bar.[27]
Homestar Runner creators, The Brothers Chaps, now regularly put up April Fools' jokes, such as the most recent one in which the entire site was flipped upside-down.
Assassination of Bill Gates: In 2003, many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated, resulting in a 1.5% drop in the Korean stock market.[28]
Throughout production of the 2005 remake of King Kong, director Peter Jackson produced behind-the-scenes featurettes for the Internet providing updates on the project. On April 1, 2005, Jackson (aided by cast members, crew members, and even a studio representative) announced that King Kong would be followed by a sequel, Son of Kong, which would see Kong's offspring battling Nazis after being equipped with shoulder mounted machine guns. Jackson went so far as to have faux production drawings and computer animation test footage created for the film. The joke report was later included on the Peter Jackson's Production Diaries DVD set but was not identified as an April Fools' joke; it is incumbent upon the viewer to notice the date of the installment.
Rock band Tool publishes an April Fools' joke every year on their website [4]. For example, in 2005 Tool announced that their singer Maynard James Keenan had found religion and quit the music business. Also in 1997, a serious tour bus crash was reported to have taken place.
Andrew Carlssin was a hoax created by the Weekly World News about a time-traveling man, that was later printed on Yahoo News as an April Fools' Joke.
Maddox once pulled an infamous April Fools' Day joke on April 1, 2004, on his site, The Best Page In The Universe. The site had a completely different design, including imagery that represents everything he usually is against, and also misspelling several words and using chat-based acronyms such as "LOL" all throughout. However, each page's address featured an 'af' in it somewhere, indicating it was an April Fools' joke. Despite this small but obvious clue, several fans fell for the joke, some even claiming they will never visit the site again. Four days later on April 5, Maddox posted an article titled "How do you dumbasses manage to breathe?" The original April Fools' page can be seen here. The rebuttal article can be viewed here.
SARS Infects Hong Kong: In 2003 during the time when Hong Kong was seriously hit by SARS, it was rumored that many people in Hong Kong had become infected with SARS and become uncontrolled, that all immigration ports would be closed to quarantine the region, and that Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong at that time, had resigned. Hong Kong supermarkets were immediately overwhelmed by panicked shoppers. The Hong Kong government held a press conference to deny the rumor. The rumor, which was intended as an April Fools' prank, was started by a student by imitating the design of Ming Pao newspaper website. He was charged for this incident.[29]
Online Retailer ThinkGeek usually replace their main page with a page containing "Featured Items" that are a joke. The page looks, feels and functions just like their real one, however the items featured are hoax and do not exist. Such items have included "Inhalable Caffeine Sticks", a USB pregnancy test kit, and an alarm clock which wirelessly connects to your PC to log into your internet banking, and send funds to a charity. Adding any of these items to your shopping cart takes you to a page stating that the item is a hoax.
Facebook and the News-Feed: On April 1, 2007, Facebook posted fake updates on the News-feed page reading [5]:
"Introducing LivePoke! Facebook will dispatch a real live person today to poke a friend of your choice. (offer good for only the first 100 pokers in each network)"
"Harry and Voldemort have set their relationship status to 'Mortal Enemies.'"
"You are on Facebook, reading your News Feed."
"Meredith and McDreamy have changed their relationship status to 'It's Complicated' ... oh wait ... 'In a Relationship' ... oh wait ... 'It's Complicated' again."
"Two of your oxen drowned when you tried to ford the river."
"Bracket Buster: Ohio State and Florida have mutually agreed on a tie and will not play the championship game."
Changing the copyrights from "a Mark Zuckerberg production" to a random Facebook employees' name or the user's own.
In 2007, wordpress.com set up their main page so that when logged in, your latest post would appear as 'Blog Of The Minute'. This raised several questions on their support forums.
www.howstuffworks.com does an annual bogus article. In 2006, it was "How Animated Tattoos Work"; in 2007 "How Phone Cell Implants Work".
Motoshi Sakriboto: In 2007, the Square Enix fansite Square Haven reported that game music composers Motoi Sakuraba and Hitoshi Sakimoto had announced a merger. The resulting amalgamated life form was named Motoshi Sakriboto. The hoax played off the fact that when rival role-playing game developers Square and Enix merged on April 1, 2003, many believed the news to be an April Fools' joke.[30]
Club Penguin's April Fool's Day parties have always changed almost all of Club Penguin. In the 2008 one, the iceberg looked like a cup of ice water, and the dock was changed to an super fast ice rink, as well as the forest going completely upside down and the cove having various effects. Also, several buildings' graphics looked as if they had been drawn with crayons, pencils, or as if they had been rapidly made with Microsoft paint.
Lists of April Fool hoaxes
April 1, 1999
April 1, 2000
April 1, 2002
April 1, 2003
April 1, 2004
April 1, 2005
April 1, 2006
April 1, 2007
April 1, 2008
Real News on April Fools' Day
The frequency of April Fool hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on 1 April.
Residents running from an approaching tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii
The 1 April 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake tsunami that killed 165 people on Hawaii and Alaska resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system (specifically the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre), established in 1949 for Pacific Ocean area countries. The tsunami in question is known in Hawaii as the "April Fools' Day Tsunami" due to people drowning because of the assumptions that the warnings were an April Fools' prank.
The 2005 death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was originally dismissed as an April Fools' joke. The comedian's March 29, 2005 death was announced on March 31, but many newspapers didn't carry the story until April 1, 2005.
Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google traditionally perpetrates April Fool's Day hoaxes each April 1 (see Google's hoaxes.) Another Google-related event that turned out not to be a hoax occurred on April 1, 2007, when employees at Google's New York City office were alerted that a ball python kept in an engineer's cubicle had escaped and was on the loose. An internal e-mail acknowledged that "the timing…could not be more awkward" but that the snake's escape was in fact an actual occurrence and not a prank.[31]
The merger of Square and its rival company, Enix, took place on April 1, 2003, and was originally thought to be a joke.
The announcement of the anime version of the Powerpuff Girls, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, was on April Fools Day causing many to think it was a joke.
The game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was announced only a couple days before April Fools Day so many thought that Mario and Sonic together for the very first time was a joke.
Other prank days in the world
In Iran, people play jokes on each other on the 13th day of the Persian calendar new year (Norouz), which falls on April 1 or April 2. This day is called Sizdah Bedar and is considered to be the oldest prank-tradition in the world still alive today, which has led many to believe that the origins of the April Fools Day goes back to this tradition which is believed to have been celebrated by Persians as far back as 536 BC.
The April 1 tradition in France includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. This is also widespread in other nations, such as Italy (where the term pesce d'aprile (literally "April's fish") is also used to refer to any jokes done during the day).
In Spanish-speaking countries, similar pranks are practiced on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents. This custom also exists in certain areas of Belgium, including the province of Antwerp. The Flemish tradition is for children to lock out their parents or teachers, only letting them in if they promise to bring treats the same evening or the next day.
In Poland, "prima aprilis" ("April 1" in Latin) is a day full of jokes - various hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which sometimes cooperate to make the 'information' more credible) and even public institutions. Serious activities are usually avoided. This conviction is so strong that the anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I signed on April 1, 1683, was backdated to March 31.
In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, the April 1 tradition requires jokes to be played before midday: if somebody pulls an April Fools' Trick after midday, then the person pulling the trick is actually considered the fool. The following rhyme may be chanted:
April Fool's has come and gone.Who's the fool that carried on?
In Denmark the 1st of May is known as "Maj-kat", meaning quite simply "May-cat", and is identical to April Fools' day, though Danes also celebrate April Fools' day ("aprilsnar").
Some Jewish communities have a traditional event called a Purim spiel, which is similar in many ways to April Fools' Day. Fake newspaper articles are common.
April Fools' Day in media
The 1986 horror film April Fool's Day is themed around the holiday (akin to Halloween).
In the film The French Connection, the opening scenes take place on April 1 and show children in Marseille running around pinning poissons d'Avril (April fish) on each other.
The birthday of the mischievous twins, Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter series is April 1st.
O. Stock, C. Strapparava & A. Nijholt (eds.) The April Fools' Day Workshop on Computational Humour. Proc. Twente Workshop on Language Technology 20 (TWLT20), ISSN 0929-0672, ITC-IRST, Trento, Italy, April 2002, 146 pp
Quotes about April Fools' Day
"April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four." — Mark Twain
See also
April Fool is the codename for a spy and double agent who allegedly played a key role in the downfall of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Pigasus Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor presented on April 1, given in the field of "Paranormal fraud".
Sizdah Bedar, the last day of two-week springtime celebrations for the Persian New Year is a day of pranks, just like April Fools' Day.
April 1
References
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"April Fools Day" and "April Fool's Day" redirect here. For other uses, see April Fool's Day (disambiguation).
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.
Wikipedia's Main Page on April 1, 2007. The featured article write-up purposely confuses President George Washington with an inventor of the same name.
Contents[hide]
1 Origin
2 Well-known pranks
2.1 By radio stations
2.2 By television stations
2.3 By magazines, newspapers, and books
2.4 By game shows
2.5 By websites
3 Lists of April Fool hoaxes
4 Real News on April Fools' Day
5 Other prank days in the world
6 April Fools' Day in media
7 Quotes about April Fools' Day
8 See also
9 References
10 Notes
11 External links
//
Origin
The origins of this custom are complex and a matter of much debate. It is likely a relic of the once common festivities held on the vernal equinox, which began on the 25th of March, old New Year's Day, and ended on the 2nd of April.
Though the 1st of April appears to have been observed as a general festival in Great Britain in antiquity, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being a term of contempt, as it is in many countries.
One of the earliest connections of the day with fools is Chaucer's story the Nun's Priest's Tale (c.1400), which concerns two fools and takes place "thritty dayes and two" from the beginning of March, which is April 1. The significance of this is difficult to determine.
Europe may have derived its April-fooling from the French.[1] French and Dutch references from 1508 and 1539 respectively describe April Fools' Day jokes and the custom of making them on the first of April. France was one of the first nations to make January 1 officially New Year's Day (which was already celebrated by many), by decree of Charles IX. This was in 1564, even before the 1582 adoption of the Gregorian calendar (See Julian start of the year). Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked or did not hear about the change were fair game for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April. In France the person fooled is known as poisson d'avril (April fish). This has been explained as arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. The French traditionally celebrated this holiday by placing dead fish on the backs of friends. Today, real fish have been replaced with sticky, fish-shaped paper cut-outs that children try to sneak onto the back of their friends' shirts. Candy shops and bakeries also offer fish-shaped sweets for the holiday.
