Capital of Nasty Electronic Magazine Volume II, Issue 42, AD MCMXCVII Wednesday, December 10th, In the Year of our Lord 1997 ISSN 1482-0471 ------------------------------------------- "As a subscriber since 94, I have come to respect, and look forward, to your opinions. Still, on the spam issue, you are as guilty as everyone else of pussyfooting around the issue. It's all numbers. Direct mailers need about a 2% response to make money. Spammers need a hundredth of that or 0.02% to make money. As long as someone, somewhere is replying to spam, there will always be more spam. The solution? To steal a page from Dennis Miller's stage act, if you ever find yourself actually buying anything from a spammer, you simply must kill yourself for the general good of Cyberspace. And if anyone you know is dealing with a spammer, you must take them out too. It's the only way." -- Name withheld on request. Courtesy of the McLuhan Connection (formerly "Project McLuhan') ------------------------------------------- "I saw this thing on the TV about chameleons. When a female, I guess I shouldn't anthropomorphise an chameleon, but when she finds a man in whom she's interested (or pretty much any male, for that matter), she turns green. Instead of struggling to chit-chat with a guy for three hours, I wish I could simply turn green." ------------------------------------------- 1. Editorial 2. Isn't it cute? 3. Review: Alien Resurrection 4. Predictions for the future ------------------------------------------- This week's Golden Testicle award: Kubert the hated retard world http://tangent.tangent.com/.Z/VSH/LES/MEAN/DEFAULT.HTM ------------------------------------------- 1. Editorial Colin Barrett, Webmaster GREETINGS TO OUR READERSHIP, without whom CoN would not have a purpose. This is issue 42. I apologise for its late arrival. By the time most of you read this, Leandro will be on a plane bound for Italy. He will be staying there for approximately a month. During his absence, I am the acting editor. Leandro assured me that as long as he can find a working telegraph line, he may write. CoNtributions We received a question from one loyal reader about whether CoN accepts submissions from its readership. Absolutely. That makes me think of the next and last issue of the year, which should be ready just before Christmas. Here's an invitation: if you have a holiday or New Year's bad wishes for that insignificant someone you despise, say it with CoN. Please send your words of malice to con@capnasty.org by December 20. If you have anything nice to say about someone, we'll consider publishing that too. Junk Faxes CoN received a couple of letters in reply to Leandro's rant about Junk faxes, one from Gard E. Abrahamsen and this one from Tim Henderson: Faxing unwanted ads is a federal offense. In many states, you can collect damages yourself. In some states, you can get hundreds of dollars per unsolicited ad. These anti-junk-faxing laws went on the books about 10 years ago. Nevada and Maryland have the most interesting ones. If I were you, I would contact my state assemblyman or whoever reps you in the state capital, and ask about the law there. Junk faxes can be "found money". Leandro and myself live in Canada. Now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty certain there is no law in Canada banning junk faxes. While the thought of collecting compensation is a very nice one, I would rather see people who send junk faxes sent to a special prison in which all the walls of every cell and room -- yes, even the showers -- are lined with junk faxes. Any prisoner who attempts to remove the faxed wallpaper will be banished to some remote island north of the Artic Circle. With that charming note, I hope you enjoy this issue. ------------------------------------------- 2. Isn't it cute? by IMPROV So, my girlfriend and I are having lunch together. She happens to have baby carrots with her meal. She holds one up and asks, "Isn't it cute?" Well actually no... no its not at all. It's a fucking vegetable!! Vegetables are not cute. I think through this one question I have figured out women... I may very well be the first man to have this priceless knowledge, and of course, being the caring guy that I am, I will share this information with you. (Nevermind the fact that I haven't written an article in a month) Women look at the world in a much different manner then do men, I know what you are thinking, "no shit dumb ass" but really think about it: Do you know any men that look at things (that are normally large, but aren't) and think, "Awww isn't that cute?" I can't recall the last time I was out with the boys and good ol' Gerry turns to me while gesturing to a bonsai tree and says, "Now that's cute!" When