Thursday, May 28, 2015

Tinder + STD fun, AP vs. the Vikings and Greece's new business plan


- Normally, remaking a crappy movie that just came out 12 years ago would be a terrible idea. But the last time someone tried to do a big-screen version of "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen," it was f*cked up so badly that it almost begged for someone to redo it and at least make it watchable. The comic book series created by Alan Moore was previously adapted into a 2003 movie starring Sean Connery, Stuart Townsend and Jason Flemyng, and it was such a dumpster fire that it literally killed Connery's acting career. It managed to bank $179 million globally from a $78 million budget, but there is no question that it sucked exponentially bad and no amount of money can ever change that. Two years ago, Fox ordered a pilot for a TV series based on the comic book series, but the project was abandoned before casting took place, proving that the movie had taken the entire franchise past the point of toxic and directly to nuclear holocaust level untouchable. Yet a movie remake it reportedly in the works, with Fox apparently planning a potential franchise based on Moore's comic books.  The studio is keeping details under tight wraps, which is wise given the franchise's ugly recent past, but for those who don’t know, Moore's original comic book series followed the adventures of a superhero ensemble featuring classic characters from literature including Mina Harker (Dracula) Allan Quatermain (King Solomon's Mines), Dr. Jekyll (Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde) and the Invisible Man (H.G. Well's The Invisible Man). It was a short series, containing 15 issues and two original graphic novels published between 1999 and 2007………


- Business is a-boomin’ in Greece…just not the legal kind. The Mediterranean nation's troubled economy continues to teeter on the brink of utter collapse, but that might change if only the government could find a way to turn the nearly 12,000 immigrants arrested entering the country illegally last month into cash. If you do the math, the number of illegals streaming into Greece represents an almost seven-fold increase from the previous year and according to Greece's coast guard, a whopping 11,873 people were arrested in April and 6,583 were arrested in March — nearly all on islands facing the coast of Turkey. Suggesting that one capitalize on the prevalence of illegal immigrants to help boost a faltering economy might seem unsavory on the surface - and on every other level that one could create or imagine - and it is, but Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, on a visit to Athens Tuesday, could be just the man to spearhead this effort. He said he would back a European Union relocation plan to assist Greece and Italy and why couldn’t that plan include say, garnishing a portion of all the immigrants' future earnings or forcing them to serve as "interns" for a couple of years in a new profession as a way to provide cheap labor?  Greece's government has welcomed the plan and even wants a higher quota to help it cope with large numbers of arriving from war-torn Syria, estimating that some 37,500 immigrants and asylum seekers have reached Greece illegally so far this year. Don’t deal with the problem and the economy could literally collapse, but that's probably going to happen anyhow. Might as well try something innovative to solve it……….


- The game of chicken is on in Minnesota. On one side, disgruntled All-Pro running back and confirmed child abuser Adrian Peterson and on the other is the Minnesota Vikings, an NFL team refusing to bow the the demands of a disgruntled All-Pro running back and confirmed child abuser. Peterson, who has been absent since the start of the Vikings' offseason workout program and remains bitter over what he perceives as unfair treatment by the team following his indictment on child injury charges last September, is refusing to take part in the Vikings' organized team activities and wants to be traded. He said back in February that he was "still uneasy" about returning to the Vikings in 2015 and believes that the team didn’t do enough to support him and adding his family. He also lied and claimed that he was so discouraged about the NFL's handling of his suspension that he'd contemplated retirement, trying to lay the groundwork for forcing his way out of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. But he remains under contract with the Vikings and knowing they would never get full value for a player under these circumstances, the team isn't backing down. Head coach Mike Zimmer made it clear at the OTAs Peterson refuses to attend that the running back faces a simple choice. "He's not going to play for anybody else," Zimmer said. The Vikings doubled down when they passed up what might have been their best chance to replace Peterson in last month's draft and seem content to wait Peterson out. "He's missed a lot of OTAs over the course of his career. I'm not worried about it," Zimmer said. "I've got 89 guys out here that I'm coaching to try and get better." Ouch. That stings, eh Adrian……….


- Surprise, surprise. You may or may not know this, but there are these newfangled apps that the kids are using to set up their hookups, which are….never mind. And surprisingly, Rhode Island's Department of Health says that sexually transmitted diseases are way up in the state, in part because of the increase of hookup apps like Tinder. From 2013 to 2014, cases of syphilis in the state grew by 79 percent, while HIV infections were up 33 percent and gonorrhea cases increased by 30 percent. Coincidentally, younger people use apps like Tinder more than older folks and STD cases for young adults just happen to be growing at a faster rate than the rest of the population. According to Rhode Island officials, the recent uptick in STD cases follows a national trend and they blamed "high-risk behaviors that have become more common in recent years," including "using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters." Tinder has yet to weigh in on the subject, but the idea of blaming social media and online hookup apps for a rise in STDs is actually not a new concept. Back in 2013, a New York University study found that Craigslist was responsible for a 16 percent increase in HIV cases between 1999 and 2008 across 33 states. Of course, Craigslist is a place where the cesspools of humanity converge in a hellish blend of awful, but it's not just Craigslist. Grinder, a hookup app for gay men, was associated with more than half of all syphilis cases in New Zealand in 2012, according to Christchurch Sexual Health Clinic. "These new data underscore the importance of encouraging young people to begin talking to a doctor, nurse, or health educator about sexual health," said Rosemary Reilly-Chammat, an HIV/AIDS sexuality specialist for the Rhode Island Department of Education, in an official statement. Maybe Tinder can add a feature to the app allowing users to search for potential lovers by which STDs they have or don’t have. Then again, Tinder would then have to shut down forever for lack of users……….

No comments: