Advertising at the BBC, Really

The BBC is famous for not being advertising supported network. Just now I went to there for a news story, Boris Johnson hails 'Olympomania' for torch at Hyde Park. It was preceded by a ad from HP. Admittedly video from the BBC is normally blocked to non-UKians.

Don't "Root, Root, Root for the Home Team"

I hate this business of bringing England over in pieces . It's strictly for the homesick.

Lane Pryce, Mad Men S05E05 

He also talks about having no fond memories of watching football in pubs. I do during world cup, but I only follow in sport it doesn't involve professional teams.  National teams in big world wide competitions are the only time to pay attention to hockey or football. For me the service that professional leagues provide is that it keeps athletes employed between international events.

Not All Canadians are Canadiens Fans

I went to Firefox today to needless mess around with my extensions. Then I found the above suggestion. I stopped looking for amusing time wasters like Play Your Piano and went looking for useful extensions like Aviary which is how I screen captured the above image.

I was appalled (mildly) that Firefox assumed that I would support a Montreal team. Looking a little more deeply through the choices only a 7 NHL teams are listed as having "official" themes, including the zombie franchise Phoenix.

Still I'm not a fan of the Habs despite how many of their "ethnically cleansed" fans I meet in Toronto.

Oh, Great, Qatar Gets the 2018 World Cup

Qatar, pronounced catarrh, has won the right to host the 2018 World Cup, Retreat and revenge: England's options after their 2018 World Cup snub. A commenter on Jihadwatcher Droptheveil
has this reaction to sleazy dusty hell of Qatar.

I just can't imagine why ANYONE would want to go to Qatar let alone watch football matches in 50 degrees of heat. No matter how much air conditioning there will be in the stadiums, they will overheat very quickly with all those bodies and the sun throwing out so much heat, most air conditioning units there just cannot cope. English football fans like a pint of beer on such occasions and the only places to buy a drink is in the odd small bar on a top floor in hotels at huge prices, or around the pool of expensive hotels. No guest houses as we are used to in the UK. Drinking is not allowed in public apart from these very few bars. The traffic and driving must be some of the most dangerous in the world and I forecast now that there will be serious road accidents because the locals are idiots behind the wheel and have no road sense, it's them first in the queue and to hell with the rest of us. Car hire is very basic and from experience cars are not serviced to any of our western standards, so good luck. One cannot usually hire a car unless you are a resident and prove such. If a foreigner is involved in such an accident he is automatically the guilty party and the locals can do no wrong, I kid you not. You have been warned. They will need very large numbers of taxis and drivers because currently one cannot get a taxi for love or money unless you get one from a hotel at enormous costs. The place is a dust bucket and with all the building that will be necessary, built on slave labour by the way, it will be so much worse than it is now being a climate where dust hangs in the air. My advice, don't go, it's a dump, nothing to do in the evenings, and a spare day to 'sight-see' is too hot to go out although there are 'glamourous' shopping malls where you will be ripped off further. Sharia law already exists there and the place is half a step up from Saudi Arabia - just. I've lived there for several years so I speak from experience, one I could have done without!! The locals are surly and full of their own piss and importance. How was this country half the size of Wales been awarded the 2022 world football tournament? It beggars belief. Nuf said.

Sport as Life

Most players don't get the perfect ending. They spend their last couple of years hurt, injured.

Former pro prospect
now gigolo Ray Decker
Hung S02E08

Sport is like life, tragedy.

North American Rules Football as Life

Too Handicapped to have a Handicap

He was a great account man.
A prodigy.
Could talk a Scotsman out of a penny.
Now that's all over.
English Suit #1

I don't know if that's true.
Don

The man is missing a foot.
How is he going to work.
The can't walk.
English Suit #2

The doctors say
he'll
never


golf again.
English Suit #1

Discussing Guy Mackendick maimed in
freak lawnmower accident, Mad Men S03E06

What Happened to Following the Rules of Fight Club

Father In Mass. Ran Fight Club For Son James Dexter Says He Supervised Fights, Intervened When Someone Was Clearly Losing

NEWBURY, Mass. (CBS) ―

A father who helped his son set up an ultimate fighting club in his home may face serious charges.

James Dexter of Newbury admits 15 to 20 high schoolers gathered to fight in his living room, but he says it was just a sport.

"We had moved all the furniture to one side, and put a cushion on the wall. I set rules that they couldn't be using their elbows, their knees, and they couldn't lift them up off the ground and slam them to the floor," said Dexter.

He said his 16-year-old son had been planning to hold the fights in a nearby field, when Dexter intervened and said they had to do it under his supervision.

"I was standing there and if one kid was losing obviously, I broke it up right away rather than letting them get extra hits on him."

The kids wore fingerless boxing gloves and mouth guards, and fought in the style of the popular Ultimate Fighting Club.

"It's a hobby of mine," said Dexter. "We enjoy it. It's a sport."

Dexter faces four counts of reckless endangerment of a child, but a judge is giving him a chance to clear his record.

He's on probation for two years, during which he can not have anyone under 18 in his home.

As long as he obeys the conditions, the charges will be dropped.

(screen scrape from CBS Denver)

This terrible story has a moral, don't let teenagers join fight club because can't follow rules 1 & 2, Don't talk About Fight Club. Lousy punks.

Here are the rules of Fight Club.

Alien versus Predator in a Pool Room

Scene Almost out of movie The Day After Tomorrow

The above looks like a giant ice stalagmite formed when a pipe burst in a abandoned shopping mall. In reality this is a mass of ice purpose built in a Swiss stadium for Ice Cimbing championships. If you look at image below you can see a climber and tiers of spectators.

(from Pruned)

Phelps Likes Pot and Who Cares

There are two issues with the big stupid fake controversy about Phelps taking a bong hit. First can we just get away from the concept of "role model". If the last US El Presidente could be an alcoholic coke head what is to stop an athlete to from being normal. This issues goes back to the sometimes disconnect between professional and personal ethics. If Phelps was found to cheating with performance enhancing drugs like steroids that would be a much worse offence because of the long term nature training with steroids. In the same way I would consider a hitman with a long and successful career to be worse than a one time "civilian" murderer.