Top Gear test driver The Stig has been unmasked as professional stuntman and Le Mans racer Ben Collins.
Ben Collins
For years the identity of The Stig has been a closely guarded secret, but Collins – who has previously competed in Formula Three, Le Mans, GT and NASCAR – has apparently outed himself to staff at a Bristol gallery.
The 33-year-old let his secret slip when he asked them to help him produce a limited-edition print of The Stig in action.
Gallery owner Simon Whitehead, 27, said: “I was absolutely amazed when he said he was The Stig, it was quite a big thing in a weird way.”
Builder Jason Goody, 21, also discovered The Stig’s identity when he did some work at Collins’ home and found the famous white suit and gloves on display in a cabinet.
Other fans of Top Gear, presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, have been closing in on Collins in recent months. One YouTube clip shows The Stig, in full disguise, talking with a Bristol accent to a foreign TV crew – and then cuts to Collins sounding very similar.
Collins, from Bristol, has always denied being The Stig and could face the sack if he admitted it. The first Stig, stunt driver Perry McCarthy, lost the job after outing himself in his book Flat Out, Flat Broke, published in 2002.
He was known as The Black Stig and always wore a black suit and helmet before he was “killed off” during the third series in 2003. Collins has since become The White Stig, and wears an all white helmet and suit.
Collins started his motorsport career in 1994, competing in Formula First and Formula Vauxhall Junior on his way to International Formula 3.
He has appeared on BBC’s Top Gear as himself on various occasions to perform some dramatic stunts.
The Health & Safety Executive report into Hammond’s accident in September 2006 recorded that Collins had “worked closely with Top Gear as a high performance driver and consultant” and had prepared a briefing for the presenter.
Collins also recently spent three months working as a precision driver on the latest James Bond movie The Quantum of Solace.
He was the double for Daniel Craig and drove the Aston Martin DBS in some of the most challenging driving sequences.
Collins said of the experience: “It was a bit like a dream come true to work on a Bond film. On the first day filming I had to pinch myself as I was sitting there in Bond’s pin stripe suit with an Omega Watch. I felt totally at home in the Aston Martin DBS, which is just an awesome car and it was a lot of fun hammering it around the Alps.
“There were sheer drops of a thousand feet on some of the roads we using. I think a highlight was sliding the DBS up the mountain road between two giant rocks, then onto the pass with nothing but a hand rail to stop the car falling off a cliff.”
The Stig’s name derives from Clarkson’s days at Repton School where, he said, new students were always called “Stig”.
The identity of White Stig has not been officially revealed and is regarded as a carefully guarded secret by the BBC.
However, it has not stopped people from trying to identify him and names such as Julian Bailey, Damon Hill, Tim Schrick, and Russ Swift have all been suggested.
A Top Gear spokesman said: “We never comment on speculation as to who or what The Stig is.”
BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda is losing support in Iraq because of a brutal crackdown on activities it regards as un-Islamic — including women buying cucumbers.
Besides the killings inflicted those who refuse to pledge allegiance to them, Al Qaeda has lost credibility for enforcing a series of rules imposing their way of thought on the most mundane aspects of everyday life.
They include a ban on women buying suggestively-shaped vegetables, according to one tribal leader in the western province of Anbar.
Sheikh Hameed Al Hayyes,a Sunni elder, told Reuters: “They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tails were pointed upward, which they said was haram. They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato asfemale. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men.”
Other farcical stipulations include an edict not to buy or sell ice-cream, because it did not exist in the time of the Prophet, while hair salons and shops selling cosmetics have also been bombed.
Most seriously, Sheikh Al Hayyes said: “I saw them slaughter a nine-year-old boy like a sheep because his family didn’t pledge allegiance to them.”
Such behaviour has triggered a backlash among Sunnis, whom Al Qaeda claimed to be protecting, the sheikh and military leaders said.
Lieutenant-Colonel TimAlbers, an American intelligence officer, told Reuters: “Al Qaeda’s very heavy-handed killing of civilians backfired on them. The Sunnis just wouldn’t stand for it any more.
