An awkward goodbye (Smack the Pony)

An old comedy sketch, but a classic. Thanks Simon S for digging this up.

Craziest forum thread ever?

What precautions should you take if you’re going to be taken up to Heaven in a blast of trumpets, but your beloved pets aren’t? For that matter, should you “marry” your pets to each other? Also, will pets in Heaven actually be able to talk to us? These problems keep some people awake at night, and for them the RaptureReady forum is an oasis of clear discussion. Thanks Joel for the recommendation.

“My father loved me so much, that 2 years ago in another part of the country a dog, which I didn’t know about, had puppies.”

Jesus commanded us to “Preach the Gospel to every CREATURE.” Not human but creature. So we’ve talked to our dog and our horse about Jesus

One rapture-ready participant argues that God will take care of the left-behind animals because he “provided manna from heaven to the Jews” – not a well-chosen analogy!

More RaptureReady amusement.

Humans on display at Bristol zoo

A KDnC member, who does not want to be named, has in the last few days won at the Internet. He put up this prank sign outside the cafe at Bristol Zoo and filmed it for YouTube. The video has been picked up by Wooster Collective, Derren Brown’s blog and by BoingBoing, getting thousands of views and lots of favourable comments in just three days. One commenter even assumed that the prank must be due to Banksy.

Update: Now local BBC Radio Bristol has got involved, running an item on its Breakfast show in which they interviewed zoo staff about the prank. Here’s the full five-minute item, including some misguided speculation that Banksy is responsible:

There was also a short item on Points West (local BBC TV news).

Here’s the text (as transcribed by a BoingBoing commenter). I particularly like the last line.

The human is one of the world’s most widespread species and is present on all continents.

After a gestation period of nine months the young usually live in the parents nest for around 16 years. While the parents are out foraging for food, juveniles are looked after in large groups by other adults.

In adolescence the offspring adopt a more nocturnal lifestyle and engage in ritualized activities of drinking fermented liquids and dancing to rhythmical sounds which scientists believe may help them to find a mate.

Humans usually pair for life retiring from most social activity and moving into brick or concrete nests once a partner is found. Pairs produce and average of 2 young.

They are known to adopt other species as pets, particularly dogs (canis lupus familiaris) and cats (felis catus)

The Human diet is very adaptable to regional crop varieties and personal tastes with some groups able to live almost exclusively on chipped potatoes and sugary drinks.

Groups of humans are often fed by unrelated individuals in exchange for tokens made of paper metal and plastic.

With the world population increasing by an estimated 200,000 every day, the species is not currently considered endangered.

Ben Goldacre sticks it to the Mail and Telegraph

I would normally put this in my brainy blog, but it’s well worth watching just for entertainment. Medical expert and “Bad Science” columnist/author Ben Goldacre appeared on Radio 4′ s satirical “The Now Show” to talk about swine flu, healthy lives, cancer and newspaper pseudoscience. The last time I saw Goldacre speak was at a meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, and it’s a tribute to the man that he fits in equally well with academic researchers and stand-up comedians.

The age of privacy is now officially over

Whether she just typed into the wrong text box on Facebook, or whether, as her friends are claiming, her account was hacked, I do not envy this woman right now. Her sexually explicit Facebook status has echoed around the world and caused shocked hilarity (I’ve looked at her Facebook page and it’s still there). via Digg.

Update: I had my doubts about whether this was a hijack rather than a genuine mistake, but apparently it is the work of 4chan – part of a huge attack on social networking profiles, using passwords taken from a Christian dating site. Apparently a lot of the affected accounts have “Jesus” as their password.

…and here’s the motherlode of resulting images, some of which, it has to be said, are incredibly funny. But CRUEL. But funny.

HTML5 Canvas and audio experiment

Web pages are looking less and less like web pages nowadays. It helps if you have an <audio>-tag-enabled browser, but if not you still get a pretty and interactive display.

David Shayler, Transvestite Messiah

Vice magazine profiles the former spy who now believes he is the Son of God: a case study in total lack of shame. It’s worth a visit just for the hilariously disturbing photographs. Part 1, Part 2. Thanks to Alex for the recommendation.

Cardboard Tube Fighting League

Cardboard Tube Fighting looks fun, though some people take it very seriously. Recommended by Suzanne.

A public fighting event on a larger scale is the San Fransisco Pillow Fight Club:

Take it on the chin from Balls

You may remember that in 2007, as the credit crunch became apparent, the UK Treasury Secretary was Ed Balls, but did you know the name of his US counterpart? Animated finance show (yes!) Hoofy & Boo mines a rich seam of double-entendres while giving attempting a serious analysis of hedge fund regulation:

Thanks to Ryan for the recommendation.

Vote for a change

From a competition on B3ta, a nicely done home-made video to persuade people to vote: