Sadly this Brit can't comment on those Brits commenting on a documentary about an American's giant ball sack because Channel 4 have blocked it.

Good luck using those fancy techniques on a beachball with a sack of hammers, or upside down in a bunny costume.

(If you haven't seen Cutthroat Kitchen yet, guys, I recommend it.)

Looked like a mamma, you can see the giant sack that falls out with it initially...

I think the previous drama over Clarkson have been quite overblown tbh. The slope thing was ignorance from the production as much as it was Clarkson. I'm not convinced he even said nigger, and comedians have made India (and others) the butt of more tasteless jokes without complaint. Frankly, I have found him more disagreeable when it comes to his dismissal of speeding and climate change, attitudes which in my opinion may well have done far more damage than making off-hand remarks about the work ethics of Mexicans.

I think a lot of "Clarkson" is a bit of an act. Likewise with Hamster and May, they are playing caricatures. Unfortunately for Clarkson, I think he ended up caricaturing himself to some degree. It has been difficult to determine where Clarkson the person ended and where Clarkson the personality started. Perhaps even he wasn't sure where the line was.

Anyway, I think the decision to sack him (or rather, not renew his contract) is right. Sadly, because of the previous threats (empty?) to get rid of him following each blunder, Clarkson's dismissal will be seen as a coup rather than the fair application of the same rules we all expect to be judged by.

I'll be interested to see what happens to Top Gear. My guess would be that Clarkson has not been exiled, but suspended for an undisclosed period. I'd start watching the show again if they brought in new hosts, and I'd probably keep watching if the show wasn't quite so blokey with quite such predictable characters making staged goofs every show.

You want to talk about trivial stories getting media coverage?

Yesterday, the island of Vanuatu was all but destroyed by a cyclone. 24 people confirmed dead, tens of thousands left homeless and "the development of the country wiped out" but what was the headline on NZs largest news site (and bear in mind that NZ is the closest developed nation to Vanuatu)?

Some d-list celebrity said something mean on a reality tv show, and the country lost their shit.

So, when someone threatens "the deadliest school shooting in American history" at your speaking engagement, that is not "faux victimhood". That is genuinely fucking scary.

Bad shit happens to people every fucking day and it's not deemed newsworthy. If you really want to get pissy about it, why does this one womans awful experience merit more support than the 200+ schoolgirls that are still missing?

The answer is that it's not a zero sum game.
I can say that I feel that the representation of women (and non-caucasians while I'm at it) in video games is pretty bad and should change.
I can also say that this woman had an awful experience and I wish it hadn't happened.
And I can also say that I sincerely hope those girls don't get sold in slavery.
And a million other issues of social justice, environment, etc.

Some of those are more important than others. Doesn't mean the "lesser" ones should be ignored.

20th century dinosaurs.

Drones cant take unlimited G's and likely wipe their asses with this antique.

bye bye fighter pilots, you useless sacks of meat

No man, that body armour, those boots...I'd harvest the bones of a thousand murdered infants to build our bed if that's what it took. Do you think that's what she wants?

I had to go rewatch this. It's practically perfect. Not an origin story, no romance subplot, no compromise. Just a day in the life of Judge Dredd. Love it, but my favourite Dredd story was told in rhyme:

They'd been waiting there since nightfall for the Sharks to come along,
They knew they'd have to pass this stretch of street.
So they'd sharpened up their stickers and they'd brought along their bars,
And they were wearing steel-tipped stompers on their feet.

There was Big Frank Zit and Faceache, Crazy Joseph with his spear,
The Dixon Boys were there and Billy Rat.
Ike the Spike had brought his sister with her homemade ghetto blaster,
And the Ghoul had put new rivets in his bat.

Now it wasn't nothin' personal that they had against the Sharks,
Any bunch of dead-end spugs would do.
'Cos there was nothing they liked better than to mash and bash and stomp,
Same as any normal Mega-City juves.

"A-rumbling! A-rumbling! We love to go A-rumbling!
("AAAH!")
We love to lay in ambush in the night!
("AAAA!")
A-rumbling! A-rumbling! The Zits were born for rumbling!
(SMAK!)
There's nothing we like better than a fight!"
(KRAK!)

Then a headlight pierced the darkness - a rider gaunt and grim,
Daystick drawn and ready in his hand.
     The chin belonged to Dredd,
     And the voice as well, which said:
"You creeps can do your rumbling in the can!"

"It's just one judge!" cried Cindy Spike and opened with her blaster -
"I'll send him back to Central in a sack!"
(SPOING! "AAAAAAA!")
But Dredd's bike absorbed the blast and laid her on the street,
With tyre marks running right across her back.

Then the judge got down to business and his daystick rose and fell,
Striking out at every head he saw.
For though the Zits launched the attack, the Sharks were fighting back -
And self defence is no defence in law!

As the heap of bodies mounted, Big Zit could see his Waterloo,
Waiting just one station down the line.
Oh, sure, he loved to rumble - but he preferred to be on top...
"Let's scram and live to fight another time!"

("Dredd to Control! We got forty-plus juve rumblers fleeing east through Bernstein. Zits and Sharks, back-up required."
"Wilco, Dredd!"
"Med squads and meat wagons to Moreng Alley. Estimate twenty casualties, more to follow."
"Control to all units area Bernstein. YPs on the run."
VRMMMM!
"Pick 'em up!")