Some Dutch also celebrate the 1st of April for other reasons. In 1572, the Netherlands were ruled by Spain's King Philip II. Roaming the region were Dutch rebels who called themselves Geuzen, after the French "gueux," meaning beggars. On April 1, 1572, the Geuzen seized the small coastal town of Den Briel. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in the Netherlands. The Duke of Alba, commander of the Spanish army could not prevent the uprising. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on April 1, 1572, "Alba lost his glasses." The Dutch commemorate this with humor on the first of April.[citation needed]
Well-known pranks
Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article written by physicist Mark Boslough claiming that the Alabama Legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the "Biblical value" of 3.0. This claim originally appeared as a news story in the 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.[2]
Spaghetti trees: The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. They had claimed that the despised pest the spaghetti weevil had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees. It was in fact filmed in St Albans.[3]
Left Handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side.[4] Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger.[5]
Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell." When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.[6]
San Serriffe: The Guardian printed a supplement in 1977 praising this fictional resort, its two main islands (Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse), its capital (Bodoni), and its leader (General Pica). Intrigued readers were later disappointed to learn that San Serriffe (sans serif) did not exist except as references to typeface terminology. (This comes from a Jorge Luis Borges story.)[7]
Metric time: Repeated several times in various countries, this hoax involves claiming that the time system will be changed to one in which units of time are based on powers of 10.[8]
Smell-o-vision: In 1965, the BBC purported to conduct a trial of a new technology allowing the transmission of odor over the airwaves to all viewers. Many viewers reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success. This hoax was also conducted by the Seven Network in Australia in 2005.[9] In 2007, the BBC website repeated an online version of the hoax.[10]
'Movie Guru's Gotcha" Starting in 1992 movie companies began to hold back all movies that came out on April Fool's day. Due to the fact that April Fool's in not always on Tuesday this has only occurred twice.[citation needed]
Tower of Pisa: The Dutch television news reported once in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over. Many shocked people contacted the station.[11]
Write Only Memory: Signetics advertised Write Only Memory IC databooks in 1972 through the late 1970s.[12]
The Canadian news site bourque.org announced in 2002 that Finance Minister Paul Martin had resigned "in order to breed prize Charolais cattle and handsome Fawn Runner ducks."[13]
Annual BMW Innovations see a new "cutting-edge invention" by BMW advertised across British newspapers every year, examples including:
Warning against counterfeit BMWs: the blue and white parts of the logo were reversed
The "Toot and Calm Horn" (after Tutankhamun), which calms rather than aggravates other drivers, so reducing the risk of road rage,
MINI cars being used in upcoming space missions to Mars,
IDS ("Insect Deflector Screen") Technology - using elastic solutions to bounce insects off the windscreen as you drive,
SHEF ("Satellite Hypersensitive Electromagnetic Foodration") Technology, which sees the car's GPS systems synchronise with home appliances to perfectly cook a meal for the instant you return home,
Marque-Wiper - mini-wipers for each exterior "BMW" logo coming as standard on all future models,
"Uninventing the wheel" to counter the "EU ban" on right-hand drive cars,
Zoom Impression Pixels ("ZIP") to counter new "Slow Cameras" and,
"BMW Instant Messaging" - using Reactive User Sound Electronic (RUSE) particles to display the driver's words to the car in front on the windscreen.
A compact disc available to all BMW owners, which when played over the audio system performed minor service and diagnostic checks; when flipped over it played soothing classical music (Australia).
Sheng Long - Electronic Gaming Monthly's infamous hoax of a secret character in Street Fighter II.
There have been several other EGM pranks that readers have fallen into. Among them: claiming that some Street Fighter II characters possessed unlisted special moves, including Chun-Li hurling her bracelets at an opponent, Sega mascots Sonic and Tails appearing as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the release of a graphically-remade The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker as a preorder bonus. All such pranks have been met with praise and equal hatred from its readers, as can be seen in the "April Fools" letters section in the May issue.
EGM repeated the Sheng Long hoax again with "Street Fighter III."
By radio stations
In 1982, Dutch radio broadcaster TROS seemed to experience problems during its TROS Top 50 apparent signal interference from a new, English language satellite radio station from Switzerland. Hundreds of people called in, only to learn later that it was all a hoax to introduce a new DJ, Kas van Iersel.
BBC Radio 2 (2004): The Jeremy Vine Show reported that Germany had dropped the Euro but, as the German Mark was no longer in existence, they were in negotiations to adopt the British pound. Outraged listeners called by the hundreds to say that such a move would be an assault on British sovereignty.[citation needed]
BBC Radio 4 (2005): The Today Programme announced in the news that the long-running serial The Archers had changed their theme tune to an upbeat disco style.[14]
Kiss FM: In the early 1990s the London radio station announced the moon would come crashing to earth. Various experts refuted this along with with many callers.
Death of a mayor: In 1998, local WAAF shock jocks Opie and Anthony reported that Boston mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. Menino happened to be on a flight at the time, lending credence to the prank as he could not be reached. The rumor spread quickly across the city, eventually causing news stations to issue alerts denying the hoax. The pair were fired shortly thereafter.[citation needed]
Free concert: Radio station 98.1 KISS in Chattanooga, Tennessee falsely announced in 2003 that rapper Eminem would be doing a free show in a discount store parking lot. Several police were needed to deal with traffic gridlock and enraged listeners who threatened to harm the DJs responsible. Both DJs were later jailed for creating a public nuisance. Also, radio station WAAF 107.3 in Boston announced that Pearl Jam was having a free concert in a fictitious city in New Hampshire. A gas station in New Hampshire reported that several streams of car drivers stopped in asking for directions to the fictional town.
New format: Radio station KFOG in San Francisco, claiming new corporate ownership, switched to a new format - the best 15 seconds of every song. All morning they mixed in false calls from perky listeners calling with compliments. This hoax can also be considered a parody of late 1990s media consolidations.