“The self-described protectors of the Sunni community now kill more Iraqi Sunnis than anyone else does.”
…know what (not) to say just in case you are going there!
Attakai - Warm
Ahsoko - That was hot
Atsui - Hot
Binbin (kuru) - To get a hard-on
Chi-chi - tits
Chin-chin - penis
Chin-chin tateru - ‘penis is erect’ also used for nipples
Chin-chin genki - penis is erect/hard
Chinpo chodai - Really big penis
Choto - A bit
Daijoubu - I’m ok / alright
Dai-ski - I love it
Dame! - No good / Stop it
Dameoshi - Sure / Ok (a shy or unshure way of expressing)
Doko (ni) - Where?
Noko (ni) - Here
Don-don - Faster
Donna kanji? - How does it feel?
Dou? - How was it?
Gansha - Facial
Gokkun - Swallow
Hazugashi - Embarassed
Hen - Weird / Abnormal
Hoshi - Want
Icha/ichatta - I’ve cum
Idai - ‘Great’ only heard this a few times
Iku - I’m cumming!!
Ikitai - I want to cum
Ip-pai detta - Lots of cum
Irette? - Can I put it in?
Iritai - I want to put it in
Itai - Ouch / That Hurts/ It hurts
Kawaii - Cute
Kimochi? - Does that feel good?
Kimochi? - That feels good
Kimochi warui - Feels bad
Kimochi yokatta - That was great
Kuri(chan) - Clitoris
Mitai - I want to see
Monde - Massage them (breasts)
Mot-to - more
Nadakashi - Creampie (Refers to ejaculating inside the woman’s vagina )
Nametai - I want to lick them
Onani - Masturbate
Ookii / Sugoku ookii! - It’s big!
Oishii - ‘Delicious’ usually said when the gal is giving fellatio, or eating cum
Omanko misete ageru - I’ll show you my pussy
Ookii ni naru - It’s become big
Ookii ni naru - Breasts
Sekusu shitai - I want to have 53x
Sekusu shita koto ga nai - I’m a virgin
Shaboo - Suck
Shakuhachi - BJ
Sugoy - Wow! (said in amazement)
Suwatte - Sit down
Tatte - Stand up (same word using for erect penis/tits)
Tekkoki - Hand job
Yada / Yada Yo! - Don’t / Stop it / Desist
Yamerou - Don’t (Aggressive - generally only said by men)
Yamete kudasai - Please stop
Yarashii - ‘That’s dirty/digusting’ in a sexual way
Yokata - Glad / Relief
Zamen - Cum
Zamen oishii - Delicious cum
Zamen motto hoshii - ‘I want more cum’ - I hear in those bukkake ones
Zamuru - Don’t (Aggressive - generally only said by men)
TAIPEI - A TAIWANESE woman plunged from a rooftop in what was believed to be a suicide attempt, but landed on and killed a passer-by, local media reported yesterday.
Tue, Jul 29, 2008
The Straits Times
TAIPEI - A TAIWANESE woman plunged from a rooftop in what was believed to be a suicide attempt, but landed on and killed a passer-by, local media reported yesterday.
Ms Kuo Mei-hui, 64, fell from the roof of a five-storey apartment building in Chungho city near Taipei at about 2pm last Saturday, the Liberty Times reported.
She landed on 53-year-old Ms Lee Mei-yun, who was returning home with her husband, the report said.
Ms Lee had moved below the building’s awning to avoid an oncoming vehicle, only to have Ms Kuo land on her instead.
Both women fell to the ground and were seriously injured.
Ms Lee later died in hospital from a brain haemorrhage, while Ms Kuo survived.
A report in the China Post quoted Ms Kuo’s neighbours as saying that she had been ill for a long time and had attempted suicide several times.
Taiwan has one of the highest suicide rates in Asia. Last year, more than 3,900 Taiwanese killed themselves, an average of one suicide every two hours.
Villagers were shocked after a monkey-like piglet was born in China.
