It seems like everyone is excited for the upcoming ‘Will and Grace’ revival. And that includes the execs over at NBC who have already decided to order a second season from the revival before the first one even airs.
But, maybe part of the reason people are so excited for the show isn’t for the main cast, but for the reoccurring or guest actors who will show up.
And the latest name to be added to that list? Michele Obama.
That’s right, the former first lady herself is in talks to guest star on the show.
This news comes from Touch Weekly and they state that, ”The details are still being worked out, but supposedly Michelle is up for anything, as long as it doesn’t cross the line too much,” and adds that, “will not be taking any personal jabs at Donald Trump. The writers will leave that to the rest of the cast.”
Leah Remini Says Tom Cruise Is ‘Diabolical’
Actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini has launched another attack on the religion’s most famous member, Tom Cruise, declaring the movie star is “diabolical.”
Remini has been an outspoken critic of the church since leaving in 2013, receiving critical acclaim for her documentary series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”
In a Reddit AMA to promote the second season of the show, Remini was asked if she thought Tom Cruise, a Scientologist since 1990, was a “good person.” Her response was blunt.
“No! Just going to get straight to it, no! There is a public persona of the guy who looks at you directly in the eye and shakes your hand and hugs you and is an attentive person to you and there’s the person behind the mask who is a completely different person,” she wrote.
“Someone could say we all have that — what we are to the public and who we are behind the scenes, but the people who are around Tom and work for Tom, not even people who are Scientologists, they will say he is diabolical,” she continued.
“People who’ve worked with me will say I can be an a—–e — all actors can be. That is different. He’s very similar to David Miscavige, they could be twins.”
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In Cotati, CA, an innovative dispensary has introduced new marijuana packaging that improves freshness and sustainability. The dispensary is now peddling its wares in tin cans with peel back lids, which means the cannabis maintains its mojo for months longer than the traditional plastic bags.
Mercy Wellness Marijuana Dispensary is located in the West Bay of California. Its Director, Brandon Levine, said that the dispensary has its own packaging facility called Calyx Green and that it’s changing the whole game for them.
Not only does the packaging keep the pungent smell of a favorite strain at bay until one gets to their destination, it also means that there are at least quadruple the amount of strains to choose from. When the pot stays fresh longer, the dispensary can carry more stock and a wider variety of strains.
The tin cans come in a standard one eighth size and the dispensary workers often go over the tin cans to make sure each one has the right sized buds and looks proper. After the selective checking, each weighed can has the oxygen sucked out of it with liquid nitrogen, is sealed, labeled and shipped straight to the dispensary.
Heritage packaging, such as the plastic bags, usually keep cannabis fresh for around two months. Then the baggies are left to die a landfill death. Compare that to two years of shelf life with the tin and the fact that it’s a recyclable container and it’s Mercy Wellness for the win!
And those extra strains can be as obscure as customer demand requires now. Mercy Wellness can choose favorites that aren’t as well known as Grape Ape or Sour Diesel, but are beloved nonetheless, and they do not worry about them losing their form or potency. With all these good points, what’s stopping other dispensaries from following suit so far?
It could be the price tag. While bags go for around 11 cents per pop, each can costs about a dollar. Levine says it’s worth every penny though and predicts that it will indeed become a norm for dispensaries. It’s just too good an idea to be kept sealed up.
What is the link between marijuana policy and racism? The drug war is a tool of racial oppression. We see this in racial disparities in arrest and incarceration rates for drug offenses that exist even though white people and people of color use and sell drugs at about the same rates.
We see it in the way stop-and-frisk policies have been used to target communities of color.
And we see it in the legal marijuana industry now taking shape, which risks excluding the communities that have been most subjected to drug war enforcement by making people with past drug law convictions ineligible for licenses.
Sometimes the racial implications of drug war policies are overt, and sometimes they are more insidious. But the bottom line is that when we work to dismantle the drug war, we are working to end a tool of oppression.
So when white supremacists chant Nazi slogans and our president defends them, we have to speak out. If we fight the racism inherent in the drug war but allow it to go unchecked elsewhere, our work may take down one tool only to see it replaced with another.
