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That time of year again...
Regarding the prototype round Aussie-rules football over my cereal this morning, "Oh yeah." sez I. "It's April 1st, isn't it?" *grumble*mutter*
I don't loath April Fools Day as much now as I used to. My main objection was that it didn't seem to so much target the gullible as the less educated and less experienced. This offended my sense of fair-play.
(Changing the football code to use a round ball in order to appeal to an international audience doesn't sound unlikely to a fencer, our governing body is always doing that sort of thing.)
Today, with almost ubiquitous internet, fact-checking in real time is relatively easy to do, and learning to do it and not believe everything you read more important than ever.
Plus, a lot of people seem to use it less for fooling people and more for making a point or adding some surrealism to life - which personally I find much more amusing.
The down side of the internet though is timezones. I can no longer get away with just surviving four or five hours between waking and midday. Now it's at least twenty-fours hours of heightened vigilance, checking dates and times on suspect items about matters that lie in the periphery of my knowledge base.
Leith docks being hit by huge waves? It's dated 31st, probably ok then, I'll take the BBC's word for it. Can't check everything, I need to focus my paranoia on scanning the social media, checking for signs of errant memes infecting my flists and spreading virus-like until someone calls bullshit.
Now I think I want to write something about the dark side of hyperconnectivity...
I don't loath April Fools Day as much now as I used to. My main objection was that it didn't seem to so much target the gullible as the less educated and less experienced. This offended my sense of fair-play.
(Changing the football code to use a round ball in order to appeal to an international audience doesn't sound unlikely to a fencer, our governing body is always doing that sort of thing.)
Today, with almost ubiquitous internet, fact-checking in real time is relatively easy to do, and learning to do it and not believe everything you read more important than ever.
Plus, a lot of people seem to use it less for fooling people and more for making a point or adding some surrealism to life - which personally I find much more amusing.
The down side of the internet though is timezones. I can no longer get away with just surviving four or five hours between waking and midday. Now it's at least twenty-fours hours of heightened vigilance, checking dates and times on suspect items about matters that lie in the periphery of my knowledge base.
Leith docks being hit by huge waves? It's dated 31st, probably ok then, I'll take the BBC's word for it. Can't check everything, I need to focus my paranoia on scanning the social media, checking for signs of errant memes infecting my flists and spreading virus-like until someone calls bullshit.
Now I think I want to write something about the dark side of hyperconnectivity...