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News satire and parody. Are you in on the joke?

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These stories have broken the Internet and made waves in international news. Here are our top stories for today:

The 2016 Presidential Mirror: Which would-be President Can You Relate To?

The presidential debate and elections are all over, and we're now suffering-or enjoying-the results of our votes. For better or worse, which presidential candidate would you have related to? Would Trump have been your totem president? How is Clinton for you? Take our quiz and find out!

Pokémon No: Pokémon Go Ban Petition Encounters Stiff Opposition

Pokémon Go had become viral when it first came out, but today, the fan base has taken on a life of its own. If you're trying to get rid of Pokémon Go in certain places, better beware; like this story, you might find yourself the victim of a voice of opposition like no other. Will you push through with your petition or suffer the wrath of a collection of Pokémon Go players?

Pokémon Go Daily Dose: Fire turns Real in Fail Attempt to Sniff Out 'Legendary'

There have been stories of people finding strange things in the quest for better Pokémon in Pokémon Go. From lost people to dead bodies, the discoveries have run the gamut of heartwarming to macabre. When things turn serious, however, it's not a good thing to talk about. Take a look at these teens who start a fire in the name of a supposed 'Legendary' Pokémon.

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These stories have broken the Internet and made waves in international news. Here are our top stories for today: The presidential debate and elections are all over, and we're now suffering-or enjoying-the results of our votes. For better or worse, which presidential candidate would you have related to?

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We are the most comprehensive media bias resource on the internet. Don't be fooled by Fake News sources. Search Media Bias. View Fact Checks. Breaking News.

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Some of the biggest fake news stories of the year. Source: Snopes.com
Method Selected most-spread stories. Focussed on political stories. Filtered out death hoaxes, tales of perverse titillation, made-up celebrity gossip and stuff that was plainly bonkers.

Tried to clean up the searches as much as possible to remove noise from the signals. A lot of hits for individual fake news stories actually came from wide-spread stories debunking the story. Inflammation?

" updated 31st Jan 2019 Added 2018 stories. Renamed to junk news. New themes this year include George Soros and lots of stories about pedophiles.

" 2018 data: bit.ly/IIB-FakeNews2018
" 2017 data: bit.ly/IIB-FakeNews2017
" Latest: Fake News Has A Wide Reach, But Little Impact

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Biggest Fake News Stories of the Year - Information is Beautiful

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Some of the maddest and saddest fake news stories of the year. Rated by how far each story spread online.

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In 1973, the Dutch egg industry noted a drop in sales. After studying the situation, its analysts decided that the problem was that grocery-store shoppers were put off by the antiseptic appearance of the factory-cleaned eggs on the shelves. To consumers, the sparkling clean eggs seemed to represent the "plastic and concrete style of modern living."

To remedy this, the Dutch Egg Board decided to stick mud, manure, and bits of feather onto the eggs (after they had been cleaned) in order to artificially give them that "straight from the farmyard look."

J.T. Mellema, head of the Egg Board, noted that a bit of carefully placed dirt would make the eggs "look real and give back that old farmhouse touch."

Source: New Scientist - Feb 1, 1973

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In 1973, the Dutch egg industry noted a drop in sales. After studying the situation, its analysts decided that the problem was that grocery-store shoppers were put off by the antiseptic appearance of the factory-cleaned eggs on the shelves. To consumers, the sparkling clean eggs seemed to represent the plastic and concrete style of modern living.

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This site requires Javascript to function properly - please enable Javascript in your browser

[Note: This news item is from 1993, but its now more important than ever...]

Velcro, an engineered crop, consists of two distinct strains: hooks and loops. As any user of Velcro knows, a strip of hooks clings to a strip of loops as the springy hook-shaped fibers latch through tiny but firm loops.

For competitive and industrial confidentiality reasons, of course, the crop is not widely highlighted in crop reports. A little Velcro goes a long way, as both strains are densely packed on their respective mature plants, and the entire crop is dwarfed by other field crops, most notably cotton, Nonetheless, the crop is of high value and can be a substantial profit builder for the successful grower.

(Related Video: Letterman in Suit of Velcro. February 28, 1984)

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California Velcro Crop Under Challenge!!!

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Note: This news item is from 1993, but its now more important than ever...] Velcro, an engineered crop, consists of two distinct strains: hooks and loops. As any user of Velcro knows, a strip of hooks clings to a strip of loops as the springy hook-shaped fibers latch through tiny but firm loops.

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BOILERPLATE: HISTORY'S MECHANICAL MARVEL, ostensibly the biography of a 19th-century robot soldier, is an illustrated book by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett that deftly blends historical fiction with science fiction.