We saw this when the drug war replaced Jim Crow last century, and must fight to keep it from happening again. The only way to ensure that our drug policy reforms truly end the harms of drug prohibition is to support the fight against white supremacy wherever it is taking place.
Megan Farrington is the director of digital communications for the Drug Policy Alliance.
You know it to be true, but now science might have your back. A recently-published study in the Pharmacological Research journal suggest that marijuana could be a proven aphrodisiac. The research also notes that people who smoked the equivalent of least 50 joints over six months experienced the pleasure-benefits, but those who only smoked one joint a week or less saw a dip in libido. But for each smoke sesh, a single joint was the sweet spot. More than that killed their sexual juju. There is such a thing as getting too high to, um, function.
People who light up before getting busy report feeling “aphrodisiac effects” in approximately half of cases, while 70 percent of users say they experienced “enhancement in pleasure and satisfaction,” according to a review of preclinical trials and studies that used human subjects.
But it’s hard to say how, exactly, marijuana use makes sex better. Sex is complicated from person to person, and everyone experiences their highs a little differently, with THC affecting your mental and physical states at the same time.
We’re probably still a long way from doctor-prescribed THC for your sex life, but it’s an intriguing area of study. Now, where do we sign up as test subjects?
There’s no doubt that chemotherapy is a punishing treatment, adding more stress to cancer patients and sometimes becoming just as harrowing as the cancer itself. As soon as patients begin chemo, they need a bevvy of prescriptions to cope with the treatment’s side effects. These medications also come with their own negative effects, like gastrointestinal problems and vomiting, that need another batch of pills to bring relief. Chemotherapy patients have to endure this process repeatedly, depending on the severity of their cancer and the amount of sessions it requires. The thing you need to know about marijuana and cancer? The plant helps.
While research on marijuana and its effect on cancer has been limited, it’s been discovered that the plant directly affects tumors. During animal trials cannabis inhibited the growth of tumors in rats for their different types of cancer, including breast cancer, lung cancer and leukemia, prolonging their lives by 36%. Cannabis is also an antioxidant, which has been found to decrease the incidence of cancer.
The plant’s positive input on the side effects of chemotherapy are well recorded. Cannabis offers a lot of benefits for cancer patients, aiding them in their depression, anxiety, loss of appetite and sleep deprivation. The plant also reduces the amount of drugs patient ingest, improving their quality of life and their overall health.
Marijuana is a complex plant that produces several effects that are difficult to quantify and document due to strange way in which it functions. The plant is not going to target a specific symptom or area of the body, it will instead provide several benefits that’ll improve the general health of the user. This effect happens when we consume cannabinoids that are present in the cannabis sativa plant – like THC and CBD – which in turn activate the cannabinoid receptors in our bodies. With the little research that has been conducted on medical cannabis, the plant has become amongst our best options for managing the symptoms of cancer patients and for improving their quality of life.
Here Are Three Helpful Stories On How Cannabis Can Help With Cancer:
CBS Sports found 35 percent of college football coaches believe marijuana should be legalized nationwide.
A new poll by CBS Sports indicates the college football coaches are approaching marijuana legalization with a more relaxed attitude than ever. They surveyed 130 active coaches who are currently leading FBS programs into the 2017 season, under the condition of anonymity and received candid answers in response.
CBS Sports found 35 percent of college football coaches believe marijuana should be legalized nationwide. In addition, 18 percent of coaches think players shouldn’t be tested or suspended for marijuana usage.
“I think it should be legal. Why? It’s legal all over our country. It’s legal for people who are sick. What we should do is make it legal, but there’s got to be a certain [threshold],” one coach said.
He also added, “I think we have it all reversed. I’m more [against] alcohol than I am marijuana. We drug test all these kids, so why don’t we breathalyze them? Nobody says, ‘You’re dying, grab some whiskey.’ You’ll die faster.”
Of course this isn’t a view held by all FBS coaches. There were 52 percent who stated marijuana should not be legalized while 13 percent said they had no opinion on the matter. Overall, 74 percent believe college athletes should be tested and suspended for marijuana usage.
Their reasoning? As multiple coaches said, they still view weed as a “gateway drug.”
“Right now, in [my team’s state], marijuana and opiates are a bad, bad killer,” one anonymous coach said.
