ProfessorBainbridge.com

The world's worst environmental villain?

Very interesting:

Charlie Sheen's breach of contract suit against Warner Bros

Christine Hurt analyzes the issues with links to more info.

American Top Gear renewed

Appalling decision. American Top Gear is to Top Gear as a painting of fat Elvis on black velvet is to the Mona Lisa.

Best action actresses

Tung Yin blogs on action actresses. I dote on Angelina Jolie's action movies, and some of his other choices are also sound, but I thought Tung's list had some serious omissions. E.g., Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah Walker. Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 (not 1). And my personal all-time favorite, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2.

This is why BBC American needs to broadcast QI

We would all learn the most amazing things. To wit:

Gawd, I miss smoking

As an ex-smoker, Bebe's monologue (starting at about 1:29) rings so true. Cigars are great, but there was something about that white tube....

American Top Gear Sucks

Don't take my word for it. My friend, UCLAW colleague, fellow UK Top Gear fan, and co-author Bill Klein, who is older and much wiser than I, tells me that:

It has always been annoying to see how they messed up the wonderful British show with their feeble, forced humor, misguided metaphor, and stilted lead characters, but I stuck with it to see some interesting cars while skipping most of the rest. This week, however, was the last straw. Despite having a live audience they used what was obviously a laugh track--than which there is nothing that I find more abhorrent. I've had all I can take . . .

Me too. It's sad that the US can't seem to make a decent car show. Of course, it's even sadder that we can't seem to make a decent car. (Now that'll bring out the comment trolls.)

Update: I stand corrected. A friend points out that there are lots of decent cars made in the USA:

• The Accord made in Ohio
• The Camry made in Kentucky and Indiana
• The Odyssey built in Alabama
• The Tundra made in San Antonio
• The X series of BMWs built in South Carolina (except for the X6, which is not only goofy looking but also a crappy performer according to Top Gear)

Quite possibly my all time favorite TV moment

I was taking a break from working on the section of my book that explains why the monitoring model of the board of directors' role and composition creates problems by promoting an adversarial role that impedes group decision making when I ran across this gem from 3rd Rock, which might be my all time favorite TV moment:

 

Is the problem with SyFy that...

... its managers hate science fiction? It would explain a lot.

Uh oh. Another Top Gear US Road Trip

It looks like the upcoming series of Top Gear (the real one from the UK, not the bastardized US pale imitation) will include an episode in which our intrepid heroes return to the US for another road trip. In a previous episode, they toured out West with some serious US muscle cars.

This time it looks like they're packing some even more serious Euro supercars.

Here's a slideshow.

Let's just hope it goes better than the last time they came to the US:

To protect you

It seems appropriate today somehow.

CNN

I thought they did the best job of covering Election night 2010. Reasonably objective and nonpartisan. Far and away the coolest graphics. (Looked like everybody was using iPods and most of the graphics had Apple-like touch features.) But way too many talking heads. You don't need two tables worth of panelists.

MSNBC

Election Night 2010: The most blatantly partisan of the cable news networks. Repeatedly and openly mocked Republicans and conservatives. Keith Olberman is a smarmy, pretentious turd whose coverage managed to make Fox's look fair and balanced.

The Acropolis Where the Parthenon is

I'm trying to think of the right word for what just happened. I saw a headline on Drudge "Riot police, protesters clash at Acropolis..." and what immediately came to mind was a hysterical QI clip about the Acropolis. I don't think non-sequitur is the word I'm groping for, but it's the closest I've come up with so far. Any other suggestions?

In any case, here's the clip, which I think stands as a classic example of why BBC America ought to bring us QI:

Stig Revealed

Ben Collins has been revealed as Top Gear's tame racing driver, The Stig:

Of course, The Stig had been revealed before, but we all knew that was a red herring (or, should I say, a Roter Hering?):

In any case, we also remember what happened when The Black Stig revealed his identity:

One hopes Mr Collins will meet a kinder fate.