Parents bitterly disappointed with baby's first "words"

Following the first verbal utterance of their 18-month-old son James's first "words", Carolyn and Jake Erikson could not help but express their utter and unmitigated disappointment to reporters late yesterday evening.

"Is that it?" asked the exasperated and sleep-deprived father. "A year and a half spent changing your soiled nappies, feeding you you, and having to wake up at godless hours to tend to your screaming, and just generally being a slave monkey to you and that's the best you've got, that's all you're giving us?"

"What the hell does 'da-da' even mean?" added the teary mother, who has since decided that giving birth to the human equivalent of a police siren that periodically craps itself every few hours was not the best decision she had made in her young life. "There are literally a thousand things that that could mean, and god help you if it means 'daddy', you little shit. I'm the one who carried you and the one who went in to excruciating labour for ten hours."

When asked for comment, young baby James declined to give a formal statement, opting instead to burble incoherently for twenty minutes (showing his promise as a future politician) before soiling himself, wailing uncontrollably for half an hour and eventually passing out in his own faeces like a brain-dead chimpanzee, except that the chimp could probably say a telephrasic sentence verging on real English.

James's parents are now naively hopeful that the young boy will "eventually say something vaguely resembing proper, grammatical English, like, 'hello, father, my nappy needs changing,' or maybe 'mother, I am famished, could you please feed me?'", perhaps within the next six months to one year.

However, child development experts remain adamant that the parents should enjoy this phase of relative eloquence while it lasts.

"Before you know it, he'll be 16, hormonal, and back to single-syllable utterances," said child psychologist Neigh Chavers-Nuurcha. "Imagine an adolescent, eye-rolling, monosyllabic baby, just with a higher cellphone bill and acne."

Muse and Abuse donates laptop, hard drives, passports to local charity

In a surprise move at the Thursday 2O March Milner Street giveaway charity bonanza, held during broad daylight at exactly 1:10pm, Muse and Abuse's chief writer, reporter and Editor Matthew "Not actually that funny" de Klerk donated most of his prized possessions, including keys, a watch, a laptop and three hard disks containing the only backups of his four years of University work, newspaper articles and personal writing, music and photographs, to two men (who clearly wished to remain anonymous) from a Charity for struggling Probably Ex Convicts.

Muse and Abuse now joins over 400 other donors since January of this year who have donated their laptops, wallets, iPods, mobile phones, cash, and other easily-hockable and valuable items to similar charities in Grahamstown. Like Muse and Abuse, many of these donors also stored the charity donations in locked, secured and alarmed houses shortly before the handover.

The recipients of the items were endlessly happy.

"We could not be more pleased," they said probably over a beer gloating to friends at the ease of the charity giveaway. "Even though we probably live in squalor or desperate socioeconomic circumstances that force us to accept such donations."

The Charity Drive, which probably took no more than a few minutes, was joined several minutes later by members of both the Grahamstown South African Police Service and Hi-Tech Security, who called the event, "Business as usual", before adding that there was "an almost zero percent chance" that the satisfied customers would bring the items back for a refund or whatever.

"Students are just so generous and giving in our town," said Captain Howard Ahrwelukin and Sergeant Noah Tardat-Hall.

De Klerk, however, was just glad he could do his part.

"Most people might think me bitter," said the esteemed writer and philanthropist. "Most people would think me angry. Most people would think me disappointed. And in fact, most people would be absolutely fucking correct."

Those looking to make a donation should adopt a laissez-faire attitude toward personal security, or live on Milner Street.

Nkandla report now "least read thing on the planet"

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is to be honoured with a prestigious global award this week, after her highly-anticipated Nkandla Report, entitled "Secure in Comfort", narrowly beat the Ten Commandments, most parts of Academic readings given to University students and 99.5463% of Facebook statuses and Tweets to become the "Least Read Thing Currently On The Planet."

According to Dr Ihg Noars of the Selection Committee for These Kinds of Awards, Madonsela defeated many thousands of other, equally important documents such as Parliamentary Bills, Legislatural Proposals, critical news reports and extensive newspaper reportage to cinch the coveted trophy.

