catscratch

Happy birthday! Raising some homebrew mead in your honor.

I think the best person for the job would be... Rowan Atkinson. Not that the BBC can actually afford to hire Rowan Atkinson or that he'd agree to the job, but he's probably the most qualified I can think of, both in terms of being entertaining, understanding cars, and being able to direct the show creatively. Chris Evans I'm not sure about. Steve Coogan might fit the bill too, but not as well. Either way, it'll be kinda sad and grim watching what's left, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Also, where's Clarkson? I expected an announcement about the new non-Top Gear Top Gear already.

Now that we kinda know everything... I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, Jeremy's actions are inexcusable, and in a normal work environment, anybody that did that should get the sack immediately. On the other hand, it's not a normal work environment, and he's Jeremy. I'm not sure the same standards apply to him that apply to everybody else. Yes, I know I'm on rickety ice here, but I think the quality of the product they made gives everybody a big incentive to turn a blind eye to this kind of thing. I know Jeremy is obsessed with 70s rock stars, and I think he kinda sees himself as one. If Keith Moon could get away with these kinds of antics, why can't he? Unfortunately for him, this isn't the 70s, this is the UK in 2015 in the age of politically correct, overly sensitive hypocrisy and no one will let this sort of thing slide anymore. In this case, they may even be right, too. In the end, everybody loses, at least for a while, but most of all, the BBC. I'm sure the lads will do what Fifth Gear did and move onto another network and redo the show, while the BBC just lost its biggest claim to relevance.

If they sack Clarkson, I fully expect entire Top Gear crew to simply leave as a unit and move onto another TV network, and re-do the show under another name. I'm not sure if the BBC can potentially file an intellectual property lawsuit if they simply re-do the formula without altering it in any way, but I'm sure they'll figure it out. Anyway, I'm reasonably confident that in one way or another, the boys will be back. You don't walk away from the world's most popular show at the height of its success, especially when the team behind it clearly wants to keep going. Clarkson's rant is, as usual, excessive but not unwarranted. Also, Clarkson isn't the only one at risk of losing his job here. To my eye, Danny Cohen clearly made himself appear as the chief villain in this calamity, and when the ratings inevitably tank he may find himself on the chopping block next.

If this isn't a publicity stunt, then the BBC has no idea how to handle the situation, or deal with high-profile talent. This should have been resolved internally, quietly, with no fuss, and without suspending the world's most celebrated show. Sure, Clarkson acted like a pillock, but come on, high-profile celebrities often act like pillocks and as a producer or television director it is your job to make sure that the whole show keeps going regardless. Instead, we have episodes suspended on a whim, dirty laundry being aired out in public, and a whole bunch of irritated viewers who just want their show back. This is very unprofessional management on behalf of the BBC, and IMO the people responsible should be fired immediately.

I doubt the BBC will walk away on a whim from a show that has literally set the Guinness record for popularity. Top Gear will be back, with Clarkson. This stinks of a publicity stunt, but even if it's not, producers are replaceable.

I'm sure this has been answered a bunch of times already, but google is failing me today, so... I have a Lambda Nova Signature lying around that needs a bit of fixing. In shipping the drivers have come unglued from the baffle. Upon disassembling it I noticed that the dust cover for the left driver, the one that's glued to the baffle, has also become partially unglued from the rest of the driver. So, uh, what do I do? I've been told I need polypropylene glue to glue the drivers back to the baffle - is that what I do? What do I do about the dust cover? How do I prep the surfaces for re-gluing (they're pretty messy with bits of loose glue everywhere)? What tape do I use to attach the earpads back to the baffle? Considering my talent for preserving bits of machinery in an inoperable state for all time, I thought I'd ask first.

This sort of thing is very common in the industry. BMW has been suspected of tuning press cars for years. Hell, even Lincoln sent in a MKS for review on Pilot Supersports. There's just so much prestige wrapped up in the latest generation of hypercars that any other type of behavior would have been more surprising IMO. Overall, a very good season so far. Just when I thought they were all out of steam, they rebound. The Peugot film was hilarious last episode.

I got a Koss to Stax adapter from Darin. I can't say if it works because my ESP950 doesn't. But dealing with him was totally painless. Hopefully I (or Koss rather) will get the bloody things fixed soon.

So their solution is to prevent you from shutting your car off when the car's moving. What are you going to do if the brakes fail, or when the gas pedal sticks? Seems like they're solving one issue by introducing a potentially far more dangerous one.

Man, this sucks. Looking at those pictures, you're really lucky to be alive. Right now, I think you need to focus on the positives, not the negatives, remember that the pain will pass, and most of all you need to do whatever you can to ensure the best long-term health for you and your daughter. As others have said, school isn't going anywhere, and there's no rush. Hang in there. I can only wish you both all the best.

Reasonably good special. Predictable, not better than the last one, but still quite enjoyable. The Alfa and the Vette both look brilliant.

Gee, there's a big surprise. After pissing people off for years and getting away with it because nobody takes them seriously anymore, they finally stepped on one toe too many. That's what happens when your primary selling shtick is a mix of crude bumbling slapstick and caricature nationalist xenophobia. I'm gonna say they had it coming.

Interested in seeing shots with the Art 50. So far from what I've seen I'm kinda leaning towards Kai's take on it, it seems absurdly sharp and is the perfect lens on paper but I haven't really liked the render all that much, though maybe it has been the photographer more than the lens in the images that I've seen thus far.

