2010
APR
1
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is a day celebrated in various countries on April 1.
The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool's errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, such as the UK, Australia, and South Africa the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool". Elsewhere, such as in France, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S., the jokes last all day.
The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 as New Year's Day in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, but this theory does not explain earlier references.
Well-known pranks
- Alabama Changes the Value of Pi
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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. This claim originally appeared as a news story in the 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, however see also the actual Indiana Pi Bill.
- Spaghetti trees
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The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing Italians 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.
- Left Handed Whoppers
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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. Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger.
ちなみに上の画像は、google「エイプリルフール 画像」で調べた結果見つけたものです。
エイプリル(April) ＝ 4月
フール(Fool) ＝ ばか者、愚か者、あほ、間抜け
安全上のトラブルが相次いで発覚したスカイマークで、客室乗務員（ＣＡ）の英語力が足りず、外国人機長との意思疎通に支障があったのに適切な対策を取っていないなど、安全管理上の不備があったことが国土交通省の特別安全監査で新たに分かった。同省は同社に対し、６日に業務改善勧告を出す方針。１３日までに改善計画の提出を求める。
同省関係者によると、ほかにも操縦室内で機長らが酸素マスクの着用ルールを守っていなかったＣＡが客室内の保安検査を適切に実施していなかった--など、乗務員の安全意識の不足や会社の運航実態の把握が不十分なことによる不備が監査で見つかった。また、乱気流に遭遇した機体の構造点検が適切になされていないなど、整備部門でも問題が見つかったという。
ちなみに、スカイマークの操縦士としての採用条件資格(英語力)は、「航空英語能力証明レベル4またはTOEIC650点以上もしくは実用英語技能検定2級以上であること」だそうです。
