(Screencap: YouTube)

You may have heard that Pope Benedict XVI has announced his resignation amid concerns about his health. The last Pope to resign was Gregory XII, who did so in 1415, so web users prone to a good conspiracy theory are looking for a reason Benedict XVI would do such a thing. There's no sex scandal or money laundering cover up. In fact, it turns out the reason is simple: The Pope's resignation is a fulfillment of the "Gangnam Style" prophecy.

What is the "Gangnam Style" prophecy, you might be wondering? Allow prolific YouTube user Third Eagle to regale you with his tale. Turns out Psy is apparently the antichrist and the Pope stepping down means the "next Pope will reveal the Antichrist and Okay the Mark of the Beast." Hey Vatican, can we get a livefeed? Sounds awesome.

Lulz. (Photo: RyanSecrest.com)

Psy's "Gangnam Style" is a cultural phenomenon. Having already nabbed the most viewed spot on YouTube, today the video hit 1 billion views [insert your cliched Mayan apocalypse joke here].

A countdown site, Billioncountdown.com, quickly circulated across the Internet this morning, showing a mesmerizing counter tracking the views until the video hit one billion.

And when it did? An awesome feat of Internet trolling was unleashed. As soon as the video hit a billion, the site immediately began redirecting to some explicit porn sites upon refresh, including Cougardating.com.

Well done, Internet. You've truly outdone yourself.

If you're wondering why some people say, "the past five years or so of startup mania has been insufferable and obnoxious and annoying," here is one example.

So, do you think they put participating as a clause in the term sheet?

Map-maker, Map-maker, Build Me a Map! If Tim Cook's mea culpa wasn't enough to demonstrate how hard Apple is scrambling to fix its iOS 6 mapocalypse, then how about its last ditch recruiting techniques to find Ruby developers? Mojo Talantikite, a cluster engineer at Engine Yard in New York City, said he (and a number of his technically talented friends) have been hit up by Apple recruiters recently.

The recruiter's LinkedIn inquiry mentions "Maps" specifically:

"We are looking for a passionate Ruby coder to have a HUGE impact our Maps, Flyover, Geo and Siri teams in iOS. I've read about your work on Heroku's infrastructure. Is it a good time for you to chat?"

My, What Colorful Balls You Have Startup perks tend to veer toward the infantile. Between the snacks, slides, and nap pods, managers might as well try to wipe your nose when you sneeze. But newly-married Elepath founder Jakob Lodwick actually committed, procuring the ball pool of your childhood dreams for Elepath's San Francisco "studio." At least that's what we thought based on his recent Instagram offering. However, on closer inspection, an antimated gif from Elepath's blog reveals the ball pool is less Chuck E. Cheese and more kiddie pool. Things on the Internet, it seems, may be smaller than they appear.

Cussing For a Cause Last week Tech4Obama hosted an evening in New York with serial entrepreneur and current CTO for Obama for America Harper Reed. Next to the guest list--heavily studded with Silicon Alley stalwarts like Soraya Darabi, Rachel Sklar, and Betaworks' Andrew McLaughlin and investor Pedro Torres Picon--the invitation loudly warned "THIS EVENT IS CLOSED TO PRESS." Now we know why. Apparently the bearded Mr. Reed has quite the mouth on him. But doesn't he know reporters love that shit?

Colorblind We're still not really sure what Color was launched to do, but it got $40 million in funding to do it. The app subsequently became the archetypal overfunded startup representing tech's hype bubble (even inspiring a fake pitch deck!). Color treaded in the wave pool for a bit before pivoting to a new idea altogether.

Now, TechCrunch reports that Color may be experiencing an executive level shakeup, with sources saying CEO Bill Nguyen will be taking a step back from from day-to-day operations at the flailing company. In his stead, an "executive committee" has been assembled to take over his responsibilities.

Mr. Nguyen apparently hasn't shown up to the office in two months, leading sources to conjecture that he's "probably either in Tahoe or Hawaii.” (Ugh.) An ominous Quora post from January of this year wondered why Color had shuttered its Palo Alto office, but CNET journalist Casey Newton responded that the company said they'd "hung some paper up to cover its windows while they do some work inside." Hmm, engineers do have some weird working habits.