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Did Neil Amstrong and Buzz Aldrin really set foot on the Moon ?
Or was it an elaborate hoax?
Was it the mere camera trick in a studio in the Nevada Desert ?
Was NASA fooled the whole world on 20th July 1969 as one of the most historical events of the second millennium.?
Is the giant leap of mankind, the greatest technological achievement so far, a fake ?
I would like to call your attention to this issue.
Many sites available on the web related to this conspiracy theories, both for and against.
This page comprises a few cut & paste from these sites with links to them.
Look at their evidence rationally and critically, before you make up your mind.

" How can the flag be fluttering, when there is no wind on the atmosphere free Moon?" Ralph Rene, a self- taught American structural engineer kept asking himself, after watching old video footage of man on the Moon. He started investigating the Apollo Moon landings, scouring every NASA film, photo and report with a growing sense of wonder, until finally reaching an awesome conclusion: America had never put a man on the Moon. Rene put all his findings into a startling book entitledNASA Mooned America.

The ) Moon or a Studio in the Nevada Desert! (
http://www.primeline-america.com/moon-ldg/

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/2666/MoonHoax2.html
... Apollo 11: The shot of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planting the US flag on the moon's surface was taken by a 16mm camera mounted on the Lunar Module. Aldrins shadow 'A' is far longer than Armstrong's. Yet the only light on the moon - and the only light source used by N.A.S.A. - comes from the sun, and should not create such unequal shadows.

...Apollo 11: Buzz Aldrin stands with the sun shining down across his left shoulder. Although his right side is in shadow, there is too much detail shown on that side of his space suit 'B'. It should be much darker and less visible because the contrast between light and dark is much greater on the moon.

With no atmosphere to pollute the light on the moon, all the photographs should look bright and crisp. But the landscape behind Aldrin 'C' gradually fades to darkness. This 'fall-off' effect, hoax theorists say, should not occur on the moon. But the fading effect could have happened because film is less adaptive then the human eye and makes objects seem darker the further they are from the camera.

There is a curious object reflected in Aldrin's visor 'D' (circled in red but hard to see in this small picture). Some theorists think it is a helicopter, others say it is a 12-metre glass structure. N.A.S.A. claim it is a piece of equipment on the lunar surface.

http://www.neosoft.com/~cshramek/nasafake.htm
...I find this picture especially suspicious. Notice in the upper right that the shadow of the lunar lander extends directly to the right - towards the 3 o'clock position. Then how come the rocks in the lower right foreground have shadows that point to the lower right or 4 o'clock position? Shadows from a source of light that is nearly 100 million miles away (the sun) should be parallel! Even if you take into account that perspective would call for a "vanishing point" - or a point in space where the parallel shadows apparently converge, then according to this picture, that vanishing point (in this case also the source for the light) should be within the field of view as indicated where the two yellow lines cross.

http://www.forteantimes.com/artic/94/moon.html
...During 'Apollo 11' the sun was at 10 degrees above the horizon but the pictures depict 30 degrees or so! See the photo. Is this a mistake, or a Whistle-Blower's clue? Varying shadow lengths within any given picture or TV scene imply more than one light source, sometimes positioned at different heights! Clearly, if a picture is genuine, it's not possible to have variations in shadow direction within any one picture.

http://www.mohammedi.freeserve.co.uk/moonshots.html ...These shots of John Young and James Irwin - like many Apollo photos - show a lunar sky without stars (J). (Click on the thumbnails for enlarged images) Yet with no atmosphere on the moon, stars should be visible - a fact confirmed by Maria Blyzinsky, Curator of Astronomy at the Greenwich Observatory, London. If NASA could not hope to recreate the lunar sky, they may have opted for simple black backdrops. NASA claim that the sunlight was so strong it overpowered the light from the stars. On the shadow side of the landing modules, there are plaques (K) with the American flag and the words 'United States' quite bright and clearly visible, but the gold foil around the plaques is in near darkness. Studio spotlights highlighting these areas, or technicians retouching the prints, could have caused this effect.

http://www.aulis.com/nasa.htm
...There is clear, irrefutable evidence that lighting was used in the still photographs, yet no lighting equipment was taken to the Moon. For example the sequence of pictures of Aldrin descending the ladder in total darkness during Apollo 11 ( see fig 3). David Groves PhD and David Percy have analysed the hotspot on the heel on Aldrins right boot and found that a directional light was used, it was apparently placed just to the right of the camera position ( see illustration). This finding regarding the location of the light source is supported by a process known as 'ray tracing'full details can be found in DARK MOON

Figure 3(click for full picture)

http://www.powerup.com.au/%7Evk4vkd/Mooned.htm
......The US magically gained the upper hand and "put men on the moon", national pride soared, the rest of the world looked on in total amazement, what a fantastic achievement. Speaking for myself, I was totally enthralled, having stood wide eyed and watch the very first "Sputnik", dogs and chimps in orbit, then Yuri Gagarin supposedly orbiting in the night sky, and now to witness mans first step on the Moon, bloody fantastic.

