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This Calculator Will Make You Feel Better About Your Income

Amy Hansen
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This Calculator Will Make You Feel Better About Your Income

It’s too easy in this economy to feel like you have next to nothing. Holding back on enjoying your life because you don’t make enough money is a struggle many of us face, even those who work full-time and have a side (or two) hustle.

To up your gratefulness this holiday season, check out The Global Rich List. It’s an online calculator that will put your annual income into some much needed perspective. Simply type in how much you make (after taxes) and it will let you know exactly how you rank among the world’s wealthiest. And you may be surprised.

There is both an Income and Wealth option to choose from. The Income button allows you to get the most accurate ranking possible, while the Wealth route is the most precise, however, you’ll need to know your net worth (everything you own minus everything you owe) .

Once you enter your income, the results might surprise you. The simple fact that you live in America and have access to the Internet will place you higher among the world’s wealthiest than you likely imagined.

For example, someone who lives in Seattle and nets an annual income of $60,000 places among the top .19% of the richest people in the world (or the 11,425,788th richest). Someone in Germany who makes that amount of euros would place in the .11% percentile of the world’s richest (or the 6,824,363rd richest).

A London ad agency called Poke used data from the World Bank to create the calculator for Care International’s Life2Live campaign, to get people to realize how far a small donation could stretch to help fight global poverty.

Now, you have something extra to be thankful for this giving season.

James Cameron: Why Jack Had To Die In ‘Titanic’

Brendan Bures
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James Cameron: Why Jack Had To Die In ‘Titanic’

Once the residual crying and bloated emotions subside, once your heart gets out of the way, your mind resumes control and considers the pressing film-related question of our day: Couldn’t Jack have fit, too?

Of course we’re discussing Titanic, one of the grandest and biggest movies ever made, and of course we’re discussing the movie’s iconic scene when the fated ship finally sinks. Our star-crossed lovers swim away from the pandemonium and discover a floating door that will save them from the freezing, death-inducing Atlantic waters. Rose climbs aboard and Jack follows suit—only the door flips over and Jack figures both of them can’t fit atop the life-saving wood. He sacrifices himself so Rose may live.

But again, we ask, Isn’t this a really stupid decision? Did Jack really have to die?

A few weeks back we reported that a group of math-loving Australian teenagers deduced the answer was, in fact, a resounding no. Jack and Rose could’ve survived. Mythbusters ran the same experiment last year, and showed that by simply MacGyver-ing the life jacket below the door, both hero and heroine would float on to a happy ending.

Titanic director James Cameron understands your point. As he relayed in a recent Vanity Fair profile, he knows both Rose and Jack could’ve survived. Instead, Jack’s death was an “artistic choice.”

Cameron’s explanation via Vanity Fair:

I think it’s all kind of silly, really, that we’re having this discussion 20 years later. But it does show that the film was effective in making Jack so endearing to the audience that it hurts them to see him die. Had he lived, the ending of the film would have been meaningless. . . . The film is about death and separation; he had to die. So whether it was that, or whether a smoke stack fell on him, he was going down. It’s called art, things happen for artistic reasons, not for physics reasons.

Now we can finally let the fictional man rest in peace.

A Guide To Texas’ Soon-To-Be Medical Marijuana Program

Brendan Bures
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A Guide To Texas’ Soon-To-Be Medical Marijuana Program

Next month eligible medical patients will be able to legally purchase marijuana in the state of Texas. Thanks to the Compassionate Use Act, the Lone Star State will join the 29 states where medical marijuana is legal and available in some form.

Questions abound regarding the notoriously conservative Texas and its medical marijuana program. We attempt to explain the program below.

Who’s Eligible?

The medical marijuana program in Texas perhaps should be considered the most limiting of any state. Only those with intractable epilepsy are eligible. In addition, those patients with intractable epilepsy are only eligible if federally approved medication is proven ineffective in treating their symptoms.

In addition, the medical cannabis offered is a low-level cannabinoid oil. It does not contain THC, the cannabinoid responsible for the euphoric “high” feeling. For now the cannabinoid oil be packaged in its liquid form to consumed in drops.

Where Can I Buy?