"Everyone is arguing about it, throwing around the phrases 'Nkandla' this and 'report' that and it generally defines the current South African focus in all aspects of our society - social, political, digital and Office-Water-Cooler-ial," he said to gathered reporters who also hadn't read the full report and just skimmed bits and pieces here and there, early this morning, "but who has actually read it? Not even me."

However, Noars was quick to point out that Madonsela had only narrowly beat her closest competitor - the website where the report is available for full download, www.publicprotector.org/library/investigation_report/2013-14/Final%20Report%2019%20March%202014%20.pdf - to snatch up the honour.

"It was flippen' close," he said.

However, the decision to award Madonsela the covetted title has been heatedly protested and refuted by many others, including Apple, Inc. and those people who hand out fliers for Traditional Healers, gold merchants and cheap plumbing services on the sides of roads and pavements outside stores.

"Years and years of well-documented statistical fact show that it is not the Nkandal report, or even the Public Protector website, that is the least read thing on the planet," said Apple executive CEO Hugh Wurriptof, "but our Legal Terms and Agreements and Conditions of Use documents. How many thousands of times have people just clicked 'Accept' without knowing that they've agreed to, when we want, take all their personal data, possetions and internal organs? Literally millions."

In spite of this, thousands of South Africans and ANC Ministers and Members of Parliament have backed Madonsela's claim, saying that she "utterly deserves this award."

"It is literally my job to read this document so that I can serve the public to the best of my ability," said ANC Minister of Blindly Defending an Untenable Position on the ANC's Mass Pilliaging of State Funds Slip Ery-slohps. "I mean, I've shouted at people in Parliament about how the President is blameless and not guilty, and I don't even know what - if anything - he has been accused of."

Madonsela is expected to be conferred this presitigious award next week.

"I'm happy to receive this award," she said to the gathered audience in a statement that no one will ever take the time to fully read, and instead just rely on news sites like this to get the gist of, "but maybe someone can read it? Pretty please?"

SA Music Union seeks chefs, businessmen, for next week’s gig

Chefs, businessmen, doctors and experts of all professions can look forward to an exciting opportunity for fantastic exposure in their various fields this weekend, after the South African Musicians' Union published a press release announcing free slots in their upcoming gig in Johannesburg this weekend.

According to the press release, the gig organisers are looking for professionals from all walks of life to come and show off their skills to a gathered crowd of hundreds. Chefs, painters, accountants – no matter their field of expertise – will work in 40-minute slots at the venue. 

“It really is going to be a fantastic opportunity for various career leaders to make their names known in their spheres of work,” said event organiser Eim hun der Payd. “For example, if you’re a struggling doctor who wants to get his name out there, or a starting-up chef already working two jobs to support his passion for cooking – often for free – then this is a great chance to get some unequalled notoriety.” 

However, he added, due to budgeting constraints, Hun der Payd added that they would be unable to offer remuneration for services rendered. 

“Right now we’ve unfortunately spent all of our allocated budget on paying our designers, photographers and musicians for a change, but we don’t think that’s too big a deal,” he said. “I mean, this about your art, your passion, your calling. What is money? Can you really justify paying for art? Doesn’t that debase it?” 

He did, however, mention that they might “swing you a free beer” or “at least one that’s much cheaper than usual.” 

“We’re cool like that. We think you’ll have earned it,” he added with a smile. 

Since the announcement, thousands of amateur professionals across the country have greeted the news with delight and excitement. 

“I’m going to sign up immediately,” said 36-year-old Sushi chef Roald de Maki. “Even if it means doing everything for free.” 

Other professionals aired similar enthusiasm. 

“I’m only doing this accountancy work to support my passion for figures and numbers,” said 42-year-old charted accountant Kerry Balance. “Maybe afterwards I’ll get paid for my pen-pushing? I know that to become a real, accepted accountant, you have to put in a few free hours here and there.”

“I’m also signing up,” agreed corporate CEO Emma Basil. “I’ve worked tirelessly, day-in and day-out from the lowly position of daughter-of-the-CEO for over a year to get to where I am, and this showcase will be an opportunity to show off what I’ve learned. My father always told me that if I worked hard I would succeed, and that’s exactly what I tell my kids.” 

However, not all professionals have been pleased. 