......The time frame of the "manned" lunar missions was right smack in the middle of a solar maximum, a period of high solar activity when it would have been most likely to see solar flares of high magnitude erupting from the Sun, the Soviets knew of the danger, but desperate for some sort of tactical advantage the US went ahead with the charade, here are the sunspot figures (smoothed) for the period of the Apollo program when men were supposedly "walking around" in the microwave oven on the Lunar surface, now of course we see that for humans to survive in the environment outside the VAB, they need specially shielded Astronaut shelters - but these were not available for the Apollo missions, but amazingly no crispy critters.

https://www.angelfire.com/ut/aylett/eth69.html
Have you ever thought about how much technology the world had in the late 60's and early 70's? Was it enough to get three men out of the Earth's atmosphere and two of them to the moon? Maybe. But how could that be so when the computers used on the Apollo missions didn't have any more memory than a modern day washing machine. And the computers they used, in size, took up more space than the ship had room for. With that in mind, and the fact that the technology in the 60's was merely squat, how could NASA of generated tens of thousands of such high quality images when there weren't even computers good enough to do so? That's where the thought of a possible sound stage comes into question.

http://www.webaxs.net/~noel/moon.htm
...I have no doubt that America has landed men on the moon.
However I believe that "black" or secret moon programs that the public never heard about achieved this result.
NASA has lied and falsified many of their "achievements".

http://www.moonmovie.com/
... The goal was to fool the Soviet Union about US strategic capability during the height of the cold war. Deceit, Greed and Injustice... A sad thing happened on the way to the moon. The truth will astound you

http://www.zyworld.com/nasa/1.htm
...Those who will not accept that Apollo was a fake, have been brain washed into believing the 30 year lies emanating from NASA, whereby they become brain damaged, and lose touch with reality. We've all come across them from time to time as they re-iterate their ridiculous statements like, "I can see the flag through my telescope", or "I saw the rocket lift off, and the TV pictures, so it must have happened". They also make stupid remarks like "What about the Moon rock brought back by the Apollo astronauts". How do WE know its Moon rock, its only NASA's word, and if it is, then it was brought back by scoop and return probe, NOT ASTRONAUTS.

http://www.moonmovie.com/
...Surrounding the earth, beginning at an altitude of 1,000 miles and extending an additional 25,000 miles, lie lethal bands of radiation called the Van Allen Radiation Belts. Every manned space mission in history (including Mercury, Gemini, Soyuz, Skylab and the Space Shuttle) has been well below this deadly radiation field... all except Apollo. Recently uncovered footage of the crew of the Apollo 11 staging part of their mission proves that the astronauts never made it beyond earth orbit.

The goal was to fool the Soviet Union about US strategic capability during the height of the cold war. Deceit, Greed and Injustice... A sad thing happened on the way to the moon. The truth will astound you!

A site on the 30th Anniversary of Apollo mission http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ap11ann/introduction.htm
...On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot on another celestial body.

Faked Moon Landings - Apollo Hoax Discussion Web
http://www.apollo-hoax.co.uk/mysteriousc.html
...On 19th December 1972 the return of the Astronauts of Apollo 17 after the sixth successful Moon landing marked the end of the Apollo era. Thirty years on, many people have been persuaded that the Apollo missions never actually took place and therefore represent the largest hoax in history.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm
..."Moon rocks are absolutely unique," says Dr. David McKay, Chief Scientist for Planetary Science and Exploration at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). McKay is a member of the group that oversees the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at JSC where most of the Moon rocks are stored. "They differ from Earth rocks in many respects," he added.

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Did Neil Amstrong and Buzz Aldrin really set foot on the Moon ? Or was it an elaborate hoax? Was it the mere camera trick in a studio in the Nevada Desert ? Was NASA fooled the whole world on 20th July 1969 as one of the most historical events of the second millennium.?

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Dog Island -- Free your dog!! send your dog to dog island

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Help Save The ENDANGERED

From EXTINCTION!

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

Rare photo of the elusive tree octopus
(Enhanced from cropped telephoto)

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus ( Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

An intelligent and inquisitive being (it has the largest brain-to-body ratio for any mollusk), the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight. Adaptations its ancestors originally evolved in the three dimensional environment of the sea have been put to good use in the spatially complex maze of the coniferous Olympic rainforests. The challenges and richness of this environment (and the intimate way in which it interacts with it,) may account for the tree octopus's advanced behavioral development. (Some evolutionary theorists suppose that "arboreal adaptation" is what laid the groundwork in primates for the evolution of the human mind.)