If you’re one of the nearly 150,000 Texans estimated to have intractable epilepsy, you may wonder how you would acquire the CBD oil. Only three dispensaries will grow, process, and sell the product: Cansortium Texas, Compassionate Cultivation, and Surterra Texas.

Patients will receive their medicine directly at home. It will be delivered by unmarked white vehicles that will be outfitted with intensive security measures. Traveling with the drivers will be a nurse or social worker who can properly instruct how to administer the medicine.

How Much Will It Cost?

Though prices have yet to be released, a comparative look gives us some clues. Cansortium Holdings is the parent company of Cansortium Texas and is based out of Florida. Though Florida’s medical program remains a limp form of what its potential indicates, Cansortium’s website shows what Texas patients may expect to offer.

“A look online at the company’s Florida website cites prices for some CBD products as $45 for one 300 milligram vape cartridge or sublingual drops and $90 for a 600 milligram vape cartridge or sublingual drops,” writes the Star-Telegram.

When Will It Be Available?

Back in October we reported that the program was on schedule to start shipments around the third or fourth week of December. Current reports indicate that time frame is believe to remain on track.

Will The Program Eventually Expand?

That remains a distinctive possibility. Citing Florida once again, its medical marijuana program initially debuted in as strict terms as Texas’s program, but the Sunshine State recently expanded to include around 20 ailments that would render patients eligible for medical marijuana.

Gossip: Prince Harry Won’t Demand Prenup From Meghan Markle; Harvey And Bob Weinstein Sued For Sex Trafficking

Naughty Gossip
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Gossip: Prince Harry Won’t Demand Prenup From Meghan Markle; Harvey And Bob Weinstein Sued For Sex Trafficking

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will not sign a pre-nuptial agreement before their royal wedding next spring, a family lawyer has claimed.

Kim Aucott told Express.co.uk the 33-year-old prince would not take the steps to protect his £30million fortune after his engagement to the US actress was announced this morning.

Ms Aucott, a family lawyer at law firm Slater Heelis, said: “I would have said anyone in their position should be advised to have prenup.

“And the reason being is so they can resolve financial matters between themselves without it being in the spotlight.

Harry will be guided by his father, the Prince of Wales and his brother – neither had prenups
Kim Aucott, family lawyer.

“There is so much more privacy and confidentially with a prenup.

“Having seen his parents divorce emblazoned across the national papers, you think it would be something Harry is keen to look at.

“Meghan should be used to this as it is in her line of work, and in Canada it commonplace. She also knows the situation having been through a divorce herself.”

But Ms Aucott said this was unlikely because Prince Harry, 33, will seek advice from those closest to him.

Harvey And Bob Weinstein Sued For Sex Trafficking

Harvey Weinstein is in more mess — and now his brother Bob has been implicated along with him.

They’re both being sued by a woman who claims Harvey sexually assaulted her in Cannes, France, but this case is different because it’s filed under the federal sex trafficking law.

via TMZ:

Kadian Noble, an aspiring actress, claims Harvey met her in London and told her he could help launch her career. She says in February 2014, they were both in Cannes when he asked her to come to the Le Majestic Hotel where he would review her reel and discuss her future.

Noble says she showed up and Harvey sat next to her, started massaging her and gripping her shoulders. She says he then asked her to walk up and down the room for him “for audition purposes.”

And then she says he called a producer at The Weinstein Company who told her she needed to be “a good girl and do whatever he wished,” adding if she did then they would work with her.

Kadian says Harvey then groped her breasts, and she screamed, “No Harvey, no!” According to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Jeff Herman, she says she felt compelled to comply because of the tangible and intangible benefits she would get from a “favorable relationship” with Harvey.

The actress says it didn’t stop … Harvey forcibly pulled her into the bathroom and started rubbing her breast and buttocks. She attempted to leave, she says, but he blocked the exit.

She says he then pulled down her shirt and unbuckled his pants. She pled with him to stop, and he then forced his leg between her legs, rubbing her vagina, and then took his penis out and masturbated. She says he then grabbed her hand, placed it on his penis and forced her to masturbate him to climax … this as he held her down with his other hand.

