The Internet, Yesterday.
Once upon a time if a person wanted to learn new information or check a fact they would have to resort to an encyclopaedia or other text book. Now, thanks to the internet, those crusty old tombs have been replaced by a new, far more powerful source of knowledge; some bloke on a web forum whose who has heard from his brother who knows a guy who told him that this was definitely a fact.
This almost limitless resource has already been dubbed IBF, or Internet Bullshitter Fact, by the scientific community and interest in the sheer breadth and scope of new data that is coming to light is growing by the day. "We used to spend years carefully investigating and validating new facts," said a man hiding behind a beard. "But now we realise we were wasting our time. The path to new discovery and innovation is to log onto an internet forum and wait for someone with no actual mates in the real world to enlighten you with the scientific truth that can only be reached when this guy, right, knows this bloke, right, and he was talking to a fella that mends washing machines, right, and he said that it's definitely true that all cat food has heroin in it".
IBF has become especially prevalent in the world of cars and already threatens to kill off traditional magazines and books with their old fashioned attempts to check and cross reference facts. "We've been completely wasting our time using traditional methods of being accurate," admitted one magazine editor. "And whilst we were distracted doing that, we've missed hundreds of scoops that have instead appeared on internet fora. Did you know, for example, that all SEAT Ibiza Cupras turn out at least 25bhp more than is quoted in the brochure? And that one of the race instructors at Brands Hatch, I think it was probably Nigel Mansell, said everyone knows that the Toyota Supra has better handling than a Ferrari F430? We missed all that, and that Top Gear's Stig is over a dozen people, including Damon Hill, Alain Prost and the late Ayrton Senna. Plus we had no idea that all car magazines including ours were taking bungs from BMW and Porsche. IBF really is a revolution in new information. It's just a shame it's all utter bollocks".