Didn't they show this exact story on Ripleys a few years ago? But still, its amazing how such a seemingly harmless habbit can haunt you later on. I wonder what said effects nail biting has

wouldn't that just offend gay people instead of black people?

lol exactly. As some guy on another forum said "now instead of offending 1 skin color, they offend 7", as well as gays like you said 

I wonder how far the people who make these changes are willing to take this? First they changed that 'Bah, bah Black Sheep' nursery rhyme into 'Bah, bad Rainbow Sheep' (somewhere in the UK, I think) some time ago to avoid offending colored people, now this? I can't wait for the next one to laugh at the stupidity of it.

Oh man, thats both good news and bad news. Goods news, I like Death Note. Bad news, it replaced Bleach as it was reaching the climax of the arc. Why couldn't they throw out some other show

They can't break it without permission, he just didn't need to and almost died as a result.

If what Swordfish said is true, then Ikkaku didn't need to break it because he never had a limit. Ikkaku is 3rd seat, so I don't think it would apply to him.