Mutant pig /Quirky China News
Curious locals flocked to the home of owner Feng Changlin after news of the piglet spread in Fengzhang village, Xiping township.
“It’s hideous. No one will be willing to buy it, and it scares the family to even look at it!” Feng told Oriental Today.
He says the piglet looks just like a monkey, with two thin lips, a small nose and two big eyes. Its rear legs are also much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump instead of walk.
Feng’s wife said the monkey-faced piglet was one of five newborns of a sow which the family had raised for nine years.
“My God, it was so scary. I didn’t known what it was. I was really frightened,” she said.
“But our son likes to play with it, and he stopped us from getting rid of it. He even feeds it milk.”
Neighbours have suggested the couple keep the piglet to see how it looks as it matures.
US-led global recession
A Chinese perspective on America’s Economic Crisis
by Lau Nai-keung
Global Research, October 19, 2005
China Daily
It’s time to take seriously a US-led global recession
I think it is time that we should take a serious look at the possibility that the US is going to take us down towards a worldwide recession in one or two year’s time.
It is well known that the US is the world’s biggest economy, taking up about 30 per cent of global GDP, but it is now also the world’s biggest debtor country. According to the most authoritative person on this subject, the US Comptroller General David Walker, who audits the federal government’s books, the tab for the long-term promises the US Government has made to creditors, retirees, veterans and the poor amounts to US$43,000 billion, US$145,000 per US citizen, or US$350,000 for every full-time worker.
And this figure does not even take into account all the personal debts such as credit card bills and mortgages. With a low interest rate of 1 per cent running for the past three years in a row, savings plummeted to just 1.8 per cent last year, below 1 per cent since January and at zero in the latest estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In 2000, household debt broke 18 per cent of disposable income for the first time in 20 years. Credit card debt alone averages US$7,200 per household.
The US Government indebtedness is financed this way: The US now runs a trade deficit roughly 6.5 per cent of its GDP and the gap is widened every day. Its citizens are spending ever more on foreign goods, and with the US dollar as the international currency, the US Government just prints money to finance the deficit. And with this money, central banks in the surplus countries purchase most of the US Treasury bonds as currency reserve.
By now, Japan is the largest creditor of the US Government, and the Chinese mainland has been a fervent buyer for the last few years. As for Hong Kong, most if not all of our reserves are in US dollar denominated assets. The US Government in turn uses this foreign borrowed money to finance as much as 90 per cent of the federal deficit which stood at US$412 billion last year. The federal deficit is expected to be running at about US$2 billion a day at the moment.
Put it simply, the Americans have been living way beyond their means for much too long. On top of this, the Bush Administration is cutting tax at least three times while fighting an expensive war in Iraq, which has already cost the country US$700 billion, and currently progressing at US$5.6 billion per month. Now the US economy is dependent on the central banks of Japan, China and other nations to invest in US Treasuries and keep American interest rates down. The low rates keep American consumers snapping up imported goods.
Any economist worth his salt knows that this situation is unsustainable. This includes the country’s economic guru driver Alan Greenspan, who recently warned his countrymen that the federal budget deficit would hamper the nation’s ability to absorb possible shocks from the soaring trade deficit and the housing boom. Now he may have to add two more worries: soaring oil prices and cyclones.
The US is now clearly in huge trouble, economically, socially, politically, and internationally. The Bush Administration bungled big in cyclone Katrina’s aftermath in New Orleans, and then a minor rerun from Rita in Houston, and this will trigger the general outburst of people’s dissatisfaction with the government, leading to great internal turmoil lasting for many years. In all likelihood, long-term interest rates are going to rise, and the greatest property bubble the world has witnessed is going to burst in the next one to two years.
The countdown is in progress, and there is no way that anybody can do anything to reverse it either by short-term measures such as fiscal and monetary policy, or through long-term reform of tax policy, entitlement programmes and even the entire federal budget. This is as inevitable as gravity, and it will take place under a new and inexperienced chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. I do not want to sound alarmist, but I see very bad omens.
To make things simple, let us just examine some key economic issues raised by some economists:
What if the dollar plummets? Do stocks follow? How about pensions?