Another coach expressed his view as such: “If I let you [smoke marijuana], I’m setting you up for failure. Right now, the two organizations that say you can’t [smoke] are the NFL and NCAA. You’re involved in one and want to be in the next one. … I really believe marijuana is a gateway drug.”
While the NCAA has been testing players on marijuana for decades, the organization softened its view in recent years. In 2014, it stated, “”Street drugs are not performance-enhancing in nature …” and also reduced the penalty for a positive marijuana drug test from the previous full-season suspension to a half-season.
The drug-testing process depends on which schooler the player attends. Generally speaking, Power Five schools drug-test their players, most conferences those schools belong to drug-test them, and the NCAA itself administers its own drug test. So most players face a three-screening process when it comes to marijuana.
But as CBS Sports notes: “The hit rate for NCAA drug positives remain in the 2-3 percent range. If you think only 2-3 percent of players have illicit substances in their systems then you’re as dumb as the testers themselves. To get caught you either have to be stupid or sloppy.”
How much players are using might remain a mystery. But one thing’s for certain: college football coaches have softened their views on marijuana legalization, just like the rest of the country.
It was almost like any other hip dinner party. Individuals were deep in conversation while sipping cocktails as a DJ spun records everyone knew, songs that couldn’t help eliciting a smile from guests’ faces. Waitresses danced between patrons, displaying metallic trays high in the air with hor d’oeuvres like candied pork belly lettuce wraps and bang bang prawns.
While the fashion was Austin, Texas eclectic—included, but not limited to: Hawaiian floral shirts with shorts, backless blouses and harem pants, summer dresses, silver metallic hi-top sneakers, and vest-tie combinations—the company could only be considered refined. Workers from local start-ups, documentary video editors, writers, and local grocer general managers all were present.
Looking around, you wouldn’t assume this was an event hosted for the cannabis community. We were in Austin, deep in the heart of Texas, were we not? This is a state with the country’s most limited legalized marijuana program, medicinal or otherwise. Yet there everyone was at a CBD pop-up dinner party, hosted by the CBD lifestyle brand Bee Delightful that sells hemp-infused honey. Onlookers and passersby wouldn’t think otherwise, however, even if they ate the delicious soul food.
Photos courtesy of Bee Delightful
All of which was the explicit intention of Chef Preston Day, a member of the Bee Delightful team, who concocted the evening along with help of Chef Tiffani Janelle of Cannachef Magazine. While marijuana in Texas is medicinally legal through the Compassionate Use Act, the program only allows for use of low-THC cannabis oil by intractable epileptics as prescribed by their doctors when traditional medicines have failed. But hemp-derived CBD has emerged in Texas and across the country thanks to a loophole in the 2014 Farm Bill and in-state retailers have taken advantage, selling CBD-infused products under somewhat of a gray and unregulated area. That introduction of CBD into the marketplace has driven curiosity from those inexperienced and not with regard to marijuana.
For those people, these pop-up dinners aim to “introduce cannabis in the most friendly, elegant way possible,” as Day relayed.
The elevated, innovative menu items weren’t weighed down by that oily, weed-y flavor, unlike other edibles you may have previously experienced (THC- or CBD-infused). That’s because Day and his team utilize a CO2 super-critical extraction method that strips away the CBD isolate and produces a tasteless “powder in the crystalline form.”
Day, who attended culinary school in Florence, Italy, infused that isolate with sticky salmon ribs (the true star among the offerings) and Korean fried chicken, and you receive all the medicinal benefits of the cannabinoid. Earlier courses contained 5-8 mg of CBD while the final food items carried about 20-25 mg. It won’t get you high, but it will produce a relaxing, calming effect.
Though Day or the rest of the Bee Delightful team can’t—and won’t—make any medical claims, they are strong advocates to its positive health attributes.
“People take all different kinds of nutrients and vitamins for this and that. They take Advils and they take Tylenols. They take everything,” Day said. “This is just a good way to cut that out and be proactive throughout your entire day and throughout your life. No inflammation, being stress free, any little aches and pains, that feeling is very alleviated [when consuming CBD].”