Phone call: In 1998, UK presenter Nic Tuff of West Midlands radio station Kix 96 pretended to be the British Prime Minister Tony Blair when he called the then South African President Nelson Mandela for a chat. It was only at the end of the call when Nic asked Nelson what he was doing for April Fool's Day that the line went dead.[15]
New format: in 1998, radio station KITS in San Francisco played gay-themed songs and changed its call letters to "KGAY" for an hour.
Sydney Olympics (1): Australian radio station Triple J breakfast show co-host Adam Spencer announced in 1999 that he had a journalist on the line at the site of a secret IOC meeting and that Sydney had lost the 2000 Summer Olympics. New South Wales Premier Bob Carr was also in on the joke. Mainstream media (including Channel 9's Today Show) picked up the story.
Sydney Olympics (2): Australian radio station Triple M breakfast show The Cage announced in 2002 that Athens had lost the 2004 Summer Olympics because they couldn't be ready in time and that Sydney would have to host it again.
Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect: In 1976, British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners of BBC Radio 2 that unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience "a strange floating sensation." Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked.
Shuttle landing: In 1993, a San Diego radio station fooled many listeners into believing that the space shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was about to make an emergency landing at a small local airport.
Cancellation of the Howard Stern Show: The April 1st, 2004 show started off with an announcement by the station manager stating that due to increased pressure from the FCC, Viacom had cancelled The Howard Stern Show. The station played pop songs until 7:00 am, when Stern came back on.
Change of drinking age: On the Gold Coast, Australia's biggest tourist destination (particularly amongst schoolies), radio station Sea FM announced the drinking age would be changed from 18 to 21. This left a huge number of under-21s angry and frustrated, and incited protests. It was later announced at the Sea FM dance party that it was a hoax.
Second Audio Program (SAP): In 2005, Micky Dolenz told listeners WCBS-FM was broadcasting in foreign languages, and they could make use of the SAP Language control. Callers to the radio station were told that if you didn't have an SAP button, then twist the antenna a bit.
Tsunami warning and intense storm: In 2005, Estonian Radio's station, Vikerraadio, perpetrated a hoax during a broadcast of their morning program Vikerhommik, right after the 9 o'clock news. Station said that Finland had been put under a tsunami warning and that the waves were expected to be more than 5 meters high. They also said that Estonia was expecting heavy storms and that Finland might be subjected to hurricane force winds. Hosts also said that they were looking at real satellite imagery, and that it showed intense cyclones in Northern Europe. It was immediately proven to be hoax after a quick look at the weather maps.
Theft of a Locomotive: In 2006, a Cheyenne, Wyoming radio station reported to listeners that during the previous night, a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" steam locomotive was stolen from Holliday Park. Although the locomotive weighed more than 550 tons (500 tonnes) and had no tracks connecting it to any nearby railroad, thus making its theft near-impossible, several listeners fell for the joke and went to investigate. The road that overlooks the park was jammed for hours as people realized that it was a hoax, and the locomotive was still on display in the park.
"The Great Iceberg" On April 1, 1978 a barge appeared in Sydney Harbour towing a giant iceberg. Sydneysiders were expecting it. Dick Smith, a local adventurer and millionaire businessman, had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. Now he had apparently succeeded. He said that he was going to carve the berg into small ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each. These well-traveled cubes, fresh from the pure waters of Antarctica, were promised to improve the flavor of any drink they cooled. Slowly the iceberg made its way into the harbor. Local radio stations provided excited blow-by-blow coverage of the scene. Only when the berg was well into the harbor was its secret revealed. It started to rain, and the firefighting foam and shaving cream that the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.
"National Public Radio" Every year National Public Radio in the United States does an extensive news story on April 1st. These usually start off more or less reasonably, and get more and more unusual. A recent example is the story on the "iBod" a portable body control device. It also runs false sponsor mentions, such as "Support for NPR comes from the Soylent Corporation, manufacturing protein-rich food products in a variety of colors. Soylent Green is People.”
"Michael Jackson moves to Birmingham" In 2007, West Midlands radio station 100.7 Heart FM reported that newspapers were claiming that Michael Jackson had moved to the region. A station employee posed as a caller into the radio station, claiming he'd seen Jackson walking through Birmingham, and filmed it. Presenters Ed James and Hellon Wheels directed listeners to the website to watch the video, only for it to show James doing a caricature-like impersonation of the singer. Meanwhile, angry listeners telephoned the station to register their disapproval of such a controversial figure moving to the Midlands.
95.5 WBRU FM Becomes "Buddy FM": On March 31, 2006, WBRU claimed to be sold for two million dollars to Initech (a reference to the 1999 film Office Space) and changed the format of the station from alternative rock to "Buddy FM" - mainstream popular music. It was later found out to be an April fools joke, and, as of noon on April 1, 2006, WBRU had "regained" control of their radio station and began playing their normal playlist once again. Later that day, they confirmed that they were back to being WBRU, and that Buddy FM was no longer functioning.
"97.3FM" in Brisbane, Australia reported the polluted Brisbane River to be a shining blue on April 1st, 2005. This was said to have been caused by a rare movement of the moon, causing high tides and the sea water to run upstream to the river to give it clean blue water. Multiple personalities were in on the joke and interviewed through the morning, and calls were screened so that those living by the river didn't ruin the joke. Some listeners even called in reporting how beautiful it was to see the river unpolluted and clear!
By television stations
After 50 years, the 1957 BBC report of the purported bumper annual spaghetti harvest (see Spaghetti trees above) remains one of the most successful TV hoaxes of all time.
