Chindie

Very very Romita Snr looking Spiderman, in the mask at least - the small eyes were always his thing. I think the ASM2 suit is closer to the look I immediately think of with him but this could have been a lot worse. ASM1 worse. It seems right to finally have him join up with the MCU. Good trailer though. An awful lot of the plot is still in the dark - we've still not seen the villain, Bruhl's character, we don't really know anything about Black Panther, who looks surprisingly good... Etc. Good action, Tony works and is believable which was always a bit of a problem with this story and RDJ's Stark, Bucky looks good and looks like they're playing up the loose cannon angle which really works for his character... Really looking forward to it. Oh and the Antman arrow classic moment from the comics happening

House of Cards series 4 is definitely a return to form although does start to push at believability a little too hard. Finale does suggest the direction next series will be at one and the same time very interesting and also annoying taking the show in a direction that makes sense but also will be irritating, and probably to the detriment of the show as a whole.

If it's off shelf in a shop, no. If it's over the counter or prescription, yes. Usually to see if it's going to clash with booze or other pills. I think what pisses me off more about the instructions in the box is without fail, I will close the box up and open up the other end to get at the pills. I could just bin the instructions, as I won't look at them, but I never, ever do. I always leave them in the box and switch ends whenever I open the wrong end.

When you open a pack of tablets and you get the end with the instructions wrapped around the blister pack.

I'm the Juggernaut, bitch! Origins is just so bad I can't place it ahead of anything. Even the good ideas in it are dreadfully implemented. The new one I expect to settle in ahead of First Class but I'll be surprised if it's any better than that. It might be the first movie in the franchise to have a credible villain that isn't Magneto, which could help it.

Undeservedly kind to Origins there, which is an abomination of a movie. I'm to this day astounded at how bad the effects were on the blades in the bathroom scene.

That's the one. Absolutely terrible. I think Whedon was credited with it, which I think can only mean he was having a bad day or drunk at the time he wrote it.

You're literally the only person I've ever seen that thinks Xmen 2 on a par with, let alone worse, than 1, I think you'd be in an exceptionally small minority on that point :). As I said it's generally considered as one of the better comic book adaptations there is.

JK Simmons has been cast as Commissioner Gordon in Justice League. Brilliant actor, but I just don't see him as Gordon. He'll forever be J Jonah Jameson.

I listen to an American comedy politics podcast and the reaction to Hillary, and the activities in the nomination run up generally, have made for fairly grim listening.

Xmen 1 famously has some absolute clunkers of dialogue. The worst is probably the line from Storm when Toad is electrocuted. Absolutely awful. 2 is regarded pretty well though and thought of as one of the best comic book films. 3 is hopelessly bad, Origins is legitimately one of the worst films ever made, First Class is half a good movie, the Wolverine is alright, DOFP is good but lacks a great villain. The Xmen films are a bit all over the shop really, even as a comic geek. They also increasingly suffer from a reliance on Wolverine. He's one of the best Xmen characters and enduringly popular, and Jackman does well in the role, but the Xmen are about team work and his character dominates all of the movies bar First Class to the detriment of everyone else.

He won't win barring a complete miracle on his part. He has very poor cross demographic support. He only gets support in core Republican demographics. Outside of that the numbers suggest not only does he not have much support outside of the usual groups, he's actually actively disliked, which suggests he's not terribly likely to draw many swing votes or many undecideds, because chances are most think he's a clearing in the woods. It should be a win for Hillary. The Republicans are going to tear themselves apart and look absolutely farcical, and Sanders won't get the nomination, despite doing surprisingly well so far. Hillary winning isn't a good thing either in fairness. This is a bizarre election, even most of the nominees are shit.

Might be first true Xmen movie that isn't just Wolverine and chums. Shame that Apocalypse is a daft villain that they've somehow made look even worse than normal.

Hmm, I can't think of anything else in a similar setting... I would have suggested Narcos but that's very different in setting. Great show though.

What do you like about those shows?

They took advantage of the situation that developed with the World Wars and managed to build on that for the entire century. While it's unlikely to have happened (certainly to such an extent) without both World Wars, I'd contend that the US doesn't end up in the position it finds itself in now without some efforts to secure that position, especially as the 20th century developed.

Same fitness coach, as well.

In other news an IT consultant loses in a boxing match against Sergey Kovalev. This chap probably would beat McGregor in a true Muay Thai fight. Assuming they're similar weights. He gets schooled in an MMA bout. Different disciplines, different sports.

Obviously theres complexity to boxing that an enthusiast can appreciate, that they will gain more from than a casual observer. MMA, whilst you do get fights where guys stand and trade, more often than not their is a grappling side of things that just isn't as immediately engaging as boxing is. Even a bad bout. Basically I'm trying to say boxing is an easier sport to enjoy as a spectator.

At both my mom and dad's funerals we had a couple of family friends speak. None of us were in any state to do it. We together came up with a short paragraph for dad, which was included in the order of service handout, and that was hard enough to just compose and write, and to this day I'm not happy with it... But I couldn't have got up there and spoke. My dad's friend who spoke struggled to get through it, but I'm glad he did.

It has accessibility over the UFC/MMA generally. Boxing is a pretty simple sport - you don't need to be an expert to watch a fight and understand who's doing better, there aren't many rules and even when a match becomes more tactical you don't need to think much to understand the way the fight is going. The UFC on the other hand has quite a few rules that are less immediately obvious, and a lot of fights that become more tactical are less immediately engaging to a casual viewer. A lot of fights go to ground and become position battles which, even for a fan, can be incredibly dull and the nitty gritty of the fight becomes more important. Someone who's watched a lot of fights might see that a guy is trying to improve his position to go for a triangle, or numerous other holds and chokes, while a casual observer will just see a guy shifting his weight on another bloke and not a lot of note happening. Judging is more nebulous as well, you do have matches where it's not completely clear how it was judged one way or another, even if you know the rules and how the judges look at things. It takes some commitment from the audience to enjoy, whereas any idiot can go to the pub and watch the latest headline bout in the boxing and understand it.

That's the thing. I wouldn't say I was struggling at all. I wasn't smashing through it like an old hand but I wasn't fighting the game either. I got to Blight Town with what I'd guess was no more than average trouble with it. I wasn't massively enjoying it but I was happy to keep plugging through it and I enjoyed the style of it all. Then I hit Blight Town and the awful performance completely undermined everything and absolutely sapped my desire to go further. I've never been able to muster any interest in going further through it since. That area of the game just turned everything to shit, it made me stop wanting to enjoy the game and made the irritating elements of it starkly clear.

He won't get sacked. He'll stay till the end of the season unless he chooses to go beforehand having realised this car crash is not going to improve.

Thoughts with you Stevo, and AlwaysAVFC.

I wouldn't take too much from Diaz not seeming hurt by McGregor's shots - both the Diaz brothers have been blessed by being exceptionally hard bastards who just take hits, hence why both have faces absolutely riddled with scar tissue. Nate Diaz has been stopped once by strikes and that was a ref stoppage iirc. McGregor is known for being quite heavy handed, particularly his left. He is a big featherweight, who cuts ridiculous amounts, at welterweight he's at a disadvantage all over in stature terms. He may do better at lightweight. A big problem is he's immediately in trouble on the ground, his style heavily favours staying on his feet and he never looks comfortable on the ground to me. He's a BJJ brown belt but you can see he goes to ground as a last resort, whereas really it needs to be another weapon in his armoury, even if he doesn't favour it. Mendes caused him problems last year, and he survived to win on his feet, but a bigger man who can wrestle and he's in trouble IMO.