What if interest rates soar? How would all the new homeowners, who stretched to buy with adjustable and interest-only loans, cover their mortgages?
How would consumers with record credit-card debt make their payments? Would they stop buying? Stop taking vacations? What will happen if they go bankrupt? New rules going into effect later this year make it harder on such debtors.
How would a government, which depends on the taxes of a strong economy to operate, keep all its promises?
To us, the good news is that when the country is in deep trouble, the US will not have the energy to pick on China. Even when it is necessary to start another war to divert people’s attention, it would pick one much smaller in size and weaker in strength, like Iran. This will provide a much more amicable environment for China to make good use of its “period of strategic opportunity” till 2020 for the country to pass through a turbulent zone between per capita income of US$1,000-3,000.
But in the short term, now the US not only sneezes, and all symptoms indicate that it is going to suffer from a SARS-like trouble, the whole world should take extra precaution not to get infected. One thing is for sure, some time in the not too distant future, every central bank and institutional investor is going to dump US dollar and US Treasury bonds. Once, when a country like South Korea dumps the dollar, the still unsold US Treasuries in the asset column of Asian central banks - US$2,000 billion according to some estimates - will collapse. The cheapened dollar will cause a sudden jump in the US inflation, which forces the Fed to jack up interest rates. A giant leap in inflation will cause a severe recession, or perhaps a depression, in the US. These countries’ exports to America will dry up, which in turn will spread the global economic downturn like wildfire.
After the stampede, everybody is going to get hurt, not least the central bank of China, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which are major US creditors and with the US as their number one export market. The recent currency reform of the RMB is most timely, and it is about time we should do something about the Hong Kong dollar. At the same time, China should make extra efforts to rekindle internal consumption, and diversify its market really fast before the great US bubble bursts.
There are news about it already, it was said that a vast number of loyal japanese fans has launched an online origami-folding campaign to wish for a miracle for ayu. So sweet…., maybe we should also do this!!
Translation by goku@ayunite:
Hamasaki Ayumi confessed to deafness in left ear
Yesterday, Japanese Queen Hamasaki Ayumi confessed that her left ear has completely lost all hearing function. However, she will not give up being a singer, and even said that she will only leave her career when her right ear also loses hearing. After hearing these brave words, a vast number of loyal fans has launched an online origami-folding campaign to bring blessings to their idol.
Celebrating her 10th year in the entertainment industry, ayu has decided to go on her second Asia Tour “Asia Tour 2008 ~10th Anniversary~”" in April. After her CountDown concert on New Year’s Eve at Yoyogi First Gymnasium, ayu posted a message on her TeamAyu website at 4.55am yesterday, saying that her ear has been having problems for the past few years, which resulted in sudden deafness. The problem existed until last year, when a trip to a ear specialist confirmed that she had lost all hearing in her left ear.
Will Not Give Up Career
Even though her left ear is beyond repair, ayu still seems strong. She promised her fans that she will not give up easily on her career. Ayu said that she will continue on using her right ear until the very end, using this to prove that she is a professional singer.
Actually, ayu’s hearing problems started about 7 years ago, until in 2000 summer, when a sudden loss of hearing caused her to cancel numerous concerts. Also during that year, while rehearsing her a concert, she accidentally fell from the top of a 1.5m platform, worsening her health. This has also caused ayu to have to use her hand to press on her earpiece during recent performances, affecting the quality of her singing.
Folding Paper Cranes to Bless Their Idol
Using her TeamAyu website, ayu announced her breakup with Tomoya Nagase last July, and news of her loss of hearing yesterday. Many fans immediately left messages on the site, cheering their idol on. Fans on the Japanese forum mixi also praised ayu for being a true professional, and even launched a paper crane folding campaign to bring blessings to ayu, wishing for her left ear to make a surprise recovery.
With regards to the Asia Tour this April, her record company has only released information on 19 stops in Japan so far. Overseas destinations have yet to be announced, and ayu’s hearing problems may cause some problems in future performances.
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one
