April Fools!!!

10 Best april fool's jokes ever

Hoax experts choose their favourite tales as presented by media

CanWest News Service

From television revealing that spaghetti grows on trees to advertisements for the left-handed burger, the tradition of April Fool's Day stories in the media has a weird and wonderful history.

Here are 10 of the top April Fool's Day pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes for their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.

In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop.

Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home.

In 1985, Sports Illustrated magazine published a story that a rookie baseball pitcher who could reportedly throw a ball at 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) was set to join the New York Mets.

Finch was said to have mastered his skill -- pitching significantly faster than anyone else has ever managed -- in a Tibetan monastery. Mets fans' celebrations were short-lived.

Sweden in 1962 had only one television channel, which broadcast in black and white.

The station's technical expert appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to receive color pictures by pulling a nylon stocking over the screen. In fact, they had to wait until 1970.

In 1996, American fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that it had bought Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, a historic symbol of American independence, from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.

Outraged citizens called to express their anger before Taco Bell revealed the hoax.

Then-White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale and said the Lincoln Memorial in Washington had also been sold and was to be renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant.

In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic lo- cated in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles described the geography and culture of the two main islands, named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse.

In 1992, U.S. National Public Radio announced that Richard Nixon was running for president again. His campaign slogan this time around was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." They even had clips of Nixon announcing his candidacy.

Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their outrage. Nixon's voice actually turned out to be that of impersonator Rich Little.

In 1998, a newsletter titled New Mexicans for Science and Reason carried an article that the state of Alabama had voted to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.

Burger King, another American fast-food chain, published a full-page advertisement in USA Today in 1998 announcing the introduction of the "Left-Handed Whopper," spe- cially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans.

According to the advertisement, the new burger included the same ingredients as the original, but the condiments were rotated 180 degrees.

The chain said it received thousands of requests for the new burger, as well as orders for the original "right- handed" version.

Discover Magazine announced in 1995 that a highly respected biologist, Aprile Pazzo (Italian for April Fool), had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. The creatures were said to have bony head plates that became burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speed -- a technique they used to hunt penguins.

Noted British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on the radio in 1976 that at 9:47 am, a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event, in which Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, would cause a gravitational alignment that would reduce the Earth's gra- vity. Moore told listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment, they would experience a floating sensation.

Hundreds of people called in to report feeling the sensation.

Source

And this one that got me last night, because it is PLAUSIBLE: (source)

Ra'anana, Israel To Become A Territory Of The United States

Presidential candidate Barack Obama endorsed by Ted Kennedy. The Obama
camp hopes to capture the Jewish vote by establishing a territory in Israel.

By Dalia Arafat
Israel News Agency

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has put forward legislation in the US Senate today calling for a 20 square mile area in Israel (Ra'anana, Kfar Sava, Tel Mond) to become a territory of the United States.

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert welcomed the move stating that this area would then act as an Democratic Free Trade Zone creating countless jobs for both Israelis and Palestinians.

"A US territory placed in the middle of Israel would also become an influential defense and economic boost for both the US military and the IDF as it has become policy for America to establish military bases on its territories," said an Israel defense official.

Ra'anana Mayor Nachum Hofree, who has difficulty reading and speaking English, has given the US bill to a translator saying: "If this is true, it would be an outrage. Ra'anana is part of a sovereign state (Israel) and decisions such as this would need to be decided in the Knesset."

Hofree is rumored to be losing his job to Israeli basketball legend and former American Tal Brody, whose name was put forward to Congress as a potential governor of the new territory by US Ambassador to Israel Richard H. Jones.

Ra'anana is a northern suburban city of Tel Aviv located in the Center District of Israel. Ra'anana is the home of thousands of immigrants from South Africa, North America, United Kingdom, France and Argentina. Its population is 78,000.

"Ra'anana would be no different than Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands or Guam in becoming American soil as a territory," said the 64-year old former star. "We already have as many Americans living in the Ra'anana, Kfar Sava and Tel Mond areas as those who presently live on Long Island. The adjustment back to US law, taxes and social benefits would be an easy one."

The above satire was presented as an April's Fools story by the management and staff of the Israel News Agency.
There is no greater gift to mankind (and women when they are kind too) than a smile!

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