Reaching out with one of her eight arms, each covered in sensitive suckers, a tree octopus might grab a branch to pull herself along in a form of locomotion called tentaculation; or she might be preparing to strike at an insect or small vertebrate, such as a frog or rodent, or steal an egg from a bird's nest; or she might even be examining some object that caught her fancy, instinctively desiring to manipulate it with her dexterous limbs (really deserving the title "sensory organs" more than mere "limbs",) in order to better know it.

Map of estimated tree octopus maximum range, including spawning waters

Tree octopuses have eyesight comparable to humans. Besides allowing them to see their prey and environment, it helps them in inter-octopus relations. Although they are not social animals like us, they display to one-another their emotions through their ability to change the color of their skin: red indicates anger, white fear, while they normally maintain a mottled brown tone to blend in with the background.

The reproductive cycle of the tree octopus is still linked to its roots in the waters of the Puget Sound from where it is thought to have originated. Every year, in Spring, tree octopuses leave their homes in the Olympic National Forest and migrate towards the shore and, eventually, their spawning grounds in Hood Canal. There, they congregate (the only real social time in their lives,) and find mates. After the male has deposited his sperm, he returns to the forests, leaving the female to find an aquatic lair in which to attach her strands of egg-clusters. The female will guard and care for her eggs until they hatch, refusing even to eat, and usually dying from her selflessness. The young will spend the first month or so floating through Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet, and as far as North Puget Sound before eventually moving out of the water and beginning their adult lives.

Why It's Endangered

Route 101, separating the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula from Hood Canal

Although the tree octopus is not officially listed on the Endangered Species List, we feel that it should be added since its numbers are at a critically low level for its breeding needs. The reasons for this dire situation include: decimation of habitat by logging and suburban encroachment; building of roads that cut off access to the water which it needs for spawning; predation by foreign species such as house cats; and booming populations of its natural predators, including the bald eagle and sasquatch. What few that make it to the Canal are further hampered in their reproduction by the growing problem of pollution from farming and residential run-off. Unless immediate action is taken to protect this species and its habitat, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus will be but a memory.

The possibility of Pacific Northwest tree octopus extinction is not an unwarranted fear. Other tree octopus species-including the Douglas octopus and the red-ringed madrona sucker-were once abundant throughout the Cascadia region, but have since gone extinct because of threats similar to those faced by paxarbolis, as well as overharvesting by the now-illegal tree octopus trade.

Tree Octopus hat from 1923

The history of the tree octopus trade is a sad one. Their voracious appetite for bird plumes having exhausted all the worthy species of that family, the fashionistas moved on to cephalopodic accoutrements during the early 20th Century. Tree octopuses became prized by the fashion industry as ornamental decorations for hats, leading greedy trappers to wipe out whole populations to feed the vanity of the fashionable rich. While fortunately this practice has been outlawed, its effects still reverberate today as these millinery deprivations brought tree octopus numbers below the critical point where even minor environmental change could cause disaster.

While efforts were made in the past to preserve remaining tree octopus habitat, these were met with resistance by the timber industry, which has traditionally viewed the tree octopus as a nuisance, both because the octopuses favor the valuable, moss-shrouded trees of old growth forests-pitting conservation needs against lucrative sources of lumber-and because octopuses hiding among felled trees often gummed up sawmills and stained pulp vats with their ink.

Traveling sideshow exhibits, such as this one by Glen "Bones" Hartzell from 1942, demonized tree octopuses to the ignorant masses
(Click to enlarge)

These nuisances led many loggers to regard tree octopuses as bad luck, resulting in the pointless killing of octopuses on sight at logging camps in a misguided attempt at eradicating the troublesome species. Anti-octopus sentiment was so strong among loggers that some even began to fear that the octopuses were prone to attacking humans.

These fears were fueled in no small part by gratuitous stories involving tree octopuses harassing lumberjacks and distressing damsels in Northwestern-themed pulp magazines of the 1930-40s and variously "nipping", "entangling", or "suckering the flesh" of the heroes of men's action magazines of the 1950-60s. (The magazine publishers depended on cheap paper made from wood pulp and were glad to contribute to the anti-octopus propaganda campaign of the timber industry.)

To this day, misunderstanding and fear of these gentle creatures can still be found among many old timers, although education campaigns-and special octopus-separators installed at sawmills-have largely halted the practice of tree octopus eradication.

How You Can Help

More Tree Octopus Information

Posters motivate the citizenry to action! Post them!

Tree Octopus FAQs - Frequently asked questions, now with answers.

Tree Octopus Sightings - Includes photos of and behavioral research on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and other tree octopus species.

Tree Octopus In The Media - appearances of tree octopuses, both real and fictional, in the media and popular culture.

Research On Other Tree Octopus Species:

The author of this article and its subsections is Lyle Zapato.
This site is not associated with any school or educational organization,
other than the Kelvinic University branch of the Wild Haggis Conservation Society.
Not to be confused with the Pacific Northwest Octopus Tree.

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Information about the endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and what you can do to save it.