“It’s a joke,” said expert engineer Brad de Zyyn. “Every weekend people call me up and are like,’Hey, Brad, don’t you want to quickly draw up some standards-compliant, fully accurate and to-scale blue prints for my second home that I want to build in Durban?’ I’m sick of these free gigs. I mean, I put a lot of time and effort into my drawings. It is too much to ask for a little bit of recompensation for that time, skill, and hard work?”

This is a complaint that has been echoed by struggling neurosurgeons, nuclear physicists and advanced encryptologists across the world.

Meanwhile, in related and equally shocking news, a poster designer, a photographer and at least four musicians were actually offered money for their services. 

“We’re just playing around with a new strategy,” explained Hun der Payd. “But right now we don’t seriously think that it’s something that will catch on and continue as time goes by. I mean, that would make them think their work is actually worth anything of value. Hahahah!”

Facebook users concerned over Giraffe takeover

pic: wikimedia commons

Hundreds of Facebook users reportedly clogged up the Facebook Team’s complaints and queries service inbox this morning, after unanimously voicing concerns over the sudden and inexplicable increase in the number of giraffes on Facebook.

“I opened up my newsfeed this morning, and suddenly I saw that all my human friends had suddenly become giraffes,” said 23-year-old Rhodes student and hater of stupid fucking reposted riddles about what you would open first if your parents came over to your house at 3am, Derrick Anderson. “What is this bullshit?”

The complaints threw the Facebook investigative team into immediate action. However, the scale of the mystery has left them stumped and dazed.

“Right now, we just don’t know why this is happening,” said Head of Complaints Resolution for Facebook Ree Pears. “It could be Black Magick, transamorgraphying them into animals by way of voodoo and the dark arts. Or it could be a sophisticated hack. It might even be some sort of transcendant expression of our users' inner animal, the power of forgotten gods and ancestors making themselves known in the most public way possible.”

He went on to add, however, that it definitely couldn’t be because of a stupid riddle.

“Correlation isn’t the same as causality,” said Pears. “We’re fairly confident that our users aren’t so mindless that they would A) fall for such a daft word puzzle and B) actually go through with changing their profile picture after failing this incredible flawed and at the same time very easy challenge.”

Meanwhile, professors studying language at Universities across the world have expressed their outrage at the events.

“We’re concerned that there will be a giraffe monopoly on Facebook,” said the Rhodes University Dean of Students Div ke Vlerk in a statement this morning. “At Rhodes, we’re total supporters of an animal multiplicity, and as such we advise students to please upload pictures of goats, lions, carnivores, scavengers  diurnal and nocturnal animals, be they mammal or reptile or aquatic, in the interest of equal representation and diversity.”

Meanwhile, professors from the English departments of various tertiary institutes have complained at the riddle.

“It’s just too flawed to consider. I mean, why the hell would your parents be coming over at 3am?” said Dean of Humanities Jay Entprix. “The only reason anyone would feasibly suggest that sort of eventuality would be an in the event of an emergency of some kind, in which case why would you offer them wine or jam or cheese? And what kind of fucking cheese comes in a bottle or jar? They’re your parents, so presumably you wouldn’t offer them the cheap squeezey-cheese? And of course, if you wake up first the answer is ‘Your Eyes’, but what if you’re lying in bed comprehending the simple meaninglessness of the entire universe as outlined in theories of existentialism or nihilism? In that case, your eyes are already open and you’ll open the door first – unless they had their own key, or you live in a house with no doors or an open-plan vista that limits private enclosure.”

He shook his head before breaking off and adding that you could probably see his point so he wouldn’t bore you any further.

“Also, what if you’re not home?” he said. “None of these potential factors are even suggested at in this over-simplistic riddle.”

In spite of all this the Facebook Team is adamant that they will get to the bottom of this.

“Right now we’re programming and ‘Automatic Friend Spring-clean’ function to Facebook that will use your webcam and microphone to track your sarcastic eye-rolls and groans of ‘fuck, come on,’ or ‘god, I hate you’ and so on and so forth,” said Pear. “Currently we’re automatically adding anyone with a Giraffe in their profile picture to that list. One click, and you’ll never have to read that shit again.”

The group of Facebook experts has already made  a page outlining these plans – a page that has garnered over 700 million likes since its creation.

“We’re sure this is a feature everyone will love,” said Pears. “Except, of course, that bastard Reggie at Toys ‘R Us.”

