April Fool's: The Boys Who Cried Mars

There have been several April Fool's Day joke posts hoping to cause paranoia and increase traffic. However, this is one day in life where wild posts just aren't going to suck folks in...or so I thought.

Yesterday I posted about BoDog's hoax video and today Canadian author and activist Cory Doctorow sent out a post about his plans to CC license himself. Perhaps the most successful hoax is the fact that Google just mock launched Virgle, a Virgin Galactic/Google Mars space odyssey. Although the hoax is simply meant to increase traffic via user-generated YouTube content, company stock jumped $25 today.

What is going on? Do traders not know how to read? Is the Nasdaq secretly run by Matrix-like spider trading bots who keyword search and invest sans bullshit filter? Turing tests are no longer effective. We need common sense tests.

Orson Welles' 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds caused mass paranoia and launched Welles to fame; however, as far as I know, nobody lost their life savings. April Fool's Day in the Valley is great for us mortals, but the financial world has got to be right pissed off with all this gratuitous humor.

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April Fool's: The Boys Who Cried Mars

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