We really don't know how old the tradition is or who started it or why, but every April Fools' bloggosphere put out an Onion-esque posts or links.
However, the origin of April Fool's Day was best explained by another Jozef a year before Orwell’s book became reality. In 1983 Associated Press carried a report saying that Jozef Boskin, a History professor at Boston University, had discovered the origin of the Day. It reported Boskin as saying that during the Roman Empire a court jester had boasted to Emperor Constantine that fools and jesters of the court could rule better than the Emperor. So the emperor granted his request and decreed that one day in the year would be set aside for fools and jesters to rule. In the first year, Constantine appointed Kugel, and the jester decreed that only the absurd would be allowed in the kingdom on that day. And the tradition of All Fool's Day was born. The media throughout the country used the story, only to find out days later that Boskin had been lying. Boston University issued a statement apologising for the joke, and papers published corrections. Carmody of Errors: Getting the most out of April Fools' Day
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Beware of Practical Jokesters: Train of opportunity
City transport needs imaginative funding
Cities have to be constantly renewed and revitalised. Many older industrial areas and inner area sites have been renewed and most people can see that they are better. To allow areas to decline is to deny the possibility of new opportunities for younger people, and opportunities for new infrastructure and services.
Sydney needs this new development in centres and along some corridors. Centres provide amenity, services and jobs, especially knowledge economy jobs. Many centres, such as Parramatta, have grown rapidly into genuinely urban centres with a full range of services. However, many are inadequate: they do not have the population and jobs to make them a viable provider of amenities.
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• · · · Nations have interests, not friends Neighbourhood of opportunity ;
• · · · · Tax cuts don't make us work harder If taxi drivers are any guide, pay incentives may have the opposite effect ; The Howard Government's tax changes have allowed some of Australia's richest people to pay only 15 per cent tax on much of their income Rich 'pay 15% income tax'
• · · · · · The power to tax involves, as Chief Justice John Marshall said, the power to destroy. So does the power of tax reform, which is one reason why Rep. John Linder, a Georgia Republican, has a 133-page bill to replace 55,000 pages of tax rules. A better way to tax -- and to decommission 'K Street' ; Oil and democracy do not mix easily in countries that depend highly on oil revenue Tyranny's Full Tank