While you’re looking syzygy up I won’t tell you about the archaeological dig I embarked upon today. Except maybe to say that it went all the way back to 2005, which is pretty much the Jurassic Age when you are talking about online banking. Yes, I know that online banking was around before then. I definitely had an account *well* before then. But I shudder to think about the design / functionality issues from back before 2005, not to mention the security stuff.

Okay, while you were not looking up tonight’s lunar eclipse and/or syzygy, yer fav-o-rite blahgger was getting a lesson in fake news. A facebook friend shared something about a rare lunar eclipse tonight. I was skeptical. The moon is at the 3rd-quarter phase and I couldn’t process how there could be an eclipse. But I googled and found an “article”, you know, like the “articles” we all publish on facebook. Article? Whut? This article was written TODAY, Tuesday, December 20, 2016.

I asked the GG about an eclipse. He had no clue. He said something like, “There’s no syzygy!”. He did some research. Yes, the article was written today but it references an eclipse in 2010! I may or may not have seen that one. The Commander was down here that Christmas and I am sure I was not focused on what was going on with the moon or maybe couldn’t even see it. I remember that it was a warm but kinda rainy xmas. Other memories about that xmas are too much for tonight.

So it turns out that somebody wrote a blahg entry or whatever *today* about a lunar eclipse that happened six years ago. People looked at the date of POSTING (today) and not the date it happened. I didn’t notice all of that first thing. I GOT TAKEN BY FAKE NEWS! The GG made a polite comment asking the person to take the post down. As far as I know, it did not happen. Or maybe it has.

Please. Fact check, fact check, fact check. I spent my whole day picking away at the true functionality of the product that I support at work (because I care enough to make it better) and I came home and got myself hoodwinked about a lunar eclipse that isn’t happening tonight. But y’know, I was skeptical and checked it out (or asked the GG check it out, which he did). I will also try to say that the moniker “fake news” doesn’t apply to everything that’s out there on the Internet. There are many many variations of fake news. It is a continuum. Please, everyone, look at multiple sources before just sharing some facebook thing.

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