TODAY'S RIDDLE: What is black and white and red all over?

 

Answer: A newspaper!

Ok, ok. I know the riddle is totally wrong for three reasons:

1. I cheated... the word red should have been spelled read, which would have given it away, but the riddle was meant to be spoken, not written.
2. Today, newspapers aren't only black and white but filled with color. (The riddle goes way back to my second grade and I laughed that lunchtime I heard it 'till milk came out of my nose.) 
3. What's a newspaper?

Today, newspapers are disappearing by the hundreds and newspaper circulation and readership is on a downhill slide that quickly becomes 'the new normal' on how we see and learn things.

Most millennials and later-born get their news on line or on television... the news-lite version that is more-to-the-minute but of less substance and range, unless you count the entertainment portion an news one has to know.  It is also less dependable as news because it is mixed with every opinion on everything from everyone on social media... most of which is believed without doubt if it fits your personal 'bent.'

Social media didn't invent 'fake news' but it did perfect its widespread dissemination.

This past week, a New York Times technology writer's story, "For Two Months, I Got My News From Print Papers. Here's What I Learned," painted a most interesting picture of what happens when newspapers fall out of our life-view.

No, this is not a call to go back to newspapers, though that would certainly improve news credibility. We have passed that point in our technology-enhanced existence. But yes, newspapers still play a vital role if only as bell-weathers of the news basics with the five 'Ws' and an 'H' (Who, What, Why When, Where and How) of substance.

With the proven realization that fake news spreads faster than real news--usually, it is more spectacular or surprisingly hard to believe, yet believed and spread by a 3 to 1 ratio on social media with a tap of the finger--all news becomes suspiciously less credible.

We create the world we live in and yet, we are the ones who don't take out the garbage that comes with it. As our president might tweet: "SAD!"

NEXT: How easily fake news is created. A primer you will recognize.

An awful lot about not much... but interesting

Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Bulgaria

Fake news test: Which is real, which is not.


Bulgaria is the only country whose name ends in "ulgalia."

This is true.

FYI: Bulgaria is one of the few exotic nations of Europe. I boasts sublime beaches, lovely churches, winter sports and great hiking. It has traditionally not been regularly visited by Westerners but is gaining in popularity with its beauties and wide range of activities.

***

Even after grants and scholarships, the typical family making less than $30,000/year needs to pay 77% of its income to cover the costs of a four-year public college.

Also true.

***

When escalators first appeared, they had escalator men who would ride with passengers similar to elevators who had elevator men working in them.

Gotcha! False.

*** 

Three billion light years away (186,000 miles per second x all the seconds in three billion years) the merger of two black holes--one 19 times more mass than our sun and one 31 times--released more energy in the form of gravitational waves than all the stars in our observable universe.

Absolutely true... and utterly mind-blowing, even if I understood it.

*****

President Trump called Kim Jung Un a "smart cookie" and James Comie a "nut job."

Sadly, true.

*** 

An Ohio woman, impatiently awaiting her son's slow haircut at a local barber college, whipped out a pistol and pointing it at the young barber, warned him to hurry, "I've got two clips! I'll pop you!" So he did.

It's America. True.

***

La Plat Sal (The Dirty Plate) Parisian restaurant offers four-star recipes featuring dirt... or as its' chefs call it, "the mud of the earth that caresses our toes, the sand kissed by the sun, and rocks." And no, the prices are not down to earth. It's Paris.

Deliciously true.

 

***

A child born into a high-income family is six-times as likely to earn a college degree as one who is poor.

Duh! True. Rich usually wins.

***

 There are more than 50 words in Gaelic relating to seaweed.

Whew. False thank goodness. Who needs 50 ways to say seaweed. Real answer: 40 words.

*** 

Prehistoric cave paintings suggest that early man was most interested in primitive art.

Well, true. Post modern didn't come along til later.

*** 

"Adam and Eve on a Raft" is what breakfast joints call bacon and eggs on toast. "Wreck 'em" means scrambled.

True... with a cuppa joe

***

Adam and Eve populated our world.

Hmm... true, the bible tells me so... unless you don't think it happened that way, then false... or will you be sorry later?

FYI: Could two people actually repopulate the world today? Here's a good take on that.


SO HERE'S THE DEAL... what separates real from fake news is often what we choose to believe which is often shaped by who tells us that. And in today's incredibly broad social media world, anyone can say anything... absolutely anything... and there will ALWAYS be someone to pass it on as if it came from God him/herself. 

But remember Absolute Rule No. 1: if you believes something that isn't true, believing it still doesn't make it true. And that's a fact. Smart means double checking or find another source for anything that has a smell to it.

Ed. Note: Thanks NY Times and humorist, film maker Demetri Martin for a few good examples.