So let's say you have a 007 Mk1 that you bought from KuboTen hell knows how long. Let's also say that it's going intermittent every once in a while in the right channel. What do you do as far as repairing it? Are Stax willing to work on a headphone like that? Last time I tried to get them to do something they told me to go to the local distributor, which in turn told me to go straight to Stax, and in the end nothing got done.

A good first part to what seems like a promising special. Hopefully the second part will me more Top Gear and less caricature Top Gear. I guess after 21 seasons it's hard to do this shit with a straight face anymore, but so far this season was quite uneven.

Quite an enjoyable episode. The first one was ridiculous, but this one was more like old Top Gear. Looking forward to the specials, and the lap times. On that note, the idea of a performance hybrid is quite an appealing one, since you can have an engine that's normally not suited for the street and make it everyday useable with an electric engine. Imagine something like a Subaru BRZ, with maybe a 1.3 liter motorcycle-derived engine that revs to 13000 rpm and an electric motor to fill out the torque curve. Sounds pretty good, to be honest, now they just need to make it affordable. The Alfa is very pretty, but the US-spec version will be bloated by hundreds of pounds and loses some of its lustre. That, and most people will buy a Cayman instead, anyway.

Well, of course it's hyperbole. When is anything I post NOT hyperbole. And this time it isn't even MY hyperbole. Either way, before we devolve into a silly argument over who is faster (and I don't even know how to respond to "have you listened to any Slayer") check out the rest of the album, and not, you know, by far the slowest track which I just happened to link because I liked it.

Absu - Tara. Fffffffffuuuuuuuuuu...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, so there probably won't be any takers here for this. It's about as fast, mean, heavy, and vicious as metal gets. One reviewer likened this band to Wolverine: "they're the best at what they do, but what they do isn't very nice." Another likened them to Slayer being played at double speed. I don't know how to describe what's going on here, but the drumming is simply amazing, the riffs are actually quite catchy at times, there are bagpipes for some reason, and the whole thing feels like a very meticulously crafted slab of extreme metal madness that I've quite enjoyed lately. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjPRKFi_oeQ Only for the brave.

I'll echo the general sentiment of the thread in echoing the general sentiment of the article even if the execution could be better. At least it's an attempt at critical thinking by the community. Maybe success at critical thinking will come next, and who knows, maybe overpriced underengineered shit won't sell half as well in the future.

AFAIK (I could be wrong)... The problem is impending fuel and emissions regulations, and developing the tech that meets those regulations. The regulations themselves are largely unrealistic, and every manufacturer is terrified at the amount of money they'll lose trying to meet them. That's why BMW is betting it all on the i3/i8, and that's why a lot of high-end manufacturers are trying to make exciting hybrids - you need to sell the idea of high-performance hybrids to the public and get people to start buying these cars, and of course pure electrics, or the requirements will never be met. Never mind that the actual mileage estimates for a lot of these cars are bollocks, that's not what this is about. It's about being able to fudge your numbers just enough, and making cars that are a bit more impractical an easier sell to the public, and about building up high-end lustre for something that a lot of the market doesn't want. There is one advantage to a performance hybrid - you don't need to worry about low-end torque. You can have an extremely oversquare high-revving engine optimized purely for high-end torque and make up for low-end deficiencies with the electric motor. This actually sounds a bit appealing, to be honest. Of course, the weight, cost, and complexity doesn't sound appealing at all. As far as PW. This sucks. His acting was questionable, but it seems like he was generally a good guy. Bummer. And, they were in a Carrera GT, so let's dispel any illusions of "safe speed" right off the bat. They probably were going bonkers and lost control, and the Carrera GT is notorious as a car that's very twitchy and very hard to control even in professional hands. Also, given that it's a carbon fiber tub, you'd have to be going pretty bloody fast to get killed in it in the first place.

Either that's a comment on how US international pricing often equates the dollar with the euro/pound and screws the UK over, or that's just Top Gear being horrible to America again. That's ok, we fat, stupid Americans weren't going to pay for it anyway. Incidentally, it's a pretty good special.

The headphone that interests me, although it's not closed, is the Oppo PM-1, mainly because Oppo strikes me as a no-nonsense company that can make a polished product at a good price, which these days is something of an exception. Tyll, if I may ask, have you heard the prototype?

HD600 is one of my absolute favorites and is the real entry into hi-fi. As more and more mediocre headphones flood the market the HD600 only becomes a more obvious recommendation. It's even better balanced and it scales well too.

To necro-reply to a slightly earlier post... Basically, this. Why on earth would you want a reputation system in a forum where the noise massively outweighs the signal? That just means the noise is going to get more reputation, and the signal less. And all those dipshits that milk the peanut gallery for so-called respect as reviewers are only going to be legitimized with a massive rep. For once - and I really can't believe I'm saying this - I agree with Jude. HF is fucked. It would be nice to ignore it, except that it is a driving force in the industry, scary as that sounds. That means blind leading the blind, and all sorts of shady MOTs rubbing their hands with glee. I wouldn't have a clue as to how to fix it now, that should have been done in 2007. Best we can do is keep on doing what we're doing already - well, what YOU are doing already. Just, uh, politely. Because when you criticize something with vitriol the content gets ignored because of the tone, and it doesn't help anybody.