In April 2006, the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" staged a fight between Tom Arnold and Michael Strahan. On Friday March 31st the show went off the air as Tom Arnold was wrestling NY Giant's defensive end Michael Strahan to the ground over comments Tom made in a tell-all book. Strahan pretended to be very hurt by screaming and clutching his shoulder as the cameras cut to black. It fooled cast members Rodney Peete and Rob Dibble enough to have them intervene in the fight. Rodney Peete went so far as to give Tom rabbit punches while he broke up what he thought was a real fight. It also worked enough to fool the popular internet site "deadspin.com" into reporting it as a real event.
In 2005, TV 3 Estonia broadcasted a news story, where the station claimed that thanks to a new technology, they knew exactly how much they are being viewed at the moment. They also asked viewers to put a coin against their TV screens if they liked the running broadcast.
Swiss network TSR (Télévision Suisse Romande), broadcast a totally ridiculous report every year, usually at the end of the 19.30 news. For example, in 2005, they reported that instead of being helicoptered out when a person is injured while skiing, they are parachuted down the mountain. In 2006, it was that the town of Fribourg was planning to make people release their handbrakes in designated areas, so that if parking spaces were too tight, all people would have to do was to call for the police and they would push the car.
The night-time channel Adult Swim has had several pranks over the years.
There was no prank in 2005 because it fell on a Friday, but in 2004, mustaches were drawn on characters during the shows.
In 2006, the channel significantly changed its programming. InuYasha was replaced by the 1980s cartoon Karate Kommandos starring Chuck Norris, while Neon Genesis Evangelion was replaced by Boo Boo Runs Wild and Cowboy Bebop was replaced by Mister T. Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG had their episodes edited so characters farted throughout the show, although they showed an unedited version of the Ghost in the Shell episode later in the night.
In 2007, which also fell on a Sunday, Adult Swim once again had a revised schedule. The station played only Perfect Hair Forever starting at midnight. The first episode shown was actually the premiere of the show's second season. After that, season 1 was rebroadcast in modified form, made to resemble old VHS fansubs,in one episode the subs oddly turned into a script from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.. Throughout the night the station also had short clips entitled "Fan Service Moments" in which they showed short shots of scantily clad anime girls. Adult Swim also ran commercials saying that Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters would air 10 PM on April 1st, almost two weeks before its scheduled theatrical release date. They actually did, in fact, play the movie, however it was in a box in the bottom-left corner of the screen during the channel's regular programming. The box the movie was played in was too small to be viewed and the sound was that of the regular show. However, the channel did play the opening scene of the movie on the full screen with sound.
In 2008, sneak previews of upcoming shows A Young Person's Guide to History, Delocated, Superjail and Fat Guy Stuck in Internet aired, along with new episodes of Metalocalypse, Venture Bros, Moral Orel, and Robot Chicken.
On April Fools' Day, 1997, Cartoon Network ran the 1944 Screwy Squirrel cartoon Happy-Go-Nutty repeatedly from 6 AM to 6 PM, suggesting that the cartoon character had taken over the network.
In 2002, Toonami showed 4 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series featuring The Joker, suggesting that the villain had taken over the block by using his Joker virus to infect the computer system on board the Absolution.
In 1989, Seattle area TV program Almost Live! set up a phony broadcast room and dressed up actors as TV anchors to pull an April Fools' joke explaining that the Space Needle had collapsed in a windstorm.
The BBC's Saturday lunchtime show Football Focus broadcast a piece centred on the upcoming change of the size of goals. Using West Ham United manager, Harry Redknapp, the report claimed that the size of the goals would increase by two feet in height and four feet in length. Redknapp was being 'interviewed' on the training ground where his goalkeepers were getting to grips with bigger goals. They told the truth on the following week's show, where outtakes of Redknapp messing up his lines were also shown. The BBC's Grandstand sports magazine programme once featured a dispute between two production staff that turned into a fight, while the presenter continued oblivious to the scuffle behind him.
In 1998, the Channel 4 morning show The Big Breakfast got into trouble with various authorities[citation needed] for pulling an April Fools stunt showing video footage of the Millennium Dome on fire.
In 2004, MTV's Total Request Live reported that the band Simple Plan was breaking up. Lead Singer Pierre Bouvier even called in and claimed that constant fighting had led to the break-up. "Things have been said and lines have been crossed. It's hard to forget things. For the moment now I just really can't stand being around those guys. I just need some time to relax," he told viewers. Throughout the show, VJs Damien Fahey and Quddus took calls from distraught fans about the band's break-up. However, at the end of the show, Bouvier called back to confess that it was all just an elaborate April Fool's Day prank. "So you're not breaking up?" asked Fahey. "Are you kidding me? No, man. How the hell could we break up? We couldn't do that. I love those guys," Bouvier replied. TRL carried out a similar prank on April Fool's Day of 2002 when Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys was a guest host. He opened the show by saying that the group had decided to go their separate ways, at which point many of the girls in the audience began to cry. "Before we get started, though, I want to take a minute to clear up some things. There's been a lot of rumors going around about Backstreet and our future and what's going on. Since I'm hosting today, the rest of the guys thought it would be a good idea while I was on here that I cleared up all those rumours and allegations. Uhm, as of today, the fellas and I will no longer be performing together," Richardson said. "I'm joining a punk rock band and Nick's doing a solo album and, uh, we'll get into that a bit later," he went on to say before revealing it was just an April Fool's joke.