The lawsuit claims Bob Weinstein facilitated the sex acts by either knowing of or recklessly disregarding Harvey’s pattern and practice of traveling abroad “to entice or recruit or solicit young female actors with the promise of roles in upcoming TWC projects … knowing that he would then use fraud, force or coercion to engage in sex acts with these actors.”

The lawsuit also names TWC as a defendant, claiming there was a code word among TWC employees — FOH, or Friends of Harvey — which referred to a young woman who had participated in sex in exchange for a role or a position in an upcoming project. TWC employees, the lawsuit claims, “knew to ‘take care’ of the FOH’s.”

The suit alleges a violation of the sex trafficking statute, which prohibits people from recruiting people to engage in a sex act through means of force, threats of force, fraud or coercion in interstate or foreign commerce. The theory is that Weinstein dangled false promises of stardom to obtain sexual gratification.

The statute of limitations for sex trafficking is 10 years. If it turns out to be a viable legal theory, it could open the door to other lawsuits which could not otherwise be filed because of shorter statutes of limitations.

Love the fresh dirt we bring over daily from Naughty Gossip? Let us know in the comments!

This Lawsuit Stinks: Oregon Vineyard vs. Marijuana Farm

Terry Hacienda
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This Lawsuit Stinks: Oregon Vineyard vs. Marijuana Farm

Does the mere smell of marijuana pose a threat to a vineyard? That question will be answered in an Oregon courthouse.

When Oregonians voted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016, Steven and Mary Wagner, along with their son Richard, decided the time was right to launch a cannabis operation in Yamhill County. But before the Wagner family could plant a seed, grape-growing neighbors filed a lawsuit to halt the plan.

Momtazi Family LLC claimed that the odors emanating from the marijuana grow would damage wine grapes with “foul-smelling particles.” The Momtazi Family sought an injunction against the Wagner Family’s operation.

According to the Capital Press, an agriculture publication serving the western U.S. for 89 years:

Oregon’s “right to farm” law doesn’t provide aspiring marijuana growers with “blanket immunity” from a lawsuit filed by grape-producing neighbors in Yamhill County, a judge has ruled.

In October, the Wagners filed a motion to toss out the lawsuit, stating that there was no evidence to prove that the odor of cannabis would cross property lines and potentially contaminate the grapes. Circuit Court Judge John Collins denied a motion to dismiss the complaint filed by the Wagners.

As the Capital Press reported:

“You don’t get to file a lawsuit with no facts, sheer conjecture, pure speculation about what will happen,” said Allison Bizzano, the Wagners’ attorney, during oral arguments. But Richard Brown, attorney for the plaintiffs, claimed that it’s common to enjoin activities that haven’t yet occurred but that would cause damage.

“If the court allows them to develop the property first, it’s the equivalent of letting them pull the trigger,” Brown said.

Oregon is not the only state grappling with the olfactory issue. A cannabis “cultivation facility” in Boulder, Colo., was fined $2,000 for “failure to remedy odor violations.”

According to the Boulder Daily Camera:

The building that houses both the Dandelion Grow and the Boulder Botanics grow operation, registered as Crossroads Wellness LLC, is aging and has poor air control, officials said last year amid a wave of citizen complaints that prompted a total of $14,000 in fines for the Dandelion. That’s still more than any other single fine the city has administered since recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado Jan. 1, 2014.

Could NJ Car Insurance Rates Go Up Because Of Legal Marijuana?

Mary Schumacher
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Could NJ Car Insurance Rates Go Up Because Of Legal Marijuana?

NJ car Insurance rates may not be rising yet in anticipation of legalized cannabis in the Garden State, but the idea is already out there, waiting to be implemented.

Governor elect Phil Murphy has promised to legalize cannabis in New Jersey within his first 100 days in office and sources say that the bill is at the ready to be signed. The thought of legal weed in Jersey has some lawmakers nervous, and drugged driving tops the list of their anxieties.

Joe Pennacchio (R) said in a statement that, “The reality is that legalizing weed won’t solve New Jersey’s affordability crisis, especially when you consider how much money we are going to have to spend just to make sure law enforcement officials have the resources to handle a massive increase in drugged driving.”

