Today’s Wikipedia Article of the Day is a little gem.

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We live in a time when a considerable number of people believe The End of Days to be imminent. But evidently ours not the first era in which this belief was widespread. The Millerites were a sect of 19th-century American baptists convinced that Jesus was set to turn up in 1844. Hindsight, of course, is a great thing.

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John Hodgman on BoingBoingTV: SPAMasterpiece Theatre – the dramatization of “true tale[s] of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you – what we call SPAM.”

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Fancy taking part in an exciting aerobatics competition against real-life pilots – although you have never been behind the controls of a plane in your life? Well, now that’s possible thanks to a new technology that merges real and virtual worlds in a way that allows exactly this to happen.

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The other day, driving about in the neighbourhood of Cardington in Bedfordshire, we came across two huge hangars in a field. My fellow-traveller, knowledgeable in such matters, was aware of its history as an airship base.

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This was never going to end well, was it? Half-expecting something of Alien Autopsy proportions, I was quite disappointed that it fell apart so soon.

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This is one for anyone who has ever felt that a certain film starring Jim Carrey has a particular resonance for them: two Canadian psychiatrists have identified a new syndrome – people who believe their lives are a reality TV show.

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Artists Michael Townsend and Adriana Yoto, and six of their friends, noticed an architectural anomaly in the giant shopping mall being built in their town – Providence, Rhode Island, USA. As the project progressed, it became clear that this added up to “750 square feet of underutilized space inside of the mall.”

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Ever had an urge to visit Svalbard? Perhaps after reading Philip Pullman, or seeing pictures of its beautiful location? Just make sure you’re in good health when you go.

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Whoever wrote this article on the nude climbing craze isn’t taking account of the British climate. Or, as anyone engaged in outdoor activities at this time of year knows but too well, the British stinging nettle. Ouch…

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Here’s a truly bizarre news item. Jane Espenson is a very highly-regarded Hollywood producer and screenwriter who has worked on shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. She has a blog called Jane in Progress which aims to give writing and career advice to people wanting to follow the same career path.

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Here’s that wonderful thing, an expert with a sense of humour.

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To celebrate today’s news that the UK’s Ministry of Defence is to release its very own X-files, we bring you a sneak preview of some of the more compelling evidence.

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Sloths are decidedly friends of this blog, which is why the management was intrigued to read the following masterpiece of scientific research, as reported by BBC Online.

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I admit to being a keen and regular reader of the Salon advice column Since You Asked. The columnist, writer Cary Tennis, is frequently given to bouts of soul-searching and self-examination about his allotted role. And here is his latest, a masterpiece.

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Found this via BoingBoing – an incredibly interesting experiment done by Belgian cultural broadcaster Klara.bi. It took an internationally-important contemporary painter called Luc Tuymans, whose works are viewed reverently in galleries and which change hands for huge sums of money.

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Mortgage rate rising? Global warming. Ken losing in London? Same again. Can’t get a credit card? Blame climate change. England not qualifying for Euro 2008? I think we all know the reason for that… However, you should curb your excessive cynicism. According to The Guardian, the most unlikely phenomena can be attributed to precisely this cause.

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Just spotted this lovely story on the BBC News website: a Swiss amateur parachutist has made a successful descent using a replica of a parachute designed more than 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. And there’s a video of the jump too so you can see the design – quite different from a modern [...]

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I am informed that the phenomenon of goats in a tree is completely real and genuine and that there is no production company slightly off-camera in the following video clip putting the goats in the trees then filming them coming down again.

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It transpires that Robbie Williams has been spending the time he’s taking out from his recording career exploring a very serious interest in the paranormal. And, when he decided to go to a conference in Nevada on alien abduction, who on earth else would he call up to accompany him but Jon Ronson? Here’s Ronson’s [...]

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