The 1977 British documentary Alternative 3 was originally intended as an April Fools' Day hoax and the date of April 1, 1977 is specifically given in the program's credits. This documentary detailed the discovery of a major cover-up involving the American and Soviet Space Agencies, who had been collaborating on plans to make the moon and Mars habitable in the event of a terminal environmental catastrophe on Earth. The program gave birth to a large number of conspiracy theories.
In 1979 the BBC programme That's Life!, which often featured talented pets, fooled many viewers with its story about an Old English sheepdog that could drive a car.
In 1991, during the time block of the student comedy show Coo-Coo, the Bulgarian National Television airs breaking news that “...the situation in the nuclear power plant of Kolzoduj is fully under control.” This brings back memories of the communist censorship during the reporting of the Chernobyl disaster half a decade earlier. 90% of the viewers are convinced that reactor No.4 in Kozloduj has exploded. The authors of the comedy show are later accused of manipulating the public in order to destabilize the Bulgarian government.
NESN, a New England sports network, announced that Tom Brady, the quarterback for the New England Patriots, had resigned, and that he would become a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.
South Park: April 1st, 1998 was advertised as being the premiere of the show's second season — and also the resolution of a cliffhanger where Eric Cartman was about to discover the identity of his father. Fans spent weeks speculating on the father's identity, but when they tuned in to watch it they were instead treated to Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus, a half-hour of Terrance and Phillip fart jokes. The true resolution to the cliffhanger aired several weeks later. The show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone claim during the DVD introduction to this episode that they received death threats over pulling the prank.
The Trouble with Tracy: In 2003, The Comedy Network in Canada announced that it would produce and air a remake of the 1970s Canadian sitcom The Trouble with Tracy. The original series is widely considered to be one of the worst sitcoms ever produced. Several media outlets fell for the hoax.[16]
When the movie Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones, came out, a TV station prepared scenes from the movie to run as if they were an actual news broadcast. At the end of the report stating that a volcano had erupted in the middle of Los Angeles and that the city was completely engulfed in flames, the announcer added that it was all an April Fools' prank.
Going Live!: In the 90's, Phillip Schofield did a section on a new type of music player that had every top 40 single loaded into it, that could play a song just by speaking the name of the song into it. He said it would be available to buy soon. He invited viewers to ring in and request a song, Then he would ask the machine to play it. The studio was of course inundated with calls, and Phillip revealed later that it was a prank and the machine didn't exist.
By magazines, newspapers, and books
George Plimpton wrote a 1985 article in Sports Illustrated about a New York Mets prospect named Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph (270 km/h) fastball with pinpoint accuracy. This kid, known as "Barefoot" Sidd[hartha] Finch, reportedly learned to pitch in a Buddhist monastery. The first letter of each line in the opening paragraph spelled out the fact of its being an April Fool joke.[17]
In April 1990, the British magazine Classic CD announced the discovery of the first recording ever made : Frederic Chopin himself interpreting his minute waltz. This event followed the discovery of 3 glass cylinders and a letter discovered buried in a garden next to Chopin’s house in Montfort l’Amaury (France). In that letter, an inventor wrote he had built a recording device in the year 1849 (several years before the phonograph was invented). The sound was inscribed into tracks by a stylus and a vibrating membrane on a lamp-blackened glass cylinder. He asked his neighbour Frederic Chopin to record some music for him. But since he could not play back the sound, he buried it in his garden and died anonymously. The magazine Classic CD offered a CD on which one could hear a dim and muffled music, dominated by a repeating grinding noise that sounded like Chopin playing. The next month the readers learned that the music was played in a room next to the recorder. The tempo was modified so that it would last just one minute, and the hypnotic grinding noise was made by scratching the microphone with a fingernail.
In 2005, the Maryville Daily Forum newspaper in Maryville, Mo., published an entirely fake front page on April 1. Stories detailed a plan to drain a local lake to find the city manager's lucky golf ball; the city's efforts to annex the entire town from Missouri into Iowa; and the arrest of the newspaper's publisher for smoking a cigar in a restaurant (only a few months after a city-wide no-smoking ban was put into effect). Page 2 of that day's newspaper proclaimed "APRIL FOOLS!" across the top of the page, followed by that day's real news stories. The newspaper received hundreds of phone calls that day from readers who thought the stories were real, and Maryville City Hall also received dozens of phone calls from citizens outraged that the city would drain a lake or annex into Iowa.
Lies to Get You Out of the House: In 1985, the L.A. Weekly printed an entire page of fake things to do on April Fools day, by which hundreds of people were fooled.[18]
Comic strip switcheroo: Cartoonists of popularly syndicated comic strips draw each others' strips. In some cases, the artist draws characters in the other strip's milieu, while in others, the artist draws in characters from other visiting characters from his own. Cartoonists have done this sort of "switcheroo" for several years. The 1997 switch was particularly widespread.[19]
Coldplay to back the Tories - On April 1 2006 the UK Guardian journalist "Olaf Priol" claimed that Chris Martin of rock band Coldplay had decided to publicly support the UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron due to his disillusionment with previous Labour Party prime minister Tony Blair,[20] even going so far as to produce a fake song, "Talk to David", that could be downloaded via the Guardian website.[21] Despite being an obvious hoax, the Labour Party's Media Monitoring Unit were concerned enough to circulate the story throughout "most of the government".[22]
Discover Magazine frequently runs one fake article in their April edition as an April Fool's joke. The articles are often so outrageous that they are hard to miss, yet the next month's issue frequently has angry letters from readers who feel misled or quote bad science. Examples have included the discovery of the "Bigon"[4] (a subatomic particle the size of a bowling ball) and of the "Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer" (an Antarctic predator resembling a Naked Mole Rat that burrows through ice).
By game shows
As part of an April Fools' joke on April 1, 1997, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting duties. Pat hosted Jeopardy! that day and Alex hosted Wheel of Fortune where Sajak and Vanna White played as contestants. Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert did double duties that day.[23]
The Price is Right notoriously gave away April Fools' day themed showcases in the 1980s featuring assortments of gag prizes (such as trips to made up locations) or by staging the entire showcase to fall apart. However, once the deception was revealed, the real showcase the contestant was to bid on usually consisted of extravagant prizes, such as two new cars.[24]
In 2003, Hollywood Squares producers played an April Fools joke on host Tom Bergeron and the stars by booking two of the most difficult contestants ever. The contestants were in fact actors.[2]
In a famous edition of the British version of The Weakest Link transmitted on April Fools' Day 2006 Anne Robinson surprised the contestants by being initially very pleasant to them. However, after a period she reverted to her usual haranguing self stating that "I can't be bothered with this anymore".
By websites
Kremvax: In 1984, in one of the earliest on-line hoaxes, a message was circulated that Usenet had been opened to users in the Soviet Union.[25]
April Fools' Day RFC
Google's hoaxes
Dead fairy hoax: In 2007, an illusion designer for magicians posted on his website some images illustrating the corpse of an unknown eight-inch creation, which was claimed to be the mummified remains of a fairy. He later sold the fairy on eBay for £280.[26]
RISKS Digest publishes a special April 1st issue.
Slashdot unveiled a new pink "OMG PONIES" theme in 2006. [3]
NationStates runs an annual hoax on April 1st. In 2004, the hoax was that there was a population bug and all nations' populations would be reset to 5 million people. In 2005, there was a message (supposedly from the Department of Homeworld Security) that NationStates was illegal by US law. In 2006, 'NationDates' was created. It used a quiz similar to the one taken at the sign-up page, and matched that nation with a random country in the same region. In 2007, many users received "Regional moderator" icons with the promise that they would be able to "wield their awesome power" over other users.
Neopets has performed numerous April Fools' jokes, including releasing 50 new pets, abolishing Neopoints completely, and charging Neopoints to use the site.
Water on Mars: In 2005 a news story was posted on the official NASA website purporting to have pictures of water on Mars. The picture actually was just a picture of a glass of water on a Mars Candy Bar.[27]
Homestar Runner creators, The Brothers Chaps, now regularly put up April Fools' jokes, such as the most recent one in which the entire site was flipped upside-down.
Assassination of Bill Gates: In 2003, many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated, resulting in a 1.5% drop in the Korean stock market.[28]
Throughout production of the 2005 remake of King Kong, director Peter Jackson produced behind-the-scenes featurettes for the Internet providing updates on the project. On April 1, 2005, Jackson (aided by cast members, crew members, and even a studio representative) announced that King Kong would be followed by a sequel, Son of Kong, which would see Kong's offspring battling Nazis after being equipped with shoulder mounted machine guns. Jackson went so far as to have faux production drawings and computer animation test footage created for the film. The joke report was later included on the Peter Jackson's Production Diaries DVD set but was not identified as an April Fools' joke; it is incumbent upon the viewer to notice the date of the installment.
Rock band Tool publishes an April Fools' joke every year on their website [4]. For example, in 2005 Tool announced that their singer Maynard James Keenan had found religion and quit the music business. Also in 1997, a serious tour bus crash was reported to have taken place.
Andrew Carlssin was a hoax created by the Weekly World News about a time-traveling man, that was later printed on Yahoo News as an April Fools' Joke.
Maddox once pulled an infamous April Fools' Day joke on April 1, 2004, on his site, The Best Page In The Universe. The site had a completely different design, including imagery that represents everything he usually is against, and also misspelling several words and using chat-based acronyms such as "LOL" all throughout. However, each page's address featured an 'af' in it somewhere, indicating it was an April Fools' joke. Despite this small but obvious clue, several fans fell for the joke, some even claiming they will never visit the site again. Four days later on April 5, Maddox posted an article titled "How do you dumbasses manage to breathe?" The original April Fools' page can be seen here. The rebuttal article can be viewed here.
SARS Infects Hong Kong: In 2003 during the time when Hong Kong was seriously hit by SARS, it was rumored that many people in Hong Kong had become infected with SARS and become uncontrolled, that all immigration ports would be closed to quarantine the region, and that Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong at that time, had resigned. Hong Kong supermarkets were immediately overwhelmed by panicked shoppers. The Hong Kong government held a press conference to deny the rumor. The rumor, which was intended as an April Fools' prank, was started by a student by imitating the design of Ming Pao newspaper website. He was charged for this incident.[29]
Online Retailer ThinkGeek usually replace their main page with a page containing "Featured Items" that are a joke. The page looks, feels and functions just like their real one, however the items featured are hoax and do not exist. Such items have included "Inhalable Caffeine Sticks", a USB pregnancy test kit, and an alarm clock which wirelessly connects to your PC to log into your internet banking, and send funds to a charity. Adding any of these items to your shopping cart takes you to a page stating that the item is a hoax.
Facebook and the News-Feed: On April 1, 2007, Facebook posted fake updates on the News-feed page reading [5]:
"Introducing LivePoke! Facebook will dispatch a real live person today to poke a friend of your choice. (offer good for only the first 100 pokers in each network)"
"Harry and Voldemort have set their relationship status to 'Mortal Enemies.'"
"You are on Facebook, reading your News Feed."