Thousands sunburnt after Tornado ravages Eastern Cape

pic: wikimedia commons

Thousands of residents living in the Eastern Cape were left nursing third-degree sunburns after the much radio-hyped Class 6 tornado predicted to hit the coastline finally made landfall yesterday. 

Tornado Deathwave Bringer, as it has now been dubbed by the radio media which discussed the tornado's possible effects and path at length, viciously tickled tree leaves and violently creaked wind vanes after breakneck breezes, some racing at speeds in excess of 8km/hr, swept across the land, leaving in their wake a devastating path of flustered hair and underarm sweat. 

“The tornado was singularly awful simply because it was unlike any other that has ever hit the country, or any country, for that matter,” said local weather man Val Souds. “It was particularly iniquitous because it was a tornado that looked nothing like a tornado.” 

The claim has since been confirmed by traumatised eyewitnesses at ground zero. 

“It was terrifying!” said local Port Elizabeth businessman Sal Goods. “Here we were expecting rain and wind and the fury of a scorned wind god embodied in a towering funnel of windy death, and then… nothing. Not only was it slightly destructive, it was also utterly deceptive.” 

Since the odious weather began, locals have been flooding the Muse and Abuse offices with complaints of damage and trauma. 

“It was awful,” said Rhodes student Harry Cane. “The tornado magnified the sun’s rays, forcing me to take off my jersey and go down to the pool for a few hours. Then, when the clouds swept over the sun for a few minutes, I had to put my jersey back on.” 

According to Cane, this behaviour continued for up to an hour, forcing him to repeated remove and put back on various items of clothing. 

“It was terribly inconvenient,” he said. 

Meanwhile, weather centres across the Cape have reported that in some places the tornado reached windspeeds of nearly 14km/hr, as well as temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius, with high exposure risks of sunny skies. 

“Tornados usually only go up to Class 5, but this one brought with it risks of heat stroke and skin cancer, as well as damage to only-just-coiffured hair! We had to create a whole new class for this kind of weather monstrosity,” said head of Meteorology at the Centre for Weather Studies Chech McClowds. “It’s the worst weather we’ve had all week, and definitely worse than last week’s, too. It’s irrefutable proof of global warming, climate change, or at the very least that we’re praying to the wrong god.” 

He went on to slaughter a chicken and incant prayers of appeasement toward the furious wind god Col’chu’kaan. 

“All hail the Lord of Wind and Might, his glorious Majesty of the Skies and Clouds,” he added. 

Residents of the Eastern Cape have since been warned to make preparations for a possible second wave of similar tornado activity. 

“We’re putting all of our citizens on high alert,” said Mayor of East London Jehovah Payd. “If the weather gets worse, we’re going to have to start handing out emergency rations of sunblock and beach towels.” 

Muse and Abuse advises all residents to remain indoors, and maybe open a goddamn textbook and study for your Chemistry exam next week, event though we all know you’ll probably watch four seasons of Breaking Bad in one sitting. No, it’s not the same thing.

Thousands barely escape White Genocide

pic: wikimedia commons

Thousands of white South Africans just barely escaped with their lives this morning after calls by the country's black majority population to commence the long-planned White Genocide (also known as The Night of The Long Knives") were hastily withdrawn.

According to Perry Noya of the Institute for Murdering Vit Mense, the calls to commence the wholesale ethnic cleansing of South Africa precipitated over recent false rumours of Nelson Mandela's death.

"At roughly 9:55am this morning we got an SMS from staff at the Pretoria hospital saying "Madiba is gone!", and so our various generals across the country started breaking open the crates of machetes and parafin-soaked tyres. However, ten minutes later we got a second SMS saying "found him, he ws in da bathroom." Needless to say, it was a close call."

According to Noya, this isn't the first time white people had just barely escaped.

"The genocide was first penned in to happen just after April 1994, but was seriously waylaid by Mandela's bullshit message of peace and reconciliation," said Noya. "That idiot really put a hurdle in the path of the inevitable.”

However, organising officials have said that in recent years the planned mass murder has been plagued by modern philosophical and practical questions.

"Right now we have whole schools of thought dedicating their lives to finding out where we stand on certain ethnicities," said Head Researcher of the Rhodes University Wilson Yves Theory-school of Ethnicity (RU WYTE) Carl Ord. "Right now we just can't tell where we stand on some coconuts. Like, coloured people? And what about really black white guys? Or what about rich black people who live in Sandton? We don't want to murder all of them by accident.”

Ord went on to say that they were thinking of reinstating old scientific measures for determining true blackness.

 "Like the Pencil Test," he said. "Just to be absolutely positive. That's tried and tested. If that Staedler falls out, it's machete time, mlungu."

However, the false-start killings were not bloodless, with three white people killed, thus sending the media into a frenzy of extensive coverage.

"If we do the media math, we can see three white people dead is a fucking high and scary number," said Editor of Die Burger Steer Eyotypz. "In fact, if we look at the current value system, the equivalent of as many white people died at Marikana, and we can see how much coverage that got." He went on to add that this number was almost as high as half an American person, but only equal to one-sixteenth of an American blue-eyed little blonde girl.

In reaction to today's events, hundreds of white people have since taken to the streets to voice their terror and concern for the proposed killings.

"A bunch of us and Steve Hofmeyr have decided that enough is enough," said 42-year-old farmer and Jo'burg resident Boet Enswaar. "Sure, probably thousands more black people are murdered every day, but there are a lot more of them, so it's not the same."

As such, they have planned some scathing and moving protest action in defiance of the horrific acts. 

"We're gonna throw all these red balloons into the sky just to show everyone how gatvol we really are," he said. "That will really get the message across."

And in related news, scientists are running out of time to discover the potion for everlasting life to keep Nelson Mandela alive. According to scientists from the University of Stellenbosch, medical science is still far from coming up with the immortality potion that will keep Nelson Mandela, and thus the minority white population, alive.

"A lot of people say that black people are actually peace-loving and that the idea that they just want to go on a massive colour-incited spree of mass murder and violence is ridiculous, and that they just want to live in peace," said Head of Medical Research Liv Foorevah, "but we think this is the only way to be  100% sure."

Dealers to introduce "ethical and eco-friendly" narcotics

pic: wikimedia commons

Responding to worldwide allegations of murder, torture, kidnapping, assassination, violence and the enslavement of thousands of poor and destitute addicts, leading meth cooks, Colombian drug lords and narcotics suppliers across the globe have announced plans to produce "friendlier, ethical, guilt-free and fair" narcotics.

"The media and governments across the world have given us a really bad rep," said Colombian heroin kingpin Lina de Koka. "Sure, we haven't been blameless, but I've only tortured, beheaded or murdered maybe four dozen times, tops. This is just a way of saying to our very, very loyal customers that we're not the bad guys the newspapers and headlines make us out to be."

De Koka went on to say that this move was a result of their customers' concerns about the product they were buying.

"Every time our users cram their scarred and bleeding nasal cavaties with three grams of Colombian Snow, we don't want them thinking of guilty, awful things like, 'How many poor farmers were exploited at 5c per kilo for this?' or 'How many abused and homeless meth addicts is my part in this cycle really creating?' or even 'How many people are facing life in prison because my demand for this illegal substance and their desperation to just get by is a powderkeg combination?'. We want them to shoot up and feel happy that they're not making the world a worse place."

As such, kingpins and dime-bag dealers in carparks across the world will now be offering (at a marginally higher price, of course) products like violence-free and fair-market cocaine,  war-in-the-Third-World-free and taliban-funding-free Opium, and murder-free and jail-free marijuana.

"Our latest product is Green Coke. It's transported across the continent by bicycle or in the latest Honda Prius. You might also want to check out our new Eco-MDMA: it's not made from the rare oil of the endangered Sassafras tree in Cambodia, but rather synthesised in a lab from other, abundant chemicals. We want our customers to never feel like they're supporting something that's immoral or unethical," said De Koka.

The announcement has been greeted with great enthusiasm by loyal users of hard drugs across the world, who took time out of asking for spare change and offering us all blowjobs for ten bucks to share their thoughts.

"It's great, man. Now, when I go back to my cardboard home after a hard day's begging,  I can sleep comfortably at night, unplagued by nightmarish visions of poor Mexican citizens getting caught in the crossfire," said 31-year-old vagrant and part-time prostitute Joe Blobs. "Now, about that BJ...."

