…and it was awesome.

We miss you, John.

How the UFC just was purchased for four billion dollars:

The answer is simple: live events and content. UFC produces more than 40 live events annually and reaches more than 1 billion TV households worldwide. In a world where people are increasingly watching things where and when they want, UFC—like most sporting events—remains one of the few areas of programming that people actually watch while it’s happening. Which makes it incredibly valuable in terms of advertising, sponsorships, and distribution deals.

I remember a friend introducing me the UFC back in the late 90s. It was started by the Gracie family as a means to showcase the power of their style of jiu jitsu. Back then jiu jitsu was not nearly as well-known as it is today and people couldn’t understand how Royce Gracie was taking down guys much bigger and stronger than him. This early fight with Royce is incredible. In the early days there were no time limits, hair-pulling was legal, and there were no weight classes. It was truly the wild west.

It wasn’t until the mid-2000s that I got back into watching the fights. Last year I started listening to UFC commentator Joe Rogan’s podcast and I’ve been captivated at his depth of knowledge when it comes to the UFC and mixed martial arts. This has made me watch fights with an even closer eye.

One side of me is happy for UFC president Dana White, but the other side of me wonders if the UFC has jumped the shark. It seems to be more about the glitz & glamour in recent years, and less about the fighting.

All this being said, you can bet I’ll be watching the Conor McGregor/Nate Diaz rematch on August 20th.

Some of you are thinking to yourselves how fucked up that is to do to an innocent, little girl, but let me tell you something. That girl is going to grow up tougher than all the other kids she goes to school with.

Either that or she’s going to have serious issues with cars when it comes time for her DMV test.

This morning on my Twitter feed, I discovered Chris Evans has stepped down from Top Gear.

I have no idea why. I mean, he’s so natural on camera:

What’s the problem?

Cute now, but do not try this when the rhino is full grown.

By the way, where is the momma rhino? Watch your back.

Via Holy Kaw!

The Verge: Halt and Catch Fire’s third season will premiere on August 23rd:

Halt and Catch Fire, AMC’s consistently entertaining, detail-obsessive ’80s period drama, will return for its third season on August 23rd. The season’s first two episodes will air back-to-back beginning at 9PM ET.

Halt and Catch Fire’s third season will see the show moving from Texas to Silicon Valley for its 10-episode run. Last season, the series largely followed Cameron and Donna’s attempts to get their online games company, Mutiny, off the ground. Although the show sometimes seemed uncomfortable in the startup world, given the first season’s exploration of the slightly stodgier Cardiff Electric, it remained innovative and well-crafted.

This is great news for a great, and underrated show.

I grew up in the early 80s and can attest to how ‘detail-obsessed’ the show is. Many times in shows and movies, when they’re depicting computers, they use interfaces and sounds that don’t exist in real life. In Halt and Catch Fire they’re true to the real world (or pretty close anyway).

And as for where the title comes from:

In computer engineering, Halt and Catch Fire, known by the assembly mnemonic HCF, is an idiom referring to a computer machine code instruction that causes the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) to cease meaningful operation, typically requiring a restart of the computer. It originally referred to a fictitious instruction in IBM System/360 computers, but later computer developers who saw the joke created real versions of this instruction for some machines. In the case of real instructions the implication of this expression is that, whereas in most cases in which a CPU executes an unintended instruction (a bug in the code) the computer may still be able to recover, but in the case of an HCF instruction there is, by definition, no way for the system to recover without a restart.

The expression “catch fire” in this context is normally facetious, rather than literal, referring to a total loss of CPU functionality during the current session.

Not only is the show great, so is the intro:

Elastic is the studio behind the intro (via The Art of the Title).

Oh, and I have a crush on Kerry Bishé:

August 23rd, 9PM. I’m there.

History Channel gives Top Gear USA the axe:

After six seasons, Top Gear USA is getting cancelled. The news comes from Rutledge Wood’s Instagram page where the host implies the History Channel was behind the decision. While that’s bad news, Wood claims that Top Gear USA may not be completely dead. “I’m not saying Top Gear USA is done, but it’s done for the immediate future on History,” states Wood.

That’s six seasons too many of that show.

If the BBC was smart they’d cancel the new Top Gear UK with Chris Evans. Oh, and who the fuck thought it was a good idea to have Matt Leblanc on the show? I watched him introduce the Stig last week and I almost puked. The good news is, LeBlanc is threatening to quit if Chris Evans isn’t fired.

When Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond left Top Gear — the show they helped build into the empire it is today — the show was over. It would be like swapping in completely new musicians into the Beatles after John, Paul, George, and Ringo left.

You’re just never going to recapture the lightning in a bottle.

Competing construction companies stage a bulldozer fight in a busy street:

You think aliens are visiting us from other galaxies in a search for intelligent life?

Fuck that. If they were smart they’d firebomb this whole planet and start fresh.

We don’t deserve nice things.

via Boing Boing

Good morning, Internet world. I thought I’d start the day off with a family-friendly post.

China bans ‘erotic’ banana-eating live streams:

Chinese live-streaming services have banned people filming themselves eating bananas in a “seductive” fashion.

New regulations mean that live-streaming sites must monitor all their output round-the-clock to ensure nothing untoward is going on, keeping an eye out for any “erotic” banana-eating, according to New Express Daily. It’s not just fruit that’s on their radar though – the paper adds that wearing stockings and suspenders while hosting a live stream is now also forbidden.

This story is from the BBC’s ‘News From Elsewhere’ section.

What a name for a category.

Went I saw this story, I couldn’t help but think about a classic George Carlin bit (YouTube) from his standup special, Doin’ It Again (1990):

As long as I’m being a complete pig up here, let me ask you guys a question.

Let me ask one question of the men. Are you ever able to watch a woman eating a banana and NOT think about a blowjob?

I can’t do it. And I know why: I’m a sick, evil fuck! I admit that!

I can’t do it! Eating a banana, eating a pickle, licking on an ice cream cone. I’m thinking to myself “LOOK AT THE TOUNGE ON HER! WOW!”

So ladies, be careful when you’re standing out in front of that Häagen-Dazs. ‘Cause God damn it, we’re watching. And God damn it, we’re thinking!

C’mon, China. Reconsider.

via Twitter

Bill Murray: Would you rather fight 1 Horse-Sized Duck or 100 Duck-Sized Horses?

I love you, Bill.

Hey, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is back with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

I have a thing for her. Man is she cute. And funny.

This was the remote control car I had in middle school:

Blast from the past thanks to Coudal!

image via sci-fi-o-rama

Remember Leeroy Jenkins from 10 years ago?

Director Finn O’Hara made it into an epic, 3-minute short film.

via Rands in Repose