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if you have entered the comp. can you also vote? (i would not dream of voting for self)

No problem there, it'd just been seen as bad form to vote for yourself.

The answer is in the first five minutes - the most callous evisceration of the previous film anyone could possibly imagine.

It is why I liked the Dark Horse comics, as they predated the third film and continued the story from Aliens. What is interesting is that they must have known about this as a possible basis for a third film but decided to take it in a different direction. Personally, I'd have loved to see Vincent Ward's version with monks in a wooden satellite:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_3#Vincent_Ward.27s_.22Wooden_Monastery.22

Unfortunately, there was so much dicking around with the script and studio interference that the result was almost guaranteed to less than the various options that were on the table at almost every stage of development. A real missed opportunity.

I've got "Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Alien and Predator Films" which is handy for all the back and forth on the films.

I've seen teh trailers for it on Syfy but not managed to catch it (presumably due to it clashing with something else) but will be keeping an eye out for it when it gets repeated.

Looks great from here.

The FP novice reviews of 2000 AD roll on and they are loving it:

Yes, it gets better and better. I'm really enjoying my foray into 2000AD, enjoying that regular trip to the newsagents, enjoying the 6-page episodic nature of the strips, and have to say I'd definitely recommend you give the comic a go as well. Right, onto this week's Prog:

Well, this was really all about Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing's new serial The Zaucer Of Zilk. There's been a real buzz about it all over the place this last week plus. And should you want to see what you're missing it's available to read in full at Comic Book Resources.

Me, I was down the newsagent on Wednesday, and could practically see the vivid colours of the cover from the doorway. Is it everything I thought it might be? Oh yes. It's McCarthy art, full of dreary, drab everyday life transmuting into something dazzling, multicoloured and promising strange things to come. Great start.

But even though Zilk was the main thing in this issue, the rest of this weeks 2000AD was a bit good as well.

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2012/2012-2000ad-pledge-prog-1775/

[All Star Future Shocks]

Next from S&S:

All Star Future Shocks

Product Details
2000 AD, January 2013
Trade Paperback, 192 pages
ISBN-10: 1781080747
ISBN-13: 9781781080740

Where legends are born!'

Future Shocks – these self-contained short stories from the pages of 2000 AD have been the testing ground for many of comics greatest writers and artists. From the far reaches of the galaxy to the lowest depths of hell, discover what lurks within the fevered imaginations of such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Kevin O'Neill, Brian Bolland, Alan Grant, Peter Milligan, John Higgins, Alan Davis and Mark Millar to name but a few.

http://books.simonandschuster.com/All-Star-Future-Shocks/Neil-Gaiman/9781781080740

An Italian physicist at the head of a team that made a cautious but hugely controversial claim that neutrinos may travel faster than the speed of light resigned on Friday following calls for his dismissal.

Antonio Ereditato submitted his resignation before a vote on a motion by some members of his OPERA team that he be removed after tests this month contradicted the claim that the universe's speed limit had been broken.

...

A headline in Corriere della Sera called Ereditato "the physicist of flop."

Ereditato's team last September announced that neutrinos appeared to have travelled faster than the speed of light, a claim that would have upended Albert Einstein's theory of relativity -- a cornerstone of modern physics.

The neutrinos were timed at their departure from CERN's giant underground lab near Geneva and again, after travelling 732 km (454 miles) through the Earth's crust, at their arrival at Gran Sasso in the Apennine Mountains.

To do the trip, the neutrinos should have taken 0.0024 seconds.

Instead, the particles were recorded as hitting the detectors in Italy 0.00000006 seconds sooner than expected.

Knowing their findings would stir a storm, the OPERA team urged physicists to carry out their own checks to corroborate or refute what had been seen.

CERN said technical hitches may have skewed the initial measurements, something that critics of the findings said they had always suspected.

www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-italian-physicist-faster-than-light-resigns.html

Good news.