There are a couple things to take issue with in that statement. First of all, cannabis revenue may not solve the affordability crisis completely, but it will go a long way into putting a good sized dent in it. Secondly, let’s be honest. Legalizing weed isn’t going to drastically change people’s habits. If they drove stoned before, legal or not, they’re likely to continue doing so. Just like the majority of those who imbibe will either chill where they are or call some sort of car service.

In light of concerns, there have been calls for hearings to help lawmakers really understand the inner workings of a legal state. What does it mean? Does it mean unsafe roads? There has been an infinitesimal increase in drugged driving in already legalized states, but none of them are reconsidering because of it.

One thing legalization does mean is that the racial disparity in arrest rates for simple possession will go down and also that, whether it seems enough or not, taxes and revenues from cannabis will help the local infrastructures and economy. Legalization will create jobs, open up a new market and open the door to a diverse group of entrepreneurs.

The Colorado Department of Transportation has a list of guidelines for their state on driving while impaired. The basic gist? Don’t do it. The penalties are the same as drunk driving and refusing to take a blood test in Colorado revokes driving privileges.

Having rules in place isn’t a bad thing. Hindering a legalization law over the jitters that those rules may not be followed is a crime. Raising insurance rates? Well, let’s get the law implemented first and see from there. As long as we imbibe responsibly, everybody wins.

Majority Of New Yorkers Want Legalized Weed

Drug Policy Alliance
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Majority Of New Yorkers Want Legalized Weed

Surprising no one, a majority of New Yorkers wants legalized weed. A new poll shows that 62 percent of New York voters support making marijuana use legal for adults 21 and older, with only 28 percent opposed. The poll, conducted by Emerson College and commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project Foundation and the Drug Policy Alliance, was conducted from Nov. 16-18 and surveyed 600 registered voters from around the state.

The poll also found that voters were far more supportive of legalizing and taxing marijuana than other options for addressing the state’s budget deficit. Sixty percent of respondents supported legalizing and taxing marijuana to help address New York’s budget deficit, with 28 percent opposed. Between 15 percent and 27 percent of voters supported each of the other options presented — increasing sales or income taxes, increasing tolls, or cutting public education or other services.

RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

“The strong support for legal marijuana use challenges New York elected officials who continue to support ineffective, racially biased, and unjust enforcement of marijuana laws. This poll signals that New Yorkers favor using revenue from a legal marijuana market to address our budget deficit and lawmakers would be wise to heed their opinion,” said Kassandra Frederique, New York State Director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “How New York decides to reform marijuana laws provides an opportunity to repair the significant harms prohibition causes in vulnerable communities across the state by centering racial and economic justice.”

“This should be a wake-up call to lawmakers: New Yorkers want their state to take a sensible, humane approach to marijuana policy,” said Landon Dais, political director of MPP of New York. “New York should stop wasting resources punishing otherwise law-abiding residents for using a substance that is safer than alcohol. It’s time to take marijuana off of the criminal market, so we can create good jobs, build the economy, and fund essential services.”

Support shown in this poll for making marijuana legal in New York is in line with a Gallup poll released in October that showed 64 percent support for legalization nationally. Eight states, including Massachusetts, have enacted laws legalizing and regulating marijuana for adults, all through the ballot initiative process. New Jersey, Vermont, and neighboring Canada are expected to approve legislation making marijuana legal for adults in 2018, and lawmakers in Connecticut and several other states are seriously considering the issue.

Pancreatic Cancer: What Role Does Marijuana Play In Treatment?

Brea Mosley
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Pancreatic Cancer: What Role Does Marijuana Play In Treatment?

Pancreatic cancer has been labeled as the fourth deadliest cancer diagnosis because of its ability to spread silently before it’s detected. The disease claims around 37,000 American lives each year and according to experts over 90 percent of those diagnosed, die from it.

However, a study suggests that cannabinoids could potentially help treat pancreatic cancer, despite its aggressiveness.

Researchers from the Complutense University in Spain sought out to learn if cannabis’ innate ability to prevent tumor growth could also be applied to pancreatic cancer’s prognosis. The results proved in favor of their curiosity.