Companies across the world have met this announcement with support, showing their commitment to this inspiring movement by introducing their own ranges of eco-friendly, ethically-produced produces.

"Here we have a new eco-friendly and ethical coke-snorting pipe disguised to look EXACTLY like a ten dollar bill. It's portable, light, easy to roll, and you can hide it in your wallet along with all your real money," said CEO of Paraphernalia Inc. Shu Tinup. "It's now on sale at all major retailers for $19.95.”

However, the announcement has not been without controversy, as some gang lords have resisted the proposed changes.

"So far we've seen a little bit of resistance to this new pardigm," said De Koka, "but every revolution  has its fair share of drive-by shootings and gang-banging. This is just the acceptable cost of business."

He went on to outline, however, that this was just pushing them harder to, er, push the new product.

"They're jealous of this new product and want to stick to the old way of doing things," said De Koka. "All these gang wars and hits on our mid-level mafiosos are a sign. Yesterday, I found my best friend Miguel's head on a stake in my driveway. That just tells us that we must be doing something right."

Man admits weed truth

pic: wikimedia commons

A Cape Town man has left local pro-weed groups reeling in outrage this morning after coming out and admitting that he uses weed because it's great to get blazed on, and not because of the various socioeconomic, health, or financial reasons usually stated by pro-legalisation advocacy groups.

"I don't use it because it's a good alternative to manufacturing rope, or because it'll stop the glaucoma or cancer I definitely don't have, but because I just fucking love getting blazed in my room," said 23-year-old UCT student and part-time waiter Jonas Westen.

Westen went on to add that he mostly supported pro-weed groups because not going to jail every time he bought weed from a carguard dealer or lit up a jay would be "really sweet".

"Like, not going to jail would be awesome," he said passing a joint to gathered journalists. "Why isn't that enough?"

However, many pro-legalisation groups have condemned the student's words, saying that he is just a part of the international conspiracy to hold human society back.

"A lot of people say that we only support weed because we smoke, like, a shit load of it," said Capetown-based advocate of LEGALISE-IT, Affa Davids. "But that couldn't be any further from the truth."

Davids went on to point out why, exactly, marijuana is that wonder-crop it is.

"Hemp is a very, very important part of modern life, and is very valuable indeed," he said. "It can make really kiff rope. Like, there's a huge international government conspiracy to replace all rope bridge cables with much weaker woven tempered steel cabling, and ship rope with synthetic fibre. It's ludicrous."

"I use hemp rope and hemp cloth all the time for, like, stuff and things," said 22-year-old architect Baloo Prince, wearing a cotton and polyester blend t-shirt and demin jeans.

Westen's media stunt has also been criticised in light of a recent South African statistical study.

"Our studies have shown that almost 99% of all weed users are closet Rastafarians who are forced to display Christian, Judaic, Islamic or even atheist beliefs in public, simply because the law prevents them from freely expressing their religious beliefs," said chief researcher Rick Roll of the Institute for Statistical Studies.

The study also found that, contrary to popular belief, all weed users have been shown to harbour deep-seated, as-yet-undiscovered cancers - which are slowly killing them, because of the government's unwillingness to legalise a potential miracle cure.

"Years of medical research has shown that weed is a very effective anti-cancer measure," said Roll, "especially when supplemented by things like healthy eating, exercise, not spending hours in direct sunlight or in tanning beds, and more insubstantial things like weeks of clinically-proven advanced multi-stage chemotherapy and radiotherapy."

Research also pointed out that if the War on Drugs were to be legally ended, there would be millions of Rands available for public spending and other typical government projects - a possibility that has sparked interest in ANC MPs and politicos since.

"Just think how many cars and Johnny Walker and endless weeks of fastfood that could get you?" said ANC Minister of Public Spending Robbin Dhakantry. "Oh, and maybe some RDP houses and a toilet or two. You know, if there's some change."

However, the legalisation debate is still a contentious one, with stalwarts on both sides presenting sound arguments.

"We can't blerrie legalise this kak," said Joburg resident John Anders while drinking a beer with his 16-year-old son. "Because after that they'll legalise coke and heroin and blerrie tik. And all our children will get their hands on it. No, we should definitely ban and criminalise all kinds of mind- and mood-altering drugs. Here, have beer."