And for a change of pace, while we should always be open to negotiating "bedroom requests", personally I think this might be a step too far, especially as you'd really never know how hard to do it until afterwards (and spitting teeth out and going to A&E for broken cheek bones isn't a turn on, neither is being questioned by the police, unless it was a sexy "policewoman"):

later, when a friend and I were texting and she asked me if I knew about the trend of dudes punching chicks in the head during sex. She was the third person to mention sex punching in as many months!

"Sex punching?" I asked myself, vigorously rubbing linseed oil into my beautiful new credenza. "Is this a thing?"

...

OK: back to  sex punching. I first became aware of the phenomenon when I was having dinner with my favorite LA ex a few months back, and he brought up the fact that two of the girls he had recently had casual sex with wanted to be punched.

Not spanked. Not slapped. Punched, friends! Homeboy is six-foot five! If he punches you, you are definitely going to go to work looking like you've started an underground fight club with an invisible manifestation of your id.

It would be one thing if this were just my ex, because he dated me so he's obviously got a flair for attracting kooky perverts. But then a guy emailed the advice column I write asking if it was okay to punch a girl if she asks for it, and how hard should he punch her?

Seriously, I'm paraphrasing, but I bet Dear Abby never got "Exactly how hard should I punch a woman? I'm speaking of course of in the head area. During sex. -- KO'd By Etiquette in Des Moines."

..

Even the people I know who are into the more outré kinds of BDSM -- you know, scarfing, electro stim, needles (Yes! Needles! I met a guy in college! These people are out there! They are scary!) -- do not like to be punched. Punching, close fisted punching, can lead to serious shit like busted teeth and broken jaws.

I'm really open minded, obviously, and what you and your partner do in the privacy of your boudoir is all of your deal. But could we please not mainstream this in the way we have, say, certain other sex moves that people think are totally fine to do without asking (see please: the butt, putting digits into. It is NOT FOR EVERYONE, fellas! When you assume, you make an ass out of you and the person making involuntary dolphin noises in protest.).

There are certain things where you should have to ask first, politely, like a vampire entering a home. "May I punch you in the head?" See? Polite.

www.xojane.com/sex/please-dont-punch-me-head-during-sex

In the comments on another blog highlighting this someone reports being asked to burn their girlfriend's arm with a ciggie (that'd be a no because of the smell!!)

http://gawker.com/5879699/sex-punching-not-for-everyone-sex-writer-reports

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_punch

Don't see also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Punch_(film)

ive not given up theres plenty more fish in the sea just this one has goton away

That's the spirit - pick yourself, dust yourself down and start all over again.

It does seem poor form to not say anything but quietly drop you on FaceBook, but perhaps that's how you crazy kids do it these days. If not, then you are probably better off.

Hard luck about that, Cyberleader but fair play to ye for trying. Have to say that whole "confidence" thing really pisses me off. It never seems to occur to most women that if they actually gave us under-confident and socially nervous chaps a bit of a chance now and again, that we might just be able to relax and feel more comfortable in such situations, thereby allowing us to show them what really incredible and wonderful blokes we are. But no. It's the loud-mouthed, arrogant and cocky gits that they opt for instead, and then after they've been treated like crap will moan about how it's so impossible to meet any nice men out there. As a species - if you discount technological advances - we really haven't evolved all that much from our caveman days.

Tell us more, please.

Perhaps a topic for this new thread:
http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,35726.0.html

I might as well start.

The scene: Liverpool University's Student Union

The time: Just before a Pop Will Eat Itself gig (I can probably look up the date if it important, but as I was still drinking it was a while ago)

The rest of the cast: My friend and his relatively new girlfriend

The events:

As my mate and his lady friend are off at the bar, so I happened to be standing on my own when a young lady approached me.

HER: Can I ask you a question?

ME: Fire away.

HER: Would you think it odd for a girl to walk up to a guy and start talking to him?

ME: Not at all.

INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Oh this is a cunning move.

HER: So if she liked the look of him, then you think it'd be OK for her to go straight over and chat to him?

ME: I reckon it's a good idea, I'm all for women making the first move.

INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Bravo!! This is a strategy worthy of the great generals of history. You are sounding the person out and once the penny drops they are already hooked in and chatting to you. This is brilliant!!

HER: Great, because I really fancy that guy over there but I wanted to doublecheck first. Ta ra.

At which the beers arrived along with questions about whether I was "in there" which forced me to recount the events. Much hilarity ensued, leading me to suspect I might need a few more pints.

At one point during the gig she emerged from the crowd in front of me and gave me the thumbs up, so it clearly all worked out well for her.


In some was that rather encapsulates my entire experience with the opposite sex: confusion, misunderstanding and disaster.

It is why I got called the "Nearly Man of Love" for a while:

MATES: Did you get in there?

ME: Nearly

MATES: What went wrong?

ME: I'm still not sure.

On CL2K's social life problem I suggested a more general thread, but thought "Getting Any?" might not set the right tone (although I suspect it may end up being a better reflection of the thread's eventual contents, but we should always start with the best intentions even if they are dragged down and dry-humped within days).

So have at it.

Do you have any tales of triumph or disaster? Tip or tricks? Requests for advice?

OK Steve has sent me this to circulate to everyone, it sounds like things are improving there:

30th.March 2012.


I visited Brett in Wormwood Scrubs this morning and although it took some time for me to get used to his new heavily bearded appearance I was greatly relieved to find him in far better spirits than when we last spoke.

He is receiving nearly all his medication and lacking only one particular tranquiliser but I'll do what I can to sort this out.


Brett now has his own cell and is producing a huge quantity of writing including work on his novel and many songs and poems.
He has asked me to remind people that the Johnny Nemo collection will be published next year!

We had a typically amazing Brett Ewins conversation for an hour and ranged over Buddhism in Thailand, adventures in Iceland, the art of Edward Lear, the "Black Freighter" pirate comics of the late 1950s/early 1960s,  Henry Thoreau, standards of food available in Hanwell pubs and I almost missed the bombshell that Brett is engaged to marry a world famous singer/performer later this year.
More details of Brett's betrothed to follow!


Brett is pinning his hopes on a bail hearing due within a fortnight and he is very hopeful that he will be allowed home then.
His lyrical description of his longing to walk a country lane and look at the sky proved to me that Brett is not only one of the finest British artists of all time but a Writer of striking beauty and originality.
He is working on a spy novel and I can't wait to read it!


People who know Brett well will be interested to hear that he now has a full luxuriant white beard but is very thin and still has to use his walking cane.
He is currently reading all of Louis Theroux and his mind is as sharp as ever on detail.

At one stage we were talking about Spike Milligan and I mentioned that he used to live in Orme Court off the Bayswater Road. Brett gave the exact address and told me that he used to write to Spike when he was a student at Drayton Manor !

Brett is smoking "to pass the time" and I was told that I could bring in a Postal Order for him to buy some tobacco  but that it had to be made out to the Governor.
When I arrived I was told that I had to post in the order – even though I was actually in the prison at the time!

If anyone is planning to send anything I strongly suggest that you look at the Wormwood Scrubs website for details of what may and may not be sent.


I am very grateful to "mighty emperor" for posting this information and sparing me having to write to the scores of Brett's admirers who have contacted me.


I've known Brett as a neighbour and a constituent for 25 years and I will continue to do all that I can to help at this time.

The prisons minister, Crispin Blunt, is very much aware of the situation and the governor at the Scrubs has received many a message urging better treatment for Brett.

The very considerable improvement in the medical treatment may well reflect these sources of pressure!


I'll try to update you on the bail hearing as soon as possible.


Steve Pound MP,
Ealing North.

Thanks again to Steve for looking into this - we don't want special treatment for Brett, we just wanted the right treatment, and it sounds like he is now getting this.

1. Uncle Fester - brilliant, we want prints!!
2. CrazyFoxMachine - I did wonder how well someone could work themselves into the prog, very well is the answer
3. SKD1 - the knock-knees win it

HM: Bluemeanie, because it is all shades of wrong

This topic has been moved to Classifieds.

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=35721.0