I look at a pit bull puppy I envision it ripping a large hole on my lower calf! A woman will look at that same puppy and think that it is just the cutest thing... nevermind the fact that in six months time that "cute thing" will snap and tear your throat out and mix your larynx in with it's puppy chow for dinner. But no because it is small right now, it's cute. What if Jeffery Dahmer was a midget? ... Would he have been cute? I honestly think that if Paul Bernardo looked like that guy who played Webster, there would be a movement for his release! The only thing that women look at and think bigger is better is the penis, the one thing that most men wouldn't mind the whole less is better theory. No of course not, women want their men to be hung like horses... not "cute" hamsters!!! ------------------------------------------- 3. Alien Resurrection by Peter Steen Thank God that whoever is responsible for Alien Resurrection has some humour, some originality and some brains. Going into the movie theatre, I was worried that the latest Alien flick was going to be some lamely-hashed out excuse for a shoot-em-up quick moneymaker. Quite the opposite, however. The plot line -- if you dig the whole `corporate conspiracy' motif that's been prevalent throughout the Alien series - is basically that Ripley is `resurrected' 200 years later, on board a scientific space vessel, with a bunch of nasty alien beasties which eventually get out and start driving their inner mini-jaws through a collection of unlucky humans. That's been the essential storyline for the entire Alien franchise; humans and aliens don't co-habitate well. But with Alien Resurrection, the moviemakers have added certain twists and tweaks to `The Life of Ripley.' First of all, the now twohundredsomething gal is made more Schwartzeneggeresque, meaning she says less than usual but is filled with humourous one-liners. "I thought you were dead," says someone. "I get that a lot," is her Arnold-like reply. There are some great scenes -- particularly when Ripley & Co. find room 1 - 7. The entire episode is both fascinating and creepy at the same time (and makes the opening sequence, during the credits, make sense). Sigourney Weaver proves, yet again, that a woman lead actor in a testosterone-laden flick can make it work, if the character is believable. Winona Ryder proves, yet again, that she can't act her way out of a wet alien pod. The usual accompanying cast of allies/ alien-fodder are an interesting enough bunch, with the arachnophobic Ron Perlman given the best character (and doing the best job at it). There are moments of true sexual tension in Alien Resurrection, with most involving Ripley (with Perlman and with Winona). But even then, there is an eventual plot twist which makes the lesbo- eroticism digestible and humourous. All in all, I would say this is (obviously) a must see for anyone into the whole Alien universe, and highly recommended for those who like a quality flick that's got `intelligent' gore, suspense, humour, good characters, a good story, excellent effects and a Queen alien beastie that makes you believe the maternal instinct is inherent in all God's creatures, even those that kill all the humans from Alien Resurrection in the most heinous and amusing of fashions. ------------------------------------------- 4. Predictions for the future by Milkshake If you hadn't noticed, we are nearing the end to yet another year. So i've decided to make some predictions about what might happen in the future, here they are (in no particular order of probability). 1) All the worlds lost paper-clips will get together to form a planet crushing army. they will first take over the larger powers such as the USA and Russia and the like before moving on to wipe out the rest of the human race that spawned them, leaving the world completely inhabited by paper-clips. 2) The amount of fat people in America will be so great that the whole country sinks into the sea, with very few areas managiing to remain afloat. These will be fitted with giant motors and used as travelling holiday camps by Belgians and the people from Scotland, travelling from country to country, skimming the waves. 3) Bill Gates takes over the world and bans all forms of entertainment except the Internet and Microsoft games by threatening people with gerkins so they all do what he says. BIG FIGHT The big fight has unfortunately been discovered by the RSPCA and has subsequently been stopped. I am denying any involvement in these criminal activities and have been released as the police have no evidence to connect me to the crimes. ------------------------------------------- Coming soon: Squinting for Windows. Destroy your vision while you play solitaire.