"Meredith and McDreamy have changed their relationship status to 'It's Complicated' ... oh wait ... 'In a Relationship' ... oh wait ... 'It's Complicated' again."
"Two of your oxen drowned when you tried to ford the river."
"Bracket Buster: Ohio State and Florida have mutually agreed on a tie and will not play the championship game."
Changing the copyrights from "a Mark Zuckerberg production" to a random Facebook employees' name or the user's own.
In 2007, wordpress.com set up their main page so that when logged in, your latest post would appear as 'Blog Of The Minute'. This raised several questions on their support forums.
www.howstuffworks.com does an annual bogus article. In 2006, it was "How Animated Tattoos Work"; in 2007 "How Phone Cell Implants Work".
Motoshi Sakriboto: In 2007, the Square Enix fansite Square Haven reported that game music composers Motoi Sakuraba and Hitoshi Sakimoto had announced a merger. The resulting amalgamated life form was named Motoshi Sakriboto. The hoax played off the fact that when rival role-playing game developers Square and Enix merged on April 1, 2003, many believed the news to be an April Fools' joke.[30]
Club Penguin's April Fool's Day parties have always changed almost all of Club Penguin. In the 2008 one, the iceberg looked like a cup of ice water, and the dock was changed to an super fast ice rink, as well as the forest going completely upside down and the cove having various effects. Also, several buildings' graphics looked as if they had been drawn with crayons, pencils, or as if they had been rapidly made with Microsoft paint.
Lists of April Fool hoaxes
April 1, 1999
April 1, 2000
April 1, 2002
April 1, 2003
April 1, 2004
April 1, 2005
April 1, 2006
April 1, 2007
April 1, 2008
Real News on April Fools' Day
The frequency of April Fool hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on 1 April.
Residents running from an approaching tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii
The 1 April 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake tsunami that killed 165 people on Hawaii and Alaska resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system (specifically the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre), established in 1949 for Pacific Ocean area countries. The tsunami in question is known in Hawaii as the "April Fools' Day Tsunami" due to people drowning because of the assumptions that the warnings were an April Fools' prank.
The 2005 death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was originally dismissed as an April Fools' joke. The comedian's March 29, 2005 death was announced on March 31, but many newspapers didn't carry the story until April 1, 2005.
Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google traditionally perpetrates April Fool's Day hoaxes each April 1 (see Google's hoaxes.) Another Google-related event that turned out not to be a hoax occurred on April 1, 2007, when employees at Google's New York City office were alerted that a ball python kept in an engineer's cubicle had escaped and was on the loose. An internal e-mail acknowledged that "the timing…could not be more awkward" but that the snake's escape was in fact an actual occurrence and not a prank.[31]
The merger of Square and its rival company, Enix, took place on April 1, 2003, and was originally thought to be a joke.
The announcement of the anime version of the Powerpuff Girls, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, was on April Fools Day causing many to think it was a joke.
The game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was announced only a couple days before April Fools Day so many thought that Mario and Sonic together for the very first time was a joke.
Other prank days in the world
In Iran, people play jokes on each other on the 13th day of the Persian calendar new year (Norouz), which falls on April 1 or April 2. This day is called Sizdah Bedar and is considered to be the oldest prank-tradition in the world still alive today, which has led many to believe that the origins of the April Fools Day goes back to this tradition which is believed to have been celebrated by Persians as far back as 536 BC.
The April 1 tradition in France includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. This is also widespread in other nations, such as Italy (where the term pesce d'aprile (literally "April's fish") is also used to refer to any jokes done during the day).
In Spanish-speaking countries, similar pranks are practiced on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents. This custom also exists in certain areas of Belgium, including the province of Antwerp. The Flemish tradition is for children to lock out their parents or teachers, only letting them in if they promise to bring treats the same evening or the next day.
In Poland, "prima aprilis" ("April 1" in Latin) is a day full of jokes - various hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which sometimes cooperate to make the 'information' more credible) and even public institutions. Serious activities are usually avoided. This conviction is so strong that the anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I signed on April 1, 1683, was backdated to March 31.
In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, the April 1 tradition requires jokes to be played before midday: if somebody pulls an April Fools' Trick after midday, then the person pulling the trick is actually considered the fool. The following rhyme may be chanted:
April Fool's has come and gone.Who's the fool that carried on?
In Denmark the 1st of May is known as "Maj-kat", meaning quite simply "May-cat", and is identical to April Fools' day, though Danes also celebrate April Fools' day ("aprilsnar").
Some Jewish communities have a traditional event called a Purim spiel, which is similar in many ways to April Fools' Day. Fake newspaper articles are common.
April Fools' Day in media
The 1986 horror film April Fool's Day is themed around the holiday (akin to Halloween).
In the film The French Connection, the opening scenes take place on April 1 and show children in Marseille running around pinning poissons d'Avril (April fish) on each other.
The birthday of the mischievous twins, Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter series is April 1st.
O. Stock, C. Strapparava & A. Nijholt (eds.) The April Fools' Day Workshop on Computational Humour. Proc. Twente Workshop on Language Technology 20 (TWLT20), ISSN 0929-0672, ITC-IRST, Trento, Italy, April 2002, 146 pp
Quotes about April Fools' Day
"April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four." — Mark Twain
See also
April Fool is the codename for a spy and double agent who allegedly played a key role in the downfall of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Pigasus Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor presented on April 1, given in the field of "Paranormal fraud".
Sizdah Bedar, the last day of two-week springtime celebrations for the Persian New Year is a day of pranks, just like April Fools' Day.
April 1
References
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