Anyone with information on how to be diagnosed with glaucoma or, like, a not-that-serious but just-serious-enough form of cancer should please get in contact with reporters from Muse and Abuse.

Plan to destroy planet "well ahead of schedule"

pic: wikimedia commons

Bankers, Republicans and users of inefficient wall heaters and canned hairspray are reportedly rejoicing after a recent study has shown that the worldwide plan to utterly eradicate all life on planet Earth is "far, far ahead of schedule."

The study by the Harvard Review of Planetoid Desolation reported yesterday that, with current global levels of effort into destroying our planet, the original 1890 plan is many, many years ahead of schedule.

"We've had a massive legacy laid down for us, with people like Thomas Midgely, Jr and his bold and creative new methods for natural destruction, and so the bar has been set really high," said head of the Harvard research team and guy who leaves his geyser on all day Eric Schmidt. "With his CFCs and Lead Tetrethyl, he paved the first step, but with our modern deforestation methods and massive mining ingenuity, we're one step closer to achieving our goals."

The plan to destroy the planet was first proposed in 1865, when industrialist and businessman John Myers took a walk in a local park.

pic: natgeo animals

"'Tis a wretched thing, this nature," his now-famous autobiography reads, "I didst just find a spider, a vicious, fanged, disgusting hairy jumpy bastard with ugly grey beady eyes. A bird didst defecate right betwixt my shoulderblades. His grandchildren will pay for that."

After that seminal walk, Myers dedicated his life to scientific research into the problem of a wild planet full of bugs and creatures. His early studies were crucial in showing how dangerous many naturally occurring chemicals are.

"Ozone in high levels has been shown to be poisonous to human beings," read one of his most startling early papers, Natures Ugliness. "Meanwhile, other chemicals such as the noxious and corrosive Di-hydrogen Oxide have been shown to be pandemic cesspits of death, especially in places such as Grahamstown, where it causes irreparable yearly damage despite its low daily prevalence in the area."

Early estimates in the 90's said that the planet would only be eradicated of all life by 2050, but the new Harvard report has shown that our massively industrialized society and global population explosions have cut that time by at least 25 years.

"Even if we discount the advances made between the years of 1914 and 1918 and 1939 and 1945, we're still far ahead of schedule," said Schmidt.

The report, which cites Bleach, CFCs, DDT, industrial toxins, mass deforestation, and the systematic genocide of anything with wings or fur as some of the most crucial modern steps in this program, now estimates that by latest 2025, we won't have to worry any more about whales or birds or snakes. Eugh. Snakes.

"Where we've really stepped up our game is the ocean," said global annihilation analyst and proud Hummer owner Oyelle Spils. "Ever since the great plan to dump large quantities of toxic and radioactive waste into it - not to mention all those nuclear tests in the 60s and 70s - we're moving faster than ever to achieve our goal of utter oceanic obliteration."

Leading scientists have since been quick to heap praise on the various peoples of the world, in particular the Chinese.

"We really could not have done it without them," said Spils. "They are the real visionaries here. They sacrifice long hours and suffer illness, poverty and constant oppression just to get their bit done, often under the harshest living and working conditions. They're an inspiration to the rest of us, opening so many new coal-burning power plants every month."

However, many scientists have also expressed concern over a growing rebellion to the cause, namely so-called "vegetarians" and "environmentalists".

"If these tree-hugging arseholes have their way, they'll deny our children the future they so rightly deserve," said Spils. "Do you want your kids growing up in trees and poison ivy and mosquitoes and crocodiles, or in a safe, warm, barren wasteland of endless sand and desolation where you can see dangerous animals coming from miles around?"

In spite of this, experts say they are not worried about these possible obstacles to making the new expected completion date.

"If push comes to shove, we'll just 'accidentally' launch a few nukes at a nuclear-capable, war-loving, fanatic and unstable rising world power," said head of the American program Hopen Fyre. "The ensuing nuclear winter should undo all the serious damage and obstacles these Pruis-driving, eco-friendly, organic-produce-eating motherfuckers have done.

Muse and Abuse would like to remind all its readers to leave their lights on tonight. Every minute is a polar bear that will never again endanger your children.