Of course, a question about why Mr. Nguyen left Color immediately cropped up on Quora and was quickly answered with a cringe-worthy response. "After the disastrous pivot from the initial (fairly brilliant, but poorly implemented) photo sharing concept, it was really only a matter of 'Nguyen, not if'."

Sigh.

Digging K-Pop Looks like Digg cofounder Kevin Rose is officially a fan of the "Gangnam Style" hype. Mr. Rose posted a photo on his Instagram of a little bobble head Psy doing the infamous horse dance, sharing a photo of his Psy laptop decal shortly after. Try to ignore the awkward comment about "open condom style," below.

(Photo: Instagram)

Business Tattler Henry Blodget proudly outed Verge's editor-in-chief today, tweeting, "Josh Topolsky reads Business Insider!" But the real question is: does he hate read it?

As always: Overheard a juicy tidbit about impending departures or imminent acquisitions? Dying to dish about startup blunders or frothy financing? Holler at your girls: tips@betabeat.com

(Photo: Google Korea)

If you can set aside the bajillions of dollars you have and the fact that you're treated like royalty wherever you go, being a Google chairman is just plain tough. The worst part of the gig isn't grappling with privacy issues or patent suits, but instead having to play along with dumb and embarrassing publicity stunts.

Eric Schmidt came face-to-face with this horrifying reality on a recent trip to Google Korea. There, he was greeted by "Gangnam Style" singer Psy, who somehow convinced the Google chairman to do the horse-like dance, in front of a large audience, while being recorded.

The results are enough to make you thankful you were never the leader of the most-respected company in the free world: a pasty, bespectacled nerd in a suit, attempting to mimic the smooth stylings of a Korean pop star. Cringing yet?

Surprisingly enough, the video of the incident that was circulating the web has since been removed from YouTube. Perhaps Mr. Schmidt was unhappy with his performance? Luckily, one attendee caught another angle. It's only 11 seconds long, but it gives you a good idea of just how awkward the whole thing was.

The incident is curious given earlier reports this week of YouTube conspiring to keep Psy's hit off of the most-liked charts. Is this whole event just one big "Gangnam Style" cover up?

(Photo: YouTube)

Psy's "Gangnam Style," that raucous electro synth party pop anthem even your grandmother knows by now, took America by storm with its beat and style. It was one of the first Korean pop singles to successfully cross over into the American media consciousness, and garnered so much interest that Psy is now signed with Scooter Braun, the man who plucked Justin Bieber out of YouTube obscurity and molded him into a star.

As of this writing, the "Gangnam Style" music video has garnered over 274 million views and close to 3 million likes. Metrics like that should land "Gangnam Style" squarely in the list of YouTube's most watched and most liked videos. And yet, it's mysteriously absent from that list, causing some Psy fans to cry conspiracy.

The site "What Happened to Gangnam Style?" cropped up a few days ago, where a very dedicated Psy fan is collecting evidence that YouTube is purposefully keeping "Gangnam Style" from its rightful place on the Top Liked chart.

According to the site:

On September 13, Gangnam Style MV became the most LIKED video in YouTube history worldwide with 2,234,180 likes, but 7 days later, on Sep 20, it was removed from Youtube’s Most Liked All Time Chart as you can see on the snapshots below.

If the "Most Liked" chart is aggregated solely based on like metrics, it does seem that "Gangnam Style" should be number one. It has received almost twice the likes as the #1 video on the chart, LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem."

One YouTube user, named AgentofDoubt, recorded a 6-minute video walking the audience through the alleged snubbing. He believes that YouTube has grown ever more commercialized, bending over backwards to accommodate videos created by professional singers while disadvantaging lesser known YouTubers.

"It does seem like Google is filling this chart with celebrities who aren't necessarily YouTubers," he says in the video. "They're actually celebrities outside of YouTube and they're just basically cashing in by filling these charts with performers that actually don't deserve to be in these positions. Because 'Gangnam Style' deserves to be number one."

Of course, Psy himself could be considered part of that celebrity contingent. He's popular in Korea, and has signed on to work with Mr. Braun, whose other clients include Justin Bieber, who does make an appearance on the Top Likes chart.

Perhaps the "Top Liked" chart isn't actually organized by which videos received the most likes. We've reached out to YouTube and will update when we know more. In the meantime, Psy diehards (Psyhards?) are galvanizing, urging fellow fans to sign a petition to get the video back to its rightful #1 spot.