Here’s why:

Pancreas cancer cells already express a growing number of cannabinoids receptors. After researchers administered cannabinoids to these cells (in a culture test), apoptosis was induced. Apoptosis, also referred to as programmed cell death, is the process of cells killing themselves; cell suicide. The cannabinoids were able to activate the CB2 receptors, which is already a known cannabinoid receptor in the body.

When the Spanish researchers applied this same test on a group of mice, the results were just as promising. They gave a group of nude mice, THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that will get you stoned), JWH (a man-made cannabinoid) and an inactive ingredient, for comparison and observed the effects.

They found that the cannabinoid administration prevents cancerous growth, spread and even induced cell suicide of the pancreatic cancer cells. Even better, the THC steered clear of healthy cells, leaving them untouched and unbothered.

Cannabinoids have already been proven to treat other cancers so there is a lot of hope of fighting one of deadliest ones.

New Kermit The Frog Actor Sounds Just Like The Original

Maria Loreto
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New Kermit The Frog Actor Sounds Just Like The Original

Disney has recently been on the news for all the wrong reasons. Even though their multiple controversies haven’t impacted the quality of their work, fans and members of the press have been questioning their management decisions and wondering if the company is being too severe when it comes to giving artists creative freedom.

Steve Whitmire, the actor who voiced Kermit The Frog for over 27 years, has voiced his discontent over being fired and has claimed that he only wanted what was best for the character, looking out for Jim Henson’s legacy in the meantime. Henson was the founder of The Muppets, and the original voice of Kermit The Frog. 

Matt Vogel, the new Kermit, is only the third actor in the long history of The Muppets to portray the character. His debut was released in a short video in August, and he sounds just like Kermit The Frog.

Muppet Thought Of The Week is a weekly short video published on The Muppets’ Youtube account where a featured muppet talks and, well, expresses their cute thought of the week.

Matt Vogel has a long career and has been a part of the Jim Henson Company since the early 90’s, working on shows such as Sesame Street and Oobi. Hopefully, his addition will make a better Muppets TV Show, which has struggled over the recent years. No matter the future of the show, we’ll always have this adorable clip.

Nelly Can’t Rap Weed Or Women At Saudi Arabia Concert

Brendan Bures
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Nelly Can’t Rap Weed Or Women At Saudi Arabia Concert

Nelly will be the second major American entertainer to play a concert in Saudi Arabia this year. Until recently, public music performances were very restricted within the country. But Nelly’s invitation is part of Saudi Arabia’s reforms set in motion by 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. His coalition instituted the new General Authority for Entertainment, which has about $2.7 billion in funds to revitalize leisure activities in the country.

Nelly will be following in Toby Keith’s footsteps, who earlier this year performed the first public concert held within the country since the early 1990s. All this might be seen as a positive step toward the country’s transition to a more lenient, open society, but Keith was posed some restrictions.

First off, concert tickets would only be sold to males. Second, Keith couldn’t perform any songs regarding sex, drinking, or marijuana. So no “Wacky Tobacky” or “Red Solo Cup.”  Also no “Beer For My Horses” or “I Love This Bar.” As Keith remarked to the Atlantic following the concert, it seemed odd to book an artist whose most famous music prominently includes women, drinking, and marijuana.

“It kind of knocked me down,” he told The Atlantic. “There were only four or five things that I could play that were famous.”

Now Nelly will be faced with the same dilemma.

When we say Nelly will encounter the same problems, what we really mean to say is we’re not sure if Nelly can perform anything. At least, no songs Saudis will recognize. “Hot in Herre,” if you’ll remember, literally asks women to take off their clothes, a big no-no. And no “Ride Wit Me” and definitely no “Pimp Juice.” He can’t even play those saccharine pop hits of his later career like “Just A Dream.”

In addition, Nelly recently pled guilty to possession of marijuana charges leveled against him and was accused of sexual assault in 2015, though he was never convicted.

It all renders as an odd choice at best. Considering this selection represents a tacit endorsement of the artist by the Saudi government, why in the world would you pick Nelly? Maybe they relate to “Hot in Herre” on a literal level and don’t think it’s about women whatsoever? Maybe “Pimp Juice” is about oil? Maybe “Tip Drill” is also about…nah that ain’t it, y’all.

Literally anyone else would’ve been more appropriate for you, Saudi Arabia. But clearly you don’t see that.

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