This isn’t the first pop-up dinner Day has hosted. Two months ago, Bee Delightful invited around 40 guests to a 13-course sit-down tasting menu in Day’s backyard. It was a more elevated experience, “using the nicest fish flown in [along with] local meats.” He also did a private dinner at Cannacon in Boston last month, which included the event’s founder Bob Smart.
Photos courtesy of Bee Delightful
Moving forward Day and the Bee Delightful team intend to travel around the country and host more pop-up dinners at exclusive restaurants and private outings, along with artist lounges at music festivals. Because for organizers running those festivals, “Who wouldn’t want their musicians and their artists a little chilled out and not so turned up?” as Day said.
He believes these pop-up dinners can help initiate and connect the canna-curious into the larger community. Because of his team’s extraction methods and the mouth-watering flavors of the food, it helps make cannabis approachable to newcomers. Bee Delightful’s mission also extends beyond the cannabis community, as proceeds from the dinners are donated to saving bees. With their recent event, Day estimates they’ll save around 250,000 bees, which is about 10 hives. As much as these pop-up dinners are about welcoming and educating more people to cannabis, it’s also about the bees.
“The best part about these dinners is that it introduces to this cannabis lifestyle change and experience, and at the same time it’s for a good cause. We’re saving bees,” Day said at the conclusion of the evening. “That’s the beauty of it. I get to cook for people and do exactly what I want to be doing, working with cannabis and cooking, and I get to save bees at the same time.”
Though perspiration still glistens on his face from cooking and running around as host, he can’t help but smile at the thought. Then he adds, “It couldn’t get better than that.”
I know every time friends attend a concert or giant music festival, even though they never tell me about it. That’s because they posted a Snapchat of it. Likely, this is something you’ve experienced as well—whenever something cool or exciting happens in someone’s life they want to post online about it. All this is fine and good. But when viewing these Snapchat or Instagram posts from friends, it can leave a disjointed and disappointing experience as a viewer. You hear 10 seconds of one song then 10 seconds of the next, never allowing for a full video of an artist’s performance to form.
Now Snapchat is aiming to fix that with its newest feature Crowd Surf that will capture a show from multiple angles without disruption. The features will live in Our Stories, where users can tap the top right of their screen and switch views at will. To do this, Snapchat is utilizing an audio proprietary technology they developed in-house that will link those live videos into a seamless post.
Snapchat first showed the Crowd Surf technology this week with Lorde’s performance from Outside Lands. This video showcases how it could be a gamechanger for live events where synced audio is crucial.
Snapchat clearly hopes this will engage users to post more stories and submit those posts to Our Stories. This is something Snapchat desperately needs as its Q2 earnings report was another failure in the downward trajectory of the app. Growth and revenue have fallen short and its Crowd Surf feature is aimed at rising both.
According to a Snapchat spokesperson, the feature will be available for select event coverage moving forward.
If you haven’t heard by now, there’s a bakery in New York that makes cakes based on nasty internet comments by equally terrible people (aka trolls).
The bakery bakes these Troll Cakes, decorates them with a specific horrible comment found somewhere online, and then posts them to Instagram. But wait, it gets better. They also box up the cake and send it to the troll, along with their original burn. And it’s all done anonymously. Most recently, they’ve added a new service: they’ll send a Troll Cake of your preferred Trump tweet to the White House.
If you get pulled over and you’re concerned that you may have had too many drinks, you have a few good options: You can admit it right away, refuse to answer questions until you’ve spoken to a lawyer (which will almost certainly mean you’ll be taken to jail), or comply with the roadside tests and hope for the best. One thing you absolutely should NOT do is drink a ton of AXE body spray in view of the police officers walking up to your car.
Alas, this is what Rock, Hill South Carolina police say 45-year-old Patrick David Butler did last week after officers pulled him over. WBTV reports officers began following Butler after they saw him swerve unexpectedly; when he made several more erratic moves, officers pulled him over.
As they approached his vehicle, the officers reportedly saw Butler “actively spraying AXE body spray into this mouth.” When they asked him what he was doing, he claimed he was spraying himself with the cologne from “head to toe.”
Later, Butler admitted having “two beers and a shot of Jack Daniels while watching football,” according to the police report. Rock Hill police said he also subsequently failed three field sobriety tests and had a BAC of 0.13, which is 0.05 over the legal limit.
Butler was arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