In the space of sixty seconds there was a judge on every street.
From watching bays others scanned the slab -
"We got two Zits runnin' fast though the Tamblin Underpass!"
"Krupke here! I got 'em in the bag!"
(THUNK! THUNK!)

They cut them off at Sondheim and they mopped them up on Wood,
On Pedway 12 they corned Crazy Joseph.
He tried to make a stand - but a spear's not worth a damn,
When it's up against a judge's high explosive.

The Ghoul surrendered quietly, he didn't have much choice -
Ike the Spike tried to scale the sector wall -
("Save your bullet, he'll never make it." "Oh no! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" SPLATT!)
The Dixon Boys all copped it when they tried to hitch a ride,
On the 2020 Zoom to Bernstein Halt.

Big Zit thought he'd play it clever, the law was everywhere,
The safest thing for him to do was hide -
Dredd tracked him down on infrared - "Don't bother to come out!"
"The best place for trash like you is inside!"

In minutes flat they'd caught them, every Shark and every Zit.
To Dredd it fell to ladle out the years -
"Twenty years apiece for Cindy Spike, Billy Rat and Ghoul."
An extra ten left Big Frank Zit in tears.

For Faceache minus half his face, for the hapless Dixon Boys,
For Ike impaled so cruelly on his spike,
For Crazy Joe with his gaping hole, there'd be one final rumble,
Along the last conveyor belt at Resyk.

A-rumbling! A-rumbling! They loved to go A-rumbling!
But the Zits will go A-rumbling no more!
A-rumbling! A-rumbling! They loved to go A-rumbling!
But they should've known they couldn't buck the law!

Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - Amnesia and Music has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.

Clive Wearing is also discussed in this *related=http://videosift.com/video/Oliver-Sacks-Musicophilia-Amnesia-and-Music video.

Aaaaand you sir or madman with your offering, are wholly without merit and I spew with confidence bereft of interesting banter on a plethora of issues as well. Oh, and your grammar is lousy.

What's YOUR country of origin pray-tell, I'll dump a tow-sack full of her problems on your bed after trick-or-treat and we'll pick-out which ones mommy said you're allowed eat with those ugly teeth god botcha..

No dude, you're just getting started being called to the mat and you slinkety-slink the fuck away??? You orchestrated your own demise on this one, Sir Done.

-Callin' real-time-jewels of Papier-mâché on a comment as flaccid as the sack there sagging and displaying their feather-like weight....Faced with truth, the sophist...(deliberately obtuse at times and otherwise generally hostile) has but the tinny-sounding bell-tinkle heralding a hasty departure, as a familiar a fanfare as a copper's si-reen :0

dOUCHE + a bag = a lady's freshen-up.
Please....Show all the ladies how it's done again??

Again and again with the false sarcasm....Who is this charlatan anyway with a personal hard-on for anyone who doesn't suck his dick?? Transparent bullshit and you want to force me into a goddamn corner?? Fuck that shit.

"Pretentious polemics and entitled self-interest, isle 13-This week only, two-for-one asshole with your purchase of one or more king-sized-tow-sacks of adult garments ."

About as rational you are as Chipotleaway...

I'm not your son, little one.

...and I ain't your buddy, pal
....nor am I your pal, friend
...and I'm not your friend, buddy.
Keep spouting angry drunken spittle laced vitriol, it's a helpful reminder of your incessantly insipid mannerism.
your tired, scripted labels son, an insipid sack of programmed faux-newspeak designed for one simple purpose: to garner any attention for the unpopular ineffectual and powerless attention whores that can't get positive attention for their ideas or comments so they troll for negative attention, the only kind they can get.
And the thing you (as per your MO) misquoted was "Teabagger wannabe ex-patriots", which are the idiots that whine about how awful America is 'now' and that they're going to leave the country because a socialist Kenyan is president and he's ruining the country (but they never follow through, to my chagrin)...not 'Teabagger wannabes', who just want to suck my balls....again, your comprehension has proven to be low.

Cyclist here too, have been for 35 years... The most traffic laws i break involve things that stops me using the only advantage over walking, inertia. That means running on red lights is common but only if it's totally empty crossing.. People who use motors to go forward don't have to use muscles so it doesn't always enter their minds that cyclists rely on rolling forward all the time, stopping as few times as possible. That's why cyclists need to bend the rules pretty often, it just works a lot better for all of us. Of course i could stop at red lights, specially if it's button activated, i could reserve that 20s instead of using 3s making everyone wait... But here it has been a lot more common to use cycles and drivers do behave well on intersections letting that momentum to carry us over and saving time from everyone. We just can't count on it, i would say 80% do it well, it's that 20% that feels hurt if they have to yeild to a puny sack of meat riding on a tubular frame..

Last winter was brutal, instead of snow we had ice that melted a bit during the day and froze overnight. Then it was a case of survival with a bike and things from my teens started to bother me: cars that don't understand they cant tip over and hurt them selves, going thru safe, dry routes became a real fight. When i was school age, i had to to cycle on the road, with cars, no shoulder cause of snowbanks, just four deep tracks that the cars had made. The times the car horns scared me when the motorists blamed me for driving on the only piece of road i could do so, width of maybe 20cm with ice on both sides.. man., you couldn't get out of those without falling spectacularly while the cars of course could, they just were lazy. Now a days there is a cycle road built separately there but the attitude became obvious "roads are for cars, if you don't have one, stay at home..."

Well, it's a certainty there's sacks with working jewels swinging from the both of 'em, he exclaimed jokingly...